I've had to draw a lot of strength from the Book of Mormon this past week. Its been a rough week with cancellation after cancellation leaving us with no other option but to tract or contact in the heat of the day. I’ve read about Alma, Amulek, the sons of Mosiah, Alma’s sons and all of their missionary work and most recently about the people of Nephi as they are encompassed in war with the Lamanites. It's pretty cool how their examples can have real life impact on us today; especially me here in SA. There are a couple lessons that I’ve learned that I’d like to share.
The first one kind of carries over from my last 2 areas of Krugersdorp and Centurion. Both affluent towns, the missionary work and people are different from what I'm experiencing now in Soweto. Then, we dealt with a lot of anti-Mormon claims and accusations which caused a lot of doubt to our investigators and even the missionaries. So what I loved from the examples of missionary work in the Book of Mormon are how the Sons of Mosiah and Alma and Amulek responded when faced by people like the unbelieving Lamanites, Korihor, and Zeezrom is how they stood their ground. Imagine, when a lawyer who knows the language of the people tries to twist words and doctrines to suit them how hard it would be to respond when the spotlight is on you and your companion. Or when people straight up deny the Christ. What I saw in them and what helped me to press forward is that they didn’t give up or give in. And ultimately, after the trial of their faith, they saw, and even produced, miracles! So the storal of the mory is stay true to what you believe, ask the Lord to help you in pursuit of truth and remain hopeful!
Another cool lesson I’ve been learning has occurred this week, and I don't think I'm done learning it either! haha. Eish its been a rough week like I said. People have dropped through, it's been HOT, and motivation has been on the waning side. So what did we do? Unfortunately there were some times where we didn’t use our time as valuably as we should have but fortunately, we pressed on and did our tracting and finding and working with the ward members! So we’re happy that we didn’t just totally flop but even today (Saturday) we’re battling to keep hope and faith and motivation. So I was reading about the stripling warriors and the armies of the Nephites when they take back their cities from the Lamanites in Alma 55-59. With the Lord’s help they were able to pull off some miracles but when it came time to hold on to those things, they were in desperate need of reinforcements and didn’t receive much help. Haha it's kind of like us! Last week was so awesome with great miracles but now that its time to hold onto those things, Elder Manuma and I feel like we need some serious reinforcements! So it's up to us to do like Helaman in Alma 58:9-12 by pouring out our hearts to God to ask Him for help in retaining our works and delivering us from the temptations that are directly related to our purification challenge. So a greater part of peace has come to our hearts, or at least to my heart knowing that all I have to worry about is working hard and not giving up or being lazy and the trial will continue until the Lord sees fit but He won't leave us alone. I truly believe he will buoy me up in some great way this weekend and who knows, maybe next week y’all’ll get the update of the cool things that will happen!
So yeah, just another testimony that the Book of Mormon is written for us today and no matter what situation we are in, we NEED it! But yeah, keep us in your prayers please- we would love that! Pray that we can have the mental and physical strength to press forward in righteousness!! Cheers!
Elder Smith
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2015
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
In which Elder Smith spends 7 hours in the car and then learns a lesson he'll never forget.
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| With Bro. Lebogang, the Facebook referral from Arizona! |
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| Elder Ranjato gets ready to go home! Elder Willombe will have a new companion |
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| Nelspruit Area |
ICYMI- Elder Smith wanted a new feature added to his blog, "Guest Testimonies." Click the tab just under the title banner to hear testimonies from missionaries and members serving with Elder Smith.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
"It’s motivating to live the right way and work super-super hard so I can set a good example."
This week’s letter consists of answers to many of my questions. As he says, he frequently runs out of email time so he didn’t write a blog post, but this letter was informative so I wanted to share it. -Mom
Alright I have to apologize I ran out of time really quickly today in email. I always go in with the best intentions and game plan for how I’m gonna do it and then, like today, I’ll get an email that is unexpected and my whole thing will be thrown off haha. Oh well I guess it’s all part of it :P and for that, I’m glad I have typie :) so here I go- I think I’ll answer all your questions first then go from there!!
1-How is district leading and working with Elder Ah Wong?” Well, I love both and being DL has its challenges! It’s amazing to see how experience that can only be gained thru companions and time help you to learn how to live and work with all sorts of companions! That being said, the Lord blessed me with Elder Ah Wong because we are very similar and he is just so easy going that he is able to put up with me haha. I love working with him. I don’t think I’ve ever realized how hard of a person I am to live with. I don’t know if its mission but I think I’ve become a bit OCD and stressful. Part of me knows that’s bad and I should be more patient but the other part of me understands because this is the work of salvation and so I can’t just be skippdy-doodle or else my accounting before the Lord won’t be that fun ya know! Another thing I’ve learned so far is that it doesn’t help to complain about any problems because it is what it is so I try to only focus on the good things and the future! District leading, like I said last week has been very eye opening! It’s motivating to live the right way and work super-super hard so I can set a good example. Idk mom, tell me what you think, whenever I make a small mistake I apologize and say I’ll do better and all I get is a weird look like “come on Elder Smith, you were 2 minutes late.” Now it’s not the two minutes I’m worried about but it’s the example that I’m setting. Maybe I’m too worried about being perfect? :)
2-Nelspruit details: so Nelspruit itself is a town that has its white parts, black parts, colored parts, and then mixed parts make up the majority but it’s all got one thing in common: $$$ or should I say RRR (*R for Rand= South African currency) Haha they are all cheesy! (*Cheesy /Cheese/Cheese-boy = Expensive/Luxurious/Posh) All nice cars and nice houses and big gates and big mean dogs Haha it’s a far cry from township where you have humble people and humble circumstances. Now all of that is Nelspruit town. Our area goes all the way to Komatipoort by Mozambique, up to Bushbackridge in the north and down on the borders of Swaziland. So it’s about a 3-4 hour drive from one of the ends to the other. It’s BIG! That being said, then you have Kanyamazane which is the other elders’ area and branch in the middle of ours and that’s a township. So for us, we cover the whole range from village to cheese-boy town. Haha but we mainly work in town because that’s where the chapel is and where people can get to church. Once a week we usually pick some far area like Sabie, Lydenburg, Hazyview or Barberton and go there to strengthen the members and teach the few investigators who are out there that come to church. We don’t do finding there cause it’s pointless to teach someone who can’t get to church for baptism. It’s all good tho because they’ll get their chance for the gospel. We’re striving to build up this kingdom so we really only try to teach those who are keeping commitments hardcore. Haha it’s funny to then look back and see how many joker-ish people we had in Daveyton. What that means tho is that we do a ton of finding! Tracting isn’t effective during the day cause everyone has a job and isn’t home so we are trying to do as much parking lot finding as we can. Haha it takes a lot of motivation to get ourselves excited to go talk to grumpy white people :P you can imagine that we jump at the chance to talk to a black guy in a car! It indicates someone who has transport to church, somewhat humble, kind and not rude like most white people. Now don’t get me for a racist cause there are some very nice white people! In fact, in my 11 months on mission I actually taught my first white guy on Friday!! Haha funny thing to think about right? Missionary work is different here that’s for sure but it’s an area that’s teaching me! No time to be lazy here! Haha another funny thing I noticed is that my planner is a lot less full -____- and I like teaching so that sucks a bit but it’s an adjustment. I think that helps build mine and Ah Wong’s relationship because we spend a lot more time facing adversity and finding ways to overcome and still have fun! :)
3- We live in a complex called Villa De Sutene in a suburb called Stonehenge. That’s where us, the Swans and the Scotts live! Have fun finding us!
