Hey there Dad and Mom! Thanks for your letters! I loved them. I don't know why, but I have never been this excited to come and email y'all. When I got on just barely it was just like Christmas again! I love y'alls letters. I am so glad y'all had a great Christmas. It really was a good one huh! Talking to you guys was the best thing ever. I just didn't want to hang up on you guys. It went by so fast, but it was so great! Mom and Dad you guys are looking great! The pictures you sent looked great! Dad you are the new bayou beast! I mean with those huge muscles. And mom I like the hair. You guys are looking great! I couldn't believe how much older all the kids were looking. It just amazes me haha. I love them so much. I won't lie, but Christmas was pretty tough. Especially because I was a little under the weather. So after the F. familywe went over to Bro. N.s for a little bit and just talked with him. Then after that we went to the N. family and had a great dinner and we got permission to watch TANGLED!! haha That was a good way to end the night right there. But you know when you have been tearing up during the day it makes you a little tired? Well I was so tired I fell asleep 2 times during the movie. That never happens to me haha. Oh well. We had a nice little lesson with them and it was a great night. It was probably one of the best Christmas's ever. Even though it was hard too. I was able to have the true meaning with me for the whole day. And the Best Christmas present was talking to y'all like you said. Then the next morning I woke up and I couldn't even breathe. I had a big sore throat and stuffy nose. So that stunk and on top of that it rained all day for 2 days straight. Gotta love Louisiana!
I am feeling a lot better today. I am almost all the way over it and I can finally breathe again! Well now it is back to missionary work. Sunday I got asked like 2 minutes before hand to teach the gospel principles class so it was back to reality pretty quick! haha. I did a good job though so it was all good.
Okay mom so to answer your question about you guys traveling so much. Mom I really do not care at all! You guys deserve it so why not and it helps time go faster so that is great! And I know how the warm weather helps dad out so much and that is what I want! I know we will travel when I get home so I really don't care so don't worry about that alright momma? :) I actually love hearing where y'all are at and I love getting pictures! Hawaii will be so much fun coming up! Lucky ducks. What other trips do you guys have planned?
Man I don't know where to start. It broke my heart today when I read that Merlene had passed away. She was my favorite lady in our ward. She always made me feel so special. She was an Angel here on earth. She was so sweet. She truly is in a better place now. She is looking out for us now. It was always my favorite going over to her house to give her the Sacrament. She always had these really good chocolates and she would always give me so many of them. She always saved them for us. Give her family my condolences. She will be missed, but I know she is in a better place now and not suffering anymore. She will always have a special spot in my heart.
Well I am glad y'all liked my little package I sent out! I am glad those slippers fit mom! I totally could see you wearing those especially during the winter and how your feet are always cold! And dad you look good in the shirt! Hopefully the boys don't care I got the same shirt for all of them haha. And the Pralines I had to pull an arm and a leg for! Also the W.s made me some to send to you guys so I will try and get them out as soon as I can.
Yes I am ready to bring on 2014! It is going to be a great year! I have some good goals I want to set and I want to work even harder. It is going to be a year I remember. I am excited to learn more and more and meet more people and share this special message we all have. Missionary work is awesome!
Well this week was a great week! Don't worry mom and dad I am not homesick. I was a little bit Christmas and the next day, but I am getting back to work and am not thinking about that anymore. I can't believe I will be hitting my six month mark this next month. Crazy! Then next is the Year Mark! Cool Cool! Well I want y'all to know how much my testimony has grown. I know my Savior lives. I know this is the true work. I know we all are sent to this earth for a special purpose and mine right now is being in Louisiana. This time is going to fly by and pretty soon I'll be coming down those escalators and give y'all a big hug!!
Well I am sorry this letter is a little jumpy and short, but that really shook me up about Merlene. It really breaks my heart. Well I love you guys so much! I hope you have a great week! I know I will! Remember to Enjoy the Journey like you always say mom! I love you guys so much!!!
Love Elder Smith
PS. okay I have some questions about this new car of yours!!! :) What are you going to do with the range rover? Can you send me some pictures? And are you guys cleaning them??? Haha just kidding!! :)
pss. Dad that is too funny... mom told me after we hung up you kind of lost it! I love you so much! I kind of did too! I am sure mom did too! Looks like moms emotional side rubbed off on us huh! haha
psss dad I have not read that book. Is it pretty good? Also do we have a book called mormon doctrine? I think it is by Bruce R. Mckonkie
pssss where in the world are you guys today?? :) It is kind of a fun guessing game trying to figure out where y'all are! :)
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
"Two more days till I see y'all" - 12/23/13
Hey there my wonderful family! How are you all doing? So sorry it has taken me a while to write y'all today. We decided to go and do our P day activity first. We got free tickets to this huge aquarium in downtown. It was so awesome! I will send some pictures today if I can. So we just barely got to the library. Well mom and dad thanks for your letters! They really made me smile and mom you've got to stop making me tear up! I've got to act tough out here for the other missionaries! ;) haha just kidding.
Man you spoiled the girls this year! A trip to New York? Man I bet it was so much fun. I remember our trips to the big apple. I guess it is fair since us boys all went. That was one of the funnest trips ever! Well I think this letter is going to be a little shorter this time because of the awesome thing that is going to be happening this next week! :) I am so excited to see y'all. The pictures you sent me of the girls kind of stunned me... They are getting sooo big... Tell them to stop growing because I still want to tease them, but pretty soon they are going to be bigger than me and over power their old uncle Nicky! haha I hope they are all doing great! So that is really awesome that sister M. wrote y'all. I really love that lady. She is so kind and loves us missionaries. Not to brag or anything, but I think she likes me the most out of all of us! ;) We saw her this week. She didn't want us to do any service but just eat with her. But the food was not ready yet so I grabbed a scrapper and started scrapping all of the paint off of her porch because she wants it re-done. She came back and all of us were doing that so we didn't end up eating for a couple hours and we finished scrapping. So hopefully we can paint next week! She made us fried pork chops. And she made her famous italian cookies. they were really good and she gave us the recipe so I'll make them for y'all in a couple of years haha!
This week was a pretty busy week. We visited a lot of members. On Tuesday we had our mission Christmas party. It was pretty dumb actually haha. We had a tiny meal and a little Christmas story. It was fun because I got to see some of the missionaries in my zone that were in my MTC district. I liked that. Then on Saturday we had our Branch Christmas party and oh man was that a success!!! It was a huge dinner and then all the different groups of the branch performed a talent. And the very last group was the missionaries. So we decided to split up into 4 groups. 2 missionaries played guitars. 2 sisters told jokes. Then my companion and Elder Vaughn rapped. It was a remake of a song and it was all about missionary work. It was really good, sister W. recorded it and said she will send it to you. Then last but not leased I came up with a skit. Elder Andrews and Elder Olsen first went out and told everyone that I had chickened out and I was not going to be performing anymore. People were booing and saying I was a chicken! So those two started singing once there was a snowman and about half way through the song I came running out saying no no no this is not what we rehearsed. Then we started singing another remake of a song, but missionary style! It was to the song... what does the fox say? Instead we did what do the missionaries say! It was really funny and everyone loved it! So I will send that one if I can. SO it was a really big success and we had a lot of fun! Then on Sunday we had a Christmas program and it was pretty good. Lets just say our choir back home sounds a lot better! ;) I mean with you in it mom it is the best choir ever!! Then throughout the week we saw a lot of members like I said and we shared messages about Christ and bore our testimonies of Him.
We had 14 hours of service this week so a lot of service still thank goodness. I love service. It seriously turns any bad day into a great day. Just giving of yourself to others freely is an amazing thing. It is funny how many people come up to us and ask why do you do this? Why would you just give free service or why do you wear such nice clothing and ride a bike? I still ask myself that question! ;) haha just kidding. But I love telling people why. Their reactions are the best. After we tell them we are trying to be more like Christ and help others out, they say oh well that is good. haha It stuns them. But it is an unusual thing what missionaries do. We do leave our families and life behind for 2 years. But like the quote that is on the picture back home on our table, "A missionary leaves their family for 2 years so others can be with theirs for eternity! So yes it is hard leaving family, but it is so worth it to help someone else out in their life and to help their family. The mission has been the best decision of my life. I have never felt so close to my Savior and Father. I have never had so many joys and sorrows. I have never felt so happy or so sad. The sad times are not because I miss my family and friends, but the sad times are when others don't accept the Gospel. It really is so hard watching someone you have grown to love start to fall away. But one of the greatest things about this Gospel is you always have a fresh start. You can never be too deep in a hole to get out. You always are going to have a hand right there for you to grab on to. That hand is the Savior. It is just like the foot prints in the sad story. Where the man and the Savior are walking on a beach and you see 2 footprints but then it goes to 1 and the man asks the Savior "Why did you leave me here? This was one of the hardest times of my life. I needed you the most" and then the Savior says " Oh my son I did not forsake you, but during those times of trials I was carrying you." I love that story. It is so true. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants us to be happy. That is why he puts angels and people in our paths to help us. The Story about Malosi was so awesome. The thing is though he wrote me the most amazing letter ever and it has helped me a lot out here. I one day was in the dumps and I read that letter and I decided to write him back. That was really cool.
Well that is about it for my week. It doesn't even seem like it is Christmas. Especially because of the weather. The beginning of this week it was like 75 outside. Super nice, but now it is bad weather again. It rained all day Saturday and Sunday. We had tornado warnings too so the winds were super bad. It was some crazy weather. Today has been pretty cold. I am missing the snow a little bit. I hear it is a good year of snow. Lucky you guys! Oh and the snow in a can was not cold. It was just weird feeling.
Well my wonderful family I love y'all so much. My testimony is growing so much. Especially during this time of year. I love it. I wont lie though I miss y'all like Crazy! What can I say?? I am a mommas boy! I love my family with all my heart. So I am soooo excited to skype with y'all in 2 days! So with that tell Dan to make y'all an account and also if he could make me one and send me the info. I am going to be going over to the F. sometime between 10-12. Our time. I think y'all are an hour behind us so 9-11 probably. I can not wait to see y'all!! It is going to be sooo cool. It is going to be a weird Christmas though... And hey I hope y'all get my package I sent out. It is a little something from Louisiana! Let me know if y'all got it. And I have another surprise that I am doing with Sister W. but I won't be able to send them until we make them! We are going to make y'all homemade Pralines!!! :) YUM YUM. Well don't worry about me momma. I am doing great out here. I have a lunch and dinner appointment on Christmas so I will get taken care of. I am going over to one of my favorite families house to watch a Christmas movie with there little boy named SAM. :) Well I love y'all and I hope y'all have an amazing week because it is CHRISTMAS!!! :) Well sorry this is short, but I want to save somethings for our phone call!! Alright I know I always say this like 40 times every letter, but I love y'all!! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Love Y'All!
Elder St. Nick
PS. How did the commercial shoot go? that sounds soo cool! You'll for sure have to send it out to me!
PSS I got all your pictures! Thanks!
PSSS 2 more days!!!!
Us missionaries are pretty spoiled!!
Getting ready for the big day! HaHa
Man you spoiled the girls this year! A trip to New York? Man I bet it was so much fun. I remember our trips to the big apple. I guess it is fair since us boys all went. That was one of the funnest trips ever! Well I think this letter is going to be a little shorter this time because of the awesome thing that is going to be happening this next week! :) I am so excited to see y'all. The pictures you sent me of the girls kind of stunned me... They are getting sooo big... Tell them to stop growing because I still want to tease them, but pretty soon they are going to be bigger than me and over power their old uncle Nicky! haha I hope they are all doing great! So that is really awesome that sister M. wrote y'all. I really love that lady. She is so kind and loves us missionaries. Not to brag or anything, but I think she likes me the most out of all of us! ;) We saw her this week. She didn't want us to do any service but just eat with her. But the food was not ready yet so I grabbed a scrapper and started scrapping all of the paint off of her porch because she wants it re-done. She came back and all of us were doing that so we didn't end up eating for a couple hours and we finished scrapping. So hopefully we can paint next week! She made us fried pork chops. And she made her famous italian cookies. they were really good and she gave us the recipe so I'll make them for y'all in a couple of years haha!
This week was a pretty busy week. We visited a lot of members. On Tuesday we had our mission Christmas party. It was pretty dumb actually haha. We had a tiny meal and a little Christmas story. It was fun because I got to see some of the missionaries in my zone that were in my MTC district. I liked that. Then on Saturday we had our Branch Christmas party and oh man was that a success!!! It was a huge dinner and then all the different groups of the branch performed a talent. And the very last group was the missionaries. So we decided to split up into 4 groups. 2 missionaries played guitars. 2 sisters told jokes. Then my companion and Elder Vaughn rapped. It was a remake of a song and it was all about missionary work. It was really good, sister W. recorded it and said she will send it to you. Then last but not leased I came up with a skit. Elder Andrews and Elder Olsen first went out and told everyone that I had chickened out and I was not going to be performing anymore. People were booing and saying I was a chicken! So those two started singing once there was a snowman and about half way through the song I came running out saying no no no this is not what we rehearsed. Then we started singing another remake of a song, but missionary style! It was to the song... what does the fox say? Instead we did what do the missionaries say! It was really funny and everyone loved it! So I will send that one if I can. SO it was a really big success and we had a lot of fun! Then on Sunday we had a Christmas program and it was pretty good. Lets just say our choir back home sounds a lot better! ;) I mean with you in it mom it is the best choir ever!! Then throughout the week we saw a lot of members like I said and we shared messages about Christ and bore our testimonies of Him.
