Happy Easter Family! I hope you all had a very nice day yesterday and a great weekend with Conference. It is a great time to reflect on the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for him and for everything he has done for all of humanity. The Atonement is the most important event that has ever happened. It is only through Him we will be able to make it back to our Heavenly Father and to be able to live with our Families forever. I loved this conference because a lot of it was about the Atonement. The thing that stood out to me is no matter how far or how lost we may be from the straight and narrow path it is never too late to change and make our way back. So I hope all of us can strike while the iron is hot and make some changes in our lives to become more in harmony with the Holy Spirit. Meaning have a change within us while we felt the impressions of the Holy Ghost. I know I have a lot of things to work on and I know it is only through the Atonement and the help of Jesus Christ to make those changes. I would encourage all of you to listen to the Council our Leaders and Gods spokesmen and women have given us this weekend. I loved Conference!!
Well it sounds like Arizona was a hit as usual for easter. I was thinking about you all so much this past weekend and how I miss you all and am so excited to see you all again! I am glad the easter egg hunt went well with no injuries or anything like that. I loved the pictures you sent me mom. Thanks for them. All of the little kids looked so cute. Tell Jacs great job on her amazing tennis match! That sounds like quite the experience. She is learning so much and now whenever she is in that same situation she will be able to think back and remember that moment and kick it in gear and continue to tear it up! Great job! :) Sounds like everyone else is doing great. Tell everyone hello for me and that I love them all so much! You all be safe this week wherever you are.
Well my week was pretty crazy just like usual. We had a big meeting in Baton Rouge for all of the leadership of the mission. The missionary Department from SLC came in to teach us some new things and there are going to be a lot of changes to the mission. As in the way we teach people and the way we plan. I love the new ideas and have tried to implement them as we are out teaching and finding. Well that meeting was from 9-4 then we had to drive back through Natchez Mississippi to start an exchange with the District Leader over there. So that was a solid 3 hour drive. It was pretty crazy on the drive up there... We were at 300 ft above sea level and our ears were poppin haha. That is the highest I have been while here in Louisiana. :) So we started exchanges thursday and they went until Saturday Morning before conference.
While on exchanges we had a great lesson with a referral a member gave us. We implemented the new teaching method which is a brief overview of a lesson and then we let them read the rest of it when we leave. Her name was F. Well the lesson went amazing!! We committed her to be baptized for the 25th of this month. She prayed with us at the end of the lesson and she knew that it was true. She is awesome! We have met with her 2 times and she came to the Sunday Morning Session with us. We are going to work hard with her and try and get her ready for being baptized in 3 weeks. It is crazy, but the Lord blesses us in the most mysterious ways and ways we would never expect. We have barely had enough time to be in our own area this week due to all of the planning and traveling we have had to do, yet he still blesses us and helps us keep the work going forward. I am very thankful for that. Especially because I know We can't do it alone.
We had another lesson with a new investigator we tracted into last week. We invited a member to come along with us and it was one of the best lessons I have had. He committed to watch conference and pray to know if the church is true. We gave him a copy of the book of Mormon and then 1 day later we came back to check on him and he had already read all of the testimonies and the first 8 chapters. He is legit! So the work is going really well for us even though we only taught 9 lessons this past week. I am thankful for that!
Then Conference was so incredible... All of the questions I brought and wrote down for conference were answered as well as a lot of questions to my prayers. The biggest questions I have been having lately is for schooling and what I want to do with my life. The answers I got were go to Weber State. I mean Elder Packer even said it in his talk! haha Then go to school and go into medicene and get my pre-med stuff done. Then on the side of that get a business degree. The impressions that came to me is I need to become a Orthopedic Surgeon and then open up my own practice so that is where the business classes will come into play. That is what I need to start studying for now and I feel that is what the Lord would have me do. Then maybe down the road if He tells me to do something different then I will do something different.
I was very thankful for all of the talks this conference and for all of my questions answered. Some of my favorite talks were Elder Eyrings about the Law of the Fast. I guess it was more so a little kick to the face saying I need to pay my fast offerings, but I really liked how he said that Revelation will come only when we do a complete fast. I loved that.
Okay so I don't know about all of you, but to me I think almost every talk had to do with the family or getting married.. I think they are all just trying to trunk out every missionary haha! :) Just kidding. I learned a lot about what I need to do when I do get married some day. Don't worry mom I will wait a little bit, but when I find the right one I am going to pop the question! ;) So with that I loved the talks elder Packer gave and sister Burton, Elder Perry, Elder Christofferson, and Elder Sitati. They all talked a lot about marriage. Then I loved the talk on hope from Elder Clayton. The airplane story he told was such a great example of the principle of hope. I always look at the Atonement as my source of Hope.
I loved Elder Wilfor Andersens talk about the keep practicing and the indian doctor. He talked a lot about how we need to stay in tune with the Spirit. Then Elder Geral Causse was a great talk about are we taking things for granted now? And how we need to anchor our faith in the simple things of the Gospel. Then of course I loved Elder Hollands talk as well as Elder Uchtdorf. I mean what a way to end that session off right? :) But my most favorite talk from the whole conference was Elder Kevin Pearson about Enduring to the End. I guess it is something that is standing out to me right now with my mission coming to a close. I just have to keep enduring and everything will work out just the way it is supposed to. I really liked also how he said look at Lehi's dream and apply it to me. He gave us 6 things.
1. Don't forget to Pray
2. Come unto Christ and be perfected in him.
3. Press forward with Faith.
4. Book of Mormon is the key to progress. (Everyday Everyday Everyday READ IT!)
5. Don't be distracted or deceived.
6. Stay by the tree.
If we loose the Spirit we are lost. So if we do these things we will not lose the spirit and we will stay by the tree of life which is eternal life. I loved this!
So that was my favorite talk from conference. We watched it at our Stake center and there were only us 6 missionaries there for the saturday sessions and then some members came for the Sunday session. Dad I missed going to Priesthood with you. I am excited to go to it with you this fall. We only had a few men show up. And yes mom we were able to watch all of the sessions of conference. It was Great! :) But it did make me miss you all a little bit, but that is alright. I will just think of Elder Pearsons talk he gave!
Well Family I love you all so very much. Thanks for everything you do for me. I miss you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Keep up the great work! I love you!!
Love Elder Smith
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