Smythe, Jackson PT

Time is flying. We had another good week. I got to eat in Bentonville with some family friends from Pittsburgh, which was a good taste of home. I also got to go on exchanges with Elder Tanner Boyle, which was so fun. For sure one of my favorite days. I can't believe that of all the places in the world, we both ended up here together for his last 12 weeks. Our friend Yahir was baptized this past Sunday. I will add pictures for that next week when I get them. He is 16 and is the first member in his family. He is the godson of a member and has loved coming to church. We had 11 of our friends at church, and they all stayed for his baptism, which was amazing. The spirit was so strong and flooded the room. We are having 3 more of our friends be baptized this weekend in between General Conference sessions. I really am loving life. Elder Lindsey goes home this Friday, and Elder Campbell will probably be getting transferred next week, so I don't have a lot of time today. I love my missi...

I had two of my favorite days of my whole mission this week. I have been feeling so much gratitude lately for everything I have learned over the last 13 months. I am so grateful I was called to this mission at this time. That being said, we spent every day knocking doors until 9, so I am tired. On Friday, I had my exchange with Elder Lindsey. I have never felt that 'at home' with a missionary before. I haven't ever worked that well with someone either. My favorite exchange of my mission, and one of my very favorite days. Knocked doors from 10:30 to 9. He goes home in 10 days. Huge example to me. On Sunday morning, The Bentonville Arkansas Temple was dedicated. Elder Bednar came to dedicate it. We listened to other speakers all morning, and then he came up to close. The moment he began to speak, changed my life. When he uttered some of his first words, he bent over the pulpit and audibly cried, a lot. I have never seen an apostle do that. The feeling of complete humility and...

We're here. Another week gone. I don't honestly know what happened this week. It was definitely one of the longer weeks, but it was good. We had a zone conference and interviews, so it was good to be able to see everyone. I also forgot to mention, Elder Tanner Boyle is in my zone, and we see each other all the time. Two Draper kids in Arkansas. On Saturday, I got to go back to Berryville to baptize someone that I was teaching there. It was an awesome experience, and I am grateful for him and his decision, as well as his whole family. We spent most of the week finding and tracting, but we had 12 of our friends come to church again, which was so cool! I went on exchanges with Elder Jensen, who has been out for 2 weeks. His area hasn't seen a lot in the last few months. The night before, we all prayed to find 3 people who could be baptized in the month of October. We were knocking doors all morning and didn't get too much. We then saw these 3 boys who invited us over in an...

I am loving it here so much. We had another awesome week. On Sunday, our friend Alfredo was baptized. It was a powerful experience. He was so prepared, and he can't wait to baptize his wife and son here in a couple of weeks. The spirit there was so strong. We had 15 friends at church with us, and they were all able to be there for the baptism as well. On Thursday, we got a media referral from a lady named Christina. Usually, the referrals never pan out, but she ended up responding to us. She reached out, and we had to set up a phone call with her. She lives 45 minutes from the church in a tiny little town. For 45 minutes, she poured all of her emotions out about how she was recently diagnosed with cancer and she got here from Cuba not long ago. She drives 3 hours round trip every day for chemotherapy and is only free on Sundays. All of her family is still there, and she talked about how alone she felt and how she needed help. She hadn't really ever grown up in a church. Sunday ...