Week 6: Learning How to Teach and Nothing Untoward to Report From the Dorms

Mandarin name tags came this week!

Hello Family and friends!

Week 6 has been quite a good one:)

On Monday night, we had a Skype lesson with a Chinese-speaking member of the church which was really interesting. A couple of the other companionships thought it was super awkward and went really badly for them but ours went fine. The topic was how to receive answers to prayers at church. The girl we talked with was named Esther and I guess she was good friends with our teacher because he walked by and I guess she smiled. I didn't really notice so it must have been right after I told a joke (just kidding. I can't joke in Chinese yet). The lesson did go really well, though! We understood everything she said. Well, she did tell us what one of the words she said meant, namely "Relief Society" because she knew English really well and she could tell we were struggling. Other than that, we taught and discussed for 32:15 all in Chinese! I was pretty proud but I tried not to let it go to my head because I knew if I did that, our next lesson would have to go terribly in order to humble me again! And blessed are they who don't need to be compelled to be humble, but rather are they who humble themselves (or something along those lines). 

Anyways, lessons with the investigators are going well! Que Dixiong is making good progress in terms of feeling the spirit and we're connecting with him more. Unfortunately, the teacher playing his role is getting married this Saturday so his last day here is tomorrow. We've got our last lesson with him then so we'll have to go out with a bang! Just kidding. We'll probably just make it a normal lesson. 

Lessons with Lu Dixiong were awful all this week. We went in there on Wednesday, or maybe it was Thursday. I forget. In any case, we wanted to teach him about the first vision and the restoration of the church. However, as we asked him how his week was going, what he was up to, etc., we found out that his favorite activity to do with his friends is karaoke and drinking. We were just going to chug ahead and save the Word of Wisdom lesson for later, but then he found out that it was my companion's birthday that day and asked if we were going to go out drinking. Sooo...change of plans. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he didn't take it super well. We asked him to pray about it and he said he probably would, but we couldn't get him to commit to live the commandment. 

We came out of that lesson pretty discouraged or at least I did. The next few days, we--or at least, I--thought about what his needs were and we decided together that we need to help him understand the purpose of the Word of Wisdom better, but we also need to help him know how to receive answers to his prayers and develop a really close relationship with God. We also realized that in order to have a successful lesson, we can't plan exactly what we're going to teach so for this last lesson, we had a topic which was Word of Wisdom/receiving answers to prayers, scriptures, and thought-provoking questions and that was it. AND IT WAS AN AWESOME LESSON!! The only bad thing was that he hadn't kept his commitment but I think through the lesson, we showed him how important it was. I shared Alma 7:21-24 which is kind of a word of wisdom/how to improve your life combo. My companion shared Proverbs 3:5-7 which talks about how we can't understand exactly why God gives us some of the commandments he does but we need trust that he is all-knowing and won't lead us astray.  We asked him if he wanted to become a better person and he said yes. The lesson was almost over by that point so I really quickly had him read D&C 9:8-9 which is the scripture when God tells Oliver Cowdery why he couldn't translate but it talks about how you can receive answers. So we challenged him to think about what we had said and then asked him again to pray about the Word of Wisdom. We teach him again tonight so we'll see how that goes!

My companion's creation.  Microwave personal pizza with slim jim bits on top.  Blech...

   No exciting stories about elders in the dorms this week. The problem ones were shipped out on Tuesday. Woohoo:) Just kidding, I'm sure they were nice guys. They just weren't completely ready mentally, which I think is true of everyone here to varying degrees.

   We started actually doing SYL(Speak Your Language) this last Friday night when one of our teachers called us to repentance essentially and we did awesome from then until Saturday night at gym. We've been pretty spotty since then but it was much better than before when we hardly did any. I'm going to try my best to be an example! 

   The gospel is true! The Book of Mormon can change your life. I'm doing the Lord's work and that really is a huge and humbling blessing. I love it and although I miss all of you at times, this work is too important to let anything distract me from it. I love you all! I'll talk to you all next week:)

-Elder Brendan Smith

Week 5 Family Letter: Dear Mom 9/21/2013

September 21, 2013

Hey Mom :)

I'm glad you guys got a kick out of the mattress story!  It wasn't super funny when it was happening. :)

That sounds great about Sophie's curriculum night.  I don't even want to imagine what a "jumpsuit without the proper undergarments" would look like, which is why I'm not planning on asking for the offender's gender.  The Darbus teacher sounds much better.  I hope she had all the shawls and bangles needed to be compared to Miss Darbus :) .

