Don't eat the fish

Well this week was great...and as usually I don't remember much of
what happened...Tuesday went out with Elder Schellenberg(MTC
companion) and that was super fun being with him for the day) as well
met some pretty awesome people.

Wednesday it rained a lot...it was pretty cool.
Thursday, pretty normal, nothing too notable.

Friday Elder Richter was sick,  we made lunch together as an
apartment, so awhile ago I bought some Alaskan Pollock(fish) and
decided to eat that! Also made some fried potatoes and rice! So the
whole meal takes awhile, and we have like ten minutes to eat it all
before lunch was over.  I  take a bite of the fish(before this we could see
that it was much over cooked) take a bite.....wow....it was real bad.
Never eaten anything that salty in my life. Would have rather drank
ocean water....wow....not sure why but ate one of my filets...felt
kind of sick the rest of the day....we threw away all of the
fish....it was so bad. One of the notable quotes was (won't mention who
said it) "I wouldn't give this fish to a homeless person" regardless
it was really bad....the potatoes were good, but the best part of the
meal was probably the plain rice....bleah....probably won't make fish
for awhile, or just not cover it in so many spices.

Friday was a good day, not tons of people on grounds, Saturday was
similar, but it was college game day! And some student won $18,000 for
a half court shot! Pretty exciting for him. Also found out in 2011 UVA
was ranked the #1
party school in America....
However, a few really cool things happened, actually a lot happened,
but I will write about two.
On exchanges Tuesday, we met with this woman named Shelli Quick, she
has been meeting with missionaries for about a year, and her whole
story is quite the miracle. It was amazing to see how the Gospel of
Jesus Christ has given her hope through her husband's death, raising
two kids, all while overcoming smoking. She has learned to rely on the
Lord, and has felt the peace the Gospel can give us. It was really
amazing.
2nd experience(also on Exchanges just Friday) knocked on a door, met
this woman named Tess, taught her the restoration, she shared her
experience of getting to know God, and relying on him through
different health issues. We shared about Joseph Smith feeling the same
way through his persecution, especially in Liberty Jail. It was an
amazing experience, willing to be baptized as she comes to know what
we shared is true, and also coming to church! Words can't describe it,
however it was amazing.
This is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! The scriptures open the
window to revelation! Go to them for support in easy and hard times!
Love you all!
斯密长老
And here is a picture of that nasty fish and what not...

photo fish

Wouldn't feed this to a homeless person

Spreading the Word

Short but with a miracle

So cool miracle I want to share. UVA had a snow day Monday, so
unfortunately all our appointments were canceled. However, when we met
this this guy named Chang a few days later, he read 15 chapters of the
Book of Mormon because of the extra time he had! The Lord doesn't
always work in the way that makes sense to us, but he works in the way
that works.
Love you all! This is God's church restored to the earth! Learn of
that for yourself!
斯密长老!

Elder Smith

On Grounds UVA

Elder Smith companion Elder Richter and
Zone leaders Elder Sundh and Elder Abbrecht on
University of Virginia campus they call it grounds and is where they do all their contacting.

Well this week fortunately I remember the things that happened, usually that doesn't really happen but anyways, it was a really great week.

Well our Chinese district is official now(the four Chinese missionaries here) we had our first District meeting last Tuesday, it was pretty good, all in Chinese too so that is pretty cool. But yeah nothing much more to say about that.

On Wednesday one of the Assistants to the President, Elder Walton, came down to stay at the Mandarin house for 4 days and go out with us! It was pretty cool, a little weird having 5 people instead of the usual 4, but it was good! Had a good time with him, learned a lot, oh and when the other Assistants(they are currently in a trio) came to pick him up, it was night time, so then we had 7 people staying over! It was a little crowded, we had to share the beds that we have, and ended up getting pushed onto the floor sometime in the night...but oh well, it worked out ok.

So first on Tuesday(sorry for going out of order) two random people come up and say "what are your names?" and we were confused, but starting talking to them a bit, and found out they met the 1st ward Elders, then somehow met the Zone Leaders and were eating dinner with them on Thursday...and then invited us to come to dinner! They were super nice, then after they left, we sat there really confused, but also excited because they were taking us to dinner! It was weird, butThursday comes, and we are waiting outside the dining hall, and one of the people we met(John) came up, swiped us in(basically paid for our food) and then told us to follow him to the back and he said "we all normally sit in the back" so this made me a bit confused, because I thought it was only going to be us, the Zone Leaders, and John and Kevin(other guy we met Tuesday). But we get back there and there are 6 other people!....yeah that kind of threw us off guard...but turns out they were all super cool, and nice, and we super awesome people....then 15 or so minutes later....they all leave for a Chi Alpha(Christian Fellowship on Grounds) event(they invited us, but it was all about relationships and dating and stuff....so we decided not to go) and they invited us to dinner next week, and yeah.....really have no idea why they want to feed us, or talk with us....I sat there super confused the whole time. They were all super nice though!

