Hey family!
Wow it was great to see all of you! And yes it did seem like a pretty crazy time at home. I appreciate what you did on Skype, it was nice to see that with Blaze (burial of our dog) so I can have a memory of it. I love all of you so much and appreciate all the things you do for me. It was hard this Christmas, 2nd Christmas away, but I know it's worth it. It was great seeing Britni and Kinsley -two new people in our lives that I'm excited about! And Congratulations again on the engagement. Dad I hope you continue to get better and hope you can get around on your leg alright. The family I am staying with gave each of us a quilt for Christmas. Elder Parker has a wolf quilt and I have a Lightning McQueen quilt. Awesome. haha They do a lot of things for us that make us feel as home there. They had almost all their family there to open presents, and with a bunch of little kids running around it make me feel at home.
Well this past week all most all of our appointments fell through because of the holiday. And then on Saturday I got sick from who knows what, but I'm 100% better now. Church has been pretty cool the past couple weeks, the week before Christmas they had a bell choir come and play songs with bells, which was so cool. I've never seen that before. Then yesterday they just had basically a testimony meeting, except people just got up to say what their favorite hymn was and we would sing it, so a meeting full of music, pretty spiritual! Tony was there and picked out a few hymns he wants for his baptism. Things are going well with him, he just needs to stop smoking this week for things to work out for the 11th.
Thanks again for all you do for me. I was so happy to see everyone and I hope you all have a great safe week. I love you and I'll talk to you later.

Merry Christmas!!!
Well I want to thank all of you for the packages and letters I received this week. I'm looking forward opening them on Christmas! I hope all is going well this week and that everyone is ready to Skype with me soon! haha. So I'm not sure what time exactly but it will probably be noonish or afternoon. (Las Vegas time). The Rosequists are going to Skype with their son first, then we will take our turns. I'm planning on calling Mom Dad and Janell. President said we can't call anyone else, sorry Taylor. But you can go to the house if you want. Even though it was a little weird last year ha. And Mom, I sent a letter a couple days ago with a short thought for the dinner, So I hope it gets there today or tomorrow, if not, it'll be late and oh well haha. That's so cool that the ward had prime rib for a ward party. I should've expected that from Bishop haha. sounds great. And I hope Dad is getting better. I can't imagine how that would feel to have all those torn things in his knee, I had a fast for him on the day of his surgery, so things will get better.
I was able to go over to the Hamptons yesterday to see them and wish them a Merry Christmas, and they said Thank you so much for the package, they enjoyed it. They are leaving to New Mexico today to go to her parent's house, and they are getting baptized on Friday together, which is so awesome! It's so great to see that from someone we taught.
The baptism of Dorian was great on Saturday! The room was filled with his friends, non-member and member. His friend Avishay baptized him, who was baptized himself only about 2 years ago. The spirit was strong and it was just a cool experience to be a part of. We are looking forward to January 11th where we will have two more baptized!
Thanks again for all the things sent to me, I appreciate all the thoughts on my behalf. I love you all, and I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas. I'll SEE you on Wednesday!

Dorian

Santa and Elder Smith and Elder Parker

Our Zone before transfers.

Counting the Days till Christmas!!

Hey everyone! It's been a great week. Thank you for the letters and Christmas cards. I appreciate the ones I've received. I sent mine out today as well so I hope you get those. By the way Mom, can I get the address's for Jordan, Curt & Kris and Parker's. Thanks.  So sorry I didn't get an email off yesterday, we were really busy, plus all the computers at the library were taken, bummer! We had a BBQ for the zone at the Rosequists yesterday for the last day of the transfer, it was really fun. And Elder Parker and I are staying together for another 6 weeks! The night was pretty crazy with getting everything sorted out with the changes in the zone. We received 3 new brand new missionaries to the zone and had to take one of them home to their new place. Our zone is turning into a little Hawaii too! We have 5 missionairies here from Hawaii, so don't worry, it's not just desert here, we have some tropics too! Last night we had a lesson at the Bishops house with one of his friends that wants to learn more. Lately we have just been getting a lot of people to teach which has been awesome. I don't remember how many things I told you last week about our investigators, but as of now we have 3 people set for gaptism! Dorian is getting baptized on Saturday, and yes Mom it's at 6! Your second guess was correct haha. Kaumaka is on the 11th of January, and Tony, who we just started teaching is getting baptized on the 11th of January as well! That will be a great day! So things are going really well in the zone area right now, and the zone. Today will be full of running around getting supply's for everyone in the zone, we go to the office every Tuesday to get supplies for everyone, but today our car will be full! Good thing the new 2013 Fusion has a lot of room in it haha, we are really blessed here!
So something really cool that happened this past week, we had zone conference last Thursday, but we were privileged to have Elder Steven E Snow from the quorum of the 70 come and speak with us and give us training's! (and no he didn't bring 'snow' with him haha) On Thursday morning all the zone leaders were able to get together with President Ahlander and Elder Snow and have a special leadership council with them. It was really cool to be there. Elder Snow is just the most awesome guy, we just felt so comfortable around him, and he just has the best spirit about him. I was grateful for that opportunity we had to listen to him train us. Tomorrow is an exciting day as well because we are having a mission Christmas party. We get to watch Ephraims Rescue! We're so excited, it's not too often we get to watch movies, of course!
So about the nativity that I saw Bruce Crowley at. It's kinda funny that I saw him again because it was a year ago that I saw him at the same place. It was cool to talk to him again. But anyways I don't think I mentioned the Nativity yet, but it is an amazing program that they put on. It's put on by a Stake in Vegas and it's at this place called Opportunity Village, which is a learning center for people with learning disabilities. The facility is actually in my last ward boundaries, But they have like an outdoor auditorium that they use to have a 25 minute presentation of the Nativity. They use actual animals too, there's horses, shepp, donkeys, and a real baby for baby Jesus! It's the coolest thing I've seen. So it was of course a great thing to invite people to that we are teaching. We had a part member family come with us and they loved it. Vegas is a really cool place sometimes. There's a lot of diversity and a lot of cool activities going on.
Well thanks again for all you do and the things you have sent me. I hope everyone has a great week!
I Love You

