Lots of Change

Joey was transferred to Central Taipei and he now lives within walking distance of the Taipei temple.  He was also asked to serve as the new A.P. for the Taipei, Taiwan Mission.  

Elder Coletti's Letter 3/27/17:
Lots of changes.  I have been transferred to Central Taipei!  I'm really close to the Taipei temple and the 101.  It's super big!  I've never really served around Central Taipei, but it is HUGE!  There are big building all over the place, and everything moves a lot faster.  It is a nice change and it's a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying these big changes.  My new companion is Elder Hammond!  He has been on the island for 6 weeks longer than I have.  He will be going home in June (I will be going home at the end of July).  He is amazing.  He is one of the best missionaries in the entire mission.  He works his tail off and knows how to baptize.  I am very excited to serve with him and learn from his example.

I also went back to Taoyuan to attend the baptism of 國瑋 (Wii)!  Wii made it.  He started to feel the love of God and realized that his desires to go to hell and follow Satan were not being answered because they weren't the best things to be asking for:)  After he realized that, he felt the love of God... ahhhhhhh!   Gosh, I love him so much though.  He was very excited for his baptism.  He is honestly one of my closest friends in Taiwan.

Something I learned this week was putting your trust in Jesus Christ.  Trusting that he will help you no matter what and knowing that whatever happens, it will be alright.  God's hand is in everything.  Every single thing that we see and hear, is because God aligned it that way.  Everything that happens, is because of God.  It is up to us to take advantage of it, and realize that what we are experiencing is happening for a very particular reason.  Trust in Jesus Christ and the enabling power of the Atonement.  Jesus Christ makes up the difference for our inadequacy.  He makes up everything.  And when we fully trust in Jesus Christ, everything will work out.  We will get the blessing on the other side of the wall.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I love you! 

Elder Coletti 

Families Are Forever

Elder Coletti's Letter 3/19/17:

This week I learned a very valuable lesson and it has really changed my perspective of eternal families.  So, recently in our ward, we had a member pass away.  His name is 林秉程 (Lin Bing Cheng).  Brother Lin was in Japan with his family when he started to have a heart attack.  He eventually passed away 2 weeks later.  He and his wife were baptized in Dec. of 2014.  Brother Lin has 2 children, both under the age of 8.  This past week Elder Welker and I went to his funeral.  At the funeral were all of Brother Lin's friends, families, coworkers, etc.  It was during the end of the service, that everybody that attended grabbed a flower, and set it down by a big frames picture of Brother Lin.  They bowed to the picture, and then they bowed to Brother Lin's wife, sister, and other family members.  After a little bit of time, and lots of emotional sisters, it turned into every sister hugging Sister Lin and comforting her.  It was then that it kind of hit me: he's gone.  The man that I saw every week a church.  The man with two beautiful children.  He was gone.  It eventually was time for myself and Elder Welker to go up and pay our respect, along with the other ward members.  As I turned the corner, I saw the big framed picture of Brother Lin, and I felt like I had been smacked in the face!  Throughout my life, I haven't dealt that much with death.  The death that I have dealt with happened when I was way too young to realize what was going on or what it meant.  When I saw the picture of Brother LIn, I realized that I was never going to see him again and that hit me so hard.  When I got up to the front, I gave Sister Lin a two handed handshake.  We were both very emotional.  But, when I saw her face and looked into her eyes, I was relieved.  What I saw, when I looked into her eyes was hope.  She knew that it was going to be alright.  She knew he was still there.  She knew that they had an eternal family, one that would break the binds of death.  That is the power of eternal families. Families are forever.

