Week Twenty-Four: Interviews and a Knife Fight

Dear Family and Friends,

I am alive and well! I don't have a lot of time this week since I got a few more emails than usual this week(thank you, friends! It's great to hear from you) but I've got 2 things to share. 

First, we had interviews this last week with President Blickenstaff. He's so wise it's ridiculous. I asked him what one principle or skill I can focus on to make faster progress towards becoming a Preach My Gospel missionary. He quoted a conference talk by the recently released General Relief Society President. He said the most important we can do is learn how to seek for, recognize, and act on Spiritual promptings. I thought that was so wise so I'm stoked to start working on that. It's definitely not going to be an overnight thing, but hopefully God will see my effort and bless me with that gift. But yeah. Interviews are awesome!

Also, we went to a driving range last week. I'm basically a professional golfer now.

Second, we got in contact with John again and he bought me an Ukulele!! woohoo! I've always wanted one of those. It's plain white so I'm probably going to have a fun time decorating it. We also taught him the word of wisdom and even though he had done basically everything on the don't list, he said the main problems were going to be smoking and tea and that he'd be able to give those up by next week so he can be baptized on the 22nd of February. So cool! I'm so glad we get to teach him. Oh! Also golden Chen got his schedule and he might be able to be baptized on the 1st of March. He said he can definitely go to church for the full time on the 23rd of February. Super good. I'm stoked to see that. Then, after his baptism, he'll probably just have to find sacrament meetings to go to where he goes for business on the weekends. He'll probably only be able to come to our ward like once a month. 

Also, I just realized I've been eating a lot of weir foods lately and not telling you guys about any of them. So here it goes...fatty meat(like 90% fat 10%meat), pig retina, chicken heart, smashed up fish eggs, chicken feet(I actually only ate a toe, but still). That's all I can think up right off the bat, but it was all pretty good except the fish eggs. Those basically just tasted like fish food smells and it was really sticky so it lingered for ages. It was supposedly really expensive, though, so I acted like it was super delicious:). 

But yeah, that's just about it. 

Love you all! 

-Elder Brendan Smith  

*******************

Brendan's Mom here: Brendan put the phrase "knife fight" in the title, then didn't mention it in his letter.  Not exactly reassuring to a mother's heart.  So we exchanged the following messages:

Mom:  What?  You can't just drop a "knife fight" and expect people to not be curious. :)

Brendan:  yeah, well, it wasn't really that big of a deal. I don't have a lot of time, but I might write about it next week.

Mom:  Okay.  I assume all your limbs and digits are still attached? :)

Brendan:  Yeah, I'm fine. Are you really not that worried about it or are you just trying to put on a brave face?

Mom:  I figure if it were really serious, you would find the time to write about it. :)  So I'm not worried--just teasing you and wasting your precious letter-writing time haha.

Brendan:  ok cool. don't worry about wasting my letter-writing time. I use my letter-writing time to you write you and Dad and friends if time. Not the other way around. 

Mom:  Glad you prioritize writing the people who gave you life. :)  Love you, buddy!

Week Twenty-Three: Chinese New Year and The 有辦法 Part

Hello everyone,

It's about that time again. So this week, summed up in one word has been delicious. SO. MUCH. FOOD. We've been asked over to dinner at least once a day since Wednesday. Super good. This is because it's Chinese New Year. It's basically Taiwan's equivalent of Christmas in the sense that kids get a 2 week break from school, families are together, there's good food, and there's lots of festivals happening. I hear China is way more into it, but it's still pretty big here. Some things that are specific to Chinese New Year, however, are firecrackers being lit off at 7:00 AM, people saying they're busy when they're on vacation, and red envelopes(a traditional gift that Chinese people give others with money inside) members give you that you have to awkwardly refuse/donate to the general missionary fund. Super fun stuff. I also don't remember Christmas having this many huge meals. It seems like no one ever stops eating, especially me. So yeah, I'll probably have gained a few kilos by the time this is all said and done. We've still got 3 more days of it. Ahh!

Anyway, about the second half of the title, the 有辦法(yoh bahn fa) part. Our mission has a motto that goes 有信心有辦法(yoh ban fa yoh sheen sheen) which means "when you have faith, there's a way." So, about a year ago, there was this really big culture in the mission where missionaries often put having a way before having faith. These missionaries were called "yoh ban fa" missionaries because they just did everything they could to get people baptized which was really good because a lot of people were able to receive of those blessings, but it also meant that the retention rate(the amount of people who actually stayed active) wasn't super high sometimes. Anyway, apparently, it used to be required that you parted your hair and in the yoh ban fa culture, the quality of your part was directly related to the quality of the missionary you were. Elder Gish's trainer was very much of that opinion so Elder Gish has carried some of that with him. He has very much encouraged me to wear a part in my hair and so I've started, but not because that reflects me being a super awesome missionary. It's because for a long time, I refused to part my hair because I thought it looked dumb and I didn't want to look like a dweeb or whatever, but when I put that part in my hair, I looked in the mirror and thought wow, that is a sharp-looking missionary. I want to talk to him. and I hope that's what people on the street think too.

