Week 13

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

This past week has been really awesome! We hit zone SOE (standards of
excellence) which was pretty awesome.
        Starting out the week our p-days honestly get kinda lame... Its zone
sports every week. This week we were going to go on a hike but the
weather was not in our favor.
Tuesday we spent most of the morning helping a member move some
furniture from their house to there mother's house, who is not a
member. We spent a long time over there getting to know her a little
better and pretty soon we might be able to even start teaching her the
lessons which would be really cool. After helping out with that we met
with a less active member in our ward Debbie. She hasnt been able to
make it to church for one because nobody really knew where she was,
another member found out they lived down the street from them. So we
are in the process of getting her records transferred over. We talked
with her and gave a lesson on faith which was a really cool experience
even though it was cold out on her porch.

        Wednesday was our district meeting and it was actually really cool.
We talked about the importance of teaching people not lessons. We
brought up a lot of good points while discussing the subject and made
me want to strive to work harder at doing that. After district meeting
we went around meeting with previous investigators and had the
opportunity to meet with Karry Wolf. When we knocked on her door we
werent expecting much to happen but we had the opportunity to teach a
lesson to her at the door on faith. After the message we asked if we
would be able to come back sometime and share another message but she
said no. Even though she said no it was a pretty awesome experience
for me.

Thursday was a long day, we had the oil changed and tires rotated on
the truck. After all that we went over to Bea and Han's house to read
scriptures and Bea totally snapped and was like we arent going to do
this anymore unless Han's does something to participate. Hans is a
recent covert who as soon as he was baptized fell of the deep end
pretty much. After that conversation of what we were going to do he
agreed to take the new member lessons and participate.

Friday was pretty great as well. We had our new member lesson with
Han's which was between very bad or very good. He spent most of the
time talking about random stuff that didnt really have anything to do
with the lesson. Tyson Otuafi came to teach the lesson with us and we
went from teaching the restoration to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Went
well but not in the direction it was going to be going into at first.
I pray a lot for that man and hope that he will do something to help
his life before he passes away.

Saturday we met willie today, he was this cool homeless guy that
started talking to us outside of Elder Maughan and Swains place while
we were heading out. After talking to him for a bit we gave him a Book
of Mormon and he accepted it. There was also a phone number in it as
well in case he wanted to get a hold of us. We didnt really know he
was homeless at first until we talked to Maughan and Swain about it
first. Really funny guy and we enjoyed talking to him about stuff.
Apparently he gave billions to charity last week...  After that we had
service with Debbie Stamper but found out she locked herself out of
her apartment. We helped her in and while we were helping her she told
us all this crazy stuff that she said was happening to her. People
trying to kill her or break into her house... Me and Elder Young kinda
got freaked out by her and didnt really know what to think of her...
#crazy #secretcameraswatchingher #wedidntseeanything but whatever...
As long as we dont feel like our life is in danger we will keep
visiting her.

Sunday was the best!! Church was great! Dax our investigator came to
church and stayed for the first two hours. After church we had dinner
with the Dunnes and it was really awesome. The dinner message we gave
was from Alma 37:6-7 talking about the importance of small and simple
things. After the lesson Brother and Sister Dunne complimented us and
said that our message was an answer to there prayers which really made
me happy. After that we went over to the Barnes house were we picked
up two new investigators finally!! Aimee and her Son William who is 9.
We start teaching them on Tuesday and I couldnt be more excited.

Now, I wanna talk about the importance of a testimony, and having your
own testimony. Being on a mission you really have to depend on your
testimony and your faith to teach people. Everyday I feel like I hear
some kind of new anti literature. I know for a fact that if I didnt
have a testimony of this gospel, I would not be out her still. When I
hear some of this stuff I am nervous that it will shake my faith but I
remember the spiritual anchors I have and the knowledge of the truth I
have. This knowledge did not come in one night and its not suppose
too. Just like in Alma 32:26-27 we must exercise our faith for it to
grow. I know that applying these things into your life you will be
able to gain your testimony. There are alot of things in this religion
that we might not understand and maybe we arent meant to. But I know
that through sincere prayer and a little bit of faith you can grow a
testimony of whatever you desire to have a testimony in.

Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Smith

Week 12

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

Hello Everyone,

This past week had its up and downs but it was still a pretty good week.

Tuesday we had the opportunity and talk with Doris a recent convert in
the ward about possibly going to the temple and doing baptisms for the
dead. She would love to but she tells us that she can't because she
can't pay her tithing. She is currently in a bunch of debt and cant
afford to. We as missionaries tried to relate with her as much as we
could but tried to bare testimony of the importance of tithing. She
agreed with us and told us she would pray about what to do.... We did
later go back and she completely forgot about the conversation we had
which was funny but then we got to have the discussion again alittle.
haha After helping her out we trimmed some bushes for a lady who was
in her 90s. I love old people:) She was soo thankful for the help we
had done for her and it really made me happy inside that we could help
her out:)

Wednesday was my first zone conference where they talked about a bunch
of different topics having to do with being a better missionary. Super
long, boring, etc... But I did learn some stuff that I feel has
already been affecting my work.

Once again we were able to serve at the food bank where we helped
people load boxes of donated food to their car. It is really simple to
carry a box to a car but a lot of the people are still very
appreciative of the service done for them which puts a smile on my
face when I tell them to have a great day. The people that roll there
eyes and act like its no big deal theyre getting a free box of food...
I tell them to have a great day and smirk a smile in kinda haha Kinda
annoying but the nice people make it worth my time.

Saturday was awesome! We got a call this morning to go to the hospital
and give a blessing to a sister who was in the Hospital. She was in
the hospital because she is kinda crazy... Like shes in there and it
might not be a bad idea to stay in there for alittle kind of crazy...
But it was so amazing to feel the spirit as we gave her a blessing.
Later that day after the blessing we taught a less active family about
the commandments. Super awesome lesson and the spirit was super
strong. After our lesson was dinner with the Caspers. Super cool
because the members took a picture of us and texted my mom the
picture. My mom didnt get to respond before we left but I'm sure it
consisted of saying "I love you" love you too:) haha During dinner we
got a surprise call from Dax one of our newer investigators. He said
he would like us to come over after dinner for a lesson. After dinner
we gave him the most amazing lesson ever. This guy knows the gospel
already and he hasnt even studied it. He knows nothing about mormons
but basically told us the story of lehis dream of the tree of life.
Crazy experience and we hope to meet with him soon.

We did not have regular church this sunday. It was a stake conference
broadcast thing which was really awesome. After church we ate lunch
and did some work. After that we had dinner and then tried to go visit
some less active families. Since it gets dark at 5:30 here people
would answer the door in their pj's and say that they were in bed?? So
lame but whatever props for trying right.

This email I want to talk about Christ's love for us. Throughout my
day, I see a lot of different people. Skinny, fat, tall, short, ugly,
gorgeous, scary looking, etc... In Mosiah 3:19 it talks about how the
natural man is an enemy to God. When I see people that look a little
different than me the first thought that comes to my head is from the
natural man... After have that though... you know say a quick prayer
and repent haha. Then I think of something pretty awesome. Christ
loves them, just as much as he loves me. It's crazy to think the love
Christ has for us. Enough to suffer for all our sins... He didnt do
that for just a few people... The people that seem to have no problems
or anything. Being a missionary I am a representative of Jesus Christ
and if I didnt put an effort to try and love everyone I wouldnt be
doing such a great job of doing that. I guess my point of this all is
Love thy neighbor. Just because theyre not you doesnt make them any
less different in the eyes of God. I love you all very much and I hope
you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Smith

When you're expecting a package from mom but you weren't there to sign for it so you don't get it.......

Zone picture

Zone picture

My Halloween package came!

Gave another prayer rock away! This is Manny Otuafi, he just turned 12 and is about to be a deacon! Awesome!

