First of all I want to give a shout out to all the Fathers of the Family to have a happy fathers Day!! Especially Brett since his new baby boy was born this week. I'm so happy for you guys and can't wait to see all the new nieces and nephews in the family!
It's ironic that transfers are right after Fathers day this year because in our mission we have a culture where we call our trainers our fathers. For example Elder Effiong was my Father since he was my first companion in the Field. Basically a father in the mission is someone who took part in your training for your first 3 months. I was able to finish Elder Eli's training so I am a "Step Father" It might sound a little silly, but it's just fun to mess around a little bit. Anyway I got a call Saturday from our zone leaders telling me that I will be "a new father" I thought they were joking but then they got serious and said that I'll be training this next transfer and Elder Eli is going on transfer to the Bush. I was very sad to hear that Elder Eli is leaving. It's always kind of sad to leave your old companion that you grow close to, but I'm excited to get a new "son". I'll go and pick him up at the mission home tomorrow so I don't know who he is yet or where he's from, but I know that there are 5 elders from the US and 1 from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Personally I'm really hoping for an African, but you know it's not really up to me!
This week also went well because we were able to baptized our investigator Zino. She is from Nigeria and we've been teaching her ever since I've come to Batsonaa. We always thought she just wasn't serious because she would never come to church, but in lessons she understood and believed everything we would teach her. We later realized that she just doesn't have enough money to make it to church and she was shy to share it with us. We talked with the relief society president to see if anyone could pick her up to bring her to church and we got it all set up. She's been coming to church consistently since then. I was honored with the opportunity to baptize her last Saturday. She really does have a strong testimony and we're hoping that she can just learn some good principles of budgeting so that she can find a way to save the money to come to church every week. I'll send pictures of the baptism.
Thats my short update for the week! Happy fathers day!!
Love,
Elder Smith
It's ironic that transfers are right after Fathers day this year because in our mission we have a culture where we call our trainers our fathers. For example Elder Effiong was my Father since he was my first companion in the Field. Basically a father in the mission is someone who took part in your training for your first 3 months. I was able to finish Elder Eli's training so I am a "Step Father" It might sound a little silly, but it's just fun to mess around a little bit. Anyway I got a call Saturday from our zone leaders telling me that I will be "a new father" I thought they were joking but then they got serious and said that I'll be training this next transfer and Elder Eli is going on transfer to the Bush. I was very sad to hear that Elder Eli is leaving. It's always kind of sad to leave your old companion that you grow close to, but I'm excited to get a new "son". I'll go and pick him up at the mission home tomorrow so I don't know who he is yet or where he's from, but I know that there are 5 elders from the US and 1 from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Personally I'm really hoping for an African, but you know it's not really up to me!
This week also went well because we were able to baptized our investigator Zino. She is from Nigeria and we've been teaching her ever since I've come to Batsonaa. We always thought she just wasn't serious because she would never come to church, but in lessons she understood and believed everything we would teach her. We later realized that she just doesn't have enough money to make it to church and she was shy to share it with us. We talked with the relief society president to see if anyone could pick her up to bring her to church and we got it all set up. She's been coming to church consistently since then. I was honored with the opportunity to baptize her last Saturday. She really does have a strong testimony and we're hoping that she can just learn some good principles of budgeting so that she can find a way to save the money to come to church every week. I'll send pictures of the baptism.
Thats my short update for the week! Happy fathers day!!
Love,
Elder Smith
Extra email to Dad.
Happy Fathers Day PAPA GRANDE!!!!! I'm going to have to stop calling you that because you're getting so thin. I'm currently weighing 100kg which I think is around 220 lbs but I'm not sure. How much are you currently weighing? Your email really touched me because I've been thinking a lot recently about how awesome both you and Mom are. I appreciate so much more the way you taught me when I was young. I've been learning a lot recently that as poor people join the church they won't always become more successful and live a poverty free life. They will complain because they don't understand how God is blessing their lives, but what they don't see is that they're now teaching their children correct principles on how to live their lives so that their posterity will have a chance to live a poverty free life. I've truly seen how the church will bless the family because it will bless children who are raised in the church. I'm so glad you raised me in this church because if I wasn't and if you didn't teach me those correct principles I would be in a very bad place. I was talking with Elder Harrigfeld the other day and we both talked about how glad we were that we grew up in the church, because if we didn't, high school would have been a complete disaster. I just wanted to write a separate email to let you know how much I value you as a father and how grateful I am that you were always around for me when I needed. You were always at my games and always spending quality time with me, whether it was watching tv, fishing, or playing golf. It's amazing how much different perspective you get in life when you see others living their lives so much different from yours. You really gain a much greater appreciation.
I LOVE YOU PAPA GRANDE!! (I know you hate all caps but I felt that it was fitting)
Elder Tanner Michael Smith
I LOVE YOU PAPA GRANDE!! (I know you hate all caps but I felt that it was fitting)
Elder Tanner Michael Smith