Week 36

AREA: Central Tucson 
COMPANION: Elder Kapele  

Monday: Super busy day today... This morning we woke up and did our
normal routine. Went over to Roy's house to do laundry. So glad I
don't have to pay for laundry. While our stuff was being washed we
went shopping and stuff. Got my new suits measured and gunna pick them
up later. After that we went on a hike, sent some pictures of that
last week. After the hike we took care of some other things we had to
do then went back to work after dinner.

Tuesday: today was my 8 month mark. Pretty good day as well, this
morning we did our normal routine and then left for the food bank.
Food bank was a lot of fun as usual. After that we had interviews with
our mission president which was really fun. Learned a little more
about what we can do to help the work in our ward. We then went
through the huge list of potential investigators we have to try to
weed out the people who aren't interested in meeting with us. Sadly
most of the people are not real people. After it was too dark to cold
knock people's houses we stopped by our investigators Jonathan and
Jasmine's house. They were busy so we started to leave and then ran
into a guy from the martial islands named Nakki who said he had met
with the missionaries when he was living there. Scheduled an
appointment to go and visit him the next day.

Wednesday: Good day, district meeting and then we met up with the
Traveling Trainer Elder Judy so he could follow us around for a few
days to show us his ways. Really good missionary and I learned a lot
from him just the first day. While going to visit someone in a complex
we talked with them for awhile at their door and then talked with
someone else who was just sitting on the bench. I've always wanted to
talk with people who were just sitting there but was always afraid
too. Elder Judy knocked it out of us and we met Kat. Going over
tomorrow to share the restoration.

Thursday:Today was pretty amazing to be honest. This morning was
pretty normal, after all the normal stuff we went over to a recent
converts named Jodi to start new member lessons. The lesson went great
and the spirit was strong. I had an appointment with Dr. Johnson so we
drove down to Oro Valley, got some lunch, and then went to the
doctors. Went to go see Kat from yesterday and we couldn't find where
she lived. We think we might have been given the wrong information
sadly. We did a thing today called appointment with the lord which was
a lot of fun and really built my testimony on the power of the spirit.
What you do is set 30 min out of your day where you pray and go where
you feel you're directed to go. We ended up in front of a less actives
house where we went and talked to her and she invited us over that
evening. She brought her son and daughter in laws to listen to the
lesson. The lesson was great and the spirit was strong. We now have a
new investigator because of this experience.

Friday: Today was pretty great:) This morning was Lee's baptismal
interview:) he was found worthy to be baptized and he asked me to
baptize him:) Super excited to baptize my first concert baptism:) We
then had to go to Pep boys to get the brakes changed. That took
forever... We were literally there for about 3 hours. While we were
waiting we weekly planned. Got a lot out of our planning session even
though we didn't finish all the way. Elder Judy had a lot of tips on
how to help things with our investigators and ward. Judy went back to
the AP's apartment for the time being until he goes to another set of
missionaries place.

Saturday: This morning was pretty challenging. I haven't been sleeping
very well the past few days because I have a canker sore the size of
the sun and it hurts like crazy. This morning after studies we
finished the rest of weekly planning. We then went to our Ward mission
leaders house for a meeting which was okay... After that we went to
pick up Joe a recent convert to come out with us so that we could go
though the potential list and cut down how many people are on there.
Finished doing that and then went to dinner.  After dinner we went to
go visit a investigator, she wasn't home but we ended up talking to a
guy sitting outside his apartment. Said to stop by anytime.

Sunday: Best day of the week:) Such an amazing day,  it me and
Savannah's 1 year anniversary and she got me a present.church was
great as usual, Lee came to church with his two boys. Seems like he is
really starting to fit in with the ward and he's making friends. Some
random guy came into church today, something felt off about him
though... He didn't want to meet with us. Later found out he has been
known for going around to different wards and trying to get money from
the church. Super sad, it was exciting at first. After church we ate
lunch and took a quick nap. Joe the recent convert wasn't at church so
we went to his place to see what was up. He just slept in on accident.
We then asked him to come out with us again. We had a goal of making
it to 3 member presents and we thought we only had 1. We rushed over
to a potentials named Vicente, the guy we talked to outside his
apartment, taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized.
He will be getting baptized may 28! Super exciting! We then saw that
Esmeralda was home so went up to there apartment and read scriptures
with them and set a return appointment.