Hey everyone!
Snow in St George! That's crazy! I had heard from a couple people that there was about 6 inches there. And actually it did snow here as well, we had clouds and it was cold, like in the 40's, and there were a couple rain drops, that's snow right? At least for Vegas it is haha. We were looking forward to snow so bad but oh well. I appreciate the videos of Charlie and the snow. Also thanks for the letter Mom; I hope you get mine today. To answer your question, I haven't been here very long so I will be staying. You don't have to worry about that. Transfers are next week, but I think Elder Parker will stay as well.
There have been a lot of good things happen this week! We have two, almost three people set for baptism! The first one is Dorian, he's 19 and been taking the lessons for years now, he's really good friends with the Rosequist son who just left on his mission. Well we hadn't taught Dorian at all since I've been here, but he just came to the Rosequists on Wednesday and said, "where's the missionaries, I want to be baptized!" so we set him for December 21st! We have been meeting with him and making sure he's prepared for that day. The second person is Kaumaka, we were teaching him last night and we hadn't even thought of setting him with a date yet, I don't know why, but I was prompted to do so, so we set him for January 11th. He's a great kid and I'm excited for him. The 3rd person we are really excited about is Tony. I think I told you about him, maybe not. But he was just a referral we received a couple weeks ago from this guy that lives in St George and works in Vegas, and he works with Tony. Well we taught Tony the Restoration last Monday and it was one of the best lessons I've had! When we got to the point of the Book of Mormon, we pulled one out and handed it to him. He grabbed it and just gripped it so tight with tears in his eyes. He kept saying, Thank you, Thank you while wiping his tears. It was a very strong moment for us of the spirit bearing witness to him that this is the truth. He is reading reading it a lot and was even at church yesterday, which he loved. He accepted baptism, but we will be setting a date for it today. After sacrament he made another cool comment, he said something to the effect of, "I feel I've been wandering in the woods lost, and I have just found the way." I know he has found the way as well. I know this is the truth, the way to find happiness and joy in our lives. Like you said Mom, there are so many bad things in the world right now, seemingly terrible to raise kids in, and it would be without the truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some people don't understand it, they don't understand that by living a certain way can actually bring them TRUE happiness. Not the happiness that lasts a couple days or weeks, but it will last FOREVER. And it is available to every person on earth. Those things that may look bad in our lives--with guilt and shame, those feelings can be taken away by Jesus Christ. And our purpose is to bring that knowledge to them, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity I have to be part of it. That's my testimony to you, and I thank you for all your support and love.
I'm looking forward to Christmas, it's coming soon! And I hope everyone has a great holiday season leading up to it. I love you all and I will talk to you later!

There was a salad dressing that we had at a members house not too long ago and I thought it was really good and thought I'd share it with you!
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp poppy seeds
shake together and add:
1 pkg salad pecans
1 pkg crasins
mozarella cheese

Also, if you haven't looked on the mission blog, there are pictures of our turkey bowl on there too!
http://thenevadalasvegaswestmission.blogspot.com

Another thing I forgot haha, so Krystal and Robert seem to be doing great, but I have a cool story to tell. When we were teaching the, she told us to refer her parents to the missionary's, they live in New Mexico. So we sent in a referral and the missionaries started teaching them as well. Well now they are baptized! Also Roberts little brother got baptized already, and his other brother is getting baptized. It's been so cool to see it just spread among their families!

Having a great time for Turkey Bowl!

Hey Y'all!
Wow it has been a great week! First off I want to thank everyone for the great packages and gifts. Thanks for the cupcakes Mom, they were so good! I was able to take them around to some Elders in the zone and we left some of them on their doorstep, knocked and ran, kinda fun, but they were really good! Thanks Grandma Smith for the package of treats, it is all really good as well, and it was so good to see Aunt Gloria. It was the middle of the day so usually we would be out of the house, but we were up in our room planning for something when the doorbell rang. The Rosequists son brought up the package and said, "There's an older couple at the door for you"...haha I knew immediately who it would be. That was nice of her to come and see me, I appreciate it. And Grandma Birch, thank you for the letter and the gift, that's very nice of you! So our thanksgiving was great, the Rosequists smoked a turkey, which was the best turkey I've ever had in my life! haha I need to learn how to do that. They had all their family there, so there have been a bunch of little kids running around all week! It's been fun. The Turkey Bowl was really fun, we didn't win, but we won 1 of the games we played. It was fun either way so that's what matters. A member brought a pizza oven and cooked a ton of pizza for all of us. Over 250 missionaries and there was still a lot of pizza left, pretty crazy!
 So about some of our investigators, we have a lot of people that are close to baptism, but they all just need to take that final step and commit, Bobby, Erik Mega, Kaumaka, and Mike and his daughter have all been taught all the lessons or have a good understanding of them, but each one of them have specific things keeping them from taking that final step right now. So thats what we are doing right now, trying to resolve concerns and keep meeting with all of them. We also have Tony who was a media referral, meaning someone else referred them online or through the mission office, is someone that we just started teaching. He is great! He's from the Philippines and works here with a lot of members. We are teaching him again tonight and hopefully bring up baptism and see how it goes. I feel like him and Kaumaka are the closest right now to baptism. Kaumaka is the 13 year old whose mom is recently returning to the church. They just need to start going to our ward instead of the ward in Henderson, and then we can set him with a date. So as you can see, the work is progressing, slowly, but it is progressing and we are trying our best to teach Gods children in this part of his vineyard. I'm so grateful to be here right now and I'm grateful for this holiday season we have to remember the things we should be thankful for and remember Christ our Savior as well. I'm excited for Christmas and to be able to talk to everyone as well!
I hope everyone has a great week and remember I love all of you!
 Love Elder Smith

I'm so happy I have a new niece! She looks really cute, I hope all is well and that she's healthy! I appreciated the pictures as well. It's hard being away when all these new exciting things are going on, so pictures are great!
Also I'm glad to see Payton is home, but that's to bad about him being really sick. I hope the doctors can get things straightened out soon. We also had 2 welcome home talks in our ward here on Sunday, one was in Seattle and the other was in Ghana Africa. They both did a great job and it was so cool to hear about Ghana. I don't know if you remember me saying  before I left that I wanted to go somewhere like that, so maybe that's where I'll go when I'm older serving another mission, haha.
It has been a great week for us as well, we have done a lot of teaching this week and have a couple people close to baptism. Megan, the girl I mentioned before, accepted baptism but just want to read the whole book of Mormon before she does, so that's the latest on that. We are also teaching a 14 year old named Kaumaka. He is so cool! Last night we asked again about baptism and he said he's ready for it! He understands what he has read in the Book of Mormon so far and he told us everything that has happened in the chapters he's read, so he is ready and we're excited. We just have to get things worked out because he lives part time with his dad in Henderson, and part time with his mom here. So we will see if he comes to our ward because he's been going to the one in Henderson. I'll keep you posted on that! I'm super excited for this week of Thanksgiving! We will be staying at the Rosequists. And also the turkey bowl in the morning will be fun as well. I'm not expecting to have another niece or nephew come see me this Thanksgiving, but I guess that's what I said last year haha. Don't do it with out letting me know! haha. Mom,  the letter you sent awhile ago about Aunt Gloria coming, I didn't get it until today for some reason so that's why I didn't say anything about it last week. If I could have talked about it then I would have had her come to the Rosequists and maybe bring some Reeds dairy chocolate mile with her too haha. It would have been cool to see her. But I hope she finds the mission office (not mission home) OK to drop off the package. Thanks a lot in advance, I appreciate it!
Oh and about the camera, the one I bought was a Samsung, but one day the lens wouldn't retract, so I took it in and had them fix it under warranty and then when I got it back the lens has a hard time focusing. So apparently it's just a bad camera. So don't worry about it anymore, I'll deal with it, I'm not wasting any more money on another one.
Well, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving week and hope that everyone travels safe! I love you all. Elder Smith

