Misadventures in Plumbing

OI tudo Bem Familia,

    Well it has been another great week here in the CTM.  Snow just keeps on falling, then comes the freezing rain, and the really bad ice storms followed by hours of driving.  I am suprised that Elder Nelson hasn't dissolved into a ball of nerves.  I am continuously amazed by his resiliance in the face of such adverse wheather.  All joking aside he is a great companion and I am so grateful to be serving with him.  Especially in this Christmas season.

   I love this time of year because it really brings the spirit.  I heard it said once that just because of the sheer amount that people say the name of Christ the spirituality of the world increases.  I can testify that this is true from last week. This week We were able to have two investigators at church and we taught more member presents than other lessons this week. I haven't seen that happen in this area ever. It has been great to be on the lord's errand this past week and I have been able to feel the spirit of God abundantly. I had been struggling as of late because the work is hard and it is easy for me to get discouraged. I was able to read my patriarchal blessing though and stop comparing myself to others or being frustrated by the future that looked forboding. I was able to turn to the lord and he has refocused me on this work through the experiences we have had this week with investigators and members, and for that I am truly grateful.

   We also had a great week with some fun Christmas parties and some close calls with the plumbing in our apartment.  We will just leave it with never hire us to come and do plumbing for you.  It is not pretty.  But lets move on to questions

1. What was the highlight of the first week in your new transfer?

The spirit was so strong and it was great.  I started off the week a little down and It was great experience as day by day the lord was able to lift the discouragement.  

2. What service did you get to do this past week?

We helped Irma I move this weekend which was actually really fun.  She has set the standard for moves now.  Everything was already in boxes and she had wrapped all the furniture it was just moving it to the elevator and super easy.  

3. What are you looking forward to in the coming week?

We are going to be skyping home as well as we have been invited to so many parties withe the members and some nonmembers. 

4. How was your Christmas caroling last pday? Where did you go?

It was fun we went to Downtown Kitchener and Caroled at the City hall.  We also went caroling at our New convert C's house for her birthday.  She was very excited. 

5. How are your investigators doing?

Very well we had two of them at church this week and our new investigator from Africa is progressing really well. 

6. What was your favorite meal this week?

Probably Dinner with the M Family this week.  We haven't been getting fed much for the past month and we told them about it and the invited us over that day.  It wasn't anything extravagant however they made it from their heart and then when we shared the Spiritual message it was us that left there uplifted not them I am pretty sure.  

7. How is Elder Nelson adjusting to Winter in the Great White North? 

He is getting better about it.

8. Did your ward have a Christmas party this year? We missed ours for Nutcracker.

Yeah it was super cool.  They did a night in Bethlehem which was an activity where everyone went and met the characters from the christmas story.  Then they went and took the coins they collected into the cultural hall where they were having a marketplace.  We then had to buy all of our food for the event and at the end of the night they did a nativity.  

9. What is the best thing about your mission today?

Today we are going to go give a blessing.  That is pretty cool 

10 What are your plans for Christmas? (Besides skyping your family)

We are going to be skyping

Anywho loves and look forward to seeing you

Elder Smith

Not just Christmas bells are ringing..

Oi tudo bem familia!

   Well We are on day three of the storm and I am starting to worry about Elder Nelson's sanity.  It hasn't stopped since Friday Night and has been intermittent since around Wednesday.  Winter has truly come and we now have about six inches or more of Snow.  Elder Nelson has discovered that he doesn't like snow, or wet feet, or driving, or pretty much anything to do with winter except for skiing so that has been fun.  Especially since we have a new investigator down in Brantford and that has meant a lot of time on the road these past couple of days.  

   That was pretty good because the rest of the week was slow because I got sick.  I had a cold this week so I spent most of the time on tons of cold medicine.  It was a trip however, I got better. Which was good because for the test of the weekend we were able to make up for lost time and have quite a bit of sucess.

   That is about it this week we still have to solidify our christmas plans so I will let you know next week.  as for other questions.

1. How was your week?

pretty good.  I mean I didn't like being sick. 

2. What did you do to #LIGHTtheWORLD?

we worked in the food bank which was good.  

