Splits and finding

Hey everyone! It's been a great week here in Kolding and it is still cold and rainy!

Elder Saviano and I found a lot of new people to work with so these next couple of weeks should go really well.

We had splits on Tuesday with the Elders from Seden. I was with Elder Birch. He is such an awesome missionary and one of my good friends in the mission. 

The next day we had splits with the Elders from Fredericia and I was with Elder Woodforth. That was fun too. He is from Australia and we went knocking for a pretty long time so it was fun to get to know eachother. 

We had interviews with President on Thursday and those went alright. He mostly talked about how he wants splits in the mission to be more effective and stuff but it was a good interview. 

It was a good week though. Everything is good. Nothing too crazy going on, but we are staying busy and happy. We were able to sing in church on Sunday as a missionary group. We sang O, My Father and it went well. I really have enjoyed church. The members here are great and great members always remind me how important members are in missionary work. I know that when members are involved it makes a black and white difference on how well the work is going. I hope all of you are doing good member missionary work at home. If you don't know the missionaries in your area then you should probably invite them over and see how you can help in the Lord's work! I love you all and hope you have a great week. 

Love, Elder Smith

Hello Mother Dear!

Haha I'm sorry I confused you. I'm not technically supposed to send emails on Friday, but I want to try to get the school stuff done as fast as possible.

That sounds like a fun trail run. I'm glad you didn't get eaten. You're a tough one haha. 

We don't have any snow on the ground right now but it is still cold and it is raining right now :) We haven't fixed the bike yet. We have just been taking busses. I would probably send him with 3 pairs of shoes at least two of them black. The johnston and murphy ones have held up well. I just wore the black ones more and had used them a bit before my mission. A lot of elders have eccos and they hold together well. It also depends on where he goes on his mission. If he is in the states it probably won't be as annoying haha.

We didn't quite hit our goal but you are right, we did much better than we usually do. We just need to keep that motivation moving. I like that quote.

I love you lots! Sorry for the short email! I need to finish the BYU essays I have a couple days and this is my last pday so I need to make it worth the time.

Love, Elder Smith

Hey! I am doing well! I'm also glad you were able to send an email. I enjoy it when things are busy but sometimes that makes things go by too fast. Slow days are hard though. I wish the days went by fast and that time as a whole went by slower. It is kind of the opposite though.

I'm glad the trip was good. I hope things will go better out in Salt Lake.

Things have been cold here but not too bad. The rain and wind are the worst part. It is colder at home than it is here.

You and mom always have stories about your runs being longer than planned haha. I'm starting to think you do it on purpose. It's like that studio c where they are addicted to running.

I wish I could hear your talks. I'm sure you have said some great things and that you are a great speaker..

Things have been going well. It was weird getting my flight plans. I hope these next couple transfers go well. I hope I can get all this school stuff done. I love you lots. Thanks for everything.

I'm sorry for the short email, but I have to get some of the essay stuff done. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

MyPlan Meeting

It has been a good busy week here for us. We had trainings in the districts on Wednesday and Friday with my myplan meeting right in the middle. 

The trainings went well. We talked about investigators in sacrament meeting and how we get them there. We decided to have a focus on not just practicle things, but how we can help our investigators gain the desire to come to church. It is important that they feel a need or a desire to come to church before we keep pushing them there. We feel like the trainings went well.

So the myplan meeting is a meeting missionaries have towards the end of their mission where they set goals and take a minute to think about the future. I had a hard time with one part, talking about what I want things to be like 20 years in the future. I am one of the worst when it comes to making those decisions. I can think about what sounds nice, but I get pretty stressed trying to think realisticly about what will be best for my family and whatnot.

There won't be much time to think about that through the week though because Elder Saviano and I have set some lofty goals for the week. We had a great companionship study about diligence this week and did a lot of discussing and thinking of how we can do better. We are going to have a big week. We set a goal of 14 new investigators. We talked about it for a while and decided it was doable. We will have a few people on splits this coming week and we have time to make this happen. We know the Lord will bless us if we are truly diligent.

