Traditions..

November 2, 2015

Well, Happy Halloween! I hope everyone’s Halloween went well. Other than Costco employees, I didnt see any people dressed up here in Taiwan. We dressed up like missionaries.

Language study fail

This Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Ulrich, one of our zone leaders. He has been on island for a year and a quarter, but his Chinese is considered the best on the island. He already reads the character Book of Mormon fluently, and his speaking level is out of this world. I learned a lot from him about the language, but I learned a lot more from him about Taiwanese culture which I’ll discuss more below.

All of the missionaries in our district are obsessed with two food places where we eat at almost every day. The first is Costco. Other than McDonalds, it’s some of the only American food here in Taiwan. The second one is called Ben Kuai. They have steak served over noodles in a pan with an egg still cooking. It’s delicious. We eat there almost too much, but I dont even care.

Chinese Books of Mormon

This week was kind of a rough one for our investigators, and it’s been a little depressing. It’s motivating me to go out a find some new ones, so no worries. One was dropped because he just couldn’t live the Word of Wisdom. Another was dropped because of his family’s disapproval. Our 17-year-old golden child was also denied permission by his parents. Right now we have one guy looking good. He just needs to come to church! So pray for him please!

As you may have noticed, one of the big problems in Taiwan is that families protest their baptism. Taiwan really focuses on families, so what the family says goes. For instance, our 35-year-old investigator wants to be baptized but his parents said he couldn’t so he won’t.

Many people believe in the “traditional religion” here in Taiwan, a combination of Buddhism and Taoism. This is strange because the two religions are very different and have many conflicting teachings. For example, Buddhism teaches the reincarnation cycle until you reach nirvana, but Taoism believes that after you die you need to be worshipped by your posterity to gain wealth in the afterworld. In Taiwan they “bai bai” (worship) their ancestors by burning this fake money and setting food out for them, but they also believe in reincarnation.

I love Taiwanese people to death, but many of their hearts are hard and they blindly follow the traditions of their fathers. At the beginning of Mosiah we see the same issue with the Lamanites. The Lamanites were kept from the truth, “because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.” (Mosiah 1:5) This is not unique to Taiwan. This is a global issue nowadays. People harden their hearts to the traditions of their fathers and refuse to consider anything else. Luckily, King Benjamin gives us the remedy to this plague. He teaches his sons (and us) to read the scriptures: “[R]emember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby…”

Whatever religion you practice–including Latter-day Saints–you cannot blindly follow your family’s religious views. Read the scriptures and find out the truth on your own. I was in the same situation as many I’m teaching until just a few months ago, so believe me when I tell you that you can come to a knowledge for yourself.

Love you all a ton,

Elder Moody