Week Seventeen: More Rain and a Mission Christmas Activity

Dearest Family and Friends,

CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE! AAAHHHH!

My Christmas card photo.  Like the cheesy effect?

  

Alright, I'm cool. Anyway, this last week has been pretty solid. We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this last Tuesday/Wednesday. I went with Elder Edwards. He's probably one of the most energetic, driven missionaries I've seen. He's a football player red-shirting for BYU. He's got a scholarship to be their kicker when he gets back. Apparently he's a pretty big deal back home. I don't know if you guys have heard of him...Corey Edwards? Anyway, he's an awesome missionary and I learned a lot. He gave me a lot of compliments that I don't think I deserved, and didn't really give me anything specific I could improve on, but he did challenge me to contact someone at every red light. In Taiwan, almost everybody's on scooters and you're on your bike so when you pull up to a red light there's usually someone there you can talk to. Sometimes there isn't though and he challenged me in those situations to go find someone. I've been really trying to do that, bus sometimes there's literally no one around, especially if it's more outside the city, so I'm doing my best.

Me at Sun Moon Lake.

 We also had a Christmas activity with the ENTIRE MISSION. It was pretty nuts. My zone met together at the Tainan train station at 6 a.m. We had to get up at 4, get ready, and bike there because there were no trains at the Yongkang station that were early enough! So that was kind of a chore, but it was worth it! We all got in a bus and they took us up to a place called "Sun Moon Lake". It's apparently pretty beautiful, but it was pretty foggy when we went so we didn't get to see much of it. I'll send my mom some pictures so you can all see. After that, we went to this all-you-can-eat steak house(those are super popular in Taiwan, especially for missionaries) and it was sooooo good. I ate a lot. After that, we went to a chapel in Taiping for a devotional with the President. He shared some scriptures out of Isaiah that prophesied of Christ. It really inspired me the next time I get to those dreaded chapters in 2 Nephi to really put effort into studying them. President Blickenstaff read the verses and then explained the background so that they made sense. It made me realize Isaiah isn't that bad. You just need to read cross-references and read about the background. The best part about that meeting, though, was having the whole mission together, singing Christmas hymns. It was such a great feeling of unity and power to be in the same room as 200+ other missionaries singing "Silent Night" in praises to Christ of whom we are testifying every day. It was a really special moment for me and one that I won't likely forget soon.

A classic tropical Christmas picture.

As far as investigators go, we met a really golden guy at our ward's Christmas party on Saturday and sat with him last night. Aparently, the sisters just invited him earlier that day on the street and he came. He lives in Gaoxiong(about a 45-minute drive south), but he comes back to Yongkang every weekend. He has so much desire and he's such a cool guy. His English name is John and his last name is Huang. I'm not sure what his full Chinese name is yet. His girlfriend is Christian, so he's pretty acquainted with a lot of that stuff. He said the first time he went to a Christian church, he knew he wanted to be Christian because of the feeling he had when he was there. That was super cool to hear. He also expressed a desire to be baptized so we set a date for January 18th. I'll let you know how that goes! Our other investigators are all doing pretty well. Chen Xuanzhen cancelled a lot this last week but he had legitimate reasons for all of them, one of which being that his scooter broke down. Satan is working hard on that man. We're meeting with him tonight, though. Nothing to really report with everyone else. They're all moving along pretty well. 

A Daoist temple.  I haven't showed you guys one of these yet.  They are all over the place.

I hope you can all come closer to the Savior this Christmas season. I read a scripture this week in Mosiah 5:13 that says: "For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?" I'd submit that the best way to come closer to the Savior is to serve him. To keep his commandments and give freely to others. Also, to read about him and think about him. I know if we do this, that we will be able to feel the true Spirit of Christmas, even the Spirit of Christ. I love you guys and think about you often. 

-Elder Smith    

Week Seventeen: The First Rain

Hey Everyone!

This week wasn't quite as good as last week. Besides not having the uplift of a baptismal service, we also had quite a few people cancel on us or not show up when we thought they were pretty dependable appointments. But that's missionary work sometimes! Setting goals that are largely dependant on you using your agency and other people using their agency to choose to follow Christ is a risky business and doesn't always work out like you expect it to. However! I've learned from this week and I'm now I'm going to "Look ahead and believe" as Elder Edward Dube put it in the last general conference. But I'll tell you about it anyways, since you probably want to know the details as well as the take-away.