And, here it is. Part-tastic. Also check out that chub, my friends! That means I'm eating well is what that means.Also is that tan-line from my bike helmet? I don't know, I just noticed it.

As far as investigators go, this has been a real slow week for us. Because of Chinese New Year, everyone is either gone to be with family or has family in town so it's really rough trying to meet with people. We met with a really cool guy named Mr. Ye. He works in the EMT so coming to church will be pretty rough but he's so sweet. He's really nice, and I think the gospel is going to help him so much. Andy is still deeply trenched in his theories so that's going to be a bit longer, but he came to church yesterday which is SWEET. We met with a guy named Eason who's 18 and is either golden or is just willing to do whatever an American tells him to do. We're hoping it's the former, but we're really going to try and make sure he gains his own testimony so he stays active after we leave. Golden Chen is still having work problems and wasn't able to come to church yesterday because he had to take his sister up to Taipei, but we met with him this morning and shared the story of the Brother of Jared(SUPER awesome story with lots of layers of meaning, by the way. Everyone, chow down on that spiritual feast.) He said he will do what the brother of Jared did and think of a solution, do all he can, and then pray that the Lord will help him. We will be fasting for him this week. I can't ask you to fast because that's against the mission rules, but please pray! He's a great guy and definitely would have already been baptized if it weren't for his work situation, so he really needs help with that.

Also, I love you guys! 新年快樂！Happy New Year!

-Elder Brendan Smith

施安彬長老

Week Twenty-Two: Another Week Down--and Ninjas!

Hey Family and Friends,

This week was super great but also super nuts. Staying in the same area and getting a new companion is pretty hard. Luckily, Elder Gish and I get along really well and I know the area, because otherwise, it would have been really tough. For the first few days and sort of still, I felt like the senior companion because I was leading him around and calling our investigators/RCs/LAs. He's adjusted really well, though, and now aside from leading, most of the senior companion responsibilities have been transferred over to him.

Getting a new companion was weird for other reasons too, though. For one thing, I've realized there are a lot of different ways to do the same thing in missionary work and a lot of different attitudes you can have about doing them while still getting basically the same result. Don't get me wrong, Elder Gish is a super great missionary, but his way of being a missionary is very different from Elder Sumsion(my trainer)'s way of being a missionary. It's confusing because I have all these thought processes my trainer instilled in me and then Elder Gish maybe has some new ideas and it's like "What?". But it's also really good for that reason because it makes me think about whether that thought process is one that I really want to have anyway or whether I was just kind of blindly following because I didn't know any better. This is also not to say that Elder Sumsion was a bad missionary, because he was awesome and I respect him like crazy. However, the main point of all this is that it's really helpful(but also confusing) to see 2 different sides of missionary work and I feel myself developing my own thoughts and it's helping me grow so much! 

An all-you-can eat place we went to with ninjas on the roof.  Pretty cool!

As far as investigators go, the main ones that I want to report on are John and the super golden Chen who can never come to church. John is doing great. He came to church again on Sunday for all 3 hours which was super awesome. After church, he said he couldn't meet with us(we wanted to talk to him about the Word of Wisdom), but that his work finished on Tuesday so Wednesday and onward, he has all the time in the world and, in his words, he can "always be at church". That was super great to hear. It's so awesome seeing his desire and seeing how happy church makes him. If all goes according to plan, we'll be having a baptism a week from this Saturday. Chen met with us and brought a friend(can I get a 'referral'?). We basically taught a quick Restoration lesson about Joseph Smith and the priesthood and had Chen bear his testimony. He said he can come to church this coming Sunday which will make 3 times so he can be baptized, but we're meeting with him on Thursday to talk about being able to come to church every week to take the sacrament. Regardless, his baptism will most likely be on the 15th of February so yeah, that's exciting! 

Missionary work is a little slower these days because of Chinese New Year. Students are going home, people from out of town are coming, everyone is "too busy" who actually lives here. It's probably a lot like Christmas break in America so it's a little more tough being able to find people who can meet right now. But the upside is that we basically have a member inviting us over for dinner every single day this next week. woohoo! Don't be surprised if in next week's pictures, I have several extra chins.

