OH MY GOODNESS. What a week!

August 13, 2012

 

OH MY GOODNESS. What a week. I know I say that every week, but this week really... what a week! We had our first baptism!!! One of our investigators named Tracy was scheduled to have her baptism at the end of this month. However, when she had her interview, our District Leader Elder Reynolds asked her why she was waiting so long, and asked if she wanted to switch it to this Saturday (which was 2 days ago) and she said YES!!! We got everything ready and she was baptized! It was such a wonderful day! We went out to eat with her and another member named Jojo afterwards and asked her how the day was. "Today I so happy!" the best broken english I have ever heard. Our Zone leaders Elder Haag and Elder Mitchel had 3 wonderful people also get baptized. It was such a great xili hui (baptismal service) And my first! You will find attached pictures of this happy occasion. Wow, what a great feeling.

 

Whew! Okay so the rest of my week was pretty great too. Last Monday on preparation day we went to San Min Lu street market with 2 sisters from our zone and 2 members from our ward. We all had so much fun together and afterwards went to a tempanyaki or whatever its called where they cook in front of you. It's funny because in America, you'd go to one of those places as a fancy restaurant and to feel kinda asian. Here it's normal. It was a really cheap meal and soooo good. That night we went to the stake president's house to have dinner with his family and one of our investigators. They also invited a few other members, one of them named Xiao mamma, a much much older woman. We were standing around talking when all the sudden she grabs me and starts holding my hands behind my back in weird positions. She then starts to hit me with her elbow and eventually throws me into a chair. I couldn't resist at all because I was still in utter shock as to what in the world was happening. She was so old... yet so strong. I was so confused. She then started kneeing my back as hard as she could. Finally I realized I was being abused and looked back at my companion who was just standing there, laughing so hard. She said, "Don't worry, she's just giving you a massage." WHAT??? That is a massage? Not to mention the fact that this woman is spouting/yelling out Taiyu. I tried to calm myself down so I could enjoy this lovely "massage" but to no avail. Eventually she grabbed my companion and then it was my turn to watch and laugh. Oh, Taiwan. Hahaha well that was Monday.

 

Tuesday we went to visit a cute girl who can't come to church very much because of her dance team, and afterwards went to the Shi family's house. 2 of the brothers were baptized last Saturday with Tracy, and then the sisters are new investigators. They were celebrating Fathers day a day early (In Chinese, Baba is Dad. Ba is August and Ba is 8, so August 8th they have father's day! so cool) and gave us some mango cake. It was SO good. We shared Enos 1:1 with them about how Enos is grateful his father taught him the ways of the Lord. Every parent loves their children, so we like to ask what kind of hopes and desires they have for their children as they grow up. They tell us, and then we tell them how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help them achieve all those things. It was a great visit, and I hope they will all be baptized soon. They are such a great family!!!

 

Wednesday we had a special English meeting. Because it was father's day, we decided to have that be the theme for our English class. We played different games, had them write letters to their fathers, and afterwards talked about how we all have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much. A lot of people came and it ended up being a great success! Thursday we were able to meet with 2 new girls who are really interested in joining our church. At the end of the lesson, they told as that they were girlfriends. It kind of took me by suprise, and we didn't really know what to say. I feel bad that we didn't talk with them more about it, but we will see them again tomorrow. It's hard to know what to say, because marriage needs to be between a man and a woman, but the Lord still loves those two girls SO much. As His representatives, we need to prayerfully consider how to help them see both of those things. The next morning we had a hilarious lesson with Yang Jiemei. It was our first time meeting her and we went to her little street stand where she sells this white bean cake type thing. She doesn't let 3 minutes go by without either telling us how beautiful we are or asking a random stranger walking by "Aren't these 2 americans just so beautiful? They are like dolls, no?" It was really awkward haha, but the lesson went great. She loves the fact that anyone can pray. She believes in God and has felt His spirit in her life, but didn't know she could communicate with Him. She also is excited to start reading the Book of Mormon. When we were about to end, she said, "wait! Don't leave! What if I go grab more people for you to teach?" Then she ran up to a few random people and asked them if they wanted to hear "some gospel stuff" from Americans. Nobody was willing, but it was still so hilarious watching her go up to them. We are excited to go visit her again haha.

