The New El Presidente
Hey Smith Fam,
First I want to say: NO MORE MRS FIELDS? How are you coping with that mom? What am I going to get you when I go to the mall in the future...I'm not even sure it's worth shopping at that mall anymore!
So anyway, just looking at my emails today from everyone I've got like over 7...so that should be exciting reading those. Just so everyone knows, I really miss all of you. I've been especially missing you all lately because of that new missionary Elder Bonilla. He's got this really strange habit of looking at pictures from home...I just don't get it. Just kidding! But seriously, he's always looking at his pictures and talking about his friends from home, etc. It just makes me laugh a bit kind of being a reminder of when I was where he was...ie...a LONG WAY from home.
It's always way fun to tell greenies they have 800 days left and just scare them, because nomatter how much you love your mission, it still seems like you'll never be getting home with that many days left...I was intimidated in the MTC, but it's not even a thought now.
So, my week, how was it? How much work, fun and play did we get in? Well, to start off with since we last heard from each other, we had pday. On this very special pday, I was challenged by another Zone member, Elder Furzliff to a game of squash. He was cocky, talking it up, and excited. His hopes and dreams of taking my ball we're destroyed immediately. He came out on the court, swinging hard, playing with adrenaline..and I just dominated him. Me and President Munday we're taking strategy about different players and he just mentioned that he plays hard, but to just keep it tight on the wall and he'd never touch it. I did just that, and the whole game was him pretty much angrily destroying his raquet against the wall. Mmm, feels great to still be the champ. I'm hoping to find someone better soon...otherwise I might just have to start training a successor.
At the end of our pday, we we're able to counterbalance the worldly physical fun with some spiritual fun. We met up with Alex Agyei, the17 year old convert and briefly talked to him. His biggest concern is his lack of confidence, people skills and inability to have fun. We said "Come with us", and we went off and taught Helen and Frank Johnson. It was a great experience really, first off, Frank was going off and saying "You should have warned me what would happen". Now, I was thinking that there could have been all sorts of bad stuff happening to him since he got baptised...and there was a few things,which I'll mention. But he was talking about the promptings he was now feeling from the Holy Ghost. He said that he literally felt words being placed in his mind moreso than ever before. When he and his wife had a fight, he was prompted to pick something up off the floor which was "The Family Proclamation", and after reading that, he sorted his problem out, and apologised to his wife. Apparently apologies are something that rarely are issued from Frank's mouth...so both he and Helen we're kind of astonished. I was just sitting back physically exhausted from squashing, taking it all in, and smiling...as much as my lips could! Along with hearing about their new found baptismal offire skills, we first had them explain how to be more entertaining and exciting to Alex. Helen can talk for ages, and be really cool...and she penned it all down to experiences in life. We all explained how, to be interesting, funny, a good friend, or family member, is all about having experiences and getting out there in life. We keep telling Alex he's going to get loads of that on his mission...which he's way impatient for.
Along with some interesting experiences, Frank and Helen also toldus some kind of depressing news..but at the same time some good news. Apparently some members of Franks Masonic Lodge, where he's the Master this year, have been kind of talking some anti-mormon stuff at him, and Helen's been having different pastor/priest friends calling her up and introducing her to all sorts of craziness. Helen was like "So, I just went on the internet to look for myself". I was like "YIKES", in my head, thinking all was lost or they'd been put off. But Helen in her usual chilled out sweet way was like "It's just a bunch of rubbish, I know what's right and what's not...they just put half truths up there", which me and Elder Graham reinforced that, yes they do. We we're really glad they'd been smart and followed the spirit, but I gave them one little extra idea that President Munday told us once: "Once you've read all of the words of Christ, then you can goand read the anti-Christs". I've always loved that, and do my best to steer clear of anything dodgy. I left that appointment feeling as though now there'd be nothing in there way in the future.
Wednesday was a pretty busy morning full of meetings, and actually it was pretty much the whole day like that. As our zone is way new, and we wanted to get around and meet and see everyone, we drove down to the 2 District Meetings in Rugby, and also ours, in Coventry. Elder Peterson in Rugby is a bit of an amateur now moreso, and not as much a rookie...but he's definitely still coming along. He gave a great District Meeting on Remembering..specifically, Remembering Christ, which is entirely what the Gospel is about. He mentioned 5 things as well that prevent us from doing so: Discouragement,Disappointment, Despair, Distraction and Doom.