Week 11

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

Sunday 10/25: Today was a long day... We started off the day with
breakfast, studies, and after that it went crazy. It was the primary
program today and we had a ton of investigators there. I believer a
total of 6 or more. There were also alot of non-members there as well
which was really cool. After the cute little kids sang their little
hearts out we talked some more and then had the opportunity to give a
blessing to someone. After the blessing we sat down and talked to her
for awhile. She has had a very difficult life and I am glad that we
were able to help her out.

I am so sorry everyone but I honestly cannot remember what we did this
week. Normally I would look at my journal and go day by day but I was
so busy I didnt have the chance to write in it. I will roughly cover
my week in a short paragraph.

This week we had some crazy experiences. We taught the plan of
salvation to our investigator Crystal. She is the one that was scared
to have us over because she kinda has some social anxiety and was
scared to meet with us at first. But we helped teach the plan of
salvation with the sister missionaries and it was amazing! The look on
her face and how it made sense to her was powerful not just to her but
to me. She has grown up all her life thinking it was womens fault for
everything wrong happening because Eve partook of the fruit first. Not
as something that was necessary to be done in order for us to be born.
Plus that there is only a heaven and a hell... Thats pretty sad as
well.

We also got to teach Martha again and let me tell you... she is one
weird lady. When someone tells you that they believe the church is
true and that she knows that this is the restored gospel but refuses
to get baptized and come to church doesnt make any sense to me... I
mean this lady after we were teaching the plan of salvation we asked
her to be baptized and she said I was already baptized and if my
baptism wasnt valid then I guess you can come visit me in the middle
kingdom... Messed up but were going to keep trying to teach her and
bring members over to help her out. She is an awesome lady... She just
doesnt want to change.

Otuafis are doing great. We didnt get to go see them very much this
week because Elder Young has been not feeling very well lately... most
likely because of allergies but we havnt been going over as often as
we used to to go lift and stuff. He is feeling better and we will be
going back to lifting this week.

Had a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a less active family
the Bartons. Just a husband and wife who are kinda older. The lesson
was fantastic and I feel it was the spirit that taught the lesson and
not actually us which was a really cool experience. Since being in the
Catlina Ward I have not once seen them at church. They always have
some crazy story of why they werent at church... I believe them
somewhat but still... Church is important to be at. They came this
Sunday!! super awesome.

Halloween was pretty great. That was the day we taught the Bartons.
Earlier in the day we just did normal missionary stuff... nothing
really amazing happened. After the lesson we went directly to the
Cherrington's house for dinner. Dinner was awesome and we ended up
staying there for the rest of the night before having to go home. We
had to be in before the sun went down which in Arizona is about
6:15ish... So we just chilled at there house and passed out some candy
to all the little kids.

Sunday Aimee came!! she was a potential investigator that lives with
the Barnes and finally came to church with one of her boys. Super
awesome and hopefully we will get to teach her the lessons soon:)

This week we have been giving a lesson from the Book of Mormon. We
read a couple scriptures from Alma 38:6-7 which talks about how
important the small and simple things are in order to reach something
as big as Salvation. Before my mission when I was in highschool... The
small and simple things were not my highest priority... I never read
my scriptures, I went to church but never really paid attention, went
to seminary but never really got alot out of it... Sorry Sister Larson
and Brother Doolie haha I loved getting to know you but seminary can
be challenging..., but you get what I mean. If I had done the small
and simple things I would have been way farther with my conversion to
this gospel. It wasnt till college when I recognized the importance of
the small things. Think of the small and simple things as legos...
each lego is one of those small and simple things. If you just have
one lego piece... its not going to do you much good and its going to
not be anything to great... But if you have a bunch of lego pieces, it
becomes something huge, complex, ridiculously insanely awesome... I
mean go to lego land. Just like the legos... the small and simple
things build up and become something as great as Salvation.
Everyone... I know that if you follow these teachings. Your life will
be blessed and you will have a greater understanding of the gospel.
And if you dont follow them... you will have a hard time gaining a
stronger testimony.

Love you all,

Elder Smith

Carving pumpkins with Elder Young.

$Young$ album cover.

