What a Crazy Week

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 :)

This was an Awesome Week

The city at dusk

Ham fried rice for lunch

Pot stickers are the BEST!

Hello Everybody!

I hope everything is going well for you all.  Sad to hear about the Cougs this weekend...oh well.  They'll get em next time!  KATIE SANDERSON, if you get this congratulations on the marriage this coming week!!!  Anyway, I'm doing well here in Fengjia and I'm absolutely loving it here.  I got your package this past Wednesday.  Thank you! Not only did my companion and I love all the candy, but so did all the thousands of ants haha.  Anyway, this week has been awesome, it went by super fast. So on with this week.

Monday we had such an awesome preparation day.  We decided to go out and actually do something.  You'd think that a big city like Taichong would have lots of fun things to do on p-day, but nope.  We ended up having to travel quite a ways to go bowling.  It's been so long since I last went and oh it was so much fun. On our way back my companion's bike started being retarded, flat tire, and the brakes stopped working, and so we ended up having to walk back, so we didn't get as much proselyting in because of that.  However, we did end up sitting down with one of our investigator's uncle and taught him in the short amount of time we had.

Tuesday I went on Zone Leader exchanges with Elder Hanich.  He is such an awesome missionary and I learned so much from him and learned from his different styles of teaching.  We had a few lessons, and one of them happened to be with a lady who I actually met on our last exchanges.  However, this time was a little different.  She was a member now!  Even though she wasn't one of my investigators, I was so excited to see her and hear about her baptism.  We then met with a few other people who are struggling to believe that God exists so yeah...

Wednesday we met with one of our awesome investigators, we call him Wei Beibei (Way Baybay).  I may have already mentioned him, but he loves meeting with us, praying with us, and he loves the scriptures now.  While we taught him, he pretty much proved Buddhism is wrong haha.  After meeting with him, a member in our ward asked for us to come bless his home.  His name is Ellias, he is a student at Fengjia University and he is actually from Paraguay.  He obviously speaks Spanish, but his English is so good and he knows quite a bit of Chinese.  Ever since he has moved into his new apartment he has had these terrible nightmares pretty much nightly, and so his dad told him to have us bless his home.  When we got there, we decided not only to bless his home, but also to give him a priesthood blessing.  I actually gave the blessing on his home, and had no clue what to do.  However, it was such in awesome spiritual experience.  We found out that the next day he didn't have that nightmare, and so it just bore testimony that the power of the priesthood is real, and that it truly is the power of God. 

Thursday we sat down with one of our new investigators Shi dixiong.  We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and why pray is so essential.  He truly wants to know of the gospel's truthfulness and so we emphasized that he needs to READ, PONDER and PRAY about it all. 

Friday we spent most of our time just trying to find new investigators, visiting our less actives, etc... because all our lessons fell through.  So yeah...

Saturaday was so awesome!  We had a lesson with a Guo dixiong at Fengjia and the lesson went so well.  He isn't quite sure if God exists and so we focused on how he can come to know that, and that is through prayer.  One problem though, he personally wouldn't pray.  We told him that it will help him get into the habit of daily prayer, but he told us that he wouldn't because his dad is a Buddhist, or some other religious missionary.  Kinda frustrating, but we can only do so much.  He now has to act upon what we told him and actually pray.  Later on we attended a baptism of a sister!  Ah, so awesome!!  I absolutely love attending baptisms.

Sunday we had an awesome lesson with one of our other new investigators, Wu dixiong.  He has been to church twice and this was our first time meeting with him.  He is kinda shy, but he said when he comes to church he has the feelings of just talking with someone, which is awesome.  He truly wants to know if this gospel is true and so we promised us he would read and pray daily he could come to know that it is.  He is so awesome and so ready for this gospel in his life.

So yeah, I'm loving missionary work and I'm loving being here in the Fengjia area.  It is so awesome and I'm grateful for all the blessings it has brought me personally, and to my family.  I know that if we continue to stay obedient and follow the commandments, our lives will be so much happier.  I have personally witnessed that in my life.  Thanks for all those who have been examples to me in my life: my family, friends, ward members, etc.. I'm grateful for you all.

