Homeward Bound

Oi Tudo Bem Familia!

   Well all good things must come to an end.  It is sad but I am so greatful for the opportunity that I have had to serve here in the wonderful Canada Toronto mission.  It has been a wonderful two years.  Honestly this week we didn't do much though just a lot of visiting people before I leave and we had a couple pretty cool Barbecues.  Also we had a miracle 4 investigators show up at Church this week.  I am super excited to see how things continue to grow in this mission. 

I will miss you all but I am only an email away!

 On to questions...

1. What was your favorite thing that happened this week?

Probably Church yesterday it was one of the greatest blessings.  We had a part member family that we have been working with for months all come to church yesterday.  The talks were about overcoming concerns and not being offended and it was perfect.

2. Roses?

A mission

3. Thorns?

that missions end. 

4.Tell us something funny about your week?

yesterday we were driving to an appointment and we passed a drawing of the new subway line as imagined by an 8 year old.  The terrible thing was that this 8 year old's name is salgado.  Salgado in portuguese means salty or any type of savory pastry.  We started making fun of his name so bad and his sister empadinha his dad Pastel.  His cousins Briagadeiro and Mousse de maracuja doce.  It was the funniest thing. 

5. How are your investigators doing?

Fantastic

6. What are your pday plans?

We are going out to lunch with a member from Kitchener then we are hanging out at the beach and doing journal signing. 

7. What do you do for your last transfer day?

We have a bunch of meetings, then we go to the temple, then more meetings, then we go to bed and wake up and go to the airport. 

8. What are you looking forward to this week?

Going home?

9. How are the members doing this week?

Doing wonderful all sad that I am leaving. 

10. What five words best describe your area?

Big City Full of Brazilians

Loves,

Elder Smith

It's the Final Countdown...

Oi Tudo Bem!

    Well it is a countdown indeed.  My mom isn't the only one counting I can tell you that.  The members have been asking me why I am still here for the past two weeks.  It has been more than a little annoying but I will miss them.  This last week we started the goodbyes and we have so many more to do this week.  This past week has been super busy and a blast however I don't know how we are going to make it through this week.  

   This last week we had a lot more adventures in opening our mouths and talking to some super interesting people.  One lady and I had a very interesting conversation about what the true church had to say about murder and other serious sins and what God would say about revenge as well.  Then there was also this drunk guy who got up in my face and Elder Davis almost punched him.  It was a lot of fun.  I have always kind of struggled with opening my mouth and now that we have really focused on it I have seen the great miracles that come from it.  We haven't found many people from our own efforts however through the efforts of other missionaries we have found some of the most solid investigators ever.  I am super excited to see what happens in the future and only a little upset that I won't be here for it.  

    Another cool thing that happened this week was we were able to set a baptismal Date with L and S for the 29th of July.  They are eating up the lessons and we have been able to help them overcome all their concerns so far.  They have truly been a blessing to work with. We also got to meet with four new investigators that the other missionaries helped us find that are super solid, and we had one lady that walked in to English class on Saturday and asked us what time church was so that she could start coming.  She had to work yesterday but she said that next week she will be there for sure.

   Other than that we had some good experiences visiting with the members and getting everything together to get home.  I have my departing interview on Wednesday, Saturday the Group is having a barbecue for me and then comes Sunday and then I am on my way out to you guys.  It is so crazy!!!! I never thought that the mission would come to an end but here we are.

So onto Questions...

1. What was the funniest thing that happened in the past week?

I don't know after our second barbecue in 3 hours last night when we were running to the car it was really funny because we could barely run with how full we were.

2. What are you looking forward to this week?

It is going to be an awesome week.  We have so many things set up and it is going to be awesome. 

3. What are your pday plans?

We are going to the Zoo!

4. What are you teaching in your ESL classes?

I don't know I don't teach.  I have been regulated to desk duty since Elder Herculano came in.  You have to be a native speaker to teach.  

5. How are your investigators?

Doing awesome. 

6. How are the members?

Even Better!

7. What areas did you visit this week?

none really we are going to Newmarket this Friday though to meet with Jose Luis.  It was getting hard for him to drive all the way from Barrie so we are going to meet up halfway. 

