Monday, January 25, 2016
snow snow snow
Well it snowed a whole lot this week.....well mostly just Friday and
Saturday. But other exciting things that happened includes:
Grounds is open! There are so many people, I kinda forgot how many
there were. But it is good because tons more people to share this
wonderful gospel with!
Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary devotional! It was REALLY
good, all about focusing on the fundamentals of missionary work.
Really good reminder, and lots learned!
And then on Friday the snow came....and it pretty much snowed all
Friday, and all of Saturday....so now we have about 2 feet of snow
everywhere!
And to show you how much snow there is...here is a video!
Saturday. But other exciting things that happened includes:
Grounds is open! There are so many people, I kinda forgot how many
there were. But it is good because tons more people to share this
wonderful gospel with!
Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary devotional! It was REALLY
good, all about focusing on the fundamentals of missionary work.
Really good reminder, and lots learned!
And then on Friday the snow came....and it pretty much snowed all
Friday, and all of Saturday....so now we have about 2 feet of snow
everywhere!
And to show you how much snow there is...here is a video!
Monday, January 18, 2016
A week in the life of Elder Smith
Well I enjoyed the simplicity of keeping my email real simple last week, so I am going to do that again, and paste stuff from my journal. Hope you all enjoy!
Monday: We went to the Zone Leaders clubhouse and I played a little virtual golf with Elder Sundh, I did really bad in Abudabai...got like +75...I was real bad at it. Then we played in the Rocky mountains. I did a lot better there only got +44. Haha but it was fun.
We ran across the street after this one girl(not the best idea to yell at someone, I mean it is ok to be awkward, but not too awkward that they didn't really want to listen to us), but felt good because we were bold, also it might have helped even more because after we met this girl...and she knows Elder McGowan!!! The one in Hong Kong that I know!!(met Elder McGowan in the MTC, and his family is from C'Ville and they feed us sometimes, they are super awesome) It was super crazy, and all we got was her phone number, but we are going to meet!
Wednesday: Well today was really good, had a really good personal study, and learned that not only should we keep the Sabbath day holy, but that it is actually a holy day, and consecrated to the Lord. And we keep it holy because it is literally a holy day, just like the temple is a holy place and we keep that holy and sacred it is pretty cool.(10 commandments).
Friday: During lunch(at Zone Conference) I sat with Elder Walton and Elder Wheeler and President, because there were no other seats, and Elder Walton asked me what events I swam in high school, and when President found out that I swam he basically told me that swimming was the worst sport. And doesn't understand why I would do it...hahaha it was a bit insulting I suppose. Haha but that that was pretty funny.
Saturday:Also from afar saw this Chinese girl and so I walked up to go and talk to her, and said the normal stuff...then she looked super familiar....and I asked if I knew her, and I did...IT WAS GLORIA!(person we had been teaching before she went home to China) So super embarrassing, but also really cool to run into her!
Sunday: We went to church...and man I really like church, also got to play in sacrament again! It wasn't as scary, played the same sacrament hymn...oh well...but it was good. Church is so great though. Then the rest of it was good, also got to play piano in Elders quorum...and it was way more out of blue...walked in...Smith do you play?...yep...246 Onward Christian Soldiers...ok...so then I just played the upper hand because I am not good enough. But it was alright.
Well this was my week! Hope you all had a great one! This gospel is true! Here is a little spiritual insight for the week.
The joy we experience in this life will be in direct proportion to how well our lives are centered on the teachings, example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. -Richard J. Maynes
This is SO true! As we come closer to Jesus Christ, we receive blessings, as we keep the commandments(or rules to a happy life) we are happy. All true happiness, and joy come from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Follow their wisdom and counsel! They want the best for you and me! As we do will will receive the joy promised by prophets throughout time!
Love you all!
-Elder Smith
Monday: We went to the Zone Leaders clubhouse and I played a little virtual golf with Elder Sundh, I did really bad in Abudabai...got like +75...I was real bad at it. Then we played in the Rocky mountains. I did a lot better there only got +44. Haha but it was fun.
