Week 70 - I don't really like rollercoasters

Hello everyone! This week has been kind of crazy. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions; some pleasant, some not.

This Wednesday one of my companions (Elder Mose) went home early. It was surprising how hard it was to say goodbye this time. Normally during transfers it's pretty easy, because you know you'll see them again later on down the road. Elder Mose brought a lot to our companionship, and it's really weird to not have him around. He's definitely missed.

The day after that happened, on Thursday, we went to the temple as a mission. It was super fun to go and enjoy that after losing one of my companions. Then the next day we got our carpets cleaned, and our apartment has felt so nice since then. Yesterday, we were able to baptize and confirm Gary Frank II. It was one of the most stress free baptisms that I've had. Everything was really good and it all fell into place. But that's most everything major for this week. Love you all!!
-Elder Smith

Us at Gary's baptism

Us at the temple

Our last night with Elder Mose

Week 69

Hey everyone! This week flew by, and we had some crazy things happen.

On Tuesday we finally got some snow! We got about 2-3 inches here in Lacey, though in other areas of the mission they got a whole lot more. When Wednesday came around our mission president told us to have weekly planning that day instead of district council and to not drive our cars because of the snow. Unfortunately, the app that monitors our phones wigged out again and it took away all our apps including area book planner so we couldn't really do weekly planning for this week. It was a little ridiculous. And then President Leishman texted Elder Thacker and I and asked us to put the schedule for interviews together since he was switching up where he was going because of the weather. So we had a crazy day.

Thursday came around and we were allowed to use our cars again, so we had district council and interviews with our mission president. That was probably one of the best days for me. I really needed to talk to President Leishman since I had been stressing a little about being a zone leader and feeling inadequate. As I talked with him in my interview, I was able to feel complete relief about everything. He told me that the Lord called me because He knew I was capable of doing this. Since then I've been able to feel confident in those things I've been doing as a zone leader.

The next day on Friday Elder Thacker and Elder Mose went to the temple with some recent converts, and then that night they were visiting some samoan families we're working with and put two UBC's on date for February first. It was super great.

Then on Saturday I went on exchanges with the Spanish trio here in Lacey, and that was a lot of fun! I was able to follow up on some old investigators I had a year ago and just have a good time with those 3 missionaries.

On Sunday Dez was able to be interviewed by President Coppin who is a counselor of our mission presidency and also lives in our ward. He was able to help us know some things that she needs to do before she can get baptized. So unfortunately Dez fell off date but she is still super intent on being baptized.

Chris on the other hand was supposed to be baptized yesterday as well, but he told us that he was going out of town so it was pushed back to next week. Despite the lack of baptisms this weekend, it's been great to see not only success, but also the growth of the people we're working with, and the progress of the Lord's work in this ward. We currently have 4 people on date! It's amazing!

I just had a couple thoughts from my training that I had to give at district council this week. There's a talk called The Faith to Reap that our mission president had us read a while ago, and in that talk Elder Wilford Andersen describes what the faith to reap is. He says, "The faith to thrust in your sickle is the faith to try. It is faith in oneself and it evaporates as soon as the going gets tough. And then we start to doubt. But the faith to reap is faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. It never yields." He then talks about how once we have faith in Christ, we need to pray to align our will with God then go to work: "We cannot expect the Lord to guide our footsteps
if we're not willing to move our feet. And we should not ask the Lord to do for us what we can and should do for ourselves."

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!
Elder Smith

Celebrating Elder Thacker's 21st birthday

Our companionship and the Spanish elders at interviews

Elder Parker and I showing off our scarfs that a member made for us.

Week 68

Hello everyone!

This week has been pretty good. It went by fast, but it was awesome. It was raining all week long, and just yesterday we finally got a little bit of snow. We're supposed to get more this week, but it probably won't be that much.

Also we were able to put two of the people we've been teaching on date for baptism for this next Sunday. One of them is Dez. She was in an accident a few months ago when she fell about 30 feet onto cement. As she's been recovering, she's been able to use it as a turning point in the life to do better and develop her relationship with Jesus Christ.  She's been super excited to talk with us and learn especially because of some negative influences that have been in her life for a while now. Prayers to give her strength in her recovery and in her fight against those negative influences would be much appreciated.

The other person on date is a guy named Chris. I don't know a whole lot about why he's chosen to be baptized and learn more about the church, but he's a big Seahawks fan and he's fairly interested. Things just fell into place with him, so it's been awesome to see it happen.

Other than that we've just been doing a whole lot of knocking to find more people to teach. Things are great here in Lacey. Anyways, I hope you all have a great week. Love you!

-Elder Smith

Week 67

Hello everyone!

This week has been super long, but it's been really good. New years felt like half a month ago and yet it was only this last week. For the missionaries here in my mission, we finished proselyting at 4 on New Year's eve and then got together and had a potluck with our zone. I was super surprised by what the missionaries cooked up. Some made cinnamon rolls, others made tamales and horchata, and some brought chili and pie. My companionship made a cake to bring. And while we had all that we played some board games and volleyball. It was a super fun night. The next day for New Year's day we just had a normal proselyting day.

We also had some good progress this week. We met with Sheila and Armando a few times this week and taught them some more. On Friday night, Armando came to soccer with the Spanish branch, and he loved it. It was also super fun for me to be back playing with them again after a year.

On Saturday, Elder Parker and I went down to Yelm to help the elders down there since one of them is injured and has to stay inside. So it was fun taking one of them out to work their area a little bit.

This last Friday we had MLC, and we had some good trainings for us on how to be better zone leaders and to lead and motivate our zones in achieving inspired goals. One thing the AP's stressed was being passionate and acting like the super star (and being a good example) that all our missionaries think we are. I definitely feel like I needed the training since I'm not the best at working with people or leading, but I'm currently doing my best to help motivate the zone and move the work forward in Lacey. I live you all and I hope you have a good week!

-Elder Smith