Merry Christmas from Taichung Missionaries

Elder Smith is on approx. row 8, 3rd from left

Dear Friends and Family,

At this time of year, we remember our Savior, His birth, life, and above all, His atonement.  We are grateful to Him. We are privileged to be able to serve Him at this time, in this way.  We wish all of you a Merry Christmas.  We hope that all of you will be filled with joy as you remember Him and His gift to all of us.

Love, Taiwan Taichung Missionaries

Merry Christmas

In front of a worshipping alter

The Orient sells #10 can size of PB & J -- but thanks Mom anyhow!

Human statue poses with us

Temple alter

Next to another temple alter

Hello everyone,

So I don't have a ton of time, but I have a lot to say, so we'll see if I get through it all.  First of all, Grandma and Grandpa thank you for that package you sent a few weeks ago.  I forgot to thank you for that..  Also mom I got your small package of goodies and cd's so thanks.  I still haven't gotten your Christmas package or the package from the young women, so I'll be looking forward to those.  So this week is CHRISTMAS!!!!!  I'm so excited, but it will be super weird to celebrate it without all you...  However, I do get to talk to you all.  Yeah!!!  So probably the easiest way to do it would be through skype.  One of our members told me that I could use his computer for it so I'm pretty stoked for that.  I first have to set up an account, but its super hard here cause it's all in in Chinese so it'll take me a while.  But I'll get it created this week and add mom and Anthony for it.  I'll also test it out this week sometime so be ready for that.  The time I'll be calling/skyping will be next Monday morning at 10:30, for me, which means it'll be around 8:30 Sunday night for you guys.  Hope that is ok and that this all works out!

This week has been full of finding and rescuing.  Our mission president set a goal for every companionship to have a "White Christmas" in the baptismal font.  We have been working our hardest to accomplish this goal, and we found a former investigator who actually had his baptismal interview, but was never baptized.  We've been working with him a lot lately, but he pretty much is determined to be baptized after the elections here in Taiwan.  We do have a few investigators who could drop in for baptism, one in particular is named Klara.  She speaks really good English, and has been taught everything and is living everything.  Her only concern about baptism is that she doesn't know if she can fully endure to the end if she is baptized.  We had a pretty powerful lesson on why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so important.  We asked her to pray about what God would want her to do at this time.  We'll be praying that God will answer he prayers before Saturday so she can be baptized :)

Wow, Christmas is almost here and it has made me think a lot about Christ and his life.  I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have about my Savior and of the joy and sense of peace it gives to me.  I'm grateful for the Savior's Atonement and that through Him, we can continually improve and become like Him.  I'm grateful for this privilege to serve Him to share His gospel to those who need it in their lives.  This is a special time of year and I would encourage all to focus this time on the Savior.  I love you all and can't wait to talk with you all next week!!!  Hope all goes well with that! Elder Smith

It's a Small World

A Big Temple in Taiwan

Taiwan Dragon Statue and Me

Hello Everyone,

How are all ya'll doin today?  Life here in my new area is awesome.  This week I felt like I was back home in Centerville with you during the giant wind storm.  Here in HengChun, during the winter time, the wind gets really crazy and we have only experienced a little bit of it so far.  Last week I sent a package home, so be expecting that soon.  I received Grandma's package, but I still haven't received your packages yet mom... So I learned quite a bit more from my companion this week.  Turns out that he knows the Seljiaas family, as you mentioned, and knows quite a few of my soccer buddies.  He also mentioned that he worked with Anthony and Kyle at Bailey's and told me some good stories. My companions parents names are Robert and R'Lee Field.  He said they'll be in Arizona this month, so I don't know how you would get in touch with them mom.  Maybe cell phone??  Anyway, this week has been pretty good.  Oh, also Happy Birthday to Aunt Anneli and my cousin, India. 

So last Monday I got all settled into my new area.  Traveling was a pain, so hopefully I stay down here in HengChun for a while.  We just visited a few ward members and recent converts to let them get to know me.

