Thanksgiving and Charity

November 26, 2012

 

Happy late Thanksgiving to you all! I'm sorry I didn't mention it last week. I first want to tell each and every one of you that I am so grateful I have such a wonderful family. I thank Heavenly Father every day I was able to be adopted into such a loving and welcoming environment where I could learn the gospel and gain a testimony of the reality of the Savior's atonement and His love for each and every one of us. I am grateful I can continuously read the Book of Mormon and find answers to life's problems or be comforted in times of need. I am so grateful I have a mom and dad who care about me and show their love in countless ways. I'm grateful each and every one of my siblings and their spouses are all so kind to me. I'm grateful I could have dozens of adorable nieces and nephews that I love SOOOO much! I'm thankful for our ward and the great help they have also been to me. I'm just really grateful for the wonderful life I've been able to live. Words cannot express how grateful I am to be in Taiwan serving the Lord. Each and every one of us are truly blessed!

 

Okay, here's some fun stuff from last week! We were able to meet with Xie JM and her 3 adorable kids. She is really having a hard time accepting that God really exists, so we are just trying to help her understand the basics and are moving really slow with her. We also met with Wu JM and Chen JM and they both came to church again yesterday. Both of their faith is so strong and I love getting to watch them learn and grow. We also met with Megan, Lin JM, and a few other folks, and it was really nice. One thing I really love about Sister King is how different each one of our lessons is. Now that my chinese is getting a little bit better, we are able to REALLY focus on their needs. Since every person is different, so is every single lesson. No lesson is ever the same which keeps things interesting and helps each person feel how the gospel could specifically improve their life.

 

We have a District Training Meeting every Tuesday at 1:00 and this last week's was on Charity. It was one of the best DTM's ever! Lin ZL (zhanglao, elder) is our District leader and shared with us about the importance of charity. I feel like I sometimes forget what it truly means to represent Jesus Christ and follow His example. Christ served EVERYONE, talked to EVERYONE, helped and blessed EVERYONE. He put their needs above His own. He cared for the lonely, comforted the depressed, and felt empathy for those who had made wrong choices that put them in a bad situation. It is not our place to judge who deserves charity and who does not. Each and every person we see is someone who needs the peace and happiness the gospel can bring, and, out of love and charity, we need to talk with everyone. However, we are not here to glorify ourselves and just "get baptisms." We are here to help people come unto Christ and return as brothers and sisters back to His presence. I understand fully that the first step is baptism, but that doesn't mean we need to push and shove them the whole way. It needs to be their desire. A few years ago, many missionaries baptized several several people who were not ready and who have now left the church. We are in the process of helping those people come back and helping them gain a testimony themselves.

 

The importance of this all has been on my mind for quite some time, but really came out as we visited several members this week and got to know their conversion stories. Some of the strongest members were investigators for years. They had good friends in the church, took the time they needed to learn, and decided to be baptized when they felt it was right. Of course, there are exceptions and that is absolutely wonderful, but the bulk of people need time. Especially here when many don't even know who Jesus Christ is. I love meeting with members like that, because it helps remind us that no work we do is wasted. Maybe our investigators will not be baptized next week, but we are still doing what the Savior wants us to do. We continue to develop charity and set an example for those we come in contact with. Well, I'll just hop off my little soap box now hahahah. Charity really is important! And just as Moroni 7:48 says, we need to pray with all the energy of heart to develop that love. I meet so many people filled with that charity, both in and out of the church and am grateful for their examples to me.

 

I taught about thanksgiving at English on Wednesday, and it was so funny... nobody knew what Thanksgiving was. We talked about all the really great food, why we celebrate it, and spent a lot of time talking about what we are all thankful for. It was really great! On actual Thanksgiving we didn't do anything special for it, but Saturday a American from our ward cooked all the missionaries a huge thanksgiving dinner! Pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, gravy (a few people put it in a bowl thinking it was soup hahaha) chicken, olives (yes yes, I remember the story with olives many many years ago hahaha) deviled eggs, stuffing, sweet potatoes, the whole bit! It was really good and reminded me of all the good food we eat on Thanksgiving. I missed being there with you all, but hope you had a fun day!!! We were able to bring Wen JM who was baptized a few months ago, and she brought  her friend Zhang JM who is interested in learning more about our church. It was really fun! We helped him clean up, thanked him, and he sent us home with a ton of leftovers. We have eaten like kings the last 2 days :)

