HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Monnie, Sister Vorimo, Sister Johnson, Sister Seegmiller, Elder Smith, Elder Smith, Elder Fillmore, Elder Nelson, and Elder Martinez, Elder Sam Smith's District in Kitchener/Cambridge

These are suits we found in the KW chapel with a sign that said free

The following were all taken when it was snowing this week

Oi tudo Bem familia,

   Well Happy Halloween one and all from the great white north.  It has been another great week up here with Elders Martinez and Nelson.  Things decided to cool off this week and we had the first snow storm of the season on Thursday.  It wasn't much and tomorrow it is supposed to soar back up to 20 degrees however it was super funny to talk to our members that thought it was the end of the world.  They just came up from Brazil and it is currently summer there.  Snow was not something that they were super big fans of.  It was refreshing though after how hot the summer was this year.  

   Other than that it has been a great week.  This week S received the Priesthood, we were able to help A work towards the Melchizedek Priesthood this week and meet with our investigator
N.  We had tons of fun and saw many miracles, primarily that N's baby is out of the hospital.  He was given a Priesthood blessing last week when he was taken to the hospital and now just a few days later he is out and back to his normal self.  It was great to hear N testify to us about how it blessed him and her.  In other news more and more people are moving in and we have seen success in helping them all integrate into the wards

   well onto questions

1. Michael wants to know if Halloween is the same in Canada as it is here, especially for someone his age...Trick or Treating, School carnival, parade etc, or if they do things differently there...So what do you know about Halloween in Canada?

Well I don't know about in school I would believe that they do all of the same things that he did. They probably have a parade and you can wear your costume to class but I don't know about anything else.  I do know that Halloween is a big deal here though and so is trick or treating.  Sometimes the wards do a trunk or treat i know they did last year however they aren't doing one this week in this ward. 

2. What was your most exciting moment this week?

Either S getting the Priesthood or wearing those suits to district meeting

3. What are you preparing for in the coming week?

Transfers,  they are looming large.  

4. What do you and your companions have planned for pday?

we are carving pumpkins as a zone.

5. How are your investigators?

few but solid.  we are working on finding more and doing only Portuguese work so it is kind of hard. 

6. How are the members in your area?

Awesome.  In all reality it is kind of just like we are a part of their big extended family and when we go over it is like we are cousins not just the missionaries.  Kind of feels like we are just at home and doing missionary work. 

7. Did you have any success with street contacting this week?

not really we didn't do all that much of it.  For us street contacting and tracting are not very effective ways for us to find people to teach.  Not because there aren't people that are interested but because we are not able to teach any of them because they don't speak Portuguese.  So most of our efforts come from working with members or through our English classes.  

8. What was the best part of church on Sunday?

One of the Wards got a new bishopric and we got to ordain steve and go to an active members baptism with some investigators which was cool .

9. Are you companions musical? Do you sing or play music together much?

Elder Martinez is very musical and so is Elder nelson sort of.  We do things a lot however we are going to stop that now.  They just reminded us of the police the we aren't allowed to have musical instruments in our apartments so that puts an end to that. 

10. What is the best Halloween costume ever? 

I am always a big fan of the classic sheet ghost.  never did it however it always seemed cool to me.  

Well family I love you all don't get too scared.

loves,

Elder Smith

JASON BORN AGAIN

Oi familia Tudo Bem?

   Well it is getting a little chilly here but that doesn't stop us! It has been a great week and we have had so much fun.  It was a little rushed and crazy setting up for our integration night, helping our new convert get ready for her patriarchal blessing and some crazy exchanges. Still we had a great week and I keep learning so much out here as we meet new people.  

    First off we went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders.  It was really fun although of course the day we go on exchanges is the day that every single one of our appointments falls through.  So we ended up talking to some of the local characters of Cambridge.  It was pretty interesting that is where this weeks title comes from.  We met a guy named Jason and that is the name of the book he is writing about how he found Jesus online. He has some pretty interesting ideas about how the whole Christianity works.  