We do most of our work in Stonehenge (teaching a lot of students who are down to learn and at a crucial point in their lives) so you can take a look at the streets :) then a place called “Steiltes” and “West Acres” we spend less time because its more affluent and less kind :P
4-That lady who we thought was a golden investigator is Prudence Tshabalala and we were so excited for her except when we tried to check on her yesterday we knocked and nobody answered (now the funny thing is there were people inside and funny enough when they saw us in the window, they figured they’d play hide-n-seek and not answer for us) so that’s discouraging. What most likely happened is that her brother in law (who is a pastor) probably told her his opinion on us and the Book of Mormon so now we’re trying really hard to see them but they don’t answer our calls or our knocks :/
5- I too loved conference and I love conference talks! Like the last two weeks I have uploaded 2 talks that have really helped me! I was glad to steal them from Elder Bizimana back in Daveyton because I listen to them as part of my morning routine. The Brethren really are an inspired bunch aren’t they?! It’s crazy somewhere I heard that they receive revelation and do things like 25 years in advance to help us prepare for the future! Now idk if that’s true but it’s pretty amazing! And thank goodness we have this gospel, eh? I have loved being able to read your testimony every week for almost a year as much as you say you have loved being able to share! It is a part of parenting I think I chose to skip out on back home and that choice I regret. But here we are now and I’m thankful you didn’t give up on me! :)
Love, Elder Spencer Smith
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| Elder Ah Wong baptized Ezrom's daughter, Violet. |
1-How is district leading and working with Elder Ah Wong?” Well, I love both and being DL has its challenges! It’s amazing to see how experience that can only be gained thru companions and time help you to learn how to live and work with all sorts of companions! That being said, the Lord blessed me with Elder Ah Wong because we are very similar and he is just so easy going that he is able to put up with me haha. I love working with him. I don’t think I’ve ever realized how hard of a person I am to live with. I don’t know if its mission but I think I’ve become a bit OCD and stressful. Part of me knows that’s bad and I should be more patient but the other part of me understands because this is the work of salvation and so I can’t just be skippdy-doodle or else my accounting before the Lord won’t be that fun ya know! Another thing I’ve learned so far is that it doesn’t help to complain about any problems because it is what it is so I try to only focus on the good things and the future! District leading, like I said last week has been very eye opening! It’s motivating to live the right way and work super-super hard so I can set a good example. Idk mom, tell me what you think, whenever I make a small mistake I apologize and say I’ll do better and all I get is a weird look like “come on Elder Smith, you were 2 minutes late.” Now it’s not the two minutes I’m worried about but it’s the example that I’m setting. Maybe I’m too worried about being perfect? :)
2-Nelspruit details: so Nelspruit itself is a town that has its white parts, black parts, colored parts, and then mixed parts make up the majority but it’s all got one thing in common: $$$ or should I say RRR (*R for Rand= South African currency) Haha they are all cheesy! (*Cheesy /Cheese/Cheese-boy = Expensive/Luxurious/Posh) All nice cars and nice houses and big gates and big mean dogs Haha it’s a far cry from township where you have humble people and humble circumstances. Now all of that is Nelspruit town. Our area goes all the way to Komatipoort by Mozambique, up to Bushbackridge in the north and down on the borders of Swaziland. So it’s about a 3-4 hour drive from one of the ends to the other. It’s BIG! That being said, then you have Kanyamazane which is the other elders’ area and branch in the middle of ours and that’s a township. So for us, we cover the whole range from village to cheese-boy town. Haha but we mainly work in town because that’s where the chapel is and where people can get to church. Once a week we usually pick some far area like Sabie, Lydenburg, Hazyview or Barberton and go there to strengthen the members and teach the few investigators who are out there that come to church. We don’t do finding there cause it’s pointless to teach someone who can’t get to church for baptism. It’s all good tho because they’ll get their chance for the gospel. We’re striving to build up this kingdom so we really only try to teach those who are keeping commitments hardcore. Haha it’s funny to then look back and see how many joker-ish people we had in Daveyton. What that means tho is that we do a ton of finding! Tracting isn’t effective during the day cause everyone has a job and isn’t home so we are trying to do as much parking lot finding as we can. Haha it takes a lot of motivation to get ourselves excited to go talk to grumpy white people :P you can imagine that we jump at the chance to talk to a black guy in a car! It indicates someone who has transport to church, somewhat humble, kind and not rude like most white people. Now don’t get me for a racist cause there are some very nice white people! In fact, in my 11 months on mission I actually taught my first white guy on Friday!! Haha funny thing to think about right? Missionary work is different here that’s for sure but it’s an area that’s teaching me! No time to be lazy here! Haha another funny thing I noticed is that my planner is a lot less full -____- and I like teaching so that sucks a bit but it’s an adjustment. I think that helps build mine and Ah Wong’s relationship because we spend a lot more time facing adversity and finding ways to overcome and still have fun! :)
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| Found him! Thanks Google Earth! |
We do most of our work in Stonehenge (teaching a lot of students who are down to learn and at a crucial point in their lives) so you can take a look at the streets :) then a place called “Steiltes” and “West Acres” we spend less time because its more affluent and less kind :P
4-That lady who we thought was a golden investigator is Prudence Tshabalala and we were so excited for her except when we tried to check on her yesterday we knocked and nobody answered (now the funny thing is there were people inside and funny enough when they saw us in the window, they figured they’d play hide-n-seek and not answer for us) so that’s discouraging. What most likely happened is that her brother in law (who is a pastor) probably told her his opinion on us and the Book of Mormon so now we’re trying really hard to see them but they don’t answer our calls or our knocks :/
5- I too loved conference and I love conference talks! Like the last two weeks I have uploaded 2 talks that have really helped me! I was glad to steal them from Elder Bizimana back in Daveyton because I listen to them as part of my morning routine. The Brethren really are an inspired bunch aren’t they?! It’s crazy somewhere I heard that they receive revelation and do things like 25 years in advance to help us prepare for the future! Now idk if that’s true but it’s pretty amazing! And thank goodness we have this gospel, eh? I have loved being able to read your testimony every week for almost a year as much as you say you have loved being able to share! It is a part of parenting I think I chose to skip out on back home and that choice I regret. But here we are now and I’m thankful you didn’t give up on me! :)
Love, Elder Spencer Smith
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| Never miss a chance to share the gospel! |
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| This is how we do service projects in South Africa! |
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| We use machetes to clear the forest. |
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| Oops |
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| The first cluster meeting in Daveyton. They met their first time after I had already left for Nelspruit. |
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| Clegg and the Daveyton kids! |
Monday, October 6, 2014
"We're gonna try an all audio blog post! So plug in your headphones and get ready!"
Hey! The life of this goalie has been toooo nice this week! And this week I think Imma try to do something a little different so I hope it works and I hope it puts a new spin on the blog posts :) We’re gonna try an all audio blog post! So I’ll type some of the main stories/headlines from the week here but in order to get a full story, ya gotta listen :) so plug in your headphones and get ready for Daveyton: 29 Sept-5 Oct.6.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO:
-Updates from lessons of the week: Lebo, Oliver, Jacob, Ntokozo, Thabang, Sello, Anna
-Doing service at Shimi’s house
-Funerals galore :/
-Prepping for general conference! (msh 2:1)
-A trial of faith—fasting
-Other fun stories :)-
(Mom's note: It's a bit long but totally worth it. The best stuff is at the end.)
As well, enjoy the testimonies of these powerhouses that we get to teach with! We’re spoiled to work with such great young men!
I love you guys and I miss you but askeese, I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else right now! Salani kahle!
Ngiyakuthanda,
Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO:
-Updates from lessons of the week: Lebo, Oliver, Jacob, Ntokozo, Thabang, Sello, Anna
-Doing service at Shimi’s house
-Funerals galore :/
-Prepping for general conference! (msh 2:1)
-A trial of faith—fasting
-Other fun stories :)-
(Mom's note: It's a bit long but totally worth it. The best stuff is at the end.)
As well, enjoy the testimonies of these powerhouses that we get to teach with! We’re spoiled to work with such great young men!
I love you guys and I miss you but askeese, I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else right now! Salani kahle!
Ngiyakuthanda,
Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
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| the mission planner "I love to see the Temple" |
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| the back of the mission planner "I am doing a GREAT WORK and cannot come down." |
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| sunset in Daveyton |
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Even in the face of very apparent danger, if we stick up for what we believe we will be okay. (A multimedia presentation!)
Here’s Elder Smith coming right at ya with his own typie! Haha I don’t know what I did to deserve such a great gift for my birthday but I hope that the words that I will be able to put into my weekly letters will be able to make this gift well worth it! But wow! What a hectic week! Both great and…less great happened to us this week and so buckle up, grab your popcorns (yes, multiple popcorns, that’s how we do it here ;) ) and enjoy the week in this unique day-by-day perspective (something happened almost every day so here we go!)
Monday: since I’ve been sick for 9 weeks, Sis. Dunn and I decided that it was about time that I recovered and got well. So I had an appointment Monday morning at the doctor office with the concern of whether or not I had TB… its prevalent enough here in SA and I have been coughing for 9 weeks so it’s only natural (but stressful, can you imagine? Eish it was a trip). So anyway, Dr Van Niekerk was telling me that I could get a chest x-ray, skin test, or even an expensive fluid test but he didn’t think that I had it so at first I felt good. But then when he was checking me out and getting vitals, he got stern and suggested: “I think you’d better get a chest x-ray.” “Oh great, that’s what you said I needed if you thought I had TB” is the thought that went thru my head as I went across to the radiology room to get my x-rays. So that’s what I got to stress about until 3:30 p. when I saw him again that same day (keep in mind that I had to spend my precious p-day hours doing all this stuff). Luckily, he examined the x-ray and said I don’t have TB but that if I take these prescriptions, I’ll be a better man. Sign me up! I’ll be a better man! Haha well, what he didn’t mention is that like in the Ekurhuleni municipality, there was like no pharmacy that had these pills :/ and I got to spend 1.5 hours driving around finding no luck (still on p-day.. haha) luckily, thanks to the help of an amazing mission mom, I was able to get my medicine! And so I’m TB free and on the way to being a “better man”. This crazy Monday set the tone for the rest of the week!