 

Well this week was great, we worked hard, we had fun, and are excited for the next few weeks. Sister King goes home the 17th of next month... so I will have a new companion in 3 weeks. Crazy! Time has flown by so fast. Christmas is almost here and I'm so excited. While I miss you all so much and will miss the fun christmas atmosphere with each and every one of you, I feel really blessed that I can be here serving my Savior who was born that night so many years ago. I love you all!!!

 

Love, Ally

With Sister King and working with my Budda Board

Visit by Elder and Sister Wilson, and trip to the beach

November 12, 2012

Dearest Family,

I first and foremost am happy to say that I have kept a pretty effective journal this week! Progress progress. For preparation day last week I went to a place that blew my mind. I have known that I am on an island for quite some time, however, I never actually believed it until... I went to the BEACH! What?! Palm trees, sand, water, the whole bit! We took some pictures, but I'll be honest, my camera takes really lousy pictures haha. I still sent a few ones that turned out though. We went there with May (Wu JM) one of our investigators. We took the MRT to Xiziwan and then took a ferry to a little island called Qijin. It was so beautiful! We played in the sand in a very dignified appropriate missionary-like manner for a while, checked out a few souvenier shops and then headed back home. I'm now back in the busy city of course, but it was fun to get to see the ocean for a little bit. The next day I woke up with a nasty cold... I am still getting over it, but its much better now. On Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with Zhang JM. She has been meeting with us a few weeks but wasn't really progressing (or so we thought) Turns out she had already read to Jacob and had some really wonderful questions about the Tree of Life in second Nephi. My lovely companion thought it'd be good for me to take a whack at explaining the meaning behind it with my language skills... Ohhhh the humbling language of chinese. However with some stick art and help from Heavenly Father, I think she got the main idea haha. We were also able to share the Joseph Smith experience with her and why our church is different. She is willing to pray about it and keep reading so we're really excited about her. Random tidbit: We printed off 800 english flyers for group english contacting. We went to an intersection to hand them out and gave them ALL away in an hour. Maybe that gives you a little idea of how populated it is here haha.

Wednesday was the best ever! Elder and Sister Wilson came here to visit Gaoxiong. They are the part of the Asia area presidency which means they live in Hong Kong and have dozens of countries they visit all the time to oversee the church and missionary work here in Southern asia. I took pages and pages of notes and learned so much from them. One of my favorite parts of the day was at lunch. All the missionaries clumped together and what not, but Sister King and I decided to sit by Elder and Sister Wilson with the grown-ups haha. Probably not too often does the chance come up to sit and have lunch with a general authority, so we took advantage of it. Turns out Sister Wilson is a convert to the church. Her grandma was a member, but her mother fell away before she was born. She went to several churches growing up but she didn't really feel like any of them were right. Her parents discouraged her, but she always had a feeling there was something more. One summer they went to stay with their grandparents and her grandma told her about our church. She loved it, read the Book of Mormon, and was baptized. She has stayed strong ever since. Several years later her sister joined the church as well. So cool! She is a scriptorian and a half. I really want to become a better student of the scriptures, and now is the perfect time to make wonderful habits to do so for the rest of my life. All in all, a wonderful day. Afterwards Elder Wilson pulled a few missionaries aside and interviewed us. His advice to me was to use these experiences as a spring-board for the rest of my life. I never want to forget the wonderful principles behind the work we are doing here in Taiwan. Everything relates to the future!!! So mind blowing how absolutely wonderful this all is.

Anyways! That night we had english class as we normally do. I'm enjoying teaching Begining class. This week we talked about the letter G and then about friends and how to improve our relationships with others. Afterwards we sat with Wu JM (husband fandui investigator) and had a lesson with her. We started off talking about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She shared a beautiful testimony on how the Book of Mormon had truly become a source of power and inspiration to her. Her son recently left for the military for 3 years. She cried and cried that day, but then took out her new favorite Book. She read for hours and felt an inner peace and comfort she had never felt before. There are many other things that are too personal to share over email, but her life is all but desirable. She has it extremely rough, but still has hope because of the Book of Mormon. It seems so strange that a book could really mean that much, but myself having read it, can also testify to the truthfulness and power of the Book of Mormon. I love that Book, and so does Wu JM. It is such a wonderful experience to see others gain a testimony! I love this work. I don't know if I've said that before.... hahaha.

