The Kingdom of God or Nothing

Salaam Khubid!!

 

Impressed with my Persian skills? You should be. Haha. Jokes. I am super bad at Farsi and only pretend to know it. I convinced some Sisters at Zone Conference that I knew it but that was easy. Too easy. :)

This week was long and humbling. We had Zone Conference this week which is always super inspiring and great but always messes up the schedule. We had to move our weekly planning around and we ended up splitting it into two days. Woof. I hate to say it but I hate weekly planning. Don't get me wrong, I know how important planning is and it really is necessary but I hate sitting inside all day. It makes me feel lazy and its hard to get back to work. I feel best when we can just get outside and work and three days of sitting and planning are not my favorite.

Zone Conference was great and I loved it. We learned a ton and gained inspiration for our investigators. One of my favorite parts of missionary work is role plays because it is a time to receive revelation for investigators needs and how we can help them progress. We did a lot of role plays and I gained so much insight into how my investigators feel and what THEY need to feel and what THEY need to hear not what I think they need. It was wonderful and such a great time. I had the opportunity to share my talents and sing at this Zone Conference. I love getting the chance to use what God has given me. I neglected it before my mission and want to make up for lost time. :)

Side note: I am working on my Christ-like love for people. It is tried and tested heavily every time we come to the library to do emails. I just get sick of getting kicked off the computer so that people can play Farmville and watch Jeopardy Season 7 highlights on YouTube. I realize now more and more that the Internet is a MASSIVE waste of time. So much time just thrown away....so sad. So frustrating...okay. I'm over it. Moving on!

Despite a lack luster effort on our part we saw some sweet miracles this week. On Monday on our way home from an appointment I talked to a guy on the subway named Abey. He was super interested and asked if we had time right then and there to teach him. So we got off the train, walked up the street and sat down in a coffee shop and taught him. He said that he believed we were sent from God and that what we said was true. He accepted a return appointment and a Book of Mormon and we were so excited. He bombed his appointment and has no phone and we have no way to contact him......harrumph. I guess God just knew that we were going to be lazy that week and so he rebuked and chastened us in advance. I feel very much like the Nephites in that I am so quick to forget the many blessings of God and to take them for granted. Pride Cycled.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were a lazy due in part to planning for so long and the rest is just us being complacent. They were bad days.

Thursday was Zone Conference and it was super inspiring and we felt really good after but it took most of the day and all that spiritual fire was doused by the humidity and more weekly planning on Friday.

Friday night we got rebuked hard core by the Spirit and vowed to do better. Saturday was a real test of our strength. We got rejected again and again. The whole day was just bad.

But unfazed by the hail and storm of the adversary we soldiered through to Sunday, were 100% Obedient and got 100% blessed. We were walking down the street heading to drop by an old investigator and some guy waiting to turn at the light just started honking. I am pretty used to this and even better at ignoring it. He persisted and just waited at the light until we looked over. I made eye contact with the driver (waving frantically to get my attention)  and when he knew he had my attention he pointed at me and pointed at the side of the road and then pulled over. Needless to say, Elder MacMillan and I were a little nervous about what was about to go down but we walked over anyway. He got out of his car and asked, "Are you with the Church?!" We said yes and he said something to the affect of, "Oh good. I want to go to church and stay on the path to God. Can we meet sometime and you can teach me more?" We were in shock. Usually we pull teeth to get numbers but this guy handed us his business card and asked when we would be calling. Supa sweet. We are calling him tonight and so I guess you'll hear about it next week. :)

I am about out of time so I will finish with a funny story and some quotes.

Yesterday in Sacrament the 1st Counselor got up to conduct the meeting and he is really...dry. He is kinda awkward and irreverent and just says weird stuff. We love him. Anyway. He gets up, tells a super lame joke about fathers day and gets basically no response, maybe a pity laugh or two and then the congregation goes silent. Right then this adorable little Filipino boy erupts into hysterical laughter. The timing was PERFECT and the entire congregation bursts up too. It was great. I'm giggling just writing it. Now everyone thinks I'm crazy....oh well.

Here are a couple good quotes that have helped Elder MacMillan and I in our quest to be better missionaries.