We had 14 hours of service this week so a lot of service still thank goodness. I love service. It seriously turns any bad day into a great day. Just giving of yourself to others freely is an amazing thing. It is funny how many people come up to us and ask why do you do this? Why would you just give free service or why do you wear such nice clothing and ride a bike? I still ask myself that question! ;) haha just kidding. But I love telling people why. Their reactions are the best. After we tell them we are trying to be more like Christ and help others out, they say oh well that is good. haha It stuns them. But it is an unusual thing what missionaries do. We do leave our families and life behind for 2 years. But like the quote that is on the picture back home on our table, "A missionary leaves their family for 2 years so others can be with theirs for eternity! So yes it is hard leaving family, but it is so worth it to help someone else out in their life and to help their family. The mission has been the best decision of my life. I have never felt so close to my Savior and Father. I have never had so many joys and sorrows. I have never felt so happy or so sad. The sad times are not because I miss my family and friends, but the sad times are when others don't accept the Gospel. It really is so hard watching someone you have grown to love start to fall away. But one of the greatest things about this Gospel is you always have a fresh start. You can never be too deep in a hole to get out. You always are going to have a hand right there for you to grab on to. That hand is the Savior. It is just like the foot prints in the sad story. Where the man and the Savior are walking on a beach and you see 2 footprints but then it goes to 1 and the man asks the Savior "Why did you leave me here? This was one of the hardest times of my life. I needed you the most" and then the Savior says " Oh my son I did not forsake you, but during those times of trials I was carrying you." I love that story. It is so true. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants us to be happy. That is why he puts angels and people in our paths to help us. The Story about Malosi was so awesome. The thing is though he wrote me the most amazing letter ever and it has helped me a lot out here. I one day was in the dumps and I read that letter and I decided to write him back. That was really cool.
Well that is about it for my week. It doesn't even seem like it is Christmas. Especially because of the weather. The beginning of this week it was like 75 outside. Super nice, but now it is bad weather again. It rained all day Saturday and Sunday. We had tornado warnings too so the winds were super bad. It was some crazy weather. Today has been pretty cold. I am missing the snow a little bit. I hear it is a good year of snow. Lucky you guys! Oh and the snow in a can was not cold. It was just weird feeling.
Well my wonderful family I love y'all so much. My testimony is growing so much. Especially during this time of year. I love it. I wont lie though I miss y'all like Crazy! What can I say?? I am a mommas boy! I love my family with all my heart. So I am soooo excited to skype with y'all in 2 days! So with that tell Dan to make y'all an account and also if he could make me one and send me the info. I am going to be going over to the F. sometime between 10-12. Our time. I think y'all are an hour behind us so 9-11 probably. I can not wait to see y'all!! It is going to be sooo cool. It is going to be a weird Christmas though... And hey I hope y'all get my package I sent out. It is a little something from Louisiana! Let me know if y'all got it. And I have another surprise that I am doing with Sister W. but I won't be able to send them until we make them! We are going to make y'all homemade Pralines!!! :) YUM YUM. Well don't worry about me momma. I am doing great out here. I have a lunch and dinner appointment on Christmas so I will get taken care of. I am going over to one of my favorite families house to watch a Christmas movie with there little boy named SAM. :) Well I love y'all and I hope y'all have an amazing week because it is CHRISTMAS!!! :) Well sorry this is short, but I want to save somethings for our phone call!! Alright I know I always say this like 40 times every letter, but I love y'all!! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Love Y'All!
Elder St. Nick
PS. How did the commercial shoot go? that sounds soo cool! You'll for sure have to send it out to me!
PSS I got all your pictures! Thanks!
PSSS 2 more days!!!!
Sunday, December 22, 2013
A missionary miracle with my bike! 12/16/13
Hey there family! Hi Mom and Dad! Sorry it has taken me so long to write y'all this morning. When we woke up I looked at our kitchen and said we are not leaving until we clean our apartment! So I have been cleaning all day and then we just went to Sam's club to get some food. I went a little over board and bought some good stuff for this next week and the week after!
Well I am doing OUTSTANDING!! I am having such a great week and a great day. I love this time of year. Christmas is for sure my favorite time of year! Well it sounds like you have been busy back at home doing all of the fun Christmas traditions that we always would do. That is one thing I am missing is all of the fun things we would always do. The Kurt Bester concert was always so much fun. I remember when we were going to buy those race track tickets and we were bidding against Troy Child. That was funny. And then the buckle! Man that is my favorite one. I bet you all are looking good in your new jeans. Tell Jacque she better pick some good ones out because she is taking my spot! ;) She is a lucky little girl. Hey what movie are y'all going to go see on Christmas Eve?? I am hoping that our mission President will allow us to watch a Christmas movie. I think they let them do it last year. So we will see. One cool thing I am pretty sure we are going to be able to do is watch the BYU Bowl game. I am hoping so because we have a member that invited us over to watch with him on his new smart TV. So we will see. That would be the first game I have watched since the Monday night saints game I went to. Well I am glad everything is going great back home.
Alright so now for my week and some really cool things. First off I love this time of year. All of our lessons we decided to just talk about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. It really has brought me closer to our Savior. There is a Mormon message that is about some kids that put on a play and they start out kind of fighting over presents then it changes and they talk about what they can give for gifts to the Savior. They talk about how they can smile more and help one another. It is a really good little message that kids can understand. I would encourage y'all to watch that. So this week it was really busy! We had a couple of dinner appointments. That was super nice. On Tuesday we went over to the N. They are a returning less active family. They have one son and he is super funny. We ate dinner and then I gave the lesson. I talked about the true meaning of Christmas and showed that little video. All I know is I felt the Spirit so strongly. It came over me very strongly. I was fighting back tears. So I felt like I needed to bare my Testimony about Christ. I couldn't hold it any longer. I started to cry a little bit and then the family started to cry a little bit and after I was done the family said they haven't felt the Spirit that strongly in awhile and they said it really put them into the Christmas spirit. Then there little kid Sam said why are you crying so that made me stop and kind of laugh. It was a great night. Then a few nights later Elder Willis and I went and visited Bro N. He is the coolest guy ever. He is a recent convert and we just talked and gave a little lesson. (He is the one who invited us over for the game if we can go). So after that it was late and we needed to get back to our apartment. So we started to bike and we made it about a mile or 2 towards our place and then I hit a curb really hard and blew my back tire.... Most annoying thing ever!! We were still like 10 miles away from our place. So I got off my bike and looked in my bag to grab my patch kit, but then I realized Elder Andrews had taken it out to fix his bike so we were stranded. We could try and walk home, but it would take us like an hour and a half to two hours. If we were to walk we would get in way past our curfew. So I decided to say a little prayer in my heart. It was nothing special. I just said Heavenly Father please help me out here. Right when I was done I looked in the parking lot and noticed a truck was coming towards us. I looked closer and it was a member Brother J. He has a little toyota tacoma just like mine! And he came over honking and waving at us. He jumped out and said he was driving home and looked to the side and saw two missionaries and one was on the ground looking at his tire with steam coming out of his ears! I told him that was me... Haha. Then he said can I give y'all a lift home so we threw our bikes in the bed and jumped in. It was such a great experience. It was a huge testimony gainer for me. It was something simple but it made me realize how much Heavenly Father loves us and watches out for us. He knows everything and wants us all to be happy. And that sure did make us both happy because walking our bikes home did not sound like fun at ALL!! So that was a little miracle that happened this week. Then on Saturday it was the stake Christmas party. We went up to the Stake Center and it was pretty fun. Sister W. gave us a ride up there. Then afterwards she took us out to this place called Moes pizza. It is the best pizza around! We had a great time and just laughed. Then when she dropped us off I decided to give her one of your books dad and she was so thankful. She asked if I would sign it. So I did and I wrote her a little message and when I gave it back to her she said she couldn't read it or else she would start to cry. Then on Sunday she came up to me and said she just bawled last night and she was so thankful. So mom you don't need to worry about me getting taken care. She is my 2nd mom pretty much. She always makes sure we have food and things. I defiantly want you to meet her when we come back here. Dad your book has been a success down here! You have no idea how much people love it! The kids love it too! I have given out about 10 and everyone of the people said it was the best present ever! So thanks for sending me out some! Oh so on Sunday Elder Willis had to give a talk. It was the first talk he had given on his mission. He has been out for 17 months and it was his first talk. He only had about 20 minutes to prepare too! haha
Well mom and dad it sounds like your new calling is going to be a great calling. It is going to keep you on your toes just like how missionary work is! Hey it is supposed to be hard because during the hardest times you come closer to your Heavenly Father. Don't worry about anything because with Christ and our Father in heaven anything is possible and he will make sure the work continues no matter what. You both are going to be the best missionaries ever! Hey at least you don't have the same schedule like I do! So with the mornings we wake up at 6:30 and I try and go run. Then I eat something good (AKA anything I can find!! haha) Then studies start at 8 and go until 10. Then we start our day. We have an hour for media time to go on LDS.org and look up talks and get familiar with the site. So that is good then we can have 2 breaks throughout the day. One for lunch and one for dinner. They can go up to an hour. And then to answer the question about what religion most people are down here. There are so many different religions. There are Baptist, Catholic, Christians, and a bunch others. We have a Baptist investigator and a Catholic investigator. We meet so many people from different religions and let me tell you something.... They know their BIBLES! So that is something I have been studying to become better at. Is there any other question y'all have? Hopefully I answered them all.
Yes mom I will send some pictures with me in it! ;) I am sorry it takes forever. I am bad at that. I just don't really think of it because we are pretty busy this time of the year. I will send some today though. I have not been doing any Christmas shopping because I have had a very busy week! So I will try and do that some time later.
Well my wonderful Family I love y'all so much. I love this time of year. Remember that this is the time of year to remember Christ. I never really got that until I came out here. It is all about Christ. It is a very special time. I love giving gifts to Christ by being an example. By giving service to others. and Bringing hope to people. We all can do this. I am so thankful for my savior. I am so thankful he loves us so much that he give his life for us. I am so thankful for this Gospel. It is so true. I know it without a doubt in my heart and mind. I love being apart of Gods army. I love knowing I will be able to be with y'all for time and all eternity. I love you guys so much. I am so excited for Christmas. I can not wait to Skype y'all!
PS mom you need to make an account and send me all the information about it. I will be able to skype. I don't know what time yet, but we for sure are going to be able to see each other! :) Well y'all I love you! Have a great week and be safe. I am doing great out here so don't worry about me. Thanks for all of the love and support. I love you guys! The Church is true! The book is still Blue! And i'll see you in 9 days! haha peace out!
Love Elder Smith
Well I am doing OUTSTANDING!! I am having such a great week and a great day. I love this time of year. Christmas is for sure my favorite time of year! Well it sounds like you have been busy back at home doing all of the fun Christmas traditions that we always would do. That is one thing I am missing is all of the fun things we would always do. The Kurt Bester concert was always so much fun. I remember when we were going to buy those race track tickets and we were bidding against Troy Child. That was funny. And then the buckle! Man that is my favorite one. I bet you all are looking good in your new jeans. Tell Jacque she better pick some good ones out because she is taking my spot! ;) She is a lucky little girl. Hey what movie are y'all going to go see on Christmas Eve?? I am hoping that our mission President will allow us to watch a Christmas movie. I think they let them do it last year. So we will see. One cool thing I am pretty sure we are going to be able to do is watch the BYU Bowl game. I am hoping so because we have a member that invited us over to watch with him on his new smart TV. So we will see. That would be the first game I have watched since the Monday night saints game I went to. Well I am glad everything is going great back home.