3. How are your investigators?

doing well we found a new one this week who is super solid.  His name is JL and he is from Mozambique.  He just got engaged to one of our members this weekend so that is pretty cool.  Hence the title.  

4. What are your members up to this week?

Probably getting ready for Christmas.  Also we have our new converts birthday today.  

5. Any Christmas Caroling?

we are going as a zone today.  

6. What are your pday plans?

journal signing and then caroling

7. What do you love most about December?

Christmas and only slightly less important my Birthday.  In all reality though my favorite part is definitely all the time that we spend with family.  

8. How freezing are you? Have your eyelashes frozen yet? If yes, hope you have a photo of that!

not too bad.  Should hit -27 this thursday night.  

9. What are you looking forward to this week?

New Transfer.  Oh by the way we are staying.  

10. What was the biggest blessing you received this week?

I had a huge migraine last night and was almost throwing up and I remember just praying super hard that it would go away and I would get better.  Then I went and laid down and I could literally feel the tension and pain leave me and just being able to feel so much better.  

Well that is all Love you fam,

Elder Smith

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Oi Tudo Bem Familia!

    Well it has been another week and we had our first actual snow storm of the season.  We took a look at the weather this morning and it looks like winter has finally arrived and this shall be our last week above freezing.  It was super fun last night.  It started snowing pretty lightly at first and just kept picking up and up until Elder Nelson asked me if it was snowing yet.  I told him that finally it had begun to snow.  It wasn't a big storm but there was snow on the ground this morning and it might not all melt by the next storm on Wednesday.  It is certainly going to be a white Christmas though.  Forecast says that it is going to start snowing on like the tenth and then it shows no sign of stopping.  

     Well this has been a great week. We have been super excited about the new light the world campaign. It so far has been great and we have been excited in getting the members here involved with lots of different activities as well as service. We had our integration night last weekend and for the first time we had some non members show up. It was overall a great success the members had a great time and the one nonmember was able to bond with all the members as well. It was great and it only happened because the members were so helpful. We have an appointment set up with them for after the holidays but they are super solid and the members are still reaching out and keeping contact with them through Facebook. Other than that this week was a lot of service projects and helping the members as well as some pretty great lessons. We were able to teach more investigator lessons this week than ever before and I at least am really excited about that. We hope to be able to keep increasing those numbers in the future.

   Another cool thing that happened this Sunday was that we found a member in our ward that was baptized by our mission presidents son back in 1990.  He was super excited about it and had his pictures with him from his baptism and was showing them to us.  Sunday was also pretty cool because we got to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  I have to Say it was pretty cool.  I don't remember ever watching one before and I was really missing out.  It gets you really into the Christmas spirit and the music is amazing.  I invite you all to go check it out if you missed it.  https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/archive/christmas-devotional/2016/12?lang=eng&cid=HP_SU_4-12-2016_dCN_fEVT_xLIDyL1-B_

Well on to questions. 

1. What was the highlight of your past week?

Integration Night it was super cool and we all had a blast.

2. What are your plans to #LighttheWorld this week?

Well we have the calendar printed out in both languages and we set a daily goal to do everything it says to. 

https://www.mormon.org/

3. What are you looking forward to this week?

Well this week we have a pretty cool appointment set up for dinner on Saturday.  One of our members is inviting us over to start teaching her Boyfriend.  

4. What are your pday plans?

We are going to go pick up the essentials at Costco then there is an exhibit on Quantum Mechanics at the Museum we are going to go to and some miscellanious shopping and things after that. 

5. What have you noticed is different about the holiday season in Canada from Utah?

Not as much snow also decorations go up on like November First.  

6. How are your investigators?

Doing well we are excited about that. 

7. Anyone coming to ESL classes this week? (Busy season could be hard)

We had two and the R should be back this week they finally got their new car. 

8. How are the members in your area doing?

Awesome.  

9. Do you have Portuguese classes at church? Are you mostly attending English or Spanish wards?

Nope we only go to the english wards here.

10. What is your favorite part of the holiday season?

The Christmas Spirit that is felt also It is my birthday. 

Well that is all folks love you to bits.

loves,

Elder Smith

And there winter went...

Elder Nelson, Smith, Martinez and Madrigal on transfer day.

