Hmpf! The sound of mixed emotions

Hello Family!

I really don't know how to feel right now. I am experiencing all sorts of crazy emotions all at once and I not sure how to handle it. First and foremost is the news of Grandma Smith's ailing health. I am really sad. I love her and the family that she worked so hard to raise. I respect her very much and will be forever grateful for her example of stalwart faith, her depth of testimony, and her love of others. I, and many others, owe a large part of who we are to this great woman. I am also very happy that families are forever and that she will get to be with Grandpa again. What a blessing this knowledge is. Love you Grandma!

Second is the great news about Megan's mission call. I am so proud of her decision to serve and I know that she will do so great serving the Lord. Watch out Brazil! :)

Third is the fantastic week that we just had. I don't even know where to start. Maybe just with Monday. :)

Monday was filled with packing, saying goodbye to investigators and the district and then making the four hour trip to Brampton, Bleh. We survived.

Tuesday was great. The new missionaries were welcomed to Canada with a heaping helping of snow and -13 C weather. Fun! I sat around for four hours waiting for the training meeting to start and just talked with other missionaries. I finally saw Elder Koceja (My MTC companion), we hadn't seen each other since we got to the mission. It was a happy reunion and he was actually companions with Elder Dite so it was a double reunion. I love those two missionaries very much. The training meeting went well. I felt very veteran training for my second time and giving advice to those who were training for the first time or opening new areas. I still feel like a rookie most days so it was kinda nice to feel like I knew what I was doing. I was far less nervous this time around and enjoyed the day a lot more. I got my new companion and he is super awesome. His name is Elder Binford and he is from Fresno California and this guy is incredible. He served a mini mission for two weeks in Fresno and so he is literally pre-trained. He is a stellar missionary and we are having a blast.

I am running out of time so I am just going to summarize the last few days. We have been working very hard and miracles are happening. We tracted a lot and did some street contacting and we have found a lot of potentials. On Thursday we tracted a street and got two number and two invitations to come back! We visited the first of those yesterday and he was actually there and let us teach him. He is super busy but he invited us to come back in a month when his schedule slows down. And if that wasn't exciting enough we were invited to visit a less active member out of the blue and he wanted us to come and teach his friends about the church. So yesterday we found three new investigators. Crazy. Now the best news of the letter....Shauna is getting baptized next week!! I am not sure how much I have talked about her in the past so I'll give you the run-down. She met a member randomly on the bus and they became friends. In one of her classes she needed to write a paper about a religion and so she asked her friend what his was. He invited her to talk to the missionaries and the rest is history I guess. When I got to Windsor she had finished her paper and was still half investigating but we were busy and didn't get a chance to meet with her. Well we talked to her two weeks ago and taught her about baptism. She agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. You can count on the Book of Mormon. ;) She prayed to know if she should get baptized and then flipped to Mosiah 18: 8-11.  The scripture asks, "what have ye against be baptized?" and she concluded that she had nothing against it and informed us on Wednesday that she would like to be baptized. !! So she is getting baptized she has been taught almost everything. We are going over modern-day prophets and then she is totally ready. Miracles happen.

It was a great week. We hit standards and had a great time doing it. I am truly loving the work and being a missionary. I love you all and my heart goes out to those suffering at this time. Work hard, Study hard, Pray hard!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

Transfer #5- Here we go again

Hello.

Lots is changing in the mission in the coming months. Let me quote my mission president's email to give you an idea.

"Over the next few weeks and months our mission will grow from about 205 missionaries to 285 missionaries. That growth is unprecedented and exciting but it will require the help and cooperation from everyone in the mission...For example, the church has not had enough lead time to order the new cars needed to accommodate the additional missionaries so for the next 5-6 months, and probably longer, many areas that have had cars in the past will now be walking, biking, busing, or sharing a car....We will be opening up about 40 new areas....Due to language, gender, or other issues, we will have some missionaries training after being in the field only 5 weeks. We will also have some trainers training more than one missionary at a time."

Goodness!