We ran across the street after this one girl(not the best idea to yell at someone, I mean it is ok to be awkward, but not too awkward that they didn't really want to listen to us), but felt good because we were bold, also it might have helped even more because after we met this girl...and she knows Elder McGowan!!! The one in Hong Kong that I know!!(met Elder McGowan in the MTC, and his family is from C'Ville and they feed us sometimes, they are super awesome) It was super crazy, and all we got was her phone number, but we are going to meet!
Wednesday: Well today was really good, had a really good personal study, and learned that not only should we keep the Sabbath day holy, but that it is actually a holy day, and consecrated to the Lord. And we keep it holy because it is literally a holy day, just like the temple is a holy place and we keep that holy and sacred it is pretty cool.(10 commandments).
Friday: During lunch(at Zone Conference) I sat with Elder Walton and Elder Wheeler and President, because there were no other seats, and Elder Walton asked me what events I swam in high school, and when President found out that I swam he basically told me that swimming was the worst sport. And doesn't understand why I would do it...hahaha it was a bit insulting I suppose. Haha but that that was pretty funny.
Saturday:Also from afar saw this Chinese girl and so I walked up to go and talk to her, and said the normal stuff...then she looked super familiar....and I asked if I knew her, and I did...IT WAS GLORIA!(person we had been teaching before she went home to China) So super embarrassing, but also really cool to run into her!
Sunday: We went to church...and man I really like church, also got to play in sacrament again! It wasn't as scary, played the same sacrament hymn...oh well...but it was good. Church is so great though. Then the rest of it was good, also got to play piano in Elders quorum...and it was way more out of blue...walked in...Smith do you play?...yep...246 Onward Christian Soldiers...ok...so then I just played the upper hand because I am not good enough. But it was alright.
Well this was my week! Hope you all had a great one! This gospel is true! Here is a little spiritual insight for the week.
The joy we experience in this life will be in direct proportion to how well our lives are centered on the teachings, example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. -Richard J. Maynes
This is SO true! As we come closer to Jesus Christ, we receive blessings, as we keep the commandments(or rules to a happy life) we are happy. All true happiness, and joy come from Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Follow their wisdom and counsel! They want the best for you and me! As we do will will receive the joy promised by prophets throughout time!
Love you all!
-Elder Smith
Monday, January 11, 2016
It Snowed and piano lessons pay off
So I don't have tons of time, so I am pasting things from my journal for each day of the week, enjoy!
Monday:
We had....Elder's P-Day!!! It was pretty good, had fun, and everyone was safe which was good. We had to leave early to teach Blanche. We met her and taught her about prophets, it was really cool gave her a Pamphlet and are meeting on Thursday, so it will be great.(also it was really cold, there was a super cold wind, and I had no coat or anything, I was quite cold...actually really cold, but oh well I survived....also....IT SNOWED HERE!!!! Just a little bit, and nothing stuck but still cool.
Tuesday:
And I kind of tried at the bus stop to talk to someone but it didn't work out too well, so I told myself I would talk to someone on the bus, and we get on and there were three besides ourselves. And there is a man sitting behind us that I knew I needed to talk to, so I ended up doing my thing that I fight with myself when if I really will end up talking to him, and it went on for awhile, but I knew I needed to talk to him, so I counted down from 10....and then from 3....and then from 5 and went talked to him. Turns out he(Kobe) was super cool and taught him the Restoration, answered the question he had about why there are so many Christian churches, gave him a Book of Mormon...it was really awesome. And the bus killed us, because we would have gotten his phone number, but he had to go...it was pretty lame...but it doesn't matter because he is going to call us!
Wednesday:
Also fairly cold but it was good. We returned home I ate some Velveeta mac & cheese(kinda felt like I was betraying Kraft...but it is ok because it is also Kraft brand!).
