The Smith Family Newsletter

"The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place, nor fulfill its essential functions." - David O. McKay

Thursday, June 29, 2006

The King of Squash

Hello Hello,
As always another great week has gone by over here in warm and sunny England. I wish it was warm and sunny! At least it was a good week pretty much all around otherwise.

By the way, thanks a lot for the package with all the stuff I had mentioned wanting. The Claritin, brownies, peanut butter m&ms, Napoleon Dynamite thingy and frisbee we're awesome.

It actually went to the old flat, so the sisters had given the package to me. They took a black pen and crossed off the contents so it would be kind of a surprise. We had just gone to see some of their investigators as there kind of handing them over since they go home on Thursday(the 29th). Elder Graham was like "I don’t think I've ever had a better brownie in my whole life...your mom keeps them so moist...I don't get how she does it". So, basically, thanks a lot...it was great driving around eating M&Ms.

For teaching and stuff this week has been absolutely awesome, as well as events and stuff. As it was the last transfer for President and lots of people, things seem to be constantly happening. I'll start from the beginning.

Last Wednesday we had the last kind of pday for the transfer, as a normal one, since pday will this week be on the transfer day...so lots will be happening. We had a couple of different companionships come up and play squash which was way fun. I definitely love playing it. I wonder if it has to do with being able to win always...don't know, but at any rate, I always love getting to play. It's especially good to be able to see the other missionaries. I can remember back in the days of like Gloucester and Swindon, how boring or dull pday usually was...and I never felt like I was getting a real break from the work. Obviously preaching the gospel is fun...but a lot of the time, you're kind of kept on this alert status, which pday brings you off of for a few hours, so you can relax and cope...then your back up. Lately pdays been awesome..work hard all week, do something fun, and then get back to things. After some squash, we went to a Portuguese restaurant called Nandos, which is relatively cheap but makes some real high quality chicken so that was sweet. One of the Elders, elder jones was sweatin since he got the extra hot style one...crazy guy. Pday seemed pretty quick and that's always good...I think of everything I do on my mission, I like to tech most...you really do have a special feeling as you do so.

That night, Wednesday, we got back into the swing of things with first teaching Ellen. She's the lady that went away for about a week and a half to Hull to see her brother. When she got back she was obviously way more chilled out and relaxed which was cool. Now when we come to see her, usually she's just waking up from a little snooze or something since her bodies not all crazy on caffeeine anymore it's gotten easy for her to relax and just cope with life without it. Brother Chatfield the member that we brought with us, just went off on this long schpiel and kept yapping and yapping. I wrote on my palm to Elder Graham "Lets teach something short, come back without him". So, Elder Graham goes "Ok, well, we don't have a lot of time.." and throws down a quick kind of spiritual thought and we reschedule. I just wanted to slap that guy...the first time we met him, he did the same thing with us and I basically said "Probably won't be teaching with him" but I thought...hey worth a try. Obvvvvviously not happenin. Oh well, he had his glory, now he can just talk her ear off at church. We ended up rescheduling for the next day which was way smart.

Thursday was a pretty sweet day for teaching, we had like 4 real teaching appointments along with some usual finding and things. In the afternoon we went and saw a lady named Sylvia, who's about 65 I would say. We had tracted into her a week earlier and she gave the usual old lady thing: "I think it doesn’t matter about which church you join, just if you are a good person". In the back of my head I was like "uhh ok whatever" but just committed her to read Alma 32, pray if it was true and we'd come back and chat about it. Well, on the door we knock, and in we went. We sat down and she told us her homework was done, and as well, well beyond what we had expected. She had read the whole first book of 1 Nephi. I was like thinking "Sweet...wonder if she learned anything". She then proceeded to tell us about laman and Lemuel, versus Nephi...the vision Lehi and Nephi had, and about Faith in Alma 32. I was like 'ok...so she can remember stuff....does she think its true?" so I asked if she prayed to ask if it was true. She was like 'nope, I just felt like it was...as I read it just seemed clear that it was..I haven’t actually prayed for it, but I feel I have it already". Sweet. We talked about a number of things before leaving and setting up a return appointment. Just as an update, she called Monday morning to cancel due to family issues and we'll try back today. I just quickly asked her 'what'd you thik of what you read?" "it was wonderful I really enjoyed it". We gave her 2 nephi 2 and the Plan of salvation pamphlet. We're going to try dropping in on her today.

