1/4/2016

I love hearing everything from you guys, its so much fun to be a part of your lives while being apart from all of you, just know i am thinking of you everyday, I did feel really inspired on Sunday, it has been an interesting experience thrusting myself into the work, street contacting and knocking on doors is really nerve racking but really fun, especially when people are even a little receptive, Halifax is an interesting place people here are really set in their ways so we are spending a lot of time finding people to teach.

​I get to be in a trio, the guy with blond hair is Elder Brienholt and the guy with black hair is Elder Gardner, and the super handsome guy in the middle is Elder smith

Elder Gardner has been out 18 months and is always excited about one thing or another, Elder Brienholt has been out 6 months and is the district leader for the Dartmouth area where I am positioned, both have a real desire to serve to their fullest and both are real sticklers for the rules. so I am in good hands.

I am so glad to be out here, the members are really fun to be around and love having us over, we have visited with a few since I have been here.

yesterday we went to the Fox's and they had a son serve in dads mission close to when he served his, an Elder Fox. which was pretty cool, and they asked if dad knew an Elder Fox, I told them I would ask,

as for missionary work its been quite an adventure, I have met a couple crazy people, one old man just ranted to us for thirty minutes about the worlds problems and kept asking questions like, "why are there so many churches!?" or "why isn't there rules against sex before marriage!" and "why is it that no church has the full truth!?" which really excited me because I was ready to tell him that I knew the answers and that the gospel could help him... but he wouldn't let us get a word in edge wise so we left him with a card and told him that he could find truthmormon.org, and walked away with him still ranting like we were still there.

there have also been quite spiritual experiences, we got to give a blessing to a sister that was feeling really homesick, and the spirit of comfort was so strong that i nearly cried.

President Pratt is really great, I can tell this because he jokes and teases constantly, so he isn't one of those presidents that are really serious, which is a bit of a comfort, its also really interesting this is not an iPad mission but we do use facebook for teaching opportunities, so I don't really know everything about it, but if I am on too much i will get locked out, so just a warning for all who have access to my account that I can use facebook, so a blog is probably a really smart idea dad. maybe send everyone of my friends a link to it, I kind of wish I could have everyone's email so I could send them specific spiritual thoughts that could help them increase their faith and love of Christ but have no way to ask for them. If somehow you guys could do that it would be helpful.

something that I learned about life being on a mission is that life is not set in stone, lots of changes come your way that you can't predict, but a little advice to you Sam, Ben, Abby, and Mia, that setting goals though hard allows you to get so much out of life that can't be found without that plan set in place, It's something dad has tried to help me do all of my life, because he knows the effects of setting goals, its something i wish i would have listened to sooner, sadly I am only figuring it out now, so my challenge for you guys is to set goals everyday, for your day, for your week, for your life, a good analogy is the long jump, where people try to jump as far as they can and mark a line where they landed, then jumping again, nine times out of ten they could go farther then they could when they didn't have a line, when you have a goal, you have a greater chance of hitting it and surpassing your goal.

Something else I learned as a missionary is to be clear about your purpose, when you want something for someone else, then you need to be specific and clear, don't leave people wondering what you want, be simple clear and specific about your purpose, as a missionary when you challenge someone you can't say "do you want?" or "do you feel like?" it is always "Will you do this?" that way it only gives them two options how to answer yes, or no. 

I am also getting familiar with a lot of missionary language, its like a whole new culture of weird here, when you are a greeny your trainer becomes your father as you are born into the missionary world, when you go home it is referred to as dying and whoever your companion is when you go home "kills you off" also missionary humor is interesting, because as a missionary you are very limited to what you can do for fun, no worldly music, no swimming, no flirting, so Elders will often make jokes up that apply to the mission or to zone leaders, and for entertainment something that is done here is every once and a while elders will break into song, with any songs they remember from home but this happens rarely.

I love studying, its fantastic, the Joseph smith story is so fascinating and is an adventure to read, and also brings a great sense of the spirit, I would encourage you guys as you read the Book of Mormon, to not only read it with a question in your mind but also read more deeply into the background of how it came to be in your hands, I just love it.

​Here is some other pictures of me with my MTC District, From right to left, Elder Adams, me, Elder Silva, Brother Weekes (our teacher)

Elder Edwards (In front) Elder Baker, then Elder Lee.

Love you guys a bunch, and I hope you guys are all well and can all feel of the love of Christ.

Elder Smith