.... email doo doo dooo doooooo, doo doo doo doo dooo #104 (please sing in the tune of the final countdown)

ciao tutti! hello people!! welcome back to the final semi-half-monthly email of yours truly, the one and only,

*drumroll please*

Elder Kobayashi Smitty!

man, it's been a wild ride. did you know that in my very first email i tried to figure out a word that would mean weekly but like.... cut down from yearly? like... as in semi-half-monthly is like,,,, weekly. i tried to do that with a year. never figured it out. oh well haha

but seriously... buckle yourselves up... this one may be a doozey but hey it's the last one so yk, i don't care about your feelings. it still won't be as long as maddies i can promise you that hahahahaha (no shade tho....)

unconsecrated songs?? hm????

life is a highway - rascal flatts... ain't that the truth. it goes by way too fast bro... 

somebody to love - queen

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

☆ a lot. just, a lot. but! good teaching updates, my last few good miracles:) also lots of service, a very busy day, and many "lasts". man. this gon be a long one.... buckle the frik up

Stories

- ate dinner with the bellos, that was fun! saw many big fish, ate some good tacos, met some other family members:) rico the cat do the big sneaky and steals our food

- met with the ricks! once again, love wade so much. he's the freakin best!! absolute legend

- met with caryn may! she's awesome. gave her a blessing, and shared a little message with her. she's a sweet lady, i'm very glad we were able to get to know her!

- went to the church cuz everyone cancelled on us, and accidentally crashed a stake relief society party haha. we was the only dudes there other than the stake president  it was mad fun tho, i saw a bunch of my favorite members from grand mesa. all of them said they wished they could hug me and that they were holding back hahaha. love them

- man. saturday. one of the busiest days of my mission. helped with 2 moves, broke a lot of frikin sticks as a service project, for like an hour and a half, did a lesson with maria and the hermanas, and the bello's came. louis heard bro bellos testimony and it really touched him. he said he'd be there next week. so cool bro.

- then met with the sabins one last time. it was real fun, we told a buttload of riddles hahah. super fun, love them

- choich, bore my testimony one last time

- had a bomb ward co-op, my last one. love bro stephenson and sis mendenhall. frikin legends

- did the final session of myplan... kinda interesante

- went to sister thompsons, walked eli one last time hehe. love sister thompson. she's amazing

- had dindin with the stewarts, it was so heccin good. green chilli pork burritos. man. scrumptious. love that family so much bro. they gave me a pen to return when i come back

bubba and elder holdaway came by and picked up a bunch of hangers and we talked and vibed so that was fun

- we got picked up and went to lazer tag! man. i won't lie. i kinda frikin wrecked everyone hahaha. it was a good time tho! we did a bunch of different game modes, and it was honestly just really fun for a last district activity:)

- had the last district council, then the funeral hahaha. so that was fun! especially with elder guy playing taps lol. good times bro

- we went and nabbed the screws, then went to Cali's to help her set up the TV wall mount. it didn't work hahaha. but she appreciated our efforts and that we "came through". so that was awesome! and she gave us soooo many snacks hahaha

- we had our inspection with sister gardner, love her. found out that the brother gardner who we met who stopped believing in God is actually her son! she loved that we stopped by him and that he was super nice and friendly to us. i told her about Josh, and that her kiddos would come around:)

- we went to one last mutual, played soccer! so that was way fun:) love all those youth, it was good seeing em all one last time.

- packed a ton. gaspar, stengel, and laney came by while we were home to drop stengels stuff off haha. we had a very fun time there hehehe

- oh yeah, we all getting transferred haha. but stengel is coming to my area!! and i love him a lot hehe so it'll be litty:)

Teaching Updates

 - went with brother stephenson to visit the bulls. that was awesome. they are so kind, and loved everything we taught them. it's really sad to go right after finding those awesome people, but they'll still be taught:)

- met with dougy!!! it was awesome!! Gave a full resto, he felt the spirit a bunch as we talked. apparently his brother is a member, so that's really cool! he was very receptive and we set up to have a church tour on saturday!

but then....it didn't work out. rip bro.