This is kind of a random add in...I was writing this on like Wednesday morning and now I'm writing a bit more in between on the Thursday. Yesterday we went to see Sylvia again, well Elder Graham and 2 other missionaries did while I was dropping and picking people up from the office. Anyhow, they all went in, just dropped in on her, and before they said anything she goes something like "This plan has to be true, living before this life with God...it just has to be" We had, as I mentioned left the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. So, that was sweet right away her saying that. As they progressed with the lesson, in going and talking about and reviewing the Plan of Salvation, she mentioned how much again she knew it was true. As they continued to talk, they mentioned our Earth life, and what the purpose was. Elder Graham was kind of hesistant at first to say what he wanted, but with a prompt from Sylvia after they mentioned baptism where she said "So, my first 2 baptisms don't mean anything?" Graham was like "Nope", and then proceeded to ask her to get baptised. What'd she say? YEAH! So that was way exciting. Elder Graham was like "We'll have you read 2 Nephi 31 for our next meeting", and she was like "Okay, I'm just about there anyway, i'm at 2 Nephi 30". Graham said he was totally surprised by that, but also totally happy. So yah, thus far she's one of the solidest investigators I've found...and it was done by tracting. Time to see about getting her to church and everything else. She's committed to be there on sunday!!

The rest of the day was tracting till about 6 when we went to see Alex Agyei, the guy that got baptised. We went with David Mills our Ward Mission Leader. Just as a kind of funny aside...when we were over at his house watching football on the Tuesday after our DA with him and his wife and kids, we kind of got to talking and he was like "You know, I"m only 27, I'm not all that much older than you guys...you can just call me David". It was kind of a weird shock almost, because he's got a job, a car, a wife, a house, a pretty much solid life..and he's only like 27 which for England is always like not possible. I always kind of look at him like he's like 35 or something. Now every time we talk to him, and since I"m pretty much used to calling everybody Brother or Sister its always like "Hey Broo...errrr David!" and it always sounds so weird...kind of like when people call me Scott, i'm like "Who's that?" He was telling us we could just call him Lord, or Sir if he wanted, since everyone at his office calls him Sir...he works in the court system.

Anyway, he came with us for the night to see and teach Alex and Ellen. We kind of went over Priesthood with Alex as he had just been baptised. It went very well, but it was also pretty quick since we had to head over to Ellen's. I had to run out like halfway through the lesson since AP Super E Silva was calling me about some of the people getting baptised in our zone...so I didn't really catch much of the lesson.

Next we dropped in on Ellen again, and this time things we're way more chill and we were able to teach. Brother Mills, or David...I just can't stop doing that, let us teach, and we then, let him say a few things. The perfect situation. Ellen's situation has just been a bit crazy but also pretty cool. She had to go away for like 2 weeks which sucked, but while doing dominated the Word of Wisdom, and then she came back with her brother...who's now driving her insane which is hilarious. She's always like whispering and mouthing it to me "I'm going crazy, he's driving me nuts". They haven't seen each other in so long...and now l the time together it's just doing her head in. With her, on Sunday she wasn't able to make it since an assessor for some claims thing dropped by to see her. Apparently she got in an accident with some friends, where she got hit by a truck driver, and now she's getting sued by her "friend"...sucks big time. So overall she's doing great, no more smoking, she's way happier living the Gospel, and she's even found someone to date that apparently she thinks is great! We told her though if he does anything stupid or hurts her...we got her back.

