WEEK 2: MISSIONS ARE SO WORTH IT

COMPANION: ELDER CALL
AREA: PROVO MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER
CITY: PROVO
STATE: UTAH
MAILING ADDRESS:
DAMON JOSEPH SMITH
2005 NORTH 900 EAST
PROVO UT 84604-1793
Unit #342

(YEs unit #342, I was mistaken and it is in fact unit #342, not unit #39F, 39F is the name of my district.)

LETS GET IT STARTED IN HERE

 Hello, everybody. It's yo boi, Elder Smith, the one & only generic white boi at the MTC. Ok but for real there are, I think, 5 or 6 other guys by the name of Elder Smith, so yeah smith blood amirite??

This week has been AMAZING guys, ohhhh man. Seriously, I have had the best week.

Elder Call and I have been making a lot of progress. He's awesome and funny and smart, but relationships are ALWAYS hard when you're with someone 24/7/365...in this case, only 9.5 days thus far, but it has been 24/7(ish). The only thing that I did that wasn't with my companion was cooincidentally one of my favorite happenings of the week (BUT IT'S NOT BECAUSE I DON'T LOVE MY COMPANION I REALLY LOVE HIM HE'S GREAT!!!!!!!!) which was MTC CHOIR AHHH oh man it was SO good. Elder Call and Elder Harris' companion Elder Ney went on splits, and Elder Harris and I did choir. Us four are the ones going to Tennessee Knoxville in our zone; we are the Tennessee squad. ANYWAY the song we sang was an arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives and HOH man that was some GUD stuff, yo. We sang it in a devotional given by Elder Kolliker, a general authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His remarks were great; he talked about how important it is to attend the temple, but he also spoke on the importance of keeping the light of Christ with us; letting it in, and letting it dwell within us, which reminded me of the scripture: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"(Matthew 5:16).

This is me with Zabdi hecking Hernandez (one of my best friends from Olympia, Washington). Seeing him was SO awesome; he is so cool and he is going to make such an amazing missionary. I also saw my cousin Roman; I'll get a picture with him one of these days.

But, an experience I think is worth recording centers around one of my TRC investigators. Just a little background on TRC, the TRC is the Teaching Resource Center. Essentially, the MTC gets people in there, and they form a pool of both real investigators and members of the church who are playing as investigators. Within the first 10 minutes of our first lesson with Oleksandar, who goes by Aleks (He's from Ukraine), we were sure that he is a real investigator, and I will now prove our case. First of all, our lessons with Aleks were 45 minutes long, while our lessons with our other investigator and the lessons taught by the missionaries in our district were all 25 minutes long. Secondly, he told us in our lesson on Thursday "I meet with a lot of missionaries, but I really like you guys", which I don't think is something that someone who was acting would say, just cuz I feel like they'd know what was up and they wouldn't do that. Also, I mean I just vibe with people and he had the distinct vibe of not being a member. He also scoffed, or like sorta laughed at me when I said that I believe that God has a plan for us. It sufficeth me to say that the man deserves an oscar if he is not a real-life investigator. Anyway, I digress; I'd just like to share an experience I had whilst Elder Call and I were teaching Aleks this week.

Before the lesson on Monday, Elder Call and I prayed that the spirit would guide our words; that the words we said would be of and from Christ. And I mean it really HAPPENED. God was THERE. He helped me remember things that I hadn't thought of in FORever; it really helped Aleks to relate to what we believe in, and the resulting discussion helped us understand where he was coming from, and it also helped build a mutual trust, to where he felt comfortable asking any and all of his questions, for questions there were aplenty.

During the lesson, we talked about prayer, and it came up that Aleks had never prayed before. So, we got to talking about the nature of God, because he had a lot of questions. Aleks is agnostic, but has a little bit of background in the Eastern Orthodox church. He is seriously so awesome. Like, from the exact MOMENT that we met him, we could feel how much God loves him. Throughout the week, I kept praying that Heavenly Father would help me to feel the love Heavenly Father has for Aleks. And I mean I could feel that God loved him SO SO much.

