Week Forty-Seven: 8/4/2014 to 8/10/2014--No Companionship Left Behind...except for us:)

Hello everyone!

First, the title of my email. In the Taiwan Taichung mission we have what are called mission standards. They're basically goals that the mission president sets in order to make you focus and reach for the right things. One of those standards is that you get 3 new investigators (defined as all people who are taught once and agree to a return appointment). This is pretty tough to be honest. Almost everyone in the mission has been struggling, so President did a "No Companionship Left Behind" program this week. In essence, he made sure every companionship got 3 new investigators by having the Zone Leaders do power companion exchanges to inspire them and help them find people. However, we live a bit off the beaten path so we were on our own. We worked hard and got 3 new investigators though! I'm excited to see this trend continue. Pretty soon we'll have too many people to teach and they'll have to send more missionaries. 

Us skyping Andrew's baptism. My pants didn't match my suit jacket(and no one even knew!)

Anyways, the main stuff. Alian is getting baptized next Wednesday! That'll be really great. Her baptismal interview was 50 minutes(to put that in perspective, Killy's was about 10-15 minutes). We almost worried ourselves to death, but she passed with flying colors. She's excited. We met with Dora more. She's still quiet-ish, but she's getting used to everything, I think. She loves coming to church and learning, but her family's really traditional so she's super afraid of telling them about it. Pray for her!! Also, Zhongting(a really cool investigator we've met with a few times) came to church for the first time. He said it felt really good there. Kind of like everyone was a big family. I have high hopes for him:). 

The baptism picture. From left to right: Sister Blickenstaff, me, Elder Washburn(yes we're on the screen), President Blickenstaff, Anrew Lin, Elder Crapse, Sister Lin(Andrew's sister), and Elder Faddis. 

Also, I skyped more this week than I have my entire mission. It's like we just barely tapped into all the possibilities it presents to elders who live on an island by themselves in the middle of the South China sea(so like, us). On Tuesday we skyped in to Zone Training Meeting which was so much more inspiring than just us 2 sitting in a classroom. Then! on Saturday we were able to skype into Andrew's baptism(the super golden guy who had to go back to Taiwan). His testimony was so powerful. I'm super excited to keep in touch with him and see the great things he does.

In other news, a girl in our ward got called to the London, England mission this week. That's exciting. She's--and I quote--"freaking out!" That was fun.

I also realized I have a problem. It's the laoda complex. Laoda means the oldest sibling in a family. And complex is English so...yeah...I just have this mindset where I always just think I have the best idea and I expect other people to kind of submit to my will. It's lame. What better time than a mission to change that! And thank you, Elder Washburn for pointing it out. I really like our companionship. We're just really honest with each other and with ourselves so when we give each other correction, neither of us gets offended. It just makes it way easier and open. If all my companions were like that, I'd be super happy, but I won't hold my breath haha. Love you guys! Next week I might be somewhere else, but oh well. Don't worry too much;)

- Elder Smith!