Wow, I can't believe Damon's room is clean!  Were you making reference to the fact that I never had a clean room when I lived there, or to the fact that Damon's room is seldom tidy?  Also, how's the band room coming?  Is Dad having a lot of fun?

Sitting on the grass at the Provo temple on P-day.

That's too bad Lucy's so quick to judge with preschool.  I'm sure she'll grow to love it.  And I bet having that time to yourself is utter bliss!

With the mental health issues, I hope you don't think you're unstable. ;)  I'm glad what you are doing is helping you, though.  I hope you don't get to the exploding point very often.  But I get that.

I'm coming to realize that I'm much the same way.  I used to think that I just let things go and they didn't really matter.  Now that I'm in this kind of stressful situation, spending 14+ hours a day with people that I know just well enough for them to get on my nerves, I'm realizing that I really do hold on to things and that some things really do bother me a lot.  It used to be easy for me to just walk away and forget about it, but when there's tension between you and another member of your district or worse yet, your companion, you can't just walk away.  That conflict is ever-present and unless you deal with it adequately, it will just eat away at your desire to do anything and drive away the Spirit.

For example, recently, my roommates thought it would be pretty funny, whenever any of us is locked out and knocking on the door, to say "Who's your daddy?" and of course, wait for the victim to spout, "You are" before they open the door, which is apparently some HUGE wound to your pride.  I was the first victim.  I didn't realize that it was such a big deal, so I was all "Yeah, you are," just so I could get in.  And they made a huge hullabaloo about it the next day.  Told the whole district more than once.  I laughed that off.  

Fast forward to a couple days ago.  The same Elder decides to do it again to someone besides me.  I played along for a minute or so because, I'll admit, it was pretty amusing, but this Elder was just milking it for all it was worth, so I finally said, "Ok, that's enough," and kind of boxed him out and opened the door.  I think the Elder who was leading the shenanigans got a little embarrassed over that, so when I went to brush my teeth, I brought my key but he knew that I did, so he moved the bed in front of the door!  What a goon!  Finally, they opened the door, but I was super mad.  I'm not usually that angry or frustrated, so it was a really strange experience for me.  They could tell I was put out by it, but rather than apologize for what they did, they resorted to the old stand-by, "Stop being such a baby!"  

One scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:11.  Boom.  Donezo.  I was so seething mad!  It was so ridiculous how upset I was.  I don't even know why!  Most of it was probably because I was embarrassed, part of it was the fact that they felt no sympathy, no need to apologize.  The most overwhelming thing was this sense of stupidity with the whole situation.  This was so dumb!  And here I was fuming in my bed.  And the fact that I was so angry about something so stupid made me even more mad.  I was spiraling into fury!  I went to bed that night with a sour taste in my mouth.

View of the Provo temple.

I don't feel as mad about it any more, even though the Elder that did it felt inclined to tell the story not once, but twice yesterday.  I do still have some feelings of resentment toward him, though.  He's just a very difficult person for me to deal with.  He's really outgoing and nice, but if he has an opinion, he cannot be reasoned with.  If there's even a hope of a supporting argument for his claim, it's a lost cause to try to reason with him.  He just has this overbearing "I'm always right" quality that clashes with my personality quite starkly, because I'm pretty open to at least listen.  I mean, I have strong opinions, but I feel like in a discussion, I'm pretty good about at least seeing the other person's opinion as valid if they really care about it.  Anyway, I'm ranting now.  Sorry.  But yeah, he's a tough cookie.  In any case, I'll try to do a better job of helping myself emotionally and seeking help from others.

Haha! I'm glad Jake knows my pain with my haircut.  Seriously though.  I told her I wanted it as short as possible on the sides because I wanted it to have time to grow out, but at one point she asked me if this was the length I wanted on the top and I said yes.  She then proceeded to go 2 more rounds of trimming.  Then, at the end, she had the gall to say, "You know, when you first came in, I was thinking you'd want to keep your long hair, but now that WE cut it short, it looks really good."  I'm sorry, lady, but there was no "we" in that haircut.  I think the main issue with leaving the top longer is that you are aren't supposed to have a huge contrast between the top and the sides, but she definitely should have just told me that instead of chopping off everything without warning me.  Ugh.  At least I won't need to get another one before I leave.

A reminder of how Brendan looked after his shearing.

Thanks for the letter, Mom!  It was much appreciated.  I love all the tidbits you and dad tell me about life at home.  I love you guys so much and I miss you every day!

