Dearest Family!!!
Another move call is here! Weird how fast time flies when you are serving the Lord. And though I thought I would be staying in Beitun for more than one move call...it was not to be! I just moved to Wufeng and my new companion is Sister Gao. She actually just changed her name to her aboriginal name, since she is a Taiwanese aboriginal, so she is actually Laxi (La-shi) Jiemei. Last movecall they taught someone in her same tribe/clan (?) and actually a lot of people who don't actually speak Chinese...so apparently I get to learn a lot of aboriginal language in this area! Woot! I am also her first foreign companion, and she is my first native. We came in from Taibei to Taizhong together too! We spent two days in the mission home together in a trio with a Sister Liu. So it was pretty cool to find out we'd be companions. She went senior last move call with a short term missionary, so she is way amazing! I am sooo pumped. Plus the ward in this area is supposedly really really great! Which will be so fun! I love it here already!
As for my last area, this past week we have worked hard to strengthen our ward relations by completing the assignments they gave us. When we reported to them on Sunday about the assignments they were soo happy and gave us more names for people to visit. It is so great to have them start working more closely with us. I think they see we take their assignments seriously and are starting to trust us more. I think that having a duan chuan there will be really great for the ward too--they really respect Taiwanese missionaries. I think that as the ward relations continue to be strengthened we will see a lot more success with our investigators and recent converts. Also we have been able to see several less actives become more active since serving there and I love that!
On the investigator area, we were really blessed last week and found some really amazing people. So far we haven't been able to meet with them more than twice, exciting things are starting to happen :). And one family we met when tracting invited us in and had us eat lunch with them! It was soo great! So much fun.
One of the really fun things having to do with our less active work is that one cute sister who has not been to church in a long while, came a few weeks back and then peiked for us last Saturday! At church she had just worn her normal clothes, to peike (teach with us) for us she dressed up and wore a skirt! It was great and I feel like she has more desire to come back to church. Right now the problem is working on the Sabbath. I don't think she has ever tried asking off before, so we asked her to try this time. Hopefully she will try! We are praying for her.
As for gospel study, I really love the book of Helaman. I am still only in the beginning chapters of it, but they are so great! It talks about strengthening less actives, using new members, what we should be preaching about and so many other great things! It seems very applicable at this time in my life and I just love how the Lord prepared it so that it is of great value to all of his children. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God!!! It is so vital that we read it---feast on it every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So something else cool, when I was at the Mission office today meeting my new companion I was able to see a lot of the missionaries going home this move call. Also, my sweet little P. (my first convert in Gaoxiong) snuck up to Taizhong to see Sister Lew off and I got to see her!!! It was awesome! And even cooler her brother is serving as a short term missionary right now! But it was a fun reunion and I loved seeing my trainer. I love her so much and she is just soo happy. Her mission was a dream for her she says. It definitely had hard times, but she was able to do so much good and she feels so at peace with it.
Well, all for now, but more next week! Not a lot of time with moving...sigh.
--Sister Brooke Smith
Another move call is here! Weird how fast time flies when you are serving the Lord. And though I thought I would be staying in Beitun for more than one move call...it was not to be! I just moved to Wufeng and my new companion is Sister Gao. She actually just changed her name to her aboriginal name, since she is a Taiwanese aboriginal, so she is actually Laxi (La-shi) Jiemei. Last movecall they taught someone in her same tribe/clan (?) and actually a lot of people who don't actually speak Chinese...so apparently I get to learn a lot of aboriginal language in this area! Woot! I am also her first foreign companion, and she is my first native. We came in from Taibei to Taizhong together too! We spent two days in the mission home together in a trio with a Sister Liu. So it was pretty cool to find out we'd be companions. She went senior last move call with a short term missionary, so she is way amazing! I am sooo pumped. Plus the ward in this area is supposedly really really great! Which will be so fun! I love it here already!
As for my last area, this past week we have worked hard to strengthen our ward relations by completing the assignments they gave us. When we reported to them on Sunday about the assignments they were soo happy and gave us more names for people to visit. It is so great to have them start working more closely with us. I think they see we take their assignments seriously and are starting to trust us more. I think that having a duan chuan there will be really great for the ward too--they really respect Taiwanese missionaries. I think that as the ward relations continue to be strengthened we will see a lot more success with our investigators and recent converts. Also we have been able to see several less actives become more active since serving there and I love that!
On the investigator area, we were really blessed last week and found some really amazing people. So far we haven't been able to meet with them more than twice, exciting things are starting to happen :). And one family we met when tracting invited us in and had us eat lunch with them! It was soo great! So much fun.
One of the really fun things having to do with our less active work is that one cute sister who has not been to church in a long while, came a few weeks back and then peiked for us last Saturday! At church she had just worn her normal clothes, to peike (teach with us) for us she dressed up and wore a skirt! It was great and I feel like she has more desire to come back to church. Right now the problem is working on the Sabbath. I don't think she has ever tried asking off before, so we asked her to try this time. Hopefully she will try! We are praying for her.
As for gospel study, I really love the book of Helaman. I am still only in the beginning chapters of it, but they are so great! It talks about strengthening less actives, using new members, what we should be preaching about and so many other great things! It seems very applicable at this time in my life and I just love how the Lord prepared it so that it is of great value to all of his children. The Book of Mormon is the Word of God!!! It is so vital that we read it---feast on it every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So something else cool, when I was at the Mission office today meeting my new companion I was able to see a lot of the missionaries going home this move call. Also, my sweet little P. (my first convert in Gaoxiong) snuck up to Taizhong to see Sister Lew off and I got to see her!!! It was awesome! And even cooler her brother is serving as a short term missionary right now! But it was a fun reunion and I loved seeing my trainer. I love her so much and she is just soo happy. Her mission was a dream for her she says. It definitely had hard times, but she was able to do so much good and she feels so at peace with it.
Well, all for now, but more next week! Not a lot of time with moving...sigh.
--Sister Brooke Smith
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