PRAYING IN THE PARK

Friends and Family!

You guys are the greatest! Grandma, your toffee and fudge made it to me here in Selkirk and it is amazing! You are the greatest!! Aunt Camille and family you also are on my favorite list! I got your package today and it is so great! Thanks a ton! My feet love you right now! haha Also family thanks a ton for the great letters and emails!! Your emails are the best! Payt, you are such a good looken’ man!! I’m so excited to look for a wife because she will marry me just to have you as her brother in law! haha I’m so happy you had such a good time at the dance and so jealous! Dances are the best! A-rod, it sounds like you are tearing up baseball! Mow some kids over at catcher and hit me a homer! Mom, you are the greatest! haha I don’t know how you always get stuck moven’ poop! haha I promise I’ll take that job when I get home. Tell Payt I am glad that he got his chance to spring clean the kennel though! Take that! Man, I love and miss you guys!!

Fill me in on Akon’s health stuff though. I haven’t heard anything! Did you get her package?? That’s probably why she emailed you. It should have gotten there. And tell Juliet I say hi if possible! And Dad, plan on many late nights in the future!

As for the heat here, I am die-ing! The last couple nights I have planned for the next day while I lay in on the floor in my garments! It is an oven in our apartment! We got a fan and an air conditioner today though so I’m super excited about that!

As for the area ...... things are going crazy here! We have four streets left that we haven’t tracted. But we now have 4 people who have set dates and we had 12 people to church this week! 7 were 8 years or older and the rest were kids! The branch was going crazy! It was the best! It feels like Agnes!!! The Primary President looked like she was gonna lose her mind! hahaha It was sooooo great! And we are planning on even more people next week!! We have been working so hard and everything is finally starting to workout and transfer calls are Sunday. My fingers are definitely crossed! President Anderson said he was going to call President Paulson this week to try and keep us here.

President Paulson called Sunday night and congratulated us! He knew I wasn’t happy to leave Agnes, but he said, “Elder Smith, now Selkirk is another Agnes.” haha It was a great day!! I really love the people and the members here!! There were 79 people in church this Sunday!! It was packed!! I wanted to die laughing when I saw President Anderson’s face when new people just kept walking in! haha Also, I got a call Saturday night that I was speaking, and all Saturday night we were setting up rides for church. So Sunday morning I had to prepare a talk in like 15 minutes and then I practiced it once and we had to go make sure everybody was ready for there ride! It was an insane morning, but man, it feels soooo good to be overloaded with appointments again!!

We had a pretty neat experience this week though! We were walking down Main Street and we street contacted this kid. He was walking home and he had some time, so we asked him if we could teach him right there, after he had already shown interest. We walked a little further and sat down with him in the park. We said a prayer in the park and taught him the first lesson. We committed him to church the next week and to baptism in a month and a half! We are meeting with him again Wednesday, but he is a great kid! His name is Steven.

Karl missed church for work and Chris missed too. Velma was sick so everyone that was at church was new! Velma is doing great but she is sick and dealing with Word of Wisdom problems. Karl is doing great but it’s the busy month at work and Chris has a great heart but he flakes out every once in awhile. Hopefully they all buckle down in time for there dates!!

Kim has 4 kids and she was at church with 2 of them and she is great! We found her a couple weeks ago but she made it to church this week and loved it! She said she’d go next week and we hope to set a date with her this week! Milton and all of his kids made it to church, too! We found them last week and we are teaching them tonight. Leona and Dylan also made it to church and they are great!

It’s so funny because there is a map that says all of these streets have been tracted before but there are all these amazing people that have been looking for the truth for so long! I am so convinced that there is no bad area (that’s not what I thought 10 weeks ago!) hahaha There are prepared people everywhere and we have been so blessed to find some of them!! I am loving Selkirk! I never thought I’d say it, but man it’s great here!! Training is great, missions are great, life is great!!

Thank you so much for everything that you all do! You are the greatest! Mom, Dad, Payt, Alex and Addison I love and miss you all so much! Keep up the great work and keep me posted! I love you all a ton!! Have a great week!!

Love Elder Smith

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!

PIOUS IS BAPTIZING THE OBEING FAMILY!

Friends and Family,

Wow! Another week gone. haha It’s unreal because I keep finding myself sitting here writing home. It’s scary how fast life goes! Mom, Dad and Payt thank you so much for the emails! I love them sooo much! Payt you are such a stud! Your story (about asking to Commencement) cracked me up! I love that gorilla suit! Have a blast at the dance and get energy drinks! But BE SMART! Can’t have you hurting anything this close to football! You gotta stay healthy all summer! What are your lifts at? And congrats on your weight! You could hold your own at 130 though! You’re gonna tear it up this year!! Love ya buddy!

Dad I read your letter and now I can’t stop looking at my shoes! I really need to shine um! You are the best and I love and miss ya a ton! Mom, I love the pictures and the update! A-rod is a good looken kid! I love the fohawk! haha Man I love and miss you guys! Hopefully all is well and tell Addi I wanted to get her Flat Stanley some better pictures but there’s only so much stuff here in Selkirk!

