January 5, 2015 Email

Hey Fam! It's great that your all doing well. I think you should do more of the personal writing in the emails, it's good to know how everyone's doing from their own writing. 

This week was fairly good for us here. We did quite a bit of less-active finding all through our area with some responses. Some not quite as we hope they are. The New Year's Eve was pretty good though we didn't get to see too many people that day. We got in early and it was kind of boring sense we didn't have much to do for the night. We got to have a few exchanges that helped get a little change in the area. We were able to get in contact with a potential investigator that we tracked into and we taught the restoration to her. She is very open minded and is willing to listen to our discussions. We also had someone show up at church who would be interested in hearing our message. They live in another area, so we are going to have to find out where they are and let the missionaries in the area know. 

Well that's all I've got for ya this week. Till next week. 

Christmas Stocking

We wanted to send Mitch some fun things for Christmas, but since he is a missionary, we are kind of limited in what we can send.  He requested more music, so that was what he got.  We sent 4 new CDs for him to listen to.  But, mom could not resist sending a stocking stuffed with goodies.  I didn't get a photo of it before it was sent, but the picture below will give you an idea of what it looked like.

I added a belt to the one we sent and stuffed it with candy. new ties, gift cards and other little things he would need.

December 29, 2014 Email

Hey family! Hope things are still going well for ya still. This week was interesting for us since it's Christmas week. We went and visited a few families after the call, as we were advised by our mission president, and we went and had dinner with a really cool family. The family was about half the size of ours so it felt like home. We had tri tip with mashed potatoes and it was great. The rest of the week, we didn't have the best of luck visiting people since they were out of town. Some people we usually see weren't home or aren't feeling well enough to talk with us. Nothing else really happened this week so there's not a lot to say his week. 

Anyway, wish you all a happy new year and a great week.

Christmas Chat

The gift everyone couldn't wait to open this year was. . .we were able to Skype with Mitch for an hour on Christmas day.  We almost missed it because my power cord on my computer decided to quit working and there was no way to charge my laptop.  But, luckily, we had some friends who let us borrow a laptop Christmas morning so we could still chat with Mitch.  It was awesome to see him well and happy!!  He sang and played a song that he wrote.
He posted the song to his facebook page.  Check out his video performance here:

Mitchell's Song "Searching" 

Searching

Verse 1:

Don't know where I come from

or how I got here all alone?

A haze hangs over me

where I don't know of my own. 

Time passes on by

unaware of my presence known. 

(Chorus:)

I'm searching for escapes

out of my own ways that I've gone.  

I'm looking on my knees

not knowing where to go from here. 

And I hear your gentle voice

calling me to rise and see. 

That all I ever need 

to move on happily is you. 

Verse 2:

This life's been full of pain,

sorrow and regret of my own.

Where do I belong 

in this big old world so unknown?

I'm struggling to know

how can I go on so alone?

(Chorus:)

Bridge:

And since that answer came 

I can not deny who I am. 

I've come to see in you

I am that great man, meant to be. 

I see the light above

and it guides me back to my home. 

Home!

Verse 3:

I found though him my way

out of my own steps of wrong. 

This mortal body's weak 

but it's through Him, I am strong. 

I see his glorious smile

found with open arms, never gone. 

I'm coming home to you

where my heart still lies in your arms. 

I'm coming home. 

December 22, 2014 Email

Hey Fam! Is great to hear you all had a great program for Christmas. The program here was fairly good and we had a linger longer thing after church where we got to have refreshments and get to know the members better. 

This week was transfer week for us and I now have Elder Kretschmer as my companion. He's an older missionary and will be heading home soon. He seems ok so far, but I've only been with him for a week so we'll see how the next 6 weeks go. The week itself was fairly slow time wise and work wise. We had a few meetings throughout the week that lasted a while, one such meeting was our Christmas Devotional with the missionaries in surrounding areas. The meeting was planned to happen at 9, so all of our zone gets there at about 8:45 as we were asked to be. We all waited for the mission president to show, yet he didn't show up and it was five minutes till the meeting was suppose to start. The zone leaders called and found out that the meeting was rescheduled for one, and we didn't get the message. So we were there four hours early and we had planning to do, so we planned and studied for a while. Then we had a call telling us it was pushed back another hour. We waited and met with missionaries as they arrived and we had the meeting. It was full of song and full of spirit. The rest of the week we worked and found many people were heading elsewhere for Christmas or are getting sick. This week will be hard because of all the things going on with the season that it is. It's weird to think it's close to being Christmas since it doesn't snow here at all. That's just something I have to get use to out here I guess. 

December 15, 2014 Email

Nothing goes better with hot cocoa than big mustaches-lol!!!

Hey Fam! It's great to hear how all of you are doing. Schedules seem to be full of work, sports, and music all over the place. Work for you and Dad seems to be busy. I kind of wish it was like that here so we could have things to do the whole time. It's awesome to hear Tim and Lindsey are attending church. I have high hopes for them with their engagement and with their new beginnings in the church and life. 

This week was the final week of the tranfers and my companion, Elder Briggs, is heading out of here. He will be serving in the Yuba City area. I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. During the whole rest of the week, we've had crazy storms come through here that had heavy downpours accompanied by 60 mph winds. This all happened throughout the week except for Sunday when we were stuck riding our bikes to church. 

We had some meetings that we had to have this week. That made it fairly difficult to visit people in the area when they are sick and going out of town for the season. 

The investigator that was getting baptized decided he wasn't ready yet. He's ready and clears on all the requirements, but he is afraid of the multitude of people. We let him know who all was going to be at the service and he started freaking out because of some anxiety issues and blood pressure. He gets stressed in crowds but does well in one-on-one interaction. So we will be working with him so he can get use to more people and work through his anxiety. So we didn't get a baptism this weekend, but will be working towards it again. 

So that was the week here in Cali. I enjoy hearing from you and I love the stories you tell. I love you all and have you in my prayers always. 

Love

Elder Smith

December 8, 2014 Email

Hey Family! It seems you all had an average week for Montana. The Christmas concerts are fun to have to invite those to feel the Christmas spirit. 

This week again went by super fast. We didn't have many meetings this week but the week didn't last very long either way. We had several people that we tried to see but had little-to-no luck. Most people we tried to see were less-active members and several of our people weren't home or are sick. This Christmas season will be difficult because most of our people could be out at other people's homes for the season and we won't be able to visit with them. 

We had a great miracle this past week with a now potential investigator. We were heading over to an appointment with an investigator who's on date for baptism this Saturday and we were waiting to cross the street when someone walking down the sidewalk came up to us. He said his name was Forrest and told us that he's been trying to get a hold of us for some time. We showed him the new Christmas initiative the church has put out called "He is the Gift". It's a great video to get people ready for the Christmas season and to discover and embrace the gift God has given us. He said that he would be open to hear from us anytime and that he lived in this apartment complex close by where we were. We, unfortunately, did not get his apartment number from him.😑 So we're going to have to do some hunting to find him again. I think the only thing I would need is music and the call home on Christmas Day. 

Well, I hope you all have a great week ahead and wish you all the best. I love you and have you in my prayers always. 

Love,

Elder Smith