Week:30 Transfers

Hey everyone! This week has felt really long, but it's been really great. Tuesday was our last day with Elder Mendenhall, and we had to say goodbye to him on Wednesday for transfers. We've had a lot of good things happen this week. Tuesday night, Elder Salisbury and I knocked with Elder Jewkes. He is a senior missionary, and he's been training the missionaries in our stake on a few things. It was really fun to knock with him, because he is very exuberant when talking to people. He also got into his first bible bash with us. It was pretty interesting to see him get fired up with the man that we were talking to, especially when he's already pretty blunt and forward with people.

Wednesday we picked up Elder Zerek Stratton from Mesa, Arizona. He's been out for 9 months or so, and he's really awesome. He's pretty big into sports when he was back home, and he's super funny and nice.

The rest of the week was pretty smooth. We got to teach the Lamothe family again and teach them the plan of salvation. They've also been wanting to start a garden, so we gave them some pepper plants that Elder Larsen grew in our office. We also got to teach John on Saturday night, but things have been pretty hard with him because he's simply interested in learning about religion and he isn't progressing and he's not willing to try and have a little faith to pray. He learned about psychology in college, so he believes that most people's feelings are just things that their brain makes up. It's kind of annoying.

We also did splits with the zone leaders again, and that was super fun. We got a new zone leader, and Elder Larsen and I were with him for the day, and I learned so much from it. It was super great!

One thing that I've been thinking about lately is testimony. When Elder Pearson came to our mission a few months ago, he said that your testimony is your most powerful tool. That kind of confused me, because I thought that the Book of Mormon was our most powerful tool. I found a talk yesterday by Elder Oaks called Testimony, and he talks about how "a testimony of the gospel is a personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true." I've found that while the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, the Spirit testifies to the hearts of others that the things that we say when we bear our testimony are true. I thought I'd just share that since it was on my mind.
But that's all for this week. Love you all!!
-Elder Smith

Also here's a picture of us at having Easter dinner at a member's house. It was way good. The brisket was super tender and delicious.

Week 29: Transfer Calls

This week has been amazing!! We've been able to teach so much lately, and we've found a lot more people to teach. We've seen so many blessings this last week, and the only problem is that I don't know what changed or what we did different. Also, we got transfer calls on Saturday. Elder Mendenhall is leaving and going to Forks, and he's being replaced by Elder Stratton. The rest of us will be staying another transfer. I don't know if I'll ever be out of a foursome.

But seriously, we've taught so many lessons this week. We were able to teach at least one person every day this last week except for Tuesday and Thursday. On Monday we taught Gabriel again, Wednesday was Gatlin and the Alfaro's, Friday was Conner and Rob, Saturday was John, and Sunday was Kyle. It doesn't seem like a lot, but after not teaching much for weeks on end, it feels like blessings are raining upon our area.

So just a little about each of these people we taught this week:

Gabriel isn't really progressing anymore. He likes to talk about religion, but he's not in it to change; just for a good conversation.

Gatlin is kind of crazy. He's a smart guy who studied theology in college, but he's really just looking to bash with us.

The Alfaro family is a less active part member family. The dad is from Costa Rica, and the mom is Russian. The mom isn't a member, and isn't looking to be one either. They have two daughters, Daniella and Veronica, who we started to teach. Brother Alfaro has been less active for a while, but he's open to us coming over and teaching his kids. This lesson was amazing, because while we taught the girls the full restoration, the lesson seemed to be focused on Brother
Alfaro. We were able to have him tell his conversion story to his daughters, bear his own testimony, and he was crying through the whole thing. I feel like we were able to strengthen his testimony and faith again, so he'll be more open to us coming back again.

Conner is very interesting. He's studied every religious book you can imagine including the Satanic Bible (which he believes is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo, fortunately). Also he's heavy into drugs and he's got a huge tattoo on his back that he showed us. And to top it all off, he is schizophrenic and occasionally has some episodes. We've taught his dad a little before, and he had come into the room and sort of ruined our lesson with his dad. However, we were walking to our knocking spot when we crossed paths with him and he said that he wanted to get another copy of the Book of Mormon (he accidentally burned the last one on a granite altar when he was high and having one of his episodes). He then invited us to his small room where he lived, and we were able to teach him the plan of salvation. I think it's so cool that even though he has all this stuff going on in his life, he has a legitimate desire to learn.

Rob is a crazy guy who loves bamboo. He calls himself Roboo, and he wants us to call him that too. This is the second time we've gone over, and both times he's been super drunk. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and then he told us to come back in six months. Haha.

John used to be in the military, and he grew up Christian. However, he's atheist because he says that he's seen too much evidence that there isn't a God. He's open to learn, but he won't pray because it doesn't make sense for him to do so.

Kyle is one of the people we found recently and we were able to teach him the restoration last night. He's a father of a small family, and he's a math teacher and softball/basketball coach of a middle school. He's way awesome, and he doesn't know all that much about religion, so he doesn't have hardly any bias at all.

So those are the highlights of this week. Oh, also this lady we work with at the food bank is like our mom (her name is Lori), and we're starting to do service for her and teach her the lessons. She was really close to baptism at one point, but then the missionaries got transferred and everyone forgot about her. She's super solid and already close to baptism. But that's all for this week!

Pictures:
Lori's pictures of us working in her yard.

