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