Week 10: First Week in Taiwan

Hello Family and Friends!

So yeah, I'm in Taiwan. It's a Monday around 1:37 in the afternoon, my time. So that's what? Like midnight your time. Wow. I feel so remoooooved. So here, let me summarize the events of the last couple days really quick.

Brendan with President and Sister Blickenstaff.

So. Woke up Tuesday morning, crack of 5:00 am. I went and got on a bus, then a train, then trax that took me to the airport. Took a plane from SLC to LAX, had a 4 hour lay-over in LA, then went on a 14 hour flight to Taiwan. Yaaaay. 

The flight was ok. I was all by myself and the two girls sitting by me were sleeping most of the time so not much chance for practicing there. We got to Taoyuan airport at 9, got our luggage, etc., then met the Mission President and his wife as well as the assistants to the president. We all took a picture and then hopped on a bus that took us back to the mission home where we crashed. 

The next day, we got up at 6 to go run. Ok, first thing I noticed when I got out on the main road, SO MANY SCOOTERS. I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures this week, but next week I'll make sure I get a picture of a good street. If you're super impatient, just go to google maps and look at the street view of basically any major city street in Taiwan. There will most likely be scooters lining the entire road and sidewalk. So nuts. 

Second thing I noticed, Taiwanese people are super active. The track we were running on(this is at 6:15 am, mind you) was super crowded with people of all ages doing exercises, running, or just stretching. It was awesome. There was a track team there working out and everything.  Anyway, we went there and ran a mile. The mission has all their Elders constantly work on improving their mile time. I got 6:52 so I'm going to try to work down to 6:30. Wish me luck! 

We then ran back to the mission home, showered, dressed and had the best breakfast EVER. We had all this fruit, fresh soy milk, dumplings, etc. Let me tell you about the fruit. I had passion fruit. Passion fruit tastes just about the same as passion fruit flavored stuff in America does, just more fresh. That was great. I had dragon fruit which is either white or red inside and outside, it looks kind of like a more leafy pineapple. It tasted like cantaloupe/honey dew but the texture was more like a soft watermelon. It sounds gross but it was super good. I had star fruit. It was ok. It just tasted like tart water. They also had yellow watermelon which was interesting but super good. 

After breakfast, we had orientation until lunch. For lunch we went to a "hot pot" place. Basically, they give you a pot of this broth stuff on a burner and you turn it on and cook all this stuff in it. I had this bowl of veggies and a plate of rolled up ham things. You'd throw them in the hot broth to cook them and then eat them over rice. It was really good! The weirdest thing I ate there was this cube of rice held together with pigs blood. They didn't tell me what it was until after I ate it...but it wasn't bad. I wouldn't choose to eat it, but it wasn't awful. A sister at the other table totally gagged when they told her what it was. After lunch, we had more orientation. 

Then we had dinner at this really good Peking(Beijing) place. We had Peking duck which was AWESOME and all sorts of other tasty things. After that, we had the Dan Jones activity. For those who don't know who Dan Jones is, he was a missionary for the church in the mid 1800s who went to Wales and England to preach. There's a famous picture of him where he's standing on a box in the middle of a town square, holding up a Book of Mormon and preaching to everyone. So that's what we did. We went to a night market in Taizhong(Taichung), stood up on a crate and bore our testimony. That was so scary, but it definitely helped me with the jet lag. I don't know if my mom will post the pictures that she got, but it was pretty cool. 

After we did that, we got paired with an older missionary and went to try and talk to people and give out Book of Mormons. It was cool! I gave out 3. It was really awesome talking with people in Chinese and being understood! It's like I thought this language was made up until now, but now I'm seeing how it actually works with communicating. It's crazy! Everyone we talked to, pretty much, was so nice and I'd be so happy to see some of them get baptized. 

After that activity, we shared experiences from it back at the mission home and then went to sleep. Yay. The next day, we got up early and ran stairs(ugh). I just barely got over being sore from that. After that, we had breakfast again and went to the "meet your trainers" meeting. We saw some footage/pictures from the previous night and President Blickenstaff talked to us for a bit. 

Then we each were handed a red envelope one by one with the name of our trainer in it. I got an elder named Elder Sumsion. He's from Kaysville, UT and he's awesome. Super solid guy. Super hard worker and I think we're going to have a good time and have success together. It's nice that one of us has their head on straight and knows the language well enough to get by(by the way, that isn't me).