Elder Nelson, Smith, Martinez, Madrigal and Paul last transfer day before Elder Paul went home.

Oi familia Tudo Bem?

  Well it has been another great week here in the mission and things are starting to warm up.  We had a little cold spell but now it is pretty much just raining and weirdly warm here.  We are supposed to go back up to around 13 degrees this week before sitting around 8 or 6 degrees.  So yeah... Other than that it has been a good week we were able to meet with our investigators pretty regularly as well as have some fun visiting all the members and preping for the integration night this week.  

   I am super pumped for this week and the chance we have to start with the #lighttheworld initiative.  I love the Idea of a month dedicated to service of your fellow man which we all know is just service of our God.  Most of the members here are off for the holiday's because it is too cold to do construction and so now they are really into just working with us and trying to spread the message.  We are hoping to have a great kick off this saturday with our integration night and getting the members pumped about how they can #SejaoLuzdoMundo and touch the lives of all those that are around us.  I really like the counsel we were given by Elder Oaks at last octobers General Conference where he pointed out that it doesn't matter how close our relationship is with someone because that doesn't affect their decision to accept the gospel.  And, If I may it doesn't limit the effect that we can have as we shed the light of Christ into their lives this Christmas season.

   Well some Questions

1. What did you do for American Thanksgiving?

We moved one dinner appointment to Friday and then we went to Bro Berkes house and had our classic thanksgiving dinner. 

2. What was the best thing that happened this week?

We got one of our investigators to go to a baptism and were able to see her like three times this week. 

3. Did you have anything unexpected happen this week that was great?

Well the first time we ran into that investigator we were infact dropping by her sister to make sure that she was invited to the baptism.  Instead of finding her sister we found our investigator and it was actually her sister's birthday too so we got some cake and donuts

4. What are you looking forward to this week?

This week we have Exchanges with woodstock and we have integration night

5. How are the ESL class going?

Good we found another new student this week and once again no one came on Saturday. 

6. Are you going to use the new #LighttheWorld campaign in your mission?

OH YEAH!

7. What are your pday plans?

Some Holiday Shopping to get some presents to send out in a package soon. 

8. How are your investigators?

Pretty good they are coming along pretty well right now and we are hopefully going to get more of them.  

9. What are you doing to work with the members?

We are going to work on many different service themed activities this month to try and drop by people the members know and that they would like to help out try and meet people that way.

10. Do you have any plans for Christmas caroling, or the like in your area this year?

Not as a zone but individuall probably.  

 

Well that is all family,

Loves,

Elder Smith

Winter is coming and Happy Turkey Day!

  

Elder Nelson as a burnt marshmallow

 Well it has been a great week here in the North and Winter is at the door step.  We had our first little taste of snow this weekend and Elder Nelson did not appreciate it.  Today he bought the largest snow jacket I have seen in my life and now he is ready for the long winter ahead.  We went to this store called Sail up in Hespler and they were having a pre Black friday Clearance on last years winter coats.  Elder Nelson scored a 600 dollar jacket for fifty percent off and with the exchange rate it came out to around 250.75.  He looks like a burnt marshmallow now in his coat but he is pleased with himself.  At the very least he will be very warm.  I got a new coat too because I found one for like a hundred dollars that is warmer and nicer than the one I got last year that started sheding feathers like the aforementioned turkey. So now I have a nice winter coat that I am looking to give or sell to one of the new missionaries for cheap.  It is still a nice coat and you can survive winter in it but it is not as nice nor is it waterproof.  I also for the first time in my life bought myself mittens.  I was stubborn enough to not do it last year but this year I have learned better.  

   Other than that though it has been a great last week full of the spirit and some wonderful miracles along the way.  We spent a lot of time this week with one of the members from the YSA.  He had sprained his ankle playing basketball last week so he had a week off of work to come teaching with us.  It lead to some miscommunication between him and our new member Sarah however it was quickly resolved.  Lets just say that hanging out doesn't translate well into portuguese and then Sand her Parents blew it all way out of preportion.  It did make for an interesting first impression with S's dad though who just arrived from Brazil on Wednesday.  He is a good guy and we are super excited to have him up here.  He is a return missionary and a former bishop. He has his quirks but he is still really cool.  Another great miracle about that was that S brought a friend to Lunch with us on Friday.  That was cool we are going to go there this weekend for lunch with her and her brazilian roommate and hopefully they become new investigators.  