The Joys and Trials of a mission!
Well thanks so much for the emails and good news. I'm looking forward to hearing about Brad's talk Dad. It sounds like it was really good. I was just thinking about Island Park and the outings we had there as youth. I was really missing it! So hopefully you had fun for me! That's also crazy to hear about the Philippines and the tragedy that happened there. I'm also grateful that I am in a safe place with nice things. There was a missionary in our ward here that just came home from Ghana South Africa last week and we heard about some of the things he went through. He lost 65 pounds! We played some football with him on Saturday, luckily he was already pretty big when he left so he looks good now after losing that much weight. But the culture is just so different, he got to the airport in New York and looked at a water fountain like it was some new invention he had never seen haha. It won't be much of a culture change for me when I get back, just temperature change!
So there have been some crazy things happen in our zone lately, I'll mention one thing. On Sunday we were sitting in ward council and got a call from President Ahlander and a text saying, we have a missing missionary in your zone, call me ASAP....Now, that's not a normal text you would usually get haha, we always wondered if it would happen, and it actually did. So we learned more about it and found out what happened. This Elder had just had enough, he was done and wanted to go home. When his companion was in the shower he called a taxi, packed up, and left to the airport. And that's the last we've heard of him. So our job was to figure out a new companion for the other Elder that was now left alone. Kinda crazy, like I said haha. We were talking about the whole situation and I was told by someone this, In the mission, and in other church callings, there will be times where people will just get under your skin and you will be pushed to your limit. You will want to give up, as this missionary did. But those are the times where we will receive the most blessings, IF we endure it well. We all have choices in this life and have our own agency to choose what we will do. Our choices and actions will determine our way. It is my testimony, and sure knowledge that if we endure it well and push through our trials, our spiritual strength will increase significantly and we will be blessed beyond our knowledge, I pray for this Elder who will undoubtedly have very hard times in front of him because of his actions, but I know things will work out. And if it turns out that we choose the wrong way, God WILL NOT leave us. He will continue to love us with all his heart because that's who He is. I know that's true.
I pray for all of you and thank you for your love and support. I hope things go well for Jordan and Brittney and hope the baby is healthy and happy when she is born. Send my love to them for me, I'm looking forward to hearing all about my new niece! I love you all, Elder Smith

Gladys Knight is amazing!

First off, it has been a great week, mostly because of the Gladys Knight concert, but I'll talk about that in a bit. Thanks for the email and good news from home. Mom, I don't even want to talk about my camera, that's all I'll say. It's still good though. I'm glad you were able to help get Matt's bathroom finished and looking good. I'm excited to see the changes. And Dad you just blew my mind when you said Payton finished his mission next week. I cannot believe that! Time flys!
So the concert...We were asked to help usher along with a ton of other missionaries. We were at the church helping set up from about 11 am to 1. And then we were ushering from 3 to about 11:30 pm, when it got over with, looooong day! Don't worry, we all got permission to be out that late haha. President Ahlander was there as well. There were two shows; the first show Elder Parker and I were in the back of the church by all the choir members acting as security. Then the second show we were out in the hall by the chapel and we got to see the whole show. Gladys and her husband have very very strong testimonies and it was amazing to be there and witness how the people reacted to it. We also had a few investigators and less active members there so we were excited about that. Gladys wanted the crowd to be excited and clap and dance, so we (all the missionaries) got up and started dancing and getting the crowd going. It was like nothing you'll ever see in an LDS chapel and the amen's and hallelujahs praising out!  At the end there were a few people that came out of there so excited to hand us a referral card with their names on them. This one lady walked out shouting, "I'm joining this church!" If you ever get the opportunity to watch the Saints Unified Voices concert, I would highly recommend it haha. It was great. So now we are working hard trying to get more gift packages to our zone to give to all the referrals received. For all of Vegas there were about 200 referrals received from the concert, big success!
Things are going great here. We had a great Zone Training Meeting today and I was grateful to be part of it. I think the zone really enjoyed it. We are having a Turkey bowl football game on Thanksgiving so we have been practicing for that as well. Our zone doesn't have the most solid team, but we just got a new visa waiter that played football at Dixie state, so he will help us a lot haha. Oh and Dad, I was wondering if Bishop Westwood's nephews named is Elder Koval, he is from Idaho and he just came out, I saw him but haven't had the chance to talk to him yet. Anyways, I hope things are going well for everyone. Just so you know, because I've had a lot of questions about it, I DO NOT want any presents sent to me for Christmas. Any money that would be used on a gift for me, I want that to be used for someone else back home. Jordan and Brittany, Matthew and Ashlie, Janell and Bruce, the kids of course, etc. I would appreciate that a lot. Thanks. I love you all and hope you have a blessed week full of good spirit and love. Oh and good luck with Jordan and Brittany and the baby! I'm anxious to here all about it and how she is!! Love Elder Smith

Elder Smith and Elder Parker at Halloween

We are 6'4" tall, but we feel short compared to our friend the Morph! at 7'2"

Hey Family!
Thanks for the email and updates on home. Sounds like it's been a great week for birthdays, happy belated Matt and Charlie!  Hope they had a good day. That's too bad to hear about Blaze. I know he's really old, I just feel so bad for him that he has to go through the pain of arthritis. Maybe he's waiting for me to get home before he goes to a better place.
Thanks for the letter Dad, I really appreciate the story from Payton, that's an amazing story. He's such a good example to me and I appreciate that. Elder Parker and I had a good time reading that.
So transfers are today, we are staying together of course, but we are anticipating the arrival of a new visa waiter this transfer. We just had one leave this morning to Brazil that we got pretty close to. He'll do great down there. There will only be a couple changes within the zone, not too much.
There's at least one crazy thing that I'll write about this week that happened. It was on Friday night and we were trying to find someone to go visit. We came up with a name that was in the north part of the area, so started driving up there. I had just crossed an intersection and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a Mercedes run right through the stop sign, kept watching and then saw an SUV T-bone the car! I flipped around and we stopped to see if they were alright. Both cars were pretty totaled when we ran up, so we helped the ladies get out of the SUV, everyone turned out to be alright, but there was a 1 and a 3 year old in the back seat, so we were grateful they were fine. The kids were cold, (it was cold for Vegas, haha) so we let them sit in our car to stay warm. The cops took 40 minutes to get there! So we waited and talked to the people the whole time, but they were so grateful that we were there. I know that we needed to be there at that time to help them and I know it was the Spirit guiding us. Even though we didn't get a teaching out of the experience, every time those people see missionaries from now on they will know that we are good and they might want to listen to our message. The Lord plants seeds in people's hearts all the time. Every time somebody see us it plants seeds, which can hopefully grow to the point that they will accept the gospel. I love this work and everyday that goes by is a blessing. I'm grateful for all that you do for me and th esupport I get from home. Thank you once again. I love you and hope you have a great week.