Doom was last on the list and especially hit hardest. All of those things slowly lead upto Doom, which said a bit better, is basically a lack of, or total loss of Hope. Satan's entire plan is to make us lose hope in our lives, so as to both lose faith and Charity and ultimately our Remembering of Christ, which then destroys missionary work, our eventual families, as well as our happiness.
Elder Peterson closed very well in reminding us to continue to do the everyday things that we're reminded of Christ by, to never go a day with putting him beside us, or away...otherwise we'll lose that hope, and meet Doom.
As our Coventry District Meeting was next, we rushed back driving to make it, and met up with the District. Elder Thomas, is a brand new District Leader, so it was definitely a fun time watching him struggle through things and trying to figure them out as he taught. He gave a great first district meeting on the power and authority of our calling. He talked a lot about how we have been set apart from the world, and that's a real, literal thing. That implies a virtue in our hearts and minds that needs to always be there for the Lord to work through us. I tend to forget sometimes where my calling has come from, and who's the one that told me to go and serve. I think of the Stake President, or the Bishop sometimes, but altogether miss the fact that I've had, more or less, vicariously, Christ's hands laid on my hand and said "Go forth and preach the Gospel to all the nations". That was really exciting to realize that...even though I already knew it, but to go out again having that in my mind. Elder Thomas is learning the aspect of confidence, so he was a bit unsure of what he was teaching, but the message and spirit of it, was strong, and I was very impressed.
After getting reminded of our calling, me and Elder Graham rushed out to another appointment with Sylvia. We had decided to re-teach the Plan of Salvation, and re-emphasize the points that we're most important. It was one of the best teaching appointments I've had in along time. We had been kind of going through it more or less straight, when we got to the Creation of the world, and explained how Christ was the Creator. This seemed to trigger an idea in her mind which then she asked a question based upon a chapter in Mosiah "Why is Christ the Father, I thought there we're 3 separate people?"Initially we said "Yeah, there are 3 separate people..but Christ is also titled the Father for a few reasons". Rather than just explain with my own words, we opened to a few different passages of scripture, either in Ether, Mosiah, and a few other places.
From those we explained that Christ is the Father by Divine Investiture of Authority, or simply he speaks for the Father, He is the Father or Creator of the Worlds, He is Father of the Resurrection, and also theFather of our Spiritual Salvation. She was like "Wow, cool, I totally had never thought of it that way...but that makes sense". Keep in mind, this is like a 65 year old lady...so obviously she doesn't talk like that, because if she did, she'd obviously be the coolest 65 year old woman ever. As we progressed through the lesson Elder Graham was really struggling not to invite her to be baptised again...we both felt it wasn't the time. Instead we invited her to read a specific chapter on repentence, and committed her to ask the lord to forgiveher for her past mistakes...and to make restitution now. She was A-okay with that. Hopefully when we go see her tonight, we can gether to church this next week. That way we can slam down the baptismal invite again as she's feeling the spirit, and get her dunked.
The rest of Wednesday went way smooth. We went and taught Alia inthe evening, which as always seems just like us talking, her listening and occasionally asking a question...and her being totally fine with the commitments. This time it was Word of Wisdom and Chastity."Okay". She totally took those way easy and I was glad we didn't have anything like that to struggle or push through. Alia ended up coming to church again, and is all set for baptism this Friday which is going to be great. Haha, she was like asking us "Can I wear a shower capwhen I get baptised?" so as not to ruin her hair. Me and Elder Graham we're just giggling at that, and said No problem.
Hopefully she doesn't have any sins hidden in her hair...that could be bad...wait wait, I've got a way corny joke "The sins will be upon herhead"...good one huh?! Loser missionary I am becoming. So that was Wednesday, and it was Great!
Thursday morning we attended another District Meeting. Our Solihull one was given by Elder Wood, who's a brand new District Leader....AND Trainer, so that's pretty exciting. He's been hanging in Solihull for quite awhile now being junior companion, but now it's his time to step up.