Tuesday felt like Monday all over again.  We had District Training Meeting, but it was in a completely different area.  So we took an 1 1/2 bus ride to DTM, learned about how we can better work with the ward members in our missionary work, and then took an 1 1/2 bus ride home.  Took up a lot of our proselyting time, but thats just how it is.  We then met with an 8 year old who is a recent convert.  I don't know where this kid gets his energy, but it just never runs out.  We sat down and reviewed the Restoration with him and his sister who is also a member.

Wednesday we biked to one of our extra areas to visit with a less-active, Wang dixiong.  We sat down and really focused on him Keeping the Sabbath day Holy.  He has had problems coming to church in the past because of his work, but he found a new job which allows him to come to church now.  He then took us to meet a few of his friends and to share the gospel with them.  They didn't really seem that interested to meet with us, but this less-active got really excited and wanted us to keep visiting with his friends.  Came back to our area and did a bit of tracting until English class. 

Thursday we sat down with another less-active, Gao dixiong.  He also has had problems coming to church because of work, but he is now the manager, so he should easily be able to get it off.  We began by talking about the Book of Mormon, and it was so awesome to see that he noticed the pride cycle that goes throughout the entire book pretty much.  I didn't even notice that my first time reading through.  He is so good!  We then sat down with another less-active who has two sons, both around Landon's age.  We focused on the Sabbath day as well and he felt that coming to church was important and told us why we go to church, but when we invited him to start coming back he told us he wouldn't.  He pretty much bore his testimony to use, but has no desire to progress at all.  We will still continue to work with him and strengthen his testimony. 

Friday we began by having our Weekly Planning session and then sitting down with a part-member family.  This family is from Hong Kong and so the speak both Mandarin and Cantonese.  As we read the scriptures, I asked them to to read in Cantonese, just so I could hear how it sounds, and it surprised my that I was able to understand most of it.  Crazy!  We just focused on how reading and praying can help us develop our relationship with God.  We then sat with a former investigator and reviewed the Restoration with him. 

Saturday was another full day of visiting less-active members, recent converts, and trying to find new investigators.  I don't remember all of their names quite yet, but I'm working my best at that. 

That pretty much sums up this past week.  My new companion and I have been getting along pretty well and I love this new area so far.  I'm loving this time here as a missionary and only have a little bit left.  7 months have gone by CRAZY fast and these next several will only go by faster.  I love you all, and I hope you enjoy the package I sent!  Take care!

Love Elder Smith

New Area?? Yup!

Me, Elder Smith, in front of a cool Dragon

Hello family and friends,

So it’s December now...  Where did November go?  Time seriously has gone by so fast!  Start getting ready for the Christmas season because it will come and go sooner than you know.  However, I won't be seeing much Christmas here, especially because I am now in a new area, HengChun (hung chew-un)!  It is our mission's most southern area.  It is right at the very bottom of Taiwan.  Don't know much about it besides that it is pretty rural and very hot. Completely different than where I just was in Fengjia, big city and starting to get very cold.  So this is my first move in a completely new area so it might take some getting used to.  However, the work is the same and I'll work my hardest wherever the Lord puts me. My new companion is already so awesome, Elder Field from West Bountiful.  We have gotten along well so far and have lots of the same interests, such as soccer :) Don't have a ton of time, but I cannot wait to start working with the ward members in this branch and with the investigators we have here.  I love you all and be safe, especially now that trees are blowing everywhere.

Love, Elder Nick Smith

Happy Thanksgiving and Welcome Home Anthony

Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan

Hello everyone and ANTHONY,

First of all I hope you all had such a wonderful Thanksgiving, especially because Anthony is home now.  Wow, that is weird to think about...  Also, Happy Birthday to Uncle Mike!  Hope you have an awesome day.  Well, going through all those photos of the family with Anthony kind of made me a little trunky.  But I'm over it now.  So this past week was what we call "Power Week" and we focused on certain things for each day, so lets get right on into it.