- we're meeting with kate on thursday, and we're gonna try and visit tikaboo and dougy boi one last time before we leave to let em know. but yeah.

Spotlight

- all of my family. Mother dearest, Padre, Kai, Karsten, Kaela, Fomba. i love you all so much, and i can't wait to meet ila;)) y'all have easily been my biggest supporters on my mission!! love you!!

- Can't forget the people who respond to almost all of my emails!! particularly my Aunt Abby and my Great Aunt Nancy:)) i love y'all!! and everyone and anyone else who responds to my emails haha

- my friends who support me SOOOO much. joshie, lys, logan, jericho, michaela, brecko, jackson, b-bubz, tyson, cameron, hazzy, chloe, lysi, julia, keawekane, probsty boi, the other julia, and ofc sophia:) and also literally so many more. i only got these from reading my email list hahahaha so if i left you out i do apologize. i heccin love you, whoever you are that's reading this.

- special shoutout as well to my Grandpa and my Grandma Ronda! y'all have also been a huge support:)) also all my extended family, cousins, aunts and uncles:) i feel very close to y'all, thank you:)

- all my companions!! i want to thank

Elder Bye for training me, showing me a lot of humor and good workouts, and many many riddles. thanks for the memes too haha

Elder Jenson for showing me hard work and obedience

Elder Hunt for showing me a lot of how missions work. and so much fun.

Elder Hassard for turning into one of my best freaking friends. SEE YOU SOON NEIGHBOR WOOHOOOO

Elder Raddon for teaching me a little about how an engine works, and for the jam sessions haha

Elder Bales for being my first full 100% greenie. you're a stud bro. thanks for helping me when i was... going through some incredibly hard times, brother.

Elder Miskin! bro ily. when we were comps i was hyped. thanks for texting me so much and keeping up our friendship:)) luv u!!!

Elder McLelland for being a frikin nerd. ily kiddo. you're a great missionary, thanks for showing me some dope pranks hahaha i'll have to re-create them

Elder Gustafson for being my FRIKIN DAWG. ily bro. it was a freaking fun 3 transfers. we worked hard, had a blast, made way too many inside jokes, and yeah. don't let them cornflakes get to ya bro

Elder Owens for being such a good and teachable greenie. man, you're a legend. i wish you the best of luck with your wiggly ribs, and seriously miss our time together

Elder Wrightch, man i'm sad we only had one. you be killin it out in brazil tho  i had a blast, man

Elder Paulk, i frikin love you. thanks for being my last greenie. for real. you're a stud, and i'm so glad we got along so well. i'll miss you

Elder Guy! Thanks for being my last comp. with elder paulk i guess hahaha. but for real. i'm very glad you joined us, it's been a blast:)

- for a bunch of other missionaries who i love with my whole heart: elder hanks, elder durrant, elder brown, elder vowles, elder stengel, elder gaspar, elder billings, elder reyes, elder abar, elder pritts, elder nicholas, elder stevens, elder shumway, elder wright the third? fourth? idk. then we also got sister harmon, sister bealer, sister shill, sister scott, sister norman, sister whiting, sister mortensen, sister burgoyne, and so many more. y'all are amazing. all the elders, sisters, and hermanas i've served around. so good.

CDSM = best mission ever  if you'd like to argue, i will show you the song that i wrote for our mission. so, get rekt.

- President and Sister Floyd, President and Sister Rees, President and Sister Landis, Elder Cutler, Elder and Sister Stevenson. many many many good folk. too many.

- all the member families i met and loved. so many bro. the ones that stand out the most are: (in area order)

• Columbine:

Beals

sis taylor

fords

orrulian

beck

beutler

• Fruita:

Atwoods

Nelsons

Pavs

McCormick

Waughtel

Harmon

riley

bishops

aldridge

brackett

hart ♡

• Cimarron:

Saunders

wilsons

ramsey

sanderford

mott

kulbeth

chatham

seelbinder

Palmer

tobler & tobler²

paul ruybal

deeds

• Grand Mesa:

paul raburn

berrie

johnson

lewis

boydstun

heimstra

billings

buddecke

lang

• Melody Lane:

bench

ficklin

olsen

schwinn

haskell

sabin

ricks

thompson

stewart

johnson

stephenson

• once again, this ain't all. but a bunch hahaha

- next is some of the people i've taught who i love so very much:)

chris

laurie

brandy

nicole

beckie

the williams

rudy

and ofc, many others:)

- this is just a few of the many people who have impacted my mission and my life. if you're reading this, you are included in that group! there are too many people who i love and my brain is too empty to remember you all. but i did my best hehe.