 

A photo of the inside of Brendan's apartment.

The front door of Brendan's new apartment.

We went to lunch at a Burger place, then took the train off to my first area which is Yong Kang which is a suburb of Tainan. Woo! We're about 2 hours south of Taizhong. On the train to Yong Kang, we talked about our goals and set expectations which was nice. 

We had 2 lessons scheduled for that night. One was with a guy named Kase. We gave him a tour of the chapel and taught him how to pray. He did a really good job praying. He seems like he's interested for sure. 

The next lesson was with a less active man named Brother Li. His story is kind of sad. He has some mental health issues, so he's kind of depressed a lot of the time. He actually came in while we were giving Kase a tour of the chapel. We stopped now and then to talk about pictures of the savior and Brother Li had some really good insights when we asked him so I could tell he had a good understanding of the church and a strong testimony. Anyway, after Kase left, we had a good lesson with him. We read Alma 32 with him which talks about faith and he expressed that he needs to face his problems and not just shut himself off which was awesome! I'm hoping to see him improve while I'm here. 

The next day, we had a lot of lessons, but 3 out of the 4 cancelled so we went and contacted around a college campus. We then went over to a man's house named Zhang Baba. Baba means father. We call him that because he's older. Like, in his 50s or something. He was such a character. It was hilarious. He was super animated and he'd throw an "ehhhhh?" after a lot of his comments just to add emphasis. I loved it. He's a member, but I don't know how often he comes. He has a 10-year-old son that we want to teach, and Zhang Baba wants him to be baptized and go on a mission, but he knows if he forces it on his son, it won't be  any use. So he wants to wait until his son is ready. What does that mean? I don't know. We'll just have to pray for them. He did refer us to his son's friend's parents and their children so we went and visited them. They said we could come back so that's cool! 

After that, we went and got dinner, then we had a baptism. It was a boy in a part member family that my companion and his previous companion had taught and prepared for baptism. That was really cool to see. The dad wasn't a member so the bishop did the baptism. 

After that, we had a lesson planned that fell through again so we went tracting(knocking on doors) by where our scheduled lesson was supposed to be. We found a man and his wife there that let us in. They were so nice. The man had a friend when he was a kid who was Mormon in Costa Rica or maybe he said he saw missionaries when he visited there. I don't really remember. In any case, he also agreed to have us back so I'm super excited about that! 

After that, we came home and slept(Yes!). The next morning was church. That was kind of a blur, I have to say. I hardly understood anything. I got up and bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting which was kind of nerve-wracking. Everyone said my Chinese was really good for how long I'd been here so that was nice:) We did studies, then had a meeting with the ward mission leader who's awesome, by the way. He had us over for dinner last night. After dinner, we had a FHE activity with what was supposed to be members and non-members, but really only ended up being members. Oh well. After that, the day was over. 

Today, we got up and it was P-Day. That brings us to now. So I guess that wasn't very quick. I'm almost out of time though, so I'll have to tell everyone more next week. Maybe just snippets because there's so much going on all the time, I don't think I'll have enough time any week to say everything that happened. Suffice it to say, I'm here safely doing the Lord's work, I have what seems to be an awesome companion, the food's great, the people are fantastic. People will just talk to you without it being weird at all. It's awesome. My area is busy and I'm going to help people receive the restored gospel! Yaaaay! I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

Zai Jian!

-Elder Smith

Week 9: Putting Him to Work

Brendan's mission president sent us and email with a link to a video that shows some history and background on Mormon missionary work in general, and missionary work in Taiwan in particular.  At the end, it shows footage and still shots of all the new missionaries in the Taichung mission in action--talking to people on the street, and "Dan Jones-ing" it on a soapbox in the heart of Taichung's famous night market.  He'll be spending most of his mission in quieter ways, but there's nothing like being thrown in the deep end to get your feet wet, eh? :)

Anyway, here is a link to the video on YouTube.  Incidentally, Dan Jones was a very famous and successful Mormon missionary who helped to convert thousands of people in the British Isles in the 1800's. Here is the link to an article about him on Wikipedia for those (like me) who would like a little background.

