Oh WOW!

This week was really sweet! We had some breakthroughs and we saw some real miracles! It also is crazy that the mission is splitting this week and that the Mehr's are gong home! I am going to miss them bad! My new mission President is President Harrington and he is going to be coming here on friday for a little meeting and then he wants to go teaching with me and Elder Beck for an hour. So we are lining up our superstars for that hour! It is crazy how fast time is going and that the mission split time is here!

Janais is still doing well and we are just working with her! Her grandma still thinks we are hilarious and gives us a good self esteem boost!

We are teaching a girl named Odelia and she is sweet! She is 18 and super smart and excited to learn. We found her a little while ago while I was eating something called an ice lolly, (Similar to a popsicle) and she walked by and we talkedto her. She seemed pretty cool but busy and so she told us to just give her a call. Ha I would like to have a dollar for each time I heard that one! But anyway on Monday we had a ton of things fall through so we decided to give her a call! Lo and behold she was able to meet with us and she loved the restoration! At the end of the lesson we told her, "You remind us of a girl at the church, her name is Brittany." Come to find out that her and Brittany are like best friends from school! Ha crazy! A little bit about Brittany is that she just turned in her mission papers and is a superstar in the branch. So we obviously couldn't have a better fellowshipper! So we called Brittany and told her and lined it up so that she could come teach Odelia with us the next time! We went by on thursday with her and a guy named Silas and we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see Brittany teach her friend about the Book of Mormon and it was a really spiritual lesson! Now we move on to Saturday, Plan of Salvation lesson. We had a feeling this would be good and it did not disappoint! She loved it and it answered a lot of questions that she had! We then invited her to be baptized on the 1st of August and she paused for a while, took a deep breath, (Elder Beck and I were getting kinda nervous) then she said, "I'm so excited!" Now everytime she talks about it she gets super excited! She went on to tell us that she had wanted to get baptized for a while and for whatever reason it just hadn't happened. Then she said something that I just loved! She said, "Maybe the Lord has just been preparing me for this moment!" The spirit has been teaching and preparing her a ton! She is one of the coolest people I have taught on my mission! She also came to church and loved it! She is really excited for next week! So yeah that is pretty sweet! Tender mercy from the Lord!

I love this work! It is going great! I love you guys! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

Weather the storm!

This week was an interesting one! We had a lot of craziness going on and also a lot of miracles! So to start out St. Lucia is in what they call a "Water Shortage". Which kinda makes me laugh. I mean it's a tropical island! Ha so let's be real here! But anyway it has been raining like crazy! So we've just had to weather the storm! (I'll send a pic about how we did that!)

First miracle is with our girl Janais! She is killing it again! It was kinda funny because we had been trying to figure out what her concern with baptism was and so we went over and I asked her, "Janais, why don't you feel ready to get baptized?" and she said she was nervous and so Elder Beck asked her why and she paused for a little while and she said, "Well, I don't want a big crowd to be there!" Ha so it was funny because she is just so shy and it was totally a Janais answer!

About a week ago we found this cool 20 year old girl Heidi and her brother Matthew! They are sweet! We taught them the restoration and they understood really well and loved the fact that Christ's church is on the earth today! Elder Beck and Elder Brown went back to see them on tuesday, (I was on a tradeoff) and her friend Nicole was there and they taught her! Anyway the lesson went well and at the end they invited her to be baptized on the 25th of July and she was excited about it and asked to borrow their pen so she could write it down! She then was like, "What time is that going to be at? Just so I don't schedule anything over it! Ha so she is sweet! We are really excited about them

Sheena is also doing well! We are excited about her and we also found some other really cool people! 

I also had a good fathers day and I am so grateful for my father and for all that he did for me! He is a "real man" as Elder Christofferson would say! I love you Dad! Thank you for all you do! Have a great week everybody! I love you all!

With Love,

Elder Smith

"Though he will make some sacrifices and deny himself some pleasures in the course of honoring his commitments, the true man leads a rewarding life. He gives much, but he receives more, and he lives content in the approval of his Heavenly Father. The life of true manhood is the good life."

D Todd Christofferson

This is how we "lime" with the constant rain!:)

He liked the fish until he tore off a piece and the brain came out with it, then he couldn't eat the rest. Blach!!!!!:(

The Storm Drain

This week was just a really funny week that made me laugh! Me and Elder Beck were just dying at so many different moments this week! So I am just going to start off with one! So the title of this email came from an experience that happened as I was directing Elder Beck as he was backing our car! (Missionary rule) But anyway he was backing up and it was in a spot that I have backed him into a million and one times and so I wasn't really concerned about it that much so I just start kinda getting really into it and then all of a sudden I feel my foot just drop into this storm drain! IT was crazy! And I am like right behind the car! Luckily Elder Beck was watching me and stopped the car and just started laughing! I then got out and all was well besides some dirt and stuff. It was pretty funny! Ha so I guess that is like a gospel principle! Even when we think we're safe and all is well, when we start messing around then nothing is off limits and anything can happen! 

We had a really good week this week though! We are going to have to move Janais date back but we will work through that! Also we are meeting with a really cool girl named Sheena! She is really neat to teach because she just notices these things that she needs to change and then she does it! It's amazing to see how the spirit is working through her! I love working with her!

