The Dream Team

The Dream Team- Elder Gomez, Elder Smith and Elder Nelson

Oi Familia tudo bem?

    It has been a great week here in Kitchener and it has been legendary having Elder Gomez back on the squad.  We are having so much fun here and the new changes have made things even crazier.  I am super grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve with Elder Gomez again it is so cool to me to be able to look back over a year ago and see how much we have changed and grown. I have learned so much from him and in this past week that it is crazy.  I am super excited to see what the rest of the transfer brings.  

   This week we have done a lot of service between the weekly service at the food bank followed by the fact that two different people have decided to move.  one across town and another to the middle of nowhere in Quebec.  It is great to serve though and it means there has been a lot of days spent in our service clothes and moving heavy things.  Between that and Zone Council on Saturday we didn't have a ton of time to do things.  I learned a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of applying it in our lives.  It leads to purification and the presence of the spirit in our lives that is so refreshing.  

   That came in handy later that night when we were teaching our investigator later that night.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized and he accepted.  It was so cool the spirit was so strong and we are looking to baptize him in a month. He is super prepared and he is more active in the ward he is attending then we are.  It is pretty funny.

Well that is about it I guess so on to some questions...

1. How was the eye doctor? New glasses on the way?

It was weird I have decided I will never go to the eye doctor in Canada again.  It was different than I remembered it and then he tried to make me pay extra for a picture of my eyes.  Anyways I get to go pick up my new glasses today. 

2. What was the highlight of the week?

I don't know probably our investigator accepting a baptismal date. 

3. How was the first week in your new tri-panionship? 

a blast.  Now that we plan in the morning the evening time in the apartment has turned into soccer in the apartment. 

4. What is going on with your ESL classes?

I am no longer the building manager.  The Zone Leaders and I are coordinating with the elders that are going now so that I am more of a consultant. 

5. What are the members up to this week?

It was sister Freitas birthday yesterday and other than that not much. 

6. How did you see the hand of the Lord in your service this week?

I think I saw it the most in our investigators progression as we were able to meet with them this week.  They are all coming along at their own pace but you can see how the lord is working with them. 

7. What are you looking forward to this week?

Setting some Baptismal dates!

8. Have you eaten anything unusual lately?

not really.  We had some curry on tuesday that was a little weird. 

9. What cities do you spend most of your time in these days?

still around Kitchener and Cambridge mostly. 

10. What type of sports do you usually play on pday? Any pday plans today?

We usually play kill ball.  Think dodgeball but no teams in a ruthless dog eat dog kind of world.  Today it is haircuts and picking up my glasses. 

Loves,

Elder Smith

Reunited At Last

Integration Night - Thanks to Audrey Francesconi for the photos!

Oi familia tudo bem?

   Well it has been another great week full of adventures in Pizza, Lakeside Contacting, and Transfer news.  It has been a super fun week here in Kitchener and we are super excited for the next transfer.  Elder Gomez is finally coming back from English work and is coming here to join us in the blessed land of Kitchener Portuguese.  It is going to be great to be back with him and to work all together in this area. 

   As for other news this week Elder Nelson and I started the week off strong with a drive out to Oakville.  For those of you not familiar with Ontario Geography it is a city about 45 kms away that is situated right on Lake Ontario.  It is super pretty and everything there is also super expensive because it is like 30 minutes outside of Toronto.  It was a good experience though and we were able to meet the Brazilian Families out there and to at least make contact with some of the other less active and part member families that speak Portuguese in the area. The coolest part though was because we showed up a little early to one of our appointments down by the lake we decided we would go for a walk by the lake and contact some people. Hopes were to find some Brazilians and at the very least help out the Oakville elders with some new investigators.  We walked to the lake shore and the only three people in sight were a Brazilian family that was up visiting from Minas Gerais.  It was a miracle so we went and contacted them and got there information.  Now they say that if we ever need anything down in Brazil to just give them a call.  

   That was a great start to the week that had a great finish with our integration night.  Elder Nelson and I showed up around 5:15 to start making the pizza dough with one of the members.  That was a lot of fun however come 6:30 when it was supposed to start we had 10 huge balls of dough and some toppings but no sauce or cheese.  The cheese ended up arriving 20 minutes later and the sauce another ten minutes after that and we didn't actually start eating pizza until around 8.  However, rough start aside it was a great activity.  We had a lot of fun and we are so grateful for the help that we received form the members because with out them it wouldn't have been possible. 

That is about it for the week though so onto some questions... 

1. How are you feeling this week?

I am doing well.  I wake up and my throat hurts and I still have some problems with my voice running away around 9 every night but other than that I am pretty good. 

2. What was your favorite activity this week?

Probably integration night. 

3. What tender mercies did you notice during the week?

The Brazilian family was nice it was cool to see them. Also it snowed again which is good. 

