Purification in 42 Easy Days!

Elder Smith was released as Zone Leader after seven months and transferred to Pimville in Soweto for his last transfer.  Here he is with his new, and last, companion, Elder Manuma.

Purification in 42 easy days!
                Here in the SAJM, all the elders were issued the “purification challenge” for the Sept/Oct transfer. Put simply, we are purifying ourselves of 3-4 specific things that don’t allow the spirit to fully testify through us. Each companionship in the mission is assigned a day to fast, making a 42 day fast throughout the entire mission over the course of this transfer to help us purify ourselves.
                The story where the challenge originates comes from a missionary in Uruguay who describes his experience:
                “A member informed us that he had an investigator that was ready to be taught and he volunteered to attend the first discussion. The discussion went along as usual. At the conclusion, my companion and I bore witness of Joseph Smith and then turned to our friend. He paused for a moment, looked at the young lady and said, “I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God.” The room filled with an extraterrestrial force. The investigator started to cry.
                As we walked home, I was baffled. The man said the exact same words that we had said but the result was dramatically different. When he spoke he had an influence that we did not have. There was no question that the influence was the Holy Ghost, but this man seemed to have it in a different way...”
This elder goes on to describe how he searched for how he could gain the same power and eventually spoke to a well-known church leader who told him how he must purify himself to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. He said:
                Go home and fast for a day in the attitude of fasting and prayer. Make a list of every behaviour that ‘pokes’ at your spirit. Once you have made your list, then go to the Lord. Covenant with the Lord that you will fast from the things on your list for 42 days. In other words, for 42 days you will do nothing that appears on that list. You cannot just stop old behaviours and start new ones. You need the help of the Lord. Each morning go to the Lord and specifically promise Him that you will avoid each item on your list. Ask for His help so you can have extra strength. At night go over the list with the Lord, if you have failed on some items, figure out why. Tell the Lord. Ask for more strength the next day.”

So this is what we are doing! And its only been two days now but on Wednesday, Elder Manuma and I saw 2 investigators and the spirit was very strong in both lessons. It came to the point where they started crying as they felt the love of the Savior for them and the personal relevance of the plan of salvation. Nosipho, one of the sisters told us how she has felt for a while that this is the path that is right for her but that it just hasn’t been the right time until now. We explained that she could not only see her mom again but that she could live with her in the celestial kingdom forever! She was very attentive and then began to cry as we testified that her mom was being taught these same truths in the spirit world and was waiting for her. She then agreed to be baptized on the 11th of October! How sweet is that!? How great is the power of the spirit!! And how wonderful it is when we decide to humble ourselves to obedience and sanctification so we can carry the spirit more in our teaching! I love it! Pimville AND its missionaries will be totally different after 42 days! 

"I don’t fear what they can do to me at work, God needed me at church!"

Dearest Mother! (& everyone else!  You can use this for my blog cause I don’t have time to write one today :P)

HOWZIT?

Wow, this week has been crazy!  I’ve been super busy! And my mind is so scattered! But it’s a great scattered and a great crazy! Haha these new leadership calls really help me cause I think they help me "elevate my game" if you will. 

The newest Northwest Zone Companionship: Elder Smith & Elder Kairu.

Elder Kairu and I are already best friends! haha I love this guy! He is from Uganda but his dad is from Kenya. He is 23 years old and turned 20 months on mission today! We actually served in the same zone (Benoni) for 3 transfers when I was in Daveyton and he was in Kwa Thema. One cool thing is that he is from the tribe of Dan of the tribes of Israel! Isn’t that such a cool thing!? He joined the church like 5 years ago I think when he was studying to become a catholic priest! haha Needless to say, he is a powerful teacher and we WORK hard together! Zac was so right when he said I was more likely to get a comp who likes to work! THANK YOU! hahah I need it! But yeah I’m stoked to be his comp!  We’re learning the area together because he only had 1 transfer here and was only here some of the time because the other times he was on exchanges in the zone! 

These are the places within the Northwest Zone.  The elders live in Krugersdorp.

