January 21, 2019 Email

It's so weird not having snow.  This weather is stupid.

I was supposed to lead out this week but Elder Berrett didn't really let me.  He's been really getting on my nerves lately, but it's whatever.  Transfers are coming up and I'm pretty sure he's being shipped off to somewhere else because he's been here for 6 months.  The only downside to him leaving is that I still don't really know anyone.  Nothing too crazy happened here this week.  The days are pretty much just mixing together and it's kind of boring.  It's just the same stuff everyday.  Our finding is trash.  We haven't really found anyone new to teach but we are working with some less actives and getting them back.  It's almost as good as a baptism, the only difference is that they aren't stats or new members.  But yeah, nothing too interesting has happened.

President Nelson is coming to the Cardinals stadium to speak on February 10th and it is supposed to be the largest gathering of saints in the history of ever.  And we are going.  It's terrible seats, but it's still the prophet of God, so any seat is good for me.

A spiritual experience that I had was a couple weeks ago when I was reading my patriarchal blessing.*  I got about half way through and I was so overcome with the Spirit that I couldn't finish the rest because I would have been in tears.  I need to go over that more.  It is a God-given road map that will guide me for the rest of my life if I am faithful to it.  And that goes for everyone who has received their blessing.

My favorite scripture right now is 1 Nephi 3:7.  We are thrown trials left and right and the adversary is coming at us all the time.  But, the Lord will always provide a way.  I've really thought about how he is the Light of the world.  Light is the absence of darkness and thus the absence of evil.

I love you guys and miss you every day.  I will continue to pray for you and with the best for you.

Love,

Elder Smith

*Every worthy, baptized member is entitled to and should receive a patriarchal blessing, which provides inspired direction from the Lord.  Patriarch blessings include a declaration of a person's lineage in the house of Israel and contain personal counsel from the Lord.  As a person studies his or her patriarchal blessing and follows the counsel it contains, it will provide guidance, comfort, and protection.

January 14, 2019 Email

Hey guys,

This week has been interesting.  My companion and I were riding on a sidewalk path through a park and we both went down on a patch of mud.  My and my bike are all good, but my companion is less.  He broke his wrist and this morning we went and he got a full arm cast on it.  He keeps telling people the story more dramatic every time he says what happened.  It's been a good growth from a regular story to an elaborate story.  He uses it as a conversation piece all the time.  We got a car though, so that's a perk.  It's a 2018 Nissan Rogue.  They treat us pretty well here.  Tell Mitch that tiwi is stupid and I got an aggressive driving the second day of having it.  Apparently, they want us to drive safe in their cars.

We had a baptism on Friday.  It was pretty good.  It was a little girl (11) that is part of a part-member recent convert family.  She wanted to get baptized a while back, but we had to make sure she got all the lessons before she got baptized.  There are a couple more kids in that family that we are working on.

Our finding is pretty dang low.  We haven't found a new person to teach since I've gotten here.  We have to do 90 minutes of finding a day and we were promised some pretty big things if we do that.  I'm at the point where I'm doing the work because I have to.  I don't have a love for it yet and I probably won't for a while but it'll come.  My trainer is making me experience a lot this week, I will experience failure so that I can grow.  I'm going to crash and burn this this week, but it'll be good for me.

Anyways, love you guys and miss you everyday.  Keep up the hard work.

Love,

Elder Smith

January 7, 2019 Email

The Come Follow Me program^ doesn't really affect us as missionaries.  We talk about it at dinners with members, but that's about it.  At nights it gets pretty chilly but being from Montana, I can stand it.  Not being as cold as everyone else is the only thing I can rep.  We have a dinner appointment every night.  Sometimes we have 2 a night.  All the food is good so that just means I get fatter.  I've gained like 10ish pounds since I've been here, but hopefully it's mostly muscle.  We have a gym in our apartment complex, so we work out for an hour every morning except Monday and Wednesday because that's when we have zone sports.