Tuesday: well, time to add to the list of crazy events. And as I relate the beginning of our proselyting time, keep in mind that no matter how stupid it may sound as you read it, this was extremely scary. So remember Samuel from my last 1 or 2 posts? The super prepared guy that bore his testimony at his first time at church? And stopped smoking and drinking after reading the pamphlet? Well we went to visit him and here is what happened to the best of my memory (maybe check Clegg’s version if I miss any details). We walked in and it was Samuel and his friend sitting in the main room. So we greeted (the friend only spoke Sotho at this point) and sat down to begin our visit. He seemed caught off guard and told us that he was expecting a call for our next appt. even though the time we were there was the appointment we had set with him. So we offered to reschedule when he would be ready but he said, “no don’t waste energy since you’re here we can pray.” Now, normally I would have been like, “okay sweet, we get to teach another lesson!” but for some reason my mouth just started talking and again asked if we could reschedule and come another time (not knowing what we would do in the meantime). And for the 2nd time he insisted that we sit and stay. So then I asked who would pray for us and it was like someone flipped a switch and Samuel’s whole attitude changed. He asked, “how did Jesus Christ teach His apostles to pray?” and so we tried to answer but were cut off by another, more strict “HOW did Jesus Christ teach His apostles to pray!?” and this process repeated about 4-5 times as each time he didn’t listen to us but got more aggressive and started throwing pamphlets on the table. This is when I got the sickest feeling in my stomach but more on that later. His friend now chimed in and started speaking Sotho so we didn’t know what he was saying (add that stress and worry) but Samuel got up and went into the other room to fill up a glass bottle with water. Anyway, he came back in, slammed the bottle on the table and went and shut and bolted the door shut. Now here is the reason for the sickness in the stomach: I realized that 1-we were now locked in the house of a 2-man who has been in/out of prison and 3-is getting mad and aggressive and thanks to the slamming of the bottle on the table, 4-there is an open knife on the table… for those of you who don’t know a lot about SA, knives are worse than guns; especially in the hands of a aggressive ex-con. So for what felt like an eternity, my stomach was in knots. Only 2 times previous have I felt that way and they were both when a gun was involved. So after this eternity of being fearful, I realized that I didn’t need to be! We weren’t doing anything wrong and we were simply here to proclaim a message of hope; so why did I lose my hope!? I realized that fear and faith aren’t the same thing so I changed my fearful prayers (you’d better believe I was praying from the start) into faithful prayers and I felt the fear in my stomach just go away. There are promises given to us as missionaries and I’ve seen the evidence of guardian angels many times in my 9 months here so I knew I had no reason to fear what would happen but to have faith that the Lord would deliver us from any harm. So now that the fear was gone but the adrenaline was still very up, Clegg and I were communicating via looks and it was clear that both of us were trying to find a way out. During this whole time, Samuel and his friend are just spitting the most false doctrine and getting mad at us for “lying” to him about how Jehovah isn’t Jesus Christ and that its really God and how we shouldn’t pray to him cause he gets annoyed and how Jehovah taught how we can drink but not get drunk and all this JW doctrine * (see * below.) But Clegg has the stroke of genius to hand me the phone with a message typed in Spanish “vamos?” (I thought this was very wise because they could’ve grabbed our phone and if they read it and understood, who knows what they would have done but they didn’t know Spanish.) So now me and Clegg were on the same page and I had the phone and an idea. So as I’m keeping eye-contact with Samuel and his friend, (who are both drunk we’ve figured out….didn’t they just say “drink but not get drunk?” Anyways…) I am sending “Please Call” requests to Daveyton 2 like crazy! And then I put the phone in my pocket and waited for the return call. Again, another eternity has passed but the phone finally rang! I pulled it out of my pocket and answered and pulled the biggest fake call I could muster haha! I made it sound like the other missionaries were in trouble and that, since we had the car, could we come get them now-now (South African slang for “immediately!”) (Poor Elder Melese was pretty confused on the other end of the line haha). So Clegg and I picked up our bags and walked right out and without a return appointment but with Samuel saying “I’ll come to church and testify of the truth.” Alright buddy, you do that. At least we were out! We then went to the other guys and told Elder Bizimana (the District Leader) what happened and then called President Dunn and told him as well. CRAZY! And it sounded so crazy and even dumb every time we retold the story but eish, at least from my side, it was super scary. And upon reflection, I was trying to think about what the Lord could have been teaching me in that situation and these are the things I got: He was teaching me that “faith is the antidote for fear!” and that I have no need to fear when we have many things on our side protecting us! It was almost like a 2 Kings 6:15-18 Kasi edition! He was also teaching me about courage to stand up for the truth! Even in the face of very apparent danger, if we stick up for what we believe we will be okay. There was a time where I didn’t really stick up for what I believed and that moment still pains me today. It has moved me to greater courage to stand up and let my light shine and be an example and all those things. During the course of being yelled at for “lying” to Samuel, there was a big temptation to be apologetic and deny the things we taught. I mean this guy was angry and if you’ve been to prison here you know how to use a knife; pretty big temptation right? But the painful memory came to my mind and I knew that I could not deny what I knew to be true. So during the course of this “lesson”, if you can call it that, I did not deny the truth that I knew and believed. We bore testimony that what we had taught him was what we knew and believed to be the truth and reminded him that we had simply invited him to pray! So reflecting upon that period of time made me glad and gave me strength in knowing that if we stick up for what we know, we can and will speak with the tongue of angels, or by the power of the Holy Ghost. And all throughout the rest of the week, I’ve been lucky enough to see how the lessons the Lord taught me on Tuesday were and are preparing me for bigger and possibly tougher situations; here goes nothing!
*We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. –A of F #11
Wow, Tuesday was a long day and that whole deal only lasted 45 min. Haha! Anyway moving on!
Wednesday: actually nothing huge happened on Wednesday except the Lord gave us a huge opportunity to serve! We had a fairly normal day and were coming off a super sweet 6:00 lesson where this new family had kept their commitments to pray about the Book of Mormon! It was sweet cause they’ve noticed the difference around their yard since we’ve been coming and they’ve been reading! So we were happy and we were going to finish our day by visiting a less active family, the Mabodlas, that lives in a far part of our area called Chris Hani. When we got there, we found out that their son had passed away and was being buried on Saturday. Elder Clegg shared a wonderful scripture in Mosiah 16:6-9 about how the sting of death is swallowed up because of the Atonement! It was a very comforting spirit that accompanied his words and testimony. :) We were very blessed to have been able to have the kilometers to visit this family and find out about this tragedy because no one from the ward knew about it at that point but luckily the tender mercies of the Lord are on all of His children! So we were able to report that to the bishop and get the most help for this family.
Thursday: now Thursday was the promised day!!! Why? Because the Zone leaders came and I got my medicine! As well as my birthday package!!!!!!!! =D =D =D
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| The Birthday Package! |
Friday: THE coolest experience! Especially coming off listening to my dad’s story about being arrested in France and then giving away 4 copies of the Book of Mormon! You’ll have to listen to the audio recording from my USB for the story :) We’re getting crazy adding sound dynamics to the blog! Haha! It truly was the coolest!! Ahh the Lord is Great! This gospel is true!! Now go listen! Oh and Gogo Mhlanga signed the papers for her house to be the new meeting place for the church in Daveyton East (Chris Hani, Sgodi, etc)!!
Saturday: Today was a great chance for us to give more service as well as have a new cultural experience known as the African funeral. We were all 4 able to go to the Mabodla’s son’s funeral and I’m glad we did because we were the only ones from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who were there. Even though we were late, we still got to give our love and love from the bishop and ward as well as help with the dishes! Haha- There is a lot of food served for everyone at funerals here so there were a ton of dishes!! All hand washed in tubs out back by the missionaries :) Haha! We had fun and we hope it helped the family by taking it off their minds. Maybe they’ll decide to come back to church! Saturday we also got rain and lightning so it was just super cool! The rain is probably my favorite part of the summer!!
Sunday: Ahh the Sabbath day :) My favorite day of the week for sure! Being able to go to church and be spiritually recharged for the upcoming week is soo necessary! And I’m glad I’ve been able to learn that here because I’ll take that home with me and keep the importance of Sunday in my mind. We had the amazing experience of 3 baptisms in Daveyton 2! Thoriso and Kewaka Molefa and Excellent Mavodze were baptized today and the service was very nice and the spirit very strong as we got to witness these people commit to follow Christ for the rest of eternity! Its times like this that make me excited for 1-being a missionary but also for 2-knowing that if we endure to the end after priesthood ordinances, we can live with God again! Is there a greater reward? Is there anything more we can do during our 4 minutes? (“Your Four Minutes” –Bishop Gary E. Stevenson) Remember that we’ll have eternity to look back! Let’s look back on a gold medal performance :)
WHEW! There is the week for ya! Haha pretty long eh? It was a great week and I’m now looking forward to a great p-day and even better week! Haha I’ve got some cracks on my grammar (or lack thereof) so I hope this makes sense! Haha I already know there are spelling errors and grammatical inconsistencies but what else is new? I haven’t spoken proper English since I got here and I’m proud of it! :P Haha! I love you guys :) Carry on back home and remember to follow the spirit in ALL things! God indeed IS in the details of our lives! :)
Cheers!
