Week 13: It doesn't feel like Christmas

This week was blur. I don't even remember Tuesday hardly at all, Wednesday was zone conference all day, Thursday I didn't get to leave the apartment until 5, Friday was the Branch Christmas party, Saturday was pretty normal, and yesterday was the Christmas sacrament meeting.

All that I remember about Tuesday is that Elder Torrico had to go to the doctor's office in Tacoma, so Elder Kirkland and I biked around in the rain for most of the day trying to visit people.

Wednesday was pretty cool. At zone conference we had a gift exchange, did some Christmas skits (we did the haka), sang some songs together, and had a spiritual boost at the very end. We didn't get back to Lacey until 6:30, and we didn't get to do very much that day.

On Thursday we had weekly planning which adds a couple hours onto our morning studies, and so it took all of our time for the afternoon up until dinner at 4. So now we haven't been able to do very much missionary work all week because of zone conference and weekly planning, so we were all kind of anxious to get to work and finally do something.

Friday was pretty good. Elder Williams and I got stranded for a bit because his phone died at the end of 5-7's so we couldn't call the other two elders to come pick us up until we popped out the sim card with a key ring and put it in my phone. Then we showed up to the branch Christmas party pretty late because of that, and I made it in time just to play the piano a little for them.

Saturday was pretty normal. I got to teach those 3 kids that we've been trying to get baptized. It was pretty cool to do, because this was the first lesson that I got to teach other than the restoration (we taught the commandments). That night Elder Torrico and I knocked a house that I've been to last transfer, but nobody had answered. This time though they answered, and it was this lady who's had all the missionary lessons before and reads out of the Book of Mormon more than the Bible even though she's being visited by Jehovah's Witnesses. We were able to give her a blessing since she was sick, and from what we heard back, she slept like a baby that night.

Sunday was a miraculous day for me. A few weeks ago before transfers, I was asked to play piano for the Christmas service, and I was told just last week that we were going to be singing almost all of the Christmas songs in the hymn book. I was not ready. I've been practicing every P-day, but I was still not ready. Especially for those weird ones that I've never heard nor sung. When I went in to play I did so bad. It was worse than when I even practiced. But afterwards when I talked to people, they said they didn't notice a thing. I didn't believe them at all, because I had stopped playing at points because I was fumbling so bad. But even when I pressured them, thinking that they were just saying that to be nice, they were being serious. Somehow nobody noticed, and the only explanation that I can find for it is that God had something to do with it.

I think that's just about everything for this week. Merry Christmas!!
-Elder Smith

Pictures are from Zone conference before Christmas

We did the Haka

Week 12: Trainer or Trainee?

This week has been pretty long. Mostly because of transfers. Tuesday was really short. We didn't do a whole lot. Elder Williams and I had our Última Cena with our trainers at Wendy's, but that was about it. Wednesday was transfers, and it was pretty long. I inherited a much bigger desk than I had previously, found a new tie and rain jacket in the closet, and moved some things around. Elder Williams and I weren't allowed to come pick up our greenie for some reason, so we just knocked doors and biked around the whole day trying to visit people. At around 7, the new elders in our companionship picked us up and brought us to the church for our meetings with Hermano Diaz, the branch mission leader, and the branch president.

The new elders are Elder Torrico and Elder Kirkland. Elder Torrico is from Bolivia originally, and then moved to Virginia. He's been out for a little over a year now and he's kind of quiet, but when he does talk he can be super hilarious. He's awesome. In only the short time that he's been here he's made some small changes in how we do things that felt like they needed to happen for a while. He's mine and Elder Williams' follow-up trainer, and Elder Kirkland's first trainer. But Elder Williams and I are also training Elder Kirkland at the same time. So that's pretty interesting. Elder Kirkland is fresh out of the Mexico MTC and he's super excited to be here. He has a lot of energy and motivation to do the work, so we're helping him focus it in the right areas. He reminds me a lot of Elder Calhoun from the movie The Best Two Years. He can be a bit much at times, but he'll learn to tone it down eventually.

The rest of this week was pretty slow and less than exciting. Saturday we were supposed to baptize 3 UBC's, but we could never get in to teach them so it didn't happen. And yesterday at church Dustin was supposed to be confirmed since he got baptized last Sunday, but he never came to church. So that was very unfortunate. The only real interesting things this week is situating ourselves in the area with new elders who do things differently. I'm sure that in these next few weeks we'll be able to kick things back into motion and it'll be better.

Have a great week!
-Elder Smith

P.s. Here's my apartment address in case you want to send letters and such.
6203 Jamestown Lane SE
Apt D 205
Lacey, Washington 98503

Week 11: FIRST BAPTISM!!!

Not much really happened this week. Just brought someone into the kingdom of God through the waters of baptism. That's all. It was seriously so awesome. If you remember, last week a 10 year old boy named Dustin came up to us asking when he could be baptized, so this week we went through all the lessons with him and set up the baptism. That was the highlight of this week. Elder Powell was the one who actually performed the ordinance and Elders Williams and Bradley gave talks, and I played the piano of course. The Spirit was super strong last night. The rest of last night I was thinking about how true the scripture in D&C 18:15 is which says: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" Everything about the baptism went smoothly. However, when we were cleaning up afterwards, my phone took a dive in the font. This is the part where I tell my mom to not freak out, because my phone is completely okay. Apparently my version is partially waterproof. How did my phone end up in the font? Well we tried to pull the plug to drain the font, but the string came unattached, so I tried to pull the plug with something that had a hook on the end of it. Unfortunately, while I was leaning over to do so, my phone slipped out and sunk right to the bottom. So Elder Powell just changed back into his wet clothes and retrieved my phone and pulled the plug. I put my phone in rice overnight, and it's been just fine.

