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, September 07, 2006

El Presidente

It looks like it's going to be another year until Mom gets more free time again...

She has been asked to continue as Board of Trustees President for SAGE Eldercare for another term.

Not that she cares about having free time, she is always keeping herself crazy busy. We sure love her and wish her the best in her next year on as President!!

Hey! It's Thursday!

Good Morning everyone,
Sorry to be emailing so late in the week, but it's been a busy one. Tuesday was Zone Conference and yesterday me and Elder Graham we're doing a workover with some of the Elders in the zone...so we just didn't have the time. Hope you didn't miss me too much!

I just thought before I get to telling you and updating you on what's been going on...it's been an awesome week! I've really seen an improvement in my teaching, and me and Elder Graham's as we've worked harder and harder to follow the spirit, and work more unitedly. I think you want to do your best to keep each and every little thing that is asked of you by the Mission President, or the white handbook or whatever, but sometimes you just slack. I've been determined to be better, to be more obedient, and as a result, I've seen the blessings. If anything, I've felt the Lord closer to me more recently as a result. We've been putting our best efforts in at night to have a great planning session for the next day, always have a intensive study and companionship study and it's really helped. Plus, we've been running just about everyday. You find your excitement and energy is really up when you start the day right. So, hopefully, all of you will make the effort to "prove the Lord" and demonstrate a bit more faith and trust like I've tried to do and improve yourself everyday. I've noticed in many of my wards that we have a great lot of people, but there progression is either halted or too slow...if only they involved prayer and diligent daily study everyday, this church would be doing much better. So! I exhort you to do your best!

So, before my time is destroyed by me getting up on the Rameumptum...I might as well tell you about my great week. We're teaching a lot of people as I said, but that was prefaced by a lot of time diligently searching the city out, relying upon the Spirit...and putting the effort in to improve our teaching, so that people are touched as we do so. Before I get into who we've been teaching, I thought I'd tell you briefly about the activities in the week.

Saturday was a pretty sweet day. We started off by going as the Coventry Missionaries to T.G.I.Fridays. I don't think I've been to a restaurant in a loooooong time, and it was kind of refreshing to have an American style restaurant with some American food. All 6 of us crammed into a small little table drinking milkshakes, eating potato skins and burgers. It was the most expensive hour I've spent in a long time...but luckily, one of the members had given us some money to go out to eat on! Phew. Great lunch! Later that day, after the physical was fed...we had some spiritual. There was a baptism for some Elders in the Zone which we went to ...kind of as a "Your doing great" but also because it was at our ward, and whenever you bring investigators to a baptism...I think the chances are incredibly high that they themselves will be baptised. We brought a lady named Jenny and her daughter. Despite a lot of emotion from the Mom and the girl getting baptised; Debbie and Sally Lambard, it was an awesome night. You could tell they were nervous, scared, but also incredibly excited. When we had invited Jenny to the baptism, it was kind of naively cute in the way she said to us "Ok, well, I'll come to the baptism, but I'll first watch it and then decide if I want to get baptised." Me and Elder Graham just kind of smiled and we're like "We just want you to watch for now and see it...we're preparing you for that" and she was like "Ohhh ok." She brought herself, her 8 year old daughter, and her 18 month old baby Bailey. Bailey's so incredibly cute. She was running all over the place and going crazy, occassionally her older sister Courtney would grab her and be taking care of her like her mom...pretty cool. I'm sure Dad would have been happy to hold her as well if he was there. That was more or less the night, and we left on a spiritual high, but also happy to know we'd helped the Stake out...and our Stake President/Mission President meeting will hopefully be met with some congrats. Though the Stake baptism goal for the year is like 100 I think...and we're only at 25 or so. Yikes!

