Week 4: Philadelphia, PA

Hey guys! how is everyone! I hope all is good and just wanna say go cougs with them playing this week man i wish i could see what happens! But some things have happened and it has been a crazy weekend.

 

But this is what went down, So Saturday night our President called me and Elder Fifita we were kinda worried to think why he was calling, but he told us that a missionary was going home early for school and so they emergency transferred my companion to Delaware. We were so bummed we stayed up till 5 in the morning just talking and stuff. We were so tight and things were going so well. Even president was bummed to make the decision to change us we were leading the whole zone and were doing really good together but he needed us as zone leaders. So basically what is going to happen is i am with 2 other elders for two weeks staying in their area and covering our area all at the same time. Its already been really hectic. Then in 2 weeks i am getting transferred to be a zone leader. I really am bummed i don't want to be in leadership and just having wanted to my whole mission i just wanted to be a Spanish missionary because its rare to see a Spanish missionary be a zone leader and stuff. But whatever i guess i just gotta do what President says and roll with it and have a good attitude. But i still love this work.

 

Anyways, we basically had another baptism this week, he didn't technically count because he was 8 but we reactivated the whole family, the mom is getting a calling, the older brother just got the priesthood now the younger one named Ozzie (they call him fatty poo because all the boys in their family has the name of Ozzie ha ha) But it was a good baptism and went really good, they are a way cool family! But Things are good just sad i am leaving already!

 

Anyways love you all and go cougs!

Elder Smart

Week 2: Philadelphia, PA

Hey everyone! Well just wanted to tell you all that i guess my mom got THE PAPERS about my release date and everything! ha ha crazy stuff time is creeping up on me! But how is everything for all of you guys? How was the Olympics i heard they were really good!

Well good news we had 3 baptisms this last week and it went really good me baptized this family their names are Yvette Miles, Hakeem Miles, and kerhlesha williams it was such a good baptism i got to baptize Kehrlish she is 11 years old and is way cool! The mom Yvette is sooo solid and has such a strong testimony. The service went so good it was way spiritual and there were a lot of non members there! We had a really good turnout just was super busy leading up to it getting everything ready! But ya so that's some good news.

Also went and ushered for the funeral of the Reid son! It was such a good funeral based on the plan of Salvation the Redid took it so well. They are a good family! But i got to meet and see a lot of famous people! The whole eagles team was there, The commissioner for the NFL Roger Goodell, chad Lewis Lavell Edwards i talked to him for like 5 minutes. But i was right next to Michael Vick so that was cool shook like all of their hands and what not! It was cool stuff but the funeral was so spiritual with like so many people there a lot of people left touched by the spirit! Well all is good! I love you all hope all is good! Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Smart

Week 1: Philadephia

Hey everyone don't have much time but i wanted to all let you know i have been transferred! But i am in Philly now but the bad news is i don't know what our mission President was thinking but i got switched to English! But its all good i gotta trust in the lord and take the chance to grow. I do get to practice my Spanish with all the Dominicans that own the little corner stores so that's cool! My companion is way cool Elder Fifita he is from Spanish fork and way cool we get a long way good! its going to be fun together. We are in the Hood i have already seen a shooting and there have been 17 in the past 2 weeks its crazy here, But Andy Reid is in my ward, but sad his son died we are ushering for his funeral tomorrow so pray that i get to see Mike Vick! its all good well i love you all and hope to talk to you soon here is my new address

2201 Brynmawr ave. #504

Philadelphia, PA 19131

LOVE

Elder Smart

Week 27: Bridgeton, NJ

Hey everyone!

 

Wow really sorry for the late e-mails there has been a lot of things going on here in the crazy town of Bridgeton! Last week we had a huge come through here they called it a super dercho that took down thousands of trees, damaged houses, and totalled cars it was nuts! Also the reason i didn't email last week is that whole city was out over power, all the people had no lights it was was super hot ,they were all burning to death ha ha it was nuts, we got to do some good service though and cut trees and haul them off! Also we went to Atlantic city last p-day it was pretty cool nothing really special there i did find an old school BYU had i had to get it!

 

Well really cool experience this last week with one of our investigators named Nayrreth, i think i told you a little about her with her husband leaving her and the kids and what not. So we gave her a Book of Mormon to read 2 weeks ago and the first night she read it for 5 hours she said she couldn't put it down, she now goes and tells all the people she works with how the Book of Mormon is changing her life and how she know Joseph Smith was a Prophet it was awesome the whole time we were just stunned me and my companion, i have never found someone as prepared as she is my whole mission i was so happy the whole lesson. It was awesome she had a question she was like ya i want to wait till the next Prophet comes cause the Bible talks about another prophet we told her hey there is a Prophet here on the Earth! She just lit up and right there i asked her to be baptized and she was like YES i want to be baptized, we set a date for the 29th cause we got to teach everything and she has to come to church 2 more times but she has a real desire. I cannot leave this area until she gets baptized. I am excited.

