I am dreaming of a White Christmas!

Oi Familia,

   Another week down and another week of absolutely no snow!  Today it is like 3 (Celsius) and it is going to be around 6 or 7 (Celsius) for the rest of the week.  It is pretty warm up here and most of us missionaries are having a great time in this unusually warm winter.  You all thought I would need a jacket.  I will and I still use mine but it is not necessary with how warm it has been this late in the year.  We had some missionaries get transferred down from the Sudbury Zone one of which has been in Timmins for 4 transfers and last week it was a High of -17 C up there.  It is fun to see them running around in short sleeves while the rest of us are bundling up down here.  Lots of other things that have been happening this week.  I picked up my new companion Elder Gomez from Paraguay.  He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Guaranie.  He is awesome at cooking and loves working hard.  We also got a car that we have to share with the other Portuguese which is faster and faster becoming more of a bane than a boon.  We have also moved to a new apartment so Elder Gomez and I are on our own.  Lots of big changes that went down and a lot of craziness opening our new area.  It was interesting though.  I am learning once again a lot about Patience...  This seems to be something that is a recurring theme in my mission but is still very important.  We need it especially now with our new area and trying to coordinate with the other Portuguese Elders.  I love them both and they were great companions and are great missionaries but like most people, myself included, they are terrible at communication.  This all in all has made for a pretty stressful week that has been very long.  However, I have been learning a lot this week about many things in the gospel and about myself.  

    

   Well question time...  

1. How is Elder Gomez-Alfonzo? Tell us a little bit more about him, how long has he been a member, where he is from, what languages does he speak?

Elder Gomez I described pretty well above he is learning English and he has been a member all of his life.  

2. How was your first week in your new area? How is being the only trainer instead of sharing that duty? How big is your new area? Did you find your bearings in the new boundaries? Any new investigators?

I talked about most of the other things for the second question above too.  I guess being the only trainer is better, sure the safety net is gone but I have more ability to follow the spirit and teach what I wish I had learned and let them be blessed that way as opposed to being the third wheel.

3. Are you still in your same apartment? Still petitioning for a car?

For the third one answered above.

4. What are your plans for today?

Today we are going to Costco.  Then maybe Feta and after that sports.  

5. Who was the funniest person you spoke with this week, and why?

Funniest person was probably Elder Gomez and because we had very little proselyting time this week.

6. How are your ESL students doing this week? Do you have a set number of weeks in your curriculum, or just have people attend as often as they wish?

Esl we had some struggles this week we aren't getting many new students so we are going to talk about that this week and work on getting more.  People come as they wish.  We have a year long curriculum but it doesn't matter if they start late or not.

7. What are you looking forward to this week? Any upcoming meetings, firesides, classes or other events in your ward or area?

This week we have the Ward Christmas Party, Zone Christmas Conference, and probably other things as well that I don't know yet.

8. Do you have a scripture that has impacted you this week that you can share?

A scripture that hit me was D&C 64:7 I like that it talks about how the Lord will always forgive us of our sins that was super cool for me this week as I have been studying repentance.  It is something we all need to do everyday for even the smallest wrongs.  Things build up over time and sometimes the weight is too much.  This is when the atonement can come into our lives and lighten our load.

9. What is your favorite Christmas carol and why?

  Favorite Christmas carol is Il est ne le divin enfant.  It is super cool. 

  Well that is more than enough for this week.  I have to go loves bye 

Elder Smith

Elder Julio Gomez Alfonzo and Elder Sam Smith 

New missionaries and their trainers Dec 1, 2015

Sister Clayton, Elder Gomez Alfonzo and President Clayton Dec 1, 2015

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Oi Tudo Bem,

   Well once again we find ourselves at the end of a transfer and absolutely everything is changing.  I am once again going to be training a new missionary.  I am going to Brampton tomorrow to pick him up and we will be opening a new area of Portuguese work in Toronto together.  I will sadly be leaving my two current companions and move out of French work as well.  However, I have made two really good friends that will stay with me for a while.  I am super excited for this new transfer and things have really picked up in the old area.  I have seen many miracles as we have started following the new mission vision that now we can receive all these blessings.  My faith has really grown and I am so excited for the future and what it has in store.  I am also super excited because from what I have heard my new companion is from Uruguay and he has been in the MTC for 9 weeks learning English.  So Portuguese only time here I come.  

     That is about it here.  Everything is progressing our only problem has been getting people to come to church and that is about it.  As for other questions.

 1. Did you end up doing anything for FAKE Thanksgiving to celebrate? We went the the temple on Fake Thanksgiving which is super cool.  I bought myself a new set of English scriptures while I was there to have as my mission scriptures.  I love the scriptures that Grammy gave me and I will keep them precious but they have been studied quite a bit and it is time to retire them for a time to aid in the study I do for my investigators and others on my mission.