His new companion and greenie, is Elder Nicholson, from Utah. He's a real cool guy, way into music, especially jazz stuff and just like another member of our zone, loves to juggle...which I had to laugh at when he told me that. Seems like my zone is getting all of the musicians and jugglers.
So anyway, his lesson to us was a compilation of the subjects: Obedience and Prayer. He talked a lot about the process after which God gives us his laws, in how, either we accept them, or reject them and how ultimately that either leads us toEternal Life, or a lower Kingdom. He gave one really cool scripture in PSalms 119:97 that says "Oh How I love the law", and also John 8:31-32 which says "If you continue in my word...Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." and lastly Psalms 56:4 which says "In God I have put my trust". All of these things imply we love, follow and trust God, and that we will rely upon him and his truths, to make us happy, and also safe. I really enjoyed as well how he tied in prayer, as he emphasized its importance to never take it forgranted, to never forget, it's our lifeline to Heavenly Father that should never be cut off. He also emphasized how being obedient to the commandments, entitles us for the light of Christ, and the Spirit to be with and in us...which makes possible true answers to our prayers. He gave us a couple thoughts on prayer from President Marion G.Romney, which said:
1. Prayerfully weigh the options in your mind
2. Submit in prayer the problem, and that we want to do the Lord's will, not ours
3. Ask for the burning in our bosom, the clarity, to know the truth
4. When we receive peace and enlightment, we know its right
5. When we receive a stupor, or a confusion, a darkness..and we basically forget, then Heavenly Father's giving us the thumbs down.
I really liked hearing that, because prayer most people expect to be a question answer between us and God...when in reality its us really using our basic judgements, and more or less confirming what we believe to be right with him. He's not just giving us the answers, he wants us to learn and develop our own guidance based upon the spirit. Afterwards I felt really charged up and off we went. The rest of the day was pretty much just tracting, and we ended by having Correlation Meeting at the Chapel with David Mills, our super cool ward mission leader....who also, we just found out, was Elder Graham's sisters District Leader on his mission with her in France...small world I know.
Friday was my first opportunity to meet the Presidente. We had ourMission Council with him and all the Zone Leaders. Me and Elder Graham got there about an hour early to study, but also of course, to possibly get an extra few minutes talking to him. And whatdya know, it worked!
He came in to the office early, said hi, and invited us into his office. He told us he had met our parents and how great that was, asked how long we had been zone leaders and got a few kind of niceties outta the way. He then jumped into some business. The sisters in our zone, the previous day or so had driven all the way down to the office, and spent 2 and a half hours talking to him about their problems. They just can't get along, especially Sister Steele who is a self-titled Princess basically(who thus far I want to punchin the face). He expressed to us that we need to do our best to make them happy...but not council them or try to fix things. It's way weird having Sisters, or basically just missionaries, and not really being able to do anything.
Usually if there's a problem, me and Elder Graham jump in to try to help...but in this case, they just run to the President...so that kinda bugged me. Oh well, we'll see what we can do!
The meeting started a bit late due to some traffice(or basicallypeople not thinking) and we got into things. It was the first onewhere Sister Moffat, ie, the Presidents wife was there. I think before Sister Munday was always busy with the kids, but President Moffat explained that they were set apart together, and that their circumstances made it possible for them to always be together serving.
I was straight away really impressed, but most importantly really happy with the new President. He just seemed really excited, happy, humble and lacking some confidence...which is definitely expected. He's been an interesting change from President Munday, but I love both anyway. His wife I think is a pretty cool lady, and is way opposite Sister Munday, with lots of confidence, and is obviously very assertive. She reminded me kind of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter, who as she sat at the back would occasionally say something and add in. The meeting was very much open, and everyone was giving ideas and thoughts. This time around there was more than just a few people speaking which was cool. Pretty much we went over the usual stuff...lack of people at church, and how we need to do better thatsort of stuff. There were a few changes though, which are definitely interesting.
1) The Zone Leaders, along with the President will be teaching at Zone Conferences...that's me!
