Picture Party

October 22, 2012

 

Here is a picture party for you all!

 

The first picture is Gu Jiemei at her baptism!!! Yes, the wonderful and beautiful Gu Jiemei was baptized. It was a wonderful service and the spirit was really strong. She was so excited... and so were we duhh. My companion and I decided to dress real taiwanese for it, so we are of course matching by not matching at all (that's how they do it here... it's really addicting. I don't think i'll ever be able to match again... well not that I did that great before but... anyways...) She bore a beautiful testimony at the end and Elder Hellberg played a wonderful musical number on the guitar with some hymns. It was beautiful! Rainbow the hippie came to the baptism and is so confused as to why she keeps wanting to come back to our church because she thinks we're weird and strict hahaha. I know that's just because she FEELS something here, and that's a good enough start to work with. We're excited to keep meeting with her!

 

The next few pictures are of last preparation day when we went to Big Buddha on top of the mountain! There were so many mini buddhas all around, along with pretty fish and asian looking things!

 

There is one with me and that ice I was telling you about. I'm so addicted!!!

 

One is of me and the whistle I bought in Lukang. It is real purty and I like to play songs on it. I bought one because one of our 9 year old investigators had one, and she plays it for us all the time. So adorable. The Beatles shirt I'm wearing in that picture was given to me by one of our less active members who is SOOOO wonderful. We'd be best friends if she lived in America. Huang Jiemei :) It's at her store where I also have the picture of me wearing the crazy perm wig!

 

I'll send some more with the next email :)

 

 

----- 2nd Email -----

 

MORE FOR YOUUUUU!!!!! Here's that family that just had a new baby :) Chen Meng Xian and her husband are absolutely adorable! Their family is forever changed for the better because of the gospel in their lives! AHHHH I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!!

 

Sending pictures takes a really long time, sorry I'm not writing much, but I love you all SOOO MUCH!!!!! Sounds like the start of your trip has gone really wonderful!!! I hope you enjoy the french all around you. We've had a really great week here and I shall of course write more next week. Let me know how your cruise goes!!! Send pictures :)

 

I love you all and I love this work so much! Sorry this letter is so scattered :)

 

Love, Ally

 

 

(Ed.  To see photos go to www.sistersmart.com and read this same email)

 

Baptism of Yen Ying Zhi and General Conference Experience (Edit Dad - No Photo was attached)

October 15, 2012

 

Hello everyone! My heart is filled to the brim and then spilling all over the place with happiness! Yen Ying Zhi (Kelly) is one of the cutest 16 year olds ever and she is now BAPTIZED!!!!!! We held the baptismal service yesterday after General Conference, and it was absolutely wonderful. When she went up to bear her testimony afterwards, she said "I was baptized because I know that Jesus Christ can help me overcome anything. He is my new best friend." and then went on to tell everyone the feelings she has after baptism. It was so GREAT!!! The absolute best way to end a conference. Speaking of conference, I actually got to watch it in English most the time! We had ward members that were willing to sit with all of our investigators, so we just helped them get seated and then went back to English. It worked out really well, and I'm SO glad I was able to watch English. I received so many answers to questions I had been asking the Lord for a while now. One of my many favorite talks was Dallin H. Oaks on the treatment of children. Hello!!! That's like my major right there. I want my life to be dedicated to the very essence of what he spoke on. First, to my family now and the family and children I will have in the future. This may sound ultra weird but conference made me stoked to nurture my kids and raise them in love and righteousness! I hope all moms that were listening felt the same way. The second deals with the fact that I want to become a teacher and help children all over the world. They are God's loved little ones, and Heavenly Father needs us to stand up for them! I was so excited to hear so many talks on the importance of the family, and several ways we can strengthen and protect our families. We went over to a less active family last night and were able to share with them the 5 things Elder Perry taught that will bless our families. The mom really appreciated it and said she would try to start implementing them in their lives. The bigger problem is that the father wants nothing to do with the gospel, so he makes it very hard for He Jiemei to raise them in the church. Their littlest girl, 5 year old An Jie was really sick. She hadn't been able to eat or sleep for 2 days and was in a lot of pain. They had taken her to the doctors but they didn't know what to do. We offered to ask the Elders to come and give her a blessing, and He Jiemei really wanted it. The father reluctantly agreed and 20 minutes later the elders were there. The family had never seen a blessing before, so we did a little lesson on the priesthood and how blessings work, and then they gave An Jie a beautiful blessing and said that she would be healed and specifically that she would be able to sleep all night and eat the next day. The prayer ended and she had already started yawning. We left afterwards so I'm not sure how things went last night, but we are going to call them today and find out. I know that the Lord loves all His children and is true to the promises He makes us. I am so grateful the Lord was able to show His power and mercy to the He family last night and pray that it will soften the father's heart. Isn't life just great?!?