Love,

Brendan

P.S.  That's awesome that Damon's loving seminary.  I wonder if it's because of that gal he was "hanging out" with.

P.P.S.  Dad told me about Sawyer's food critic comment.  That is hilarious, and exactly what Sawyer would say. :)  Also, way to go in your letter with the two P's.  A couple of my friends have written me and written P.S.S.  Heathens! :)  It's post, post script not post, script script.

Week 5 Family Letter: Dear Dad 9/20/2013

Dear Dad,

I'm glad everyone enjoyed my letter. :)  And I'm not an elitist!  I'm just pointing out that most of the problematic Elders are the ones who speak English.  And sometimes Spanish...

Thanks for the advice about using my time here as efficiently as possible.  I've definitely been trying.  It's kind of strange, though.  It seems like in addition to learning Chinese and learning the Gospel, I'm also learning how to learn a lot of the time.  I've never been in a situation where me studying effectively was this vital.  I mean, a test is just a test and a class (much to your chagrin while I was in high school) is just a class.  This work that I'm doing has eternal consequences.  Like you said, souls are going to be on the line!  That's a super stressful thought <:(  I guess I just need to remember that it's the Lord's work and he will get it done either way.  All I can to is strive to be the best tool that I can be so that those awaiting the message that I have to share can be taught by a spiritual and effective missionary.

And yeah, the investigators I'm teaching here aren't real investigators.  It's either my teacher or a returned missionary.  I mean, we teach the same one every time and we set up appointments so it's like a real investigator, but it's still role play.  They are surprisingly effective, though.  I was skeptical when they first told us about it, but it's been really pleasantly surprising how real they can be and, if we take it seriously, how much the Spirit can be there.

TEA!!!  GLORIOUS TEA!!!!!  From Mama Warren and a very reluctant Salmon...

...Sorry my pictures don't look nice.  I always feel weird making a nice face when I take a selfie.  I don't know.  I'll work on that though.  Choe's Mom and Salmon sent me some tea so there'll be plenty of those pictures when I email next week.  And I just got one of the Taiwan ROC mission shirts.  Shi hen hao kan (looks really good).  I'll send you a nice picture of me with that on, too.

Sounds like an awesome year for Seahawks fans, indeed!

Thanks for the thought with the Voodoo doughnuts.  :)  That would have been pretty cool if you could have done that.  And that record store sounds super cool!  They probably have tons of goodies.

I'm glad you got out of driving (Damon to early morning seminary) this time around.  I bet you're having a good ol' time sleeping in. :)

A cool tie from Val-Ville that Megan sent me.

That's awesome that Sophie's doing a mini-triathlon!  Elder Watson does triathlons so I can ask him for tips if you want.  It'll be a good opportunity for her to get in shape without hurting her knee too much.

That sounds like the usual barrel o' monkeys with Luke and Soybean.  I'm glad to hear Sawyer is still retaining some of his shenanigans.  That food critic thing sounds like it was a laugh.

And yea, Lucy's going to just grow up thinking she's the cat's pajamas.  It'll be fun to see how she turns out!

FHE sounds like the usual shebang.  Hang in there.  Eventually, something will stick.

Love you!

Elder Brendan Smith

Week 5: Undone by Biscotti and Other Tales from the MTC

Hello Everyone!

There's not much to report this week. Lessons with investigators have been going well. We've got a baptism date for one and we would have had one with the other one, but we always got cut short. We did commit him to live the Word of Wisdom, though:) I told him if he stopped drinking tea and alcohol, I'd stop eating sweet things. Sooo that totally didn't happen. It worked for about a day, and then I got some chocolate hazelnut biscotti in a package from Megan and I couldn't resist (Not blaming you, Megan! That package was fantastic and made my day). It made me wonder how pathetic I'd be if I tried to break a real addiction and how hard it is for investigators to do that. So yeah, I definitely owe Que Dixiong an extremely sincere apology.

Aaron was complaining that Brendan doesn't seem to know how to take a picture without looking goofy.  Brendan sent this one with the caption "A 'not disgusting face' with my Taiwan Mission t-shirt."

I've grown to love my teachers even more this week! T. Laoshi has grown on me a lot and I've worked out some of his quirks so that I can focus more on what he's teaching and not the weird stuff he does. For instance, when he asks a grammar question (or any other question for that matter), he'll tap his fingers on his head like he's pretending to be you thinking, or if he thinks it's a particularly tricky question, he'll tap his fingers over his mouth like "Ohohoho! Fooled you guys!" It used to really bother me but now I just think it's really funny, which is good. I learn a lot more now. 

