LIFE IN TAIWAN--AWESOME!

Ok, this will be probably the longest post of her mission, but we just got a long handwritten letter answering all my questions about her daily life in Taiwan and it's so interesting you'll enjoy every minute reading it!  Especially since she is a great writer.  So, "My area includes Yangmei, Fugan, and Pingzhen. Things here are very crowded!  But we do have some country in our area!  We have a three-room apartment.  It's a little crowded sometimes. When I moved in, I was appalled, but we cleaned it up a lot.  I love when things are clean.  The spirit really can't be there when you are cluttered and can't think!  One reason it gets so cluttered is that when missionaries leave, they leave the stuff they don't want and it collects over time, but our apartment finally doesn't feel so gross!  Yay!
So some things about Taiwan houses and apartments.  First of all most houses look like garages; second, you rarely wear shoes in a house.  We take out shoes off outside and they give you slippers inside or we just do bare feet.  There is rarely carpet, which is probably good so we don't get parasites. The church has carpet but we don't take our shoes off there.  We freeze any garbage that has ever touched food. If we don't, we get ants.  So the bottom section of our freezer is for garbage. and they don't have big garbage cans to store garbage in. A garbage truck comes by every night (it sings classical music very loudly) about 8:40 and you throw away whatever garbage you have. But we aren't ever home at 8:40 so sometimes we just have to go home early to get the garbage out. Everyone just waits on the side of the street for the truck to come. When it comes, you just walk up and  throw it in.  Apartments and houses are just smooshed together, otherwise, how would they fit all these people here!
The food for the most part is delicious!  They eat a lot of noodles, carbs, and bread. It is carbs nation!  They do eat meat a lot but it always has the bones in it.  So it's not my favorite to eat meat because i always have to eat around bones. Even fish. Shrimp is always in its shell and clams. Other fish always has bones in it still.  So it's hard to eat!  desserts are hit or miss in my mind.  Either sooooo good!  or sooooo bizarre.  Ex:  Read beans soup An assortment of beans in this water soup and its served cold and has like honey in it.  Beans are soooo not a dessert in my book, but they think it is. But they have such good cake here and other types of desserts!  I have eaten almost every part of a pig--ears, intestines, stomach, fat, and pork.  I have yet to eat the foot.  I don't want it, and yes I have had the blood multiple times.  I have eaten mini fishes with the eyes.  Surprisingly, none of it is that bad!  They put weird jellies in their drinks.  They are sometimes really gross.  The texture really gets to me.  Their fruits are so good!! I love fruit, it's my favorite.
 Now  time for my favorite--the people!  They are such an amazing people! They are a gifts-centered people.  That is how they show their love. So when we go to appointments, whether they feed us dinner or not, they send us home with some sort of food or fruit, bread or cookie or something.  When we visit they always have cut up fruit for us and water.  Now that it's getting to be winter, they give us hot water. Mom I am going to be like you when I get home!  I won't be able to drink cold water because it's never cold here!  Back to the people. They are very blunt and honest people.  They tell you straight up what they think about you.  For example, I always show them a picture of the family and they always look at it and tell me I am so much skinnier.  Someone asked me if I was fat before I came.  But they think you are beautiful mom!  Also, they think dad looks really strong.  So yeah, they are very honest and very blunt and I really love  them for that.  They also love to see if my Chinese is improving.  I swear the whole ward is determined to make my Chinese good.  I love our ward and investigators, they really are amazing!  The language is still hard. Last week was actually super frustrating for me.  I just am really tired of not understanding!  haha,  But it's okay, I'll figure it out eventually.
I know the church is true.  I know the Lord really has prepared the world for his gospel.  It's not time to plant seeds, it's time to harvest!  I love the work, as hard as it is.  I am reminded every day I am not good enough, but WITH God, I am.  I know Christ is our Savior, he will  save us.  I still work on my testimony every day and conversion.  I feel like if we ever stop working on it even for a second, we might not have it. It's hard but will make it so much easier in the long run.
I love you so much and am so grateful for a family who supports me as much as they do. I've been really homesick but I am glad I have a family as good as you to miss.  I love you!  Stay strong!  We live in such a wicked world but with that is also the best good.  And you, my family are the best of the best.
Love always, Sister Smedley  

Pics:  first time eating pigs blood; her and her comp and May; drying out scriptures after rainy event, beach and tag.

e-mail Oct. 29, --So our "golden" investigator Huang JM stopped meeting with us last week. She was our only baptism date and it was really hard. It completely broke my heart. I was so so so sad when she texted us and told us she is to busy to keep meeting with us until next year. Which hopefully she really means next year. It was super hard for my companion and I.  But then on Saturday we met with this girl for the first time. She had been meeting with missionaries in Bada and Taipei  but the  Bada missionaries realized she lived in Yangmei so we got to meet with her. We met with her and she is amazing! She has already gone to church a bunch and she is what you would call golden. At the end we talked to her about baptism to see her understanding. She was telling us how important it is! We were like, "Yeah it is so important!" Then we extended a baptism date to her for November 30! She accepted! She said if I feel prepared then I will! We are so excited!! It was a huge miracle. We aren't positive everything she has been taught yet but she is amazing! There really are miracles in inviting people to be baptized in the first lesson. I love her so much already.