Love, Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
PS. I LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD! :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
catching up: three emails to mom
With the loss of "Typie," Elder Smith has less time to email each week so we haven't received an email written specifically for his blog as he likes to do, but he has given me permission to share his emails to me. Below are excerpts from the last three weeks.
July 28, 2014
MOM!!!
Yo this week’s emailing with all the pictures and stories is really making me feel close to home and I love it! hahah I still can’t stop laughing at how you and Clegg's mom met*, you really are stalker friends ;) hahahaha
I can’t wait to get those presents and I promise I won't peek! Pinky promise! haha That’s the fun thing is the surprise to make my birthday special! If I peek, then I won’t have as special a birthday! When you’re 9000+ miles away, you need all you can get to make it special! But a couple members have said they’d do fun things so I hope it’ll be a great day! And I’ll make it even greater for Clegg and yes, the package will get to him! And still no peeking;) haha and tell Sis. Youlton thanks from me! :)
As far as transfer news, Stilgoe went to a place called Ennerdale and Graham went to a place called Klerksdorp! Elder Kewuti's new companion is our DL. Elder Bizimana is from Rwanda and he goes home in 4 1/2 months! So Daveyton will possibly be his dying area. He is a sweet guy for sure! Now, for life as a "father" haha Yo I love Elder Clegg!
We have mutual friends so that’s cool! And now our parents are mutual friends hahaha But seriously we were wondering just how long it would take for you guys to have dinner or something and there ya have it! What I can say about training: it is mentally exhausting for sure haha. At the end of the day I am soooo sick of thinking so I appreciate sleep even more :P but man I love it! I love being able to serve him and I’ve ironed his shirt for him every morning so far and I think I want to make it for 3 months. :) He is super willing to work and excited as well! He is a fireball ready to work! Each day he has just leaped from where he was the day previous! I think training is better for me though than for him! He can learn how to be a missionary anywhere but for me, I’m learning how to again be disciplined! I love it! The fact that I set the tone for his mission is very motivating to be exactly obedient! We’ve set a bunch of goals together and so it’s going well! But all his questions and experiences and the things that he prompts me to do are taking me back to the beginning! "This is where we got the job, this is the beginning." hahaha! I love it! And though almost all of our lessons have ditched this week, it’s been successful! Daveyton needed our companionship because we are going to drop a lot of people who just aren’t ready yet. Elder Stilgoe loved them too much to let them go but sometimes you need to give certain people time. At least we can rely on the spirit or else there’d be a tone of mistakes! But that’s training in a nutshell haha!
I was telling dad how much I appreciate being able to email you guys! Seeing and hearing the joy and hope in your messages really uplifts me! I love it:) I especially loved this part of your RS lesson "They never force righteousness because righteousness must be chosen. They make righteousness discernible to us, and They let us see that its fruits are delicious." Wow how powerful! I love it!
Thank you mom :) I love you and think about you and the family daily and pray for you guys daily as well! I don’t have a ton of time but enjoy your week at Hebgen and I REALLY hope I’ll be able to receive some emails from you this coming Monday :) hopefully you guys can find some WiFi up there :) and look over observation point for me :) I would love a picture of that!
Love,
Elder Smith
PS. 1/3 done? Crazy!!!! 8 months and over a year since my call came and was opened!!!!
*Mom's Note: The day after we knew transfers would occur, I got an email saying that someone had commented on Elder Smith's blog,
"Hey to the family of Elder Smith, from the family of Elder Clegg...the new "son". President Dunn sent us a picture of your son and his name, and I've been looking through blogs to see if I could find him, and I think I did. From what I've been reading, it's a perfect fit and I couldn't be more greatful in advance to your son for teaching mine. My son's blog is tannercleggsouthafrica.blogspot.com."
So of course I had to do some research of my own and I found Elder Clegg's mom's email address. One thing led to another and of course we had to meet!
We sent the photo to our sons and surprised them that we knew each other already even before they had told us who their new companions were!
Elder Smith's reply: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA me and Clegg were talking about how our parents might even meet up one day and: here we are! hahaha How funny! That's awesome! Me and Clegg have huge smiles on right now!"
Take a look at Elder Clegg's blog. It provides another perspective to serving in Daveyton that I have really enjoyed. "Tanner Clegg, Called to Serve in Africa"
August 4, 2014
MOM!!!
Yo I have very much looked forward to emailing you today! Week 2 as a father is great! Me and Clegg are getting along better and have a ton in common that we discovered last night! Haha it’s now becoming funner and funner! :P I love serving him and ironing his shirt and stuff but I have had to learn to let him serve me! Crazy haha I know but it’s a fun companionship! haha As far as funny food stories go, Clegg doesn’t like pap so he has a long 2 years ahead of him....
I can remember that as well haha but he'll adjust! Hopefully :P
I have a cool story to tell you but I only want to type it once so you have to show dad too kay?
So on Saturday, I started my fast that I could receive strength to keep my commitments. So it was a nice day Saturday but the cool part happened Saturday night. I had a dream where Elder Clegg and I went to the mission home for a missionary class (idk why but we just did and it made sense in the dream haha) and so we got there and sat down at the table and in walks M. Russell Ballard, Jeffery R. Holland, and Richard G. Scott to teach the class. So they sit down with us and we have a great class learning and laughing! I loved how real they were and how they really cared about our areas when they have a whole world to care about. But anyway, after the class, Sis. Omer (yeah it was Sister Omer instead of Sister Dunn but Pres. Omer wasn’t in the dream) anyways, she gave us glasses of ice water and we went down to the basement to sit on the couch. In walks Pres. Monson and he sits next to me. I greeted him with "Hello Elder" and I was horrified that I just ruined the title of the president of the church! haha He laughed and said "Hello Elder Smith" and we just started talking! I remember looking into his eyes and just seeing pure love and concern! He made me feel like the most important person in the world and I knew he had the love of Christ! But after laughing with him and talking with him, I said "President Monson, I have to thank you." He asked why and I said "Do you remember being in the SLC temple 22 years ago and being sung happy birthday to?" He said "Yes, by Lynn Stephen Richards" and I said "Yes, he was my great-great-grandfather and you sealed my parents in the temple. I wanted to say thank you because now I’m on a mission." haha I’m tearing up right now actually as I type but it was such a great dream! I woke up and just had the biggest smile on my face! I said a prayer to Heavenly Father and just said "Thank you!" :) but it wasn't the end there. When I woke up, I read in 2 Nephi 4 where Nephi glories in the Lord. And as I was reading how Nephi feels wicked, I thought how he really wasn’t and the spirit told me that it was like me! I’m my own worst enemy sometimes but when I can remember who my trust is in and who is guiding me, I can only rejoice and my heart "no longer droop(s) in sin!" It was really cool as I was preparing for the sacrament that morning:) and that was a great sacrament meeting with all the testimonies:) as I took the emblems, I could only say thank you in a prayer! The rest of the day was golden as well and I loved it! I thank you for the strength I was able to feel from your prayers:) THAT is my testimony building experience for the week and possibly whole month of August!! So that was wonderful :)
Oh also, I had a cool scripture experience in Alma 26:1-8 where you substitute Joburg for Zarahemla and omit "Lamanites." Read it and see. :) It really is amazing to see how faith is such a big part. Yo it’s hard but this week I’ve really felt I made progress! I love you very much mom! I love your emails and all the love that is jam packed in here! I’ll keep you posted on the b-day package for sure:) Please tell Sis. Youlton thank you for that very much!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!! I hope you have a great week!!!!!! And keep your health well :)
Love, Elder Smith :)
August 11, 2014
MOMMY!!
I need a good smile and laugh and testimony building experience this week in email! Eish, I’m feeling like death but I talked with Sis. Dunn and she’s scheduling me a doctor’s appointment this week. I’ve had this stupid cough for as long as I’ve been with E. Clegg and now last night I got the aches and couldn’t sleep. Plus I have a tingling sensation (not painful) under all of my teeth in my mandible (still pullin' out medical terminology! :) ) E. Clegg must think he got a broken companion.... haha So it’s rough and I don’t feel good at all! But I push thru to email you!
