Hey there Family! HAPPY EASTER!! Yesterday sure was a great day being able to celebrate the resurrection of the Savior. I love being a missionary for holidays like those. It really has helped me come closer to the Savior and to feel of his love for all of us. I love being able to share that message everyday 24-7. It is an awesome experience that I wouldn't change for anything. It has helped me grow so much and my testimony has never been stronger. I know y’all are so excited to hear about my new area, but first I want to tell y’all something awesome that happened to me. Something that I will never forget for the rest of my life!
So on Friday I woke up a little sad. I was just thinking about home and Easter and how y’all are eating some of the best food ever when I am here living off of cereal and fried catfish haha. I decided to do my personal study on prayer and recognizing the Spirit when you pray. I read Alma 32-35 and in there it talked a lot about faith in Chapter 32. Then 33-35 talked about prayer and how we need to pray not only when we are in need, but always have a prayer in our hearts. We have been so blessed that we need to have that attitude of Gratitude President Uchdorf spoke about at conference. So I wanted to try that out. And also since Easter was coming up I have never really had that sure answer that Christ lives and that he loves me. I have always believed that, but I wanted to know for sure. So that day after I did my studies I decided to get down on my knees and do what Moroni has promised. For the first time I really felt sincere in my prayer. And I asked the questions which I had in my heart. I finally feel like I humbled myself enough to have the Spirit testify to me about what I wanted to know. So I asked and as I was praying I started to kind of sweat a little bit. It almost felt like I wanted to stop praying. It was the weirdest feeling, but I just kept pushing on and that is when I had the most peaceful and overwhelmingly awesome feeling come over me. I knew then that the Spirit testified to me of the truthfulness of Christ and that he lives and that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me. I now can say with all of my heart I know Christ lives. I know he is helping me out here. I know the Gospel is true. I now have such peace that what I am doing out here is for real and I am not just wasting 2 years away. This is the real deal and I love it. So everyone that reads this email because I know my mom is going to send this to like a million people. If you want to know the truthfulness of this Gospel and if you want to know if God really does know you and loves you I would challenge you to get down on your knees and pray and ask God. It may not come immediately. In my case I have had to keep trying for 19 years. He will answer when he knows you are ready. I know this to be true.
Alright enough with the tender stuff! haha. I know y’all are just dying to find out about Gonzales! Well let’s just say it is AWESOME!! I love it here already. It is so much more country with sweet trucks everywhere. I could get used to this that is for sure! There are a lot of trees and little bayous everywhere. Our area is pretty big. We have a little Chevy Malibu and I am in Heaven! Having a car is so nice. We have already had 4 dinner appointments. The members are awesome down here! There are 2 wards and I am in the First ward. The people are so friendly and I have been trying my best to memorize names. I have already had a couple people complement on that! So dad it is working! haha We have about 10 or so investigators, but only 1 is progressing. The last Elder that was here was very trunky so the work slowed down a little bit, but Elder Borget and myself have been working our butts off to get it back to normal. Elder Borget is awesome! I like him a lot. We get a long pretty well. He grew up in Pleasant Grove and then moved to Colorado. He is also a visa waiter. He is going to Brazil as well. He has been out a transfer less than me. Elder Willis is our district leader and they live like 100 yards away from us. His companion is named Elder Gosch. He is a visa waiter as well and he has been out for almost a year. Pretty crazy how many visa waiters there are. Our apartment is pretty nice. It has 2 bedrooms and it has a washer and dryer! It is so nice! haha. I will try and send some pictures when I can. The people are really nice. This area is a lot safer and nicer than my last area! Mom I didn't want to tell you this because it would probably have made you sick, but the area I was last in was probably the worst place in the mission for the scariest area. When I was with Elder Scarlet we heard Gun Shots and we were stopped by cops all the time asking us why we were in that part of town! Our apartment was in the Ghetto!! haha but don't worry! I am safe and sound in the Lords Army haha. This area is a lot safer. The members here are awesome! They buy us everything. We had groceries delivered this morning. We got just enough stuff so we don't need to buy groceries. So we can spend our money on things we want, but don't worry. I am going to save some money here.
We went over to the Church on Saturday and we meet the Alo family. They are an awesome family. They asked where I was from and I said Ogden then they asked what school? I went on to tell them Bonneville and they got really excited! They then told me that Malosi was their Cousin! So tell Malosi I found his family out here. They are so cool! We are planning on seeing them this week.
So this week has been pretty crazy. I am happy to be here in Gonzales. Elder Jenson is in LaPlace. He has a different companion so I am hoping he will be alright. I will miss him, but I am stoked to be here! The land of the Milk and the Honey~! Oh and then on Saturday I got a call from the Peays and they were up at Cabellas and wanted to take us out to lunch at the Cracker Barrel. It was really good. Then he showed us the Gun he was wanting to get. When we were walking out of the restaurant we heard a voice say hey Elders! We turned around and it was Sister Wall haha. Our mission Presidents wife. That was pretty funny.
Well that is pretty much it. If you have questions let me know. Yes mom I got the package and thank you very much! I almost threw away the box full of those Easter eggs then I had a feeling to look inside of them and it sure was a good thing I did!! Thanks for the little extra spending money!
Well I sure do love y’all so much! I am happy y’all are doing great. There sure are a lot of miracles happening at home. Heavenly Father is watching out for y’all and that brings me a lot of comfort. Tell Boston if he wants to drive fast make sure he drives away slow first then goes fast!! (That's what I would do!!) haha Well have a great week and even though Easter is over keep that same Spirit because how great is it we have a Savior who loves us. I love y’all!
Elder Smith
Ps I am glad y’all got my packages. Hey I accidentally sent home that member missionary book. Can you send that back? Sorry about that! And I knew you would go through those letters momma that's why I kept the good ones for me!;) haha I like to go back and read some of the letters.
PSS What is the big news?
No comments:
Post a Comment