Week 51

AREA: North Las Vegas (Goldcrest & Samoan) 
COMPANION: Elder Woffinden

Hey!

This week has been great!  We had lots of miracles in our area and in
the zone.  It's still weird to me that I'm a leader of almost 30
missionaries.  But it hasn't been to bad, I get to know what's
happening in the mission and help people with concerns or problems
they have.

Anyway my new area is awesome.  I cover the Goldcrest Ward (English
speaking) and the Samoan Ward!  I'm not speaking Samoan but I do cover
that Ward due to so little population of Samoan's in Las Vegas.  The
ward covers the whole valley so we cover the whole mission basically.
And the church building we meet at is out of our mission but have
permission to go there.  The funny thing is is that my sister, Amy,
and Taylor were at that Sacrament meeting for some reason but they
didn't say hi because of rules.  They did sit two rows behind me and
took a picture of me.  I had no idea they were there.  Crazy!

The Goldcrest Ward has a few ghetto areas but I'll be okay.  We find
lots of people to teach!  Lots of people out and about.

We are teaching a few people with a date.  There's an older lady we
are teaching named Shelly who is preparing to be baptized on August
12th but she is having health problem and is in the hospital.  We
visited her last night and had a lesson and gave her a blessing,
really cool visit, she is the sweetest lady.

We are also teaching a guy named Jason and he has a disability but
we've been working slow with him and brought him to a baptism that
someone had in our zone and he really liked it and said he can't wait
till he gets baptized!

Also working with a family named Michael and Mark Russum and they have
a date for late August!  They are doing great!

Overall awesome week!  Learned a lot about continuing to apply the
Gospel of Jesus Christ in all that we share.  Also recognizing the
Lords hand in your everyday lives!  Super important!  Don't rely on
your own knowledge, rely on the spirit!

Love you guys and miss you!

Seeing Elder How at a leadership meeting!

On the way to our Samoan Ward that we cover (which is out of
mission!) and it gets a bit ghetto and lots of homeless people all
over the streets living. Pretty sad.

My new Companion Elder Woffinden, he's great!  He goes home after
this transfer! Killing off another Elder!

My sister's pic of me in the Samoan ward!

Week 50

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

Hey!

Sorry but I'll have to be short, it was transfers today and I am going
back to my last zone!  I'm going back to my same apartment complex but
I will be serving as a Zone leader this time!  I don't feel ready but
the Lord ahead called me so I will report to duty lol!  It's crazy, I
haven't even trained yet and that's the one thing I really wanted to
do!  But it's all good, I'll get the chance later on.

Anyway I just want to talk about what miracles I've seen in my week!
So first off, the couple that we set with a date last week (Marquan
and Misty), we saw them again a Monday night and asked if we could
come inside and have a sit down lesson.  He said said so we went in
and sat down and asked if there is anyone else in the house who is
interested in learning about Jesus Christ and he yelled upstairs and
asked if anyone else wants to go to church and 3 kids come down stairs
and sit down to listen.  The oldest is 16, her name is Ayanna and she
actually has a two year old daughter also lives with her boyfriend so
that's a little bit of a problem to solve.  And two other boys who are
12 and 10!  And we taught them the Restoration and set them all with a
baptismal date!  They love the gospel and came back the next day and
they all read and want to go to church!  But sadly they didn't end up
going to church but still lots of miracles alone just in that
household.  They unfortunately didn't come to church but they are
awesome I'm sad I don't get to continue teaching them but Elder
Michaelis is training so he has a great area to train!

We also met another guy Friday and set him with a date on Sunday night!  Really awesome last night in my area.

Also had Ruby's baptism on Saturday and it was a miracle we were able
to help her pass the interview and she passed and she was so happy on
Saturday and the members were awesome fellowshipping her and talking
to her and her Mom!  Awesome week.  We worked really hard for my last
week and saw many many miracles.  It was crazy!

Love you guys and hope you can reach out to your friends and people in
your ward to help fellowshipping them because there are a lot of
people that leave the church because of lack of people caring they are
there so involve everyone and because they are your family.  We are
all sons and daughters of God!  I love my mission and but it's going
to fast!

Love you,

Elder Smith

Ruby's baptism!

Skylar Wichert, we've been teaching her for a while and set her
with a date to be baptized on the 19th of August!  She is dating a
return missionary from Argentina and we actually found Skylar through
tract so pretty awesome!

