Use the power of Fasting

Super cool thing this week! On Sunday two of our
friends(investigators) were able to come to church! We went to the
ward at 9:00 because that is the only one he was able to attend, it
was really good. He is pretty shy so it is a little hard, but said it
was good!(also accidentally went to high priests group haha). Then we
were able to go to church at 12:30 with our regular Ward! Our friend
Mike came, really enjoyed it and learned a lot! He got to know quite a
bit of members and it worked really good for him. It was a great
blessing to have them both come! Also they are pretty much the first
investigators that have come to church while I have been in my
mission! It was super cool and grateful for it.

Also had a really awesome experience with fasting this past weekend.
Then the next day at church, wow so many amazing things happened. So
many of my questions, concerns, were answered. It was really, really
amazing. It really helped me overcome a spiritual plateau I felt I was
on. The power of fasting is so real. If any of you are stuck in any
sort of spiritual rut, need a little extra help in any way, I invite
you to take a day, and fast with a prayer in your heart, and I promise
if you do so with a willing heart you will see miracles in your life.
The power of fasting is real! It is sooooooo great!
Have a great week!
Elder Smith

-Elder WowSuchAWonderfulDaySoMuchToBeGratefulFor

Well, the days are really flying by, it is pretty crazy, halfway through April...wow. Anyways, today was great! Got to wash my white shirts, had an awesome breakfast....well I ate way too much...5 pieces of french toast, 2 pieces of regular toast, and a bagel...went a little crazy I guess haha.So we go to grounds(UVA)...met Tierre, she was going to come with us. She is super cool, also a graduate student which I did not know! Wants to teach Russian to college students. Pretty cool. Jessie ended up coming...only 15 minutes late this time haha. She is still pretty much the same, but some of her questions about Justice and Mercy are better!! Tierre helped out a ton, also I realized whenever she would asked a question, I would look at Elder Snow haha. I didn't answer tons of her questions. 

Anyways, we met with Ian after that, at first he looked a little off so I was worried a bit. but we got talking and things worked out better like they normally do. He also said that he feels like the Book of Mormon is true...which is super awesome...still working on the Prophet Joseph Smith, and other Prophets, but going real well.

 Then we met with Mike!! It was super great as well! He is a funny guy, I know I have said this before, but he is so much so the CHinese version of Skyler Powell, it is super awesome. Anyways, Johnney came quite late, but it went really good again, he is super great, says has felt God in his life before which is awesome, just not 100% which is totally fine. He doesn't really understand the Book of Mormon a whole lot...so we will work on that, definitely need to get better at teaching with the scriptures in every sense. Either way, he is still doing super great. After the lesson we were casually talking, mentioned how missions worked, and said after he was baptized if he wanted to he could serve a mission, and he said he would think about it!!!! AHhhhhhh! It was pretty cool. Nothing set, but cool that is is open to the idea. Also his girlfriend is in England so he is still trying to talk to her about God and religion and stuff. We are hoping that will get figured out. After that...well we were pretty much out of time, we recorded other lessons, then met Scarlett because she wanted to feed us! It was super nice of her, honestly and always super impressed when members feed us. Super cool and nice of them. We went to Roots, it is a salad place, and like most salad places, was really good tasting, just not the most filling, if that makes sense.

 So yeah that was really good, unfortunately we weren't able to eat with her for very long because we had a lesson at 6:00 with Kelly we met yesterday. Wow, it was super super great, it was a really simple teaching of the restoration, nothing really special. However, it was super spiritual and super awesome. She is super awesome, super willing to learn more. Didn't really have any questions of any kind, and she is willing to prepare for baptism May 7th!!!! It was super crazy. Super super awesome. After that we got to our weekly planning, it was good...didn't have tons of time to do a whole lot because of different things. So yeah, that was the day.

 However before I close there was a cool experience when planning my study for the next day. Started reading a conference talk by Elder Christofferson, then was thinking about a lot of things, then led to certain scriptures, and other things, then read in Ephesians 4:11...and then really felt to study about Why the Church(which is the talk I was reading) it was really cool. Always, really cool and amazing seeking out revelation and then being given it. It is really an amazing process that you get a lot as a missionary. One problem is recording that! Grateful for Journals.
-Elder WowSuchAWonderfulDaySoMuchToBeGratefulFor

Loved Conference

Hello all! It was a pretty normal week, but that means it was great!
So, don't really know what to mention. 

