Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 (Nathan)

Hey Mom!

Sorry it's been so long since i've really been able to write back. We've been having Zone Conference for all the zones for the past few days. And so my companion and I have to give a presentation at each conference. We talked about how we can apply christlike attributes into our missionary work. It was alot of fun. But at the conferences, you also get to see all the greenie's and missionaries who are going home bear their testimonies. And I was just thinking, wow...it's comin up soon. All the MIRACULOUS experiences I've been having throughout the course of my mission have been amazing and it will be weird for it to come to an end. As you probably guessed, when our 2 companions passed away in February, it was super super hard. We were super down to lose our best friends and so were the members here... it was a really hard part of my mission. But ever since then, we've been seeing so many miracles! It's so awesome! It makes me so happy! I hear about it everywhere! Aunt Debbie's ex-boyfriend, Logan (Jenn's ex-boyfriend) wants to get baptized too! Miracles even back home! But I want to tell you about one that happened yesterday right after Zone Conference. So I was talking to one of my old companions from back when I served in Moldova, when Sister Lundberg (mission president's wife) comes to the front door of the church building and brings this man with her who was looking at our church from the sidewalk. She said she had no idea what he was saying, just that he was looking at the church, so she motioned for him to follow her. My old companion and I introduced ourselves to him and asked if we could give him a quick tour of the church. He said his name was Nicolai and that he would love to. We showed him the chapel and some other rooms and sat down with him to have a lesson with him. We started talking, and testified alot about the book of Mormon, the power of prayer, and how we can come to a knowledge of the truth. He then told us that he had been praying to God to find the church of God, and he was riding the trolley through the city when he saw a building with a sign that said, "Biserica lui Isus Hristos a sfinţilor din zilele din urmă" So he quickly hopped off and came to the door where he was met by a smiling American woman who didn't speak Romanian and then he met us. We told him that God has sent him here, and that he exercised his faith by coming in, and again by talking with us. We committed him to read and pray, and then we actually committed him to be baptized on the 21st of August. He agreed! What a miracle! He's meeting with my old companion and his comp tomorrow at 4 and he'll be at church on Sunday @ 10. I love this gospel! WOO!

Last Sunday at the end of Sacrament meeting we were in a beautiful city called Sibiu, the branch president stood up and indicated that he had forgotten one announcement. He then announced that he felt inspired to announce to the branch that there would be a baptism ceremony next Saturday at 5:00 p.m. He invited everyone to plan to attend. Now, you should know that, at the time, the missionaries in that branch had no one with a baptismal date set for next Saturday. The branch president knew that. However, the faith of that branch president and of the missionaries serving there was demonstrated when, by this evening, we received a phone call from the missionaries serving there indicating that one of their investigators - one of those there today to hear the branch president's invitation - had accepted an invitation to be baptized next Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Moreover, the missionaries indicate that they plan to have others baptized that same date and time - even though they currently have no other dates established. So all in all they were able to get a total of 3 I think. It's 5 o'clock right now as I'm writing this :) So hopefully they were able to get those 3 baptisms in! The power of faith is real!

I tried doing everything on that PVCC site to get my password and username. It requires my SSN though. And everytime i punch it in it says there's an account that already exists and the only way to fix it is to call PVCC myself... Kinda lame..we'll see what happens I guess...

Love you tons! Tell everyone I say hi and that I miss them!

The church is true!

Love,

Elder N.Smith