Something that was cool too was that I gave a talk my first sunday in St. Lucia and I was the concluding speaker and I had to fill about 30 minutes and was just rambling but it was still good! But anyway it was cool because yesterday a member gave a great talk and said that she got started thinking about this subject because of my talk the week before. So that was cool! She talked about self worth and eternal perspective. This is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately as well! I know that a lot of times we think we have everything figured out and that we know how it's all going to work. However it rarely goes that way! That requires a lot of eternal perspective to handle that! We think we know the play! But Heavenly Father reminds us that we really don't even know who the minor and major characters are. It's hard but that is just the way it is! However He knows who they are. That's something that I have noticed. He knows who He wants us to be. We just need to let Him shape us and mould us. I know that as we do that. Our play will be wonderful and our painting a masterpiece! I love you all! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

“As the sculptor was chiseling a block of marble, a boy came every day and watched shyly. When the figure of David emerged and appeared from that stone, complete for all the world to admire, the boy asked Michelangelo, ‘How did you know he was in there?’”

The perspective with which the sculptor saw that block of marble was different than that of the boy who was watching him work. The artist’s vision of the possibilities encased in the stone allowed him to create a work of art.

The Lord knows what He wants to accomplish with each one of us. He knows the kind of reform He wants to achieve in our lives, and we do not have the right to counsel Him. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Rafael E Pino

If the Shoe fits!

Things are going so great here in St. Lucia! I am loving it! We are having the time of our lives here and we are seeing a ton of success! One of the really sweet people we are meeting with is Janais! She is a ten year old grand daughter of a member and she has been coming to church for about a year and a half and just  hasn't gotten baptized! She is going to be getting baptized on the 20th though and she is really excited! Janais is really funny though! She is alot like Millie! It's crazy! Ha but we have some good limes with her and her Grandma Geneva! She thinks that Elder Beck and I are the funniest people on the planet! It is hilarious how she laughs at everything that we say! Sometimes they aren't even funny comments! But she really gives us a self esteem boost!

Also O'Brian got up in Sacrament meeting and told his conversion story in his testimony! He is doing well and it makes me really happy! I was really proud of him!

We are working with so many cool people and it is hard to write about them all! One of them is named Robert and he is sweet! He is 18 and is just really wanting to follow God as closely as he can. So he is really liking the Book of Mormon and the fact that this is the Lord's church! He would be a fantastic missionary though and so he is a very important investigator! He is a super funny guy too and has already introduced us to some of his friends!

I am just about out of time but things are going really well! We are seeing miracle after miracle and finding a lot of what I like to call "diligence testers". Those are people that Heavenly Father puts in our path that are really cool and they usually are found after a couple not as cool people. So we are really careful and like to make sure we talk to just one more person! :) I think that is the way life is as well! I have been looking back a lot at my life and wondered How many blessings have I missed because I didn't want to do just a little bit more. That has been hard... Ha I have missed a lot! But I know that as we just try a little harder to go a little bit farther we will see the blessings! The Lord wants to bless us but He is going to try us before. So keep going! Hang in and Hold on! And if the shoe fits, wear it! I love you guys! Have a great week!

With Love, 

Elder Smith

 Elder Smith and Elder Beck!

 French Fry Friday

 I Love this one!  Rooftop pictures!

Miracles of the Restoration

Elder Smith's new address is to your right, he is back in St. Lucia!:)

Wow this week was great! We saw a lot of miracles and it was great! I had a lot of great things but not a lot of time today so I am going to be jumping a little bit!

We were able to see O'Brian and the fam and it was great! HE gave me a huge hug and Dorothy told me that I look like I lost weight. Ha that made me feel good! We talked for a little while and He actually came to church! And said the closing prayer! So I am praying that we can get him back! I love that man!

The next part that was cool was we were able to drop off the first missionary to ever serve from this branch and it is just exciting! He is super excited and just ready to serve! He has been a member for about 14 months and is just amazing! I am so grateful for his example! 

I am just about out of time but the people here are amazing and the young missionary is a perfect example of that! They are miracles of the restoration here and I am so grateful to serve around them! I love this work! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

"I have also seen another miracle. That miracle is you, the great faithful but often unheralded body of the Church who play your part in the ongoing saga of the Restoration. In a real sense, the wonder and beauty of this historic day would not, could not be complete without you.

Certainly I, for one, have taken great strength from you today, you who come from a hundred different nations and ten hundred walks of life. You who have turned away from the glitter and glare and “vain imaginations” (1 Ne. 12:18) of the world, to seek a holier life in the splendor of the city of God. You who love your families and your neighbors and, yes, those who hate you and curse you and “despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). You who pay tithing with certainty even when you are uncertain about every other aspect of your financial future. You who send your sons and daughters on missions, clothing that child in better apparel than you now wear—or will wear—for the eighteen or twenty-four months of sacrifice that lie ahead. You who plead for blessings to be bestowed on others, especially those in physical or spiritual distress, offering to give them your own health or happiness if that would be something God could allow. You who face life alone, or face it without advantage, or face it with little success. You who carry on in quiet courage, doing the best you can. I pay tribute to every one of you and am deeply honored to stand in your presence...This church, the great institutional body of Christ, is a marvelous work and a wonder not only because of what it does for the faithful but also because of what the faithful do for it. Your lives are at the very heart of that marvel. You are evidence of the wonder of it all."
Jeffrey R Holland

 Cookout Roger and Matthew did for Elder Smith before he left Grenada

 Farewell Burger lime (hangout) with some of the med students

 Andra and Corey's Baptism

 Elder Smith stepped on a sea urchin while doing Andra and Corey's baptism!:(

 Sad leaving Elder Bingham :(

 New Companion!!!!  Elder Beck!!!:)

 Elder Mitchell

 Elder Smith with President and Sister Mehr

Elder Beck and Elder Smith with Shannon (new missionary) before they dropped him off at the airport!