Alright so now for my week and some really cool things. First off I love this time of year. All of our lessons we decided to just talk about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. It really has brought me closer to our Savior. There is a Mormon message that is about some kids that put on a play and they start out kind of fighting over presents then it changes and they talk about what they can give for gifts to the Savior. They talk about how they can smile more and help one another. It is a really good little message that kids can understand. I would encourage y'all to watch that. So this week it was really busy! We had a couple of dinner appointments. That was super nice. On Tuesday we went over to the N. They are a returning less active family. They have one son and he is super funny. We ate dinner and then I gave the lesson. I talked about the true meaning of Christmas and showed that little video. All I know is I felt the Spirit so strongly. It came over me very strongly. I was fighting back tears. So I felt like I needed to bare my Testimony about Christ. I couldn't hold it any longer. I started to cry a little bit and then the family started to cry a little bit and after I was done the family said they haven't felt the Spirit that strongly in awhile and they said it really put them into the Christmas spirit. Then there little kid Sam said why are you crying so that made me stop and kind of laugh. It was a great night. Then a few nights later Elder Willis and I went and visited Bro N. He is the coolest guy ever. He is a recent convert and we just talked and gave a little lesson. (He is the one who invited us over for the game if we can go). So after that it was late and we needed to get back to our apartment. So we started to bike and we made it about a mile or 2 towards our place and then I hit a curb really hard and blew my back tire.... Most annoying thing ever!! We were still like 10 miles away from our place. So I got off my bike and looked in my bag to grab my patch kit, but then I realized Elder Andrews had taken it out to fix his bike so we were stranded. We could try and walk home, but it would take us like an hour and a half to two hours. If we were to walk we would get in way past our curfew. So I decided to say a little prayer in my heart. It was nothing special. I just said Heavenly Father please help me out here. Right when I was done I looked in the parking lot and noticed a truck was coming towards us. I looked closer and it was a member Brother J. He has a little toyota tacoma just like mine! And he came over honking and waving at us. He jumped out and said he was driving home and looked to the side and saw two missionaries and one was on the ground looking at his tire with steam coming out of his ears! I told him that was me... Haha. Then he said can I give y'all a lift home so we threw our bikes in the bed and jumped in. It was such a great experience. It was a huge testimony gainer for me. It was something simple but it made me realize how much Heavenly Father loves us and watches out for us. He knows everything and wants us all to be happy. And that sure did make us both happy because walking our bikes home did not sound like fun at ALL!! So that was a little miracle that happened this week. Then on Saturday it was the stake Christmas party. We went up to the Stake Center and it was pretty fun. Sister W. gave us a ride up there. Then afterwards she took us out to this place called Moes pizza. It is the best pizza around! We had a great time and just laughed. Then when she dropped us off I decided to give her one of your books dad and she was so thankful. She asked if I would sign it. So I did and I wrote her a little message and when I gave it back to her she said she couldn't read it or else she would start to cry. Then on Sunday she came up to me and said she just bawled last night and she was so thankful. So mom you don't need to worry about me getting taken care. She is my 2nd mom pretty much. She always makes sure we have food and things. I defiantly want you to meet her when we come back here. Dad your book has been a success down here! You have no idea how much people love it! The kids love it too! I have given out about 10 and everyone of the people said it was the best present ever! So thanks for sending me out some! Oh so on Sunday Elder Willis had to give a talk. It was the first talk he had given on his mission. He has been out for 17 months and it was his first talk. He only had about 20 minutes to prepare too! haha
Well mom and dad it sounds like your new calling is going to be a great calling. It is going to keep you on your toes just like how missionary work is! Hey it is supposed to be hard because during the hardest times you come closer to your Heavenly Father. Don't worry about anything because with Christ and our Father in heaven anything is possible and he will make sure the work continues no matter what. You both are going to be the best missionaries ever! Hey at least you don't have the same schedule like I do! So with the mornings we wake up at 6:30 and I try and go run. Then I eat something good (AKA anything I can find!! haha) Then studies start at 8 and go until 10. Then we start our day. We have an hour for media time to go on LDS.org and look up talks and get familiar with the site. So that is good then we can have 2 breaks throughout the day. One for lunch and one for dinner. They can go up to an hour. And then to answer the question about what religion most people are down here. There are so many different religions. There are Baptist, Catholic, Christians, and a bunch others. We have a Baptist investigator and a Catholic investigator. We meet so many people from different religions and let me tell you something.... They know their BIBLES! So that is something I have been studying to become better at. Is there any other question y'all have? Hopefully I answered them all.
Yes mom I will send some pictures with me in it! ;) I am sorry it takes forever. I am bad at that. I just don't really think of it because we are pretty busy this time of the year. I will send some today though. I have not been doing any Christmas shopping because I have had a very busy week! So I will try and do that some time later.
Well my wonderful Family I love y'all so much. I love this time of year. Remember that this is the time of year to remember Christ. I never really got that until I came out here. It is all about Christ. It is a very special time. I love giving gifts to Christ by being an example. By giving service to others. and Bringing hope to people. We all can do this. I am so thankful for my savior. I am so thankful he loves us so much that he give his life for us. I am so thankful for this Gospel. It is so true. I know it without a doubt in my heart and mind. I love being apart of Gods army. I love knowing I will be able to be with y'all for time and all eternity. I love you guys so much. I am so excited for Christmas. I can not wait to Skype y'all!
PS mom you need to make an account and send me all the information about it. I will be able to skype. I don't know what time yet, but we for sure are going to be able to see each other! :) Well y'all I love you! Have a great week and be safe. I am doing great out here so don't worry about me. Thanks for all of the love and support. I love you guys! The Church is true! The book is still Blue! And i'll see you in 9 days! haha peace out!
Love Elder Smith
Thursday, December 12, 2013
A new skill learned and I am pro at it! 12/09/13
Hey there my wonderful family! Hi Mom and Dad!
Thanks for your letters. I really loved them this week. I look forward to your letters every week. It just makes me smile! Well no one got transferred this transfer here in the Westbank. We all think that president didn't want to move the missionaries around until after Christmas! So that is really good. There were only 3 transfers in all of the New Orleans zone (which is my zone). So nothing too big has happened! I am super excited though that I get to stay here in Algiers. And I am really excited to serve with Elder Willis for another transfer! I am really hoping for more success this next transfer especially because it is the Christmas time of year. This past transfer was a pretty tough transfer! We had a lot of little successes of sharing the Gospel, but none of them have lead us to the next step yet. I am really hoping that it will happen this next transfer. I know it will. The Lord is just testing us and our faith. We need to stay strong so that the work can progress through us. I may not have seen the big successes, but I have seen the little successes and it has added up to be a big success. I think one of the biggest successes I have seen is in myself. I am becoming more and more converted every day. I love this Gospel and all of the blessings it brings to me in my life. I have liked having hard times because it is making me stronger. Yes during them it is really hard, but that is when you turn to the Lord and he pours out his blessings upon us. I love that.
Well mom and dad that is sooo cool about your new calling as ward missionaries! That is really kind of funny that you both would be called especially since you have been thinking about serving a mission. Now you are! That is so cool. I think your both going to be the best missionaries ever! You are going to blow me out of the water! Haha Mom that missionary experience on the airplane is so cool. He sounded like a really cool guy. Keep working on him! Be persistent! Haha. That is really cool. That is a really cool experience on how you went and said a prayer and then when you came back it opened up an opportunity to share the Book of Mormon with him. That has got to strengthen your testimony a lot. Hey it is true. When you open your mouth it will be filled with words. The Holy Ghost is so cool that way. Good job mom and dad. You both are my heroes! I look up to you both so much! I love you guys!
Well this past week was really slow... One of the slowest weeks probably.. Haha So many people were gone and to top it off it was the last week of the transfer and it seemed to drag on forever. So guess what we did to make it better?? SERVICE!! I had 22 hours of service this week. Sister W. asked if we would come over and help her and her husband out with laying tile on their whole bottom floor. It took us 2 days! Lets just say I am pro at laying tile now! It is going to be a skill I will be able to use for the rest of my life. Elder A. and I did the whole thing pretty much because we were the only 2 that would get dirty and do some work! Elder W. and Elder V. didn't do too much haha. Oh well. We had so much fun doing it! They were very appreciative and bought us some poy boys which are pretty much like sandwiches. They were calamari! Soooo good. Then Yesterday they bought us all our own pizzas. They are such a great family.
What an amazing looking floor!
We only had a few lessons and a couple spiritual thoughts this past week. We didn't see any of our less active members. We did see Sister M. and she had a great trip up to Tennessee! Then when we left she said that she was going to come to church and guess what!!!! She did not..... :( She hasn't been for 5 weeks now.. It is soo sad. She is not committing to her commitments. So we are just praying our hardest to show love towards her and for her to soften her heart and come to church. None of our investigators came to church this week. Lets just say the work is very slow right now. I don't know why, but it is. I am excited though to get out this week and work hard and get people to start coming again! Last night Elder Andrews and I went on exchanges to a family that is super less active. It went really well and we all felt the Spirit soo strongly. Mom I had a little moment like you had on the airplane. We were talking about Lehi's dream. We were going over the topics and helping them understand how important the rod of iron is. Then all of a sudden I felt like I should say something that had to do with something totally different. So I acted and it turns out that the mom had been wondering about a question that she had and I addressed it. We ended up talking about it for a while and she said how that had been something on her mind for awhile. It was so cool to be an instrument in the Lords hands. I have had so many cool experiences out here. Missions are so much fun. I really love just being around all of the other missionaries. It is nice to know I am not the only one who has left their family. That has been super nice.
Well I am sorry this letter has kind of jumped all around the place, but not much happened this week. Oh yes I did receive your Christmas package! Thank you sooo much for it! I have been decorating it this week. Those little missionaries ornaments riding their bikes were pretty awesome! That looks just like us because we do not have the car anymore... Sad day! Haha. Oh one thing the weather at the beginning of this week was 90 degrees!! But today it is about 40 with humidity! It is sooooooooooo cold!!!!! :) I think it feels like 9 degrees! Haha. It is starting to feel more like Christmas. I love this time of year. So do the people down here. So many people have "Happy Birthday Jesus" posters on their houses. It is pretty cool. I love being out here because it has taught me the true meaning of Christmas. I have seen how it is not about the presents and the hustle and bustle, but about Christ. It is about Families being together. That is going to be pretty tough! Not going to lie. I am going to be missin y'all very much! But at least we get to talk!!
Well tell everyone hello for me. Tell all of the little kids I love them. Mom I love you so Much! Dad I love you so much! Thank you both for all you do for me. I miss you guys like crazy, but this is where I am suppose to be. Have a great week and let me know if there is anything you want to know. I love you guys!
Love Elder Smith
PS. We are going to be able to Skype for Christmas! I am not sure what time or where yet, but I will let y'all know. Thanks you guys and I love you!! Have a great week!
Proud to be wearing this badge!
I love the temple and I love this great companion!
The cowboy inside of me! Havin some fun on PDay!
Thanks for your letters. I really loved them this week. I look forward to your letters every week. It just makes me smile! Well no one got transferred this transfer here in the Westbank. We all think that president didn't want to move the missionaries around until after Christmas! So that is really good. There were only 3 transfers in all of the New Orleans zone (which is my zone). So nothing too big has happened! I am super excited though that I get to stay here in Algiers. And I am really excited to serve with Elder Willis for another transfer! I am really hoping for more success this next transfer especially because it is the Christmas time of year. This past transfer was a pretty tough transfer! We had a lot of little successes of sharing the Gospel, but none of them have lead us to the next step yet. I am really hoping that it will happen this next transfer. I know it will. The Lord is just testing us and our faith. We need to stay strong so that the work can progress through us. I may not have seen the big successes, but I have seen the little successes and it has added up to be a big success. I think one of the biggest successes I have seen is in myself. I am becoming more and more converted every day. I love this Gospel and all of the blessings it brings to me in my life. I have liked having hard times because it is making me stronger. Yes during them it is really hard, but that is when you turn to the Lord and he pours out his blessings upon us. I love that.
Well mom and dad that is sooo cool about your new calling as ward missionaries! That is really kind of funny that you both would be called especially since you have been thinking about serving a mission. Now you are! That is so cool. I think your both going to be the best missionaries ever! You are going to blow me out of the water! Haha Mom that missionary experience on the airplane is so cool. He sounded like a really cool guy. Keep working on him! Be persistent! Haha. That is really cool. That is a really cool experience on how you went and said a prayer and then when you came back it opened up an opportunity to share the Book of Mormon with him. That has got to strengthen your testimony a lot. Hey it is true. When you open your mouth it will be filled with words. The Holy Ghost is so cool that way. Good job mom and dad. You both are my heroes! I look up to you both so much! I love you guys!
Well this past week was really slow... One of the slowest weeks probably.. Haha So many people were gone and to top it off it was the last week of the transfer and it seemed to drag on forever. So guess what we did to make it better?? SERVICE!! I had 22 hours of service this week. Sister W. asked if we would come over and help her and her husband out with laying tile on their whole bottom floor. It took us 2 days! Lets just say I am pro at laying tile now! It is going to be a skill I will be able to use for the rest of my life. Elder A. and I did the whole thing pretty much because we were the only 2 that would get dirty and do some work! Elder W. and Elder V. didn't do too much haha. Oh well. We had so much fun doing it! They were very appreciative and bought us some poy boys which are pretty much like sandwiches. They were calamari! Soooo good. Then Yesterday they bought us all our own pizzas. They are such a great family.
We only had a few lessons and a couple spiritual thoughts this past week. We didn't see any of our less active members. We did see Sister M. and she had a great trip up to Tennessee! Then when we left she said that she was going to come to church and guess what!!!! She did not..... :( She hasn't been for 5 weeks now.. It is soo sad. She is not committing to her commitments. So we are just praying our hardest to show love towards her and for her to soften her heart and come to church. None of our investigators came to church this week. Lets just say the work is very slow right now. I don't know why, but it is. I am excited though to get out this week and work hard and get people to start coming again! Last night Elder Andrews and I went on exchanges to a family that is super less active. It went really well and we all felt the Spirit soo strongly. Mom I had a little moment like you had on the airplane. We were talking about Lehi's dream. We were going over the topics and helping them understand how important the rod of iron is. Then all of a sudden I felt like I should say something that had to do with something totally different. So I acted and it turns out that the mom had been wondering about a question that she had and I addressed it. We ended up talking about it for a while and she said how that had been something on her mind for awhile. It was so cool to be an instrument in the Lords hands. I have had so many cool experiences out here. Missions are so much fun. I really love just being around all of the other missionaries. It is nice to know I am not the only one who has left their family. That has been super nice.
