Monday, September 30, 2013
Yet another "Best week ever!"
September 30, 2013
But really, it was like the best week ever. It is incredible what working with the members in your ward can do to help God's work truly progress. We made a goal to work with different members every single day this week, and it brought a slew of miracles.
Monday night we had too many lessons to do on our own, so we both split up and went with members as our companions. I was with Ya lan and we met with Guo JM, one of our investigators. When we met with her, we talked about how she feels about all the things we have taught her. She said that she believes they are all true and wanted to understand a little bit more about baptism and the Book of Mormon. We took some time to explain a little more in depth about the Book of Mormon and then how it contains all of life's answers. Afterwards, she started to ask some questions and we together found answers in the Book of Mormon! We talked about how repentance is truly changing our hearts and how it relates to baptism and she really felt the spirit. It was one of the coolest lessons and she really could feel the Holy Ghost testifying that all these things are true. She is having her baptismal interview tonight. She has changed so much over the last 2 months and it makes me so happy to see her so happy!
Tuesday proved to be extremely busy as well, so again, we split up with members to go and work. I went with Hong Chen, we met with Cynthia, Pan JM, Zheng Jm, and the Xu family. There is something special about having a church member be able to testify of how the gospel has changed and blessed their lives. We are missionaries, this is what we do all day every day. They expect us to share these things. However, when a mom of 3 kids shares about how the gospel has helped her family have more peace in the home with a mom who wants her children to be happy, it helps them so much.
You guessed it, wednesday was also busy and so we worked with the Xu family to visit some families! The Ke family came to church yesterday and loved it! Their 3 little kids are ridiculously cute. I can't wait to see my own nieces and nephews :) That night for english spiritual share, after teahing about nature, I taught about the creation. It was really fun as my students drew it out on the whiteboard. We then talked about what a great gift Sunday is as a day of rest and service to the Lord. I love sunday!
Thursday, Sister Shen and I went up north to Taizhong for a meeting. We talked about how the mission is going after some changes implemented with the new president. We also got fed an incredible homemade lunch... it was a chicken something. I'm not sure but it was the best food I've had since the last time I went to this meeting last month... haha. That night we came home and went out with Guo Jm, a sister who is about to go on a mission to Australia! She came with us to visit 2 friends. She really loves the feeling of sharing her testimony and I know she'll be a great missionary.
Friday we had another day of meetings, zone conference, but this time in Jiayi and with our Tainan zone and the Jiayi zone. That just means we met with about 40 other missionaries to receive training from our president. We talked a lot about the blessing of repentance and converstion. I really learned a lot and am excited to keep trying some new things we learned. The only bad part of the meeting was towards the end... Every new missionary gets introduced by their trainers at these meetings. I remember previous meetings when I was introduced by my trainer, and then later when I introduced my new missionaries. This is fun and entertaining... However I was unprepared for the second part, where missionaries about to go home give their reflections. And yes, I had to give a 2-3 minute reflection about what I learned on my mission. I had to sum up 18 months in just 3 minutes. I rambled about love and converstion. To me, converstion is truly knowing that God loves us, and being willing to show Him that we love Him too. Once we feel His love and His mercy, the desire to obey will naturally come. It's a pretty neat thing. That night we all raced home because we had a baptism! Our cute little 12 year old Xue Qing got baptized, along with Cai DX, one of the elders friends. It turned out great and helped Guo JM (the one listed above) get excited about her own baptism. Everything went wonderfully.
Saturday was great, Sunday was great, last night's missionary fireside was great, the lesson the 3rd ward bishop asked us to teach to relief society and priesthood combined went great (talked about member missionary work), Sister shen's talk in the 4th ward went great, to put it simply, life is just great. I know this work is true. I know God loves us. I pray for each and every one of you every single day!!!
But really, it was like the best week ever. It is incredible what working with the members in your ward can do to help God's work truly progress. We made a goal to work with different members every single day this week, and it brought a slew of miracles.