PS Gladys Knight concert is this Thursday and we have invited a lot of people, we are so excited! Hopefully there will be a lot of referrals that come from it.
Also, there is a kid in the ward that's 19 and from Utah, he's just here playing basketball for college, because he is 7'2" !! haha so the picture I'm sending is us standing next to him, while he's in a morph suit for Halloween. Elder Parker and I are both 6'4" (still not the tallest companionship in the mission)and we feel pretty short around him. I am also sending pictures of the pumpkins we carved for Halloween. We went to a trunk or treat, and we watched 17 miracles at the Rosequists. Everyone thinks Elder Parker and I are related! haha I wonder why?

 

Scorpion Pepper, hottest in the world!

Family!
Thank you for the emails and good news from home. Mom, I did not get the package yet, but I'm sure I will today or tomorrow. You can start sending mail to the Rosequists home now, and thanks in advance for sending the package.
First off, on Wednesday we had a big leadership training meeting that all the zone leaders went to and some district leaders. Brother Donaldson and someone else came down form the missionary department in Salt Lake to give us about a 5 hour training haha. Brother Donaldson is one of the mission president's that was in San Diego during the filming of  The District. He is a pretty cool guy. Excellent teacher! We learned a lot from him. He came down las Monday to spend some time with President Ahlander and also go on exchanges with the AP's. His partner went on exchanges with some Zone leaders, luckily he didn't pick us haha. It would have been cool to go with him though, his partner was the one that gave our In-field orientation when I was in the the MTC, so I recognized him right away, he'a an excellent teacher as well. We will now give a training to the Zone tomorrow on all the things they taught. It should go pretty well. Oh and he did talk about Ipads....The official word is that we won't get ipads until maybe next May or June. Right before I go home. But Brother Donaldson has a lot of say in who gets them first so he says he'll put in a good word for us haha.
Another cool thing that happened this week, we met with a LA guy in the ward, Mike Ozosky, and we found out that Joseph Smith is his 4th or 5th grandpa. Direct descendant!  Pretty cool. He's a great guy and still has a strong testimony of the church but stopped going because of certain challenges he had in life.  I hope to be able to meet with him more. The third thing I will write about is the most painful....literally, haha. So during my time on my mission I have tried some pretty hot peppers and hot sauce and gotten used to some of them. So I ate a Scorpion pepper the other day, apparently it is as hot or hotter than a ghost pepper, which is one of the hottest on the world! WOW is all I can say, it was an experience haha. It's all good though, it was all fun and games, and I'm still alive haha. Bruce, I want to see you eat one when I get home. Mom it kind of reminded me of the time we gave hot peppers to those missionaries at our house, but those have nothing on these! haha
Anyways, all is going well and thanks again for all the love an support. I hope everyone has a great Halloween week and stays safe. We are going to a trunk or treat on Wednesday and just staying with the Rosequists for Halloween, so I'm excited about that. I Love you all! Love Elder Smith

Family!
What a great week it has been! I appreciate the letters and word from home, good news about Dad, and I am glad you are feeling better Mom. I'm happy to hear about the kids and the Lexie remembers me, I can't wait to get to know them again! Oh, and Dad I was in the mission office the other day and was peeking into the folder of the new missionaries coming out soon haha, but I saw someone from Rexburg and I just realized that is could have been Bishop Westwood's nephew, maybe, what was his name? I'll look for him soon.
So to update you on the week, the meeting we had about the Gladys Knight program was really good but she wasn't there...kind of a downer,but we will see her on the 7th at the concert. Janell, you could come down to it if you want...haha, but not really because you have to bring a non member to go...
This week I was able to go on exchanges with the assistants to the president on Wednesday, it was a great day! I went to their area with Elder Torgersen and their area is kind of in the ghetto, so we had some cool experiences. It's so different from our area, cause there's always people walking on the street that will listen to you. But it was a good day. Yesterday was also very good, we had a lesson cancel so we went tracting, it was one of those times that we just randomly stopped at a street and decided to tract it real quick, well we met Jeremy who seemed pretty interested and we gave him a Book of Mormon. He was like, "so what's the best way to teach this stuff to my kid?" Then of course we said we can come back to reach them all together haha, so hopefully we can teach them this week and have success with that. We have had some cool experiences this week that I'll always remember, and I wouldn't get them if I wasn't here. Experiences that you'll have to ask me about when I get home, ha. I'm so glad that I'm here right now doing this work.
It's so great. Jesus Christ never said it would be easy when he was charging his apostles to go and preach, he said it would be hard, and it is. But the rewards are so worth it, I know they are, and I know the Gospel is true.
Thanks again to everyone for the things you do for me and the love you have. I hope things go well this week, and my prayers go to everyone back home. Love Elder Smith

Hey Family!
Thanks for the letter with the leafs Mom, haha. Elder Parker thought that was funny!  But it's good to see something else other than desert plants!  Also, thanks for the update on things, I'm glad Mason is saying a few words, and good job Lexie for making 3 goals! The home that I am staying in has a lady that quilts, and I was talking to her about the quilts you are making Mom, and that is cool to do that for the poor. She also makes a great danish breakfast item, called Ebelskivers, you should look it up and try it. It is good.
Anyways, the week has gone well. We are having a little difficulty with one investigator, she is really doubting the Book of Mormon and keeps canceling on us, then rescheduling, kind of on a roller coaster right now. Hopefully things will work out and our other investigators are super hard to meet with right now, so we have faith that we will find someone this week. We have been going on exchanges with some of the zone lately, or splits. Something cool this week was that I went with Elder Cook in his area and we rode our bikes past Chum Lee's house, the guy off of the show Pawn Stars. They have tried talking to him but haven't caught him home yet. I thought it was pretty cool! haha. We are actually having a fireside the beginning of next month and I told him to invite him. The fireside will be the Saints Unified Voices with Gladys Knight, and she will be meeting with all of us this Thursday to brief us on how it will go and how to deal with all the people. So that's pretty exciting!
So things are going onward, pressing forward! I hope you all have a great week, be safe and well.  I love you all, thanks again for what you do for me!
Love Elder Smith

