5 August 2013
Soooo after I emailed last week the AP's called like 5 hours
later and said that I was staying in Maricopa and Elder B. was leaving. So
I am still at the same address but training. My new comp is Elder
J. He is 18. Just graduated in June. We get along super well. I get along with Elder J. great! He is from
SLC. Family of 10. Plays bball and vball.
The work is really slow right now. After N. and Sis K.
and the E. family getting baptized that was pretty much our teaching pool.
We have been tracting and biking a lot looking for people to talk to and teach.
I feel bad being a trainer in this area because there is not that much work here
so it is hard to get Elder J. teaching and learning because we don't teach a lot right now. I'm not to worried though because from the lessons that we have
had he seems to know his stuff and will do great as a missionary.
The one progressing investigator that we do have is named
A. He is 17 and is related to our WML. He has been coming to church for
about a month and we have taught him twice. He was on date for the 3rd but felt
a little pressured, so he wants more time to read and pray for an answer. He
does want to be baptized though. So we will keep teaching him and help him receive an answer.
About the tech stuff we haven't really heard anything. We do
have a member of the 70 coming to visit the mission. Elder Craig A Cardon. My
hope is that he brings some big boxes with iPhones and iPads.
Sounds like all is well back home. Chris deserves some fun
after a summer at the golf course. That place can be muckduck (The Office (Dad
dont say anything))
I love you all and the mission is the greatest time of my
life. Wouldn't change it for the world!!
Elder Smith
12 August 2013
This week has been off the chain!! On Tuesday we got a call
from a lady that is a member somewhere in AZ and told us that her sister,
V., is going through some hard times and has to move and could use some
help. We went to V's house and helped her move across town for like 3
hours. Then the next day she needed some more help so we went and helped for
another hour or so. V came to church on Sunday and loved it and then we
taught her a lesson at the RSP's home and she accepted the invitation to be
baptized, but Elder J. and I both felt as though we would wait until
our next lesson to extend a date.
Then last Sunday this lady that Elder B. and I had
talked to about a month ago decided to come to church out of the
blue. When we first talked to her she was a wreck. She was being evicted and
going through a divorce and a ton of other stuff all at once and
didn't really want to talk at the time so we left her with a mo dot o card with
the address of the church and the time. Out of the blue she came last week with
her 4 kids. Sacrament meeting was fine but when primary came along she didn't
want her kids to be split. So our potential
investigator (D.) just took her kids and left. Elder J. and I decided
we should stop by and aplogize for the rough experiance. Turns out when she
answered the door she was aplogizing to us leaving. After all was said
we set up a lesson. When we went by for the lesson the first thing she tells us
is that she is gay. We had a good talk about the churchs' stance on that and she
wasnt mad or anything. She actually knew from reading the Bible. So that was good. The lesson went well. She didn't come to church
yesterday though which was a bummer. She is still in a rough situation
finacially.
And then yesterday we had a part member family come to
church. She wife is the nonmember and at church we set up a lesson for that
evening. We taught the wife and the husband who hasn't been to church in 10+
years. The wife got really emotional about learning more and wanting to be
baptized. She is on date for the 24th of August. Pretty cool.
And then we also had a nonmember couple come to church for
no reason. They just saw the church building and wanted to see what it was
like. We have a lesson with them on Thursday. That will be awesome.
I hope Dad is reading this and realizing that I am trying to
use correct spelling and punctuation so I don't get to out of it :) I hope
everyone is enjoying life because that is all we need to do. Don't stress about
anything Mom. I never did and I still graduated high school. Hold your comments
about that because I know you have some :)
Sounds like all is going good at home. That is good to hear.
I love you all and hope things continue to go well!!
Love
Elder Smith
