Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Challenges and Change
Hey Family,
This week we spent a lot of time with one of our investigators and it has just been quite a story filled week. I think most notably was last night when we went to go visit her, as soon as we got there she was turning on her water to water the Garden and then noticed that two plants weren't getting any water, so she grabbed that hose and unbeknownst to her she had pointed the nozzle straight at my face and then she squeezed the handle to find that she had sprayed me square in the face. I had been kind of grumpy yesterday, for some reason, so It was a good moment to just laugh and I think it was Heavenly Father telling me to change my attitude! She was pretty proud of herself for being able to not get any of my clothes wet and still get to spray me. After that we ate some sandwiches with her and had a lesson about Faith.
She has some pretty big road blocks in her way to get baptized so we are really praying for a way for it to happen, She seems to want to be baptized, but is afraid of what it will mean for her family and what she will have to do to change to a different lifestyle. We had been watching or talking about stories where people have sacrificed so much to keep the commandments or follow the Prophet and she would always exclaim that these people were idiots or that it didnt make any sense for someone to do something like that, such as Abraham being willing to sacrifice Issac, the pioneers moving west, Joseph Smith and Hyrum being martyrs, and just lots of other examples. After thinking about all of these different stories I put myself in her situation and these other people. I realized that I have been able to live in a place and home where the decisions to keep the commandments has been easy. My decision to serve a mission was easy. I had not really had to face anything, compared to these other people, and had not even faced as hard of a trial as we were asking this investigator to go through in order to be baptized. It was pretty shocking and made me very grateful for the numerous blessings in my life. I was raised like Nephi with "goodly parents" unlike Nephi I even had loving siblings who never criticized my desire to serve my God but instead encouraged me and helped me. I just pray that if I ever get into a situation where my faith is tested more, that I will have the strength to follow through. And I applaud and revere those that have gone through struggles and still kept their faith intact.
Love,
This week we spent a lot of time with one of our investigators and it has just been quite a story filled week. I think most notably was last night when we went to go visit her, as soon as we got there she was turning on her water to water the Garden and then noticed that two plants weren't getting any water, so she grabbed that hose and unbeknownst to her she had pointed the nozzle straight at my face and then she squeezed the handle to find that she had sprayed me square in the face. I had been kind of grumpy yesterday, for some reason, so It was a good moment to just laugh and I think it was Heavenly Father telling me to change my attitude! She was pretty proud of herself for being able to not get any of my clothes wet and still get to spray me. After that we ate some sandwiches with her and had a lesson about Faith.
She has some pretty big road blocks in her way to get baptized so we are really praying for a way for it to happen, She seems to want to be baptized, but is afraid of what it will mean for her family and what she will have to do to change to a different lifestyle. We had been watching or talking about stories where people have sacrificed so much to keep the commandments or follow the Prophet and she would always exclaim that these people were idiots or that it didnt make any sense for someone to do something like that, such as Abraham being willing to sacrifice Issac, the pioneers moving west, Joseph Smith and Hyrum being martyrs, and just lots of other examples. After thinking about all of these different stories I put myself in her situation and these other people. I realized that I have been able to live in a place and home where the decisions to keep the commandments has been easy. My decision to serve a mission was easy. I had not really had to face anything, compared to these other people, and had not even faced as hard of a trial as we were asking this investigator to go through in order to be baptized. It was pretty shocking and made me very grateful for the numerous blessings in my life. I was raised like Nephi with "goodly parents" unlike Nephi I even had loving siblings who never criticized my desire to serve my God but instead encouraged me and helped me. I just pray that if I ever get into a situation where my faith is tested more, that I will have the strength to follow through. And I applaud and revere those that have gone through struggles and still kept their faith intact.
Love,
Elder Smith
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
This week we spent a lot of time with our investigator Mary. We did service for her on Tuesday and Im pretty sure we saw her everyday since then. She came to a baptism which she said she really enjoyed and she likes to call us her sons. She says she is our mom away from mom. She has been feeding us regularly and is just a really funny lady. I'll have to get my picture with her and send it sometime. We have invited her to be baptized but she can't decide if she wants to join. She has pretty much let it be known that she believes everything we teach her she just doesn't know if her husband will accept the things we have taught her and she doesn't want to have to follow all of the "rules" haha but honestly she would be a great asset to the ward and she already has given away about 4 Books of Mormon and has got 2 people interested in coming to church. We are planning on teaching her neighbor and the thing that has gotten Mary excited the most is doing her family history and getting their temple work done. So, I have been really grateful I have been spending so much time doing family history and figuring everything out on familysearch.
This week we spent a lot of time with our investigator Mary. We did service for her on Tuesday and Im pretty sure we saw her everyday since then. She came to a baptism which she said she really enjoyed and she likes to call us her sons. She says she is our mom away from mom. She has been feeding us regularly and is just a really funny lady. I'll have to get my picture with her and send it sometime. We have invited her to be baptized but she can't decide if she wants to join. She has pretty much let it be known that she believes everything we teach her she just doesn't know if her husband will accept the things we have taught her and she doesn't want to have to follow all of the "rules" haha but honestly she would be a great asset to the ward and she already has given away about 4 Books of Mormon and has got 2 people interested in coming to church. We are planning on teaching her neighbor and the thing that has gotten Mary excited the most is doing her family history and getting their temple work done. So, I have been really grateful I have been spending so much time doing family history and figuring everything out on familysearch.