We had splits with Svendborg this week and that went well. Elder Christensen is a great missionary and I was very impressed with his ability to teach with the spirit and show his love to those around him. He is awesome. Svendborg is a beautiful city and it was cool to go there.

Well that's all for this week. Hopefully we will have a great miracle to tell you about next week and a lot of new people to work with. The area needs it.

A really cool part of the meeting this week was when Sister O'Bryant talked about Christ and his ministry. She had us make a list of everything we could think of that Christ did during his ministry, then she had us check the things that were accomplished within the last part of his life and ministry. Everything on the list fell under that catergory. So the point is that the things we do don't stop a month or two before the end of the mission or two weeks or even the last few days but that we are fulfilling the Lords work until the end and even after that. It was a cool activity.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Ældste Smith

To Mom:

Wow! Sounds like you had a great week!

I forgot to say happy birthday in my email to Aubrey last week so now she probably hates me... That sounds scary driving home in the snow. I'm glad you made it home alright. That does not sound fun all the warnings and stuff going off. Hopefully nothing has gone too wrong.

I'm glad dad was okay. I guess that can be a trial that made him stronger.

That sounds like a cool lesson. It is one hundred percent true too. I have never had the spirit in a lesson where either us or the investigator was arguing or angry. Nothing gets accross because the Lord is not able to teach either one. 

Haha we actually had some snow last night and it is still snowing. It usually doesn't stay to long and we get more rain than snow, but the tempurature goes up and down a lot. We finally got the bikes fixed then went to ride somewhere and something went wrong on Elder Saviano's bike. So that failed. We will try again soon. I have stayed warm enough. Most everything has been fine for me over the mission besides shoes and pants. Keep that in mind with Cooper.

I don't know if I will get to train. As of now it doesn't look like it, but we will see. It makes me a little sad, but I guess that just isn't where the Lord needed me. 

I love you lots. I'm glad you are happy and grateful for all of your blessings. I hope you have a good week with lots of fun times. 

Love Elder Smith

It is January

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! These past few days have been freezing so we've had to bundle up quite a bit.

It was a good week because we actually got quite a bit of time to find. We found a new investigator named Thomas who is very open and excited to meet. When we first met him and asked about his beliefs he said "I'm not sure exactly what I believe in, but when I look and see how perfectly organized the world is I know that there must be something." 

We had splits with Elders Hosac and Ellis this week and that went well. I was with Elder Ellis and it was good getting to know him. He is a very upbeat and happy person and we had a lot of fun while working together.

We also had splits with the assistants this week and that went really well. I was with Elder Jensen and I learned a lot. We have served around eachother quite a bit and he is a great example and friend.

Elder Saviano and I have been having a blast. It will be a busy week because we are traveling ot the different districts to give a training and I have a meeting in Copenhagen so it should be fun, but things are all going well.

One of the members gave a talk yesterday about enduring to the end and it was really good. He talked about members who once had strong testimonies but have lost them and how we can be sure not to do that. He talked about many examples in the scriptures of people who converted to the Lord's way and never looked back. And that is what enduring to the end is. We may make mistakes along the way and we are by no means perfect, but we should never look back and fall back to what we were before we came better. That doesn't mean we will forget everything that has ever happened, but that we don't look back wishing we still had that life. We need to look forward with faith that the Lord has much more in store for us. It was a great talk.

Well I love you all and hope you are staying warm this winter. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

It has been a pretty good week!

I hope dad gets better soon haha. I sure hope he doesn't die.

I don't think I will get anymore tickets since I'm not in a car area anymore. It must have been good revelation transfering me out of there before I got the ticket haha.

I hate thinking about paying for school, but I'm just going to have to work really hard over the summer. 

That lesson sounds good. I love that talk. 

