A day in the life of Elder Smith

Friday July 1, 2016
Well, well, well. I must say it was quite the fantastic day. Wow, it was great. Woke, up at 6:30, that went well, the morning was alright, studies weren't terribly great. However, the prayer beforehand was good, it was fervent and uplifting. The rest went well, then we headed up to the airport building for Zone conference. Unfornately we were late...however, the meeting was really, really amazing. Answered many, many questions. Learned a lot, and really, really grateful for the experience. Heavenly Father knows me so much. Very grateful for that. After Zone Meeting, we got, lots and lots of Panera Bread. We took a picture of it, and it was real tasty...well hopefully it will be. It filled up our freezer a lot. So that was exciting, I really enjoy Panera bread...and we were running out so that was swell. 

 Then we were able to go to Ruby Tuesday with George. That was quite tasty, I got shrimp and tilapia...it was good, figured I would try something newish. George is cool, I enjoy being around him. However, he does have crazy ideas sometimes haha. After that we returned home and had a good Weekly Planning Session, ate some dinner. Then headed out. I believe we first went to Copeley talked with two really cool Chinese people, the girl really loves us. Elder Schellenberg had talked with them before. They thought we were kind of crazy for living the Word of Wisdom...but oh well. They were cool, then we went and picked up Robert, tried to talk with Shirley...her mom or something wasn't interested in us at all...a little confused by that. 

Then we saw a lady gardening. Robert is super good at talking to people, so that was useful, because I was kind of scared to. Anyways, her name was Erin, she was nice, and fairly interested, and likes to read, so hopefully will follow through with her commitments, there was a cool moment though as Robert was bearing his testimony. That was cool. Despite he was sitting on the ground comparing his sunflower tie with her flowers haha. Gotta love Robert. After that we took him wherever it was he needed to be dropped off at. Before that we talked to him how the Temple would go. It was super amazing, to teach him about the Temple. I have a great love for the Temple, I was super excited for the wonderful time that he will have there. After that we tried talking with Molina...she wasn't home. Then we had to head home, it was good, a normal day. Well except for Zone Meeting was wonderful, Robert was wonderul, and so yeah.
-Elder MissionDaysAreWonderful

The Miracles of a Mission

Well, so I guess I decided to do something different for this journal. I am a little behind, and want to catch up, so I can record all the the blessings I have received. I am catching up, however still behind. I had this idea come to me during Church, so it may be inspiration. Elder Holland gave an MTC devotional called "The Miracle of a Mission". So I want to label this journal entry that, it will encompass the following days(Thursday 23, Friday 24, Saturday 25, Sunday 26. Hopefully I will be able to get my point across.
The Miracle of a Mission(Elder Smith edition)
As a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you have many, many different and unique experiences. You also have a lot of hope that certain things will happen.(ok I didn't think it would go this way, however we shall see hehe). You have the same schedule, each day, for 2 years. Personally I don't like schedules. I like to figure out my own schedule. Also you have to be with someone, you never met before, all day every day. Then learn how to work effectively with them. You must learn to love them, serve them, and again be with them all the time. I also personally like keeping to myself, and not having to be with someone all the time(excluding the bathroom of course). Thirdly(possibly the strangest) you talk with strangers (it kind of goes against the big childhood rule right?) about religion, God, their family, and things very personal to them. As well you are expected to talk with everyone, yep everyone. People walking down the street, on the bus, in the store, knock door to door and talk with them. Talk. Talk. Talk. That is what you do. Preach the Gospel, and how you do that, you talk.(I really don't enjoy doing this, with people I don't know at least. I would make up excuses to get away from people, so I would be able to stop talking with them. This was a frequent occasion. That was a bad explanation. However the point is, I don't like talking with people). This just provides a little background for the story to help provide emphasis and understanding. Oh, I should also mention this is what you do everyday, from 10:00 to 9:00. Going out, and Preaching the Gospel(Excluding an hour for lunch and dinner).


