Week Twenty Six: POWER WEEK and Meeting Yao Ming

Hey Family and Friends!

So first off, I didn't actually meet Yao Ming, but I figured the knife fight thing really got everyone excited so I'm probably going to include a bogus, kind of kuazhang (exaggerated/ridiculous in Chinese) thing that happened in the title from now on. And if something super kuazhang really does happen during the week, then you'll have to read and find out which event in the title really happened and which one is total bogus. 

Brendan on his bike on his way to an appointment in Taiwan.

But yeah, this week was POWER WEEK!! Basically, it's a tradition in this mission that every year we have a week where we have shortened study time, no specified meal time and we have a specific mission every day. If we accomplish the mission, we call president and say in our best James Bond/Ethan Hunt voice: "Hello President, this is Elder___and Elder___. Mission Accomplished." Then he starts singing the Mission:Impossible theme song and it's super awesome. This year's was as follows:

Monday: Power Cleaning (really really really deep cleaning of our apartment all day) and then go tracting and get let in to 2 houses. 

Our experience: We had a lesson at 7:00 that fell through so we had a lot of tracting time that night. However, for those who are familiar with tracting(knocking doors), you will know that you don't usually get let in. I think that's the way it is world-wide. Therefore, getting in to 2 houses was a pretty lofty mission. However, we prayed to know where we should go and I had this feeling that we should do it in our apartment. I thought that sounded like a really nice way to get kicked out by our guanli (the guy who sits downstairs and makes sure no hooligans come in), but after we called the AP's and a couple other people in the mission office to make sure we weren't breaking the law, we started from the first floor and started making our way up(we live on the top floor). We tracted for a very long time and finally had one guy let us in. His name was Lu. His wife was Muslim which was pretty interesting. He was pretty rooted in his Buddhist background, but he was willing to talk and gave us coffee. It's still sitting on my desk. I should probably get rid of that. Anyway, after that, it was already past 9 so we headed upstairs. We really wanted to hit the goal, though, so we knocked on the two apartments across the hall from us. The first one wasn't home, but the second one had a really young couple inside. I don't think their married so law of chastity might be an issue if we start teaching them, BUT they were super cool! They reminded me a lot of a young American couple. Just super chill and open to talking to new people. I liked them a lot and I'm hoping we can run into them again. So yeah, Monday...#missionaccomplished 

Tuesday: give out 13 copies of the Book of Mormon. 

Our experience: We met this really cool kid who plays in metal band that day. Also, mission accomplished.

Missionary humor.  If you don't already get the joke, you can read about the mysterious Three Nephites here. :)

Wednesday: Talk to 20 people on the street and set up a time with them for another day. 

Our experience: We met a really cool Japanese guy who couldn't speak Chinese and had been to our church before in Japan, but his Taiwanese wife didn't like it so he'd stopped going. Also his email address had the word "Jedi" in it. Super sweet. Oh yeah, mission accomplished.

Thursday: Invite 5 people on the street or in lessons to be baptized on the 22nd of March. 

Our experience: I met a really cool kid named Steven who had lived in Pennsylvania for 3 years on the street and he said "I'm always interested in learning about religion and stuff." But yeah, he's got a 3/22 baptismal goal. Mission accomplished.

Friday: Confirm 15 people(investigators, recent converts or less-active members) for church on Sunday. 

Our experience:  While I was teaching an investigator with a member, Elder Gish got called out by a young man for wasting his time inside calling people about church when he could be outside finding people. Hopefully our relationship with the ward is still intact. Mission accomplished.

Saturday: Talk with 20 families about how the gospel can bless their lives. 

Our experience:  We met a lot of SUPER cute families. Not many were interested to do more than talk with us and let us give their kids high-fives, but it was pretty awesome anyways. Mission accomplished. Also John was baptized that day which was super sweet! It was funny. I baptized him and I guess he didn't really know what to expect because after I put him under the water and brought him back out again, he thought there was more so he waited there for a sec before I said "Alright, that's it!" and we walked back out of the font. I need to be better about telling people exactly what will happen so our investigators can just focus on their feelings, not the mechanics of it all. 

Sunday: Get 4 investigators to church. 

Our experience: We had 7 there which was kind of hard to manage. I'm thankful our ward is so awesome about coming up and shaking their hands and making them feel welcome. It was a good day. Plus, one of our investigators had made us home-made bread and Elder Gish had received some home-made blackberry jam in a package so we had a pretty delicious lunch that day too.

But yeah, don't want to make this too long, but the work is going great! I'm feeling healthy and happy, even though I'm a bit exhausted from last week. Thanks for the prayers. We're feeling them a lot at the moment:) Keep praying. Also for all you LDS folk, reading Gifford Nielson's talk on "Hastening the Lord's Game Plan." He provides 3 simple ways to help in the missionary work as members of the church. It's super awesome! I love you guys! 

-Elder Smith