Elder Calvin B. Smith email 04/12/10

Contacts/ leads 199/16 Books of Mormon placed 7

Dear Family,
I wrote a pretty cool story to President McConkie in my letter to him, so I just copied and pasted my letter to President here. Letters to mission presidents are now electronic. Its no


Elder Whatcott and I had a pretty interesting week. This coming week we will work harder to get member present lessons. This week we struggled to get members out with us. A lot of last week's investigators did not keep their appointments so we are still in the process of cleaning up from the previous week and weeding out those who will not keep commitments. We give most people three tries, then drop them. We dropped Margret and Ernest this week, they have a lot of good member connections with recent converts and less actives and a great fellowshipper, Sister Wilson, but they just will not keep appointments that they set. We decided to at least give them a rest for the time being, and they did not come to church this week. None of the people we stood accountable for this week for church came. We were blessed to see a nonmember father and son at church this week that we were not expecting to see. We had met them, Jacob and his son Jacob, about a month and a half ago and we had difficulty getting in touch with them because of the father's crazy work schedule. I had almost given up hope on them, when we found out about a child of record being baptized this last Saturday. We started calling everyone we had a phone number for, shooting in the dark, hoping to get some of our investigators out there and one of the few people we were able to get a hold of was Jacob and his son Jacob. They told us they would be able to make it and were excited to come witness a baptism. Ten minutes before the baptism they called and told us that they would not be able to make it, but promised, as they had a few times before, that they would come to church the next day. This Sunday, they came, enjoyed the sacrament meeting, but left soon there after. We do not yet have an appointment set up to see them again, the father told us that he doesn't always know when his job will call on him, so the best way to get a hold of him is to call him. We plan to try to call him a few times this week so that we can catch him and his son at home and teach them more.

Elder Whatcott and I are working hard in Hartsville to bring souls to Christ, and we are seeing more and more opposition. This week we had a lot of people who tried to bash with us. "Tried" meaning that we thanked them for their time and walked away. Its interesting to notice that we run into such people in small groups over the course of the week. One week we will see 4-5 and then we won't see any for a week or two. I have come to be able to tell when some one wants to try to bash, even before they open their mouth. Just yesterday I saw a man open then door and Elder Whatcott started to contact him and I told my self, "Oh man, this guy is going to try to pull something." And sure enough, after Elder Whatcott introduced us this guy started spitting out the usual misconceptions. We tried to testify that we did in fact know what Jesus Christ is the son of God, the savior and redeemer of mankind, the only means by which we can be saved... and he kept going on, trying to tell us what we believed, so we thanked him for his time, and walked away. Ever time I encounter those kinds of people I try to look around and see who the adversary is trying to distract me from.

The story of the heathen tree:

This week as we renewed our efforts to make our apartment a Celestial abode I contemplated throwing away a small Christmas tree tucked away in a closet, purchased by prior missionaries. Later that day, I received an answer. During our proselyting we encountered a Seventh Day Adventist, a wanna-be-bible know it all. He sat us down and heard our declaration of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then started asking questions, accompanied by scripture references. Most of the scriptures he cited seemed to have nothing to do with the topics he was trying to argue, (yes we had the whole Sabbath on Saturday discussion, we whipped out Acts Chapter 20 verse 7, mentions that the disciples had a sacrament meeting of sorts on the First day of the week, not the Seventh. See Acts Chapter 20 Verse 9, people fell asleep in church then too) but one scripture really hit me hard, in light of my consideration of throwing away the Christmas tree. He pulled out Jeremiah Chapter 10 verses 2-6: "Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil; neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and they name is great in might."

Now, that could be interpreted a few ways, but I took it to be an answer to my question of whether I should throw away the Christmas tree. Apparently, it is heathen in God's eyes, so I threw it out. hahaha Now, I don't think I'm going to apply that same scripture that way the rest of my life, but in light of santifying our apartment, I think it fits. (Of course I am going to have a Christmas tree decked out lights and glittery stuff when I go home, but for now, its unneeded clutter.)


Love,
Elder C. Smith


So that was my letter to president. Cool story eh? I answered your questions in the email you wrote below:

--I don't think I have an accent. If I do it will most likely leave when I leave South Carolina and mold into what ever environment I am in.--

--Sorry my medicine costs so much, but it really does work to keep me healthy. I can tell the difference. I recieved the package with the medication. Thankyou!--