It was so great to see all of you on Christmas, I wasn't expecting how it was set up but whatever works for you works for me. I had a lot of questions but forgot them for some reason. I'm so glad Taylor and Aaron were able to be there as well. I missed seeing Grandma and Grandpa Smith, but I know Christmas is a busy day for most people. I sent Christmas cards out to everyone but the pictures are kind of hard to see so I can send them through email if you want them. I'm sorry Dad and Jordan are sick, but someone always has to get sick for the holidays it seems like. And Mom I guess Bruce is right on me having the Las Vegas bug. It's different down here and there's many rich places, but I was joking about wanting expensive things, I've been blessed beyond measure with where I am. For some reason the Lord keeps blessing me with so many things that I definitely don't think I deserve. I'm so well taken care of here. The members would do anything for us even though there wasn't much member trust before I got to the area. We are building that trust back and trying to become better missionaries. I'm so happy for Ryan having so many baptisms, and even though I haven't had one yet, I know I've planted many seeds in peoples hearts and pray for the best for them. Thank you so much for all the gifts and letters I received, I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas this year and I hope it was the same for all of you.
This week we have been running low on our allotted miles in our car so we have been riding our bikes and it's been awesome, I've loved it! Mom, I'm glad you got the picture that Sister Urban sent of us and glad you figured out how to work the phone haha. They're the family that let us Skype at their house and they are so cool! Feel free to text her anytime because she loves doing that for missionary's Moms, she was texting Elder Pennington's Mom that night as we were eating dinner at their house haha. It's been a fun week on the bikes, we were having a contest on who could do the best stoppie and Elder Pennington flipped over his handle bars twice, so I guess I won cause I didn't end up on the ground! Then one day I was in front of him riding and ducked under a tree branch, well he didn't see it and slammed his head right into it, funniest thing ever! To answer your question about the singles ward, it's different of course but I like it a lot. We won't have it next transfer though because they are getting a lot more missionaire's and trying to get one set per ward. They raised the goal to 250 missionaire's per mission and we are at about 160-170 now, compared to 90-100 when I got here in August. But there's never a dull moment in the singles ward it seems like, yesterday someone was talking in sacrament and just turned around to the second councilor and said "I'm sorry Brother Edwards but I'm going to pass out". Then bishop caught him as he was falling backwards! It was a first seeing that in sacrament meeting haha!
I hope all is well this week and I hope everyone drives safe in their traveling. I'm excited to hear how the baby blessing will go. Thanks again for the great Christmas and have a great new year!
Love Elder Smith
Monday, December 31, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Wow, so many questions haha!
But first I want to thank everyone for the letters, a few days ago I received about 5 letters in the mail! haha. Thanks Grandma Birch for the gift, I needed some stamps and they came at the right time! And I loved the Cottles Christmas card! Thank you. To answer some questions, we still have a car because of the singles ward, it covers the Lone Mountain stake, Tule Springs stake, and Elkhorn Springs stake, so it's a vey large area for one singles ward, the other two wards are very small compared to everything else. It's a pretty nice area of town that we're in. It's not a resort area but there are really nice houses. The wards consist mainly of young families with little kids. This is the area that the AP's covered (assistants to the president) for years until a few months ago, and they really sucked it dry, meaning there's no work! haha So we're trying to build it back up, and there are 2 people that will be baptized in the next couple weeks that Pennington taught. The apartment is really nice, nicer then my last one, so I'm thankful for that. We have been doing a lot of visits to the members. I don't know yet when I will be able to skype, we just have to find a member to go use their computer, but hopefully I will know by next Monday and I'll let you know.
I'm glad to here everyone will be together for the progressive dinner on the 23rd. I'm curious to why Krisity's family is moving to the Cayman Islands? That sounds like a blast. haha And it was funny to hear about Mason and Lexie working as a team to cause trouble, I miss them so much but excited to see them on Christmas!
Everything else is going well and I hope everyone has a safe holiday leading up to Christmas. Love Elder Smith
Oh and by the way, We woke up on Saturday to snow on the mountains!!! But then it melted hahah it looked cool.
But first I want to thank everyone for the letters, a few days ago I received about 5 letters in the mail! haha. Thanks Grandma Birch for the gift, I needed some stamps and they came at the right time! And I loved the Cottles Christmas card! Thank you. To answer some questions, we still have a car because of the singles ward, it covers the Lone Mountain stake, Tule Springs stake, and Elkhorn Springs stake, so it's a vey large area for one singles ward, the other two wards are very small compared to everything else. It's a pretty nice area of town that we're in. It's not a resort area but there are really nice houses. The wards consist mainly of young families with little kids. This is the area that the AP's covered (assistants to the president) for years until a few months ago, and they really sucked it dry, meaning there's no work! haha So we're trying to build it back up, and there are 2 people that will be baptized in the next couple weeks that Pennington taught. The apartment is really nice, nicer then my last one, so I'm thankful for that. We have been doing a lot of visits to the members. I don't know yet when I will be able to skype, we just have to find a member to go use their computer, but hopefully I will know by next Monday and I'll let you know.
I'm glad to here everyone will be together for the progressive dinner on the 23rd. I'm curious to why Krisity's family is moving to the Cayman Islands? That sounds like a blast. haha And it was funny to hear about Mason and Lexie working as a team to cause trouble, I miss them so much but excited to see them on Christmas!
Everything else is going well and I hope everyone has a safe holiday leading up to Christmas. Love Elder Smith
Oh and by the way, We woke up on Saturday to snow on the mountains!!! But then it melted hahah it looked cool.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Thanks so much for the packages Mom, you do too many things for me! Well, today is transfer day and I am getting transfered to the Tule Springs zone, I'll cover the Elkhorn Spring stake and I'll be in the Centennial Hills singles ward, Centennial Point ward, and Grand Teton ward. So now I will cover 3 wards rather than 2 but I am excited for a change! I will be living in a brand new apartment and my new companion Elder Pennington just moved in there last transfer, so it should be nice unless he trashed it already, haha. He was in the Lone Mountain zone my first transfer here so I know him well and I know what he did to his last apartment haha! He's a character, and I'll have to work with him a little bit on obedience but I'm looking forward to it. It was a bitter sweet night last night going around to all the great members in the ward that I grew close to and to say goodbye, but change is good and I've been in this area long enough! And that picture was sent from the Rose's phone, not mine haha.
I'm excited to be able to Skype on Christmas! Janell I am so glad you have a new apartment, I was so worried that you would be homeless with a new baby, good thing prayers are answered! Mom, I'm glad you got to take the missionaries out to dinner with Mason and Lexie. I miss them so much and hope they are doing well. I loved the picture you sent of them. Mason is getting so big and looking like his Dad more and more every time I see him! I am thankful when people take us out to eat or bring us food. This past week we didn't have anyone signed up from Tuesday to Friday for dinner, so we just went on with our normal visits. But we are so blessed and the people here are amazing, and every night we sould go to visit someone and they would just offer to feed us or take us out, so the Lord is really watching over and blessing us in every aspect of our lives. Even the little things that don't matter like having dinner one night. I'm so grateful for that.
That was a funny story about Dad setting off the fire alarm at the church! haha, but it's a good thing because I know how old that building is and that there's hidden rooms that we could never get into, because we tried, haha. Maybe they will improve the system and link it to the fire station this time, so good job on setting it off! haha
I hope everyone's week is a safe one and thank you again for all the love and support, Love Elder Smith
I'm excited to be able to Skype on Christmas! Janell I am so glad you have a new apartment, I was so worried that you would be homeless with a new baby, good thing prayers are answered! Mom, I'm glad you got to take the missionaries out to dinner with Mason and Lexie. I miss them so much and hope they are doing well. I loved the picture you sent of them. Mason is getting so big and looking like his Dad more and more every time I see him! I am thankful when people take us out to eat or bring us food. This past week we didn't have anyone signed up from Tuesday to Friday for dinner, so we just went on with our normal visits. But we are so blessed and the people here are amazing, and every night we sould go to visit someone and they would just offer to feed us or take us out, so the Lord is really watching over and blessing us in every aspect of our lives. Even the little things that don't matter like having dinner one night. I'm so grateful for that.
That was a funny story about Dad setting off the fire alarm at the church! haha, but it's a good thing because I know how old that building is and that there's hidden rooms that we could never get into, because we tried, haha. Maybe they will improve the system and link it to the fire station this time, so good job on setting it off! haha
I hope everyone's week is a safe one and thank you again for all the love and support, Love Elder Smith
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
I Love Christmas Season!
Mom thank you so much for the gifts. I never know what to expect in the mailbox, haha! It hasn't been that long since I last emailed so not much has gone on. But it's a great time of year with Christmas getting close. It really doesn't feel like it since it's still warm here and there's no snow, but there's a lot of houses decorated with lights so that makes it fun. It's weird to think that it's December and we're still outside in shorts and a t-shirt on pday haha. This week we have been working with Dottie a few times, an investigator, and I got to give her pet parrot a bath last week, that was fun haha. It stood on my arm and I held it under the shower for awhile. It's a funny bird, it talks to you and dances around. But Dottie is moving tomorrow....as usual with our investigators ha. They always seem to move, but that's alright because the Lord is watching over them.