"If you are called upon to lay down your lives: Die like men. Should you have to walk right into danger and even the jaws of death: Fear no evil. Jesus Christ has died for you." -Joseph Smith

"External service is useless where there is no devotion of heart and life"-Whoever wrote the Bible dictionary

"Elder. Are you even thinking about Jesus right now?" Jared. Our Ward Mission Leader.

I'll save some for next week. :)

I love you all and want you to know that this church is true. Christ died for you and he will always welcome you with open arms when you turn to him.

Remember. The kingdom of God or nothing.

Love,

Elder Smit

Exhausted.

Dearest Family,

Before I left on my mission Melissa gave me some good advice. She said, "If you aren't tired as a missionary, you're doing something wrong."

I'm not saying I am the best missionary ever but I am exhausted. Like really. But I don't think I've ever had as much fun. Weird how that works out eh?

This week was great! Best part about it was the weather. It has been hot and muggy or hot and rainy since I got to Toronto but this week it was pleasantly warm and sunny. Quite enjoyable. In addition we have just had a great week. Finding new people and talking with lots and lots of people, meeting really interesting people, I love Toronto! Here are fun things that happened this week in no particular order.

We were riding in the elevator after tracting a floor of an apartment building when this African family gets on. There were two little girls and they were adorable! One of them came and stood next to me and just stared at me and smiled. I smiled back and she grinned and then looked down at my arm. She stared at it for a second and then started to gently stroke my arm....weird. What makes the story more strange is that her mom just sat there and watched her....Odd. They got off and left like nothing happened and despite our efforts would not accept our invitation to learn more. All the mom did was smile and wave goodbye....Such an interesting experience.

On Monday night we taught Lindsey the Law of Chastity. This lesson is always fun to teach and always has the Spirit but this time was incredible. The whole thing was great. We felt super inspired to share it in a particular way and to bring a particular member and everything went perfectly.The Spirit bore witness extremely powerfully of the truthfulness of the words we were saying and she agreed to live it. Incredible lesson. Definitely a highlight of my mission. Teaching with the Spirit is always a wonderful experience.

On Friday we crashed the Book of Mormon play again and it was so much fun. It is also terrifying. There more than anywhere I feel the Lord's promise that "You shall not be confounded before men." While there we are very much exposed to the outside world and the heckling and rejection gets pretty heavy. But without fail, no matter what they say and how funny they think they are, I am given what to say in this "hostile venue" and I can feel the Spirit testifying through me. One moment in particular this time around caught my attention. I approached a group of older people standing around smoking and waiting to go into the play. I said something sappy and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and then it began. They started to go off on me and tell me how dumb I was and asked me why I would waste my time doing something "silly." Oh boy. What happened next I can only attribute to the Spirit and the guiding influence of our Heavenly Father. When I started speaking, I was given what to say. I bore testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the divinity of our missionary purpose. I don't remember exactly what I said but it was awesome. The most surprising part was the absolutely humbled look on the faces of this group. One man in particular seemed most touched. I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray about its truth. Who knows if he will but he has the chance now. The whole night had experiences like that and it was sweet.

 We are working with a Less Active member Helena and her two non-member daughters, 10 and 13. The mother is from Sweden and is super nice and the daughters really want to come to church and to get baptized but the ex-husband is....a really bad guy. He just makes life miserable for the mom and won't let the girls go to church and all sorts of great things that make Christ-like love a difficult thing to have. We are hoping for a miracle and will need one. As soon as he stops being a loser, the girls will get baptized and they can move on with their lives but until then....we wait. This family needs a lot of prayers. Lots and lots.

We have been doing a lot of finding this week and it is exhausting without a car. We walk around all day long and get home and crash. Its crazy but super rewarding. We have a bunch of great investigators and one should be getting baptized soon. Her name is Jessica and she is sweet. She grew up with a lot of Mormon friends and liked them and when she was looking for a church she looked us up. She met with missionaries online and has been taught everything and is all set to get baptized she just wants to finish the Book of Mormon first and then she says she'd be ready. We have helped her to set up a reading schedule and she should finish soon and get baptized on the 30th!! Too exciting. We are really blessed to work with her.

I am so blessed to be a missionary and especially to be serving here in the Canada Toronto Mission. I love it hear and could not imagine serving anywhere else. I have learned so so much and I have grown a strong testimony of this church, this gospel and this work that we do. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything!

