Change, Change and more Change

wow!

I don't have a lot of time to write this week, but I love you all and I was so happy to see so much mail!

Well lets get started. CHANGES!!!!!!!

1. Elder Heywood is being shipped of to Avignon

2. I have been called to be a trainer, and I will be getting my son tomorrow in Toulouse! To be honest I'm scared to death but it is just what I needed, this is going to push me to my best. No options. I can already tell you that I will be exhausted this transfer but I am so excited to get this new missionary. I just want to be as good as my trainer was (ps my father,trainer, is sitting next to me as I do my emails this week, because we are on exchanges in Bordeaux), I am sure that he was by brother in the pre-existance, I love Elder Magnan!

3. I am no longer in the mission of Toulouse! Yep thats right, as of next July my mission doesn't exist. It is now the Mission of Lyon, we will double in size, right now our mission is 3 stakes and we will be getting 3 more stakes! I don't know if I am very excited about the change, because I opened my misson call and was filled with the excitement (as you all saw) when I saw TOULOUSE and now I will be leaving out of Lyon and doing all sorts of Conferences there. It is ok, but I was very surprised and we'll see if I ever get up north.

Voila! The changes of the week. Right now I am in Bordeaux with the Zone Leaders (Elder Magnan and Elder Mayer, they are frenchies) and with the other trainers of the Zone. There are only 2 trainers that are from our zone. Me and ELDER ALLEN!!! It is crazy. Elder Allen and I will be spending this PDAY together and tomorrow until we get our sons. So really right now in France, Elder Allen and Elder Smith are companions and Elder Gibbons and Elder Smith are companions!! It is a very small world.

This week was better than last week, we taught more and we found some more people to teach.

We found a new family. It is the brother of a member that has remarked that when they are at their sisters house they feel "something", and when the missionaries are over they feel the same thing. They want to understand how a family can be together forever. GOLDEN!!! We were very excited to meet them

Also, we found a lady on the street, named Sophie. She is 45 and not married, doesn't smoke or drink, respects the law of chastity and is looking for the true church. GOLDEN!!!! She has read up to 2 Nephi and she told me the book was true and the Joesph was a prophet. I happily agreed :) It is my goal to get her wet this transfer!! (babtised)

Alright you kids, keep it real and stay kool. I love you all and I hope that I servive this week.

Elder Smith

ps I will be doing a baptism interview as well this week in Brive. I hope that I even get to show my son his city!

Map of new mission boundaries

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New Mission President that I get in July


Kent Hyrum Murdock, 63, and Barbara Coulam Murdock, five children, East Mill Creek 12th Ward, Salt Lake East Millcreek North Stake. Elder Murdock is an Area Seventy and a former stake president and counselor, high councilor, bishop, bishop's counselor and missionary in the Franco-Belgian Mission. Chief executive officer, O.C. Tanner Company. Born in Montpelier, Idaho, to Joseph Grant and Sarah Ora Griffiths Murdock. A ward Relief Society compassionate service leader, Sister Murdock is a former counselor in a stake Relief Society presidency, ward Primary president and teacher, ward Young Women president and adviser, and stake young single adult adviser. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to John Louis and Verna Tobler Coulam.

Pictures

The District



The middle of nowhere (Farges France, next to Montpon)



Elder Heywood and I, keeping in kool with some pythons ( we had dinner with a family that has pythons, twas kool)







Elder Heywood and I



My Father (Elder Magnan) and I

J'aime la France

This week was good. Nothing really happened but it was still good. I did an exchange with Elder Barton, one of the Elders from the MTC, it was a blast!!! We laughed and worked well for the whole day! We were just swaping stories and memories from the MTC and it made me realize just how much fun I had at the MTC. It was a party back in Provo.

I have been learning alot this transfer, I don't know if it has been my most effective transfer because as the first companion I keep learning lessons from my mistakes, I'm trying to learn and most of the time my learning comes from my mistakes and mess-ups. The plan of salvation just keeps making more and more sense to me while I've been on my mission. We need oppostion in all things or we would never be able to learn and recognize the good. I'm grateful for the things I've learned and for the lessons that I have been taught by the Lord, my companion, and the people of France while I've been here during this transfer. I know that I have been sent here to this city for a reason, I still feel like there is blue skies ahead and that there is somebody here that we are going to meet. But I know for a fact that the Lord sent me here to taste a little bit of some humble pie and to scrape my knees a little.

We will find out about transfers this weekend and it is about 99% positive that I will be staying in Périgueux but we'll see about Elder Heywood. I have loved being with him, I haven't spoken alot about him. But he is great! We get along perfectly and we have never had conflicts, not once. This saturday I learned a very powerful lesson from him and the Lord. We were in the chapel waiting for someone to come and he was reading his scriptures and I was playing some hymns, it was a very calm moment and the spirit was there as we sat alone in the chapel. Suddenly Elder Heywood stopped and said "I feel like we need to pray", we went to our knees and prayed in the chapel for our ami that was coming to see us and that we would be able to have the spirit with us as we taught. The Lord answer our prayer a little bit differently than we had thought. Our ami never came, but one of the sweetest spirits that I have ever felt while I have been on my mission entered the room, It became as clear as day for me and Elder Heywood that Joesph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, that the Church of Jesus Christ had been restored to the earth and that we had been called by a prophet to be a part of this Church going forth. It was a moment that I really received a confirmation that I needed to be on a misson and that the Lord loved I felt full of the spirit and I felt like I couldn't contain the feelings that were inside me. At the end of the day we didn't have a lesson with this person and I don't know if we will ever see them again but if I came all the way to France just to have that experience, I would do it all over again.

I know this church is true. I cannot deny it and I can't do anything else but put my best into it; I love this Church. I love you. I love the Prophet Joesph Smith and I love my Savior with all my heart and I know that he lives.

Have a great week

Elder Smith