In our zone, the Northwest Zone, we start in Carletonville, and Khutsong, then up to Krugersdorp 1 & 2 with Roodepoort and Ruimsig (the APs area), then over to Randfontein and Munsieville and alllllll the way up in the northwest province to Rustenburg and Phokeng! We actually got to drive there on Friday after our temple trip to do a baptism interview! Haha we're busy!!! But we have good time in our own area to see miracles and do lots of great work! The biggest miracle is the father-led family which is the husband of our recent convert. He told us on Tuesday that he wanted to be baptized and then even ditched work yesterday to attend his wife's confirmation!!! When we saw them at their house afterwards, he said "I don’t fear what they can do to me at work, God needed me at church!" <---- that faith is inspiring!!! 
Ey this ward is AFRIKAANS with a capital A which is a cool thing but it’s weird cause I’ve never seen any white boys passing sacrament before and there were only like 13 black people in the congregation! How unique! But it’s great here! I love it! I hope that says a lot! I wanted to typie but literally I’ve had no time! haha I haven’t even had time for my journal!  (But don’t worry, I’ll update it)
Today we're looking to play soccer at Roodepoort with Pres. Dunn! Haha I’m stoked for that! and yes, a very good thing that I’m close to the office! :) 
One thing that sucks though is hearing the joking attitude about the “Month of Miracles” for 100% obedience. Some people just don’t get it! haha Oh well, it must be my place as ZL to learn how to love and inspire even the elders who don’t really like obedience! That’s what I’m most excited for is humbling myself and ministering to them. I hope I can do my best!
Eish I’m out of time! But I WILL have access to mail every week! So idk if people besides our family can send me a dearelder.com or letter instead of email cause I think I may not have time to email people other than my family.  :(
I love you mom :) I know it’s probably not nearly enough and you have even more questions but I hope I was detailed enough for you!!!

Elder & Sister Scott & Elder Smith (they were his mom & dad
for 4 1/2 months!)

I love you so much! 
Love, your boy Bursie
Elder Smith

This "posterity" is legendary in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission.
In the middle top row in the grey sweater is Elder Matos, Spencer's trainer and
the "Great-Grandfather."  From right to left on the bottom row is Spencer,
the "Grandfather" who trained Elder Clegg, the "Father" who trained Elder
Savage, the "Son."  We hope to get the rest of this "family history" so no one
is left out! 

Elder Kewuti shared a flat with Spencer
in Daveyton.  He is heading home to Cape Town, SA.

Elder Perez is heading home to St. George.
I wonder if Spencer ever "destroyed Elder Perez in Magic???"

Holidays, Transfers and Work, Work, WORK!