8.  What did you struggle with this week?

Time Managment. 

9. What have you been studying this week?

The Book of Mormon and the New Testament.  Also how the spirit speaks to us. 

10. If you could pick any dessert in the world what would it be?

Mousse de Maracujá. 

Well Loves,

Elder Smith

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Canada Day too

Oi Familia Tudo Bem!

    Well happy Birthday America we made it one more year and we are still in one piece.  It has been so lucky that both years of my mission the Fourth of July has landed on a preparation day and this year we are going to celebrate in the same fashion as the last.  We are going to the beach and are going to have a barbecue as a zone.  The perfect way to celebrate.  It will be a great start to the week to the second barbecue in two days.  

   This week has also been very animated.  Monday we started off the week with Zone Sports against our good friends in the North York Zone.  It was a fun day though sadly we fell once again to their prowess in playing dodge ball.  It was a great time though followed by a wonderful lesson with our investigators L and F.  They are a wonderful family from Brazil and we were able to discuss the importance of faith with them and read Alma 32.  We were also able to meet with our other progressing family S and L and teach them the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week.  They are progressing really well and just eating up the lessons.  They are doing well at keeping commitments and S even came to church this week.  He showed up late because of the buses but had a great time and says that he will come back again next week.  

   We have seen a lot of cool progress like that this week and I am convinced that it has come from the fact that we have been opening our mouths and talking to more people.  At Zone Conference last week president committed us to fast on Sunday for the courage to open our mouths more and talk to more people every day.  He promised that if we would all of these things that we are seeing would happen and they are.  Elder Herculano and I have been opening our mouths and talking to everyone and we were able to find 4 new investigators, received 11 referrals from other missionaries efforts and we have 3 appointments already set this week to meet more new investigators.  I have also noticed that talking to more people has helped me with personal struggles that I have been passing through as I have felt the spirit more in my day to day activities and that I just feel happier.  

    This all lead up to probably the best part of the whole Canada Day long weekend. Yesterday we had a barbecue with one of the part member families that we have been working with that we set up with our assistant ward mission leader.  We had been planning it for almost a week and we were all ready to go.  We went to pick up our assistant ward mission leader at 130 and everything starts falling apart.  He ends up showing up at about 145.  So we hurry over to the appointment and when we get there the family thought that it had been cancelled.  One of the other members of the group had called and said that they couldn't come today because they were having their own barbecue.  So the family thought that we were not coming either.  So we are there a little late with no barbecue.  It was at this moment that we had one of two choices to either give up and try again another day or make something happen.  We decided to make something happen.  The mother of the family went to go get her husband.  Our mission leader started chatting with her 16 year old son about soccer and quickly they became friends.  When her husband got home he started pulling out more meat than I have ever seen in my life because even though his wife kept telling him that she didn't think that we would come he knew that we would so he had bought everything we needed  a few days before.  We hopped in his truck and drove over to his other house to pick up his barbecue then while our assistant ward mission leader was preparing the meat and getting it all ready for the grill Elder Herculano and I washed down all the chairs and Tables from the winter grime and in less than an hour we had meat coming off the grill and one of the best barbecues of my life. It was such good food and company and our ward mission leader was perfect.  He became best friends with the family and even went as far to invite the father and his son to come to church this week and to get baptized on the 16th of July.  He is super excited to see how this family progresses and we are super pumped for the future.

On to some questions...almost done with these....

1. What activity did you really love this week?

Barbecue or maybe service.  We helped clean out a member's garage and then she made us tacos. 

2. How do you split your time between the car and walking?

mainly we take the car if it is far.  If we have time and it is closer we walk. 

3. Did you travel very far away from the area you live in this week?

yeah pretty far like 20 minutes. 

4.Did anything funny happen this week?

yeah Elder Herculano is trying to teach me the Vaia of Ceara.  It is not going to well and ususally he just laughs at me. 

5. What struggle did you face this week?

We had some problems in our companionship and Elder Herculano stopped talking to me for a couple of days.  We talked about it during companionship inventory and set some goals and now we are better than ever. 