Sunday:
So because it is winter break still there was no pianist, so they asked the ward council if there was anyone that played piano, and I didn't feel suitable enough to do it...but then ended up shyly raising my hand. And so then I go into the chapel and talk a bit with the bishopric and they had happened to choose "sweet hour of prayer" as one of the songs which was really nice. And then I changed two of the other songs...but I decided that I could play hymn 141 one of the songs they chose because it was easy enough. So all during the prelude I pretty much practiced that song....and felt pretty good on it but holy cow I was super nervous my hands were shaking and stuff, and I was real nervous for that one song. But sacrament starts, I play sweet hour of prayer fine, then it is going along well I play the sacrament fine. Then the talks are going(and they were super great talks actually) and then the intermediate hymn was coming up and I was really nervous(kinda like I got nervous at swim meets, I was saying like zan shin and a bunch of other stuff. But then....we skipped it!!! Super cool blessing. Then the last song went really well. Then the rest of church was super good, also got some awesome thin mints from Chris...haha it was really good.
Love you all!
-Elder Smith
Monday:
We had....Elder's P-Day!!! It was pretty good, had fun, and everyone was safe which was good. We had to leave early to teach Blanche. We met her and taught her about prophets, it was really cool gave her a Pamphlet and are meeting on Thursday, so it will be great.(also it was really cold, there was a super cold wind, and I had no coat or anything, I was quite cold...actually really cold, but oh well I survived....also....IT SNOWED HERE!!!! Just a little bit, and nothing stuck but still cool.
Tuesday:
And I kind of tried at the bus stop to talk to someone but it didn't work out too well, so I told myself I would talk to someone on the bus, and we get on and there were three besides ourselves. And there is a man sitting behind us that I knew I needed to talk to, so I ended up doing my thing that I fight with myself when if I really will end up talking to him, and it went on for awhile, but I knew I needed to talk to him, so I counted down from 10....and then from 3....and then from 5 and went talked to him. Turns out he(Kobe) was super cool and taught him the Restoration, answered the question he had about why there are so many Christian churches, gave him a Book of Mormon...it was really awesome. And the bus killed us, because we would have gotten his phone number, but he had to go...it was pretty lame...but it doesn't matter because he is going to call us!
Wednesday:
Also fairly cold but it was good. We returned home I ate some Velveeta mac & cheese(kinda felt like I was betraying Kraft...but it is ok because it is also Kraft brand!).
Sunday:
So because it is winter break still there was no pianist, so they asked the ward council if there was anyone that played piano, and I didn't feel suitable enough to do it...but then ended up shyly raising my hand. And so then I go into the chapel and talk a bit with the bishopric and they had happened to choose "sweet hour of prayer" as one of the songs which was really nice. And then I changed two of the other songs...but I decided that I could play hymn 141 one of the songs they chose because it was easy enough. So all during the prelude I pretty much practiced that song....and felt pretty good on it but holy cow I was super nervous my hands were shaking and stuff, and I was real nervous for that one song. But sacrament starts, I play sweet hour of prayer fine, then it is going along well I play the sacrament fine. Then the talks are going(and they were super great talks actually) and then the intermediate hymn was coming up and I was really nervous(kinda like I got nervous at swim meets, I was saying like zan shin and a bunch of other stuff. But then....we skipped it!!! Super cool blessing. Then the last song went really well. Then the rest of church was super good, also got some awesome thin mints from Chris...haha it was really good.
Love you all!