We had zone conference this week and President Wall taught us a lot. He talked to us about vicarious blessings and that its a law in the Gospel, where the effort of one can give blessings for others. He used examples such as Christ providing the atonement, missionaries blessing their families, companions blessing companions when one is obedient and the other isn't. (he explained that our personal obedience is enough for the both of us and God will still trust us with people to teach) It was pretty awesome. It was a great week and I love teaching people about the restored gospel, because everytime I testify to others the spirit will confirm to me the things that I say and there is nothing sweeter than the witness from the Holy Ghost!
Love Elder Smith
Love Elder Smith
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Dear Ya'll
Last Thursday we visited a few less actives and then got a text from one of our investigators about doing service for her in the next couple of days. It should be a good time doing service for her because as far as teaching the lessons to her she has been a bit stubborn and after service she usually is more open to what we teach. On Friday we ended up doing service for her, planting a little garden on the side of her house. She planted peppers that she wants to make salsa out of, so Im glad that its going to take a while to grow because I don't know If I would be able to handle so much heat :-)) Saturday, we went to Brother Huttons house, to dig a ditch, to tie the sewer line into a shed, he has in the back of his house. I was thinking that it was going to take a day to dig but thankfully the soil here is much easier to dig compared to what it is like back west. No rocks, or hard clay, just lots of brown squishy soil. So, we got everything finished in about an hour. Sunday was a pretty crazy day. It has been getting much warmer so riding to the church has been unpleasant to say the least. But, at church, we were surprised to have one of our investigators come that we had been doing the garden for and also Anthony received the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained to the office of a Priest! He is going to start working on getting his patriarchal blessing soon and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can go to the temple with him to do some baptisms. Umm, we had a visitor at church from Russia which was exciting :) and then a few hours later we were told that someone had just moved into our area who had been born in Russia So, just a lot of Russia the past few days it seems. Sunday night we got a text from Randy Sessum (less active) telling us he was in the hospital and would like a blessing. He is worried that he might have cancer, so we are praying that he doesn't. It made me realize that there are other reasons we see these people and it might not be for what we think. Im sure that this trial he is facing right now will put some increased direction and focus to his life.
This week in my studies of Preach My Gospel I learned about the importance of Covenants and that as a missionary I need to focus on leading people to make and keep covenants. Whether that be members appreciating the sacrament and their baptism covenants or investigators entering the waters of baptism and beginning that new journey. I am so glad that I have been able to make covenants with my Heavenly Father and that I have the promise that as long as I do what I'm promised he will grant me Eternal life with him! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week because I have!
Love Elder Smith
Last Thursday we visited a few less actives and then got a text from one of our investigators about doing service for her in the next couple of days. It should be a good time doing service for her because as far as teaching the lessons to her she has been a bit stubborn and after service she usually is more open to what we teach. On Friday we ended up doing service for her, planting a little garden on the side of her house. She planted peppers that she wants to make salsa out of, so Im glad that its going to take a while to grow because I don't know If I would be able to handle so much heat :-)) Saturday, we went to Brother Huttons house, to dig a ditch, to tie the sewer line into a shed, he has in the back of his house. I was thinking that it was going to take a day to dig but thankfully the soil here is much easier to dig compared to what it is like back west. No rocks, or hard clay, just lots of brown squishy soil. So, we got everything finished in about an hour. Sunday was a pretty crazy day. It has been getting much warmer so riding to the church has been unpleasant to say the least. But, at church, we were surprised to have one of our investigators come that we had been doing the garden for and also Anthony received the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained to the office of a Priest! He is going to start working on getting his patriarchal blessing soon and hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can go to the temple with him to do some baptisms. Umm, we had a visitor at church from Russia which was exciting :) and then a few hours later we were told that someone had just moved into our area who had been born in Russia So, just a lot of Russia the past few days it seems. Sunday night we got a text from Randy Sessum (less active) telling us he was in the hospital and would like a blessing. He is worried that he might have cancer, so we are praying that he doesn't. It made me realize that there are other reasons we see these people and it might not be for what we think. Im sure that this trial he is facing right now will put some increased direction and focus to his life.
This week in my studies of Preach My Gospel I learned about the importance of Covenants and that as a missionary I need to focus on leading people to make and keep covenants. Whether that be members appreciating the sacrament and their baptism covenants or investigators entering the waters of baptism and beginning that new journey. I am so glad that I have been able to make covenants with my Heavenly Father and that I have the promise that as long as I do what I'm promised he will grant me Eternal life with him! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week because I have!
