Dear Family,
We had a pretty cool week this week. The other Elders in our district, Elder Erickson and Elder Shumway, baptized this week. I was so excited for them. This was Elder Shumway’s first baptism! They have one other person lined up for baptism right now. Britney did not get baptized this week because she was out of town with her grandma. She was able to get back in town in time to come to church. She really really enjoyed church yesterday and she connected with a lot of the youth this time. She is realizing that a lot of people she knows from school are members of our church. While picking Britney up for church with a member she told us that our zone leader had called during the week and that she was kind of creeped out by it. (Elder Smart our zone leader had asked if he could give her a call) She said that he kept talking about her getting baptized and shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with her. We explained to her that the reason why we focus so much on baptism is because we know that it is the most important thing any unbaptized person can do at this point in their life. She then asked me when the next soonest time would be that she could be baptized. (she had already been interviewed at this point) I told her that we were very flexible and that we could baptize her right now if she wanted. She laughed and said that Thursday evening would work best for her. So now she is on date for Thursday. Samuel Dargan came home yesterday evening. We anticipate that he will be baptized this weekend as well.
Elder Sybrowsky of the Seventy came and toured our mission. He made note of a ten year decreasing trend in baptisms for the South Carolina Columbia mission. He invited us to thoughtfully ponder on what we wanted our legacy to be within this mission. He suggested a solution, that we take the 320 new investigators we find every week and not just baptize 10 of those, but baptized all of them. (he referenced John 6:11-12 “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”) He explained that he understood that some would choose to not get baptized, but we must not take their agency from them by not doing everything that we can do to progress them. He called this principle “The Doctrine of Everything.” Or in other words, we need to do everything we can at all times to ensure that everyone gets baptized. He told a few cool stories about meeting with the Brethren and how those meetings are conducted. It was pretty cool. He shared one story about Elder Nelson and how he shared the Book of Mormon with some of his friends. He gave them a copy and asked them if they would read it. They said that they would. A week later they came back with the book in hand and told him that they had read it and were not interested in it. He replied, under the direction of the Spirit, “What? That is not an appropriate response.” He asked if they had truly read the book through or if they had just thumbed through it. They replied that they had done the latter. He again invited them to read from it. He saw the friends a week later, with out the book, and they told him that they loved it and wanted to start learning more about the church, so they began studying with the missionaries. I thought that was a really sweet story! It really shows that our leaders are practicing what they teach about “every member a missionary” and it teaches of the converting power of the Book of Mormon. We do not need to convince people of the validity of its pages. God is anxious to revel himself to us, God will testify of His truth and His word, if people are willing to listen.
This is the beginning of a new transfer. Right now it sounds like I am staying in Sumter. YAY! I love Sumter. It is a fantastic area with so much potential. I made my new planner yesterday. My old planner had a picture of Jesus Christ with Joseph Smith wearing a gold tuxedo next to the apostles. Bellow Jesus Christ in the clouds are the Nauvoo temple with the saints being driven out in covered wagons pulled by fiery horses. I thought it was a cool picture. On the back I had a mountain with the words; “Achieving your full potential.” My new planner is pretty cool. The front cover has a large glass egg timer on it full of money with a coin dropping down. Above, in the empty space of the top of the egg timer it has a quote by Elder L. Tom Perry which says, “It is amazing to me that so many people work all of their lives for the grocer, the landlord, the power company, the automobile salesman, and the bank, and yet think so little of their own efforts that they pay themselves nothing.” (talking about saving money for the future) On the back of my planner is a picture of one man in the dark reach out to another standing on higher ground in the light. I thought that it was a great representation of what we do as missionaries, raise people to higher ground.
I would like to close with two scriptures that came to mind while writing this email.
Revelation 21:3-4
"And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
Revelation 21:7
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Well, I am about out of time. You all are so awesome! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Calvin Smith
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