Week Nineteen: Happy New Year!

新年好 (Happy New Year!)

Hello Beloved Family and Friends!

 

It's the first letter of 2014! Woah!

 

New Year here didn't have too much effect besides the fact that everybody had school/work off and went to some sort of party Wednesday night instead of English class so I only had 3 students there. Bummer. Anyways, I'm excited to see what Chinese New Year is like. I heard there's lots of fireworks and parades and no one has any time to meet with you. We'll see, though.

Main things that happened this week:

 

1. Liao received the Aaronic priesthood! wooooo. He's still going strong. He's got finals coming up so I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers.

 

2. Zheng Baba's son wants to be baptized next week! We met with him this last Friday and taught him Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him why he wants to wait until Summer Holiday. He said he didn't really know. We told him we were having a baptism on the 18th and asked him if he wanted to be baptized that day instead. He was still kind of iffy about it. That's when we pulled out the big guns. Promised blessing! Promised blessing! But the thing that really did it for him was when Elder Sumsion said he might be moving on the 20th and he wants to see him baptized. Now, you may think this isn't really a great way of doing that for eternal conversion, but this kid is so ready. He's been coming to church since April. He knows everything. He lives according to the commandments of God. He just needed a push. He didn't agree right away so we said we'd give him a week to think about it. The next morning was a baptismal service for an 8-year-old in our ward. He and his dad attended and before the service, his dad called us over and said after we left on Saturday, his son said he wanted to be baptized next week! So we taught him all the commandments(he practically taught them to us), had a baptismal interview that day, and announced it in church yesterday. So we've got a baptism next week! Woohoo! Pray that it'll go smoothly!

 

3. John's baptismal date is now on the 7th of February since he has some potential problems with smoking and drinking and he's been semi-flaky thus far. He's mostly just really busy though. He took 23 CREDIT HOURS this semester. That's insane! The max you can take here is 25. Plus he works at a factory. I'm surprised he's taking time to meet with us but he must like what we're teaching(of course he does!). I'm excited to see how he progresses.

 

4. Chen(the golden guy) is still extremely busy and probably isn't going to be able to come to church this next sunday so we'll have to change his baptismal goal again. However, Elder Sumsion and I fasted for him yesterday and we've been praying that he'll be able to come to church so he can receive of those blessings. I hope that it works. If not, I know Heavenly Father has a plan for him so I shouldn't worry.

 

Miracle story! So while we were sitting in the chapel for the baptism, a ward member came in and said there was a guy out in the hall and that he was an English student. I went out there and Elder Sumsion joined me shortly after that. I guess he has a plan to go to America and wants to learn English. However, he seemed to have no idea that the church had an English class or that we(American missionaries in Taiwan) even existed. When we asked him why he came here, he said "I don't know, I just had a feeling. I felt like learning English through church would be the best way." We read the Book of Mormon with him out of our language study edition(it has English, romanized Chinese, and Chinese characters) and he said he thought it was pretty cool. I don't know what's going to come of it, but I like to believe it was divine intervention. His name was Joe, so look for him in future emails.

As for me, I'm doing well! This week was very great. It was tiring and rewarding as always, and I've grown even closer to the Savior this week as I've studied about Him and served Him. I love this work. I know it blesses the lives of so many people in indescribable ways and it is so so worth it! I know that God is preparing people at this moment to hear this gospel and he will help us find them if we rely on Him and pray for those opportunities. In my personal study this week I read a scripture in 3 Nephi 21:28-29, talking about the gospel being preached in the latter-days. "Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward." I testify that this is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Love to all!

 

  -Elder Smith