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
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