Start of the 10th movecall

June 24, 2013

I feel like it was only yesterday when I said it was the start of my 9th movecall and I only had 3 more times to say that. Well, today starts my 10th and I only can say that 2 more times. Time is going freakily fast. Kinda scares me, but we'll make every minute wonderful! Here's last week for ya

-We met with Zoey last week. She's preparing to go to Tainan for the summer, a place down south. So this was our last week with her. I'll probably be out of Fengyuan before she gets back. We stressed the importance of CPR (Church, praying, and reading the scriptures) as she goes to a new area for the summer. She knows where the church is and will take the bus there, and the sisters there will start meeting with her. I know she'll do great. This morning we took her to the train station and sent her off (since her family "didn't have time") and were able to say goodbye. I'll miss her tons, but I'll see her again.

-We spent a lot of time visiting some members of the ward who have not come to church for a long time for one reason or another and were able to meet some really great families! One, the Zhang family. They have a 16 year old daughter named Sunny that is so funny. She came to church yesterday with her mom, so we were really excited about that! We're going to visit them again tonight. Another girl, Lucy, was surprised when we took the mountain trip up to visit her. Her grandma was really excited to see waiguoren (foreigners) and let us in immediately. We were able to get to know their family and are also going to visit them again. There was another Zhang JM that we met who was really excited to see us! She had just kind of forgotten about church for a while, and when we met with her, that brought back some really great feelings. It was a huge miracle that we met, because we had the wrong address, but still found her! She gave us her new address and told us to stop by anytime, which of course we will.

-We had the English class America party on Wednesday! It was a TON of fun and we had around 70 people come. One station was sports, where they taught about what football is (they have no idea here) and showed some clips, and then had them "play" a little bit. Another station was history where they dressed up as indians and pilgrims and talked about how we came to be America. The kids especially loved their little indian hats! Another station was on movies, where a bunch of movies were written on a piece of paper, and then their synopsis on another. They split them up and had to find their match, and then act it out. My station was on food! We talked about all the different food we eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then different holidays. We also taught them how to make pancakes and even had SYRUP! Both are not to be found here. They loved it! At the end, everyone got together and I thanked everyone for coming and introduced the song I am a Child of God a little bit. Then the ukulele class along with my kids english class performed together! It was so cute and I think everyone loved it. Afterwards, I had invited 2 members to share their personal experiences with prayer and taught everyone how to pray. It was a ton of fun and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. 8 of our english students came to church yesterday for the first time :)

-Thursday we went to Houli, a beautiful city in my area. It is few buildings and many rice fields, just what I like. We were able to visit lots of folks and enjoyed our day. The only downside was the 102 mosquito bites on my legs from one person's house. I was shocked. My legs are something quite hideous, will you all still love me? Hope so. If you have ANY remedies from mosquitos/bites/anything please let me know. It was still a great day though haha

I'm sorry I know there is a lot I'm missing this week but the time just slips away so quickly every week! I'm glad Spencer is doing well and I'm glad Mom and Dad were able to spend so much time in Utah helping out over there. I hope you are all having a wonderful time and are remembering how lucky we all are. We each have countless blessings every single day. I know that even when times get tough, we always have a loving Heavenly Father who knows whats best. I don't doubt that one bit. I love you all so much! I know this work is true and am excited to watch that missionary broadcast thing next week! I heard some cool things might be coming our way. We get our new mission presdient this week, so that will be exciting!

Love you all!

Song Sister

Ups and Downs

June 17, 2013

Welp, dearest family. I miss you all a lot! This last week was great and had a lot of ups and downs. More than ever I know that the Lord is mindful of us and know He loves us all.

Monday night we met with our lovely Zoey who's baptism was scheduled for the 15th. She passed her interview last week and her Dad traveled the 2 hours (1 hour by foot, one hour by bus) back from Heping to come and sign her form. He is really supportive of her decision which we are so grateful for. So many parents here object to their children getting baptized because they are worried that they won't have any children to bai bai them (burn incense and worship them once after they die) Her dad is aware of the changes that she's made and is really supportive. Her mom lives in China (divorced at a young age) and doesn't have much to do with their lives. We talked about Jesus Christ and prepared her for what would happen at her baptism. She was so excited and we were too! We also met with Monica that night and shared about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. She said she is willing to pray and read to find out for herself if it is true. She is so great and has such a strong desire to know what is right and what the Lord wants her to do. Our own desire is the most important part when it comes to finding out.