Last district of the transfer!

On 7/11, we got free slurpees!

Exchanges with Elder Tecson!

Good meal at our apartment that we picked up from a member!

Week 49

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week was overall really good, even though three of our major
investigators were out of town but they are back now.  We had quite a
bit success with our current investigator Ruby and found a couple
more.

Ruby is set to be baptized for the 15th of July so Saturday and we are
still preparing her for that. We have gone over everything again and
still struggling due to her 3rd grade reading level and not very good
memory.  But we received direction from our Mission President that we
can talk to our bishop and see if she is ready to be baptized and if
so we will have the interview and move forward with the baptism this
Saturday.

Then Logan, Skylar and Monique have been out of town so haven't been
able to get in with them. 😢

Then we met two new investigators on Saturday. There names are Marquan
and Misty, they are interesting.  We street contacted into them and
Marquan looks like he could drug dealer but everyone needs the gospel.
Also his GF/wife looks like she may have been a stripper at one point.
We taught them on Saturday and Sunday and when the Assistants to the
President were on exchanges with us Sunday Elder Call asked if they
want to be baptized and they said yes so they have a baptismal date.
Awesome week, we are having transfers next week so I'll find out
what's happening!


I love our Father in Heaven and his Jesus Christ!

Sorry I'm in a hurry and have to go!  Love you!

My district meeting on the 4th of July, pretty fun!  Awesome Elders!

Bored with some washable tattoos haha!  We had to be in by 6pm on
the 4th of July and Elder Michaelis got a package of cheap $1 store
items that he didn't want so I put those tattoos to good use.

4th of July BBQ with members!  Awesome family! He's my Ward
Mission leader.

Week 48

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week was a lot better!  We were able to teach Ruby twice and a
new investigator named Logan.  Ruby is doing alright, we've been
teaching her a lot preparing her for baptism on the 15th.  She is
having a hard time with keeping information in and she needs to be
able to understand a few things before she is baptized and she forgets
everything or doesn't comprehend what we teach.  We will be making
flash cards to help her remember!  Other than that she is doing great
and coming to church every week!

Logan is a 11 year old who is a grandson of someone in our ward who is
staying here for the summer and he wants to be baptized so we set him
with August 5th.  He is a really cool kid and he's smart.  He will be
out of town for a little bit for the 4th so we will teach him when we
get back.

Our other two investigators are out of town as well till July 9th so
this week may be slower, mostly just teach Ruby this week and find.

Good week overall, and something I've been thinking about lately is
the importance of having faith as a missionary.  Without faith you
won't get anything done because God won't give you miracles if you
don't think they are ever going to come.  So it's important to have
faith in yourself and in the Lord in our everyday life.  Some ways we
can have faith is by praying for faith and staying positive and happy.

Love you guys and have a great 4th, we have some members that we are
going to to have a BBQ, should be fun then we have to be in by 6pm so
not sure what we will do?  Hope you have a great holiday!

Week 47

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

So I'm not feeling so great today or the past three days.  I'm feeling
a little better today but I was sick from Thursday night to now.  I
have had a fever, cough, throwing up, sore throat, it sucks!  But I'm
hoping to feel better soon.

We had a good week prior to me getting sick.  We had a few good
lessons with Ruby and Monique.  We have a lot of potential for things
to happen next week.  We have had a couple of solid referrals we will
teach next week and a lesson set up with a couple of potentials.
Sorry for another short letter but it was a rough weekend.

Week 46

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week was pretty typical nothing to big stood out accept we got a
new car.  We found a guy to teach from street contacting and he is
pretty awesome, he works with a lot of members and wanted to know more
about the church and a coworker gave him a Book of Mormon.  That's
about the biggest thing that happened this week.  Being district
leader is alright, I had my first district meeting and went alright,
at least I think so.

Sorry to be short but ran out of time sorry!

Love you guys!

Week 45

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week has been great!  Lots of miracles and blessings!

We were able to teach Ruby a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation.
It was kind of a surprise lesson because she said she could meet that
day and then her mom called towards the end of the night and asked if
we could come over to teach Ruby so of course we said yes and it went
well.