 

Remember Rainbow? She is the Asian hippie who is absolutely hilarious. We met with her a few times last week and are trying to help her understand the basics of why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is different. She has TONS of questions, especially on why we are so strict, but I really loved being able to bear my testimony of how those standards have brought me far more happiness and self-respect than anything the world could buy or give. We also had another lesson with Ivy (the phillipino we teach in english) and it was really intense. She shared with us about how her male boss treats her and how she is terrified all the time when other people are not home. It made me absolutely sick and even more frustrated with how Taiwanese men treat women. We were able to really share with her about the protecting power of God and the saving and cleansing power of the atonement. All that is unfair in the world can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It takes all that I have not to hit some of the men... no they're not men... the little animals that hurt these wonderful women. Woo! Okay next topic. That gets me mad haha. We continued to share with everyone about conference and our living prophet in preparation for conference! We were able to meet with several great young students and the nearby college Zhangshi da, and they are all progressing nicely.

 

Annnnddddddd HERE are the highlights of my week: Gu Bei Xian. She has been meeting with us for a while and kept pushing her baptismal date back because she felt unprepared. She finally said that the 20th (this Saturday) was a good date and she would try to be ready, but still felt a little hesitant. However, she came to all of conference Sunday and LOVED it!!! She had a change of heart and is fully ready to be baptized this saturday. She is excited and came to support Yen Ying Zhi at her baptism yesterday. I'M SO EXCITEDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gu Jiemei is SO wonderful and has such great faith. We are also awaiting a call from Liu Jiemei  (the mom with the fandui) on whether she got permission to be baptized this saturday or not. She was given a wonderful priesthood blessing yesterday that said she would indeed be baptized in the Lord's time. We had her write a letter of why she wants to be baptized to give to her husband and she is giving it to her husband this morning. I don't think I have ever prayed more fervantly than I have in the last 24 hours for the welfare of her family. I was hoping to already know by the time we wrote you, but I guess you'll just find out next week :)

 

Oh how I love this work! I am so filled with gratitude and love I can barely stand it. The Lord loves us and watches over us all. I see His hand in my life daily, and I know you can too if you look for it. I want to send some pictures so I'm going to end this letter, just know that I love you all and miss you tons! I hope you all have a great time with Nathan and Angie there. Give them all hugs from Aunt Ally.

 

Love, Sister Smart

 

p.s. the picture of the new baby is our recent convert Chen Jiemei's little boy!!! Her family was baptized in April and are absolutely incredible!

Week 14 ba - 12 investigators came to church

October 8, 2012

I've got a LOT to say, so let's dig right in haha.

First things first, let me tell you about our favorite food. Yutou ice. It's like a taro slushy with yellow and purple stuff, oatmeal looking stuff, and beans in it. It sounds absolutely disgusting, but we eat it at least once a day, if not twice. Anytime I say we eat "ice" that's what I'm talking about. I'm addicted.

Tuesday went to visit Liang Mama for
a second. And it was just gonna be a fast visit. But she insisted on
buying us food--and what did she give us? The worst tasty greasy meat
things ever. And so it was a good thing we were going to be late,
because we had no time to eat them, so we only had to force/fake eat
one. There were two in each bag... it was so disgusting. They are like this jelly outside with
nasty meat inside and this sauce. reallll gross. And they fry that jelly thing
in oil. We then went and ate a real dinner because the previous one was so gross. Afterwards, we visited Li JM, a wonderful older woman who works on Sunday so can't come to church. Guess what...she also decided to feed us.... Weird food. Blah. Luckily we were also short on time, so we had to leave and
she gave us a ton in to-go-boxes and we (being the charitable folks we are) gave it to the Elders. Haha 3 dinners in one night, oh how fat I shall be by the time I return.

We have been telling EVERYONE about general conference lately. We teach about it in almost every single lesson lately. I even taught my English class about it and they were pretty excited. Especially this person named Rainbow, who'd we'd met
the night before. her English is really good--she's like an Asian
Hippie. The best part of that is that she called on Thursday and asked
me, "I'm so excited, but I forgot, when will your master
speak to you??" In English.  Hahahaha hilarious. Best thing ever. I hope we don't ever lose that excitement that we know we have a living prophet who guides us and directs us. It's such a wonderful thing to get to testify of each and every day. I LOVE IT!  Anyways, after English we talked to Sandy about temples and the Law of
Chastity. She really likes the idea of temples and eternal marriage, so that's great!