Family!
It sure was a great conference weekend. I loved all the talks and they truly did answer questions that the world has, but might not realize it. I agree with you Mom, if only they played those talks on the evening news or something like that! How great would that be? One thing--we got a pretty food laugh at was the fly that was flying around a speakers face during the Sunday afternoon session, it landed on his nose and we busted up laughing ha, felt bad for him but what are the chances of that! I forgot his name, but it starts with a V and he's in the 70. We watched all the sessions at the Rosequists, as they were in Wyoming this past weekend for a funeral. And we had a couple other missionaries come over so it was great. But we did go to the church for the priesthood session, tradition!  Sunday morning I got up and made a bunch of crepes, and then we cooked them and had a great breakfast! The perks of living with members haha!
So this week has been a little discouraging but it's been alright. We had I think 6 lessons scheduled and 4 of them cancelled. This happens but its always disappointing. I know this week will be better though. One investigator lost his job and had a minor surgery, so things are kind of on hold with him. And we are teaching a girl this evening. This past Wednesday was our Mission leadership council with President Ahlander, which means our Zone training meeting will be tomorrow. We have it pretty well planned out so I'm excited. And Mom I'll remember to buy doughnuts or something for the zone tomorrow. Thanks again for that. We go on exchanges with each district leader in the zone and with the Assistants to the President so we start that this week as well.  So things are cruising along here as usual and I hope things go well for all of you this week too.  The weather is starting to cool down and it's usually in the 60's at night which feels amazing, but I'm starting to feel like a wimp because I think I'm used to the heat now...haha never thought that would happen. Can't believe there's already been snow fall in Wyoming!
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Elder Smith

PS I am sending a picture of a cool stairway in the home I am living in. It has Jade in it with LED lights behind it to show through, kinda hard to explain, but really cool. Great craftsmanship.

Family!
Well first off thank you so much for the letters of support and encouragement, and Mom thanks for what you did. I'm glad things are going well at home. So this week has been crazy but it's been great! Me and Elder Parker are Zone leaders of Spring Mountain stake and there are 21 missionary's in our zone, 3 districts, one of which is a Spanish district. We live in a members home, and we are really spoiled, it is a very nice house. Our zone is pretty spread out, kind of the north half and the south half, so we have to drive a lot to accommodate some missionaries. We teach Zone training meeting once a month and have regular meetings with mission president and stake president. So those are just some of the new things we'll be doing. It's a lot of work sometimes but I'm so grateful for it. I'm excited for this area as well, we have some investigators we are teaching, and one is close to baptism.
Thanks again for all the support, I love you all. I hope it's a great week and hopefully I'll have exciting stories this next week. Love Elder Smith

Our day off

Time to Relax

Just Hanging Out

Family!
Well, it's been kind of a crazy week after transfer calls. I've been called as a Zone Leader in the Spring Mountain Stake. My new ward Pinnacle Ward, is literally right across the street from my ward now. On the east of Rainbow. So after hering the news it's been pretty interesting preparing and getting ready to take it on today. I'm really excited because my new companion is Elder Parker from Rigby, the one I've talked about before. I've served around him a lot. So that will be really fun. We will be living with members so just send mail to the mission home. I'm excited to get to know everyone in my new zone and hope to be the best leader I can be for them. I've grown to love the families I know and I will miss them, but I am looking forward to coming back and having everyone meet them. I am sending pictures.
I love you all and I hope you know I love the Gospel so much as well and know it's true.
Love Elder Smith

Hi Family,
Yes, we are doing wonderful! It has been a great week with seeing Elder Anderson and everything. So I'll share just a couple things that they talked about on Tuesday. We were able to shake both their hands before the meeting. First Elder Callister and his wife spoke, and he gave an amzaing talk on missionary work. He talked about commitment and how we need to keep all of our commitments if we are challenging others to keep commitments. It also goes along perfect with what I'm teaching tomorrow for district meeting, and then he talked about changing our nature, not just our behavior. Because changing only our behavior doesn't mean we have completely committed to something. Then also how important it is to always open our mouth and talk to everyone we possibly can, and the blessings that come.
After him Elder Anderson gave a great talk as well on not comparing ourselves to others and how all that matters is who we are in 30-40 years. Then he came down off the stand and gave a great training on the atonement and how important it is for each one of us. One thing about him is that he has a great sense of humor and he was making a lot of jokes. But throughou , the Spirit was very strong during the whole meeting and I know he is an Apostle of the Lord. How great is it that we have a prophet and apostles on the earth today!  He didn't mention anything about more technology for us but he was with President Ahlander this past week in a a training in Arizona, so maybe he talked about it there, we'll see!
We received a referral for a girl a few weeks ago and today we have an appointment to see her, maybe we will have another investigator. Something cool that happened this week as well was that I went on exchanges with the Zone leaders on Saturday, and Elder Tews took me out to Blue Diamond, a town, and we taught someone out there, and then we got to go to Pahrump to do a car inspection there. It was pretty cool finally getting to leave the valley after over a year haha. It's a pretty cool town. And Blue Diamond is awesome, like an oasis outside of Vegas!  Well, I hope you all have a great week and stay safe. I probably will get transferred so I'll let you know soon, and just in case, send all letters to the mission home this week. Thanks a bunch! I love you.

The District! Perfect Unity!

Our version of Duck Dynasty

(Since none of us have actually seen the show yet!

No Beards!)

Hey Family!
Thanks for the plums and cookies. Everyone loved them plums actually, they went quick!
We have gotten a lot of rain here lately and I have loved it! There's been some fantastic sunsets as well that God is providing for us to enjoy some beauty in the sky!
As you know we have a big day tomorrow, we have zone training meeting in the morning and then the meeting with Elder Anderson and Elder Callister in the afternoon. We have Zone training meeting once a month and the stake presidency always puts on a big breakfast for the zone every time we have one which is very nice of them. Our past week was good but not as good as I expected, I had a goal to find a new investigator and it didn't quite happen, so this week could be the week! Transfers are coming up on the 23rd, and I'm pretty sure I'll be leaving, I've been here for 4 transfers already. Our district has such a good unity, it will be sad to leave. The picture (of our pyramid) is at our members house, having some fun!
I'm sorry to hear about the tragedy that happened in Blackfoot with that missionary. That was shocking to here but luckily we know he is still doing missionary work, just somewhere else. The other news from home about football with Brayden is great. I can't believe Collin is almost ready to come home.
Have a good week, and I love you. Elder Smith

Hey family!
How is everyone on this fantastic Labor Day weekend! We had district meeting this morning and then went to Buffalo Wild Wings. I was so glad to hear that Matt and Ashlie got to go to palisades. I'm missing it so bad!! Especially now that the water is so low.
I was so busy last week and this week we are going to work as hard as we can to have a great week before Elder Anderson comes to talk to us!
It's been pretty nice weather lately, because all the rain storms cool it down and it feels great!
We have gotten a few referrals lately too and we always look forward to those, we haven't been able to get in the door of any of them yet, but we keep working on it.
I hope everyone stays safe and has a great week. I love you.