Now we come to right now, it is snowing again(by the way the snow that swallowed cars, and grounded the missionaries, it all disappeared after about a week....it was kind of nuts) but it is snowing again! It is only supposed to be a little bit(probably 5 or so inches) but still cool!

And a few cool things happened this week besides the things mentioned before. We met with Bryan again, he is super interested in what we teach, is willing to seek out a testimony for himself, and is doing all the right things. All we need is time, and hope he continues to seek out the truth, and to feel of it. he is super awesome, really grateful to have met him.

Also this girl we met once, had a mutual friend(Elder McGowan met him in the MTC, he is from C'Ville, and he knows this girl Kate! Crazy conncection) and so we got her number, but we got it wrong and she never responded....but then we saw her again! Pretty crazy...and got the right number(may have already mentioned this...sorry if I did) and then we met with her and her friend on Sunday! She is super cool, and nice, and sincere about all that we taught. Pretty sweet.

Also ran into this guy named Kyle we met with awhile ago, he got sick, and no he is doing better! Still super cool and happy to see us! Which is always a good sign!

(and now for a little spiritual something from Elder Smith) This work(missionary work) of spreading the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. This Church is directed by Jesus Christ through the Prophet Thomas S. Monson. Joseph Smith said "You know no more concerning the destinies of this Church and kingdom than a babe upon its mother's lap. You don't comprehend it...This Church will fill North and South America--it will fill the world." Yes, this was said a while ago in the beginnings of the church. Which means this is now coming to pass, 80,000 or so missionaries, almost everywhere in the world, spreading the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. This work will move forward, continue to progress, and grow. Nothing can stop it. Like Elder M. Russel Ballard taught us to stay on the Old Ship Zion. We all choose whether we are going to stay on the ship, or not. Choose to stay, the course it is on is the only way to peace in this life, and eternal life in the world to come. Look for those around you that you can help onto the ship, show the happiness, peace, and joy this gospel brings. In the words of Elder Ucthdorf(well paraphrased) "Share the gospel at all times(through example, actions) and when necessary use words." I know this is God's Church on the earth today, led by Jesus Christ through a prophet. Discover these truths for yourself, then help others find their way.

I love you all! Thanks for everything each of you have done to affect my life!(sorry this seems really general, and not to caring....well it is a general email....)

-Elder Smith =D

Found some Pretty Sweet People

Well I promised to write a good email this week....at least I think I did, but either way it will be a good email this week!
So between us and the Zone leaders this week we made a goal to teach 100 lessons....which is quite a lot. However...we were not victorious. Yeah kind of started out in a sad way. And it is unfortunate when you aren't able to accomplish a goal, but we learned a whole lot. Also early on in the week we decided to make it about people, and not lessons. Which is probably the most important thing. We made each lesson a lot more meaningful, which was real good. And.....WE STILL FOUND SOME PRETTY SWEET PEOPLE!!! Who are: Brenden(he is really chill guy, who originally wanted to talk to us because he is related to Porter Rockwell! And when we met, he was super interested in it all and really willing to try it out!) Bryan(We originally met this guy my first day here in Virginia....wow....and we gave him a call[Elder Richter was feeling inspired to do so] and he was totally willing to meet again! We met with him twice and he is even better than he was before!) Marissa(met her on grounds, started teaching her the Restoration while we were walking, we got to her bus stop, kept teaching her then her bus came.....it was a little scary I admit, then she said "oh no I don't have to go I can take the next bus"....WOW super cool.) It was really awesome.

Other things that happened in the week....WE HAD INTERVIEWS! With our Misson president, it was real great talking with him seeing how I can improve.

IT WAS ELDER RICHTER'S BIRTHDAY! So to celebrate, we went to Peter Chang's which is this Chinese Restaurant, which according to one of our Chinese friends is the most authentic....it was really good. And fun to celebrate with him and some other members.

Um....sorry but unfortunately, I am not that great at writing things like this. But it was a great week! Also I have been a missionary for 5 months! Kind of exciting I suppose. Everything is going wonderful here! Being a missionary is great! Also for all you in Lehi, may have mentioned this, but Elder Galloway(Brady Galloway) is in my Zone! pretty exciting.

Spiritual scripture sharing time thing.
So not sure the exact scripture reference, but it is in 1 Nephi 8, 11, 12 or somewhere. It is when Nephi is receiving the interpretation of the vision of the Tree of Life. And the river represents the depths of hell. And an interesting twist, or different way of thinking about it, is because Lehi is from Jerusalem, it is pretty dry, so you can think of the river being caused by a flash flood(by the way I didn't come up with this, this happened during church) and sometimes in life we are holding to the iron rod, and life is going swell, and we don't see any immediate danger, and we become complacent, and slack off, and kind of hold to the rod sometimes let go, grab on again. And then the flash flood comes, and if we aren't everyday clinging to the rod, the river will carry us away. Pray everyday. Read everyday. Everyday strengthen your relationship with God, and when the river does come, you won't be swept away. However we all fall away at times, and that is why we have Jesus Christ.(check out Alma 36 18-20) Jesus Christ is always there as our lifeline when we need him. All we have to do is reach out and grab it.

Love you all! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is restored! Look and pray for missionary opportunities everyday, and I promise you that you will see them!

-Elder Smith =D

-Elder GodReallyChangesTheHeartsOfMeAndThoseIMeet

Well, there is still lots of snow, but it is only giant snow piles in the parking lots(including one larger than my house! It is real big....it is more of a mountain than a pile) but here are some things from the week!!

There were also lots of people on grounds today! But yeah feichang leng a!!!! But it was getting close to dinner when the Zone Leaders were called to the hospital to visit this one guy....but Elder Andersen didn't have a visiting clergy pass. So Elder Richter went with him and Elder Andersen and I stayed on grounds. And it was a really sweet time, we met this awesome girl named Shreya, and when we first talked to her she immediately said she didn't believe in God, so it didn't seem to good at the beginning. But we kept teaching her, taught her a bit about prayer and God, and then she really opened up to the message. It was really cool to see the Holy Ghost help her out with that. And after we asked if we could meet again, and she said "for sure!" she was real cool. Later started talking to another Atheist....she didn't like us as much, talked to us for a bit, said she went to her first communion and then never went back. And asked how can so many bad things happen in the world if there is a God. And from what I could tell from her she just didn't want to listen to us, and came up with some excuse. Then we got to a point where her friends were nearby...and then she just said goodbye...yeah definitely not that great. After that we went with Chris to 5 guys and that was super good, he is real cool, also went through the temple last week which is awesome!!! Ok ran out of time, Untill tomorrow! And that was super fun with Chris and stuff, after that the Zone leaders picked us up, we went to grounds, and there we met this super awesome girl!!! Her name was Ashton and she was from Utah!!!! She was real cool, not a member because of some things in her family but she went to young womens and stuff and now doesn't really believe in God because she never really tried. Which makes sense but it was super fun meeting someone from Utah, she was real cool. After that we basically returned home, but met this cool girl named Lauren! It was a real good day, especially the end, it ended real well despite the begining which wasn't so great. But taught lots of people today which was real cool. Also took hot chocolate to grounds.
-Elder GodReallyChangesTheHeartsOfMeAndThoseIMeet

Ok...not really sure what else to say this week, but it was good! Sorry I am real boring, but Elder Galloway came to Rivanna in our Zone!!!(he is from Lehi) he is super cool. Also during Zone Meeting was asked to play some prelude music...so I did, then was asked to play for the meeting! And then asked to share a short spiritual thought about our purpose! That was a surprising Zone Meeting....but definitely learned a lesson about preparation because, the songs I played for the meeting.....yeah not good.
This week was good though! Next week's email will be better! Sorry for being so lame! I Love you all!

Here is a little spiritual thought for the week
Acts 17:27(JST)
27: That they should seek the Lord, if they are willing to find him, for he is not far from every one of us;
The Lord truly is not far from us, we live in a time when He is very close to us. I hope we are close to Him, and always try to stay close to Him. Then when we do mess up and degress a bit, we go to Him humbly, seek what we need to do, do it, then continue to progress towards Him. Heavenly Father is very real to me, I know He loves each and one of you, He wants you to get to know Him. The Gospel has been restored for each and every one of you! Embrace it!
Love you all very much! Be every day Missionaries wherever you are!
-Elder Smith