Elder Ryan Smith's Mission Blog: Week 96

AREA: Safford, AZ

COMPANION: Elder Maloy

Friends and Family,

Monday: Typical pday... nothing too exciting happened.

Tuesday: Started working on "my plan" for going home. Recently the
church started giving missionaries going home a packet of things that
help prepare us for going home. A better title for it I feel like
though is "the trunky packet" It has not been that big of a
distraction... but it has also forced me to think about what home is
like haha kinda annoying. The rest of the day we pretty much did
regular missionary work, nothing too exciting.

Wednesday: Didn't have district meeting today so we went about doing
normal missionary work.

Thursday: Had an awesome opportunity to visit the Tucson Temple! It is
sooo beautiful! I wish I could go back again and I hope I can soon
with an investigator or something. We had to leave for Tucson super
early so we were pretty tired. On the way home we were able to stop by
and see Tyna which was fun. She is doing well it seems like, Hannah as
well. Wesson, the dog I found is doing well too. He recently went to
the vet and got "fixed" so he is wearing a cone. It was nice to be in
Tucson for a little bit... but I dont really miss it haha Tucson is
too hot haha.

Friday: Typical planning day... nothing very different from what the
days are usually like.

Saturday: On exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Duncan
for the day and he is a pretty cool guy. Spent the morning doing
service for a less actives in one of the neighboring wards. The rest
of the day we spent contacting people and doing studies. We did find
one new investigator which was awesome! His name is Arthur, he has one
leg and half a foot on the other. Super sad situation but a very
humble guy.

Sunday: Not a typical Sunday or Fathers Day. About two weeks ago there
was a lightning storm that caught the mountain on fire. They didn't
put any effort to put it out because they were stupid so now its
traveled across all of Mount Graham. Our neighbor Dale has a family
cabin up on the mountain that has been in their family since 1933 and
the fire people told them that they needed to evacuate. They closed
the mountain this morning at 6am and are no longer allowing civilians
up there. The cabins were in danger of burning down. Dale came over
that morning and told us about that so we offered to go up with him
and help. We got permission from the mission president because of the
circumstances allowed us to go and so we spent our day from 8:30-3
cutting down brush around the cabin and carrying towing it off
somewhere. The reason they do that is it could potentially save the
cabin from burning down if the fire were to pass through. Dale is the
certified water guy for the county too so I spent most of my time with
him helping him with the water lines and cleaning up the junk from
around the huge 65,000 gallon water tanks which provide water for the
mountain. Anyway... it was super exhausting but it was definitely a
great feeling to have the opportunity to help the community up there
in that way. We came back and showered to then go out and do regular
missionary work. Had a pass off lesson with an investigator named
Chuck who has a pretty crazy life it sounds like. Very humble and has
a desire to learn.

Spiritual thought:

The thought I would like to leave with you today is on missionary work
and the importance of working with the missionaries to invite your
friends to hear about the gospel. This past week we were in a meeting
with the ward missionaries and I said something that may have sounded
rude but as I explained it turned into making a lot of sense. I said
something a long the lines of inviting your friends to learn more
about the church should be like pushing someone into a pool. Hear me
out... the principle behind this is that we do not know who is and is
not ready for the gospel. The only person who does know is God. A lot
of the time we hold back on invitations to learn more about the church
because we believe our friends aren't ready and that we need to help
prepare them. What better way to see if they're prepared or not than
to send the missionaries over to their house to say hi?? There is an
example of this in the book called "the power of an everyday
missionary." I would encourage anyone who hasn't read it to read it!
If you want to be a missionary and give your friends an opportunity to
feel the happiness and joy that you have felt from the gospel read
it:) and invite the missionaries to go and
visit them, no matter which missionaries it may be. Love you guys!!
Have a great week!

"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every
creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish;
yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless
torment did cause them to quake and tremble."
-Mosiah 28:3

Love,

Elder Smith