COMPANION: Elder Blacker
Family & Friends,
Monday: Today was my first pday in my new area. Not the pday that I am
used to for sure. Our schedule did not go at all as planned. Next week
should be better though now that I know what to be aware of and what
to prepare for. Even though I'm not in Central Ward anymore, we still
are close enough to Roy's to do laundry there. Next week we are going
to try and find someone else's home to do laundry at so we dont have
to drive as far. We have about 2300 miles on our car so we are fine
with miles... just takes up 20 minutes of our time to get there.
Tuesday: This morning around 8 we had our carpets cleaned by a member
in my last wards company. They did a really good job and feel like I
can lay face down on my carpet and sleep on it if I wanted. After the
carpet guy left we started our studies before leaving for food bank.
It was a pretty good day at food bank today, we prepped a bunch of
pallets of food for the line. After food bank a Spanish senior
missionary couple invited us over for lunch and Sister Jones made some
really good Mexican soup. Spent some time there talking and getting to
know them better before we had to leave for an appointment with Will
which ended up canceling because he had to vote which is good. Went to
the Bagley's after that and spent some time talking with them. Spent
the rest of the time organizing the areabook to see where we are at...
says that we have a total of 14 investigators although only 1 of them
has been taught in the last month. Unorganized missionaries stress me
out:/ because then other missionaries have to come in after them and
organize it all.... super fun.
Wednesday: Today was pretty fun, this morning was pretty normal. After
lunch we met up with a member who's responsibility is to clean up the
ward lists in the stake by contacting all of them. By doing this he
has made the list a lot smaller and more accurate. Said that in our
ward alone, after going through the list he removed 180 families
because they had moved to a different area. Anyway... he needed some
4x4 (our truck) to visit some of the people on the list who lived out
on the Indian reservation. Took us about an hour to drive all the way
out there and we met up with one of the local members and went on
splits. Only got to visit a few people but it was pretty cool. Super
cool that I get to serve on an Indian reservation. We are trying to
get enough people on the reservation to go to church so they can start
a branch because there is only a group that meets twice a month there
for sacrament and other than that they have to drive the hour north to
Tucson. Pretty fun day overall and had some good experiences.
Thursday: Had zone conference today. Literally was in a meeting from
10-3... and stayed and waiting for people we were giving a ride home
till about 4. The conference was really good, there was a variety of
topics that they talked about. The one that stuck out to me the most
was Mission Presidents discussion on obedience and how it is important
to strive to be as obedient as we can in all the small and simple
things that we are invited to do. After the conference we went home to
change and then went straight to dinner. We then rushed over to our
appointment with Mercury, a new investigator, which went really well.
We discussed how through Christ we can be forgiven repetitively. He
was excited and had a strong desire to come closer to Christ. We
extended a baptismal date for the 17th of December and he accepted.
Friday: This morning we had an apartment inspection and passed:) glad
my cleaning payed off in more ways than one. After that we spent some
time doing our normal Friday things and then had an appointment with
Kim. Taught about having thanksgiving daily. Even though we may have
trials, look for the things to be thankful for in those trials. Had
dinner with an awesome family after that, went to a members to drop
off some pants to get repaired, and then went home for the night.
Saturday: Today was pretty good, spent a lot of the day organizing our
area book. I wonder if others lack of organization skills affects
future missionaries that are in the area. We had a total of 14
referrals... After organizing it we have 3. Most of them were super
old and others were just not contacted. We had dinner with Henry who
is a returning member who is a really great guy and is very motivated
to help us with the work. He is a great example of member missionary
work and how it should be. He has a strong desire to bring his friends
to the church and is using us to help that happen.
Sunday: This morning we had ward council which went really well. I was
pretty much solo all day though which was different. Elder Blacker
went down for sacrament meeting at the Reservation and then I went to
Midvale ward. Ward council was fantastic, I was able to get a bunch of
names of people we can visit next week. Mercury came to church which
was awesome! He was very involved and was not afraid to give input.
After church we got back together and went to dinner at the ward
mission leaders house. They cook a very interesting meal... it was
Japanese and had a lot of different kinds of mushrooms in it. It was
still very good though.
Recently in my studies I have been reading alot about the wars that
were going on and in these chapters I love how it always talks about
how young the stripling warriors were and how they were righteous and
firm in their faith. A lot of the time I feel that a lot of the youth
in the church feel that it is okay to wait till they are older to
start really applying the gospel. Believe me that is not worth it at
all... I spent most of my life doing my own thing and it was not worth
it. I learned a lot from my past, but I also know that if I would have
chosen to apply the gospel then, like the stripling warriors, I would
have been protected and stayed strong for whatever may come at me. I
love this gospel and I know that it can strengthen us and help us to
conquer anything that comes at us.
I love you all! Have a great week:)
Love,
Elder Smith
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| Tall people problems... |
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| Just hanging out |
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| My side of the room in the apartment |
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| Study room |
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| Daily planning |
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