Super amazing week and my testimony grew so much. This coming week Lee
will be getting baptized! He is taking a step closer to eternal
salvation. One day he will have the opportunity to be sealed with his
family for time and all eternity. Even in just the 3 weeks I have been
here I have seen the light of Christ come into his life and bring him
happiness he can't even explain. I love the light that this Gospel
brings into our lives. This light the gospel brings is for everyone
and our Heavenly Father has blessed us with it to be happier than we
can even comprehend. In Mosiah 2:41

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed
and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For
behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual;
and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into
heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of
never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are
true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Planning session with Elders Judy and Kapele

Progress on the Arizona Tucson Temple

Elder Judy blowing up his air mattress because he was staying with us for only 2 nights

GoPro Selfie

Lizard I caught on the hike

Me and Kapele on the hike

Lunch with the guys in my zone

Week 35

AREA: Central Tucson 
COMPANION: Elder Kapele 

Monday: Much needed Pday... Super tired from all the work from the
week before. Really good pday though. Got my guitar fixed, there was
some issues with my suit so I brought them to men's wearhouse and
they're replacing them for free:) After all the pday things we went to
the sister missionaries apartment to give one of the sisters a
blessing.
Tuesday: Today was Foodbank day, we did that for accouple hours, went
home, changed, and then went though a huge list of potential
investigators that we have. Today I bought a bike that another
missionary is selling. I'm not in a biking area but I could be in the
next coming transfers. Thought I would take advantage of the good
deal. Had a lesson with Lee today that went really well. Helping him
to prepare for his baptism on the 29th. He has an interview set up and
everything, it's really amazing to see the progress that he has made
in the short amount of time I've been here.
Wednesday: Temple trip #3. Was pretty amazing, you always get more out
of each temple trip you make. On the way to the temple we stopped at
the trailer to pick up some stuff I left and on the way back stopped
at Shannon's auto to get a tire leak patched. Had dinner at Roy's
where I cooked chicken again. Super funny, we fed some of the leftover
chicken to Roy's chickens. Really messed up but something about it was
extremely entertaining. Roy was nice enough to bring us out for frozen
yogurt. We then went to a lesson that didn't end up showing up... Went
home after that.
Thursday: I've been trying to get back into the habit of waking up and
working out in the morning and I finally did it! Woke up and went on a
1 mile run and then did some 7 min workout from this app I have. Did
all of our studies and then went to district meeting. Learned more
about obedience and the importance of it. Feel like I have been doing
pretty good with that, pretty proud of myself there. We then went to
the food bank and had a blast making boxes. The worker at the Foodbank
was pretty cool, his name is Travis, he isn't a member but I feel like
he could be one day... Seems like a good potential. Went to our Lee
with lesson and helped him prepare for his baptism more. Planning a
baptism is fun. Went and saw some more potentials, have a good lead,
his name is Hiram who said we could come back sometime. We were about
to head home for the night but instead Elder Kapele said we should go
see a part member family who ended up being home and we taught the
Plan of salvation and set a baptism date with Jason a 9 year old kid.
Great night.
Friday: Pretty good day today for weekly planning. This morning we
went on a run again and did a little workout. After doing our weekly
planning, since we share a ward with another set of Elders we met up
with them and went over our plans for the week. Went and visited some
people after that but sadly nobody was home.
Saturday: This morning we woke up, worked out, did studies, and were
able to visit a lot of the potential investigators on our list. Sadly
not a lot of people lived at the places the lead said or they were
interest but we are getting closer to finishing the list of people.
There was some people that we did meet with who were less active and
invited them too church and they came! It was great to see them at
church. We set up a meeting with the ward mission leader to discuss
the work in the ward. Things are getting better with him. Went to
Roy's to drop of a list of people he gave us and ended up eating at
his house again. Drove to a recent converts we have been trying to get
a hold of to find out she wasn't even available.
Sunday: Feels like I haven't taken the sacrament in a long time
because of General Conference and Stake Conference. Was weird to go
two weeks without it but a good experience at the same time. Makes you
more appreciative of it. After church we went home for lunch and then
went out to visit more potentials. Lee's wife Amber wasn't feeling
good so we went to their house to give her a blessing. Went to a
recent converts house who is a ward missionary leader and he talked
with us about some ideas of what we can do to get more investigators.
Things in the area are slowly starting to progress and I'm excited to
see where it goes.
Spiritual thought for today comes from the scripture Mathew 5:16
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
This week when we met with the recent convert Joe while talking about
ideas of how we can get more investigators and it was by doing just
this. Sometimes as missionaries we feel like what we say is more
important than the things we do. As servants of the Lord we are to be
as much like our savior as we can. We are representatives of Jesus
Christ. If we follow his example by not just teaching but serving
people and let our light shine forth before men, then we will be able
to more successful with the work. Doing this is not just important
when it comes to full time missionary work but to daily life in the
"real world". I invite you all to look for selfless acts of service
you can do this week and I promise you will be happy with the
blessings you receive from doing so. Love you all!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Smith