I'm sorry to hear about Morgan's ankle, I hope it heals fine with no problems. And Dad yes, I'm getting along great with Elder Barton, we work well together. He's really A.D.D. though so he gets really distracted easily, but it's funny sometimes so we work it out. We run stairs almost every morning for workout at the softball field next door, there's about 90 stairs in a row, so that's fun as well haha.
With the Christmas season coming up I wanted to share a thought. This comes from Ether chapter 12. I love this chapter, it's all about Faith. Throughout the chapter, the word faith is mentioned over 30 times and it gives many examples of people exercising their faith throughout the Book of Mormon. Such as verse 13 that states "it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth", this of course was when they were being held prisoners and prayed for their lives, then God answering their prayer. The challenge I extend to all who reads this is to go through and study this chapter, then make your own list of things that you have done because of faith. Such as, it was by faith that I . . . . .did this or that. As you do this, I know your faith can grow to see what the Lord has helped you through in your life and what he can help you through in the future. I have done this and it has strengthened my faith in what I am doing here. It's by Faith that I left home and came on my mission, and it's by faith that I continue everyday to do the Lords work. That decision has blessed my life immensely and I wouldn't take it back for anything. I'm so grateful for what the Lord has done for me and for the faith that I have in Him. May you all be blessed this season as you remember Christ's role in your life and what he did for us. I hope all is well this next week.
Love Elder Smith
Mom thank you so much for the gifts. I never know what to expect in the mailbox, haha! It hasn't been that long since I last emailed so not much has gone on. But it's a great time of year with Christmas getting close. It really doesn't feel like it since it's still warm here and there's no snow, but there's a lot of houses decorated with lights so that makes it fun. It's weird to think that it's December and we're still outside in shorts and a t-shirt on pday haha. This week we have been working with Dottie a few times, an investigator, and I got to give her pet parrot a bath last week, that was fun haha. It stood on my arm and I held it under the shower for awhile. It's a funny bird, it talks to you and dances around. But Dottie is moving tomorrow....as usual with our investigators ha. They always seem to move, but that's alright because the Lord is watching over them.
I'm sorry to hear about Morgan's ankle, I hope it heals fine with no problems. And Dad yes, I'm getting along great with Elder Barton, we work well together. He's really A.D.D. though so he gets really distracted easily, but it's funny sometimes so we work it out. We run stairs almost every morning for workout at the softball field next door, there's about 90 stairs in a row, so that's fun as well haha.
With the Christmas season coming up I wanted to share a thought. This comes from Ether chapter 12. I love this chapter, it's all about Faith. Throughout the chapter, the word faith is mentioned over 30 times and it gives many examples of people exercising their faith throughout the Book of Mormon. Such as verse 13 that states "it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth", this of course was when they were being held prisoners and prayed for their lives, then God answering their prayer. The challenge I extend to all who reads this is to go through and study this chapter, then make your own list of things that you have done because of faith. Such as, it was by faith that I . . . . .did this or that. As you do this, I know your faith can grow to see what the Lord has helped you through in your life and what he can help you through in the future. I have done this and it has strengthened my faith in what I am doing here. It's by Faith that I left home and came on my mission, and it's by faith that I continue everyday to do the Lords work. That decision has blessed my life immensely and I wouldn't take it back for anything. I'm so grateful for what the Lord has done for me and for the faith that I have in Him. May you all be blessed this season as you remember Christ's role in your life and what he did for us. I hope all is well this next week.
Love Elder Smith
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Family!!
This week has been a great one, I got to meet little Charlie! I can't believe that happened, I was shocked haha. And Mom I was not crying, I don't know what you're talking about ha. It was risky sending Janae in because I did recognize her, but I figured I have seen so many new people that maybe she was just from the ward. I was a little disappointed that Janell and Bruce just watched me, the rules were already broken so it wouldn't have mattered if I saw them. But I'm thankful I got to see Charlie--he's so cute! I'm glad you have a video, I can't wait to see it haha.
Thanksgiving was a great day, we had a mission wide Turkey bowl and our zone won 3 out of the 4 games, it was really fun and we were definitely the most colorful zone of them all haha. There might be pictures on the mission blog that you can look at. Then we spent a lot of the night at the Rose's, they are awesome and it felt almost like family so I wasn't very homesick, only for an hour after seeing Charlie haha. I'm glad everyone's Thanksgiving went well.
We got to go to the temple today and that's why I didn't email Monday because pday was moved from Monday to today. It was such a good session and I thought about Bruce and Janell again while walking by the sealing room. I wish I would have been there during that.
This week we have just been working with our family and the kids, because they are struggling financially and have to move to California to their grandparents house. We were really sad because the kids love the church and they love the Book of Mormon. We ask them questions and they know all the answers. We will just leave it in the Lords hands, they promised they would find the missionaries in California. We are searching hard for more families to teach. My next transfer is December 10th, but I don't know if I stay or go. Dad I hope you have a great birthday on Saturday! Mom thanks so much for the pie! I can't believe you sent a pie in the mail haha! but it was really good. You wrapped it like 10 times so it was safe! I love all of you and hope this weeks a fantastic one! Love Elder Smith
This week has been a great one, I got to meet little Charlie! I can't believe that happened, I was shocked haha. And Mom I was not crying, I don't know what you're talking about ha. It was risky sending Janae in because I did recognize her, but I figured I have seen so many new people that maybe she was just from the ward. I was a little disappointed that Janell and Bruce just watched me, the rules were already broken so it wouldn't have mattered if I saw them. But I'm thankful I got to see Charlie--he's so cute! I'm glad you have a video, I can't wait to see it haha.
Thanksgiving was a great day, we had a mission wide Turkey bowl and our zone won 3 out of the 4 games, it was really fun and we were definitely the most colorful zone of them all haha. There might be pictures on the mission blog that you can look at. Then we spent a lot of the night at the Rose's, they are awesome and it felt almost like family so I wasn't very homesick, only for an hour after seeing Charlie haha. I'm glad everyone's Thanksgiving went well.
We got to go to the temple today and that's why I didn't email Monday because pday was moved from Monday to today. It was such a good session and I thought about Bruce and Janell again while walking by the sealing room. I wish I would have been there during that.
This week we have just been working with our family and the kids, because they are struggling financially and have to move to California to their grandparents house. We were really sad because the kids love the church and they love the Book of Mormon. We ask them questions and they know all the answers. We will just leave it in the Lords hands, they promised they would find the missionaries in California. We are searching hard for more families to teach. My next transfer is December 10th, but I don't know if I stay or go. Dad I hope you have a great birthday on Saturday! Mom thanks so much for the pie! I can't believe you sent a pie in the mail haha! but it was really good. You wrapped it like 10 times so it was safe! I love all of you and hope this weeks a fantastic one! Love Elder Smith
Monday, November 19, 2012
Family!
It's been a great week and I want to thank Mom for the cookies, you send too many things!! haha but they were good. I'm so happy to hear Payton is already a zone leader, he's a champ! I knew he would get far quick. And I just heard from Ryan that he's going to be training next transfer! I'm so proud of him! As for me, the work is progressing and we started teaching the same family again. It was Stake conference yesterday and we got Bishop Rose to drive her and the kids to church, they loved it! I was so happy to have them there. We had to explain to her in the last lesson why she needed to be baptized again even though she was already baptized as a child. She was a little standoff-ish at first but then understood why the proper authority is needed for baptizm. Her children want to be baptized also. I look forward to the future with them.
We had a mission tour last Wednesday and Larry Echo Hawk from the first quorum of the seventy came to talk and give us a training. It was amazing, him and his wife told about their conversion stories to the church and the spirit was strong. President and Sister Black also gave a training which was just as good. I love them, they are amazing people and they make us all feel like their sons and daughters. I'm glad you could see some of my pictures on Sister Blacks blog, she said she puts a lot on there but I haven't checked yet.
For Thanksgiving we were invited to Bishop Rose's house and I'm excited! It is a lot different being away from home but this already feels like home as well. Bishop Rose is so awesome, he's a young bishop much like Bishop Westwood back home, and I look up to him a lot. His son is preparing for a mission and has come with us a few times to teaching appointments, he's a good kid.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with family and friends and I want you to know how thankful I am for the household I came from and how much all of you do for me. I'm so blessed to be here serving the Lord and wouldn't change it for anything. I have learned much and will continue to learn so much more that will bless my life and my families lives in the futures. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel or 'good news' of Jesus Christ that allows all of us to be cleansed from sin and gain salvation in the life to come. I have been given so many things in my life because of the gospel and want to share this with everyone I meet. I love you all, Elder Smith
It's been a great week and I want to thank Mom for the cookies, you send too many things!! haha but they were good. I'm so happy to hear Payton is already a zone leader, he's a champ! I knew he would get far quick. And I just heard from Ryan that he's going to be training next transfer! I'm so proud of him! As for me, the work is progressing and we started teaching the same family again. It was Stake conference yesterday and we got Bishop Rose to drive her and the kids to church, they loved it! I was so happy to have them there. We had to explain to her in the last lesson why she needed to be baptized again even though she was already baptized as a child. She was a little standoff-ish at first but then understood why the proper authority is needed for baptizm. Her children want to be baptized also. I look forward to the future with them.