S. Laoshi is still super awesome. We did a couple of really cool activities with him this week. For one, in order to help us learn how to use a grammar pattern that helps you express the location of objects in relation to different objects, he had us sit in two lines facing each other. One line could see the board and one couldn't. He would draw a picture up on the board and, in Chinese, the person in the line facing the board had to describe to the person opposite him/her what to draw and where without doing charades or pointing. It was super hard and helped us learn and use a lot of vocab. I loved it. In another activity, he had us role-play contacting someone on the street and setting up an appointment. It was really interesting doing that because thus far, all our lessons have been set up for us so we haven't had to do the contacting part. It made me kind of scared for Taiwan, but also super excited. There's going to be so many people to talk to and it's so weird to think that most of them won't even know what they're missing by blowing me off or ignoring me. 

His bulletin board has become a little more personalized.

At the devotional on Tuesday, the speaker, Elder Schwitzer, told a story about a missionary in Russia who was so loved because from he moment he got there, he didn't shut his mouth. He wasn't scared about saying something wrong, he just opened his mouth in a spirit of love and the ward members and everyone he met just loved him. I hope I can be that kind of missionary. I know that my personality alone isn't going help me get appointments, though. S. Laoshi said he actually approached someone with a huge smile and they just yelled "BU YAO!!" which means "DON'T WANT!" and then literally ran in the other direction like a frightened rabbit. Hopefully I'm not that scary...

But yeah, that's about all for this week! Week 6, here I come!

-Elder Brendan Smith

[sorry so short this week. I need to do a better job of writing in my journal so my week doesn't blur together in my memory like a jumbled mess of the same day being repeated over and over and over. Sometimes it feels like I'm living groundhog day haha. That'll be one good thing about going to Taiwan is each day will be different.]

Week 4: New Responsibilities, Learning More of What He Doesn't Know and a Haircut

The MTC barber apparently gets a little clipper-happy.

Hey Family and Friends!

It's that time again. It seems like yesterday I was saying that last week. The days are really starting to fly by. What's even crazier is that this Wednesday marks 1 month of my mission! That's only 23 left and if they all fly by like this one, I feel like I'm going to blink and be home. Being the district leader has been pretty interesting. We had some bumps the first couple days as the old district leader was handing over the reins but now things are going more smoothly. The main concern in the district right now is that in one of the companionships, one is pretty lazy and the other one is really trying hard. I mean, it's more complicated than that, but that's the main idea. I don't want to go super into it when it's going to be published online. In any case, that's the main issue I'm constantly dealing with right now. The biggest help has been the philosophy of correcting with love. Doctrine &Covenants 121 has a lot of good nuggets about leading and I'm sorry to say I haven't studied it yet. That's on top of the to-do list for this week! 

Teaching investigators has been going pretty good. On Friday, we tried to ask one of our investigators if he'd be baptized when he knew what we were teaching him was true which went fine, but when he asked what baptism was, we had no idea how to explain it in Chinese. I mean, we could tell him that it was a promise you make to God that you will follow his commandments but in terms of saying "You go into a font of water, are submerged fully, and then come back out of the water," we were at a loss...After sitting there for a few seconds with apparently nothing to say, he looked at his watch and said he was out of time(saved by the bell) so we'll have to learn how to talk about baptism for next time. It was probably the worst lesson we've ever taught. Hands down. We didn't even remember to ask him about reading assignments. We were so embarrassed. The other lessons went pretty well. In fact, the lesson we taught to our other investigator right before the worst lesson we've ever taught was actually the best lesson we've ever taught. I don't know. Maybe the bad one was meant to be a humbling experience. Either way, we are constantly improving and learning so that's what matters!

Our district is continuing to be awesome. There are blips here and there but that's expected. Every time I get discouraged, I just look at an English-speaking district and then I feel a lot better(sorry for all those who went English-speaking). We actually have a bunch of English elders staying in the room next door and they are THE worst. Last night, this one elder was running down the hall with a mattress, trying to prank people by knocking on their doors and then putting the mattress in the door frame so when you open the door it's like "oh wow...a mattress.." Super funny right? Nope. I don't know. I just find consolation in the fact that they're only here for 2 weeks. Is that bad? I don't know.