   Integration night was a lot more fun.  We basically just had a big party with all the Brazilian members and the idea is that they will invite their friends.  This one we didn't have a lot of people show up however it was still a lot of fun.  We made  some doce de leite this week for the party and went and bought like eight liters of Guarana it was delicious.  We had a fun time at the party.

   We also got to meeet a new member this week that just moved here from Rio de Janeiro.  She was super cool and she just moved up here with her mom and her three year old daughter.  They are the coolest people.  We went over and met them for lunch and we left an hour later with an apartment on the beach in Rio and a standing appointment to come back and eat there every Friday for the rest of forever.  They also offered to take us to Niagra Falls.  It was awesome.

   Lastely C got her Patriarchal blessing this Sunday!  We have been working on it with her for a few weeks and she was so nervous. We were excited for her though and we are even more excited to talk to her about it this week.  

well on to questions

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

any of the above

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

hearing about the patriachal blessing.

3. How are the companions this week?

They are wonderful. 

4. How are your new members/investigators doing?

well they are doing well. C got her patriachal blessing, A blessed the Sacrament and S is getting the priesthood this week and has stopped smoking so we are excited. 

5. Any new insights for your ESL classes?

not really we have students now though and we are incorporating more of the companionships

6. What are your pday plans?

we are going to go find new pants for Elder Martinez and then probably just look around for some stuff. 

7. What did you do this week that was unexpected or off the plans that turned out to be a blessing? 

Well we had a lot of fun times trying to have our integration night because of a marriage conference and we had to jump through a lot of hoops however we pulled it off. 

8. What is your weather like these days?

a little chilly a high of 9 C this week 

9. What types of service activities did you do this week?

we mowed a lawn. 

10. What do you love most about serving a mission this week?

this week probably just going out and talking to people.  It is so great because you learn to just love everybody.  It also just makes you feel like you are making a difference especially when we were doing so much planning for the activity this week. 

Well that is all folks. Loves from the North.

Elder Smith

SWEATER WEATHER!!!

   It is another wonderful week up in Kitchener working with some wonderful people and seeing such success and miracles.  The weather has been unpredictable as always and the leaves are turning more and more each day.  It is really pretty here now and it is starting to cool off a lot at night however it keeps being surprisingly warm during the day.  This week was kind of short because of the Holiday and then Preparation day being moved to Tuesday however we were still able to get things done despite that and the fact that the street we live on is now closed due to construction.

   This week we were blessed that our new convert S has finally quit smoking!!!  We are so excited and it has been great to go over and see him this week.  It has been hard for him because he has been smoking his whole life and he looks miserable.  He knows however that it is changing his life.  He has been a lot more receptive to the spirit since he has stopped smoking and is getting better and better everyday.  We are so proud of him and it has really been a delight to help him along this path. 

   Other than that we had a great time this week with our investigator A.  He is still struggling a lot with smoking however we felt prompted to go over the restoration with him again this week.  He was able to tell us about a concern that we had never delt with for him before so we were able to address that this week.  Hopefully he will have found his answer by next time we see him.

   Besides that we have just been preparing for our Noite de Integracao this week with the Portuguese members.  It  is going to be a lot of fun and I  am super excited.  We have a lot of members that have friends that they are going to be inviting and we are super pumped.

now moving on to questions

1. Who is serving in your current district/zone? 
Elder Jaxon Fillmore, Elder Bryce Smith, Sister Courtney Marie Johnson, Sister Nicole Seegmiller, Elder Matthew Charles Martinez, Elder Hayden Nelson, Elder Samuel Smith, Sister Mikayla Monnie, Sister Nelli Vorimo, Sister Krista Nicole Moody, Sister Savannah Skinner, Sister Sarah Dominique Gousse, Sister Hayley Hunter, Elder Cody Bahr, Elder Jaymon McDevitt, Elder Alexis Dardon, Elder Judd Earl Ward, Elder Seth Linden Callor, Elder Tyson Layton, Elder 吳浩賢, Sister Audrey D. Nelson, Sister Shannon Spencer, Elder Todd Anderson, Elder Noah Davis