 

Saturday was our baptism! Oh what a great day. Sunday we had several investigators attend church so it was also really great! Geez louise, I just feel so blessed to be here with these people, eating their food, speaking their language, learning about their culture, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. I am so lucky! It's 100 degrees outside, it's hard biking miles and miles up and down hills each day, and I sweat more than humanly possible, but oh how I love it! It is all so worth it to see a young girl be baptized, so see a family come closer together, to see lives change and hope renewed. I love it here in Zhonghua!

 

I love all of you! I'm glad Ciera and Savannah could come visit! Let me know how that goes. Hang in there Crystal!!! I'm excited to hear about Ryan hopefully this week :) I will write more next week

 

Love, Sister Smart

Nantou Lake Scene

Beautiful Nantou and Typhoon this week

August 6, 2012

My week!!! I don't even know where to begin!!! How about with last Monday? Okay. It was a lovely little preparation day. We were lucky enough to meet with 2 girls who wanted to learn how to play the uke and guitar. I have been teaching Sister Wainright how to play the ukulele, so she taught one girl, and then I taught the other girl a few guitar chords. It was so fun! We then shared the scripture (D&C 25:12) about how the song of the heart is a prayer unto God. I love how anything we do in our lives can be linked to the Gospel and God's plan of happiness for us! Plus, I love playing music every chance possible haha.

Tuesday I had my very first Sisters Exchange! Once every move call (6 week period) we get to spend 24 hours with another sister in a different area. My companion for the day was Chen Jiemei... she is Taiwanese, aka spake no english! It was definitely a growing experience. I got to visit beautiful Nantou... probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We met at a train station halfway between my city and hers and then began the hour long bus ride up and over the mountain. We were on a tiny bus that sounded like it would break down any minute, but the scenery was more than enough to keep my mind off the thought of potentially falling to our death off the side of the mountain. Luscious green EVERYWHERE! Leaves the size of half my body covered trees that towered above us. Green green green, greeny green green. I live in a very populated city with zero green, so it was a welcomed sight. As we trekked through the mountain, I felt as if I were on a jungle safari... Except no animals and on a really tiny island. We arrived in Nantou, ate a quick meal, and got to work! We had a lesson with one of their investigators and talked about the power of the Holy Ghost. At the start, she offered us coffee candy, so we ended up teaching her the Word of Wisdom. We talked about how since God is our Heavenly Father, He knows what is good and bad for our bodies. He loves us so much that He wants us to be healthy! It was a great start to the lesson because one of the blessings of keeping the word of wisdom is being able to feel the Holy Ghost more abundantly in your life. She commited to keep the Word of Wisdom and start praying and reading the scriptures. Afterwards, we got stood up by a few folks so we started tracting. We were able to teach a few people about prayer and one about God's plan of happiness for us. It was a great day filled with rain and success! The next day I headed back to good old Zhanghua. It is crazy how fast a place can feel like home! Speaking of fast, guess who has been in Taiwan over a month now! Song Jiemei. Isn't that weird? I keep doing double takes every so often. Am I really thousands of miles away on a tiny tiny island with almost 25 million people? Am I really speaking Chinese? This is that "mission" that so many people talk about. Stories for years and years to come will be created in these next 15 months. I feel so blessed! I absolutely love the people here.

