2/8/2016

By far the one thing that I would want to express to all of you is that I love you all so much, I love this Gospel with all of my heart and see it change lives daily, I know it has changed mine, I hope you guys are doing great and are all staying healthy, improve the shining moments.

I have a couple things to say that will help you and will help this great work from progressing.

First off, when ever you have the missionaries over, try to have at least one referral for them that can make their day. and also don't be afraid to be missionaries right now, something that I have realized is that it is easier than it looks. Be a missionary now, because more often then not, it is the members of the church that are not serving missions that make the most difference in the work.

The other day it was a brutal rainstorm, rain cascading down upon us as we walked miserably through the streets of Dartmouth, me and Elder Gardner were trudging through the wet streets shoes and socks soaked striving to find people who would listen to us long enough to hear our message, people would pass by us at nearly a run trying to get from one location to the other as quick as possible, we stopped under an overhang of a building to get a rest from the rain and I noticed a guys smoking in the corner, turning I said a simple hello to which he grunted back, then something interesting happened as I stated my name, he turned to me and we started a conversation about life, we talked of his family, his vocation, he spoke of the trials of life and I told him a brief portion of our message before he walked off thanking me for the conversation.

On a bus traveling to the Church, we were on Splits and me and Elder Breinholt and Elder Walker were heading downtown, I looked over at this man who looked miserable, after a couple failed attempts at conversation I finally told him my name, "I am Elder Smith by the way" 

slowly he turned and asked why I was called elder, I stated that I was a missionary from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and he laughed at that, and I asked him about why, He promptly told me to get out of religion as fast as I could, because religion was a sin according to the bible, and I was a bit taken aback this was the first time I had met someone who wanted to bash about religion, we continued the conversation on why, and his reasons for hating the Mormon Church, we talked of Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon, which he said was a false book, I then asked him if he had read it. The response was that he had read it a little bit. So I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of it and how it was an accompaniment to the Bible. and how "a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts then any other book" (introduction to the book of mormon) and challenged him to read it. He then told me the next time we met he would have read it, and challenged me to think about what he said, and I have thought a lot about it, and studied deeply into it, and have found (as I have countless times before) that I know this to be the one true church of God and that Jesus literally leads this church through revelation, that Joseph Smith was called by God to be a prophet in this last dispensation. I know that this Church is true, and I hope that you guys are on the paths to finding it out for yourselves.

I love you all with all my heart,

 Elder Joshua Smith