It is an extremely, extremely exciting time to be a missionary. I am so grateful to be serving and to be where I am. So first up is transfer news. I am sure you are all dying to know what is going on:) Elder Wendt is going to leave Windsor to serve in North Bay. He, like me, loves the snow so he is very excited to go up to the "True North" and see a real Canadian winter. :)  He is such a good missionary and will do great work up there. I am sad I only got to spend 6 weeks with him. Such is the life of a missionary, eh? I am staying here in Windsor and will be training again! I am excited. We will drive to Brampton (Four hour drive...woof) tonight and I'll get my trainee tomorrow. The new companionship isn't coming until next transfer so we will be working with all the same investigators and that is really awesome in some ways and...less in others. It will be an exciting transfer in Windsor.

It was a great week, but I forgot my planner back at the apartment and that is the only way I can remember all that happened. All the days just blur together. Highlights: Dinner with a Sudanese family while on exchanges in Leamington where I had more foofoo and....cow intestines...tasty but hard to get over what it is...I would eat it again but definitely not very often....*shudder*....Two great lessons with our Chinese investigators. They are the best. Both of them just have such a sincere desire to change and to come closer to God. I love it. One of them, David, said the best prayer yesterday after we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He said "Thank you for this plan. I think it is a good plan. Help me to work hard to make this plan to come true." It was such a spiritual, tender experience. If we had Mandarin speaking missionaries he would have been baptized months ago. It just takes us a little longer to help him understand. He is great. That is really all that I can remember from this week. I just love being a missionary and I am so excited to continue to grow and to learn and to gain a stronger testimony of the things I have know all my life. I love to see the changes the gospel makes in the lives and countenances of the people that we teach. What a blessing to be a missionary! 

I love you all very much and I keep you in my prayers. Work hard, study hard, pray hard! Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

PS: GREAT NEWS! I beat Elder Wendt in tracting soccer!!!! 2-0!!!! We played with a little metal bell we found and I did so good! Be so proud of me :):)   

luvs!

Shirley Temple Moments

HELLOS!

Before I get started let me explain the subject line of this email. It is really hard to explain but I'll do my best. First and foremost I am SUPER weird. I have been this way my whole life and will be this way for the rest of the foreseeable future. Secondly, Shirley Temple was adorable (maybe she still is, I don't know. I don't use the Internet). So sometimes when things happen that I can't believe or that are really amazing, surprising etc I imagine Shirley Temple shaking her curly hair and saying "Goodness!" It has been a long time but I think she say that in one of the movies she is in. I'm not sure, but I have doing this for a VERY long time and didn't really notice or realize until this week, probably because it was filled with Shirley Temple moments. So now you know: I am super weird and this week was great!

Monday we cleaned/reorganized the apartment. It was filthy and filled with junk and now its a little less filthy and has a little less junk. Today we are planning to finish the job, right in time for transfers, which, if you can believe it, are next week! Goodness! ;)

Tuesday was good. We got an oil change and I somehow got the courage to talk to the attendant about the church and invited him to learn more. I couldn't believe that I did it but it happened. He said no. We win some, we lose some. But the important thing is to try so the Lord can trust you talk to those he has prepared and put in our paths. Who knows? Maybe down the road Mark the Mr. Lube attendant will get baptized and be the bishop someday. (Fingers-crossed) The rest of the day was good.

Wednesday, once again, was a slower day. We had our planning session and coordination meeting and taught a 8 year old who is preparing of baptism. His mom is a member so mostly its just practice teaching kids for us. :) I love it. Elder Wendt....not as much. :)

Thursday was finding day. I was supposed to go on exchanges with the Chatham Elders but they were both sick and it didn't work out. So we tracted. All day. Oddly enough I enjoyed it...I started the day with a really, really poor attitude but realized that I could either be miserable or I could enjoy it. So I enjoyed it. Fear of tracting? Gone. We didn't get into any doors but we had fun. We played "Tracting Soccer" with chunks of ice as we went from door to door and just had good conversations about investigators and past experiences. What fun!

Friday we had District Meeting that I sometimes forget I am in charge of. :) Silly me. It was great. I really love my district. We had some really powerful lessons with Al and with Jim (Chinese University of Windsor student). The Spirit was super strong in both and it was a great learning experience for me. I have really learned to love investigators and care about them. Its crazy.