The game was so fun!

Thanks for the letters and the news from home. I am glad that you are both feeling better Dad and Mom. That is cool to hear about Hammond's son in law, and Mattie going to Chicago.
So one of the exciting things that will be happening for us on September 10th--President Ahlander announced that Elder Neil L Anderson and Tad R Callister will  e coming to speak to us!  This will be the first time that both Vegas missions will b e together in one place, about 500 missionaries.  We are very excited about it. We are thinking that it has to do with technology of some sort, like ipads, or facebook, but we're not sure. That will be a great day!  This week has been good, trying to find more people as usual. But we got to stand in the circle while our investigator received the Priesthood yesterday, It was a great experience for him and his family, and for us as well. They both  are going to the Temple on Wednesday to do baptisms for the dead with the ward. That will be a very special day for them as well. They always mention how excited they are to go through the temple in a year, so I will definitely be making a trip back down for that!  It's important for every new convert to go do baptisms for the dead soon after they are baptized, that gives them a lot better chance of staying active, so I'm glad they can do that.
Well I appreciate the video of Charlie and can't believe he's almost walking now!  Thanks for everything you do for me. Love Elder Smith

 

Best Day of my Mission!

Hey! This weekend has been so great!! As you heard we had two baptisms. I baptized Krystal, and Elder Powers baptized Robert, except he messed up a couple of times and had to baptize him 3 times, it was so funny. But it was such a great experience, and words can't explain what it was like. We have been having game nights at the Hamtons house often, and tonight we and other missionaries will be teaching them more things. That has been the highlight of my week, actually of my mission!
I'm so happy we were able to bring their family the Gospel which will bless them the rest of their lives.
This upcoming week is going to be busy. It already is, we helped President Stuart in the mission presidency move into a new house, and I'm rushing to prepare district meeting for tomorrow morning. Wednesday is Temple Day, and p day for the rest of the day. Friday we have zone conference and we might go to a football game at the Bishop Gorman high school to support some investigators, not confirmed yet though. The game will be on national television though, haha. So it's an eventful week which is good.
Hope you have a great week, Love you all!

 

 

Can you spot the airplane above the haze of Vegas?

 

Cool Hot Air Balloons!

 

Fascinating Cave to Explore.

 

 

Looking down at the Hot Air Balloon!

 

Let me get that for you!

 

Aahhh! We love that Vegas heat!

 

 

Tell Me A Story!

Family!
Oh my gosh! haha I'm sorry to laugh at your incidents that happened, but that email was pretty comical. I'm sorry to hear about your shoulder and foot Mom and you knee Dad, but you have to admit that was a little funny how you explained it (motorcycle accident). But that was unfortunate that you got banged up a little bit. I'm just glad it wasn't more serious and I'm glad your home ok. That was a cool place that you visited (Crater Lake).
As for me, I am saying here another transfer! I was so excited because we just set a date for baptism with our investigators on the 24th of the month. They are so excited and we are as well. It's amazing to see the change that has taken place in their lives since they first started to meet with us. Tonight we are teaching them some of the commandments and will teach the rest later this week, and then they will be ready. I get along with them really well because we talk about cars and dirt bikes, so we clicked immediately. I'm so glad I'm able to stay and finish teaching them. Hopefully we will get to teach the 8 year old from last week that wants to be baptized. So things are looking up and we're excited.
This morning we went and hiked through the caves again that we did last transfer, it was pretty fun. I sent a few pictures. Tonight we are getting a greenie in the apartment so we will do a little arranging and cleaning for that. Pretty exciting.
I hope you feel better soon Mom and Dad and have a great week! Thanks for the letters and pictures. Love Elder Smith

Family!
Thanks for the letters and emails, always enjoy them!
Well, we had some cool experiences this weekend. First off, we had a musical fireside last night, and a group called the Toa's came to sing to us. They are all Hawaiian and are so good at singing; I think they are on youtube. We all got to share some thoughts in-between songs seeing that it was a missionary based fireside. Our investigators were able to go as well, and they went to church, so that was great. They really enjoyed it, and hopefully today we will be able to set a baptismal date. We are having a big family home evening tonight with them and a lot of families in the ward. At church we also had a less active lade come that is starting to come back and she wants her 8 year old son baptized so we will start teaching him soon as well!  This morning was pretty cool too. So some Elders in my district have investigators that are form Hawaii, and they play football in high school. They are both 16 but are huge! They already have Boise state and Oregon state wanting to draft them for college football. So we went to watch them practice this morning at Bishop Gorman high school, apparently its a really nice expensive school here and there have been a lot of professional athletes drafted from there. We were sitting there watching and the owner of the UFC, came and sat by us haha! He's huge! And apparently his son is on the team as well. So that was the cool thing of the day!  Also another cool thing for dad, we have a member in the ward who owns a high end cabinet making company. By high end I mean he does all the work for celebrities here. He told us that Celine Dion was a middle class client of his, Middle Class!  Crazy huh! He showed us a lot of pictures of houses he's done and some of the work he's designed. It's really nice! He's a great guy.
Well, transfers are next Monday so we will find out what will happen this week, I'll be happy if I stay another one cause we're getting more work, but I'll also enjoy a change. So I'm looking forward to finding out.
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. Also I saw Randal Cunningham who played for the eagles. Love Elder Smith

Wow, that's great news about Alex, the Bishops nephew, and everything else. I'm happy to hear all the news from home every Monday! Mom that's hilarious that Duck Dynasty is your favorite show. I have heard about it and how it's funny, and see all the ads in the stores for it. I can' wait till I can watch it. It's kind of weird being out of the loop of things, but I enjoy it.
Tell Lexie and Mason that I miss them so much.
We are meeting tonight with our investigators and we hope to set them with a baptismal date. We were talking to them the other day in the office of the apartments and she was telling us how she already knows it's true because of a spiritual experience she had a couple weeks ago. We are so excited for them. Have any of you see the blog of Al Fox? She is a convert of a couple years from New York and she now does inspirational speaking and videos about her conversion. They are so cool, and she reminds me of our investigator. So if you get the chance to look at her blog I would recommend reading her conversion story. It proves that the Gospel is for EVERYONE. We can never assume that somebody won't be interested in the Gospel, because they might be. It doesn't matter what you look like, how many tattoos you have, or what your past is, we are all Heavenly Fathers children.  The Lord doesn't look on the outward appearance, so we shouldn't either. I strongly believe that.
Things are going really well in the district. The Elders we live with have had 6 baptisms this transfer already. It is really the ward support. We are still trying the best we can to get our ward more involved with activities. I remembered the dessert contest that we used to do as a ward when I was a youth, so I suggested that to the ward council and we sill be planning that soon. So things are progressing, it just takes time.
Thanks for all you do for me, I love you all and hope you have a great week. Love Elder Smith