Yikes! And I think that's really the only change more or less. It was a great meeting for sure as always, especially with Subway and Root Beer at the end! Gotta love it! Saturday was a totally sweet day. We had a Stake Athletics Day held at a Track, so we brought Alex the recent convert, and Alia the investigator and had loads of fun. They both got involved in the running, and we played football and met loads of members. At first it was drizzling a bit, but then it shaped up and the sun came out. It was so beautiful. My favorite part, and the culmination of my life Goals, was that they had the Sumo Suits at the event. You could put a big padded suit on, and Sumo wrestle on a small mat. Ever since me and Dad used to see that done at half time shoes at Nets games, I've always wanted to. Finally I did...and it was awesome. Me and Elder Dalton went crazy and just nailed each other. I was doing the sumo thing where you raise your legs and slam them down. I got a few pictures of that to remember.
After the fun, we got dressed and went and taught two of our new investigators, James and Shane, two 20 something kids from SouthernIreland. They had the sweetest accents, and they were wayCatholic...but looking. Initially they were like "Do you believe inMary?" which Elder Graham kind of answered in a slightly contentious way so they were like "Well she is also your mother so we should prayto her". Then I jumped in and was like "She's the mother of God so wedo reverence her and she's a cool lady...so anyway..." type of thing.We taught them a Restoration lesson which went way cool. As always the spirit was way strong and it always tends to do this confounding thing where despite the newness of the message, there were no questions....always crazy. They were pretty funny too, tellin us about Ireland and how everyones crazy from there. The ones in the North blow everything up and the ones in the South are fighters...that's what I learned from them.
We next drove to a Baptism in Warwick which President Moffat and his wife attended. I thought it showed a lot of excitement, and also commitment to make time to go to that and support the Elders. It was a great baptism, and I was way impressed President came...the Elders I think we're especially happy about him making it and being able to see there hard work.
Sunday was a pretty good day, we taught Ishmael and his new friend Costa, who's a Muslim from Kenya. I love teaching African people.They love God, and there always so happy...it just makes the spiritfeel so much stronger. Towards the end of our Discussion on Faith from Alma 32 he was like "I like your preaching very much, I look forward to next Sunday". I'm always happy about that! THe rest ofthe day was pretty slow. We actually went over to Alex's house during the World Cup to fix Elder Graham's palm...which I did...but ended up destroying mine, so that was a huge bummer. I'm probably going to sell the broken one and buy a new one since otherwise I miss out on being able to type into it for my emails, read the scriptures and do all sorts of really good gospel study stuff. I went home about to stab someone in the face...in the last week I've lost my bag, broke my palm and that day as well a couple of the people planning to get baptised said they weren't ready.
Monday I was still fuming a bit in the morning, but doing my best not to freak out over things I couldn't control. I decided to fast, so as my focus would be brought back a bit, but also because I felt like I needed the power of the spirit more so. I'm still really unsure with a few things as to my future for what I need to do, so Ithought it might give some clarity, but especially so the Lord can work through me so I can help the zone. The day was rainy, I was hungry, my palm was broken, BUT me and Elder Graham pretty much cheerfully knocked all the doors and taught happily. I was really impressed with my ability to stay motivated. The day was like winter again, so I was dreading that. Towards the end of the day we picked up a washer for Ellen, and brought it over and installed it for her before we taught. That was way cool....just learning basic things like installing a washer, or learning how to replace a fuse in a plug was definnitely worth it for my future...plus you shouldn've seen the smile on her face when we we're done. We were like "Hey...now you can actually be clean!" We taught a really solid lesson on baptism, and she's commited for the Saturday following this one...so pray for her that nothing else prevents her from missing Sunday.
That's the week...its' been a good one. It's been great having the 2 other Elders in the flat...sometimes Elder Graham is a bit quiet andreserved, so I really enjoy just relaxing, talking, and especially teaching at the end of the day to them. I love the gospel subjects and discussions we have...they really make everyday, no matter how bad, worth it. I really love the gospel, and I love being able to testify of its truth. I hope each of you can continue to do the same, in your everyday lives. I love you all,
Love,
Elder Smith
First I want to say: NO MORE MRS FIELDS? How are you coping with that mom? What am I going to get you when I go to the mall in the future...I'm not even sure it's worth shopping at that mall anymore!
