Hello Family and Friends,
Wow is it really October?? It doesn't feel like I've been here for a little over two months. Wow!! I'm loving my time here in the Fengjia area and have really been looking forward to this weekend. This weekend I will have the opportunity to hear General Conference!!! YEAH!!! I am so excited even though I have already heard a little bit about it. It is such a wonderful opportunity to hear from the leaders of our chuch. We only get two opportunities each year to hear from the world's most inspirited men, so continue to treasure up and enjoy the messages they have shared.
This past week we had Zone Conference, and I learned so much from it. We learned about the importance of covenants, having the faith to find, and then about the Relief Society. It was so good to hear from my Mission President and other leaders and learn from them. There is always room for improvement and so I'm working my best to represent the Savior as best as I can. This week we have also focused on helping one of our investigators get ready for baptism. He is busy with school and his tug-a-war club and so it has been hard to meet with him, but he is willing to meet when he can and change his life around. He was able to have his baptismal interview this past Friday and so this coming Sunday he will be baptized. His faith in the Lord is so strong and he is so awesome! I love him.
Dad, you had some questions... For my exercises, we go running (Tues, Thurs, Sat) and then do pushups, ab wheel, and dumbbell weights (Wed, Fri). In church, the ward members give the talks. I haven't had to give a talk yet, and neither have the other missionaries. If a missionary is leaving to a new area, then they'll have them bear their testimony. As for the language, I have a chinese-english dictionary, but it is terrible and has mostly the pronunciations for Mainland China so I might buy a better one. I have both a pin yin and chinese character PMG and Book of Mormon. Methods of learning the language... Right now I am waiting for the Phase 2 flashcards to get finished being produced, so I am just reviewing my phase 1 booklet everyday, and then I'm reading as much as I can from the character/pin yin book of mormon, reading from the character side. I just got to 2 Nephi doing that and I can recognize quite a bit of characters. But right now I'd rather be able to speak than to read so once those flashcards come in the characters will be put off for a while.
Landon, about that picture of the car... It looks fake to me, but the brand name is BMW. It looks pretty sweet but I don't think they have those kind of cars....yet. When they do I'll buy one for us. But you would love all the cars here, especially the ones I told you about last week (Ferarri, Mazerati, Bentley). I can't wait for that duct tape wallet.
Well I love you all and can't wait to hear from you all again next week. I'm grateful for all of you and for all of your prayers towards the missionaries around the world. I'm grateful for my family and for all their love and support. I'm grateful for all of my friends around the world who decided to serve missions. They have all been great examples to me. ‘Til next week. Love you all, Elder Smith
