"No pain, no gain"

What a quick week! The weeks go by faster and faster. One super funny thing that happened this week, was during our Weekly Planning Session on Friday. Someone buzzed our apartment from downstairs, so we walk down to see who it was...and it turned out to be two Jehovah's Witnesses! We opened the door and man were they surprised to see us haha. The first thing they said was, "Oh...you are...Mormons...". They were two about 45ish year old men and ran off pretty quick after we asked him if they've heard of the Book of Mormon haha.

We had a really cool referral from a Stake Presidency member this week. We met with the referral, Zhang Jing Xiang, and had an amazing first lesson with him. He said he's been having troubles with his marriage and two young kids and wanted to know how to Gospel can help his family. We were teaching him about prayer and he said he'd already prayed multiple times! After explaining, we found out that the Stake Presidency member was actually his boss at a local hotel, and each week in their committee meeting, they start with a prayer, and their boss MAKES them say the prayers for the meeting. Zhang Jing Xiang prayed better than I do, haha! We also found out that the boss puts a copy of the Book of Mormon in every single room in his hotel. He's doing so much missionary work for Taiwan, it's amazing! We are meeting with him and his family for dinner this week, and hoping that his wife is interested in the Gospel too.

We met with some of our other investigators this week, but most of them haven't been progressing a lot lately. It's tough to help them see the importance of the Gospel sometimes. Their lives are so busy it's hard to get them to take time to meet with us. On Saturday morning we woke up early and went to the park to play some basketball. We saw some others playing and asked if we could join them. My companion and I played with them and dominated haha, they kept calling us the "American University" kids. They all wanted pictures with us and told us to come back every Saturday, it was a super fun way to start the Saturday!

Wu Zhen Yuan, still our most progressing investigator, has been doing amazing. We taught him the Law of Tithing this week, and I was really worried that it would be super tough for him because he isn't super well off in terms of money. However, after we taught it to him, I asked him what he thought about it, and in Chinese is responded with "It's hard, but I can do it." and then in his broken English he said, "No pain, no gain." Haha I LOVE his broken English phrases! He's such a legend and his dedication/hard-work has helped me realize how important the work is that we're out here doing. We are praying for him and doing all we can to help him stay prepared for baptism on the 9th of September. 

Being on a mission has easily been the hardest thing I've done, but each day I fall more in love with the people, the culture, the food, and this Gospel. I've learned so much already from so many different people. We talk to hundreds of people each day and each one has their own specific background, needs, and life experiences. As I get to share the Gospel with them, I'm able to see the joy that it brings to their lives and it makes it all worth it for me. I can't imagine being anywhere other than Taiwan right now!

Elder Smith （ 施長老 ）