The Eagle has Landed! Brendan Made it to Taiwan

Brendan's Mission Mom sent a nice email letting me know that he arrived safely with a picture of all the missionaries who just arrived.  The adventure is beginning.  Awesome!

All the new recruits. :)  Brendan is fourth from the left.

Week 9: Final Preparations--He's Leaving For Taiwan Tomorrow!

Hello Family and Beloved friends.

This is my final letter to be sent from the MTC! Before I start reminiscing, let me tell you all about the week. 

Yep, I'm a photographer.  Psych!  But it certainly was a beautiful day.

First, we got to teach a "family" for the first time this week. All the older Mandarin districts left a couple weeks ago, so they only have 3 mandarin districts in the MTC right now. However, they're going to get another influx in a couple weeks so they don't want to lay off any teachers so right now we have about 3 teachers every class. It's cool! We get a lot more one on one time. Anyways, because of that, when we teach lessons, we can have one of the teachers be a peike(aka member present) and this last week one of the teachers played our investigator's wife. We had an investigator a few weeks ago named Li Dixiong. The teacher playing him got assigned to a different class, though, so we stopped teaching him. Anyway, his class left last week so we've taught him twice the past 2 weeks. Once alone and then this last week, we taught him and his "wife" aka Xiao Laoshi. That was cool. She was Christian already and he's not really religious so that was a cool contrast. The main thing that draws him to the church is that he went to church one time and saw how happy all the families were there and wanted the same feeling for his own family. He and his wife had been arguing and there just hadn't been a very happy situation in their home. We told him the first lesson to start praying with his family and reading the scriptures. When we followed up with him, they said that praying together had been very beneficial but she was kind of hesitant to read the Book of Mormon. We had a member present for that lesson and at that part he talked about how he was a convert to the church too and talked about his own experience getting used to the Book of Mormon, when he'd grown up with the Bible so that was really helpful! It got me pumped to work with the members. Not that every situation will be perfect like that but it really does help to have someone there with more real world experience and maybe a conversion story of their own.

My district outside the temple.

Second, we had "In-field orientation" on Thursday all day which was basically a big seminar about planning and skills to use once you're out there. We did some approach activities for when we're on the street or in the bus. We learned how to set goals and make plans much better. It just gave us a lot of useful tips for when we're out there. It taught us about how to build faith, how to work with members. It was just a really useful activity. It got me even more excited about getting out there!

Third, Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke at the Tuesday devotional so that was cool! I heard he was pretty funny, so I was hoping to see some of that but he didn't let any of that showon Tuesday. Just as convicted as in Conference which was awesome. You can just tell that he knows everything he says with assurity and his words carry so much power. It's really incredible.

Fourth, I watched a really enlightening talk that David Bednar gave in 2000 at the MTC called "Becoming a Missionary". It talked about how you need to become a missionary, not simply go on a mission. It sounds pretty generic, but let's be honest. Elder Bednar could talk about anything and still make it powerful and relatable. It was really inspiring. Grandma and Grandpa Smith have probably seen it a million times so they'll know what I'm talking about.

My companion and I looking shuai (handsome) on a bench outside the temple.

Fifth, in the scriptures, I was reading in John 8 and came across one of my favorite verses in all of scripture. The pharisees ask Jesus "Thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham?" to which Jesus replies "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." and just blows their minds. So awesome. For those who don't know, God or Jesus is referred to a lot in the Old Testament as "the great I AM" so when he said that to the Jews in this instance, he basically was telling them "I have seen Abraham and Moses too. In fact, I am the God of which they spoke of." Ahhh!! Every time. I just can't handle it. I'm totally geeking out over this. And thus, Brendan became a missionary haha.

So yeah that's my week. All in all, this whole MTC thing has been a great experience. Although there are some things I wish I could have changed, the experiences I had here and the skills that I started developing are things that I'm sure will help me greatly out in the field. It's really helped me get in the right spiritual mindset so that when I'm out there, I can focus on adjusting to the language and not have to worry so much about adjusting spiritually. It's also helped me learn how to deal with people problems. At home, if there was someone I didn't like, it was really easy to get out of there or, if it was a sibling, just go up to my room and play guitar or read a book. It's not so easy when you've got a companion and the whole sight/sound thing. Luckily, my companion hasn't been the issue, but you're still stuck in a small classroom with 10 other people for about 8 out of the 14 hours in your day so things can get tense in there pretty fast. Hopefully I get a companion that I just click with right out of the gate. If not, at least I have some experience dealing with things and we'll be able to work through any challenges. 

