Hello Everybody!

I feel very fulfilled. This last week was a little hectic in some regards but the end result was very spiritually uplifting. Yesterday, we spent the ENTIRE day with a recent convert who was baptized 9 days ago. He had voiced some concern with some "disagreeing material" he had discovered to the point of wondering if he had made the right choice. When I say we spent the entire day with him, I mean we spent the day doing missionary work as we contacted less-actives and potential investigators. We got into the home of one man and after teaching the Restoration Ryan (the recent convert) shared a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. That evening he joined us at the Stake General Priesthood Meeting which focused completely on the power of the Book of Mormon. In the car ride back he mentioned how he had been feeling, how Satan had been working on him the entire week, then concluded by talking about how he then felt. All those feelings of doubt have left him. He knows he's on the right path. It was a beauiful transition. This has been an amazing week. Did we baptize anyone? No. But I still fulfilled my purpose completely. We are to help others come unto Christ. "Others" means anyone and everyone.

This work is true!

Love,
Elder Smith

Incredible Experience

Hello Everyone!
This has been a crazy week. A crazy AWESOME week that is! So, we've been doing a lot of good work but one of the coolest experiences happened last Friday night. I got to go aboard the U.S.S. New York and teach a powerful lesson in the chapel of that ship. Let me tell you what...pictures do not give justice to the size of naval ships. The ship was in the Norfolk Naval Base, the largest naval base on the planet. As we were driving around the base we got to see, up close, air-craft carriers, destroyers, transport ships, you name it. They're HUGE! We got a sweet tour of the ship afterward.

 The man we taught is named Ryan and he had been meeting with the missionaries for the last few weeks. He's in the navy so he'd been out at sea for 2 weeks but had good contact with his member fellowshipper who worked on the same ship. His ship came in last Friday so we made plans to meet up with him Friday night to make sure everything was still set and ready to go for his baptism the following day. The past few weeks had been quite an experience for him. Satan really put it into the hearts of several people to steer him away from the Church. There were several anti-mormon attempts to stop him. Since we were made aware of this we made plans to hold a Q&A session with him. He had a lot of questions and it was a beautiful and powerful lesson. Present were my companions and I (3), Ryan and four other members. With 8 people it would be easy for the lesson to go South BUT not in this case. Everybody was in tune with the Spirit and everything worked out for good. It was amazing. Needless to say, he was baptized the following day.

It's been a fun week. Elder Pelham and I are getting along great and we have some great things in store coming our way. Life is good and it's good because I'm serving as a missionary. If you don't understand what I mean by that then I highly recommend you serve the Lord by going on a mission. You won't regret it unless you don't work. This work is true!

Elder Smith