Flat Tires and Self-Reliance

Hey everyone!!!

Things have been good here! We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was about the Book of Mormon. It was great. I love the Book of Mormon a lot and it has changed my life. Elder Hunsaker and I have also used it in finding a lot and we found a few really good people this week who are interested in the Book of Mormon.

I also had my interview with President this week. It was kind of funny because for a good chunk of the interview we talked about him going home because he goes home just a couple months after me and then a bit of it was about me going home, but it was a good interview.

It is hard being in a biking area again because Elder Hunsaker and I both got flat tires on different days this week. Super annoying and a huge waste of time, but I guess that's just how it is.

We made a ton of cookies this week to take to members and it has been fun bringing them around and talking to the members. We have a great ward and it is fun talking to them again after so much has happened between now and the last time I talked to them.

Sunday after church was super funny. There is an old Vietnamese lady here named Sister Lam. She loves missionaries and she had all six of us over for dinner yesterday. She made soooo much food and she speaks a little bit of Danish and no English. We were stuffed then she sat us on her couch and showed us a 35 minute video of her on her trip to Vietnam 2 years ago with crazy Vietnamese music in the background. It was super funny.

I also was able to give a short talk on self-reliance yesterday and I think that went well. I talked about how service relates to self-reliance in regards to these questions. How can I be more self-reliant? How do I know if I am self-reliant? Why do we need to be self-reliant? The answer for me was helping others. God's purpose is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:39) So if we want to become like him we need to be able to help others and how can we help others if we aren't self-reliant? We know we are self-reliant when we have the capability to help other people. We can be more self-reliant by talking what we have and the things we are good at to help others. We should always strive after being more temporally and spiritually self-reliant so that when the time comes we can help God in his work and help our neighbors.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Smith

Hey Mom!

I'm so sorry to here about that stick! That sounds terrible and painful. I will pray that all will go well. I'm glad you are tough. I can't believe that thing was stuck in your wrist. :(

How are the olympics? Anything exciting? What is fixer upper?

I still don't know my first choice in schools. I haven't heard from BYU. That might not be until June. I have been looking at different degrees though on P-days. I wish I knew more about them though. Something that sounds interesting though is a communications major.

Elder Hunsaker have some goals to really work a lot with members and to strengthen our faith a lot. Faith to find people and stuff. It is nice having less to worry about but sometimes it leaves more time to stress. I miss it sometimes. We don't go on very many splits here and I always loved that, but it's okay we are doing good work and having a lot of fun. We haven't heard anything about the language test but I'm sure he passed. It is stupidly easy.

I love you lots mom. Thanks for being such a great example. Get better soon! I looooooovvveeeeee yyyyooooooouuuuuuuuu!

Love, Ældste Smith

Hey Dad!

Well I hope Mom is doing better. That doesn't sound like too much fun.

That sounds like a good run. I am trying super hard to eat well and work out. It is hard. We have worked so hard for 2 weeks and then between yesterday and Saturday we had 3 eating appointments including the one with the little Vietnamese lady and I feel like all the work I have done in the two weeks has gone down the drain. It makes it hard to keep going. I really have to lose weight though. I hate looking at my fat belly with stretch marks and wishing I hadn't done that. How long did it take you to lose the weight that you did? It was pretty fast wasn't it?

I am doing pretty good though. We are doing pretty well in the area. It is just hard to find people. When I got here we had basically nothing. We still don't have much, but we have a couple of potential investigators. My favorite thing about zone conference was just getting excited to use the Book of Mormon more in teaching. I love teaching. I have loved my areas where I have a lesson every day, but it has been really hard this transfer and last. Both areas have been slow and we haven't been able to do a lot of teaching, but I am excited to. Elder Hunsaker and I get along great.

That is cool about the warriors. It is cool to see in the Bible and the Book of Mormon that the authors were powerful prophets and warriors but not educated geniuses or anything.

I love you lots. Sorry I suck at pictures. I will try to remember. I am so bad at it. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith