It's letters home like this one that get me down on my knees to thank Heavenly Father for protecting my missionary sons while at the same time, I am pleading with the Lord for their continual health, safety, and protection! It just so happens I placed Elder Smith's name on the Temple Prayer Roll this past Tuesday which would be his Wednesday (just in time) . . . I strongly believe temple prayers of faith offered in behalf of our missionaries also brings them added protection and safety! Thanks for all of your prayers for the missionaries!! -- Kim
Hello EVERYBODY!!!
First of all I'd like to say that I miss snow! I hear you got a little bit this past week and I would definitely love some here on this hot humid island. I also would like to congratulate two awesome people. First is my cousin Cole. Congratulations on your baptism. Baptism is such a wonderful start to this journey and it's too bad I missed it. Second is to my favorite professor while at BYU, Grandpa Kohkonen. Happy Birthday!!! I bet you had an awesome day! Thanks for everything you and Grandma did to make my time at BYU a blast! Don't think I have anything else, so on with this week.
On Tuesday we sat down with a man, Li dixiong, that we ran into tracting a couple weeks ago. At that time we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. Well, when we sat down with him he had mentioned to us that he reads a little bit from it and the Bible every night. So good! He had a lot of questions about our church and why we are different from other Christian churches. We said there was a pretty big difference, and then he invited his friends and another couple who lives with them to listen to our message. We taught them all the Message of the Restoration. The lesson went so well and the Spirit definitely guided the lesson.
Wednesday was probably the scariest day of my mission. So it began by heading to the mission home for a conference meeting. Elder Gerrit W. Gong, I think in the Quorum of the Seventy, came and did a Mission Tour. We had the privilege to hear from him and I learned so much from him. The one thing I love about this gospel is that I am constantly learning new things everyday. Well, that took up most of the day, pretty much until dinner, and then we had one lesson before English class. After English class we were riding down our usual route home, and some truck came cruising behind us. I was riding like in the middle of the lane and he just starts blaring his horn. I gradually moved outside of the lane, but he kept his horn blaring for like 30 seconds. Then he speeds up in front of us and just slams on his brakes. We had to quickly swerve out of the way so we wouldn't hit his truck. We just thought that that was the spot he was parking, and that we were in his path. NOPE! He sped right back up and came right by us and was swerving and trying to hit us with his truck. At this point we were riding as fast as we could. He finally cornered me in between some cars and yelled something in Taiwanese that I totally didn't understand. I looked at him and the only thing I could think of to say was "pai sei" (pie say) which is Taiwanese. It pretty much means, "oops, i'm sorry" kinda thing. Pulled around his truck and tried to catch up to my companion. This guy came again cruising right behind us. We were going in and out of cars to get away from him and finally pulled up to a stoplight. We were so lucky it was a red light or else we would have been doomed cause we still had this long bridge to cross over. We finally got away, but some lady came up and said that he was right behind us. I don't think I've ever biked so hard in my life, and the whole way home I was thinking "I'm gonna die!!!" Well, we made it home safe and sound! So that was my adventure this week.
Thursday was spent waiting for an investigator to arrive at the church for our lesson. He couldn't find the address and was looking for a good solid hour and a half. Finally found it and had a good lesson with him. Showed him the Restoration film and reviewed the Message of the Restoration. That took up most of our afternoon, and so we decided to head on over to a restaurant where a member "qing'd" (chinged?) us out for dinner. It turned out to be a Hot-Pot Buffett. Do you remember what hot pot is? Well this was an all you can eat hot-pot place. It was like heaven eating there. Tried some new things: pig foot, fish stomach, and cow stomach. They even had a chocolate fountain and everything. It was so good.
Friday was weekly planning and then afterwards we ate at T.G.I. Friday's :) That day we had such an awesome lesson with a guy named Deng. The first thing he had said when he sat down with us was that he had been reading some of our "doctrine" online about how we don't smoke, drink tea or alcohol, and all that other stuff. He then said he did all that stuff, but he wanted to learn more about our church and asked if that was all right. Of course it was all right! We had a super fast lesson since he was in a hurry, but he is so prepared. Said he would read and pray but didn't know when he could meet next cause he travels a lot for work.
That is all that really happened this past week. The mid-terms at the college are now over, well tomorrow is the last day, so that won't be an excuse anymore for a while. I'm so grateful to be here, and I absolutely love every second of it! Even though the people here are challenging to work with, I love them. I know this is where I am supposed to be, and I know there is a reason why I am here. I'm grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for everything this gospel has given me. I miss and love you all!
Love, Elder Smith