6. How are your investigators?

Doing great. 

7. How are your ESL students?

Growing Strong. 

8. What are your pday plans?

Beach Barbecue. 

9. What are you looking forward to this week?

Having another great week. 

10. What is the most interesting thing about Elder Herculano?

That is a good question I will get back to you about that. 

Loves,

Elder Smith

One Foot in the Grave...

Oi Familia Tudo Bem!
   Well it has been a great week here in the CTM.  Still super rainy, still super hot, and I still LOVE IT!  It has been a great week full of Zone Conference in Oshawa and the opportunity to continue working with our investigators and help them to come closer to Christ and work towards baptism.  It has been a blast this week serving here with Elder Herculano with some great times and some super cool miracles.
   First super cool thing was this Thursday we went to Zone Conference in Oshawa with the North York, Oshawa, and Kingston Zones.  It was a super cool experience and one of the best Zone Conferences that I have been to on my mission.  It was sad that it was my last one but it was so great to see so many of my friends from the mission. We focused a lot on the importance of opening our mouths to share the gospel with everyone as well as working with the members to find more people to teach and to help those we find to progress in the Gospel.  It was a great conference with some great instructions.  The part that I liked the most was the Testimonies at the End.  At every Zone Conference they have all the Departing missionaries share their last testimony at a Zone Conference.  It was such a strong spiritual experience. I was the second to last to go and the spirit that I felt it was so sweet.  I know that I love my mission and the opportunity that I have had to serve. I shared a scripture that has been one of my favorites ever since a companion showed it to me a long time ago.  Shout out to Elder Madrigal.  It is in 2 Nephi 1 Verses 30-32.
30 And now, Zoram, I speak unto you: Behold, thou art the servant of Laban; nevertheless, thou hast been brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and I know that thou art a true friend unto my son, Nephi, forever.
31 Wherefore, because thou hast been faithful thy seed shall be blessed with his seed, that they dwell in prosperity long upon the face of this land; and nothing, save it shall be iniquity among them, shall harm or disturb their prosperity upon the face of this land forever.
32 Wherefore, if ye shall keep the commandments of the Lord, the Lord hath consecrated this land for the security of thy seed with the seed of my son.
I am grateful for all of the true friends that I have made from this mission and I am so grateful for the many things that I have been able to do and the miracles that I have seen throughout this experience.

   Other than that it has been a great week we did a lot of baking of cakes and cookies for a few birthday parties as well as we contacted the coolest less active member that said that he would take us to Niagara falls next week for the long weekend.  We are excited for the next week and the many ways that we are going to help the lord's children find their way home.  We are going to keep going to the end!

On to Questions,

1. What was the highlight of this week?

Zone Conference

2. What was a struggle this week?

Baking a cake.  Way harder than it should have been. 

3. What did you do to work with the members this week?

We baked so many things to help through two different birthday parties this week.  One for the group and one for a less active family in the ward. 

4. What was the best part about ESL classes this week?

We had like 6 new students from Brazil. 

5. Did you adventure into any new areas this week?

I returned to Oshawa. 

6. Have you found any new food places you like?

Nope I need to do that when I have Money again. 

7. What are you looking forward to this week?

Meeting with our investigators and Canada Day!

8. What are your pday plans?

Zone V. Zone Sports. 

9. How are your investigators this week?

Doing amazing.  We are hoping to have a baptism on the 16th

10. Have you eaten anything lately that you never thought you would try before your mission? What?

Nope nothing really.  Sorry.  It is pretty boring around here. 

Loves,

Elder Smith

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Oi Familia Tudo Bem?

   I just want to say Happy Fathers day to my dad and all the other wonderful influences that I have had in my life.  I know that I am where I am today and am doing the things I am doing because of my friends and role models that have influenced me in all the decisions that I have made.  I know that I am far from perfect but I am thankful for all the help that I have received to help me become the man that I am today.

 It has been another great week pack full of exciting new developments and more blistering hot weather.  I have been a little smarter with sun and my sunburn has pretty much all cleared up so almost good as new!  It has been great trying to get all that I can out of these last few weeks and leaving it all out here for the Lord. 