Monday night we had too many lessons to do on our own, so we both split up and went with members as our companions. I was with Ya lan and we met with Guo JM, one of our investigators. When we met with her, we talked about how she feels about all the things we have taught her. She said that she believes they are all true and wanted to understand a little bit more about baptism and the Book of Mormon. We took some time to explain a little more in depth about the Book of Mormon and then how it contains all of life's answers. Afterwards, she started to ask some questions and we together found answers in the Book of Mormon! We talked about how repentance is truly changing our hearts and how it relates to baptism and she really felt the spirit. It was one of the coolest lessons and she really could feel the Holy Ghost testifying that all these things are true. She is having her baptismal interview tonight. She has changed so much over the last 2 months and it makes me so happy to see her so happy!
Tuesday proved to be extremely busy as well, so again, we split up with members to go and work. I went with Hong Chen, we met with Cynthia, Pan JM, Zheng Jm, and the Xu family. There is something special about having a church member be able to testify of how the gospel has changed and blessed their lives. We are missionaries, this is what we do all day every day. They expect us to share these things. However, when a mom of 3 kids shares about how the gospel has helped her family have more peace in the home with a mom who wants her children to be happy, it helps them so much.
You guessed it, wednesday was also busy and so we worked with the Xu family to visit some families! The Ke family came to church yesterday and loved it! Their 3 little kids are ridiculously cute. I can't wait to see my own nieces and nephews :) That night for english spiritual share, after teahing about nature, I taught about the creation. It was really fun as my students drew it out on the whiteboard. We then talked about what a great gift Sunday is as a day of rest and service to the Lord. I love sunday!
Thursday, Sister Shen and I went up north to Taizhong for a meeting. We talked about how the mission is going after some changes implemented with the new president. We also got fed an incredible homemade lunch... it was a chicken something. I'm not sure but it was the best food I've had since the last time I went to this meeting last month... haha. That night we came home and went out with Guo Jm, a sister who is about to go on a mission to Australia! She came with us to visit 2 friends. She really loves the feeling of sharing her testimony and I know she'll be a great missionary.
Friday we had another day of meetings, zone conference, but this time in Jiayi and with our Tainan zone and the Jiayi zone. That just means we met with about 40 other missionaries to receive training from our president. We talked a lot about the blessing of repentance and converstion. I really learned a lot and am excited to keep trying some new things we learned. The only bad part of the meeting was towards the end... Every new missionary gets introduced by their trainers at these meetings. I remember previous meetings when I was introduced by my trainer, and then later when I introduced my new missionaries. This is fun and entertaining... However I was unprepared for the second part, where missionaries about to go home give their reflections. And yes, I had to give a 2-3 minute reflection about what I learned on my mission. I had to sum up 18 months in just 3 minutes. I rambled about love and converstion. To me, converstion is truly knowing that God loves us, and being willing to show Him that we love Him too. Once we feel His love and His mercy, the desire to obey will naturally come. It's a pretty neat thing. That night we all raced home because we had a baptism! Our cute little 12 year old Xue Qing got baptized, along with Cai DX, one of the elders friends. It turned out great and helped Guo JM (the one listed above) get excited about her own baptism. Everything went wonderfully.
Saturday was great, Sunday was great, last night's missionary fireside was great, the lesson the 3rd ward bishop asked us to teach to relief society and priesthood combined went great (talked about member missionary work), Sister shen's talk in the 4th ward went great, to put it simply, life is just great. I know this work is true. I know God loves us. I pray for each and every one of you every single day!!!
Love, Sister Smart
Monday, September 23, 2013
Surviving typhoons and eating lots of meat
September 23, 2013
As the subject foretells, this last week we had a typhoon and I ate a lot of meat. I think the latter was more fearsome.