Now I will go on to explain in more detail some of the activities I have mentioned. On thursday(typically) we have what we call "Weekly Planning" also referred to as "Weekly Pile" "The 2nd P-Day" and other funny names(that is something to mention missionaries tend to have their very own vernacular and language). In this session we talk about people we are teaching, seek inspiration and revelation on what we should do to best help them build their faith in Jesus Christ and His Restored Gospel. We obviously plan our activities, plan lesson, plan our appointments. We plan a lot. Partway through this we had an appointment with a nice Chinese Girl named GuanYunFei. We have met with her for awhile, shared some things with her, however for the most part she has just helped our Chinese(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention many missionaries are called, or asked, to learn a foreign language as part of their missionary responsibilities). We arrive at the designated spot, wait a little bit, and she is not there. We send her a text, and turns out she sent us a text earlier saying she could not come today. This was all because she sent it in a picture message, and our phones are too old for new technology(haha there is a another thing that for a big part is a no, technology. No TV, radio, movies, internet, newspaper, or headphones. This purpose is to keep our minds centered on our work, to have no worldly distractions, and to keep us safe from temptation). So we drive back home, this is a common occurrence that someone will cancel our appointments, or not show up at all. We continued our Weekly Planning session. A bit later, this day was actually quite, quite special. A previous missionary that had served where I am currently serving(his name was Elder Short, is currently Mark Short) had returned to visit his place of ministry. We were able to meet him at a local favorite, Cookout, and take him to visit a bedridden member of the Ward we serve in. Her name is Casey Andreas, and the moment we walk in she is almost surprised out of her bed to see Mark Short again. They caught up, and we all were able to share a short message from the scriptures how to better live the way Christ would have us live. This whole time, Casey was so amazed how different Mark was from the time he first came on his mission. All the changes, how much wiser and mature he was. She was amazed, as she is with all the missionaries she has known throughout the years. This is what a mission can do to someone.


Later we picked up Jared a 19 year old from the ward then went knocking. Most everyone we were able to talk with was very nice, they didn't want to listen to us, however they said it in a nice way. WE actually met someone who is a member of our church, however through some experiences in life has stopped living her faith. At the end of the street we met this younger fellow named Kyle, who was actually sleeping when we knocked on his door, and he still answered. He was very nice, and interested, and really wants to make the world a better place. As well, in the future is very willing to talk with us more, learn more and hopefully build his faith. it was quite a blessing to talk with him. We are walking back to our car because it was roughly time to head home, before getting in, I say "lets knock this last door(this was the one I felt we should knock earlier). Then Jared says, "oh we should knock this other door as well, it looks like they have a family"(we like teaching families because they are central to God's eternal plan). So we knock it, the man looks a little annoyed when he answers because he had just put the kids to bed. So we plan to come back tomorrow afternoon. Then we knock the next door, a man opens and we get talking with him. To be honest I cannot remember very much of anything that he said All I know is that it went well, he was really nice and interested. I do remember that his uncle is a pastor somewhere. However, Chad, was you could say, a miracle. He is very interested, and wants to meet with us next week. He was a really awesome man, super nice, and a good friend.


So that is a very small glimpse of what a mission is like. A miracle I must say. I mentioned that word a lot for a reason. I like to relate a mission to tithing as did President Ezra Taft Benson. We have lived for roughly 20 years, then we give 2 to the Lord. That is 10%. That is what the Lord has asked of us. Then the promise is that He will pour out so many blessings that we will not be able to receive it. That is the shortest way I can describe a mission. I try each day to write in my journal all the blessings and miracles I receive on my mission. I am never successful. It makes me more and more grateful each day. That is the miracle of a mission.
-Elder Smith

Note from Elder Schellenberg

*Hey Everyone that is reading this!!! I am Elder Schellenberg, and I just want to say how awesome of a guy and missionary and person that Elder Smith is. He is one of the kindest person on earth. I was in the MTC with him and he was super cool to be around 24/7. He also writes in this journal a ton. I don't know what he says but I am sure it is good and interesting. Speaking Chinese in Virginia as a missionary. Anyways. Simi Zhanglao is the best.*

Another good week

Well, it was another good week, it was a little slow, however it was
still quite wonderful! This week I tried focusing on Patience, which
was cool considering the miracle at the end of the week.
This was a really,  really wonderful and miraculous thing. We wer knocking
on a door, when a car a little bit away to us motions to us. She asks
what we are doing, and we say "we are missionaries!"(we may have said
more...but I don't really know) then  She said, follow me around the
corner and we can talk! So we follow her, then start taking with her.
Turns out she loves missionaries, or at least the idea of spreading
the word. We explained who we were.  Then taught her and she understood it all, was
very, very impressed/excited about the 1st Vision. At one point while
we were talking she said "this is fun!" Or something good like that.
It was all so great. She is really excited to read The Book of Mormon.
After the whole thing she explained all of what we said to make sure
she understood. She explained it perfectly. Wow, it was so, so, so
amazing. She will be coming to church next week(which is convenient
because she goes to the church across the street from ours!). Wow, and
this happened while my companion and I were fasting for both us and
our zone to baptize this month. The Lord definitely works miracles in
our lives.
So yeah, that was a really big highlight of the week, other than that
everything is good.
Love
Elder Smith

missonaried month

Well, there are some bit things that have recently
happened...especially since I haven't wrote a bit email for a long
time.

