Elder Calvin B. Smith Email 01/03/2011

Dear Family,
Sorry there was no E-mail last week. Christmas Day was our preparation day for that week so we didn't get preparation time or Email time the next week.

We had some fun experiences this past week. It SNOWED!!!! Its not supposed to snow in South Carolina, but it snowed here the day after Christmas! I think Elder Cooper was really praying hard for a white Christmas (he is from Utah). The snow didn't build up any so we were not able to make snow balls or build anything out of it. It did snow enough to leave ice on the ground, so we had to walk everywhere that day. I am so glad I have a bike!

We were able to invite some one to be baptized on Jan 22. We are excited for them.

While we were walking around Sunday we remembered a lead that was close to our house. I know this sounds like some kind of joke, but this really happened. We knocked on the door and three Latinos yelled for us to come in. We walked in the door and the oldest one offered us something to smoke. We politely declined his offer. They asked us what was going on and we told them that we were sharing an uplifting message about Jesus Christ, how Christ's gospel has been restored to the earth. The home owner, Tony, seemed like he had talked with missionaries before. We started talking about the gospel when they stopped us, saying, "Woe, woe, woe, before you start trying to change our ways we got to get some background information on you guys." They asked us some basic stuff - where we were from, what we were doing here, how old we were, if we were working (they offered us a job paying $15 an hour working construction) etc. Some where in the conversation Elder Cooper said the word "crap" in a sentence while he was explaining something. Everyone got quiet really quick. I looked at Elder Cooper and he looked a little embarrassed. (the discussion went way down hill from here) I had just talked to him the day before about the kind of language we use as representatives of Jesus Christ and his church. Tony gave Elder Cooper a hard time for saying "crap" in his home. He said "Don't worry, I won't tell your pastor you guys are going around saying words like "crap" in people's homes. My lips are sealed." Elder Cooper began to apologize then Tony started making fun of the situation, looking at his 3 year old son playing on a trike in the middle of the floor he said "There is no point in being sorry now, the damage is already done. My son's life is now ruined. He is going to amount to nothing, how can I send him to Catholic school now when he is saying words like "crap"? He is going to refuse to go to school, drop out, sit at home smoking cigarettes all day, sell drug and play video games. Done. Thanks Cooper." At this point the situation was getting pretty humorous, and I was hoping that what I had told Elder Cooper the previous day was kind of sinking in. Tony continued on "You walk in here wanting to save our souls and now you have brought profanity into my house hold...." At that point Nick, an older gentleman answered his phone. He answered "Hello this is Nick....Ya.....Oh What?....What happened to Rose?....Oh Crap!......Crap! ....Crap!!" Tony looked at Elder Cooper and said sarcastically "See, thanks Cooper." At this point it was getting a little ridiculous. We tried to bring the conversation back around a few times to the gospel, but our attempts were quickly ignored. Finally after telling them politely several times that we needed to go, (we were getting nowhere) I asked if we could leave them with a prayer out of habit. They chuckled at the idea and Nick very eagerly volunteered to say a prayer. The prayer started off ok, then it got ridiculous and blasphemous - he prayed for things that absolutely should not be prayed for- the prayer went on for about ten minutes. Several times during the visit I tried to get Elder Cooper out of there, I end up physically dragging Elder Cooper out the door. It was a total and complete waste of time and it killed the spirit for the rest of the evening.

Elder Smith