So anyway, just looking at my emails today from everyone I've got like over 7...so that should be exciting reading those. Just so everyone knows, I really miss all of you. I've been especially missing you all lately because of that new missionary Elder Bonilla. He's got this really strange habit of looking at pictures from home...I just don't get it. Just kidding! But seriously, he's always looking at his pictures and talking about his friends from home, etc. It just makes me laugh a bit kind of being a reminder of when I was where he was...ie...a LONG WAY from home.
It's always way fun to tell greenies they have 800 days left and just scare them, because nomatter how much you love your mission, it still seems like you'll never be getting home with that many days left...I was intimidated in the MTC, but it's not even a thought now.
So, my week, how was it? How much work, fun and play did we get in? Well, to start off with since we last heard from each other, we had pday. On this very special pday, I was challenged by another Zone member, Elder Furzliff to a game of squash. He was cocky, talking it up, and excited. His hopes and dreams of taking my ball we're destroyed immediately. He came out on the court, swinging hard, playing with adrenaline..and I just dominated him. Me and President Munday we're taking strategy about different players and he just mentioned that he plays hard, but to just keep it tight on the wall and he'd never touch it. I did just that, and the whole game was him pretty much angrily destroying his raquet against the wall. Mmm, feels great to still be the champ. I'm hoping to find someone better soon...otherwise I might just have to start training a successor.
At the end of our pday, we we're able to counterbalance the worldly physical fun with some spiritual fun. We met up with Alex Agyei, the17 year old convert and briefly talked to him. His biggest concern is his lack of confidence, people skills and inability to have fun. We said "Come with us", and we went off and taught Helen and Frank Johnson. It was a great experience really, first off, Frank was going off and saying "You should have warned me what would happen". Now, I was thinking that there could have been all sorts of bad stuff happening to him since he got baptised...and there was a few things,which I'll mention. But he was talking about the promptings he was now feeling from the Holy Ghost. He said that he literally felt words being placed in his mind moreso than ever before. When he and his wife had a fight, he was prompted to pick something up off the floor which was "The Family Proclamation", and after reading that, he sorted his problem out, and apologised to his wife. Apparently apologies are something that rarely are issued from Frank's mouth...so both he and Helen we're kind of astonished. I was just sitting back physically exhausted from squashing, taking it all in, and smiling...as much as my lips could! Along with hearing about their new found baptismal offire skills, we first had them explain how to be more entertaining and exciting to Alex. Helen can talk for ages, and be really cool...and she penned it all down to experiences in life. We all explained how, to be interesting, funny, a good friend, or family member, is all about having experiences and getting out there in life. We keep telling Alex he's going to get loads of that on his mission...which he's way impatient for.
Along with some interesting experiences, Frank and Helen also toldus some kind of depressing news..but at the same time some good news. Apparently some members of Franks Masonic Lodge, where he's the Master this year, have been kind of talking some anti-mormon stuff at him, and Helen's been having different pastor/priest friends calling her up and introducing her to all sorts of craziness. Helen was like "So, I just went on the internet to look for myself". I was like "YIKES", in my head, thinking all was lost or they'd been put off. But Helen in her usual chilled out sweet way was like "It's just a bunch of rubbish, I know what's right and what's not...they just put half truths up there", which me and Elder Graham reinforced that, yes they do. We we're really glad they'd been smart and followed the spirit, but I gave them one little extra idea that President Munday told us once: "Once you've read all of the words of Christ, then you can goand read the anti-Christs". I've always loved that, and do my best to steer clear of anything dodgy. I left that appointment feeling as though now there'd be nothing in there way in the future.
Wednesday was a pretty busy morning full of meetings, and actually it was pretty much the whole day like that. As our zone is way new, and we wanted to get around and meet and see everyone, we drove down to the 2 District Meetings in Rugby, and also ours, in Coventry. Elder Peterson in Rugby is a bit of an amateur now moreso, and not as much a rookie...but he's definitely still coming along. He gave a great District Meeting on Remembering..specifically, Remembering Christ, which is entirely what the Gospel is about. He mentioned 5 things as well that prevent us from doing so: Discouragement,Disappointment, Despair, Distraction and Doom.
