Hello

Bonjour! About 2 weeks ago in order to have an amie participate more in our teachings we had the idea to invite her to teach us a portion of our lesson rather than just us doing all the teaching. We invited her to teach us the 10 commandments with the help of her member friend, she did and it went really well. She became much more comfortable during our teachings. This past week we had invited her to watch the restoration with her friend and we told her that we would be discussing that during our upcoming lesson. We arrived and taught and explained the importance of a living prophet and answered her questions. It was a fairly good teaching which helped her but there was nothing extraordinary with the lesson. She then asked us if she could teach us something that she had prepared. We were of course were delighted and said yes. She had us open to Joseph Smith History 1:15-20. All we did was read and she explained what Joseph Smith had experienced and how he had been called as a prophet. This spirit was strong as she simply re-told us his story. She explained that God had spoken to Joseph because the truth was no longer on the earth, and in all essence she testified to us that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. When she finished, we asked her why she had wanted to share that with us and she said because she had been touched in her heart while she was watching the film and she knew that it would make us happy. She was right. It is such a wonderful blessing to see others come unto the knowledge of the restored truth and we saw how natural it was to share that knowledge when we have been taught by the spirit. Our amie was a great example to us to always be willing to share that which has touched our hearts with simplicity and sincerity Monday- Traveled to Toulouse Tuesday- Toulouse for a new missionary training, LOVED IT! So many great missionaries and a great city Wednesday-Aix-en-Provence!! I saw Greg and Fabrice (Elder Baret) during lunch at Zone Conference. I also said goodbye to Elder Duncan and Harris Thursday- Lyon, Zone Conference with 4 fellow Davis Darts, it was great and we had a wonderful time. Friday- Geneva, Worked on zone conference stuff and then went and taught Leila, it was sooo good, ( see story above) Saturday-Painted at the family serranos home, you will meet them when you come pick me up Sunday-Church, did a cookies pass activity with the ward too our amis and some less actives and taught Leila again, it was a powerful teaching about the nature of God, she has muslim backgrounds and so we taught alot about who God is and our relationship with him, She is really starting to understand the plan of salvation. Q&A Where are you living? in the mission home, but we move to Lyon tomorrow and then we are doing a little bit of living out of suitcases for a week and a half. Are you still in Gex? yes, Anai is getting baptised this weekend and then we will leave. SOOOO COOL! With the mission office in Lyon are you moving there soon? yes :) Where are you this week? Yverdon ( en suisse), Lyon, Gex Love you! Elder Smith

CELIA!!!

Dear Family,

Celia got baptised!!! It was incredible!! She was radiant and her brother baptised her. I don't really remember if I told you her story, but the ward has been waiting for literaly years for her to be baptised. Basically all of her family, cousins and friends were there and half the ward. It was the biggest turn out I have seen on my mission for a baptism. at least 100 people. Celia had been waiting for her dad to baptised before she wanted to be baptised, but during the baptism of an 8 year old about 2 months ago, Elder Claflin turned to me and said " I know it is not the normal moment but I feel that we should invite Celia to be baptised." I said ok, lets do it. We simply asked her "Celia would you like to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised?" She looked at us and said yes, she even thanked us because she had been wanting to be baptized but she didn't know how to go about it. She was a miracle and she is already making plans to go to the temple with the young women next month. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

Besides that Zone Conferences and New Missionary Conferences are starting again!!! Back on the road! We have to leave in about an hour and then we will breath a couple of times and then this whole mission thing will be kinda over. CRAZY and SUPER SAD! but I am going to live it up. We took a missionary to the airport this morning because he had extended his mission by 2 weeks in order to help the mission move, it was sad and now I am the next one up. I have been sending missionaries off for the last 6 months and I can't believe that it is turning towards me.

This was our message to the mission and since I don't have tons of time, it is your message too.

As each of us began our missionary journey we received the promise, “The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve Him. More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children.” We humbly testify that this promise is true. Immediately following the baptism of wonderful young lady from a part member family, we had the opportunity to speak with an amie. She has been taking the lessons for a few weeks but still has some reluctance about baptism. At least, that was the case before she saw a baptism actually take place. We could tell as we were speaking with her that something had changed. We felt impressed to invite her to be baptized. Even though there were people all around eating cake, being loud, and laughing, we followed the prompting we’d received and invited her. She accepted. We testify that the Lord does reward and richly bless His missionaries as we do our best to humbly serve Him. We know no greater joy than that of missionary service. What a beautiful blessing it is to be counted as worthy to labor with God among His children. This is indeed His work.

I love you all!

Elder Smith

Pictures

So I just spoke to you and I am going to speak to you in like not very long so this week I took my time to write some others.

These are some pictures of recent events.

Elder Claflin et Moi à Gex

Soirée Crepe avec la famille serrano

et

Nous et Frere houdin, en train d'etre des gangsters que nous sommes

We have been moving the mission home this week and last weekend and we have been teaching Laila and Anai and both of them are doing really well, anai is super lined up for baptism and laila is progressing well and I hope that she will see have a baptismal date, from the very beginning I have felt very strong about her and I believe she will be baptized soon.  Celia is going to be baptized this weekend and I will let you know how that goes.

I love you all and it was great to see/speak with (madamoiselle parker)  you all!

Love
Elder Smith

MIRACLES

Bonjour,

Sorry that I am a little late to write you but has been transfer week and as soon as transfers finished we have started packing the mission office and getting things ready to move the weekend and next week. and on top of that we will hopefully have 3 baptisms during the next 4 weeks so we spend every spare moment teaching our investigators. In your emails you have asked a bunch of questions about what I am going to do when I get home and about the trip to pick me up, what I suggest is that you get a pen and paper and when I call on Sunday you can drill me for 10 minutes and then we can talk about how you are and about the greatness of a mission and all that good stuff for another 50 minutes.

So the Miracles...

MIRACLE #1 Last week a family in the ward invited us over to eat right after church with their friend that they had brought to church. We were able to explain who we were and what we do as missionaries. We spoke about Joseph Smith and the members’ friend even said a very sincere prayer after we shared our spiritual thought. During the week she called us and told us that she had spoken with her mother and that she wanted to introduce us to her mother the next Sunday after church. We were thrilled. This Sunday after church we went again and ate with the same members and taught their two friends. We were able to leave a good impression on her mother and now the daughter has accepted to see us a couple times a week in order to better understand our message and work towards baptism. The family that presented us to their friends was less active about 6 months ago and they are now out to church every week, preparing to return to the temple and sharing the gospel with their friends. What a blessing it is to be able to leave the ninety and nine and rescue the one. This family had wandered from the fold and they have now come back and they are bringing others with them.

MIRACLE #2 When I was in Carcassonne I had tried to call an investigator but I got mixed up with the phone and the fact that I didn't speak french and instead of calling our investigator I call the less active bishop that had been offended and hadn't been to church in about 7 years. He was very confused and so was I, so my trainer took the phone and straightened things out, the old bishop thought it was funny and he accepted for us to come over when my companion asked him. We went over and saw him about 4 times when I was in Carcassonne and his home teachers came with us and they began to visit him. I left and the missionaries kept coming over every once and a while and then the Elders that are in Carcassonne recently really started working with this family. To make a long story short, the bishop has come back to church every week for about 2 months and last week he baptised his 15 year old daughter!!! I talked to the Elders and they told me that it was so wonderful, the ward was so so happy to have one of their best friends back and that the spirit was powerful during the baptism. Funny how God can turn something really small into something so big.

MIRACLE #3 On Friday night we recieved a phone call from Greg, back in Aix, and he asked Elder Claflin, "Do you have any plans tomorrow?" Elder Claflin said "no", and Greg said " I would like to invite you to a special occasion tomorrow I will be dressed in white and so will Elder Baret, I'm getting baptised!". I cannot tell you how grateful I am for Greg, there have been so many prayers for him, from many missionaries, friends, family, his wife and himself that he could be baptised. Well God answers prayers The next day, last saturday, Greg was baptised!!!! We begged President Murdock to let us drive down but we couldn't go. Elder Baret baptised Greg the day before the end of his mission, it is such a blessing to have been a part of Greg's story. Apparently they had just had a very spirituel lesson together on Friday night and felt the confirmation of the spirit and decided that he was ready for baptism. IT IS A MIRACLE!!! God is so gracious and I am so grateful to him to have sent me to France to meet wonderful people like Greg and his family.

I love you all, and I have lots I can say, but I will just tell you in person this Sunday, I am excited to see you all and I will call at 5:30 PM Geneva time, which should be 9:30 AM utah time.

LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Smith

Mission Buds

Transfers

Anai

La Famille Willener

I'll go where you want me to go

Dear Family Since I last wrote you we have started the transfer and have been preparing for Zone Leader council. Today we will be down in Lyon doing that and then we will hopefully get into our area by Wednesday. I don't have tons of time so I am just going to copy and paste the message that we send out to the mission every week for you. Before we began our weekly planning session this week our District Leader invited us to do the last companionship study activity in chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel. In doing this activity we read this quote by Brigham Young that caught our attention. "Ask [God] to put you just where he wants you, and to tell you what he wants you to do, and feel that you are on hand to do it" After planning we set the goal to really look for revelation during our nightly planning about a specific place where the Lord wanted us to be the next day. Later that night we did so and we had the idea to go to a neighborhood that is kind of far away. We had been close to there in the past and had not had very much success. It took us some time to get there but when we arrived we started knocking some doors and everyone was very kind, towards the end of the morning we met 2 families that are very close friends with a member that lives in the area and they both invited us to come back and teach them with their friend. They were both single mothers and were touched by our message that God loved them and their families and that they could have His love in their homes. It was a great experience. Later, on Sunday, we told the member that we had met her friends and she told us that she had recently talked to both of them about the church and that she had been praying for them. Our member was very excited and told us that she would do anything that she could to have them over to her home or to come teach with us. We know that we were sent by the spirit and that our prayers and the prayers of our member were heard. There were also some questions that were asked Are you still planning on a baptism or baptisms on May 5th? Nope, they have been pushed back but they are both still on for later in the month. Have you made any plans for when you get home? Not really, it all depends on if I get accepted to the MTC and it could also depend on when we go to bear lake because I can't miss that. What did you decide about the MTC? I am going to apply in about a month because there is a video that I have to make on a P Day for my application Mother's Day Call? I am not totally sure but I think that we will be calling from a members home and that I will be calling around 5:30 my time, which is like 9:30 utah time. If that works tell me, if not I can call a little earlier or a little later. Love you! Elder Smith