Week 86 - Mission Tour

Hello everyone!! This week has been really great! Somehow we've been pretty busy while still being in quarantine.

Starting on Tuesday we drove an hour down to South Hill to record Elder Johnson and another sister from the mission performing The Prayer for the Why I Believe that happened Sunday night. So we were there for 6 hours just getting audio recordings and video footage. It was pretty fun.

On Wednesday the first counselor in our mission presidency, President Winn, and his wife came to Silverdale to meet with the zone. And basically it was a cool little devotional pump up thingy where he used a little bit of an object lesson with basketball and it was about not being a quitter. So it was really great to get that pump up to keep pushing forward from within the walls of our apartments.

Thursday we drove up to Port Angeles to drop off the mail that Winns gave us for the missionaries up there, and then we also got haircuts from a sister up there who cuts hair. So that took a really long time and was really fun. It was nice to be able to see PA again.

On Friday we had a mission tour with the first counselor of the area presidency, Elder Whiting. It was a big meeting with the entire mission over the zoom app. That was probably the highlight of the week. There was a lot that he talked to us about and inspired us to do. He also gave us some assignments to memorize scriptures for each of the lesson points for each lesson, write a page on an alternate introduction to the Book of Mormon and talk about what it means to us. The last thing that he asked us to do was to do a very deep dive on one Christlike attribute while we are here in quarantine, and the attribute that I've felt impressed to work on is that of charity and love. So if anyone has any ideas on how to develop that attribute from my current situation, it would be much appreciated.

Saturday was really great. We got to have interviews with President Leishman, and I also got to mow the lawn which is something I haven't done in a very long time.

Sunday night we had the Why I Believe devotional that was really amazing. You'll all have to watch it if you didn't get a chance to. You can find it on the Facebook page that we have.

And throughout all this craziness with being so busy we had a pretty amazing miracle. Two weeks ago we got a referral to a lady named Sheri. She actually referred herself which doesn't ever really happen all that often. So this week she reached out to us again to set up an appointment with us. Then right after that happened we got a text from a Utah number. It was Sheri's member friend. He told us that he had already been teaching her the basics of the missionary lessons, that she has been living the word of wisdom for the past 2 weeks, she's been reading the Book of Mormon, and she's even started to do food storage!! It was incredible! And then on top of that he tells us that they set a goal for her to be baptized at the end of the month. It was a miracle. That's the only way to describe it. So through the week we were able to teach her a few times, introduce fellowship, and do a virtual church service with her. It's been amazing. So we're pretty excited to continue working with her for this week.

So that's the big updates from this week. Love you all!
-Elder Smith

The zone with the Winns

Week 85

Hello everyone!!

This week was really good. We had another virtual zone conference where the trainings were just pre recorded and sent to us via Facebook. We also made a few different videos for our Facebook page Come Unto Christ in Silverdale so those will probably be posted throughout the week. On Sunday we had a Facebook Live video, and so we're hoping that it will help out the page since it's been on the decline a bit lately. This next Sunday we will be having a Why I Believe devotional that will be live on all 15 of the mission's Facebook pages. So hopefully that will help things as well.

We were able to teach the Depretto family a little this week, and Rachel has been out of town the entire week. We didn't have a lot of success with reaching out to people this week. Hopefully this week will be better. Hope you all are doing well! Love you!

-Elder Smith

Pictures:
-The different ways in which we teach lessons over the phone
-Recording stuff for Facebook
-Exchanges with P12KBI (Poulsbo 1st and 2nd, Kingston, Bainbridge Island)

Day 54 of Quarantine

Hello everyone!! This has been a pretty eventful week, at least for quarantine, and so that makes it a good week!

To start off, we got in contact with our investigator, Rachel, this week. It was kind of crazy, because she missed our first appointment on Tuesday, but then on Wednesday evening we thought to give her a text to see how she was doing. And because of that little bit of inspiration at that moment, we were able to provide her with comfort since she had been having a pretty awful day. By the end of our conversation, she was talking about wanting to get baptized, so we had a lesson set up for Thursday. We were planning on answering some more of her questions, and putting her on date for baptism. Unfortunately, she never answered her phone when we called, and for the next few days she never texted us back when we would send her messages. We were a little frustrated. Then last night we thought to text her Happy Mother's Day. And she replied! But she also didn't know who was texting. After a little bit we found out that she got a new phone so she didn't have our contact info and that she was in Idaho now with family. Hopefully we'll be able to keep teaching her over the phone this week.

Also this week we decided to go through all the people in Area Book again, and on about the fourth call we talked with a guy named Anthony. We had a pretty good conversation with him about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. His biggest concern was that it wasn't in the Bible, so we'll be trying to call him again this week to resolve that concern.