We had a mission tour last Wednesday and Larry Echo Hawk from the first quorum of the seventy came to talk and give us a training. It was amazing, him and his wife told about their conversion stories to the church and the spirit was strong. President and Sister Black also gave a training which was just as good. I love them, they are amazing people and they make us all feel like their sons and daughters. I'm glad you could see some of my pictures on Sister Blacks blog, she said she puts a lot on there but I haven't checked yet.
For Thanksgiving we were invited to Bishop Rose's house and I'm excited! It is a lot different being away from home but this already feels like home as well. Bishop Rose is so awesome, he's a young bishop much like Bishop Westwood back home, and I look up to him a lot. His son is preparing for a mission and has come with us a few times to teaching appointments, he's a good kid.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving with family and friends and I want you to know how thankful I am for the household I came from and how much all of you do for me. I'm so blessed to be here serving the Lord and wouldn't change it for anything. I have learned much and will continue to learn so much more that will bless my life and my families lives in the futures. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel or 'good news' of Jesus Christ that allows all of us to be cleansed from sin and gain salvation in the life to come. I have been given so many things in my life because of the gospel and want to share this with everyone I meet. I love you all, Elder Smith
Monday, November 12, 2012
Congratulations Momma Janell!
I'm so glad that the baby is healthy and happy. I love the pictures and look forward to more. I'm so thankful to be a 5th time Uncle and can't wait to meet him in person! And I'm glad he has big feet like his Uncle Logan. haha! I wanted to say thanks a bunch to Mom, Dad, Grandma and Taylor for the letters and all the support you give me. And a special thanks to Aunt Gloria for her weekly letter she sends me on stories about Joseph Smith, I love them and so thankful for her! It has been slow again, Elder Barton is a awesome companion. He's from Aurora Washington, south of Seattle. He's a really good teacher and I'm learning a lot from him. On Friday we tracted 80 houses in 2 hours! haha and we got 3 return appointments from it so it was worth it. We had an amazing Sunday and the Spirit was so strong in both testimony meetings. We also had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles class and I was thankful for that.
Halloween was fun, our zone performed a skit that was probably the funniest act of the day! Then I was in another skit called "Alternative morning workouts for missionaries". At the night we went to the Bishops house and his wife cooked scones out on her driveway for the childen coming by. I was shocked at all the people that didn't know what a scone was!
The weather has been cooling down, Saturday we actually had to wear jackets for the first time while we were tracting haha. We found one lady to teach named Dottie, and when we went for the appointment it wasn't a typical lesson. She had her friends over from some church in Hawaii, and they played guitars and other instruments and we sang religious songs, then they said the Lords Prayer, then had a weird testimony meeting, then sang again and ate pie, haha. It was a fun experience to see how other Christians worship.
Everything is good. We went hiking to Lone Mountain again, and I sent pictures.
I have been thinking a lot about Matt and Ashlie.
Keep getting better Janell! I love you all so much, Elder Smith
I'm so glad that the baby is healthy and happy. I love the pictures and look forward to more. I'm so thankful to be a 5th time Uncle and can't wait to meet him in person! And I'm glad he has big feet like his Uncle Logan. haha! I wanted to say thanks a bunch to Mom, Dad, Grandma and Taylor for the letters and all the support you give me. And a special thanks to Aunt Gloria for her weekly letter she sends me on stories about Joseph Smith, I love them and so thankful for her! It has been slow again, Elder Barton is a awesome companion. He's from Aurora Washington, south of Seattle. He's a really good teacher and I'm learning a lot from him. On Friday we tracted 80 houses in 2 hours! haha and we got 3 return appointments from it so it was worth it. We had an amazing Sunday and the Spirit was so strong in both testimony meetings. We also had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles class and I was thankful for that.
Halloween was fun, our zone performed a skit that was probably the funniest act of the day! Then I was in another skit called "Alternative morning workouts for missionaries". At the night we went to the Bishops house and his wife cooked scones out on her driveway for the childen coming by. I was shocked at all the people that didn't know what a scone was!
The weather has been cooling down, Saturday we actually had to wear jackets for the first time while we were tracting haha. We found one lady to teach named Dottie, and when we went for the appointment it wasn't a typical lesson. She had her friends over from some church in Hawaii, and they played guitars and other instruments and we sang religious songs, then they said the Lords Prayer, then had a weird testimony meeting, then sang again and ate pie, haha. It was a fun experience to see how other Christians worship.
Everything is good. We went hiking to Lone Mountain again, and I sent pictures.
I have been thinking a lot about Matt and Ashlie.
Keep getting better Janell! I love you all so much, Elder Smith
Monday, October 29, 2012
Family!
First off, thank you so much to the Cottle family for the box of candy. I loved it! And thanks Dad for the letter. Sounds like it's been a great eventful week for all of you! I love the picture of Lexie and Mason, they are getting so big. I can't believe it! Little Mason looks like Matt haha! I'm glad it's a good car they bought and that they made it home safe. I was looking forward to pictures of Charlie this week, but maybe next! I'm excited for that. I can't believe it snowed there already, it still feels like summer here so it's hard to believe the weather difference, but I'm loving it. We had a tri-ward trunk or treat on Saturday that we went to--it was fun! Sooo many people were there and since it was tri-ward, 2 other sets of missionaries were there from my district and we played some catch football afterward in the parking lot, then it was Elder Steentras 6 month mark so he burned a tie...tradition haha, it was fun.
This week's been pretty slow because of last week before the transfer, we got our calls on Saturday and I'm staying here in my area and getting Elder Barton, I don't know much about him but I've heard good and bad things, ha, we transfer tonight at 5:30. Elder Pulsipher is going to Overton though! I'm jealous because that would put me closer to St George. So that's the news on transfers, we better have some baptisms this next transfer! It's been discouraging that we've had some come really close, then it doesn't happen, but soon it will. Well sorry there's not much to report on this week--it's been slow, but we'll be working hard this next week!
Love you all, hope the baby comes soon!
Elder Smith
First off, thank you so much to the Cottle family for the box of candy. I loved it! And thanks Dad for the letter. Sounds like it's been a great eventful week for all of you! I love the picture of Lexie and Mason, they are getting so big. I can't believe it! Little Mason looks like Matt haha! I'm glad it's a good car they bought and that they made it home safe. I was looking forward to pictures of Charlie this week, but maybe next! I'm excited for that. I can't believe it snowed there already, it still feels like summer here so it's hard to believe the weather difference, but I'm loving it. We had a tri-ward trunk or treat on Saturday that we went to--it was fun! Sooo many people were there and since it was tri-ward, 2 other sets of missionaries were there from my district and we played some catch football afterward in the parking lot, then it was Elder Steentras 6 month mark so he burned a tie...tradition haha, it was fun.
This week's been pretty slow because of last week before the transfer, we got our calls on Saturday and I'm staying here in my area and getting Elder Barton, I don't know much about him but I've heard good and bad things, ha, we transfer tonight at 5:30. Elder Pulsipher is going to Overton though! I'm jealous because that would put me closer to St George. So that's the news on transfers, we better have some baptisms this next transfer! It's been discouraging that we've had some come really close, then it doesn't happen, but soon it will. Well sorry there's not much to report on this week--it's been slow, but we'll be working hard this next week!
Love you all, hope the baby comes soon!
Elder Smith
Monday, October 22, 2012
I'm so anxious about the baby! It needs to come already!
But this week has been good, Thanks so much for the box of candy, I loved it! That is awesome that Matt and Ashlie got to spend some time in St George to get their car, I hope Matt enjoyed the ride along with Bruce cause I know I did, it was awesome! There's a cop in our ward here that we talk to a lot, he's awesome, but he went to the monster energy cup her in Vegas this past weekend, (motocross/super cross event) and I was super jealous, I haven't been able to ask him how it was yet.
Well this week is a little slower for investigators. We are still teaching the young family, and it was funny when we were teaching the plan of salvation and the kids asked if Jesus was Black or White so we showed them the picture in the Book of Mormon of Him and the 7 year old says, "See I told you Jesus was white!!" With a disappointed expression, haha. I'm looking forward to this weeks lesson.
