Week 100

AREA: Safford, AZ

COMPANION: Elder Maloy

Friends and Family,

Monday: Nothing too special

Tuesday: It was transfers today and nothing is changing with us so we
didn't have much to do with that. Went to food bank to volunteer and
they had a bunch of food there that we were able to take home. After
that we brought some Elders that are on bikes to Walmart to shop. We
had a lesson with Dana which was nice. Talked about scripture study
and how to do that. Luckily we went to the church instead of her
house. Her house smells like cats so bad! We then had a lesson with
the Williams and that is about it.

Wednesday: Volunteered for a community food bank drive this morning
which was fun. A lot of people come by and get food donated by the
community food bank in Tucson. Threw off our schedule a lot though
which was annoying. Had to rush to zone break out super fast and then
district meeting which went well. Had a bunch of good lessons and then
that was about it.

Thursday: Had a lot of appointments cancel today which sucked. Had
back up plans though which worked out well. Tried to reach out to a
lot of less active members.

Friday: Weekly planned today and it went very well. We have all our
lessons for next week planned out and everything!

Saturday: This morning was alright... had service at a members in
another persons area and ended up getting on their roof to fix their
swamp cooler and clean out their gutters. Everyone else we were with
was raking up the junk all over the yard. Had some great visits with
some less actives and some great lessons as well. Derek got baptized
as well which was soo exciting! We started teaching him around the
time I came into the area. He moved once we finished the lessons
though so some other missionaries got him interviewed and then he got
dunked! What was super awesome was that I had told myself I wanted to
see at least one more person who I taught get baptized! Next thing I
hear, he is getting baptized! So proud of him. Dale, our neighbor came
to a less active lesson with us which went very well.

Sunday: Amazing Sunday... Not sure if any of you have been to church
and felt that the speakers were speaking specifically to you, but
thats what happened today. Very good speakers and the spirit was very
strong. I had been pondering on something things for some time and
their talks were exactly what I needed to hear. That was more in the
family ward. The Kimball YSA branch had amazing talks too!! They
invited people to speak on how to have a more meaningful sabbath day
observance. The people then practically indirectly called everyone out
for using their phones in sacrament meeting all the time. It is so bad
it has gotten to the point if investigators come to church, they
question why everyone is on their phones. Very happy about that. This
evening we had not accomplished our goal of hitting SOE's (standards
of excellence) which is just number stuff.... we were determined to
find two new investigators but unfortunately no luck. We felt their
had been some miracles that happened that night, we just weren't meant
to be their for them.

I have a testimony that God knows us better than we know ourselves.
When we pray, we may not always agree with what our answers are but we
must act on the answers we do receive.

"...prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it
profiteth him nothing." Mormon 7:6

I have seen the blessings of praying with real intent and how doing it
can help us to come closer to Christ. Following the will of the Father
is the best thing we can do in this life to be happy. I love my
Savior, I know He lives, and I know he loves me too.

Have a great week everyone! See you soon!

Love,

Elder Smith

Derek's baptism