With tons and tons of love, Elder Smith 

p.s. if you didn't already know, "dixiong" just beens "brother"  (Shi dixiong = Brother Shi); Also attached are photos of my area and some of the food I get to eat.

Every Member a Missionary

Fengjia Night Market where we contact people!

Hello family and friends,

Wow it is always so good to hear from you all!  Dad, thanks for your letter and stories.  I always learn so much from them.  Mom, thanks for you letter as well.  I really enjoyed hearing the words from our wonderful Prophet about 9/11.  Anthony, enjoy your new area.  You said its a huge ward?  I can't wait to attend a big ward.  It just doesn't feel right only having like 50 people at church.  Spencer, hope your hip gets feeling better.  Enjoy school though!  I see all the college students here and it kind of makes me miss it.  Julia, you've always been a workhorse in sports...well most of the time.  But it seems to me like you really are enjoying volleyball.  Work your hardest and they'll see your talent and put you in varsity :)  Landon, I can't wait to get my duct tape wallet. So not much happened this week, but here are the highlights of this week.

So this past Wednesday we met with a really awesome person, Brother Chen.  He was a referral for us and he is such a nice guy.  Right now he believes in pretty much every religion, but is willing to learn from us.  We taught him a bit of the 1st lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon.  He was so interested in reading it and asked if he could mark the things he liked in the book.  We were like "Of course!"  So we got talking with him and he absolutely loves soccer.  He showed us all his trophies and everything.  He even had an actual soccer ball from the 2006 World Cup in Germany.  AWESOME!!! It made me miss soccer sooo much.  Anyway, he is willing to learn more from us and he has already set up like five dinner appointments with us ha ha.

Friday was so awesome!  Let me explain a little.  So we have been trying to work better with the ward here, and so we set up an activity for the youth.  So our activity was to have a bbq and then do the "Dan Jones" with them in the FengJia nightmarket.  Well, everything went well until none of the youth decided to show up.  Didn't go as we had planned.  Well, earlier that day we had a bbq with a family in our ward and we told them about the activity we were doing that night.  The family consisted of the mom and four little girls, all under the age of 10.  They ended up showing up and did the activity with us.  They stood on chairs and would yell "Come to Church." They would run up to every person they saw and gave out all our missionary tracts.  It was so cute! haha.  So the statement "Every member is a missionary" really is true.  No matter how old you are, everyone can help build up the kingdom of God. 

Saturday was awesome as well.  So last week on exchanges, Elder Johnson and Elder Zheng came across a nice old man, Brother Wei.  I don't know much about his situation, but lately he has had a lot of back problems I guess, and is in a lot of pain.  We figured we would give him a priesthood blessing.  We explained the purpose of these blessings and he was willing to let us perform it.  It was such a powerful blessing and the Spirit truly was there.  We then gave him a Book of Mormon and he really wants to learn more.  So we'll see how things go with him.

So that’s it.  I hope that all of you have a fun, safe week. Elder Smith   p.s. if you ever need gifts and want anything from here, just tell me and I can get it.  Items at the night market are really cheap so... :)

Pressing Forward

My Wheels

Hello everyone,

Wow sounds like everyone is having such an awesome time.  Sounds like school started off great for Julia and Spencer.  Julia, those bruises look nasty, keep working hard with volleyball and they'll notice how good of a player you are and hopefully move you up.  Spencer's goin' to Homecoming!!  Atta boy!! Dude, boating is gonna be such a fun activity for that.  You gotta get me some pics of that soon.  Mom and dad, thanks for your letters.  They really help me move on with this missionary work and help me become a better missionary!  Dad I know just how felt with those "I don't have any time" or here it's, "I'm in a rush".  I don't know if this is how it was for you, but EVERYONE here is always in a rush, have no free time.  I kinda mess with them and say "ni hen xingku" (knee hun shingkoo haha).  It means that they are such a hardworker.  Also, when people want to be "punks" to us, they'll start speaking Taiwanese, which is another language that they speak here, but its an unwritten and evertying.  So yeah... So enough of all that.  Lets start with what happened this week. 

