EldeRRR Smith

So I am pretty much a pirate. I went "swimming" for the first time on my mission and I made a great pirate outfit out of my slacks :)

This week was good, the sun was out and so were we. Rimas has been keeping us busy but because he is getting baptised this week, we won't have tons of people to teach, so this week we tried to get there and find some more baptisms. On Wednesday we had all of our appointments cancel on us like 3 minutes before we left the apartment, so we went contacting. Even though we were out on the road in the sun for like 5 hours it was a blast. We had our A Game on and we were have a good time out talking to people. I think that I have become less patient as I get farther and farther on my mission, when people beat around the bush and are hesitant to see us later, we give them the "god bless you, maybe in the future" line. There are so many people on the streets here in Nice that we don't have time to sit and play Book of Mormon vs Koran with the Muslims or Bible vs Holy Sciptures with the Jehovah's Witnesses. We are kind and tell them, that if ever they want to learn more they can call us. It is like the definition of sorting the wheat from the tares. and it works because when we just get past the talkers we get to talk to more people.

This week as well, I was in St. Raphael on an exchange with an elder from Provo, Elder Merrill, he is like my twin but he is finishing his mission in 5 weeks. I love him, it was a blast.

I also got the chance to baptise Rimas, he asked me to baptise him the day before and I tried to get him to ask a member but he insisted, and so I baptised him, it was great. We had lots of people out to the baptism, usually we have like a max of 20 people but we had like 40 or 45 people at the baptism. It was a awesome. It was the first time that I had baptised anyone besides Jen in the Provo temple, and I didn't really baptise Jen, I baptised Jen for somebody else. He set the goal to finish the Book of Mormon before his baptism, and he finished it the night before. What a powerful tool of conversion, when we don't have the chance to testify to him in his native language, he went straight to the source of revelation and he devoured the Book of Mormon. I love that book, it is super true! before his baptism he wanted to say a quick personal prayer, so he knelt at the the top of the stairs of the font behind a little wall for about 30 seconds. As he prayed I said a pray as well, simply thanking our heavenly father for Rimas and I prayed that Rimas would have a true change of heart and never stray from the truth, we went down into the water and I baptised him, the spirit was so strong. I remembered all of the baptisms that I watched in the MTC or for my other recent converts. and I was so humbled and happy to be able to be an instrument in helping someone come unto Christ by being baptised. It was the feeling that I had wanted ever since I put in my papers and ever since I read that mission call in the family room. MISSIONS ARE GREAT!!!!

Just a quick funny story as well, as you can see in the picture I kind of messed up a pair of slacks, I was trying to bring them in so that they were stylish like my french pants. Epic Fail! So I just cut off the legs and used the legs to make an eye patch. There are all sorts of goofy missionary rules about burning suits for your year mark and all that jazz to I just took the chance to blame my lack of sewing skills on my year mark, even if it was like 2 weeks too late.

Well there you have it, it was a pretty good week. This Friday we are going to meet President and Sister Murdock that should be pretty cool.

We met some cool new people that we are teaching and we are going to try to set a baptismal date with them this week as well so I will keep you posted!!!

Je vous aime!
Elder Smith

ps mom, to be honest I don't drink much fluids I will try to be better
pps POULSEN numero 5!!!! Congrats!!!!! All you mormons are like rabbits! I hope that I will know all of you when I get back!
ppps Happy 4th! Happy Birthday Jen!
pppps just put the whole address that I gave you on the things
px5s they are still looking for a office in Lyon so the office will still be in Geneve for a couple of months
px6s pday has not changed but it is going to change in like 3 weeks, it will be thursday I think, but I am not really sure

Mission 1 Mission 2 !!!!

So I have been on the mission for a year and it is weird weird weird and double weird. Sometimes I feel like I have to do what I have done all over again and sometimes I feel pressure like, there is no time left. I just feel weird.

I will start out by addressing a couple of requests. The package that you supposedly sent, has not come.
Also I have the address of the mission.

8, Chemin William Barbey
1292 Chambesy (GE)
Switzerland

So for my one year mark, I just went out and worked and had a normal day, with ward meetings, teaching lessons and contacting people in the street, it was a good day and we worked well. We came in at night and planned for the next day and I ate some chocolate jello pudding that mom sent me for Easter, it was delicious :) So the night was drawing to an end and I realized that for my entire life I was going to have to tell people that I did nothing for my one year mark, so with about 10 minutes left in the day, I took a bunch of blankets and built a fort around our beds, I put the fans inside and for my one year mark we slept in a fort. It was fun, not very exciting but it was something :/

On Tuesday we had district meeting and after I had an exchange with the zone leaders, it was a blast we went and ate with members because my zone leader served in nice like 4 months ago and there was a bunch of ward members that wanted to see him, we worked as well and all in all it was a good time.

On Wednesday we went to Monaco and taught a less active, we got stood up by our member that was going to help us with a lesson and then we ended up not being able to teach our ami, so that was kind of a bummer but we laughed alot with the less active and his family ( It is the son of the bishop.....ex bishop, he got released like 3 weeks ago)

Our Ami, Rimas, the ruskie is going great!!!! I love him, he eats up everything and just wants to learn more, we decided to watch the testiments with him in russian and english subtitles, by the end of the film there were no dry eyes in the room. The spirit was so so so so strong, we then read a little passage from the book of mormon with him and bore testimony of Joseph Smith, I asked him how he felt as we read and watch the film, he looked at us in silence with his misty eyes and just tapped his heart, and said "boom boom" it was slightly humerous because he doesn't speak french very well, he then look up a word in his dictionary that means "touched". It was a powerful moment. It has been pretty cool teaching Rimas because it has not been us AT ALL that has taught him, he has been converted by the spirit, we teach very simply and we give him passages in the book of mormon to read in russian and he reads and prays and he has had a massive change in heart since the missionaries met him, and even since I met him. He is great and things are looking alright for this Saturday, he should be getting baptised!


I really love this work, since I got to nice I have just felt tired, I hope that I come back to the SLC airport on my feet. The nights are getting so short and the alarm is getting foggy-er and foggy-er. Don't worry, I get out of bed on time but I don't know if my morning prayers are getting understood. I feel like I close my eyes for like 2 seconds, but who needs sleep when you can baptise!!!!


Yesterday we were in Aix en Provence, and we said goodbye to President and Sister Carter, it was so so sad, they have served the Lord with all their hearts and the spirit was so so strong as they testified of the time that they have had here in the south of france. I love them so much, they have taught me so much and I know that the Lord is happy with the work that they have done. Next week we will be in Aix en Provence again to meet President and Sister Murdock. It is a crazy change but I am sure that it will be good.


I love you all and I know that this church is true and I wouldn't trade this mission for anything! have a great week!!!

Elder Smith