Beautiful Tucson sky

Week 10

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

Sunday 10/18: Today's morning was pretty normal for a sunday. Woke up,
did studies, ate breakfast... etc. Then went to ward council. Ward
council was pretty good for the most part. We then went home for some
lunch quick. Today was Tyson's Otuafis homecoming talk. The power
behind the things he said blew me away. I heard that before the
mission Tyson was a bit of a rebel... getting into trouble and such.
He changed a lot in order to go on a mission and changed even more on
his mission in Mexico. He is now a changed man, he is obedient and is
filled with the spirit. His talk really inspired me to stay focused on
my mission. After church we had more meetings and then went to Tyson's
welcome home party. It was crazy awesome how many people showed up to
their house... about 100 people my guess.

Monday 10/19: Pday... nothing extremely special happened today... We
did team sports again at the stake center, I got to work on some
emailing... and I got a pair of basketball shoes ordered today since
my Nike Free's were completely falling apart after playing basketball
in them 5 times. I can still use them to run I just didnt worsen the
damage.

Tuesday 10/20: Busy day today... We did our normal thing in the
morning but after that we went through a big list of less actives in
our ward that Brother Butler gave to us to go through to see if they
would like home teachers. Alot of the places we went too were no
longer being lived in or they werent interested. There was one person
we stopped at who was home and invited us in for a second. We talked
alittle about the church and then we went on our way because he was
"tired". But he said we could stop by again to share a message with
him which is awesome.

Wednesday 10/21: Me and Elder Young had a busy day today... We had a
bunch of lessons for us. 4 lessons and 1 of those was a member present
lesson. Funny thing is that we werent actually at the lesson because
the investigator wants to be taught by sister missionaries... so we
get to take the credit for it haha Today at the gas station I gave out
a Book of Mormon! A younger guy was filling up his truck with gas and
I started to talk to him alittle, before he left I felt prompted to
ask if he would like a Book of Mormon & he accepted the book! which
was awesome. Hopefully he will contact me soon:) We also got pulled
over today which was super fun haha I wasnt driving thank goodness but
he was going 50 in a 35 construction zone. Luckly he didnt even get a
ticket haha crazy.

Thursday 10/22: Today we did our normal morning routine. Since Tyson
has been back the Otuafis have been alot better at reading scriptures
every morning which is awesome! Then we had ASL class which kinda
seems like a waste of time... but you learn alittle which is good.
After ASL we helped sister Hull move into her house. Then we went over
to Doris's to grab my sun glasses and ended up teaching her a lesson.
She is a recent convert who is kinda struggling with some things but
we are trying to answer whatever questions she has.

Friday 10/23:This morning we went on a 2 mile run which felt good and
then we went to the food bank. That was alittle messed up since we got
there and waited for the truck for 2 hours and then had to leave
before we really got to help a ton. After that we visited some people
to invite them to the Halloween party and then went to dinner and
volleyball which turns into basketball and I got to use my new
basketball shoes!

Saturday 10/24: Today was an amazing day!! This morning was the Make a
Difference service project where we did some work on this community
park which was fun. While there doing service I saw my first rattle
snake up close. I got to pick it up with a rake and move it to another
area so that it wouldnt bite anyone before the fire department came
and picked it up. After service we went home and did studies and then
carved pumpkins to decorate our truck for the trunk or treat. We then
went out with Sister Bartel and went through a less active sisters. We
got to talk and teach a lesson to one of the people and it seems like
she isnt coming to church because of physical problems with her back
and all. Really sad... We then went back home and got everything ready
for the trunk or treat. The trunk or treat was great!! we had a bunch
of non members there and investigators and really made some progress.

I want everyone to know that anything is possible... This week I have
been reading this new book and I LOVE IT!! Its called Member
Missionary Work and Finding the Elect of God. I love this book and it
explains things in ways that I could never have thought of. Anything
is possible with the Lord on your side. It compares the love of a
parent and their child with Heavenly Father and His children. Its
starts off with asking a father about why he doesnt want his children
to play in the street. The father explains "because I love them and I
care for their well being" and then he asks what would you do if your
children ignored what you told them to do and played in the street and
ended up getting hurt? and the father replied. " I would feel
terrible". Just like a father on earth, Heavenly Father is sad when we
do something wrong. He loves us and I know you love him. We as
Heavenly Father's children should not want to hurt Him. No we are not
perfect... But we can do anything we put our minds to and more if we
have the Lord on our side. I know this to be true. I love my Heavenly
Father and I want to be the best I can be. Yes I mess up but thats why
we have the Atonement to help us. We have the right to repent of our
sins so we can return to Heavenly Father again. Ive seen the Atonement
play a role in my life big time and I am so thankful for it.