We have this new guy in our ward that was less active for most his life but started going back to church when I got here in the area. He decided to change his whole life and start being active again, so when he was going through the repentance process he decided he needed to turn himself in for past transgressions, so he is currently serving 6 months in jail. But this guy is amazing. He's been in about a month and a half and we have already got about 10 calls from people asking for help that got our number from him. We have no idea how he contacts these people outside of jail to give them our number, but he refers everyone to us haha. A lot of them are in the other mission so we just have to call it over through the mission office, but if only all the members were like him, so ready to share the gospel and knows that whatever their problems are, the church can help. It's a testimony builder to me! We expect a lot more calls from people with the time that he will be in jail, haha.
I hope I get to see pictures of a brand new baby by next Monday!! Love you all, Elder Smith.
But this week has been good, Thanks so much for the box of candy, I loved it! That is awesome that Matt and Ashlie got to spend some time in St George to get their car, I hope Matt enjoyed the ride along with Bruce cause I know I did, it was awesome! There's a cop in our ward here that we talk to a lot, he's awesome, but he went to the monster energy cup her in Vegas this past weekend, (motocross/super cross event) and I was super jealous, I haven't been able to ask him how it was yet.
Well this week is a little slower for investigators. We are still teaching the young family, and it was funny when we were teaching the plan of salvation and the kids asked if Jesus was Black or White so we showed them the picture in the Book of Mormon of Him and the 7 year old says, "See I told you Jesus was white!!" With a disappointed expression, haha. I'm looking forward to this weeks lesson.
We have this new guy in our ward that was less active for most his life but started going back to church when I got here in the area. He decided to change his whole life and start being active again, so when he was going through the repentance process he decided he needed to turn himself in for past transgressions, so he is currently serving 6 months in jail. But this guy is amazing. He's been in about a month and a half and we have already got about 10 calls from people asking for help that got our number from him. We have no idea how he contacts these people outside of jail to give them our number, but he refers everyone to us haha. A lot of them are in the other mission so we just have to call it over through the mission office, but if only all the members were like him, so ready to share the gospel and knows that whatever their problems are, the church can help. It's a testimony builder to me! We expect a lot more calls from people with the time that he will be in jail, haha.
I hope I get to see pictures of a brand new baby by next Monday!! Love you all, Elder Smith.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Hey Family!
I'm glad to hear the weathers been good. It's been awesome here! We roll down the windows now instead of using AC. But sometimes we still have to use it, we are so blessed with a car! Mom, we only wear our suits during meetings and on Sundays. That's awesome that Jordan's busy killing mice in his house haha! We just have crickets, cockroaches, and black widows everywhere outside and sometimes they come inside, but mostly crickets. We torch them if they come inside haha! I'm getting excited to here about when the baby comes! And I hope Dad doesn't try to ride down here on his bike since it's so close haha!
Well anyways this week has been great! We had 5 investigators at church yesterday! We had a referral and we went and taught her and she is soooo awesome, African-American lady with 4 kids, 10,7, and two 5 year old twins, they are so cute! She didn't make it to church but Daphne brought the kids with her and I got to sit by all of them during sacrament. They are so funny, after the water in the sacrament they all say, "That is some gooood water!" the 5 year old girl was flirting with me the whole time haha! But they loved church and hopefully they will all make it next week. We are also teaching a 10 year old boy, his family is active but they were busy moving when he was 8 so he never got baptized, he knows basically everything so it's an easy one. Daphne started making jewelry awhile back and they were selling some of it on Saturday so we went to support her. It is some nice jewelry! She orders real crystals and gems from outside of the country and designs it all herself. So her stuff is very expensive but maybe it'll help her out. She said she has sold some things to Celine Dion and Eva Longoria, that's impressive to me! So if you want something from her, let me know haha! We were going to go hike Mt Charleston today but the zone couldn't find enough member rides up there so we cancelled it, maybe another time, I was excited for that because there's actually some snow up there on the top of the mountain, probably the most I'll see in 2 years!
I'm so blessed to be here, I'm loving it, yes it's really hard sometimes, a mission is not easy at all, but it's what the Lord has asked us to do. I'm excited for all the 18 year old guys that can now go and excited to see what the future holds for missionary work. There are a lot of changes going on and I can really see how this is the Lord's work on the earth. I'm so thankful for it! I hope everyone's week is great! I Love You. Elder Smith
I'm glad to hear the weathers been good. It's been awesome here! We roll down the windows now instead of using AC. But sometimes we still have to use it, we are so blessed with a car! Mom, we only wear our suits during meetings and on Sundays. That's awesome that Jordan's busy killing mice in his house haha! We just have crickets, cockroaches, and black widows everywhere outside and sometimes they come inside, but mostly crickets. We torch them if they come inside haha! I'm getting excited to here about when the baby comes! And I hope Dad doesn't try to ride down here on his bike since it's so close haha!
Well anyways this week has been great! We had 5 investigators at church yesterday! We had a referral and we went and taught her and she is soooo awesome, African-American lady with 4 kids, 10,7, and two 5 year old twins, they are so cute! She didn't make it to church but Daphne brought the kids with her and I got to sit by all of them during sacrament. They are so funny, after the water in the sacrament they all say, "That is some gooood water!" the 5 year old girl was flirting with me the whole time haha! But they loved church and hopefully they will all make it next week. We are also teaching a 10 year old boy, his family is active but they were busy moving when he was 8 so he never got baptized, he knows basically everything so it's an easy one. Daphne started making jewelry awhile back and they were selling some of it on Saturday so we went to support her. It is some nice jewelry! She orders real crystals and gems from outside of the country and designs it all herself. So her stuff is very expensive but maybe it'll help her out. She said she has sold some things to Celine Dion and Eva Longoria, that's impressive to me! So if you want something from her, let me know haha! We were going to go hike Mt Charleston today but the zone couldn't find enough member rides up there so we cancelled it, maybe another time, I was excited for that because there's actually some snow up there on the top of the mountain, probably the most I'll see in 2 years!
I'm so blessed to be here, I'm loving it, yes it's really hard sometimes, a mission is not easy at all, but it's what the Lord has asked us to do. I'm excited for all the 18 year old guys that can now go and excited to see what the future holds for missionary work. There are a lot of changes going on and I can really see how this is the Lord's work on the earth. I'm so thankful for it! I hope everyone's week is great! I Love You. Elder Smith
Monday, October 8, 2012
Family,
Thanks so much for the package of things, I can't believe you sent a rose in a bag just so I could smell it, haha, me and my companion get the biggest laugh with some of the things you send, like the yes or no question sheet, that was funny! But I appreciate everything you send. It's been a great weekend with conference and all the wonderful talks. I love President Uchtdorfs talk as well about airplances and how the gospel is the same where ever you are. We were at the stake center for that and brought Kody with us. We watched Sunday sessions at the stake center and we were the only ones there along with 2 other missionaries, so we pulled the couches into the chapel to watch it, haha. Saturday we were at Shari's watching both sessions with her. I loved all the talks, Yes, Mom it's true we watched it at the same time, it was just 9 for me and 10 for you. And I was glad to hear the story of Ann Rowley, I remembered she was my ancestor. That story is also in 17 miracles, we watched that last transfer. We couldn't believe the news that 18 year olds can now go and 19 year old sisters. We're going to be getting a lot more of them now! Our next transfer is at the end of the month, the 29th. I'm not sure what will happen with me but we're pretty sure Elder Pulsipher will be going somewhere else. He feels like he's going to Mesquite, which would be funny because he has a lot of family there.
I'm loving the weather here, the nights cool down to a perfect temperature and the days aren't burning hot anymore! But I'm not too jealous of the freezing temperatures there! We got a new investigator yesterday, Oscar. He's a 16 year old that is so interested in everything. He's friends with one of the priests in the ward and has been to church a couple times. He's going to seminary too so we hope he will be baptized soon. We gave Daphne and Dimitri a blessing because Dimitri has a dangerous job, and the spirit was soooo strong and we knew they felt it. They followed us out the door just staring at us saying thank you over and over again. It was amazing. This morning we hiked Lone Mountain---it was so fun. I'll send a few pictures of it. The view from up there is awesome-- you can see everything in the valley. Hope it's a good safe week for everyone. Love Elder Smith
Thanks so much for the package of things, I can't believe you sent a rose in a bag just so I could smell it, haha, me and my companion get the biggest laugh with some of the things you send, like the yes or no question sheet, that was funny! But I appreciate everything you send. It's been a great weekend with conference and all the wonderful talks. I love President Uchtdorfs talk as well about airplances and how the gospel is the same where ever you are. We were at the stake center for that and brought Kody with us. We watched Sunday sessions at the stake center and we were the only ones there along with 2 other missionaries, so we pulled the couches into the chapel to watch it, haha. Saturday we were at Shari's watching both sessions with her. I loved all the talks, Yes, Mom it's true we watched it at the same time, it was just 9 for me and 10 for you. And I was glad to hear the story of Ann Rowley, I remembered she was my ancestor. That story is also in 17 miracles, we watched that last transfer. We couldn't believe the news that 18 year olds can now go and 19 year old sisters. We're going to be getting a lot more of them now! Our next transfer is at the end of the month, the 29th. I'm not sure what will happen with me but we're pretty sure Elder Pulsipher will be going somewhere else. He feels like he's going to Mesquite, which would be funny because he has a lot of family there.