As for this week, it was another one full of ups and downs but definitely more ups!! Biggest up being that the Obeing family is getting baptized this Saturday! They all passed the interview! Even Mary, the mom, with Pious translating! The dad isn’t getting baptized though but the rest are!! And guess what? PIOUS IS BAPTIZING THEM!!! I honestly just want to cry about it when I think about it!! He was baptized a year ago and he was completely inactive when I got to Agnes! I didn’t even meet him till my second transfer there and he is completely active and he is going to baptize them all!! I am sooooo excited and I just want to bawl about it! HAHA But man that news was fantastic!! I love those people so much and I am so happy for them all!!

Alright that’s the Agnes update, as for Selkirk it was also a good week! We committed Karl to come to church for the rest of his life, so that was great and he was there Sunday! Chris is now going on 2 weeks smoke free and he went to a baptism this week which was good for him, but he didn’t make it to church. He is planning on this week though. Both Karl and Chris are still planning on their dates!! As for our other investigators and the bold lessons we had planned.... they all fell through, so we are meeting with them this week. Hopefully all goes well.

This week we found a ton of great new people too though!! The Renz family will hopefully make it to church this next week. We taught them once and the kids are crazy but they are good! We also found a great old guy named Ron and a great lady named Velma! I’m super excited about both of them! We also set a date with Eddie a young man that moved here from Mexico! He is great and we have another appointment with him in about 20 mins!! He should make it to church this week too!!

It really has been a great week!! There were still rough patches, but all around it was great! It’s so weird though because I’ll be doing great and then I will hear about Agnes people and get a little Agnes homesickness! haha But Selkirk is well on its way to becoming the “New Agnes”! It’s so funny because you take things so for granted! In Agnes I missed home, in Selkirk I miss Agnes! I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m moved again and I miss Agnes, Selkirk, and home! hahaha But things are going sooo great!

Training is such a blast and I have learned so much! I also have gained so much patience, and I’ve tried to be super positive because my comp gets a little homesick every once in awhile! haha But he’s a great kid and get this! He’s a UTAH DEMOCRAT! And his dad was an attorney! hahaha We were at President Anderson’s Dad’s house with the whole Anderson family and he loves to mess with the missionaries. He said he always plays with them with politics because they are always super far to the right. So to mess with us, he asked us if we were Democrat or Republican, expecting the usual missionary response. My comp answered fast and proudly and they were as shocked as I was! haha They laughed at my reaction because they thought I was Republican and then I told them I was a Democrat too and they lost it! He said this is the first time in 35 years they have had a missionary that was a Democrat, and they got 2! It was funny! We had a good chuckle and then I had to try and end it because we aren’t supposed to talk politics on our missions. But they really wanted to talk because in Canada everyone is a bit more liberal. At first he was sad because he couldn’t mess with us but that definitely boosted our member trust! haha I love the members here! They are so great!

Brother Mckay that emailed you is the branch mission leader. He isn’t the one that fell asleep driving. He is a young cop here in town. He is super funny but a punk, haha. He definitely fits the cop mold, but I like him. He’s a great guy and he helps us out a lot!

It was a good week though, we spoke in church and it went great! We had two investigators there and a couple less actives showed up, so it was great! I am super excited about this week because we have a ton of appointments and we are hoping that a lot of people will make it to church!

Elder Platt is getting better and better everyday! He takes criticism super good and he just sucks it in and does everything to get better. He’s a funny kid though! We are having a lot of fun and working our tails off!! I said I wanted to leave Selkirk because it’s almost tracted out, but I really don’t because good things are starting to happen!! It’s such a good feeling to have so many appointments again!!

But as for calls home, we are gonna make them from the Watson’s that Sunday. They will be between 1 and 6 sometime and I will call you first on the cell phone and then I will have you call with the calling card to the Watson’s place so make sure you get the calling card. haha It’s crazy that we are thinking about the Mothers Day call! But I will give you more info about it next week. And Mom I sent you a letter, it should get there before Mother’s Day, but let me know if it doesn’t make it.

Thank you so much to everyone for all of the letters! Grandpa, I read yours last night and it was the best!! Thank you so much!! And thanks a ton to everyone else! You are the best! Payt, I want more letters from you if possible! I love your updates!! I love you guys all so much! Thanks a ton for everything and have a great week! Love every day!! Oh, one last thing, if you could get me Landon and Matt’s email addresses or mailing addresses that would be great! I want to tell them hello!!

But things are great and I love you a ton! Hopefully I will have some good news next week about some more of these people to church! Thanks a ton for the prayers and please keep them comin! The Selkirk Branch deserves a big pick up!!

Love ya a ton! Elder Smith!!

TRAINING ELDER PLATT

Friends and Family!