Ok, I will mention this really cool guy named John.
We ran into him on grounds, at first he wasn't interested at all, but
we got talking(in Chinese!) and had a good talk with him, then planned
to meet Saturday!

We met on Saturday, and he was super awesome, way more interested this
time. He has a lot of questions, which makes sense. So we tried our
best to answer those, while also not teaching to much, it was a little
struggle. However it all worked, the best part was at the end, he
was willing to try to prayer. Wow, it was a real special prayer,
probably the simplest prayer I have heard. But really heartfelt too.
It is always really special to see someone with no background with God
to say a prayer. It was really cool.

Don't really know what else to mention about this week, however I do
want to say how real the power of prayer is. It can be a two way
communication between us and our Heavenly Father. It is such a
wonderful blessing that I think we take for granted all to often. I
invite all of you to do what you can to make your prayers more
sincere. You can really feel the love our Heavenly Father has for
each and every one of us.
Love you all! Look back over conference and you can feel the same
way you did when we watched conference!
Elder Smith
斯密长老

Happy Easter ""He is Risen"

Well, the only thing the Lost Bread has to do with is the fact, we bought bread on Monday...and searched for it throughout the week and could not find anything...it was quite disappointing.

Sorry, I do not have very much time this week, so it will be quite short, however I have one really cool story to share with you!

We were waiting outside a library waiting for people to talk with, then we decide we need to give one of our investigators a call (His name is Kevin we have been meeting with him for about 3 weeks) so we give him two calls, no answer to either...then we look down the road, and in the darkness of the night we see Kevin!!! We yell his name(maybe too loud...but we were excited) then we end up walking and teaching him while he heads back to his apartment. Earlier we had taught him the Word of Wisdom, so we were kind of following up on that, asked him how that was going. Then he shared an experience where one of his "friends" tried to get him to denounce Christianity, and smoke some sort of drug with him, so he turns to his friend, and roughly says, No way man! Then leaves the apartment made me really happy to hear about him doing that and standing up for what he knows to be right. It was really cool.

But yeah, that was one of the many highlights this week of being a missionary! Another was definitely Easter, it makes me think of the hymn "He is Risen" probably one of my favorite songs, I VERY, much suggest that you check it out.

Love you all!
Happy Easter!
Don't ever forget about Christ!
As well prepare for conference!(think of questions, ex: What does God want me to do in life right now? How can I better do...)
Again Love you all!
-Elder Smith =)

Photo fun text

Hello! My family is visiting UVA and we just met your Elder.  
He was nice and friendly and we thought we would send a picture.  
My husband and I both served missions and our tall son currently
 has his papers in. It was a real treat to for us to
 see the missionaries.  I hope you are having a great day! 
Love, Stephanie Nelson (sugar house, Utah)

Photo

Teach all the World

Sweet Power of Prayer

Hello,
This week was really great, my companion is amazing, the area is
great, and yeah. Everything is wonderful. Had a really amazing miracle
this week.
So a little background last week we walked past some people speaking
Chinese, Elder Snow stopped them, asked if we could sometime practice
Chinese with them, one said ok! Then we meet with him next week,
practiced Chinese discussing different things, then got to the end, talked
about when we can meet again, what we will discuss, and he asks if we
can discuss religious things next week! We of course said ok!
We meet this past week, start talking about the Bible, the beginning
of everything kind of. We explained that a bit, then he wants to know
about the New Testament because he doesn't really know about it. We
explain that, then get to the end, and ask him if he is willing to say
a prayer. We first say an example prayer for him, then he thinks for a
long while...then he says he is ready to pray. Then he proceeds to say
one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard. Especially from
someone who doesn't really have a belief in God, and for his first
prayer. The Spirit was so strong. It was an amazing miracle, so
grateful that Heavenly Father let me be a part of that experience.
Then a little added bonus, it was all in Chinese.
And there you go for my week!!
Love you all!
Elder Smith