Be the best of your ability.

Love,

Elder Smith

Trunk or treat with Hank, Elder Wall, Young, and Jacobs.

My pumpkin carving.

The flowers I send to Savannah every week. What they look like before they get smashed and dried up in the envelope, at least.

Week 9

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

My week:

Monday 12th: Pday again... Crazy to think how long I have already been
out on the mission. I have made it through my first transfer... Crazy
right?? I am still with Elder Young for the next 6 weeks... But I'm
sure they will go by really quick if I keep working hard. Today for
pday we did what we always do... Sports. Since it was columbus day and
its such a big holiday that all the government buildings close we
didnt email at the Library today. The rest of my day was pretty
normal... Dinner was at a park with a bunch of members cool but
nothing really unordinary.

Tuesday 13th:  Today we woke up and did our regular routine, after
that we went through a list of people who were less active to see if
they would be interested in coming back to church. Alot of the people
didnt end up being home but for the people who were home they were
pretty nice. One person hadn't been to church for awhile because they
were in England for 2 months and then hurt themselves on a hike but
her and her husband came to church after we stopped by so that was
great! Tonight was dinner with the Barnes family! They are so awesome!
we do alot of service for them and Rick always tells us cool stories.
After Dinner we went to the church to play basketball which was a
blast.

Wednesday 14th: Woke up and did our normal routine. We had district
meeting today which was great... not! haha we did get to meet all the
new greenies so I am officially not the youngest missionary anymore
haha But sadly since its a sister missionary she still goes home
before I do haha. Today we had a lesson with Dax scheduled for 3:00
but it canceled because he had something that happened. After all that
stuff we had dinner with the Madsen's. We had breakfast for dinner and
it was yummy. After dinner we got to try on all of Brother Madsen's
Mormon Batallion gear which was kinda fun.

Thursday 15th: Today was messed up... haha we had our Asl like usual
and after ASL we went to Ricks for some service. We also brought Elder
Jacobs and Wall to help out. Great time... kinda haha While we were
there we took down a piece of old wood fence and Rick told us to break
it down for him to throw away. Elder Young and Wall thought it would
be fun to punch the wooden fence and try to break the wood. In the
process of doing this Elder Young dislocated his knuckle. I mean after
4 attempts of trying to get it on video he finally got a good one
because he didnt have any facial expression of it hurting like no
other. hahaha really enjoyable to watch but really stupid in my
opinion. Elder Young hurt himself again while taking down a shed in
Ricks backyard. There was a post coming out of the middle of the
little shed so he decided he wanted to break it by throwing a cinder
block at it, the thing then bounced back and hit him right in his bad
knee. That looked painful. After service we did some mission work and
found out our dinner canceled so we ended up going to Olive Garden.
super good.

Friday 16th: Today we had the opportunity to help set up for the
Tucson Temple Groundbreaking. Right when you got there you could
really feel the spirit there. Something about those grounds you could
tell was special. After helping out at the ground breaking we went and
helped Rick again with something quick. Dax canceled again which is
too bad but we will be okay. Tonight we had the craziest dinner
ever... We had an investigator there which was great but the members
would not stop talking... we were there from 5:30-8:00... We told them
we had to leave and they still kept talking... No wonder this guy brad
has dropped us 3 times... :/ Great too invite people but give them a
choice to accept the invitation. Dont just assume they will love to
take the lessons from the missionaries.