So we are still not having as much success as we would like.  We continue to have appointments set up, but these people never show up.  However, last Tuesday one guy actually showed up.  His name is Chen, and he is such an awesome guy, wanting to learn more.  We taught him the first lesson and he was willing to start reading the Book of Mormon which is awesome.  Wednesday, we then met with a Brother Jiang and watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with him.  He could see that he felt something during the movie, but all he would say about it was that it was a good movie.  We invited him to be baptized, he has been taught everything, but says he is too busy to come to church and so that is why he isn't progressing as we'd like him to.  However we're still working our hardest with him.  So the weather Wednesday was a little crazy.  So the typhoon that I guess hit Japan came right passed Taiwan and so we felt the effects of it a little.  I was on the other side of the island as it passed by so it wasn't as bad.  Just crazy wind and lots of rain.  So today we had a "Specialized Training" for all the trainers and trainees, me.  We went over a talk that Elder Bednar gave to the missionaries in the MTC called, "Becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary."  I was lucky enough to have heard it and so this training pumped me up to become a better missionary.  

So lately, we found out our investigators have been to "buhao yisi" (boo how ee suh) to say that they didn't have interest in our message.  But it helped us realize that it is so important to teach to their needs rather than throwing all the messages right in their faces and expecting them to believe it all.  Also, right now we are focusing more on working with the ward leaders because we really think it could strenghten our ward.  Our ward isn't the strongest right now, and we don't know why.  So we will be trying to become better friends to ward members and leaders.

The language is coming, the work is fun but hard, and the church is true.  This is the Lord's work and he truly has a hand in it.  Without Him, missionary work would be impossible to do.  Hope all is well with you wherever you are and may the Lord bless you all. 

With all my love, Elder Smith

p.s. I'll be looking for that package :) can't wait.  Oh and dad, here is my adderss that you wanted so you could look it up. It's in charcters and that's how it is on google maps so... my address is on the 2nd line

Because I Have Been Given Much!

Kung Fu Power!

Hello everybody!

So I got thinking that last year I was just starting college.  WOW! weird! I kinda miss not starting school right now, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about all the stress that comes with school.  Anyway, hope this week has been awesome.  So I'll quickly explain the reason for this emails title, "Because I have been given much."  So last night for FHE we watched the Emma Smith movie.  There was one part that really stuck out to me.  It said, "He has blessed me more than I know." Wow!! Right then I started thinking of all my many blessings that I have been given so far.  I started writing them down, but the list went on and on.  I'd just like to say that I'm so grateful for my loving family and for all their support.  Also, for all the  prayers for the missionaries around the world.  I'm grateful for this gospel and the joy that it has brought me so far.  Being here in Taiwan has helped me realize that I have had an amazing life in the gospel so far.  I have grown up on righteous principles, thanks to my wonderful parents and siblings, that have helped me grow and develop in the way the Lord wants me to. I could go on and on but I don't have that much time.

So this week not much happened at all.  We have dealt with the same situations this week.  Everyone here on the island is "super busy" and has "no time" at all, or they "stand us up" and don't show up to our appointments.  I don't even think we, as a companionship, had any lessons this week with any new people.  However, this past Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder McAllister.  We had a few lessons where we taught the 1st lesson.  After our lessons we evaluated how they went and we both felt the lessons completely changed after we shared the 1st Vision.  It was AWESOME. 

I would like to share a simple example of the people here.  So we were talking with this young man out on the street who was obviously waiting for someone.  We get talking and then this cab pulled up and then he completely left us to talk to the cab driver.  We tried to get his info to talk to him but his excuse was "I don't have time".  So we went into the little apartment complex we were right by and started to ask the guard if he knew a certain person.  We didn't even say much and he responded saying, "I'm too busy."  He kinda was because he was helping a cab driver back up.  10 seconds later after he was done we tried to talk with him again and he told us he had no time.  So we tried to go find this person on our own and the guard wouldn't let us enter the complex, I guess because we are missionaries.  We told him this person was our friend and we just wanted to talk with him.  He chased us down and wouldn't let us enter.  We got arguing with him, which was no help at all.  Then this guard's friend walked in and grabbed some drinks.  We asked how he was and he said, "I don't have time."  We were like, "We just wanted to see how you are today." He said, 'I'm too busy."  So we left and went down the street a little ways.  We rang on a doorbell to find a less active.  No one came to the door but we heard a voice from above and came out from the little canopy and saw a little women sticking her head out the window.  Right when she saw us she poked her head back inside and shut the window on us.  This all happened in 10 minutes or less, and this is usually the turn out we get. 

