March 14, 2014

From Josh:

This is a new thing I am trying out, we shall see how it goes.

Tuesday March 8 2016

Anthony has read all the way to 2 Nephi and he says he really agrees with it though he is hung up on a lot of issues with the church he said that he didn't really know yet whether this church was for him, we were able to answer a lot of his concerns and the spirit really was there.

Wednesday March 9 2016

So many miracles today I am unsure where to start, today we met with an older lady named Beverly. We met her a couple days previous and she acted a but suspicious at first but when she saw us she opened the door wide and listened while we did our regular door approach and amazingly! She gave us a date where we could return! So we got there and somehow we got it into our heads that her name was Sharon so at first a man answered we asked for Sharon and was turned away feeling a bit rejected and while walking away was called back saying that Beverly was waiting for two handsomely dressed young men, so we went back and was able to meet with her and tell her of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, after words we asked to pray to know if it was true, and she said she already knew, confused we asked how, and she said when she opened her door for the first time she was prepared to turn us away, and when she saw us, she said she could see "the light of God all around us" and she knew we were from God, and I marveled because it bore witness to me that we are acting under God and as such he gives us his light to share with the world.

Thursday March 10 2016

So today we were knocking and after a door we were walking away when two men stopped us, and introduced themselves as Wes and Shay, and they commended us for being "fellow missionaries in the work" Wes was the main speaker and he went on to tell us that he had a church group of youth that he was running inspiring youth to go out and proclaim the Gospel. the best way to describe Wes is a Hippi surfer dude, "its good to see millennials out in the work of God Dude, Just like it says in Matthew, man, you God to let your light so shine and stuff, you know? like the Great lord said, the field is white, and dude you are harvesting with thy sickle and stuff like that man" he the proceeded to invite us to speak in his non denomination youth church, sadly it was out of our area so we were unable to attend.

Friday March 11 2016

We went to Larry Bells finally! (one of our investigators who just wouldn't set a return date for two weeks. it was only 30 mins so we focused on the atonement and how we had to have faith in Christ and come unto him. He said he can't believe in a God who demands so much from his children, He knows that God exists but doubts he would ever ask us to do something that we don't want to. so we need to work past that. 

Saturday March 12 2016

Today we Helped a man to clean out his garage, In California they do not us their garages for their cars, instead they use it as an extra storage area, and Carlos (the name of this man) had stuffed all sorts of objects into his garage, we opened it up and it was a wall of junk in front of us, so much I didn't know where to start, but we got most of it done.

Sunday March 13 2016

We got to attend a Fireside were one of the members in my ward Brother Willis spoke on his conversion from Black Panther to the Church. The black panther group was a black extremest group against white oppression and did a lot of crazy things, Bro. Willis spoke on Drug trafficking Gun stocking and gun fights that he got into, and his journey from that to being a member of the church, he is the coolest guy ever he is in his 50's now and really loves the Gospel.

From Mom:

That's fantastic, Josh! Grandma will be proud you are using her journalling method. Our piano is getting tuned at the moment and I think I will create a Gospel analogy for it. It's now 114 years old but it needs more regular checking and tuning to ring clear and true. Thinking.....

From Josh:

Wow so that is what our piano looks like all taken apart, thank you so much for the pictures, It is one thing that makes me feel like part of everyone's life, and I love hearing all the stories.

Church is very important to go to because it is a tuning process to make sure we are able to play all the right notes during the week. When we miss church we can still sound good but the sound is reduced and if we continually miss that weekly tune up we will eventually lose all sense of tune and though we can still play the notes will all be skewed and out of whack

I hope everyone is doing well, and keeping up with their scripture reading. I find the story of Moroni and the Freemen so intriguing and think we should start a club called the Freemen, holding to those same values stated in the Book of Mormon with the title of Liberty as a standard. this is just something on my mind to start after my mission, an organization that upholds the values of freedom and truth.

I have been recently contemplating a lot, there is one thing about missions they can at times be so hard, there have been many days here where we will spend hours knocking on doors and getting doors slammed in our faces, but hearing that doesn't sound as discouraging as it actually is. because it is more then getting doors slammed in our faces. There are days where people will scorn and question and degrade us for hours. There will be doors where they will spout off a short quip of anti before slamming the door, there will be people who will tell you that you are waisting your time, that you are useless, that you are brainwashed, that you should just stick to your own religion and not bother anyone else.