 Random bit: We also went to COSTCO for the first time on my mission!!! Taiwan has costco, did you know that? I've never been close to it before but a member wanted to take us. We've been thriving on some american goods this last week and it has been luxurious!

Tuesday we rode up to Dongshi and visited some friends. Well, tried to anyways. The addresses we have are all wrong because the addresses have changed in the last few years. It started pouring rain which is always a nice break from the wetness from sweat haha. It's always cooler when it rains. Wednesday rained even more, almost typhoon like! It was so much fun to ride in. The streets were flooded and we were more than soaked. During the day, we were standing by a door about to get on our bikes when a lady holding a baby raccoon came out and yelled at me to go home, then hit me (literally hit me), and then asked if I wanted to hold her racoon. Of course I did! It was cute. and then we got on our bikes and left as she was yelling at us to go home. It was funny. That night, english class was especially fun. We learned body parts and played a fun game. I wrote body parts on pieces of paper and then put them in a bag. I then gave each student a piece of paper with a head on it. As they drew out the body parts, they picked a number 1-6 and then drew how ever many of them that they drew. Does that make sense? Like if I picked 4, then drew eyes, I had to draw 4 eyes on my alien. We called them our funny aliens and the kids loved it. Then we practiced for this weeks performance (big english party coming up) again. They are excited, and the uke class is too! I'll be sure to take pictures and let you know how it goes.

Thursday we had a training meeting for the new missionaries and their trainers. We just talked about how things are going and how we can all improve. It was one of my favorite meetings ever. We talked about what it means to be a Nazarite. Those are the people in the bible that wouldn't cut their hair, or do certain things for a certain period of time. Similar to missionaries, we don't do certain things for a period of 18 months-2 years. During this time, we can focus on what is truly important and help others, while also receiving a special strength from the Lord.(we wont let dumb girls come cut our hair either during that time.. haha) My companion and I set tons of goals to work on and how we can become better teachers and representatives of Jesus Christ. It was so great!

 We also started a fast for Zoey and her baptism on Saturday. After we finished our fast on Friday, we got a call a few hours later from Zoey. She called, almost in tears, saying that her mom called from China saying that she changed her mind and that she cannot be baptized in a Christian church. She said she was too young and didn't understand what she was doing. Her dad said she could, but not wanting to go against her mother, we had to cancel the baptism. It was a really shattering moment. I'm ashamed to say that my first thoughts were questioning whether fasting really works. I know that God has His timing and His plan for us all, so I didn't doubt in faith, but I was just disappointed. However, the Lord knows what we need and in the next few hours we saw that fasting and prayer truly work, just maybe not always in the manner we expect it in. The moment we finished dinner, we had incredible lessons and met wonderful people that had interest in the gospel. It was a wonderful night that we all needed. I love my mission more than words can say!

Well I would write more but my time is short, but I can testify that the Lord is aware of us. He knows what we need and that we can overcome it with His help. I'll fast with you all this week for Spencer. I love you all so much!!!

Love, Ally

Hiii

June 10, 2013

This last week was amazing! Sister Ah Quin and I are having a blast as usual. I have once again repented and became a journaler last week. Haha, its a weekly struggle. Here are some highlights for the week!

-We went to our new stake center in Daya and it is beautiful! It's huge too! We had a great Zone meeting where we practiced teaching in unison. Sister Ah Quin's chinese is getting better and better each day. She works so hard at it and the Lord is blessing her a ton. It's great!

-We met with one of our less active friends, Lai JM and took her a gospel art book. She was curious who Emma Smith was, so we ended up reading in the Doctrine and Covenants with her. I love that scripture about Emma being an elect lady who has divine potential. The talks in church Sunday were also about Zion sisters, and what kind of women we are and how big our influence is. It's so great to see so many examples of wonderful women here in Taiwan that are helping their posterity have happier lives.

-Wednesday I went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leader ( a new calling in the mission!) Sister Whitesides. It was pretty fun. We taught a few lessons and then had english as normal. That night I taught about animals, and it was so much fun. My class has grown to about 20 now and it is insane, but a lot of fun. Good practice for the future teaching I guess.

-Thursday we tried the ukulele class to prepare for our english party next week. It was a smashing success! Tons of people came, only 1 of them having ever played a ukulele before, but it was really fun and we got to learn all the chords for it. We'll be working on the strumming this week and performing next week. They're so excited, and my english class is too. They are working hard to practice their english for it.

