Week 78

AREA: Tucson—Midvale

COMPANION: Elder Bradfield

Friends & Family,

Monday: Pretty much a normal P-day. We are still trying to figure
things out so we have enough time to do things but we will figure it
out eventually. Big reason we didnt have a whole lot of time this
morning was because Elder Bradfield needed to print some pictures off
at Walmart and getting the pictures off his iPad was not the most
simple thing ever. The rest of the evening we kinda just chilled and
had dinner with some members.

Tuesday: This morning we got ready thinking we would just be going to
foodbank, although we forgot they do inventory the first Tuesday of
the month so we pretty much just turned around and went home. We
changed into our work clothes and headed out to see Sister Cole. She
seems to be doing great which is very good. Along with that we tried
to go and visit some people in the Ward until we had to get going to
dinner. On the way to dinner we had a pretty awesome experience. We
were driving down the road, we were a little early to dinner and saw a
woman standing by the bus stop. I had a strong impression to stop and
talk to her... at first I ignored it and kept driving. After about a
mile down the road I decided I needed to turn around and talk to her.
We turned around, I told Elder Bradfield what I felt, and we talked to
her. Her name is Linda, she is a school teacher for special needs
children, she had met with missionaries in the past, gave her a copy
of the Book of Mormon with our card in it and invited her to read the
introduction and call us if she would like to learn more. Nothing yet,
but it was a great experience to follow through with a prompting like
that. After dinner we had a great lesson with Crystal and talked with
her about the Word of Wisdom, what it is, and why it's important for
us to live it.

Wednesday: Super busy day! This morning the senior missionary couple
that lives in our complex met someone that is english that lives in
our complex and wanted to introduce us to them. We went over there and
they weren't home. We then went over to Brother Collingwood's to help
out with his renovations in his house. Ended up staying there for
awhile putting in door ways, floor, and taking out some drywall. That
was pretty fun and learned some new things. After his place we rushed
over to our lesson with Faith which went really well. We committed her
to work towards getting baptized next month on the 25th. Hopefully she
actually works for that day. We will see though. We then rushed over
to dinner at Olive Garden with a sister in the ward. Met up with the
Valencia ward missionaries for exchanges, I was with Elder Ludlow.

Thursday: Exchanges went really well. Pretty much did service all day!
Started off working on a deck and towards the end of our exchange we
were trying to contact some people. Felt like we were driving around
practically all day.

Friday: Had our zone conference today which went really well. Tried to
get as much as I could out of it although for some reason I was having
a hard time focusing. Still got a lot out of it though which I will
talk about at the end of my email. After zone conference, on the way
home we visited Henry who we hadn't seen in a while. Scheduled an
appointment with him and we look forward to meeting again. After them
we hurried home to change, had a quick lesson with Crystal on the Law
of Chastity, and then went to diner. Dinner was great! It was with the
Dedmans who is an awesome family that is new in the ward.

Saturday: Did service at the Lujan's place which was really fun. It
was super slow and tedious work but it was still a lot of fun. We
started by putting some insulation in the ceiling, putting up some
walls. They were red wood boards which was pretty nice. What took so
long is he had to cut them to size, we would nail them in, and repeat.
After their place we drove home, changed, rushed over to Brother
Collingwood for a quick dinner, and then drove out to Sells for a
bonfire that turned into a family home evening practically because
nobody showed up except the family who's house we were at. That was
somewhat disappointing.

Sunday: Awesome sabbath!! Crystal is awesome at church! Her eyes are
practically glued to the people speaking. She has now been sober a
little over 2 weeks which is an amazing improvement from where she was
at. Previous to meeting with us she said 4 years previous to that she
had spent $80,000 on drugs... just so you get a bit of a perspective
of where she is at now compared to what she was. After church we went
over to Gary's for lunch, had a great discussion on conversion, and
then checked out some of his soaps. He has so much soap and it is soo
awesome! This time I got some new scents. If anyone would like some, I
would be happy to set you up with his info so you can purchase some;)
haha

Zone Conference was awesome and Sister Passey gave a great training on
the Word of Wisdom and a different way of looking at it. A lot of the
time missionaries tend to focus on the physical blessings of keeping
the word of wisdom and we try to bribe the people we are teaching into
following it. By putting so much emphasis on the physical blessings,
it takes away from the actual reason why its there for us. She shared
a story that I believe was shared in a general conference, it was
about a little girl that did not want to listen to her mother and wear
her seatbelt. The mother tried different methods of trying to get her
daughter to wear it. Saying things like "put it on and ill give you a
treat, put it on or youre going to get hurt, etc." all of which were
methods of threat or reward. It wasn't till the mom says "Please put
your seat belt on, I love you, I care about you, and I dont want you
to get hurt." We are given the Word of Wisdom or even commandments in
general because our Heavenly Father LOVES us more than we can
comprehend. Just like how we would want the ones we love to wear their
seatbelt while driving in the car. I love you all!! Try to be
obedient:) the gospel/commandments are there for a reason:) Have a
great week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Saying goodbye to Blacker

At the fair with Bradfield

Zone picture

First day with Bradfield