Well I am sorry this letter has kind of jumped all around the place, but not much happened this week. Oh yes I did receive your Christmas package! Thank you sooo much for it! I have been decorating it this week. Those little missionaries ornaments riding their bikes were pretty awesome! That looks just like us because we do not have the car anymore... Sad day! Haha. Oh one thing the weather at the beginning of this week was 90 degrees!! But today it is about 40 with humidity! It is sooooooooooo cold!!!!! :) I think it feels like 9 degrees! Haha. It is starting to feel more like Christmas. I love this time of year. So do the people down here. So many people have "Happy Birthday Jesus" posters on their houses. It is pretty cool. I love being out here because it has taught me the true meaning of Christmas. I have seen how it is not about the presents and the hustle and bustle, but about Christ. It is about Families being together. That is going to be pretty tough! Not going to lie. I am going to be missin y'all very much! But at least we get to talk!!
Well tell everyone hello for me. Tell all of the little kids I love them. Mom I love you so Much! Dad I love you so much! Thank you both for all you do for me. I miss you guys like crazy, but this is where I am suppose to be. Have a great week and let me know if there is anything you want to know. I love you guys!
Love Elder Smith
PS. We are going to be able to Skype for Christmas! I am not sure what time or where yet, but I will let y'all know. Thanks you guys and I love you!! Have a great week!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Thanksgiving dinner on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 3 on Thursday, and 1 on Saturday (oh boy)!!! - 12/02/13
Hey Y'all!! Happy late Thanksgiving! Man your week sounds like it was a lot of fun! I am super jealous! I hope you took a lot of pictures! Those stories are my favorite hearing about what the little kids are up to and how they are doing. Hey did you guys play golf? I still have not been able to go play and I really want to! Man that is a crazy story about Jane. I hope she is feeling better now. I can just picture Dave sprinting and jumping over rocks to get to her! Daddy Dave to the Rescue! haha Tell Jane I hope she gets feeling better and to take some "try-actin"! haha just kidding! I am glad the trip to Arizona was such a success. That always was one of my favorite trips. All of us going and hanging out in Arizona for Thanksgiving and having the meal over at the country club. Hey did y'all go black Friday shopping?? If so what did y'all get?? That always was so much fun! I actually did a little shopping Friday after studies because I wanted to save some money and go get some sweaters. I actually ended up buying some brown shoes and a brown belt! They are very nice!
Alright so this week was Thanksgiving and I know mom you are dying to know what all I did. Well we had a dinner on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 3 on Thursday, and 1 on Saturday! I got fed pretty good, but nothing will compare to your cooking mom. On Monday we had some pork. It was not that good at all... It was cold.... haha Then on Tuesday one of my favorite families invited us over. They are the N. They actually are moving to Utah in a couple of months. She fed us Jambalaya but instead of using rice she used pasta. It was sooo good! Then on Wednesday we had red beans and rice... It was not good at all... Sometimes as a missionary you just have to force things down so you are not rude.. It was not good. I thought I was going to throw up the whole time! But I didn't! She is a very nice lady though. Then on Thanksgiving The W. fed us at the church. All 14 of us missionaries and like 20 other people. It was a traditional Turkey dinner with funeral potatoes. They had baked macaroni and Cheese. Sweet potatoes. It was pretty good! I ate a lot there! They are such awesome people!!
My yummy Thanksgiving Dinner!!!
I love this sweet little girl
Then right after that another lady that is not a member invited us over. She is one of the ladies we help out and give service to. She is an amazing cook! Then that night there was a Spanish family and they invited us over for a Mexican style turkey dinner.. It was alright.. Lets just say none of these came close to how good moms cooking and Grandmas cooking is! haha But they are sure thoughtful good people!! Then on Saturday Bro. N. had all of us missionaries over and we had lasagna. It was really good. So I had a lot of food this week! It was a good food week. We had a really slow missionary week though. A lot of people were out of town or had family over so we were not able to do too much work. We tried our best, but we had a lot of people tell us not this week. So for the missionary part this week was not our best! It was a great Thanksgiving, but I wont lie, mom I really missed you and all of our family on Thanksgiving. It was pretty crazy because Jill sent me a letter and she said how last Thanksgiving we all were talking about how I was going to be gone on my mission and guess what. I am here! haha But I wouldn't want it any other way! I got over that homesickness really fast though don't worry! Maybe a few tears that night, but I am good now! Now it feels like Thanksgiving was like a month ago. The days out here feel super long, but the weeks go by so fast. It is the weirdest thing.
This guys a Stud!
Then right after that another lady that is not a member invited us over. She is one of the ladies we help out and give service to. She is an amazing cook! Then that night there was a Spanish family and they invited us over for a Mexican style turkey dinner.. It was alright.. Lets just say none of these came close to how good moms cooking and Grandmas cooking is! haha But they are sure thoughtful good people!! Then on Saturday Bro. N. had all of us missionaries over and we had lasagna. It was really good. So I had a lot of food this week! It was a good food week. We had a really slow missionary week though. A lot of people were out of town or had family over so we were not able to do too much work. We tried our best, but we had a lot of people tell us not this week. So for the missionary part this week was not our best! It was a great Thanksgiving, but I wont lie, mom I really missed you and all of our family on Thanksgiving. It was pretty crazy because Jill sent me a letter and she said how last Thanksgiving we all were talking about how I was going to be gone on my mission and guess what. I am here! haha But I wouldn't want it any other way! I got over that homesickness really fast though don't worry! Maybe a few tears that night, but I am good now! Now it feels like Thanksgiving was like a month ago. The days out here feel super long, but the weeks go by so fast. It is the weirdest thing.
Well it's pretty crazy to think that it is already December! I am still confused because when I look outside there is no snow at all! Yesterday got warm again. It was 80! pretty nice huh! haha but this whole week was pretty cold. Luckily we have the car for the rest of the transfer and possibly all of next transfer! So I am praying for that! haha just kidding! Well Down here in Algiers everything is going really good! We only had 7 lessons this week so it was a slow week. We tried to visit all of the members in our area and wish them all a happy Thanks Giving. That was really good. We did a lot of service this week too. We mowed a few lawns, helped a less active member move out of her house, and helped one of our members out around the house. Lets just say I am a master at folding laundry now! :) haha I really appreciate what Romonita does for us now. I feel bad because I was probably a really messy kid at home! haha Tell her sorry and that I love her!
Oh a pretty cool thing happened yesterday at church. I was able to bless the sacrament again! It has been like 3 months! That was fun. Then bro N. asked us to teach his class. He teaches the 13-15 yr old's. So Elder W. and I talked about missionary work. (really original huh!) but we did a bunch of role playing like what we did in the MTC and it was a huge success! All of the kids left feeling better about sharing the Gospel with their friends. So that was really cool. All of those kids love us missionaries.
Oh a pretty cool thing happened yesterday at church. I was able to bless the sacrament again! It has been like 3 months! That was fun. Then bro N. asked us to teach his class. He teaches the 13-15 yr old's. So Elder W. and I talked about missionary work. (really original huh!) but we did a bunch of role playing like what we did in the MTC and it was a huge success! All of the kids left feeling better about sharing the Gospel with their friends. So that was really cool. All of those kids love us missionaries.
Well Elder W. and I have been getting along so good. We have not had one problem this whole transfer. I really hope that we both stay together for another transfer. I am really wanting to be with him for one more at least. He is super fun and we just get along so well. He is a hard worker so we do a lot of really good work.
Elder W. One awesome Missionary!!
It has been so awesome! We have been trying to get our 4 investigators to come to church, but it has been hard because some of them do not have transportation. We have arranged rides for them and then we go to pick them up and they wont answer their doors. It is so sad because we know what a blessing the church is and they just close the door and don't want to change. Sister M. was out of town this past week so we were not able to see her. I am so excited to see her this week. It is crazy how much love I have for the people down here right now. I really care for them. It breaks my heart when they do not want to change or when they feel the Spirit and turn it down because they don't want to give up their worldly things. I have come to find out what is really important in this life. Yes I love our boat and all of the fancy cars, but we don't need those things. They are just worldly things that distract us from our purpose here on earth. Now is the time to prepare to meet God. We need to focus on that and live our life to the best of our abilities.
The 4 Amigos!
President Wall gave us all a worksheet about repentance and forgiveness/mercy. I have learned of the importance of repentance because God can't look upon sin with the least amount of allowance. So that is what I have been focusing on in my personal studies. It is so nice to learn all of these doctrines because you run into people and they have questions and when you are prepared and have studied the Spirit will put the words in your mouth. I have seen this so much out here. The other day we ran into a guy and he just started asking so many deep questions. I had no idea what to say or how to say it. I just opened my mouth and trusted in Heavenly Father and spoke. The man then understood. It was so cool! I have had so many awesome experiences out here. It is not always the huge spiritual experiences that happen, but it is the small and simple things. They add up to be the great things. Well My testimony is growing so much out here. I am loving it. I love my mission. I love my new home and I do not want to leave it yet. Transfers are next week so I will be emailing you on Tuesday. Wish me luck!! :)
Well mom and Dad I love you both so much. I look up to you so much. I missed you guys like crazy this week. I know Heavenly Father helped me get through the week. Mom that is a pretty crazy experience that happened in church Sunday with Jared Ford. I know how you feel kind of. We were all at the store the other day and I thought I heard your voice. I dropped everything I was doing and turned around and looked for you, but it wasn't you. It was some lady on the phone. I remember I was talking to David a long time ago about how sometimes you will smell something or hear something and it will remind you of home. That is so true. I felt that a lot this past week! But oh well! I am enjoying the journey like you say mom! I can do this, because I already am! :) Well I love y'all so much. You are the best family ever! Tell everyone hi for me and give the little kids a big hug and kiss for me. Dad Give mom a big hug for me. I love you guys! Have a great week! Don't worry about me.. I am in the Lords hands!
Elder W. One awesome Missionary!!
It has been so awesome! We have been trying to get our 4 investigators to come to church, but it has been hard because some of them do not have transportation. We have arranged rides for them and then we go to pick them up and they wont answer their doors. It is so sad because we know what a blessing the church is and they just close the door and don't want to change. Sister M. was out of town this past week so we were not able to see her. I am so excited to see her this week. It is crazy how much love I have for the people down here right now. I really care for them. It breaks my heart when they do not want to change or when they feel the Spirit and turn it down because they don't want to give up their worldly things. I have come to find out what is really important in this life. Yes I love our boat and all of the fancy cars, but we don't need those things. They are just worldly things that distract us from our purpose here on earth. Now is the time to prepare to meet God. We need to focus on that and live our life to the best of our abilities.
The 4 Amigos!
President Wall gave us all a worksheet about repentance and forgiveness/mercy. I have learned of the importance of repentance because God can't look upon sin with the least amount of allowance. So that is what I have been focusing on in my personal studies. It is so nice to learn all of these doctrines because you run into people and they have questions and when you are prepared and have studied the Spirit will put the words in your mouth. I have seen this so much out here. The other day we ran into a guy and he just started asking so many deep questions. I had no idea what to say or how to say it. I just opened my mouth and trusted in Heavenly Father and spoke. The man then understood. It was so cool! I have had so many awesome experiences out here. It is not always the huge spiritual experiences that happen, but it is the small and simple things. They add up to be the great things. Well My testimony is growing so much out here. I am loving it. I love my mission. I love my new home and I do not want to leave it yet. Transfers are next week so I will be emailing you on Tuesday. Wish me luck!! :)
Well mom and Dad I love you both so much. I look up to you so much. I missed you guys like crazy this week. I know Heavenly Father helped me get through the week. Mom that is a pretty crazy experience that happened in church Sunday with Jared Ford. I know how you feel kind of. We were all at the store the other day and I thought I heard your voice. I dropped everything I was doing and turned around and looked for you, but it wasn't you. It was some lady on the phone. I remember I was talking to David a long time ago about how sometimes you will smell something or hear something and it will remind you of home. That is so true. I felt that a lot this past week! But oh well! I am enjoying the journey like you say mom! I can do this, because I already am! :) Well I love y'all so much. You are the best family ever! Tell everyone hi for me and give the little kids a big hug and kiss for me. Dad Give mom a big hug for me. I love you guys! Have a great week! Don't worry about me.. I am in the Lords hands!