Saturday was great. We had one appointment bomb so we got sometime to tract. We ended talking for a solid hour with two girls sitting on their porch. They had a lot of questions and were very open to what we were saying. Neither of them were interested but it was a great "seed planting" experience. It also helped me to understand what questions people have and also the benefits of being bold. then we taught a couple from Brazil, Tomas and Clelia and they are awesome. That was also a great lesson. We had dinner with a guy from the Congo and it was awesome. I got to try Sava leaves and Foofoo. The sava leaves were chopped up and stewed with big chunks of ham and foofoo is like really thick, dry cream of wheat. You dip the foofoo in the sava leaves and it is tasty. They eat it with their hands but I just used a fork and knife. Haha. I liked it a lot and really want to learn the language. Its this crazy mix of French and traditional dialects and its sweet. The man's sister was there and we taught her about the plan of salvation. She was really intrigued and said she wants to see us again, but didn't give us a specific time. :( Hopefully God will put her in the path.

Sunday was really good. Tomas came to church and we think he had a good time. The topics were temples, the atonement and home teaching. It might have been a little over his head so we'll see. The rest of the day was good and we taught some great lessons.

The work is going very well in Windsor. We taught 17 lessons this week, I'm pretty sure thats more than I taught in two transfers in Markham. I am very excited about the things happening here and the investigators we are working with. The mission is getting huge amounts of missionaries in the next few months and a ton of changes are happening. We getting another set of missionaries in Windsor so we are planning a lot for that. We are not sure how it is all going to work out so we are doing our best to prepare the area for the change. We are going to attempt to tackle the biggest investigator concerns (homosexuality, living common-law, word of wisdom) this week to be fair to the missionaries who teach these people next transfer and also find some new ones to keep the work progressing. There is just so much work to do and I am loving it. Exciting things are happening in Windsor!

It has been a great week and I am really loving life right now. The ups and downs of missionary work are frustrating at time but always exactly what we need to be experiencing. That is also true of life in general. Everything is part of God's plan and every experience and trial and event has been prepared to shape us into the men and women God wants us to be. He knows us so much better than we can understand and loves us more that we can comprehend. His entire purpose is to help us to live with Him forever and as long as we put Him first, everything will fall into place. Maybe not the place we prepared but the place God has prepared. His plan is perfect. His love is perfect. As we do His will, we can become perfect. This gospel is so true and so good. I am so grateful to be sharing it with others and to see the changes in them as they understand their divine potential.

I hope you all are doing well and wish everyone the best of luck as the new school year starts up. Go, fight win! Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

P.S. Tracting Soccer (explained) The rules are the same as soccer only the ball is a chunk of ice and the goal is the space between your companion's legs. At the end of the day, whoever has the most points wins. Sadly the game requires ice (which all melted this weekend) and some form of soccer skill (of which I have very little) I lost. 20-4. E. Wendt cheats though because he is European and South American and everyone knows they are better at "football" than Americans. :( Someday I'll win...

What a Week!

Hello again!

It feels like I just wrote you...Time is just going faster and faster these days. I didn't think it was possible but it is. Elder Wendt describes the time on your mission like climbing a house. The first six months are straight up, slow going. The second six are a slight uphill, faster but normal. The third six speed up, down the hill now. The last six you just fall off the roof and its over. Haha. He is a funny guy. Lots of fun to work with.

We had a great week. It was cut a little short by the holidays/read-a-thon and then P-day but somehow we managed to get a TON done. We have mission wide goals for finding new investigators, having members at lessons etc, called Standards of Excellence, and the point is to try to hit them every week. It is a huge focus and the overall goal is to get every companionship to hit them. We worked really hard this week and hit Standards of Excellence and even far exceeded them in some areas. I've only hit standards once before and so this week was awesome. It is really gratifying to see hard work and effort pay off in tangible ways. The best part is that the numbers represent people and when you hit standards it means that the work is progressing and you are fulfilling your purpose as a missionary. It was a great, great week.

Wednesday was P-Day and so not a lot got done but still a good day.