January 12, 2015

I know, I know, even missionaries stay busy during the holidays! No rest for the wicked OR the righteous if you want to put it that way. But I finally made some time to relate the news of the holidays, transfers, and the missionary work.
 Holidays:
Boy I don’t know if you could receive a better holiday on mission than what we experienced! I think I made a voice recording of our Christmas experience with the breakfast, Meet the Mormons, and sports but if I can throw in my feelings about it. It. Was. GREAT!!!! Haha we had a great new years as well! It was testimony building as well as fun! We had worked very hard on the 31st and were looking forward to being able to go to the Maleka’s house for a dinner and to see Brother Morgan Flynn (previously known as Elder Flynn who served here a year ago but with whom I got to serve around in Benoni)!! He came back and was touring his mission and SA with his mom, brother and sister and their spouses. It was a lot of fun, we got some awesome braiied meat, and we were able to keep the rules! It was very tempting to just leave at the end of our 80 min. by saying “oops we’re out of time to share a message” but we shared a message. It would have been easy to justify staying longer than 80 min for any number of reasons! But we left after our time was up J it was these decisions that made later decisions easier. When we returned, we were planning on having the Kanyamazane elders over to celebrate New Year’s similar to the way we had done it when I was a new missionary; playing board games in the flat until 12:00. But something told me it wasn’t right. I had been justifying it for like a week though until finally, after dropping the car off at the Scotts and hearing elder Scott say “enjoy it with your eyes closed” I just thought in my head “eish you’re right, I know what I need to do.” That was even further confirmed when I called Elder Allen to see what his district was doing. So I told Elder Ah Wong and at first he was kinda like “really Elder Smith!?” but being the loving guy he is, he agreed to support me. I cancelled the other guys coming and I got crap from them but we were able to go to bed at 1030 that night and feel good that we had lived the higher law and knew that it’s still okay! We can survive even if we don’t celebrate the New Year right at midnight haha. ß-- Huge testimony builder for me! We got a “day-off” from President Dunn for our New Year’s Day in which we went with the Scotts and saw the waterfalls in Sabie, Pilgrims rest right near Graskop, and the 3 Rondewaals again! Ey it was too nice to be able to just rest in the car :) I got to nap! Haha I figure your mission president is only going to give you one day off so you might as well live it up! **hey dad I think I have some small semblance of how you feel when you get to take a nap now ;) haha All in all, the holidays were great and the missionary work was great during the holidays!
Transfers: 
Sadly, it came time for Elder Ah Wong to leave me in Nelspruit. We had been companions for 2 transfers but eish it felt like a couple weeks. It went by too quickly! I truly love that guy as my brother! I can confidently say I have loved each of my companions but elder Ah Wong was REALLY easy to love and he helped me a ton as I was a new leader. I’ll miss him for sure! He got called to white-wash Orangefarm with Elder Van Heerden and he says it’s hard but has the right man for the job. My new companion is……Drumroll…… Elder Kankkunen from Finland!! Haha I just keep chalkin’ up the international guys! Hey keep em coming cause I’ll have to spend the rest of my life with Americans hahaha. The really cool thing that Elder Kankkunen and I have in common is that we both were companions with Elder Raymond and we both have served in Johannesburg city! Haha when I left Raymond there in Jozi, he trained Elder Kankkunen! So when our pictures showed up on the slideshow, we both got excited because we kind of knew each other! So far we’ve had a lot of fun together and he is a wonderful guy and an amazing teacher!! I’m blown away when I teach with him! Haha it’s funny to see people’s reactions when they see his name tag because there is something about just looking at it (idk maybe it’s the double “k”) that makes people go “hawu!” haha but it’s awesome. He, just like me, is carrying his camera around everywhere now that he’s new in Nelspruit so that he can get all the pictures he needs to show his family how beautiful it is here! I’m looking forward to our time as companions!

New companion, new sport

Work, Work, Work: 
As far as work goes, it’s still going strong! We’ve taught 15 quality lessons this week and we even had 2 days out of commission because of transfers! And the people we are teaching are golden! Ben Mahlangu, the great guy we met with Elder Neuenschwander is now progressing with his wife joining the lessons! They like the message of Joseph Smith and they are praying to know if it’s true! We put one of our investigators, Portia, on date for the 22nd of Feb.! We’ve dropped several jokers so that we can spend our time doing valuable things and helping those that are prepared. I’ve learned a lot of lessons, especially with a sister who shall remain nameless. Eish this situation is very much less than ideal but it’s something that we deal with. In fact, to be kind to all people involved I’ll just leave it at that. But the lesson I am learning is how wonderful it is when someone decides they want the gospel and all you have to look at is their commitment and their qualifications as found in D&C 20:37. It’s not up to us to solve other problems but to focus on helping God’s children back into His fold in ways other than financial help. It’s a great lesson that’s been hard to learn but I just hope I’ve learned it haha.
                Wow, a lot has happened! And it’s gonna keep on happening cause that’s how life is. I enjoy mission life though it kinda scares me to think that one day I’ll have to say goodbye to SA but for now, I’m here :) and I’m loving it! I love you all! Sala kahle :)
Love, Elder David Spencer Tony Smith

"It's hard sending off a great companion like Elder Ah Wong."