This past month(May) well it was kind of crazy, in the month of May,
my companion and I were Missionaried to at least 5 times, I have been
invited to become, well a lot of different religions, which I don't
think it would be appropriate to name them specifically, however, all
of them are Christianity, which some of the people we talked with,
didn't think that we were Christian, so they wanted to help us out. To
be honest, in the moment, it was frustrating, some of the people most
of them actually were much much smarter than I am, and told me so many
different ideas, and things, that say I am wrong for what I am doing.
That I really need to look at things, and look at the Bible, and
figure out what is going on. The arguments range from, brainwashing,
ancient Hebrew, genetics, Russian, German, and much more. To be
honest, I know very little about the things they brought up, the
questions asked, and other things. It was pretty hard, and tiring, and
annoying.

However, clearly I am still a a missionary for the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints! All because of the goodness of our
Heavenly Father, I giving us the wonderful Restored Gospel. We have
all been blessed to be able to be lead to truth through the Holy Ghost
that can testify to us the truth of all things. Man of the people we
met with, that Missionaried to us, always used logic or smarts to
convince us of the truthfulness of their message. However, none of
them relied on the Spirit, no one directed invited me to pray and ask
God, the source of all truth, to be lead and guided. Just as no one
can prove through physical means that Jesus Christ rose from the dead,
that the Bible is true, that Jesus is the Christ. These things can
only be known by spiritual means, through prayer, scripture study and
faith. 1 Corinthians 12:3 says "Wherefore I give you to understand,
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and
that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

I am so grateful for a living, loving Heavenly Father that has
provided us a way for each of us to personally know the love that He
has for us, that Jesus is the Christ, and any other truth. That I
through this same power, know that our Heavenly Father lives and loves
each and everyone one of us, that he gave His son Jesus Christ to die
for us that we can become clean from all the mistakes and sin we have
in our life. And that this knowledge has been restored to the earth by
a prophet, the first being Joseph Smith up to the current time. The.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. All of you can
know this as well, or strengthen you testimony of it as we rely on the
gifts Heavenly Father has give us, which are so, so plentiful.

-Elder Smith

P.S. In other news, well it is transfer this week, and....the
unthinkable happened! Two of the mandarin missionaries got
transferred!..well they will tomorrow. It will be weird, Elder
Schellenberg, my MTC companion, and I will be taking over both areas
we are currently in. At Least we think so. To be honest, it is quite
intimidating, however I am trying to have faith, that things will go
well. However, it is definitely going to be hard, and a little lonely
this next little bit. The other elders are expected to
return...however we do not really know, we think they are going to see
if there re other Chinese people elsewhere in Virginia. We shall see.
However, I fully believe the promise in 1 Nephi 3:7 "And it came to
pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things
which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no
commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for
them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." As
well the same goes for all of you in your respective callings and
assignments!
Love you all!

A Day in the LIFE of Elder Smith

Tuesday May 17, 2016

Well, it was a really good day, as well, during my prayer, I mostly thought that it was a normal good day, however, I was corrected in that, it was quite the miraculous day, so many blessings. Personal Study was good, I wanted to know why Christ sometimes has the title of Father, and the answer came very clearly, and it was an amazing experience. "..seek and ye shall find.." it is a true scripture. The rest of studies were good, lunch was quite tasty, had some pasta. After that we went out, we first went to Chris Eby's place to learn about Family History Work so that we can help teach it to others. It was good, a little funny though, we were at his apartment, then Elder Snow didn't think we could use members wifi, so we walked down to McDonalds to use that wifi, then Elder Snow texted the Zone Leaders, and found out we could use members wifi. So I bought an ice cream cone, then we headed back to Chris's apartment. Found out that lots and lots of my family history has been done. It was kind of crazy. However, that was good. Then we headed to grounds and surprisingly there wasn't a crazy amount of people however there was a good amount. We met this one girl that we are meeting tomorrow! Then we ran into this Chinese girl she was really nice named XiaoYu, while we were teaching with her, Paul walks up!!! haha it was kind of a crazy miracle! Especially since we needed a pen, he had one! It was pretty cool haha.