Went on a hike today, will tell you more about it next week.

The desert landscape

Elders Smith and Kapele at the temple

Week 34

AREA: Central Tucson 
COMPANION: Elder Kapele

Hello Family & Friends,
Monday: Didn't do a whole lot today... Spent most of the day packing
and getting ready for the transfer. Said goodbye to some people which
was fun. Said goodbye to the Al and Sandy which was sad:( Also Said
goodbye to Kristina, Richard, and Richie. That's pretty much all I
did...
Tuesday: Transfers was today... Finished  up all my packing and then
went over to the church where the transfer was going to happen. Got to
the transfer sight way early so we decided to go say goodbye to
Brother Barney. Said goodbye then went to the transfer sight, got in
the van and sat in the van for like 4 hours going in a big circle...
Finally made it to Tucson and had a blast unpacking  and making my new
apartment home.
Wednesday: First official day in the new area. Pretty awesome, zone
meeting was today which was fun. Got to meet the new zone and meet
some new people. After zone meeting we went out for lunch as a
district, went home to change, saw a member from the ward, had dinner,
and then we had a set lesson for 7:00 but they weren't home so we box
knocked around the house. That was a cool experience... Nobody wanted
to really talk to us but it was fun. We then met up with the other
missionaries that share the ward I'm in and had a lesson.
Thursday:Today was a really good service day. We went to the food bank
and were there for a long time. We helped move over 16,000 lbs of
food. After that we had lunch and then helped someone move. Had dinner
and then went to the ward missionaries house and had the most awkward
meeting ever... Just told us his expectations of us which was like
insanely high.
Friday: TODAY WAS AWESOME:) We spent most of the day weekly planning
which was great. As we talked about each person we were planning for
we prayed for each one individually.  After weekly planning we had
dinner, oh my was that fun... The sister that fed us was very old and
doesn't know how to cook... Very appreciative of her feeding us
though. After dinner we went and tried to see some of the
investigators that we haven't seen in awhile and nobody was home.
Elder Kapele felt that we should go see Eric one of those
investigators. We get to his apartment and he wasn't home... As we
were walking back to the car we see a young couple moving into the
apartment complex so we offered to help them move in. Helped them move
in and ended up teaching them the Resotration! It was awesome! We are
going back on Wednesday to teach the plan of Salvation.
Saturday: Not as great of a day as yesterday... This morning we had a
lesson that was a complete failure... She dropped us hardcore so that
was fun... We then went to a baptism for the other set of missionaries
in our ward. The baptism was great except we had to give the 5 minute
teaching moment and the thing our ward mission leader talked about on
Wednesday was how we need to blow everyone away with the spirit with
our teaching... Not only was the ward mission leader there our mission
president was there. I was super nervous and so was Kapele and we did
a horrible job at our 5 minute teaching moment. The evening was not as
bad... We went to Roy's for dinner and I cooked everyone chicken, The
chicken was pretty good if you ask me. We had the adult session of
stake conference which was pretty good.
Sunday: Stake conference was today. We had an investigator at church
which was super exciting:) He brought 3 of his kids and they did a
pretty good job at staying calm. We did have to distract them a few
times... After conference we went home to eat lunch and took a lunch
nap. We then went and visited a bunch of potential investigators. The
list we have is huge and we're trying to figure out who is real and
who isn't. Got through a lot of them which was a bit of a relief.
Sadly none of the people had addresses that worked.