As far as the families here in Daveyton, I love Daveyton! The people are genuine and even when they’re drunk as all get out, they can be nice to us whites haha! Except that when they see us they start speaking Afrikaans haha so we have to tell them they’ve got it wrong! haha We have several "favorite members" I guess you could say! The Madumane family feeds us every Thursday and even though there are rats running around the kitchen, we enjoy the time there! They are the nicest I would have to say! I also like the Tsibogo family! The whole family are members but the granddaughter’s fiancé isn’t a member so we teach him and he really digs on the gospel! Hopefully soon they can get married and he can get baptized! Yo and one other of my favorite members is Gogo Mhlanga! (Gogo means grandma) she is 90 years old but can still read small text in the scriptures and still comes to church every Sunday! If I had to compare her to anyone it would most definitely be Grandma Homer! :) The baptism this weekend was mine and Clegg’s!! (Well, the Lord’s haha!) Nyiko Masiza was baptized by his father! It’s an interesting dynamic here how many kids that should be children of record- or baptized when age 8 - aren’t because the parents want the missionaries to teach them! So they become convert baptisms haha but the baptism was so great! Bro. Eddie (the dad) was so nervous he had to start the prayer over 5 times and baptize 2 times but eventually it was done properly! Yo what a cool thing to be a part of! And askeese, I can’t remember the photo you’re referring to! My mind isn’t working very well… eish I hate being sick! Especially on p-day!!!! :( But then I’d have to say some of the beauty we see here IS the poverty but the smiles on the people faces! They beat the band! As well, we get amazing sunsets and sunrises and the clouds are by far the coolest part! It’s amazing here! Truly beautiful!
Haha One thing we also have been dealing with this week is something called load-shedding. Since electricity is in short supply in the winter, in all the townships they kill ALL electricity for several hours haha. So that means lessons by candle light and with my torch that we bought that looks like a light-saber!! haha But it adds a unique dynamic because I kid you not, it ALL goes dark! Streetlights, robots (traffic lights), houses haha everything! It’s hectic and we've had to cancel a dinner because of it -______- hahaha not cool!
Mom, I love you so very much! Thank you for your prayers and the wonderful messages you share with me and the hope you inspire in me! I couldn’t do this without you or dad or the Lord! Please keep my health in your prayers and I’ll let ya know how the doctor appointment goes tomorrow! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder David Spencer Smith
July 28, 2014
MOM!!!
Yo this week’s emailing with all the pictures and stories is really making me feel close to home and I love it! hahah I still can’t stop laughing at how you and Clegg's mom met*, you really are stalker friends ;) hahahaha
I can’t wait to get those presents and I promise I won't peek! Pinky promise! haha That’s the fun thing is the surprise to make my birthday special! If I peek, then I won’t have as special a birthday! When you’re 9000+ miles away, you need all you can get to make it special! But a couple members have said they’d do fun things so I hope it’ll be a great day! And I’ll make it even greater for Clegg and yes, the package will get to him! And still no peeking;) haha and tell Sis. Youlton thanks from me! :)
 |
| Goodbye Elder Stilgoe |
 |
| Hello Elder Clegg |
I was telling dad how much I appreciate being able to email you guys! Seeing and hearing the joy and hope in your messages really uplifts me! I love it:) I especially loved this part of your RS lesson "They never force righteousness because righteousness must be chosen. They make righteousness discernible to us, and They let us see that its fruits are delicious." Wow how powerful! I love it!
Thank you mom :) I love you and think about you and the family daily and pray for you guys daily as well! I don’t have a ton of time but enjoy your week at Hebgen and I REALLY hope I’ll be able to receive some emails from you this coming Monday :) hopefully you guys can find some WiFi up there :) and look over observation point for me :) I would love a picture of that!
Love,
Elder Smith
PS. 1/3 done? Crazy!!!! 8 months and over a year since my call came and was opened!!!!
*Mom's Note: The day after we knew transfers would occur, I got an email saying that someone had commented on Elder Smith's blog,
"Hey to the family of Elder Smith, from the family of Elder Clegg...the new "son". President Dunn sent us a picture of your son and his name, and I've been looking through blogs to see if I could find him, and I think I did. From what I've been reading, it's a perfect fit and I couldn't be more greatful in advance to your son for teaching mine. My son's blog is tannercleggsouthafrica.blogspot.com."
So of course I had to do some research of my own and I found Elder Clegg's mom's email address. One thing led to another and of course we had to meet!
 |
| The Mamas |
Elder Smith's reply: "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA me and Clegg were talking about how our parents might even meet up one day and: here we are! hahaha How funny! That's awesome! Me and Clegg have huge smiles on right now!"
Take a look at Elder Clegg's blog. It provides another perspective to serving in Daveyton that I have really enjoyed. "Tanner Clegg, Called to Serve in Africa"
August 4, 2014
MOM!!!
Yo I have very much looked forward to emailing you today! Week 2 as a father is great! Me and Clegg are getting along better and have a ton in common that we discovered last night! Haha it’s now becoming funner and funner! :P I love serving him and ironing his shirt and stuff but I have had to learn to let him serve me! Crazy haha I know but it’s a fun companionship! haha As far as funny food stories go, Clegg doesn’t like pap so he has a long 2 years ahead of him....
 |
| Pap (also known as mieliepap) is a traditional porridge/polenta made ground maize (corn.) It looks like mashed potatoes in the photo above. They eat it with almost every meal. |
I have a cool story to tell you but I only want to type it once so you have to show dad too kay?
So on Saturday, I started my fast that I could receive strength to keep my commitments. So it was a nice day Saturday but the cool part happened Saturday night. I had a dream where Elder Clegg and I went to the mission home for a missionary class (idk why but we just did and it made sense in the dream haha) and so we got there and sat down at the table and in walks M. Russell Ballard, Jeffery R. Holland, and Richard G. Scott to teach the class. So they sit down with us and we have a great class learning and laughing! I loved how real they were and how they really cared about our areas when they have a whole world to care about. But anyway, after the class, Sis. Omer (yeah it was Sister Omer instead of Sister Dunn but Pres. Omer wasn’t in the dream) anyways, she gave us glasses of ice water and we went down to the basement to sit on the couch. In walks Pres. Monson and he sits next to me. I greeted him with "Hello Elder" and I was horrified that I just ruined the title of the president of the church! haha He laughed and said "Hello Elder Smith" and we just started talking! I remember looking into his eyes and just seeing pure love and concern! He made me feel like the most important person in the world and I knew he had the love of Christ! But after laughing with him and talking with him, I said "President Monson, I have to thank you." He asked why and I said "Do you remember being in the SLC temple 22 years ago and being sung happy birthday to?" He said "Yes, by Lynn Stephen Richards" and I said "Yes, he was my great-great-grandfather and you sealed my parents in the temple. I wanted to say thank you because now I’m on a mission." haha I’m tearing up right now actually as I type but it was such a great dream! I woke up and just had the biggest smile on my face! I said a prayer to Heavenly Father and just said "Thank you!" :) but it wasn't the end there. When I woke up, I read in 2 Nephi 4 where Nephi glories in the Lord. And as I was reading how Nephi feels wicked, I thought how he really wasn’t and the spirit told me that it was like me! I’m my own worst enemy sometimes but when I can remember who my trust is in and who is guiding me, I can only rejoice and my heart "no longer droop(s) in sin!" It was really cool as I was preparing for the sacrament that morning:) and that was a great sacrament meeting with all the testimonies:) as I took the emblems, I could only say thank you in a prayer! The rest of the day was golden as well and I loved it! I thank you for the strength I was able to feel from your prayers:) THAT is my testimony building experience for the week and possibly whole month of August!! So that was wonderful :)
Oh also, I had a cool scripture experience in Alma 26:1-8 where you substitute Joburg for Zarahemla and omit "Lamanites." Read it and see. :) It really is amazing to see how faith is such a big part. Yo it’s hard but this week I’ve really felt I made progress! I love you very much mom! I love your emails and all the love that is jam packed in here! I’ll keep you posted on the b-day package for sure:) Please tell Sis. Youlton thank you for that very much!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!! I hope you have a great week!!!!!! And keep your health well :)
Love, Elder Smith :)
MOMMY!!
I need a good smile and laugh and testimony building experience this week in email! Eish, I’m feeling like death but I talked with Sis. Dunn and she’s scheduling me a doctor’s appointment this week. I’ve had this stupid cough for as long as I’ve been with E. Clegg and now last night I got the aches and couldn’t sleep. Plus I have a tingling sensation (not painful) under all of my teeth in my mandible (still pullin' out medical terminology! :) ) E. Clegg must think he got a broken companion.... haha So it’s rough and I don’t feel good at all! But I push thru to email you!
As far as the families here in Daveyton, I love Daveyton! The people are genuine and even when they’re drunk as all get out, they can be nice to us whites haha! Except that when they see us they start speaking Afrikaans haha so we have to tell them they’ve got it wrong! haha We have several "favorite members" I guess you could say! The Madumane family feeds us every Thursday and even though there are rats running around the kitchen, we enjoy the time there! They are the nicest I would have to say! I also like the Tsibogo family! The whole family are members but the granddaughter’s fiancé isn’t a member so we teach him and he really digs on the gospel! Hopefully soon they can get married and he can get baptized! Yo and one other of my favorite members is Gogo Mhlanga! (Gogo means grandma) she is 90 years old but can still read small text in the scriptures and still comes to church every Sunday! If I had to compare her to anyone it would most definitely be Grandma Homer! :) The baptism this weekend was mine and Clegg’s!! (Well, the Lord’s haha!) Nyiko Masiza was baptized by his father! It’s an interesting dynamic here how many kids that should be children of record- or baptized when age 8 - aren’t because the parents want the missionaries to teach them! So they become convert baptisms haha but the baptism was so great! Bro. Eddie (the dad) was so nervous he had to start the prayer over 5 times and baptize 2 times but eventually it was done properly! Yo what a cool thing to be a part of! And askeese, I can’t remember the photo you’re referring to! My mind isn’t working very well… eish I hate being sick! Especially on p-day!!!! :( But then I’d have to say some of the beauty we see here IS the poverty but the smiles on the people faces! They beat the band! As well, we get amazing sunsets and sunrises and the clouds are by far the coolest part! It’s amazing here! Truly beautiful!