The whole week in general was pretty rainy, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wind got pretty bad the last few days but it really wasn't near as bad as other typhoons I've experienced here. I've heard it was worse in other cities though, so I hope they are okay. Monday night we ate dinner with a family here. It was pretty crazy when I mentioned my brother in law served here 10 years ago, of course they ask who, I say his name, and they go crazy and ask if he is the one with the crazy blonde hair. They said "he showed me a picture" and I knew it was Davido immediately :) They love him so much and still remember him. It makes me happy to think that the time we spend here really does make a difference. Thanks Davido for being a great missionary many moons ago!
Cai JM, a sister in our ward, has had it pretty rough lately. She's gone through a bad divorce and can't see her 2 kids as often as she'd like. She's been a champ through it all but we wanted to do something special for her. We both thought of tons of quotes and scriptures, wrote them down on tiny pieces of paper, and put them into little already-made pills, and then into a glass jar. She was prescribed to take daily or as needed. Hope it helps her!
We also started meeting with a new friend, Li JM. She is one of the most prepared people I've ever seen. First, we met her in a 7, and she walked up to us and asked if she could learn more. She then came to church, loved it. Then she met with us again, asking why there are so many different churches, so we shared with her about the Restoration. She really feels that God is really helping her to find truth, and that's why she wanted to talk and meet with us. God really does help us meet the right people at the right time.
Mibo is doing great! We taught her about prophets and general conference coming up. I'm so excited!!! When you think about it, it really is pretty dang cool that we have a living prophet who can guide us in these days. We had them in bible times, why wouldnt we have them now? Watching them speak helps my testimony grow each and every time, I know they are men called of God.
We also had "Clean the Earth" day with 3 & 4 ward. We had it pretty good because we went to beautiful Anping Harbor, the beach, and cleaned up trash. The beach is only about 15 minutes from my house. I am a lucky girl. It was really great, and we had some friends come with us to help clean it up. Everyone had a great time serving together. The funniest part was at the end when we ran into a group of students. They freaked out when they saw americans, and begged to talk with us, take pictures etc. When I was about to leave, I gave one of the girls a hug. As I let go, she turned and screamed to her friends, "IM NEVER SHOWERING AGAIN!!! My life is complete!" I felt pretty awkward at that time and told her that she definitely needed to shower because I smell really bad. It was pretty funny in general, and we enjoyed our service that day.
This last weekend was Zhong Qiu Jie! Mid autumn festival. We got to go to 3 different BBQ's asian style. They are pretty different, but we were able to get our hands on some marshmallows! It was a great time. One of them was on someones roof, overlooking anping harbor, nighttime with a full moon, and fireworks overlooking the water. Talk about a beautiful site! It was a really great week and I love living here.
Funny:
As the subject foretells, this last week we had a typhoon and I ate a lot of meat. I think the latter was more fearsome.
The whole week in general was pretty rainy, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wind got pretty bad the last few days but it really wasn't near as bad as other typhoons I've experienced here. I've heard it was worse in other cities though, so I hope they are okay. Monday night we ate dinner with a family here. It was pretty crazy when I mentioned my brother in law served here 10 years ago, of course they ask who, I say his name, and they go crazy and ask if he is the one with the crazy blonde hair. They said "he showed me a picture" and I knew it was Davido immediately :) They love him so much and still remember him. It makes me happy to think that the time we spend here really does make a difference. Thanks Davido for being a great missionary many moons ago!
Cai JM, a sister in our ward, has had it pretty rough lately. She's gone through a bad divorce and can't see her 2 kids as often as she'd like. She's been a champ through it all but we wanted to do something special for her. We both thought of tons of quotes and scriptures, wrote them down on tiny pieces of paper, and put them into little already-made pills, and then into a glass jar. She was prescribed to take daily or as needed. Hope it helps her!
