This is another "makes-a-mother-proud letters" from my missionary. I look forward to my Mother's Day call from him on Sunday. Woohoo! I forgot all about it (the call, not Mother's Day) until I got to the end of the letter saying he would call us that morning. I couldn't figure out why and then I was like, "duh!" I am sooo looking forward to it!
Dear Familie,
Well it sounds like Erik successfully made it to his 15th birthday, now its on to 16. Yeah whooooo! Not. I´m just kidding Erik, I do love you, but I don´t believe that you are 15 and taking drivers ed. I have pictures of you before I left, and you were up to my nose, so I just don´t know what to think!
Okay Mom, just to get this out of the way, I know that you can sign up for classes now, and I don´t have to register for all the classes I want to take or need to take all at once. I am pretty sure that I will go into Accounting, I know that I need to take buisness 1050 for that one, and I need to take math 1050 again. German will probably have to wait until I can go and test for that. As far as English goes, I have already taken Writing 2010, and I don´t need anymore English, but will probably take the Buisness English Class. And then two other classes towards Accounting. My generals are pretty much done. I just need to figure out what I need to do for the major requirements.
Now that that is out of the way, I want to say that we finally had transfers. It was wierd not to have them happen for a week, it felt like limbo for me. But I have now been with Elder Weng for the last week and we have had a great time together. We are really excited, and we have a lot of potential here. He is very excited to work here, and it was one of the dream areas of the mission that he wanted to serve in. Now he is here! And, he is one of the companions that I have wanted to serve with, so it seems to have worked out very well on both ends! We have done a bit of finding time lately, which is good. It is very interesting to do though. The German Elders can´t do any work outside of Kaiserslautern because they can only walk. They don´t have a bus pass, and they don´t have a car, so they have to walk from one side of the city to the other, sometimes several times a day! With that said, we have to limit our contacting to really just Americans, because there is no way to get the German missionaries out to these small towns sometimes 25 to 30 miles out from Kaiserslautern. We just go from town to town, looking for American cars, things, childrens toys, names, or American looking homes (the newer nicer homes) and such, or just ask Germans where groups of Americans live. Usually they are grouped together in one neighborhood, so that is where we go. This is also really the only way that we can do our finding time, Doors. We are really trying to get the ward involved and excited about the work, so that they can share it with their friends. Their is tons of potential there, and it works really well, so that is what we are trying to have them do.
I can say that I absolutly love this work. As I have been out I have realized and learned several things. Lately however, I have asked myself some very important questions, based on what I have seen and what I have heard from members and what I have read from the scriptures. The questions are these. Do I take for granted what I have? The reason behind this one is I have witnessed often that many come to church and forget really what it is for. We get so involved in going through the motions that we forget the meaning behind it. In this sense, church then becomes a "come, eat and leave" experience out of habit. Do we know what we have? We live in the greatest dispensation of all time, and "where much is given, much is required." Do we do the things we are asked to do out of duty, or do we do them out of love for the savior and for others? Things like hometeaching can be hard, sometimes aligning our schedules with the ones we teach is very difficult. I know because it is exactly the same in missionary work! Yet, if we do it to get a number, to say it was done and then say that you have an excuse to rest for the rest of the month until next time, is to forget the whole meaning of what the Lord has asked of us. Outside of giving Peter a chance to redeem himself, why else did Christ ask him to feed his sheep? You know, the more I realize these things, I can´t feel comfortable not saying something to my friends. That is what has changed inside of me. How could I feel comfortable looking into the saviors eyes and say, "Gee, well, I knew my freind already, and I couldn´t picture him saying yes to something like this," or just not saying something to them out of fear that they will say no, while knowing you never even invited him or her to learn more, is a false and bad assumption. In the scriptures the Lord doesn´t accept justification for our actions on that one. If they say no to an invitation, fine, they made the decision and it is left up to them, but you still lovingly encourage them, and still be a freind to them. Why is it that we have the friends we have, whether member or non-member? Is it because they see us differently, they notice something different about us? Is it because they trust us? If we are living right, I think that those are pretty good asumptions as to why they are your friends, and you theirs. The reason I have asked these recently of myself is that the Lord is very open and direct, especially in the Doctrine and Covenants. We have no time to waste. People here asked if it was right for President Uchtdorf to ask people to share the gospel with those we don´t even know, whether on a train ride or on the bus, or on the street as you engage in a conversation, as well as with our friends. What he really said was we need to be better desciples of Christ. It is out of Love that he came and saved us if we but believe in him and keep his commandments. We can´t assume that someone else will come by and help, we are here now and have that association with those people. We forget the urgency of it all. I love this church, and I love the principles it teaches. We can´t however, sit idly on the wayside and watch. There has never been time for that, and especially now. I greatly underestimate the things that I have been given, and I have a very small understanding of it all, but the gospel can be pinpointed to one grand point, that point being Love. If Love is our motive, nothing else matters, we will happily do as the savior has asked, and do it because we love our neighbor as ourself. I can think of one good example of such love. It was this love that Rob Markham possessed. To this day I remember the things that he did, and the words that Bishop Boyer said, "this is surly a man that has lived to earn the celestial Kingdom." I don´t disagree at all with that statement. I also have the great example of wonderful parents as well. Thanks, but thanks is also not enough for what you have taught me!
I hope you can ask these same questions of your self too. As I did, I felt very small, even inadequate to the task, but it is what has been expected and required of us. The gospel is true. The church is true. We are not perfect, but we are working our way there one little act at a time, one little day at a time. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week! I´ll call you on Sunday Morning! I´ll call you from a members home. It is an American line to an American line.
Ihre Sohn,
Elder Smith
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