Kobe Mindset And Dogs

Back at it again here we go

 

Tuesday started off pretty tough when we went to teach our friend Rebecca and 5 minutes into the lesson she asked if she had to be married to her boyfriend to be baptized. Such an L when we told her yes and she basically said "ya I'm in no rush to get married or baptized I guess..." so that was a dagger. Finished out the lesson and she fed her baby again. Sweet. Missouri. 

 

We had district council on Wednesday which taught me how to be a better missionary. BOLDNESS. We went to knock on this one referral door and they definitely did not want anything to do with us so we knocked the adjacent trailer which had the loudest heavy metal music coming from it. Little sketch at first. But the two most bonafide redneck guys answered for us and showed us their electric guitars and played for us for a while. They both loved Christ and let us talk since we listened to them playing. One was in tears when I handed him the Book of Mormon and said he wanted to sing a song before we left. They started playing the acoustic guitar and singing "This Bar" by Morgan Wallen and I was literally in tears hahaha. Brought back so many memories. Such a miracle we knocked there. 

 

Thursday I had exchanges with Mr. Zone Leader Elder Stewart and it was so funny. We drove up to Ozark and spent the night with him and Elder Daw and they're crazy good dudes. The work was pretty slow so we went to a gas station to buy me a hoodie and we started talking to this teenager and he listened to us and we talked to him for a while. He took the BOM and told us he'd tell his family about us. His name was also Noah which was a tender mercy. God plays a part in everything. We knocked this guy who had like 1 tooth and it sure wasn't white. He told us to go away and we were just persistent and he finally opened up and listened. He then took the book and started throwing questions like "what's the new Jerusalem supposedly being in Missouri?" I was like "Oh CRAP." It's crazy to see what the Book of Mormon can do as soon as people have it. 

 

Friday was exchanges with Elder Crabtree. Saw some of the funniest things today. A guy was mowing his lawn. Of rocks. He was so far gone. We saw a ton of dogs too which made me miss my man Kobe (this is not the title of the email). But one trailer park home had 4 dogs outside and they were nice and were letting us pet them and then all of the sudden all 4 were coming at me and one was biting my ankles and I just kept walking back and they were jumping on me barking it was terrifying but I lived to tell the tale so here we are. 

 

STAKE TOURNAMENT DAY. The day I've been waiting for since I got here. Brayan made our jerseys and they put "Lamanitas" on the back and we couldn't stop laughing. We cruised through our first game and then the championship came and they were talking some serious heat. I pulled out my best Mason Mount impression en route to a 9 goal victory. Nobody messes with the Spanish Branch. Trophy=Secured

 

While this week had its struggles in seeing lots of success, having lessons canceled, and lots of frustration, I know that we had a lot of "almosts." We almost taught so many people and we almost got people closer to baptism.  Christ is always with us and in my favorite talk ever, Elder Holland says "They are standing toe to toe with the greatest life that ever lived on this Earth." When things get hard, always remember that.

 

Spiritual Thought:

"Don't lose faith in the Lord. He hasn't lost faith in you."

-President Thomas S. Monson

It is so comforting to know that the Lord is always at our back, watching over us and protecting us. Most importantly, believing in us. When life gets hard, always remember that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father will never lose faith, so we shouldn't either. 

 

Love you guys so much and email me I want to hear from you all!!

 

A Michigan fan commented on my Michigan tie at church too so that was awesome. Go Michigan 

 

-Elder Smythe :)

 

Most elite dog

Redneck friends

Branson 3rd

My man elder stewart

Our friend brian

Same energy

Elder crabtree and the cow (i bore my testimony to it)

Benji












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