Scripture recommendation for this week: Ether 12. First of all, Ether is sweet! Second of all, reading verse 6 and onward with the background of 1-5 gives it so much more meaning. Third of all, faith is pretty much the greatest super power you could possibly have. From now on, if anyone asks me that "if you had any superpower..." get-to-know-you question, I'm definitely saying faith. Or spiritual teleportation(see Helaman 10:16). That wouldn't be too bad either. Alright love you guys!

大家再見！

Elder Smith

施長老

Week Twenty-One: Low Numbers, High Morale and a New Companion

Hey everyone.

 

So I have very little time this week for e-mailing because today has been nuts. The most important news is: I'm staying in Yongkang, but I have a new companion! His name is Elder Gish. He's from New Hampshire and he plays lacrosse. He's a really cool guy. He just got finished training one of the people from my MTC district. I don't know him too well yet, so I'll let you all know more about him and send you a picture of us next week because I also forgot my camera. Sorry.

As far as this last week went, like the title says, we didn't get a lot of lessons in this week. A lot of people cancelled so that was a bummer. As far as investigators go, we're meeting with Chen (the super awesome one with the work that prevents him from coming to church) tomorrow and basically, if we can't figure out how to help him come to church, we have to take a break from teaching him for a little while. We haven't met with him in a really long time because he's had things come up every time we've scheduled with him before. So yeah, he might be too busy to investigate the church right now which is really sad, but we can't keep using time that could be used helping other people who actually have the ability to investigate come unto Christ and be baptized in order to receive of those blessings trying to meet with him, only to have to reschedule. It's such a bummer. Please pray for him!! 

John came to church yesterday and he's doing well. We gave him a lesson 3 pamphlet and invited him to read it in preparation for the next meeting with him. We met with Andy yesterday and had a really good and impromptu lesson about the Word of Wisdom and the Sabbath Day. He says baptism won't be an issue, but he's concerned with whether or not he has the ability to keep the commandments after baptism, so we'll keep working on that. 

We met a new guy on Friday. His name is Chen as well. He's 17 and he's a high school drop-out. He and his dad live alone together and he works at a drink shop by his house. He's got some pretty sweet tattoos and he seems like he probably has a Word of Wisdom problem, but he is a really deep thinker and he agreed to a date to be baptized. We're meeting with him again tonight to discuss the Book of Mormon a little bit more in depth so that will be good! We also just got a new investigator with a baptismal date from the Elders in the other ward. We haven't met him yet but he sounds awesome and we're meeting with him on Friday. The most important thing is we have a lot of investigators and they're all really cool and have their own personal problems with the gospel and it is our job to help them resolve those concerns so they can have the most happiness. Sorry I don't have a lot of time today to go into detail.

 

But yeah, the lesson I learned this week was that numbers don't mean everything, investigators all have to go at their own pace. Sometimes, you need to push them a bit by inviting them to do things that help them, but you shouldn't try to move too fast with anyone. The gospel is a very personal and important thing. It requires many people to make drastic changes that might not always be easy, but in the end, it is so very much worth it. That's my two cents. Everyone have a good week! Be amazing people! Help people! 

Love you!

 

-Elder Smith

Week Twenty: Our Second Baptism and Some Disappointment

Dear Family and Friends!

 

This week has been full of learning experiences. I feel like I've grown a lot.

  

First, we had a baptism!! It was Zheng Baba's son. It was awesome to see that happen. His dad refused to baptize him saying, "you know what? He's getting baptized and that's good enough for me." He(the son) shared a really great testimony and he was so excited. It was awesome. I'm excited to hear about his missionary stories. Also Zheng Baba has a goal to get the higher priesthood, so we are all super stoked for that.

  

Aside from them, I feel like all of our other investigators are kind of in limbo at the moment. Chen Dixiong is still really busy with work. We were playing phone tag yesterday to set up a time for today and never ended up making contact. I think Andy got kind of freaked out by all the "Mormon rules" and so we haven't been able to get in contact with him either. John's phone was off all day Saturday until the night when he said he was busy and couldn't meet that day, but he'd come to church. He didn't because he was sick, and now we have to wait for finals to be over until we can get back in contact with him(the end of this week). We did meet with a new guy named Lai on Saturday, though. He was super cool. He's a 3rd year college student and he loves sports. We taught him the first lesson and he liked it all. We asked him if he had any questions before he left and he said "yeah, when can I come again?". Super solid. So I have high hopes for him! We also met with a former of 10 years. Our chapel wasn't even built yet when he was an investigator before. We found his apartment and sat with him downstairs on a bench and taught him a first lesson. He also accepted it. However, he works the night shift at his factory so we're not sure if he'll have a lot of time. That was also his problem with the other missionaries. He was a super deep thinker though. And I think he really liked what we had to share with him. I hope we have the chance to meet with him again soon.