I'm loving the weather here, the nights cool down to a perfect temperature and the days aren't burning hot anymore! But I'm not too jealous of the freezing temperatures there! We got a new investigator yesterday, Oscar. He's a 16 year old that is so interested in everything. He's friends with one of the priests in the ward and has been to church a couple times. He's going to seminary too so we hope he will be baptized soon. We gave Daphne and Dimitri a blessing because Dimitri has a dangerous job, and the spirit was soooo strong and we knew they felt it. They followed us out the door just staring at us saying thank you over and over again. It was amazing. This morning we hiked Lone Mountain---it was so fun. I'll send a few pictures of it. The view from up there is awesome-- you can see everything in the valley. Hope it's a good safe week for everyone. Love Elder Smith
Monday, October 1, 2012
Hey Family!
I enjoyed the emails and the news from home, there was a lot of it this week! Mom, I'm glad you had a good birthday but I felt bad you were alone, but also glad Dad had a good riding trip and was safe. I think of him every time I see a Harley, haha. And good job in school Mom. That's cool that you talked with Bostrom's about me eating with their aunt. There are so many people I've talked to that are from Idaho falls or have visited family there, but mainly I've heard kids attending BYU-I that are from here, so I told Taylor to look for someone from my wards here and I might know their families, haha. Mom, I will be voting absentee, they should send me a ballot in the mail. And that's so awesome that me and my companion are related to Shawn Bradley. I guess that's where I get my height from! You would never guess that me and Elder Pulsipher are related, we are the complete opposite and no he's not tall, pretty short!
I'm excited for General Conference weekend. I think we are all just going to the stake center unless someone invites us over. But I look forward to hearing from our prophet and apostles. This is a great opportunity we have to invite others to listen to what our church leaders have to say. We have been doing a lot of visits to less active members of the ward since I got here, and we have successfully got about 2 or 3 people back to church. We visited a lady last night that hasn't been to church for 10 years and I had the prompting to find out why that was. She expressed a couple things then thought and said, well I don't really know why I stopped going. So hopefully she will show up to church in 2 weeks. Elder Pulsipher mentioned that I must have a skill for reactivation or something, haha.
There's one story I'd like to share. Friday night we went to visit a less active member, it was around 7:30 so getting dark. We knocked on the door, no answer, rang the bell, no answer, we waited a second cause there were lights on inside, well this guy comes out the garage and around to where the front door is with a handgun! He says, 'who are you?' Well I didn't see the gun at first so of course I start walking up to him and introduce ourselves, well once he realized we were missionaries he said, oh hold on, and takes the gun back inside, and then I realized what could have happened! He came out the front door and said, "You guys almost got jacked up." Then we had a little friendly conversation but he wasn't interested in the church and hadn't been for 20 years. It's my testimony to all of you that I know the Lord is watching over us and protecting us wherever we go. Especially us being representatives of Jesus Christ people notice that we aren't just 19 year old kids dressed in a shirt and tie, the Spirit is there to guide and protect us, and I am so Grateful for that and for the protection we received.
I love you all and thanks again for all you do for me.
Love Elder Smith
I enjoyed the emails and the news from home, there was a lot of it this week! Mom, I'm glad you had a good birthday but I felt bad you were alone, but also glad Dad had a good riding trip and was safe. I think of him every time I see a Harley, haha. And good job in school Mom. That's cool that you talked with Bostrom's about me eating with their aunt. There are so many people I've talked to that are from Idaho falls or have visited family there, but mainly I've heard kids attending BYU-I that are from here, so I told Taylor to look for someone from my wards here and I might know their families, haha. Mom, I will be voting absentee, they should send me a ballot in the mail. And that's so awesome that me and my companion are related to Shawn Bradley. I guess that's where I get my height from! You would never guess that me and Elder Pulsipher are related, we are the complete opposite and no he's not tall, pretty short!
I'm excited for General Conference weekend. I think we are all just going to the stake center unless someone invites us over. But I look forward to hearing from our prophet and apostles. This is a great opportunity we have to invite others to listen to what our church leaders have to say. We have been doing a lot of visits to less active members of the ward since I got here, and we have successfully got about 2 or 3 people back to church. We visited a lady last night that hasn't been to church for 10 years and I had the prompting to find out why that was. She expressed a couple things then thought and said, well I don't really know why I stopped going. So hopefully she will show up to church in 2 weeks. Elder Pulsipher mentioned that I must have a skill for reactivation or something, haha.
There's one story I'd like to share. Friday night we went to visit a less active member, it was around 7:30 so getting dark. We knocked on the door, no answer, rang the bell, no answer, we waited a second cause there were lights on inside, well this guy comes out the garage and around to where the front door is with a handgun! He says, 'who are you?' Well I didn't see the gun at first so of course I start walking up to him and introduce ourselves, well once he realized we were missionaries he said, oh hold on, and takes the gun back inside, and then I realized what could have happened! He came out the front door and said, "You guys almost got jacked up." Then we had a little friendly conversation but he wasn't interested in the church and hadn't been for 20 years. It's my testimony to all of you that I know the Lord is watching over us and protecting us wherever we go. Especially us being representatives of Jesus Christ people notice that we aren't just 19 year old kids dressed in a shirt and tie, the Spirit is there to guide and protect us, and I am so Grateful for that and for the protection we received.
I love you all and thanks again for all you do for me.
Love Elder Smith
Monday, September 24, 2012
Hi Family,
Thanks so much for the big poster of Lexie and Mason, I loved it! Mason's getting so tall, maybe he'll be as tall as me some day! And I'm glad to hear from Michael and that he is doing good in Florida, and I heard from Ryan --he's in Bridgeport Connecticut and loving it! I'm so happy to hear that and so proud of him!
Yesterday we ate with a family and we found out that the lady was Bostroms aunt! That was exciting to hear that they know people from home. We also found out that me and Elder Pulsipher are 5th cousins. We were looking at our pedigree charts and saw that there were same names on both of ours! The line of Josiah Hardy and Ann Denston, is the same on both!
Sorry my emails are short, we have to do weekly stats and email President Black as well, also I am going to go register to vote so that will take some time. I fixed the brakes on Shari's van, and they needed it really bad. I am sending pictures of the worn out rotor for Dad, Matt and Jordan to look at to show you just how bad they were. The reason was becasue the guy that changed her brakes before put the brake pad in backwards!! I didn't think it was possible but apparently it is. ha ha. I'm glad I have the knowledge to help work on cars when it's needed.
Thanks Dad for that story you shared, that's amazing! I know the Book of Mormon is such a powerful book. I started reading it from the beginning when I got here and I love it! There's so many lessons to pull out from every chapter, and so grateful for it.
Today for P-Day we are going to the house of the Las Vegas Metro police dispatcher. He is a awesome guy. We are going as a zone and hang out with him today. I love you all, thanks for everything you do for me! Love Elder Smith
Thanks so much for the big poster of Lexie and Mason, I loved it! Mason's getting so tall, maybe he'll be as tall as me some day! And I'm glad to hear from Michael and that he is doing good in Florida, and I heard from Ryan --he's in Bridgeport Connecticut and loving it! I'm so happy to hear that and so proud of him!
Yesterday we ate with a family and we found out that the lady was Bostroms aunt! That was exciting to hear that they know people from home. We also found out that me and Elder Pulsipher are 5th cousins. We were looking at our pedigree charts and saw that there were same names on both of ours! The line of Josiah Hardy and Ann Denston, is the same on both!
Sorry my emails are short, we have to do weekly stats and email President Black as well, also I am going to go register to vote so that will take some time. I fixed the brakes on Shari's van, and they needed it really bad. I am sending pictures of the worn out rotor for Dad, Matt and Jordan to look at to show you just how bad they were. The reason was becasue the guy that changed her brakes before put the brake pad in backwards!! I didn't think it was possible but apparently it is. ha ha. I'm glad I have the knowledge to help work on cars when it's needed.
Thanks Dad for that story you shared, that's amazing! I know the Book of Mormon is such a powerful book. I started reading it from the beginning when I got here and I love it! There's so many lessons to pull out from every chapter, and so grateful for it.
Today for P-Day we are going to the house of the Las Vegas Metro police dispatcher. He is a awesome guy. We are going as a zone and hang out with him today. I love you all, thanks for everything you do for me! Love Elder Smith
Monday, September 10, 2012
Hey Family!
It's been a good week again. Thanks for the pictures, but it wasn't fun reading the story about Blaze (our dog), until I got to the good part. (Blaze had surgery). I'm glad he's OK. I'm glad you liked the Brigham City temple, I look forward to seeing more temples after my mission. And tell Chandler way to go, he's the man!
