Practicing with Elder Cruz from the Seventy

First off, thank you sooo very much for your prayers. I really felt a difference this week. Bad news is nobody was baptized because nobody was married. Here in Brazil the biggest issue is people living together without EVER marrying. But things are starting to change here. Thankyou.

Thank you for the St Patrick’s package!! I loved every bit, especially those nacho cheese and jalapeño snacks. Also, thank you Heidi, Bret, Jayden, and Spencer for your letters. I love to hear from you guys! Jayden, you're turning into such a stud!

I’m sorry for not responding earlier or emailing Monday. I was in Belo Horizonte having a Zone Leaders Counsel with the president, and we were there learning from Elder Cruz, a powerful man from the Seventy. It was such a cool experience to be in the same room as him with only 18 other missionaries there. It was very personal between him and us, and its always cool to be able to learn from the President. Elder Cruz decided to do a practice (role-play) in a situation where he was an investigator and he was ready to be baptized but at the last minute he had doubts about the baptism; and we had to resolve it. Then he chose me and my companion to be the missionaries. I felt so nervous, trying to convince an Elder from the Seventy to be baptized while everybody was looking at us! Let’s just say my hands were pretty sweaty. But it was very beneficial and I learned a lot. 

This week I have been really trying hard to do EVERYTHING right, obeying EVERY rule to the dot. And even doing all the "Should" things as well. Every time “Preach my Gospel” says "Should" I have been trying to imply it as a rule as well, and I am definitely seeing a change in the work and feeling the spirit more.

I have some birthday ideas if you will send a package soon. I would really like to have my lacrosse head, "The G-force" because it is already trashed so if I lose it or break it, it won’t be a loss. Actually I think it’s already broken a little bit, but I am going insane from not cradling a lacrosse ball. Also a lacrosse ball would be needed :) And I would like to have my 20 questions game if it’s still in my room, or if it works still, that little orange ball. Or if it’s not too much, I think there are newer ones that are a lot better. The one I have is the first version, so it doesn’t know a lot of things. It would be cool to have a newer one. That’s it for birthday ideas if you’re still thinking of what to send.

You all better be reading the Book of Mormon!!! I will be ticked to come home and see that nobody took up my inviteJ I’m doing it as well!

Love you and miss you all!

Elder Smidt X

Questions and answers....

I heard Missionaries are allowed to email anyone now.  Has the mission rule changed to give you more time? Do you email your mission president each week also?

 Share with us the funniest thing that has happened to you on your mission. What makes you feel happiest?

What is your greatest challenge and how do you work on either overcoming that challenge or accepting it?

How is your toenail doing?

What advice would you give to Jason Mackay about preparing for Brazil? Is there something that you would tell him to make sure he brings? Kristin Mackay asked me about what to take and also questions about shoes and all the walking you do there. One thing she wanted to know is what you carry around with you in your backpack all day? I assume its just your scriptures, Preach my Gospel and a water bottle, but I actually realized I have no idea what you carry. Would you have rather had a cross over shoulder bag? Or do you like a backpack?

I only have one hour to write people and read emails during my time in the internet café. And I also have to read an email from the President, Sister Fortunato, and the Secretaries.

Funniest thing that happened to me on the mission so far was when I went to the Jungle with some other elders, and we started swinging on a vine over a little drop off. When the third missionary tried it, the vine snapped, and he totally back slammed into the ground. It was so funny to me, but it wasn’t for him. Later that day when we were going back into the city, we were walking kinda fast. I saw something interesting on the other side of the road and pointed it out, and as he was looking, he walked square into a street sign, and again back slammed into the ground.  He hit it with such force, that it made a huge sound and everyone within the block heard and looked and started laughing. As bad as I felt for him because his face started turning purple because of how hard he hit it, I couldn’t stop laughing. It was a moment where I literally was crying and couldn’t breathe. 

What makes me feel happiest is when I see someone come out of the baptismal waters a changed person.

My greatest challenge right now is not baptizing. It has been the longest period of my mission without a baptism. What I am doing to overcome it is….everything. I have never tried harder to be a better missionary than now, but I feel that maybe that is why I was called here, to learn in this manner. But I don’t think that there is a chance anymore to be Assistant. I never wanted to be Assistant because of the title or the popularity. I just wanted to be assistant because of how much you get to work with the president and learn from him.

My toenail is returning to be worse, but I will see what happens. I am worried that it will interfere with my triathlon training when I get home, because I cannot run with this ingrown toenail. I have to walk on my heel. 

Preparing for Brazil- Advice for Jason Mackay…. Bring Hush Puppies, no other shoe is more comfortable or more durable. All other shoes are more beautiful, but you will learn that being a missionary in Brazil, you get ugly, there is no other way around it. And bring plenty of sunscreen and Old Spice, because there is no Old Spice here, and sunscreen is like 40 reais or 20 dollars for a little bottle. The missionaries here walk at least 10 miles every day. What I carry around with me is my Bible, 2 books of Mormon, Pamphlets about the restoration, and hand sanitizer. I am actually looking to buy a Cross Over the shoulder bag/fanny pack, but nice condition and one that is cool looking. The reason is because with a backpack, your back gets soooo sweaty during the day. Sometimes you get home with rashes. I bought a cheap bag of exactly what I was looking for, for about 7 dollars (15 reais) and I like it a lot; only bad thing is that it’s ripping after one week. I want to buy a nice one, maybe Oakley that will last forever, and then I want to take it to someone to stitch in the name of the mission with a Brazilian flag with "Elder Smidt” below.  The trick is to find one with cool green and black or gray. Jason doesn’t need to know that, but that’s my plan; its what I’ll be looking for.

Elder Smidt X

What a week...