PINEAPPLE MADNESS! My companion and I had much fun last week as we delivered pineapples to our Bishop, Relief society President, Young Woman president, and Primary President. Pineapples are a sign of prosperity, king-ness, and a bunch of really good stuff that make people feel REALLY special. It felt nice to secretly deliver them (muah ha ha haaa evil laughter... ) This weeks project is cookies to our recent converts. I am curious how we will make cookies, for we have no oven, but it'll be a fun experience. I really miss cookies, but to buy good ones they are really expensive, so I guess that can just wait a year. Ahhh I only have a year left! Crazy. I'm almost to the 7 month mark of being missionary. Friday night we had a primary activity where we made little clay dog things. We had an investigator come, Xie JM with her 3 kids. They had a really great time and the ward was really nice to them. Afterwards, the primary kids went to go practice for their Sacrament Christmas Program so we sat with Xie JM in the back. She said there was a different feeling in that room than others. I explained about the Holy Ghost and what happens at church on Sundays. We are meeting with her again tonight and I hope she will continue to progress. Her kids are SO cute.

Sunday was really fun! Church was uplifting as usual and I got to go to Young Womans with one of our investigators. She had a great time and loves church, so that was nice. Afterwards I got to go to Ukulele class... hahah yeah you read right! Our ward has a uke class after church and they are preparing for our christmas activity. One of our recent converts goes and I wanted to get to know her better, so to Uke class I went. Funniest ever. They can't' play the chords, they decided to sing in English which they can't speak, and none of the ukes were tuned together, but it was still so much fun. I got to help them with pronunciation and such. Uke class. Oh, the best is that they are singing Amazing Grace (not a Christmas song...) and Santa Clase is coming to Town. I love it and I love Asia.

Well folks, I'm hoping that was more detailed all thanks to a journal and notes took this week haha. I love you all so much!!!! I sent a few random pictures that I hope you enjoy! (Mom, if you think any are too unprofessional like the orange one, you don't have to send it to anyone) Oh and Saturday it poured and poured, hence the raincoat picture. LOVE YOUUUU!!!

LOVE, SISTER SMART

Greetings - I LOVE SANMIN!!!

November 12, 2012

I LOVE SANMIN!!!!!!!! Seriously. I love my new area! Sister King is an all-star and knows every person at church. She knows every street, all the good food places, and best of all she is a really hard worker that loves the Lord. That's the most important one! First I'd like to tell ya'll about some of the differences between the two places. I feel like Zhanghua was the wild wild west... I've now moved into Chicago where the buildings reach as tall as the eye can see. Everyone lives in a dalou (tall skyscraper like apartment building) People's houses are way nicer here. Some have TV's and real doors! Not that Zhanghua had fake doors... but more like slidey things. Another huge difference is the ward here! My companion has worked for months and months to get to REALLY know every person in the ward. She knows everything and everyone and it is so wonderful! In Zhanghua we really focused on investigators and baptisms, which is great... but lacks a vital help from the ward. Here we really focus on strengthening the ward, rescuing less-actives, and having members bring their friends to church to get new investigators. Zhanghua will get there one day, but I'm really excited to be here and learn how to better work with the ward. We spent almost all last week going around, meeting members, less actives, new converts, and really getting to know their stories. We are really focusing on ward activities and are currently planning a wonderful Christmas calendar to help the ward get more involved in missionary work while coming closer to Christ. I'M SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS! Anyways, sorry if this letter is a little scattered, but my brain these days is really scattered. I even wrote a list of things to talk about but I'm just all over the place. Paisei paisei. I'm english leader of our free english class again... which I'm trying to be more excited about haha. 3rd movecall in a row... oh well! I appointed myself beginning class teacher which will be really fun.

