January 7, 2013

I really enjoyed those pictures you sent! I laughed hard when I saw Jameson! I don't know how he does it, he is always in the right place at the right time! How much training did he get? Or was it all "natural"? :) I'm not going to say anything about the friendgirls, I know I'll jinx something...

I laughed super hard at Dad's email too, about Dwight always eating snow, and having his "present" freeze to the road, haha! So I'm guessing y'all got hit hard over there. We have had some cold days. Mainly winter weather is freezing winds, hot sun, and occasionally rain. Not really fun winter weather. We've been driving around mostly.

This week went slow, I had lots of time to study, so I've been able to read much in the BoM and also the new book we got, Teachings of Lorenzo Snow. I've already fell in love with both! It seems as if time here was at a stand still. I have plateaued, but finally have been able to break it recently. It's difficult to learn when your pride takes hold and you assume you know all you can about what we need to do here. I have learned lots about the Holy Ghost, and also learned how much I don't know! I'm thankful that things are turning around.

Transfers are next week, I'm pretty sure I'm staying and my comp is going. I'm hoping that President sends a certain missionary to be my companion here, I'd say his name, but y'all don't know who he is... :) We have an interview with him today, so I will find out! There are big changes that are going to start next week. The-18-year-olds will start to come out, and the billions of sisters! This new year will be eventful! We didn't do much for New Years Eve. We ate dinner at a member's house, and had to be inside our apartment right after. I wanted to go throw fireballs with members going to Eufaula, but I knew that the President wouldn't let us. We'll have to do that when I get home!

That would be awesome if Coree started to become active and open to the spirit. I get excited when I think about being able to teach a lesson at home when I get back. Then when I think of it, it might be pride talking and the spirit will leave.... it's all in my intentions at the moment, we'll see!

Thanks for the Emails and the Love y'all show to me, and each other! Till next week! :) Love you!

PS, tell Jameson I'm sorry for saying he was sarcastic when we skyped, it's been bugging me. I realized afterward that he was super tired...thanks!

Happy Almost New Year!!

I can see all those blessings as well. Never have I seen, or dealt with people that don't have as much as us. I do know that it is from the Gospel, and hard working parents! It isn't easy to always do what y'all do. I am very grateful for it!

We have been working at a slow pace, and it's hard to get out of this slump because of the negative influences out of my control. But I do know that even when life is hard, and frustrating, that there is still good going on. Last night I reread some of my old letters, and it was refreshing to remember where I was, and to remember when there wasn't so many frustrating things going on. I felt real good to read those. I then related the past experiences with mine right now, and I made the conclusion that I have been focused too much on the negative. It's very easy to be consumed with all the bad in our lives, but unless we focus on the good, and try to improve that, instead of the bad where we have no control, then things will get a lot better! Thank you for your emails. They added to the testimony that I received last night. I also thank y'all for your prayers, I have felt them tremendously!

It seems things have slowed down a bit, but we have made progress with some investigators. One we will baptize this next month is back and we are going to finnish the lessons. But I know that reading the Book of Mormon brings peace in our lives, and in the lives of others if we read it together. One investigator was having a horrible day. One that seemed that everything went wrong. We went and visited her with her family, and talked. We could've taught her anything thing, but the spirit prompted me to read the Book of Mormon with her. We did just that and her countenance changed and she even told us that she felt a lot better. We helped her recognize those feelings, and testify to her of the power of the Holy Ghost. Now what would I do in my life if I didn't know that that feeling comes from God? I don't know.

But thanks again, it was awesome talking with y'all and seeing everyone! I am kinda sad that I didn't see Coree, but that was my fault for forgetting to tell y'all to wake her up! I expected to see everyone looking different, but the only changes I noticed, first Dwight, which was obvious! Then Casey getting a foot taller, and having normal sized teeth! :)

Love all of you, Thank you for the encouragement!

12 Your Time

Sorry, I made a mistake. I will be on 12 your time. Hopefully that'll work fine. No Pre call this time, pres canceled it....dumb missionaries. Hopefully y'all will see this! Thanks for all the presents, I did eat all the candy already, but no presents have been opened.