-Elder Smith
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Happy New Years
Well Happy New Year as well as 4 months being a missionary! It is really great being a missionary.But this week unfortunately wasn't too exciting, so this will be a fairly short email. \
This week it seemed that everyone was destined to get sick, at first Elder Wheeler(our Zone Leader) was sick so we did some switched around and did emergency exchanges and stuff...then the next few days my companion got sick....so again we did some emergency exchanges....and that lasted a few days....then I got sick...but luckily not sick enough to do exchanges, so that was good. The work here right now is still pretty slow because the college is still on break, but it is warming up a bit, actually had a pretty cool experience we were on grounds to see if anyone had started to come back, and there weren't that many people, but we stopped this girl and I asked "Have you talked to missionaries before?" And she said she had...and it was with me.....it was quite embarrassing...because I didn't remember her at all....and I had no idea what to say(my companion was on the phone at this time, also he didn't know her because I met her on exchanges) and then she explained a bit what we talked about, and then told me her name was Blanche. And then I remembered her which was a relief. And it was great that we were able to see her again! I thought she was going to be gone for all of winter break, but nope! It was really awesome, and we were able to set up another appointment, and because of winter break she is mostly free! It is super awesome(also she is Chinese which is cool!) but yeah, we are really excited to teach her. Yeah super awesome.
Also another interesting thing, yesterday we went to a Catholic Mass with one of our investigators, and it was really interesting, way different than our sacrament meetings, much more ritualistic, but it was an interesting experience, and we aren't exactly sure what to do with this investigator we have right now, we are trying to teach him, but he also kind of seems to convert us...but we will see what happens.
Oh one more thing! Ate some Chinese food this week! I ate what they call a youzi, or something like that, or a Chinese grapfruit, it is about the size of cantoloupe, and pretty much a really big grapefruit, it was pretty good, and cool to eat some Chinese food, maybe it will help me learn Chinese haha.
Well despite the hardships of missionary work, it is still wonderful, and great to be a missionary!(also for those from Lehi/Westlake there is a Sister Dawdy in our Zone Right now who went to Westlake, I didn't know her, but maybe one of you do!)
This Church is True! Living the Gospel brings blessings! Look for the Lord's hand in your life! I promise it is there! If have trouble seeing his hand, look at yourself to see what you can do better to see his hand!
I Love You All!
-Elder Smith
This week it seemed that everyone was destined to get sick, at first Elder Wheeler(our Zone Leader) was sick so we did some switched around and did emergency exchanges and stuff...then the next few days my companion got sick....so again we did some emergency exchanges....and that lasted a few days....then I got sick...but luckily not sick enough to do exchanges, so that was good. The work here right now is still pretty slow because the college is still on break, but it is warming up a bit, actually had a pretty cool experience we were on grounds to see if anyone had started to come back, and there weren't that many people, but we stopped this girl and I asked "Have you talked to missionaries before?" And she said she had...and it was with me.....it was quite embarrassing...because I didn't remember her at all....and I had no idea what to say(my companion was on the phone at this time, also he didn't know her because I met her on exchanges) and then she explained a bit what we talked about, and then told me her name was Blanche. And then I remembered her which was a relief. And it was great that we were able to see her again! I thought she was going to be gone for all of winter break, but nope! It was really awesome, and we were able to set up another appointment, and because of winter break she is mostly free! It is super awesome(also she is Chinese which is cool!) but yeah, we are really excited to teach her. Yeah super awesome.
Also another interesting thing, yesterday we went to a Catholic Mass with one of our investigators, and it was really interesting, way different than our sacrament meetings, much more ritualistic, but it was an interesting experience, and we aren't exactly sure what to do with this investigator we have right now, we are trying to teach him, but he also kind of seems to convert us...but we will see what happens.
Oh one more thing! Ate some Chinese food this week! I ate what they call a youzi, or something like that, or a Chinese grapfruit, it is about the size of cantoloupe, and pretty much a really big grapefruit, it was pretty good, and cool to eat some Chinese food, maybe it will help me learn Chinese haha.
Well despite the hardships of missionary work, it is still wonderful, and great to be a missionary!(also for those from Lehi/Westlake there is a Sister Dawdy in our Zone Right now who went to Westlake, I didn't know her, but maybe one of you do!)
This Church is True! Living the Gospel brings blessings! Look for the Lord's hand in your life! I promise it is there! If have trouble seeing his hand, look at yourself to see what you can do better to see his hand!
I Love You All!
-Elder Smith
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)