STAR WARS SILLINESS- Brothers, you'll like this, actually, all the Smith cousins I think will particularly like this story. So it was raining this week (a typhoon on Tuesday night to wednesday night... super small. don't worry) anyway, so I used my umbrella a lot and my umbrella, you push a button on the handle and it extends then expands... so, I started being a little more dramatic in raising my arm, about a 30 degree angle from my leg them pushing the button and then I realized why I felt powerful with it--- it was like a lightsaber! As I'm walking out of a building I just raise my arm, push the button and zzzz, my weapon is extended against the rain. Yep. We keep it real and focused here in Taiwan- but when you're contacting in rain for a while, you've gotta find entertainment somewhere :) Boys hope the summer is keeping you busy! And not idle, and that you are working to serve family members and to have a great time making memories together! Wow, about one year to go, and I'm determined to use this time well in turning attention to the Lord!
MY RUBBER BAND ANAOLGY-
This week was great! Boy, I love my life. Missionary work is hard, not gonna lie, it's harder than I thought it'd be. I had in my mind it would stretch me, but it's stretching in areas I didn't expect, but it's good! This week I felt more like myself, happy and more optimistic. It's kind of like a rubberband. Training was taking the rubberband out of the packaging and testing it a little to see how elastic it is already and then breaking is like putting that rubberband around a big posterboard. There is a chance it could snap, but, after a few weeks of being sometimes painfully stretched, you realize one day it doesn't hurt as much. Why? Because this rubberband has stretched out and is now bigger than it was before, and more capable to hold bigger things than a poster. I feel like that. This transfer has stretched me, and made me tired and ache and pray very hard, but, while I'm still being stretched, it's not painful. I think thinking of others and trying to help their pains really helped me. It's true, when you think of others, you can't also think of yourself. It is also amazing what the Spirit will reveal to you as you turn your thoughts to understanding where the other person is coming from. Thats all I'll say about that, but, it has been an awesome week.
TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHING-
Sunday we saw so many miracles, and, a lot came from our effort using Facebook. (We've both been using Sister Sun's and it's been great, if I'm not transferred this week I'll open my account too) We don't have many investigators right now and members are very busy, but we have really been working the past few weeks on developing our relationship with members, and in trying to use this new tool facebook to proselyte. It is awesome. It takes a few weeks to get going, but now everytime we're on we post spiritual messages on a few members' pages, and then we post on ours, and we also share images, scriptures, and videos with investigators. Get this: This week an investigator we met with like a month ago and hasn't been answering our calls, called US! He asked what church was like, what it includes and meetings and such. It was so cool to talk to him about it and he sounded interested to come, where when we first met him he didn't really want to come to church. True, he slept in, but interest is a great start! We are sure it's because the posts we've been able to share on FB. Also, we met a great lady at a park this week while contacting with a member (with a member... that's important!) and she didn't want to give us her number but gave us her FB. Well, we had a great lesson with her (and a peike) and she said she really felt that this was great, felt peace. So Sunday, we were just finishing Facebook time (we had added her and sent a cute little message) when the temple sisters called us and said, "Hey, you have an investigator here." We were shocked, and it was the park lady! She and her husband had been in the area and she came to our chapel by herself to find us. She only had like 20 minutes, but we were able to sit down and teach her about the Plan of Salvation, which she liked. The only hesitancy of setting a baptism date was her schedule conflict, and she asked to have another Book of Mormon to share with her family!
Facebook is turning out to be a cool tool. It defintiely at first was hard to think, am I really making a difference? But it's just like the Book of Mormon scripture texts each day, people actually read them and we are able to help the Spirit testify to them hopefully daily. This week we had challenges as always, mostly with finding and contacting. The typhoon didn't really effect our finding time, it actually expanded it because English class was cancelled. We were super tired though by Saturday because most of the week was trying to street contact and calling people to set up and them not having time. But we met some super awesome people and were excited to send their information to their area's missionaries.
Love ya'll,
Sister Smith
MY RUBBER BAND ANAOLGY-
This week was great! Boy, I love my life. Missionary work is hard, not gonna lie, it's harder than I thought it'd be. I had in my mind it would stretch me, but it's stretching in areas I didn't expect, but it's good! This week I felt more like myself, happy and more optimistic. It's kind of like a rubberband. Training was taking the rubberband out of the packaging and testing it a little to see how elastic it is already and then breaking is like putting that rubberband around a big posterboard. There is a chance it could snap, but, after a few weeks of being sometimes painfully stretched, you realize one day it doesn't hurt as much. Why? Because this rubberband has stretched out and is now bigger than it was before, and more capable to hold bigger things than a poster. I feel like that. This transfer has stretched me, and made me tired and ache and pray very hard, but, while I'm still being stretched, it's not painful. I think thinking of others and trying to help their pains really helped me. It's true, when you think of others, you can't also think of yourself. It is also amazing what the Spirit will reveal to you as you turn your thoughts to understanding where the other person is coming from. Thats all I'll say about that, but, it has been an awesome week.
TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHING-
Sunday we saw so many miracles, and, a lot came from our effort using Facebook. (We've both been using Sister Sun's and it's been great, if I'm not transferred this week I'll open my account too) We don't have many investigators right now and members are very busy, but we have really been working the past few weeks on developing our relationship with members, and in trying to use this new tool facebook to proselyte. It is awesome. It takes a few weeks to get going, but now everytime we're on we post spiritual messages on a few members' pages, and then we post on ours, and we also share images, scriptures, and videos with investigators. Get this: This week an investigator we met with like a month ago and hasn't been answering our calls, called US! He asked what church was like, what it includes and meetings and such. It was so cool to talk to him about it and he sounded interested to come, where when we first met him he didn't really want to come to church. True, he slept in, but interest is a great start! We are sure it's because the posts we've been able to share on FB. Also, we met a great lady at a park this week while contacting with a member (with a member... that's important!) and she didn't want to give us her number but gave us her FB. Well, we had a great lesson with her (and a peike) and she said she really felt that this was great, felt peace. So Sunday, we were just finishing Facebook time (we had added her and sent a cute little message) when the temple sisters called us and said, "Hey, you have an investigator here." We were shocked, and it was the park lady! She and her husband had been in the area and she came to our chapel by herself to find us. She only had like 20 minutes, but we were able to sit down and teach her about the Plan of Salvation, which she liked. The only hesitancy of setting a baptism date was her schedule conflict, and she asked to have another Book of Mormon to share with her family!
Facebook is turning out to be a cool tool. It defintiely at first was hard to think, am I really making a difference? But it's just like the Book of Mormon scripture texts each day, people actually read them and we are able to help the Spirit testify to them hopefully daily. This week we had challenges as always, mostly with finding and contacting. The typhoon didn't really effect our finding time, it actually expanded it because English class was cancelled. We were super tired though by Saturday because most of the week was trying to street contact and calling people to set up and them not having time. But we met some super awesome people and were excited to send their information to their area's missionaries.
Love ya'll,
Sister Smith