I Survived My First Week as a Senior!!!

Dear Family,

Well, I survived my first week as a Senior!!! Woohoo! Having the amazing Sister Lethco as my companion has made it not only possible but enjoyable too! Together we have seen a lot of success and I think we'll be able to help this area become more established unto the Lord. Our two confirmations went smoothly on Sunday--we were able to hit our goal of three baptisms and three confirmations for the month of October! That felt good--and those converts and so rock solid! I love them so much. I am excited see their progression and contributions to their wards. We have been working closely with the wards and Bishop and his wife gave an excellent lesson on how to support new members this past Sunday. It was so awesome!! They have decided to do linger longers after church once a month in order for the members to better guanxi (take care of) our new members, investigators, and each other. We are excited to see the turn out!

As for other investigators, we had 2 come this Sunday! She is so awesome and her son is too. They had us over for dinner last week and said we can come over whenever we want. The problem was before we could only meet with them once a week so that they could both be at the lesson. But we are working with the Elders now and since the boy is home alone at night they will be able to just go over and teach him. The mom is home during the day so that is when we will go visit her. And then we, the sisters, will teach both mother and son at the usual once a week time. She also really wants her husband to meet us, but he doesn't come home until the evening usually (at which time she is gone), so hopefully the Elders will be able to work with him too. And they already have plans for coming to church again next Sunday! The son told his mom he loves it and wants to come back--and she feels the same. I was so proud of the ward--they really guanxied her and her son so well. I love our wards!

For RCLA work, this week our big success came when the Relief Society President when with us to visit a less active sister. They already knew each other, but it had been a long time since their last visit. However, it was like an instant friendship and the Relief Society President is excited to start visiting her regularly with other Sisters. I feel that really great goals were set and plans made in order to help this Sister come back to full activity in the Church. We will let you know how that goes!
My bike seat is still a little broken. It rides fine, but I might have to replace it in a few months. We have a few spare not so good ones around the apartment too, so I might just take on of those. But a new one is only like 400 kuai (I checked today) and that is like 12 dollars or something. So that is an idea? Other than that I really don't need anything. Handwritten letters? More primary children letters!!!! Sister Dalamas sent me some! I LOVE THEM!

Lastly, my studying--finished up Diligence!!! It is weird to think I have been here long enough to be finishing the attribute study this month...time has flown by. I have also been doing a lot of studying this week on gaining the Faith to Find. Elder Summerhays has been a great district leader to go Senior under! He gave my companion and I several scripture passages to study about this (D&C 60:2,7 and Alma 37:40-41), and it has helped a lot. I am really grateful for the wonderful zone and district leaders we have! They are excellent at supporting us and to see areas we can improve in. And our Mission President and his wife are excellent too :). We love them so much!

So excited to see Elder and Sister Gong at mission meeting this Thursday!! Sister Gong taught me Chinese my senior year of high school so it will be fun to see her again!

Love love love love and Happy Halloween!!

----Sister Brooke Smith

P.S. Tell Shawna I LOVED the novel she sent me!! Her letter was HUGE! And it kept me soo happy all week!!!!!