October 2, 2017 Email

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .this is due to the fact that I have received an amazing present that I hope isn't too crazy.

So first of the week, as for what happened after emailing on Monday we went to a member's house and just went and talked to her.  She is having some problems so we gave her a blessing and that was super nice.  After that we went home.

Now Tuesday, I swear this week was just strange!!!!  We got up and went out to see people.  The first person on the list that we saw was Frank.  We went and saw him and had a super good lesson with him.  We then went and tried to see others but that didn't work out.  As for the downside was that a big rain storm came in and we had to take cover pretty quickly.  We ducked into this one shop and just tried to do our best to wait the storm out.  We then went and met a kid named Jerry!!!!  So Jerry is super cool and we are having better opportunities to teach him.  We then tried to see others, but because of the storm we didn't have the chance to see anyone else.  We came back and that was a bummer day.

As for Wednesday it was similar in not teaching a lot of people.  We went and had our DC Meeting and that was nice.  We have an Elder who is training and he is pretty cool.  His name is Elder Orton, being trained by Elder Staples.  So yeah, we went out and first started with Andrew Brown.  So we decided that we needed to press forward and teach him more about the restored gospel through other doctrines in the church.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and he seemed to understand pretty well.  We then had the chance to go around and try to meet more people, but that failed epidemically.  We had to head to our Coordination meeting that never happened and then we had to present our information on the work to the presiding officers in the Ward.  At the same time we got a call from a referral.  So a few weeks ago we got a call from some sister missionaries in the U.S. and they said they had someone for us to see.  We got in contact with him, but haven't had the chance to meet him yet.  We met him at the church and we finished our meeting and then we went to go see him.  So I'm used to a lot of weird stories and mumbo jumbo stuff so this wasn't really a surprise for me haha!!!!  So he said he received visions and revelations, but only when he deep smokes marijuana in his room.  He proclaimed that he knew the exact time we would call and that he knew where we would meet before saying where. . .Memmott was a little weirded out by that, but he'll get used to it haha!!!!  We left and came  home and didn't have a lot of success teaching that day.

So now Thursday. . .if there is one thing I don't like more than anything, is random exchanges with the District Leaders, Zone Leasers or APs!!!!  We got up and were getting ready and then Bangura said we needed to do an exchange.  So I went with Akpan into their area and that was decent.  I honestly can't remember a lot of the people in their area.  I guess a lot of it is because they aren't my investigators and I just didn't talk a lot.  Akpan literally power-taught all the lessons and I bore my testimony.  Talk about deja vu, felt like "he who must not be named or Elder Smith with freak out"!!!! So yeah.  We met up with the guys at the apartment and we switched back.  So apparently Andrew Brown, he just isn't serious!!!!  I mean we knew that, but he just wasn't serious at all!!!!!  So he is still stuck on teachings that we have been talking about for weeks and he just isn't committing to do anything.  So that sucked.  So that was what I heard the other guys do today so yeah haha!!!!

Now Friday, we had the chance to meet a few more people than usual today.  We got up and planned and then went out to see Frank.  We had a good lesson with him and then we went and contacted.  We met a Nigerian named Joyce and she was ok.  She is doing something for her church and that is pretty strange.  We taught her for a little bit and then we went to eat.  We then met up with Jerry and a few of his friends.  We taught them and it was very nice.  We left and went to go teach the Osai family.  We had a good lesson with them and it was pretty good.  They are progressing well.  We then tried our best to see people, but they weren't around.  We then went to the apartment and just passed out haha!!!

Saturday!!!!!!  Chai today we had to do stuff like no other!!!!  So we first went out and met with Frank.  He was pretty cool and we talked about the Word of Wisdom.  We had a good time hanging out with him and it was pretty nice.  We then left and tried to contact more people, but it just didn't work our.  We met some people in a compound and we said we would see them on Sunday.  We left and went to go see President Simpson!!!!!!  So not only did we have super nice interviews with him, but I also got a present. . .MY FLIGHT ITINERARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mom, dad, I hope you received a copy as well because I am coming home late and you better be there to pick me up!!!!!  So I fly from Accra to Amsterdam, then from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, and then from there I head home!!!!!!!!  Chai, I can't believe that I know the way home!!!!!

Luckily I hear that I won't be flying alone for long,  I'll have my mission family with me for a little while then we split. . .I think that will be one of the hardest things for when we are all leaving together.  The family I've found in my TC group is one that will always be with me.  I have more family throughout the course of my mission, but even they have made my family bigger!!!!!  Mom, Dad, bros, Greg, Gunnar, Adam, ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!  You are all my family and that is the greatest thing I could ever ask for !!!!!  I love you all and thank you so much for the support that you have given me throughout my mission.  So we left and came back to the chapel to watch the Saturday sessions of conference and play some basketball so that was super cool!!!!!  We then decided to head home after about halfway through the afternoon session on Saturday.  We came back and it was nice.

Now I've said this once and I'll say it again, I love General Conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Chai that was just an amazing day!!!!  Sunday we had 3 people attend the conference and it was super cool.  We then went back out to boost our new investigators up and we rocked that!!!!  We found tons of people in a compound and just taught all of them and that was a majority of the new investigators this week.  We went back and finished with the Sunday Morning session and that was super nice.  We went home and invited the other missionaries to come and play Uno.  So Mom, those Uno cards you sent me are the coolest!!!!!  I don't know if I told you all, but I did the customization cards:
1) X2 Hand, you double the number of cards in a person's hand
2) New Hand, you get rid of the cards you or someone else has and draw a new hand with the same number of cards
3) Reduce to Uno!!!!!  Now this is my favorite card, but now it's everyone's favorite card!!!!  It reduces the number of cards in your hand to Uno and you get to choose the card to keep.  You don't have to say Uno because that is the power of the card!!!!

So we did that and it was super cool!!!!  We also met a friend of Memmot's from his place back home in Nevada!  He grew up in Ghana and he comes over every now and then and he was able to meet up with us and deliver some stuff!!!!  Chai that was super cool for Memmott and it's super cool to see how fast time flies from when you get on the plane and when you're about to leave on it.  So that was that haha!!!!  This week has been full of surprises and it's amazing to see how the world works!!!!

I hope you all are doing amazing and staying out of trouble!!!!  Mom, Dad, if you got the flight intin
erary then you know when I'll land so please get everything prepared for me to get released the next day and so I can see all my friends the next day!!!!!  This is the only time I'm talking about this stuff so I'm not bringing it up again in my big emails so be there or be square!!!!!

Love you all and don't stop being AMAZING!!!!

From,
Elder Stockton Smith