A Mission is. . .

I just read about something like this happening to the son of a mom I met through the Missionary Mom's group and thought, "wow, I hope that doesn't happen for Jaren with William," and then we receive this letter. Maybe it's because I have slacked off a little in praying for his investigator's by name. I will have to start that up again! I hope William pulls through and that Jaren's week will get better!

Dear Familie,

Well, as the subject of this email says, I think that you can get a feel for how the last week has gone, or at least the last few days. I actually got that quote from President Ninow at one of our Zone Conferences a couple of months ago. As I have come to find out, “A Mission is The Sanctification Process on steroids,” and as President Ninow said right after that, “we as missionaries are like putty in the Lords hands who shapes and molds us into who we can become.” So it has been, and even more so with this last week.

I mentioned that William was ready for his baptism. He had everything ready to go. He had his interview and was told he was ready. On the other hand is Charity who for some reason has started to go to the other extreme and oppose everything that William is doing. Because of Charity, William has been gone when we should have appointments with him, and Charity is there. We found out that she sent William away just five minutes before we were to meet with him! He has also not come to church for the last two weeks. Everything has just seemed to bottom out on us in the last two weeks, though he was ready for his baptism before. I then, find myself asking, “Why?” Is it any wonder? Just last week I had a few questions for President Ninow about the baptism. When he talked to me, the last few sentences that he said hit hard, but were nevertheless true, “You need to do everything you can to make this go through, and to make sure that his conversion is a true one. Satan will do everything in his power to stop it, and you need to know that. I am confident that you will make it work though.”  So, now here we are. Elder Brown and I are doing everything that we can to just keep contact going, which even now is a struggle. While he has a sincere desire, his sister fails to have one. When William wants to go to church, his sister wants him to do something for her, claiming that it is life threatening, which in reality it could be. And so on and so forth. Now, a scripture comes to mind from 2 Nephi 2, “There must needs be an opposition in all things.” I know that it sounds gut wrenching to hear, and it has been hard for me the last couple days, but it isn´t until after the trial of our faith that we become converted. William is going through that right now. This is really a trial of his faith, not so much mine or anyone elses. I can only be the good guy on the right shoulder whispering and helping him go in the right direction while on the left shoulder is Satan pulling him in the other. I am also surprised at how hard it really is for someone to become a member of the church. Before I come out on the mission, they made it seem so simple, go out there and teach all nations and baptize them in my name. Well, now I have been hit with the reality of that. To be truly converted, you have to pass through your own personal trial of faith. So, was the Savior surprised with how difficult the cup was that he had to partake of, but nevertheless did so because of the love that He has for each and everyone of us. It wasn´t until He was on the cross and cried “Father, why hast thou forsaken me?” that he realized what it was like to have lost communication with His Father, and to be in spiritual darkness, yet He persevered and finished what he came to do; to offer Salvation to all those who believe on His name, repent, receive baptism by immersion (and with a desire) for the remission of their sins, receive the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. So am I surprised at what has happened? No, not really, but I am surprised at how difficult it is. But what a learning experience the last few weeks have been! And, going back to what President Ninow told us, “The Mission is really like the sanctification process on steroids,” because as he said, “you experience so many ups and downs in even hours during the day!” So, yes, you can imagine it has been a little stressful, a little tiring, and even down right difficult with periods of wondering how I can go on, or how to get through this, only to be comforted with what I have said. I wouldn´t change any of for anything the world has to offer! Never! This work is truly amazing, and this is truly the church of Jesus Christ! While the world searches for the truth, we are blessed to have it. I could go on for hours. But this is what has been on my mind for the last couple of weeks, and now it is at the surface as all of this keeps unfolding. We are still praying that all will go through with him in the end.

Well, Schwester Schmitt is still doing okay. We are really working with her on prayer, simply praying that she can receive an answer to prayer and about the Book of Mormon. Lots of great things happen there once you receive an answer. It just seems like she is learning what it is like to get an answer to her prayers.

Outside of that, our teaching pool is not very large right now. So we have had a lot of time donated to finding people. There are a couple of new people that we have met and set up to teach with, so we will see how it goes.

Anyway, it sounds like all of you had a great week and that all went well with the trip. Even though Holly´s trip wasn´t quite like mine and Julia´s, it is the fact that you are with your really good friends out having a good time. That´s what counts in the end I suppose.

I am also glad to hear about Dalton as well! Can´t believe that he is out of the hospital already, it really is a miracle! He recovered incredibly fast, at least by the sounds of it!

Well, I guess that I can answer your questions now that I have taken eternity to write you all this email!

Q.  Do you know Elder Snyder?  He is in Aachen.  I told his mom I thought there was a bit of distance between the two cities.  I don't suppose it's even your zone?
A. Nope to all of the above. I haven´t meet him as far as I can remember. He is in a completely different Zone. We have six zones here, and he is in the Düsseldorf zone if I can remember. I am in the southern edges of the mission, so I am about 250 km from him, guess that is about 170-200 miles from me, so quite a bit.

Q.  What is the distance between zones?
A.  Guess I just said that! Oops! Wasn´t looking at all!

Q.  How was zone conference?
A.  Amazing as usuall! The biggest thing this zone conference was to simply open our mouths at every opportunity. All I can say is that President Ninow is doing a lot of really good things, and practical things that for some reason former Presidents didn´t quite figure out. They all did the same thing, but for some reason the missionaries as a whole respond to him. The other big thing was consistency. Often on the mission it goes in cycles, good and bad periods in cycles and larger periods, even with the mission as a whole. So, his goal is to keep up the good work when the work is going well rather than slipping back and working really hard to build it back up again. It is really a lot less effort to keep a good thing going than to slip and try to build it back up again.

Q.  Will you be able to use the measuring spoons I sent?  If I remember right, those were hard to find when we lived there.
A.  OH YEAH! I could probably find some in metric, but even still, I have a hard time finding some!

Q.  How is your teaching pool?
A.  It is a little weak right now, but we are working to keep it going and finding more people to teach!

We hope you all have a great week, and that it doesn´t take an eternity to read this, but thanks for all that you do, and I pray for you all every day! I love this work, and this church!

Gott Segne Euch!
Ihre Sohn/Bruder

Elder Smith