We tried to go to our return appointment with James, but he wasn't home. Daphne is doing great and she committed to baptism on the second lesson, we just don't have a date set yet. Hopefully we will start teaching a lady we helped last Saturday with yard work, she seems interested.
Yesterday's church was really good, we had to teach the priests about missionary work and the spirit was strong. They're good kids.
I stopped by the McIntosh's and talked to Jake's sister. His dad wasn't home so I left our number, so tell Jake I met his sister!
Love you all, Elder Smith
It's been a good week again. Thanks for the pictures, but it wasn't fun reading the story about Blaze (our dog), until I got to the good part. (Blaze had surgery). I'm glad he's OK. I'm glad you liked the Brigham City temple, I look forward to seeing more temples after my mission. And tell Chandler way to go, he's the man!
We tried to go to our return appointment with James, but he wasn't home. Daphne is doing great and she committed to baptism on the second lesson, we just don't have a date set yet. Hopefully we will start teaching a lady we helped last Saturday with yard work, she seems interested.
Yesterday's church was really good, we had to teach the priests about missionary work and the spirit was strong. They're good kids.
I stopped by the McIntosh's and talked to Jake's sister. His dad wasn't home so I left our number, so tell Jake I met his sister!
Love you all, Elder Smith
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Hey Family!
This has been an amazing week! I'm glad to here the baby shower went well and all the other good news. I'm sorry to hear about Matthew's back and hand. Hopefully he'll get better soon. Well, there's two experiences I'd like to share from this week. The first one occurred on Friday, we were having a slow day and trying to find someone to visit. There were some events that happened to prevent us from going to this certain neighborhood but we still went for some reason. We just started driving around and we came up to a street with 5 house on it. I just said to my companion, let's tract here. I don't know why I did but it felt right. So we started tracting and on the 4th house James answered the door with his daughter. He's a person that the Lord has prepared for us to teach. He was so willing to listen to us and we get to teach him on Thursday, so we are really excited for that. The Spirit guides us and I don't have words to describe how amazing it is.
The second experience we had was last night. We got a referal for Daphne and her son, so we went last night to teach the first lesson. They are also 2 amazing people that have been prepared for us. She's from Africa and needs a Afrikaan Book of Mormon, but she still has good English. When we got to the first vision of Joseph Smith, I recited it and bore my testimony and said I know God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph that day. She replied, Yes I know that's true. We both were shocked, like it's her first time she's heard this and she already knows it's true. It was a great experience.
Well, I want to thank you for all your love and support. I got the peaches, and they were so good, thanks a lot, but some were already bad and the box was dripping when I got it. hahahaha.
Love Elder Smith
This has been an amazing week! I'm glad to here the baby shower went well and all the other good news. I'm sorry to hear about Matthew's back and hand. Hopefully he'll get better soon. Well, there's two experiences I'd like to share from this week. The first one occurred on Friday, we were having a slow day and trying to find someone to visit. There were some events that happened to prevent us from going to this certain neighborhood but we still went for some reason. We just started driving around and we came up to a street with 5 house on it. I just said to my companion, let's tract here. I don't know why I did but it felt right. So we started tracting and on the 4th house James answered the door with his daughter. He's a person that the Lord has prepared for us to teach. He was so willing to listen to us and we get to teach him on Thursday, so we are really excited for that. The Spirit guides us and I don't have words to describe how amazing it is.
The second experience we had was last night. We got a referal for Daphne and her son, so we went last night to teach the first lesson. They are also 2 amazing people that have been prepared for us. She's from Africa and needs a Afrikaan Book of Mormon, but she still has good English. When we got to the first vision of Joseph Smith, I recited it and bore my testimony and said I know God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph that day. She replied, Yes I know that's true. We both were shocked, like it's her first time she's heard this and she already knows it's true. It was a great experience.
Well, I want to thank you for all your love and support. I got the peaches, and they were so good, thanks a lot, but some were already bad and the box was dripping when I got it. hahahaha.
Love Elder Smith
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Hi!! Just got back from the temple!
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for all the letters and packages once again, especially Dad for the great letter, and Taylor for the box of treats and candy! Your so awesome, thanks a ton! This week has been pretty slow with finding more people, but we've been busy with exchanges all week, cause my companion is the district leader. So I've been out like 4 weeks and already been on 4 or 5 exchanges, it's been really good though, great learning experiences! We had some powerful moments this week with giving priesthood blessings, I'm so thankful I'm able to hold the priesthood and so thankful for Dad for giving me that. My testimony has grown so much the past couple weeks on the priesthood, that subject, along with many more things.
Well, today was the temple trip, and I loved it. I just kept thinking back a couple of years ago when we were here for a wedding, and now I'm here as the Lord's missionary! It was amazing. Then we were at Subway afterwards and we talked to the polygamist father, that was pretty funny. Other than that, the weeks been great. I'm pretty familiar with our area, I'll be here for at least 12 weeks, and then there's a big possibility I could be training soon, since there's so many new missionaries coming, at least 20 every transfer until Christmas.
Mom, I'm glad to hear the good news with you visiting less actives, I know exactly how that is, and makes me feel good that my mom is doing missionary work back home. Anyways, I love you all and pray for everyone daily.
We have a new investigator who is a professional MMA fighter, so maybe soon we'll start teaching him.
Love Elder Smith
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for all the letters and packages once again, especially Dad for the great letter, and Taylor for the box of treats and candy! Your so awesome, thanks a ton! This week has been pretty slow with finding more people, but we've been busy with exchanges all week, cause my companion is the district leader. So I've been out like 4 weeks and already been on 4 or 5 exchanges, it's been really good though, great learning experiences! We had some powerful moments this week with giving priesthood blessings, I'm so thankful I'm able to hold the priesthood and so thankful for Dad for giving me that. My testimony has grown so much the past couple weeks on the priesthood, that subject, along with many more things.
Well, today was the temple trip, and I loved it. I just kept thinking back a couple of years ago when we were here for a wedding, and now I'm here as the Lord's missionary! It was amazing. Then we were at Subway afterwards and we talked to the polygamist father, that was pretty funny. Other than that, the weeks been great. I'm pretty familiar with our area, I'll be here for at least 12 weeks, and then there's a big possibility I could be training soon, since there's so many new missionaries coming, at least 20 every transfer until Christmas.
Mom, I'm glad to hear the good news with you visiting less actives, I know exactly how that is, and makes me feel good that my mom is doing missionary work back home. Anyways, I love you all and pray for everyone daily.
We have a new investigator who is a professional MMA fighter, so maybe soon we'll start teaching him.
Love Elder Smith
Monday, August 20, 2012
I'll title this Shari, because this has been a stressful week!
First off, thank you so much everyone for the letters and emails, and for the plums Mom and jerky and pics. I loved them. Dad I love the letters you send, they always have the best advice. Elder Parker from Rigby is in my district, he's awesome!
As for Shari, we've been working with her every day this week to get her to stop smoking, fasting and praying, she has such a strong testimony and such a strong desire to get baptized, the only problem is she's been smoking since she was 11 and it's the hardest habit for her to kick. She stopped for a day or two and was doing good. We set everything up for baptism for Saturday. But a day went by and we went over there, she was so depressed because she just couldn't do it and had a smoke that same day. We had to postpone the baptism, she was beating herself up that she let herself down. And we were depressed too. We spent a lot of the day Friday talking with her and just hanging out at the house to help make things better. But we haven't seen her for 2 days now. We still go over and talk to her 3 sons, age 18, 13 and 3. But it's been so sad to see her go through this whole thing. We're continuing to do all we can to help her get baptized.
We got a brand new 2012 Ford Fusion on Saturday straight from the dealership in Salt Lake with 511 miles on it. It's nice! We might be way too spoiled! But we are having struggles finding investigators too. There is a lot of members here, but there's also 50% activity rate in both wards. Other than that we're moving along down here. I'm gonna make some milkshakes with the plums! I got the apt cleaned probably the cleanest its ever been! Here is a quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard--"My mission belongs to the Lord. With all my heart I will give my energy and my time to the Master because I love him. Therefore, I am going to look at everyday not as mine, but as His. I will treat each minute of His time with respect and focus and with the dedication that it deserves"
Thanks again to everyone for everything sent to me! Love Elder Smith
First off, thank you so much everyone for the letters and emails, and for the plums Mom and jerky and pics. I loved them. Dad I love the letters you send, they always have the best advice. Elder Parker from Rigby is in my district, he's awesome!
As for Shari, we've been working with her every day this week to get her to stop smoking, fasting and praying, she has such a strong testimony and such a strong desire to get baptized, the only problem is she's been smoking since she was 11 and it's the hardest habit for her to kick. She stopped for a day or two and was doing good. We set everything up for baptism for Saturday. But a day went by and we went over there, she was so depressed because she just couldn't do it and had a smoke that same day. We had to postpone the baptism, she was beating herself up that she let herself down. And we were depressed too. We spent a lot of the day Friday talking with her and just hanging out at the house to help make things better. But we haven't seen her for 2 days now. We still go over and talk to her 3 sons, age 18, 13 and 3. But it's been so sad to see her go through this whole thing. We're continuing to do all we can to help her get baptized.
