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!
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