Another week in paradise!
So I failed to mention something last week that was pretty important. We had a baptism on Saturday! He was being taught before I got to the area but he was having trouble with smoking so he couldn't be baptized. He didn't think he could do it and had a lot of doubt because he had been trying to quit smoking for years and years, he's in his 70's. But we promised him he would be given the strength to do it. Last Sunday we fasted for him so he would be given the ability to quit from now on, and he did it! It was such a great experience to see the change in his heart and mind and to see the Atonement of Christ truly work in his life. It reminded me of 3 Nephi 9:14 that states that Christ will accept everyone who desires for his help, and he will grant it unto them. I love this Gospel and the blessings that it brings!
This week in Bunkerville has been great. The work is progressing and things are good. I appreciate the news from home. I can't believe you got so much snow! We only got a few sprinkles and some wind. Today we are actually going golfing at FAlcon Ridge golf course. I'm pretty excited about that. Dad, to answer your question, Mesquite is its own zone in the mission so in this general area itself, there are 2 districts, and a district in Logandale, and a district in Panaca, all within the zone. So for meetings we meet at the stake center in Mesquite and the others meet in their respective places while the zone leaders rotate to go to different districts each week. So we have the biggest zone in the mission just because it's spread out so far. There's even a set of Elders in Littlefield, which is Elder White right now haha. I love it here, it's so nice and I'm glad to finish my mission here!
I love you all and hope all is well and that you keep up the health and safety. Love Elder Smith

Mesquite zone

I Udderly Love Milk

It is going great here in Bunkerville and Mesquite. Yes, I am actually milking cows every Tuesday, and yes we drink it after it's strained, haha. I know it seemed kinda weird, but it's pretty good with the cream in it still. And that's what we need since we're going to cross fit 3 times a week, their good workouts!
So as far as the work here goes, it's great! We have a lot more work to do then I've had in most my areas, so you do't have to worry about it haha. Covering 3 wards makes it pretty busy, and we have a few investigators and a LOT of inactive members to see. I guess Mesquite is the place to go if you are inactive, but that's OK because we will find them! When I got to the area, it wasn't organized at all and there wasn't even a ward list for Mesquite 5th, so I have been working hard on getting the area organized, getting lists of people, going to the bishop to see who is active or not. So things are looking a lot better with the ward and we are doing our best to split our time equally between the wards, because it wasn't that way before. We also got to speak in sacrament yesterday in one of the wards so that was really good for the members to hear.
This week we have had some crazy experiences with some people that we hope will get resolved. The first experience is with an investigator who we are teaching who is in his 70's and has some major health problems, such as cancer and hip replacement surgeries. We were inspired to go over there one day in which we did and he told us he was suicidal and didn't want to live. We sat down with him and talked with him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and why we need it in our lives. He argued with us throughout the lesson until we got to baptism and the Holy Ghost where he started to gain a small light of Hope. We went over the next day to see how he was doing and talked to him about overcoming his addictions he has. It was a really cool thing to be able to see the spirit work with him and change his desire. We hope things continue to progress with him.
The next experience we had was with an active member of our ward who is also in his 70's and lives with his wife and step dad. We go over to their home every week to do service and then they feed us lunch. Well, we started to notice things were a little different lately with him, and last night as we drove past his home we were prompted to stop and see them. So we did and we quickly found out why we were prompted to go. He sat down with us and basically told us that his whole life was a waste and that he doesn't know if the church is true anymore and why he is even here. He had completely lost faith in God and everything that he had believed throughout his life. He expressed that he regrets everything and every accomplishment he had done in his life. We were overwhelmed with this conversation as we had definitely not expected it from this wonderful Christlike person we have come to know and Love. Elder Beddoes was able to relate to him an experience he had in his life that was similar and help him understand a few things. At the end he accepted a blessing and I was able to assist the Lord in blessing this wonderful man. I have come to love him so much and care for him and his well being and look forward to continually working with him.
These two experiences I have had this week has shown me a few things. First and foremost, how real Satan is. He tempts us and throws things at us we would never imagine throughout our lives. He targets not only people who don't have a knowledge of Jesus Christ's gospel, but even more he targets those who know of His Gospel and have made a commitment to follow Christ. We know that even after you are baptized and are following the commandments, you will still be put through so many hard things that sometimes you will want to quit, you will want to give up on everything you know to be good and find the easy way out. But the Lord promises us that if we endure the affliction and persecution we are put under, we will be exalted on high in His kingdom along side of Him. And that is definitely something that I want and desire for all. The things we go through will only prepare us to be stronger in the future, just like any other thing. If we work out a muscle, it's torn down, but then becomes stronger. Same principle. I know that God loves us with all his heart and wants the best for all of his children here on earth. I 'm sorry for the rambling but I hope things are will for all of you and hope you have a great week ahead! I love you all.

