Thanksgiving coming!

Hey everyone how is everything going? Well just to start out you wont be needing a new address to send me things for Christmas and what not! I am staying here another transfer! I know crazy i thought for sure i would be leaving, but obviously God has something in plan for me! But i am actually kinda pumped to stay here we have the coolest branch in the mission and are going to have a good time here for the Holidays! so that's definitely a benefit the only problem is that i don't know what next to do in this area i have almost rand out of areas to knock and ideas what to do ha ha i am sure i will figure something out. And lindsley is staying he is training a new missionary already what a stud!!!!

Well this last week wasn't that special i was thinking that i was leaving so i went to a lot of houses to say goodbye ha ha so nothing really special that's why my email is going to be short today. But holy cow its already my birthday big old 20 on Sunday ha ha i do not feel like i am 20 that's so crazy to think. I feel  a lot younger but at the same time I'm a missionary i have always wanted to be here at this point and now its here wow the count down begins next week ha ha still a year left but i am sure its just going to go faster and faster! but i gotta love it its so much fun ans so dang rewarding. I have changed so much i just have a love for people, i actually get what the importance of gratitude is now. I am so excited for Thanksgiving this week not only cause i get to gain some weight and eat a lot, by the way i have been working out hard lately and lifting i have gained 5 pounds! impressive i know. But just to be thankful for all the things i have, I am so grateful for the parents i have who raised me in this Gospel and gave me the chance to be on this mission, also Ellie and her family (shes kinda special:) and for her family and all they do for me. For all the blessings of the gospel that we receive each and every day. I am so grateful for the book of Mormon and the guidance it give to us in our lives i love this mission i would be lost with out it. So thanks for all you do for me i cant even tell you or list all the blessings i have received in my life. Well i hope all is good and your guys's turkeys taste good mine will be turkey tacos probably with some salsa yummmmyy ha ha. Well be safe and have a good thanksgiving. Love you

Elder Smart

Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone! how is everything going there in Utah? Everything is good here in the good old state of Delaware no complaints! Well this last week flew by that's for sure i cant believe that its already Monday again we had a busy week, with a lot of things happening it was good. First off its crazy to almost say that i am 20 i feel like yesterday i just turned 19 and was getting ready to leave, i cant even imagine how fast this up and coming year is going to go bye. I don't know if you guys feel the same but i feel that way. And so far it's been the best time of my life so worth it!

But this week was super spiritual! Well it all started out Wendsday we had the opportunity to have Elder Kalker come and visit our mission who is one of the 70 and he came and gave us some great training. The meeting was super spiritual. I got up and bore my testimony and man it is the hardest thing to do in english i had a tough time saying what i wanted to say but it all worked out in the end. He talked about how he promised us if we would teach people the true meaning of prayer and help them pray wil real intent we would double the babtisms each month. I think thats such a true principle, because we have all of thes catholics who their whole lives have recited prayers and really dont get how to pray with real intent. Basically our whole message is they have to find out on their own which requires them to pray with real intent and to really fin out ofr themselves. All we can do as missionaries is to teach the doctrine clearly and have the spirit with is so they can feel something different about us, Thats really all we can do. But it was jsut a great experince to have him come and talke to us and bring the spirit as strong as he did, i was definatly feeling it.

Also this week something just hit me, me and Elder Hidalgo were planning and at the each of every planning session we have a comp invatory to help each other better as a missionary. And in this one i was kidna frustrated at first with Elder Hidalgo and kinda raised my voice and was frustrated with some of the things he did cause i want him to be a good missionary and he kinda shakes of things i tell him but i notices my voice got softer and calmer and was just like wow im sorry i just dont want you to go home like some missionaries and it just hit me like wow i have changed, i dont want to go back to who i was. I kinda started crying infront of him but i dont know i jsut felt love for him and just the importance of these two years they are so important if we are going to try ot support a family in todays world its so important, and my wife is definatly going to deserve the besti can be and i got to work hard towards that, just something that i wanted to share with you guys.

Also Elder Lindsley babtized this little 8 year old on saturday it was pretty cool to see him in the water really helping people. Its been so fun to be with him, This will be the last week i am here and i am going to work my butt off to leave Elder Hidalgo with some babtisms. Well i love you all sorry i am horrible at writing its hard to write a lot form me there is to much to say and i am not a fan of writing. But i love you all be safe thanks for all you do!

Elder Smart

Still in Newark..

Hey everyone how is everyone doing? hope everyone had a good Halloween and didn't have to much fun without me ha ha nah its all good! But all is good here in good old Newark just working hard trying to get people to qualify for baptism ha ha man it's hard! i really don't like people's free agency! but all is good we just need to continue to have patience. We set another baptismal date with a 15 year old kid this week he is a son of a member he is kinda a punk but he picked his date and everything and prayed about it during the closing prayer so that was a big step for him. But yesterday was a great day for sacrament it was really a spiritual day we had a great fast and testimony meeting. Of course, i got up and bore my testimony which i never did before my mission i guess i just feel more comfortable doing it in a different language or something! But it was really cool. Not too long ago we had a less active that no one knew call us when she was in trouble and had been doing things that were not good. So she went to the branch president and got everything fixed and now she hasn't missed a Sunday and has been really strong and you can just see a huge change in her. It was really cool she bore her testimony and i felt the spirit so strong with her testimony and she is really such a good person. I told her i was leaving in about two weeks. She was sad to hear that i might be leaving. But I don't know, that just really hit me it doesn't matter about baptisms it is a lot about changing lives and her life has definitely changed it has been cool to see that happen. This week we also had an exchange me and Elder Lindsley were in Newark and we did work! we had 7 lessons that day and usually we have on average around 4 so it was a good day! We had a good time. Also this week we had interviews with president he just said never get down on yourself maybe your not her just for baptisms it doesn't matter. Then he told me i was one of the brightest missionaries he has and the thanked me for all i do.  It really just made me really happy and made my day! Well all is good love you all be safe! 


Elder Smart