-Zoey passed her baptismal interview and is getting baptized this week! We'll be going up to Heping to get her dad's signature, which will be an adventure, so I'm excited. We also said goodbye to one of our wonderful friends who was going to get baptized soon, because she moved to Austria for a few months. Do you know if we have missionaries there? Let me know. I'll miss her so much, but we got her email and will stay in touch.

-Friday we were handing out english tracts at a night market when a member walked up to us and was like, Hey! I'm a member too, I haven't been to church in forever. Will you guys come visit me?.... YA! haha it was really cool and we got to know her a lot more. We also met this cool happy family. The dad was missing part of his leg, the mom had a cleft lip, and some of the kids had little deformaties as well. It was so awesome to see how happy and loving they were to each other and reminds me that we can find joy in any situation. Family and love are the most important of them all!

-We also had a cool lesson with Vicky. We went over to her house and went into her kitched. We talked about how none of us are perfect, and all will make mistakes or come against trials, so we slowly started adding gross things to her hands. Soy sauce, honey, pepper, etc etc, until we asked her to get rid of it by herself. When she couldn't get it off, we read a scripture about how we need Christ and His atonement. She then washed her hands and became clean. He suffered for us and through his atonement, we too can be clean and overcome all that is unfair in the world. I love this gospel and love teaching her in Taiwan! I love you all and shall write more next week as usual.

Love, Sister Smart

Folks, the heat is here

June 3, 2013

Folks, the heat is here. It has been here for a while but now it is really here here. It will only get hotter, so we eat a lot of cold fruit and ice these days. It's nice :)Well... I wrote only 4 days ago so I'm not sure this will be too long, but I'll give it my best shot. I'll also send more pictures.

Funny story: We went out by the gate of the church and found a new little friend. It was a duck. It was stuck looking at its reflection for a good 20 minutes before we just left. It might still be there right now for all I know. Weird right?

We had an earthquake yesterday! It was another fun one where we were swaying in the church for a good minute or so. We were in the middle of a meeting. Our Taiwanese correlator was really scared, and the rest of us missionaries were laughing and ran to the windows to see the world move a bit . It was fun.

 We're having a baptism next week and the week after that we are excited about! 2 younger girls, Zoey and Karis are excited to follow Christ and His teachings. We'll also have President Bishop's goodbye meeting this week, so I'll let you know how that goes.

As you know, our english class has parties every 6 weeks. Well, I'm teaching my kids class I'm a child of God in english, and they are going to perform as part of it! We are trying to help the ward be more involved in missionary work ( we cannot do it without them!) and decided to throw a class for 2 weeks on how to play that song on the ukulele. They will then accompany my english class. I'm excited to see if it works out haha.

I've been studying a lot about Jesus lately. His example is just incredible. I love reading the Book of Mormon and bible side by side to learn. I want to become a better teacher of the gospel, and want to learn from the best. I'm so grateful for my Savior and His wonderful example to me and all of us. I know our family is having some difficulties lately, but I love you all and know the Lord does too. I'll keep praynig for you all. I miss you!!!

Love, Sister Smart

With companions and trip to Taiwan Taipei Temple

Trip to Taiwan Taipei Temple

May 29, 2013

Dearest dear ones,

I apologize for the lack of a letter Monday. Our preparation day moved to today because we went to the temple today! I don't have a lot of time, but I am happy to send you all some pictures! I'm going to try and get more pictures of random everyday things that are different here. The temple was beautiful! It was the second time I've been able to go on my mission because I was down south for so long. I love the feelings of peace and hope that fill me up from top to bottom. Being in such a perfect place makes me want to be a better person. Hope you enjoy the photos :) The one with me and 3 other sisters are all my companions that are left on island! They are all so wonderful.

