Allo Oui....n

Ginette - She is doing well, she broke 2 ribs last week so that made it hard for us to teach her, she is so great and has a great desire to be baptized. She is 85 and a friend of some members, she asked us if she could be baptized. She is getting baptized next week after church, but we still have to teach her a lot this week, so we hope that we are going to get everything taught before Sunday, because she is a little older we have to go a little slower with her and we don't appointments as often, so she is going to get one massive lesson this week with lots of commandments and good stuff all at the same time. She will be the older active member in the ward, and the relief society is excited for her to be their adopted grandma. she is so cute, she took me by the cheeks and gave me a big Grandma kiss on the cheek at church because she was so happy for her baptism, it was pretty funny. Elder Claflin looked at me like he had dodged a bullet and then she turned to him and slapped a big one on him as well. She is a very sweet lady and she wants to meet those that come to pick me up.

Greg - He is doing great, we have been seeing him lots more often, we ate with them 2 times last week and he is doing well. He came to all 3 hours of church and we feel the spirit with him each time that we are together. He accepted to the life as a member for a month and to see how he feels he is doing great and he says that he feels about the same because he hasn't had to change much.

Robine - she is from Madagascar, she came to a child baptism this week and loved it! She is getting baptized on the 12th of November. She is so sweet, she is getting close with members and doing really well. She loves the Book of Mormon!

I love you all and hope that you have a great Halloween, sorry that this is short! I expect pictures of costumes and I need reports on the pregnants!

Love Elder Smith

Life is Beautiful

Dear Loved Ones

Another great week, I don't know if there are weeks that aren't great in Aix en Provence, but this ones was super great. I am horrible at writing in my journal so I am going to give you a daily look at the week and so that I can use this later in life to remember

Monday- We spent most of p day just goofing around the apartment and went out and taught a man named mr kotbi, he is very very muslim, and we are not going to keep seeing him, he was really kind and it is a good discussion but he is not ready to accept the Christ or our teachings. We caught a lizard (see photo attached) and we ate at dominos pizza, it was delish. It was a day that i felt like I was back in the states because I ate at dominos, God bless America and God bless Fast food.

Tuesday - We went and got the oil changed in the car and then we went and taught Francoise, she is hesitant to accept a baptismal date, but we felt the spirit verying strongly at the end of the lesson, because she offered a very sincere and very powerful prayer, she is leaving for the weekend so she won't be able to come to church this week. We also went and taught Ginette with Bernard and Sr Sirieix, she accepted to be baptised the 5th of November and she is awesome, she had an accident last week and she broke 2 ribs, we gave her a blessing and she won't be able to come to church this weekend either because she is on bed rest. we might have to push back her date, but either way she is great and she will be baptised

Wednesday - We spent the morning doing contacting with our board out in the streets, after lunch we went and knocked doors. The we went and saw sophie and her friend jeanine who wants to learn more about the church. We ate with them and it was a really great moment. Jeanine is a little bit older and we are going to try to get her to come to relief society because I think it will help her see the blessings of the church. After we had english class, Elder Claflin was helping Clementine ( a member ) and a friend with their english home work, so i taught my 7 college students about how to talk about university life in english, it was way funny and we are going to try to get them to come out to institute because they would all love it.

Thursday - We spent the morning doing contacting with our board out in the streets and we met lots of really cool people, I hope that we will get to teach them this up coming week. Lots of young students that are interested in the goal of life and what they can do to be happier and more successful in life, easy answer "the gospel!". We then had to start getting ready for the zone conference, we had 45 missionaries from our zone and montpeiller that we had to welcome, we had to get the chapel ready for Elder Caussé (the 70 that came to talk to us) That was hecktic but we got everybody to an apartment and got the chapel ready for the friday

Friday - we had an Awesome zone conference with Elder Caussé he brought the spirit and taught alot about teaching and using members, he wants us to be alot closer to members and to teach alot more, he said the contacting is on a much lower priority, that is a huge change for what I have been doing for the past year a half, but the spirit was strong and we are going to follow his teachings as close as possible. We spent practically the whole day with him and then we sent of 45 missionaries and had to organize the church for a stake meeting that elder caussé was having at the church. We also had to pick up 14 Elders for the saturday zone leader counsil with elder caussé, there was a work train that derailed close to bordeaux and it messed up the whole country, we had got get missionaries at the trainstation until 2 oclock in the morning with president murdock and then get them to their hotels, we were the only people with a car so we did alot of taxiing these last 2 days. It was crazy but super fun and tiring

Saturday, we had another great time with Elder Caussé, we did the taxi thing for all afternoon we cleaned up the chapel and then we got on our knees to find out what we could do with the time that was left, we felt like we need to call a young return missionary that is in the ward, we called and he needed a blessing and he wanted our help, it was wonderful to be an answer to his prayer. He is awesome and he is going to be teaching with us more and more.