2. How are your investigators this week? Investigators awesome except wanting to go to church. 

3. What are your plans for pday? Plans for today are goodbyes and prepping for the rest of the week.  Getting everyone to sign my journal.  The usual end of transfers things. 

4 How are your ESL classes doing this week? ESL is doing awesome and we are so happy for that.  We will be looking for more success next transfer.  

5. Are the ward members feeding you much? We get meals like 2 times a week.  

6. Has the weather turned colder for you yet? Weather is still good up here not too cold.  

7. Have you used your singing talents much on your mission? We sang a group number in Spanish yesterday at our "why I believe" fireside that was pretty cool. We do some of our own recordings for fun with other missionaries but only this one performance in public. 

8. What was the highlight of this week on your mission?  I had an awesome day on Saturday.  We taught some awesome lessons in Scarborough and we talked to everyone and it just felt amazing. 

9. Did you have any road blocks or struggles this week?  road blocks yes but I don't remember them.  

10. Random question from your little bro... What denominations does Candian currency (bills) come in? Random questions they have the lowest bill is a 5 here and then tens and 20s but that is the highest I have seen.  They have others probably but i don't know what. 

 As for Christmas I have no Idea what we are doing yet but when I do you will know.  

  Love you all so much!

Abraco,

Elder Smith

The District November 2015

The Portuguese Elders at the Temple
Elder Smith, Elder de Jesus, Elder Madrigal, Elder Martinez and Elder Paul

FAKE Thanksgiving at the Temple November 26, 2015 Toronto Ontario Temple

Happy FAKE Thanksgiving

Oi tudo Bem,

    Well It sounds like this has been an exciting week back home and I know that it has been an exciting one out here as well.  I wish you all a happy fake thanksgiving back at home. Try not to have too much fun and family togetherness with out me.  Make sure you have some just not too much.  We will be having just a normal week up here in Canada because we, as you all know, celebrate the true Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October.  Anyways, this week was interesting and we were a little worried that we weren't going to be able to do as much because we spent the first two days of this week out of our zone at a conference in Oshawa.  We were super excited for it though and we spent a lot of time with President Perkins which was really nice.  He gave some great insights on faith and about what we were supposed to do as missionaries.  It was super cool.  Anyways we spent the rest of the week seeing miracles as we made up for two days of finding no one and teaching no lessons.  We also found miracles as we watched the temple re dedication of the Montreal Temple and the fireside we threw last night.  It was super cool and the spirit was so strong.  The Investigators have been doing great this week.  We had some close calls with the Nevez Family this week but it ended up working out in the end and they are back on course.  They didn't come to church yesterday but they will.  That has been my week though and it has been pretty great. 

    Now for the questions. 

1. How is the coat shopping? As for the coat shopping I finally did it so you can stop asking.  It hasn't been cold enough for a coat yet it hasn't even hit zero up here in Canada so we are just fine up here.  

2. How was your visit from Elder Perkins? Elder Perkins was cool as mentioned before and the Oshawa area was cool too.  We slept in Pickering for the night and by we I mean myself, Elder Johnson, and Elder Babbel because the Portuguese elders got separated.  

3. What are the temple attendance guidelines in your mission? Temple Guidelines are we go at the end of 6 weeks and two other times a year.  Other than that we go whenever we help a New Convert or Returning Member go to perform their own ordinances.  Thursday I think is a temple trip for Elder Martinez but I don't know really.

4. What is your daily schedule like?  Usually it is Weekly Planning. Daily Schedule: wake up, Exercise, Shower, Eat, Study until like 12, go to Albions, and then teach and preach until 5 dinner and more teach and preach until 9 then planning and then follow ups.  I also throw in other meetings, planning, and things throughout the week.  

5. How are your investigators this week: Investigators were good.  Found 4 New this week and they are all pretty good as well.

6. How are your ESL classes?  ESL is doing amazing the work we are doing is resulting in many new investigators. 

7. Do you ever ride a train? Describe how you get around most places, how long do you usually spend in transit? I ride trains almost every day.  We are petitioning for a car in Portuguese work however.  I think that for now we are going to stick with public transportation.  It is pretty great to take the trains, buses, and street cars everywhere if not kind of long.  When we do French days it is about an hour on transit or more but that is about it.  

8. Do the missionaries do any kind of Christmas devotional or Christmas caroling in your mission? As for Christmas we usually do both but as for this year I don't know yet.  We will see.  

9.How old is the oldest person you have visited? Now Oldest person is a 92 year old women we met this week.  She was super nice and said I speak very well.  

   That is about it this week which is super cool.  Love you all lots and I will write you all soon enough.  

Loves,

Elder Smith

Photo and post from the Canada Toronto Mission Facebook page: Last week Elder Perkins came for a mission tour and met with all of our missionaries! We learned so much from him! We were so proud of our missionaries and their teaching!  Oshawa, North York, Ossington, Kingston zones

A few photos showing the views from Sam's area in Toronto.

