Week #56- Learning the Bus

Monday, September 16, 2013

Hey!

I have had a pretty crazy week. It is transfer week and I was informed that I will be training. I am super excited. I am not sure who it will be or what he is like. I am picking him up tomorrow so it will be a pretty crazy week. This week we also got rid of all the cars in the entire mission. So I have been bussing a lot. It's a little stressful. They don't want the new missionaries to know that we had a car, so I feel like I need to be perfect at using the bus so he feels like I know what I am doing. I have only been using the bus for two days so at times I am lost. It will be an adventure. As for the bus, I love it. It's so much fun talking with people, and you see a lot of crazy things. I have already seen some success from doing it, and I am excited to see what will come from it. Our area is growing. We have an investigator that should be getting baptized in a couple weeks. She is awesome and she already has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We also found another family in our area that already has member support. They seem solid. It's fun to see all the changes that have been happening and to see all the miracles that come with change. Time is going by faster and faster every week. I can't believe how fast it goes. I love my mission.

Elder Ryan Smith

Week #55- Branch Fireside

Monday, September 9, 2013

Hey!

Sorry I don't have much time this week to write. I had a long letter to President and it took a lot of my time. Everything here is good in the little branch. Today, we are in charge of a fireside for the branch and I am a little nervous. It will be the first time in my whole mission that I have been in charge of something like this. The district leader is always in charge of things like this. It's a little stressful. I have a great district that helps me a lot and takes away a lot of stress. The theme is the Book of Mormon and the importance of reading it as a family. We are going to start with two testimonies from converts and their conversion through the Book of Mormon. After that there will be a discussion by our ward mission leader on the importance of reading the Book of Mormon as a family, and then our district will role play and show them how to read with a family. We are going to end by splitting into groups and reading a chapter out of the Book of Mormon. Oh, yeah. After that the president of the branch is going to stand and commit them to read as a family every night. I hope it turns out good.

This last week was really good. We have some investigators that are really progressing well and it is fun to see.  We are also really struggling to find people to teach. This week we knocked an apartment complex and it was full of Asians and white people. It was a little tough. I am used to every one that you walk by speaks Spanish, but in this area that is not the case. I know there are more people that are ready to listen, we just need to keep working hard and we will find them. 

Love Elder Smith

Week #54- Hastening the Work

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Hey!

We had another good week. We were able to teach a lot and our branch had two baptisms. A wife and a husband were baptized, and their daughter should be getting baptized in a couple of weeks. They are a really good family. I was able to interview them, and they were super ready to be baptized. They had been investigating the church for a pretty long time and they just needed to commit. Everyone commits at different times, and I know that this was the time they needed to be baptized. I love baptisms. Today we are taking one of our investigators to the visitors' center at the temple. I hope she gets an answer today. She is super awesome, she reads, she prays, she goes to church, but she says she hasn't received an answer still. It's hard when they don't recognize the answer that they have received. We have been trying to help her recognize it,  but we haven't been super successful. Hopefully, the temple can do a better job than us. We have another investigator that is progressing really well with smoking. He gets better every day. It's amazing to see his faith grow in the Lord. It was hard for him at first, but now he is on a roll, and he knows he is getting help from above. This last week we had a  zone conference and president told us that for the pilot program the church is having our mission do we will all be losing our cars. The only people that will have transportation are the APs and president. It started out that only a few areas  were going to do it, but now it is every area. I am really excited for it. I love talking with people on the bus, and I am going to try learning some basic Chinese so I can try getting an address or something. In our area we have so many different cultures, and I don't want the language barrier to stop me from talking with them. We will see how it goes. It is really exciting to be out on a mission at this time with all these changes. The Lord is really hastening his work and it's fun to see.

Love Elder Smith   

Week #53- Great Member Support

Monday, August 26, 2013

Hey!