   This week started off great we set up an appointment at English Classes with this super cool and super humble couple from Sao Paulo.  They have been here for three weeks and came to study English.  They came to English class their first day here and we have been talking to them after class for about two weeks now.  We finally went over and taught them on Wednesday and the spirit was so strong.  We taught them about the restoration and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. They both said that they would, that they both believed in God and that they wanted to do whatever they could to follow him.  We asked them if they would be baptized if the spirit told them that these things were true and they said that they would.  That once the spirit tells you something is true that you need to follow it.  There is no way to run from God.  It was super cool. 

   Other Highlights this week.  We started working with a family that I was teaching a year ago and they have got some things figured out and have recommitted to working on getting married and Baptized. We had interviews with President and Sister Shields which were super cool. I know that it helped me a lot at least.  We had a much more successful volleyball activity than soccer this week.  We had 5 investigators and a new convert show up. Then Sunday we had the highest sacrament meeting attendance I have seen in the group we had almost 30 people show up this week. It was super cool!  We are excited for this week and to see the blessings that our Father in heaven has in store for us!

On to Questions...

1. What was the most outstanding thing that happened this week?

This week we had probably the most spiritual companionship study that I have ever had on my mission. It was such a sweet experience to just open up and to truly listen to each other. To feel the guidance and the bond of the spirit and to testify to Elder Herculano the importance of always following that spirit and striving for it.

2. What would you most like to show your family in the CTM?

No Idea.  Probably Toronto and Kitchener because I pretty much only know those parts. 

3. What memories did you make with the people, members, investigators or other missionaries you worked with this week?

We had a pretty fun Volleyball activity.  We had a pretty great time with the other Elders last night.  We had the missionary equivalent of a party.  Put on some EFY music and played basically camping games.  pushing each other over and the likes. 

4. How are your ESL classes?

Busy as ever.

5. What are your pday plans?

Elder Herculano wants to get a haircut.

6. What did you do for Father's Day

We had a Barbecue Saturday Night with some of the members and the Primary gave everyone presents and cake after church. 

7. How is the weather? Did you find some sunscreen and air conditioning this week?

hot, humid, rainy, the usual. We do have air conditioning and I have it running full blast all day.  so our apartment is nice and cool.  other than that still no sunscreen. 

8. Do you have any plans for an integration night? Or more soccer at the park?

Integration night no but we played volleyball this week and jury is still out as to soccer or volleyball this upcoming Saturday. 

9. What are your goals for this week?

Get people to church. 

10. What is the funniest thing about Elder Herculano?

He is a very funny guy.  One of the funniest things I think though is that for how outgoing and hilarious he is.  The second we are in a large group he just stops talking. I think it is pretty funny. Especially since the hermanas now are just convinced that he hates them because he never talks to them.

Well that is all for this week.  I love you all!

Loves,

Elder Smith

I Am Burning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oi Familia Tudo Bem?
   Well it has been a great week here in Canada.  Summer has come out in full force with temperatures in the low 30's and so much sun.  It has been interesting to see the different reactions between Elder Herculano and I.  Elder Herculano is loving the weather soaking in all the sun getting an even deeper shade of tan every day.  Throwing open all the windows in the apartment doing everything he can to spend as much time in the sun.  Then there is me trying as hard as I can not to melt into a large puddle of Elder Smith.  Hiding in all the shadows and shutting all the windows so that our poor air conditioner doesn't have to work any harder than it already has to.  It is pretty interesting.
   We have spent a lot of time figuring things out and thinking outside the box this past week. We have made some pretty solid plans to work with members and to make our time effective. We have worked a lot with our investigators trying to help them to keep commitments and continue to progress towards salvation. Other than that we have also been trying to find new ways to find people to teach.  Elder Herculano and I thought about it for a long time and we have planned a weekly Soccer match at the park.  This week we played for a couple of ours and were able to find a couple pretty solid potentials but it wasn't as great as we hoped.  We are excited for this week though and we are hoping to get a better turn out this week.  I am also hoping to not get such a bad sunburn this week.  After two hours in the sun I was the same color as a Lobster.
   Other than that, I can definitely say we are giving it our all down here.  It has been a hard week but a good one. We have been blessed as we have worked hard and this week we had a new investigator that just walked into church for the English ward this week.  Her friend was investigating with the Chinese Elders and invited her to come to church with her. It was super cool because this was the only week that we were there for sacrament because we had a pass off lesson with the Zone Leaders from a YSA that we had contacted on the Street earlier that week.  It was just another testament that the Lord puts us in the places He needs us.