Love your little missionary
Elder Smith
God Army!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
"Man it is nice to have a car! - I will never take my little Tacoma for granted ever again!" - 11/25/13
Hey everyone! Sounds like another really fun week home without me! ;) Man no wonder y'all wanted me to leave so badly! I mean having all of the good food and traveling the whole world! Man... I see how it is!! ;) haha just kidding! I love hearing what is going on back home. Mom don't worry! It doesn't make me sad when I know where you guys are traveling or doing anything fun so no need to hide it! I kind of figured y'all would go to Arizona for Thanksgiving. I don't blame you!! I would too!! Get out of the cold Utah weather. That sound like so much fun! Take some pictures and Dad you should get a hole in one for me! That would be really cool! Well I hope all is going well with everyone. That is really sad news about Heidi's mom. I will defiantly keep her in my thought and prayers. Have they given her a Priesthood blessing? I know those work miracles. Well it sounds like all of the little kids are doing great! I wish I could be there to tease them all this Thanksgiving, but that is alright. I will just have to do it double in 2 years! :) Mom I wish I could have your good food this year for Thanksgiving! The food down here is good, but nothing compared to yours! We have already had 1 dinner and that was with our less active lady I have been working with so hard. She wrote down a recipe for her yams and she gave us all a copy to send home to our moms so I will be sending that home soon! The food was really good. She is a good cook and she always is feeding us good food! So with her she has not really been progressing anymore... We have been trying to get her to come to church again, but she hasn't. Now she is going out of town again for another week so we can't talk to her for awhile. I have been trying to do something special for her though. I have been trying to show love to her by doing little random acts of kindness. Like the other day I decided to make some oatmeal cookies and take them over to her. Lets just say it was a very fun experience trying to make all of those cookies! haha First off I was out of money to buy all of the ingredients, then second I put too much baking soda in so the first batch turned out kind of funky! haha us missionaries ate those ones! Then I figured it out and took her the better cookies! It was a lot of fun doing that though. It was something so simple, but it made me and her feel so good. I don't know if she ate them or threw them out, but that doesn't matter. What mattered was she felt loved. So I have been trying to do this in different ways. I am probably going to take her a picture of all of us missionaries next week with just a little thank you card or something. It is fun!! :) Speaking of oatmeal cookies.... Mom do you know how you sent me some in the MTC? Well would you want to do that again??? :) Those were soooo good! haha
Well I have been doing great this week! This week went by so fast! We had a great week with 14 lessons! Pretty good huh?? We are gradually picking up the pace and seeing more results. Still no baptisms, but we are getting a lot of less active members to come back to church. Hey we are doing what President Wall wants us to do. LOVE, SERVE, TEACH, and RESCUE! So that has been good. This week we had exchanges. So Elder Willis went over to Westbank and Elder Olsen came over here with me. It was a lot of fun. Elder Olsen is awesome and we have a lot of fun together. We ran into these kids at this one cowboy store and they stopped us and we talked for 2 hours. They just asked questions about what we believe and we answered them all. So we may have 2 more investigators! Right now we have 4 investigators, but only one is really progressing. The work here is still pretty slow, but we are trying to turn that around! It will happen! We just need to give it some time! :) So Elder Willis and I are getting along GREAT! He is awesome and we haven't had one problem the whole time. He is just like me. We are both layed back and we like to work hard. Another reason this week has been so good is because we have a car!! Man it is nice to have a car... I will never take my little Tacoma for granted ever again! So we have been able to do so much more work. But on Wednesday we have to give the car back to the sisters... Oh speaking of sisters.. I didn't tell y'all this last week one of the sisters went home because of medical reasons. It was kind of sad because us missionaries knew that was not the reason. She had been really struggling so she decided to go home. It was really sad.. But now we are getting a new sister and she is going to be serving here for a couple of months and then she is going to be going to Temple Square! Pretty cool huh? Serving down there would be awesome!
So I am trying to think of what else happened this week... There were a lot of really cool miracles of us showing up to peoples houses and them praying before hand to help them out. It is so cool being a part of Heavenly Fathers hand and helping him out in His work. I really love that. Oh last night the Walkers fed us at the church and as you know that is probably one of my favorite things ever! She is such a sweet lady and she really is like my mom down here. So don't worry mom.. There is someone out here who is looking out for me! The reason I love this little get together so much is because all of us bear our testimonies. I always feel the spirit so strongly. I love it!
So that was pretty much my week. It was really good! It went by pretty fast! The weather down here is really starting to change.. Who ever said that Louisiana is warm in the winter is so wrong! Every morning there is a little mist in the air and it is like 45 degrees out with wind. That may not sound that bad, but the humidity just cuts right through you. I still have not gone to get any sweaters so I think I am going to be doing that today. Since we have the car we are going to go over to Downtown and go down Canal street and have some beignets! I am super excited for that!
Well this week I am really thankful for my family. Mom and Dad I love you both so much. Thank you for everything you have done for me throughout my life. I would not be the kid I am today without you two. I love you both so much! Being gone has really shown me how much I love our Gospel and how we believe so much in families. I know Heavenly Father put me here in our family because he wanted me to have the BEST mom and dad and sister and brothers ever! I love you guys so much! I am thankful for my mission. I have learned so much already. I have learned how to deal with disappointments and how to live on my own. I have learned that the only way to have joy in this life is through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is so simple if you think about it. All we have to do is live the commandments and be the best we can be and we can be with our families forever. I am so thankful for that. I am thankful for the little things in this life that we sometimes take for granted like a car! haha But really we have it so nice.. It is humbling out here to see all of the poverty and heartaches. That is why people love us so much is because we have hope. We have the knowledge to happiness. Isn't that just awesome??? Well I think y'all get my point. I am learning so much out here and my testimony is growing so much. I love this work!
Well I hope y'all have a great week and a great Thanksgiving! Tell everyone hello from me and that I love them! Try not to eat too much food! Tell the little kids I love them and I miss them. And last but not least... I love you Mom and Dad! Have a great week! I will talk to y'all next week! LOVE YOU!
Love your son,
Elder Smith
PS. Thanks for going to get the shoes mom! I think a 10 would be good!
PSS I am sorry I haven't gotten any pictures to you... I have not been doing too good on taking pictures.. We are super busy and I forget... hahah I will do better!
PSSS Is there anything you want to know about being out here?
PSSSS I love you!
Well I have been doing great this week! This week went by so fast! We had a great week with 14 lessons! Pretty good huh?? We are gradually picking up the pace and seeing more results. Still no baptisms, but we are getting a lot of less active members to come back to church. Hey we are doing what President Wall wants us to do. LOVE, SERVE, TEACH, and RESCUE! So that has been good. This week we had exchanges. So Elder Willis went over to Westbank and Elder Olsen came over here with me. It was a lot of fun. Elder Olsen is awesome and we have a lot of fun together. We ran into these kids at this one cowboy store and they stopped us and we talked for 2 hours. They just asked questions about what we believe and we answered them all. So we may have 2 more investigators! Right now we have 4 investigators, but only one is really progressing. The work here is still pretty slow, but we are trying to turn that around! It will happen! We just need to give it some time! :) So Elder Willis and I are getting along GREAT! He is awesome and we haven't had one problem the whole time. He is just like me. We are both layed back and we like to work hard. Another reason this week has been so good is because we have a car!! Man it is nice to have a car... I will never take my little Tacoma for granted ever again! So we have been able to do so much more work. But on Wednesday we have to give the car back to the sisters... Oh speaking of sisters.. I didn't tell y'all this last week one of the sisters went home because of medical reasons. It was kind of sad because us missionaries knew that was not the reason. She had been really struggling so she decided to go home. It was really sad.. But now we are getting a new sister and she is going to be serving here for a couple of months and then she is going to be going to Temple Square! Pretty cool huh? Serving down there would be awesome!
So I am trying to think of what else happened this week... There were a lot of really cool miracles of us showing up to peoples houses and them praying before hand to help them out. It is so cool being a part of Heavenly Fathers hand and helping him out in His work. I really love that. Oh last night the Walkers fed us at the church and as you know that is probably one of my favorite things ever! She is such a sweet lady and she really is like my mom down here. So don't worry mom.. There is someone out here who is looking out for me! The reason I love this little get together so much is because all of us bear our testimonies. I always feel the spirit so strongly. I love it!
So that was pretty much my week. It was really good! It went by pretty fast! The weather down here is really starting to change.. Who ever said that Louisiana is warm in the winter is so wrong! Every morning there is a little mist in the air and it is like 45 degrees out with wind. That may not sound that bad, but the humidity just cuts right through you. I still have not gone to get any sweaters so I think I am going to be doing that today. Since we have the car we are going to go over to Downtown and go down Canal street and have some beignets! I am super excited for that!
Well this week I am really thankful for my family. Mom and Dad I love you both so much. Thank you for everything you have done for me throughout my life. I would not be the kid I am today without you two. I love you both so much! Being gone has really shown me how much I love our Gospel and how we believe so much in families. I know Heavenly Father put me here in our family because he wanted me to have the BEST mom and dad and sister and brothers ever! I love you guys so much! I am thankful for my mission. I have learned so much already. I have learned how to deal with disappointments and how to live on my own. I have learned that the only way to have joy in this life is through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is so simple if you think about it. All we have to do is live the commandments and be the best we can be and we can be with our families forever. I am so thankful for that. I am thankful for the little things in this life that we sometimes take for granted like a car! haha But really we have it so nice.. It is humbling out here to see all of the poverty and heartaches. That is why people love us so much is because we have hope. We have the knowledge to happiness. Isn't that just awesome??? Well I think y'all get my point. I am learning so much out here and my testimony is growing so much. I love this work!
Well I hope y'all have a great week and a great Thanksgiving! Tell everyone hello from me and that I love them! Try not to eat too much food! Tell the little kids I love them and I miss them. And last but not least... I love you Mom and Dad! Have a great week! I will talk to y'all next week! LOVE YOU!
Love your son,
Elder Smith
PS. Thanks for going to get the shoes mom! I think a 10 would be good!
PSS I am sorry I haven't gotten any pictures to you... I have not been doing too good on taking pictures.. We are super busy and I forget... hahah I will do better!
PSSS Is there anything you want to know about being out here?
PSSSS I love you!
Saturday, November 23, 2013
President Walls advise "Be an ODD Missionary"! -11/18/13
Hey Mom, Dad, and Family!
How is everyone doing?? Man your letters sounded great! I love P-Days so I get to hear from you all. Dad I am glad the foot treatment went so well. That is a huge blessing! Mom I am glad you have been going to the temple so often and getting together with all the missionary parents! That sounds like so much fun. Man it is crazy that Justin and Chase leave on Wednesday.. I am glad I am not in their shoes! haha jk. I am glad I already have a couple of months under my belt. I have already been out for like 4 months! That is crazy. This week went by so fast It was crazy.. So I hear the weather back home is getting pretty cold huh? That does not sound like fun at all. Not to brag or anything, but it was 80 yesterday! :) So nice, but it gets really cold here too. It has snowed here 3 times in the past like 40 years and everyone thinks it is going to snow this year. I hope not. The humidity really does not make it fun at all, but oh well! :) Come what may and love it right? Alright well I am just going to get started on this letter.
Alright so starting out with Monday and Tuesday. Not a whole lot happened. Everyone wasn't really home and we had a lot of appointments fall through. We did see a couple of people on Tuesday though. Then we had interviews on Wednesday with our mission President. I was really excited for this! The assistance told us all to come prepared with a 20 minute lesson to give before hand with them before our interviews. So Elder W. and I thought oh it will be easy. Lets just talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we go in and we start teaching. And the situation was all about teaching people and not lessons. SO we are teaching and we noticed that they both seemed like something was on their mind. We didn't think anything of it and we kept on going. Then we asked them a question and they both answered and said that they didn't feel like they could become a member of our church. We asked why and they said they were gay... So my companion and I completely changed our lesson plan and started talking about the Family Proclamation to the World. It was good. We pretty much just told them what we believe. It was a super hard topic though! We both never thought that would happen. Afterwards the assistance told us we did a great job and said we would be really good in the situation if it ever came up.. The reason I am telling this story is because something happened the very next night. Alright so we had a referral and he lives out on the point. In the information it told us that he had served a mission in Korea. It said how he has been a member for awhile so we thought oh sweet it will be a perfect opportunity to get him to come back to church. So we go over there and start talking and we ask him if he wants to come to church. He pauses for a while and he said.... Well you won't be seeing us there. And we asked why and he said... Well I am gay.. My companion and I looked at each other and we both had a blank stare in our eyes for a moment but then we shared our message that we had just worked on with the AP'S. It really helped. Right after that we called the assistance and told them the story! We couldn't believe it. They said well it was a good thing we practiced! I hope I don't have anymore of those conversations. Alright so back to the interview with President Wall. It was a really good interview. We just talked about what is going on in Algiers and we talked about you mom and dad. He said just the way I describe you guys he can tell you both did a great job raising me. He is very right! Then we just started talking more about the mission and all of that. We talked about his promise to me about becoming a master teacher and he gave me a challenge to whenever I meet someone to learn 3 things about them just by observing or asking a inspired question. So I have been trying that and I have noticed a huge change. People like that a lot more because they can tell you are sincerely interested in them. And you only talk about them. I really have liked that. He also talked about being an ODD missionary. ODD stands for Observe, Discern, and Do it! I really like this. We all need to be ODD missionaries. Also in my interview he told me that I will be training really soon! That will be cool and fun! So that means I am probably going to be in Algiers for a long time... Like 9 months maybe. So we will see.
Then the rest of the week was great. We had a lot of good lessons and spiritual thoughts. We were able to see a lot of less active people. We had a total of 13 lessons this week. That may not sound like a lot, but that is more than what we have done for awhile!
