Sudden Changes

Transfers were this last week! Elder Kelemen and I just assumed that we would stay together since I moved into this area in the middle of last transfer and have only been here for 4 weeks. But...transfers came and I got a new companion, Elder Bates! My old companion moved to be Zone Leader in TaiDong. Elder Bates is from Utah and is one transfer than me younger on the island. That means we're both super young missionaries still, and this is my first time being Senior Companion! Elder Bates is awesome and we're ready to work hard.

We had awesome lessons this week, but I'd like to focus on the ones we had with our current investigator families. The family we knocked into at the end of last week (the Hong 洪 family) came to our chapel this week for a tour. They loved it! They set up to come to church next week and invited us over to their house on Friday night for a lesson. The best part of the tour is when I asked them if they've had a chance to start praying yet, and the mom instantly jumped out and said, "I've prayed 5 times but my daughter has only prayed once!". She was so happy about it, it was hilarious. She also has already started to read the Book of Mormon! I can't wait to see what happens with this awesome family.

Our other family we're teaching, the Chen 陳 family, came to church this week and stayed for all 3 hours! I loved it and the members took them in super well. Their 4 year old daughter is the cutest thing and loves us which makes it super fun. We also had a lesson with them this week and it went amazing! They were asking all about how they can really gain their own testimony and knowledge of the truth. We will be sharing the Plan of Salvation with them this week and I am pumped!

Phines and her two daughters are doing well. We are just waiting for Phines' husband to allow her to be baptized and then her and her daughters will get baptized together! We taught the daughters the Plan of Salvation using figuring and candy to represent the Kingdoms of Glory. It was so fun!

We also had a movie night with our ward this week. We brought a ton of couches from around the church into the gym to make it just like a movie theater! We brought a ton of popcorn and it went super well. 

Miracle of the week: We were talking to the 洪 family and they talked to us about the night we first knocked on their door. The reason this was brought up was because the 2nd time we came back for a lesson it took them 5 minutes to finally come open the door. We were confused why it took them so long to come the 2nd time. They then told us how the first night we came to their door for some reason when we rang the door bell it was SUPER loud. They were all upstairs at the time and for years they've had a problem with their doorbell where it wouldn't be loud enough for them to hear it from around the house. Why was the night we rang it the once time in years it was loud enough for them to hear? If they didn't hear it then Elder Kelemen and I would have moved onto the next house assuming no one was home. 

Also this week I had to translate for church. Our ward is half Philippine and half Taiwanese so we translate into English for the Philippine members. It actually went super well and it was super fun!

Elder Smith (施德臻長老）