Rhubarb in November!

Tudo Bem Familia!

  It has been another great week out here in the field and I am super excited for today.  We have a mission tour from Elder Perkins from the 70 tomorrow and that means that we are staying the night in Pickering tonight to go to our conference in Oshawa tomorrow! On top of that we had a great day at church yesterday and for the second week in a row we hit Standards!  The work is finally moving in the Portuguese Area.  We still have crazy long days and we work super hard but the more we work the better we feel and the more people we bless.  We were not with out our disappointments this week as Hugo told us that though he wants to meet with us he really just wants to stay Catholic and once again the Nevez Family didn't come to Church but we are still working as hard as we can.  We met with everyone and taught them all multiple times this week.  Working on just simplifying and teaching everyone the simple truths of the Gospel.  It is hard work almost as hard as trying to get along with your companions.  Both of mine are awesome and I love them but have very different outlooks on life and habits that are amusing at times.  Who would have thought that in a few months my topics of discussion would transition from things such as higher maths and sciences and discussing and dissecting literature to the constant debate between myself and Elder Paul that there are more foods in the world than just eggs chicken, and rice and whether or not Toast with Peanut Butter on it is food at all.  It is all in good fun though but a little aggravating at times.  Not to mention all the other fun times meeting people on the street.  That is where this weeks title came from.  My new friend Vic and I were talking about the weather on the bus and he said you know it is a strange year when you are picking rhubarb in November.  I personally don't believe that Rhubarb deserves to exist as a plant and had trouble believing such a sensible man as Vic would grow it but I agree it is certainly strange to pick such a plant in November. 

   Anyways it is time for Questions I love these! 

1. Same as usual, coat? 

Sadly no coat but I promise I will get one today so that I don't have to keep answering this question.  Anyways it has been really good weather up here I mean the lowest it has been is 6 (Celcius) all week that is awesome! 

2. What is your best memory with other missionaries this week? Best memory with the missionaries this week is always tough.  The missionaries out here are all awesome and some of the best memories always come from being together and eating food.  This week the highlights were probably Albion's, Pho and Exchanges with Elder Erickson.  All were pretty great.  Also Probably Zone Sports! 

3.What is your best memory with your classes this week? Give us a brief summary of what your preparation fo class entails. Classes this week I don't know but it was over all just a pretty good week.  We have started doing second interviews with some long time students to start inviting them to take the missionary lessons and we have so far seen success from it.  Basically the preparation is we give the teachers a lesson and they make a lesson plan based off it and discuss the English language and questions that the students have.  I personally prepare the lessons and also am in charge of a weekly training meeting for the Missionaries. 

4. How are your investigators? Did you get them out to church this week? Investigators covered above and 3 at church.  2 new and Bruno Awesome.  

5. What are you most grateful for this week? Most Grateful for The Atonement.  

6. What are you looking forward to this week? This week is Mission Tour. 

7. What happened to you this week that was funny?  Funny is pretty well covered above but every day is a blast. 

8. Have you had to speak in church or teach a lesson?  Nope and Nope to speaking and teaching.  

9. How was the week with all of the new changes for your trio? With all the new changes super busy and a different schedule but super fun.  

10. What is your favorite food at Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is all about stuffing!

   Well it is another week come and gone Love you all back at home 

Abraço!

Elder Smith

Elder Smith and Elder Martinez apparently Elder Martinez received an injury following Zone Sports day. This was to be his crutch, but since it is so very tall it has become a piece of art instead.

Pday Pics after we finished cleaning up

Elder Paul ironing...

The Times They are a Changin...

Oi tudo bem Família!

    Como Vão?  Não tenho muito tempo agora mas preciso escrivo vocês.  Esta semana foi estranho e muito coisas tinham transformado. Okay just kidding not going to write the whole thing in Portuguese but I do have a lot to go over.  For some reason this transfer is just flying by and everything is changing like crazy.  This week especially.  We had one of the district leaders in the zone get early transferred out of Toronto Chinese to Markham Chinese.  This left an entire district with out leadership and also meant we were getting a new Chinese elder.  So on Wednesday this week Elder Paul was called to be the New District Leader! This was a huge change for the companionship and also left vacant his job as the Building Manager for the Ossington ESL.  This is the other major change this week.  I Elder Smith.  Still in training and working to train another Elder have also been put in charge of managing an entire ESL Program.  It is a lot of responsibility all at once however so far it has been a lot of fun.  I feel so blessed to be able to serve these people and the students that I have come to love.  All of them have very different stories and lives however they are all individual children of our Heavenly Father with Divine Qualities.  I love spending time with each one of them every week.  