Oh yeah another thing happened. On Friday night we went to the Emergency Room!! At 9:30! Us Elders were over working out and Elder Vaughn got his ear bud from his headphones stuck in his ear! So we called sister Wall and she told us to take him to the ER room to get it out. It took like 3 hours... We didn't get home until 12:30 and Elder Willis and I had to get up at 5 to go to the Temple the next morning. So it was a late night. Then on Saturday we went up to the Temple. We were planning on going through all 3 sessions, but we didn't make the 11 so we decided to wait for someone who was going through the 11 oclock session in the Celestial room. So we ended up sitting in the Celestial room for 2 hours. It was sooo nice. I just sat and read my scriptures and prayed and pondered. I loved it. The Temple is such an amazing place. I love going there. Everytime it is so nice to just get away from the world and just relax and be closer to our Heavenly Father. I love the Temple. It was so great. Then we came home and had a lesson.
This week has been a really good week. We have had a car the whole week and we will have it again this next week. It has been soooo nice! Well Elder W. and I have been getting along really well. He is a good kid and a we work really well together. My testimony is growing so much. Every day I learn something new. I have seen the blessings of serving a mission already. I have seen them by the safety of all of you back home. I have seen it with dads feet. I have seen it with the comfort I get every time I am a little down or things did not go the way I expected. Obedience brings blessings. I know that Prayer is real and we can talk to our Heavenly Father everyday. I know this Gospel is true. I know the Lord has prepared people for all of us to help bring in the Gospel. Mom and Dad I am so glad you both are doing so many missionary things. That makes me so happy! I am glad the rest of the family is too! We all are missionaries, I am just wearing the name tag. That is the only difference! Heavenly Father and the Spirit will help us if we just open our mouths. That is so awesome to know! Alright everyone I have a favor to ask. Will you all think of ideas to help me out with the sister I have been working with. She is not sure if she wants to come back because it brings back so many memories and it makes her feel a little depressed she said. Maybe for family night tonight all of you can think of ideas and let me know. That would be so nice. I want to make my mission every ones mission! I love all the advice!
Well my family and friends I love you so much! I hope you all are doing great! Keep up the good work and keep smilin! If anyone has any questions just let me know and I will try my best to answer them! :) Well I am doing great! The work is great! Slow, but Great! Well until next week! I love you all! :)
Love Elder Smith
PS sorry mom I have taken forever to get the pictures! I will try this week I hope!
PSS Yes I have a lot of plans for thanksgiving. I am going to hate turkey and ham by the end of it all!
PSSS Hey all of my letters are getting returned to me. Like I will send them out and then a week later they get returned. I am using the same addresses of all of them, but they are being returned.
PSSSS will you tell Ryan that I just got his emails from like October 21. So tell him to use his other account! haha!
PSSSSS I love you all sooo Much!! have a great week!
How is everyone doing?? Man your letters sounded great! I love P-Days so I get to hear from you all. Dad I am glad the foot treatment went so well. That is a huge blessing! Mom I am glad you have been going to the temple so often and getting together with all the missionary parents! That sounds like so much fun. Man it is crazy that Justin and Chase leave on Wednesday.. I am glad I am not in their shoes! haha jk. I am glad I already have a couple of months under my belt. I have already been out for like 4 months! That is crazy. This week went by so fast It was crazy.. So I hear the weather back home is getting pretty cold huh? That does not sound like fun at all. Not to brag or anything, but it was 80 yesterday! :) So nice, but it gets really cold here too. It has snowed here 3 times in the past like 40 years and everyone thinks it is going to snow this year. I hope not. The humidity really does not make it fun at all, but oh well! :) Come what may and love it right? Alright well I am just going to get started on this letter.
Alright so starting out with Monday and Tuesday. Not a whole lot happened. Everyone wasn't really home and we had a lot of appointments fall through. We did see a couple of people on Tuesday though. Then we had interviews on Wednesday with our mission President. I was really excited for this! The assistance told us all to come prepared with a 20 minute lesson to give before hand with them before our interviews. So Elder W. and I thought oh it will be easy. Lets just talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we go in and we start teaching. And the situation was all about teaching people and not lessons. SO we are teaching and we noticed that they both seemed like something was on their mind. We didn't think anything of it and we kept on going. Then we asked them a question and they both answered and said that they didn't feel like they could become a member of our church. We asked why and they said they were gay... So my companion and I completely changed our lesson plan and started talking about the Family Proclamation to the World. It was good. We pretty much just told them what we believe. It was a super hard topic though! We both never thought that would happen. Afterwards the assistance told us we did a great job and said we would be really good in the situation if it ever came up.. The reason I am telling this story is because something happened the very next night. Alright so we had a referral and he lives out on the point. In the information it told us that he had served a mission in Korea. It said how he has been a member for awhile so we thought oh sweet it will be a perfect opportunity to get him to come back to church. So we go over there and start talking and we ask him if he wants to come to church. He pauses for a while and he said.... Well you won't be seeing us there. And we asked why and he said... Well I am gay.. My companion and I looked at each other and we both had a blank stare in our eyes for a moment but then we shared our message that we had just worked on with the AP'S. It really helped. Right after that we called the assistance and told them the story! We couldn't believe it. They said well it was a good thing we practiced! I hope I don't have anymore of those conversations. Alright so back to the interview with President Wall. It was a really good interview. We just talked about what is going on in Algiers and we talked about you mom and dad. He said just the way I describe you guys he can tell you both did a great job raising me. He is very right! Then we just started talking more about the mission and all of that. We talked about his promise to me about becoming a master teacher and he gave me a challenge to whenever I meet someone to learn 3 things about them just by observing or asking a inspired question. So I have been trying that and I have noticed a huge change. People like that a lot more because they can tell you are sincerely interested in them. And you only talk about them. I really have liked that. He also talked about being an ODD missionary. ODD stands for Observe, Discern, and Do it! I really like this. We all need to be ODD missionaries. Also in my interview he told me that I will be training really soon! That will be cool and fun! So that means I am probably going to be in Algiers for a long time... Like 9 months maybe. So we will see.
Then the rest of the week was great. We had a lot of good lessons and spiritual thoughts. We were able to see a lot of less active people. We had a total of 13 lessons this week. That may not sound like a lot, but that is more than what we have done for awhile!
Oh yeah another thing happened. On Friday night we went to the Emergency Room!! At 9:30! Us Elders were over working out and Elder Vaughn got his ear bud from his headphones stuck in his ear! So we called sister Wall and she told us to take him to the ER room to get it out. It took like 3 hours... We didn't get home until 12:30 and Elder Willis and I had to get up at 5 to go to the Temple the next morning. So it was a late night. Then on Saturday we went up to the Temple. We were planning on going through all 3 sessions, but we didn't make the 11 so we decided to wait for someone who was going through the 11 oclock session in the Celestial room. So we ended up sitting in the Celestial room for 2 hours. It was sooo nice. I just sat and read my scriptures and prayed and pondered. I loved it. The Temple is such an amazing place. I love going there. Everytime it is so nice to just get away from the world and just relax and be closer to our Heavenly Father. I love the Temple. It was so great. Then we came home and had a lesson.
This week has been a really good week. We have had a car the whole week and we will have it again this next week. It has been soooo nice! Well Elder W. and I have been getting along really well. He is a good kid and a we work really well together. My testimony is growing so much. Every day I learn something new. I have seen the blessings of serving a mission already. I have seen them by the safety of all of you back home. I have seen it with dads feet. I have seen it with the comfort I get every time I am a little down or things did not go the way I expected. Obedience brings blessings. I know that Prayer is real and we can talk to our Heavenly Father everyday. I know this Gospel is true. I know the Lord has prepared people for all of us to help bring in the Gospel. Mom and Dad I am so glad you both are doing so many missionary things. That makes me so happy! I am glad the rest of the family is too! We all are missionaries, I am just wearing the name tag. That is the only difference! Heavenly Father and the Spirit will help us if we just open our mouths. That is so awesome to know! Alright everyone I have a favor to ask. Will you all think of ideas to help me out with the sister I have been working with. She is not sure if she wants to come back because it brings back so many memories and it makes her feel a little depressed she said. Maybe for family night tonight all of you can think of ideas and let me know. That would be so nice. I want to make my mission every ones mission! I love all the advice!
Well my family and friends I love you so much! I hope you all are doing great! Keep up the good work and keep smilin! If anyone has any questions just let me know and I will try my best to answer them! :) Well I am doing great! The work is great! Slow, but Great! Well until next week! I love you all! :)
Love Elder Smith
PS sorry mom I have taken forever to get the pictures! I will try this week I hope!
PSS Yes I have a lot of plans for thanksgiving. I am going to hate turkey and ham by the end of it all!
PSSS Hey all of my letters are getting returned to me. Like I will send them out and then a week later they get returned. I am using the same addresses of all of them, but they are being returned.
PSSSS will you tell Ryan that I just got his emails from like October 21. So tell him to use his other account! haha!
PSSSSS I love you all sooo Much!! have a great week!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
"The work here in Algiers is really starting to pick up" - 11/12/13
Hey everyone! How are things going? Everything sounds like it is going great! Dad I hope you are doing alright with your treatment. That does not sound fun at all. Well like mom always says, "Come what may and love it"! That is a tough one though having your feet shocked everyday for 45 minutes. Have you noticed any improvements? I sure hope you are starting to feel better. Mom I am glad you had a great week and were able to go down and watch Jacque play in her match. That really sounds like a lot of fun! I remember when we did that last year and we got that sweet hotel room that had a wrap around balcony. Oh the girls loved it! Tell Jacque good job for me alright? Also speaking of tennis there are 6 tennis courts right across the street from our library and my companion and I really want to go play! I think that is what we will be doing for P-Day next week. Well how are all of my little nieces and nephews doing? I sure do miss them. I am sure they are loving life and doing the very best in everything they do! Jen and Dave how is everything going? I sure am glad you are safe Jen with that whole airport thing last week. That is crazy! And Dave I have heard some of the scores of BYU and they aren't doing too bad this year. I guess on Saturday they had a tough loss. Down here in our branch there are so many BYU fans. They really keep us missionaries updated! I love it. Ryan and Heidi I hope you guys are doing great. I miss those little boys that is for sure! Ryan dude I am getting really good on my bike. I can't wait to go up riding when I get home! All of us are going to have to go up and do the night riding! Bryson and I did that a couple weeks before I left and it was one of the funniest things I have done in a long time! And Dan and Brit I hope you guys are doing great! Hey Brit how is the mouth? I hope that new medicine is really helping you out. Well I want you all to know that I pray for you guys everyday. I know that Heavenly Father will watch over all of you while I am gone.
Well I am doing GREAT!!! I love my new companion! Elder W. and I have so much in common. He loves sports and I love sports! He loves to work and I love to work! We really have kicked it off good. The work here in Algiers is really starting to pick up. We have been tracking and handing out a lot of pass along cards and Book of Mormons. I really like it. We also have a lot of fun together. It is not serious the whole time. Yes we are working the whole time, but we are joking around and having a good time while sharing the Gospel. I don't remember who said this, but we need to have moderation in all things. Even missionary work. HaHa Hey so yesterday was our P-Day and it was one of the best P-Days ever. We all went up to Materie to the Stake Center to play basketball with the spanish zone. It was so much fun! We had full games of 5 on 5. We all were so rusty, but it was so much fun! I played pretty good and I kept up with all of them! My companion is a really good basketball player. He is going to be playing for a junior college back home when he is done with his mission. So it is fun to play.
Well last week we did a lot of work. Non-stop the whole week. We only had 4 hours of service this week, because of how cold the weather got. Oh yes... It gets cold down here in LA! The low was like low 40's with humidity so it just cuts right through you. So we did a lot of contacting. We received 5 or so referrals this week and we got in contact with all of them. Oh guess what! We picked up a new investigator and he seems really interested! It was kind of a funny story how we met him. It was a few weeks ago Elder W. and I were about to ride our bikes to the church for a meeting. When we went outside we saw two guys trying to carry in 2 couches that were really big. They looked like they needed some help. So we asked them if they needed help. It was tough to ask because we then would probably be late for our meeting, but we did it anyways. So we help move all of the couches in and we say our goodbyes. I gave him and his brother a pass along card. The one with the Book of Mormon on the back of it. Then we left because we needed to get to our meeting. Then a few nights later we were going to go over to some appointment and as we were leaving he flagged us down and wanted to talk to us. He told us a little more about himself and how he is trying to find a church to go to. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet and gave him directions to come to church and our phone number. Well Sunday rolls around and he didn't show up... Kind of a disappointment, but we are going to be going over there some time this week to talk to him and teach him the lessons. I was soooo excited!!
So on Sunday we had 3 investigators that we left with commitments to come to church and guess what.... None of them showed up.. One of them is a guy in a wheel chair and is hard of hearing. We have been teaching him the lessons and he is really interested, but just didn't have a ride. So we found a ride and we had a member come and pick us up and take us over to pick him up for church. So we knocked and guess what.... No answer... So he didn't come. And then with Sister M. (the lady we have been working with for baptism) She hasn't been to church in 2 weeks. She said she would come, but she didn't.. That was kind of sad. So with her we went over there with the Spanish Elders to mow her lawn. Afterwards she fed us some good Jumbalya and Dirty Rice. It was really good, after we sat down and had a lesson with her. We talked about how we need to follow Christs example and be baptized. I then asked her again if she wants to become a member of our church again and she said that she still does not know. She loves us missionaries, but we can't make the decision for her. So she still doesn't know so the only thing we can do for her is love her and pray for her. She is a great lady and I know she will find the right way again it is just a matter of time.
