Week Ninety-Five: 6/16/2015 to 6/22/2015--Pinky Promises and Lots of Miracles

Dear Everyone,

This week my zone is going to the temple on Wednesday, so even though we get to email today for an hour, our actual p day is on Wednesday. What I'm trying to say is...you'll have to wait until Wednesday for the song. :'(

This week was pretty good, though. On Monday, the Jiang family pinky promised that their kids would be baptized next month(July). So now it's time to redouble our efforts to help them come to church. Pray for them! We did exchanges with the assistants on Tuesday where we saw lots of miracles and found some really cool people who I'm excited to work with. One was a former investigator family. The mom is Vietnamese and works really hard making tennis balls to support her family. She also has a SUPER smart daughter who wants to be a lawyer when she grows up and has really strong faith in God already. AND, they rest on Sundays. It's like they were made for the gospel or something. We had a return appointment for this last Saturday, but there were some scheduling conflicts and we ended up not being able to go by. We rescheduled for next Saturday though! 

We invited Daniel to be baptized this week and he was pretty willing, but when he asked his mom, he said she got this really upset look on her face and said he could go to church and meet with us and everything, but he couldn't be baptized. That made us sad, but if he's willing to keep progressing and living the gospel, I think she'll come around when she sees how he changes. 

We finally got in contact with the wanabe rock-star guy. That was an awesome lesson. He was talking about how he struggles with being lazy and he doesn't see any way of getting over it. We testified of the enabling power of the atonement and he looked like he felt something, but then he didn't come to church:(. Next time...

On Friday, we went over to the Fang family's house and taught the parents the plan of salvation. The mom especially seemed really touched and gave a closing prayer. I really think there's hope for that family! Keep praying for them:) Also, we found out that their surname is really rare which made them even more cool! Most Fang's are this character: 方, but they're this character: 枋. 

We met a guy named Louis on exchanges with Elder Pihl and he's one of the most golden kids I've ever met. He's just one of those kids who actually thinks about religion and takes it seriously. He had some really deep questions like what the purpose of life is and how he can get closer to God. But he's pretty busy, so we weren't able to set a return appointment with him.

On Friday there was a BAPTISM! It's Travis and Tracy. I don't know if I've written about them a lot, but we eat at their family's breakfast shop at least twice a week. They've been investigating for almost 2 years and they're still struggling a bit with coming to church(their parents make them work Sundays), but they decided it's time to get baptized. We worked with them a bit, but they live in the other ward so they ended up getting baptized there. Here they are:

Travis likes joking around so that's why he's not smiling, but everyone else looks good, so whatever:)

And these are all the missionaries that have worked with them that are still in the area. Lots of love at that baptismal service:) Elder Hill(to my left) is tickling me so that's why my face is so scary. Sorry.

Roger wasn't able to come to church again(he has insomnia and didn't get to bed at all Saturday night) so he dropped his baptismal goal, but we're meeting with him tomorrow and he's still been reading the Book of Mormon. I told him he could pray and ask God to help him with his insomnia. He sounded pretty excited about that. 

Yesterday, we met with an investigator who's great uncle had just died and had left behind a bunch of stuff, so he let us go in and take whatever we wanted. There was some pretty cool stuff in there. I got a little door hanger thingy and one of those pictures that they sew. I'll just have to send some pictures.

This was my favorite thing there. It's probably super illegal though...

That's about it folks! I hope you have a great week. I'm thinking there are some baptisms right around the corner:)

-Elder Smith 

Week Ninety-Four: 6/9/2015 to 6/15/2015--Use Boldness, But Not Overbearing

Dear Everyone,

This week was pretty good. Roger accepted a baptismal goal for the 11th of July. He said it's kind of fast but in his words, "If I can receive a testimony, baptism will be pretty great." He was pretty set on going to church yesterday and he was going to wear his suit too, but then his dad took him to work. That was a bummer. I hope family opposition won't be a problem. Elder Anderson and I were also able to work in more unity. Especially yesterday, we've been able to teach much more effectively. 