Doom was last on the list and especially hit hardest. All of those things slowly lead upto Doom, which said a bit better, is basically a lack of, or total loss of Hope. Satan's entire plan is to make us lose hope in our lives, so as to both lose faith and Charity and ultimately our Remembering of Christ, which then destroys missionary work, our eventual families, as well as our happiness.
Elder Peterson closed very well in reminding us to continue to do the everyday things that we're reminded of Christ by, to never go a day with putting him beside us, or away...otherwise we'll lose that hope, and meet Doom.
As our Coventry District Meeting was next, we rushed back driving to make it, and met up with the District. Elder Thomas, is a brand new District Leader, so it was definitely a fun time watching him struggle through things and trying to figure them out as he taught. He gave a great first district meeting on the power and authority of our calling. He talked a lot about how we have been set apart from the world, and that's a real, literal thing. That implies a virtue in our hearts and minds that needs to always be there for the Lord to work through us. I tend to forget sometimes where my calling has come from, and who's the one that told me to go and serve. I think of the Stake President, or the Bishop sometimes, but altogether miss the fact that I've had, more or less, vicariously, Christ's hands laid on my hand and said "Go forth and preach the Gospel to all the nations". That was really exciting to realize that...even though I already knew it, but to go out again having that in my mind. Elder Thomas is learning the aspect of confidence, so he was a bit unsure of what he was teaching, but the message and spirit of it, was strong, and I was very impressed.
After getting reminded of our calling, me and Elder Graham rushed out to another appointment with Sylvia. We had decided to re-teach the Plan of Salvation, and re-emphasize the points that we're most important. It was one of the best teaching appointments I've had in along time. We had been kind of going through it more or less straight, when we got to the Creation of the world, and explained how Christ was the Creator. This seemed to trigger an idea in her mind which then she asked a question based upon a chapter in Mosiah "Why is Christ the Father, I thought there we're 3 separate people?"Initially we said "Yeah, there are 3 separate people..but Christ is also titled the Father for a few reasons". Rather than just explain with my own words, we opened to a few different passages of scripture, either in Ether, Mosiah, and a few other places.
From those we explained that Christ is the Father by Divine Investiture of Authority, or simply he speaks for the Father, He is the Father or Creator of the Worlds, He is Father of the Resurrection, and also theFather of our Spiritual Salvation. She was like "Wow, cool, I totally had never thought of it that way...but that makes sense". Keep in mind, this is like a 65 year old lady...so obviously she doesn't talk like that, because if she did, she'd obviously be the coolest 65 year old woman ever. As we progressed through the lesson Elder Graham was really struggling not to invite her to be baptised again...we both felt it wasn't the time. Instead we invited her to read a specific chapter on repentence, and committed her to ask the lord to forgiveher for her past mistakes...and to make restitution now. She was A-okay with that. Hopefully when we go see her tonight, we can gether to church this next week. That way we can slam down the baptismal invite again as she's feeling the spirit, and get her dunked.
The rest of Wednesday went way smooth. We went and taught Alia inthe evening, which as always seems just like us talking, her listening and occasionally asking a question...and her being totally fine with the commitments. This time it was Word of Wisdom and Chastity."Okay". She totally took those way easy and I was glad we didn't have anything like that to struggle or push through. Alia ended up coming to church again, and is all set for baptism this Friday which is going to be great. Haha, she was like asking us "Can I wear a shower capwhen I get baptised?" so as not to ruin her hair. Me and Elder Graham we're just giggling at that, and said No problem.
Hopefully she doesn't have any sins hidden in her hair...that could be bad...wait wait, I've got a way corny joke "The sins will be upon herhead"...good one huh?! Loser missionary I am becoming. So that was Wednesday, and it was Great!
Thursday morning we attended another District Meeting. Our Solihull one was given by Elder Wood, who's a brand new District Leader....AND Trainer, so that's pretty exciting. He's been hanging in Solihull for quite awhile now being junior companion, but now it's his time to step up.
