Dear Family,
So first day was a success! It was pretty crazy and my head's still spinning, but it was pretty great. I got here, put my luggage in my residence, and then went straight to language study. My teacher, Ge lao shi, spoke only in Chinese, which was okay for me, but I bet a couple of other people in my class were freaking out a bit. Actually, a lot of them already knew a lot of Chinese which was cool!
After that, we got introduced to the MTC presidency and then went straight to dinner. They had the ice cream bar today, but I was too full from my Chicken Cordon Bleu to eat it. :) I did have some BYU Creamery chocolate milk. Yum.
Anyway, after that we went back to the residence for a bit to unpack and that's when it got crazy. I unpacked my first two suitcases. No problem! But when I opened up the last one, the big black one, I didn't find all of my shirts and pants and socks and shoes. I found a hair straightener, dorritos and ladies underwear.
I had picked up the wrong bag at the airport!
Aaaaaaaah!
Anyway, long story short, I talked to the front desk and they're basically just going to call the airport and see what they can do. So as of now, I have 2 white shirts and one pair of slacks that I have to last until P-Day on Monday. Wish me luck! I'll tell you then if anything happens with my luggage or if I need you guys to send me new clothes (heaven forbid).
Tonight we had a big teaching workshop though, where they get people to pretend to be people investigating the church, and we watched 2 older missionaries teach them for a while. Then people in the audience get to ask the "investigators" questions and teach them. The first two investigators didn't go so well because people weren't listening to what other people had to say and they were being too complicated.
The third guy was a really cool experience, though. He had a son that had died when he was only 3 days old and a wife who had died. Someone told him about how his son would be in the presence of Christ and that he'd see him and his wife again. He said that made his heart feel like melty butter. This reminded me of what Dad was telling me about his investigator that felt the spirit but they didn't say anything so I raised my hand and asked him if he had any idea what he was feeling. He said, "I don't know, but it sure does feel good!" I then asked him if he knew what the Holy Ghost was. He said, "Yeah! The Holy Trinity, you know? The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." (He had a Catholic background). I didn't want to distract him from the issue at hand by bringing up the separation of Diety, so I went forward and told him that we believe the Holy Ghost is a Spirit sent by God to provide us with comfort and to testify to use of things that are true. I then told him that what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost testifying to him that what the Elders and Sisters were telling him was true. He said he felt like a million bucks. Anyway, that was an awesome experience. I'm so excited to be able to teach things like that to real investigators.
I love you guys and I already miss you. Talk to you more on Monday.
Love you!!!
Elder Brendan James Smith
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