COMPANION: Elder Rasmussen
Dear Friends and family
Monday 1/18: Pday was okay today... What we did was emailed, shopped,
went to zone sports, and then went on exchanges. Exchanges was pretty
fun honestly, I went to a Spanish area with Elder Wilstead. Elder
Wilstead is pretty cool and a good missionary. Something cool about
him is that he has a full ride scholarship to B.Y.U. To play as their
quarterback. For dinner we went to a Spanish Ward members house and it
was probably the best carne asada burritos ever. I ate four big
burritos and was soo full when I left that place.
Tuesday 1/19: Exchanges with Elder Wilstead was pretty good. One of
the best thing about the exchange was that I was able to take a shower
longer than 3 minutes long. Plus I didn't have to squat down to get my
head in the water. The shower I am currently using has a 3 gallon
water heater, the shower head is about up to my shoulders, and if I
were to stand on my toes my head would hit the ceiling in the shower.
So showering in their shower was great. The Wilcox missionaries live
on a members property like I do except they live in a little house.
Bro Davis the member is a very talented woodworker and leather worker.
He offered to make me a leather knife case with my initials in it. Now
with the teaching, they don't just cover a Spanish Ward so we went
around and visited a bunch of people and taught them about service. We
found two new investigators from a part member family and it was such
an amazing experience.
Wednesday 1/20: Today district meeting was "canceled" because there
was a global broadcast from Salt Lake to all the missionaries. There
was a lot of stuff that I got out of it and I used some of what I
learned later. We went and visited a less-active member Darlene and
read scriptures and asked her if she knew anyone that would benefit
from a gospel message. She got excited and told us her neighbor had at
one point been meeting with the missionaries a long time ago and said
to go over and talk to her. They weren't home when we went over but we
have plans to track her down and see if she would be interested in
meeting with us. The thing that was brought to my attention in the
broadcast was that most likely less active members have non member
friends so ask them for referrals more directly instead of asking
straight up for a referral. The rest of the day was kinda a buzz
kill... All our appointments canceled including dinner so we went back
home and ate then went into the house and talked to Aaron the Garners
less active son.
Thursday 1/21: Today was kinda a disappointment... Everything we had
planned got canceled. So we decided to go and stop by a potential
investigators house Jonathan. This was probably the most exciting part
of our day. Jonathan is 12 and is living with his grandparents because
of some issues back home. He took the lessons awhile ago but doesn't
remember them at all, right now we are trying to earn his trust before
we really start teaching him the lessons. For now we're hanging out
with him and showing him Mormon messages. This week we're going to try
and find a fellowshipper for him so he has a friend at church. We
invited him to smash a tv that we found in a dumpster on Saturday and
he's really looking forward to doing that. After his place a member
bought us some subway. When we were done eating we headed over to the
ward mission leaders for a meeting then went home to a smelly house.
At first we thought it could be a propane leak because propane is the
only thing we could compare the smell too. Turns out it's just a dead
mouse in the walls that we can't do anything about until it dries up
all the way and stops smelling on its own.
Friday 1/22: This morning we did some service with the sisters for a
member in their ward. She was helping her brother move out of his
place because he's going to prison. His place was really
interesting... It was really hard to figure out what he went to prison
for... Jk he had lamps, marijuana magazines/signs, and a phone book
with dried out weed leaves all in it. Something funny Elder Rasmussen
said was when we found the phone book with the leaves drying out he
just says "is anyone else really hungry right now?" Haha it was funny.
We spent about 3 hours there helping her out and after that we did
some weekly planning then headed to our lesson with Harold. His lesson
went really well, we invited him to be baptized February 27th which is
my birthday. He accepted the invitation and is looking forward to
working towards that date. We then had a lesson with Kristina which
went pretty good, taught the commandment of following the prophet. I
thought it went pretty good.
Saturday 1/23: Today we broke the TV with Jonathan which was super
fun. Jonathan is a pretty cool kids and he is really starting to warm
up to us. After breaking the TV we went over to a members house to see
if he would like us to do some service for him. We scheduled a few
service times with him this week so that should be fun. One of our
appointments canceled which sucked so we went to a recent converts who
wasn't home. Then we went to dinner at the Dovers which was
interesting. They have a fire place in their house and they didn't put
the wood into the fire all the way so smoke filled the entire house
pretty much. Now my jacket smells like smoke and I don't have the
money to dry clean it so I'm just going to have to go around and smell
like mesquite.
Sunday 1/24: Today was the first time I went to church for 6 hours in
one day... Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Felt a little bit
like déjà vu... Kinda interesting but I'll just have to get used to
it. After church we had a meeting with the ward mission then went to
dinner. Dinner was super cool and after dinner we tried to visit
people but nobody was available so we went home for the night.
Today I would like to share my testimony about the gifts and talents
we are given. Everyone has gifts and talents that we can choose to use
or ignore. With missionary work I come across this problem all the
time. Whether I feel like using my talents or not... Opening my mouth
and staying something or just keeping quiet. There is a scripture in
D&C 60:2-3
2 But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their
mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because
of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against
them.
3 And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it
shall be taken away, even that which they have.
When I read this scripture it really opened my mind to the fact that I
am givin a lot of talents that I choose to hide because of my fear of
what people will say or do. We should not be afraid to be ourselves,
express our testimonies of this restored gospel, and invite and help
others come unto Christ.
Love you all so much!! Thanks for all you guys do!
Love,
Elder Smith
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