We got a brand new 2012 Ford Fusion on Saturday straight from the dealership in Salt Lake with 511 miles on it. It's nice! We might be way too spoiled! But we are having struggles finding investigators too. There is a lot of members here, but there's also 50% activity rate in both wards. Other than that we're moving along down here. I'm gonna make some milkshakes with the plums! I got the apt cleaned probably the cleanest its ever been! Here is a quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard--"My mission belongs to the Lord. With all my heart I will give my energy and my time to the Master because I love him. Therefore, I am going to look at everyday not as mine, but as His. I will treat each minute of His time with respect and focus and with the dedication that it deserves"
Thanks again to everyone for everything sent to me! Love Elder Smith
Monday, August 13, 2012
Family,
First off--Wow I have a lot of questions to answer --it took me 10 minutes to read all of them, haha! I'm loving this work, I'm loving the area and I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for all the letters and the package. Thanks Michelle for the letters also, tell Aaron he better be writing to me soon! So me and my companion are getting along really good, he's a little different but I deal with it. He's really smart though so that's good. He's from right outside the twin cities in Minnesota, I think, I'm not sure. He said the average weight gain on this mission is 40 lbs so we'll see haha. Oh and Janell do you know the Swainstons in Vegas? We had dinner with Jordi and his wife and he said you would probably know his grandparents from the other mission. Anyways so we don't have much lessons or investigators, we're in the process of finding--which is hard work. We go through both our ward lists, Grand Canyon Ward and Cheyenne Ridge Ward, and visit anyone that looks inactive or part member family. But we did find Cameron, a 9 year old and his Mom is inactive in the army, but we're gonna start teaching him and his brother Jevon (6) soon. I'm excited for that. When I got here we had 2 dates set for baptisms, but both have delayed that. Shari has problems smoking so we're really pushing her cause her date is this Saturday. We're crossing our fingers! Then the other girl Alison feels kinda pressured so I don't know when her's will be. My first street I ever tracted was Red Rose, kinda exciting but no luck. It's hard to tract a lot in our area cause we have about 18 gated communities. We can get in all of them but as soon as someone tells us to leave we have to leave. Some of the street names here are so weird like, Deer Field Beach, and Wiggins Bay, and Nutt Creek. It's odd. haha! Oh and Dad I want to know Bruce's address to see if he's in my zone. He's not in my area but maybe my zone. I'm getting used to the heat but it's really nice that we have a car. When we tract we get so many water bottles, people might not be interested but we still get water! I've had a couple doors slammed, that's always a fun time! Mom. yes you got the right address and my apartments on the main level cause you were wondering. It's right by the pool! President and Sister Black are great, they're so nice. We go to the Rainbow Library to email, then we're going to do a zone activity afterwards. I hope I've answered most questions, thanks again for the letters and uplifting advice. I just know I'm loving it here! And love and miss you all.
Elder Smith
First off--Wow I have a lot of questions to answer --it took me 10 minutes to read all of them, haha! I'm loving this work, I'm loving the area and I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for all the letters and the package. Thanks Michelle for the letters also, tell Aaron he better be writing to me soon! So me and my companion are getting along really good, he's a little different but I deal with it. He's really smart though so that's good. He's from right outside the twin cities in Minnesota, I think, I'm not sure. He said the average weight gain on this mission is 40 lbs so we'll see haha. Oh and Janell do you know the Swainstons in Vegas? We had dinner with Jordi and his wife and he said you would probably know his grandparents from the other mission. Anyways so we don't have much lessons or investigators, we're in the process of finding--which is hard work. We go through both our ward lists, Grand Canyon Ward and Cheyenne Ridge Ward, and visit anyone that looks inactive or part member family. But we did find Cameron, a 9 year old and his Mom is inactive in the army, but we're gonna start teaching him and his brother Jevon (6) soon. I'm excited for that. When I got here we had 2 dates set for baptisms, but both have delayed that. Shari has problems smoking so we're really pushing her cause her date is this Saturday. We're crossing our fingers! Then the other girl Alison feels kinda pressured so I don't know when her's will be. My first street I ever tracted was Red Rose, kinda exciting but no luck. It's hard to tract a lot in our area cause we have about 18 gated communities. We can get in all of them but as soon as someone tells us to leave we have to leave. Some of the street names here are so weird like, Deer Field Beach, and Wiggins Bay, and Nutt Creek. It's odd. haha! Oh and Dad I want to know Bruce's address to see if he's in my zone. He's not in my area but maybe my zone. I'm getting used to the heat but it's really nice that we have a car. When we tract we get so many water bottles, people might not be interested but we still get water! I've had a couple doors slammed, that's always a fun time! Mom. yes you got the right address and my apartments on the main level cause you were wondering. It's right by the pool! President and Sister Black are great, they're so nice. We go to the Rainbow Library to email, then we're going to do a zone activity afterwards. I hope I've answered most questions, thanks again for the letters and uplifting advice. I just know I'm loving it here! And love and miss you all.
Elder Smith
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Provo Temple
The tree really smells like Cream Soda
With Elder Taggart
I can't believe Elder Taggart is with me!
I love Elder Taggart!
I am the 2nd one
We shaved stripes in our legs!Family,
I'm here finally . . .It was so good to call from the airport and hear your voices. I was sick yesterday and threw up in between orientation in Vegas at a stake center, but then all of a sudden felt better after awhile. Well, now for the good stuff. My new area is called the Lone Mountain area in Vegas. It's like North West of down town clear out in the boonies by the mountain . . .Lone mountain, ha. It's a nice area and it's only an area of about 2 square miles, with two wards, of about 600 members in each! So a lot of people in a small area! My companion is Elder Pulsipher from Minnesota. He's been out 13 months. He's pretty cool, and we have a car (brand new Chevy Malibu) so no biking for awhile. By the way I got my bike today and put it together--thanks Mom. Yesterday we went to a dinner appointment, it was really good (the Fillimonds) then we just went to the apartment and unpacked. The apartment complex is called Tierra Villes I think and it's pretty nice---we have it to ourselves. But Elder Pulsipher is kind of messy so I'll have to clean up the next couple weeks. Funny fact . . .The TV show called sister wives, I don't know if you've watched it, but it's a guy with 4 wives and they film their lives, well they live in our area! We aren't allowed to talk to them though, I'm not sure why, but he is a returned missionary--then started doing that stuff so they're all excommunicated. I just think it's cool that they live like half mile away haha. Our Pday is Monday but I get to email today since I haven't this week yet. We haven't taught anyone yet but our first appointment is in about an hour so looking forward to that. My district leader, in my district from the MTC, Elder Dowdle was sent to Mesquite last night--I was kind of jealous, but he's so awesome. I hope to be his companion some day. Well Thanks for all the letters and packages, I love everyone and I'm loving this work! Be safe---talk to you later. Elder Smith
Elder PulsipherSaturday, August 4, 2012
Family--Your not going to believe this!!! I was Ryan's host and he's in my room also!! Then his companion is also in our room and his companion is best friends with Elder Bruce that's in my room. So its a big friend reunion for the next 4 days! Well I just thought I'd tell you that I'm so excited!! Love Elder Smith
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
July 30, 2012
Family! First off thank you so much for all the letters, Dear Elders and packages! And thanks to the Cottle family for the letters. I'm so thankful for all of you in my life! This week has gone by pretty fast compared to last week and I can't believe I have less than a week left! But our district gets to be hosts tomorrow so tell Aaron to txt Ryan that I will be there when he comes. I'll try to be his host. I'm so glad to hear his farewell went good, I'm proud of him. And yes I have talked to Taylor Rapp a lot here too. Well where to start . . .Thanks Dad for all the good advice and scriptures, it helps. I think the way we teach investigators is a little different now then how you did it. We don't memorize the lessons, just have to know them and the Spirit tells us what to teach that specific investigator at that moment. It's amazing how the Holy Ghost works through us and tells us what to say, I love it. I'm so happy to hear about Payton, I look up to him so much. And I hope Michael gets the hang of things. To answer some questions....we wake up at about 4 AM Monday and the plane leaves about 8:30 I think. I can call home also---so Mom expect a call Monday morning if everything works out! And yes Dad they assigned Elder Bruce in my district to be our travel leader, there are 26 missionaries flying to Vegas at the same time. Crazy! I think the whole plane will be converted by the time we get there! We do service projects every Saturday at 6 AM and our district just cleans one of the big buildings here. About Jordan, I'm sad to hear that he's moving, but hopefully it's what the Lord wants for him at this time. Oh and Mom thanks so much for the shirts, they came yesterday. Tell Lexie Uncle Logan wishes he could come play with her too, I miss her! I'll share one spiritual moment we had this week out of many, me and my companion are getting along good and we're getting used to each other's teaching styles, we were teaching one of our teachers Bro. Mederios, role playing as "Alan" and we only got through half the lesson when he stands up and he says, "hold on, that was perfect," then was speechless. The Spirit was so strong guiding our lesson and he said if there was a camera in the room with other teachers watching, they would say we had been missionaries for over a year already. I was so happy and it gave me a lot of confidence. Well since today is pday we got to go to the Prove temple this morning, it was really good! Now I'm in the middle of laundry and emailing so I hope I've answered most your questions! Thanks again for everything everyone does for me! Love all of you! Elder Smith