Well onto questions...

1. What was the best thing that happened this week in Toronto?

I don't know we had some pretty great weather that was really nice. 

2. How are your investigators doing?

We have seen some great things happen with some and seen some difficulties with other but it is going well. 

3. What are your pday plans?

We were going to go to the zoo however they decided to go on strike again so it is closed until further notice. So now we have no Idea. We are going to hang out with some of the other Elders and figure out something to do. 

4. How do you plan to change things up this week to add to your success?

We have the soccer activity, we are also going to call some former investigators, and potential investigators. 

5. Have you been keeping up with your exercise regime post accident?

Usually we just go to the chapel and play sports now.  I am not liking it as much. 

6. How are your ESL students? Do you have some that are regulars?

We have some solid regulars and we usually have quite a few new show up every week. 

7. What did you do for service this week?

We helped the people at the food depository and that was it really. 

8. How was the first week of your transfer? 

hot and pretty good.  It has been interesting meeting all the new people. 

9. Who is in your district/zone this time around?

Elder Kenneth Gomez, Elder Anthony Martín Leyton Rivera, Sister Emma Burnett, Sister Samantha Griffes, Elder Leonardo de Abreu Herculano, Elder Samuel Smith, Elder Arn Jared de Guzman Bagtas, Elder Jacob Callister, Sister Emily Jennae Livingstone, Sister Nelli Vorimo, Sister Dajhanna Mari Cruz Zarate De La Cruz, Elder Sander Burton, Elder 이 준현, Elder Alex Chee, Elder Kendall Munsey, Elder Parker Davis, Elder Berrett Robison, Sister Madeline Giles, Sister Audrey D. Nelson, Elder Jaxon Fillmore, Elder Luke Jackson.

10. What are you looking forward to this week?

Some Cool Lessons and more great weather.  Also Sun screen. 

Loves,

Elder Smith

Running through the 6ix

Oi Familia Tudo Bem?!

   Well another transfer has come and gone and we are staying here in the big city.  This will make a year in total in the city that I love. Elder Herculano and I will be staying together and the rest of the Zone is getting a big mix up.  Elder Herculano and I are the only companionship not getting changed up in the Zone and I couldn't be happier.  We have been seeing so many miracles and the work just keeps picking up pace.  

    This week has been crazy.  We had a pretty normal start to the week.  Monday I had the most painful haircut of my life.  We have an investigator from Brazil who went to cosmetology school there and is working as a hairstylist in a Portuguese salon here.  I asked her if she could cut my hair because I figured that it wold be cheaper if i went to her than if I went anywhere else.  It ended up being free which was good.  Because after about an hour of her "practicing" on my hair and then her boss "fixing" my hair with my ever so helpful companion making jokes about how ugly my hair was and laughing hysterically.  Followed by after she washed my hair her going crazy about all the black heads on my face.  She then proceeded to try and forcibly remove all of them as Elder Herculano was eagerly cheering her on in the hunt for more pimples to pop.  I didn't know I had that many pimples until she started going on a popping spree.  Needless to say I am glad that it was free because I wouldn't pay for that treatment. 