So we had a baptism this week.  It was a guy that they have been teaching for 5 months and he finally committed.  The font didn't fill up fast or at the right temp because of the water heater, so we had to boil water and throw it in to help it get there.  We did that for about an hour.  It was a miracle that he was baptized and that the font worked out.

The other day we had a really good lesson with this one lady.  We were going over to do a Book of Mormon read but when we opened the door she was bawling.  Her friend had committed homicide and then suicide so we talked to her about the spirit world, kingdoms of glory, and Jesus Christ.*  After we had talked to her for a while she left twice to get stuff.  The first time she walked out I bowed my head and prayed that we would be able to help her.  The second time the Spirit told me to give her a blessing.  So, when she left I turned to Elder Berrett and I said that we need to give her a blessing.  She is an inactive member.  We gave her a blessing and she couldn't thank us enough.  We were there for 2 hours talking with her about all the trials she has gone through.  Her husband also is inactive and he dropped the f bomb the first time we were there, but we had dinner and did service for them a couple of days ago and he appreciated us so much.  After we left their house, the wife called us and said that we were in Queen Creek for a reason.  After we left the husband wanted to read the Book of Mormon and wanted to go to church the next day.  They both showed up at church on Sunday and stayed for the 2 hours.  Hopefully, we can do a lot of good with them and their family.

We also have a baptism lined up for Friday which is way cool.  I also gave my first blessing yesterday to an old woman.  It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but it was okay.  She said it helped and that's all that matters.  Although it sounds like everything is hunky dory, it is rough here.  I suck at talking to people.  I try and it's like I don't know anything.  I'm struggling with just talking to people and it sucks so much.  I'm not feeling like a good missionary.  Hopefully this stuff comes over time.  I'm going to be a greenie for the next 23 months.  Hopefully time starts to fly by fast.  I feel like I've been here forever.  Anyways, it's all been good-ish.

Love,

Elder Smith

^The Come Follow Me program is a new curriculum used church-wide to help members in their personal/family/congregational worship to live, learn, and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

*Long before the Creation of this earth, our Heavenly Father provided a plan that made it possible for us, His children, to become like Him.  This plan is called the plan of salvation.  Understanding this plan give us greater purpose in life.

Before this mortal life we lived with God and His spirit children, without physical bodies.  We chose the Father's plan, which included the Creation of this earth and provided us the opportunity to come here to gain a body, make choices, develop faith, and accept responsibility for our actions.  This allows us to progress beyond what was possible in the spirit world when we live with God.

Sin and death are alos part of mortality.  The Father send His Son, Jesus Christ to provide a way to overcome sin and death.  This He did through an act called the Atonement.  Through Christs atoning sacrifice, we can repent of our sins and someday live with God and with our families forever.

December 31, 2018 Email

It's so weird not having snow here.  It's just two different "temperatured" summers.  This weather is stupid.  It was really good to see you guys on Christmas.  It made me pretty homesick, but after a while it was alright.  So, I'm in the Montelana 2nd, Queen Creek, and Desert Wells wards.  They are in the Queen Creek Arizona Central Stake.  That's great that with all the craziness of the holidays you guys were able to find peace in Christ.

The work has been so slow here.  I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and we did 3 lessons and talked to a bunch of people.  That wasn't in our area, and it was the must success and teaching I've done.  We have to do 90 minutes of tracting, and it sucks.  I hate going up and knocking on people's doors.  It's just uncomfortable.  Then again, everything on a mission is uncomfortable.  For Christmas we watched Trazan.  And that was alright.  The members help us a lot.  We've got over $170 in gift cards from members.  They are awesome.  Not as good as Red Lodge, but still pretty good.  Finding is way down.  Our area usually has 150 people being found or being taught, this week was like 40.  We are going to need some miracles to get the ball rolling again.

Love you guys and it was amazing to see you guys for the holidays.  Hope Mom and Mitch get over that sickness quick, that blows.  Hope you guys have a great new years and set goals to enlighten your minds and your bodies.  Best of luck to everyone with work and school, etc.

Love,

Elder Smith