Elder Mitchell's Mission to Tennessee: Staying in Smyrna!

They found this neighborhood library,

so they decided to donate some items.

Hola a todos!

Well, we had a good week here in Smyrna. It was a little slow, but we kind of blame Thanksgiving for that. I guess the biggest new of this week is transfers. Elder A got a call from President on Saturday telling him that he's getting moved, and that he's going to be a district leader!! Yup, I trained him well, haha. He'll do great though, he's a solid missionary. We don't know where he's going yet, but our guess is that he'll be going to Mayfield, in Kentucky. If he did go there, he'd be with Elder B, my CCM companion. So, I'll be staying in Smyrna for at least one more transfer, with a new companion. Transfer meeting is tomorrow, so I'll find out who my new comp is then. Most of our district is getting switched too. Elder H is moving, as well as Elder L. Elder M, our district leader is also going to be training a new greenie.

As far as Thanksgiving, we didn't really do anything on Thursday. We didn't have any meals with the Spanish members, so our thanksgiving dinner consisted of chicken patties and tater-tots. Pretty great. We did make up for it though. We were invited to an activity by the English Elders on Saturday. This guy in the Smyrna ward has this tradition of having another Thanksgiving dinner after Thanksgiving, which was pretty nice for us. I got to stuff my face with turkey and mashed potatoes, so that was great.

As for our investigators: We had a great lesson with H this week, where we finished teaching him the commandments and filled in some holes on his teaching record. We've moved his date to December 12th. He's ready, we are just still trying to get a doctor to sign off for him. He wasn't able to come to church this week though, which was too bad. Also for some reason, we just couldn't get in with our other main investigators. We weren't able to meet with O, M, E, or the V family. So that was a bummer. We did have a great lesson with the R family though. When we originally contacted the R family about a month ago, we just talked with J. The next time we talked to D. This week, we had a lesson with all three of the Romero brothers, J, D, and E. We had an awesome lesson with them. We read in 3rd Nephi 11 and talked about why it's important to follow Christ. We invited them to be baptized, and all three accepted! Whoo! Now we just got to get them coming to church.

My ponderizing scripture this week is one of my new favorites. It's Alma 62:36, "And it came to pass that Teancum in his anger did go forth into the camp of the Lamanites, and did let himself down over the walls of the city. And he went forth with a cord, from place to place, insomuch that he did find the king; and he did cast a javelin at him, which did pierce him near the heart. But behold, the king did awaken his servants before he died, insomuch that they did pursue Teancum, and slew him." Probably doesn't make a bunch of sense at first, so let me explain. It says that Teancum's javelin landed, NEAR the heart of the king. He was just a couple of inches short. He was just a little bit off-target. Don't get me wrong, I love Teancum, I think he's awesome. But, how different would things have been for Teancum if he hadn't just barely missed? This teaches me a powerful lesson: Live in a way where you don't fall just short. As a missionary, I don't want to finish with regrets. I want to know that I gave it my all. And as members of the church, how heartbreaking would it be to reach judgement day falling just short? To land "near" the Celestial Kingdom? We've got to do all we can so that we don't fall just short.

Well, I'm excited for this week, and for this new transfer. When I first got to Smyrna, the area was kind of a mess, and H was really the only solid investigator we had. But, during these last two transfers, we've laid a great foundation. We have a lot of investigators that we want to have progress towards baptism this transfer. We'll see what happens! Hope y’all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell