Elder Calvin B. Smith 11/29/2010 Email

Dear Family,

This week I think we finally got someone nailed down solid on a baptismal date. John Skarrit is on date for December 18th. We are really excited for him and his family as he continues to prepare for baptism. The ward is excited too, the baptism is going to be held at 11am, and it was announced in sacrement meeting. The Skarrits are a really cool family. They are not able to make it to church as often as they would like because of Brother Skarrit's work schedule. Often he has to work Sundays, and they only have one car. We are going to try to work something out with the ward so that they can get a ride to church on the days that Brother Skarrit has to work.

Another investigator we were working with started dodging us this past week. When we first met him he told us that he wanted to change his life and stop smoking. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and told him that the next time we saw him we would bring a stop smoking plan for him. The next time we saw him we taught him more about the Book of Mormon and read some with him. We taught him the word of wisdom and how we can recieve blessings by living it. We helped him to understand that God loves us, and that when we hurt ourselves, we are hurting Jesus Christ. He committed to Christ to stop smoking for 24 hours. We set a time, 20 hours from when we met him to follow up with him commitment. 19 hours later we saw him on the street, before our appointment, he told us we would see him in an hour. We never saw him again. We tried to stop by after that, but he never answers the door.

This week my companion and I memorized the song "Follow the prophet" and we sung it to one of our investigators. I think that he really liked it. We modified it a little bit by only singing the chorus once, it gets really repetitive sometimes.

This week we had two 8 hour training meetings. I learned a lot about how we can help our investigators. We are placing a new emphasis on the Doctrine of Christ in our lessons. In each lesson we are to teach how each principle ties back to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) I really like this approach to teaching the gospel. The gospel is so simple, but a lot of times I think we over complicate it.

One of the reasons why I like training meetings so much is because I get to play the piano all the time. One of the mission favorites is "I believe in Christ" (the lyrics are written by Bruce R. McConkie). The last song on the last day was "I believe in Christ". At first I was a little disappointed at the song selection because we sing it so often, but I began to play through it anyway. As I played through the song I read the words, and I had a wonderful spiritual experience as I played the last two verses. My spiritual eyes were opened and I learned and felt the meaning behind those words, written by a special witness of God. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that there is no other way to get back to our Father in heaven, except through him. God knows all his children and desires that we return to live with him again. He wants to bless us, we just need to qualify for his blessings, often by simply asking. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God, and it is my missionary purpose aid him in his work and do what he would do if he were personally ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Calvin Smith