Haha One thing we also have been dealing with this week is something called load-shedding. Since electricity is in short supply in the winter, in all the townships they kill ALL electricity for several hours haha. So that means lessons by candle light and with my torch that we bought that looks like a light-saber!! haha But it adds a unique dynamic because I kid you not, it ALL goes dark! Streetlights, robots (traffic lights), houses haha everything! It’s hectic and we've had to cancel a dinner because of it -______- hahaha not cool!
Mom, I love you so very much! Thank you for your prayers and the wonderful messages you share with me and the hope you inspire in me! I couldn’t do this without you or dad or the Lord! Please keep my health in your prayers and I’ll let ya know how the doctor appointment goes tomorrow! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Elder David Spencer Smith
Monday, July 21, 2014
Life Lessons from a Lax Bro: "The lessons that I have learned from all my coaches ... have benefited me in many ways here in the mission field"
Well, we’ll skip the corny opening cause we got some
straight dope to get to this week! Yo yo yo big news and big headliners! So
transfers are Tuesday and alas, my time with my best friend has come to a close
but it has been a great 3 months as companions! Yo it’s weird to look back on
these 3 months and see how fast they’ve flown as compared to my first 3! But
now it’s finished and time to move on to a new companion! ** We hit new records
in our statistics this week to set Daveyton up to be the best area in the mission!
And what would we do without friends to help us thru the dull and/or rough
times. All this week has been full of crazy happenings and sadly one of them is
that Elder Graham is getting transferred and that means that Typie (*AlphaSpeller) will be no
longer! Haha! Shame no more intricate blog posts for now because I’ll have to go
back to typing it in the email shop and there just ain’t time for that!
But
man eish, it’s crazy that Stilgoe’s and my time together is finished! It was a
killer companionship and we had fun and worked hard and felt the spirit! No
better way to do things! I learned a lot from him in ways that I haven’t
learned before and it’s good; it helps me to grow in many more ways! We were
able to work together to set turn this area around and set it up to be a
baptizing area! And not just for the statistic of baptism but for legit convert
baptisms! One of the crucial things that we are able to constantly learn is the
need for the Spirit in this work. This companionship helped to reaffirm that
within myself. I could go on but in the spirit of brevity, this was a great time
to be the duo of Smith and Stilgoe! Now it’s time for him to move to his next
area and for me to get my new companion! Elder Graham is leaving (as I already
said) and so that means that Elder Kewuti will be staying and getting a new
companion as well as myself. And I can’t wait to see who my new companion will
be!
It was
a great week to finish our companionship on! We were able to achieve the
standard of excellence by teaching 30+ quality lessons this week and 5
father-led families!!! This is the first time on mission that I’ve been able to
teach 5 FLF in a week! Good things are happening! We also got 8 new
investigators to add to our teaching pool so we will not have a dying area! It
was definitely hard work for 3 months but it paid off along the way and has now
been extremely rewarding! It makes everything worth it.
So one
of the nice things about being here, as I think I may have mentioned before, is
being able to set goals to make yourself a better person and a better
missionary. What’s even better is when you add a friend to the mix who sets the
same goals and you can both help each other to get better! It’s been really
cool to become friends with Elder Allen (Seattle) who is serving in Etwatwa
just next door to Daveyton. Yo he’s a honey badger for sure! As we have both
set goals to not talk crap on others and not sing music that isn’t consistent
with our calling, we are able to check each other and help each other keep as
close to 100% as possible! The nice part is that every other night when we go
running with the missionaries in the complex, we follow up with how our day
went as far as our goals were concerned! It’s too nice! Haha And we’ve found
that we can distract ourselves from music by quoting a bunch of movies and as
well as “East vs. West” by Key & Peele! haha Eish it’s too much a good time!
These
are the things that have been happening so far this week but, as my last time
on “typie”, I want to share something that has impacted me this week. I know I
shared a couple quotes by Coach Evans last week but sharing those made me
reflect on my time as a Lax Bro pre-mish. 1st- I couldn’t be more grateful for
the talent I was blessed with to be able to play at the level I did. It was
that which put me in the position to appreciate #2. 2nd- the lessons that I have
learned from all my coaches and all my experiences have benefited me in many
ways here in the mission field. Things as simple as our team mottos: “No Excuses” and “First Time, Every Time” and sayings like “it is what it is” have
turned from a lacrosse perspective to a real life perspective. Coach knew what
he was doing when he gave us those mottos and ingrained them into our minds thru
the use of pushups, planks, Mary-Katherines, etc when we gave an excuse or only
played 50%. For that I am grateful because they come into mind here in South
Africa. Believe it or not, when we graduate and finish high school lax, we
still are able to come up with excuses! Haha they don’t just magically
disappear! But when you are able to take a lesson learned and apply it to post
lacrosse life, you get somewhere! There are many things in the work and in
companionships that are prime opportunities for excuses. There are more than
enough tasks to complete that could be done 50% or even 75% and called “good”.
What we were able to learn however is that isn’t a very good show of
sportsmanship or, as it’s called in the real-world: character. Because I’m a
missionary and I love making parallels to the gospel, our Heavenly Father doesn’t
like it when we give excuses either! He wants us to do his commandments the "First Time, Every Time!" And just like push-ups or what-what to correct our
mistake, our God has given us the ability to repent. Through the Atonement of
Jesus Christ, we are able to fix our mistakes but it means "No Excuses" and we
should really do it the First Time if we want it to matter. One of the things
you realize as well is that whatever you go through, "it is what it is!" You can’t
redo what happened in the past but you can learn from it and move forward!
Because of these valuable lessons that I was able to learn in lacrosse and
specifically from my coach, I feel a step ahead of the game as far as
accountability goes and if I am able to continue learning to not give excuses
and to do my best the first time, every time, I know that I, and all those who
learn the same lessons, will be able to become the person that I, my family, my
coach, and my Father in Heaven know I can be.
But that’s
TTFN! Stay golden and Lax on!
Love,
Elder
David Spencer “Tony” Smith
(** Editor's Note: Elder Smith has been asked to serve as a trainer so his
next companion will be a new missionary.
They will train together for 3 months. Missionaries refer to this as
being a “father” and gaining a “son” because they have the opportunity to train,
teach & serve the new missionary and help prepare them for the rest of their mission.)
Monday, July 7, 2014
"I am glad I was able to follow a prompting of the spirit to help to answer my companion’s prayer and our question!"
July 7, 2014
I felt a disturbance in the force... it’s as though millions of voices screamed out for joy at how cool the Dunns are! Haha yo I miss Star Wars tooo much!! But it’s all good I’ll focus on that in due time :) This week has been pretty great and filled with so much room for activities! We met the Dunns, had a BBQ and a braii, had a great answer to prayers, and many cool moments!
The first thing that we got to do this week was on Tuesday we got to go to the mission home and meet our new mission president and wife! I have heard a lot of great things about them from family (especially the Ryttings) and we all got to see it this week as we met them. We spent a couple hours as we got to know them and as we introduced our companions to them! It was a cool unique way to do introductions as we got to introduce our companions. I speak for myself and hopefully most of the mission as I say that I'm excited to see where they take this mission! I loved the respect they gave to the Omers and the vision that they have as they know they have been called here to progress the work even further! Haha the biggest thing that makes me laugh about “meet the Dunns” is that when we got there, Sis. Dunn just says with a huge smile “SPENCER!!” Haha and I laughed as I shook her hand and said how I haven’t heard that name in 7 months :P What a funny experience.
Also this week... HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! To celebrate, we had a BBQ! Haha none of this “Braii” stuff cause on the fourth, it's American! Haha we all went to Benoni chapel (our district and Benoni dist.) and had a BBQ! We tossed a football and then, out of the normal 4th activities, we killed a chicken to cook! Haha welcome to Africa! We had some members tell us how to do it (okay, really it was the Benoni elders that did it but we were there and participated) and then we did it! We killed it, and cleaned it and, unfortunately had to go back to the flat before we could cook it but I’m sure the other guys enjoyed it after it was cooked! Haha that’s how ya celebrate the 4th in Africa! I missed fireworks tho.... #trunkytime haha eish but then on Saturday we got invited to another braii! (Yeah, this time it was a braii cause it wasn’t an American holiday) some members were celebrating their daughters 1 y/o birthday and they invited us! The nice part besides the food was the fact that we were able to meet with some less active members that we never had before met as well as get two discussions with some potential investigators! So we had a good time and got missionary work done as well so we were blessed!