   That was only the start to an interesting week though.  I have decided now that Wednesdays have been cursed.  Three weeks ago car accident, two weeks ago emergency room and then this week...  This week on a wonderful Wednesday afternoon Elder Herculano and I were separated by fate and a fast moving subway car.  It was probably one of the scariest moments of my mission. I told Elder Herculano that we were getting off at the next stop and when that stop came I logically got off the train.  Elder Herculano on the other hand thought that I had meant the next next stop and so he was looking for a seat and in the hustle and bustle we got lost.  I was about to get on the next train we needed to take and felt something was missing.  Lo and behold it was Elder Herculano.  So I start running around like a mad man trying to find him and when I get up to the street to see if he had walked out the phone rings.  It was our Zone Leaders calling to remind us about the temple trip the next day and asking if we were excited.  I had to regretfully inform them that while I was excited i was uncertain if Elder Herculano would be able to attend seeing as he was currently lost in downtown Toronto.  This started a frantic sprint by me to the next station to try and find him while sending other missionaries to other stations to try and head him off.  Happy ending though, a member from the Don Mills ward found Elder Herculano at the first station where he had returned and we were able to meet back up at the chapel.  It was probably the scariest hour of my mission hands down.  

   Other than that the rest of our week was super good we had a fun temple trip on Thursday and then we had a pretty great weekend with our ESL Party and finding a bunch of new investigators. We are looking forward to this week now and hopefully nothing bad happens on Wednesday!

On to some Questions...
1. What was the highlight of your week?
Spiritual, Temple Story for the rest of time Wednesday.
2. Did you have any challenges this week that were unexpected?
See above plus the difficulties of busy city life and trying to meet with investigators.
3. What was the most delicious thing you ate this week?
I don't know probably spaghetti that I made on Tuesday.
4. What was your best appointment  this week?
We had a really spiritual lesson with a new investigator on Friday that was cool.
5. How are your investigators?
Doing well just really busy.
6. What are you looking forward to in the coming week?
Meeting with investigators also we organized a soccer activity this Saturday with all of our Brazilian potential investigators.
7. What are your pday plans?
We are going to an obstacle course.
8. How is your weather?
Hot and rainy.
9.  How are your ESL classes?
Everyone is Brazilian it is awesome.
10. How are the members?

Doing well we have been so busy that we haven't been spending as much time with them lately.  We are working on it though. 

Loves,

Elder Smith

Reconnecting.

Zone sports last pday...

Oi familia tudo bem?

  Well it has been another great week here in the beautiful city of Toronto.   It is still raining, we still had to do somethings to deal with the aftermath of the accident last week including a three hour trip to the emergency room and phone calls from the insurance agency.  However they are working everything out now and we will keep waiting for further instructions.  Elder Herculano and I are doing well though we saw a lot of success this week finding new investigators and teaching some of our other investigators.  This week we also hit the road again to go and meet some of the members that are a little further afield heading up to Vaughn and even back into Newmarket. The work continues strong here despite challenges and Elder Herculano and I are just blessed to see the miracles every day.   

  On Saturday we had a super cool experience at English classes. We were a little late to class because we had been teaching some of our investigators before class started. When we finished the other elders told us that we had two new students from Brazil that were interested in the gospel. When class was over we were able to talk to them and they asked us about what we believe, took us out for lunch, offered us free jiu jitsu classes and said that they were looking for a church. They said that they would come to church next week. It was a pretty cool experience.  Later that day we had the opportunity to go to a baptism as well for the Don Mills elders that was super cool.  It was of a Filipino family from the ward that the husband and son were not members.  It was super cool after the baptism they shared their testimony about the importance of not only that day but of the missionaries that came into there life.  The elders in their ward are Elder Bagtas and Elder Lee from the Philippines and Korea respectively.  Elder Bagtas served first in the Philippines but because his family emigrated to Canada he had to be reassigned here fro the last 6 months of his mission.  He didn't really know why he was here until they met this family.  It was a really touching day.  

   The last cool thing this week was the opportunity we had yesterday to hit the road and go visit some good friends from the Newmarket days and some new friends from the Richmond Hill ward.  It was super fun to go and visit them and we were blessed to get referrals and more work as well all in all it was just a great experience.  