Sister Ah Quin and I had a wonderful week last week. We were able to meet with wonderful people that keep learning more and have desires to change. Monica is doing great! She had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and how to apply it to her life, so we were able to read together about Christ and feel the spirit testify strongly that it was true. Zoey is also doing well. She downloaded the scriptures on her phone so she can read it no matter where she goes :) She's so cute. Another one of our friends name is Gina (by the way, we always call them by their chinese names, but they all have english names, so I figure its easier to just refer to them by their english names in emails) She's had a really rough life and has turned to a lot of bad sources to try and overcome it. We met her when she was lower than ever, looking for a way to be happy again. She found it and we have been tirelessly helping her feel the cleansing effects of the atonement in her life. Huang JM is also doing really good, but still has a strong husband objection. We're working on it :)

The time is flying by. I can't believe its already halfway through the movecall. Funny story time: We were riding home one night and passed a cute dog on the side of the road. The heat must have affected me and I jokingly barked at the dog a little. It reared up and started attacking my companion who was right behind me! I was laughing so hard (don't worry, it stopped after a second and she was fine) and couldn't stop laughing all the way home. Well... I learned my lesson a few days later when we were again on the way home. We see the same dog and I am careful not to say anything. A lady pulls out in front of me which forces me to the side of the road, in the furocious dogs territory. I am trapped and it starts coming after me! My companion bikes away laughing and laughing, and once I was free, I was as well. Oh dogs.

Well you are all wonderful! Keep doing the thigns you know you're supposed to do. Know that God loves you and so do I!

Love, Sister Smart

Bus trip to the mountains, new Stake Center completed.

May 20, 2013

 

I'm so excited Rachelle had her baby! Welcome little Makaylan for me. I can't wait to meet her! Today I'm going to send some pictures about my life. Enjoy. Maybe it gets old to you all that I say it every week, but it's true, this last week was great. My companion is still wonderful and we still love Fengyuan.

 

Tuesday was a really funny day that was spent in Xinshe (a little city up in the mountains) You can only get there by bus, and then walking around once we are there. We went up to visit one of our friends, but she canceled right as we got up there because she was feeling sick. We had brought a few old friends records to see how they were doing, so we decided to visit them! We also went around to visit some members that hadn't been to church in a while. Not a single person was home haha. We walked around for hours, visiting many a homes, but nobody answered! It was pretty funny, but we were invited in to drink tea by lots of little old ladies. The mountain people are so nice to us. It's refreshing to get out of the city sometimes. Tonight we'll go to Dongshi, another city in a different mountain. Oh how I love the mountains. Anyways, after talking to some amas and teaching them how to pray after they asked, we had a plan to catch the 91 bus to get back to Fengyuan (that bus only comes once an hour) We ended up missing it twice! Each time due to someone else talking to us and asking questions. Then we'd meander off while waiting for the next one, and then the same thing happening. We finally just walked a little ways down the mountain to hop on a random bus, hoping it would take us somewhere to catch a 91 (the only one that goes all the way to Fengyuan) We get off and notice that we are close to another members house, so we stop by to say hello. Turns out, she wasn't home either haha. We then set out to find ourselves a bus to catch... On this journey, we made friends with a stray dog that followed us around for a good half hour while we walked down the mountain. After a while, I had this weird feeling that we just weren't going the right way... We asked a bus going up the mountain and he told us we were heading down the wrong side of the mountain towards Dongshi! We got on his bus and started laughing when a woman looked at us and said, hey! I'm a member of your church. Turns out, she lived in Malaysia for a while and due to some life trials hadn't been to church in a really long time. We were able to chat with her and tell her where the closest one to her was here in Taiwan. As we finally got on the right bus a few hours after our original plan, I smiled to myself at how cool Heavenly Father is. Our day was really weird, and didn't end up how we thought it would, but we were able to meet one of His daughters who really needed a reminder that she was loved. I like days like that :)

 

Our new stake center was finished last week too! We got to have our every-other-monthly interviews with president which were good. President Bishop and his wife will go home at the end of this movecall. I will really miss them and know they have blessed this mission beyond compare. I'm sure the Blickenstaffs will be great as well. The new stake center is so beautiful! It's HUGE. We'll go there once a month for meetings, so I'm excited about that. That night we had english again, 2 new families came! They both have kids in my childrens class, so that was fun. We talked about directions and transportation, played lots of games. I like being a kid.

 

Remember Huang JM from last week? Well we have continued to meet with her and she is doing great! We found out just how scared she is of her buddhist gods on Tuesday though. We went over to her house to visit her and were about to sing and say a prayer, when she crouched really low in her seat and said, "NO no, we can't do that here. The gods will be upset." After a little bit of asking, turns out, even though she doesn't like her religion, she is extremely scared of it. She said we couldn't talk about anything with Christ, cause they would get mad. It's the first time that has happened for me, so it was a little weird and I wasn't quite sure what to do. We just got to know her a lot more and then scheduled a time at the church, where she feels comfort and safety. We were able to meet with her later in the week and discuss more on teh Book of MOrmon and answer soem of her questions. We now know some specific areas the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless and help her feel safe. 

