Week 4 Dinner and Dogs

Hey everyone!

I'd like to clarify before we get started that I did not eat any dogs for dinner and no dogs were successful in eating me for dinner.

This last week was so jam packed with stuff it's been hard trying to decide what is worthy of the main email. We set a rather ambitious goal for finding this week and the Zone leaders told us that if we reached our goal they would get us donuts. We saw so many miracles this week as we worked hard to reach that goal. The first miracle I can think of was Wednesday while I was on splits with Elder Woodhouse. We had a lesson fall through that was right next to a park so we decided to stop by the park and hit the bathrooms before our next appointment. When we got to the park there were 5 people that looked about our age crowded around the bathroom. We talked to them and it turns out they are super cool people. After throwing around a football for a few minutes and discussing their interests we got their numbers and they seem interested in at the very least being our friends. That's how we met Bailey, John P, Analora, and Sara.

Our next miracle was on top of a parking garage near another park we like to go finding at. We talked to some people at the park who mentioned that a lot of people go on top of the neighboring parking garage to mess around and take pictures with their cars. Given that I would have definitely been game to party in a parking garage before my mission, I decided we should check it out. Most nights young adults gather on the garage and they welcomed us with only a few comments about our strange appearance. We had yet to get someone's number from going to this garage and we were about to head home after our second attempt at finding people there when I felt prompted to go up to the red neck looking section of the garage where they would sit in the bed of their trucks to gaze off into the distance. I walked up and asked if anyone there would like a free bible to which they all answered no. I then asked if any of them would like a free plate of brownies to which they all responded no. At this point I realized they weren't going to be easy to please. Fortunately one among them named Jordan was interested in what was going on. He is looking for truth and doesn't like hypocrisy. I gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church. He said he wouldn't make it this week but would be interested in looking at our church.

I'd like to take a pause now from our regularly scheduled miracles to explain a traumatizing experience I had this week. Elder McArthur and I were going to visit an inactive family, but we couldn't find their address. We searched for a bit and couldn't find them so we decided to leave and I prayed that if we were meant to find them we would. Right as we were leaving I caught glimpse of an address that was similar to that of the family so we whipped around and went a new direction. Our new path led straight to their house! The only issues were the two large dogs that looked like they might eat us. Elder McArthur rolled down his window and spoke to them soothingly and they calmed a bit so he opened his door a little and acted friendly and the dogs seemed like they were gonna be pretty chill. Elder McArthur turned to me and asked if I thought it was a good idea to get out of the car. The story of Daniel who was thrown into the lion's den popped into my head, so I said if Heavenly Father protected Daniel from lions why wouldn't He protect us from dogs. He hopped out and began walking towards the door. The dogs seemed pacified towards us and they acted very nice as they came closer to us. They both went up to Elder McArthur and let him pet them then they came up to me and I proceeded to speak soothingly and reached out to pet them too. It was at this moment that the dog nearest to me decided that we had overstayed our welcome and tried to eat me. Now I'd like to say before anyone starts sending me stuff about not knowing how dogs work, trust me, I've worked with plenty of dogs and I've seen how they act when they are bluffing and when they have decided that you look like a rotisserie chicken. Fortunately, I evaded the dog's first lunge and the second seemed like more like an invitation to move a little faster towards the car than a real attempt on my life. Once we were in the car, we were safe but the dogs jumped at the car and tried to get at us for a little while down the road just to make sure we knew what was up.

Ok, back to miracles. Saturday night we were doing pretty well, but we still needed to find more people if we were gonna make our goal. We had invited Jaylin and Kieran to play basketball and told them to bring friends but we didn't know if they would actually bring anyone. We said a prayer that people would come and that we would be able to do our part if they did and guess what! We got 5 new people!! They are all awesome and so nice.

The next day was Sunday and we had invited a solid handful of people to church but we were worried no one would come. We went and knocked on some doors before church to remind people but no one answered. We also made a stop at the park to see if any strangers wanted to come but it was to no avail. Then we got to church and two of our friends came and three other people were brought by members for a grand total of five friends at church!! We were so happy and excited we could barely contain ourselves during sacrament meeting.

The final miracle I wanna share happened Sunday night. The YSA was having a dinner and any missionary that brought a friend could have dinner too. We called all our friends between the ages of 18 and 30 and no one was able to come. We tried every option we could think of and no one was able to help us. Then as we went to pick up some biking elders we took a wrong turn and saw a dude walking down the sidewalk. Naturally, we asked his name and invited him to dinner. HE CAME!! His name is Jeramiah and he is elect. Unfortunately for us, he lives just out of our area, but the other elders are going to take good care of him, and I certainly hope I get to work with him again. That's all I've got for this email. Thanks everyone for all your support!! Love you guys!

-Elder Smith

PS- Yes we made our goal!