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:

I met a lady named White Lily Jesus. She gave me bananas.

Well I love you all dearly :) Have a great week!!!

Sister Smart