My favorite lesson of the week was when we read 3 Nephi 12-13 with Ge Lao Shi. He was our teacher for the first couple weeks but they switched around the teachers after that so now he's a teaching coordinator. One of our teachers was running a marathon on Saturday, however, so Ge Lao Shi covered his shift. He is definitely one of my favorite people and teachers. He went on his mission to Singapore and he's from Australia. Sometimes when he isn't thinking about it, you can hear his accent. It's awesome. He's so good at inviting the spirit too. You never get the sense that he's talking because he thinks he's such a mighty scholar. It's always because he cares about what he's teaching and he wants to share it because he cares about us and our future. I hope I can be that way as a missionary. I always learn so much from him. 

Also, a little homework, since you all have access to google. Can you look up every other day fasting? A sister was telling me about it and I thought it sounded ridiculous so I'm curious to know how credible the sources are that prove its effectiveness. 

Also, I know how I said I'd like emails better, but that was a lie...haha. I only get emails once a week and I can get letters/dearelders every day except Sunday so if you're thinking about writing me, letters are good:)

Updates:

   -I've started playing basketball during Gym time which is nice because I actually work out. I'm a pretty bad shooter but my defense is okay and I'm coordinated enough that I never feel like I'm holding anyone back. 

   -I played piano during priesthood yesterday which was pretty crazy. I played "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and "Nearer my God to Thee." Both pretty easy songs but that's the first time I've ever done something like that and felt like it went ok. I messed up a couple times but I just kept on going so I was pretty proud of myself. 

   -I got a haircut. Picture attached. It's quite a bit shorter than I wanted it but it looks fine. :\

Sorry I didn't have a lot to say this week. The days are starting to blur together so it's becoming harder to remember the little moments even with a journal. I love you guys!! Keep me in your prayers!

-Elder Brendan Smith

Week Three Letter #2: Family Messages and A Plea for Tea

Part of Brendan's letter with drawings, just in case we didn't get the hint.  This kid likes herbal tea.

September 4. 2013

Hey Mom and Dad,

It would also be awesome if you could send me some sort of microwavable cup, honey, and a bunch of chamomile/peppermint tea.  I'm having withdrawals!  haha

LOVE YOU!

Also, here are some messages for each of you kiddos:

D: be careful with all them seminary gals.  You're a stud :).  Stay strong.  High school's a bit scary...
S: RED! THE BLOOD OF ANGRY MEN!
BLACK! THE COLOR OF T-SWIFT'S HEART!
Just kidding.  Sounds like you had a blast!
L: You're awesome.  I hope you're enjoying 4th grade.  :) and also, I miss you a lot.
S: I miss your smile and your butterfly dance.  Make sure those are both in tip-top condition for when I get back.
L: your message that you sent me was fantastic.  I was beaming when I read it.  Stay cute and quirky haha.
Mom and Dad: I've sent you a lot of stuff in emails, but I just want to say that I love you both so much.  You've been such great examples and it's ridiculous how much you've taught me, not only about not being a weirdo, but also about having excellent taste, a kind temperament, and most importantly, a strong knowledge of the importance of the Gospel.  I love you both.

Love,  

Elder Smith

P.S.  Seriously, though.  All mush aside, it would be super awesome if I could have some tea. It should probably be a red flag that I'm craving it, but it would be so nice to have a soothing cup of sleepytime tea for when I'm writing letters/in my journal at night. 

Week Three: Epiphanies, Teaching Experiences and a Calling

Hey Fam Bam.

It's that time again! It's crazy. Now that it's a routine, this is flying by. 

I'm so glad to hear about how the kiddos are doing! I smile every single time you give me details about any of them. It gives me kind of a pang but it's in a good way. 

Also, don't forget to send me some of those pictures that Sister Hawken took. I'm super looking forward to those more than anything! 

Also, before I forget, YES! I've been doing choir. Sorry I haven't been responding to that question. The director is Brother Egget and he's awesome. He's just super funny and he always tells us these fantastic stories to get us in the mood for what we're singing. 

