Hello, This will just be for everything!
I hope everything is going ok and if its not, that things are working towards being ok. :) Alex needs to cheer up a little bit, he looked so upset in the last picture that I saw of him. I need some smiles man! JK, but really dough. Alaycia seems to be doing well, or should I say doing everything. And I've only been gone for not even 6 months yet and Emma looks really different. She's all long and stuff. But it's good to see you guys and hear what's going on. I'll try to be better with my pictures too.
The lessons this week were really good. We had 2 people invite their friends over for the lesson/dinners and 1 person actually showed up and we were able to have a really good lesson with them, we invited them to come to church yesterday but they weren't able to come but I know it will work out if it is supposed to. We had 2 lessons with some less-actives last week and both of them went really well. 1 of them agreed to take all of the lessons and his girlfriend too. The other one was the one that had his friends over (we really didn't expect that). It's awesome to see people in the ward get more used to sharing their beliefs in a more natural way with their friends. People are having really cool missionary experiences and hopefully one of these days we'll be able to meet them :P. But really, when I came out President Rehm sat us down in the mission home on our first day and talked to us about how we are ward builders and I feel like I'm doing a little to help the ward that I'm in and feel good about that. :)
Being with a new companion is an interesting experience. He is a totally different person from Elder Guerrette. Elder Parry has been out on his mission much longer than I have (He has left as much as I've been out) and does things differently than Elder Guerrette. One of the good things is that he is very good at waking up on time and exercising, which has been a real blessing to me. Also, something that I've realized that annoys a lot of missionaries is telling them that they don't get enough baptisms or "That's not how I did it on my mission". Keep away from those things.
Otherwise, it's getting awesome out here. The work is progressing and accelerating, sometimes a little too slow for my taste, but we've had a lot of talk with the bishop and where we are is definitely a slower area than some. But the important thing is that the members feel the excitement and joy of missionary work, that's where we get our lasting conversions from, and that's what I'm after even if I am only here for part of the process. This is a great work, and I hope that me being out here will help you guys pay attention to the people around you and make you not afraid to be what you are. I love all of you guys and pray for you. Live your life out loud, and make the gospel personal to yourself.
Love,
Elder Garrett Darren Smith
I hope everything is going ok and if its not, that things are working towards being ok. :) Alex needs to cheer up a little bit, he looked so upset in the last picture that I saw of him. I need some smiles man! JK, but really dough. Alaycia seems to be doing well, or should I say doing everything. And I've only been gone for not even 6 months yet and Emma looks really different. She's all long and stuff. But it's good to see you guys and hear what's going on. I'll try to be better with my pictures too.
The lessons this week were really good. We had 2 people invite their friends over for the lesson/dinners and 1 person actually showed up and we were able to have a really good lesson with them, we invited them to come to church yesterday but they weren't able to come but I know it will work out if it is supposed to. We had 2 lessons with some less-actives last week and both of them went really well. 1 of them agreed to take all of the lessons and his girlfriend too. The other one was the one that had his friends over (we really didn't expect that). It's awesome to see people in the ward get more used to sharing their beliefs in a more natural way with their friends. People are having really cool missionary experiences and hopefully one of these days we'll be able to meet them :P. But really, when I came out President Rehm sat us down in the mission home on our first day and talked to us about how we are ward builders and I feel like I'm doing a little to help the ward that I'm in and feel good about that. :)
Being with a new companion is an interesting experience. He is a totally different person from Elder Guerrette. Elder Parry has been out on his mission much longer than I have (He has left as much as I've been out) and does things differently than Elder Guerrette. One of the good things is that he is very good at waking up on time and exercising, which has been a real blessing to me. Also, something that I've realized that annoys a lot of missionaries is telling them that they don't get enough baptisms or "That's not how I did it on my mission". Keep away from those things.
Otherwise, it's getting awesome out here. The work is progressing and accelerating, sometimes a little too slow for my taste, but we've had a lot of talk with the bishop and where we are is definitely a slower area than some. But the important thing is that the members feel the excitement and joy of missionary work, that's where we get our lasting conversions from, and that's what I'm after even if I am only here for part of the process. This is a great work, and I hope that me being out here will help you guys pay attention to the people around you and make you not afraid to be what you are. I love all of you guys and pray for you. Live your life out loud, and make the gospel personal to yourself.
Love,
Elder Garrett Darren Smith