2. What did you and your companions do this week that was most excellent?

We bought some cheap pork chops, also Elder Nelson ate Balut

3. What are your goals for the new week?

To be more effective in finding and to have integration night

4. How is your ESL program coming along?

slowly,  it is kind of frustrating

5. How are your investigators?

ok.  we have a few that are super solid however we haven't been able to meet with because of the holidays and elder Martinez got sick for a couple days

6. What are some of your favorite places in your Kitchener/Cambridge area?

DT Shwarma and then probably just like Kitchener in General around Victoria park and University are nice areas

7. Do you have mission rules to stay inside for Halloween?

yep after 6

8. What are you pday plans?

I am mailing a package and then some shopping

9. What are you looking forward to this week?

Integration night.

Well love you guys so much. 

Have a wonderful week.

loves,

Elder Smith

Happy Fakesgiving

Thanks to Audrey Francesconi for the photos of my favorite Elder mid service project on Saturday!

Elder Nelson

Elder Nelson and the fall leaves

Elder Martinez 

Elder Smith

Oi tudo bem Familia?

   Well it has been an interesting week, this week has seen the passing of Canadian Thanksgiving and Skills and Interviews with President Shields.  It has been a great first week since conference and a beautiful first week of October.  Happy Birthday to MJ and Grammy last week sorry that it is a little late however time did not permit last week.  I do love you though and I hope to get a package off in the next week or two with your present in it. 

    Other than that this week was great.  We ate so much food it was almost criminal, participated in the Annual Cambridge ward Turkey Bowl, and celebrated Thanksgiving a month and a half early.  That might just be one of the weirdest parts about Canada is that Thanksgiving is so off.  For all of us it feels like a normal day however for all of our investigators and members it is a sacred day and all they care about is whether or not you have somewhere to eat that night but they don't really want you at their house at any other time during the day.  We ended up baking cookies yesterday and just delivering them to families in the stake as a way to say thank you to them for all the wonderful things that they do for us.  

   That is something that I have really grown to appreciate as of late is the amount of blessings that we receive and how much an attitude of Gratitude really can bless our lives and change us fundamentally.  When we are grateful we are happier, we sleep better, and we are more in tune with the spirit and the will of the Lord.  All in all it is just so much better to be grateful.

   Other things that happened this week was that we had Interviews with President and Sister Shields.  I love them so much.  We spent most of the interview just talking about the area and trying to figure out how to make it so that language work can be more streamlined in the mission.  The other thing that we figured out was we finally got cleared to get a phone that can type in Portuguese we are super excited about that.  Other than that it has been a pretty normal week.

questions

 1. What did you do to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving?

We had three dinner appointments and I probably gained like 10 pounds again

2. What are three things you have in common with your companions?

We are missionaries, we are males, and we are wearing white shirts 

3. How were your lessons this week?

we had a few and they were all pretty good.  Trying to get weeks that don't have major holidays or events.

4. How are your ESL classes?

suffering again I am trying to work on that. 

5. What are you looking forward to this week?

We get to meet with a couple pretty cool people and we are helping our returning member prepare for the melchezidick preisthood

6. What are your plans for pday?

We did a lot of cleaning. 

7. What was the best thing that happened to you last week?

Interviews and got a really nice blackberry

8. How are your investigators? Anyone at church this week?

A came and we got to meet with the zi's again 

9. Have you had to speak or sing in church lately? If so tell us your topic etc.

We spoke in church a few weeks ago and we were asked to bear our testimonies on the book of Mormon and how it has influenced our lives,

10. What was one of your adventures in Missionary Work this week? Anything out of the norm, funny or silly that happened to you?

well this happened and we saw a guy riding his jazzy down the street as if it was a horse.  Also Elder Nelson ate a raw egg when we had dinner with a Romanian member.  She was cool she survived the Romanian Revolution in the nineties.

 well that is about it,

Loves,

Elder Smith

On the Road again and Mormon Super Bowl

Elder Martinez and Elder Smith in tranist

Elder Smith and Martinez at the temple with a member Sept 2016

The Portuguese Elders Smith, Madrigal, Nelson, Martinez, Gomez and Paul

Thanks to these awesome members for hosting the Elders for both days of General Conference and feeding them, and sending me photos! Yay! Photos from Audrey Francesconi!

