 |
| ONLY IN VEGAS!! |
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
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)