His new companion and greenie, is Elder Nicholson, from Utah. He's a real cool guy, way into music, especially jazz stuff and just like another member of our zone, loves to juggle...which I had to laugh at when he told me that. Seems like my zone is getting all of the musicians and jugglers.
So anyway, his lesson to us was a compilation of the subjects: Obedience and Prayer. He talked a lot about the process after which God gives us his laws, in how, either we accept them, or reject them and how ultimately that either leads us toEternal Life, or a lower Kingdom. He gave one really cool scripture in PSalms 119:97 that says "Oh How I love the law", and also John 8:31-32 which says "If you continue in my word...Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." and lastly Psalms 56:4 which says "In God I have put my trust". All of these things imply we love, follow and trust God, and that we will rely upon him and his truths, to make us happy, and also safe. I really enjoyed as well how he tied in prayer, as he emphasized its importance to never take it forgranted, to never forget, it's our lifeline to Heavenly Father that should never be cut off. He also emphasized how being obedient to the commandments, entitles us for the light of Christ, and the Spirit to be with and in us...which makes possible true answers to our prayers. He gave us a couple thoughts on prayer from President Marion G.Romney, which said:
1. Prayerfully weigh the options in your mind
2. Submit in prayer the problem, and that we want to do the Lord's will, not ours
3. Ask for the burning in our bosom, the clarity, to know the truth
4. When we receive peace and enlightment, we know its right
5. When we receive a stupor, or a confusion, a darkness..and we basically forget, then Heavenly Father's giving us the thumbs down.
I really liked hearing that, because prayer most people expect to be a question answer between us and God...when in reality its us really using our basic judgements, and more or less confirming what we believe to be right with him. He's not just giving us the answers, he wants us to learn and develop our own guidance based upon the spirit. Afterwards I felt really charged up and off we went. The rest of the day was pretty much just tracting, and we ended by having Correlation Meeting at the Chapel with David Mills, our super cool ward mission leader....who also, we just found out, was Elder Graham's sisters District Leader on his mission with her in France...small world I know.
Friday was my first opportunity to meet the Presidente. We had ourMission Council with him and all the Zone Leaders. Me and Elder Graham got there about an hour early to study, but also of course, to possibly get an extra few minutes talking to him. And whatdya know, it worked!
He came in to the office early, said hi, and invited us into his office. He told us he had met our parents and how great that was, asked how long we had been zone leaders and got a few kind of niceties outta the way. He then jumped into some business. The sisters in our zone, the previous day or so had driven all the way down to the office, and spent 2 and a half hours talking to him about their problems. They just can't get along, especially Sister Steele who is a self-titled Princess basically(who thus far I want to punchin the face). He expressed to us that we need to do our best to make them happy...but not council them or try to fix things. It's way weird having Sisters, or basically just missionaries, and not really being able to do anything.
Usually if there's a problem, me and Elder Graham jump in to try to help...but in this case, they just run to the President...so that kinda bugged me. Oh well, we'll see what we can do!
The meeting started a bit late due to some traffice(or basicallypeople not thinking) and we got into things. It was the first onewhere Sister Moffat, ie, the Presidents wife was there. I think before Sister Munday was always busy with the kids, but President Moffat explained that they were set apart together, and that their circumstances made it possible for them to always be together serving.
I was straight away really impressed, but most importantly really happy with the new President. He just seemed really excited, happy, humble and lacking some confidence...which is definitely expected. He's been an interesting change from President Munday, but I love both anyway. His wife I think is a pretty cool lady, and is way opposite Sister Munday, with lots of confidence, and is obviously very assertive. She reminded me kind of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter, who as she sat at the back would occasionally say something and add in. The meeting was very much open, and everyone was giving ideas and thoughts. This time around there was more than just a few people speaking which was cool. Pretty much we went over the usual stuff...lack of people at church, and how we need to do better thatsort of stuff. There were a few changes though, which are definitely interesting.
1) The Zone Leaders, along with the President will be teaching at Zone Conferences...that's me!