We also started meeting with a new friend, Li JM. She is one of the most prepared people I've ever seen. First, we met her in a 7, and she walked up to us and asked if she could learn more. She then came to church, loved it. Then she met with us again, asking why there are so many different churches, so we shared with her about the Restoration. She really feels that God is really helping her to find truth, and that's why she wanted to talk and meet with us. God really does help us meet the right people at the right time.
Mibo is doing great! We taught her about prophets and general conference coming up. I'm so excited!!! When you think about it, it really is pretty dang cool that we have a living prophet who can guide us in these days. We had them in bible times, why wouldnt we have them now? Watching them speak helps my testimony grow each and every time, I know they are men called of God.
We also had "Clean the Earth" day with 3 & 4 ward. We had it pretty good because we went to beautiful Anping Harbor, the beach, and cleaned up trash. The beach is only about 15 minutes from my house. I am a lucky girl. It was really great, and we had some friends come with us to help clean it up. Everyone had a great time serving together. The funniest part was at the end when we ran into a group of students. They freaked out when they saw americans, and begged to talk with us, take pictures etc. When I was about to leave, I gave one of the girls a hug. As I let go, she turned and screamed to her friends, "IM NEVER SHOWERING AGAIN!!! My life is complete!" I felt pretty awkward at that time and told her that she definitely needed to shower because I smell really bad. It was pretty funny in general, and we enjoyed our service that day.
This last weekend was Zhong Qiu Jie! Mid autumn festival. We got to go to 3 different BBQ's asian style. They are pretty different, but we were able to get our hands on some marshmallows! It was a great time. One of them was on someones roof, overlooking anping harbor, nighttime with a full moon, and fireworks overlooking the water. Talk about a beautiful site! It was a really great week and I love living here.
Funny:
I met a lady named White Lily Jesus. She gave me bananas.
Well I love you all dearly :) Have a great week!!!
Sister Smart
Well I love you all dearly :) Have a great week!!!
Sister Smart
Monday, September 16, 2013
HIIIIIIIIIIIII
Hello hello! My life is great. My week was great. My companion is great. And I have a funny translation for you: Elvis in chinese is translated to Cat King. Mao wang. Funny right?
Dangit. My computer just got weird and exited out all my stuff... This will be quite short due to lack of time and a decent computer :) Forgive me!
Quick rundown:
Mibo is a cute fiesty little 10 year old in a family we're meeting with. We're best friends now and are making cookies together this week. It'll be fun. When we were talking about how the earth was created, she yelled out, "THAT'S FALSE!!!!" I asked her to explain and she said, "no no, it's really like this: The sun and the moon had a baby and the earth came out! There was no person who created it!" It was quite funny, I've never heard it explained like that :)
We also had a talent show for english, great success. We went to a very far away place (2 hour bike ride) and it was wonderful. On our way back my bike completely broke. The chain went crazy and the back part just somehow turned... it was weird and hard to explain, but its far to expensive to fix, so I'm just riding an tiny old sisters bike left here for the next few weeks. It will be fun haha :)
One of my favorite parts of the week was when we went and sang to an old grandpa and his family in the hospital. He had a stroke and couldn't sing, or understand chinese. I got to use my rusty taiyu and Sister shen could speak with him. At the end we sang a song to comfort him and he got all teary eyed. It made me really happy. We get to do cool things every single day. I wish I could write more, a long letter next week, I promise :)
LOVE YOU ALL
Sister Smart
Monday, September 9, 2013
I extended for 2 years!
September 9, 2013
Just kidding. Thats what I keep telling people here though. Everyone asks me when I'm going home, I just say oh I've got about 2 years left. They laugh, say that's not possible, and I continually avoid the question. I don't want them to know or make a big deal about it. I just want to chuanjiao.