Family! First off thank you so much for all the letters, Dear Elders and packages! And thanks to the Cottle family for the letters. I'm so thankful for all of you in my life! This week has gone by pretty fast compared to last week and I can't believe I have less than a week left! But our district gets to be hosts tomorrow so tell Aaron to txt Ryan that I will be there when he comes. I'll try to be his host. I'm so glad to hear his farewell went good, I'm proud of him. And yes I have talked to Taylor Rapp a lot here too. Well where to start . . .Thanks Dad for all the good advice and scriptures, it helps. I think the way we teach investigators is a little different now then how you did it. We don't memorize the lessons, just have to know them and the Spirit tells us what to teach that specific investigator at that moment. It's amazing how the Holy Ghost works through us and tells us what to say, I love it. I'm so happy to hear about Payton, I look up to him so much. And I hope Michael gets the hang of things. To answer some questions....we wake up at about 4 AM Monday and the plane leaves about 8:30 I think. I can call home also---so Mom expect a call Monday morning if everything works out! And yes Dad they assigned Elder Bruce in my district to be our travel leader, there are 26 missionaries flying to Vegas at the same time. Crazy! I think the whole plane will be converted by the time we get there! We do service projects every Saturday at 6 AM and our district just cleans one of the big buildings here. About Jordan, I'm sad to hear that he's moving, but hopefully it's what the Lord wants for him at this time. Oh and Mom thanks so much for the shirts, they came yesterday. Tell Lexie Uncle Logan wishes he could come play with her too, I miss her! I'll share one spiritual moment we had this week out of many, me and my companion are getting along good and we're getting used to each other's teaching styles, we were teaching one of our teachers Bro. Mederios, role playing as "Alan" and we only got through half the lesson when he stands up and he says, "hold on, that was perfect," then was speechless. The Spirit was so strong guiding our lesson and he said if there was a camera in the room with other teachers watching, they would say we had been missionaries for over a year already. I was so happy and it gave me a lot of confidence. Well since today is pday we got to go to the Prove temple this morning, it was really good! Now I'm in the middle of laundry and emailing so I hope I've answered most your questions! Thanks again for everything everyone does for me! Love all of you! Elder Smith
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Hi Family, I just sent a email, but I ran out of time to answer questions. To answer Dad's questions,--Saturdays are exactly like every other days but we have to get up earlier, 5:40 to go do a service project. Sundays are really busy too. And thanks so much for the letter about horses, I felt down and discouraged asking myself if I could really do this and that helped a lot!! And the studyings going good, all of it is from Preach My Gospel, we wouldn't have anything without that other then scriptures. Oh on Sunday we heard from Brother Allen of the 70's. It was really good, he's a funny guy. Like I said before, all my district is going to Vegas, but there's also a whole lot more Elders here right now going also, I don't know how many, but they sent a lot to Reno that were already in Vegas West so they need a lot there. And now for Mom's questions--I hope I sent the email to the right emails, but the Pioneer package was great! We don't get to see a parade for Pioneer Day but there's a devotional tonight (Tuesday), and yes my elbow is better. I think I've had a constant headache since I got here, Ha Ha, but it's alright, it's just from stress. We had a stress management class last night though. I'm glad Cindy's getting better, thats no fun. And thats cool about all the new technology your getting, I'm now content with my alarm clock, (only technology I have)! I see Alex once in awhile, he said his Spanish is going surprizingly well. Well I think I've answered most things, Thanks again for everything. Love Elder Smith. PS. Can you send my by black shirt with ISU aircraft on the back and by blue shirt, and some tabs to stick on pages, that is in my school stuff. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Hi Family,
Thanks so much for the letters and packages. I'm the only one in my district that gets the most mail and everyone's jealous. I love it! Thanks Dad for the great advise, it helped me that day.Everyday here is a 16 hour day and it goes by soooo slow, it feels like I've been here a month already rather than 6 days, but it's great. It's amazing how much I've learned already, the Spirit is the strongest I've ever felt and I've already seen how it can help us to talk directly to investigators. We're in the middle of teaching 3 investigators. The work is so hard, harder than my last year of school, but I know it's all worth it. Las night was very good teaching Brother Coolie, (that's how you spell it) and helping him with the Plan of Salvation after his wife's death. Anyways, I can't remember all the questions you asked but yes, the food is great, all you can eat in 50 minutes, and I think I've gained about 5 lbs!!! I've seen a lot of Elders from school, and Alex a few times. I talked to two Elders last night that are learning Hungarian and this whole week they aren't allowed to speak any English. It was funny trying to communicate, he had to write it on paper instead. I'm so thankful to be speaking English. Our teacher Bro. Mendeirous last night (coolest Hawaiian guy ever) told us the building we have class in was newly remodeled, so inside looks brand new and it was meant for Spanish speaking Elders (all 4 floors) but the First Presidency decided to change it to English because they felt there was going to be a movement and a great need for English speaking in the future, so I guess I'm part of that! Well, I don't have much time left at all, 30 minutes for emailing everyone is not enough time, but I'm glad to hear everything's good at home and so glad my car is gone! And so jealous Mom got a Droid Razor, I wanted that!! You better learn how to use it to it's full capability. Thanks again for all the letters and everything--keep them coming! Love Elder Smith
Thanks so much for the letters and packages. I'm the only one in my district that gets the most mail and everyone's jealous. I love it! Thanks Dad for the great advise, it helped me that day.Everyday here is a 16 hour day and it goes by soooo slow, it feels like I've been here a month already rather than 6 days, but it's great. It's amazing how much I've learned already, the Spirit is the strongest I've ever felt and I've already seen how it can help us to talk directly to investigators. We're in the middle of teaching 3 investigators. The work is so hard, harder than my last year of school, but I know it's all worth it. Las night was very good teaching Brother Coolie, (that's how you spell it) and helping him with the Plan of Salvation after his wife's death. Anyways, I can't remember all the questions you asked but yes, the food is great, all you can eat in 50 minutes, and I think I've gained about 5 lbs!!! I've seen a lot of Elders from school, and Alex a few times. I talked to two Elders last night that are learning Hungarian and this whole week they aren't allowed to speak any English. It was funny trying to communicate, he had to write it on paper instead. I'm so thankful to be speaking English. Our teacher Bro. Mendeirous last night (coolest Hawaiian guy ever) told us the building we have class in was newly remodeled, so inside looks brand new and it was meant for Spanish speaking Elders (all 4 floors) but the First Presidency decided to change it to English because they felt there was going to be a movement and a great need for English speaking in the future, so I guess I'm part of that! Well, I don't have much time left at all, 30 minutes for emailing everyone is not enough time, but I'm glad to hear everything's good at home and so glad my car is gone! And so jealous Mom got a Droid Razor, I wanted that!! You better learn how to use it to it's full capability. Thanks again for all the letters and everything--keep them coming! Love Elder Smith
Saturday, July 21, 2012
July 18th, 2012:
I'm here and safe! But, wow it's been a long full day. As soon as I left the car I was comforted and felt good about everything. My host carrying my bags was even from Idaho Falls. We did one thing after the other all day and had no time to spare. My companion is Elder Hymas from Washington Tri-City area. He's great and I love the 8 guys in my class, all going to the same mission as me. The teaching experiences with investigators (role playing) was very spiritual and I loved watching them. I miss you all and hope everyone's safe! Looking forward to emailing also.
Love Elder Smith
I'm here and safe! But, wow it's been a long full day. As soon as I left the car I was comforted and felt good about everything. My host carrying my bags was even from Idaho Falls. We did one thing after the other all day and had no time to spare. My companion is Elder Hymas from Washington Tri-City area. He's great and I love the 8 guys in my class, all going to the same mission as me. The teaching experiences with investigators (role playing) was very spiritual and I loved watching them. I miss you all and hope everyone's safe! Looking forward to emailing also.
Love Elder Smith
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Preparing . . . .finishing college . . . .
Time to be a full time missionary is getting closer! Logan is thick into studies, competing in Missouri, and finals, but he is also making time for preparing, shopping, and temple attendance, all of which are essentials for his mission!
June 2012
June 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Elder Logan Smith
Nevada Las Vegas West Mission
4455 Allen Ln Ste 140
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89031-2229
4455 Allen Ln Ste 140
North Las Vegas, Nevada 89031-2229
Saturday, April 7, 2012
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