To close I am going to use a poem that I used in my talk in Windsor the day of transfers. The talk went really well and I was even quoted by some of the members in Gospel Doctrine soooooo I'm pretty much a big deal. :) I talked about the Good Samaritan and how we must play the role that God has asked and give our best no matter what or where that calling is. (Extremely fitting seeing as I was transferred the next day.) The poem is by Mead McGuire or something like that. I got it from a talk that I have recorded and can't just google it...:)

 

Not sure of the Title :)

 

"Father, where may I work today?"

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed out a tiny spot

And said "Tend that for me."

I answered quickly "Oh no! Not that!

Why, no one would ever see

No matter how well my work was done.

Not that little spot for me!"

And the word he spoke, no it was not stern.

He answered me tenderly.

"Ah little one, search that heart of thine.

Are you working for them or for me?

Nazareth was a little spot

And so was Galilee."

 

I hope this poem speaks to your heart like it did to mine. I invite you to ask yourself the question "Are you working for them or for me?" And for us all to do the will of Him who sent us.

Work hard, study hard, pray hard! Do good things!

Love,

Elder Smith

I got a library card!!

Hello all!!

How is everyone? I hope you are all doing extremely well and that you are all doing the greatest of things! This week has been spectacular and I really have no clue where to start.

Last week we got a media referral requesting a missionary visit but when we dropped by last Sunday she wasn't home and we couldn't meet with her. This week we did meet with her and she, her name is Marcia, was really interested and wanted to change her life. Her friend, Kristal,  was interested too so we picked up two new investigators last Tuesday. But things move extremely fast here in Toronto and by Thursday Kristal had asked us not to talk to her anymore and we lost contact with Marcia. She isn't answering her phone or texts or anything. Sigh. Satan.

Also on Tuesday we got a random text from a random number which turned out to be a former investigator that wanted to learn more again. He texted us and asked what God wanted him to do and we set an appointment and met with him. His name is Kevin and he is sweet. He is extremely prepared and very concerned with following the Spirit. He just wants to do God's will. He has cancelled an appointment since and wasn't at church but we still have high hopes for him. Pray for him!

Tuesday night we did something SUPER fun. The Book of Mormon play is showing in Toronto and so every night that it plays twocompanionships from our zone go and hand out copies of the Book of Mormon to people going into the show. Crazy. There were a lot of people and we handed out tons of copies. We got really into it and started yelling carnival style, "Get your Book of Mormon here! Seeing the play? Why not read the book?" A lot of people didn't believe we were real missionaries, thought we were handing out playbills, and took pictures with us. It was awesome. We are hoping to get to go again and to talk to more people. It was so much fun.

The rest of the week was just busy trying to find people and to teach the people we already found. Lots and lots of work to do and so many people who need this gospel....now if we could only get them to realize it. :)

Other highlights: -Lindsey quit smoking and is doing great. She still wants to get baptized but she isn't sure when. She loves the church and the Book of Mormon she just has a lot of anxiety about what other people think. Sigh. Women. ;)

-We went to the craziest store ever to get some things for the Stop Smoking Workshop that we do as missionaries. The store is called Honest Ed's and it is so cool. It sells everything you can think of and for super cheap. Seriously everything. Its huge and crazy and confusing. The catchphrase is "Come in and GET LOST!" I assure you. I got very lost. If anyone ever visits Toronto put Honest Ed's on the list. That is about it for this week.

My spiritual thought this week comes from Elder Chirstofferson's talk from the last General Conference.

"Inasmuch as we follow Christ, we seek to participate in and further His redemptive work. The greatest service we can provide to others in this life, beginning with those of our own family, is to bring them to Christ through faith and repentance so they may experience His Redemption—peace and joy now and immortality and eternal life in the world to come. The work of our missionaries is a magnificent expression of the Lord’s redeeming love. As His authorized messengers, they offer the incomparable blessings of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, opening the way to spiritual rebirth and redemption." 

I want to highlight the phrase "The greatest service we can provide to others in this life, beginning with those of our own family, is to bring them to Christ" Our purpose as children of God, who have the knowledge that we have, is to share that knowledge and to lift others along the way. We are here to helps others. That is our calling as missionaries and as children of God. We have a divine mandate to bring others with us. There are people who we have been called to help, inside our family and out and God is counting on us to help them. Do not let God down. Live true to the knowledge that you have received.