We teach a free english class every wednesday night (My companion and I teach the intermediate class) It's always a lot of fun, and afterwards we got to have a lesson with Lin Jiemei. She first met missionaries over a year ago, and has been wanting to be baptized the whole time. However, there is a rule that you cannot be baptized if your family (spouse or parent) fanduis/objects. Her husband refuses over and over again, but it is so inspiring to watch her continue to do all the things she knows is right. She has such great faith and I pray one day her husband's heart will soften. So often here there are fanduis against baptism. Right now we have 3 others that dearly want to be baptized but have parent or husband fanduis. How sad that some families cannot accept such a wonderful decision, however one day they will be blessed for their patience and diligence! That night it started raining pretty bad, and we woke up the next morning to a TYPHOON!!! I love the rain. Thursday I was seriously on cloud 9 all day! It poured and poured, the wind howled and roared, and we kept going and going! The great thing about typhoons is that nobody will leave their house. On one side, that means there are not very many people to contact on the street, but on the other hand, that means all the people we want to visit are there! It's a missionary's dream come true. We were able to visit so many people that day, tract to tons of houses (tracting is where we knock on their doors and share a little message with them) and stay soaking wet all day. People kept getting mad at us for being out in the weather, but we didn't care. This message that families can be together forever is far too important to stay inside!  My bike was more of a boat and at one time we were peddling through 4 or 5 inches of water with the wind practically blowing us over. I have a tradition. It's called "if it's raining, I'm singing" so I sang all day! Making up songs about typhoons, 7-11s (have I ever told you there are HUNDREDS of 7-11's here?), or church hymns, etc. It makes the work so much more fun. One funny/probably-not-so-safe thing that happened was when my companion went to ring the doorbell to a house and got electrocuted a bit. I say funny because she didn't get hurt, so don't worry, but we were much more cautious after that haha.

The typhoon had mostly passed by the time Friday morning rolled around so it was just a rainy day. I feel like rainy days always bring miracles. We were tracting by a member's house when all the sudden a woman just walked up to us. In case you are wondering, that never happens. We are always stared at, pointed at, gawked at, or avoided, but rarely confronted. However, a woman walked up to us and just kind of stood there waiting for us to say something. We started talking to her and got her to commit to come to church. I love it when the Lord reminds us that He will always put people in our path, sometimes very literally! Saturday night we went to the Elders baptism in our ward. We have an investigator named Liu Jiemei who wanted to come see a xili (baptism) since she will have hers in a few weeks. She has 2 adorable sons, and a little before the baptism started, we were all in the room and my companion and I started singing. The older son is 6 years old and started dancing. It was the cutest thing ever! It made me miss all my wonderful nieces and nephews even more!!! Please tell them all that I love them so much! Tell Lindsay I am so happy she made the decision to be baptized and I know it will bless her so much!!! I'm so proud of her :).

Sunday was wonderful as usual. It was a little disheartening when several of our investigators didn't show up, but we were able to help out with some of the Elder's investigators so it was still great. It was really funny in the second ward when during sacrament meeting, an old man stood up and started yelling at the person bearing their testimony in Taiyu (taiwanese) I have no idea what he said, but I guess it wasn't very coherant taiyu because nobody else did either. His wife was able to calm him down and then we proceeded as normal. However, 5 minutes later it happened again. And again 2 more times haha. It was an interesting experience! That night my companion and I had a lot of lessons to cover so we went on splits with members. There are 2 sisters that are the world's greatest member missionaries. They help us out so much and we were able to each take one and go chuanjiao. We were able to teach 4 lessons in just an hour! It was such a miracle and we are meeting with some of them this next week. I know I say this a lot, but I LOVE teaching about prayer! That connection between our Heavenly Father is so important and we get to help them start it! Anyone can pray. Anytime, anywhere, and about anything. How cool is that?

Well family dear, I love you all dearly. I hope babies to be are all doing well! I can't wait to hear about baby Ryan! Shari, when do you find out if it is a boy or girl? Has Rachelle sold her house yet? started building yet? How was Keri and Jason's trip to TN? Lindsay's baptism sounds like it turned out great! Do you have any pictures? How is Christy's back/new house? Tell Tyler and Alyssa to email me about EFY. I hope all is well with all of you! I love hearing from you and seeing pictures, so feel free to send them :) I must be going now, for there is much work to be done! You're all in my thoughts and prayers!.

Till next week, I wish you enough

Sister Smart

Parents summary of Sister Smart's email this week

July 30, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

This is not today's email from Sister Allison Smart.

She did not send a general email this week. Her email today was requested to be just for her parents.

She expressed her appreciation and love for her parents and family, for the power of prayer in seeking the Spirit to guide and direct our lives.  She stressed the importance of setting goals and writing them down, and of praying individually and as couples and families.