Selfie Sunday.  Just kidding.

Lastly, I'd like to share my testimony with you all. I know without a shadow of a doubt that my Savior lives. He loves each and every one of us. He is mindful of our struggles and if we will just reach out to Him as Peter did when he temporarily looked away and started to sink on the sea of Galilee, He will be right there ready to buoy us up. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he truly did see what he said he saw. I've gained such a strong testimony of that as I've taught it to others. And I taught it in Chinese for crying out loud! But somehow, through all that worry about whether I was saying the right thing, about whether the person I was teaching was understanding what I said, about trying to make that person feel the truth of my message, I felt the Spirit testify to me so strongly that what I was saying was true and I know the Spirit testified to them as well. I know that through Joseph Smith, God and Jesus Christ restored the true New Testament church on the Earth once again and that through this church, people can receive so many blessings. Like Alma 32 says, if they will have but a small desire to believe, that "seed" of faith will grow within them and it will begin to become delicious to them. They will see the goodness in it and they will see the perfect love that our Heavenly Father and His Son have for them. I know that through the Atonement, "though [our] sins be scarlet, they shall be as white as snow". That through Jesus Christ, and his love, we can live with our families forever in the presence of God. That is a wonderful blessing that I'm sharing with everyone. It is such a privilege for me to share such a precious blessing. I know that this message is one that many are waiting for and I am going to have the privilege of bringing it to them. Because this missionary service isn't a duty or a commandment or something you do for 2 years because it's a family tradition. It is a gift and a privilege. It is literally the Lord, Jesus Christ's work. And it is in his name that I go out a preach and it is in his name that I say these things. Amen.

I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers. I feel them. I pray for you all as well. Taiwan, here I come!

-Elder Brendan Smith   

Week 8: Getting Ready for Take-off

Week 8 in the MTC:

Hello family and friends!!

So week 8 has been interesting. It was my last normal week in the MTC. This next week I have a big in-field orientation thing on Thursday and the classes are a little different so it'll be interesting to see how it feels.

I hardly got to teach investigators at all this week. We only got to teach Lu Dixiong once and he said he was still smoking, though he said he'd stopped drinking alcohol and tea. We told him that he should smoke one less cigarette each day until he got down to 0 and then we'd throw the rest of them away. He said it'd be hard but he'd try it. And then we don't have another lesson with him until this Saturday. 

There was a funny teaching story though. We're teaching another missionary in our district pretending to be an investigator right now. His name is Gan Dixiong. He's a single father with a 9-year-old daughter and he's pretty sensitive. Anyway, we were teaching him and the lesson went really well, I thought, and then we asked him to say the closing prayer. He agreed(this was our third lesson with him or so), and he started praying. Right as he started, I could feel that tickle in my nose that is unmistakably a sneeze. I tried SO HARD to keep it in, but to no avail. It was so loud. The room we were in was small and really echo-y so I feel like the sound of my sneeze reverberated off the walls for a solid 5 seconds. I look up and Gan Dixiong(Elder R.) was laughing so hard. Then I started laughing. We got control of ourselves pretty soon after that and he stumbled through the rest of the prayer. I felt so bad. The lesson was so good and then it was just trivialized in a split-second. So note-to-self, sneeze before the prayer or after the prayer. Not during the prayer. Not that I could have helped it. Maybe I should learn to stifle them, but it's always ended up being worse than if I had just sneezed normally when I've tried before so...I don't know.

Anyway, I can feel my Chinese getting better all the time. Things just click for me. I don't know. I truly believe in the gift of tongues because when I think about a grammar rule like I normally would, I realize it makes zero sense. However, if I just live the way I'm supposed to and I don't think about it too much, it just makes sense. It's logical to me and I can use that grammar principle or I can use that vocabulary right away. I mean, it takes real practice to get comfortable with it, but at least I know how to use it if I think about it. I'm probably not making as much progress as I could be making because my district (myself included) is really bad at SYL. It's hard because if everybody's not with the program speaking Mandarin, then the people who are often get cut-off or ignored because the other people don't want to try to understand it or respond in kind. I'm hoping that today, as everyone's realizing it's the last week and it's time to get down to business, we'll all realize that SYL is a super great idea. I'm going to start, at least. I can communicate just about 75-80% or what I want and hopefully I'll be able to set an example.