Saturday General Conference

Sunday General Conference

Building a Bunk Bed Selfie... Monday 10/3

Building a bunk bed, Elder Martinez and Elder Nelson

 

Oi tudo bem Familia!

   Well it has been an interesting week here in the mission field again. This week saw us drive to Brampton and Back twice as well as just a whole bunch of other things that resulted in accomplishing basically nothing that we had planned.  We were pretty busy just running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to accomplish everything that we needed to do.  We had to clean the apartment, find Elder Nelson a bed, give a baptismal interview up in Guelph.  It was a great week though with lots of Spiritual Growth.  I loved conference and was so happy to go to the temple on Friday and to feel the special spirit of the House of the Lord.

   That was probably the best part of the week was this weekend or as the members called it out in Christie the Mormon Super Bowl!  Conference is something that I have grown to love and appreciate so much on my mission and this one didn't disappoint.  I loved the focus the brethren took on the importance of knowing that we are enough and that we can be the instruments in the Lord's hands to help invite people to come unto him.  I really loved the focus also on not being complacent in Zion.  Those are both things I have learned so much about on my mission and was an answer to my prayers.  I really had begun to feel that I knew what I was doing and things were becoming routine however now I know that we must never stop learning and reaching for something more.

  Ok, on to some questions....

1. What is Elder Nelson's first name?

Hayden

2. Where is he from?

Fort Worth Texas

3 How was your busy week? Did you get to all 40 + lessons?

it was busy in other less productive but just as important ways. 

4. How are your investigators?

didn't get to see any last week.  We stopped by but they were either not home or smoking weed and not willing to let us in. 

5. What did your comps do this week that made you laugh?

many things lately we just had a blast building a bed. 

6. Did you find yourselves in any sticky situations?

yes building a bed using construction glues

7. What are your pday plans?

we built a bunk bed

8. What was your favorite message from General conference?

I liked Elder Oaks 

9. What are you looking forward to this week?

Lots of things 

10. What have you learned this week as you help train a new Elder?

that he entered the Mtc the week before I did and already served for 8 months in Brazil.

Loves,

Elder Smith 

Lightning strikes again!

Oi tudo bem familia?

   Well it is another crazy week here in the CTM. One of the busiest for Elder Martinez and I yet.  We had a crazy week meeting with so many cool people and really just a lot of fun things.  It was the last week of the transfer and in typical fashion we planned for the next week and we ended up planing to teach about 48-50 lessons this week and have been coordinating to make it happen. Faith planning that we would beat the streak and last longer than a transfer together as companions.  It means that this week is going to be amazing.  

    Of course then along comes Sunday night for transfer calls and I almost have a heart attack.  Elder Madrigal and Elder Gomez both told us that what was going to happen was that Elder Martinez was going to go Zone leader with Elder Madrigal and Elder Gomez and I were going to be together in Toronto.  It was something neither of us wanted because I didn't want to one and done it in Kitchener again and Elder Martinez really doesn't want to be a zone leader.  So when President called us we both about died.  President only calls for one of two reasons: 1) if you are going into mission leadership or 2) If you are training new missionaries.  Sooooooooo Turns out that Elder Martinez and I are staying together here in Kitchener and Training a new Portuguese Elder.  It is going to be epic!  We are super pumped and we can't wait.  

    Yesterday in church we discussed the talk Fathers by Elder Christofferson and how we learn so much from our children and how they point out our flaws and weaknesses.  Our children make us better by running us through the wringer.  I can testify that Training does the same thing.   I am the man I am today and the servant of Christ that he needs because of the trial and experiences I have had to overcome in training other missionaries and I am so excited to be blessed with the opportunity again.  

Questions?

1. What is the transfer news?

staying and training

2. What was the highlight of your week in service?

Tuesday.  Tuesday we had seven lessons pretty much back to back and we were really just following the spirit.  

