Week Forty-Six: 7/7/2014 to 7/13/2014--The Beginning of the End

Family, Friends, Neighbors,

It's been quite a good week! The work is starting to pick up a bit. We found a lady with a husband and 2 kids that we hope we can start teaching.  We also met a kid who's half Vietnamese. His Mom owns a Vietnamese restaurant right by the church(super good by the way; great pho, great banh mih). Anyways, I have hope for a bright transfer! I'm hoping to see a baptism before I leave.

I made some abstract art out of my carton of guava juice.

We had interviews with President this week. I always love those. It's nice out here because he doesn't have a schedule to keep to so they usually end up running pretty long. I got a good solid 20 minutes of talking with one of the wisest people I know. I got a lot of good things to work on and the best thing was that he didn't even tell me anything. We just discussed how I was doing and my feelings about what was happening and I kind of just came to conclusions on my own about the changes I need to make in order to become a better man and a better missionary. It was greatness.

Also I had some delicious banana chocolate "bing" which was basically shaved frozen cream with bananas and chocolate sauce on top. yummm.

In other news, a lot of Mormon message videos have really sweet music like this one: http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1789679612001 Also, I really like the line "Preach the gospel at all times. And, if necessary, use words." Our actions really are way more powerful than any advice we give or anything we could ever say to someone about our beliefs.

Have a great week, everyone!!

-Elder Smith

P.S. I don't remember what song I recorded so...surprise!!

Here is is: "Our Savior's Love."

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Week Forty-Five: 6/30/2014 to 7/6/2014--I'm Staying! And, in Other News...

Dear Everyone,

This week has been pretty good. I was super nervous wondering if I was going to move or not, but then I didn't and that does a world of good. I don't have to pack or clean or do any of that stuff. Plus, now I know FOR SURE I'm moving in 6 weeks so I can prepare myself and the area. I'm expecting miracles this transfer:)

Me eating some sort of thing that lives in a shell in the Ocean

We met with Colin this week and that was a really great meeting. We talked with him about life and all that, then we shared with him about revelation and how we come to a knowledge of the truth. He's still feeling...not doubtful, but he's just not feeling super sure about everything, especially baptism. He liked what we shared a lot though. A lot of what we shared came from this video, which is SWEET by the way: http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1737858986001 . I seriously can't use words to express to you all how great this video is or how true the principles Elder Bednar discusses are. He'll(Colin) be gone for a few weeks at training, but we'll be able to catch up with him when he gets back so that'll be good:)

A llama/dear I made with passion fruit jelly in my passion fruit gelatin for your enjoyment.

Andrew went back to Tainan for a week. He went to church there yesterday and sent us a text(as always) telling us how great it was. He's probably THE greatest man I've met here. He just thinks about things and has a desire to find truth. It's more complicated than that, but I don't have enough time to explain it all. So just know that he's a great man.

Lastly, it's getting SO HOT! I know I complained last week, but seriously. It was 91ish degrees F one day, but if you factor in the humidity, that's pretty dang hot. But I'm not complaining;). Love you all! I hope you have a great week.

-Elder Smith

P.S. I never sent this letter last week, but luckily it was saved in my drafts so yaaay:) now you all get 2 in one day!!

Week Forty-Four: 6/23/2014 to 6/29/2014--Good-bye, my friends...

Hello Everyone!

So yeah, we said good bye to some friends. Specifically Warren and Sherry. And soon we will say good bye to Andrew. That's the not-so-fun part about living on an island/college-town/military base central. So basically, everyone leaves during the summer if they're a college student or in the military. Nbd. We'll still be able to manage. We'll just have to work extra hard this week to find new people. Pray for us! 

Good Bye Sherry! Also the girl on the far left is Chelsea. She's super awesome.

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President and Sister Blickenstaff visited this weekend for our Branch Conference. That was pretty odd since we hardly see anyone from our mission, especially President. He sat in on a lesson with Rod and Sister Blickenstaff sat in on 2. One was with Andrew and the  other was with one of our RCs. That was scary but not as scary as you'd think. It's really cool because they are both pretty fluid in Chinese so they understand just about everything in lessons and they can say just about whatever they want. They gave us some really great feedback and we learned a lot!

It's getting hotter. It basically feels like I'm walking around in a life-sized rice cooker. It's not all the way warmed up yet, but it's getting pretty steamy. Blech. Thank goodness our apartment has AC.

Gigantisandwich at this place called "Shark Bites Toast" 

Other than that, not much happened this week. We're hoping this week will be more eventful. There's also a possibility I'll move next Monday. Ahhh! That would be really weird seeing other missionaries again. I hope it's not, but it might be my time...

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!

-Elder Smith

P.S. I'm a David Archuleta[return missionary status] fan. Check out his homecoming interview. That's how my English is going to be when I get home. Prepare yourselves: https://www.lds.org/youth/activities/missionary-work/live-chat-with-david-archuleta?lang=eng

Week Forty-Three: 6/16/2014 to 6/22/2014--My Turn to Be Sick (Yay)

大家好!

This week has been a slow one as well. We didn't have Zone Conference, but I did have to stay indoors for the better part of 3 days. It was super lame. I had a pretty high fever and I just felt dizzy whenever I stood up. Now I'm ok. Just a little cough. We didn't get a ton of stuff done:(

also no song because my voice is terrible right now :( , but here's a picture of me being sick, etc..

Happy first full week of summer!

What did happen, however, was that our good friend Andrew came to church for the first time and he loved it. I don't know if I told you about him, so if this is all repeat, please forgive me, for I know not what I do. I met Andrew my last week with Elder Ward. We were walking over on the only busy street in all of Preston(the name Elder Washburn gave Magong when he came here because it's so small and you see everyone you know on what seems like a daily basis) right after he'd finished running a half-marathon(he's also a badminton coach). We talked with him for a little bit and then Elder Ward shared with him Ether12:27 which he thought was really sweet. When we because friends with him on facebook later, we saw that he'd posted it on his facebook page. Anyway, he came to church and he's kind of quiet so he didn't say much, but he just kind of soaked it all in. After church he stayed for a really long time and chatted with everyone before he left. We woke up this morning to a text from him saying how great he thought church was and how excited he was to continue learning the gospel. The only downside is that he retires from his military service at the end of July, so we won't be able to teach him for very long before he goes back to his home in Tainan. 

We weren't able to really meet with anyone else. This week is going to be great though because President Blickenstaff's coming for Branch Conference and Elder Washburn and I are both not sick. WOOOO! We're going to be unstoppable:) I love you guys!

-Elder Smith