There have been days where I have question why I even try, why I am here on a mission, there have been days where I have felt all alone in to world being a Mormon, there have been days where spiteful questions and comments about what I believe have shaken me to the core. I have been attacked, accused of spreading lies, called stupid, cursed at, berated and I know that I haven't seen even the worst of it. 

So why do I do this? is it worth it? 

This is what I have come to learn, That it is worth it, Why do I do this? Because I know that this is true, and I cannot deny it, I know that the truth has made me feel Joy beyond expression, I do this because I love the Lord, I love this Gospel. and I want to share it with the world. There is one thing that has been stated that is true "the truth will always be apposed" 

I do this because I know that it is the one thing that needs to be done, and when I face those difficult days, I take comfort that I am doing the will of God, and that as long as I am doing that I cannot give up. 

From Mom:

You explained the reason why we do things perfectly. It IS true. All of it. There nothing more to say. And we keep inviting others to partake of the Joy that can be felt. One day we'll have to face our Heavenly Father and I'll want to be able to look him in the eye in confidence. Keep going, my boy. You are doing more good than you realize.

From Josh:

Here are a couple photo's I have taken, I haven't been able to take much photo's as I have been super busy. but here a few

From Mom:

And I LOVE your study desk picture!

From Josh:

The problem is that I do not want to look like a tourist and I forget it is safely hidden in my bag until it is the end of the day,. You have no idea how much work it is to be a missionary, I bet dad could tell you a little, most days all I can think about it the next appointment and sticking to our plans for the day, and before I know it is the end of the week and I look and I say to myself wait? what happened to the day? let alone the week! it feels like I have been in California about a week, though it has actually been a month.

I have the perfect companionship picture but it is in the worst position. something I didn't realize until I looked at the picture again, can you tell what is wrong with it. think it is salvageable? :( 

From Mom:

Hahahaha. Definitely the laugh of the day. Hahaha. I love it. (It may or may not end up in the blog dad is doing for you.)

Is it true that the days are long and the weeks are short?

From Josh:

well looking back at the day's it feels like the days are short and the weeks are short and WHAT THE HECK I HAVE BEEN OUT 3 MONTHS! no wonder missionaries need to schedule their time wisely.

From Mom:

Steph said she could Photoshop your photo for you. I sent it to her. Time is going fast, but I can feel a break down coming. Be prepared for a mushy email soon. Hahaha. LOVE YOU!

March 7, 2016

Letter from Dad:

Hi Josh,

Hope you are having a great week. I could sense in your last letter that some of the honeymoon of Mission life is wearing off a little and your settling into the ups and downs of mission life.

I had an opportunity to talk with Bro. Scott Campbell this week. We are good friends and we like to philosophize a little bit once and a while.  This week we talked about the principle of agency. I've been thinking a lot about it with regards to how our Heavenly Father is able to know all things, yet still grant us our agency. This seem contradictory... if the Lord knows all things, then does he know what we are going to do before we do it? If so, isn't that almost fore-ordination?  As I have been pondering some of this, 

I have also been reading a book called "Team of teams" about an army general who led the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2004. It discusses how the army, which was super well planned and efficient had a very hard time dealing with Al Qaeda because it was so de-centralized and hard to predict. In the current part of the book that I'm reading, he discusses the difference between efficiency and resilience. Efficient organizations endeavor to control and manage all the inputs to a complicated problem or problems to engineer a predictable output. Resilient organizations set themselves up to be able to adapt and react quickly to complex problems. It started me thinking about the pre-existence and how Satan viewed the human earthly experience as a "complicated" problem that could be solved by controlling the input (making our choices for us),. Heavenly Father's plan was a solution for a "complex" problem (Humans + agency = complex, unpredictable problems). His solution was "resiliency" where even though the inputs can't be controlled and agency inherently means we can't predict the outcomes, we needed a plan that could deal with the effects of agency. That's what the atonement is. It is a resilient plan, one that can adapt to any situation and make it better.

