egg head and being called a sausage #58

let me be the first to say, Happy Easter! welcome back to the semi-half-monthly email of ya boi, Lr smitt! who still doesn't like olives. i tried them again, and didn't throw up this time so that's best case! still could chug straight olive oil tho, so i'm really not sure what's wrong with me. a whole lot, but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This week's summary! (for my TLDR folks)

☆ we're..... basically tracking

☆ exchanges!

☆ the sweetest old lady told me i was cute and asked if she could keep me

☆ got 2 eggs thrown at my head

☆ easter? egyptians? hm.

☆ the cereal addiction is back....

☆ so many potentials, yet so many cancellations :/

☆ fixed an ipad to help someone like us

☆ drove an hour for nothing but hey it was real pretty!

☆ found a matching chicken, dog, and cat all coexisting in the same yard for our friend mom10 and co. best case

☆ got to go to the Grand Junction temple groundbreaking!!!! it was so amazing, i got to see lots of old ward members, and scoop some dirt with a golden shovel

☆ Elder Bingham!!!! rockin with him for a few more days, BEST CASE

☆ easter. ah man. i am in love with Christ and His Atonement. there's just no other way to describe it. i'm in love.

☆ norwegian mission barbecue?? i am a sausage, as deemed by Elder Wong of the 70

☆ spilled gas all over my pants. yeet

Stories

- alright, i got about 20 minutes left but my phone is slow and i'm also currently on a call with my family cause our entire day got taken up by the barbecue. this is gonna be prolly a little bit shorter, i did the teaching updates and everything done first cuz that's the real good stuff, but these will be lit too!

- so, we love to go by and stop by old tracking logs at houses that have names on them. so like,,,, we know? the person who lives there? kinda? just a name. and most of the time they've moved. so it's basically tracking. but not. such a good time tho! i kinda get to experience it so that's way fun

- went on exchanges with the ZL's! love Elder DeLange, and he's such a homie. made him some food, and he really liked my lactose free milk for whatever reason. learned some good things!

- go look at Elder Cole Gustafson's most recent facebook video. i got an egg thrown at my head for easter. it will not disappoint. it's the cheesiest thing you'll ever see. let's go.

- apparently egyptians had to do with the painting of the easter egg tradition? heck. maybe they had something to do with it being paired up with a bunny too, which personally makes no sense to me but oh well!

- i am back to being addicted to cereal. frosted flakes babeyyyyyyy! in a land of corn flakes...... some here will get that.

- showed up at a house where they were like... no missionaries. and then i fixed her ipad. then she liked us! use your talents!

- drove an hour up to a place called collbran for a member lesson then he never showed up. so we drove back. it was very pretty tho!!

- the temple groundbreaking was so amazing! once in a lifetime opportunity. and i got to scoop some dirt with a golden shovel!!

- elder bingham came back into the mission! he got to stay with us for 2 days, which was a HUGE blessing. love him! elder hassard be jealous

- we had the first ever norwegian barbecue! whole mission got together. i saw my old highschool play friend sister eden swogger, so many other old friends, and elder wong played basketball with us! it was the most coolest thing that's ever happened. he also said we were all sausages! president said that he started the fire for all these baptisms, and then he said president and sister reese added all the logs and that we were the sausages. best compliment i've ever received. best time ever.

- spilled gas alllll over my pants. looked very..... fun. yup.

Teaching Updates

 - so, first things first, FIREMAN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! i'm SO sad i couldn't be there for it, but it was really amazing from what i hear. congrats brother!! and Sister WB, fireman is our boy, in case you weren't sure about the codenames i have hahaha. tell the fam i love them:)

- so, we had some AMAZING potentials for this week, and ALL of them fell through i kid you not. mom10 didn't answer, frog bus lady is going THROUGH it, but we stopped by the Dubs house twice, both times they had to reschedule but tonight is on FOR SURE! so that'll be amazing! this one lady we stopped by last week said to come by this week wasn't here, but she had ducks in a kiddie pool outside? her neighbors, who last time very much spoke english, said "no englese". that might be italian... but in spanish hahaha, so hey guess what we'll send the hermanas over >:) we don't give up out here

- had an awesome lesson teaching the story of Samuel the Lamanite, (one of my favorites), to this awesome kid imma name king benji. he loves to climb and be up high! although we never got a return appointment yet. the missionaries in the past have been awful, and left the poor cute kid outside in the snow for 2 hours cuz he was waiting for them. so we aint gonna be that way. this kid is a legend tho, cuz we told him we would get him a candy bar if he reads a story in the Book of Mormon. he didn't want it tho... you know what he did want?? a cucumber! legend. we're gonna get him 2.

- another awesome lady we met at the gas station, we'll call her maverick, had many missionaries stop by and she literally told them to come by again. and they never did. so we told her we would. and we will. i am not a fan of not being a missionary. i have been called to this work and you BETTER believe that i'm going to do everything i can to do exactly that.

Spotlight

- Fireman. congrats. i heccin love and miss ya. SO proud of you, know how amazing you are. you've changed my life, in more ways than you can ever know

- rose!! happy birthday in two days, love ya homie! i believe herald and gerald are doing very well, livin the married life

- uhhhhuhuhhhhuuh Elder Bingham! i forgot if you were on these or nah. i heccin love you my FINE elder! have such a great time in cedaredge!

- have i ever given a shoutout to Christ? this ones for you. thanks for living for me. i love you.

My challenges for you

- give up a craving!

did you know that when Christ suffered, He felt your cravings as well? Challenge this week is to give something up that you're craving that's not good. i will too, i promise! :) Christ felt it too tho. He will help you as you turn away from it

Every minute, every moment...there was Jesus.

- i have two new favorite chapters in the New Testament!! Romans 5 & 6. if you saw my recent facebook post, then you got a good chunk of what i loved from Romans 5. the rest of it comes from Romans 6, which ties the resurrection to what we do at baptism

Romans 6:

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

these verses keep hitting me harder, and harder, and harder. free. dieth no more. newness of life. liveth unto God. these are the blessings of easter. these are the blessings that Christ died to give to us. i've said it before, and i'll say it many times again. the Atonement is SO personal. and when we get baptized, it makes it all that much more personal. He died so we can choose to be baptized, follow Him, and become clean. and i am in love with it. with Him. there are no words i can ever even use to describe it. i just can't. He loves you so much.

 Foundation of Faith in Christ scriptures 

- 1 Nephi 10:10 ~ take away the sins of the world.

- 1 Nephi 10:11 ~ after He had been slain, He manifested Himself unto the gentiles with His Spirit (hint, right now;))

- 1 Nephi 10:13 ~ the fulfilling of the word of the Lord

- 1 Nephi 10:14 ~ they will come to the knowledge of the true messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer

- 1 Nephi 10:17 ~ the power of the Holy Ghost comes through faith and diligently seeking, in any time. old or new

- 1 Nephi 10:18 ~ this way was prepared for everyone, always. we must repent and come unto Him

- 1 Nephi 10:19 ~ you will find if you diligently seek. all times, anywhere, the Holy Ghost will bless you

- 1 Nephi 11:6 ~ the Spirit loves to praise God. and He is God over and above all

- 1 Nephi 11:8 ~ the Spirit said unto me: Look! & i looked.

- 1 Nephi 11:17 ~ we don't know everything, but we do know that God will always love us

- 1 Nephi 11:22 ~ the love of God, which sheds itself abroad, (makes itself big and known), in the hearts of the children of men

- 1 Nephi 11:23 ~ & it is most joyous

whoooooo okay lovs u all!! bye!!

~ elda smithy