I had a really good experience the other week and I don't think I shared it in my other email for some reason. So I was sitting in my bed criss-cross applesauce saying my personal prayer of that night. I was in the middle of asking him to bless my family when I just got this feeling that I should ask God if he loved me. I don't think I was consciously aware of it until that point, but I was feeling extremely stressed and worried.  I don't know if it's obvious or not but this isn't the easiest thing I've ever done in my life. So I asked him, "God, do you love me?" and I waited for a few seconds and all of a sudden, like a flashback reel, all these images came into my head of people who loved and cared about me. I saw my family members, my friends, my district. All these people who love me and want the best for me in varying degrees. It was incredible. I realized that God was showing his love for me through all of these people. And I've come to realize that this is how he answers my prayers. I don't get a voice that penetrates my soul, I don't get miracles. Thoughts just pop into my head, seemingly of their own accord. I'm almost amazed that I can recognize them as being sent from God because they aren't super dramatic but they are comforting and somehow I know every time that they are divine promptings directly given to me.   

Names that the sisters made for all of us. They put paper ties on the elders' and paper flowers on the sisters' .

This week was pretty interesting. We got 2 new investigators. One's name is Brother Que (pronounced chweehhh), and the other is Brother Lu (pronounced Loo). It's our 2 new teachers acting like them. They're playing real people that they taught on their missions but it's still weird role playing with them in a classroom. It requires quite a bit of imagination.  

Brother Que is a Biology major and wants to become a doctor. He's curious because he has a room mate who's Mormon and doesn't drink tea, but he's atheist so it's been interesting getting him to pray and trying to get him to develop faith. We've only had 2 lessons with him but he's very inquisitive. The first lesson, he asked us what "amen" meant because we were teaching him to pray. I honestly had no idea. Why didn't I know that??? So after my companion tried to explain it and kind of trailed off, I said that honestly we don't know but we'll look it up and tell you next time. The second lesson, we continued to testify of prayer. He asked us a bunch of questions about how we know God is real and that he loves us. When did we know? When did I pray and get an answer? Where was it? etc...After answering a few of those questions, I finally told him "Look, I can give you an example and an answer to all these questions from personal experience, but the only way that you're going to believe it is if you try it and get an answer for yourself." I looked back on it and realized that was an unusually good way to handle that situation. It must have been a prompting from the spirit.   

Personal study gets pretty rough in the morning sometimes. Hahaha.

Brother Lu is going into the military in 2 months. He lives with his mom and brother in the meantime. He agrees to do whatever we ask, but he just looks really disinterested and practically dozed off while we taught him the first time. I think we just need to make sure we don't have any fluff in his lessons so they are as engaging and to the point as possible. 

Anyways, that's about it for investigators. Oh! No wait. We had this thing on Friday called Training Resource Center where people from the Provo community(usually return missionaries and BYU students) volunteer to come in and be taught by missionary trainees. They don't put on a false identity and most of them are members so it's just a really good way to practice the language and know if you are teaching by the spirit. Our first lesson was with a return missionary sister who actually went to Taichung! She said it was awesome but sometimes she talked SUPER fast and I couldn't really tell what she was saying. It was ok though. She was just wondering how she should balance school and church because they're both so important. I asked her how much time she spent in the scriptures each day. She said "I don't know...10 minutes? Not too much." We told her that she ought to spend more time in the scriptures and in prayer. I felt pretty bold in telling that to a return missionary, but it was the truth... After that we talked to 2 other sisters. One went on her mission to Taichung and I'm pretty sure the other one was a native speaker. That lesson went really well. We were talking about God and prayer and the Holy Ghost and one of the sisters asked how we can feel the Spirit every time we pray. I said that we need to make sure we pray sincerely. I also shared the story that I wrote at the beginning of this letter which was really cool. I was relieved that I was able to share it in Chinese. The gift of tongues really is fantastic.  

Me, Elder D., Sister Malyon, and her companion. Elders and Sisters aren't supposed to be in the same pictures together so...

We've been learning a lot about prayer and the Holy Ghost this week.  It's been really enlightening!  It's weird because we pray so much here.  Over meals, before class, after class, after we get up, before we go to bed, when we lose something, etc.  It's really easy for those prayers to lose their sincerity.  Especially when I'm doing most of them in Chinese so it's nice to have a bunch of lessons that remind me to force myself to focus and not just say the same thing over and over again.

In other news, I'm the new district leader! President Dunn came in yesterday morning and called my companionship out in the hall and asked if I would.  I said yes, of course--haha. It was super unexpected, though. I was called at 9:45 and officially became the district leader at 2:00 during sacrament meeting.  I'll be honest. It's a little strange for me. I'm the youngest of everyone and even though (not to toot my own horn) I'm a little more mature than a few of the elders, I can tell it's going to take some getting used to for everyone.  Our first district leader, Elder W., was 20 and he's already been here once before so he really knew what he was doing. So yeah I'm a little nervous about that, but it'll be really great and I'll have to rely on the Lord so all the better:)     

A tree that feel over because of the storm. Woah!! Spiritual metaphor: If you have large branches and shallow roots, when the winds come, you won't be able to resist. 