Vincent met with us twice, but couldn't come to church, and still has some reservations about religion in general because of what happened with his mom. He says he's thought a lot about Jesus Christ and His atonement and he's pretty much accepted it, but he's still not sure about prayer or God. It's hard for Taiwanese people sometimes because all the gods they worship have a steadfast image associated with them that you worship, but Heavenly Father seems a bit more unclear. So we hope he can have some good experiences as he prays and feels the Spirit. 

We went to visit the Fang family this week, but the dad wasn't home and the son is sill kind of lukewarm toward us, so we set up a return appointment for this Friday.  

Last night we found an awesome family tracting. They are the Li family. The dad answered the door. He's Taoist, but his wife and kids are all pretty active in a different Christian church. He'd been to church before, but hadn't ever really been interested in actually learning or joining. We shared the Restoration with him and his oldest daughter and he not only understood the significance, but was pretty impressed that our church has living prophets with priesthood authority to guide us. They have to go back to Taipei to visit family next weekend, so it doesn't look like we'll be able to meet with them again soon, but we'll keep in touch, and we're going to try to go over tonight before they leave and drop off a Book of Mormon. 

Man, I'm so exhausted, but it was a good week, so I guess it's worth it:). I've found that's how I know if I've had a successful week is if by 10:30 Sunday night, I feel like I have nothing left, but I'm still happy. It's a good feeling to crash that night knowing that you did your best and you have a few hours the next day to recuperate for the next week. I love being a missionary!!

Love you all!

-Elder Smith

Today's Song: Come Unto Jesus.

Week Ninety-Three: 6/2/2015 to 6/8/2015--Pray for and Expect Miracles

Dear Everyone,

This week has been pretty eventful and awesome. We're still working with the Jiang family. We've talked to the ward and hopefully, we'll be going over with a member of the new Bishopric sometime soon. ZTM on tuesday took up our morning and half of our afternoon, but I think it went over well and one of the sisters in our zone made pumpkin cake and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I had the pumpkin one. It was divine. Needless to say, we're glad to have her in the zone. On Wednesday, it was my birthday. We spent some time that day preparing for the English party that night. Our district found out it was my birthday that day and thought it would be fun to do an "Unbirthday Party" and show everyone some games we play at american/brittish birthday parties. My companion and I manned the pass the parcel game.

We also had musical chairs, root beer floats, a balloon popping game, and something else I forgot. Then, for the spiritual share, we put on a really awesome campy play about a kid's birthday party where he realizes the Jesus is the best gift of all. I was playing background music on the piano/narrating the whole thing. It ended up being really awesome and helped me realize how much of a difference music can really make in the mood. It was probably one of the best plays I've ever co-written and done the music for. 

On Thursday, we had a MIRACLE! Do you remember the man we contacted a few weeks ago after zone conference who was sad because his grandfather? Well he called us Thursday afternoon and asked if we could go meet him at the chapel. He brought us kiwi juice because, as he said, he'd "done his homework" and knew we didn't drink things with caffeine in them. Not completely accurate, but cool nonetheless. He seemed really interested, but doesn't want to go too fast. His mother ran away to be a Buddhist monk when he was 18 so I think he might be a little afraid of doing the same thing. So when we talked about baptism, he got a little shifty. He came to church that sunday for all three hours, though and then sat with us afterward to talk about some questions he had. We taught him the rest of the message of the Restoration and he committed to read the Book of Mormon. We have a lot of hope for him!

Also on Thursday, I got to exchange with my son, Elder Stevens. I brought him over to Daya. It was awesome. He's gained so much confidence since we served together. His expectations for the exchange were to expect miracles and teach to people's needs. That's my boy:). So, on the exchange, we prayed for and expected miracles and we saw quite a few. One was Thursday evening when we met with a family we're working with. The dad was home with one of his friends. His friend left halfway through the lesson. We shared about Joseph Smith and prayer after his friend left and Mr. Fang was pretty intrigued with prayer and how it differed from ancestor worship. He sounded pretty excited that you could pray at any time, anywhere. I think that family may go somewhere. We said we'd bring a member with us next Thursday. I'm excited for that family. They might just be the one that gets baptized! 