 

But then this weekend was really hard i was super frustrated! We walked around in the heat like all day! it was up in the 100s, ya imagine how sweaty we were ha ha it was pretty nasty! It was super frustrating because we got let in 1 house the entire weekend, we worked hard and saw nothing then we had a lot of investigators not show up for church like that Nayrreth lady, then we also caught to of the guys with baptismal dates drinking their beer! It mad me pretty sad and mad at the same time they know better, well enough about the bad stuff and time to focus on the good! But also pretty crazy we saw a drive bye shooting, it scared us so bad they just shot up a house i don't think it killed anyone! but ya this town is going crazy, they need us a lot here! But its all good i love it here!

 

Well thanks for all your love and support everyone time is going by fast!

Elder Smart

 

Week 25: Bridgeton, NJ

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? how was your week? This week was super sweet! We had some great lessons and saw some pretty cool things happen! First off it was way hot here, like there were 2 days where it was 98 with 100% humidity, ya we showered three times those days, i came hot just dripping with sweat but it was still good!

So we got this new investigator that is golden this week, she is pretty amazing! Her name is Nayrreph and she has two little kids named Christopher and Sharlie. So a little bit of her story what she told us she was abandoned by her family when she was 8 years old in Mexico and did anything she could for a lady that let her work for her cleaning at the age of 8. She told the lady she had a family but just stayed in the park on the weekends. The lady taught her many things about Jesus and what not. Then her sister found her years later and took her in. Then she came here and got married to a white guy who left her and the 2 kids for another lady about a year and a half ago, she has a ton of faith in God and has seen many miracles in her life to many to write about. But anyways we had a lesson with her on Friday and it helped build my testimony it was so strong. Then she came to church yesterday and loved it, her kids told her they wanted to only come back to our church. She is now friends with a few people in the branch we have a lesson tonight about the Restoration i am really excited to see how it goes. There are many good things going on right now, we are hoping for 2 baptisms in this transfer. I also had my record here this last week with 35 total lessons it went good! I think the baptism just gave me like a motivation to work hard and realizing i only have 5 months left and i want to lay it all on the line. Yesterday i gave a talk on the talk in General conference about being fully converted to the gospel.

Well about the soccer tournament we lost. We had two teams that played this last week and we lost the first and won the second. Basically a fight almost broke out the first game because they said some things to us and our team was upset cause the  basically were giving them everything. So i played the second game too. But then that team ended up playing against the team we lost to and it was dumb they wouldn't let me play, i think the bishops wife of that ward yelled in my face and told me i couldn't play that it was super important i just wanted to play i told her we are just here to play friendly soccer and she was really crazy or something, it made me feel horrible and also to see that she would do that to a missionary and in front of all our investigators that were there, i was pretty disappointed to see that. Oh well

Well i love you all its crazy down to 5 months and counting this time is going to fly by! I so excited to see what happens in the next 5 months!

Love you

Elder Smart

Week 21: Bridgeton NJ

Hey everyone! Well hope everyone had a great Memorial day yesterday the library was closed that's why i am writing today! But everything is going good its pretty crazy at the end up this week it's only 6 months to go. Where is the time going? I really want to work my tail off this last 6 months to have no regrets, plus i should be by now a professional missionary so to say!

 

Well a little whats going on is we were supposed to have that big soccer tournament here in Bridgeton, But i think the city is still a little mad that we got the building to be our church because, it was a bank and they received a lot of tax money now it  being a church the don't get anything, so it was going to get changed to be in Cherry Hill and hour away and like it would be hard to get everyone there so we came up with the idea of that the church has like 5 acres here in bridgeton already bought for a future chapel to built there so we decided to try to do it here. So yesterday we spent 9 HOURS cleaning it up, cutting the grass, figuring out the fields, putting lines down. Not to mention it was 90 degrees then with the humidity lets just say it was HOT! i was dripping in sweat all day! ha ha so that's how we spent our p-day yesterday from 7 to 4 ha ha. But i am excited this week that is coming up we have to go to Cherry Hill but they 3 weeks after we will be here!

 

Well we got 4 people to church this week and it was the first week in the building. I will get some pictures to you guys next week i don't have the cord to hook up my camera. Buts its so nice we are starting to have activities and English classes there. We are definitely blessed. The branch is growing. We had a good week, besides 2 of our baptismal dates went back to Mexico she got really sick! But we have some good things going on! I love this work and i am going to keep working hard and sweating A LOT! but its fun! Love you all thanks for the love and help!

Elder Smart 

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