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

AH! No time!!!

Hello!

So once upon a time, Elder Paul V. Johnson from the Quorum of the Seventy is touring our mission! Yay! Which means we got to receive training and instruction and all sorts of wonderful stuff from a servant of God! Yay! They didn't ask me to sing this time so someone else finally got the chance! Yay! That all happened yesterday so today is Preparation Day! Yay! Which means that our family history library where we normally do our emails is open to the public and thus we can't use it....not yay. Luckily we still have the regular old Library but they only give us one hour....Super not yeah. I have a hard enough time already. Sigh. Such is life. 

The week was really great and things are finally picking up. Contrary to my assumptions, the semester ending did not bring back our investigators. They are all going home for the summer. Well not all but most. The missionaries here in the Fall will be happy with us. You're welcome. But at the rate I am getting transferred I might still be here. I am alright with that. I love it here in Windsor and I left our Zone Conference ready to start the work with new energy and ideas. That's always nice. Good things to come here in Windsor. 

As stated above, the week was great. Super, super stressful but really great. We'll start with the bad news and then work our way to the good stuff. :)
So, in my assignment as District Leader, I am "in charge" of a group of missionaries and I am responsible for their welfare. Without going into any details really, there was some serious disobedience that occurred within my district and so much of my time and energy went into working that out. Not a fun experience at all. We got it mostly sorted out and improvements are being made which is really great. I love these missionaries and when stuff like this happens it just breaks my heart. To all those serving, about to serve or thinking about it: Please, please, please be obedient. I promise you that it is NOT worth it. Moving on :)    

Now to the good stuff. We found two new investigators this week:Valerie and Wayne. Valerie is in her 20's and is really searching for truth. She had a conversation about the church with one of the YSA members working at the hospital and it peaked her interest. She tried to come to church on GC weekend but left because she was two hours early. We finally got a meeting set up with her and she is doing great. She came to church Sunday, really enjoyed it and wants to come back. I am so grateful for this member who was willing to share the gospel. I think we shy away from it too much. We have a glorious blessing and we should want to share it with everyone. Share the Gospel!!          

Wayne was a referral from a member in Detroit. He is in his late 60's/early 70's and he is sweet. His brother was a Catholic Monk who found a Book of Mormon, read it four time and then called the missionaries to baptize him about ten years ago. He (the brother) is very intent on getting his whole family into the church. When we met with Wayne he told us that he's "not a Mormon..yet. We'll see what you can do." :) He is great and we expect good thing from him. 

I think I mentioned this last week but Linda is getting achingly close to the font. Mark has decided its time and we took them on a church tour on Saturday and it went very well and they said they would come to church. That morning we called them to remind them and to see if they were coming and Mark said that they'd come if it didn't rain because they ride the bus and didn't want to get wet and then sick. As soon as I hung up the phone I started praying that it wouldn't rain and didn't stop until Ward Council and then picked right back up while we waited for Sacrament to start. It rained. They didn't come. Sigh.  
But! Valerie and Albert (Shawna's little brother) and Khosi showed up!! It was great. I feel like we hadn't had an investigator at sacrament in ages. Khosi came out of no where. Missionaries have been working with him and his Less-Active mom for about a year now and they just showed up this week. Miracles happen. Just not the ones we expect. 

The conference yesterday was super inspiring and great and I wish I could say everything that was great but highlights are:
"We aren't after baptisms, we're after conversions."
"Don't be weird! You're here to build character, not be a character."- On how to be a good missionary and get referrals from members. 
"That's dumb!"-On thinking you won't make it to the Celestial Kingdom or aren't good enough.
It was great and that is all I can think of off the top of my head. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week and kill your exams! Work hard, study hard, pray hard! Do the best things!
Love,
Elder Smith
PS Last week we went out for Sushi with the other Elders in Windsor and it was SOOOOO good. I never thought that I would like it but it was super awesome.     

Greetings!

Hello!

This week has been...ummmm....slow is the only word that I can think of to describe it. We keep setting appointments only to have them cancel last second or just not answer the door. It hurts. This week, more than ever, the rejection as felt very personal. Like they are rejecting me and not just my message. I keep telling Elder Warner, "This is what separates the boys from the men." I just hope I turn out to be man enough to continue on. But as always there are rays of hope that keep us going. 

I am practicing tough love with Elder Warner. He is super shy and so I am breaking down his shell. For the first week, when he would turn to me with the deer in the headlights look, the fear obviously evident on his face, I would step in and help him out. This week, as heart breaking as it is, I have been throwing him quite abruptly into the deep end. It reminds me of Dad teaching us how to swim. We would spend a day or so learning how to doggy paddle and tread water, learning the basics and then he would lead us, like lambs to the slaughter, to the deep end to "see what it looks like." Ha. Then he would throw us in. It wasn't the gentlest of means but I'll tell you what, you learn to swim pretty quick. I've been doing it with Elder Warner and it has worked. We went tracting on Saturday and there were a couple doors that were pretty rough and I almost stepped in but didn't. After two particularly trying doors I was about to give him a break but told him to do one more. He knocked on the door, gave his approach and.........the lady was super nice, let us in, and we are going back next week! It was a relief to see that his work paid off. What a champ. I have nick-named him Elder "Can't Be Stopped" Warner. I don't use it because we aren't supposed to use nick-names but I think its pretty great. I called Elder Binford: Pokey. I'm a nick name wizard. :)