My spiritual thought this week is the power of the Restoration. No
matter how many times I teach and study the Restoration of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ I learn something new or have a different spiritual
moment. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and he blesses
us with families to learn and grow in the gospel. He blesses us with
prophets to lead and guide us. They communicate with our Heavenly
Father to know what we need to do to return to live with our Heavenly
Father. I know that through the Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ's church
was restored to the earth. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the
blessings that it has brought to my life. I love you all! Hope you
have a great week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Week 33

AREA: Benson, AZ
COMPANION: Elder Rasmussen  

Monday: Today we just hung out at the Garner's and it was pretty
awesome in my opinion. I really enjoy sitting around the house and
just relaxing...
Tuesday: This morning we did our normal morning routine. We were
supposed to have a lesson with Toni today but she was not having a
very good day health wise with the cancer and everything. All of our
backup plans fell through too and we ended up going to the Dover's to
pick up my suit. I had a hole in the butt so she fixed it for me. We
had lunch, gave a sister in our district a blessing, went to the
Browns for a lesson, ate dinner, went to the Sigley's which went
alright... The kids were crazy as usual but I feel like they still got
something out of the lesson. We then went to our lesson with Kristina
which was really good, planned something and ended up talking about
the Plan of Salvation.
Wednesday: This morning I did a lot of studies... Lately I really have
been enjoying my studies. We didn't have district meeting today
because we have the Restoration Challenge follow up meeting tomorrow.
Could have done better at teaching it everyday then we did. After
studies we went and saw some of the less actives on this list we have.
We saw the Seeds, and the Rogers. The Rogers are pretty cool, brother
Rogers is the assistant principal of the school in benson and is
helping us with some of the kids were working with.
Thursday: This morning was the Restoration Challenge follow up meeting
which went well. Learned some good things about the power of the
restoration in conversion. After the meeting we got lunch, got NEW
tires on the truck which was much needed, got canceled on by our
investigator Jonathan. Went back to the house to wait for dinner to
get dropped off, and then went on my first member splits of the
mission. It was pretty cool... I went Brother Garner. The son of the
members I live with. Elder Rasmussen went with the ward mission leader
and saw Kristina. I saw Jose which was pretty good, we taught the
restoration which went really well. After the lesson we went back to
his house to wait for Brother Stanley and Ras.
Friday: Today we did studies, and then weekly planned pretty much all
day. Really good planning session today, pretty boring April fools
day. For lunch we did go and get Taco Bell with Aaron which was nice.
He doesn't get out of the house a whole lot so it was nice to bring
him out. Dinner was great! The members we had dinner with had two
non-members and we had the chance to go over the atonement and teach a
quick 2 min restoration. Don't know if they got anything from it...
But I feel like it went well. Hope there was a seed planted.
Saturday: Conference was today which was pretty good. I have a hard
time getting a lot out of watching conference... I always practically
pass out. So I'm going to have to read the talks when they come out.
In between sessions we helped Steve work on his semi truck which was
fun. Watched the second session, went to priesthood, and then got
transfer calls! I will be getting transferred to Central Tucson in the
Ghetto! Was not expecting to get transferred so soon but I'm excited
to go to the Ghetto. I heard that you teach a lot of people which is
super cool:) it will be a lot more different then this area and my
previous area but should be a lot of fun:)
Sunday: Sunday was pretty good, this morning a member invited us to
have breakfast with them and then watch conference. After watching
conference I went to Kristina and Richard, and Richie's to say
goodbye:'( gunna miss them so much. Moving on to bigger and better
things. Went home and watched conference with the Garner's, and then
packed for the rest of the night. That was a blast... I love...
packing. Not... Probably my least favorite part about transfering. Ill
be companions with a Elder Kapele who is pretty cool, he was in my
last district when I was in Catalina.
This week I have built a stronger testimony of scripture study.
Studying the scriptures whether it be the Bible, Book of Mormon, or a
something from the Ensign, Daily scripture study is one of the most
important things you can do that day. With me being on a mission I am
able to study the scriptures for multiple hours a day. A lot of people
don't have that time. It is still important to specifically set time
aside to sit down, say a prayer, and study the scriptures. In 2 Nephi
32:3 it says
"Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak
the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words
of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things
what ye should do."
We will receive answers to our prayers and many more blessings if we
study the scriptures daily. I have seen how daily scripture has
blessed my life and the lives of those around me. I love you all! Have
a great week!
Love,
Elder Smith

Saying goodbye to Richard, Kristina, and Richie

Richie in a box

Steve's semi

Saying goodbye to Sandy and Al

Saying goodbye to Bro Barney

Saying goodbye to Steve and Dona

Saying goodbye to the Sigleys