July 2015-July 2018

July 2015-July 2018

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Sam was baptized!

Elder Coletti's Letter 2/26/17:

Somebody call 119, Taoyuan's fire burning with that 洗禮!  ooowhoaaa!  Hahaha  Elder Welker and I just made up a song;)  Sorry to everyone that doesn't read Chinese!:)  洗禮 means XiLi, which means baptism!  Elder Welker, Elder Lin, and I had another baptism this week.  His name is Sam (葉劭涵)!  He is honestly one of the most prepared individuals I have ever met.  Back in November, a missionary gave him an English Track, and he decided to go to English Class and check it out!  He really likes English and wanted to learn more.  After that, he met with missionaries and started to change.  When he first heard a prayer in English Class, he decided from that day on, he was going to say a prayer every night.  He did.  Sam is one of the most humble men I have ever met. He is so loyal and loving to his friends.  Before he was baptized, he was saving money to go on a mission himself.  He just absolutely loves missionaries!  He has a bunch of friends in the ward now.  All of the members LOVE Sam.  They always ask about him.  I am honestly so grateful to have met Sam.  He is one of my best friends.

Counts Your Many Blessings.  God makes up the difference for our weaknesses.  He always does.  Regardless of what you have done in the past, regardless of where you have done wrong, God is not giving up on you. As long as we have the desire and the intent to change, God will shower the sky with blessings.  God is good.....so, so good!

Email Sam and congratulate him!  His English is pretty solid!  I'm praying that he'll go to Logan Utah for his Mission:)))))  I will definitely 陪 his 課 if ya know what I'm saying;) hahaha
his email is: monkey86868@yahoo.com

Love ya!







 

 

Monday, February 20, 2017

Charity and Forgiveness

Elder Coletti's Letter 2/19/17:

Hello!  Sorry, but time is very, very short today.  I still love youzz.  I'm still alive;)

The biggest thing I learned this week is about Charity and Forgiveness.  The power of Forgiveness is so powerful.  Not only Forgiving others, but Forgiving yourself as well.  Realizing that we ourselves are unable to be perfect and realizing that there is a Man that can make us perfect. He is always willing and wanting to Forgive us.  But if we can't Forgive ourselves, why the heck would He forgive us.  Jesus wants us to come unto him so bad.  He is begging us to come unto him.  When we refuse to Forgive ourselves, we refuse to accept the mercy of Jesus Christ.  We are refusing to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The healing is only as powerful as our attitude is.  You can do this.  You can succeed in this life.  You can be cleansed.  But it has to be from the inside out.

Elder Coletti



Transfers!

Elder Coletti's Letter 2/12/17:

Transfers!  I have a new companion by the name of Elder Welker.  He is from St. George Utah, and played football for Dixie.  I actually remember seeing him at the 2014 championship.  Pretty cool.  We also saw eachother in the MTC, and served pretty close to one another down in HuaLian.  Super excited for this upcoming transfer.

Funny experience from the week through the words of the one and only Elder Welker!;)

"This week was so cool!!  Sophie and Ray were baptized on Wednesday before I took off, and then Jamie was baptized on Saturday!  I got permission to go back and attend his baptism, so Elder Coletti and I got into a taxi and took off at what we thought was a time that would get us there about 15-20 minutes early, but then we missed the train.  So, we waited about 20 minutes for the next train.  As we arrived in 竹北, the time was 9:55, and the baptism started at 10:00.  We couldn't find a taxi in sight, so we started booking it to the chapel.  Elder Coletti was sprinting to keep up with my long strides haha, and we made it to the chapel around 10:10, where everybody was already waiting for me to get in the picture, so we snapped a couple photos, and then they all went in and started while I got dressed into my baptismal clothing.  It is now 10:15.  The service was awesome, the talks before the baptism were great, and after not realizing that the baptism of 陳姊妹 was already over (the Sisters also had an investigator getting baptized), Jamie and I stepped in to see all the confused faces of everybody wondering why we took so long hahaha!  After the baptism, it was about 10:50.  Now, why do I keep mentioning the time?  It's because we had a member buying us free lunch at 12:30, and it takes about an hour and a half to get back to our area.  So, the only things left on the list now are for Jamie and 陳姊妹 to bear their testimonies, and then for bishop to introduce them to the ward.  Well, the testimonies were awesome, but were pretty long, and so now it was about 11:00.  Bishop gets up, and I'm like, "alright, let's make this a short one."  But did he hear my thoughts?  No.  Did he see the anxiety that was in my eyes as I was trying to hide the emotions I was feeling with a smile on my face?  Not at all.  What he did was teach gospel principles class!!  Every time it seemed like he was about to wrap things up, another thought came to his mind, and after 20 minutes of listening to his sermon, we sang the slowest, or to us it seemed like the slowest, "come follow me" I have ever been a part of.  But it finished, and then the closing prayer was said.  That was followed by two second congratulations hugs and then we booked it out of there so fast that most people didn't even notice that we had left.  It is now about 11:35, and we flag down the first taxi we see and tell him to book it.  But to where?  We knew there was only one way to get to our free lunch.  So we took to high-speed rail.  The taxi driver punched the gas, swerved through the traffic, ran numerous red lights, and disregarded the fact that he had butted the 12 cars that were waiting in the left turning lane.  All for us.  I love that taxi driver.  So when we got to the high-speed rail, we embarked on the fastest train ride experience I have ever been a part of, and now we were in 桃園, or where we?  Yes we were, but we were in the farthest part of our area.  It is now 12:10.  We race outside, find a taxi driver, and just like the last guy tell him to step on it!  He too weaved through the traffic, flying at speeds that only the high-speed rail was capable of going, but he did stop at red lights.  We disembarked his car at about 12:30, where we walked in like champions, awaiting our wonderful meal that we assumed we probably could have paid for with the money we spent on travel (which was about $30 American dollars)😂"

Truly love every single one of you.  Thank you for always being there for me!  I love hearing/ reading that everyone is doing good.  Keep thriving in the gospel and striving to do better.  That's is the only way that we can make it back.  Can't stop, won't stop, like the ball team.

Elder Coletti




Monday, February 6, 2017

Kathy was baptized!

Elder Coletti's Letter 2/5/17:

This week we had a baptism!  Her name is 胡佩君 (Hu Pei Jun) or Kathy. Her story is a little interesting.  Her family is already members.  They've all been baptized before, even Kathy.  However, her baptismal records were lost.  This was her proof that she was baptized at 8.  Her family has been LA most her life.  Our Bishop asked missionaries to work on getting her and her family reactivated and to baptize Kathy again. Missionaries have been trying to get into contact with Kathy since July, but it hasn't worked out.  She usually doesn't answer her phone, or won't show up to appointments, etc.  One day, Elder Lin and I decided to just go to their home.  We went to the home and we called the home phone.  The mom answered and said they can't meet right now, but they could meet the next day.  We met Kathy the next day, and she started her journey back to church.  She always believed in our church, and she knew it was right, but she said she was just to lazy to come to church, read scriptures, etc.  We helped her regain her faith to act, and we helped bring her back to church.  We have also helped the mom come back.  We are still working with the dad and Kathy's other family members.  Kathy said that she is so grateful God has given her a second chance to be baptized and to rekindle her fire.  She is super fun.  We are so happy for her and for her conversion.

People all need second chances.  We need to help them Rekindle their Fire and Relight their Faith.  Love you all!  Transfers are this week.......We will see what is going on in TaoYuan!  

Elder Coletti