We also had another lesson with someone we found earlier this week.
Her name is Monique and the moms name is Amy.  So we had a return
appointment for Friday and we went with a priest (17 year old).  Then
when we got there we rang and knocked and no answer then we decide to
plan what we should do next.  After about a few minutes of being at
the porch planning on what to do next and then we hear the door open
and they said we can come in!  Had a great lesson and left great
commitments, can't wait to meet with them again!

Being a district leader has been alright,  I haven't had a district
meeting yet, that will be tomorrow.

Sorry for the short email but I'm a little tired.

I just wanted to share about what I learned a talk I read!  It's a
great lesson to learn!  The talk is called In the Strength of the Lord
by Elder Bednar.  Something I love that it talks about is enabling the
power of the Atonement.  A scripture that goes along with that is Alma
31:31 which says, "31 O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt
thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I
may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions
which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people."  I
really like how it shows that we should pray for strength and patience
when we have trials, don't just pray for them to magically disappear.
I love the Atonement and how many ways it can apply to our lives.

Miss ya and love ya!

Week 44

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week has been pretty good, first off we had transfer calls.  So I
found out me and Elder Michaelis are staying together and I am now the
district leader 😐 (mixed feelings about it) which means I will be
looking after my district and helping them out and going on exchanges
with them.  Also I will be teaching the district every Tuesday each
week for about an hour and a half (District Meeting).  It should be
interesting how everything goes with that?

Everything else in week was good, we heard good news about Francisco!
Our recent convert that got deported is finally in Mexico and he was
sent to Mexico City then somehow got to Cancun Mexico.  We were able
to contact his bishop of the Ward he is in and Francisco ended up
going to church and the bishop is helping him out to have somewhere to
live and help him find work. I'm just glad he is in a safe place and
has a ward that can help him!😁

This last week was a little slower but good, we were able to meet with
Ruby once and that went well,  she definitely has a reading level not
high enough to read the Book of Mormon so she is just reading the Book
of Mormon stories.  She is possibly going to girls camp so that's
pretty cool!  We were also able to find two solid potentials from
tracting who we set up lessons with them to come back.  One of them
wasn't home on Monday night when she said she would be but we will
continue to try her.  Also we street contacted into someone at the
park and she was telling us she has been wanting to go back to church
and getting closer to God but didn't know which church to go to.  So
we got her phone number and address so we could stop by!  Hopefully
these potentials follow through and let us stop by.🤞🏼

We had another good contact with a less active lady who hasn't been to
church since she was 16 and she said she has never had missionaries or
Ward members stop by and she said she would love for us to come teach
her family on Monday so we stopped by and taught the restoration and
they have a daughter who is 12 almost 13 that was very interested in
learning about god because she was never raised in any church
whatsoever.  We got a return appointment and I'm excited for that
opportunity to help there family see the blessing of the gospel like I
have in my life.  Looking forward to meeting them again!

The rest of the week was just a lot of finding and less active lessons
that have been going great. Great overall week and I'm excited to
continue building up Gods kingdom in my vineyard (areas)!

Mosiah 3:19
19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall
of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the
enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and
becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and
becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love,
willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict
upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

The Atonement is here to make bad men good men and good men better
men.  I have definitely seen how the Atonement does change people for
the better and bless your life eternally.  I love my Savior Jesus
Christ and what he's done for me and for all the others around me.  I
know he died for us and came again and we will do the same.  Also the
Atonement is necessary for us to not just know about it but apply it
to our lives so use it daily.  It will bless your life and bless
others around you because of your example.

Love you guys

Week 43

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week has been a little depressing due to to some news I heard
about Francisco on Tuesday. We were trying to contact him and he never
text back.  So then we stop by and Ruby was home and she told us she
had some news about Francisco, she said he was in jail and waiting to
get deported and that's all she knew and we left thinking how this
could happen?  Then we later find out he was at the immigration office
with his papers almost finished and while he was there they put him
into custody and was going back to Mexico on Friday.  What's weird is
is that he has been here since he was 12 and hasn't been back to
Mexico since.  He also has no family down there so it's a good thing
there will be a bishop he can call for some help.  I pray for him
everyday and hope that he is doing okay and he can come back legally
this time.  His wife said it should take 8 to 12 months just to see if
it's a possibility for him to come back.  Sad but I'm over it now, I'm
just staying positive.