Saturday 17th: This morning was great. We went to get a lift at the
Otuafis and Tyson answered the door. He is there son who had just
gotten back from his mission. We had never met him before. He was sooo
awesome, he got all his family up to read scriptures and his mom ended
up making us breakfast! Crazy thing is that we had a move at 8:00 and
we didnt get out of there till about 9:00 haha that messed up our
schedule a bit but the person understood and we got everything at the
move done. After the move we went to Manny's football game. He is the
Otuafi's youngest son who is 11 and we watched him kill this other
team. They had signed up for dinner that night so we went and at
dinner with them which was really fun.

Sunday 18th: I will talk about it next weeks email.

Idk if you remember Michael my old investigator that moved to Tennessee. But I found out about 3 days ago that he was found dead in his room on Wednesday in Tennessee. He had major anxiety and depression disorders and was really having a hard time with life. He committed suicide, the paramedics say he felt no pain when he died. His mom is on the left and his stepdad Hans isnt in the picture but even though he was a jerk he loved Michael. And cared about him and wishes he would have asked for more help. Luckily he had the chance to hear about the gospel and accept it while he was still on the earth... But never was baptized because he was still working on smoking. But I know he will accept the gospel in the spirit world. Please have his family (the kraus's) in your prayers... They really need it right now. 

Everyone reading these emails I hope is getting something out of them other than I'm having a good time. Please learn from my experiences. I know that I am out here for a purpose. I cannot wait to get my first baptism and see the change in someones life. I want everyone to know that this is the one and only true church. Through this religion we can be with our families for eternity, we can be cleansed from sin, and have the power of the priesthood in our lives. If you dont believe the things I am saying. Get on your knees and ask and you will get an answer. I know this because I have done it, I spent my whole life with this gospel right infront of me and never acted on it. I now wish I could have. I wish I could have been more like my little brother Kevin. He knows the gospel to be true and wants people to know. Love you all. Goodnight!

Love Elder Smith 

Michael's family.

Tracting role play.

Tracting role play.

Week 8

AREA: Northwest Zone, Tucson (Catalina, AZ)

COMPANION: Elder Young

Dear friends and family,

My week:

Monday 5th: P-Day was today... We didnt do anything really fun or
special which was kinda lame but it was still great and much needed.
First thing we did today was got a pump at the Otuafis as usual, went
the library where we kinda emailed. I spent most of the time trying to
figure out how to get my pictures from my gopro to my ipad which I
finally figured out which was great! After the library we went to zone
sports... I played alittle rugby but I mostly just talked with some
people and emailed some people on my ipad.

Tuesday 6th: Today we helped out Bea Kraus with some yard work at her
daughters house. Her daughter has some issues in her head and the
owner who she rents from is not very happy with the condition of the
yard. It WAS a total mess but is starting to look better with the hard
work of me and a few elders in our district. After helping her out
this morning we went home and did our studies and all. After finishing
that we tried to stop by Miranda our investigators house to see if she
was home but she was not. While driving around looking for something
to do we got a call from our vehicle coordinator saying we forgot to
turn in our gas receipts at the end of the month so we had to drive
all the way down to the mission office to drop them off. We went to
the Huss's for dinner tonight. They invited our investigator Rachel
Ramm who they are friends with to dinner and we had the opportunity to
teach her a lesson. Went great! We are starting to see progress in her
and she is finding right ways to answer her questions instead of
looking at anti mormon literature, she is looking on church websites
and praying about questions she has.

Wednesday 7th: Zone meeting... It was long, boring, and kinda stupid.
After zone meeting we had an appointment immediatly after it was over
so we missed lunch and got over there as fast as we could. The lesson
went alot better than expect being that she didnt want us to be there.
She is extremely shy and really wanted only the sister missionaries to
be there and teach the lesson. The sisters did come and teach the
lesson but we still had to be there since she was in our area. The
lesson the sisters gave was on the Book of Mormon and I feel like she
really enjoyed the lesson and is really serious about investigating
the church. After the lesson we got some food asap because we were
starving and then went to Bea's to read scriptures. Today Young got a
call saying he had a package at the Mission office that he had to pick
up so we stopped by there on the way to dinner. The package was pretty
awesome. It had a bunch of NBA stuff from his cousin, plus a classic
shaving cream kit, he didnt want that so he gave it to me so that was
awesome.

