MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

He's home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Mitchell Montana Smith completed his mission on February 16, 2015.  He served in the California Roseville Mission for 2 years.

Here we are waiting for him.

Unfortunately, because we were all on tight timelines, and his plane came in early, his dad was the only one there when he came down the stairs from the gate.  But, they devised a plan to surprise everyone. . .

Here he is sneaking up on his mom!

We had a great reunion. . .

mama missed him

'He was released as a missionary that night and the name tag came off.  Sad that this experience is over, but overjoyed that he is back with us!!!!!!!!

February 9, 2016 Email

Hey Fam! Sorry I haven't emailed lately! I would have yesterday but the last full p-day I had was spent having nerd wars. One round was to "kill me off" where everyone was against me until I died. So it was tons of fun yesterday.

I've been doing well. I have mostly been getting everything ready to take off for home and that is one heck of a chore let me tell ya. Lots of papers, meetings, and sending stuff home. I will be sending things home this week so don't open any of them that I send till I get home.

So quick summary of the week. We had three exchanges happen; one with our zone leaders, one with our district leader, and one with Hmong Elders. We had meetings with President Marston and interviews as well.  This week is also going to be busy. We have another Hmong exchange to do, we have a Hmong baptism to attend in Oroville, we have several lessons set for Hmong work and English work.

I'll have to find a ride down to the mission office and someone to stay with for the 15th.  As you know I will be getting on the plane from here to SLC at 10:20 to arrive at 1. Then I have a 3 1/2 hour lay over time, ridiculously boring I might add, then I get in the plane for home to get there around 5. 

I'm stoked to see you all and am ready for home.

As they say in the mission, "Dead man walking!" Haha! See you soon!

Love

January 21, 2016 Email

Hey Fam!  Sorry I didn't email last Monday.  I was stuck doing all the programs and papers to get ready to go home.  I can't believe how much there is to do in order to get home when you would think it is just get packed and get on the plane.  Nope!!!  They're having me do this online course called "My Plan" as a way to make sure I have a plan for life after the mission.  There was a study that showed that 60% of RMs go less active or inactive when they get home.  All because they don't know what to do with their lives.

The week we had was pretty good.  Not too much Hmong work but a lot of English work got done.  Bishop had given us a list of less active and inactive people to go over and visit with them to see if they still live there or if they would like to receive home and/or visiting teachers.  We went through some of that and had some good and bad responses.  One house was pretty good.  We had a visit with this one girl named Stacy and she had served a mission and been endowed in the temple but ended up going less active.  She was doing great until this whole Prop 8 stuff happened.  She has friends that Prop 8 affects and she just got hurt feelings about it, so she went less active.  She's been to church since then, but she still has a few problems with the church that need to be resolved.  Other visits were kind of the usual.  Nice people were at all the doors but didn't want anything to do with the church.

A couple of miracles happened this past week.  We were going out to find a less active member in the ward and ended up running into Trevor.  Trevor is a YSA (Young Single Adult) age guy who lives in the apartment where the records had a less active member.  He had never heard of our religion before.  He was very receptive to the message and took a Book of Mormon and he said we could come by another time to visit.  We also found this less active/active family if that makes sense.  The family lives in our ward boundaries, but they go to another ward instead.  So, they aren't inactive, they just aren't active in the ward they are supposed to be in.  We are just meeting with them right now and getting a relationship built to try and get them over to our ward.

Well, that's all I've got for ya.  Again, sorry this is late.  I wish you the best of luck and hope to hear from you next week!

Love,
Elder Smith

January 11, 2016 Email

Hey Fam! It's great to hear you all are doing well!

The week here was interesting to say the least. One of the first lessons we had was a Hmong lady that didn't speak any English so I was sitting there wondering what the heck is being taught. I told my companion when we first started going out visiting that he better be teaching the correct principles, cause I sure as heck can't correct
you on this one. Haha! It's good working with these people though.  They are very accepting of the gospel and are humble enough to want to make these changes in there life. 

A sample of the language Mitchell's companion is speaking--yikes!!!!

We also cover an English Ward here too so that's a bit of relief from not knowing what is being said. The week went kinda slow but we had some good work done here. We do something here on Wednesdays called a Hmong class. Here, Elder Fitzgerald teaches people how to speak Hmong so they can better help in the ward and their progression. Sunday was interesting because we set up for Elder Fitzgerald to have a translator mic to help the older Hmong members understand sacrament meeting. In total these next five weeks are going to be very interesting. 

I also got today a letter from President Marston informing me of all that will be happening prior to the departure. So you can probably imagine the amount of trunkiness I am experiencing right now.

Trunky:  A slang term used among Mormon missionaries, describing a missionary who is excited about returning home as "trunky" as he has already packed his trunk

Well that's all I got for you this week. I hope to hear from you guys next week that will be informing you of all that will be happening.

Love

Elder Mitchell Smith

January 6, 2016 Email

Hey Fam! Sorry I haven't emailed recently, some crazy stuff has just happened. We had transfers again and we thought that my companion was leaving. Turns out, I was the one that left. I thought I would finish in Andersen but ended up moving to Chico. The situation with that is there is a Hmong Elder down here who didn't have a companion for six weeks since he training a new one in a month and a half. So President Marston decided to have me come down and spend the transfer with him since he figured I wouldn't mind, which I don't.

Sculpture in Chico- - -Give a "big hand" to Elder Smith!!!!

Here we will be doing both Hmong and English work since there isn't a whole lot of Hmong's in the area. It's going to be a good time since I know the Elder I'm working with, Elder Fitzgerald. He has been out for almost a year and he has been doing well in the work. It's kinda funny too cause I will be the second missionary in a row that he will be sending home. His last companion he sent home was his trainer. He's pretty cool, so this last transfer will be good.

It's weird to think that I only have six weeks left on my mission and I'm home. That's crazy!! I know that it's been two years, but man has it flown by. I can't wait to see you guys start getting back in the swing of things. It's gonna be weird cause I won't have anything to talk about but the mission for quite a while. Hahaha!

Well anyway, that's all I've got for you guys this week. Hope you all have a great week and I wish you the best.

Elder Mitchell Smith

January 8, 2016 Email

Once again, not really an email.  Just some photos from his last zone.  Mitchell is getting transferred and will spend the last 6 weeks of his mission in Chico, CA.

Normal

Notice he is trying to distance himself, ha ha!!!

December 28, 2015 Email

This isn't really an email, per se-lol!!!  We Skyped with Mitch for about 90 minutes on Christmas.  We were trying to get both Mitch and Stockton on at the same time, but it didn't really work out.  because I didn't know Mitchell's new address until the Monday before Christmas, he didn't get his package on time.

But, he did get it eventually, and these are the photos that he sent with the caption "LOVE THE TIES!"

He apparently is out of contact and is wearing his glasses.  He was in good spirits and looking forward to finishing his mission in the next couple of months.