Last night we had an awesome ward activity where we got the Joseph Smith movie (the longer one) only recently translated int chinese and watched it with everyone in the 3rd and 4th ward. For most people here, it is the first time they find out how much persecution and sacrifice Joseph Smith and all the early pioneers made. Many were crying the whole movie. Afterwards, Shen jm and I led a discussion on how they felt. The overwhelming feeling was that sometimes we are tempted to think that God asks too much of us, however, truth of the matter is, we are often the ones that ask too much of Him. He knows how we can be happy, so He gives us the gospel. He invites all to follow, and promises happiness and blessings. We were all touched by so many examples of faith and dedication in order to translate the Book of Mormon and restore Jesus Christ's church.
I keep thinking about all the examples in the Book of Mormon, in church history, and in my own life that help me see that living the gospel is truly the way to happiness. I realized that as a missionary, we are daily sharing examples from the Book of Mormon. We talked about Captain Moroni with Cynthia to help her have courage and faith to do what she knows is right. We shared about Alma the elder, who prayed for his son to come to the truth, and later, Alma the younger who becomes a great missionary and blessing to thousands. We shared with Mibo about Mormon and the sacrifices he took to compile the Book of Mormon and protect his family. We talked about King Benjamin's righteous example of a leader with Bai JM when she was confused about how to take care of some problems. The truth is, the stories in there aren't there just to take up space, they are there for us to learn from, grow, study, and apply in our own lives.
The greatest example is Jesus Christ. As we shared about His life with Zhou JM, she was touched and wanted to know how the atonement works. I have no idea haha! I don't even know where to begin, but I do know that it is true. I know that when we want to change, we can. I know that when we trust Christ, we can have hope. I know because it is real in my life.
After we watched the movie and talked about it, we handed out Book of Mormons to everyone and invited them to write their testimony and share it with a friend. I invite you to do the same! Think of how much that book has blessed your life, and share those blessings. If you haven't felt its power in your life yet, that's okay. Try it out and read it. You'll find that it will give you more hope than you could have on your own. I love you all!!!!!
Love, Sister Smart
Just kidding. Thats what I keep telling people here though. Everyone asks me when I'm going home, I just say oh I've got about 2 years left. They laugh, say that's not possible, and I continually avoid the question. I don't want them to know or make a big deal about it. I just want to chuanjiao.
Last night we had an awesome ward activity where we got the Joseph Smith movie (the longer one) only recently translated int chinese and watched it with everyone in the 3rd and 4th ward. For most people here, it is the first time they find out how much persecution and sacrifice Joseph Smith and all the early pioneers made. Many were crying the whole movie. Afterwards, Shen jm and I led a discussion on how they felt. The overwhelming feeling was that sometimes we are tempted to think that God asks too much of us, however, truth of the matter is, we are often the ones that ask too much of Him. He knows how we can be happy, so He gives us the gospel. He invites all to follow, and promises happiness and blessings. We were all touched by so many examples of faith and dedication in order to translate the Book of Mormon and restore Jesus Christ's church.
I keep thinking about all the examples in the Book of Mormon, in church history, and in my own life that help me see that living the gospel is truly the way to happiness. I realized that as a missionary, we are daily sharing examples from the Book of Mormon. We talked about Captain Moroni with Cynthia to help her have courage and faith to do what she knows is right. We shared about Alma the elder, who prayed for his son to come to the truth, and later, Alma the younger who becomes a great missionary and blessing to thousands. We shared with Mibo about Mormon and the sacrifices he took to compile the Book of Mormon and protect his family. We talked about King Benjamin's righteous example of a leader with Bai JM when she was confused about how to take care of some problems. The truth is, the stories in there aren't there just to take up space, they are there for us to learn from, grow, study, and apply in our own lives.
The greatest example is Jesus Christ. As we shared about His life with Zhou JM, she was touched and wanted to know how the atonement works. I have no idea haha! I don't even know where to begin, but I do know that it is true. I know that when we want to change, we can. I know that when we trust Christ, we can have hope. I know because it is real in my life.