We got our travel plans! I leave at 6:30 AM on Tuesday October 22, and get to Taiwan at 9:05 PM the next day Taiwan time. So I have a 2-hour flight to LA and then a 15-hour flight to Taiwan. I'm getting pretty excited and I'm also getting focused. It reminds me a lot of what it was like the month or so before I came to the MTC. I realized that this was actually happening and I needed to take it seriously. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've been taking it seriously this whole time, but it's a lot more real now. It just focuses me more on what I'm really preparing for which is awesome! I'm hoping this week will be extremely productive and hopefully, before I know it I'll be in Taiwan, feeling like I'm practically starting over again. Wow! This is happening!

Anyways, I'm super excited. That's about all for this week. I love you all so much and I pray for you! Next time I talk to you, it'll be the day before I leave. AAAHH!

-Elder Brendan Smith

Week 7 Family Letter: Dear Mom

Note from Erin: These kinds of letters are how you get your mom to send you more packages....

October 4, 2013

Dear Mom,

Thanks so much for the package!!  It was hilarious.  I got the slip in our district's inbox and gave it to the guy and he comes out with this HUGE box!  Everyone was like, "Woah! What IS that?"  I had to explain to them that it was a suitcase, even though I also knew that the suitcase was feeeled weeeth gooooodeeees :).  I love the sweater and I felt like it was Christmas with the ties!  I thought I was getting like 2 or 3 tops and then I got 8!  I was in heaven!  Plus, I like that you got most of them at a thrift store.  It brought be back to my roots, ya know?

Also, I super appreciated the mug and the sea salt chocolate almonds (oh my goodness!  Heaven!) and the tea and hot chocolate.  And the luggage ID tags were a nice touch. ;)  Same with the travel sleeping stuff.  That'll be super useful on my flight over there.

So yeah, that's just about the best non-spiritual thing that's happened to me since I got here!  Thank you so much!  I'll send my other suitcases back soon.  Today, if at all possible.

Thanks for having all the kiddos write letter/draw pictures.  It made me smile.

Yeah, pretending my teachers are investigators is a little strange, I'll admit, but it's amazing how much I'm able to glean from it despite it all.  It helps a lot that my teachers take it really seriously and don't break character.  There are some times where the teachers forget what we've taught them/haven't taught them so that makes it a little less real, but for the most part, it's really helpful.

Thanks for the stuff about Mindset that you shared!  And I liked how you said that humility has the two sides: knowing that we are nothing AND knowing that we are also the reason God does everything he does.  That was a really comforting point and one that I plan on remembering. :)  I love you, Mom.  And how smart you are.  You always bring up really good points that resonate with me.  That's probably because you raised me, but it's also because your points are just downright good!

Love,

Brendan Smith

Week 7: "Messaging" with Brendan--Like Cinderella, He's Disappointed He Won't Be Able to Attend the (Deck the Hall) Ball

Note from Erin: Today, Brendan and I happened to be online at the same time and were able to exchange some emails--almost messaging.  It was fun to be able to "talk", and I thought some of you might find it interesting, so I thought I'd pass the emails along.

Brendan: Here's a picture of my new journal that I got. My composition notebook wasn't cutting it.
Mom:  Pretty fancy pants, man.
Brendan:  I know I like it. It's nice and simple, but also reeks of valor and missionary strife. 
Mom:  Perfect combo.  What does valor and missionary strife smell like, exactly?  I bet it isn't that great. ;)

Lucy took the time to write to Brendan as well.  She insists on "typing" up her letter, and only grudgingly lets me decode for her.

hggg85

Lucy says:

Dear Brendan,

And I love you.  Even I'm sad that you are going to Taiwan.

ujdsjkhiglckbvvcghjjjl;vvy

Love,

Lucy

Brendan's reply: Man, Lucy needs to work on her grammar haha. but the sentiment is good;) Love you too, Lucy. Talk to you next week!

Third Exchange:  

Mom:  Did you get my package yet?  I want feedback, man.