   Other than that the other highlight was when we went to visit Sister B.  Sister B is a less active that we have been working with since the first time that I was in this area.  She is super cool however she struggles with a lot of things.  Mainly repentance, she says she knows she is not repenting fully and correctly however she doesn't know how she is supposed to do it.  I am blown away constantly by the love of the Saviour for each and every one of us and the way that the atonement changes our lives.  Sister B is not the type of person you would expect to be going through these problems nor even the type of person that you would even want to talk to member or not.  However every time we are over there I just fill up with charity and just so much love.  It is great and one of the best things about being a missionary.  

   Well on to questions

1. Are you doing anything for American Thanksgiving?

We have back to back dinner appointments right now so that will be fun. 

2. Do you have a mission motto or mission song? 

We have had zone anthems but nothing too serious like that.  

3. What was your favorite thing that happened this past week?

Probably our lesson with Sister B or when we went on a hike with Brother P

4. What are you most looking forward to in the coming week?

Turkey Day it is going to be great. 

5. Who are the missionaries serving in your district or zone this transfer?

Elder Adam James Brand, Elder Bryce Smith, Sister Nicole Seegmiller, Sister Meleisea Talaitupu Jennifer, Elder Hayden Nelson, Elder Samuel Smith, Sister Sarah Short, Sister Nelli Vorimo, Sister Sarah Dominique Gousse, Sister Hayley Hunter, Sister Krista Nicole Moody, Sister 鄧伊媛, Elder Cody Bahr, Elder Jaymon McDevitt, Elder Alexis Dardon, Elder Kaileb Olson, Elder Seth Linden Callor, Elder 吳浩賢, Sister Audrey D. Nelson, Sister Shannon Spencer, Elder Daxton Coffey, and Elder Noah Davis
6. How are your investigators? Anyone new this week?

No one new this week but some solid potential.  Also we met with our new investigator from last week again and he is crazy.  So we might not be seeing him anymore.  Another testament of not drinking alcohol.

7. What did you do for the members this week? Any service?

no but we have two moves in the next two weeks that we are helping with and we do service at the food bank every tuesday. 

8. What are your pday plans?

now we are going up to Kitchener I need some tailoring done and then we are going to spend time with the other missionaries. 

9. What have you been studying lately?

The plain and precious truths that were taken from the book of mormon and how to find people.  

10. What are you most grateful for this Thanksgiving?

Loving members that make lots of food. 

Well that is all fam,

loves,

Elder Smith

All mixed up!

Oi familia tudo bem!

    Well it has been quite the week.  Transfers have come and gone and things have changed once again.  Elder Nelson and I are just getting things calmed back down after the big shuffle.  This week has just flown by since we got the news on Sunday that Elder Martinez was getting sent back into Toronto.  Monday was just flying around saying good bye to everyone as well as just trying to do all those things that he had been saying we would do for weeks that we never did.  One of which was going and baking cookies with a lovely older sister in the stake.  She meant really well, however, the cookies really didn't turn out.  Hopefully, we will make them better next time. 

   Tuesday was pretty cool we went and met one of Elder Nelson's dad's friends from college.  He had some cool stories and he also knows all the Portuguese members in his ward and is willing to help us meet with them all and see how we can work together to get the member work growing in this part of the area.  It was definitly the highlight of that day.  Tuesday we had to do the paper work for Elder Nelson's Visa extension which was four of the longest most boring hours of my entire existance.  I would not recomend trying to apply for a visa in Canada, four years of Trump will pass faster than those four hours.  

   Other than that it has been a great week we have had a lot of sucess in getting members out to lessons and contacting some new investigators.  We have been working a lot on setting goals and making plans for our week.  I am personally super excited this was the direction that my studies had been taking me for the past few weeks was in the ability we have to make our dreams realities through the process of mastering goal setting and accountability.  Needless to say I am super excited about this new direction we are taking.  

Questions

1. Was your belt lucky this week?

yeah we found a new investigator and we got to see some cool miracles working with the members.

2..What was the must unexpected thing that happened this week?