She mentioned how thrilled she is to receive emails and letters from all of you.  She said Keri's email was so cool!  She expressed disappointment that she does not have the time to respond to everyone in a manner and as quickly as she would like.  I think she is only allowed one hour per week for reading and sending emails.  It is difficult in one hour to both read and compose emails.  For this reason, mailed letters are very helpful and much appreciated as she can receive those during the week and do not take up time during the email hour to read.  In the "old days," don't you recall how excited you were to get personal letters in the mail when you lived away from home?  Sometimes in the Internet/email world we may forget that missionaries are laboring in the "old world" and only have one hour of Internet technology per week.

Well, have a good week.

Love,

Mom and Dad Smart

Sister Smart with Sister and President Clark T. Bishop

Sister Smart with Taiwan Sacred Elephant

Another Week Gone By!!!

July 23, 2012

 

Hello!!! What a week... I feel so overwhelmingly blessed it's unreal. Crystal and Sharalyn, hang in there with your cute babies on the way!!! Good luck this week with Ryan! Tell him aunt Ally says hello :) So the fair was last week, how was that? I hope you ate 11 elephant ears and at least 4 corndogs for me. Sounds like you are sewing up a storm Momma, I hope you're enjoying it! I hope Christy can get her leg and back problems sorted out, no fun to deal with pain like that... I love hearing about the family and hope you are all doing great! Know that you are thought of often, and prayed for always. I love you all!

 

First, my miracle of the week, and then it's picture explaining time. Okay, so this week we have been working really hard but it seemed like we weren't getting many results. A lot of people stood us up, weren't home when we visited, or weren't willing to talk to us on the side of the road. We still had success and met with our progressing investigators (people who are continually learning more about the church and meeting with us) but not many new ones. We said a prayer that we could have the Lord's help in accomplishing our missionary purpose (to invite everyone to come unto Christ) and got to work. We miraculously had 9 lessons in 3 and a half hours last night. It was just unreal. We taught several people how to pray and about their purpose in life. It felt so good and we are so grateful!!! I love sharing the gospel every single day. In one of our lessons with a 15 year old girl this week, we were teaching about the nature of God and how He is our loving Heavenly Father. I told her that God knew her name and that He cared for her more than she could begin to realize. She looked at us awestruck, and asked if we were telling the truth. Yes of course we are! The highlight of my day was seeing her smile after that! What a change the knowledge of who we are and who loves us can make in our lives. I am so grateful to know that I am a daughter of God. He loves me and I do my best to show Him that I love Him too. I also know that He knows us individually and personally and through prayer we can communicate our thoughts, feelings, questions, and desires to Him. He will listen! I feel so lucky that we get to teach people about prayer all the time. We asked one girl what she thought about prayer after we said her first one with her, and she said, "It's pretty awesome" YEAH. It is!!! Haha oh how happy I am!

 

Okay, I thought maybe you'd like to see some photos of my little island. The first is of our Chapel. It is 4 stories tall and about 2 by 6 or 7 rooms large. Does that make sense? Haha. Well I love our chapel. Taiwan is a very dirty place, beautiful, but dirty. The chapel is really an escape from it all and everyone can feel the spirit there.

 

The next is of what some apartments in Taiwan look like. We pass this one a lot and I just think it looks cool.

 

Ranhou, that's me preachin the gospel to ALL of Taiwan. Or at least Zhanghua. I just want to shout it from the rooftops! So that's what my companion and I did this morning haha.

 

Me and Mr. Elephant. I think some folks worship him... but we are just friends. He knows I'm not into that kind of stuff.

 

Meet the newest member of our family! Ta. Ta is my trusty ukulele that I love to play. I have a goal to learn all the hymns before I come back. I'm also teaching my companion a few songs. So fun!

 

We love ice cream and mangoes. LOVE.

 

This building is funny haha. Look how tall and skinny it is! You could be in the middle of nowhere with no buildings except one. Instead of building out and around, they always build up!

 

Me and my trusty companion Sister Wainright with a lady on our roof!

 

Creepy bug. We meet new ones all the time. It's a hate hate relationship.

 

A typical Zhonghua street. Except imagine way more scooters!!! It was a less busy time of the day. Note my trusty helmet. Safety first.

 

Well folks, that's about all for today. Remember that I love you dearly and think of you often! Remember that God loves you, I love you, and Satan hates your guts. He's just annoying and doesn't want any of us to truly be happy. Turn to Heavenly Father because His arms are always open. More next week!