Tuesday was "baptismal goal day."  Pretty much the entire day was spent giving out as many baptismal goals as we could.  One individual in particular was named Charles.  He is a former investigator who has met with missionaries for over 15 years.  He was taught everything and has been to church a ton so we tried giving him a goal to be baptized.  His excuse for not being baptized was his doctor told him he could not get water in his "inflammatory ears."  We thought of a ton of solutions to overcome this problem: ear plugs, finding some heavy duty head gear to cover his ears with the ear plugs in, all the way down to wearing scuba gear.  For all of these solutions he said, "bu yi ding" which means it's not certain that water won't enter in.  He told us we could ask his doctor if we could baptize him, and so that was Friday's activity..

Wednesday was "invite recent converts to attend the temple day."  We were able to give all our recent converts goals to attend the temple and get their recommends which was awesome, especially our newest convert Wu dixiong. 

Thursday was "place 10 Books of Mormon day," and also Thanksgiving!!!  The closest thing I got to eating thanksgiving food was an apple pie and sundae from McDonalds.  So our goal for this day was to give out 10 Books of Mormon as a companionship, which means 1000+ as an entire mission.  We were able to sit down with 7 new people and give them all a Book of Mormon.  Our entire mission was able to give out 1023 Books of Mormon which is a ton.  Just think of all 1000 of these people got baptized... That would be cool!

Friday was "member switch day," and we were supposed to go out with a ward member and proselyte.  Well, all our ward members either had work our school, so it kinda didn't happen for us.  However, I went on zone leader exchanges and had two Taiwanese as my companions.  Having them with me really helped a lot with the language. 

That was pretty much how my week went!  However, there is something I want to share especially with Anthony.  So this week we sat down with an RM (came home the Thursday before you did) and taught a few of his friends here at school.  He expressed to us that serving a mission changed his life, and he wants this same change to happen to his friends.  Even though he was released last week as a missionary, he continues to go on with the work.  I know a lot of your friends are on missions right now, but never forget that you can still share the gospel.  That is one commitment we made when we got baptized.  So have fun watching your movies, listening to music, and relaxing until school starts, but don't forget you can still share the gospel.  It may not be in Spanish that you are used to sharing it in, but you can do it!

Well I love you all, and hope all is well with an RM in the home. 

Love, Elder Smith

p.s. Dad, the best way to give me those files is to put it on a CD and send it to me.  Thanks!  Record Anthony's homecoming talk as well, I would love to hear it!

Another Week in the Life of Elder Smith

At the mountain top Temple

Enjoying some Taiwan Cuisine

Hey, It's Elder Smith!

Hello everybody!

To start off this letter, I'd first like to congratulate my wonderful brother Elder Anthony Smith on being such a wonderful missionary.  He has been such an awesome example to me and I'm proud of his service to the Lord.  Thank you for all of your letters, especially Uncle Mike.  I've had some of those similar experiences, but the best way to handle those situations is to work through the spirit, and not with contention.  Well, another rough week has gone by so lets get on with it.

Last Monday was probably the worst p-days ever.  It began by biking to a different area to check out some buddhist temples.  The bike ride to one temple wasn't bad, but the actual hike up to it was the worst.  Super super steep.  After checking out that temple we decided to bike up the rest of the mountain.  Wasn't too bad until we hit a point where it was honestly a 45 degree angle, maybe even more than that.  Through multiple muscle cramps and several stops, we made it to the top of the mountain in a little over 1 1/2 hours.  That is why it was the worst p-day ever.  However, the 10 minute bike ride down made up for it.  (Mom I want you to think about how fast I was going.  A lot faster than all the cars and motorcycles going down :)   )  Then we spent the rest of the night meeting and sitting down with our less-active members.

Tuesday, our companionship got a third member.  He is a temporary missionary until he goes to the Phillapines MTC before he serves in Taibei.  Basically what this means is that I am Assistant Trainer :)  Our day started off by going to District Training Meeting where we learned how we can better work with "pei ke's", which are members that come help teach with our investigators.  Then we sat down with a family who were golden clear back in August.  The dad of the family is very frustrating to work with because he won't pray.  Without pray it is impossible to build that relationship with God and to know of the truthfulness of this church. 