December 17, 2012

 Y'all look similar... but not the same, Dad's nose is too big.... :) haha. Y'all look great, and It's good to hear everything is going wonderful! I did get the box, and I loved the Christmas card you made, it looks professional! Casey is getting tall! I got the package, and I haven't opened the presents, I'm waiting for Christmas. I sent y'all a package and I know that some siblings will want to borrow some of those things and that is fine, but y'all can have everything, but the pants and t-shirts, and maybe a couple of ties. I specifically gave the silver and white dotted one to Casey, because it is small and cool. The SIM card is in there also, I know y'all will enjoy those pictures... :). I am currently working on my Christmas card, we are trying to have it professionally done for free, so we'll see what happens.

 We heard about the shooting, and the horribleness of it. You probably heard also about the teacher that hid her class and saved their lives, while she was killed. You know at these times people really question if there is a God, and why he would let that happen. I do know that God has a plan for all those people, and that even though tragedy strikes, he is in control. But in the last days, the bad will get worse, and the good will become greater. As you can see from everyone going out on missions, He is gathering Israel in great abundance. We have 300 baptisms so far this year, which doesn't seem that great, but it would put us 56 people shy of a baptism a day. When all these missionaries start coming out, our force will double and most likely that number will double, if not triple. There is a prophecy that in the south, there will be thousands of people joining the church. It will come true this next year. So much is happening it's crazy.

 We had our half mission Christmas devotional, and it was great. Pres Jensen let us watch Brave, which is a hilarious movie. I think they shortened it because it seemed a little choppy... There were many talents, good and bad, but we enjoyed them all. One of the best parts about it, was that Elder Danner, who went home in the MTC, came out, and we talked a while. I was super excited to see him. It was weird when he tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned and saw him. It took me about five seconds to recognize him, I'm pretty sure he saw my mental process show on my face.... But all of our MTC district was there, so we got a picture together, it was great. 

 Christmas day, at 11 AM, we will skype, or I will be on, hopefully y'all will.

 Love you LOTS and I'm praying for Dad's team to win, even though I don't know who they are. And I still feel bad that I lost Dad's basketball secrets book.... Talk to y'all next week!

December 10, 2012

That is pretty sweet that Dad has a basketball team that is winning! It seems that he always had bad players and I always gave him a hard time because he is my Dad. He is doing right by studying the Jazz's Strategy, it's one of the best, especially if it is Coach Stalone's. It's great to see that his dream is coming true, maybe he'll be a high school coach someday!

 The weather here is pretty nice, some days are freezing and some are dreary, but it's mostly good. We were planning on taking pictures today, but it's going to rain... :( Everyone is excited for Christmas. We still need to prepare our Christmas lesson that we are going to share with people. I'll have to take pictures of our decorations and stuff we've collected. We did service for a member, cleaning out his shed, and he gave us some pretty cool stuff, I think it's valuable.

 This week seemed to go extra fast, and we've exceeded most of our goals! We were actually surprised. It seemed as if God prepared our way everywhere we went so that everything happened perfectly. Almost every place they let us in and we were able to teach a lesson and leave with a prayer, it was great! We have an investigator that is really strange, but is a real good guy. He had to show us something cool he picked up after we had a lesson. He took us outside and around to his truck to look in the back. There he had a dead bobcat, and it was as stiff as a board because of rigamortis. It was nighttime so I couldn't see the bottom most part of it but it looked in perfect shape. I asked him how it died, because it didn't look as if anything happened to it, except for the fact it wasn't moving. He moved a bucket that covered the lowered legs, which were ripped bare because of a car hitting it. It was disgusting. I have no idea why he would want to pick it up. What's even funnier is that he isn't a hick. He goes to college and looks like a normal student. He just has this thing where he loves picking up things he thinks are cool. Sadly, we went back and found the cat still in there, and it smelled horrible.... He said he really needed to get rid of it....

 

 For Christmas we are going to skype, don't know where yet, but we will find out. We do know where we are eating dinner at, and I'm super excited. I'll let you know more when it gets closer and when we schedule it.

 

 Love you and talk to you next week!

November 26, 2012

Good job Casey!! Way to represent the Smith family name! (Casey's team won the Thanksgiving weekend tournament in St. George for his age group!) I wish I was there to watch it, I miss sports super bad. The turkey bowl was pretty sweet. The Troy sisters and elders were there also. It wasn't well organized so it wasn't as fun as it could have been, but I still enjoyed it. I was sore for five days afterwards, goes to show how weak my body is now.... On the way back also we were able to help a kid going to Dothan from Troy who's car died. We pushed his car to the side of the road and gave him a ride to Ozark, where he got another one to Dothan. It was funny because our car was already filled to the brim, yet we were able to make just a little more room for him. Bro Phipps, who was driving, said to him, "You're in a car surrounded by Mormon, and the Mormon missionaries!" Hopefully that experience will lead him to accepting the Gospel. Thanksgiving was real fun, ate at the Darley's home, with all their kids, grand kids, and great grand kids! They had some terrific food.