I love you all and I hope all is well. Work hard, have fun and do good things!!

Love,

Elder E. Smith 

Subway Eat Fresh!!

Greetings.

I have very little time.

The library wouldn't give me a card because apparently my proof of address was insufficient...Apparently this is a high security library. As such I have a short time left. Yay.

This week was awesome. I am super loving this city and this area. We ride the subway everyday and everywhere and there is ALWAYS someone to talk to. I am losing my bubble pretty fast. It is a very fast-paced city and the work here is too. We have a few pretty solid investigators and I only know one of them. The rest have been busy and we will meet them this week. Yay. The one that I know is Lindsey. She is a single mom and is extremely nice. She reads the Book of Mormom every night and loves it. She texts us ALL THE TIME and asks us questions about scriptures and prayers and just random things. It is awesome. She is doing very well and will probably be baptized pretty soon. Super exciting  Apparently we have two other really solid investigators but we still haven't met them...how solid they actually are will be discussed in next weeks email.

I love being a missionary so much. I love this gospel and the things that it teaches. The more I study and learn about this gospel the more I know that it is true. There is nothing that brings more happiness than this gospel and I know for a fact that it is true. You cannot deny the light in a persons eyes when they understand their divine potential and that Heavenly Father loves them. I love sharing that with these people and telling the world that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored. What a marvelous blessing! Never lose sight of the blessings that we have received as members of this church. It is too great to be overlooked and forgotten.

I love you all. Work hard, study hard, pray hard! Do good things!

Love,

Elder Smith.

Greetings from Toronto!

So.....I got transferred. 

I left my beloved Windsor behind and left to the Big City. Hogtown. The Big T. Toronto. Woo!

I am now serving in the Don Mills South area. My area is right next to the downtown area and covers the part of the city they call "The Danforth" thusly named for the street that runs through it, changes to Bloor Street, and then into downtown Toronto. We live at Danforth and Main and it is awesome. Lots of people and lots to do. Exciting. Oh and we are whitewashing which means my companion and I are both new to the area. 

My new companion is Elder MacMillan. He is sweet! He is from Calgary, Alberta. Until recently he was serving as a Farsi Missionary. He was in my first district when I served in Richmond Hill East and I love him to death already. Elder Hunt, from Richmond Hill West is also here and I love him lots. He is back in Korean work and he comes to our ward sometimes. Good!  

So I left Elder Warner in the hads of Elder Dewey and last I heard they are doing well. Sad to leave him. 

Well. I'm out of time.

I had a great study this morning. I read 2 Nephi 2 and it was great. I really learned alot. The whole chapter talks about how righteousness is the only way to happiness. When I realized this I saw verse 25 in a new light. If Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy, and joy is happiness, and happiness is righteousness then men are that they might be righteous. Game Changer. 

Work hard, Read the scriptures, do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

My new Address!!
265 Main St. 1709-C 

Toronto, ON M4C 1L5

Hello....again.

I just talked with you yesterday. For the sake of those of you who weren't there here is a quick recap. 

I am doing well. Linda was a church again and everything is set for them to get married in a week or two. As soon as Mark gets paid he is "putting a ring on it." Success. 

It was a fairly uneventful week otherwise. No new investigators. No crazy people. Just a pretty average week. We bike all the time now that it is nice out. We are working with a lot of Less Actives now. We have approximately 120 active members in our ward and 550 names on the records....We have our work cut out for us for sure. It is extremely overwhelming at times but with the Spirit's guidance it becomes manageable. Experience: I wasn't sure what to plan during our daily planning session one night so I took a minute and prayed to know what to do. Right then the name and face of one the members of our ward popped into my head. He hasn't been to church in a long time and we met with him once but he didn't keep our return appointment. I was a little surprised to think of him but went with it. When we visited him the next day he let us in and told us that last night he felt a "calling" to read the Book of Mormon and to return to church. We couldn't have shown up at a better time. The Spirit will guide us when we ask for it. 

Now for things I somehow forgot to mention yesterday. 

Al, now Brother Russell, got the preisthood yesterday!! It was such a cool moment. He is a hometeacher now and they are working on a calling. Super sweet to see. 