That same day we were supposed to have our carpets cleaned, so we had moved literally everything off the carpets and vacuumed so that it could be cleaned. So we spent that day at the church which was pretty fun. Unfortunately the carpet cleaner guy's truck that had just been repaired the day before broke down and so he didn't get to clean very much of the carpet. So it was a bit of a disaster for him since he was doing the job so he could pay his next housing payment. Plus he lived north of Seattle which is on the opposite side of the Sound from us. So he should be coming back sometime to finish the job though. So all our furniture is in the kitchen for now.

That's most of the exciting stuff that happened this week. I hope you're all doing okay whether you're in quarantine or not. Love you all!
-Elder Smith

Elder Johnson and I doing our emailing.

Day 594 - May the Fourth be with you

Hello again! With transfers, this week has dragged on to be super long. On Wednesday we got to transfers and exchanged luggage into cars and left super quick. It was awesome how fast it was! So now I'm here in Silverdale with Elder Johnson, and things have been pretty good up here.

Yesterday on Sunday we were able to give a recent convert the Aaronic Priesthood and help him administer the sacrament to his family for the first time. It was a pretty cool experience, and by the sound of it he's had an amazing journey to get to this point. So now we'll be teaching him the recent convert lessons as well as teaching his two sons so they can get baptized as well.

We're working with a few other solid people, but I don't know a whole lot about them just yet. I should know a little bit more by next week though. Love you all! Hope you have a great week!

-Elder Smith

Week 82 - Transfer Calls

Hey everyone!

Looking back, this week seems to be the same as all the rest. They've all been blended together and I struggle to remember if events that have happened were during this last week or during some week prior. However, one thing I do remember and that is that we got our transfer calls this Saturday! Elder Kirkland will be staying and getting a new Zone Leader, Elder Parker is going him (RIP), and I'll be heading up north to Silverdale with Elder Johnson! I'll be covering both the Silverdale 1st and the Brownsville wards. I'm pretty excited to be going up there and getting a change of scenery. Also transfers are going to be working a little differently this time. Usually they have all the missionaries meet at a centralized stake center and then switch with your new companion. This time if your new area is on the way, they want us to be dropped off there instead, and the remaining missionaries come to the same building, but it's going to be at a much later time than usual. Also there's specific parking at the stake center, probably so we don't look like too big a crowd. But that's all for this week. I'll be sad to leave Lacey and all the people I got to meet here, but I'm excited for what's ahead! Love you all!

-Elder Smith

Week 81

Hello everyone!

We're still alive and well here in the Pacific Northwest. Last P-day seems like it was 2 weeks ago and yet the week passed swiftly. We were able to teach Pam again this week and helped her understand the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve. It's been awesome to see her progress and begin to pray more sincerely. Things are still moving quite slow with her, but it's slow and steady.

We're also teaching a guy named Adam who has quite a bit more religious experience than Pam and our conversations with him (over the phone of course) are really in depth and he understands a lot about the scriptures. So right now we've left him a commitment to read and pray and we'll continue to work through some of the lessons with him.

Also this Saturday we get transfer calls and I'm mostly likely going to be transferred to my last area...RIP. Anyways, one thing that I've been grateful for since being quarantined is the amount of time we now have to get some extra studies in there. That's probably one of my favorite things that I've learned on my mission is how to learn from and study the scriptures. Also each week we now are taking an institute class and this last week the topic was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One of the things that I loved that our teacher really emphasized is how Jesus loved us so much that he didn't just want to hear about our pains and sufferings from some second hand account, but He wanted to feel everything we feel so He can empathize with us (Alma 7:11-12). But that mostly sums up the week love you all!
-Elder Smith

Getting food dropped off by some Samoan investigators
(there were ribs, corn bread muffins, rice, baked beans, Sam's Cola)

Week ....something

Hey everyone!

Today's been pretty busy, so I don't have a whole lot of time to email. The days have all been sort of blending together, but we were able to have interviews with our mission president this week which were good. Also we're continuing to work with Pam and help her understand the scriptures. It's awesome because she really has a desire to learn and understand. We've also been getting masks to wear when we have to go out in public so here's a picture of the ones my mom made for us.

Week 79 - Day 19 of Quarantine (I think that rhymes haha)

Hello everyone!

This week has been fairly good. We had a virtual zone conference where we were told that we are going to start doing finding on Facebook. What we have right now is each zone in the mission has a Facebook page that we're going to be putting uplifting messages on daily so that we can get people coming to us with questions. The key part is just getting it out there so we're just trying to invite everybody possible to like the page so more people can see it.

Also our mission president sent out an email this week that shows which groups will be going home when. So instead of coming home the 3rd of September I'll be coming home July 23rd assuming things don't clear up and we still have more missionaries from the foreign countries coming back.
This week we were able to teach an older woman named Pam. We've been teaching her over the phone and it's been super awesome because she's so invested in learning, but the problem is that she doesn't understand the scriptures because of the old way in which it speaks. So right now we're just trying to help her understand the scriptures and gain a testimony of them.