Anyway, my week has been pretty good besides that.  We were able to
teach Francisco's daughter Ruby and she loves the gospel.  Ruby does
have a learning disability so it should be interesting if she will
understand what she reads out of the Book of Mormon.  We gave her the
Book of Mormon stories as well to compare so she won't be totally lost
what is happening.  After that lesson we set her with a date of June
24th to be baptized.

We have two other people we are teaching set with dates but both of
them didn't come to church and one is still smoking like crazy and
hasn't read much out of the Book of Mormon so we will probably drop
his date.  And the other one is set for July 1st and she really wants
to get baptized but she hasn't come to church for a long time but she
has been reading her scriptures and praying daily. Her name is Ariana
and she is also living with a less active member who has a kid
together and they're not married so that's the biggest concern.
Ariana said she will get married next month but we will see.

What I've learned this week is that God has a path for everyone and we
just have to stay on the path so we can receive all the blessings our
Heavenly Fathers has in store with us. So use this time on Earth to
prepare to return to him.

Next week is transfers so we will see what happens, I have been in
this area for 4 months now I'm probably staying but who knows?  There
are 20 missionaries coming in so maybe me or my companion is training.
We will see.

Week 42

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week has been pretty good!  We had success finding more people to teach.

We have two new people looking into the church and one is Francisco's
daughter named Ruby.  Ruby came to church yesterday and had a great
time there.  She is 18 and loves young women's so hopefully she'll be
able to make friends.  Also we have only taught her once, we mostly
just prepared her for what is going to happen on Sunday and Tuesday we
will teach the Restoration. And the other is a 10 year old kids name
Dimitri Mendez and he is awesome.  He asks really good questions and
he goes to a Christian school so he has a background knowledge of
Christianity.  His dad is a convert to the church but is inactive but
while we were there he was helping him find scriptures in the Book of
Mormon he still remembers and loves so that was cool.  So hopefully we
can reactivate the family and have the son learn more and prepare him
to be baptized.

We also have a guy named JP who is about 20 years old and he has a
baptismal date.  He is all for getting baptized but he isn't seeing
how big of a commitment it is and he smokes a lot.  He said can I just
stop smoking for a couple weeks, get baptized and then start smoking
again right?  And we told him how we promise God we are willing to
follow him and leave our bad habits behind and he agreed and said he
will quit.  So we will see how that goes, he also said he was going to
be at church yesterday but he didn't show up.  He is an interesting
guy, every time we pass by his house he is in his garage with his
friends smoking weed and playing his guitar.  We will see if he will
progress.

We also set a lady named Ariana with a date to get baptized and she
need to get married and read from the Book of Mormon for that to
happen.  She has been investigating for a while now, a little over a
year and she is up and down and right now she is up so we will meet
with her once a week to prepare her by extending commitments to keep.

I'm also proud of Francisco for all that he knows and believes and how
he is now teaching his daughter.  It's really cool to see someone you
taught teach their kid because he bares his testimony to her without
even knowing it.  It's really cool

It's been a really good week and I'm excited to see how next week will go.

I just want to share to you guys that today is the day we prepare to
meet God, don't wait to change.  Now is the time.
Alma 34:33
33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many
witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate
the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life,
which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not
improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness
wherein there can be no labor performed.

I love that Jesus Christ made it possible for all of Gods children to
make it back to him.  It's only possible through the Atonement of
Christ.  Cherish that we have that opportunity to repent.  It's
definitely a blessing!

Love you guys!

Week 41

AREA: Lone Mountain   
COMPANION: Elder Michaelis 

This week has been awesome!  So many great things happened that I
don't have a whole lot of time to explain!  We had Francisco's baptism
and confirmation!  Also my birthday and Mother's Day which means I got
to skype my awesome family!  Really good week, we also had Zone
Conference and learned a lot about having a good attitude about
everything.  Also applying the Doctrine of Christ even more!  We also
got tiwi's which are a little box on the windshield that hooks up to
the car and tracks all you do while driving.  If the light turns red
you are either speeding, no seat belt, fast acceleration, quick
stopping, and lastly going over bumps to fast.  So it should be fun,
it's not to bad.  Anyway I wish I had more time but we had a lot
happening today!

Love you guys and miss you all!  I'll have a better email next week!

I first got some donuts then went a
24 hour Mexican restaurant called Roberto's and got a breakfast
burrito which was really good and filling.

Little party the ward mission leader's family threw