    Other than that it has been a pretty normal week.  We had Zone Council this week and I helped write a Zone anthem but other than that we have just been talking to people and arranging appointments with new and old investigators so that we can get the word out there.  The investigators are doing well and we were able to get two of them to church.

     Now for the Q&A time.

Back to the Rose and thorn from the good old days.  Thorn, Nevez Family not coming to Church, Rose, I don't know there were a lot of good ones with Zone Council and all the other things that we did this week maybe it would have been Zone Council.  Investigators are Doing great still working with them.  Today is a very Special P-Day.  Today is Zone Sports against the North York Zone.  We will be playing all kinds of sports with our Jerseys and an anthem and that reminds me I still need to make a flag.... oops.  Grocery Shopping,  No Frills, Walmart, and Costco is where we mainly shop they are all, except costco, really close to our appartment or the church and make shopping easy.  Culturally different.  They have lots of silly made up words here that even most canadians don't use like scribbler or Duoatang.  Also no one actually says eh.  In our new district there are 7 of us in two different wards.  4 sisters and us three elders.  Most Grateful for my Family who sends me awesome packages.  New pet I would name it rufus regardless of what it is.  Rufus is a good strong name for anything from a fish to a dinosaur.  Something I would tell a new missionary is that they will never be prepared.  When you arrive the mission feild is so much different than what you are expecting however it is good.  Just forget yourself and go to work that way the lord has a chance to find you.  

Well that is all I have this week.  I hope this finds you all a little warmer than it is up here!  

Loves,

Elder Sam Smith

This is Halloween!

OI TUDO BEM FAMÍLIA!

   It is great to be able to talk to you all again.  This week was intense and full of super awesome meetings.  We had Skills and Interviews this week which means we got to have personal one on one interviews with President and Sister Clayton.  President Clayton asked about all of you and said to tell you that he loves having me and that I am a great missionary.  While I feel I am far from a great missionary and have so much to learn I am grateful for the sentiment and I know acting faith I can live up to those words.  In other news we have another investigator that has accepted a Baptismal Date!!!!! Hugo accepted our invitation to get baptized on the 22 of November and is working to that goal.  It is so cool that we are able to bless the lives of some pretty amazing people.

   Other than that our week has been just sports nights and meetings as well as teaching our first french investigators.  We also got last minute permission to go to the ward multicultural party on Halloween so that was a lot of fun as well.  We didn't get to dress up for Halloween but we had fun anyway.

   On to everyone's favorite part of the email, the Q&A!!! I sadly have not purchased a coat yet but I have found a place to buy them. I only waited because this week they are starting their sale and the coat is only 100 dollars so I decided to wait til this week to go shopping.  Favorite New discovery in Canada I don't know.  Smoke's Franchise is pretty great they have stores that sell poutine, hot dogs, and burritos and all of them are great.  Even though I can't eat the poutine.  Last time I laughed with my companions was probably yesterday and  couldn't tell you why probably Elder Paul said something super funny in his broken English.  In the Area we have some really funny members and investigators.  Also the entire city of Toronto is just Crazy.  There are so many funny stories we get just from walking down the street.  Once we met an old man who tried to convince us he was an alien from the Sun.  Miracles there are small one's every day that we see.  It has been great to watch our investigators progress and that sometimes things just work out.  As far as church.  I can sort of understand spanish now but still have trouble speaking.  I am learning a little bit but not very much. I can at least understand the gist of what is being said though.  The Nevez Family is awesome.  However they still won't come to church.  They spend every Saturday in Ajax with family and don't come home til after church on Sunday so it is getting a little annoying but they are still working on things.  I have not received the soccer ball or the packages from the Johansons.  They will be bringing us our mail onthis Friday for Zone Council so I will have it all then.  Biggest struggle is working in the Area and Preparing.  This week we had to give and instruction at Skills and interviews for the entire zone and it was pretty tough.  However we pulled it all off and it might be our biggest success that or our 5 investigators with a baptismal date.  Strangest thing I have seen is a question better left unanswered.  And the French teaching is fun.  A little harder because I have to remember everything. and I also need to learn the Vocab but it  is awesome.  That is everything I have this week Hope you all are doing well.  Keep on living the Dream!

Abraço!

Elder Sam Smith

Thanks to Sister Haddock!

Dear Sister Smith:

Look who we got to have over for dinner tonight!  We call them the tri-lingual dream team!  They are so fantastic.  We really loved visiting with Elder Smith because he is one of our home town boys.  My husband was transferred to Toronto about a year ago.  We have an apartment here but we still have our home in Bountiful.

We are in the Toronto Ward (not the Christie Ward that Elder Smith is serving in) but the dream team was given permission to come to our apartment for dinner.  The attached picture was taken from our balcony.  We live on the 47th floor of a high rise apartment building right in the middle of uptown Toronto.  It's a little different than Bountiful!

Cherie Haddock