Another thing I love about Sister King is that we don't stick to the normal ways of missionary work every single day. Of course we still contact, have lessons, and do all that normal stuff, but she is so creative and has tons of other ways we can accomplish the work. For instance, we are taking newsletters to everyone in the ward about the importance of going to the temple. They made cookies for the seminary class last week. We are taking pineapples to our ward leaders this week. We are putting together this really great Christmas activity (more details once we figure them out) and many more. I'm learning so much from her!

One thing about focusing on the ward is that it leaves us with less lessons and investigators than normal. There are pros and cons to both, but I think this way is helping the church have REAL growth. Perhaps it is not our time to get tons of baptisms and what not here, but baptisms mean nothing if they are not truly converted and don't have a wonderful ward to be nurtured in. Sister King is really helping me see that importance and Sanmin is in a really good place right now. We have 2 wonderful progressing investigators that are working towards baptism. The first is Chen JM. She LOVES the gospel. Loves our message about forever families and is really wanting her whole family to be baptized. She feels a  little unprepared, so she still hasn't set a date, but we are just helping her build her faith. She has been to church several times and loves it. I think she fears that her testimony is not as big as some people who have been in the church for a long time. Soon she will come to realize that baptism is between that person and the Lord, nobody else. We are not to compare ourselves with others. As long as we have faith enough to act as God wants us to, that is enough. The second is Wu JM. She is so wonderful!!! She sadly has a husband fandui... so we are kind of at a loss for what to do. He won't let us come over, and usually won't let her come to church. He's extremely controlling and forces her to go bai bai (worship idols and ancestors) When we met with her Saturday, she told us how he made her go with him a few days ago and she just cried. She knows Heavenly Father is not a statue that she needs to give fruit to in order for him to bless her. I ache for her, but also know that God understands the true desires of our hearts. She loves to pray out loud, but her husband won't let her, so she has learned how to pray in English so he doesn't understand and cannot stop her. These wonderful women bless and strengthen my faith each and every day. I learn way more from them than they learn from me. I'll let you know how things go with them.

I really love this work. I'm going to do a better job writing heaps of details, but this is all the time I have today. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCHHH! If any of you have ideas on how to be a better journaler, please please let me know. You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Angie, I'm so glad you are doing better now!!! I miss you all, SEND ME PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Ally

With new companion, Sister King from Utah

Transferred to Sanmin, new companion is Sister King from Utah

November 5, 2012

 

Greetings from Gaoxiong! I have officially been transferred and have a new companion here in the South of Taiwan. Her name is Sister King and she is from Utah. I think we will get along really great. My old companion Sister Sumko is freaking out that I'm leaving, but I'm sure she'll do a great job with Zhanghua. I will miss that place so much... but I guess I've got to move on sometime. I am now living in a little city called Sanmin... little is the wrong way to describe it. Small but HUGELY POPULATED. If we traveled quickly from one side to the other in my last area it would probably take about 5 hours to bike... if not more. Apparently it takes about 25 minutes here... AHH!!! So its a tiny area but with a TON of people. It's also the hottest place on island, so it looks like no winter for me. I was really looking forward to wearing lovely sweaters and tights, but oh well. I am super excited to get to know this area and will spend at least 2 movecalls here! This is Sister King's (Wang JM) last movecall so I'll at least be here one more after she leaves. Gives me some good time to really get to know the ward so I'm really excited about that.

 

My last week in Zhanghua was a good one. Monday started out with a really neat miracle. We are working with a Chen Jiemei right now but she is not really progressing very much. She is a busy mom of 3 children and has yet to feel how the gospel really relates to her life. We were on our way to Anna's house when I saw Chen JM outside doing dishes. We quickly pulled over and I started doing the dishes while Sister Sumko got to know her a little bit better. Once I finished the dishes, she broke down and told us how stressed she was and how her and her husband keep fighting. She is unlike most Taiwanese moms and takes care of her own children (in almost every family the grandparents raise the grandchildren and the parents work) so its really hard on her. We were able to fully relate the gospel to her and show her how certain principles will help the very situations that cause her so much stress. For the first time it seemed like she was actually listening. We then sang Count your Many Blessings with her. I love that song because when life gets tough, which it certainly will from time to time, we can always turn to the Lord and remember all the blessings that He has given to us. I was so happy we were able to follow the Lord's prompting and visit her that night.