4. How are your investigators?

doing well one of them is leaving for Boston this week and should be back by sunday so that is a little rough.  

5. What are your pday plans?

journal signing and sports pretty much. 

6. What are you looking forward to this week?

Elder Gomez and we are getting more money. 

7. What are some of the world wide mission changes that you really love?

flexible schedules and streamlined key indicators.  When i started my mission we had 27 key indicators we tracked every week now there are 4

8. Have the new rules changed your day to day much?

not until this friday. 

9. Any news on transfers?

see above.

10. What were the toppings you put on your pizza for integration night? 

So many kinds, We basically just started throwing everything we could on a pizza and called that good.  Some had salmon, others tuna.  One had peas, onions, hard boiled eggs, and green olives on a pepperoni pizza.  Almost all of them had pineapple.  It was definitely memorable.  

Loves,

Elder Smith

In the Trenches

Oi Tudo Bem Familia?

    Well it has been another great week in the CTM.  Elder Nelson and I have kept busy and have seen so many blessings this week.  We were able to find another new investigator this week and we were able to see some real progress with some of our other investigators.  Last week was kind of rough for us and so this week we focused a lot on really humbling ourselves and doing what the Spirit lead us to do and we were able to teach 5 more member present lessons this week.  That was more than our goal.  I am so grateful for the blessings that we were able to see this week and we are excited to keep working hard this week. 

    Speaking of hard work this week started off strong this week with a call this morning around 8:00 from our ward mission leader asking us if we could come over and help him jack hammer a trench in his basement floor.  He is remodeling his basement and the unfinished basement didn't come with the plumbing done for a downstairs bathroom.  So today we learned how to use a jack hammer.  It was fun and I only almost broke it once but after a rough start I ended up doing a pretty good job.  They made us brunch afterwards and it was a great start to the day.  It put us a couple hours behind but hey we are making up time now which is good.

    Well on to some questions:

1. What was the funniest thing that happened during your week?

I don't know I can't think of anything right now.  It was a pretty fun week no specifics. 

2. What was the most unexpected thing that happened?

The most unexpected thing was we got a call from the Oakville Elders saying that they have a Portuguese Investigator and a ton of families and less actives so we are going to Oakville tomorrow.

3. How are your investigators doing?

Pretty well A came to church again and our other investigator came back from Cuba but he is still having family issues so we couldn't see him.  

4. What are your plans for pday?

We dug a trench and then now we are going to probably go do some shopping then go to zone sports.

5. What did you do for service this week?

We worked at the food bank and moved some appliances.  Then we dug a trench.

6. In what ways did you see the hand of the Lord in your activities this past week?

Just in the way that things worked out this week it seemed to be just blessed in all things.  We were able to find new investigators and we would drop by members and they would be going to visit other Brazilians and invite us to come along it was pretty good. 

7. How are your ESL classes?

Struggling.

8. Where is your favorite place to eat in your area?

We usually go to a place called DT Shwarma and get some Shwarma Poutine.  It is the new best thing now that Albions has closed down.

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

We are looking forward to working hard and seeing what happens.  Also Integration night is looking like it is going to be a blast. 

10. How are your exercise/french goals coming?

Poorly, I have been pretty bad all week health wise and exercise time has been more of a trying to not feel like death warmed over.  Lots of cold medicine and now I am congestion free but I still wake up with a sore throat and a cough but that is life.

Well I hope you all have a great week!

Loves,

Elder Smith.

THE FLOOD!

Oi Tudo Bem Familia?

    Hey everybody it has been another great week up north full of experiences to learn and grow.  We didn't have the busiest week most of the things that we planned ended up falling through and that hindered the progress of some of our investigators however, we had a lot more time to work on finding new investigators and preparing for our Integration Night on the 28th this month.  We have decided that we are going to have a pizza night and play volleyball or dodgeball to have things to do instead of the impromptu Basketball like last time.  

   Other than that we had a pretty cool experience this week.  We had gone to the library after putting up flyers for English classes because we were trying to figure out a way to get to London by train instead of having to drive ourselves.  We had been walking around for about an hour an a half at this point and we hadn't had any success talking to people that we passed by.  Then we talked to a woman that was shoveling the Ice off of her sidewalk.  As we were walking past I asked her if she wanted help. She seemed very surprised so I told her that we had snow shovels in our car that was parked in front of her house.  At that point she just responded with, "Who are you guys?"  So we told her we were the missionaries and started shoveling the ice.  Needless to say she was pretty confused at this point that two young men had started just shoveling all the ice off of her drive way.  After we had finished we had managed to testify to her about the Restoration and she has invited us back for Lunch.  It was a pretty cool experience and now we are going to help her meet with the sister missionaries and we are excited for her.  

