Short but sweet

Nope. I didn't find a cute vertically challenged girl if that was what you were thinking from the title. I just don't have a lot of time to write a nice post like I usually do but I did want to record a great experience that I had this weekend here in the land of jungle and heat. This weekend in Taiwan they had an All Taiwan Missionary Reunion up in TaiZhong and me and another friend of mine decided to go up and attend. I have never attended any type of reunion ever, not because I don't want to but because for some reason I'm always either out of the loop, or out of the country, or just out of my mind. For what it's worth I've always wanted to go to some kind of reunion because I love seeing people that I haven't seen in a long time that I've been close to in the past. I really mean that. I flew across the country this summer just so I could see some of these "haven't seen in a long time that I've been close to" friends so it definitely is something that stands as a priority in my life. Anyway, I went up to this reunion but I didn't see anybody that I knew. I really wasn't expecting to because there were only two native Taiwan missionaries in my mission when I was here so anybody else would have had to fly into Taiwan to attend, and that comes out to a really expensive ticket. But I did have a great time getting to know a lot of the returned missionaries from previous years. In fact this reunion they had a special guest there. It turns out that one of the first four missionaries that came to Taiwan has now returned to serve in the Temple and they had him speak. I was fascinated by the stories that he told because it was like learning a bit of church history that was so foreign to me. I mean I'm pretty familiar with American church history which I am fascinated already with but I don't know a lot about how the church started out here on the island that I know and love. Well his stories really brought things into perspective. It reminded me a lot of Elder Groberg's books and how the world was just so different back then and how much of a risk missionaries during that time period would take to go on their missions. I had a lot of respect for the early missionaries, and members of Taiwan after his message. But the part that moved me the most was a little video of some native missionaries challenging the youth to go out on missions. It was pretty cute and inspiring to see these native missionaries but for just 5 seconds of this video I saw one of my closest friends that I have made out here, Josh who is on a mission right now, and it caught me off guard. I haven't seen this guy in over a half of a year and this guy had to go through so many trials to actually get out on this mission including getting constantly berated by the people that he loved the most, thrown out of the house, warned to never come back and that he was no longer a part of his family. I put him up in my place right before he left on his mission so he wouldn't go homeless. But when I saw him on this video his face had such a glow to it, and he looked so different; not so much that he looked older but he was no longer Josh my good friend that I would always hang out with, he was Josh the missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. The change was so palpable and it hit me that he had received so many blessings by going through that experience to help him out on his mission. I was so moved that I cried a little bit because I knew that Heavenly Father helped Josh because he loved him which I was so happy because I love him as well. It is always such an awesome feeling to see when people who are close to me are blessed by the grace of God. I guess it acts as a testimony that it can happen in my life as well. I love the Lord and the many blessings which I receive from him daily. Hurrah for Israel!