Congratulations! You have been accepted into what you thought was my extended email list but is actually secretly the VIP elite platinum medallion section of the Elder Smith Fan Club which you were also accepted into even though you never applied. So buckle those seat belts cause its gonna be a fun ride.
So I met a witch this week. She's a great super nice lady. She isn't currently a witch but she was before she converted to Christianity. She's been meeting with missionaries for a little while and hasn't really been progressing, but we had a wonderful conversation with her at the park about how God gave us choices and how we can use our agency to live up to our unlimited potential. She recently got married to a man I've only met once, but he seems very kind. She also has a daughter that is very nice. The daughter isn't her biological daughter she is the biological daughter of her friend that is in jail.
I got to witness one of the greatest Young Single Adult talent shows of all time this week. There were missionaries that participated but unfortunately I did not indulge and I regret it. There was a young women that did stand up comedy and she did alright but she talked so fast that it was hard to keep up with where we were at in the joke. I would have loved to have done stand up comedy. I have decided if all my other dreams fall through stand up will be my fall back and I can write jokes while living in my parents downstairs apartment for lack of a basement.
We were able to teach Jaylin another lesson and he is doing great. He's currently working on setting up a time that we can meet with his whole family and we plan on inviting them to have dinner at a members house. Hopefully that will go well. We have already interacted with his father Lorenzo several times and he is absolutely amazing. We have also met his brother Quinton when we played basketball at the church last P day. We haven't met his mother or his sister yet but if they stick with the trend they will be wonderful people that make great company.
Tina is a lady we've been meeting with and she is such a sweet soul. She's in her 40s and she's never been married but she loves teaching and working with teenagers. She keeps telling us how much she loves us and how surprised she is that there are people our age that are willing to do what we do. She loves to talk with us and makes sure we are drinking plenty of water and that we aren't dealing with any negative thoughts. She recently left her church she grew up in to join a Baptist congregation that she likes but she feels like God keeps telling her to hold still in life. We taught her about the Restoration and the Spirit hit hard. The devil could not have entered if he'd tried. He was likely several miles away crying cause he couldn't come any closer. At the end she tried to brush off some things we'd said and told us she could relate with Joseph Smith cause she left her church and found truth too, but I know she felt what we told her was true. She doesn't want to change again just like so many other people we talk to but I know if she does she will love the person she becomes and she will see so many blessings in her life.
We were able to set up a service project for David who is an older gentleman that worked in law enforcement. We are going to help him trim his trees and pick up all the limbs in his yard. With any luck his neighbor will let us to the same for him too. David is offering his neighbor Manuel, who we met before, a deal that if he will pay for the dump feel then David will help him trim his trees and load them onto his personal trailer and take them to the dump. I see that as a very win win situation especially cause it's been a while since I've had any physically demanding work to do.
Manuel is another person we've been meeting with. He and his wife Summer are great people and they already have a ton of truth. Summer also has a younger sister that could definitely use our message if we can ever get her to come around and listen to it. She's a teenager so you know how that is. Its interesting though cause I was never rebellious and I never did anything wrong in all my teenage years, so I'm not sure where that stereotype came from.
We had another member meal that I didn't mention in my last email that was phenomenal. The food was pretty ok, but what really got me was Brother Langham-Dobbsen. He's from England and he has a wonderful accent and he loves to talk about the gospel. We aren't supposed to spend more than an hour at a member's house for a meal and we are encouraged to spend less than that if possible, but we may have gone a teensy weensy bit into over time and it may have accidentally maybe partially a little bit been basically all my fault. But Brother Langham-Dobbsen and I were going at it and having a great time explaining insights and learning new things from each other. At one point he was trying to explain to us what a wardrobe is because not many Americans have them and he assumed we had never seen one. It was funny to hear him tell us about a closet that's outside the closet fortunately I saved him by asking if he meant like the wardrobe in Narnia and that helped him a lot. After we ate and discussed we were able to give his wife a blessing. She's been in a lot of pain recently. Elder McArthur did the anointing and I gave the blessing and it all went super well. They are a very faithful family and we have recruited brother Langham-Dobbsen as an Amulek to assist in our efforts.
We met with Lyndon again and he is doing much better. Lyndon suffered a stroke a little while back and is now recovering. He is still in a wheel chair but he has started being able to say a few basic words rather than just E and I which was all he could say before. We had a good time talking with him and his wife. He wanted to sing an opening song but he couldn't tell us what it was called so he sang it for us but he can't say the words so we didn't have much to go off of, but we did eventually figure out. His wife is a member but he is not and any time we couldn't figure out what he was trying to say his wife would mess with him by saying something like "oh Lyndon you're sure you want them to baptize you now?" Or " Lyndon you know if you get rid of these Elders I'll just find more". After speaking with Lyndon we gave his wife a blessing of comfort because she's been really stressed about things lately. I was able to give that blessing and it went super well. I really felt guided during the blessing and I know that the words I spoke weren't mine. It was a super spiritual experience and it helped me get a lot more comfortable giving blessings.
There were a couple days this week that were rough and we didn't have much success. On one of these days Elder McArthur began to get frustrated and in turn I began thinking negatively too. It was not a good mindset and I realized that pretty quickly. As the end of the day grew nearer I told elder McArthur no one that we have met wants to meet with us. There is nothing more we can be doing right now to help people so let's go to the park and wait, if Heavenly Father has someone ready to meet with us they will be there. With that I grabbed some pass along pictures of Jesus surrounded my children with the articles of faith on the back. I felt impressed to grab 3 pictures and stick them in my shirt pocket. When we got to the park we decided to sit under a small pavillion with picnic tables. As we sat and waited for our next move to be revealed to us three young men came from a ways off through a virtually empty park and sat at the table right next to ours despite the numerous other available seats around the park. We went over and with excitement asked how they were. One of then started asking questions about us being missionaries and then asked what we believe. We explained the Book of Mormon and how it was about the ancient people of America. Plot twist his ancestors are native Americans and he was intrigued. We gave each of the boys one of the pass along pictures I had and it was perfect cause I had three pictures and there were three of them. Then the boy who asked us questions whose name is Eon said he would definitely study our religion more closely. We asked if he would be interested in a Book or Mormon and he said he definitely would. We talked with him as we walked to our car and we gave him a Book of Mormon with a testimony written in it and certain passages marked up as well as our number. He hasn't contacted us yet but we felt super blessed to find him.
I hope you enjoyed the insider scoop and exclusive content of this email. That's all I've got right now but if anything else happens today I'll send that out too probably. Thanks everyone for your love and emails! It brightens my day every time I get an email from someone!
- Elder Smith
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