Week 28 - General Conference

his week was really great. All the missionaries were getting sooo hyped for what changes that would happen in general conference, especially about elders only serving for 18 months instead of 2 years.

One of the biggest highlights of the week was that we finally put someone on date for baptism. On Tuesday we had exchanges so Elder Lancaster (our District Leader) came up to the BLT to work with Elder Larsen and I for the day. We went over to a man's house named Jose to do service. Jose has had a rough life, and right now he's trying to find a place to live, so he's currently living in his cousin's garage. As we were working for Jose and his cousin Joshua, we had a chance to talk about church a little and some of the things we believed in. Joshua's mom was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, so he supposedly had a lot of experience with the church, but it really sounded like he had just read a lot of anti. And because of this, he kept interjecting little anti tidbits into our conversation that made it hard to teach. Fortunately for us, Jose wasn't understanding anything that his cousin was really talking about, so when Joshua finally went inside we were able to teach Jose without bias or interruption. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon, and we invited him to watch general conference with us on Sunday. He was really excited to watch it with us, and he said that he wanted to be baptized right then and there, but we had to tell him we couldn't do it right away. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten in contact with him since that Tuesday. So we also didn't get to watch conference with him.

On Wednesday, Elder Mendenhall and I met with Gatlin who we haven't been able to talk to for over a month. This meeting with him went over really well. He only had 30 minutes to talk with us, so we were able to address some concerns that he had and get out before it went too deep into stuff that we wouldn't be able to teach right then. When we went in, he said he had questions about original sin, so we talked a little about that and we'll finish that up this Wednesday. We also started talking about modern revelation and prophets. Gatlin had used the analogy of how there can't be any more prophets, because Christ and previous prophets already laid down the foundation; they already told us everything God has to tell us. Before we finished up, I asked him why God, who is an unchanging God, would stop calling modern prophets to lead and guide His children like He had always done? This question stumped him, and he said that he would have to look that one up before next time. It felt really good to actually feel like we were making a little progress in resolving all of his many concerns.

I think the big highlight of the week was on Saturday. Between sessions of conference we went to visit people, and we stopped by a man named Tony. We've been going by his house ever since the beginning of last transfer, and we've never been able to teach him. This time, however, he answered the door and said, "Come in, sit down." We were kind of shocked because that nearly never happens. He told us that he had talked with his wife and they decided to honor our time of having come by so many times by listening to what we had to say. We began to tell him that we do what we do to show God's love for him and how the restored gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our lives and our families. It was really amazing, because the Spirit put the right words into our hearts to flow right into the first lesson and teach him. The Spirit was so strong in that room, and Tony was actively involved in what we had to say. It seems like it was such a small little thing, but it rarely happens and I could tell that Tony would remember that moment with us and how he felt as we taught him. We weren't able to get a return appointment, but it was a true tender mercy.

And then general conference happened this weekend. It was the best general conference I've ever had. I was so focused during every session, and I actually didn't fall asleep this time! There were a lot of talks that really hit me personally, but I forgot to bring my notes with me, so I don't have anything to share about it. However, there was an urgency that I've never seen before that was present this conference. It's an urgency in hastening the work of the Lord. One thing that I remembered from conference was that the gospel needs to become a regular topic of conversation with everyone we speak with. One of the speakers talked about how as we continually improve in becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, we will eventually come to the point where the gospel is a natural part of conversation and that it would feel strange if we didn't talk about it. I invite each of you to "open your mouth" and simply share your feelings and opinions of the gospel as Elder Villar did. The Lord has promised that as we open our mouths, he will give us the things we need to say in the very moment we need to say them. My dad taught me to remember a scripture in D&C 82:10 that says, "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." We need to remember that the Lord requires us to act first.

Anyways, those are the highlights for this week. I love you all, have a great week!
-Elder Smith

Week 27 - Mostly Biking

This was a long week. We biked a lot, and not much happened. We found some more people, but just about all our appointments fell through. One of the biggest things that happened this week was when we stopped by that small family on Thursday night. Elder Larsen and I knocked on the door, and the 12 year old daughter, Lily, answered the door. She said that she's been reading the Book of Mormon and that she's had her parents helping her read since she didn't understand everything. It was way cool to see them read the Book of Mormon and progress, where a lot of the people we teach are generally opposed to the Book of Mormon. And then we were able to invite them to a party that we were hosting at the church on Saturday night, and they said they would come.

The party on Saturday was a huge let down. We got everything ready, and we had invited everyone we knew and a lot of the ward members. Sooo many people said they would come, but that night when we waited for people to show up, only two member families showed up. The whole idea was that the members bring their nonmember friends to a casual activity where they would be able to meet more members and the missionaries. But it failed. No nonmembers showed up. However that night when we got home, the ward mission leader who had helped plan this out texted us and said that one of his friends came, so he gave him a quick church tour. So there was some success fortunately.

I think one of the other big things that happened this week was when we were trying to clean up some of the ward member records. We were visiting one "unknown" member, but the lady who answered the door said that the member didn't live there. However, this same woman said that she was really intrigued by the Book of Mormon, and that she wanted to read it. So that was really awesome.

I can't remember too much of this week for some reason; all the days have been blending together. I just remember being tired after biking so much. Love you all!
-Elder Smith

Doing a service project for a member

Us with Mt. Rainier