On Friday, we gave Sister G. a blessing of comfort. It was a really great experience. She came in the classroom and I could tell she'd been crying. She asked me and Elder W. really discreetly if we'd give her a blessing and we said of course!  I guess she's really worried about some things going on at home (I don't know how much I'm allowed to disclose) and she just needed something extra to help her get through it. It was a really great blessing.  Elder W. gave it and he did a really great job. I could tell it meant a lot to her because she cried after which is always a good sign :).  

That's about all for this week. I love you guys! I'm loving getting all your letters/emails so DON'T STOP!! They are a huge pick-me-up and I always smile when I read them.  Also feel free to keep me updated on major world events outside of BYU football, Dad.  :) I feel kind of isolated in here and the only news I can get is from the workers. I did hear the BYU game on Saturday/Friday (whenever it was--the days blur together haha).  The crowd was really loud and we could hear the cannon fire every time BYU scored/made a field goal so that was exciting. 

-Brendan    

Week Two: Settled In And Learning

September 2, 2013

Hey Mom and Dad,

Mom, I'm glad Sophie had so much fun at the T Swift concert. And I especially liked your comparison to a 1964 Beatles fan. hahaha! Awesome. And Dad, I'm super bummed you didn't go to Bumbershoot! I would have liked to hear about it. I just remembered it was labor day weekend and a little pang went through me as I thought of the acts I was missing but I got over it pretty fast. 

It's great here! I am getting a little sick of the food. Sometimes I feel like I'm spending all day in that cafeteria! Although, this last week, they had these pork Gyros that were surprisingly fantastic. It might have just been the break from American and Italian food that I enjoyed but it was amazing. I'm not ashamed to say I ate 2. 

This week was a lot more doable than the first weekend for sure. I'm much more adjusted now. I wouldn't say I'm comfortable but at least my head isn't spinning (all the time).  Last night we had a devotional at the Marriott Center and Neal L. Anderson spoke which was pretty cool! He brought up a man who had been a missionary while Elder Anderson was a mission president a while back and basically just interviewed the guy. So it wasn't a super orthodox talk, but it was really cool and his missionary had a lot of cool stories. Elder W.'s friend was the missionary's son, so he went up and talked with his friend and apparently Elder Anderson had only told his Dad, "Come to the Marriott Center for a devotional Sunday." Hadn't told him why. Hadn't told him what he'd be doing. Just "Come to the Marriott center." So it was really genuine and it was a great talk. 

The real excitement came afterward, though, when they told us there was a lightning storm outside and we needed to stay in for a bit. When they finally let us out, it was still POURING. Of course, I don't really get the weather report here so I wasn't warned to bring an umbrella. It took us a good 15-20 minutes to get back and we were completely soaked. It was awesome. The elders all went back and changed at least their pants and hung their suits up to dry but apparently the sisters couldn't get into their residence so they had to go back to the classroom all wet with the AC blowing on them to make it worse. I felt so bad! It was worth it though. We had a really solid discussion with our Branch 1st counselor about the devotional. It was nice. The rest of the week was pretty normal.

Me, Elder C., and Elder R. soaking wet from just walking back from the Marriott center in the rain. My suit's still surprisingly shapely. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it too! It was funny. I told Elder B. that I got it at Val Ville for $15 and he was like NO WAY! Both my suits were $600! Which sounded a bit steep for a mission suit but to each his own. 

We kept teaching our investigator and helped him with finding faith and desire to read the Book of Mormon. We had him read Ether 12:6-20, which talks about faith and different examples in the Book of Mormon. He was concerned because he said Ether had so much faith. He had enough to see God. Our investigator, Eric, was concerned that he didn't have that much. We explained to him that as he reads the Book of Mormon and prays to know that it's true, his faith will grow little by little. It's so frustrating though because I know exactly what I could say that would help him in English but because of how little Chinese vocab I know, I have to use roundabout ways of saying what I really want to express. It does make me want to learn more, though, which is good. We're not teaching Eric anymore, though. 