In addition to all this fun stuff that happened, we had a cool experience and answer to prayers! So full story: on Thursday night, we all 4 went to the Tsotetsie family for dinner. When we got there, there was a program on TV called “the bible vs. Joseph Smith” and at that specific time it was comparing the prophesy of Micah to the prophesy of Alma in Alma 7:10. They were saying that clearly Alma wasn’t inspired because he said that Christ would be born in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem. They got all these archeologists and yada yada saying that they were right and blah blah... anyway, we asked them to turn it off because 1-it was distracting and we’re missionaries and 2-it wasn’t bringing anyone closer to Christ. So what they were saying on TV made sense to our ears but I knew inside that the Book of Mormon was true and that whatever they were saying was wrong; I just felt bad because I couldn’t respond adequately enough to this anti-Mormon stuff. Well anyway it came to Friday morning and in study, I was in King Benjamin but kept getting the feeling that I needed to search more into this Alma 7:10 thing. So I flipped in my [Book of Mormon Institute Study] manual to Alma 7:10 and surely enough there was an entry about it that explained it perfectly! The prophet Alma said the words “AT Jerusalem which is the LAND...” not “IN....the CITY”. The latter is what this program was implying with all their “wisdom” yet they couldn’t read the words right but when you look at it, of course if Alma had said “in the city of Jerusalem” he would have been wrong but he didn’t, he said “at the land” which is true! And in 1 &2 Kings and Luke 2:11 we also find that “the city of David” is referred to as both Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the bible. It just goes to show that in 2 Nephi 3:12, the Bible and the Book of Mormon really do come together to confound false doctrine!! The next cool thing is that when I shared this with Stilgoe, he said “ah it makes so much sense now!” and I found out later that day that when he started his study with a prayer, he asked for help to understand the false doctrine encounter of the previous night. I am glad I was able to follow a prompting of the spirit to help to answer my companion’s prayer and both our question! It just teaches us that we WILL get answers and we can help people get answers if all things are done by the spirit!
So another cool event of the week happened at church. There was a man and his wife and their two kids who came that we didn’t recognize so we invited them into our gospel principles class. They enjoyed it and asked questions and participated in the lesson so we were anxious to get their details after sacrament meeting. So since it was fast Sunday, it was testimony meeting. This man got up and said that he was baptized in 2001 but in 2005 went inactive. Since yesterday he hadn’t been to church in 9 years! But the sweetest part is what he said in his testimony. He said that he knew the church was true because as he looked at his kids and as he felt the welcome of the ward, he knew he was back in the right place! What a cool experience! So we got his details and are planning on seeing their family and hopefully start teaching his wife who is a nonmember :) the Lord works in many mysterious ways!
The last thing I want to share from this week actually happened Sunday night. There is a part of our area named Mayfield and it is far from the chapel and a poor area (all housing is free from the government) so people can’t really pay for the two taxis that it takes to get to the chapel. So the Lord has provided a way for his children to again become active in the church by authorizing a branch to be formed in Mayfield!!! It starts Aug. 1 and we already have a place to rent out for meetings! So we were visiting a sister who lost her husband in December and left here with no job and six small kids. Things have been rough for her (as you can very well imagine) but when she heard that the church was coming closer to her so she didn’t have to pay for taxis, she was happier than words can describe! We had been sharing a lesson with her from John 8 about how Christ is the Light and even warmth of our lives and compared it to the stove that her neighbour just gave her to heat her house. We discussed about different ways that we could make Christ more a “stove” to give us heat in our lives and church attendance was brought up. So as we talked about the new Mayfield branch, she said with tears in her eyes: “the stove in Mayfield is coming!” My friends and family back home, the stove in Mayfield, and wherever we live, is coming! Let us all make it a part of our lives and let its warmth warm us :)
Tha’s ‘bout it! Until next time :)
Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
PS Elder Latouche, congratulations my friend and brother :) I’m stoked for you Dude!!!!!!
I felt a disturbance in the force... it’s as though millions of voices screamed out for joy at how cool the Dunns are! Haha yo I miss Star Wars tooo much!! But it’s all good I’ll focus on that in due time :) This week has been pretty great and filled with so much room for activities! We met the Dunns, had a BBQ and a braii, had a great answer to prayers, and many cool moments!
The first thing that we got to do this week was on Tuesday we got to go to the mission home and meet our new mission president and wife! I have heard a lot of great things about them from family (especially the Ryttings) and we all got to see it this week as we met them. We spent a couple hours as we got to know them and as we introduced our companions to them! It was a cool unique way to do introductions as we got to introduce our companions. I speak for myself and hopefully most of the mission as I say that I'm excited to see where they take this mission! I loved the respect they gave to the Omers and the vision that they have as they know they have been called here to progress the work even further! Haha the biggest thing that makes me laugh about “meet the Dunns” is that when we got there, Sis. Dunn just says with a huge smile “SPENCER!!” Haha and I laughed as I shook her hand and said how I haven’t heard that name in 7 months :P What a funny experience.
Also this week... HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!! To celebrate, we had a BBQ! Haha none of this “Braii” stuff cause on the fourth, it's American! Haha we all went to Benoni chapel (our district and Benoni dist.) and had a BBQ! We tossed a football and then, out of the normal 4th activities, we killed a chicken to cook! Haha welcome to Africa! We had some members tell us how to do it (okay, really it was the Benoni elders that did it but we were there and participated) and then we did it! We killed it, and cleaned it and, unfortunately had to go back to the flat before we could cook it but I’m sure the other guys enjoyed it after it was cooked! Haha that’s how ya celebrate the 4th in Africa! I missed fireworks tho.... #trunkytime haha eish but then on Saturday we got invited to another braii! (Yeah, this time it was a braii cause it wasn’t an American holiday) some members were celebrating their daughters 1 y/o birthday and they invited us! The nice part besides the food was the fact that we were able to meet with some less active members that we never had before met as well as get two discussions with some potential investigators! So we had a good time and got missionary work done as well so we were blessed!
In addition to all this fun stuff that happened, we had a cool experience and answer to prayers! So full story: on Thursday night, we all 4 went to the Tsotetsie family for dinner. When we got there, there was a program on TV called “the bible vs. Joseph Smith” and at that specific time it was comparing the prophesy of Micah to the prophesy of Alma in Alma 7:10. They were saying that clearly Alma wasn’t inspired because he said that Christ would be born in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem. They got all these archeologists and yada yada saying that they were right and blah blah... anyway, we asked them to turn it off because 1-it was distracting and we’re missionaries and 2-it wasn’t bringing anyone closer to Christ. So what they were saying on TV made sense to our ears but I knew inside that the Book of Mormon was true and that whatever they were saying was wrong; I just felt bad because I couldn’t respond adequately enough to this anti-Mormon stuff. Well anyway it came to Friday morning and in study, I was in King Benjamin but kept getting the feeling that I needed to search more into this Alma 7:10 thing. So I flipped in my [Book of Mormon Institute Study] manual to Alma 7:10 and surely enough there was an entry about it that explained it perfectly! The prophet Alma said the words “AT Jerusalem which is the LAND...” not “IN....the CITY”. The latter is what this program was implying with all their “wisdom” yet they couldn’t read the words right but when you look at it, of course if Alma had said “in the city of Jerusalem” he would have been wrong but he didn’t, he said “at the land” which is true! And in 1 &2 Kings and Luke 2:11 we also find that “the city of David” is referred to as both Bethlehem and Jerusalem in the bible. It just goes to show that in 2 Nephi 3:12, the Bible and the Book of Mormon really do come together to confound false doctrine!! The next cool thing is that when I shared this with Stilgoe, he said “ah it makes so much sense now!” and I found out later that day that when he started his study with a prayer, he asked for help to understand the false doctrine encounter of the previous night. I am glad I was able to follow a prompting of the spirit to help to answer my companion’s prayer and both our question! It just teaches us that we WILL get answers and we can help people get answers if all things are done by the spirit!
So another cool event of the week happened at church. There was a man and his wife and their two kids who came that we didn’t recognize so we invited them into our gospel principles class. They enjoyed it and asked questions and participated in the lesson so we were anxious to get their details after sacrament meeting. So since it was fast Sunday, it was testimony meeting. This man got up and said that he was baptized in 2001 but in 2005 went inactive. Since yesterday he hadn’t been to church in 9 years! But the sweetest part is what he said in his testimony. He said that he knew the church was true because as he looked at his kids and as he felt the welcome of the ward, he knew he was back in the right place! What a cool experience! So we got his details and are planning on seeing their family and hopefully start teaching his wife who is a nonmember :) the Lord works in many mysterious ways!