Well there were a lot of really cool things that happened this week. A lot of little miracles. I saw a lot of prayers answered this week. Not just mine, but the members. A member was going through a really rough time and he went into his bedroom and prayed to Heavenly Father to help him out. And an hour later we showed up. And the thing is we never would have gone over to this members house unless I didn't have the prompting to do so. Also Heavenly Father put us in his path because we were tracking and no one was listening or answering their doors. I had a feeling to go see this person, but I didn't think anything of it and he lived a really long ways away. I hate to say this, but I just put it to the back of my mind and I said we would do it tomorrow. Then we went and knocked on some more doors and then the prompting came back and so we decided to act on it and then come to find out this member had prayed for help and then an hour later we showed up at his door step. It was soo cool and such a neat experience.
Well I am doing great! I am loving being able to teach more people. I love teaching them about the Gospel. The cool thing is all of us can be teachers. All of us are teachers everyday just by the Example we set as members of this church. I love that! I love this work. I have been doing really good these past few weeks. I am not homesick any more! Yes I still miss you guys like crazy, but this is my home now. I love it here. I am really excited to serve in the bayous one day though! It is going to be so sweet! Oh yeah and guess what! I get to go to the temple again on Saturday! We are going to try and do 2 sessions this time! I am super excited! Also tomorrow we have our interviews with President. I am excited to be able to speak with him and hear all of the advice he has to give.
Well My family and friends I love you all! This Gospel is true. Prayer is real. And one thing I have come to appreciate out here is our trials. I read a scripture today that says "we are never given a trial that we can not over come". So no matter how hard this life can be, we always can make it through it with the help of Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God as well as the Bible. I love to study all of the scriptures. It helps me feel closer to my Father in Heaven. Well Everyone keep up the good work back home! Tell everyone hi for me! I love you guys!! :)
Love Elder Nick Smith AKA Nickalaka
Alright mom so I have your answers to your questions. Thank you so much again for the Packages! I love them! It is like Christmas every time I get one! Hey speaking of Christmas it is just right around the Corner!!!! :) :) :)
> Alright so with the whole iPad thing. We are going to be getting iPads in January!! We also are going to be becoming a Technology mission. This means we are going to start working through FaceBook to contact people and share the Gospel. This is going to be super nice during the dead hours of the day from like 1-4. It is going to be really cool!
> So with my Groceries... Man this is a tough one! haha Some times we get the van to go get groceries, but when we do not have the van then we have to ride our bikes. It is about 2 miles to the Walmart. That may not seem far away, but on a bike with groceries everywhere then it really is a long ways away! I bring a bag and try and stuff as much of the things I can in it.
> I love my bike! It is so nice out here. 29ers is the way to go for sure! I cruise! I have not had any bike troubles these past couple of weeks so that is really good.
> Do I cook much? Yes I cook almost every lunch and dinner about 4 times a week. I cook quesidillas. I have a lot of oat meal. I bought one of the huge things from Sam's club. Instead of getting regular milk I now get Silk Milk. It last a lot longer and stays good for a lot longer. I eat mac and cheese and pb&js too. I don't eat too badly. We eat out quite a bit too. I am trying to eat healthy, but it is super expensive to.
> Well that is about it! Hey I hope you don't mind, but I went and bought me some protein. I have been working out hard and staying in shape. This has been super nice! Also I am wondering if I can get some sweat shirts and some brown shoes and a brown belt. It is getting colder here and I am going to be needing those for sure! Is that okay? If so can you put some more money on my card just in case? Thanks sooo much mom and Dad! I love you both so much. I hope you have the best day ever! I will do the same! Well until next week! Peace out!! :)
> Love you guys!
Well I am doing GREAT!!! I love my new companion! Elder W. and I have so much in common. He loves sports and I love sports! He loves to work and I love to work! We really have kicked it off good. The work here in Algiers is really starting to pick up. We have been tracking and handing out a lot of pass along cards and Book of Mormons. I really like it. We also have a lot of fun together. It is not serious the whole time. Yes we are working the whole time, but we are joking around and having a good time while sharing the Gospel. I don't remember who said this, but we need to have moderation in all things. Even missionary work. HaHa Hey so yesterday was our P-Day and it was one of the best P-Days ever. We all went up to Materie to the Stake Center to play basketball with the spanish zone. It was so much fun! We had full games of 5 on 5. We all were so rusty, but it was so much fun! I played pretty good and I kept up with all of them! My companion is a really good basketball player. He is going to be playing for a junior college back home when he is done with his mission. So it is fun to play.
Well last week we did a lot of work. Non-stop the whole week. We only had 4 hours of service this week, because of how cold the weather got. Oh yes... It gets cold down here in LA! The low was like low 40's with humidity so it just cuts right through you. So we did a lot of contacting. We received 5 or so referrals this week and we got in contact with all of them. Oh guess what! We picked up a new investigator and he seems really interested! It was kind of a funny story how we met him. It was a few weeks ago Elder W. and I were about to ride our bikes to the church for a meeting. When we went outside we saw two guys trying to carry in 2 couches that were really big. They looked like they needed some help. So we asked them if they needed help. It was tough to ask because we then would probably be late for our meeting, but we did it anyways. So we help move all of the couches in and we say our goodbyes. I gave him and his brother a pass along card. The one with the Book of Mormon on the back of it. Then we left because we needed to get to our meeting. Then a few nights later we were going to go over to some appointment and as we were leaving he flagged us down and wanted to talk to us. He told us a little more about himself and how he is trying to find a church to go to. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamphlet and gave him directions to come to church and our phone number. Well Sunday rolls around and he didn't show up... Kind of a disappointment, but we are going to be going over there some time this week to talk to him and teach him the lessons. I was soooo excited!!
So on Sunday we had 3 investigators that we left with commitments to come to church and guess what.... None of them showed up.. One of them is a guy in a wheel chair and is hard of hearing. We have been teaching him the lessons and he is really interested, but just didn't have a ride. So we found a ride and we had a member come and pick us up and take us over to pick him up for church. So we knocked and guess what.... No answer... So he didn't come. And then with Sister M. (the lady we have been working with for baptism) She hasn't been to church in 2 weeks. She said she would come, but she didn't.. That was kind of sad. So with her we went over there with the Spanish Elders to mow her lawn. Afterwards she fed us some good Jumbalya and Dirty Rice. It was really good, after we sat down and had a lesson with her. We talked about how we need to follow Christs example and be baptized. I then asked her again if she wants to become a member of our church again and she said that she still does not know. She loves us missionaries, but we can't make the decision for her. So she still doesn't know so the only thing we can do for her is love her and pray for her. She is a great lady and I know she will find the right way again it is just a matter of time.
Well there were a lot of really cool things that happened this week. A lot of little miracles. I saw a lot of prayers answered this week. Not just mine, but the members. A member was going through a really rough time and he went into his bedroom and prayed to Heavenly Father to help him out. And an hour later we showed up. And the thing is we never would have gone over to this members house unless I didn't have the prompting to do so. Also Heavenly Father put us in his path because we were tracking and no one was listening or answering their doors. I had a feeling to go see this person, but I didn't think anything of it and he lived a really long ways away. I hate to say this, but I just put it to the back of my mind and I said we would do it tomorrow. Then we went and knocked on some more doors and then the prompting came back and so we decided to act on it and then come to find out this member had prayed for help and then an hour later we showed up at his door step. It was soo cool and such a neat experience.
Well I am doing great! I am loving being able to teach more people. I love teaching them about the Gospel. The cool thing is all of us can be teachers. All of us are teachers everyday just by the Example we set as members of this church. I love that! I love this work. I have been doing really good these past few weeks. I am not homesick any more! Yes I still miss you guys like crazy, but this is my home now. I love it here. I am really excited to serve in the bayous one day though! It is going to be so sweet! Oh yeah and guess what! I get to go to the temple again on Saturday! We are going to try and do 2 sessions this time! I am super excited! Also tomorrow we have our interviews with President. I am excited to be able to speak with him and hear all of the advice he has to give.
Well My family and friends I love you all! This Gospel is true. Prayer is real. And one thing I have come to appreciate out here is our trials. I read a scripture today that says "we are never given a trial that we can not over come". So no matter how hard this life can be, we always can make it through it with the help of Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God as well as the Bible. I love to study all of the scriptures. It helps me feel closer to my Father in Heaven. Well Everyone keep up the good work back home! Tell everyone hi for me! I love you guys!! :)
Love Elder Nick Smith AKA Nickalaka
Alright mom so I have your answers to your questions. Thank you so much again for the Packages! I love them! It is like Christmas every time I get one! Hey speaking of Christmas it is just right around the Corner!!!! :) :) :)
> Alright so with the whole iPad thing. We are going to be getting iPads in January!! We also are going to be becoming a Technology mission. This means we are going to start working through FaceBook to contact people and share the Gospel. This is going to be super nice during the dead hours of the day from like 1-4. It is going to be really cool!
> So with my Groceries... Man this is a tough one! haha Some times we get the van to go get groceries, but when we do not have the van then we have to ride our bikes. It is about 2 miles to the Walmart. That may not seem far away, but on a bike with groceries everywhere then it really is a long ways away! I bring a bag and try and stuff as much of the things I can in it.
> I love my bike! It is so nice out here. 29ers is the way to go for sure! I cruise! I have not had any bike troubles these past couple of weeks so that is really good.
> Do I cook much? Yes I cook almost every lunch and dinner about 4 times a week. I cook quesidillas. I have a lot of oat meal. I bought one of the huge things from Sam's club. Instead of getting regular milk I now get Silk Milk. It last a lot longer and stays good for a lot longer. I eat mac and cheese and pb&js too. I don't eat too badly. We eat out quite a bit too. I am trying to eat healthy, but it is super expensive to.
> Well that is about it! Hey I hope you don't mind, but I went and bought me some protein. I have been working out hard and staying in shape. This has been super nice! Also I am wondering if I can get some sweat shirts and some brown shoes and a brown belt. It is getting colder here and I am going to be needing those for sure! Is that okay? If so can you put some more money on my card just in case? Thanks sooo much mom and Dad! I love you both so much. I hope you have the best day ever! I will do the same! Well until next week! Peace out!! :)
> Love you guys!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
"I have a new companion and he looks just like Eric Porter!" - 11/04/13
Hey there my wonderful family! How is everyone doing? I hope y'all had a great Halloween! I loved the video you sent me of the family party. I missed that a lot this year! You all looked very scary and grandpa I hope you did not break your ankle with how tall those shoes were! haha I am glad the party was a success and all was well! 800 kids again this year huh? Man, that's a lot! My Halloween was pretty boring to be honest! haha We were on lock down after 4 so we went to the church and played basketball. But that was lots of fun!
My week was really good. Alright so I know all of you are just dying to hear about transfers! Well Wednesday rolls around and we get picked up from our place at 7am to drive all the way up to Baton Rouge. We got there and we had an hour meeting and then we were all brought into the Chapel and separated on both sides of the room. Then President got up and started talking to us and then he started to name off the companions. He started with my zone first. The New Orleans Zone. First to go was Elder S.. He got moved to Downtown. Just right across the river. So he will be working in downtown probably for the rest of his mission. He was really happy and excited. Then next President Called Algiers (where I am at) Then he said... " Serving in Algiers with Elder Smith is going to be......... Elder W.!" So I stand up and look around for him to see who he is. I look over and he looks just like Eric Porter from our ward! haha He is 6'1 and a really cool kid. I really like him. We have a lot of the same interests. He played Basketball, Baseball, and football. He is going to be playing basketball for a school when he gets home. He is a Baller! He is really chill. I think we are going to work really well with each other. I told him that I am wanting to work really hard this transfer and he agreed. So there you go! Now you have it. Elder W. is my new companion. He is from Heber Arizona which is like 2 hours away from Scottsdale. Really cool! So my week has been GREAT! I am happy for a change. I think it is going to work out really well! Mom all of your prayers have been answered! haha Thanks for praying for me!
My new companion!
Alright so some cool things that happened this week. First off we had 21 hours of service this week so another week full of service! We built a fence for sister B. and we mowed a couple lawns like usual. Sister M. is doing really well. She did not attend church this week though.. That was really hard. We have not had an opportunity to talk to her about baptism for a couple weeks.. We are really wanting to this week. I just really want to make sure that the Spirit is there with us when we ask her again. Because last time it was soo strong. So that is what I am working on really hard this week. I have devoted all of my studies on helping me to be able to have the opportunity to give her the Baptismal question. That is my goal for this week. We are going to go over there this week with someone from the high council to talk with her about her concerns. It is all going to work out. I can see how Heavenly Father has helped her out so much this past couple of months.
So a couple of months ago when I first got here I set a goal to be the friendliest missionary I could be and to talk to everyone. I have thought to myself of the challenge that dad gave me when I was starting high school. His challenge was "talk to everyone and befriend everyone". Especially the person that is all alone. I have really taken this challenge and put it to heart. I wont lie though it has been pretty hard because some of the people down here are pretty different! haha So yesterday I noticed that all of my work is starting to pay off. When I first got here people would kind of say hi and then get on there way, but now I notice people are starting to open up with me and to really have a good conversation with me. The members and less active people that we see really seem to like me. It is true when president Wall said we are the bringers of HOPE. So that has been something cool I have reflected on this past week.