Anyways, long winded thought, but it was profound to me. Reminded me of Brad Wilcox's talk on grace that I had a chance to teach last Sunday. I reduced his talk down to 8 min clips. Check it out here if you're able: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bwgrul-DRE-hN3M3WFduVmY0ekU

We had a very crazy week starting on Monday. It was Feb. 29th, so already a day that didn't belong in the calendar. That week-end, I was test-driving a friends car and on Monday I found that the back tire was going flat! Taking it to Kal Tire, they of course couldn't fix it (side wall tear). So that put me out of sorts a little. Then during the day (working from home), I got an email from Leduc Count telling me the water study we had done on the well wasn't sufficient for the whole sub-division! I have to admit that I felt briefly like burning down the County office (btw, I think we've figured out a resolution). Kept pressing forward. At 4 pm, Ben came and asked me to take him to write his learners test. So we went to the testing center and waited in line for 15 min only to find out that we had to be there 1 h before closing in order to take the test. Grrrr. Came home and complained to Mom (she was having a bad too!). We blamed it on the odd leap year day. Mom and the girls headed to Walmart to get some things for FHE. An hour later the girls came running in exclaiming that "We ALMOST DIED!!!". Turns out that the vehicle beside them turning into the Leduc common intersection got smashed from behind and flow upside down into the intersection. Shook them up pretty good. We decided to stay in doors for the rest of the day!.

I ended up working from home most of the week because I've caught the whooping cough going around and have been having a lot of trouble sleeping due to coughing up a lung every night.Hoping to get that under control this week. Amazing how sleep is so important.

BTW, do you want us to go talk to the bank about your bank card? Sounds like you are able to stay on budget with your mission visa card. 

Also, we'll send you a hard copy of your Patriarchal blessing.

Love you, son. Have a great week.

Dad.

Response from Joshua:

That is an interesting thought Dad, I was reading in D&C today where the Lord told Joseph Smith that he knew he would give away the 116 pages and set in motion a back up plan before to prep that, so that causes one to wonder, I think God sent us here to gain the most experience in this life and though we have the ability to choose this is ultimately a learning experience, kind of like a test. the teacher already knows all the questions and answers but allows us to figure it out for ourselves, there is a set answer for each challenge but we still have the ability to choose the outcome, but since he knows how we are going to answer the next question adapts to what will give us the greatest learning experience.

I really liked that thought, the atonement encompasses all the mistakes we make like a white out when we repent. 

I have met a lot of people who skew that though, people who look at the atonement as a scape goat to not worrying about   a thing, I have to admit there are a lot of times where I do not feel very christlike to born agains, who believe that since Jesus Christ dies for us we are good, and I feel that is an insult to what he did for us, and all he worked to accomplish, and I find myself continually seeking repentance for the ill feelings that arises when someone does not get it. 

Jesus Christ lived his life as an example of who we should be, always giving ourselves in service and charity, acting in all respect towards God an his commandments, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not complicated it is always having faith in him, continually repenting and coming closer to God everyday, being baptized, remembering and renewing those covenants receiving and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

We will not be excused from our own personal responsibility, a quote from Brad Wilcox is that same talk, His Grace is sufficient, and this is paraphrasing "we have been saved through Grace, but have we been changed throughout grace?"

His Grace is not to be abused, it is to be used for our salvation.

I do not want anyone dying before I get home, that is a scary experience, not something I would like going through. 

There is a lot of speculation I have been going through because a lot of the things I have heard from people, tip for you missions Sam and Ben, you will hear a lot of anti mormon things on your mission, you will be tried by your companions, and you will often be berated mentally emotionally and physically, so build up your testimony now, I have definitely seen the effects of being swayed by every wind of doctrine and can only plead to you to take Helaman 5:12 Strengthen your testimonies and if you don't feel you have one, gain one and build your house upon the Rock which is Jesus Christ. 

We have an investigator right now who is blown about by the whirlwinds and he is really struggling to find what is true, we are trying to direct him to that Rock and overtime we teach him he has some concern over things he had heard, like why do we need temples and how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, so we are trying to work past these concerns he has. He was able to come to church thought so that was exciting.

I have met a lot of people who love the mormons and I have met a lot of people who just can't wait to harass us, it is interesting being a missionary, because people will constantly shout "I love Jesus!" or "My Friend needs Jesus!" I once got "Look its the Jesus people!" it is interesting. My first week here someone in passing saw us and said "Hey mormons! Joseph was a lier and you all will not make it to heaven!" 

All these experiences are really interesting and I am seeing more and more that we are definitely a peculiar people compared to that of the world, the world is full of those people searching for happiness and know not where to find it, and there is more people who will not change but instead seek to find happiness in sin. I have been called to find those people and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, and soon you will too. So prepare now for the time when you will be called to share your testimony of this Gospel, and no matter how strong a faith you have it will be tried, so build your foundation on Jesus Christ now.