Elder Smith was very preoccupied and busy on P-Day and didn't have much time for emailing as he was getting ready for transfers. (He's promised us a great blog post next week!)  In his own words:
"Mom, it's hard sending a great companion off like Elder Ah Wong. In fact you could probably get me to tear up easily as I think about what a blessing he was to me and my life! What occupies most of my mind-capacity right now is all the crazy stuff we have to accomplish before transfers. Imagine how it is right before the family leaves to Hebgen and you have a billion things on your mind and that's how I feel!"

The Nelspruit group- Elder & Sister Scott, Elder Ah Wong & Elder Smith

Their little group took one last jaunt to the edge of their district (near Mozambique) together last week. 

Ah Wong & Smith!

I don't know where they were specifically, but it's incredible!

Apparently the other elders reassembled their beds for them when they weren't home.

The Fort!

The essentials?

A great place to have planning meeting.

Cool bookends to match his Rhino-hide scriptures.

Going to the Promised Land

October 20, 2014

Elder Ah Wong is from New Zealand.  He was in Elder Clegg's MTC group.  

Getting right to work!

We regret to inform you that Elder Smith has now been transferred to the Promised Land. If you have any aversion to 100% positive comments, please do not continue to pursue this blog post. The author (Elder Smith himself) is in a place where he may not leave without kicking and screaming! Enjoy the audio :) and enjoy the many pictures that I had to take! Haha! It's amazingly beautiful here!

Click the video below to hear Elder Smith's audio blog set to photos from Daveyton and Nelspruit.

Love, 
Elder Spencer Smith, GOALie

"Transfer news came in and I found out I was leaving [Johannesburg]"

May 4, 2014
Elder "Tony" in __________!!!!
Alright well, transfer news came in on Saturday night and I found out I was leaving and then on Tuesday at tranfers, we found out where we were going! And now, Elder Smith has been called to build the kingdom in the township of Daveyton! Yo yo yo yo yo it is a different lifestyle here but its sooo cool! Haha livin the kasi life!! Everything is SOOOO different to serving in the city! All the street corners look the same and it'll for sure be rough to try to learn but I already know I’m gonna love it too much! So I’m here serving with Elder Stilgoe! My new companion and the District leader of our district (Daveyton 1 & 2). He grew up in York and now his family stays in Sussex, England. Yo he is a sweeet guy! I can definitely say that this is my favorite companionship so far! We get along too well and we both want to work hard so we both push each other to accomplish our goals and get better! Finally! Haha:) I think we're both in the same boat in the way that we both came from... less than excited companions haha so now we're ready to work again! 
But anyways, Elder Stilgoe is a super cool guy to serve with. He's 9 months on mission and has been here in Daveyton for 3 months. Before, he was serving in Dobsonville in Soweto so township is all he knows; no worries, I’m in good hands! But he played semi-professional soccer back in England and is freakin good! And as good as he is at soccer, he is even better at being a missionary. We both want to get better, get the area better than we found it, and teach with the spirit and so far, that’s what we've been doing. But I can tell that this wi!
So yeah this is a crazy new experience but is going to be fun. The people here are too cool and nice and humble as well! When we tract, sometimes we are able to go right in and teach a lesson right then and there! And when we were in church yesterday, we were welcomed with open arms. #churchistrue :) 
As this is my second area, there were a lot of new changes. Companion, area, ward, people, and even flat and leadership as well. like I said, in the last flat it was just a two man and only us in our  whole complex but now, we have our whole district (me, Stilgoe, Graham, Kewuti) in a 4-man flat here in the suburb of Farrarmere in Benoni (about 10min outside of Daveyton) and it is a party!! (Don’t worry, we keep it obedient haha)
But yeah homies back home, all is great on mission and for the first time I’ve asked myself where the last 5 months have gone! Eish, we call home in a week and that’ll be my 2nd call home :P crazy!! 
But I want to leave with my testimony that the Lord will have his voice heard and His work will go forward. We had a cool experience the other day that confirmed these principles. Elder Stilgoe and I were tracting after a dropped appointment and when we were about to head to our next appointment, our car wouldn’t start. It would turn the engine over but it wouldn’t idle and just die unless it was given gas. So we gave it gas and started to drive hoping it wouldn’t die but then the steering wheel locked up and died and we pulled in front of a house. Seconds later, the owners pulled up and offered to help us. Our phone was dying so they offered to let us into their house to charge their phone as we called the mission vehicle guy. He gave us a solution and by simply flipping the key upside-down, the car started. Without those turn of events, we wouldn’t have met the family much less got into their house to introduce who we are and set a return appointment. MIRACLE!!! But experiencing this firsthand has made me realize that obedience brings success but exact obedience brings miracles! And the Lord will have his purposes brought to pass and Daveyton will soon be the best area in the mission!!! Siyabonga and Salakahle!
Tha's 'bout it!
Elder Smith

