Hello Everyone!
This week has been pretty incredible. We have an 18-year-old kid named Eason getting baptized next week so that's super exciting! Also, I guess I can't call him a kid since he's my same age. I don't know, I just feel so old and wise when I wear a white shirt and tie every day. I suppose someone needs a humility check. We also had another miracle that made me super stoked about life, etc..First, I'll take you back a ways...This must have been at least a month ago. Probably more. We met him outside a laundromat under really miraculous circumstances and he was SUPER golden. We were so excited to talk to him more. But, after we met him we only got a hold of him once before he just totally disappeared. Wouldn't answer phone calls or texts, wouldn't call us back, etc..Usually, we call people 4 or 5 times and if they don't answer/answer and have 0 interest, we cross them off our calling sheet. But we kept this guy on there for way longer than we would keep anyone else, because he was so awesome we couldn't believe he would just disappear like that. Finally, on Friday, he calls us and says(in Chinese), "Hey guys! I'm so sorry I haven't been answering your phone calls-"(He sounds practically dead at this point, by the way)"-I've been working overtime every day for the past 3 weeks and my boss doesn't let us use our phones at work." Overtime in Taiwan is like, 8:00 am to like, 11:00 pm, just so we're clear. So basically, any time we wouldn't have called him, he would have been working. He then said "And I haven't been able to call you back because I've been pretty much broke and haven't been able to pay my phone bill." (In Taiwan, if you call, you have to pay for it, if they call, they have to pay for it). He then blew our minds by saying, "I've finally figured it out so we'll be able to keep contact, and I've been talking to my boss about getting work off so I can go to church on Sundays so I'll almost definitely be there next week." This is a guy we've met for 5 minutes on the street, by the way. Anyways, super big miracle. I almost cried. Pray for him!
We also met a guy from mainland china with a super sweet accent. We'll be meeting with him soon enough.
As the title of this email mentions, I've been thinking a lot recently about the difference between doing and becoming. I do a lot of things as a missionary, but it's not for sure whether or not that's helping me become someone. We do a lot of things every day. We go to school, we go to work, we play on the computer(well, now I don't), we do like, human things. But are those just time-fillers or are they things that are really shaping us and helping us become who we and, more importantly, who our Father in Heaven wants us to be?(rhetorical) Do we act with a purpose or do we just allow ourselves to be acted upon? Food for thought. In any case, I've just been more conscious of what I want to become so that when I go home at some point, I don't just fall back into old habits. It's made me more desirous to make sure that my actions are backed with the right reasons so that I will truly become someone.
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| Brendan's very own re-enactment of the Footprints poem. ;) |
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| Looking pensive with a ukelele is something of a contradiction in terms. |
I know what I am doing right now is the most important thing I could be doing with this time in my life. I'm not just spreading a religion, I'm spreading truth; fundamental truth that gives everyone an identity and a purpose on Earth. It gives us a vision of what we can accomplish and what we can all become as children of our Heavenly Father. He love us and I testify that he is there. In the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.
-Elder Smith
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