   That was pretty much the theme of the week was service.  On Tuesday night we got a call from the second counsellor in the Bishopric in the Kitchener Second ward asking us if we were close or far away.  It turns out that the Stake Center had the Water Main Break and the entire chapel ended up flooding.  It was crazy to see it but that night we had like 8 missionaries show up as well as the clean up company and we were able to get it all dried up by Sunday.  It was super cool though to see how fast they could get it all done from Tuesday.  

Well questions..

1. How are you feeling this week?

I have a sore throat and I took some dayquil so I am kinda out of it right now.  

2. What was the highlight of your past week?

Probably Finding our new investigator. 

3. What are your investigators up to this week??

Some are in Cuba one came to church but we weren't able to meet with most of them. 

4. Any news on the ESL classes?

We had two new students show up this week they didn't come back on Saturday though.  

5. What are you looking forward to in the new week?

We are looking forward to go out and get it done.  To get in contact with some potentials and to find some new people to work with.  Also we have dinner appointments this week.

6 What do you like most about President Shields and the messages he shares with the CTM?

I like that he is very good at helping us work together and to have the ability to work with the Lord.

7. What are your pday plans?

We are going to an all you can eat buffet with a member.  

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

next week I have no Idea.  I guess the mystery.  

9. What do you like most about Elder Nelson?

He is clean, blunt, and honest.  

10. What do you typically do at church on Sundays? Do you attend classes? Teach classes? Ever get to be in primary? 

We usually go to one ward for Sacrament Meeting, another for Preisthood and we hardly ever teach classes anymore.  

Well that is it for this week!

Love you all

Elder Smith

Fully Restored

Kitchener Zone Council January 2017

Elder Smith and Elder Nelson twinning...January 2017

Ola Familia Tudo Bem!

   Well it has been a great week up here and I am finally not sick.  I hope that it never happens again because that was terrible.  Although I will admit that it was pretty nice to sleep all day on Tuesday.  Other than that though this week was busy.  We had exchanges in Woodstock, Zone Council, and Interviews with President Sheilds this week.  It was a lot of catch up work for the first part of the week.  

    Getting into the meat of the week though I had a great time down in Woodstock with Elder Heppler.  He is a Brand New missionary from Middle of Nowhere, Montana about an hour outside of Whitefish.  He is one of the 30 inhabitants of his town, his graduating class had 9 people in it and when I asked him to describe himself he said that he liked trucks, hunting, and dirt bikes and that was it.  He is a great Elder though and I loved going on exchanges with him.  I learned so much from his humble example and his honest spirit.  He is going to be a great missionary and he will grow a lot.  

   Then other than that we had a great interview with President Sheilds were he counciled with me about the area and to have greater faith that things can happen.  (That is his new thing is THINGS HAPPEN).  So I decided to fast about it on Sunday and this is what happened. "Well it was great to talk to you on Saturday and I am so happy you came out of your way to visit us here in Cambridge. It was great to talk about things and we are hoping to see some success in the coming future. Things happen president, and this Sunday some pretty interesting things happened. We had planned a great day for Sunday to get a member present with our investigator we are planning on baptizing in a few weeks. We also had some referrals that we were going to go by that the zone leaders had sent us and it was in total going to take a couple of hours. Then right before we went down we got a call that our investigator had a family emergency so there went three hours. However, that gave us time to go to the YSA Branch and meet with our new convert. When we went there we were able to meet a new member that had moved in the day before. He is a return missionary that served his mission in Boston Massachusetts Portuguese speaking. He was an answer to our prayers and has a wealth of knowledge from a very similar mission experience in the Portuguese wards and Branches in the Boston Area. Well that is about it president things are looking up!" I know that this was an answer to my prayers and I am super glad for all that Heavenly Father does in my life.  

well questions time

1. What was the best part of the past week?

Probably Exchanges it is good to get a different look at things and to meet new people.  

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

We have dinner appointments. Other than that no idea...  I guess the adventure of the unknown

3. How do you "find" Portuguese people in your current area?

We mainly meet them through members.  We are planning on working on just doing more contacting up at the university and trying to just open our mouths and get our message out there.  Hopefully by casting a wider net we catch more fish.. 

4. What are you doing for service this week?

going to the food bank and what ever we need to do that isn't planned.  

5. How are your investigators?

doing well A is still working on quiting smoking and JL had some familly problems so we couldn't meet with him.

6. Anything new with members this week?

we got a new member see above.

7. What are your pday plans?

I went and finally got a birthday present.  They are overshoes to wear over my fancy shoes so they don't get destroyed this winter.  

8. How has the weather been up your way?

snowy and cold.  We haven't been above -10 for about four days.  

9. Any students in your ESL classes this week?

nope. 

10. What do you do for exercise when it is so cold outside?

I have been doing push ups and sit ups but that is a good question any suggestions would be much appreciated.  we only have like 20-30 minutes every morning.  