"her smile as she came out of the water was priceless"

Well, I have about this much time [_________] 

and this much to say [_______________________________________] 

hahah so I’ll try to get as much of these last two weeks in that I can! To start off my friends and fam, how is the Zulu phrase for the doors going?? Are ready for another session of SA language class? This week we'll be learning a little Xhosa :) (Grandpa Homer, you're really going to enjoy this one) so let’s learn how to say "I’m brushing my teeth" like a Xhosa from Eastern Cape would say it in his native tongue. "ukuxhukuxha" hahahahahaha and yes, i did spell it right. Now for pronunciation, remember in Xhosa, the "xh" is a click sound :) haha tell me how it goes!

It’s a ton of fun learning all of these different cultures and especially the languages that allow us to communicate with people:) and speaking; we will have to learn a lot more Zulu since our area has switched. Oh wait, let me start at the beginning.

Transfers were this last Tuesday and sadly, Elder Matos had finished training me and it was time for me to spread my wings and lead the area with a new companion. My new companion is Elder Jake Raymond from Gold Coast, Australia! Ha-ha I scored an Aussie as a comp and he is a cool dude! He is half Maori and half Aussie and 100% legit haha we will have a good time as companions! And even better is that he knows how to drive stick shift! Haha I won’t have to be thrown in the deep end of the pool to learn how to drive! But that’s not all from transfers. You may remember my first transfer here the Joburg 1 elders were Perez and Stapely. Well, last transfer Stapley got transferred to Bedfordview and now Matos is his new companion over there in cheeseboy city! (Rich rich rich scotani part of town). So that’s a pretty cool coincidence! As for us, we aren’t Joburg 3 anymore :( the Joburg 2 elders both left (Kavindja finished his mission and Rawlings went to Zim) so we now have to white-wash the most dangerous area in the mission. -______- I’ll need your prayers back home! We don’t know where we're going and we're both white so it’ll be super sketchy. At least we get to keep the investigators from Joburg 3 that we put on baptism date so we can still finish teaching them and baptize them :)

Speaking of baptisms! Jeanethe Matovheke was baptized yesterday and I got to baptize her! It was an amazing experience to be part of the first saving ordinance we make here on earth. She was super prepared for the gospel and her smile as she came out of the water was priceless and words cannot describe her (or my) happiness!!! What a cool part of mission:) the even cooler part is that her husband came to church to support her and we are now teaching him and he is excited to come to church! He said "you better believe I’m coming next week!" ahhh mission is great:)

.......sometimes. Sometimes, it can really suck! Like when you get a package from your family and only 1/3 of the contents are there.... yeah. I got my church magazines and usb charger and Grandpa Richard's funeral program but everything else was missing. The packaging was ripped open and the bag that contained all my stuff had a note from the USPS that apologized that their "high-speed mail sorting machines" sometimes destroy stuff...... cool. Needless to say that really sucked!

But that’s a little about my last couple weeks here in Jozi! I pray for and love all of you back home:) keep looking for ways to be a little better each day! My challenge for each of you is to start each day with a smile on your face; even if it’s super fake and forced, I can guarantee if you make an effort, the day won’t be a bad:)

Love ya'll!

Sharp-sharp,

Elder David Spencer Tony Smith