I know that families are eternal.  We will always be together.  We will always be near, no matter how far it seems that we have fallen.  Sister Lin's hope was amazing and it helped me realize the truthfulness of eternal families.  If you have experience tragedy, or when you experience tragedy, remember that it is not the end.  With God on your side, you will never reach the end.  I love my family, and I am so grateful to have this opportunity on earth to grow with them, to learn with them, and to eventually return with them.  Keep the wider perspective.  Think beyond this life on earth.  I cannot wait to go to the homecoming party with all of you, my brothers and sisters, after we win this game.;)

Elder Coletti

I've attached a picture of the Lin Family.

The Love of God

Elder Coletti's Letter 3/12/17: 

Good afternoon from Taiwan!  This week was incredible.  Its been raining quite a bit recently, but it has been filled with miracles nonetheless.  I love my mission in Taiwan.  It is seriously so much fun.  I can't believe the time is going this fast.  It makes me super sad.  However, I am so grateful.  I am so stinking grateful for everything that I have already learned.

Something that I have been learning a lot about this week is the love of God.  We have an investigator named 呂國瑋 (Lu Guo Wei).  His English name is Wii, but we never call him that.  He is a very interesting guy.  He always talks about Satan.:)  One time I told him we were going to start teaching the commandments, and he said, "If I believe Satan, do I have to obey the commandments?"  Just weird stuff like that, but most of the time he is joking.  He literally comes to church every single week.  Last week he worked Saturday night at 12 (midnight) until Sunday at noon (12:00) and he still came to our church service at 2.  He worked a 12 hour shift, and still made it to church.  He likes to come to church because he likes to listen to the choir that sings before church.  It's really peaceful.  So, I was sitting with him during Sacrament Meeting, and was talking to him a little bit about Baptism.  He was talking about how he's not really sure about baptism right now.  I then asked him the question, "Do you believe God loves you?"  He then said, "I believe that God exists, but he doesn't love me."  This made me so sad.  I then asked him, "What's your biggest dream in life?"  He then says, fighting some tears off, "That I can end my life earlier and get away from my struggles."  It then hit me why Wii always talked about Satan, and why he comes to church, and why he was willing to meet with missionaries.  He's lonely.  Wii literally has no friends.  He feels like he has nobody that loves him.  He wants to end his life early because he feels like it would just be a lot easier.  It would be a lot easier to go to the Telestial Kingdom.  He needs to feel the love of God.  I just had my arm around him the entire Sacrament Meeting testifying to him and telling him how much God loves him, how much God wants him to come unto Him.  He needs to repent and he needs to forget about the mistakes he has made in the past. During this Sacrament Meeting, I was filled with so much love.  How lucky am I to have been born in an environment that I could feel the love of God?  How lucky am I to go to an island where there are people that need to feel this same love? It is never too late to repent.  We can always change.  We can change how we think of ourselves.  We can change everything and that is because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It's because of him we can change.  Don't ever forget who God is.  Don't ever forget how much he loves every single one of us because there are people out there that don't know what it feels like.  What they need is someone to help them feel the Love of God.  Someone to tell them what to look for.  Someone to tell them how to find it.

Love your neighbors like you love yourself.  Love who you are.  Love that God loves you.  Take this love, and give it to others.  Give it to those that need that boost.  Keep praying for Wii.  We will keep helping him feel the truthfulness of repentance, and know of the Love of God.

Elder Coletti

Busy, busy, busy

Elder Coletti's Letter 3/5/17

HELLO!  Honestly nothing too crazy happened this week.  Just a typical week of work in the vineyard haha.  But I did learn some really good things this past week.  Elder Funk of the 70 was in town, and he trained us on how to better teach repentance and baptize converts.  It was really good.  Something that I have been studying a lot lately is about Repentance.  How it is a daily thing.  And how it is through the Mercy of Jesus Christ that we are saved on the condition of Repentance.  We all need to Repent.  And Repentance is a good thing.  We need to personally witness Repentance in order to help others feel the need to Repent.  They need to see it from ourselves, and see the mighty change that it can bring to us.  Love ya.  I'm still alive haha.  Sorry momma... No pictures this week hahaha

Love,

Elder Coletti