Elder Calvin B Smith email 10/04/2010

Dear Family,
I really enjoyed General Conference this week. Our district was looking forward to it all week long. We would make comments like, "Dude, Bro, are you stoked for Gen Con twenty ten? Dude Bro, I know right, Gen Con twenty ten, its going to be epic." Unfortunately many of our investigators were not as enthused. I don't know why its so hard to get people out to General conference. I was really hoping Elder Holland was going to give a really intense talk, I was a little disappointed. I was thinking about his past talks - None were with him (talk on the atonement), the Book of Mormon, Place no more for the enemy of my soul,- and I thought he would talk about something really intense, but I guess he talked about what God told him to speak about. I perked up a bit in my pew during the last major talk of general conference, by Elder Ballard, I think, when he mentioned how text messaging can be addicting. I thought about how Dad must have cheered at that comment, hahaha. I also liked how President Utchdorf talked about how ridiculous some sports fans can become during a game to illustrate unrighteous pride. I never understood that either. Its amazing how many distractions there are in this world competing for our attention.

This week during our leadership meeting in Columbia we had the opportunity to go to the temple. We went through a session with President McConkie, it was a real treat! The reason why we all look so dead in the pictures in front of the temple is because our temple session started at 6:30am, so everyone had to be in the temple at 6:00am. We had to wake up at 4:00am that morning to be able to make the drive from Cayce to Columbia. I learned a lot in the meetings in Columbia. Something we are going to start doing is putting EVERY investigator on date in our first meeting, no matter what. (well, unless the spirit specifically instructs not to do so) If they don't want to be baptized we are simply to explain to them that the reason why they feel that way is simply because they have not felt the spirit testify to them yet. We are then to explain that they will feel the spirit in the following visits testify that they do need to be baptized, especially as they read, pray, and come to church.

Sorry I didn't send out any letters last week. My preparation time ended at 2 instead of 6 because I had to travel to Columbia.

We are expecting Marcus White to be baptized this week. We are really excited for him.

Love,
Elder Smith