Just two days before, we had taught a guy named Steve, a guy we tracted into earlier in the week with one of the Scottish members who comes for the week, and then goes back to Scotland on the weekend named Brother Liston. He's the man...been in all sorts of priesthood positions, knows when to speak and not to, and has been a great help to us. He basically is in a house at night doing nothing, so we take him out as much as we can. So anyway, after we taught this guy Steve, which was a pretty good lesson on the Plan of Salvation, Elder Graham and I were like "Lets just try one other person". So we went to see Faye. We had thought we'd never talk to her again but as we showed up, she opened the door and let us in. We had a bit of a chat, and Brother Liston was doing a great job fellowshipping and talking wit her, until finally a bit of the guilt from flogging us settled down on her and she got into what happened. She told us a friend of her's, who's about 28 had died of Prostate Cancer and she was battling and struggling with why God would do that. She hadn't read in awhile, nor had she prayed...and when she had tried, she had closed up her heart. It was a bit depressing, but we basically talked and testified to her about the Plan of Salvation, prayer, and the Atonement. The spirit was really strong in the room, and rather than kind of say "Lets get you baptised" type thingy, we offered our service the next day to come help clean her house. Clearly she'd been way stressed and let things go...kids stuff everywhere, etc. She smiled HUGE when we asked to do that and she was happy to let us come back. The next morning, the Friday, we spent a few hours, just playing with the kids, and helping them clean and organize there room. The coolest part was the next appointment we had with her, she said that they had been keeping there rooms tidy and that "It was great to see the floor in there again". It was kind of funny. It felt great to be in the service of both Faye, and God. You could feel her heart was warming as we served her.

On our appointment back, it was me and Elder Lance, just yesteray at the workover. It was a very spiritual teach and we had brought one of the older ladies with us named Delia Barnacle. She's a sage...full of wisdom and love. She basically told us she was still having problems with God, but that night had decided to get back on her knees and have a go again. For a bit, she and Delia shared some kind of stories about death and how to cope. It was kind of good...but in the end we were like "Rather than talk about it so much, let's talk about the 2 ways your going to get over this: 1) The Spirit and 2) Knowledge." We opened up the scriptures and just read for awhile, together, commenting and teaching. We spent probably a good 15 minutes talking about prayer and helping her realize more so what it is. Everyone has a misconception prayer is just to repent, or to say before food, or bed. We told her about Christ in Gethsamene calling out "Abba", which essentially means "Daddy". We told her, the relationship was exactly the same with her, that she has every right to be mad at him, but that means she needs to talk to him and sort it out, try to understand, and as she would do that...like Brigham Young says "If you dont feel like praying, keep praying until you do", she'd find the spirit, and the love and comfort she once felt. She committed to pray that night and have us back on Monday. I felt way charged up after meeting. I had felt a bit depressed knowing for that month we had lost her. But I'm so glad we were able to get to see her again.

Another awesome aspect of the week, was Zone Conference. Me and Elder Graham we're asked by President to teach, "Promise People Blessings" from Chapter 11 of Preach my Gospel. I have to say, leading up to it, even though it was only our Zone and Lichfields there, it was still way nervewracking. I spent, and Elder Graham probably spent every day of the week gathering things to finally put together. The Sunday and Monday nights, we put our notes together, correlated, and even PRACTISED teaching each other. It was way cool. We each would take 3 minute intervals and trade off until our time was up. I have no idea what I said while I was in there basically...but the Elders we taught responded well. President even called us up to thank us. I was glad we got that experience, and also a bit glad it was done. Luckily though, in the future, I'll be ready to go and capable of being better now that I have the experience. We more or less talked about how, when trying to teach a commitment, and lead investigators to be obedient to a commandment, it's important for them to know and realize the blessings involved. We always talk about blessings, because that helps people have the love and trust enough to do it. I think most of our levels of trust, love and obedience, wouldn't quite make it without a blessing. We also mentioned how, as missionaries, we have the power and authority, when being guided by the spirit, to promise spiritual and physical blessings to people. We talked about our calling and our setting apart, and how that enabled us to speak as the Lord would speak. It was a really powerful moment realizing that we can do that. When we we're done, President really blew us away with teaching briefly on How to receive revelation. It was a great teaching moment and the spirit was really strong. He mentioned a lot of scriptures dad has shared with me, especially one, in D&C 18 about how when we read the scriptures, we hear the words of the Lord, and can know his voice and can testify we have heard it. That's pretty special I think. After about 25 minutes of talking to us and helping us, he sat down and concluded. The only problem was after...when we found out, President would have taught a lot more, but there missionaries literally sleeping with their heads down on the wood. I can definitely recall doing that myself...and even when President Hinckely or the Apostles would get up...I would do it. I definitely recognize being tired, but when I think about it now, that always has moreso to do with what you recognize as important and not. We we're basically told kind of strongly "Sort it out, get your missionaries excited, and moreso converted". I guess to a degree, despite all my failings at staying awake back with Dad furiously calling me at General Conference, I always find comfort in knowing that when Christ was Transfigured, and when Christ was in Getsamene, Peter, James and John...we're out cold. I'm in good company I think. It was a great day though, President did his best to make it enjoyable for all of us. Burgers, the APs had a game for us kind of like Family Feud, and he really explained how to be better.