After a pretty good day, we went home, got some sleep and relaxed in preparation for Zone Conference. It was another good one, and Presidents last. We got there around 9 and started to leave around 4 or 5...it was a pretty long day. They had all the returning missionaries share there testimonies...and there were like 40 of them, so it took awhile. I did my best to stay awake, but nodded off a few times when the usual dudes that don't really know what's going on we're giving advice for 10 minutes, sharing thousands of pointless experiences or just generally wasting time. Overall it was good though, the guys from my zone had a contest to see who could do the shortest. Sister Pehrson and Larson tied at about 38 seconds..if only we could have that in Sacrament, short and powerful. The conference was way cool though also. It started with Millie Munday doing D&C Section 4, and she dominated that. President then talked to us for about 2 hour and kind of gave us his instruction to departing missionaries...as if we were all going. He gave a lot of great advice, I don't think I'll mention it all here...he talked about everyday reading/prayer at home, committed us to a maximum of 3 second kiss when we get home(haha that was funny hearing that from him), and overall keeping our principals, never yielding to try to get ahead, and staying temple worthy. Most everything was very simple which I appreciated, but it was definitely necessary to remind. One thing I liked a lot was his advice to save always 10% of my income in a bank account I can't access, and then always put in 50% of any bonus's I receive to it. A lot of good advice.

After the discourse on all those things, and eating Papa Johns pizza yet again with IBC Root Beer(be still my heart...) we went back in after lunch to hear the departing Munday family talks. They were way cool and totally funny...especially the kids. Sister Munday and President we're especially great. Sister Munday talked a lot about her lack of confidence early on in her mission and how she's grown a lot...but when Sister Moffat comes, you need to take care of her and talk to her...not let her come to you as that's kind of scary. I'll really miss her. When President got up, he did something especially sweet at the beginning of his talk. He was like "I've been playing squash for about 3 years now on my mission, and i've always used the same ball to beat the missionaries. I've though long and hard what I should do with the ball, and I've decided to give it to someone...where's Elder Smith?" Just before all of that he talked to me and told me how to act...so it was all choreographed. I went up, and kneeled, and he took his squash racket and knighted me...then told me to arise, like Nephi, and handed me the ball. He went on to say that it was now the challenge for the mission to come and beat Elder Smith, and try to get the ball from him. I was challenged like 5 times...during his talk, by different missionaries. Should be exciting. He closed his talk with his testimony, somewhat choking up, and I was too a bit, rrealising now that he was really leaving. We closed with "If you could Hie to Kolob" and he gave us one last chance to give him and Sister Munday hugs. He gave me a big bear hug since he's the size of one...and told me he was proud of me, and that the first thing I needed to do when I landed at home was call him, which I committed to. We then sang "God be with you till me meet again" as a mission...and took off, it was a pretty surreal day, but it was good. That was pretty much all of Friday.

Saturday was more or less in the beginning of the day some finding, with more appointments at the end. We had two appointments in the evening which we took a member named Nick Russell with us too...he's about 25, and married, and definitely a good teacher..I was way impressed. We first saw Frank and Helen, who get baptised tomorrow. We taught them the Plan of Salvation, and for once they totally shut up. Usually they chat and get off on tangents, but Helen's finally gotten the point...of my many points, to let us teach so you can learn. It was way cool actually. She especially liked the Adam and Eve segment about how what they did was a GREAT thing, and all part of the Plan. As we closed, Helen and Frank said that made perfect sense, and that was way clearer than any other plan they'd heard and knew straight away it was true. The plan of Salvation tends to do that. We bounced off to see Anthony, Elisabeth and Alia...but only found Anthony, as he and elisabeth broke up and she moved out(uh..sweet!) We initially asked him if he read...which again he hadn't, which I just asked a kind of disappointed "Why not?"...and he could feel the kind of tension in it. I did my best to be devastated, as hard as it is when teaching people. We nicely rebuked his efforts, and testified it was important to do it next week, which he promised to. This week will be make or break for him. It was a good lesson overall, but I think his hearts still not fully listening, or he's not entirely in the lesson...because when we asked him to come to church, after explaining the Restoration and that his church was wrong for the 3rd time...he said "i'm going to my church tomorrow". We left, called up Alia, and made an appointment for monday...which turned out great.