Later, we had to give the Sisters an Arabic Book of Mormon. Later we went to Two Guys Tacos, Alex gave it to us for free which was pretty crazy. We both got Loaded Nachos, those were good, actually quite good. A little too salty though. As we she gave us this super big packet of stuff that she wants answers to and discuss next time. I little intimidating…we shall see how it goes…However the nachos we got were quite tasty! Then we left, gave a Book of Mormon to some homeless men that asked for one, kind of got lost walking back to grounds at one point haha. Saw a dead snake on the ground. Talked to a really nice girl named Christina, she said we could talk tomorrow! Went back to grounds, there weren't too many people, haha ran into Paul again! As well apparently he was on the Virginia swim team! The club team, however that is still way cool! Then ran into this one girl, don't remember her name, however she was really really cool, and really nice. Doubted a lot of things that we talked about, however recognized that we have to have a sort of "leap of faith" which was good. She was super cool, knew a little bit about us, met a Mormon in Italy actually, kind of crazy haha. We talked to her for a long time, actually turns out that she is from China, that was pretty cool, she is also Christian. She is leaving very soon though, so we gave her a card, and how to get a Book of Mormon. We ended up talking with her for quite awhile, too long I guess because we actually missed our bus haha.

We got home, planned some stuff, then headed to bed!

-Elder SnakeMan(SeePictureForFurtherDetails)

Day of Miracles

We head out of the apartment, and there is a Chinese looking girl walking up the road. Elder Snow talks to her, she was super nice, and crazy thing, she got baptized last week!(by some other church..but it is still great!) We talked some more, shared the message of the Restoration with her, she really enjoyed it, and wow, she complimented our Chinese so, so, so, so much...wow. She said it was phenomenal (haha that is not phenomenal english hehe) she said we sounded like a Chinese person, haha she was super nice. Her English was fine, but she spoke in Chinese with us which was cool. I was really grateful for the entire experience, it was such a miracle. She is heading to China tomorrow, but she wants to meet and talk more when she gets back in August!! Wow, we walked away from that so ecstatic, and surprised. It was such a miracle. Wow, such a miracle. After that we got on the bus. Heading to UVA, then Elder Snow gives me a really, really worried look...then he tells me he doesn't have Yumin's email....we were frantically trying to figure out what to do, thinking if we should go back and knock all of the apartment buildings to find her, then we get an idea(thanks to the Spirit) to text Gan Wei and ask if his roommate is named Yumin...we text him. Then he responds and it is her! We rejoice in gratitude. What a miracle, we then ask Gan Wei if he can send us her email or something...he has yet to reply, but still a great miracle!

We get to UVa...wow, it was very dead...there were very, very few people there. We walked around a bit trying to decide what to do....we head into a bathroom temporarily(and turns out the water bottle filler upper things work pretty good as a water fountain!...only got a little wet hehe) after that a surprise storm shows up....and I realize I didn't have my umbrella...so we start walking to Clark while it is sprinkling a bit. Then it starts going harder, we get out of the down pour, trying to share Elder Snow's umbrella, hopping from tree to tree. Then eventually hit Clark. Then boom. It started raining crazy hard, there were waves going along the ground, we were standing next to the door by Clark, and occasionally get hit by some rain. It was a lot of rain, really exciting to watch. We stood there and watched if for some time, it even started puddling up on the ground...it was really crazy. After that we headed into Clark to clean up our Area Book a bit. It went good, halfway through the Zone Leaders gave us a text, and turned out to be in the room next to us. It continued to rain a lot.

After that we met with Lindsay, it was really good, kind of crazy that she had a final today. But it was a good lesson with her. She mostly had issues about becoming like God, we shared our point and how it makes sense, also talked about faith and works and grace and stuff. It was similar to most other Protestant Christians, it was good though because she was super nice and other things. It was a good lesson, we think she has some good things to ponder. It was quite the miracle though.

Later meet Amir, really soft spoken, has a belief in God and has relied on Prayer to get through it. We talked with him, it was a really spiritual lesson, Elder Snow and I taught quite well in unity, it was a super good lesson. Which is why I say it was a miracle that God gave to us. He really like the 1st Vision, and some other things. He agreed to work towards June 6th for baptism! As well he really liked the idea of coming to church! It was...wow he is so cool. It was seriously just like Ether 12:6 that was such a miracle. We walked away very much stupefied. It was such a miracle. Then we went to the Bench at Brown college to record out two lesson, we look out into the grass, and there is a really small super cute bunny. We were watching it for a second, get back to recording the lesson. We are BOOM!!!! The tiny bunny sprints at me, turns a foot away then speeds off never to be found again....it was kind of crazy. We decided crazy things sometimes happen on the Bench at Brown college.
-ElderDayofMiracles