Love Elder Smith
Monday, April 21, 2014
New companion to train and a Challenge for us
Hey Family,
First off, on Tuesday we went down to the French Market. Wednesday we headed to Baton Rouge for transfers which was pretty fun especially since I was able to see a bunch of missionaries that I knew and got to see where they were going and what they had been up to. Elder Abbott my old companion was put in La Place so he isn't far away at all and serves with Elder White, so everybody from our MTC district have served with someone else in the district. I have never heard of that, but think its pretty cool. My new companion was Elder Mills. We spent the rest of the night getting stuff he needed and had dinner with some members at Subway. Thursday, we had to go to the bike shop to get some pieces that Elder Mills needed for his bike. When he had it shipped here it was missing some parts. We had a few lessons with some investigators which went well. Friday we did about the same thing and same with Saturday. We met with Mary who has a hard time accepting anything we say and I mean ANYTHING but I just think she does it to bother us. She is super nice and we have been helping her out with some things around her house. The other people we saw were the Conforto brothers. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they seemed to like but Are pretty wary of accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. We have talked to them about baptism, and now they both have realized they need to be baptized but have said they will probably do it in their church. So, we will be teaching about Priesthood a lot more. Umm Sunday was pretty fun. Two families invited us over for dinner and one of them was a crawfish boil! Wooo it was pretty awesome and definitely was one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten. Im glad I didn't have any sores in my mouth or chapped lips because they said its almost impossible to eat crawfish if you do!! So, plan on eating some spicy crawfish when that time comes! Today we are just going to go to the church to play some games with the district. It should be another good week coming up and I'm excited to see some new things happen in Kenner!
Love Elder Smith
PS "Brothers and sisters, can you imagine the impact if family and friends included what they are learning from their personal study of Preach My Gospel in their letters and emails to their full-time missionaries? Can you picture the blessings that will come to families when they know and understand better what their sons and daughters will be studying and teaching on their missions? Can you even begin to fathom the extraordinary outpouring of atoning grace that will be ours, individually and collectively, according to the Savior’s promise to all who bear testimony in the process of inviting souls to come unto Him—and then following up on those invitations?"
Elder Ballard
SO SHARE PMG STUDIES WITH ME PLEASE!!
Love Ya'll
First off, on Tuesday we went down to the French Market. Wednesday we headed to Baton Rouge for transfers which was pretty fun especially since I was able to see a bunch of missionaries that I knew and got to see where they were going and what they had been up to. Elder Abbott my old companion was put in La Place so he isn't far away at all and serves with Elder White, so everybody from our MTC district have served with someone else in the district. I have never heard of that, but think its pretty cool. My new companion was Elder Mills. We spent the rest of the night getting stuff he needed and had dinner with some members at Subway. Thursday, we had to go to the bike shop to get some pieces that Elder Mills needed for his bike. When he had it shipped here it was missing some parts. We had a few lessons with some investigators which went well. Friday we did about the same thing and same with Saturday. We met with Mary who has a hard time accepting anything we say and I mean ANYTHING but I just think she does it to bother us. She is super nice and we have been helping her out with some things around her house. The other people we saw were the Conforto brothers. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they seemed to like but Are pretty wary of accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet. We have talked to them about baptism, and now they both have realized they need to be baptized but have said they will probably do it in their church. So, we will be teaching about Priesthood a lot more. Umm Sunday was pretty fun. Two families invited us over for dinner and one of them was a crawfish boil! Wooo it was pretty awesome and definitely was one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten. Im glad I didn't have any sores in my mouth or chapped lips because they said its almost impossible to eat crawfish if you do!! So, plan on eating some spicy crawfish when that time comes! Today we are just going to go to the church to play some games with the district. It should be another good week coming up and I'm excited to see some new things happen in Kenner!
Love Elder Smith
PS "Brothers and sisters, can you imagine the impact if family and friends included what they are learning from their personal study of Preach My Gospel in their letters and emails to their full-time missionaries? Can you picture the blessings that will come to families when they know and understand better what their sons and daughters will be studying and teaching on their missions? Can you even begin to fathom the extraordinary outpouring of atoning grace that will be ours, individually and collectively, according to the Savior’s promise to all who bear testimony in the process of inviting souls to come unto Him—and then following up on those invitations?"
Elder Ballard
SO SHARE PMG STUDIES WITH ME PLEASE!!
Love Ya'll
My testimony
My testimony of the Book of Mormon has been present pretty much my entire life. I never really had the thought that it wasn't true. But, my testimony has changed drastically over time. The most important thing is that my testimony has grown in my Faith in the teachings about Christ. Believing the Book of Mormon is true does not do a single thing for us unless we strive to live the teachings that are in the Book. I know that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. The knowledge it gives me of my Savior is irreplaceable. I absolutely love the Book of Mormon. Now when talking about the Book of Mormon it's important to recognize that if we know the Book of Mormon is from God, that we know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and if Joseph Smith was a Prophet than Christ's true church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. A few days ago I bore my testimony to an elderly couple who did not believe in the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith's calling. I told them that I knew the Book of Mormon is from God because my prayerful study of it has Always been accompanied by the Holy Ghost. They could not deny my testimony. I know they felt the Spirit testify to them because at that time it testified to me. I recently read a quote from President Hinckley in Preach My Gospel which said “Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power. … Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts … the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God”
We should apply this in our life. I have, and it works. Its little by little but over time it is significant. The absolutely most important thing I know is that God loves us. He loves us no matter what.
Love Elder Smith
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