Elder Jared Andrew Smith: Week 9: I don't know what to put for the caption this week... a lot happened.

So Tuesday night was awesome. Elder Powell and I were out knocking and didn't really find anyone to teach for an hour and a half, but a half hour before we were supposed to be finished we went down this hidden driveway that Elder Powell found, and the first house we knocked on was this old lady who had talked to the missionaries and had lessons from them a few years before, but for some reason or other she didn't want to be baptized. It was such a miracle coming across her. She says that she's had a few near death experiences that had caused her to want to change, and since then she's turned to the bible and studied everything about it. It was so cool to meet her, because we ended up just talking with her for 2 hours. She was supposed to have bible study that night but it had gotten canceled, and yet we ended up on her doorstep and in some of the first few moments that we shared some things with her we taught her some things that the other missionaries didn't talk about. And she said that some of these things were very important to her and that she wanted to know more. By the end of the night Elder Powell ended up sharing something with her in Isaiah that made her tear up and feel the need to go talk to God when we were finished.

It took up the rest of our night and her house and now our clothes reeked of cigarette smoke (she smoked an entire pack while talking with us), but it was so worth it. It's just too bad that she's not Hispanic, so we have to refer her to the English missionaries.

Wednesday we had a meeting with the stake president and the rest of the zone. The stake president had some good tios for us, but what I really found meaningful is what the zone leaders had to say. One of the things they shared is a quote from Preach My Gospel:

“I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”

—President Ezra Taft Benson

Thursday was Thanksgiving and no one from our branch invited us over, so the zone leaders found a family for us to have dinner with named Sagastizado. The food was just pretty standard stuff. We ended up staying there from 1:00 to 8:00 because after the meal we played a 4 hour game of risk and then a 2 hour game of unstable unicorns. It was so fun, and it was nice that we wouldn't just be at our apartment all day.

Friday we did exchanges with the zone leaders which was interesting.

Saturday we didn't get to do too much because we had to do weekly planning. We did get in a small car accident but everyone was fine and only our mirror got broken off, and so now we have a better car so the other one can get repaired. About the crash, Elder Powell didn't see a lady when he was switching lanes and she zoomed ahead to try and avoid a collision. It took off the mirror as you can see.

Sunday was mostly uneventful. Other than the zone leaders' car getting stolen. They got it back eventually because of a device the church put in the car, but the the ditched it and stole the bike rack and a few other things. My companions and I were asked to speak, and we had to do it in Spanish, so I was super nervous. We were given the option to speak on anything we wanted to. I chose to speak about the Book of Mormon. I was supposed to speak for 10 minutes, but somehow I spoke for 15. Also giving a talk in Spanish is so much easier simply because I can't tell what I'm saying so I can't even judge my own talk on how it went.