18-3-13

Hey Family,

So I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think I might have a big load of baptisms coming up. We have 8 people that are investigating the church that can be baptized, and I feel like this might be what I have been praying for. Please, PLEASE pray for me and my companion, that we can baptize these people and that they will feel in their hearts that this is the right choice. 

My interview with the president was awesome. I told him that we were having difficulties with the members, that they didn’t really like the missionaries, because some of the missionaries in the past always just argued with them.  It has been hard hearing them every day complain about how poor the missionary work has been here, saying that out of the last 20 people that have been baptized in the ward, only 5 are still active because the other 15 were poorly prepared or weren’t ready. But my mission president just told me to not worry about it and he would work things out. So….

This last Sunday was a Stake Conference. My Mission President came to speak, and he brought a Member of the Seventy to speak as well. Our Stake was called to repentance by these great men. Elder Fernandes said to all the members that, "every person has to be baptized, just as Christ was. Once they have a testimony, once they have repented, and once they have started keeping the commandments, they get baptized! There is no other way." He continued by saying that the mission work consists of 5 parts: find, teach, baptize, confirm, and retain. But then he said something interesting. He said, "Finding and Retaining is the members job! If a person falls away from the church, it is not the missionaries fault, but it is the members fault".  That was directed especially for my ward! Then the president transferred us to a different ward.  We are still here in 7 Lagoas though.

But yeah, anyways we did an open house this week, and we were able to bring more than 60 people to the church and show them around.  At the open house, in the sacrament room, we had some banners set up for the investigators explaining the first lesson.  We had a lot of people accept to be baptized.

Anyways, I gotta go now. I love you all!

Elder Smidt X

Uma outra vida...

11-3-13

For a long time now I have become accustomed to the missionary life, but I never thought that it would be hard to snap back into the normal life. Just this Sunday in sacrament meeting, a returned missionary gave a talk and he had just gotten back a few days earlier from his mission. He seemed a little out of place, like he wasn’t sure what to do. For the first time I felt like I didn’t know what I was going to do either.  I realized that I had passed the point of just being accustomed to the missionary life. I have become a part of the missionary life. I feel like it’s who I am now. Teaching has become as normal as riding a bike. It’s actually kinda freaking me out. I realize that I am here to grow. And I am trying to see my stumbling blocks as stepping stones. Our zone is doing better, but me and my companion have not found a baptism yet. But I am planting seeds :) Thanks Nana!

So we finally got a refrigerator after 3 months! I won’t need to buy food every day! Now I can buy a larger quantity and store it in the refrigerator. (The ants in Brazil are so intense you can’t leave food sitting out for thirty minutes or they'll find it.) So anyways, I bought milk and I finally enjoyed my Lucky Charms! It was sooooooo good, so so good. Thank you so much. I also bought mayonnaise and made that ranch dressing; also such a good idea to send me that. Both ideas were perfect package ideas. I like receiving packages of dry ingredients to make things where you only need to add milk, butter, or eggs. It’s way nice and easy.

This Friday I will have an interview with the president. I always love my interviews with him because they are literally inspired and help me in the work so much.

Hope all is well. Thanks dad for the email, I really miss those days in the priest quorum. I can’t wait to reunite with all my old YM leaders. Tell Uncle Mike thank you for the letter. Today I will get my writing done and send out my letters. Love you all!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

Better...

4-3-2013

Well, I decided that I will keep on trucking as Z.L. Last week I just kind of crashed with discouragement. Nobody was baptizing and it had been a few weeks since I was able to baptize someone. I just felt like I was coming up short. The Assistants were breathing down my neck because there are a lot of Elders that just don't want to work in my zone. On top of that, when my companion got here he starting complaining about the poor work going on in the zone. But I ended up making peace with my companion. We had a Zone Leader Counsel with the President, and our zone is starting to teach more, and the future is looking brighter!

By the way, your advice did not hurt my feelings in any way. It was just a short dark time for my mission. Everything difficult seemed to happen all at once and yesterday was the first time in 8 months that I wasn't able to bring at least one investigator to church. That was really hard for me, but I fasted yesterday and today and I am feeling a lot better! I feel like I'm coming out of this discouragement that I’ve been feeling. I know that you may be thinking that there are harder jobs out there than a mission, and as far as I know, there are! But when you are trying to earn the satisfaction of the Lord for your efforts, things become a lot heavier. I remember when I got in my first "fight" in middle school and I was suspended for the day. Dad didn't really get mad at me, but just said, "I'm disappointed in you Jess," and left it at that. That was one of the worst feelings ever. Losing that trust in someone that you love so much, destroys you. This week when I felt those impressions, that my Heavenly Father was disappointed in me, I just got really down. When the Assistants told me that the Area President of the Seventy said to our mission, “The work in this mission has not been satisfactory,” I really got to thinking that I have to do better!  Please pray that I can improve in my calling, because I don't want to give up my position; but I also don't want to feel like I have failed as a leader.

By the way, I got Nana's package and I loved it! I shared the Beef pepperoni sticks with my companion and he loved them. I also got the package from you guys. I can’t wait to eat the Lucky Charms but we don't have milk because our refrigerator is broken and has been for 3 months. But tomorrow it will be fixed, and I can’t wait. I freaking love my pen! I will use it EVERY DAY. Oh yes, I got the package from Tiffy too and I loved it as well! Her packages are always the most delicious to me because of the Jalapeno Pretzel Pieces that she always sends! I love her, and tell Dan thanks for the Valentine!

I gave my Nike shirt to a Brazilian who needed it, but it was a white shirt, with a faded U of O written in big letters with a little chest pocket with the Nike emblem on the outside of the pocket.

I love you all and miss you all as well.

God Speed

Elder Smidt X