On to some questions...
1. What was the highlight of your week?
Probably The weekend.  It was a pretty good weekend.
2. What are your pday plans?
 I am going to get a haircut and other than that no Idea.
3. What are you looking forward to this week?
This week I am looking forward to the temple trip on Thursday.
4. What was the best thing that happened at ESL class this week?
The best thing that happened at ESL was probably first that our investigators came so that we could teach them again, and second that we could find the two fighters.  I haven't missed going and training with the Fugits so much as I did that day.
5. Who was the greatest person you talked with this week?
I had a guy that said that he was the son of Zeus who was actually Jesus, (Because Jesus Christ is the English equivalent of a Hebrew word that comes from a Latin word that translates to a Greek god) and then said that the father of Jesus (Zeus) was Satan (Kronos) and started telling stories about how people tried to feed Jesus human flesh so he killed a whole bunch of people it was interesting.  That is what I get for talking to the guy who was shadowboxing a bus though.
6. What was your pday adventure last week? Sports day?
Yeah we had zone sports against the north york zone it was fun. We won so that was good.
7. What was your favorite thing you ate this week?
We had some pretty great rice and beans.  I also learned how to make rice the right way finally.  Still working on beans.
8. How are your investigators?
Doing great.  Just trying to meet with all of them.
9. Did you have anyone new at church?
We didn't unfortunately.
10. What were your service opportunities this week?

We didn't get any it was sad.  We will be back to normal this week though. 

Well that is all folks!

Loves,

Elder Smith

I Jinxed it....

Oi Familia Tudo Bem?

    Well I spoke to soon. It for some reason can't be Mother's Day with out a car accident.  This Thursday Elder Herculano and I were driving to visit with one of our investigators. While we were waiting at a red light this lady comes roaring around the corner behind us going way to fast.  Elder Herculano said that he saw her coming out of the rear view mirror and was just like she is going to stop. However, she didn't stop and she slammed into the back of our car.  At this point it was basically just second nature and I just reached for the paperwork and the phone in one fluid motion and started dialing 911.  She in the mean time had gotten out of her car and came to talk to Elder Herculano.  She was saying things like, "Please don't call the cops", "your car isn't even that damaged", and "Don't call the cops I will pay for everything" etc.  In her defense our car wasn't that damaged her car was totalled though.  Either way I was calling 911 already so she made the wonderful choice to make a u turn and flee the scene of the crime.  Elder Herculano didn't believe that she would just up and leave so when she did he jumped out of the car and wrote down her license plate number. At this point we thought that this was the end of the day so I called Elder Swendsen the Vehicle coordinator and we went to our appointment so that we could use our investigators cell phone to take pictures of the car.  After we went to a member's house that was right next to where we were meeting with our investigator to send the pictures of the wreck.  This part was pretty good because we had the opportunity to eat dinner with that family which was good for us and the investigator.  Then during dinner I got a call from the police.  They had ended up apprehending the woman that hit us.  Someone had followed her after she ran and they called the police after she had stopped.  The officer called the 911 dispatcher and put two and two together and helped us out.  So at the end of the day justice was served and the cops were able to find out the truth because she had lied and said that we had told her to leave.  Turns out that she was driving with out a license which is why she didn't want to have us call the cops. But that has been something that we have been working with since then.  

    Other than that though it has been a great week.  We had some investigators come to church for the first time and we have seen a lot of miracles working with our investigators.  It has been a great experience. 

On to questions

1. What was the most unexpected thing that happened this week?

Car accident

2. What was the best lesson you taught this week?

We taught a pretty good lesson with our investigator family that went to church 

3. What was the most interesting food you prepared for yourself this week?

I made myself lentil soup with hot dogs inside of it. 

4. Where do you go to do your laundry?

Our basement

5. How are your investigators doing?

Pretty well they don't have a baptismal date anymore but we are helping them and they came to church this week. 

6. What about ESL attendance? 

Saturday we had 23 students.  11 new. 

7.  What parts of your mission would you like to explore that you haven't yet?

The North it is the only place that I haven't been. 

8. What are your pday plans?

Zone Sports against the North York Zone. 

9. What are you looking forward to this coming week?

I Don't know miracles probably. 

10. What do you like most about your mission president and his wife?

Their determination and commitment to the work and to helping each of us individually. 

Well Loves,

Elder Smith

Rouge River Park Trails on pday

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