I love you all so much, and hope you continue to have great adventures.  

Joshua Smith

Feb 29, 2016

To Dad:

Distracted driving Dad, it sucks, I can attest to that. (Dad crashed the Green Car last week)

I am so glad that I have parents who love each other I think its a major factor to how our family has become so close, along with some others, I love how you have always pointed us to God, and how in every action you have taught us to be the best we can be, I love you guys so much.

when you were a missionary did you have the Mister Brown memorized discussions? and with the first Discussion did you start with the first vision?

My mission visa does work, My scotia card doesn't but as long as my mission visa card is working I will be perfect.

I am not in a bike area, apparently they are trying to get rid of them in this mission... :(

My mission President and his wife, I haven't had much of a chance to talk with them they were super excited that I finally got here, and President Henrie runs this mission a lot like a business.

I cover the Chatsworth ward, it is a ward of about 140 in average attendance with over 300 members so a lot of less active work, they are all super friendly and love to have us over for supper. I am still trying to figure things out. but two wards meet in our building, the Korean branch is the other one and they have their own set of Elders that we meet with regularly 

To Mom:

That sucks about the car, though we all knew it was going to break down sometime, it was only a matter of time.

That mission statement is pretty good, though most of it we already do, Something I would would be good to add, and this is a second hand opinion, that we add some things you would like to improve on, usually a mission is inspired by a cause, what cause are we striving for? to be a better family? would it be valuable to add a specific challenge? I love everything that it says about our family and hope it can provide us with something to build up to.

This week we have been meeting with various investigators of different varying opinions, Steven is a black guy who leads a church youth group in his denomination, he has been meeting with us to try to see what is true his grandmother recently died causing him to wonder about the after life, he was always taught the heaven or hell fire principle and really wants to go to heaven, I hope he continues to investigate the church so we can teach him the plan of salvation. he has a real struggle with accepting the book of mormon, and doesn't believe that God would call another prophet, since Jesus Christ fulfilled all things, so a lot of his concerns we can't really solve for him, we invited him to pray about it. Something to always remember when inviting someone, apply the law of agency, never say you will do this, instead it is better to always have a will you statement, making the only answers to be either yes or no. Our other investigator is a new christian named Anthony, and he is a details guy, he will always ask us questions that don't really make sense or are so small that its hard to see their relevance, one question was if groves are bad, in the bible it speaks a lot about removing places of worship of other gods which were referred to as groves, and since Joseph saw his Vision in a grove Anthony took it as grounds that our church was false, we then explained how God would not forsake his own creation just for being a creation and opened a couple scriptures about groves being good. 

Something Steven asked us to do is pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true and I prayed to have an increased understanding, and I want to tell you that I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the Bible is as well and would exhort you all to read them both, if you have a question turn to the word of God and he will answer you, that is why prayer is so important when studying the scriptures because prayer is when you speak you speak to God, when you want him to speak to you look to his words. 

Something I have learned here is that God truly answers prayers, I fasted and prayed to be humbled into the depths of humility and God sent me to California, everything here is completely different, the people are often rude and offensive to us as missionaries, a lot of my own views on teaching I have found to be ineffective, I am continually questioning a lot of my own personal views, and have been struggling to adapt, its like jumping into freezing cold water, my body at this time is still in shock of the plunge and I am confused with the area, with my companions and with how things work here, and I realize there is a lot i don't know, I am basically starting from scratch, pretty much the only thing that has kept me going is the feeling or peace that I am doing the Lords work, and that eventually I will adapt to this new life, it is the polar opposite from Halifax, so I have had to adjust to three different life styles, MTC, Halifax, and California. The one thing I can say is that Missions are truly hard, we are raised on the thought of glory and wonder of missions, but there are often times that people will scorn you, and mock you, your companions will not always instantly be your friend, and people will not listen to you, you will be tired and depressed with no hope of anything improving, but there are the moments when people will listen, when people will see the light inside you, moments that are indescribable, when the spirit lays hold on your heart and you will be overwhelmed with the love that only comes from the Lord, there will be moments when you will love someone so much that you will sacrifice your own relaxation time to be with them and bring them closer to the Gospel, it is those moments you life for as a missionary, that make all the pain worth it, I can truly say I have been humbled, and I can't wait for the time when I can grow in confidence in the Lord in this mission.

