"miracles are happening all around us."

Date: 10/1/12

Oi Família!

Thanks for the picture of Nolan, that's a pretty awesome soccer ball! And yes the water balloon fight with Edcarlos was the same Edcarlos as the scripture reading story. That is way cool to hear about the Knight Family and how you guys are involved and all. If I am remembering correctly I visited them once with Dad before? I'm so glad to hear they are going to church! There isn't a feeling much better than knowing you are helping God's children grow closer to Him and enjoy all the blessings of the Gospel. Keep me updated!

This week was good, I went on companion exchanges with another missionary that arrived with me. It was good to learn some things from him and see different ways we can go about the work. 

Dad there is a Peruvian man in my ward! He married a brazilian and they were living in Peru but now they moved here. The wife has alot of family here. They are way nice though and talk about how great Peru is. I told them you served there and all and they asked for your facebook, I'm not sure if you have one so I gave them Mom's name. So Mom if you recieve a message in spanish let Dad translate! They said they would make us some Peruvian food!

A part member family came to church this week. The wife is a member who is part-active and the husband is not a member yet. They also have a son who isn't a member yet. They are very nice and we will go there and talk with them and try to teach them this week. I am hoping we can help them gain full activity in the church and enjoy all the blessings of the gospel. 

The ward is getting pretty excited about missionary work and everyweek the work seems to keep moving forward. We had a great Sacrament/Testimony meeting yesterday. There are so many strong members that go through so much but continue to remain faithful. They are a great example to me. 

I am pretty excited for conference this weekend. We are going to try to max out the power of General Conference and try to get alot of investigators there and less-actives. It is such a great oppurtunity for them to feel the Spirit and gain a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We are going to do an activity friday in preparation for conference, it'll be great. 

I have been thinking about something cool I heard here on the mission. I think it was in a stake conference where someone said ''the greatest miracles that happen our the miracles of the converting power of the gospel of Jesus Christ''. I thought this was interesting because many times we think of miracles such as healing the sick, the blind being able to see, and things like this. When really, the greatest miracles are our own conversion and the conversion of others. This miracles matters most because it is the miracle that will bring eternal happiness. Alot of times we hear stories of miracles and think that we aren't worthy of such miracles because we don't see them much in our lives. When really, miracles are happening all around us.

Well I love you all! Thanks for all your support and everything. You guys are the best! Less than three months til Christmas!

Tchau for now!

Elder Smith

P.S. Hey can you try to find a way to get Cameron's emails from Sister Johnson and send them to me? I can only get emails from my family but if you send them to me it's all good. And maybe you can send mine to him somehow. The mail system is just so slow!

P.S. Hey Dad, will I be able to vote this year? Our Mission President said we can vote online?