Thursday was CarFast/Finding day. Lots of tracting and making calls to potential investigators, which paid off with two appointments for Saturday. 

Friday was Zone Training Meeting and it was awesome. We left with the missionary fire and with a lot of ideas for the area. The second half of the day was an exchange with the Zone Leaders. So Elder Kenning (my trainer) spent the day with us while his companion was with another set of missionaries. It was fun to be with him again. We taught Linda and Al and had a grand old time. Al is doing great and is coming to church every week and is making progress as fast as a 70 year old can. :) Linda is doing great spiritually. She is learning and growing and loving the visits we are having. She was in the hospital this Sunday and we haven't heard from her how she is doing. Something to do with a nerve in her leg. She said she should be fine and we'll meet with her again this week. 

Saturday was SUPA stressful. (Supa=super. E. Wendt is rubbing off on me) We had four lessons back to back to back to back. We were running all over Windsor and the only reason everything worked out is because God is very good. Could not do this without Him. The lessons went well. Steph and Samson both agreed to meet with us again, David accepted the 10th of February as a Baptismal Date and Abdul...He is still willing to meet with us. He is a Muslim and was a referral from missionaries in........MARKHAM!! I actually contacted him in Markham and sent his information here and now I'm here so now I am teaching him. It is basically just an exchange of beliefs with him and we're not sure how much longer we'll keep meeting with him.

Sunday was great. Church was awesome. The ward is great and very welcoming. They do a great job fellowshipping and all without us asking. That makes our job SOOOO much easier. The rest of the day was pretty great and was capped off by finally getting a hold of this sweet couple that they found right before I got here and setting up an appointment. That made them new investigators and it was sweet. Such a blessing and such a good week.

I am so so grateful to be a missionary. This truly is God's work and His hand is in it in every way. I feel so blessed to be His servant and to be able to be an instrument in His hand and to see His miracles everyday. This church is so true. This is God's kingdom on the earth everyday I become more and more converted and my testimony grows. What a wonderful blessing to be here at this time, in this place. There is a fire in this gospel and when it catches there is no stopping the progression of the work. I have felt the fire and I hope you will too. Study your scriptures. Pray with faith. Never give less than your best. Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith.

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life. 3 Nephi 5:13

Happy New Year!!

Hello!!

Wow. Its 2013 already. It doesn't feel different. :) I spent New Year's Eve in Leamington, Ontario (Tomato Capital of Canada) with my district. We read the Book of Mormon for eight hours Monday and then six hours on Tuesday. This was part of our President's plan for us to be productive during the less productive times. So on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day we split up reading the Book of Mormon in 24 hours. It really added up to 28 but that allowed for lunch and dinner. It was sweet. Difficult at times but awesome. We got to see the Book of Mormon from a new perspective, seeing it all at once instead of spread out. It strengthened my testimony of its truth and was a great experience (minus sleeping on the floor that night. Not the best night's sleep. At all.) 

Our investigators are doing awesome. We are meeting with a 30 ish Chinese man named David and he is great. The language barrier is a struggle (and I thought just talking on the street was hard) but he asks all the right questions and just loves the gospel's answers. He is great. Al is doing well. He has a bit of a memory problem due to a heart attack a few years back which keeps things interesting. He asked his fellowshipper to drive him to the liquor store and she asked him about the Word of Wisdom and he said, "What's that got to do with anything." I guess he thought it only applied to smoking even though he had the missionaries dump all his alcohol down the drain two weeks earlier. It will just take some time to help him to understand everything. Sigh. Linda is doing very well. She is reading and studying and really like what she is learning. We have her soft set for February 3rd for baptism which is great. She has a fear of crowds so coming to church is her biggest struggle but she is working hard to overcome that. She told us several times that nothing is going to stop her for getting baptized. It just might take some time.

The work is going really well. I love it here in Windsor. The ward is great and the people are fun. The Holidays were awesome and made me remember how much I love and miss my family. But there is no where I would rather be than here, serving the Lord. The church is true, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and Jesus Christ our Saviour. He paid the price for us and all we need to do is ask and He will help us through whatever the trial. This is God's truth.

I love you all. Work hard and do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith