MEG IS IN TAIWAN!

Meg left the MTC Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. and 28 hours later arrived in Taipei.  We only got to talk to her for a few minutes which was a bummer, but you take what you can get!  She sounded good.  She travelled in a group of about 24 I think.  So if I were travelling on a trip and got on a plane that had 24 missionaries on it, I would just relax and enjoy the ride--there's one airplane that is not going down!   Anyway, she called for just ONE minute last night to tell us she arrived at the mission home safe and sound. She sounded tired but okay.  Please pray for her for these next few weeks will be tough!  Can't wait for the first e-mail from her!

Week 8--time's almost up!

Some really good language things and I want to tell you about them because I think it's funny and stuff. So Elder Mansell, the one whose mom and dad sent that video of me and picture, was in a lesson. This isn't my story but still pretty funny. So they were teaching the second lesson and Zhang Dixiong asked all about Hell. So then the investigator asked so who goes to Hell?? And Elder Mansell didn't know they had started talking about Hell and thought they were talking about the celestial kingdom so then he asnwers "Everyone !" Then his companion started freaking out and had to explain that not everyone goes to Hell. 

Zhang Dixiong our other "investigator" got baptized on saturday! Yeah! We were so excited that he did. He was so ready and he is just so great. We love him! So this week we get to meet with both of them until thursday and then "transfer" them to other missionaries... We are suuuuuper sad. Wei Laoshi (sister winters) and Bao Laoshi (brother boyle) are leaving us on thursday!!! I want to cry everytime I think about it. I seriously am so sad that they are leaving. We have gotten so close to our teachers and we see them every day and I am going to miss them like crazy. Also brother tate ("qin'ai de tong laoshi" aka "qin'ai wo de tongban") is leaving. We will miss him so much. I can't even handle them leaving. I will probably be a reck that day. It's fine. Kind of. Haha

We got to go to the temple today for the first time in like 7 weeks!!!!! It was incredible. I missed the temple so much. I love the celestial room especially. Anyway, it was very refreshing to get to go.

The church is true! Fight every single day for it, because it is 100% worth your time. Don't let Satan have anything over you. It's not worth it. I know that through Christ we can be saved. Wo zhidao Yesu Jidu wei women shuzui. Wo zhidao touguo ta women keyi chengwei jiejing. Wo ai Yesu Jidu, wo ai zhege jiaohui. Wo ai nimen! Wo shi quaile he anquan. Wo wei nimen qidao. Nimen shi lihai! Zai jian! Feng Yesu Jidu de ming, Amen

Ai, Mai Jie Mei! (love, sister smedley)

CLEANING THE TEMPLE--So we got to go clean the temple for 3 and 1/2 hours this morning. Guess what me and sister Chamberlain got to do? We got to clean the chandeliers in one of the sealing rooms. It was incredible. You have to take them apart piece by piece, you have to clean them and be so careful because they are pure crystal. It was so fun and the two ladies working with us were so funny. They were making us laugh a lot. We got to go to the celestial room after and we saw all the elders in there waiting for us two. It was amazing. I looked at the picture of Christ and immediately I just felt how much he loves me and all his children. I felt peace that he would be there to help in every moment even when we feel like he isn't. It was truly and amazing experience. I loved it. Then we got to go on a tour and see some of the rooms. We got to see the brides room! It was gorgeous!!!!! Holy moly. I can't even handle the beauty. One of the elders asked what the grooms get, they said, "a locker and a mirror." Haha it was funny. Brother porter talked to the elders about how they should treat the sisters. It rocked. He told them that it is very easy to get a bad reputation. You just have to mistreat the sisters one time and you will have a bad reputation. Hahaha it was funny but also really nice. He said they could also get the best reputations by treating the sisters good. It is so nice how respected we felt today. It was cool. 

TRICKY LANGUAGE! Aug 6, 2013

So last monday we had the most awesome experience ever! So we are teaching Becky right now. Well that is who my teacher is portraying from her mission is Becky. So Monday we got to do our first TRC skype! It was so exciting. My teacher Sister Winters hurried and got on facebook to see if the real Becky from Taiwan was available to skype, so we could teach her. So she said she could, so the real Becky agreed to be taught at TRC. So guess who was lucky enough to get to teach her????? Sister Chamberlain and I. It was so cool. She is still investigating, she has been for a year and a half. And it was so cool to talk to a real investigator and teach her. The connection wasn't great, but we still got to get to know her and bear testimony to her about church and how important it is. She goes to church and everything so I asked her why that was important. She said so we could get to know the savior. I asked her why the sacrament was important and she told us because it is about the Savior. So I asked her why the atonement was important to her. Well okay, the spirit did. Because let's be honest, when we teach we get no credit for this. It is all the spirit. But she said she didn't know why the atonement was so important to her. So we got to bear testimony of the atonement and it really made me think why is the atonement important to me. But then I just knew that through it we could be clean. We could become closer to the savior. I am so grateful for the atonement! It was such a cool experience and made us so excited to get to Taiwan. There is nothing like teaching real investigators. It really helped us to know why this work is so important.

So a funny story that happened this week. Once upon a time, I thought my investigator was a killer. So we were teaching Zhang dixiong and we were teaching him the commandments. We were reading them in Mosiah 13. So we got to thou shalt not kill. He read it, but I didn't realized he was reading it, I thought he was asking about it and wondering why we couldn't. So I got this super puzzled look on my face and was like shenme? (what?) and he said something and I was so confused and I was like chengfu. (repeat what you just said) and he was like weishenme (why?). So then I thought he was asking why we couldn't again. So I was just freaking out, and I was like "ni bu keyi bu keyi (you can't!). I was so confused. So then my companion kindly explained to me that he was just reading the verse. And I just busted up laughing. Like I couldn't stop. And we were in the middle of teaching. So then my companion was laughing. So we tried to finish reading the commandments and finish the lesson with the spirit and I just couldn't stop laughing. So then at the end he was like why were you laughing? I didn't know how to explain to him in Chinese that I thought he was a killer just in case he really was... So my companion told him that I thought he had a problem with killing. And he just laughed. But we got out of that lesson and just both could not stop laughing. It was pretty funny! I haven't laughed that hard in a looooong time! hahaha the perks of learning a language!(:

One morning I woke up and accidentally started saying the first vision instead of my prayer. I caught myself after like half of it, and was like, wait a second. I don't think I am praying right now. Then I proceeded to say my prayers. That was a random story but I thought you might appreciate it. 
Stay tuned for pictures below

PICTURES!