Brendan participating in a Q & A session in front of members of a local theological seminary in Tainan.  The mission president, his wife and other local LDS leaders were asked to speak to the seminary's Freshman class, and afterwards, they included the missionaries in a panel, where they were asked questions such as: how they were called, how they were adjusting to Taiwanese culture, what they planned to do after their missions, etc.  

  This week, I finished the "First 12 Weeks" program that they put you through when you first enter the field. Basically, we get an extra hour of companionship study where we focus on different skills and doctrines. This week, like the first week, we talked about the Doctrine of Christ. The most basic and important facet of our church. The part that especially stood out to me was when we talked about the importance of love in missionary work. Not just the passive "oh, love ya man" kind of love, but the love that God has for each of us. The ability to see us all as His children with the great potential to become as He is. I don't know if you all have ever met someone that you haven't clicked with before, but sometimes it's nigh on impossible to love someone to that extent. To love them to the point where you really desire their eternal well-being. You see their potential, and you want to do everything in your power to help them achieve that. I have only had those feelings for a person once on my mission that I can remember. I remember we were doing "English proselyting" where we basically go to an intersection and hand out fliers for our free English class that we do. I remember I went up to this guy on his scooter and said "Hey! We're letting people know about our free English class..." and he cut me off and said the Chinese equivalent of "no thanks." I paused for a second and just asked him how he was doing. I chatted with him for about 30 seconds, then went back to the side of the road. Before the light turned green, he looked over at us and he looked so vulnerable. At that moment, I desired his salvation so much. I wanted him to be happy. And then he rode off and I've never seen him since. I know that he is a child of God just like we all are. I know God wants that guy and all of us to be happy. And because of that, I was able to feel God's love for him. It was a really profound experience for me. I don't know if I did a good job describing it, because I'm sure my words can't impress upon you all the depth of what I felt at that moment. Anyway, the main point is: Strive to love others as God loves them. Maybe you don't like their choices. Maybe they aren't your best friend, but I know that as you all strive to see people for what they can become and not what they have become, you can feel a sense of peace and compassion that is our Father in Heaven telling you that those people are His children and they are precious. Alright I'm going to get off my soapbox now. 

 

As always, I love you all. I appreciate you. Please, if it is your faith, keep praying for me and for Elder Sumsion, and for our investigators that we can all be given opportunities to come closer to our savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ. If it is not your faith, send some good vibes our way, I guess, and if the missionaries talk to you, picture that it's me and give them a chance. Their message can truly bless you more than anything. I know that to be true. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

-Elder Smith 

Week Nineteen: Happy New Year!

新年好 (Happy New Year!)

Hello Beloved Family and Friends!

 

It's the first letter of 2014! Woah!

 

New Year here didn't have too much effect besides the fact that everybody had school/work off and went to some sort of party Wednesday night instead of English class so I only had 3 students there. Bummer. Anyways, I'm excited to see what Chinese New Year is like. I heard there's lots of fireworks and parades and no one has any time to meet with you. We'll see, though.

Main things that happened this week:

 

1. Liao received the Aaronic priesthood! wooooo. He's still going strong. He's got finals coming up so I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers.

 

2. Zheng Baba's son wants to be baptized next week! We met with him this last Friday and taught him Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him why he wants to wait until Summer Holiday. He said he didn't really know. We told him we were having a baptism on the 18th and asked him if he wanted to be baptized that day instead. He was still kind of iffy about it. That's when we pulled out the big guns. Promised blessing! Promised blessing! But the thing that really did it for him was when Elder Sumsion said he might be moving on the 20th and he wants to see him baptized. Now, you may think this isn't really a great way of doing that for eternal conversion, but this kid is so ready. He's been coming to church since April. He knows everything. He lives according to the commandments of God. He just needed a push. He didn't agree right away so we said we'd give him a week to think about it. The next morning was a baptismal service for an 8-year-old in our ward. He and his dad attended and before the service, his dad called us over and said after we left on Saturday, his son said he wanted to be baptized next week! So we taught him all the commandments(he practically taught them to us), had a baptismal interview that day, and announced it in church yesterday. So we've got a baptism next week! Woohoo! Pray that it'll go smoothly!