 

Tuesday we spent a lot of time getting ready for our English Halloween Carnival on Wednesday. We made signs, set up the games, helped set up the haunted house, and printed 400 fliers to hand out to everyone. We group proselyted and invited tons of people to come as well. We also had a really great lesson with one of our investigators. She wants to be baptized next month so I'm excited they will get to continue working with her! Wednesday was filled with a ton of miracles and great lessons. We visited my favorite Taiwanese person Liang Mama (the 78 year old we baptized last month) and also had a lesson with Pan JM who is getting baptized in 3 weeks. Zhanghua is really growing, and while I'm sad I won't be able to be there to see it, I feel really blessed I was able to be a small part of it for 4 months. Wednesday night was the CARNIVAL!!! Twas a smashing success with 120 people in attendance! (Pretty crazy since sacrament attendance is only like 50, but it was all 3 wards)The greatest part was that tons of people invited their friends who had never been to church before, so we were able to meet a ton of new friends. The games turned out great, the food was great, the people were great, and the haunted house was great! People dressed up (including myself as a student... I borrowed a friend's school uniform haha) and it was a grand old time. Yahhhh!!!!!!

 

Ahh, my time always goes way too fast. We were able to visit a lot of people and see many miracles. The Lord truly watches over each and every one of us. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in Zhanghua and will never forget those people. I also look forward to this new opportunity to serve in Sanmin. I love you all so much!!! Enjoy the pictures :)

 

Love, Sister Smart

Wonderful Miracle Friday Night

October 29, 2012

I don't have much time, but this week was pretty great. I'd like to start off with a wonderful miracle that happened Friday night. We had gotten to the church a little bit early for correlation so we could finish calling our APR. I went out to get a drink when I saw a woman wondering through the hallway. She was dressed in a nice skirt so I asked if she was in the 3rd ward (we are over 1st and 2nd so I don't know many from 3rd ward) She said that this was her first time coming to the church and she was looking for a gospel class that she saw on a little blue slip of paper. I apologized that it was written wrong on the paper,  but that we would love to sit down with her and answer any questions she may have about us. As we got to know her, she told us that she was looking for 3 things that other Christian churches haven't been able to give her. Light, love, and joy. We tied those into the Restoration and had a wonderful lesson with her, then giving her a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read on each of those 3 topics. Huang Jiemei is one of those people we pray to find each and everyday: searching for truth, ready to accept the gospel, and willing to act on the answer she receives. One of my favorite parts of the lesson was that when Sister Sumko started reciting Joseph Smith's experience, Huang Jiemei interrupted her and said wait, "let's all close our eyes. I feel like this is going to be important." I have never felt the spirit so strongly in a first sit-down with anyone before, and I was am so grateful we were able to be where the Lord wanted us when He wanted us there. It is a true testimony that God loves all of his children and is preparing them to hear the gospel.

To make this even more special, she has been prepared for a long time. She said she has seen missionaries all over the place, even us recently. Turns out, when I was on sister exchanges with Sister Su on Tuesday and we were going to the hospital to visit someone, we invited her to church but she didn't seem to interested. Wednesday she said a prayer to God and told Him that she would go to the church of the next Christian people that talked to her. No coincidence, I saw her back in my own area on Thursday and invited her to church again, but she didn't have time to stop. So she just showed up Friday night looking for us. God is a God of miracles and we are so blessed to be doing His work.

Wednesday was a wonderful day filled with miracles as we met with several investigators progressing towards baptism. We were also able to visit several members this week that haven't been to church in a really long time to let them know that they are missed dearly. Everyone needs to feel loved and missed, and I'm so grateful we get to be the Lord's mouth in expressing His love for each and every one of these people.

Well, my time is up because we are spending our preparation day getting ready for a HUGE ward activity my companion and I are putting on for Halloween. I am the leader of English class every wednesday, so we are putting on a huge carnival that will transform the chuch into every kid's dream. We are really excited, but must cut our personal time short today.

Love, Ally