Wednesday we sat down with such an awesome family.  Interesting story though.  We ran into this guy and he wouldn't give us his info, but said he would call us when he wanted to meet.  Well he called and we sat down with him and he told us his family situation.  This guy, his son, and his daughter-in-law all want to be Christian.  However, their mom wants them all the be Buddhist and "bai bai" (worship) so there has been this huge conflict between the family.  Well the dad of this family has read and heard a little bit about our church and wants to know more about us, but he doesn't want his wife to know.  Since she doesn't speak English and the rest of them do, he wanted us to teach in English (which by the way is like impossible for me right now).  We taught them about how we can be with our families together forever, and it all starts with basic things, all the info about the Restoration.  He truly loved the idea about prayer and how we can talk with God.  He also loved how if he reads the Book of Mormon and prays, he can receive an answer from God.  Absolutely loved it! 

Thursday we sat down with one of our investigators who was given a baptismal goal for the 26th, but since he didn't come to church this past week his goal drops.  However, he is still willing to do the things he needs to in order to be baptized: read, pray, and come to church. 

Not much else happened this past week besides visiting some less-actives, and strengthening our recent converts.

I truly hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, which I know you will cause Anthony will be there.  I'm grateful for all of your prayers and I absolutely love Taiwan and the Taiwanese people.  I love you all!  Be safe, especially through this upcoming winter.

Love, Elder Smith 

p.s. Take lots of pictures when Anthony comes off the plane, when he gets released, Thanksgiving day, his first Sunday in America, etc...  Take LOTS OF PICTURES :)  Thanks!

p.s.s. my companion got hit by a scooter as we was cruising through an intersection.  hit the scooter and did a full front flip over their scooter.  landed on his back with no damage done to him, only his bike.. so yeah :)

Six Months . . . What? Already?

Hello EVERYBODY!!!

The days go by slow, the weeks go by fast, and the months seem to go even faster.  Wow!  This past week I hit my 6 month mark.  Looking back to when I entered the MTC seemed like forever ago, but yet it has gone by so fast.  I'm grateful for this time and I'm enjoying every second of it.  Not a whole lot happened this past week, so lets get right on into it.

Tuesday we sat down with a very interesting fellow.  We had met him at the grocery store and he started talking about coke, or something like that.  Well we sat down with him and he just started talking about what he bought on ebay.  It was weird.  Told us he bought a 50 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill on ebay for 100 kuay (about 3 US dollars).  Told us he had sent it to Africa to see if it was real and to get his money.  During all this we were trying to teach him the Message of the Restoration.  After everything we talked about he would say, "I'll get baptized when I get my money."--Very interesting guy. 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were really tough to try to sit down with people.  It has been raining the past couple days, and so we already knew all our lessons would fall through.  The people here absolutely hate going out in the rain.  Don't know why, but they just do.  However, we were able to sit down with one of our progressing investigators, Chen dixiong.  He has been so good lately, very shy, but very willing to keep his commitments.  We gave him a baptismal goal, so hopefully I'm still in the area to see it!  Sorry there ain't much else... 

I'm working my best and I'm loving every second of it.  The language is still slowly coming, but it has been amazing to see how the Lord has put word's into my mouth to say.  This truly is the Lord's work and I'm grateful for this wonderful privilege to serve.  Just like Anthony said, now is the time for Spencer and Landon, and maybe even Julia, to prepare to serve a mission.  He was 100% right on how you can prepare: daily scripture study, daily prayer, and going to church weekly.  So simple, right?  "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." (Alma 37:6)  Love you all and can't wait to hear how things will be with a RM in the home!! 

This question is for mom, dad, other family members, neighbors, etc... In 3-4 sentences, how has the Gospel of Jesus Christ blessed your family? I'm just curious because I run into a lot of people who say family (ancestors) are important, and so I would like some "wise words" from parents and older-ish people to share with the people here how this gospel can bless them. Thank you!!!

Love, Elder Smith