Because of the Brave

Today's post comes to you in two parts....

Happy Independence Day Everyone!!

I hope it was a splendid day for all and that you all appreciate living in such a wonderful country. We are greatly, greatly blessed.

This week was rather short seeing as I just emailed last Wednesday and there wasn't much that happened since. We had a great 4th of July. We had district meeting and sang the National Anthem and I conducted the music with my American flag. Awesome. The rest of the day was really, really warm. Because Elder Cowley is new his bus pass money didn't come in until friday and as such we had to limit our travel to save on single fare tokens. So we didn't get to drop our suit coats off at home and spent the whole hot day in our suit coats. Looked boss. Felt sweaty. Just how I like it. :) We had a day packed with teaching for the first time in a long time but two of the appointments cancelled last minute. Oh well. It was still a great day.

Friday was graced with surprise interviews with President. We were told Thursday that interviews were Friday. Those went well and the rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Just tracting and street contacting. Elder Cowley is getting back into the swing of things pretty quick. He has a little bit too much of the laid back, Australian way of missionary work that I am working out of him. Haha. Its been a fun week. We get along super great and I love him tons.

Saturday was cool. We are starting a new ESL class at a new building and it is taking quite some time for it to pick up. I didn't realize how much I dislike goofing off now until we had to sit at the chapel and wait for students who rarely show. I just feel so unproductive. My goal for tomorrow is to get something done with that time. Wish me luck. :)

Sunday was great. Jessica was confirmed and it was a super powerful experience. Elder MacMillan (who got transferred but is still in the ward) gave a beautiful blessing and the Spirit was super strong. I love to see the ordinances of salvation performed. It is always a great experience.

We witnessed/participated in a miracle this week. that I will try to explain later. I'm getting kicked off.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Smith 

So I believe it was Wednesday night. Elder Cowley's first real day in Canada. We had finished our appointments for the night and decided to street contact until the end of the night. Convenient that there are tons of people outside our apartment at almost all times. It is pretty crazy really. As we were walking down this street, joking and laughing about of latest rejection and randomly Elder Cowley says, "We should talk to that guy." Pointing at a man a little further down the street. I don't question promptings so we made a beeline for this guy. We talked to him, he seemed pretty interested, we got his number and gave him our card. The usual. Then comes Thursday morning and we get a call from Alex, the man from the day before, calling to see if the number we gave him was active. We invited him to church and then made arrangements to ride the subway there with him. He came to church, loved it and during one of the classes he shared part of his story. He had been separated from his kids for 12 years and had been moving around for work trying to get his mind off missing them. He moved back to Toronto and began looking for a place to live. Prayed. Found an apartment. Prayed to meet good people who could help him. Talked to us on the street. Wanted to know if God still talked to His children today. Loved the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Wants to learn more and keep coming to church. Lives in the Sisters area. Hrmpf. We're stoked because he is super prepared. We just wish we could teach him. No biggie. At least we'll see him at church.

Well that is all the time that I have and I have to go! Love you all tons and I'll talk to you next week!!

Work hard, study hard, pray hard!

Love,

Elder Smith

He is Number Four

Happy Canada Day!!!

I hope you all enjoyed the magical holiday that is Canada Day. The day here was celebrated by copious amounts of both fireworks and alcohol. My favorite part of the festivities was talking to all the grumpy, tired, hung-over people the next day. I don't think we talked to one friendly person the whole day. Okay there were a few but man, you'd think they'd learn. Guess not. :)

In other news. Tomorrow is Independence Day which is great because my new companion is also American! That means lots of national anthem singing in companion study. So yeah. I got a new companion. And by new I mean fresh out of the MTC new. But he is a little....a lot different then my last three trainees. His name is Elder Cowley and he is super sweet. He is 21 and has already served a mission. Well 6 months of a mission. He was originally called to Australia in like 2011 but came home early due to medical reasons. Like random seizures and stuff. Super crazy. He has been working on coming back for a long time and then it has finally happened. He got his reassignment June 20, was in the MTC June 24 and now he is in the field. Things happened way fast. I am super glad to have him here and I am way excited to be his companion. He is ready to work and is a great missionary. Love him already. :)

Elder MacMillan got transferred to Don Mills North so he is still in our ward, just on the North side of the boundaries. Hahaha. He literally moved like ten minutes away. So I won't really miss him because I'll see him at church and coordination meeting and we'll go on exchanges. Which is good because I like him. It was a great transfer with him and we saw a ton of miracles. This Sunday we were both able to help our friend Jessica into the waters of baptism. She hurt her ankle really severely a few months back and was EXTREMELY worried about slipping in the font so we both got in with her and made sure she was safe. She got up after the baptism and bore her testimony and she said, "I was so nervous all day about the baptism but as soon as I stepped in the water I felt so safe and all my fear was gone." She thanked us for helping her and was so very excited. ElderMacMillan will be confirming her this Sunday at church. The whole experience has been a miracle.

The week since I have emailed has been pretty eventful. On Tuesday we met with a family of four and they agreed to be baptized. It was a great lesson and the Spirit was really strong. But, Satan is very real and he worked really hard and they have decided not to learn anymore. It was really sad to get that news but we know that God's plan is perfect and that he will provide a way.

On Wednesday we stumbled upon a TV show shoot. We were visiting a woman in the hospital and there were big trucks everywhere and extras all over and hummers and military stuff and it was crazy. So watch Covert Affairs Season 4 and there might be two missionaries sauntering about it the background somewhere. I think they were done filming when we got there but you never know. :) it was pretty exciting.

The rest of the week was same old, same old but Sunday was great. Jessica's baptism went fairly smoothly but they never go according to plan. :) To add to the miracle of an ordinance being performed Helena and her daughters came to church! Helena is the Swedish woman with the two unbaptized daughters and it was a total miracle! We did not expect it at all and they loved church. Hopefully they will continue to be able to come. Please keep praying for them specifically. They need a miracle very much and are extremely deserving. Please, please pray for them.

Lindsey is doing alright. She has slipped back into old habits. We haven't met with her in a while and she hasn't been coming to church. As such the Spirit is not able to influence her and it becomes easier and easier to slip. This experience has taught me that the Spirit's influence can leave very easily and that we need to attended church, read the scriptures and keep our guard up continually. We will be meeting with her this week and hope to get her back on the path.

As for everything else, we continued to find new people and we are working hard. I feel really good right now and I am very excited for the coming weeks and the wonderful blessings they will bring.

In other extremely exciting news our mission saw miracles this month. From the time I arrived in the mission we have been praying as a mission to achieve the Standards of Excellence as a mission. That means 12 baptism a week. This has been the focus for a very very long time. As we approached 2013 we began to pray specifically for this baptismal goal as well as 60 baptisms in the month of June which would mean getting at least 12 baptisms each week. Brothers and Sisters, I am extremely excited to inform you that we reached our goal and then thrashed it. We had 78 baptisms in June!! This is historic. The highest our mission has seen in recent memory. It has been incredible to see the mission come together for this goal and to work in unity for it. It is super exciting. Miracles.

Anyway. I will end because this is long. I love this work and I love being a missionary. I would invite you all to be missionaries now. Share the gospel with those you know and with those you love. God has prepared a way for you and he has asked you, through his holy Prophet to take that path and lead others to Christ. Remember that God loves them just as much as he loves you. :) Work hard, study hard, pray hard. Do good things!!

Love,

Elder Smith