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

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