Thursday we had lunch with Jojo and Sandy (two really great members of the church here)--we went to this fun hot pot
place. The food came around on a little train in front of you and you
picked off what looked good. It was fun. All you can eat style and
vegetarian so it was pretty good, nothing too strange. It was Sandy's
birthday so Jojo wanted to treat her to eat. and we treated Jojo
because she always takes us out to lunch without letting us pay. Coolest restaurant!

Then we met with Suzie--the cute girl who
came to the baptism last Saturday. She is way great and is studying
English in college. She seems sincere about wanting to know what
the church is about. So that's lovely. She ended up coming to church yesterday, so I'll keep you updated  how that goes.

After dinner we met with Brenda (baptismal goal for the 20th). We had a lesson about conference---since that is
litterally what we are doing with everyone now. And she was so moved!
She is really excited, she just is a person who doesn't show it cause
she's so shy and so Asian. We feel like she's already got her
answer on being baptized, so hopefully she will be confident enough
after conference to hit her goal! After her lesson, she went to
institute! Tai hau le! Too good, too good. After that we went tracting right by the church
and found this family on the 2nd door we knocked on. They've always
wanted to come see our church. And they are coming on Sunday! I love meeting prepared people. She also came to church yesterday and we'll be meeting with her this week again.

The next day we had a lesson with Huang XJ--she's the girl we met
last Saturday with Shi JM at the college! We met on
the bleachers by the school and the weather was just so nice and
tropical, and peaceful. I think she really felt the Spirit. She's really excited to read more in the
Book of Mormon and she's just cute! After her we went to see Liang mama. She knew we were coming so she made
this HUGE pot of noodles. Which was bad because it was only like 4 in the afternoon.
And at 6 we were going to the Chen family's house for dinner! Everyone wants us to get fat. It's true.

After her lesson we biked faster than the speed of light to the church to meet Liu Xiu Zhen. We talked to her about her baptismal goal on the 20th and general conference (of course) and she is feeling lots of hope! I feel like she'll really overcome this fandui!

After that we sped (because we were late) up the mountain
to meet the Chen family for dinner. This is the Chen family who's dad is Stake
President and who has 7 children (which is huge here)! They fed us good food and it was way
relaxing and nice to eat with such an awesome family for an hour!

On the way home I started thinking about this Chen JM, and I told my comp we should
maybe go see her, and then litterally 200 yards down the road, we saw
her on the side of the street with her two kids. Pretty miraculous. We
talked with her, and she said she couldnt' come to hcurch on Sunday,
but her daughter wanted to so we could pick her up on our way to the
church. After that we were like, "we want ice so bad... but we need to
go make calls." And just after we passed the ice place we ran into
Lauren and Tessa! (They are both teaching English here and we go running with Tessa each morning. She has a lot of great questions about the church and is such a cute girl.) It was so good to see them, and they were going to
get treats, so we were like, "Hey! Do you want to go get ice really
fast?" And we had a little lesson and ate some ice and I love those
two girls! But it was just a really good end to a really good day!

Then it was Saturday! and we had a lesson with a cute Hong XJ in the
morning--she went to Englihs in Tainan several years ago, and now she's
hear at college, so when we met her, she set up right away. We had
such a good lesson and she's so smart! She loves to read and was WAY
excited to get the Book of Mormon! We then met a bit later with Luo Yu Yun--the 16 year old with
parent fandui--at the McDonalds. We talked with her about King Lamoni and then read that story
about Hong Ji Jun from Taiwan--"Two Pioneers Across Two Centuries" from the Liahona. It gave Luo Yu Yun some courage so that is great!

After her, we ran to the church for Kelly's
baptismal interview and a lesson with the Xiang sisters--which were
practically at the same time! Which means... fenkai gongzuo (or we split the companionship and go with members of the ward to do our missionary work) Chen Si Ting and Chen Wu Ting helped us! Kelly passed her interview and is SO wonderful. She is getting BAPTIZED THIS WEEKEND!!! She thinks all the commandments are really smart and really has
a desire to prepare to see God. She even prayed and told Him that
she'd really like to see Him in this life or the next life. ha. She's
a cute little girl. She said she's been SO much happier since she's
had the gospel in her life, and she knows it is because she is praying every day.