 

3. John's baptismal date is now on the 7th of February since he has some potential problems with smoking and drinking and he's been semi-flaky thus far. He's mostly just really busy though. He took 23 CREDIT HOURS this semester. That's insane! The max you can take here is 25. Plus he works at a factory. I'm surprised he's taking time to meet with us but he must like what we're teaching(of course he does!). I'm excited to see how he progresses.

 

4. Chen(the golden guy) is still extremely busy and probably isn't going to be able to come to church this next sunday so we'll have to change his baptismal goal again. However, Elder Sumsion and I fasted for him yesterday and we've been praying that he'll be able to come to church so he can receive of those blessings. I hope that it works. If not, I know Heavenly Father has a plan for him so I shouldn't worry.

 

Miracle story! So while we were sitting in the chapel for the baptism, a ward member came in and said there was a guy out in the hall and that he was an English student. I went out there and Elder Sumsion joined me shortly after that. I guess he has a plan to go to America and wants to learn English. However, he seemed to have no idea that the church had an English class or that we(American missionaries in Taiwan) even existed. When we asked him why he came here, he said "I don't know, I just had a feeling. I felt like learning English through church would be the best way." We read the Book of Mormon with him out of our language study edition(it has English, romanized Chinese, and Chinese characters) and he said he thought it was pretty cool. I don't know what's going to come of it, but I like to believe it was divine intervention. His name was Joe, so look for him in future emails.

As for me, I'm doing well! This week was very great. It was tiring and rewarding as always, and I've grown even closer to the Savior this week as I've studied about Him and served Him. I love this work. I know it blesses the lives of so many people in indescribable ways and it is so so worth it! I know that God is preparing people at this moment to hear this gospel and he will help us find them if we rely on Him and pray for those opportunities. In my personal study this week I read a scripture in 3 Nephi 21:28-29, talking about the gospel being preached in the latter-days. "Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward." I testify that this is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Love to all!

 

  -Elder Smith

Week Eighteen: Christmas wishes from Taiwan--叻油!

Hey Everyone,

Thanks to all who sent me Christmas messages. They were much appreciated and lifted my spirits immensely! Also, just a note for the future, if you are sending a message of particular importance, etc., if you could also send it in a word file, that would be awesome. That way I can print it out and read it later:) I only get 2 hours on the computer, but I have time on P-day and at night that I can crack letters open and remember all those at home supporting me. So yeah! If you send a word file along with your email, that saves you postage, but it still allows me to savor all of your great messages. Thanks!

Alright with that business out of the way, this week was pretty tiring and would have been a little discouraging, to be honest, if it weren't for Christmas and a few other bright spots along the way. We had a lot of lessons cancel and I was just feeling kind of tired. We did have a few successes, however.

Liao Junxuan(our recent convert) got a calling. He's the president of gospel principles, so that basically just means he announces who prays and hands out the textbooks each week. But it's awesome! He has a responsibility and next week, he's going to receive the Aaronic Priesthood so he can start participating in the sacrament. I'm super excited for him. He goes home for a month on the 20th though, so he's only got a couple more Sundays here for now. We're going to try to get a hold of the church in Hong Kong, though so he can attend there while he's away. 

Chen Xuanzhen wasn't able to make it to church this week because he had to help a trainee at his work. He said he'll try to come on the 12th though so he can still be baptized on the 18th. I'm so sad his work is so busy because I'm highly convinced he'll do great things in the church if he can just sort out his work problems. He has so much faith and we're both really hoping he can exercise that faith in order to overcome this set-back. 

Andy came to church yesterday and seems to have enjoyed it. We're meeting with him some other time this week as well hopefully. I'll get back to you guys on him.

Hongxuan(the 10-year-old) is still doing awesome. His dad is set to receive the Aaronic priesthood as well next week, I believe so that's super exciting! 

John(his Chinese name is Huang Yuhao) is the guy we met with last Sunday who set up a baptismal goal right there. He's doing awesome. We met with him today and he'd already read through the pamphlet we gave him last time and he seemed really stoked to learn more. He didn't come to church yesterday because he had to work at his factory all night. He also seems like he might have a word of wisdom problem because he talked about drinking with buddies and he smelled faintly of smoke. If he has desire to change, though, he'll be able to overcome that though so I'm excited about his future! 

The work moves forward everyone! God really does have a plan for each of His children and even though not every one of them is ready at this point to accept the fullness of His gospel, I'm highly convinced that there are people out there who are. Please pray that I and the other 80,000 some-odd missionaries out there will be able to find them! I love you guys. Until next week!

叻油! (sounds like jah yo) which literally means "add oil" but is kind of like saying "good luck" or "keep it up." 

-Elder Smith