Hello Everyone!
How are you all? Hope all is going well with you all. Wow this week has gone by so fast. The weeks just go by faster and faster. I think I have a lot to share so I'll get right into it.
So Monday we sat down with our Wei beibei and taught him the 2nd lesson. It went so good and he is so awesome. In previous visits I had always thought that he had been reading the Book of Mormon, but just felt like I needed to ask him. He said he hasn't at all. I committed him to read a section for the next time we visited him.
Tuesday was probably the scariest day of my life! So there was a training meeting for all district leaders, zone leaders, and trainers, and since my companion is district leader, and the other senior companion in our district is a trainer so a trainee and me went on exchanges for the day. That meant that I was the senior companion for the day. We both aren't very good at the language so we were both a little worried. However, we had faith, pushed through the day, had a few good lessons, and did the best we could!
Wednesday we sat down with one of our neighbors fro the 1st time. We taught him the 1st lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said he believed all the words we had said and would definitely read the Book of Mormon. Set up another appointment for tomorrow so hopefully things go well. Later on we met with one of our progressing investigators, Wu dixiong. He is so awesome and he truly is ready to be baptized. Gave him a baptism goal for October 8th and said he probably could that day. YES!!!
Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Graham and we spent our entire trying to visit recent converts, less-actives, and member referrals. Came across a few people, including member who have weird views about our church. One in particular is that once our church gets a few more members, the amount for tithing will change from 10% to 5%. We came across a few more people with weird worldly views.
Friday was such an awesome day. Had our weekly planning, and then right after that I passed my phase 1 language thingy off. Now I'll be able to focus more on expanding my vocab on more than just gospel related words. Because of the pass-off, we didn't get much time to proselyte. But it was still such an awesome day!!
Saturday we saw both let-downs and miracles. So our newest member, Lin dixiong hasn't come to church or answered his phone for the past 2 weeks. We decided to go find him at his house, so we spent some time trying to find his address. We had no clue where it was so we decided to ask this woman who was cleaning her garage. She said she just moved here and had no clue. We then asked if we could share a message about our church and she told us she was already baptized. She had apparently been baptized quite a while ago, but hadn't been to church in forever. We sat down with her, taught for a bit, and she said she would definitely come to church, which she did. We then left and then asked a few more people where this address was. We finally found it, stood at the door, but couldn't get in. We needed a special key to open it. Not long after, this older woman was like, "You're at the wrong door. The entrance is over here." We went over by it and these two college students walked right up and opened the door, perfect timing. We knew he was home and so we sat there knocking and ringing the doorbell forever. We finally came out and just walked down the stairs without saying a word. Something definitely was wrong! Went down and talked for a long time and tried helping him with his concerns. Did the best we could and then finally had to go. It is so sad to see how such a strong new member can be influenced by such little things and completely change in a matter of days. We'll continue to work with him to help strengthen his faith.
So I gotta go, but I love and miss you all. I know this church is true and has brought me so much joy and blessings. This is the Lord's work and I'm glad to have the opportunity to help gather his sheep. Well time is up. ‘Til next week.
Love, Elder Smith
p.s. I'll answer all those questions you gave me next week. Landon, I have seen lots of cool cars lately: Ferarri's, Mazerati's, BMW's, and Bentlyes :)
