Mission!

Today i figured i'll just share some random experiences from this week.

We got to go and see an investigator named Lucrezia, she is super sweet. Elder Spence and i met her mom through contacting a while ago and had been teaching them. We were about ready to stop teaching them because they only seemed interested in gaining more knowledge but had no intent to act upon it. However we got to meet with just her and she said that at first she had a desire to join the church, but recently she came across the word of wisdom and that made her hesitate because she did not understand it. We got to talk with her and explain the word of  wisdom to her. We had a good conversation about not blindly following but truly trusting in God and following the answer that he gives to you. It was a super awesome experience. 

We also met with a sister named Mantji, she is super cool as well, we met her when we went for an appointment with her brother and he was not there. She was very polite. She told us that she has never stayed in one church because she has not been able to find one that felt right to her. We were able to link that wonderfully to the message of the restoration. It was a very powerful experience. 

On sunday we got in trouble with food.... We went to sister Cleo's place for lunch and she fed us a massive Delicious lunch... Then like two hours later we had a dinner appointment where the motto is "Kill yourself".... Eish... We were still full from Lunch but its rude not to eat, so... Eish... The food was all wonderful but just too much. 

We had a wonderful meeting with an investigator named Sarah, she is super awesome. She was smoking about 20 cigarettes a day and has been making progress towards quitting, we got to meet with her and share a ton of scriptures from the book of Mormon about how the lord will strengthen us. And it was just a wonderful spiritually empowering experience. 

As well this week we contacted a referral from the Cape town missionaries, her name is Akhona, she was taught everything in cape town and is ready to be baptized. It was super awesome to meet with her and talk with her to get a sense of what she remembers about the lessons and how strong her testimony is. She was taught very well and seems very committed with a strong testimony and she cant wait to be baptized so she is going to be baptized on the eleventh. 

The scripture for this week is 2 nephi 25:26

Jesus Christ is the center of everything that we as member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints believe. He is in the name of the church, he is in our lives, he is in our minds, he is in our hearts. He has done so much for us, he understands us and loves us. He is there, through all of the challenges that we might face, he knows us. He cares about us and will help us to over come and face all of the struggles that stand before us. I love Jesus Christ, he is my Redeemer, my savior, my brother, and my friend. He can be the same for you. 

Elder Ririe Smith

Where do you think I'm from? "Bloomfontien?"

Yo! 

Yesterday someone legit thought my accent was south African... So i guess i am in for some fun when i get home? 

Last monday was super sick! We went hiking out in the bush, there was not a path but we made it to the top. If there is something i miss from back home it's nice hikes. The view was pretty awesome, we could see all of Mokopane( an area in our district) And we really just had a blast hiking as a district. 

This week has been pretty wonderful!... Oh wait... Yeah... The drainage pipe fell of the back of our flat.... So we have not been able to use our sink for the past week.... Dirty dishes... Eish.... Been washing them in the bathtub. 

But other than that it was pretty great! 

We have been doing a lot of work trying to get new investigators and inviting them to be baptized, and i would say we have been doing a good job. Not to mention that after about five months of working with our branch they finally have started really doing more work! We had seven potential investigators at church on Sunday that were all invited by members! 

Not to mention that this Sunday was the best Sunday i have had on my mission so far! The chapel was full, only totaling about 90 people but that is way better than our average attendance. 

Basically missionary work is awesome! Accept when people give you fattening foods... thats no fun... But they do it all the time! 

I just want to let you all know that Ririe no longer sounds like my name, i am simply Elder Smith.... And when i do get home you will have to roll the r's in order to get my attention. 

The scripture for this week is 3 nephi 12... Yes the whole chapter! What a wonderful book we have that testifies of Jesus Christ! I love the book of Mormon with all my heart, i know that it is the word of God, and if you give it the time it will bless your life immensely! 

Elder Smith

What has three wings and a horn for a tail?

Alrighty! Off to the story of a lifetime! Ha, not really, but lets get on with it anyway! 

Well, last Monday it was decided that we do a challenge... Its called the share box challenge, because you go to McDonalds and buy a share box and it it all yourself. The box consists of two big macs, two cheeseburgers, two small fries, two medium fries, ten chicken nuggets, two medium drinks, and two small drinks.

This past week was terribly slow, many cancellations! But we made the best of it and that is what matters! 

I cannot say that i am very proud of that choice in life but hey, out of five i was the first to finish and only one other person finished. After the challenge we could not really go and do anything else so that was basically our whole preparation day. 

We have the sweetest lady ever in our branch, her name is sister Mimi, she will just come up to us on Sundays and tell us not to leave because she has something for us in the car. Last time it was a wonderful apple tart, this time she just plopped a bucket of cookies in our boot, and walked away... The first time she did it Elder Spence just looked at me and said "i love that lady." 