Brendan:  yeah!! I wrote a letter and I'll be putting it in the mailbox today with specific feedback but over all, great:) great ties, great everything! I could use one more sweater though. Preferably brown. But I loved it! And I looked so funny carrying that huge package back to my dorm hahaha.

Mom:  :)  I'm glad.  I know you need another sweater--I just have a hard time remembering exactly what shade of brown your suit and pants are.  I think maybe you need to just buy one when you get to Taiwan.  Browns are tricky.  

I hope you liked the ties.  I thought you'd appreciate all the vintage.  I also thought you'd like a Thanksgiving tie, since I'm not sure if you'll be celebrating it over in Taiwan.  I'm sure you can guess which one that was. :) You would have laughed at me--I started out shopping at Marshall's, then wised up and went to ValVille and Goodwill.  And the total for 6 ties bought at those two stores cost the same as the one I bought you at Marshall's.  Anyway, hopefully this will help save you from tie boredom.  I love you!!!!  And miss you.  But we're muddling through. :)

Brendan:  Yeah I loved the fact that they were all vintage! That pink paisley one is definitely a keeper. And I totally know which one the Thanksgiving one is hahaha. And ok sounds good! It'll probably be cheaper to buy one there anyways.

Also, Deck the Hall Ball sounds FANTASTIC! That was really mean of them to have that good of a line up this year. It's like they knew I'd be gone or something. There's not one band on that line up that I wouldn't want to see haha. You should have seen me when I got that email, it was all I could do to not scream. I did run my hand through my hair and let out a big breath. However, this work is way more important so it's ok (I'm trying to calm myself down. Is it working? I don't know.).

Love you!!

Mom:  Sorry--Dad had to rub that one in, huh? :)  That reminds me of that scene from "The Best Two Years" where that one vain, obnoxious Elder is reading a letter from home and going crazy.  Sorry.  We'll try to pretend that nothing good is happening until you get home from now on... ;)

It's normal to miss things.  You are focusing on one important part of life right now at the exclusion of other things.  It'll provide a great base for the rest of your life, when you get to incorporate lots of things that bring joy.  Like music. 

Brendan:  haha yeah thanks a lot, dad. just kidding. make sure he goes though. He won't want to miss that one! 

and yeah I'll admit, that was pretty rough for me. but I can do eeet!!

Love you! talk to you next week:)

Week 7: Zone Reorganization, Learning, Teaching, a Mystery Package and General Conference

Hey family and friends!

This week has gone by faster than you can say zaijian(see you later in Mandarin). I've felt very blessed this week. We had some good experiences with investigators, we got to see General Conference, Vocal Point came and performed, our transition to a new teacher has been smooth and I'm now a Zone Leader!
   

I mean, my companionship being called to be the Zone Leaders isn't saying much because after the two older districts leave tonight and tomorrow, we'll be the only district in our zone until we leave in 2 weeks. So yeah, it's kind of strange. We have a district leader, zone leaders, and sister training leaders all in the same district which is also our zone...I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. It would make sense for us to combine with the other mandarin zone which will have 2 districts after their older generation leaves, but the way it looks at the moment, they aren't making any adjustments so we're going to be pretty small potatoes for the next couple of weeks. Oh well, it'll work out, I'm sure!

But yeah, as far as investigators go, we lost one and got 2 new ones. One of our teachers just got married this last Thursday, so we taught his investigator(que dixiong) for the last time last Tuesday. We then got a new teacher named Bao Laoshi(Brother Boud). He's a cool guy and went to Taichung so hopefully he'll have some good advise. He said he loved the food so I'm super excited about that:). But yeah, along with the new teacher, we got a new investigator named Yang Dixiong. He's married and has 3 children. We have a baptism date for him already. We set it for October 30. Even though that's after we leave, we figured it would be rushing it to set it for October 19. We'll see though. 

A random package from an unknown source in Las Vegas.  Thank you for the mints, nameless Saints.