Sunday - France was in the rugby world cup (they lost 7 to 8 ) and so we didn't have an amis at church and there was a good number of members that happened to miss church as well, we did have a miricale, an old ami came to church because she didn't have work, she is from madagascar and her name is robine, she is really cool and asked if she could have the lessons again so we are going to teach her tomorrow. Then we went and knocked doors, the 2nd door was a man from africa name christian that was interested in what we were doing, we taught him and are going to see him this week, we then hurried off to teach greg, greg is great we taught him and ate with him (see attached photos) We invited him to prepare for baptism for the 19 of november he is going to pray and doing his best to have an answer and is going to take the lessons for a month and he said that when he has his answer he will be baptised!!!!! I love him, and I am excited to help to find his testimony!

There is my week!, at the end of friday the longest day of my life, I came home to a care package from mom, the timing couldn't have been better! Thank you so much!

a happy happy birthday to day and a whoo hooo to jodi for a new car that is super cool, Mom don't die from chasing grand kids around all day! I love you all and I expect to start getting news about babies!

This work is true and the savoir lives!
elder smith

Socks Sophie made for us

Sophie her mother me and Elder Claflin

me and my lizard

Greg, Jolaine the Elders (us) Allison and Anias (Gregg's sister-in-laws)

Life in Aix

A great week! It just felt good to work in Aix, we didn't do any exchanges or any conferences, it was just me and elder claflin, sore knuckles and teaching. We met 5 new people to teach, we will see if they are going to progress, but we have at least one that will be baptised. Her name is Ginette, she is an older woman that is a friend of 2 members, she asked if she could meet the missionaries and if she could be baptised. That makes our job really easy, she set up the appointment and she accepted the invitation before we could invite her. She is really sweet, it will take a little bit of time to get her ready just because we have to go a little slower that normal, but I think she will be baptised before the end of the transfer, she is really really nice and a wonderful blessing to everyone that meets her.

We have started teaching some young students but I don't have the time to tell you about them, it was a little shaky about this week so if there is something to say about it next week I will say it. Our investigators Sophie and Sergio are doing well, Sergio moved to Marseille so we passed him to the Elders in that area, and Sophie is great, she has made us slippers, and hats and ponchos and invites us to eat all the time, unfortunatly she has lost her fire for the gospel and it is sad, she says that she will always be a friend to the church and so we are going to try to get her back into a situation where she can feel the spirit, we hope that she can continue to progress and want to be baptised. Either way she is a wonderful woman and some day I know that she will be baptised

We taught Francoise this week and it was a powerful moment about the book of mormon and having a testimony of the book. She wants to know if it is true, but she is taking her time, which is a good thing, we just hope that she will keep that strong desire to find the truth.

Greg was out of town so, we didn't get to teach him

This week a 70 is coming to aix for 2 days, so that will be fun leading him and around and such, I am excited for Elder Caussé, he is french, and he is a powerful teacher. We will also be going to nice to do a baptismal interview. so much for calm weeks of just normal work. oh well, we do what the Lord wants, what ever it is.

I love you and I will talk to you in 7 days, have a great week!
congrats to carter, who WALKED! I have never met you, but I hope that I will be home before you leave on your mission! geez

Elder Smith



How is your weather? We are back into suits and it is great, not rainy or that cold, just a little brisk and it is starting to get dark sooner. It is about the same feeling as the begining of september in utah

Do you need razors? YES badly, fusion 5 non electic0

What could you use for Christmas? Candy, pictures and singing cards0

Have you been to see Sara's Friend yet? This is a heads up Sara sent her a copy of the video of you doing the Sponge Bob song.
Yes and Yes, I met her and it was fun to talk to her, it was at a branch activity and yes she had already seen the video, thanks sara. haha0

How are you set for winter clothes? Great, I just bought a new suit because one of my other ones was all torn up, I have sweaters, scarfs, coats and I am probably going to buy some gloves when january gets here, but I don't need anything from home

Will it get as cold in Aix as it did in Perigeux? I am not sure, but I don't think so, it will get windy I think, but not bad0

GOOD NEWS

HELLO

So this week I am in marseille for transfers and I don't have lots of time, I am in a shady cybercafe that you see in movies, where some guy with a beard is hacking the whole word.....I pretty sure that I just saw that guy.