Mark, the soon to be husband of the soon to be baptized Linda, is a painter (along with a number of other things) and he has given me a beautiful painting of some mountians that he painted just for me. It is sweet and I just need to find a way to send it home....

That is all. Transfers are this week. Again. We'll see how that goes. The ward thinks I'm out of here because I have been here for....ever. We'll see. I love this area and this ward. I will be very sad to go. 

Love you all. Work hard. Eat right. Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

"Life isn't always as crispy as you expect it to be" - Elder Smith

DISCLAIMER: The subject line of this letter has very little to do with the actual happenings of this week. This week was, in fact, quite crispy. Thanks.

Hello!

First item of business! Winter is officially over and I am already officially sick of the heat! I need to work on loving the heat because at this point it makes me miserable. I got like triple sunburned this week with all the walking around we do. Hence the "crispy" week. Not fun. With the change in the weather, Windsor is a completely different city. During the winter it was cold, dark, and dead. People were more grouchy than not and there were few people outside of UofW campus and the Downtown area. Now that the weather is warm there are people EVERYWHERE. Downtown is packed. There are even hot-dog stands on the street corners! People are just out on their porch, usually drunk, but willing to chat. It is a completely different place. I guess they still have the familiar Windsor attitude but at least they smile when they tell us to get lost. :) I love it here. 

This week was fairly normal until Saturday. On Saturday we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders which is always a grand time. While they were here we changed the way the area was split a little and in that we gave up a sweet new investigator named Logan. We tracted into him a month or so ago and at the time he was super busy in his last semester of school and said to call him after exams. We called him a couple times, left a message and I was resigned to the fact that he wasn't as neat as we thought he was. To my surprise he called us Saturday night and asked for the Church address and said he was going to be there. It was sweet. He came it was wonderful and it wasn't until halfway through sacrament that I realized that he was now in the South Elders' area. :) If he wasn't we would have hit standards two weeks in a row but I am willing to give him up to help the South Elders out because they are struggling right now. Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. Am I right? Sad but happy. Souls coming to Christ are always happy. 

On Saturday afternoon, Elder De Moura (from Fortaleza, Brazil and my hero) and I had a lesson scheduled with a Persian Pentecostal Pastor. On our way to the meeting, I stopped a guy on the street. He frankly told me no, he was a Christian and he didn't need to learn more. The usual. We went on to our meeting and it was...awful. The Pastor's English was almost unintelligible and he was EXTREMELY passionate about the Bible. After about twenty minutes of him yelling at us in half English about how we were wrong, the guy who had rejected me on the street walks up. He introduces himself and informs us that he is a Baptist seminary student and that he'd like to hear what we have to say. We started teaching a lesson but both of them kept asking what Elder Warner calls "Twinkie Questions." They are all fluff and just make you fat (or in my case angry.) This turns into a bashing session and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, a Bible-thumping Ethiopian man asks if he too could join our conversation. So there we were in a coffee shop, getting yelled at by three extremely passionate people, being told we were wrong and trying our best to control the situation. After an hour and a half of this nonsense, Elder De Moura told them all to stop and asked them what, in there opinion, was required for salvation. All gave their answers (except the Pastor. He couldn't understand the question) and then Elder De Moura said, "According to your doctrine Mormons are saved. You can't be upset with us for trying to hard to be saved. Have a nice day." We gave them our card and left. It was crazy. Bible bashing makes me super angry and I hate it. It was a good thing that Elder De Moura was there or it wouldn't have ended well. :)  What fun.

My investigators are great. Linda FINALLY came to church on Sunday and I about died with surprise. She loved it and said she'll be back. We are working on a marriage date and then its into the water.:) Nothing else super exciting happened otherwise but overall a great week!

My testimony of the truth of this church was strengthened so much this week. After the bash on Saturday I did not feel the Spirit. I felt angry and afraid and contentious and it was awful. As the day continued, each time I prayed and refocused I felt the Spirit return. The contention had driven the Spirit away but prayer brought it back. It was incredible to feel the Spirit return and to feel that happiness the gospel brings. I love it. I love being a missionary. 

Well. Love you all. Hope everything is well. Do good things!

Love,

Elder Smith