I hope you are all doing well and are continually drawing closer to the Lord, Remember that Members do more to convert people then missionaries can ever do. I would encourage you to always have a referral for the missionaries when they come to seek for missionary opportunities, and ways you can serve others.

Love you all

Elder Joshua Smith

P.S

Volunteer work is awesome, I would encourage you guys to find places to do missionary work. Also Family history is cool! I would invite you guys to learn how to get names off of family tree for baptisms, if they haven't been done.

P.P.S

I hate to ask for things but I just so happened to leave my patriarchal blessing at home if there could be some way to get it to me It would be much appreciated.

My address is: 10025 de soto #27 CA USA 91311.

2/22/2016 - Transfer to San Fernando

What a week it has been here in California! It above 30 degrees as a regular here and this is winter weather so everyone is wearing sweaters and are all bundled up, its supposed to get up to above 50 in the summer so that should be fun!

I am in a treo once again since I came in too late for the transfer and I am having a blast! Elder Wilson and Elder Gentemen are really fantastic they are filled with the spirit and we are having a great time together, we have a total of two investigators we are currently teaching, They are some interesting fellows, Anthony lives with his mother and doesn't have a job so he is open a lot for us to teach and he is pretty receptive, despite some initial concerns, of some weird anti, apparently people think we teach in our church that the moon is populated, and we still practice polygamy and we are all liberal. but we cleared a lot of that up and he is really excited to learn more.

I have to really hold myself back a lot, there are a lot of people here who really like to argue and demean the church, on the other hand there is a lot of respect people give to us going out and proclaiming our religion, apparently not a lot of churches go out and do what we do, there was one lady that was convinced we practiced polygamy and we told her we didn't and she kept saying, "Yes, you do!" then we would state that we don't and she would tell us we do once again, and there was no getting past that, so set was she in her mind that we practiced it that we could not tell her otherwise, then another lady kept trying to convince us that God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost were one and the same person, and I was so tempted to whip out the bible and prove to her that she was wrong and We were right. My heart was filled with contention and I really wanted to just tell her she was blind and that she needed to open her eyes, but then a thought entered into my mind, to bare my testimony and holding out a Book of Mormon I testified that I knew it was true and that Joseph Smith truly saw God and Jesus Christ Two separate beings with bodies of flesh and bones, and when I stated the first vision the spirit of peace entered into my heart and the spirit of contention fled, it was so amazing, we gave her the Book of Mormon and exhorted her to read of it and pray about it. It was an amazing experience.

There is something that has bothered me since the beginning of my mission, something that I have seen and felt from non-members and members alike, that we don't appreciate what we have, this gospel is such an amazing blessing and is incomprehensibly simple and awe inspiring, and not many people understand that we can be so much more that what we are now. Its hard to explain the depth of feeling I have for this, a lot of times I have felt that church was a burden, when we needed to do home teaching or other callings in the church I viewed it as an inconvenience something that I could do without, but looking now, I know that I never understood the blessings that it brings, all the programs of the church all we are called to do is for a purpose, please find that spark in the Gospel, Hear the music that goes with the dance, I know that all of us are living below our privileges, that we don't yet understand what exactly we have, this treasure in which we are squandering, Awake and Arise! and be more that you are now! Look at the Treasure laid before you! we have a book that can bring us closer to God in every way, and we set it as not, do not be complacent don't waist your time on meaningless things when the true meaning of life and happiness is laying before you, Pray with all energy of heart, and humble yourselves to the depth of humility, walk the path that Christ walked, Lift each other up, and look to the light which is the light of Christ. I exhort you, all of you, Sam, Ben, Abby, Mia, Mom, Dad, Steph, and Tyler, the time is at hand when we must choose to be all in or all out. 

I love you guys so much and hope you are all doing well, 

Elder Joshua Smith

P.S

Mom I know you like folk music a bit and a cool music group is called The Lower Lights, I bet you would like it,

also something I have realized as a missionary is that pictures and letters are like life, whenever I get some I am filled with Joy and happiness I never truly understood how deeply they effect a missionary until, Hey! I was a missionary and Boom! I realize that hearing about your lives and seeing the progress of my family truly is what I yearn for.

P.S. 2

I also finished The Book of Mormon and am looking forward to reading the Bible now! I hope everyone is reading well and that they are reading with a purpose or question in mind.

2/9/2016 - Last week in Halifax Mission

Rumor travels fast, I have got my visa and will be leaving for California next Tuesday, the reason I am emailing now is that Monday we are not going to have P-day, Dartmouth district is sacrificing a P-day to go to the temple on Thursday of next week.