This week has been a tough week for teaching. We had some things fall through and a couple of the people we are working with didn't come through with their commitments. That really just breaks my heart. It is hard when all of our lives we have known the truth and then when you talk to someone and they use their agency to choose the other way you just kind of want to ring there necks! haha. Don't worry though I wont! :) One thing I have been trying to do to help me out is think of one thing everyday that I am thankful for and one thing that helps make me happy. Everyday I think of my My AWESOME AMAZING FAMILY. You guys really are the best and so supportive of me! You guys always give me the extra push that I need to make it through the day! Thank you for that! Well I can't believe it is already November! Just think... Soon it is going to be Christmas and we are going to be able to talk! I am so excited for that day!!
Well I am sorry this letter is kind of all over the place. Not a whole lot happened this week. It was pretty slow with transfers and getting everything unpacked for my new companion. I was talking to Elder A. this morning about our missions. It is funny because on some missions people talk a lot about all of the really cool things that happened like baptisms and all of that stuff, but then with us we find so much joy in the little things just like when an investigator comes to church. Or when we give a lot of service! It is what I have come to love though! A mission is not about the big things. It is about the little things that add up to be big. I love my mission. It has been the hardest thing I have ever done. I have come to find out who I really am and how I am a son of God. I love being the person who gives hope to people. I always want to be that person. I love my older brother, Jesus Christ and how he died for me. He knew I was not going to be perfect so he decided to help me and all of us out. I make mistakes everyday, but because of him I can be made clean again and keep on pushen on. I am so greatful for this Gospel. It does change peoples lives. I testify of that. It brings in the knowledge and hope we need in this life. If you take a step back and look at the big picture this life really is only but a small moment. We need to make sure we live it to the best of our abilities and to live the commandments. And as we do that we will be blessed and be able to return and live with our Heavenly Father again. I may not be teaching a 100 lessons a week, but that is okay. I have realized that the most important converts in this church is ourselves. I love this work! I love the Challenge it is! I love how humbling it is! I love how much I am growing!
Well I hope all is well back home! I pray for each and everyone of you everyday. I miss you all very much! I love hearing all of the stories of what is going on back home. Well I hope this letter got my point across. I am doing great out here. I am glad this past week is over though! It was TOO long for me haha! Well I hope you all have a great week this week. Mom and dad I hope you are doing great! Jen and Dave I hope all is well and I hope the little girls are doing great! I love hearing the updates on all of them! Tell them I love them very much and miss them a lot! Ryan and Dan I love you guys! Keep up the good work and tell your families hi for me! And that I love them too!! You all are amazing! Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!
Love Elder Smith!
My week was really good. Alright so I know all of you are just dying to hear about transfers! Well Wednesday rolls around and we get picked up from our place at 7am to drive all the way up to Baton Rouge. We got there and we had an hour meeting and then we were all brought into the Chapel and separated on both sides of the room. Then President got up and started talking to us and then he started to name off the companions. He started with my zone first. The New Orleans Zone. First to go was Elder S.. He got moved to Downtown. Just right across the river. So he will be working in downtown probably for the rest of his mission. He was really happy and excited. Then next President Called Algiers (where I am at) Then he said... " Serving in Algiers with Elder Smith is going to be......... Elder W.!" So I stand up and look around for him to see who he is. I look over and he looks just like Eric Porter from our ward! haha He is 6'1 and a really cool kid. I really like him. We have a lot of the same interests. He played Basketball, Baseball, and football. He is going to be playing basketball for a school when he gets home. He is a Baller! He is really chill. I think we are going to work really well with each other. I told him that I am wanting to work really hard this transfer and he agreed. So there you go! Now you have it. Elder W. is my new companion. He is from Heber Arizona which is like 2 hours away from Scottsdale. Really cool! So my week has been GREAT! I am happy for a change. I think it is going to work out really well! Mom all of your prayers have been answered! haha Thanks for praying for me!
Alright so some cool things that happened this week. First off we had 21 hours of service this week so another week full of service! We built a fence for sister B. and we mowed a couple lawns like usual. Sister M. is doing really well. She did not attend church this week though.. That was really hard. We have not had an opportunity to talk to her about baptism for a couple weeks.. We are really wanting to this week. I just really want to make sure that the Spirit is there with us when we ask her again. Because last time it was soo strong. So that is what I am working on really hard this week. I have devoted all of my studies on helping me to be able to have the opportunity to give her the Baptismal question. That is my goal for this week. We are going to go over there this week with someone from the high council to talk with her about her concerns. It is all going to work out. I can see how Heavenly Father has helped her out so much this past couple of months.
So a couple of months ago when I first got here I set a goal to be the friendliest missionary I could be and to talk to everyone. I have thought to myself of the challenge that dad gave me when I was starting high school. His challenge was "talk to everyone and befriend everyone". Especially the person that is all alone. I have really taken this challenge and put it to heart. I wont lie though it has been pretty hard because some of the people down here are pretty different! haha So yesterday I noticed that all of my work is starting to pay off. When I first got here people would kind of say hi and then get on there way, but now I notice people are starting to open up with me and to really have a good conversation with me. The members and less active people that we see really seem to like me. It is true when president Wall said we are the bringers of HOPE. So that has been something cool I have reflected on this past week.
This week has been a tough week for teaching. We had some things fall through and a couple of the people we are working with didn't come through with their commitments. That really just breaks my heart. It is hard when all of our lives we have known the truth and then when you talk to someone and they use their agency to choose the other way you just kind of want to ring there necks! haha. Don't worry though I wont! :) One thing I have been trying to do to help me out is think of one thing everyday that I am thankful for and one thing that helps make me happy. Everyday I think of my My AWESOME AMAZING FAMILY. You guys really are the best and so supportive of me! You guys always give me the extra push that I need to make it through the day! Thank you for that! Well I can't believe it is already November! Just think... Soon it is going to be Christmas and we are going to be able to talk! I am so excited for that day!!
Well I am sorry this letter is kind of all over the place. Not a whole lot happened this week. It was pretty slow with transfers and getting everything unpacked for my new companion. I was talking to Elder A. this morning about our missions. It is funny because on some missions people talk a lot about all of the really cool things that happened like baptisms and all of that stuff, but then with us we find so much joy in the little things just like when an investigator comes to church. Or when we give a lot of service! It is what I have come to love though! A mission is not about the big things. It is about the little things that add up to be big. I love my mission. It has been the hardest thing I have ever done. I have come to find out who I really am and how I am a son of God. I love being the person who gives hope to people. I always want to be that person. I love my older brother, Jesus Christ and how he died for me. He knew I was not going to be perfect so he decided to help me and all of us out. I make mistakes everyday, but because of him I can be made clean again and keep on pushen on. I am so greatful for this Gospel. It does change peoples lives. I testify of that. It brings in the knowledge and hope we need in this life. If you take a step back and look at the big picture this life really is only but a small moment. We need to make sure we live it to the best of our abilities and to live the commandments. And as we do that we will be blessed and be able to return and live with our Heavenly Father again. I may not be teaching a 100 lessons a week, but that is okay. I have realized that the most important converts in this church is ourselves. I love this work! I love the Challenge it is! I love how humbling it is! I love how much I am growing!
Well I hope all is well back home! I pray for each and everyone of you everyday. I miss you all very much! I love hearing all of the stories of what is going on back home. Well I hope this letter got my point across. I am doing great out here. I am glad this past week is over though! It was TOO long for me haha! Well I hope you all have a great week this week. Mom and dad I hope you are doing great! Jen and Dave I hope all is well and I hope the little girls are doing great! I love hearing the updates on all of them! Tell them I love them very much and miss them a lot! Ryan and Dan I love you guys! Keep up the good work and tell your families hi for me! And that I love them too!! You all are amazing! Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!
Love Elder Smith!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
"This week we have done the most service I have ever done!" - 10/29/13
Hey y'all! How is everyone doing?? I sure am doing great
today!! So last night we got a call from our zone leaders and Elder Scarlet is
getting transfered. That means I will be staying in Algiers and be getting a
new companion tomorrow!! I am pretty excited! That means I
will be taking up my area and being kind of like the senior companion. That
will be pretty cool! So I will be letting y'all know who my new companion is
next week. I have no idea who it is going to be. Elder Andrews and Elder Vaughn
are staying in Algiers Spanish so that will be good.
Elder Olsen is staying in the Westbank. Not too many people are leaving this
transfer. Which is awesome! It is going to be pretty cool to see who I get as a companion next!
This last week was a great week!! I am feeling 100% better
from my cold. We worked pretty hard this week and these last couple of days we
have just been saying goodbyes for Elder Scarlet. He has been here for 11
months now so he knows everyone! This week we did the most service I have ever
done. We had 23 hours of service for the week! It all started with cleaning
out this ladies shed and that took us about 5 hours. It took forever, but she
was very thankful and it was a good project. Then we did our usual mowing
of lawns and helping people out with their gardens and stuff like that. The lady
we have been working with is back in town and she was not feeling her best
when we went over to visit. She has been a little sick so we did not get to talk
to her for too long. This week I am going to bring up the Baptism question
again and we will see what she says. I really have a good feeling about this. I
will keep you posted on the whole situation.
Then on Saturday it was one of the
best days I have ever had on my mission thus far. We were able to go to the
Temple. I will tell you the story. So at 4:30 AM we decided to wake up and go
exercising with our ward mission leader who is a marine. We went and did a lot
of different exercises and got a good hour work out. After that we went back
and showered up because we had to be at the church at 6:45 am to meet there to
catch a ride to the temple. We rode with Brother Neal. He is one of the coolest
guys I have ever met. He just moved to the Westbank when I got here so I
have known him my whole mission. He is a recent convert who joined over a year
ago and he moved from California. He is a retired marine. He gave us a ride up
to the temple. We had some good conversations because the drive up to Baton
Rouge is about an hour and a half. So we get to the temple and it is beautiful.
It is really small. The smallest temple I have ever been to. Imagine the
Brigham temple, but smaller than that. So we did a session and I loved it. The
new movie was incredible. I really enjoyed it so much. I haven't felt so much peace
in awhile. It was super fun! I loved it. And the kid Elder Olsen and Stratford
have been working with ended up being able to make it and go and do baptisms
for the dead! He really enjoyed and loved it. I had a cool experience in the
celestial room. I have not felt the spirit that strongly in a long time.
Temples are so amazing. I love the feeling that I get when I go to them. I was
not able to go through for my ancestor because they had to do the baptism
first. So they did that and the next time I will go through for them. I will
get the name and tell you so you can tell Aunt Jill! haha Speaking of Jill tell her
thank you so much for the packages! I sent off a letter the other day. I have
received all of their packages. The ties are awesome that they sent out!! haha
Alright so moving on with our day on Saturday. There was a baptism for the
Westbank Elders. It is a family named the Bradys. It was the dad, mom, and son.
It was really cool! I was able to conduct the meeting and the spirit was very
strong. Then that night we had our Halloween party! It was a
busy day. The Halloween party was a huge success! We had a lot of investigators
and new people and less active people show up. It was awesome! I love the
people down here. We had a great time and had a chili cook off! They were
really good!
Then Sunday was just a great day and the Walkers fed us again.
Monday night the 1st councelor and his wife had us over for dinner and it was
great to eat some really good Utah types of food! It was the first time I have
had veggies for a little bit. Since it is the end of the month I am low on
funds and I don't want to use the home card! haha So I have been living off of
pasta and rice! Yummy! ;)
Today (Pday) has been a nice and relaxing day. I was so excited to
come and to read all of the emails! Hey that is so awesome about your experience mom and how you have so
much faith. I love you! It is so awesome how Heavenly Father helps us out with
such small things, but they mean so much. He loves us so much. Of course dad
would put it in his hiding spot! haha just kidding! I am surprised he
remembered where it was at! Just kidding! Ilove you Dad!!
I am glad you and Dad had a good trip to California! That
sounds like a lot of fun! Dad you must have gotten really spoiled! Mom I could
just see you watching at the airport looking and imagining that it was me
walking down the escalators. Just think, It is going to be coming up faster
than we both will know it. I won't lie it feels like time is going by pretty
slow, but it is cool to look at how far I have come! Next it is going to be my
6 month mark! Crazy!
Well I am doing great! I am loving life! I am excited and
nervous at the same time for this next week! Come what may and love it, right?
I know I will be happy with whatever President Wall feels like is right.
He is the one who knows more than us missionaries and I have learned that a
lot. I have grown a lot with Elder Scarlet. I have really developed more patience! haha
It is pretty cool! Well I am sorry this is a little shorter, but we have got to
run and pack up all of Scarlets stuff! Well I hope all is well back home!
I love each one of you very much and you all are in my prayers. I hope you all
have a great week and I can not wait to hear from y'all next week! Love you!
Elder Smith!
P.S. Mom will you send me out a
list of everyone's Birthdays. I can't remember any of them... I
feel super bad about missing dads, but I was soo busy this week! Thanks!
( Mission President Wall )
( Sister I have Been Teaching )
( Baton Rouge Temple... I love to see the Temple )
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