Another awesome thing that happened this week: at the beginning of the transfer we had an 9 year old named Daira on date for baptism, but she and her grandma went on a trip to California. The week before last they returned and came to church with 3 other UBC's (unbaptized children), and two of them are of baptizing age. This week we got Daira, Daniel, and Jasmin all on date for baptism this Saturday. What's even better is that all three of them came to the baptism last night and are super excited to be baptized. So next Sunday we'll have 4 confirmations at church.

The only other things that happened last week was that we did service for some older lady who had a lot of trash in her yard that needed cleaning out. We did that on Saturday, and on the way there we got a call from the mission president about transfers. Elder Williams and I will be staying in Lacey and having Elder Torrico from Bolivia come and follow-up train us. Then we'll also be getting a greenie that us three will be training. Elder Powell who has been in Lacey for 2 transfers is going to Forks. Apparently they need a Spanish speaker up there so that'll be exciting for him. For anyone who doesn't know where Forks is, it's in the middle of a rainforest on the northwestern area of the Washington peninsula. It's also miles from civilization and it's where Twilight was filmed. As for Elder Bradley, he has only been in Lacey for the one transfer and he is going to the Tacoma Spanish branch. He'll be follow-up training 3 other Spanish elders.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Holidays!

Our last picture together before heading our separate ways.

Chilling while filling up the font

The four of us with Dustin

New companionship

Week 10: Sequel to the Book of Mormon? Ghosts? Stolen milk?

This week was a pretty average week, and yet it really wasn't. First off, the ZL's stole a gallon and a half of our milk on Tuesday so we only had one gallon for the rest of the week. They figured that since we used a half gallon of milk at their apartment during exchanges that they could just get back what we owed them. Plus they had no more money on their cards for food. So that was pretty funny. We also decorated our apartment for Christmas, so now we have a mini tree and a small line of Christmas lights.

On Wednesday we met our goal for finding new people, and this one lady we talked with we shared the video He is The Gift, and it made her cry. I'm not sure why, but it was cool to see the Spirit at work.
Thursday was also pretty normal, and we again met our goal for new people even after we raised the bar.

Friday was pretty awesome. We had interviews with the mission president in the morning, and right after we finish this man walks into the church asking where he could get the sequel to the Book of Mormon. His coworker had given him the Book of Mormon, and recently he injured his arm at work so he couldn't do much except sit at home. He said he doesn't really like to watch TV since he gets bored easy, so he read the Book of Mormon and finished it. That never happens. Except for with this guy apparently. So we gave him a triple combination book so he now has both the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. That night we had soccer again and we had a ton of people there. Last week only one guy showed up, but this week we had people come that we've never even seen before. It was awesome. And right before we started playing we shared a Christmas video with them as we do each week. So that was pretty cool.

Saturday was the light the world service day, and we helped a man in our ward clean out his backyard. He lives in a trailer so his backyard is pretty small, but he had piles of trash over 6 feet tall. Only half of it was in garbage bags, so we took that half to the dump in someone's truck, so we had to make 4-5 trips. We did that for most of the day, and then that night we had another small miracle. On Thursday we found a small family that said that we could come back later to share a message with them, and on Saturday night we came back, and according to what the other two elders said, they're primed for baptism. They're Catholic but they dont understand why children need to be baptized. They were excited to learn what we had to teach them, and when Elder Powell and Elder Williams gave them a chapter of the Book of Mormon to read, they started reading right then and finished half of it before they left. It was so cool.

Yesterday was also pretty good. One of the people that we had on date for baptism at the beginning of this transfer came to church today. They had been on a trip in California for several weeks so they missed the baptism, but upon returning they brought 3 unbaptized children (UBC) with them, so we might be getting 4 baptisms. And then while at church a kid of one of the members came up to us asking when he could get baptized. We have been seriously blessed with miracle after miracle.

And then last night we had a pretty strange experience. We were at an apartment complex, and as we were knocking upstairs we saw this man standing out in the courtyard. And for the 10 minutes it took us to knock the upstairs he hadn't moved. He wasn't even doing anything. Just standing there looking off into the distance at nothing. We then walked down the stairs to go talk to him and tried to start a conversation. It went something like this:
"Hey how's it going?"
...
"How's your day been?"
...
"We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have you talked to missionaries like us before?"
...
"Can we help you with anything tonight?"
...
"Okay you have a good night."
...

It was so weird. He didn't move at all. All he did was slide his eyes over to look at us and then resumed looking at nothing. He had what looked like a medical band on his wrist so we figured that he might have been a mental hospital patient, but he looked homeless like he'd been on the street for a while. After that awkward encounter we just resumed knocking the lower level of that same building. And we would just glance over every once in a while. We were so confused as to what he was doing. And then 5 minutes later we glanced over, looked away for a second, and when we looked back he was gone. Just completely gone. He must have vanished into thin air because we would have been able to see him walk somewhere since he was standing out in the open. We tried looking around to see where he went after we finished knocking that building but we couldn't find him. So that's my ghostly encounter.

Oh, also transfers are next week, but I'll find out where I go on Saturday.

Pictures:
1. Puzzle I finished on Tuesday. And it's missing ONE PIECE. It's killing me.
2. Funny don't break in sign.

Puzzle I finished on Tuesday. And it's missing ONE PIECE. It's killing me.

Funny don't break in sign.

Interviews with the President Lieshman