May 5, 2014 email

Hey there everyone. It's great to hear that everyone is doing good.  School seems to be going by pretty fast for the guys. Stockton is gonna become a senior and Parker will be going into high school then Brigham will be starting middle school. You're all getting old and it's weird cause I feel young out here. It's so weird to think that Parker will be going through drivers ed here this year. It's cool to hear Brigham is getting into track pretty well. He must really be excited to have summer coming up. For Mother's Day, I think Skype would probably be the best to communicate with me here. Guess you'll be going through what I had to to get my Eagle Project done on time. Just work hard and have lots of people there to help out. And happy birthday Stockton!

This week was full of busy meetings with investigators and with missionaries. We met with several investigators and picked up a previous investigator who is searching for a good religion. But regardless of all of our visits, none of our investigators made it to church yesterday. We did have three less actives show up to church and we were stoked to see them there. They all left after the first hour, but some attendance is better than no attendance. It's cool to hear that the plaque is up. Maybe I'll be getting more mail and email now
that it's up.

Many of the members here think that missionaries are doing their job when they see numbers of investigators go crazy and we have new investigators every Sunday. But there is a saying in the mission field that encourages us all to teach people, not lessons. "Numbers don't matter when you focus on the Lord's work and on the persons choice, that you respect them and don't give up on them. No effort is ever wasted." We do all we can and respect their agency. We care for them and we love them.

I expect to talk to you all on Mother's Day and I love you all.

Love

Elder Smith

What we believe. . .

What Is Agency?

Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Agency is essential in the plan of salvation. Without agency, we would not be able to learn or progress or follow the Savior. With it, we are “free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” ( 2 Nephi 2:27)