Bird's Eye View

Another week in the best country in the world! Zhang Yi Zhang (Braque) who was just baptized a few weeks ago took us to the top of his apartment building, which is one of the largest in the area and let us look over the entire area. It was very special for me to have the chance to see the area I came into knowing nothing, and then learned and grew so much in from a bird's eye view.

This week started off with exchanges because my companion had to go to District Leader Training Meeting for the entire afternoon. I was assigned to go on exchanges with a BRAND NEW missionary who just got there the day before! I was beyond pumped to be able to train him on his first day in the mission field! It was super cool to see where I was about 3 months ago, how much I changed/improved, and see him experience the same crazy things I did my first few weeks in Taiwan. It's terrifying to actually get to Taiwan and speak Chinese to real people! It was really fun to be able to go proselyting with him, and since it was his first day in Taiwan of course he couldn't say much or understand much in Chinese. Near the end of the exchange I said to him, "I'm going to start this next contact and lead it into The Book of Mormon, and then you're going to testify of The Book of Mormon and ask them if they'd like to meet to learn more!". He was super nervous but he did an amazing job and it was so cool to see his dedication and love for the Lord and the Gospel!

This week we found 4 new investigators, 2 of which were a couple who were just married a couple years ago and the wife is pregnant! We set them up to meet on Saturday, and the lesson went super well as we focused on how the Gospel can bless families and invited them to pray together as a couple. We're meeting with them again this coming Saturday and we'll see how it goes! It's the coolest thing ever to teach families. 

Our most progressing investigator right now is Harry Huang. He's been doing amazing lately. He has an amazing testimony of The Book of Mormon. He was telling us about one super cool thing that happened this past week. He got a call from a missionary for another church who was telling them how our church is a cult and The Book of Mormon is false, and then he told her, "Have you read it yourself?" she replied, "...no" and then he said, "well that's the only way you can know if it's true, and I invite you to do so". YESSSSSS THAT'S MY INVESTIGATOR LET'S GOOOO. It made Elder Read and I SOOO pumped to hear that. His current baptismal date is next Saturday but we'll probably push it back a week or two to be sure he's really ready.

Another one of our progressing investigators, Huang Yi Zhong, had a lesson with us on Saturday morning, then came to a baptismal service with us in the afternoon, then ate dinner with us, and then came to our ward's Halloween party that night. So we spent nearly the whole day with him which was super fun haha. At the start of our lesson with him that morning he gave us a sheet of paper that had "E=mc^2" on it, and then a whole bunch of Chinese characters on it that apparently talked about how mass is created, and then at the bottom of the paper, in English, it said, "Only a HOLY all-powerful awesome GOD can have enough energy to create this world. Therefore, God exists". I'm not sure how correct all his science stuff was, but it was still awesome to see him be super excited about his discovery haha.

Each day we meet so many amazing people. I am so glad to have the chance to serve a mission and spread the joy of this Gospel. One thing that being on a mission has made me realize is how many amazing people there are in this world, and every single one of them has such a special unique story to them. Get to know your neighbor! Talk to a stranger in the grocery store line! There are so many amazing people out there, say hi!

Elder Smith （施德臻長老）