ZONE CONFERENCES

ZONE CONFERENCES

SELKIRK IS CATCHING THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT!

Friends and Family!

Hey, it was soooo great to talk to you this week! It was a whole lot easier than last time! It was tough hanging up but we had another appointment that night that went really well and it snapped me out of any homesickness pretty quick, which was great!

As for golfing, it got rained out so hopefully next week!! Sorry if this email is rough because I told you a lot on the call and I have to go to the bathroom really bad, but somebody is taking forever! haha

But this week was good! Karl, Velma and Chris all made it to church which was great! The only bad part is that Velma is really sick so she had to cancel with us today, which really stinks! We were going to teach the Word of Wisdom and I was really excited and nervous about it! Hopefully she will get better soon so we can teach her! We also taught a great new lady last night! She is a single mom with a ton of crazy kids but she said she’d come to church this week so hopefully that goes well! We are teaching fasting and obeying and honoring the law with Chris today and those are the only commandments he hasn’t heard! He has accepted everything else and so now we are just waiting for him to get his work schedule sured up so he can get bath-i-tized! haha I don’t know if i told you about Brother Brown back in Agnes but he always said “bath-i- tized” when we took him out teaching with us. haha He also said “gost-a-pel” instead of gospel! haha He has a heart of gold!

That was sooo good to hear from Pious! I’m not aloud to email him from my account though, I can only email him through you, so I will send you an email for him! He is the best!! I sent him one of my favorite ties so that’s why he was thanking me. haha Elder Shulte gave it to him for me and he said he was super excited! He has plans to come stay with us after my mission, if that’s ok? He has always wanted to see Salt Lake City! Man he is a champ!! The members her are great and since there have been people coming to church they are really getting more excited about missionary work! It’s been really neat to see!

Elder Platt is doing good! haha It was fun to listen to him talk about his family! He is the youngest and has a funny way of looking at things! It’s a lot different when you are the youngest and last to leave the house because people don’t care about you as much. haha I felt really bad for Elder Willardson because he told me when he called home was when his sister decided to tell the family she was pregnant. hahaha So the whole family just wanted to talk about the baby! I felt bad for him. He said he wanted to hang up and call later. hahahaha He was joking of course, but its so funny to see people and their different situations! I am definitely so blessed and so grateful for my wonderful family and the way that they are! You guys are the best! It was sooo great to talk to you!

Payton, I am sooooo jealous of that green tux! You are the man! haha But I love you guys so much! Sorry that I don’t have a whole lot to say, but I told ya most everything that happened recently.

We had Zone Conference this week and it was really good! I told you about my exchange with Elder Willardson, but it really was sooo much fun! He’s a great kid! I saw Elder Leaonard and Elder Ewell at the baptism the other day and oh, I forgot to tell you Elder Ewell and Elder Leonard are the South Zone Zone Leaders! They are serving together and I’m super jealous of both of them! It’s way fun to see them because they are serving together and I served with both of them!

It’s so amazing how many member and missionary and investigator friends I have made! I have gotten to know and love so many people here! Missions are the best!! I’m gonna write something to Pious and so I better go so I don’t run out of time! I love you and miss you all so much! Payt I got your letter! Thanks a ton! You’re the best and Mom I got Matt’s emails and pictures! Thank you sooo much! You guys are the greatest!!

Love you a ton! Keep up the great work!!

Love Elder Smith!

Email from Pious

Hi! My Dear, Friend Elder Smith.

Thank you very much for EVREYTHING I had learnt from you and Everything I got from you.

I had received the gift that you sent to me on mother day May 9/2010. Thank you a lot. you are the true friend I ever met at The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints.You are truly following what our Savior said, "Love One-Another". you the best and I will never forget our wonderful time that we were spending togather on Preaching the Gospel in Winnipeg. Even the time we spent eating Mexican's food.Please, give my warm greeting to your faithful mom and everone in your family.

Thanks

Your brother in Chirst

Pious Ding

OBEING FAMILY BAPTISM - PIOUS IS A CHAMP!

Friends and Family!

