Week 2 Baptisms and Basketball

Hey everyone!

This week has been insane! I've met so many people and I've gotten 3 member meals which in and of itself is crazy. I said in my last email that I met a guy named Jaylin after following a prompting to knock on a door that he happened to be walking past. We taught him the restoration this week and we felt the spirit so strongly! We asked him to pray if the things we taught him were true then asked him if he would be baptized if he discovered that these things were true. HE SAID YES!!! His baptism date was August 21 but he just barely moved it to August 17! I was so insanely excited for Jaylin! He's a total stud and he's definitely one of the top 2 basketball players I've ever played against.

That was not the only miracle I saw this week. As Elder McArthur and I were driving around he had a bing (prompting) to go knock on some doors. We met James and Tina. They were so nice to us. Tina just left her church and is a seeker of truth. We haven't met with James yet because he works all day, but we are optimistic about him.

We had a basketball activity Saturday night and we tried to see how many investigators we could get to come. We tried to invited as many people as we could but right before the activity we only had one investigator coming and he was going to bring one friend. Then when we arrived at the church and got into the gym people started pouring in! Some of the young men had decided they wanted to come and they brought friends! In all there were 11 of us and 4-5 were nonmembers only 1 of which we had ever met.

I met the nicest Taiwanese couple (the Chens) in the park this week. They were already members but they made great conversation and they told Elder McArthur and I all about their son who was born the same year as my dad. When they found out I would be around the age if their grandkids if their son had decided to have kids they quickly adopted me into their family. It was so cool to hear their stories about their family and how they ended up living in Georgia of all places.

I had the opportunity to give a talk in church this past Sunday and I was hoping for another miracle like our basketball activity but unfortunately no one that we invited to church came to our meeting. We did have our friend Shokaut came to a later sacrament meeting which we were happy about.

I had the opportunity to meet with my zone and set goals which was super fun. Most groups said their goal was to meet 15-25 new interested people in the next 4 weeks. I was feeling a little ambitious to I set the goal of 40. This week in all we met 9 new interested people so we aren't far off track we just gotta work a little bit harder the next couple weeks.

That's all the big stuff that happened this week if anyone wants the slightly more boring extended addition email just let me know and I can send them the unabridged version.

Thank you everyone that emails me I love and read every email I get! And to all the other missionaries reading this don't give up, keep working hard! "If you give up, I will find you and I will kick you." President Porter

Love,

Elder Smith