Embarrassing moment of the week, though. During our first real lesson with him (the first one was just getting to know him and figuring out what would  be good to teach him), I wanted to share with him Jesus Christ's gospel out of the scriptures and I really thought I knew where it was. Basically, I didn't. I said "Qing fandao..." which means "please turn to..." and as I looked through my scriptures, I realized I had no idea where I was trying to get him to turn. It was about 3 or 4 minutes of uncomfortable "umms" and "uuhhhs" and flipping of pages until I finally gave up and turned the time over to my companion. If anyone else gets in that situation, It's 2 Nephi 31. Just letting you know. Anyway, it worked out because my companion talked about something and then I just told him in my own words what Jesus Christ's gospel was and that it was essential for him to follow it if he wanted to live with his family and God forever and he agreed to prepare for baptism so it can't have been awful! It was just the worst though. I felt so embarrassed.

On a happier note with an investigator, Lu Dixiong agreed to live the word of wisdom. We had been working with him for a few lessons, trying to get him to feel that God wanted what was best for him so he wouldn't give men a commandment unless he knew that it would be for their benefit. Anyway, at our lesson, we asked him how he felt about Word of Wisdom. He gave a sheepish laugh which made me a little disappointed, but then he said "you know what, elders? this is going to be hard, but I really feel as though it is important." He then told us a story(with lots of charades and hand gestures so we could understand, of course) about how he was swimming the previous day. He was going to swim a distance that was normally really easy for him but as he finished his first lap, he found that he was getting really out of breath. He said he reached out "Tianfu! Qing bangzhu wo!" which means "Heavenly Father! Please help me!". He finished the distance, but he was wiped out afterward and realized that this whole "no smoking" thing was probably inspired. I'm hoping he can feel that same way about alcohol and tea. We'll see when we teach him later. 

We're also starting to teach each other as investigators so Elder Colvin and I got a new investigator named Gan Dixiong (Who's really Elder Ricks). He has one daughter that he loves and his wife left him about a year ago. We only taught him once so far so I don't know much about him yet. We'll see what happens. But in addition to teaching another Elder as an investigator, I'm also playing an investigator named He Dixiong. I'm playing someone I was acquainted with in high school so I don't want to describe them too much for sake of confidentiality. Suffice it to say, I think he'll be a good fit for the elders teaching me. 

My stash.  Tea, Nutella (given me by a departing missionary), salted dark chocolate almonds, honey, a cool mug, pictures.  What more could a missionary want?

We had a really good devotional this last Tuesday. An Elder Baxter from the seventy came and spoke to us about how though our doctrine does differ from traditional Catholic/Christian doctrine, we are definitely a Christian church. He was just a really smart guy and had a Scottish accent which made it all the more enjoyable and edifying. My favorite quote from the talk wasn't even his quote. I think it was Bruce R. McConkie, but it was "the only empty part of our church is a tomb in Palestine", referring to the fact that we worship and believe in a resurrected Christ and not the crucified one that many of the other Christian churches worship.  

General Conference was great! This is the first year that I've actually sat down, watched, and taken notes at every single session. I'm usually late to rise, groggily coming down the stairs and curling up on the couch in my PJs, hardly paying attention to anyone besides the first presidency, Elder Holland, and Elder Bednar. This conference, however, was a revelation! I've never gotten so much out of it in my life. My personal favorites were Elder Dube, Elder Holland, Elder Bednar, Edler Uchtdorf's and Elder Eyring's priesthood talks, Elder Nelson, and Elder Anderson. I really liked how they addressed current issues and especially how tactful they were with it. I don't think anyone could have been offended unless they were really trying. Their responses reminded me of a talk that someone sent me by Elder Worthlin about concern for the one. About how some people are lost because the church has offended them in some way. He says "...we cannot apologize for the truth. We cannot deny doctrine given to us by the Lord himself. On this principle, we cannot compromise. I understand that sometimes people disagree with doctrine. They even go so far as to call it foolish. But I echo the words of the Apostle Paul, who said that sometimes spiritual things can appear as foolishness to men. Nevertheless, 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men.'" 

So yeah Vocal Point came and sang and talked to us. That was cool! They were all really cool guys and had good testimonies. It was refreshing to see people who were in the spotlight so much, but still seemed so humble and grounded in the gospel. It was an inspiration to me, just thinking about getting back and getting back into music. I was worried I would lose the spirituality I've gained here and I will gain out in the field, but if they can do it, so can I! 

But yep, that's my week. I don't really know what else to say. The temple was good this morning, as always. Yep. See you all next week! Love you! I pray for you all!

--Elder Brendan Smith