April 21 Update

Well here's the weekly update. Things are going good here. We've been working with some more people recently that seem to be pretty interested in what we have to say. We have so many return appointments set for this week! We started talking to a guy named Marvin and he invited us into his apartment. After about 40 minutes later, we offered him a Book Of Mormon. His eyes lit up and he was more serious than anyone I can remember about promising us that he will read it. It's awesome whenever I get to experience something like that. It just reminds me of the reason I'm here. We have some pretty promising investigators named Cassie and Danny. They're really excited to learn the lessons and come to church with us. I really like it when they accept our challenges because they are my first real investigators since I've been here. My companion and I started doing the P90X challenge. I don't really care about it, but my companion has a goal to get a "Beach Body" before he goes home, so i'm just doing it with him for support. We have a gym by our house called the "Jesus Gym", but here in Tennessee, you pronounce it "Jaysus Jeam". I couldn't stop laughing the first time i saw that. We couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. One of our recent converts showed up in a bright orange suit. I told him it was a good thing it didn't fit me because I would steal it off of him. The people are pretty cool here. I took a picture of one of the ward members car because he drove on our yard. Everyone does that here.

yay! another update from the elder!

Things are going good here in TN. It's pouring rain today and it will be till tomorrow. I'll update the dropbox folder for the blog right after I send this. The exchanges went really well. Elder Simmons is about to go home so It was good to spend some time proselyting with him beforehand. As far as new investigators, we had the chance to teach a girl that we met trackting. She's 17 and her name is Mary-K. We knocked on her door and she was open to everything we had to say. After we talked to her for a while she mentioned that she has been looking for the right church to join and was really glad we showed up. We taught her about the message of the restoration but didn't have much time so we set up another time. We're going to meet at Chick-fil-le or something. We were walking last night by our apartment and a black lady yelled at us from across the street so we stopped to talk to her. She has a really nice family and is going to get "rebaptized" at her church. We cleared some things up about that. I told her that we would love to have her and her family join us for church..probably three times.. but she was really grateful for the invitation and told me to come "pound on my door some" when it was time for church. The picture of me brushing my teeth is from our exchanges. I got some pretty sweet pajamas and have had that shirt since I was 6. The picture of my 1st companion elder petersen in my companions hair dress container is a prank i pull on him with the new elders pictures. he finds them everywhere. haha The picture of the play house was after a service project for a member. That's also where the garage pictures are from. It was a project to clean it out. The picture of the frozen yogurt was at "orange leaf" and it's our P day tradition. My drivers license picture was taken when I got my wisdom teeth out and one side was still swollen! I just got that mailed to me a few days ago. The no parking sign was rusty and i thought it was funny. The rest are just pictures of proselyting in TN!

A short update!

Here is the info I begged Elder Smith for :) sounds like he is doing great! 

Ok, my companion's name is Elder Brown. He has been out here for 21 months. Im in the melton lake area of Oak ridge TN. My companion told me he's never had as much success in his mission as since i showed up. haha. Here's a story you can put up:

Just before I came over here to the library to write some emails, I noticed my neighbor was locked out of his car. He was trying to get into his car with an extension chord.. I walked up to him and said "hey, I'm Elder Smith with the church of (J.C.O.L.D.S), how are you?" He said "I don't have time for yall, can't ya see I'm busy? go away!" I told him I noticed he locked himself out of his car and I came down to help him. After introducing him to my companion, I got them talking while I ran over to my apt. and grabbed a coat hanger. It wasn't 10 minutes before I unlocked his car. Not only was he blown away, but he was extremely greatful, gave me a huge hug and apologized for how he greeted me. I just told him I've had things like that happen to me before and the last thing I would want is someone trying to talk to me. I shared a quick message with him about our church. He is bringing his family over to our apartment for a lesson next week. Hopefully we can continue to have the spirit guide us

First look at Tennessee!

Still haven't gotten much info about Tennessee from our missionary, but he did send these photos! I think he made it safely and looks like he is settling in nicely!!

The MTC

Elder Smith was in the MTC for just a short while. He entered on March 12, 2014 and left for Knoxville Tennesse on March 25, 2014. Here are the photos he sent of him at the MTC. He didn't really say anything about his companion or how it was there so I have asked him to please share the information along with the pictures!! We are so proud of our handsome missionary!