We recently moved into our new apartment in Ozark. They asked us to find a new one a while back, but just recently one opened up that was perfect for us. It does smell like smoke, and the tile floors need a good scrubbing, but we'll take care of it. I am so thankful for the awesome people in our ward that helped us. Only one family showed, but it's alright. It was supposed to be a young men activity, but none showed. It took several trips until finally all was placed inside our place for us to organize later. That night we got a "welcome to the neighborhood" from some boys who doorbell ditched us at one o'clock in the morning! It was pretty lame.

We didn't do much for my birthday. Just got some little Caesars and went back to work. This week was pretty hectic with the moving and all. I can't wait to start working again this week, because we won't have anything to slow us down, we can just focus on the people!

There is only a couple of weeks till I hit my Year mark! Almost half way done. I'm going to send y'all a package, which will include the XL G's if you would replace them with larges that would be great. There are things I'm sending back also that I might want when I get home. It might be a couple weeks until you get it.

My new address is,

Apartment 138 Patterson drive,

If y'all sent a package or letter or anything it's alright, the old place is only down the street and we'll check it every morning.

Continue to stay active! Don't let judgements of other people affect your spirituality, and don't judge unrighteously. That is the Number 1 reason for Less Actives down here.

I love all you guys very much!! I'm constantly praying for y'all.

Elder Smith

P.S. I'm getting permission from Pres before I start on the scholarships

November 19, 2012

Thank you so much for the package! Also the song, even though I haven't listened to it yet, we are in the library and I didn't bring my headphones. But I did enjoy all the gifts y'all sent, and that card is hilarious! That's the second cake I've cooked in two weeks, another Elder had a birthday also. I haven't used the silly string yet, but I think I'll use it on my companion when he falls asleep! He needs a rude awakening sometimes....:) I was wondering why you put like ten packing peanuts in there, was it because they are peanuts?? It's going to be weird saying I'm twenty now, it seems the year went by so slow! But it was a fast, slow year! It will be good to get out of those teenage years! Now I can refer to those teenagers as...."TEENAGERS".... It will be so much fun!... for a little while :)

Our area is still slow, it's hard to work in this companionship, but we'll get through it. I feel as if work is going like we're stuck behind a Sunday driver. It's frustrating sometimes. We are working with one superb investigator. She didn't used to be this solid, so I feel really lucky that I got here when she became real serious about the lessons. In fact, we are teaching her today. We had an investigator drop us because of the pressure of her church and family. It shocked us, but I know she'll be baptized. The mission roller coaster is crazy. You have your high points and your low, and sometimes you go up and down several times a day. The comforting feeling of the Spirit, and the convenience of prayer is super helpful. I'm glad we have a way to talk to God and receive comfort from him. It felt like losing a close friend, but not as serious. Just that feeling like I did something wrong by failing to act in the right way. But it will all be ok, she just isn't ready yet.

So I got to talk to another fellow Viking for a while. Elder Musgrave rode with us to Zone training meeting. He is a funny guy, he lives in Bountiful. I know his sister, but for the life of me can't remember her face. I was thinking since you know tons of people that you know some Musgraves.

For Thanksgiving we are eating at a HUGE family's house, and the family is big, not the house. It should be really good! I also found that the stake is playing in a turkey bowl, touch football, in the Troy university's stadium! That is going to be awesome! I am unsure what we are going to do afterwards, our mission president wants us to be out proselyting, so we will figure something to do. I got an awesome letter from Grandma Fry, and I can't believe she got an iPad! But it is real good to hear they are well, and feeling good. I can see how much y'all are alike through that letter. It's funny!

Ashton and Jameson, and Coree, have until a couple months to enjoy singleness before they have to schedule the weddings! I do want to be there!

Well thanks again, Love y'all and hope all goes well with Thanksgiving!

............ I found a pair of headphones and listened to the Talking Tom....it is hilarious!! Hahaha, who sang the first part? That is so funny! I'm thinking it was Ashton, but I could very well be wrong. That really made my day!