First of all, Chen Xuanzhen dropped his goal, which means he didn't come to church and so he can't be baptized until after he can come to church next. He took the night train like he planned, but then he was too tired to come to church in the morning so it didn't really have much use. I totally understand. He is super busy. He's probably exhausted all the time, but we were really hoping he'd be able to be baptized this next week. We're meeting with him on Friday to talk about prophets, baptism and sabbath day observance. We're really going to try to focus on sacrament meeting as not just your ticket to get baptized, but also a really important meeting for after you are baptized. We have an recent convert who has a really similar situation to Chen. He's a really nice guy and from his teaching record, it sounds like he was super solid, but now he never comes to church because he doesn't have time and he's stopped picking up the phone because I think we were starting to bug him. It's really sad. I don't want that to happen with Chen so hopefully we can figure out a long-term solution.

We've also been working with another investigator named Chen. He's 50 years old, is a professor at a university in Taiwan and is working on his doctorate degree in philosophy so he's a pretty deep thinker. He says he wants to hear about the gospel in order to gain more "devotion" as he put it. He seems really sincere. We've met with him a couple times and extended commitments, but he's been kind of flaky so we'll have to see what's up.

We saw a miracle this week with a less active man named Zheng Baba(Baba means dad, so basically just older guy). He was inactive, but in the last 5 or 6 months has been coming to church every week with his son. His son hasn't been baptized and he has never accepted the priesthood or a calling. However, the bishop came and visited him and he now has a goal to get the priesthood for January of next year so that's awesome! I'm super excited. We've also been meeting with him and his son and his son has a goal to be baptized as well. It's not until summer vacation, but hopefully as we continue meeting with him, he'll realize that he's ready now and I'll be able to see that great day when he can be baptized by his dad. That would be great. Please pray for them!

That's about it for this week! Oh also I had to wear my rain gear for the first time this week. Fun stuff. Hence the title of this week's email. Anyways, love you all. I appreciate you and hope you are all doing ok. And Merry Christmas!

-Elder Smith

Week Sixteen: A Baptism! and Other Adventures...

Hello Family and Friends!

Brendan, Lio Junxuan and Elder Sumsion before Lio Junxuan's baptism

This week we were blessed to witness our investigator, Liao Junxuan, that we met my first Sunday here receive baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and be confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was so great. When he got up and bore his testimony, he said--and I translate--"You know, when I first started investigating the church, a lot of people thought it was weird and asked me questions like 'why Mormonism?' or 'isn't that church weird?' and stuff like that. It got to the point where I figured if any church has this much opposition, there has to be something special about it." Him saying that just testified to me that the Lord prepares people. You know, most people wouldn't have had that way of thinking about it, but I really believe that Junxuan was prepared by the Lord so that when he did receive opposition, it only increased his faith and his desire to know the truth of the restored gospel. I feel so blessed to have been able to see his growth. We have to delay giving him the new member lessons for a bit because he has a few really big tests these next couple weeks, but we'll still see him at church and maybe at English class. I'll keep you guys updated!

And after.  :)

Chen Xuanzhen(the golden guy who wanted baptism really bad but had the meeting on Sunday) came to church yesterday! He also passed his baptismal interview so if all goes according to plan and he can come next Sunday for all 3 hours too, he's set to be baptized on the 20th of this month. SO EXCITED!! He met the missionaries in July so this has been a long process for him. He's grown a lot though. I haven't known him since July, but just from looking at his teaching record, I can tell that he wasn't always as awesome as he is now. It's taken a while, but he is almost ready to make that next step towards eternal salvation.

Last week's Pizza Hut chidaobao (all-you-can-eat).

Andy(the Japanese teacher) is doing well. We met with him yesterday and our ward mission leader was there as well. They talked to each other about a lot of stuff that didn't really lead to the Plan of Salvation like we were hoping, but it was good in the sense that now he has a really deep understanding of the Book of Mormon, it's purpose, and it's origins so that when he reads it, he will know how important it is. We were talking about our religion as opposed to other religions at some point and he brought up this idea that he said he had thought up based on his reading in the Bible. He said he thinks God has angels and people that work very closely with him and that Satan used to be one of them but he fell and some people came with him and now he controls the Earth with his people and that's where all the other religions come from. He said "Satan is so smart so he can lead people away from to truth to other things that look enticing." It was so nuts because it was all pretty much correct and we haven't even shared any of that with him yet. Another great example of how the Lord prepares people.

Other investigators are doing well, but those were the main stories I wanted to share. Please keep praying for them! And please, especially now during this Christmas season, study the Savior and His teachings, give to others, and don't hesitate to share or accept the Gospel. It will bless your life and the lives of others so much. Love you all!

-Elder Smith

Week Fifteen: Helping Others Through Faith

Hello Family and Friends!

