You're not in 板橋 anymore!

Crazy week. On Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting to discuss how we can be more unified and we created District and then Zone goals for the upcoming transfer. 

This week 李志隆 (Li Zhi Long) and 黃義忠 (Huang Yi Zhong) got baptized! I've been so blessed to be here for their entire conversion process and teach them all the way till baptism. They love the Lord. The most amazing thing to see is the change in people from the start of meeting with them till after baptism. There is a physical light that you can see coming from them. They are happier. It is the most special experience ever. 

On Wednesday morning I was walking down the street and contacted an older man named Tommy 高. I found out before he lived in the States for 11 years and he currently works at a small food stand right behind where we live. He set up a time to meet with us the coming Sunday but then the day after we went by his food stand for dinner. During dinner we were talking to him and he said, "You guys never gave me your Mormon Bible!". We gave it to him and said we'd explain it's background more when we meet on Sunday.  We woke up the next day to a text from him that said, "I believe the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith is true and when I saw the picture of him it felt like I was looking at a close friend from a long time ago". WHAT?!?! Safe to say it was one of the best mornings ever. He also texted me last night and said he's already read though 1st Nephi Chapter 19. He loves the stories and believes it's all true! I can't wait to see what the future holds for him!

On Friday we had the two baptisms of 李志隆 and 黃義忠 and 5:30 and 7:30. At just after noon our Mission President called us and told us that my companion would be flying home for surgery on his back Saturday morning and then I would be transferred to 竹北 (ZhuBei). At first I was super sad! He said I would be leaving right after the baptisms that night. After starting my mission in this area and seeing so much progress in the ward and area, it was so hard to leave. My companion and I ran home and spent about 2 hours packing and then about an hour writing page after page of information for the next missionaries who would be coming into the area. It's super hard to take two missionaries out at the same time because the next missionaries don't know anything about the area or investigators and I've been terrified that investigators will fall through the cracks. We left our apartment at about 3:30pm for the baptisms, and then at 9pm the Assistants to the President drove us back to our area to pick up our bags and then we drove back up to Taipei to sleep in their apartment for the night. We got to bed at about 2am and then woke up at 4:45am to take Elder Read to the airport and me to my new area. 

My new companion is Elder Kelemen and he is Elder Jorgensen's (my trainer) best friends from high school! He has 8 siblings and he's from Provo, Utah. He has 5 transfers left in his mission. I got here on Saturday morning and we had several lessons. We are teaching a couple families and several individuals. Some of them include, the Phines family, the Dasilva, Vincent Fu, 江 Family, and a few others. This area also has HUGE chapel. My previous area didn't have one so we had to go all the way to the Taipei chapel for church, which took about 35 minutes by the MRT. As a result it was really tough to get investigators to church. The apartment we stay in is on the 14th floor of a pretty nice building that over looks the city and the chapel. Elder Kelemen loves to go hard, quick, and talk to everyone, which is amazing because that's exactly how I like to do it too! It's going to be a good couple of transfers with him. 竹北 is a pretty big city but not nearly as crowded as my previous area, 板橋. The ward here is super awesome just like everywhere in Taiwan, and I'm pumped to be here for several months!

Elder Smith (施德臻長老)