Sunday, July 12, 2015

Week Ninety-Seven--6/30/2015 to 7/6/2015--ZTM, Interviews, and Patriotism



Dear Everyone,

I hope everyone had a good 4th. We had a fun activity where we had kind of a chapel open house, then ate American burgers with Taiwanese fruit(best combo ever. sorry America, but your fruit is just not the same). A lot of non-members came and the 1st councilor in our bishopric said he met a family who lives in the other ward that has a lot of potential. So we're pretty excited about that! 

Me and Elder Anderson eating burgers. Sorry we kind of look like punks. The guy to the right of Elder Anderson is Steven. He's a convert of about 2 years and helps us out a lot. He's planning on going on a mission, then studying at BYU Hawaii: 


Other than that, Tuesday we had ZTM which is hectic and rewarding as always. We talked about finding, especially street contacting. We hope our zone can get pumped about finding new people! Sister Kwan made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting again. It was divine...again. We're all going to miss her when she leaves in a couple weeks. On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Blickenstaff. As Zone Leaders, we got there at 9:30, and stayed there until 5pm helping the assistants do planner and area book checks. It was a good chance we had to interact with the members of our zone and pass on some of our wisdom hehe. My interview with President was the least stressful interview I've ever had. We just talked about what I've been thinking about lately and how I can help Elder Anderson have a good last few weeks in the field. I love President Blickenstaff. 

With all the activities we had this week, we weren't able to focus as much on our area, but this next week, we're excited to get things going again. Roger is still looking ok to be baptized on the 25th. He said his dad's fine with him getting baptized, but his mom wants to do some more research so she took his Book of Mormon and all his pamphlets and is reviewing them. Who knows, maybe she'll want to get baptized too! Pray for him! 

It's looking kind of bleak for the families we're working with. But I hope as we're persistent, they can be willing to make the changes that they need to do to feel the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Why is it so hard to work with families??

Anyways, that's my week in a nutshell. This week, I'll be able to spend more time proselyting because there are no meetings we have to prepare for or anything. Woohoo! Love you guys! Have a good week. 

-Elder Smith

P.S. 3 weeks worth of songs coming in hot!! Please forgive me!



Week Ninety-Six: 6/23/2015 to 6/29/2015--All in all, an excellent week!

Hello everyone,

So today we went to an amusement park in the morning so that's why I'm emailing so late today. So just to warn you, I'm using a members iPhone and I don't really trust the autocorrect so there may be some spelling errors. Highlights from this last week include going to the temple, mission leadership council, Roger accepting another baptismal goal AND coming to church, meeting a ward missionary's brother who just got out of jail and is super excited about repenting, and all the little miracles in between. Being a missionary is an amazing thing. Though I can't use words and especially not typed out messages on a computer screen to express the depth of it, I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement. We need Him. Coming on a mission has made me realize that being a "Christian" doesn't just mean you go to church on Sunday and celebrate Christmas. It also includes being rooted in and changed by Christ. It means having a personal testimony that He lives and it means following in His footsteps. It's tough but worth it. Love you guys! I know this letter's shorter, but I hope that rather than just see what I did this last week, you can see what I learned and how I changed. That's what a missions all about right? 

-Elder Smith

P.s. Songs are coming soon:)