I got thinking a lot about this and was reading in Alma 26 and came across verse 27 which says: "Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give you success." This was the answer that I needed, but it wasn't how I wanted it.  But it really applies a lot.  Even though we are getting "stood up" and rejected, we need to bear through this with patience and then the Lord will give us success.  These are the word's straight from the Lord, and He would never lie so.... Just gotta go through with patience but I cannot wait for the outcome of it!

So to answer your questions. The meals we usually cook or buy... breakfast: toast and jam. lunch and dinner: dumplings, fried rice, rice bowls with veggies and chicken, chicken breasts with rice.  Those are the usual.  Biking hasn't been too bad.  Playing soccer over the years has helped build muscle in my legs and so its not bad at all.  Dad I'm so glad you got on and viewed my area.  That Burger King you saw, we ride pass that every day.  And Taiwan's pinyin is terrible and so that's why it was "Feng chia".  But that is my area.  I'm at the college almost everyday and right next to that are all the little food shops and that is like the middle of the entire night market. 

Thanks for all your prayers for me and for all the missionaries around the world.  I know the Lord is mindful of us all and hears our prayers.  I'm grateful to be here in Taiwan and I'm grateful for all I have gone through so far. Love you all, Elder Smith

Almost a Month in Taiwan

The View from my Apartment in Fengjia

Hello family and friends,

Wow it is so good to hear from all of you!  This time last year I was getting ready for college.  Don't have to worry about that for a while.  But the rest of you do haha!  School starts up today (probably in the morning for you guys).  First day of high school for Julia!  Oh you're gonna love it!  Especially with volleyball.  Spencer, live up your junior year and have a party.  Landon is in 6th grade.  Wow! You've grown up so fast Lando.  Keep up your humor.  It's funny!  Anthony, keep working hard.  Sounds pretty rough with the situation that happened previously.  I know you can work everything out and help those come back to church.  Mom, crazy week!  You can rest now that the kids will be in school.  The bbq you guys had looked sooo good!  I can't wait to have my first steak when I get back.  Dad, thank you for your letter.  I couldn't get through all of it because of time, but the parts I read we awesome! Thanks for your story. So on with the week

So last Monday we met with a really awesome family!  We met them while we were on Assistant exchanges.  When they met with us they told us they wanted a good environment to help their 2 year old child grow up in.  I think the church would probably be the best environment for them and so that's what we told them.  We gave them the 1st lesson and I felt it went really well.  They said that they believed our message to be true and so we'll be meeting with them more.  We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday was exciting! I passed off lesson 2 in phase 1.  Improving with the language is always exciting!  So funny story... We were given a referral and so we tried and tried to get a hold of him and meet with him.  We finally set up a time and met with him.  He had had some lessons previously and so we just talked with him for a bit to see where he was at with the gospel.  The more we asked, the more we found out that he had a pretty good relationship and knowledge of the gospel.  We eventually asked him the baptismal questions to see where he was at on everything.  He answered correctly for every single one.  We were like "what?  How is he so golden right now?" We were so excited because we were thinking we were going to baptize this man.  Talked a bit more and then he finally told us he had already been baptized and was a member.  What?? Haha why didn't he tell us this beforehand.  We all had a nice little laugh and then just made sure he was keeping all the commandments.

Wednesday, we just tried to have as many lessons as we could.  Didn't matter who, where, or anything, we just needed to teach some lessons.  We talked to everyone possible and tried to meet with them then and there.  Didn't get much success out of that, but we added some new people as investigators.  We then tried to go sit down with some people at the park.  The first people we came across were these two drunk guys.  We taught them the 1st lesson and they were amazed at everything we talked about! haha it was so funny.  We left and then worked our hardest on finding people. 

Thursday we had a lesson with a friend Tu Dixiong.  We felt we needed to focus on the Restoration, and so we felt we would show him the Restoration film.  His computer wouldn't play it and so we unexpectedly taught him about faith, repentence, and baptism.  It went really well and he committed to baptism which was so awesome!! 