That's more or less, the stuff that happened outside of our teaching.

This Sunday we had 4 at church, Steve, Adam(Steves friend whom we just met), Jenny and her daughter. So it was a good week for us as we'd been struggling. Steve's progressing slowly, Jenny is doing well and just accepted the Word of Wisdom yesterday in the short amount of time before our Stake Patriarch who taught with us, Brian Peedle, took her sick daughter to the hospital. That was awesome for him to do that...it made it possible for him to talk to her a bit more, but also for us to be able to have time to teach...great guy, and definitely very spiritual and helpful to us.

We're also working with an inactive for 30 years guy named Pascal Khan. Probably the coolest name ever. He's way brainy, hermit style, probably a bit Autistic as well. It took me 2 times to gain enough comfortableness for him to make eye contact with me. Anyone new that we bring...he just reverts back to normal. He's a great guy, and very well read, but his only problem is faith. He basically has none, and is a doubter. The first time we taught was about 2 hours. It went from terrible, to spiritual. It was cool feeling like "Just keep teaching...don't give up...keep trying...it'll come". He was committed to church, but backed out because he was nervous. We told him that was fine, but kind of reproved him for not having studied the scriptures or tried praying. He wants the Tree before the Seed is planed(we read Alma 32 with him). We talked about for quite awhile how Faith comes, as a gift, and is eventually made perfect, as James explains, by works...Faith without works, is dead, and will always be. He then asked a few questions, which we answered directly through the Book of Mormon. It's always the best to answer from scripture, as good as you can explain it, the scriptures are better. We used Alma 11 to talk about the resurrection, and spiritual death(outer darkness) as he'd been thinking about Judgement and things. At the end of that, we basically testified as to how much the scriptures have, and as well, like D&C 18 says..by reading them, we can hear the voice of the Lord and know him...something each and every one of us truthfully wants...to know God. He was really excited by that, and committed to read a little bit everyday and see us again on Saturday. He'll do well...just have to keep bringing him along. I learned the other day, as you compare the Good Samaritan to missionary work...that like the donkey that carries the man to the inn...we're like that Donkey that carries people to Christ/Church as represented by the Inn. Yes, I am a donkey...

Second to last, we have Adell. I had briefly taught her on the door tracting, explained the Plan of Salvation and she said she would read it and we'd come and have a chat. She's in one of those big tower flats, so when we came back, she came to the bottom, and basically confessed she'd only read a little bit. That was great though, always gotta encourage them for that. She kind of then changed our "I didn't read all that much" conversation into a very spiritual one. She out of nowhere was like "I feel something, I can tell it's there, I just don't know what it is, I feel like I'm missing something in my life, and I feel like this is it, and I want to come to church". BINGO! We're seeing her on Friday and that will be great!

Lastly, we saw one of the recent converts, Alex Agyei on Monday night just before going in. We had given him "True to the Faith" to prepare him for his mission, and this time we read from Mosiah with him. It was incredibly good night talking and teaching him. For some reason he was coming out with a lot of questions about the after life, and ultimately what our potential was. I've kind of realized, that rather than stifling peoples interest, you give them to the degree that obviously there prepared for and ready, but then leave it at that...and then let them come back for more. We spent probably an hour talking about our potential, but most importantly, what's necessary for us to do now and while we're living. He was really recognizing the need for repentance, and Christs admonishment to be "perfect" like the Father. This kids going to be one great missionary, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I think that's basically it with my week, again it was a great one, it's one where I've felt incredibly close to the Spirit as I've taught...and my style has really changed to more listening. We've been promised by the Apostles in Preach my Gospel that as we listen and not just talk, we'll find what we need to teach, and how to teach it. It's so true, the connections I've felt with the spirit, but also with the spirits of my investigators lately has been so strong. I've really been psyched this past week or so.

Thank you for all of the emails and updates, the more I see, teach and find families, the more I look forward to seeing you all again. Though, it can wait, I'm doing something great.

Have an awesome week.

Love,
Elder Smith