I have so good news and some really good news and then some even better news so lets get started

good news 1 - I had a wonderful week traveling and seeing lots of missionaries and listening to President Murdock! He is a great man!
We left right after I sent the email last week, we took a speed train to Lyon and then a slow train to Geniva, we got to the mission home at about 8 oclock we had a very nice small dinner with Sister Murdock and then we went to bed, the next morning Elder Claflin went and did stuff for his visa and then we had a counsil with the other zone leaders with president, it was awesome and he is called of god! That lasted till about 7, after train strikes and problems we got to the appartment in lyon at 1030 with 10 other zone leaders in an appartment for 2, we then slept till 5 and carried super heavy boxes of book of mormons through the city of lyon and took another speed train to nice, we gave them some book of mormons and then I went back to aix with elder harris for an exchange, we worked well and found and taught a new investigator

good news 2 - Friday I learned that I get to stay with Elder Claflin for the next transfer in aix, we were praying and we really wanted to stay together for a 3rd transfer! I am stoked!!!!!!!!

good news 3 ( the best ) - our investigator Francoise, ( we painted her appartment) came to church! we found 3 new investigators and our investigator greg is practically already wet for baptism! Sunday was great!

We went and ate with greg and his inlaws ( who are members) They stuffed us with cake and crepes! like stuffed us, I thought I was going to die, we laughed alot and then had a really really great family home evening and after Elder Claflin told greg and his wife that we were staying together. His wife laughed and said "so that gives you 6 weeks to baptise greg" then greg said "next week when we start the lessons again I think it will only take 6 days!" Appartently after he went to salt lake city, he found his testimony, we still need to teach things to him to answer some small questions but greg would have NEVER said that before he went to salt lake city!

I love greg, and I am so glad that we get to stay here with him for at least 1 more transfer!

I love you all and I hope that you are doing well!
Tate and Carter! Don't be sick I won't allow it!

LOVE, Elder Smith

I love conference like a fat kid loves cake

So this week was pretty good, I am getting nervous that my time with Elder Claflin is winding down, I would stay 5 transfers with him if the Lord would let me, we will see this weekend if we have any news and if he or I will be on the move.

Monday - We taught are ami Christophe and we dropped him......we were super direct with the law of chasity because he has some big issues with it and we called him to repentance with love,but very boldly. He told us that he wasn't ready to make the changes and that he didn't want to, so we told him that we would pray for him and that when he was ready to change we would love to help him. sad but necessary. Then we knocked doors

Tuesday - We knocked doors and we did lots of contacting close to the institute building, we were just inviting everyone to come to institute or come to english classes

Wednesday - we visited a less active sister and then we taught some lessons and knocked some more doors. We also taught english class for the first time in aix,
that was really fun, we had some cool people show up and we are hoping to be able to teach them in the weeks to come.

Thursday - knocked more doors and talked to people about coming to institute

Friday - knocked more doors and talked to people about coming to institute

Saturday - we went and helped our ami Francoise with her apartment, we painted her kitchen and talked about
conference with her, she was really excited to come. Then she got really sick and wasn't able to come
*then we watched the first session of conference and that was really great. I love love love general conference

Sunday - we watched priesthood and the other 2 sessions. We weren't able to see the last session because it is in the middle of the night here.


Our ami greg, that went to Salt Lake last week with his wife (who used to be a missionary at temple square) came to conference and we were able to talk with him, he loved salt lake and now he wants to re-take the missionary lessons and find a testimony. That was super cool, they are going to be out of town this week but next week we are going to start up with the lessons. We will be baptised, there is now question.


My thoughts about conference :

There was a couple of messages that seemed to keep coming through and I think it would only be wise to head to the prophets counsel

1 Be an Example
2 Repent
3 Share the Gospel (MOM AND DAD) :)

There were also lots of other things but these were the things that seemed to be very very clear as i listened, there were lots of speakers that
talked about these same subjects. I especially loved Elder Eyring, Sister Dalton, Elder Callister, Elder Perry, and Elder Anderson.


I know that we are guided by the prophets of god, the signs of the times are around us and the teachings of this conference were as
clear for me as king benjamin or the words of chirst himself. There are things that are before us and we cannot see them clearly but our prophet can see them, I am so so so grateful for the chance that I had to watch conference and i can't wait to study the ensign in a couple of weeks!

I love you all

Elder Smith

ps today i am going to geneve, for a couple of days and then
we are head back to nice to do an exchange, I think that is week will be full of running and sprinting and I hope that we will get some time to teach and find