Heavenly Messengers!

Photos of the Aurora/Newmarket area apartment

Elder Davis in the Aurora/Newmarket apartment

Transfer day reunion Elder Martinez, Elder Madrigal, Elder Smith

Elder Martinez and Vader, the cat

Elder Smith, Elder Martinez, twinning with Vader the cat

Elder Smith and Vader, the cat

Sign on one of the local churches

Thanks to Rod Destro for feeding these boys and sending this mama photos!

Dinner with the Destro family

Oi tudo bem familia?

   It has been a great week here in the mission field lots of things that are going on and many miracles that we have been able to see.  It was truly wonderful to be back in the blessed Kitchener Portuguese area and to truly see the hand of God in his work.  I have been able to notice a lot this week that things are not the same as we left them and that the area is just continuing to expand and grow.  In the past three months there have been two baptisms in the area and we are planning on another one in the next little bit, as well there has been another member family move in to the area and there will be at least three more that will have moved in by the end of the Year.  The lord is really gathering his Elect and they are flocking here to build up and Edify his Kingdom.

    A great part of that was the visit that we had this week from Elder Ballard and Elder Bennett.  They came and bore witness of Jesus Christ and Instructed on the importance of Counseling and to Open our mouths and proclaim this gospel unto all nations.  It was so cool to be able to meet an apostle and to just hear his testimony.  I learned so much and we have already seen miracles in our area from applying his inspired counsel.  

   As for us the area still has some problems and there are some difficulties still because the Elders before us didn't leave like any records but Elder Martinez and i will figure it out and it is going to be a wonderful transfer.

 On to some questions....

1. Are you back in the same apartment that you lived in last time you were in Kitchener?

Yeah we are however there is a lot more in the way of furnishings now and we are getting some more stuff donated this week so we are fixing it up well.  

2. How was your first week back?

It was a good first week.  The Families are still here and they were excited to see us back.  They have grown a lot in the desire to do missionary work and after the Instructions that  we received this week we are a lot better equipped to help them as well. 

3. Are you still involved in ESL? What are your responsibilities this time around?

I am once again Building Manager and am in charge of saving ESL.  If we don't get more students after this transfer they are going to be cutting the program.  Nothing has changed since last time that we were here and nothing has been accomplished.  So we are going to be hitting it hard now and see some result.

4. Do you have any investigators?

Yeah we have a couple of really solid english ones and we currently only have one Portuguese investigator however Elder Martinez and I are working on that now.  

5. How are the members?

Great and really wanting to be involved in the work.  I am so grateful for that. 

6. Are you attending Spanish or English wards? Or have they started any Portuguese classes at church on Sundays?

We are working towards getting the Portuguese classes started in the next few weeks which will be great as for the wards we attend it is usually a mix of an English ward and the YSA Branch. 

7. What are your plans for pday?

So much cleaning.  We have another General Authority coming to visit in three weeks who is doing apartment inspections and we have an apartment that looks like a small nuclear payload went off in it. 

8. What are you looking forward to this week?

We have some good appointments and one of our new converts is going to be bringing one of her friends to our lesson this week which is super exciting. 

9. What was your favorite moment with Elder Martinez in the past week?

We had a lot they were all pretty good.   We have some fun times with a cat named Vader recently. 

10. What did you learn from the meeting with Elder Ballard that left a lasting impact?

The importance of the simple little things and looking towards the Bretheren.  There are only two powers in this world and if we don't do the little things like read, pray, or go to church or have regular worship then we are giving the devil all the power.  That hit pretty hard.   

It has been a good week and I love you all.

Loves

Elder Smith