 

Red Rock

    Elder Powers (in the green shirt)

Wow! It has been a great week! Thank you so much for the package. I really appreciate it, even though there was only half of everything, cause I'm halfway done haha. It was funny. I am glad that you had a good motorcycle trip Dad. I am looking forward to going to that area, it sounds amazing. Mom that's crazy that there's only 4 sets of missionary's in the stake because in our stake here we have 26 missionary's. Crazy how different things are in some places, but how similar they are as well.
So it has been a very eventful weekend. The South stake put on a pioneer breakfast and 5K on Saturday morning, and we all ran in the 5K. I'm still sore from it!! I finished in 27 minutes so I don't know if that's good or bad haha. Then we had a water balloon fight with the kids and a tug of war with all the missionaries in the stake. It was great. And yes, we found that investigator I told you we were looking for! 2 actually. So there's this lady that works in the front office at the apartment complex that we live at. We talk to her every time we go in. She is super nice and always asked us questions. Well finally we asked if we could teach her and she said yes. So Saturday we taught her and her husband. They have 2 small children. They also came to church yesterday and had a great time. I know the spirit was strong and I know they felt it too. I was so grateful to be able to speak in sacrament as well because they were there. We are teaching them tonight as well. We are soooo excited to see where it goes. So I'll keep you posted! The Lord provides in times of desperation.
There has been some crazy lightening/wind/rain storms for a couple days, we were excited though to see it and recorded a lot of it on my camera. A couple trees fell down in the complex, don't worry we're safe haha. This morning we went and hiked at red rock and that was really fun as well. My new camera has wifi so I can send pictures from the camera straight to email. I love the Elders I'm living with right now. I'll be sad when I have to leave but I know the Lord sends us where we need to be. I hope you all have a great week and I Love You all. Tell Alex he's a trooper and I'm proud of him if you get the chance.

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRUCE, AARON, AND DAVID COTTLE!!

All on the same day!! I hope it's a great one for you all!
    Wow! So I am officially on the downhill slope since yesterday!! I will go home on the 14th of July next year instead of the 18th because of how transfers work. So yesterday was an exciting day for me!! But I'm excited for the 18th as well. And yes I will be burning a shirt. Shirt is a year, tie is 6 months, pants are 18 months. haha.
Anyways it has been a great week. Some great news of this past Saturday is that Vincent, the Chinese kid we were teaching, was baptized and we got to be there and be witnesses for it. It was so exciting to be there and see him take that step that we had taught him about before. I'm glad he is in the ward he's in now because there's a lot of people to fellowship him, it's the singles ward. We were able to have interviews with President Ahlander this week, he's a great guy, I love him already. But you could tell he was really tired and worn out from all the interviews. It was a short one. So I hop-e he gets the hang of things. It's going well with teaching members, we just need the ward to be a little more enthusiastic about missionary work, so that' what we're working on. And I get to talk in Sacrament on Sunday about missionary work, so I'm grateful for that. Our ward mission leader can't be a better guy than he is, he is so great. So supportive of everything we do and gets us appointments with members. The ward would really be struggling without him. So I'm excited for this week and looking forward to that investigator we have to find soon! The Elders we live with, Leortscher and Jarman are so great, us 4 are already like best friends. And they are doing so well with the work in their area. I had the opportunity to interview two kids for baptism last week, and will interview a family of 4 tomorrow for their baptism on Saturday. All of which were taught by them and their ward. So things are going really good, we just need that blessing in our ward as well. And I know it will come.
The smoke has cleared up and I think the fire is out so no worries there. It hasn't been as hot as it was in the past so we're grateful for that! I miss Lexie and Mason so much and can't wait to see them again, along with Charlie and the boys. I love Charlie's little smile. So cute.
I hope everyone has a great week and continues to stay healthy and safe. I love you all!!

Family!
It has been a good 4th of July week, and I appreciate the pictures and storied of your week!  I'm glad everyone had fun and stayed safe. I did miss watching the fireworks there but we got to see a lot here too. The whole city was just lighting up with the, it was cool. We got invited to a member's house to watch them too. Things are going really well with my new companion Elder Powers, he's great. He's from Vancouver Washington but has moved around a lot cause his dad is military, a Green Beret. he funny thing is that he reminds me so much of Bruce! His voice is similar, and his laugh is the same as Bruce's. It's hilarious haha.
We haven't had any lessons this week, it's been extremely slow. But we're changing that this week and going to teach the members in the ward starting tonight. So I'm excited for that.
I'm sure you might have heard that there has been a fire in the mountains here, and all the smoke has been covering Vegas. It was really bad on the 4th and we had ash all over the car in the morning. It's been pretty crazy to watch the past week, we could see the flames on the night of the 4th. So I hope that clears up soon. But we have had cooler weather compared to what it has been, so we're grateful for that. We are not the only companionship in the district with a car, except for one other companionship that lives further away. So all the others are on bike and I feel so bad for them, we try to give them rides to anything we can. It's been a little difficult but we work it out.
I'm sorry to hear that Alex has been so sick. Another missionary in my apartment named Elder Jarman reminds me so much of Alex, and he's hilarious, so I'm glad to have him here!
I'm grateful to be here and so grateful for my good health. I know the Lord lifts me up at times when I feel down and I know this is His work. And if we listen to the spirit and heed His promptings throughout our lives we will be blessed and lifted up at the last day. Thank you for your prayers again, and I hope you have a great week. I love you.

pictures

Great Sunrise and Breakfast Nook

Ok, are you really falling?

All cleaned up and handsome!

July

Family!
Thank you for the update on home, I'm so sorry to hear about Dad having pneumonia, that's terrible news. I hope and pray that he feels better soon and that any medicine will cooperate and do what it needs to .  I'm grateful for the videos of Charlie and Lexie and Mason, they are all so cute and I hope they have a fun 4th of July. It sounds like Mom has a ton of food for everyone so that's good, if only I were there, right?! I'm looking forward to the 4th though to see the fireworks in the area. Apparently the strip puts on a huge show off the top of the hotels, like they do at New Years, so we should be able to see it pretty well from here.
It has been so HOT this week! If you paid attention to the weather here at all you know it was in the 110-120 degree range. They were wondering if Death Valley would set a record. I don't know if it did or not. But our car said 120 a couple days ago. So it'll be a normal thing for the next couple months! This morning we hiked to some caves that are pretty close to our area, so I have some pictures of that I'll send...sorry that they are blurry...it's my camera, not the photographer haha. I'm excited for transfers tonight though, as you know, Elder White will be transferred and my new companion will be Elder Powers. I hope and pray that I will be the best leader I can be this next transfer and magnify my calling. We had the meeting with our new mission president on Thursday, President and Sister Ahlander are so great! I already know they will do great things for this mission. They cracked a lot of jokes during their presentation about themselves and did a great job, so I'm excited to have them lead us as a mission. Mom Thanks so much for the family history stories, I loved them. Especially the one Grandma Birch wrote, that was great, I appreciate all of you and the words of support and encouragement. I hope everyone has a great holiday. Stay safe and have fun together. Take pictures for me! Love Elder Smith, I love you.