And then Sunday came. Might suan the best day of my mission? or pretty close anyways. The first ward
(at 9:00) had TONS of investigators! Suzie came- the girl we met with
on Thursday! She's so cute! And then a phone add came--Lin Yi
Xiu--and brought her mom AND her sister! And Evangeline! And the
Zhang XJ we tracted into earlier this week came! And Luo Yu Yun was
able to come to Sacrament! We also had a member
bring a Mom and 2 children! 2nd ward: Brenda and Kelly both came, along with Liang Mama and Shi JM (our recent converts)

We were able to sit with most of them after church and it was just unreal! All in all, 12 investigators came to church. 12 people got to feel the Holy Ghost and feel God's love for them. We were so grateful and know that the Lord loves us and sends us miracles each and every day. That night we got to go to the relief society broadcast which was so wonderful too. AHHHH life is so great. I'm out of time, but I love you and will talk to you next week!!!

Sister Smart

Week 13 - Wednesday, September 26, was a great day!

October 1, 2012

 

I am probably going to spend this whole letter telling you about last Wednesday September 26. It was just that great of a day haha. Every other day was great too, but wednesday for some reason was just so wonderful! We started the day off with some good old running and studying like normal. Oh ps, my new companion Sister Sumko likes to go running everyday and also have extra study time, so we get up 45 minutes earlier than the rule states and instead of 3 times a week, go running 6 times a week. It's a party. So after studies, we went to visit our recent convert Liang Mama so my companion could meet her. Liang mama doesn't really feel like it's super necessary to go to church now that she is baptized. She ting bu dongs most of what is being said and someone has to come pick her up every week, so she feels too bad about it. We keep trying to stress over and over again about how important it is to take the sacrament but it still hasn't quite sunk in. However, this lesson went really great and Guo Jiemei (my companion) shared a really great experience on why coming to church is so important. Twas a smashing success and I hope she will continue to come to church!

 

We then went over to visit Ivy and Wendy. They are from the Philipines and only speak tagolog and a bit of english. We gave them a tagolog Book of Mormon and pamphlets, and then do our best to help them understand in english.They are both on 3 year contracts here in Taiwan to take care of old amas. They don't get a single day off (as in hasn't gotten a single day off in the last 2 years) and aren't allowed to leave for more than a few minutes every once in a while to buy food. We can only meet with them when their amas are sleeping, but they are still SO wonderful. We spent the lesson focused on the Book of Mormon and how it is the word of God. If this book is true, then the rest of what we share with them is true, because it is all found in that Book. We asked the pivotal question, and yes, they believe the Book of Mormon is true! The only thing holding them back from baptism is the fact that they are under contract not to go to church. However, God is a God of miracles and we are working on finding ways to help them continue to come unto Christ

 

Then we headed on up the big mountain to the Xiang sisters house. They have been investigators for months and months, believing all we say, reading the Book of Mormon, coming to church, praying, keeping the commandments and all that great stuff, but with no desire to be baptized... It is really strange and we have been at a loss for how to help them. Sister Sumko wanted to talk to them about commandments and we decided we would share Mosiah 2:41 which talks about how happy people who keep the commandments are, and then we would play the commandments game. It's like spoons, but the commandments are written on the cards instead, and the last person without a spoon explains what the commandment means. First, my companion got to know them a little bit and then asked how her Book of Mormon reading has been going. She was in Mosiah and said that she really liked this one scripture about commandments..... She showed us which one and guess what... it was also Mosiah 2:41! Oh the Lord and His cool little miracles. We discussed how great commandments are and how they bless our lives, and then started the game. After a few rounds, we decided to play one more time before we left. The very last time, the sister who has no desire to be baptized lost, and the commandment she needed to explain happened (not so randomly in my opinion) to be Baptism. We were able to talk about how it is a loving commandment that will only bless us beyond our comprehension. We helped her set some small steps to be able to hit a new  baptismal goal (27th of this month) and we are excited to see what happens

 

We then booked it down the mountain and biked furiously fast to the chapel for a lesson with our lovely Liu Jiemei (she is the one who was supposed to be baptized a few weeks ago but who's husband fandui'd) We also stressed how important the Book of Mormon is and focused on its immense power. We read a few great quotes from apostles, and then just sat and read it with her for a half hour. I love how something so simple can bring the spirit so strongly. We promised her that if she was willing to read and pray every single day, Heavenly Father would prepare a way she could be baptized in October. We also talked to her about how wonderful general conference is and invited her to start praying to receive an answer to her prayers from conference. It was so greattttt

 

Then we went to English class where I get to teach, so that's always fun. Afterwards we sat down with one of our former investigators and helped her have a desire to come back to church and also set a baptismal goal this month! It was a day of miracles and I love my new companion. We get along great and teach really well together. I am out of time, but shall write more next week... of course :)

 

Love you all! Sister Smart