Monday, August 8, 2011

Getting Use to Lots of Contacting


Snake!
Hey family and friends,
It is so good to hear that everything is going well back in Utah!  Dad, yesterday was Father's Day here in Taiwan, SO HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!  Let me just tell you something about the food.  It is so good here.  Everyday we eat dumplings, fried rice, or this chicken curry thing and it is so good.  But to be honest, the food doesn't live up to the quality of Uncle Mike's Chinese food he made for us.  His was so so so good!!! But the food here is still amazing.  This just tells you how awesomely good Uncle Mike's food is . . . It's been a crazy week so I'm gonna jump right into it.
Last Monday, for the rest of p-day we went out to eat with all the elders, sisters, and some of the singles here in Fengjia.  We went and ate some snake :)  It wasn't that bad, but didn't really have too much of a flavor.  Went out tracting for our English class, and found some potential investigators.
Tuesday we met with a Brother Jiang and taught him the 3rd lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Afterwards we went out contacting in the street.  We pulled up to an intersection and I just felt I needed to talk to this young man, and tell him we had a special message about Jesus Christ.  He pulled over and wanted to be taught right there and then.  I didn't know what to do haha.  We ended up going to a park and taught him and gave him a Book of Mormon.  Unfortunately he isn't in our area and so hopefully the other missionaries are meeting with him
Wednesday we meet with a few people.  First was Brother Zhan. We tried to commit him to baptism but he won't just yet.  It's kinda frustrating.  Then we met with Brother Lin and talked about the law of tithing.  We then went over the baptismal questions with him, he is getting baptized this Saturday, and it all went well until the last question.  It is about consecrating our lives to the gospel, or something like that.  He whipped out 2 Nephi 4: 17-18 and told us that he didn't know if he could because he knew he would make mistakes.  We told him that that is why we have repentance.  He is such a golden investigator and I can't wait for his baptism.  Later that night we taught an English class to the natives here.  I was in charge of the "advanced" class and they just wanted to discuss certain subjects.  I learned from them why they do fireworks...to scare off monsters.  Anyway...haha
Thursday, we spent a lot of time just contacting on the street. All our appointments fell through and so we couldn't really do much besides visit less-actives, who are never home, or contact.  Not a lot happened today.
Friday was another unsuccessful day.  We had our weekly planning session and then headed to McDonald's to eat for lunch.  While we were there, two little Taiwanese girls came and talked to us.  They said we had beautiful hair and eyes haha. Went back out contacting and trying to find some less actives.  We went to an individual’s home, but he wasn't there.  On our way out, some guy was making these kissing noises.  All of a sudden, this little bird flew out of nowhere and landed in his hand.  We went over and talked with him, Elder Johnson did, and I got to hold and play with the bird.  It was AWESOME!!! The man also taught me to speak niaoyu (bird language) so at least I've learned one language so far.  Went back out, contacted, and had no success.
Saturday, we had an appointment at the Fengjia University with an investigator, but he fell through.  Then we headed to the church so we could have Brother Lin's baptismal interview.  He passed!  I'm so excited for him!!!  Afterwards we headed back to the apartment to grab something.  Ever since I came to the island, I have been carrying around 3 book of Mormon's to give out to our investigators, but since they kept falling through I decided to take them out.  I then had this feeling I needed to keep one in my bag.  I told Elder Johnson that our goal for the rest of the day was to give this Book of Mormon out.  I completely forgot about the book, and as we went out to meet a less active, we met another young man who lived right next to this less active.  At first we didn't talk much with the kid cause he were trying to get a hold of this less active.  We gave up and then decided to talk to this kid.  Turns out, we ended up teaching him the 1st lesson and gave him that Book of Mormon.  Just a cool little story!
Sunday was a bit relaxing.  At church and testimony meeting, I didn't understand a single word, which is ok for now.  Then we went to meet with a less active and rode across the airport which was relaxing and very very quiet.  Found out that the less active wasn't home AND that he was a long ways out of our area.  So we quickly returned back.  Oh, forgot to tell you this.  So every single day since I got here, we have been coming to one of our investigator's house.  Every day.  He lives high up in the apartment and takes forever to get up to.  Everyday he hasn't been there.  We have left him notes and each day we come back the note is gone.  Today we finally caught him.  He told us he hasn't been keeping the commandments as much as he could.  He has been drinking just a little bit, which he has been justifying saying that he hasn't been drinking a lot, only a little bit.  We committed him to drink no more.  Then we went back out contacting with no success at all. 
Well that has been my week.  We have been trying to think of better ways to find those people who are ready to hear the gospel.  It is just so hard when everyone is in a hurry to go somewhere.  They have no time and don't want to meet because they say they are Buddhist.  And then the ones who are Christian here say they don't want to meet with us because their minister told them that us Mormons are evil.  I don't get it!  So that is my life right now. I love you all, hope all is well, and can't wait to hear from you all. Love Elder Smith