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
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