We found a new investigator who was someone that I had talked to about six months ago.  He was super rude last time I talked to him and we really didn't want to teach him but we went back this Saturday and he was one of the nicest men we have ever talked to. 

3. Did you take any photographs this week?

yes two

4. What is the most exciting thing that happened this week?

we went to a baptism that was super cool 

5. What are your pday plans?

we are making a sign and doing lots of other things. 

6. What are you looking forward to this week?

working to acheive our goals

7. How are your investigators this week?

doing well we met with three of them 

8. What are your plans with your members this week?

trying to set up times to meet some of their non member friends so we can try and get some new investigators.

9. Did you do any service this week?

we raked so many leaves.  It was ridiculous.

10. What are you most grateful for this week?

probably Jesus.  The atonement is pretty cool...  Also I am grateful for sleep so that we can relax and recuperate for the next day.

Well that is all folks

Loves,

Elder Smith

The breaking up of the fellowship, or a new beginning

Oi familia beleza?

   Well it has proven to be a great last week of the transfer and of course that means that they have changed absolutely everything again on us.  We got our transfer calls last night and Elder Martinez is leaving us.  He is going to go and be a zone leader with Elder Madrigal out in Toronto again.  It has been fun being back together with him these past two transfers.  He is a great guy and is going to do wonderful things out in Toronto.  Elder Nelson and I will be staying here though and we are pumped.  This transfer is going to be super exciting and fast.  WE are only going to have five weeks because of the departing missionaries and the holiday season however it is going to be so much fun.  

   This week already proved to be super cool.  First off we had a wonderful Zone Council with some great instructions that both hit on things that I really needed to hear it was truly inspirational.  Even better we got our mail, and sorry mom but we got our Christmas presents and I also was sent my birthday present.  Needless to say I didn't even look at it long enough to tell before I ripped it open to see what I got.  Sooo thank you for all of that.  I love the CTR ring and the tie.  Also Uncle Ted's belt really is lucky, (Although a little big on me), I will tell you more about that later.  

   Another Highlight this week was that we were able to go to stake conference.  We had Elder Smith of the Area Seventy come and visit our stake this weekend.  It was really cool to sit and learn under his voice of the things that he felt prompted to share with us.  He was a very interesting man, worked as a senator for over 18 years before receiving a call to serve as an area seventy in the north america northeast area.  He has a wealth of stories that are truly astonishing and that I have written down to share with you all later.

   Finally the highlight was the story of Brother P.  Brother P is a member that we had been working with a couple of weeks ago until he simultaneously got a new job and a girlfriend.  He then kind of fell of the map for a little bit and stopped talking to us.  After we had a great lesson with our investigator A on Saturday, (lucky belt strike one he stopped smoking), we felt like we should go visit him.   Which led to a great old detective movie montage as we went and followed a bunch of leads from people that had seen him around til we found him sitting in a bar crying.  We sat down and it was great to see him look up and see us and just change.  He said that we were awesome to care enough to come and look for him and told us the whole story of the last few weeks and how he needed us so we can come and help him back up.  It was one of the coolest experiences I have had on my mission.

On to some questions....

 1. Transfer news?

Elder Martinez is gone

2. What are your pday plans?

we are going to go and eat lunch and have a baking lesson then some alterations on a suit I found and some other shopping needs then journal signing with the zone. 

3. How are your investigators this week?

A is quiting smoking and we are looking towards baptism in a few weeks, and N is back at home and her baby is getting better and better. 

4. What did you and your companions do this week that was unplanned, or unexpected yet awesome?

find Brother P

5. Did you do any service this week?

nope we didn't we need to go mow a lawn this week and rake leaves. 

6. What was church like this week? Any new people? Members? Investigators?

we met a members boyfriend who is a potential for the Toronto elders now. 

7. How are the English classes?

working on it. proving to be one of those that only comes out by prayer and fasting.

8. What are you looking forward to this week?

Lots of good things planning and working to grow the area.

9. What are you grateful for this week? 

elder Martinez and the example he has been to me. 

10. What is your favorite thing you have learned, done or experienced this transfer?

Probably the Tripan life things are going to be a lot harder now with only two but we will figure it out. 

Well that is it this week all!

Loves,

Elder Smith