Elder Calvin B. Smith email 06/01/10

Dear Family,
This week was pretty interesting, as they all are. Earlier this week we stopped by to see a less active recent convert and on the way we saw one of our investigators sitting on her porch. We were excited to see her so we waved as we rode by and looked for a spot to park. Within a few seconds we parked about 25 yards away and excitedly approached the doorstep. Much to our surprise, our investigator was no longer there. She left behind two phones on her bench, her cat, and her house and car keys hanging in the door with the storm door locked over them. Her phone rang on the bench while we knocked on the door. I could only think of two possible situations. hahaha Either she was abducted by aliens seconds after we waved to her, or she was in such a hurry to get away from us that she left everything behind. I am pretty sure that the latter situation was the case. Its pretty sad when people can't just say that they are not interested.

This week was the usual, find a few loose a few. This was the first week in a long time that we have not had any one at church. We were really bummed out. We had found some really cool people who we thought would come to church.

Yesterday I had to explain to some one that we do believe in being saved by grace.(after all we can do) I explained that we could not give birth to our spirit bodies, we could not create the earth, we could not create our own physical bodies, we can not do anything with out the cleansing power of Christ Atonement to free our selves from sin, we can not resurrect ourselves, and we can not build ourselves a heaven. We have to rely on God to provided these things, these are all things that Christ has freely done for us. However, it us up to us to accept these free gifts from God, God has freely provided a way to heaven and we have to walk the path to heaven. The most frustrating thing I encounter out here is the widespread misconception that we do not believe in Christ. Yesterday, in the same neighborhood we encountered a man who told us right off the bat "I don't believe like ya'll do, I know that JESUS is MY savior, and that I can not be saved through any MAN or by anything that I can do. I ask you all to please... please look really hard at your religion and accept Jesus as YOUR savior. I know you all were brought up in this, so this is all you know..." We told him that we Did know that Jesus Christ is the son of God, and the Savior of the world, and that ONLY through Him can we be saved. He replied "I know that's not what ya'll believe, I have read lots of books on ya'll. They just got ya'll confused, you don't know any better, Jesus is your savior, not this Smith feller ya'll folks keep stopping by trying to tell me about." Again we testified of Jesus Christ and left him with an invitation. We told him that when he was ready to hear what we actually believe, and not what some one else says we believe, to contact us. He didn't say much to that, and we left.

I love you all and I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and that we need to do a whole lot more than just confess with our mouth that he is "our personal lord and savior". We need to do what John the revelator said, to walk in the light as He is in the light, and do what he asks of us.

Love,
Elder Calvin Smith