Your story of McKoy flats reminds me of a time I got lost there. Cooper and I were mountain biking and we finished our trail. Then we decided to go for a drive to a cool little bend in the green river. From the map on my phone it looked alot closer to drive through mckoy flats to get there instead of going all the way out to the naples side of town to get there. We started driving and pretty quickly the trails got a bit more bumpy and narrow and were more of a four wheeler trail than a road. I was more worried about going back the way we came than continuing but eventually we had to make the decision to go back. Cooper suggested that we say a prayer so we did and we started going back the direction we came and it seemed a lot smoother going out than coming in and we didn't get lost. So there is an irresponsible boy story for you. :)

Thanks for the advice on the goals. The most frustrating thing for me is when I go backwards. I think my desires are alway improving, but my performance seems to get left way behind and many times the things I was once really good at are going down the drain. I understand though. It takes time and a little improvement at a time.

Things are going good with Elder Saviano. We have a great companionship. The other two are great as well. It is a blast in the four man. We just found a new investigator this week, which is good. Things have been slow. When I got here we had two investigators, bu tI haven't met either of them yet so we will see. We are working hard finding new people, because we need them.

I love you lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots. Have a super duper fantastisk week!

Love, Ældste Smith

Hey Dad. I'm so sorry you are sick. That is not fun. I sure hope you survive. Thanks for answering my question even though you are sick. Thanks for the advice.

I had a little memory this last week and I don't know why, but it was one of those things where at the time you thought nothing of it but a while later it has a lot more meaning.

It was a little experience I had the winter before I left. I came home late or something and you weren't happy. I don't remember the reason why. You took the keys to the truck and my phone. I was upset, you were upset, it wasn't a good night. I went to sleep and thought about what I should do. Anger just fuels anger and that's what happened. I decided I was going to take my stuff and just drive away to I don't know where. I woke up pretty early in the morning 4 or 4:30 and snuck into your room and took the keys. Most of the anger was gone by then so I just put shoes on and walked out to the truck and got in and drove. I drove up to a place I knew would make me feel better and I knew exactly how to get there. I drove up to windy park and luckily there wasn't enough snow to block the roads or prevent me from getting there. I parked the truck close to where the flagpoles are and where everyone gathers in the morning. I got out of the truck and stood there for a bit. Looking up at all the stars and the snowy meadow. After just a minute I felt peace. 100% pure peace. I didn't really think about it then, but now I know why I was comforted and who brought me that peace. I drove back home and went back to bed and I'm sure we were both a little upset, but I know it helped a lot. 

I love you lots and lots. Thanks for everything you do for me. Have a good week and get better fast!

Love, Elder Smith

Back to the Usual

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! Everything has pretty much moved back to normal, but we still had a pretty busy week.

We had our zone training on Wedenday and that went well. Everyone was faithful in setting goals and I think everyone learned a lot from the training. We also talked about our zone focus of getting dedicated finding time in every day and I think that came across well. It has motivated us a lot in our area and we had a great week as a zone. 

Elder Saviano and I have been busy, but we had a good week as well. We had splits with Sønderborg on Thursday and I was with Elder Jamison. He is doing great as a zone leader and works hard. He is confident and cares about the work. It was good to be around him and Elder Crop. They are doing great work.

I really enjoy the area and I enjoy the missionaries here. Elder Saviano and I get along great and we have high expectations for the next while. Both for ourselves and the area. 

It was really sad hearing about Thomas S. Monson. I know he was a prophet of God and that he was an amazing man. He has always been one of my favorite speakers in conference because of his poetic way of speaking, his fun stories, and his happy smile. He surely was a powerful prophet in reminding us of the simple truths and always guiding us through the challenges of today. Again, I know the things he taught us are true and that he really was a prophet of God. The happy thing is God has promised that we will have a prophet to guide us until Christ comes again, so we can continue to recieve his word and his guidance.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Work hard and keep it up with those new years resolutions!

Love, Elder Smith

Hey Mom! 

It has been a good week for the most part. I found out that I got a speeding ticket while we were on splits on Thursday. I got a call from the senior missionary in the office who is from Denmark and he says in Danish, you were a little too busy on the 22nd of November in Slagelse. I was just super confused, because that was like a month and a half ago, and then after being annoying and indirect he switches to english and says "you were driving too fast in slagelse you had your picture taken and it was an expensive picture. It will cost you 1500 crowns." So that kind of ruined the day. I keep costing you guys so much money and its for pointless annoying things like tickets and pants. I hope I can help out a lot when I am home over the summer so I can try to pay you back. I'm really sorry. Anyway, I think that was the only bad thing that happened this week. On the brightside, I did find pants!