The next day, the miracles continued. We went tracting on a street our bishop's wife had recommended. The first area we tracted was less than welcoming, but we still had a little time so we went to another group of houses down the road a little ways and prayed that we'd see a miracle. The 6th house down the line had a younger guy who was home who let us in and we were able to share the Restoration with him. He's pretty busy, but said he'd be interested in hearing more. 

Then at church we had two investigators. Vincent(the miracle man from Thursday) came, as well as Daniel, a student from English class. They both stayed all 3 hours and really liked it. We did a training in the third hour on how no effort is wasted in missionary work. There was a really good response from the members there. I'm excited to be able to work more closely with them. 

This is Elder Anderson's last transfer and it's my last full transfer, so we're just going to give it our all. Good things are coming. We can feel it:)

-Elder Smith

This week's song is "Did You Think to Pray."

Week Ninety-Two: 5/25/2015 to 6/1/2015--Time is just a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff

Hello Everyone!

So here's the deal. As I'm drawing in on the end of my mission, it feels like I'm blowing through each new week on one of those Japanese high-speed trains. I only see everything for a split second and by the time it's passed, it's all just a blur in my head. But I'll try to make some sense out of the past week.

Some of our investigators are turning out to be not quite as "golden" as we thought they were. We had a good discussion last Friday during our planning session, though, and I think we figured out some good ways we can move things forward in the coming week. We called Junhao and he's been praying. He said he's been seeing the benefits. We'll be meeting with him again this Sunday. We had a REALLY quick lesson with Rodger, someone we met with a couple weeks ago, on Saturday. It was literally 10 minutes long because he came late and had to leave pretty quick for a competition somewhere else. But darn it, we used those 10 minutes to the fullest. We introduced the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. He said even though he's super busy, he'll be able to find some time to read it every day. He's an awesome guy. We went over to the rockstar guy's house and found out he's in pretty bad shape financially. It was a little heartbreaking to see however that rather than doing those things that would make him truly independent and happy, he wanted to mooch, for lack of a better word. One of the saddest things I see is when people have all the resources that could improve their life at their fingertips, but because they require more immediate effort than temporary solutions, they won't just reach out and use them. 

Travis is pretty bummed because the time of church is changing to the morning and his family makes him work during that time on Sunday. It's especially said because he had finally set a solid baptismal goal the week before the times changed. The way it is now, he could technically get baptized, but unless his work situation changes, he won't be able to come to church or keep the Sabbath day holy. We're going to the beach with him today, though, so hopefully we can strengthen him and help him see that by facing this set-back with faith, he can strengthen himself and grow in the process. Please pray for him and us that we can have faith strong enough to overcome this challenge!     

The Jiang family. I don't know if I've talked about them. There are 11 people in the Jiang family which is absolutely UNHEARD of in Taiwan. They used to be super active members, but one Sunday they were offended by another family in the ward, so they started going to the other ward, and slowly just stopped coming. However, we're at a point where we really think we can help them come back. The Bishopric just changed, they really like us missionaries(they have us over for dinner and a spiritual share every Monday), and one of the daughters wants to go on a mission so there's lots of reactivation potential. I'll keep y'all updated on their situation:). 

This week was MLC. As always, it was super inspiring. President has an awesome vision for the mission and I feel really privileged to be a leader in the mission. He shared about the vision, goals, and plans the mission has. It helped me lift my vision above my own companionship and zone and see what our efforts add to the whole. He really wants to unify the mission. The Assistants showed us the clip from Finding Nemo where the fish have to work together to break free from the net and had us talk about how it related to us working together as a mission to achieve mission standards and help every companionship baptize. It was surprisingly inspiring and made a big impact on us. 

 

Well, that's about it. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

-Elder Smith

This week's song, at a request from my Grandma is both introduced and sung in Chinese. It's "We Thank Thee, O God For a Prophet"