- last but not least, Jesus:) Thanks, Jesus:)

My challenges for you

- beg for God's will to be done.

this one is very tricky. it means not only turning everything over to God, but begging for it to happen. a complete act of humility and selfless-ness. Jesus Christ suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane is the most prime example of that. this truth was probably the hardest one for me to come to. to do so, i had to learn that if i want everything to play out in the best way possible in my life, it has to be God's will. i cannot control it whatsoever. therefore, the best thing to do would be to not only ask for God's will to be done, but to Beg for it. and that my friends, is an incredibly hard thing to do. i still have a long way to come. but i'll get there:) i know it's the best thing to do:)

the challenge for you this week is to do the same. you have to mean it tho... forget yourself. turn your will over to God. it will be what's best. we still have to make decisions, of course. but choose to do the will of God whenever He tells you do. promise Him that. and that is the best thing I can ever challenge you to do.

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

- in the wise words of an old sensei and master..... 

"My time has come"

this was taken pretty much directly from my fb post, with some little changes here and there. so apologies if you read things twice haha, i did change it up a bit

i have practically finished my mission. and when i say it's been a wild ride... imagine the sketchiest road in the world, in a smart car, with no brakes, and you can't go under 80 mph. yeah. and everything around me is on fire. that about accurately describes it.

on the flip side, the smart car somehow has a minifridge stocked with my favorite drinks, is constantly playing the song i want to listen to in the moment, is constantly at the perfect temperature, and somehow i always feel better than i ever have in my life.

here are a few things i've learned recently:

1. there needs to be an opposition in all things

- this one has come to me over my entire life. basically, without one thing we cannot have the opposite. for example. we cannot have happiness without experiencing sadness. we wouldn't know what the absence of sadness is without it! i can 100% promise you that this is true. i've known what it's like to be at the lowest of the lows. because of that, i know what it's like to have the most joy in this life as well! it is only through Jesus Christ and living His Gospel:)

2. love is the only way

- this one's gonna be pretty short:) it's quite self explanatory! if something can't be done without love, then it shouldn't be done at all. if you'd like a good scripture that explains pretty perfectly how to do this, i'd invite you to go look at Moroni 7:45:) it lists the attributes you need to develop in order to be perfectly Charitable 

3. we don't know what gets to happen.

- life is uncertain. i have zero clue what the future holds... maybe a good idea. but i really do know practically nothing. God does tho! i will trust in His plan. 

well, that's all folks. been a good time. to all my friends back home, i'll see ya very soon!!! to all my friends i've met out here - missionaries, members, neighbors, all who i've talked to - i love you all so much! i'm very grateful for all the cherished memories i've made with y'all.

this is definitely the most bittersweet moment of my life. at least, up to this point. it truly has changed my life forever. i can't believe it's over... 2 years ago, it felt like forever away. i don't exactly want to, but hey, like i said, my time has come  i have much yet to experience and enjoy in life. so much more to do. great things are in store, i know that much:)

My Testimony

my mission has been the hardest thing i've ever done in my life, but also the most amazing and beautiful accomplishment i've been able to achieve thus far in my life. i wouldn't trade it for the world. it is the most amazing decision i have ever made, and not much will be able to change that i don't think.

beauty. pure beauty. that's the best way i can describe it. just beautiful. man.

as i leave, i want to let y'all know just how much i love my Savior. please get closer to Him. i promise you, He awaits anxiously to wrap His arms around you and never let go. He prays for you, cares for you, and loves you more than anything. and you should never forget that. and i say all these things in the holy and sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

with all of that said, i finally close 

as always, mucho love!!! 

Brethren, Adieu

~ Elder Koby F. Smith:)