But, he hadn't done a great job at exercising his faith; taking what he learned and doing something about it. Throughout the week, we challenged him (and he accepted) to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true, but he didn't read when we asked him to, nor did he pray. But during our lesson on Thursday, he told us that he had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon WHICH MADE US SO HAPPY!! HE EXERCISED FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!! It was so great. He just read the introduction, the testimony of the three witnesses of the gold plates, and the testimony of the eight witnesses. He had some great questions, just specifically regarding why we needed witnesses to the plates, as well as why and how Joseph Smith restored the gospel. We talked about that, and then we read the first chapter in 1st Nephi and he really enjoyed it! We said a prayer at the end and we left feeling like we didn't say everything we could have said.

That was Thursday, but OH MY HEAVENS Friday, yesterday, I had one of the most awesome spiritual experiences of my life. It was seriously just so awesome.

Next up (and lastly) we have a picture of a piece of artwork; it is the Standard of Truth, a quote from Joseph Smith and it is SO beautiful. ALSO my grandparents are in it; they are the senior couple on the far left (love you grandma & grandpa)

Yesterday, Friday the 21st of July in the year two thousand seventeen. We taught him about the ways we can recognize the spirit; how we can help them recognize the spirit etc. OHHHHHHH MAN Elder Call and I testified of the blessings, and the gifts of the spirit that come when we act in faith, and as we did that (he did most of the testifying here), the feeling in the room was the feeling where the spirit is a tangible entity. The spirit of God enveloped the room, it was INSANITY. I was close to tears.

Then, we talked a little bit more, and it was getting close to the end of the lesson, and we wanted him to pray with us. Remember, this guy had never prayed before. We explained (rather, we reiterated what we had taught about prayer on Thursday) why we pray; how much Heavenly Father loves us, and loves hearing from us, and it was awesome. I just felt impressed to tell him about how much God loved him, so I did so. I was getting SUPER choked up. Like tears were welling in my eyes and everything. Those of you who know me, know that I cry like once every like 300 years. The spirit was SERIOUSLY strong in that room. I knew God loved him, and I knew that he knew that God loved him. Aleks is just so dear to me, I am going to miss him so much.

After that, we asked him if he would be willing to pray with us.

He said yes; like an enthusiastic yes and it was SO COOL!!! Like as though he WANTED to pray. It was awesome.

So, he prayed. After a brief explanation of the logistics, we knelt down, and he said the closing prayer. As he did so, I felt the spirit so strongly. Like Elder Call was shaking, the spirit was so strong. One of the things that Aleks said that hit me especially hard, was he said "I am glad to meet with the missionaries, and that the missionaries took the time to understand me". I knew he felt the spirit there. He stopped for a second and asked for a good day tomorrow, then concluded his prayer. He just kinda started laughing after the prayer, and I know he felt the spirit. The spirit of this laugh was different from the condescending laughs from Monday. I knew the spirit had touched his heart, and he was laughing because he was happy; not because he thought the act of prayer was funny. He knew. God knew. God knew that he knew. Aleks will be all the better for it in the future, because he knows he has a Heavenly Father who loves him, and Aleks now knows how to communicate with him.

I love this gospel. I love my savior so much, and I love my Heavenly Father, and I know of a surety of the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of you, individually. He knows your name, and he wants to hear from you.

"45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."(Moroni 7:45, 47-48)

Elder Smith

P.S. here are some photos.

The first is the view from Friday as Elder Call and I were doing personal comp study.

The next is ME AND YOU ALREADY KNOW WHOOOO oh man seeing Zabdi (one of my best friends from Olympia, Washington) was awesome; he is so cool and he is going to make such an amazing missionary. I also saw my cousin Roman; I'll get a picture with him one of these days.

Next up, we have a picture of a piece of artwork; it is the Standard of Truth, a quote from Joseph Smith and it is SO beautiful. ALSO my grandparents are in it; they are the senior couple on the far left.

Lastly, we have another one of the giant murals and it is awesome. It's of moses leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground, and I think it's one of the most beautiful ones, I hope you agree.

Also it looks like I'll have to send the photos in a follow-up email because the file size is too big hahahha classic me. Enjoy these photos while they're awesome because Elder Call has an insane camera so he has been taking photos and sending them to me and it has been awesome anyway LOVE YOU BYE