Loves, and Happy birthday to Karen! (Caroline)  I just want her to know that I don't approve of her being sixteen.  She needs to stop getting older.

See you next week.

Elder Smith

Under the Weather.

Trip to the Royal Ontario Museum on Elder Smith's Birthday

Elder Smith and Elder Martinez

Look behind the wolf, I think that is Elder Madrigal

Can you find Elder Smith?

"Like the entire Ossington Zone showed up"

Oi familia Tudo Bem!

   Happy new year to you all!  I hope that 2017 proves just as great as 2016 was if not even better.  Elder Nelson and I had a great week trying to meet with people and find new investigators.  It was a little hard because of the Holidays and the fact that there were not a lot of people home however we still managed to get some good work done.  We passed the new year here pretty uneventfully in bed by ten thirty and there wasn't even any fireworks to wake us up at midnight.  We had a good day at church and everything seemed fine until last night.  We got a call from our land lady the other day and she wanted us to come over and have dinner with her and her family on Monday night.  we were honored because she is a really nice lady and we have a super nice apartment because of her.  However during dinner I started feeling sick.   Long story short I ended up losing my lunch and have spent most of today asleep.  I am starting to feel better and should be back on my feet tomorrow but sadly this is probably about as long as the letter is going to get.  I promise I will do better next week.  

On to some questions.

1. How was your birthday? Tell us about your trip to Toronto....

It was really fun.  We went to the museam and took a lot of pictures.  Like the entire Ossington Zone showed up which we weren't expecting however it was cool to see all of them.  The day was super fun and I was super glad to be there.  

2. What did you do for New Year's Eve?

We went to bed.  

3. Did you make any resolutions this year?

Yeah I have been thinking a lot about resolutions and we have been focusing a lot on goal setting as a mission.  It seemed to have gone hand in hand and I have been putting a lot of thought into how I want to improve and how I can give my best to the lord this year,  

4. Did you have any investigators at church?

one

5. How are the members doing?

doing well we went to a birthday party of a member who was born two months before the first time I was here that was a surreal experience.  

6. Did you still have ESL class this week during the holiday craziness?

yep sadly no one came.

7. What are your pday plans today?

sleep and try not to throw up.  

8. What are you service projects you completed over the holidays?

we worked in the food bank. 

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

getting better also I think we have interviews.  

10. What is Sunday typically like for you?

we go to church in the morning.  have a short break then go to church for two hours in the afternoon, and then we have dinner and an appointment then a missionary coordination meeting and then we go home.  

Well sorry about the letter quality I will try better next week.  

Loves,

Elder Smith

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday boy turns 20!!!

Merry Christmas!

Oi familia tudo bem!

   Well I am a little rushed for time today we are on our way out for a day in Toronto so I will try to hop on again a little bit later today, however, I don't know how well that will work out.  I just want to say that it was great to see you all on Sunday and I hope that you are all doing well.  Thank you for all the birthday wishes that I have received and in case I don't get back on the birthday wishes that I will receive.  I just want you to all know that I love you a lot and I hope you have a great week. 

1. This one comes from dad....

Do Canadians hate getting American coins as change back as much as American's hate getting Canadian quarters back in change?

Some do It is really annoying if you pay in american bills here.  Because the exchange rate is ridiculous.  However with small change they just pretend it is canadian. 

2. What did you do for boxing day?

We had Christmas dinner with the Christensen family in the ward and got Haircuts

3. What were some of the highlights of the week leading up to Christmas?

Zone conference and for the first time we hit our goal for lessons with a member Present.  

4. You mentioned lots of driving...Who were you driving to meet, and where did you go again?

Mainly members this weekend.  First we had the two hour drive to London followed by Christmas parties in Brantford, and in Kitchener which are both about 30 minutes from Cambridge and about an hour from each other.  

5. What are your pday plans? (for the benefit of those that didn't hear your skype)

we are going to Toronto today with a member here.  We are going to the Rom (Royal Ontario Museum) and then probably some other places.  

6.How are your investigators? Did you have any of them at church for Christmas?

They are doing well and we only had one at church.  The other one ate too much the night before and couldn't get his pants on.  

7. How are the members? 

Amazing!

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

New Years should be interesting. 

9. What did Elder Nelson think of your Skype fans? 

"Emily Bacon is Absolutely in Love with Elder Smith, your brother adores you, and your grandparents don't know how to use a computer, and your mom is very good at getting everyone together and organizing things." -Quote Elder Nelson 10:39 AM 12/27/2016  - Elder Smith regarding his grandparents "I was quite proud of them.  It is quite the accomplishment for them to join the Skype call from their home."

10. What was the best part about being 19? 

I don't know probably being on a mission.  It is so far exactly the same as when I am 20.  

Well Love you