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| P-day excurtion (check out the city in the distance--it's white, already to harvest) |
Dear family and friends,
Hey! How's it going everyone?
December is finally here! It just doesn't feel like it yet... snow,
Christmas decorations, everything we don't have. However, the Christmas
music has kept me in the Christmas mode ever since Halloween ended so that has
been nice. It is always so nice to hear from you all and the updates on
everything. Not a whole lot has changed for us here in the "Small
Harbor," but was overall a pretty great week.
Monday we began on the top of
"Monkey Mountain" where we spent the day hiking with the monkeys.
I've never played with monkeys before in my life so it was quite
fun/scary. We had a great proselyting day by going to visit
with Brother Chen. He has still been struggling to quit smoking and so we
visited and lifted up his spirits, boosting up his faith to throw this trial
out the window. We also visited with a member of our ward who actually
got in a scooter accident going to church so we visited him and gave him a
priesthood blessing. We ended the night by english proselyting in the
GuiLin Nightmarket.
Tuesday we had a great District Training
Meeting where I taught about how we can better strengthen our recent converts.
I found a little "diamond" and taught that teaching the Doctrine
of Christ will do more to strengthen the trust between us missionaries and the
members and bump up the desire to do missionary work. So that is what we
focused on. Then we went on Zone Leader exchanges and Elder Allen came on
over to the XiaoGang with me where we got to work. He is such an awesome
missionary and such a great example to me in the work. He is a pretty
young missionary and I was privileged to learn a lot from him.
Wednesday, not a lot happened. We
had interviews with President Bishop along with planner checks. We then
had a short amount of time to proselyte before teaching english.
Thursday our teaching pool was pretty low
and so we went out and hit the streets contacting, searching for those prepared
souls to hear the gospel.
Friday we had visited with a Brother Wu,
and investigator who has lots and lots of questions about Christianity.
He was born as a Christian but has had lots and lots of doubts, and lots
and lots of questions about everything. Well, he really really really
likes to talk, and every question he brings up, the restored gospel can answer
them--its just he isn't very willing to let us missionaries talk. It's
been rough these past few times visiting with him, and so we're hoping that
during the next time we visit him, we can just lay it straight and teach him
the one message that will answer and make straight every question he has.
We then had a ward dinner party and had several investigators lined up to
attend, but upon arrival, none of them showed up. But all was well . . .
the sister missionaries were at the church and needed a baptismal interview, so
I was glad I was there ready to go.
Saturday began by attending the funeral
of a member who recently passed away. Although he wasn't a relative of
mine, it was comforting to know of Heavenly Father's Plan and for the knowledge
about it. I'm grateful that death isn't the end and that there is more to
experience in the life to come. It was very comforting to know that this
old "bei bei" is in a better place, resting from the trials and
challenges that he faced during the later part of his life. The Plan is
real! And it's our role as missionaries to spread this message so that all can
have a fair chance to return to live with their God. I'm grateful for
this time I have to share what I know to be true, to share that "Families
can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan." There is
no greater joy than helping these Taiwanese make that step closer to their
Heavenly Father.
I love His plan, I love His work, and I
love you all.
With Tons of Love,
Elder Nick Smith
司馬長老
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