Yikes! And I think that's really the only change more or less. It was a great meeting for sure as always, especially with Subway and Root Beer at the end! Gotta love it! Saturday was a totally sweet day. We had a Stake Athletics Day held at a Track, so we brought Alex the recent convert, and Alia the investigator and had loads of fun. They both got involved in the running, and we played football and met loads of members. At first it was drizzling a bit, but then it shaped up and the sun came out. It was so beautiful. My favorite part, and the culmination of my life Goals, was that they had the Sumo Suits at the event. You could put a big padded suit on, and Sumo wrestle on a small mat. Ever since me and Dad used to see that done at half time shoes at Nets games, I've always wanted to. Finally I did...and it was awesome. Me and Elder Dalton went crazy and just nailed each other. I was doing the sumo thing where you raise your legs and slam them down. I got a few pictures of that to remember.
After the fun, we got dressed and went and taught two of our new investigators, James and Shane, two 20 something kids from SouthernIreland. They had the sweetest accents, and they were wayCatholic...but looking. Initially they were like "Do you believe inMary?" which Elder Graham kind of answered in a slightly contentious way so they were like "Well she is also your mother so we should prayto her". Then I jumped in and was like "She's the mother of God so wedo reverence her and she's a cool lady...so anyway..." type of thing.We taught them a Restoration lesson which went way cool. As always the spirit was way strong and it always tends to do this confounding thing where despite the newness of the message, there were no questions....always crazy. They were pretty funny too, tellin us about Ireland and how everyones crazy from there. The ones in the North blow everything up and the ones in the South are fighters...that's what I learned from them.
We next drove to a Baptism in Warwick which President Moffat and his wife attended. I thought it showed a lot of excitement, and also commitment to make time to go to that and support the Elders. It was a great baptism, and I was way impressed President came...the Elders I think we're especially happy about him making it and being able to see there hard work.
Sunday was a pretty good day, we taught Ishmael and his new friend Costa, who's a Muslim from Kenya. I love teaching African people.They love God, and there always so happy...it just makes the spiritfeel so much stronger. Towards the end of our Discussion on Faith from Alma 32 he was like "I like your preaching very much, I look forward to next Sunday". I'm always happy about that! THe rest ofthe day was pretty slow. We actually went over to Alex's house during the World Cup to fix Elder Graham's palm...which I did...but ended up destroying mine, so that was a huge bummer. I'm probably going to sell the broken one and buy a new one since otherwise I miss out on being able to type into it for my emails, read the scriptures and do all sorts of really good gospel study stuff. I went home about to stab someone in the face...in the last week I've lost my bag, broke my palm and that day as well a couple of the people planning to get baptised said they weren't ready.
Monday I was still fuming a bit in the morning, but doing my best not to freak out over things I couldn't control. I decided to fast, so as my focus would be brought back a bit, but also because I felt like I needed the power of the spirit more so. I'm still really unsure with a few things as to my future for what I need to do, so Ithought it might give some clarity, but especially so the Lord can work through me so I can help the zone. The day was rainy, I was hungry, my palm was broken, BUT me and Elder Graham pretty much cheerfully knocked all the doors and taught happily. I was really impressed with my ability to stay motivated. The day was like winter again, so I was dreading that. Towards the end of the day we picked up a washer for Ellen, and brought it over and installed it for her before we taught. That was way cool....just learning basic things like installing a washer, or learning how to replace a fuse in a plug was definnitely worth it for my future...plus you shouldn've seen the smile on her face when we we're done. We were like "Hey...now you can actually be clean!" We taught a really solid lesson on baptism, and she's commited for the Saturday following this one...so pray for her that nothing else prevents her from missing Sunday.
That's the week...its' been a good one. It's been great having the 2 other Elders in the flat...sometimes Elder Graham is a bit quiet andreserved, so I really enjoy just relaxing, talking, and especially teaching at the end of the day to them. I love the gospel subjects and discussions we have...they really make everyday, no matter how bad, worth it. I really love the gospel, and I love being able to testify of its truth. I hope each of you can continue to do the same, in your everyday lives. I love you all,
Love,
Elder Smith
posted by JerzyGrl | 6:55 AM
|
0 comments