Well Howdy Ya'll!
How's everything going? Thanks so much for the emails and letter mom. I also really appreciate the work you are doing on my motorcycle. I could really use it where I am at now, oh, I guess I will tell you where I am, Bunkerville, just outside of Mesquite. Janell, remember the time you took me bowling here, who would have guessed I would serve there one day haha! They have a sweet motocross track right by the Eureka that has a zip line going over the track, paintball course, and courses for remote control cars. It's driving me crazy seeing all these dirt bikes everywhere! I'm managing though. Bunkerville is great. It's the only place that I've seen four wheeler s in the church parking lot for Sunday meetings! But the majority of the town is LDS, so tracting is pretty much just visiting members. The members are great and they do a lot of missionary work. We are working a lot with the youth because that's where we get all the referrals. Elder Beddoes is from Ohio and has been out a year now. He knows sign language and is teaching me. We have a less active guy that is deaf, and I am trying to learn as fast as I can so I can help teach him.
We also go to Tough Country cross fit three times a week to work out, now I don't know if you are familiar with cross fit, but it's a crazy work out program that makes you super sore! So this past week I have been the most sore that I have been on my mission I think haha, but it's great I love it.
I hope everyone has a great week, Love Elder Smith

A little bit different than Vegas!

4 Wheeler, transportation to church!

Elder Smith joined us for dinner tonight in his new area. He made me swear not to tell you his location, he wants to tell you on his P-Day. I will say that he is in the best place in the mission!!

I made them Chinese Chicken Salad. I thought I would have a little fun with the elders. I only gave them chopsticks to eat with. t thought that they would be awkward and fumblie around. I was planning to make them sweat for a few minutes and then give them a fork. It turns out that the joke was on me. They both knew how to operate the chopsticks quite well. After dinner the Elders left us with a beautiful message about the grace of Christ. He taught that when times are hard we should ask the Lord to strengthen us to endure instead of asking Him to remove the trial. When Nephi was bound, he didn't pray to have the Lord loosen his bands; rather he prayed for the Lord to strengthen him so that he could loosen them himself.
 You have a wonderful son! I can tell he has been and will continue to be a great missionary! Have a great night! Sister Bunker

Elder Smith and Elder Bedoes, eating Chinese Chicken Salad in somewhere Nevada

Hey Ya'll!
So I know I have put you in suspense wondering where I am getting transferred, and I think I will keep you in suspense because I'm not ready to tell you...haha just kidding, but when I tell you (especially Janell) don't get any ideas! ha. So I will be a District Leader and in my new area I will most likely be milking some cows and working on a farm!! haha, I'm super excited. I'm not going to tell you a specific place yet, but it's not in the city. So I hope that holds you over for awhile, maybe until next week and then I'll tell you more about it! Just know that I'm safe and happy and very excited for my last area of my mission! My companion will be Elder Bedoes, I don't know too much about him yet. I'm sad to leave the Rosequists and Elder Barton, I've had such a great time living there and being with Elder Barton.
This week has been really good, with a couple crazy things happen. The craziest thing was on Friday night. We were at the ward auction night watching all the members spend thousands of dollars on cabin stays and trips haha, a little more then just cookies. But we got a call from one of the District Leaders companions, Elder Jett, in the zone and he said, can you guys come to our apartment ASAP, Elder Goldens not breathing too well. We were like, What! Call the ambulance if it's bad! He said, it's not bad, Elder Forred told us to come to his house. Elder Forred is the mission nurse. So we were driving to get them and Elder Jett called back and said it's getting worse so we drove him to the ER. If there's a time I can justify speeding on my mission, it would be this haha, because we got there and he was numb and couldn't breathe too well. So we got to the hospital pretty fast thanks to my driving skills, haha joking, but in the car Elder Barton and Jett gave him a blessing which was a cool experience. They checked him out and did some tests. After awhile he got better and could breathe fine and started to walk again, without any medicine or anything. We're not sure what exactly caused it but he was sick a week ago which was one of the causes, and anxiety was another reason. So Friday night we were sitting in the ER with him from 8:30 pm to 2 am. While we were sitting there I started talking to a girl that was waiting for someone else and we had a pretty cool missionary moment there where we told her a lot about what we do and things like that. So the whole night was a good experience to see the power of the priesthood and also be able to do some missionary work as well. Don't worry; Elder Golden is doing fine now. Everything happens for a reason and it's cool to try to figure out what that reason is, but sometimes we don't know for a long time.
Thanks for what you do for me and I hope you all have a great week. Don't worry about me I'll be having fun out in the country! Yeehaaawww!
Love Elder Smith

Thank you so much for the emails, they were especially good today. This morning we had a great hike at Redrock, again. We did a fun hike so I will send pictures. And then after that Tony took us out to a Philipino restaurant and we had Calamari and Ox tail soup. Surprisingly it wasn't that bad at all haha. But I'm so grateful I didn't serve out of the country where there is weird food all the time! Elder Barton is a great companion and I'm so glad to be with him. Transfers are next week so I have mixed feelings because I want to stay with him and the Rosequists, but I would like to see a new area as well. We will see!
We had some fun things happen this week. On Wednesday we were able to go to the temple which is always amazing. And then yesterday we had the privilege of ushering an event at the Smith Center down closer to the Strip called Zion's Youth Symphony and it's an orchestra and choir of youth directed by Rob Gardner, and the show was called Lamb of God, all about Christ's ministry. They had about 20-30 missionaries from both missions there to volunteer, watching doors, scanning tickets, etc. It was a really good night and a great program. So there have been some fun things happening this week. We are excited about tonight, we will be teaching some friends of Dorian, the kid that got baptized in December. He's been an awesome missionary already and refers all his friends to us haha. Thanks again for all you guys do for me. I appreciate it. I love you and hope you have a great week!
Love Elder Smith

Elder Smith and Elder Barton

Good day for a hike

MMMM..Calamari (squid)