Thursday 8th: Today was my first exchange with Elder Wall and Jacobs.
I went with Jacobs and we had a pretty good time together. We both had
the opportunity to vent alittle about our comps issues haha Together
we got alot of work done, we did studies, went to asl class, chipotle
for lunch where I ate a burrito that I added up the calaries and it
was 2000 calories... kinda explains how ive gained almost 20lbs my
first transfer... haha Gotta take advantage of all these calories and
start lifting hard core so I can turn some of the fat into muscle.
After our exchange we were supposed to go on another exchange with
Mogne and Paxman but didnt end up doing it because it was too late.
I'm glad that I packed all my stuff up for nothing.

Friday 9th: Weekly planning... Thats mostly what we did all day but
after that we went to the chandlers house to help move some furniture
over to Brother Chandlers mom's house. His mom is not a member and we
ended up eating at her new house and taught her a lesson. Things might
start with her but we will see, she seemed kinda intersted in it.
After dinner we went to the church for volleyball but nobody ended up
showing up except four sets of Elders. We ended up playing a game of 4
on 4 to 100 points and my team actually won which was a big surprise.
There team seemed like they were better than ours but I mean its cool
that we won.

Saturday 10th: Productive day... So on our area book app we have a
huge list of potential investigators that were on the list when we got
there so we decided to try to figure out who these people were. We
tried to drive to all the houses but only made it to about half and
met a lot of the people. None of them were interested in meeting with
us but its the invitation that counts. On the way to one of the
peoples house we were at a stop light and the guy in the car had his
window down so I decided I would as him if he wanted a copy of the
Book of Mormon. I rolled down my window and asked him... He said no
thank you but I asked! It was awesome! We did get into one
investigators house Martha who has been meeting with the missionaries
for year but has not been baptized. When we got to her house we didnt
have alot of time to talk with her because she had to leave soon but
last time we met with her we invited her to read 3 nephi 11 which is
when Christ comes to the America's and we also asked her to pray about
it to know if it was true. She did it! and she said she knew it was
true, and I really felt the spirit when she said that and she wasnt
just saying it to make us happy. Next time we are going over we are
going to try and bring Bill Smith with us who is a recent convert who
used to be an Elder in a Prespaterian church. She is having a hard
time with understanding the proper priesthood authority with baptism
so were hoping his testimony will help influence her to get baptized.
After Martha we had a new member lesson with Kim Pierce. Went well, we
taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was awesome.

Sunday 11th:  Studies, Church, Dinner, and then went to the church to
imput some area book. After all that we went home to bed. But at
church today a member who joined the church about a year and a half
ago told us an amazing thing that he did. Him and his wife were at
Mcdonalds and while he was there he noticed a young man reading a book
and seemed to be enjoying it alot. So after he was done eating him and
his wife were walking to the car when he decided he needed to give him
a Book of Mormon. So he went to his truck where he had just put the
Book of Mormons because he felt a prompting to do so before he left
his house! and went inside and gave him the Book of Mormon and talk to
him about it. The kid said he had seen that book before and really was
wanting to read it but never had the chance. So he gave him his number
and said call if you have any questions... and if you really want I
can set you up with some missionaries! Rick is a perfect example of
what the members of this church should be doing. He KNOWS this is the
true church and he is like Abish in Alma 19:16-17 and wants to make it
known unto the people. He want the world to understand the great joy
and peace the restored Gospel has done for him.

Thank you to everyone is reading my emails I know there long but I
love sharing my experiences with you all. My testimony these past 8
weeks has grown so much I can't even believe its possible. The more I
read and STUDY my scriptures. The greater my knowledge of this
restored is and the stronger my belief in it grows. The Book of Mormon
is the key to all of it. I love the Book of Mormon so much and I am so
thankful that Joseph Smith translated the Golden Plates so we could
have it. Joseph Smith I know did take the challenge in James 1:5... He
asked God and got an answer that there was no true church on the earth
at that time... and there NEEDED to be a restoration.

Love,

Elder Smith

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"Stuff from Elder Young's box"