The rest of the week was pretty slow but we did make some progress with Linda! Mark has decided that it is time to get married and that he won't stand in the way. This has been the problem since day one. We had a plan to teach about prophets and some other commandments but I felt inspired to teach the Plan of Salvation. As we taught, I think the reality of the plan sunk in for Mark. That Linda couldn't get baptized until they were married and that if she isn't baptized she can't progress in this life. He stopped us mid lesson, out of the blue and said "You know what boys, I'm ready. I'm not going to stand in the way anymore. Linda, I will marry you."
            I was shocked. Ladies and Gentlemen. Miracles happen. 

I am doing well, loving mission life and really enjoying my studies. I recently finished the Book of Mormon and decided that this time as I read through that I would really study it. I have been reading a chapter a day and I have been astounded at the amount of things I am learning. There are stories and principles in the first five chapters I swear weren't there before. They have taught me a ton about leadership and how to help others to be obedient. It has been great. My favorite has been 1 Nephi 2:16-18. Nephi prays to know if what the prophet (his father) said is true. He gains a witness and the FIRST thing he does is tell his family. Sam believes his words and Laman and Lemuel don't. He rejoices with Sam and prays for Laman and Lemuel. It is a perfect type of member missionary work especially recent converts. I truly love the Book of Mormon and my testimony grows everyday that it was written for our time. I would urge all of you to read and I promise that you will find counsel and for your life. The answers are in the book. :)

Love you all. Work hard and do good things!!

Love,

Elder Smith

P.S. Feel free to email me! easton.smith@myldsmail.net I would love to hear from anyone and everyone!

Luvs!

Hello Family and Friends!

Hello (Canadian for Hello)

I hope you are having a wonderful week! Remember that you are all children of God and that He loves and cares for you! There are so many people in this world who don't know or understand this simple truth. Hold this dear to your hearts and never, ever forget. We are his children and He loves us. What a blessing this knowledge is!

This week was good. The hastening of God's work has slowed down a bit which is good because I felt like I couldn't keep up for a while there. But the work moves forward and the truth is marching on. It is a great time to be a missionary! Good news! While I was in Brampton picking up my new companion I got a chance to talk to the senior couple who replaced me in Midland. I had a freak out session as we talked about the success in the branch. Over the past few months they have had probably like 6 or 7 baptisms and I was excited to ask them who. Turns out that I had a hand in all of them. Marguerite, who got baptized right before I left, is doing great. She has since brought her mother and her daughter into the church and her husband and son in law are well on their way. They also baptized a family that we tried for ages to contact and were never able to teach. It was so nice to see them and to talk about how things are going. I expressed thanks to them for taking care of the branch and they expressed thanks to me for "laying the foundation." It was very nice to hear that my work was appreciated. Not necessary, but very welcome.

The work here is going well and we are keeping up. My new companion is Elder Warner! He is from Taylorsville, Utah and is 18! He is super great. He reminds me a bit of Ryan Rupper. Similar interests, same shy-ness but the same unconquerable spirit and willingness to do what needs done. It has been a fun past few days. We tried out our bikes. We had one bike that worked for a while but recently acquired a new one from a member who moved. So through a serendipitous series of events we found some helmets and we were off. It is hard stuff. My rear-end is incredibly sore and I am tired but it is fun. Just a little taste of what most missionaries go through. My heart goes out to them. I like my bus. We used the bikes only a little due to weather and a chain issue on one of the bikes. We are getting Elder Warner his bus pass today so we'll use the bikes sparingly.

We are meeting with Shawna's friend and it has been really great. Her name is Kelsey and she has little belief in God. She was raised in a rough home and seeing the gospel change her already is amazing. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and her eyes lit up as we talked. The simple knowledge that we are children of God is a life changing truth. I am excited to see where it goes.

I am loving the work still. I am loving training again. Its selfish but I always learn so much as a trainer and that is one of the reasons I love it so much. :) Good things are happening and it is sweet to see. I will leave you with a spiritual thought that I read this morning in Personal Study.

Proverbs 25:28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

Often, especially as missionaries, we feel that the rules or commandments limit our freedom and restrict us. We feel that God is telling us what to do, holding us back or limiting our rights. This need for freedom and thoughts that we know what we're doing lead us to break the rules and guidelines set for us by our loving Heavenly Father. But when we break these rules we break down the walls that protect us from the adversary and we lose the protection of the Spirit. When we keep the commandments and follow the guidelines we build up walls that protect us from the world and lay up in store the blessings in heaven. We may feel that rules restrict us and take away our freedom but in reality, they set us free from the bonds of sin and the influence of Satan. Listen to God. He knows what he is doing. 

Work hard, study hard, pray hard. Build a good foundation. Feed the right wolf. Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith