First email from Taiwan!
I love it here! Hello family! This is your international-traveling daughter :) haha, yes, it was fun to talk to you all for a bit while I was traveling! I'm writing in my journal (I'll actually start writing more... just I'm so exhausted by the end of the day!) I'm learning more and more the best prep for a mission you could have is read
Mom, Dad, just hang in there. Thank you for your prayers (I assume you are praying for me... because I'm receiving help from angels everyday.) The plane ride was long, but we all made it, and first two days of training was awesome. Now, I'm with my trainer, Sister Jasperson. She is amazing! She is so faithful, funny, and obedient. She loves the people, and is constantly recognizing areas we can improve then setting goals so we can improve. I love contacting. It honestly is probably one of my favorite things. We see so many miracles here! The Taiwanese are so kind, and hard working. But here's something that took me a few days to get used to, people literally haven't heard of Christ, or of our church. We meet people, introduce ourselves and say our purpose is to help them come to Christ and be baptized. It's amazing how many people actually stop with us and talk. It just goes to show that the gospel is true and that the Spirit touches their heart. Church was interesting, like 50 members, maybe, but that are really great. Many Taiwanese (at least in my area) speak a little bit of English, which is kind of cool. I'm in Taibei, (Taipei) DaTongQu is the district. I'm excited to get more people to church and get our investigators baptized, and on the path to the celestial kingdom.
Well, I'm short on time because I also had to write president (who is awesome!) I love President and Sister Day. They are... I can't even describe them. But they are so fun, and spiritual, and Sister Day has some Tennessee spunk in her. President Day is truly inspired. Yeah, next week I'll write faster to him and hopefully have more time. The language isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. The Spirit is amazing. It has helped me already countless times, understand Chinese when I know in my mind I didn't have the vocabulary. Speaking is harder, but Sister Jasperson is so amazing about pushing me to speak and instigate many of the conversations, make the phone calls, and make me push myself to use Chinese. It's an amazing culture out here. Just, different.... yeah, but amazing. The food is also fabulous. There have been a few times we don't know exactly what we're eating, but we eat it and it's really good. :) haha! lots of noodles and rice, with pumpkin, other vegetables, pork, chicken, squid, mushroom, papaya, zhenzhu ( a little black fruit thing), seaweed... yeah. Some really delicious stuff! Soy milk and rice milk are big out here so that's good for me :) Also, the water has to be filtered so while we drink lots of water (because of the humidity and heat) we also have juice sometimes too. Warm water is a thing here... people don't usually put ice in it. Well, this is my life now, and I love it. It's just getting hot so everyone keeps saying we're in for a treat :)
Ok, hope everything's great! love you all, things here are not too expensive thats good, cuz we eat along the street most days. Still can't really speak the language, but I have faith that it's okay and everything will be fine!
Love you all lots!
Sister Smith
Preach my Gospel , and actually try some of the activities in there. Read the scriptures, and don't just read through the lessons in chapter 3, but get to chapter 4 about the spirit, or 9 about ways to find people, or 10 about teaching skills, or 2 about studying skills. So many things in this book also relate to daily life :) Mom, Dad, just hang in there. Thank you for your prayers (I assume you are praying for me... because I'm receiving help from angels everyday.) The plane ride was long, but we all made it, and first two days of training was awesome. Now, I'm with my trainer, Sister Jasperson. She is amazing! She is so faithful, funny, and obedient. She loves the people, and is constantly recognizing areas we can improve then setting goals so we can improve. I love contacting. It honestly is probably one of my favorite things. We see so many miracles here! The Taiwanese are so kind, and hard working. But here's something that took me a few days to get used to, people literally haven't heard of Christ, or of our church. We meet people, introduce ourselves and say our purpose is to help them come to Christ and be baptized. It's amazing how many people actually stop with us and talk. It just goes to show that the gospel is true and that the Spirit touches their heart. Church was interesting, like 50 members, maybe, but that are really great. Many Taiwanese (at least in my area) speak a little bit of English, which is kind of cool. I'm in Taibei, (Taipei) DaTongQu is the district. I'm excited to get more people to church and get our investigators baptized, and on the path to the celestial kingdom.
Well, I'm short on time because I also had to write president (who is awesome!) I love President and Sister Day. They are... I can't even describe them. But they are so fun, and spiritual, and Sister Day has some Tennessee spunk in her. President Day is truly inspired. Yeah, next week I'll write faster to him and hopefully have more time. The language isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. The Spirit is amazing. It has helped me already countless times, understand Chinese when I know in my mind I didn't have the vocabulary. Speaking is harder, but Sister Jasperson is so amazing about pushing me to speak and instigate many of the conversations, make the phone calls, and make me push myself to use Chinese. It's an amazing culture out here. Just, different.... yeah, but amazing. The food is also fabulous. There have been a few times we don't know exactly what we're eating, but we eat it and it's really good. :) haha! lots of noodles and rice, with pumpkin, other vegetables, pork, chicken, squid, mushroom, papaya, zhenzhu ( a little black fruit thing), seaweed... yeah. Some really delicious stuff! Soy milk and rice milk are big out here so that's good for me :) Also, the water has to be filtered so while we drink lots of water (because of the humidity and heat) we also have juice sometimes too. Warm water is a thing here... people don't usually put ice in it. Well, this is my life now, and I love it. It's just getting hot so everyone keeps saying we're in for a treat :)
Ok, hope everything's great! love you all, things here are not too expensive thats good, cuz we eat along the street most days. Still can't really speak the language, but I have faith that it's okay and everything will be fine!
Love you all lots!
Sister Smith