 

Temple Day

 

 

 

 

Family!
 It's been a great week, a lot better than it has been lately. We were so excited to go to that missionary broadcast and thought it was amazing. I thought it was great that the overall theme was getting the members to work better with the missionaries and working with the less active members more. That's exactly what our ward needed to hear right now. The ward has been struggling to work together and the ward mission leader and us are going to try all we can to bring unity to the ward.  They mentioned in the broadcast that we need to take care of the members we already have before we can get more, and I agree with that.  We are planning a BBQ or ice cream social pretty soon that we will put on, and we're also helping to teach more in church meetings. Another problem right now is that everybody is moving our of the ward! We helped with moves last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and have two more this weekend. Half the primary is gone now and there's almost no youth. So we are hoping and praying for more members to move into the ward. But we were able to find a lady the other day while tracting and hope to be able to teach her soon. I know things will get better soon.
President and Sister Black leave this week, but we are excited to meet the new president. The whole mission is getting together on Friday to meet him.  I know he will be a great president and look forward to meeting him. Transfers are on Monday so we will be getting our transfer calls right before President Black leaves this week. I'm excited to see what happens here with us!
So something cool that happened this week was last Tuesday, we had the privilege of going to give a blessing to a baby in the hospital that was 2 months premature. It was an investigator in Elder Birch and Selveys ward, in our district, so they asked us to come with them.  But the baby was so small and it was amazing to be a part of that, and witness the miracle of priesthood blessings. It really reminded me how fragile and important human life is and gave me a different perspective of things. I appreciated that opportunity I had.
Mom, I am excited about the pioneer season coming up, and am wondering if you could send me a story or two of our ancestors that I could have with me. I'm excited for when you can show me how to do more on our genealogy, cause before I left I didn't have the desire. Thanks for the letters and emails, I appreciate all you do for me, Have a great week!

Hey Family! I hope it was a great Fathers Day for everyone. We had a great sacrament meeting yesterday and couldn't help to think how grateful I am for the earthly father I have and the things you have done for me. There is a great Mormon message that I will attach to the email that I loved and I think everybody should see it! It is called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father and can be found on lds.org.
Things are really slow right now, no investigators yet, but we are trying our best to work and find those who will accept the Gospel.  I know it will come soon. There have been difficult situations for me lately but I'm grateful for everything that has happened cause I know the Lord is helping me learn and grow from every trial I've been given. We wonder a lot sometimes why we have to go through the things we go through, why me, why now, but I've learned we can't think of it that way.  We have to know that our Father in Heaven is very aware of everything we are going through and there's a reason for us to go through it at that time. We are the clay and he is the potter, sculpting us into the people we need to be before we can live with him again. It's hard to grasp sometimes but we have to have faith in that and know that it will all be ok. I'm grateful I am here serving the Lord at this time in my life, it's helping me get through things I wouldn't be able to get through otherwise. And also grateful for all of you and the love and support you give me. Love Elder Smith

Aren't We a Handsome bunch?

Neisha's Baptism Day

Hey Family! It's great to hear about the week and the fun that it sounded like you had. I missed being there for Memorial Day and especially missed our regular camping trip, even though you didn't go this year. Thanks so much for the package Mom, I almost have too many chocolates now haha. and for the Rubrics cube, it's just something to do when we have some free time, a lot of missionaries have them. I didn't get the video of Charlie, but I liked the one of Lexie. Tell Alex he is definitely a trooper!  Tell him I'm hoping and praying for him.
Well, today was great at the temple, I Love the Las Vegas temple!!  It's so great to be able to go through every time and feel the abundance of Spirit that is there. We are anxious for President Black to go home soon, he is such an amazing guy, I love  him. He always has a joke for us when he talks I don't know how he always comes up with them haha. He will be missed, as this was his last temple trip for the mission.  But the trip today was much needed today and brightened our spirits. This week has been a little rough with Elder White, but trying to work through it, he's going to a councilor to help him with some things, help him deal with the mission life. This is the most challenging companionship yet, but I am grateful for the time I have to improve myself and be more Christ like in every situation. I can definitely see how missionaries are more prepared for what hits them in life, and I strive to push through and improve my relationships with everyone. I thank our Father in Heaven for this ride of a lifetime that I am on to help better myself.
Vincent is doing well, he is moving to the next stake over. So we will have to pass him off to the other missionaries after we help him move tomorrow. He's great though, he bought a nice suit last week just to wear to church. We hope he will continue to go and progress in the Gospel.  The other person we were teaching, Rob, is moving as well, so we now need to hit the streets and find more people to teach. The weather is definitely warming up so I'm grateful for the car that we have, it makes things a whole lot easier, we will still ride our bikes once or twice a week just to save miles on the car and talk to people on the street more. But I'm still loving the area, this is probably the only area that has a Buddhist Monastery, a Hooters restaurant, and an LDS church within the same ward boundaries haha!  It's a good area though.
Love Elder Smith

Family!
That is so great that President Hammond is your new stake president. I will try to write to President Murdock before he leaves to China.
Neisas baptism was so good on Thursday. We have another man who has committed to baptism on June22nd, and he was at church and liked it. We are now teaching a man who is Catholic and he has a lot of questions. He seems very interested.
On Saturday Elder Wilkerson had an investigator in is first area that got baptized a year ago in Lake Havasu (he was in the other mission). Well, she went through the temple for her first time Saturday and me and Elder Wilkerson were able to go and be with her for that. Wilkerson's companion had to stay in the area so I went instead! It was such a great day at the temple. We got to go through a session and watch her be sealed to her husband that passed away. It was the first time I've seen a sealing and it was Great!  I loved the opportunity I had to be there and see the result of missionary work, which is going to the temple. We also have our mission temple trip on the 31st and we're excited for that.
Mom, I have been craving Farr's huckleberry chocolates, Dad knows what I mean! Maybe just a couple of those would be great! Nobody here knows what huckleberry's are! It's sad...I just wish Farr's would send their candy her to Vegas, haha. Thanks I appreciate it.
Love Elder Smith

South Stake District Zone

 

 

Words that Logan's mother taught him:

"Don't call me from the hospital!"