You could also say we enjoyed conference. I mean it was pretty amazing. The speakers were so powerful and the presence of the Spirit was super strong. I got some good notes from it, and I'm anticipating the time that they release the written talks so I can go back and look at what I missed. I don't know if I can say that I have a favorite talk, but I definitely noticed an emphasis on how we Hear Him. Many of the speakers talked about ways we can more effectively Hear Him and how important it is to know how He speaks to us and to remember the times when He does speak.
I hope you're all staying healthy out there.

Love you!
-Elder Smith

Me eating the lunch that my dad ordered for my companions and I

Watching conference from our apartment on a TV a ward member gave us to use

Week 78 - week 2 of quarantine

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty... uneventful seeing that we stayed in our apartment the entire week. However, it's been cool to see all the miracles that have happened throughout the mission. Honestly it's been a little hard to adjust since we're having to learn to work in a different way than we're used to. But it's been good. We've actually found some people that we wouldn't have if we were still working as normal. Anyways, love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

-Elder Smith

~ this is mom: after asking Jared more about some of the things he alluded to in this short note, we learned that the missionaries have now had more time to go through their area books and call numbers they didn't have time to before. In doing so, they've found new people to teach. Jared's companionship began teaching a person named Pam over the phone.

Week 77

Hello everyone! This week has been a little crazy. Last Monday our mission president told us we couldn't knock doors any longer, so that made life kind of difficult, then Elder Parker got a call that he was going to go home early at the end of the transfer. We then found that Elder Kirkland's bike got stolen and then we got quarantined. Since then we have been playing board games, eating oreos, and making calls to all of our investigators. It's all just mixing together. Also we got a call that Elder Kelsall is going to be going home early this week because he has asthma. So that'll be my second Samoan companion who goes home early. It kind of sucks. Hope you are all doing well.

Love you all!
-Elder Smith

Week 76

Hello everyone!! This week has been pretty crazy.

Starting on Tuesday we (the zone leaders) were asked by the mission president to go buy hand sanitizer for everyone in our zones. However, we went to a couple stores and they were all sold out! People at this point seem to just be paranoid at this point. Some of the people we teach won't meet with us anymore because of the coronavirus, and for some odd reason everyone is buying a ton of toilet paper and cases of water. It's kind of rediculous. There have been 14 deaths from the coronavirus in Washington, but from what I've heard they were all older people who were vulnerable and already had other health issues. Our mission president is now having us buy two weeks worth of food and personal supplies this week just as a precaution and we had an emergency mission conference call on Tuesday to talk about staying healthy.

As for the rest of the week, we had a baptism for Kiso Aab on Saturday and the Samoan group was very involved. It was really awesome to have their support and to fellowship Kiso.

We were also able to meet with Linda this week. We're currently working through the Spirit world with her and helping her to understand it and find it in the scriptures. Unfortunately her husband isn't supportive and is now staying home because of the coronavirus so we might not be able to meet with her much right now.

We've also been able to teach the Sooto kids again this week. They're on date for the 25th right now, and it's awesome to see how excited they are for it. The only problem is they don't have their own transportation for getting to church, so we're trying to get members of the ward to pick them up.

That's mostly everything for this week though. This Saturday we'll be getting our transfer calls already, and a week from this Wednesday is transfers. This transfer has gone by so fast. I hope everyone stays healthy this week haha.

 Love you!
-Elder Smith

Us at Kiso Aab's baptism

Week 75

Hello everyone!! Sorry I haven't emailed the last two weeks; things have been kind of crazy out here.

This last week we had stake conference, and the Samoan class that we had in our ward finally got turned into an actual Samoan group!! This means that the Samoan members of the Lacey stake can actually be part of the ward and that we can work more with the Samoans in the Lacey stake.

Also we've had quite a bit of success this last week. We've been working with the Sooto family to bring them into the Samoan group, and this week we were able to put the two kids, JT and Jahnea, on date for baptism on March 25th! Also another Samoan we've been working with, Kiso Aab, is on date to be baptized this Saturday! He's been taught by missionaries in the past when he lived in Samoa, but he just didn't have the chance. He already knows most of everything we teach, so he's mostly ready to be baptized.

There's been a lot of little things that have happened this week to progress the work, and it's amazing to see how God works through those small and simple things. It's like growing a plant. Or a pepper plant for that matter. It starts as just a seed, but as it gets nourished over time it will grow and grow until it starts to bring forth it's own fruit (peppers). I love to see how we even though we work with some people who are interested and then they fall off the map, eventually God brings them back to our attention and we can help to nourish them a little bit more so they can continue to grow. Love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Smith

Us and the Lacey 5th elders at interviews this week

The latest update of my almost year old, mission-grown pepper plant :) 

Week 74: Pictures pictures

No letter this week - only pictures

Pepper plant is still alive

One skinny 3" pepper growing

Gathering after a stake conference with the zone