Our teacher we've had for the past week and a half has been awesome. His name is Ge Lao Shi. He's been here for a couple years teaching I guess. He's from Australia and went to Singapore on his mission. He's just so loving and you can tell he really cares about us and about the Chinese people. Unfortunately, his school schedule isn't going to allow him to teach the same classes anymore. So we got 2 new teachers! One is Sun Lao Shi and the other is Townsend Lao Shi(I forget his Chinese last name). Sun Lao Shi is really smart. He just got back a year ago from Taipei. He's only taught one district before us so I can tell he's kind of nervous but I know he really cares about us and he's trying his best. Our other teacher is really nice too. He's pretty buff. He does water polo and he also went to Taipei. With the two new teachers, we got 2 new investigators, the first of which we're teaching tomorrow (yikes!). I'm excited though. I feel like my companion and I really know what we're doing a lot better this time. 

I also had a really good experience during class when we were studying Preach My Gospel. We read a bit and then we watched a couple clips from Taiwan of people being baptized or coming to certain realizations in the Gospel and it made me realize that I had been thinking about missionary work all wrong my entire life. I'd always thought that when one of my investigators got baptized, I would feel this sense of accomplishment like, "Wow, look what I just did!", but it's not like that at all. I realized that if or when one of my investigators gets baptized, all I will feel is gratitude. Gratitude that I got to be the mouthpiece of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in bringing this child of God to the knowledge of the truth. I will feel so grateful that I got to be part of their wonderful conversion and I will be so happy for them. It was a really emotional experience for me and it just made me think of how God and Christ must feel about all of us. Every single person on this Earth. It was amazing. 

     

Yesterday was good. It was Fast Sunday so everyone was a bit more irritable than normal, but testimony meeting was cool. I was glad that I was able to understand most of what people were saying and I bore my testimony which was a really awesome experience! Oh, by the way, all of our district/zone/branch prayers, talks, and testimonies are in Chinese. It's fun every week listening to the sacrament prayer in Chinese and trying to see if I can understand it without thinking of the English version. The talks yesterday were all pretty good. The speakers at the devotional were the recently released Phillipines MTC president and his wife. They were both good speakers but I'm sorry to say I ate a lot at dinner so I was having a hard time focusing. 

Today, we didn't get to go to the temple since it's labor day which was a bummer. On the upside, I'll probably have time for a nap:) 

So something funny. Everyone thinks I look like Benedict Cumberbatch, which is super flattering, but also kind of annoying. Specifically "Kahn from Star Trek". And it's not just my district too. I was sitting on a bench with Elder C. doing a role-play and this elder came up to me and said, "Has anyone ever told you that you look EXACTLY like the bad guy in Star Trek 2?" I silently thought, you have no idea... It's been pretty great hahaha. I don't know if I already told you this. 

My Kahn Face.

I've seen quite a few people that I know from Eastmont. I saw Shaylor S. He was friends with Weston. Like I already said, I saw James Clark!! He's leaving next week which is pretty crazy. I was really bummed because we didn't get to see each other for very long. I see Krista all the time because she's on the third floor of my building and we have the same meal times. I saw Dane J. from Holladay. I don't know if you remember him. But yeah just a lot of random people I recognize. It's kind of funny!  

Anyway, that's about all for now. 

Love you!!

-Elder Brendan Smith

Week 2: Getting His Suitcase Back, Admitting Mom Was Right and a Plea for Letters

August 27, 2013

Hey Family,

So I just realized I didn't tell you about the resolution of my luggage issues.  It was the greatest thing!  The next day I went on splits with my district leader because we both needed to run to the Bookstore.  We got our stuff and we stopped by the travel services office because Elder Watson needed to confirm his departure date.  I was sitting against the wall waiting for him to get his info and he just says, "Elder Smith, is that your suitcase?"  And sure enough, IT WAS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE behind the counter.  Anyway, it was fantastic.  I have clothes :) !!  I might need a few more things, though--I'll take stock of what I need and let you know on P-Day.

I just think I might want a sweater or 2 for the MTC when it starts getting into the Fall and also for Taiwan's Winter season.  Sorry, Mom.  I know you told me I would and I didn't listen.  Dui bu qi :(

Love you guys so much!!

Elder Brendan Smith

Also, if I got any FB messages/wall posts or any texts, please send them on :)  I haven't heard from any friends yet and I don't have any one's email except yours and Jonny's.  OH!! I saw James--I said--James Clark today!! (James is Brendan's best friend from Utah).  I was so happy.  I totally thought he was going to the Mexico MTC.  Anyway, that was spectacular.  Bye for real now.  I'll give you more of a spiritual update on Monday.  Love you, bye!