It is really fun having 3 other elders haha. It is just a little building with three apartments stacked on top of eachother. Of course there are a lot of other buildings right next to it. It is old like most places in Denmark, but not crazy old.

The healthy eating is going okay. I have been doing better at staying away from sugar and doing a little bit of exersize. Ragnar sounds like fun. I am 100% sure I couldn't do a ragnar right now which is sad. 

I'm glad you were able to say some things about Thomas S. Monson. There were some good testimonies of him here. Hopefully that makes you feel better that there are even people here on the other side of the world that love him too. :) I read the article. It's really good. It is sad that he was losing his memory and how it was so important to him and so much of what made him him.

Get back to me as soon as you can about the USU thing, because I think the deadline is the 10th. I tried to look at it but it wouldn't let me log in. I changed the password to Tysmith112797 but it still wouldn't let me log in. I'm not sure where to find the grades and ACT scores. 

I love you lots and lots and lots. Thanks for being my mom. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Smith

To Dad:

I feel the same way about getting back into regular life. Everything seems to be going back to the normal missionary life as well. I'm glad you had a good trip and good holdays.

Good job running. We ran once and did some stairs another time. Hopefully that will keep going well.

Work hard on your classes! I hope you will enjoy them. Which classes are you taking?

We had some snow the other day and it has actually stayed for a couple days! It is less than an inch, but it is staying.

Things are going well for me. I have been adjusting to the new area pretty quick. There isn't much going on as far as investigators and stuff goes. So it's more like a lot of work we have to do. Not too many investigators for me to meet. That is cool we have ancestors from here. I didn't know that. I like the ward here so far. They seem to like the missionaries a lot and willing to help. We haven't biked a lot yet, because there were some bike problems, but we got them fixed and should be biking more here. We also use the trains and busses a lot in this area. There are 24 missionaries in the zone and I have been around quite a few of them as well so I am excited to work with them again.

Thanks for everything you do. Here is a question. What do you do if you have a hard time achieving your own personal goals. Sometimes I feel like it is really hard and I try adjusting and readjusting, more goals and less goals, but I seem to fall short too much.

Thanks for being my dad. Have a good week and work hard. I love you! 

Love, Elder Smith

It's 2018!

Well it is 2018 and I was in Denmark for the entire year of 2017, pretty crazy. We had a good busy week. On Wednesday I took the train here to Kolding and got settled in. We had a good new years and the fireworks outside were crazy! I don't know how Denmark has so many. It was cool. 

I really like the ward here and I like the missionaries around me. There are four missionaries in our appartment and it is tons of fun. 

Well I love you all. I hope you are all enjoying the new year so far. Every chance we have to evaluate and set new goals is a huge blessing. I know it motivates me and makes me excited to be better. I hope you all feel the same way. Have a great week!

Elder Smith

To Mom:

Hey Transfers went well. It is great being with Elder Saviano. Our apartment is small, but it works haha. It has everything it needs.

We had a good new years. We had dinner with some members. We watched the queens speech she gives every year and we watched the fireworks at midnight.

I have had too many good things to eat haha. I liked the candy a lot thanks. I will hopefully be able to avoid eating unhealthy for a while.

I'm glad you had a good time visiting Grandma and Grandpa. The pics aubrey and dad sent look beautiful.

That is good you were able to do some missionary work while you were there. That is sad that that lady didn't come to church, but I'm gald you were there when she needed you guys.

I haven't had any crazy experiences this week and to be honest we have been super busy and haven't had much time to go out and knock :( but this week should be great!

I have a lot of goals I want to work on for the year so we will see how that goes haha.

Well I had better go, because we want to go finding today, but I love you lots and hope you have a great week! Bye!

Love, Elder Smith

New address!

Elder Tyler Smith

Hollændervej 11 st.

Kolding 6000 DK