Sunday, March 6, 2011

Missions Can Be This Fun?

The Cai Jiating (family) is taking us out to lunch and to go play around Gaoxiong City today (we got permission to leave our zone, pretty sweet eh?)!! It is going to be great :).

So this week has been a pretty awesome one in general!! We have met and helped some investigators progress and it is awesome! We also met this cute grandma who's son and his family are being taught by the Elders. The Bishop wanted us to go over and guanxi (build relationships) with the girls in the family--as they are the Bishops family friends. So we dropped by and met Miao mama (as we call them here). She let us sing a hymn and teach a little bit, but she was in the middle of cooking dinner so it was a short visit. I showed off my beautiful family pictures--she said they are all so beautiful! She also thought I looked a lot like Mom...hmmm. Lol. So we taught her how to pray, had her say her first prayer and headed off. It was dinner time so we stopped off a lovely drink stand (fresh smoothie kind of thing) and we ordering when she gave us a call. Apparently she had liked us a lot and wanted to give us a snack. So we biked back and she handed us some freshly steamed corn. Sooo cute!!!!!  We just love her and ended up visiting her again this week and meeting her husband. They are just the sweetest little old people. Didn't come to church, but we'll keep working on them.
 
So about this drink shop--we got avocado milk with pudding mixed into it! Lol, soo strange but so good. Funny thing was we were biking and somehow Sister Lew's drink like exploded...all over her white shirt! It was pretty great since we were heading to go teach English class....lol. Sister Lew was a trooper and it all worked out great. I really love teaching English!! I am over the beginners class--which is what I am used to :). It is really fun to see how the Lord really will use every talent you have during your mission. I speak Japanese to people almost every day here. It is kind of crazy!
 
On another interesting note, a new investigator we met on the road last week had us over on Saturday. She believes in God and in the Bible, but was having a hard time understanding it. So she prayed to meet people that could help explain the Bible. Sadly, right before she met us she also met some Jehovah's Witnesses. She met with us on Saturday and we gave her a Book of Mormon and helped strengthen her testimony of prayer. We told her to check her feelings and the Holy Ghost would tell her the truth of all things. But she wouldn't go to church with us because she had already promised the JWs she would go with them. But she said we could come over after church and would come with us next week. We committed her to keep praying and reading the BOM, so time will tell if she has the faith to discover the truth for herself.  We are going to try and set up another time with her this week, but who knows. We have faith though! So we'll keep trying. She has such a cute family and is so searching for the truth!!!!!
 
Also on Saturday one of the members from the Daliao ward invited us over to his beef noodle shop for lunch. It was great! Beef noodle soup is one of my favorite Chinese dishes :). He served his mission in VA about ten years ago, but his English is still pretty amazing. Because he knew we were coming, he also made us a cute little chocolate cake in the shape of a heart. He wanted to write,  "Welcome Sister Smith" but ran out of time so there was just a little chocolate smear on top :P. Super sweet of him! He has two cute little daughters--one of which will be baptized this year! He is also such a great example of member missionary work! He made friends with a girl who works at the shop right next to his and we have a lesson at this shop after they finished work sometime last week. It was so great! So when we came over for lunch, he also invited the girl over to eat with us. So we were really able to get to know her a lot better and to become better friends :). Way to be Brother Jiang! We had such a great time with her--we were giggling like crazy. Days like this are like, what??? Missions can be this fun?? Lol :). Eating lunch with investigators and really becoming their friends is one of the coolest things. Usually we just eat by ourselves, but combining missionary work with fun is the best! Also, Brother Jiang didn't allow us to pay--so kind. He invited us to have a birthday lunch at his shop on March 8th too. He wants to make me a birthday cake, but we are trying to dissuade him--we don't want to get too fat! People really do look out for the missionaries! We get "songed" little snacks, fruit, and meals pretty much everywhere we go. It is so nice :). And most of the times by people who aren't even our investigators. Most times it is the investigator's or member's nonmember moms.
 
Oh, so another cool thing- an investigator of ours (who has a member brother) has her birthday on March 9th. So on P-day, March 7th we are having a little get together and hopefully more investigators will come :). It will be AWESOME. So excited.
 
All for now--love you all soo much!
 
Oh, and I got my FIRST and ONLY letter this week--Ammon Davis wins the prize :). The only address that is allowed to receive mail for me is the mission address. That will apply for my whole mission. Sigh, but it is good I guess :).

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