My goodness. P days are coming faster and faster. I hope the speed at which time flies levels off at some point because otherwise I'm going to blink and it's going to be over. But let's not think about that. I've still got 2 years. Haha. That's kind of a joke when people ask missionaries who've been out here for a really long time how long they have to go and in order to not think about how little time they have left they say "Oh, I've still got 2 years." The best is when sisters say it because they never had 2 years in the first place.

  

Anyway.

Dinner.  Lunch box. Yummm!!!!

So this week started out pretty slow. We only had the evenings for proselyting on Monday and Tuesday becauseMonday was P-day and Tuesday was a Mission Tour(I'll talk about that later). So, we didn't really have anything going on Monday or Tuesday and Wednesday also looked pretty bleak so we looked like we were in sad shape to hit our goals for the week. However, we went forward in faith, we relied on the Lord, and we went to work. We didn't hit all of our goals but we hit the mission standards(standards set by our mission president to tell us what we should shoot for and what we should focus on). Every one! 2 investigators at church, 2 investigators with a baptismal goal, 3 new investigators, 8 lessons with a member present, and 20 total lessons taught. It was a miracle! We felt so blessed this week. We felt the power of prayer. Our own, and those that I'm sure many of you offered.

  

So who were all these people we were helping by hitting these "mission standards"? First, we have a baptism on Saturday! Wooooo! It's Liao Dixiong(I don't know if I said this before, but if I put a 'dixiong' after someone's name, it just means 'brother'. So liao dixiong is brother liao). He passed his interview this last Saturday right after the baptismal service of an investigator in the other ward. So yeah this is super exciting. 

Christmastime.

Chen Dixiong also came to that baptism. He has wanted baptism for so long. He's been meeting with the missionaries for about 7 months because he's so busy with work. The other reason he hasn't been baptized yet is because he has to come to church twice for 3 hours in order to receive baptism and he has a company meeting ever sunday at 10 am that he leads. Our church starts at 9 and goes to 12 so he can only make it for the first 30 minutes. We talked with the mission president on Saturday night and tried to figure out a way he could attend an afternoon ward maybe, but president said--and I thought it was a really good point--that Chen Dixiong needed to exercise his faith and figure out a way to attend his own ward. We were a little discouraged because we new Chen would be disappointed at the news, but we decided we would fast and pray for him the next day. After dinner, we met with him and decided we'd give him a pump-up lesson. We read with him 1 Nephi 3:7 and Moroni 7:33 and basically just said "Alright, it's been promised that if you'll have faith, the Lord will provide a way. Let's figure out how we can get you to church twice for 3 hours so you can be baptized." We talked it out for a while and we finally worked it out so he could have his partner cover the meeting this Sunday and then next weekend, he'd take a train back from Taipei after his meeting let out so he could be in Yongkang Sunday morning--next Sunday as well. Then, he can get baptized on the 20th of December. It's a miracle. It's not a permanent solution to the problem because the meeting is still there, but I really think that he has faith and desire and as he comes to church twice in a row for the full 3 hours, he will want to make permanent arrangements so he can continue doing that. I'm so excited for him and I feel so blessed that I was able to see this great example of someone exercising their faith in order to do what the Lord asks of them. Everyone please pray for him! He needs it! 

  

We also met with a guy yesterday named Andy. He hasn't been able to meet with us for the past couple weeks because he was in Japan and then he had friends, but this week, he finally was able to meet with us again. He is so solid. His questions are so thoughtful and sincere and they invite the Spirit instead of distracting from it. One question he had yesterday was "Why didn't God share his gospel with people before the restoration?" and another was "What if people don't have a chance to hear that full Gospel? Will they just be lost?" Without going into huge detail, we were able to answer his questions and he's really progressing a lot. We just finished the 1st Lesson with him yesterday and it went really well. We have a goal for him, but because he meets with us so infrequently, I don't know if it'll happen. We'll see. He said he wants to believe that it's true though because he said he feels so comfortable here. It was really funny. He made the comment that "other churches are always telling people that other churches are bad and you need to come to our church, but you guys(meaning us missionaries/our church) are like 'hey, you can see what's out there. go for it. but we know that you will want to come back.'" and he likes that about us. He said that he doesn't like that a lot of churches focus so much people being converted to the denomination that they forget that they should become converted to God and Jesus Christ. He's just super awesome and prepared. I'm so excited to see him continue to grow and develop his faith. 

But yeah, that's about it for this week. So good. So many miracles and I'm hoping we can carry this into next week. Until then, my friends! Love you guys:)

-Elder Smith