3. What are your pday plans?

Clean the apartment, clean the car, clean us, basically prepare everything for the new missionary and then we are working on zone sports and a zone lunch at Smoke's

4. What is the weather like these days up were you are?

rainy and around 60 degrees Fahrenheit 

5. How are your investigators?

doing well we are slowly gaining more and we have made real steps with some of our more solid investigators. 

6. Is the ESL class picking up momentum?

yeah we have about three students now and we have about 4 that have committed to come tomorrow.  

7. Ask Elder Martinez to tell us the funniest thing you did this week...

yeah we are both drawing blanks on this one.  

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

well lots of things now. Conference, the new missionary, the lessons, serving the lord, and integration night. 

9. What is your favorite meal to cook?

right now rice and beans

10. What kind of wildlife do you see regularly in Kitchener?

suicidal squirrels.  They just dare you to run them over it is terrifying.  

Well that is everything I hope that god may bless you all this week,

Loves, 

Elder Smith

Miracles and a temple

Ola tudo bem familia!

   Well this has been an amazing week all around here in Kitchener. Elder Martinez and I are loving it here and hit the ground running with the revelations that we received from Elder Arnold. That included mainly this week a lot of organization of our area applying the lists and working on just making sure that we are setting appropriate and realistic goals and being effective, diligent, and accountable in our missionary work. That has been the big task this week, our area has never been organized before and there are a lot of things we really aren't sure about such as area and what we are or are not allowed to do in our area. However we have seen some amazing miracles this past week. We were able to find a new Brazilian couple on Tuesday that just walked into the church for our Free English classes. After that first visit they even came back on Saturday and we were able to teach them more and to invite them to church. We are looking forward to meeting with them more this week and to see them progress. Other than that we were blessed to be able to have gone to the temple with our new convert, C, this week. It was a great experience and the spirit was so strong as we were able to watch her receive the saving ordinances for the deceased. We were blessed to have the opportunity to do her confirmation. It was by far one of the greatest experiences of my mission. We took lots of pictures too so I have those for you.  

  Other than that it has been a pretty miraculous week.  We spent about six hours this week planning since we didn't get to do that last week.  It was good though.  A scripture that had been coming to mind lately is in Doctrine and Covenants 132:8  Behold, mine house is a house of a order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.  Our house in this case our area was a disaster of confusion and we have done so much planning and organization.  It has been so great ever since that we have been planning finding and teaching better than ever before.  I apologize profusely for the years of disorganization.  Because of our planning we were ready to receive all the blessings that the lord prepared for us this week as mentioned above.  Also we were able to get in contact with one of the returning members we have been trying to meet with since the first day.  The last elders hadn't left any notes about his new address or new phone number and on Saturday he called us and we were able to go and talk to him about the trials of the past month and to see him really come to repentance.  It was a very touching moment.  

   Other than that not much else happened so on to questions

1. How was your temple visit on Saturday?

It was amazing!

2. What did you do this week that made you laugh?

Well lots of things.  It is pretty much constant laughter with elder Martinez. 

3. How are the ESL classes?find any students?

Yeah two more and we have some other promising things coming this week. 

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

Well we are looking forward to a very busy week and to working harder than we ever have before. 

5. How are the investigators in your area?

doing well we found two new ones last week and we have planned to meet with the other ones this week to help them progress. 

6. What are your pday plans?

Well we don't have any right now. 

7. How was the moccasin adventure?
fun.  Elder Martinez has one done and I am waiting to start mine.  We only have one needle so we have to take turns

8. What did you do for service this week?

Learned how to do a back flip, ate some steak, and raked some grass. 

9. How did the members help you this week?

We had the members all set up to work with our investigators from English class and we also had a lot of help with things for this week. 

10. Are you holding Portuguese meetings on Sundays in your area?

Nope we have to talk to the bishop about that still. 

Well that is about it this week.  I am loving being out here and I can testify that there are miracles prepared for us all each and every day if we will go look for them.  

Well loves,

Elder Smith