We had a really good week. We were blessed to teach a lot this week and to stay busy. We have a lot of good investigators that are progressing really well and have a desire to be better. It's been fun to get to know them and see them progress. Our ward did a really good job at making our investigators feel welcome at church this week. One of our investigators named Juan told me, "I feel like I am getting assaulted by people." He really liked it. It made him feel loved and important. It was really cool to see how he would react to people coming up to him. He would tell them, "I want to be baptized, but I have to stop smoking first," and the members would share experiences with him how they stopped smoking, or they would just pump him up. It was cool to see the support from the members. That extra support is really going to help him stop. We also have a lady named Myra who is awesome! She brought 5 kids to church on the bus this week, and she isn't even a member. She acts like she is already a member. She should be getting baptized some time this month, but she says she hasn't received an answer yet. Hopefully, we can help her get her answer or help her recognize it. It was definitely a week full of excitement!

 Love Elder Smith 

Week #52- One Year Down

Monday, August 19, 2013

Hey!

Time is flying by. I can't believe another week has already passed. Time really does fly when you are having fun! This was a really good week, and I can see the area progressing. We were blessed to find a family to teach last week, and all of the investigators we already had are progressing well. It's nice to be able to see the work you're putting in cause a change. I am still a little worried about how we are going to find consistently every week. There just aren't as many Latinos in this area. It is forcing me to be more creative in my finding and to rely on the Holy Ghost more. I love the area and I am thankful for the things I am learning about myself in this area. It's amazing what you learn in each area you serve.

I gave my first district meeting this last week, and I think it went well. There was a lot of participation from everyone in the district which was really nice. They really taught me way more than I could have taught them. The lesson was on humility. I based it off the talk by Marlin K Jensen of the 70. Haha! Look at that-Elder Smith's first district meeting was on humility-who would have guessed.

Well, got to go. I don't have much more time. 

Love Elder Smith

P.S. Paige is going to Virginia? I don't think I have received any emails from her, but I will check.

The church building we meet in is the South Pas. building.

Week #51- My New Area

Monday, August 12, 2013

Hey!

Things here are great! I love my new area. The members are awesome, and we are teaching a handful of people that are progressing. It's really exciting! I haven't got to see how the branch works very much because we had stake conference. There are a lot of things happening in the stake. It is splitting up into English and Spanish. It's still a Spanish stake, but the primary classes will all be in English and same with the youth classes. In Sacrament meeting if you are addressing the youth, you speak in English. There is going to be people called to be translators, probably missionaries. Another thing that is happening in the branch is that a missionary is going to be called to work with the young men. A lot of changes are happening and it's really cool to be able to see them all. I think it will work really well and will help the youth to get excited about the gospel. The area is really different. It's really rich and there aren't as many Latinos. It's a lot harder to find. In my last 2 areas 8 out of 10 people walking down the street spoke only Spanish, and now it's like 1 out of 10. It's different, but I am excited to learn how to find in more creative ways. I am going to learn a lot in this area, and this area is going to really push me to be better. I am super excited for the challenge. Sorry, got to go.

Love Elder Smith

Week #50- Happy Birthday!

Monday, August 5, 2013

Hey Everybody!

Thanks so much for the happy birthday massages. They were really nice! I did receive the package and thanks so much for all the candy and and stuff inside. That water bottle is super cool, it keeps the water really cold. Thanks for the gift. I would have to say the best gift was the baptism we had yesterday for Jaime. It was so awesome! He is going to be an awesome member. It was such a great baptism and a great way to leave Fletcher. Yes, I am leaving. I am serving in El Molino in Pasadina. It's a branch not a ward, and I was called as district leader. I'm a little nervous. It was a little hard to leave, but I had a great ending with the baptism, and we found a ton of people to teach. It was my time to go, and I am looking forward to my new area. A fun fact: if I am here until January I will be able to watch the Rose bowl parade. Not that the parade even matters, but it is kind of cool. My new companion is Elder Pickett. He is super awesome and I have been around him a lot in my mission. He was in my district for three transfers as a zone leader, and he is a super fun guy. I am excited to learn and work with him.

For my birthday last night we stopped at the familia Chun. Our whole district was there and they all sang to me and gave me a cake. They also pushed my head into the cake. Elder Christensen took some pictures so hopefully he will send them to me soon. It was a lot of fun! Today we stopped and ate at Arbys. El Molino is the only area in the mission that has an Arbys, I think. Best fast food place ever. Well, I got to go. Thanks for the gifts and everything.

Love Elder Smith