WOW! I can't believe how quickly the last two years have flown by! I can't believe my missionary comes home IN 16 DAYS. I remember this same interview with my mission president when I left the North Carolina Charlotte Mission 23 years ago. I think I had mine my last night in the mission home the day before I left. They must not do that in Jaren's mission, which would explain why he has already had his interview. We are getting things prepared for his return.
Dear Familie,
WOW! I feel a little wierd now, I just had my exit interview with Pres. Ninow yesterday. He put a few things into perspective for me in ways I didn´t think were possible. You and dad probably remember yours pretty well. For me it just didn´t feel right. Was it really time for this? Has it already been nearly two years? Can´t I stay longer? I´m not ready for this yet, I just got here! That´s kinda how I felt yesterday! YIKES is all I can say. I also had the marriage talk, and finding the right person to marry and school and such as well as finding the right career feild to go into. So that is what the interview was about. Quite a change from the things I have been focused on for the last two years. After being asked about some of the experiences I have had on the mission, President asked me, "So, what are your goals in life? What is your purpose and to what end were you created?" I mustered up all that I had and explained that my purpose is to become as God is, or at least that is my potential. After this hour long interview, I learned somethings about my mission President that I never really knew. I know that he is very successful. But as I talked to him about going into Accounting and some of the options there, he later shared some of his experiences when he tried to find out what he wanted to do. He told me that it didn´t matter if he found a 7.50 dollar an hour job or one that paid 1,000 dollars an hour. Both are good jobs in fields that he likes, but which one will support my family? He then explained, that it really didn´t matter if it were 1,000 dollars or 500 or 100 or what, the question was, does it support my family? He then explained that too many people have great jobs but are in it for the job and the ego that it produces when you move up in a corporation. He further explained that he knows several people that hold their job as their god in life, and it all went down hill from there. "Your career," he explained, "is only a means for you and your family to reach your full potential. Exaltation is the greatest of all the gifts of God, and all the things we have in life are given means to accomplish this task." He then told me this really cool personal story he had, where he was deciding what career field he wanted to go into. He had a great set up where he was going to go and do his graduate school and get his Ph. D. and then felt it was wrong. Ultimately, he felt very impressed to stop the grant that he was given and pursue another course. He then said pointing to me, "and that course is what has lead me to be here (as a mission president) today." He told me that he knew he could have done well with the other field, but it wasn´t what God wanted him to do.
We obviously talked about much more, seeing how the interview took an hour, but lots was learned. I have also realized how much the mission has taught me, and at least helped me with that focus and to figure out what God would want me to do. Without the experiences that I have had in figuring out how the spirit whispers to me, I would be pretty lost. I have learned a lot more how I can use that gift in my life. I still have lots to learn, and I´m sure that a lot of the experiences that I have had won´t be fully realized until much later in life, and maybe even the next. But what an indispensible experience this has been in my life! It sure hasn´t been easy, but that being the case, lots has been learned.
Now, as far as the work goes, Elder Weng and I have certainly changed lately. I don´t know if I explained this last week, but we cleaned our apartment really well the week before last. Not that we were bad at cleaning it, but it had so much junk in it that it was never really clean. We cleaned it and got ríd of stuff that had to be nearly twenty years old in some cases! Then we changed our goals. We had been finding people every now and then, but we knew that we could do even better, especially with the last zone conference that we had, which happened to be on finding. At this conference we were told that those who find continually and have more than one per week usually expect to find like that. Elder Weng and I took this very seriously. We set a goal to fnd 10 solid new investigators over the next two and a half weeks. So far we have 2 within the first couple of days. Both are great and amazing people. We didn´t want to just satisfy a number, we want to find those who are ready to join the fold, NOW. Not later, not in a year, but NOW! And we realized that we could, and that it is completely possible. We are willing to do it, and it is a goal that I have never achieved. It isn´t one that we can reach on our own effort. We have to rely on God´s help. We know that there are many people, maybe even hundreds who are willing at this time to recieve the Gospel, but it has a lot to do with us personally and how prepared we are to go out and find them. If we have done everything within our power to do, we will accomplish God´s will, and find those willing to accept the gospel message now. We believe that it is possible, and we are commited to do everything we need to to get there. The rest lies within God´s power.
Anyway, as far as things go otherwise, with Elder Burr and Elder Harsh, I´ll talk to them. Elder Burr told me that he wanted to come to my homecoming. He is from Michagan, but will be coming over to Utah just days after getting back. So, I´ll talk to him later. Elder Harsh is from Murray, and I can probably talk to him as well. So don´t worry about it, I´ll take care of it when the time comes. They may or may not come, just due to all that is going on with them of course.
Anyway, I wish you all a great week, enjoy the fourth! By the way, when Pres. Ninow found out where we lived, he perked up and said that his sons are going to the Oakley Rodeo this weekend. They have a cabin just a couple of miles up the road in Weber Canyon. So yeah, it seems like that is the case for a lot of people! Thought that was interesting. He mentioned that they went nearly every year before the mission. Wouldn´t you know!
Well, I´ll let you all get off to your duties I guess. Have fun with wedding planning and such. Sorry that I´m a burden in that process! Just have cookies and Ice cream and sit on the grass! JK. I love you all! Have a great week!
Dein Sohn,
Elder Smith
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