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| Speak no evil, Hear no evil, See no evil! |
Hello, hello, hello! How's it all
going for you all? From what I heard, all is well back in the USA.
It was sad to about the "minivan-funeral" in the family. Tears
were shed as I saw the photo of that big truck drive away, taking it away from
us. It will never be forgotten may it rest in peace. Sounds like
you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. All went well here in
the XiaoGang this past week so lets get on into it.
Monday was a pretty great day!
Headed downtown, bought an early Christmas that is very
"suiting," and then we visited with our investigator Brother Chen.
We taught him the Law of Tithing and Law of the Fast and is willing to
live and keep these commandments, despite current challenges. He's got
great faith and a desire to change his life around. He's doing pretty
good, still working a few things out with him and will be looking good for
baptism here in the next few weeks.
Wednesday we visited with one of the
recent converts here and began teaching him his new member lessons. He
has been super busy with work every since I got here and we finally found a
time to begin. He is super great, his testimony has increased a lot these
past few months, and is working towards going to the temple in a few weeks.
Super good!
Thanksgiving Thursday was super great!
That turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls, apple pie with
whipped cream tasted so so good. However, there were a few alterations
a.k.a Subway. That was the closest thing we could get to a thanksgiving
dinner, but it was delicious. Today we were able to visit with a ward
family, Yang family, and strengthen our relationship with them. It is
always good to hear the testimonies and conversion stories of families.
We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they will be working towards and
doing what is necessary to live obtain the celestial kingdom as a
family.
Saturday was a super rushed day. As
a missionary in Taiwan riding a bicycle is super convenient when proselyting on
the scooter infested roads, but when it comes to cruising across the map in jam
packed times, the level of inconvenience steps down a few levels. We
began at the church for the baptism of two sisters. From the baptismal
service we rushed across the map to visit with a Brother Guo, a man we have
visited with a few times. He has had some experiences in the past and
just feels that prayer is ineffective. We did the best we could to teach
the ins and outs of prayer, and we're hoping that he sees the effectiveness
that comes from prayer. From there we traveled to our secondary area
GuiLin and visited with a young family where only the mom and the kids are
members. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and encouraged the mom to
share the blessings of the gospel with her husband. Miracles can and will
come if we have faith and show our desire. We were surprised on the way
out as she "qing'd" us Korean food for dinner. After stuffing
up we traveled back to our land and visited/ate dinner with another part-member
family and got to know them better than we did before. We then had to
cruise on over to the KFC here and we visited with and talked to him about the
importance of modern revelation. We had taught a portion of the Plan of
Salvation earlier on and had some doubts about the pre-mortal life. We
talked about modern revelation, brought it back to the Restoration, and then
finished teaching the Plan of Salvation. He's doing pretty well and he
really likes learning and adding onto what he already knows. He just is
needs to add oil in the most important areas of all, reading and
praying.
Our focus as a mission for this past week
was charity and finding service opportunities. During the week we were
able to find quite a few unplanned chances to serve and it just felt super good
to do. "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth
forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well
with him." We all have opportunities daily where we can serve
and help another. They may be hard to find, but as we see others and
their situations as God sees them, they will pop out like a soar them.
Serving just feels good, and I'm glad I have this time to serve not only
my God, but also the people of Taiwan. "Seek and ye shall
find..."
With Tons of Love,
Elder Nick Smith
司馬長老