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

2/1/2016

To Dad:

Nothing on the Visa, I guess the Lord needs me here for the time being and once I have fulfilled my purpose here I will definitely get word on my Visa.

I don't know If my spiritual jar has been popping... well less like popping and more like overflowing at the moment, I may need another jar. In every lesson I can feel the spirit poor through me, whenever I say the first vision the spirit roots me in place, there have been continuous experiences such that I cannot state them all, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be and I am reminded everyday about it.

2 Nephi 32:3 is such a great scripture I encourage you all to apply it to your lives and continue to read the Book of Mormon.

Dad, I am starting to understand how mission life goes, and a lot of your stories are coming to life for me, please continue to tell everyone of all of your experiences because a mission is so great. What were some of your Street Contacting experiences? What did you do for fun?

I am looking forward to this new house and I know that as long as we stay true to the Principles of the Gospel the Lord will provide all that we need. sometimes we need to ask him. Pray always says the Lord, are we praying for all we do? for all we get? for all we love?

a quote In the mission home goes like this:

"What if you woke up in the morning with only the things you thanked God for the previous night?"

I love being on a mission, and though I am starting to see how truly hard a mission can be I love it all the same, the good and the difficult.

To Mom:

Thank you Mom, I absolutely love hearing everyone of these stories of such amazing people, In every way I can see that each of my brothers and sisters are great leaders, in courage and in attitude. Reading each of these stories I marvel at the great qualities everyone portrays and I know that it is threw the Gospel and the great example of you and dad that we are where we are today, and I along with everyone in our family thank you for your leadership and parenthood, and I fervently hope that everyone from Mia to Sam are treating you with full respect and expressing their love for you, because I know that I love my family so much. I know for a fact that the Gospel truly blesses families.

I have to say that all of my favorite experiences have been out street contacting, on Thursday I got to teach people the restoration, and it was only after that I realized that they were completely drunk... so I probably didn't do much but it was a great experience. I also find something else interesting here, that people first of all are really wary of missionaries, whenever we say hi they treat us like we are selling something, and two, that people trust missionaries way more than regular people, a lot of people here once you get them talking will just unload their problems on you, every load of crap they face in life they will just lay out, the very first door I got invited into the man just dropped a bomb of every thing he hated, he talked about how his wife cheated on him his whole marriage, and how the world was going to the dogs, and every other tiny little problem... eventually we just had to leave because we couldn't get a word in edge wise. Not too many experiences pop out at me when writing these emails, but I would encourage another cross Canada trip to Halifax because it is seriously beautiful here in Dartmouth, and the weather here is super messed up, a week ago it was -10 and full out dumping all kinds of snow, today is 10 and the sun is brilliantly shining.

I was reading recently in Mosiah and Alma, and it speaks of the difference of the people of the church and those not of the church, how everyone in the church was extremely wealthy and those who didn't belong were poor, and the deciding factor was in Alma 1:27, 30-32

and my question to you is, what in our lives are we spending money on that is possibly idle, indulging, and costly, that we don't need? and how much better would it be to give up some of our usual pleasantries to give to the needy? do we need costly apparel? why can't we just be neat and comely? I have also been studying the history of the church, I would encourage you all to study more deeply into the history of the church, and the story of how the Gospel was restored and the wonderful process that took place, it has strengthened my testimony so much and I know it can strengthen yours, "Our Heritage" is recommended. Also an interesting study: what happened to the Christian religion after the death of Christ and his apostles it truly shows a turning away from the Truth, did you know that after the apostles died that the christian religion really struggled under persecution, until the ruler Constantine accepted and protected them in his kingdom, but it was conditional on him becoming leader and when he did he made unauthorized changes, adding in his own thoughts and ideals. Then a part of the people rejected his teachings and appointed a Pope to lead them, and the Pope changed the ordinance of baptism conforming it to adapt to the ceremony of the country at the time. He also claimed to be a speaker for God but did not claim to be a prophet, but rather the voice of God. and thus creating first the Greek orthodox, and Roman Catholics and it goes on from there.

Well there is my rants for today, I hope everyone is doing well, Thank God for everything good and bad in your life, because everything good comes from God, and everything bad or challenging in our lives helps us to become who we are meant to be.

I love you guys with all of my heart and I know that you are all meant to be great leaders, so start acting like it.

Elder Joshua Smith