Friday we met with our most recent convert Lin Dixiong and taught him the follow-up lessons.  I don't know what he does but he knows like everything now.  He understood the plan of salvation perfectly.  He has really progressed a lot since we first met with him.  He is now sharing scriptures and insights with us. 

Saturday we decided to go visit some old investigators that previous missionaries forgot about or dropped.  We were in a certain area and there just so happened to be an old investigator in the area.  We got to the door and told his mom/sister that we were "old friends" of his.  She let us in and we met with this kid.  A few minutes after we got there, a man that my companion recognized walked in the door.  It was our ward's Elders Quorum President.  We were wondering why we were there, and we asked him the same question.  Apparently the Elders Quorum President is this kid's uncle.  He sat down with us and encouraged this young man to come to church and learn from us.  I think without his help, he wouldn't have gotten far with this kid.  This kid ended up coming to church and we'll continue to meet with him. 

Sunday was probably the longest day I've been here.  It was my first Ward Council Meeting.  Two hours of not understanding a single word makes it very difficult to stay focused, and awake.  However, I did my best and tried to pick up new words and phrases from them.  All the lessons we had the rest of the day fell through and so we spent the rest of the time trying to find new people and to sit down with them.  One lesson in particular, we asked this man his religious beliefs.  He had none.  We asked if he thought we had a Creator.  He said no.  We asked him why and he said he believes we evolved from sea animals.  We got talking for a bit and then he changed his view right then and said he believed we evolved from rocks.  So…we didn't get very far with this man.

Sorry if it feels like I'm just throwing everything that happened during my week at you.  I have so much to read and so much to write in such a short amount of time.  But the work keeps moving forward.  We are working our hardest to find to teach.  The Lord truly has a part in this work.  It is his work.  I had an opportunity to see that happen this week.  The church is true and the Taiwanese people NEED it in their lives.  Have fun this week!  Be safe! Love you all, Elder Smith

p.s. So a few questions you asked.  The area I am in is called Fengjia.  The only airport I know of here is abandoned…I'm pretty sure there is another one nearby cause he always see planes flying super super low.  I'm not sure what my address is, just cause its all in characters.  Some land points: I'm near are Fengjia University, and Fengjia Nightmarket.  Hopefully that will help you kind of see where I'm located.  The speakers and cd player are working awesome.  I haven't been able to listen much.  We have switched off listening to my stuff and my companions stuff.  I am currently in a ward, but it is super small.  The activities they let us do...um they let us attend FHE every Sunday and last night we played dodgeball--it was alright.

First Baptism in the Field

New member Lin Zong Yi with Elder Smith and Elder Johnson

Dear family and friends,

This past week went by super fast.  Without my journal I wouldn't be able to remember anything that happened.  But it was good to hear about this past week.  Dad, thanks for the talk outline.  Keep sending those, they are awesome.  Once I am able to communicate better I can use those without a problem.  It also sounded like your reunion went well.  Sounds like a lot of hard work went out on your part for creating the slide show/video, but I'm glad you found some helpers for that.  I just asked a few of the Elders if they knew Elder Oram here and they said they did.  I personally haven't seen or met him but I have something to talk about with him now.  Mom, crazy week huh??  Well now that this Celebration thingy is over you can have some time to relax before you have to send the kiddies of to school.  Anthony, work your hardest these last 100 days you have.  Don't regret a single moment.  Spencer, Julia, and Landon, enjoy the rest of your summer.  Have as much fun as you can because a few of you only have a few summers left to not have to worry about much.  Spencer, work hard with the job.  Julia, I don't know how volleyball tryouts are/went, but if they already happened then hopefully you made the team.  If they haven't, then work your hardest to make it.  Landon, enjoy your summer and start working on those merit badges.  I hope the rest of you had an awesome week and continue to do so.  Well onto my crazy week.

So last Monday we started by heading to a place called Mr. Chicken Head to eat lunch with a few of the Elders and a less active member.  It is very similar to Firehouse Pizza where I used to work, but without the pizzas.  It was so nice to have amazing pasta again.  After the preparation hours, we went and had a few lessons with some less actives, one who used to be the 1st counselor in the bishopric.

