Week 9

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

My week:

Monday 12th: Pday again... Crazy to think how long I have already been
out on the mission. I have made it through my first transfer... Crazy
right?? I am still with Elder Young for the next 6 weeks... But I'm
sure they will go by really quick if I keep working hard. Today for
pday we did what we always do... Sports. Since it was columbus day and
its such a big holiday that all the government buildings close we
didnt email at the Library today. The rest of my day was pretty
normal... Dinner was at a park with a bunch of members cool but
nothing really unordinary.

Tuesday 13th:  Today we woke up and did our regular routine, after
that we went through a list of people who were less active to see if
they would be interested in coming back to church. Alot of the people
didnt end up being home but for the people who were home they were
pretty nice. One person hadn't been to church for awhile because they
were in England for 2 months and then hurt themselves on a hike but
her and her husband came to church after we stopped by so that was
great! Tonight was dinner with the Barnes family! They are so awesome!
we do alot of service for them and Rick always tells us cool stories.
After Dinner we went to the church to play basketball which was a
blast.

Wednesday 14th: Woke up and did our normal routine. We had district
meeting today which was great... not! haha we did get to meet all the
new greenies so I am officially not the youngest missionary anymore
haha But sadly since its a sister missionary she still goes home
before I do haha. Today we had a lesson with Dax scheduled for 3:00
but it canceled because he had something that happened. After all that
stuff we had dinner with the Madsen's. We had breakfast for dinner and
it was yummy. After dinner we got to try on all of Brother Madsen's
Mormon Batallion gear which was kinda fun.

Thursday 15th: Today was messed up... haha we had our Asl like usual
and after ASL we went to Ricks for some service. We also brought Elder
Jacobs and Wall to help out. Great time... kinda haha While we were
there we took down a piece of old wood fence and Rick told us to break
it down for him to throw away. Elder Young and Wall thought it would
be fun to punch the wooden fence and try to break the wood. In the
process of doing this Elder Young dislocated his knuckle. I mean after
4 attempts of trying to get it on video he finally got a good one
because he didnt have any facial expression of it hurting like no
other. hahaha really enjoyable to watch but really stupid in my
opinion. Elder Young hurt himself again while taking down a shed in
Ricks backyard. There was a post coming out of the middle of the
little shed so he decided he wanted to break it by throwing a cinder
block at it, the thing then bounced back and hit him right in his bad
knee. That looked painful. After service we did some mission work and
found out our dinner canceled so we ended up going to Olive Garden.
super good.

Friday 16th: Today we had the opportunity to help set up for the
Tucson Temple Groundbreaking. Right when you got there you could
really feel the spirit there. Something about those grounds you could
tell was special. After helping out at the ground breaking we went and
helped Rick again with something quick. Dax canceled again which is
too bad but we will be okay. Tonight we had the craziest dinner
ever... We had an investigator there which was great but the members
would not stop talking... we were there from 5:30-8:00... We told them
we had to leave and they still kept talking... No wonder this guy brad
has dropped us 3 times... :/ Great too invite people but give them a
choice to accept the invitation. Dont just assume they will love to
take the lessons from the missionaries.

Saturday 17th: This morning was great. We went to get a lift at the
Otuafis and Tyson answered the door. He is there son who had just
gotten back from his mission. We had never met him before. He was sooo
awesome, he got all his family up to read scriptures and his mom ended
up making us breakfast! Crazy thing is that we had a move at 8:00 and
we didnt get out of there till about 9:00 haha that messed up our
schedule a bit but the person understood and we got everything at the
move done. After the move we went to Manny's football game. He is the
Otuafi's youngest son who is 11 and we watched him kill this other
team. They had signed up for dinner that night so we went and at
dinner with them which was really fun.

Sunday 18th: I will talk about it next weeks email.

Idk if you remember Michael my old investigator that moved to Tennessee. But I found out about 3 days ago that he was found dead in his room on Wednesday in Tennessee. He had major anxiety and depression disorders and was really having a hard time with life. He committed suicide, the paramedics say he felt no pain when he died. His mom is on the left and his stepdad Hans isnt in the picture but even though he was a jerk he loved Michael. And cared about him and wishes he would have asked for more help. Luckily he had the chance to hear about the gospel and accept it while he was still on the earth... But never was baptized because he was still working on smoking. But I know he will accept the gospel in the spirit world. Please have his family (the kraus's) in your prayers... They really need it right now. 

Everyone reading these emails I hope is getting something out of them other than I'm having a good time. Please learn from my experiences. I know that I am out here for a purpose. I cannot wait to get my first baptism and see the change in someones life. I want everyone to know that this is the one and only true church. Through this religion we can be with our families for eternity, we can be cleansed from sin, and have the power of the priesthood in our lives. If you dont believe the things I am saying. Get on your knees and ask and you will get an answer. I know this because I have done it, I spent my whole life with this gospel right infront of me and never acted on it. I now wish I could have. I wish I could have been more like my little brother Kevin. He knows the gospel to be true and wants people to know. Love you all. Goodnight!

Love Elder Smith 

Michael's family.

Tracting role play.

Tracting role play.