Elder Kevin Smith's Mission Blog: Week 10

AREA: North Las Vegas (Deer Springs/Waterfall)
COMPANION: Elder Steward

Sorry for the last two emails, they were pretty short. The first
short one was because of transfers and I stayed in the same area. The
second email was because we were shopping for too long and had barely
any time to type emails. And we are only supposed to write emails for
an hour every pday. Sorry I'll work on having more detailed emails.
Monday- Today was a good P-day. We went shopping and went to a
restaurant called Canes and it has chicken strips and they taste
really good. And then we wrote emails and played volleyball for a
little bit. After our dinner we had a family home evening planned
with the Van Buskirk family. They are a cool family, they are really
into dirt biking, snowboarding, long boarding, cars, ect., a lot of
things I enjoy. They also had a unicycle which I tried but wasn't the
best at. Anyway they are a cool family but the older brothers, 18 and
20, are inactive and don't seem interested in the church. The dad is
a little inactive and the mom is active. Then they have a daughter
that's 16 and son that 12. So we taught them a lesson and it was
about good vs. evil. I planned the lesson and I put a lot of thought
into it. I showed them a video called the Hope of God's Light. The
video seemed to thought the father and daughter. I also shared Mosiah 7:13, 16-19 and then bore my testimony of how nothing else in the
world can make you happier than being close to God and being dedicated
to this true gospel. Good day.
Tuesday- Today we were on bike again because every Tuesday we go on
bike to conserve miles. It was a good day, we were able to meet with
Jen Mujick today and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson. We also
had district meeting andElder Flores taught about recognizing and
using the spirit as a missionary. Also while we were biking there was
a guy who threw fire crackers out his window at us and they exploded
while riding past them, it was pretty funny and a surprise. Other than
that it was a pretty basic day.
Wednesday- Today we did service for Brother Stevens again. He's an
old guy with a big property who can't take care of it very well. So
we helped him pick pomegranates and we picked a whole wheel barrel
full also we trimmed a tree of his. We taught Joe again and we showed
a General Conference talk to him, it was by Elder Wilford W. Anderson,
called the Music of the Gospel. Really good talk, I would recommend
watching it. It talks about how we should go through the motions.
Thursday- Today we had weekly planning but had 3 lessons planned for
today. Instead we only ended up having one lesson because the others
canceled. We just taught Sara the lesson was about the law of
tithing. It was good, we also had a lesson with the Bulluck family
and they are returning to activity. We taught about the 12 tribes and
it was cool to see them hungry to learn. I need to study that more
myself cause not all of it makes sense to me yet.
Friday- Today we were able to finish off weekly planning and teach a
lesson to Kash about teaching, learning, and service. Tomorrow we are
goi g on exchanges and I'm with Elder Talani. He is a cool guy, it
sound likes he likes to have fun(not use his time wisely). We have
two lessons planned for tomorrow so it should be a good day.
Saturday- Today was an interesting exchange, I was with Elder Talani
and he is cool but doesn't follow all the rules but he's an okay guy.
He was hard to keep him on track in companion study, he would always
get off topic and he wanted to to nap for an hour and he did while I
polished my shoes and read General Conference talks. We taught two
lessons but neither were the ones planned for the day. One was on the
street with a family, there name was Maria and Mike and we taught them
for about 15 minutes about the restoration. It was good, I'm pretty
sure they felt the spirit and I did strongly. We set up a time on
Monday to come back. We also taught a guy named Gamelel and we have
run into him before and we just stopped by to see if he was home. We
ended up trying to teach him but it was more of him trying to argue
with us that we are full of crap. He would ask questions that we new
the answer to but he would give us any time to answer them. It was
pretty frustrating but a good experience, we had him pray at the end
because he didn't want us to pray because he says we believe in a
different Jesus which is so dumb that he thinks that. Then we ended
are exchange and went to bed.
Sunday- Today was fast Sunday, it was a good Sunday but nothing too
big happened. It was just a very spiritual sacrament meeting, I was
able to bless the bread. We didn't have any of our investigators at
church today so that was a bummer. Then it was more meeting later in
the day, not much else after that, just street contacting and trying
to knock on less active doors.
This week I have really focused on being more confident in myself and
don't be so self critical and it has really helped me be in a better
mood. I know that if we are less negative in our lives and we are
happier every day. So look for the blessings and miracles in your day
and you'll be better off.