 

The ward is doing great. There has been a push lately for everyone to step our of their box and take care of each other. We are really excited about this change and are thinking of some activities and ways we can help. If you guys have any ideas on how to encourage ward unity and help people come back to church, let me know! I'm sorry my time is short today. I love you all so much!!!! I know this work is true and I am so happy. 

 

Love, Sister Smart

New companion, Sister Ah Quin, from Lehi, Utah. She is Hawaiian and one of the first 19year old sisters

May 13, 2013

 

Well folks, it's the start of a new movecall. I can only say that 3 more times after this :/ Heavenly Father has been too good to me this last week. The first few days Sister Burrows and I spent in the hospital, preparing and then getting her surgery and then recovery. Everything went well! Sister Burrows is safe and sound and in the arms of a new companion, Sister McKay in Beitun. I am now companions with the wonderful Sister Ah Quin, who is the world's greatest companion. She's hawaiian, one of the first 19 year olds here, funny, patient, kind, hard working, loving, diligent... basically everything a companion could want. We have seen so many miracles just in the last few days being together. Here are some of them!

 

Chen JM is one of our more recent converts, and we've been working on developing her individual testimony of the Book of Mormon. Sister Ah Quin was planning for her that day and felt that we should try a little activity. We started off talking about why we like reading the Book of Mormon and followed up on how reading has been going lately. Then we talked about how the Book of Mormon answers ALL questions, no matter where we read, so we put it to the test. We each wrote down a question we had, and then knelt and prayed together for Heavenly Father to help us receive revelation. Afterwards, we opened up the scriptures and Chen JM opened up to Alma 7 on her own and said we should read there. We read it together, and then took 5 minutes to write down thoughts, revelation, answers etc that we felt. After a few minutes, we all finished and then shared how it went. She was so amazed that she got an answer and was smiling from ear to ear. She thought it was so cool that God gives us revelation willingly, we just need the faith to ask. She was excited to continue reading the Book of Mormon daily and continue to receive revelation! It also strengthened my own testimony that God really does hear and answer our prayers and that the Book of Mormon is true.

 

One night we were heading home and felt like we were going to meet one more person who was prepared to hear the gospel. We were only about 3 minutes from our home so we decided to go a longer way and down a super busy road with more people. We turn down that road and for the first time ever, not a single person was on the road, no cars, no scooters, no one haha! We started to laugh but still felt like we would meet one more person. We were 1 light away from our house when it turned red. I looked at my companion and said half-joking, "oh no you just wait, she'll walk over to us in like 5 seconds" She turns to me and says "5.....4......3....." and then kept laughing, THEN a girl walks out of the seven and starts coming towards us. We say hello to her and, lo and behold she is the one! We talked to her for about 20 minutes and are excited to meet with her again. God is a God of miracles, who can deny it?

 

I met Huang JM yesterday at church. It was her first time and she walked in, speaking only Taiyu (Taiwanese language) I tried to spit out my broken taiyu, and got my point across that she was welcome and could sit down. Afterwards, she talked to us for a little bit about why she wants learn more about Christ. She doesn't feel anything with her religion currently and wants to feel like someone cares and loves her. She felt so special at church and wants to pray to find out whether Heavenly Father exists or not. The difficult thing is that her husband really objects, so she said she couldn't give us her number in case he answers. We gave her ours, and hoped for the best as we said good-byes after church. This morning, she called us!!! She had time so we met right then. We were able to share with her more and give her a Book of Mormon. One of my favorite things about beign a missionary is being able to literally see the transition from someone who feels lonely and unloved, to someone who can start to feel that they have worth. They are a child of God. They have hope. The more they let the gospel influence their lives, the bigger the transformation we get to witness. Makes me so happy

My companion really is so wonderful. She is full of faith and ready to work hard for the Lord. We know Heavenly Father has great plans for this area that we intend on carrying out! The picture is of us at a hot pot with another one of our ward members, Chen JM. I'm so glad we were able to skype!!! I loved seeing and hearing from you guys. I will take more pictures this next week and send them soon :) Send me pictures of the new baby! I love you all dearly!!!

Sister Smart