It was an amazing week!! Everything is going so great! First off, thank you to everyone for all of the letters and support! Tanner, congrats on the return, you are a champ!! Tell JC to enjoy my truck, but he better not wreck it! Also, I hope their family really likes us because I don’t know how much more life that thing has and tell them to check the oil because it doesn't matter if they checked it yesterday, because it’ll be low again! It’s an interesting pickup because it needs more oil than gas, haha and it needs ALOT of gas! hahaha How much did you get out of Jimmy for it!? Man, I love you guys!

Also, sounds like Matt Collette is doing great work! I should have guessed he would golf before he’d write home! hahaha By the way, I’m golfing next P-day! I’ll tell ya how it goes!

Congrats to A-rod! He is such a champ! Neat fact for you about the Blue Jays team! Turns out they’re actually a Canadian team! hahahahhaha Reading Dad’s email made me laugh because I didn't know that till I got here and I played on that team all those years!

Ok, now for the fantastic week in Selkirk!! We taught more lessons than ever before this week! And we found a ton of new people! We found an amazing lady named Velma and we set a baptismal date with her in the first lesson! She is great and she made it to church!! Also, we set a date with Eddie, an exchange student from Mexico! He didn't make it to church though but hopefully next week! Chris has been off smoking for almost 3 weeks now and his date is coming up, but he had to work on Sunday again this week but he talked to his boss and plans on being there next week!

Then the best thing ever happened! I got asked to say the prayer at the Obeing baptism and KARL SAID HE WANTED TO GO TOO! So he drove us the hour long drive to the Waverly church building!! It was a great road trip and the baptism was amazing! I got there and all of the kids dressed in white ran and gave me a hug! It was soooo amazing! Like it was the best! And then Pious came and gave me a big hug! He said that he had been so excited to see me! After the first time we met with the Obeing family I told Pious that he was going to baptize them! And so seeing him all dressed in white was one of the greatest experiences of my life! He came and told me that he had remembered me telling him that. I definitely got to say, “I told you so” on that one! This is sooo amazing because when I got to Agnes, Pious was inactive. He had been inactive my whole first transfer there and then my second transfer he was reactivated because he was helping to teach the Obeing family, so he had to be there to translate at church! He has such an amazing testimony and I love him so much! He baptized all 6 of them, one after another, like an old pro!! It was so amazing. All of the missionaries in the picture helped to teach them after I left! It was so great! Pious is the champ in the middle all ready to baptize! I’ll never forget the first night we taught them when he just grabbed the two crazy kids and held them the whole lesson! They didn’t budge! He loves that family sooo much and I was so happy that he got to baptize them! He has only been a member one year! He’s already gotten the priesthood and baptized a family! He is amazing! The best part was that he was so excited to see me! He said that he wanted to be the one to tell me about their baptism date because he knew I’d be jumping around screaming with excitement! Aaaahhh! Missions are the best!!!

I can’t even get over it! Karl loved the whole experience and he talked to Bishop Baronins for a while! Bishop was living in Selkirk when he was baptized! I’m hoping Karl is the next Bishop Baronins! haha But man was it a great week!! At the baptism the little kids were all over! haha Those two in the picture that aren’t in white are crazy but especially Nor, the youngest one. Bishop says he is making a new calling in the ward called The Nor Man. hahah It will be a Priesthood holder that his job is just to chase Nor! Bishop is hilarious! But man, was it a great week! I miss Waverly so much, but I am so grateful that the Selkirk area is picking up! The branch is finally getting a little excitement about missionary work because there are different people coming out to church! It’s so great!

Elder Platt is doing great and learning fast! He has a lot of fire and I have loved it! We are both so excited about what is happening here and we are hoping for some baptisms soon!

Selkirk has serious Word of Wisdom problems! I’m getting really good at teaching people the Quit Smoking Program! Also, since I’ve been here I’ve got my own addiction! SLURPEES! haha Wow, I am an addict! haha Every trip we take to Winnipeg I get the jumbo size! I really do think they make them better here or they are sneaking something addictive into them. There’s a reason it’s the Slurpee capital of the world! They make-um good here! haha

But man I can’t express how grateful I am for how blessed I have been here in Canada! Things are going so good!! But I will look forward to talking to you on Sunday! It’s coming right up! I will call you as late as possible! Don’t stress it though, we will get to talk. Mom, you can open the letter whenever! I love you all so much! Good luck with everything and I’ll talk to you soon!!

Love Elder Smith!