Tuesday was an exciting day.  So for learning the language here, there are 3 phases.  1st phase is learning vocab, teaching phrases, promised blessings, scriptures, and grammer for the chapters in lesson 3 of PMG.  We are supposed to learn each of those for each chapter in lesson 3 and then be evaluated by the District Leader on each chapter.  Well, today I passed off everything for lesson 1.  Yay!!!  4 more left and then I can learn my everyday words so I can finally understand these people.  So I don't know if you remember the story from last week about how I had the impression to leave one Book of Mormon in my bag and that we gave it out…But anyway, we met with him this week and taught him about the Plan of Salvation.  He said that he now believes in God and seems to be progressing.  After that lesson, we walked outside and discovered it was raining, harder then I've ever seen it rain.  Rain + no rain gear = church clothes soaking wet.  Yeah, so I have learned that we need to be prepared for every situation.  Which can also be tied into repentance.  We always need to be doing the right things, being prepared for the 2nd coming of Christ.  No one knows when it will happen, but I know I want to be as prepared and worthy as I can for that day. 

Wednesday was Combined District Training Meeting with our entire zone and the Mission President.  We learned how to become better at contacting and how to change our prayers into MIGHTY prayer.  It was so awesome and I learned so much.  It was also good to see Elder Larsen from my district in the MTC.  It was good to hear how he has been doing these first few weeks.  After the training meeting we went to go meet with our new investigators, but each of them fell through and never showed up.  Only if these people knew what they were missing...

Thursday was probably the scariest day of my life.  I am so glad to be serving where there are a bunch of Buddhists, Daoists, etc. . . Instead of Christians who know the Bible like the back of their hand.  We meet with a man from Oregon, who married a Tawainese lady and lives here with her.  He speaks very good Chinese and obviously his English is amazing.  So this man was interested to know about our religion (not).  He believes that Heavenly Father, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are all spirits and one god.  He believes that God pre-ordained people who is going to save.  And obviously that it is by grace that those "preordained" people are saved.  He believes Christ did everything for us and so we don't have to do anything but believe in him and as long as we believe in him, then we are part of that pre-ordained group to be saved.  I thought we handled it very well, it’s just his heart was very hardened and didn't allow our message to touch him.  Even though he didn't feel the spirit, I know for sure that I did when our testimonies were shared. 

Friday was another awesome day.  We went on Assistant exchanges.  At first I was kind of nervous because I don't know the language, don't know how effective my contacting skills are, etc . . . but as I worked my hardest I saw that the Lord blessed me.  I honestly think that day was the hardest I have worked so far.  I talked to every single person that I saw and didn't stop talking.  I saw from our effort, we were able to add 25 new potential investigators all with times to meet. 

Saturday was the day I have been looking forward to all week.  It was Lin Zong Yi's baptism.  He truly has prepared well and has a strong testimony of this gospel.  The spirit was so strong at this meeting and I could definitely feel it during his testimony, even though I didn't understand a word of it. 

Sunday was a rough day.  Started off great with Lin Zong Yi's confirmation, but later on in the day it was hard to find people to contact.  So apparently this month is "ghost month" (I think) and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is worshipping their ancestors.  They all have food outside their homes, burning incense, worshipping, and throwing paper money in the fire.  I found out that they believe that their ancestors can use this money in the world they are in to buy things.  They can also "spiritually" eat the food that they have placed out.  Weird.  One of our investigators, we went to visit, was worshipping.  We didn't want to interrupt anything so we said a prayer with him. 

So yeah that was this week.  I'm grateful to be here in Taiwan even though I don't understand anyone.  I know that I am here for a specific purpose and I will work my hardest so that one specific purpose gets fulfilled.  This morning I read an article about the conversion story of the man who translated the Book of Mormon and a lot of other church books from English to Chinese.  I forget his name but I want you to look it up.  It is awesome.  Love you all and hope all is well and continues to go well.  If you have any questions about Taiwan or anything (I know that I haven't answered some questions, so re-ask them because I have forgotten them) please feel free to ask.  Til next week

Love Elder Smith

p.s. These are pictures of the baptism with my trainer, the city from my apartment, part of the night market during the day.  At night you can barely walk cause it is so crowded.  The one with the sword was my first night in taiwan before i knew my area. Enjoy