After we watched the movie and talked about it, we handed out Book of Mormons to everyone and invited them to write their testimony and share it with a friend. I invite you to do the same! Think of how much that book has blessed your life, and share those blessings. If you haven't felt its power in your life yet, that's okay. Try it out and read it. You'll find that it will give you more hope than you could have on your own. I love you all!!!!!
Love, Sister Smart
Monday, September 2, 2013
HIIIIIII!
September 2, 2013
I apologize beforehand for the lack of time I have to send this email. I'm helping my companion with her BYU application (since it is in english haha) I haven't sent pictures in a long time, so I figured today would be a perfect time.
A quick bit about my last week: On preparation day a member and his wife took us out to an all you can eat Japanese buffet. It was to die for and I ate far too much. Have I mentioned that Tainan is famous for its ridiculously good food and that I eat an abnormally large amount? Well, I do. Haha, last week I got to go to Qishan up in the mountains of Gaoxiong on exchanges with Sister Haupt. The picture I sent with solid trees everywhere you look is the view from their apartment. It's a tiny tiny town out n the middle of nowhere. We had a grand time, going and finding friends and eating to our heart's content. They are known for their bananas, so everything there is banana based. I ate banana dumpling, banana bean curd, banana bread, and banana smoothie, all very very very good. That night we had some time to tract and got nicely rejected by many a folks. It's kinda weird how used I am to being rejected now. Most the times its a polite no thanks and a slam in the face, however, we had the privelege of being chased by dogs that night. That was fun haha. Anyways, I came back the next day with Sister Shen and we spent a few hours together only to again be separated that night when I went over to another area for exchanges again. I went to another area in Tainan with Sister Johnson. We too had a fun time together talking about why being happy is an important part of missionary work. I can honestly say that I have been happy every single day of my mission. Yes, bad things happen, sometimes we get a little discouraed, and sometimes we get rejected a lot, but we can still be happy! I feel like as long as I do my best to live the gospel and love the people, it is a recipe for happiness. Another movecall is coming to an end soon and it is scary how the time has flown, but I'm excited to see the miracles that will happen in the next few weeks. I'm sorry there's not more time, but enjoy the pictures and have a wonderful wonderful week!!!
I love you guys! Love, Sister Smart
I apologize beforehand for the lack of time I have to send this email. I'm helping my companion with her BYU application (since it is in english haha) I haven't sent pictures in a long time, so I figured today would be a perfect time.
A quick bit about my last week: On preparation day a member and his wife took us out to an all you can eat Japanese buffet. It was to die for and I ate far too much. Have I mentioned that Tainan is famous for its ridiculously good food and that I eat an abnormally large amount? Well, I do. Haha, last week I got to go to Qishan up in the mountains of Gaoxiong on exchanges with Sister Haupt. The picture I sent with solid trees everywhere you look is the view from their apartment. It's a tiny tiny town out n the middle of nowhere. We had a grand time, going and finding friends and eating to our heart's content. They are known for their bananas, so everything there is banana based. I ate banana dumpling, banana bean curd, banana bread, and banana smoothie, all very very very good. That night we had some time to tract and got nicely rejected by many a folks. It's kinda weird how used I am to being rejected now. Most the times its a polite no thanks and a slam in the face, however, we had the privelege of being chased by dogs that night. That was fun haha. Anyways, I came back the next day with Sister Shen and we spent a few hours together only to again be separated that night when I went over to another area for exchanges again. I went to another area in Tainan with Sister Johnson. We too had a fun time together talking about why being happy is an important part of missionary work. I can honestly say that I have been happy every single day of my mission. Yes, bad things happen, sometimes we get a little discouraed, and sometimes we get rejected a lot, but we can still be happy! I feel like as long as I do my best to live the gospel and love the people, it is a recipe for happiness. Another movecall is coming to an end soon and it is scary how the time has flown, but I'm excited to see the miracles that will happen in the next few weeks. I'm sorry there's not more time, but enjoy the pictures and have a wonderful wonderful week!!!
I love you guys! Love, Sister Smart
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