I ate chicken neck for the first time yesterday. its  not too bad. 

What is the answer to the question listed in the subject? Well i am not sure, but the other day we were chilling with some kids waiting for our investigators and after playing a fancy game the like to play with rocks (and me totally kicking their butts, even though it was my first time playing) They decided they wanted to draw some pictures... Well, i have never been the greatest artist, but i decided to give it a try. I gave up trying to draw something nice halfway through... I drew a person with a baby head, four hairy legs, a fish for his right hand and a dog for his left hand.... I felt pretty bad for drawing such an awful horrifying creation.... So i then tried drawing them a mermaid, they liked that, and one of them wanted to keep it. So i kinda repaired the damage, though she said she was gonna throw the other drawing away. 

Today we are going on a hike where we might find wild killer baboons? The elders in mokopane requested that we bring our sword and our shambok, so guess we are going to have some fun! 

The scripture for this week is: Romans 1:16 Be not ashamed. I love any scripture that talks about not being ashamed of who we are, and especially not being ashamed of our belief in heavenly father and Jesus Christ. This one is particularly powerful. There was a thought shared on Sunday about how we are the electricity that runs to the light which is Christ Who lights up the whole world. We must not let that power to the light cease but instead be not ashamed of the gospel and the truths that we have but to share them, and bring happiness and light into the dark world.

Hey everyone! Keep on keeping on! Dont let anyone drag you down! BE NOT ASHAMED! 

Love Elder Smith! 

Exploding syrup and transfer #6

Hello hello hello! 

Lets get this show on the road! 

This week has been a blast! We have been working hard and pressing forward. We have some absolutely wonderful people that we are teaching and nothing can stop us! 

We had some exciting things happen this week, it was zone conference and transfers! How about transfer news first? I am still here in Polokwane, and still with Elder Spence to finish his last six weeks of training! Awesome! 

Now onto zone conference! 

Before zone conference i was getting ready for the day, i was all dressed and everything except for my suite coat. There was four of us in my flat and i was making everyone pancakes for breakfast, i served each of them two at a time leaving myself for last, by the time mine were done they had used the last of the syrup. However i am very clever and knew that if i warmed up the syrup bottle then i would be able to get some syrup out of it. And i did so. However i left the lid closed.... Well silly me, i went to put the syrup on my pancakes mere minutes before i had to leave for the leadership meeting and boom! SYRUP! 

Eish, all over my tie, my white shirt my suite pants and ever my face! Luckily i had some other elders to help with ironing my shirt and stuff while i cleaned up the mess.

Anyway, we had a wonderful zone conference and i absolutely loved the leadership meeting, i learned and gained so much that i had been looking for. 

Sadly i am short on time and have to go but before i go here is the scripture for the week. Mosiah 9:17-19 Remember that it is in the strength of the lord that we can do all things. Earthly things do not matter as long as we humble ourselves before God and trust in him. Nothing in this world is more powerful than someone who has aligned themselves with God. 

Trust in God. 

Love Elder Smith

Diabetes?

Well! Its the holiday season. 

Seriously friends, the amount of sugar i have been eating these past two weeks is out of hand! Holidays are just wonderful! With one exception, missionary work! Man am i looking forward to school and work starting up again, that means all of the people we teach will be back and we will be able to get a heck of a lot more work done! 

We had a baptism on Sunday which was very exciting! Christian is an awesome guy and he has been waiting for too long to be baptized, the only struggle was finding the time to teach him all the lessons because he works every day all day except for Sunday. But now he has finally been baptized and soon will be another priesthood holder in the branch! What was also awesome is that we got to have another man named Felicity receive the priesthood yesterday and then baptize christian, they are close and are both from DRC so it was pretty sweet! 

Otherwise we had a wonderful Christmas and got to enjoy with the other elders. Then we had a part member family, who live out on a farm take us on a game drive where we got to see some different animals, sadly i did not bring my camera so no pictures of the giraffes, warthogs and what what. :(

This week we had the super awesome experience of getting seven new investigators who seem very promising, two of them came to church and even brought someone with them. The amusing thing is that they researched about our church on google, and found some funny things, the very surprising thing however is that somehow they did not stumble onto any bad lies about the church. 

We also have been getting quite a few referrals recently but the big problem was that our phone ran out of minutes four days before the month ended so we were struggling with contacting people, man that was frustrating, it is hard to do missionary work with out a phone.

The scripture for this week is in the book of ACTS chapter 5:40-42. I was reading in my personal study and i came across this wonderful scripture. The apostles suffered many things for teaching about Jesus Christ and his gospel and yet they walked away rejoicing that they were able to suffer for him and his gospel, and then they continued the preach and live the ways of the lord! What a wonderful example! 

I wish you all a happy and successful new year! 

Love Elder Smith!