Alia's like half Zimbabwean and half South African. We've now taught her 3 times, the first being with Anthony and Elisabeth. She kind of sat off to the side just listening and marking up 3 Nephi 11 as we read it. As we talked to her, we found out she had missionaries previously and also had had Joy to the World and FFIC DVDS...so that was cool. We gave her a Book, asked her to read and showed up Monday. We taugt her the Plan of Salvation, which she was really happy about. It was even cool because she was asking questions she wasn't sure about...like evolution, she asked skeptically "Is it true?". We just busted open genesis, had her read about who's image we're created in...and all of that was resolved, and she smiled big. She's about 19, and African..very humble and cool. Her flat is covered with like Sisqo, 50 Cent, Alia and other black american rappers and movie stars...everywhere, especially like Beyonce and the Destinys Child people. I feel like I"m back at college when I teach her. We committed her to read, 2 Nephi 2 and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left. We came yesterday, Wednesday, with Elder Wood from Solihull, me and Graham and Brother Masih. Since Elder Wood never gets to teach in solihull...since I know it's tough, we told him we wanted him to teach the gospel, and also project her for baptism. He taught one of the best lessons I'd seen, and when we got to baptism, he invited, and she accepted for July 15th. Sweet. He had this big smile on his face, and so did she...both kind of hiding there joy as there both kind of shy. We invited her to read 3 Nephi 27, and to the baptism friday, which she said she'll be at. As we left I was like 'how'd that feel?" Elder Wood was like "Man, I haven't projected someone in like 7 months...that was awesome". Just got to hold her strong till the day. She's way cool.

So I think I covered Ellen, Frank and Helen, Anthony, Alia, and Sylvia. We are just beginning to teach the Sisters projections since they left yesterday, who are 3 black guys from Nigeria.
It's been a really fun week altogether, with new investigators turning into good ones, as well as just having a good time. The Sisters leaving was a bit sad definitely as they became really good friends with me and Elder Graham over the past 6 weeks. We went over to Helen and Frank's last night, with there invitation for a barbeque, which we invited the Sisters to as well. It was a pretty fun night just out in there Garden patio eating Costco burgers the Sisters had bought, and just relaxing. It felt cool to be with investigators about to get baptised, and with the Sisters talking about them going home, how they felt and also BRT'in with Helen and Frank moreso. I've never seen such good sister missionaries. 2 transfers ago we had a kind of waster set of missionaries, but Sister Pehrson and Del Vecchio just dominated this transfer. When we saw them off yesterday, they even had made us pillow cases which was totally cool. It was a white pillow case with a picture of our District from Mission olympics on it. Just like everyone else, i'll definitely miss them.

That's pretty much the week and what's happening. Today, Thursday, is transfer day so we're getting about 1 new person for every companionship. We're getting 2 new sisters in Coventry, as well as 2 new Elders to share our huge flat with us which I'm really looking forward to. I'll just have to make sure I get as much study time...but also keep my eyes open for opportunities to help the other younger guys out. I've always loved my Zone Leaders for the way they've helped me grow, I always just hope that I'm doing the same for them. Hopefully we can keep everyone working hard. When I spoke with Elder E Silva last night and told him we should be having about 3 more projections to report on Sunday he was like shocked, and said "Your zone is pretty much leading the mission". Now we've just got to stay strong, and keep pushing everyone to find and baptise. I've started to like the pressure, and the feeling that there's just not enough time in a transfer to relax...always have to be finding.

That's about it for me, I just spent the morning starting reading Jacob 5. I actually haven't even read a single verse yet, but I just got my materials ready and prepared by reading some of the Institute Manual. I'm a bit intimidated but we'll see what happens. In the past, just like the Isaiah stuff, I just skipped over it. This past time though I dominated Isaiah and actually worked through it and loved it. Hopefully the same can happy with Jacob..and this morning I realised it's going to be great.

Thanks again for all the great emails and packages, love and prayers, I really do need them and love you for them. Have a great week and keep up all the good things your doing. I love
you.

Love,
Elder Smith