The last thing I want to share from this week actually happened Sunday night. There is a part of our area named Mayfield and it is far from the chapel and a poor area (all housing is free from the government) so people can’t really pay for the two taxis that it takes to get to the chapel. So the Lord has provided a way for his children to again become active in the church by authorizing a branch to be formed in Mayfield!!! It starts Aug. 1 and we already have a place to rent out for meetings! So we were visiting a sister who lost her husband in December and left here with no job and six small kids. Things have been rough for her (as you can very well imagine) but when she heard that the church was coming closer to her so she didn’t have to pay for taxis, she was happier than words can describe! We had been sharing a lesson with her from John 8 about how Christ is the Light and even warmth of our lives and compared it to the stove that her neighbour just gave her to heat her house. We discussed about different ways that we could make Christ more a “stove” to give us heat in our lives and church attendance was brought up. So as we talked about the new Mayfield branch, she said with tears in her eyes: “the stove in Mayfield is coming!” My friends and family back home, the stove in Mayfield, and wherever we live, is coming! Let us all make it a part of our lives and let its warmth warm us :)
Tha’s ‘bout it! Until next time :)
Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
PS Elder Latouche, congratulations my friend and brother :) I’m stoked for you Dude!!!!!!
Monday, June 16, 2014
"most of the room got emotional, even though we were all "too tough" to admit that we were crying"
6/6/14
Whaddup Whaddup Whaddup!!
My name is Elder Smith and this is my companion Elder Stilgoe. We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we have a pretty cool update from the streets of Daveyton for you guys this week. We had a pretty freakin great time here in these last few weeks! We’ve been preparing for a big finding activity that we’re having on Saturday at the chapel, we’ve had zone conference, we’ve finished the South Africa Johannesburg Mission 86-day Book of Mormon reading challenge, and been forwarding the work of salvation in our lives as well as the lives of the people we interact with.
So i guess i should start from the beginning eh? So since ive been here, my companion has had the cool idea to do a fireside/activity at the church to help us bring the church “out of obscurity” if you will, here in Daveyton and to help us find people! So after getting approval from the leaders in the ward and stake, we put our heads together and organized the “Unified in CHRIST” open house! We will be inviting everyone to the open house on the 7th june to come closer to Christ by learning about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know that there are alot of churches here in Daveyton (and SA) and most of us have the common belief in our Savior Jesus Christ! So we felt that a night where everyone who is or wants to be “unified in Christ” can come and learn more about him! So in these past two weeks we’ve been handing out flyers and posting posters (i’ll include a picture) ALL around Daveyton! We’ve been taking them to our members, investigators, random people on the street, and (my personal favourite) to all the churches/congregations and pastors here in D-town to invite them and their congregations to the activity! Its been going very well inviting people and many of the pastors have been giving them to their congregations because we are unified in Christ! As i write this now, it hasn’t happened yet but from the feedback we’re getting from the people we’ve invited and from the members who are inviting friends, its sounding like itll turn out really well! As far as the events of the night, when people come, they will be greeted at the chapel and given a copy of the Book of Mormon, a Restoration Pamphlet, a Pass-along card, and a sheet to write their personal questions on. We’ll be holding it in the chapel and so we’ll start with hymn and prayer and my companion will conduct and welcome everyone who came. From there he’ll introduce everyone and give a layout of the night. We’ll be teaching about the true nature of God, how the Gospel blesses families, the need for prophets, the Savior’s time here on earth, and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each of us missionaries and our ward mission leader are each teaching a topic and have prepared the simple truths and doctrine of our unique message. And since we don’t want it to turn into a “bible-bash”, we will kindly ask that the people who attend who have questions of comments, write them down. We’re also going to be passing around a sign up sheet so that those who do have questions can give us their details and we can give them a visit and answer their questions in a more personal setting in their homes. We’re then going to conclude our night by having a tour of our building so that everyone can know what goes on in “that building that [they] always see when they drive down the main street.” It sounds really good on paper, in our minds, and is getting good feedback from Pres. Omer, our leaders, members and non-members alike! We’re just fasting and praying and studying so that it can hopefully touch at least that 1 person that Heavenly Father is preparing!
*I’ll add onto the blog post after the activity itself :) *
This past Tuesday we were able to have zone conference! Man that was a bittersweet experience. It was President and Sister Omer’s last zone conf. On their mission and so aat the bearing of their testimonies, most of the room got emotional, even though we were all “too tough” to admit that we were crying. President delivered a very powerful talk on the Book of Mormon (as we finished the challenge) and the restoration. I took some notes of the meeting and my impressions and i want to share some of them:
He put a picture of the first vision on the projector and asked us what Jospeh Smith was thinking when this happened. As we answered, Pres. Omer then posed the question: “what do you think the perspective of the Father and the Son was on the morning of the first vision?” wow, what a powerful question that i’ve never even considered! Some of my thoughts were about the Joy that they must have been feeling as one of their sons who had been foreordained and prepared from the foundation chose to exercise his agency righteously and ask in faith to start the wonderful turn of events that would become the restoration. It then led me to think how happy they are when WE exercise our agency righteously! Other points were mentioned but President then came to point out that there must have been joy and anticipation concerning that morning as both the Gathering of Israel and the Abrahamic covenant were being fulfilled! We then started talking about how the BoM, the result and evidence of the restoration was THE tool for gathering scattered Israel and that, in the words of Isaiah, we must be “swift messengers” of the truth! And indeed we must be swift! Time isn’t really an option anymore as we near the coming of our savior! As we look to 1 nephi 15:18, we see that we are currently living that! President Omer taught a very good lesson :)
From there we then had quick lessons from sister Omer on being faithful and responsible stewards of our Heavenly Father’s things that we are given to help us on our mission and i strengthened my resolve to be better at doing my dishes and keeping tidy haha its been struggling a little ;P but then a lesson from the APs about using the Book of Mormon to answer our own and our investigators “questions of the soul”. That was a very nice lesson because we all got to participate and share from what we gained in our BoM challenge as it pertained to those questions.
The conference then came to a close and President and Sister Omer bore their testimonies. I cannot find the words to accurately describe the spirit we felt as they did so or as President left us with a blessing. All i can say is that I KNOW the Lord calls his most faithful servants to lead this missionary work and he inspires them to do and say what we all need to hear! I know that is true for President and Sis. Omer and i know that itll be true for the Dunns when they arrive and become our new Mission President and mother on the 30th of this month. It has been all of our privilege to serve with them and especially for me, I can say that i love President with all my heart :) Zone conference all in all was great and, once again, i soaked it all up like learning from “Beardy” (James Beardmore) at EMW Lax camp! Haha
6/7/14
Wow so tonight was our finding activity and yo yo yo it was sooo cool! After lots of preparation and prayer and fasting (alma 17:2-3) we were able to teach a group of about 30 people! 18 of which were non-members and not already investigators! Man the spirit was so strong and we all taught with the power and authority of God as the Holy ghost was able to testify through our words and the testimonies shared! One of our less active members came, a guy named Sipho November and he brought with him about 8 of his friends to hear what we had to say! What a blessing for a guy who is struggling with his testimony to be doing missionary work on that level! And esp. With a crowd that most people would just disregard as “not open to gospel”. So far we have 2 new investigators from it and hopefully many seeds were planted that need to be! We do have faith and trust that everything that happened there tonight was by the Grace of our Lord. Whether we are here to see the fruits of the activity or they take time and other missionaries, we all 4 KNOW that the Lord prepared all of those people to hear what they heard tonight. Whatever is going on their lives (and even in ours) the Lord is in it to provide us the opportunities to use our agency to come closer to Christ! That is the truth!!
Mission life is going by great tho! We are sitting here waiting for the transfer news to see if Stilgoe stays or goes. Personally, i wish that he stays and signs are pointing to it because he has no reason to leave but whatever happens will be good. We have had such a good time here as friends and companions thats fa sho! But like i said earlier, whatever happens, the Lord will be in it! Also, as a mission we were able to finish the BOM challenge this week and i slacked for a bit during the middle but i plan on finishing this week and ill be writing my tetstimony in the back of that blue softback copy of the BOM that we used and i will send an email of my testimony of that wonderful book of scripture. It truly is life changing.
YO yo yo YO! Elder Cetraro, you’re not “Elder” anymore!!!! =O haha WHAAAA!?!?! Yo cuz how does it feel to be home!? How does it feel to have found yourself after losing yourself!? Man so many great things about mission that i cant wait to hear from you as i am able to, like always, follow closely in your footsteps and learn as im sure you did. Yo mission is great ne? Enjoy being home my friend and know that i have taken your advice to just throw myself into the work and to work hard :) till we meet again! Cheers!
*Transfer news results*
The daveyton district is staying the same for another transfer!!!! None of us are leaving and the saga continues!! :) siiiiiiick!
And in other news, eish, my last companion just got his second incident in jozi this last week. Last Saturday, E. Raymond got mugged in hillbrow and then Saturday night a guy broke his side car window with his gun and had it in raymond’s ribs for a good 30 seconds and he says he is now traumatized (hmmm i wonder why!?!?) but thanks to his companions driving and reactions to the spirit, they got away without any gunshout wounds. Crazy stuff! ‘sall good doe, im in ekasi baba!
Till next time :)
Tha's 'bout it!
-Elder David Spencer “Tony” Smith
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