What a week!! First off thank you so much for the great emails and letters! You are all the best! Tell Grandma Happy Birthday! And tell her I love and miss her sooo much! Also, thanks for the update on Jordan Bowman! I actually got a letter from him this week! That’s insane! My friends shouldn’t already be getting married! As for Elder Neff, I saw that one coming. ha ha I think he did too! Addi’s Flat Stanley should be there any day, it was mailed over a week ago. As for your question, I don’t know where Elder Riding is from but he is an animal!! He is tearing up that new area! As for the call you should probably buy a calling card like you did last time and don’t get to excited, yet! haha It’s still a ways away. And Dad, just so you know, I totally believe you and I’d stand up for you for sure! But I’d have to say you’ve got a better case if you say it was Payton rather than Mom, that locked the keys in the truck! ha ha ha Man I love and miss you guys so much!

So this week was definitely the most stressful week ever! haha I am so stressed about this area, training, and all the great investigators here. I put a ton of pressure on myself but on top of that there is pressure from everywhere else; leaders, President Paulson, and God! Some days are just so overwhelming! I love President so much and we have a great relationship, but because of that he just makes it known that a lot is expected.

It’s great to know that he knows, that we will have success, but it’s so much pressure. I’m working so hard, but we had 0 people to church this week! It’s so tough when you put everything into it and that happens. Karl and Chris (our baptismal dates) didn't show because stuff came up and all of our other investigators had some kind of excuse. I was not happy! But so many people are right there and I think this week will be a make or break week because we are going in with some super bold, powerhouse lessons! Next week I will either be excited out of my mind, or we will have no investigators. We will see what happens.

We are extending a date to Sandy tonight and telling her that she has to go to our church to get answers to her prayers. I’m nervous but excited! I love being bold but hopefully it goes well! I love her and her family so much. So we will hope for the best!

Chris quit smoking this week and he’s been off 5 days now! We are going in bold with Christy tomorrow so hopefully that goes well! We also set up Sharon for a Family Home Evening with some members this week! These people are all so great, but they are so nervous about change!

After church we found another family, though! I’m super excited about them and we are meeting with them tomorrow! Hopefully all goes well there!

As for training, it is so fun/funny/stressful/hard! haha My companion is Elder Platt from St. George Utah! He loves the work and he has a lot of energy, but he doesn't know what to do with it! haha It is soooo fun to be around a new missionary because it revives you, but also makes you see how much you have grown. I have had to learn so much patience, when it comes to letting him teach. The other day he started teaching lesson 3 when we were supposed to be teaching lesson 1. Then I corrected it and then turned it back over to him and he shared the same scripture I had just shared! It was hilarious and the investigator thought it was pretty funny, too. It all worked out, but man it’s funny to train. He isn't nervous at all but he doesn't know what to say with all of his excitement.

We went street contacting and it is so hard for me to let contacts get lost that I think wouldn't have, if it was me. But at the same time it’s so fun to teach him and see him get better! He definitely likes to work though and as long as it stays that way, it should be a great transfer!

A little more info on Elder Platt, he is the youngest, again! Every companion I have had has been the youngest child! haha It’s crazy because the youngest kids really are wired a little different. And I’ve come to find out that the oldest (like me) are wired really different too! I have learned so much from all of my companions, but I will learn so much from this one! It really has made me go back to the basics and evaluate my teaching! It has already helped me a ton and I think it will continue to help me a lot more! I am usually a big ball hog, when it comes to teaching and that was when I was with missionaries that had been out and knew what they were doing. So it has been so hard to sit back and let him teach, but it has been so good for me! Also, I must say that the most fun part about training is when they are teaching or talking to some one we tract into or street contact and they don’t know what to say. hahaha He looks over to me with this horrified expression on his face, that is pleading with me to jump in and help! haha It is the best!! At first, I would jump in and save him, but now I’m having to make myself smile and look back at him. It’s horrible and so hard for me, but it’s what we’ve been asked to do and it really does help him! But man, it’s fun to see that face! The other funny thing about training is when they think they know everything! I’m sure I was the same way when I got out but he will come up with what he thinks is the best idea in the world and it’s something that you just do anyways as a missionary. haha But I play along with it and build him up! It’s so much fun and so neat! It makes me respect my trainer a lot more, too!

It’s been so weird because I am still a young missionary, but I’ve been given this responsibility. There is so much that I don’t know! It’s been super humbling and I have learned so much! I think I’m learning more than Elder Platt!

The training meeting and transfer meeting was a blast! I learned a ton at the training meeting and it was so fun to see all my missionary friends! It’s so weird how fast time is going! Life is just unreal! I’ts just a huge crazy dream right now! I’m so stressed, but I wouldn't want to be doing anything else and I think that I wouldn't be happy with myself if I wasn't this stressed. haha It’s just part of life I guess!

I’m doing good though, healthy and happy! I’m so excited about this week and I really hope things go well! This branch really needs a boost and I feel like it is so close to getting it!

I love you all sooo much and I’m so grateful for all of you and all that you do! I love you all a bunch and I’ll talk to you next week. Love Elder Smith