Ammon,  28 March 2011

YAHOO!! Dan put his papers in. I think he is going to serve in Italy!!!!!! Wow I wish I could be on the phone when he gets his papers. If you call the mission president and ask he might let us do that.

So it sounds like everything about home has changed. It’s going to be a new world by the time I get back home. This week went by fast. I don’t know if I say that every week but I think I do. We had a great week of work, things are going great here. Our investigators are doing great. Tuesday we have zone conference and then on the weekend we are going up to Győr to watch conference, I’m so excited for conference.

Story

We had to go to the hospital this week. My comp is having some chest problems. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong so we have to go to Budapest to a better doctor to find out the problem. The end

All the sister missionaries in my group are from Utah and my comp in the MTC was Elder Crouch.

I will try to find out about the person but I don’t know what I will need to find out but it seems like you gave me all the info needed. Do I need to find out when this person died or what????

Story 2

This Sunday there was a time change and we needed to move our clocks forward an hour but I didn’t know that and thought it was back an hour.  So I did that and yes I woke up and thought it was just another Sunday morning but I was wrong.  The other elders called and said church started 5 min ago and where were we?  Yeah, so we showed up to church an hour late with everyone laughing at us hahahhha very funny, the end.

We also went back over to try and finish cutting all that wood.  We were there from 11 till 7 and we still didn’t finish, maybe next week.  She always feeds us the best food so maybe we will make it 2 more weeks lol.

I don’t know what else to say, just that I love you all and am so proud of Dan. Wherever he goes will be perfect for him and that’s where God wants him. Have a great week and enjoy conference.

Elder smith

14 March 2011 

We didn't get a letter today from Ammon.  But, instead we received a letter from his mission president.  So, I suppose he is in transfer to his new city today.

Dear Brother and Sister Smith:

I am happy to inform you that Elder Ammon Jacob Smith  has been called to serve as a District Leader in the Hungary Budapest Mission. He has been a diligent and effective missionary and has demonstrated significant leadership ability.

Sister Baughman and I have really enjoyed serving with Elder Smith  and know that this new calling will be a wonderful challenge and a great growth opportunity for him.

The work continues to progress well here in Hungary. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Warmest regards,

 Gary S. Baughman

 Mission President

AMMON, 06 March 2011

This week was full of amazing things!!  One of our investigators, Flora, a 21 year old girl, received an answer to her prayers about the Book of Mormon. It’s an interesting story. We dropped her because there was no progress and no desire to learn or do any thing. A few weeks later we invited her to a baptism. She told us that she felt the spirit so strong at the baptism. We were so excited that we asked her right away, what did it feel like? tell us everything! She then said that she couldn’t explain it. We said that’s perfect, that was for sure the Holy Ghost. She then told us that after the baptism she thought a lot about those feelings and she decided to pray about the church and the Book of Mormon. She received an answer to her prayer. She felt the same spirit that she had felt at the baptism. We are so happy for Flora.  We have been praying and fasting for our investigators to receive answers to their prayers. We asked her to be baptized and she agreed and said that’s what she wants! This is the second time that I have had an investigator receive an answer that the church is true through a baptism. There truly is a wonderful feeling at baptisms.

My companion Elder Németh and I are doing great. The work is going wonderfully here. We enjoy each others company and all the great things we go through daily. We have seen God’s hand in this work many times together. We have learned a lot from each other as well and our testimonies have been strengthened by each others and by working together in this work. So like I said last week, we would love to finish this transfer on a high note and that’s what we have planned to do.

I got another letter from nana and papa. It’s great hearing from them and from you all. I LOVE MY FAMILY. szeretem a családom!!! That’s great to hear your testimony of prayer has grown this week mother, prayer is an amazing thing. As a missionary, you really are able to learn what is the spirit and what are your own thoughts. At the start of my mission it was always a problem, but once we stop and listen, everything becomes clear and it is easy to tell what the spirit is. You didn’t say too much about Nathan and Dan, I hope they are doing well.

I hope everyone has a great week. I love you all so much. I love being Smith Elder. I love the church. I love God and Jesus. I love the scriptures. I love moms food and smile. I love dad for working so hard to give us all a great life and give us this great chance to serve. I love Nathan and the example he set for me to serve and his beautiful music. I love Dan for his funny beard and for his powerful spirit. He is going to be a better missionary than me and Nathan.  I’m so excited for him!

Smith Elder

PS      GREAT NEWS…. THE INSTITUTE BUILDING WAS APPROVED!!! I’M SURE GLAD I FOLLOWED THE PROMTINGS OF THE SPIRIT!  IT KINDA HIT ME IN THE FACE, BECAUSE IN THE OTHER AREAS I HAVE BEEN IN WE HAVE TRIED TO GET ONE BUT WE NEVER MENTIONED IT UNTILL IT CLICKED AND I REALIZED, “HEY WE COULD MAYBE HAVE A INSTIUTE BUILDING.” BUT ANYWAYS, THERE WAS A MEETING ABOUT IT IN BUDAPEST AND IT WAS APROVED. WE ARE ALL SO EXCITED!  IT IS GOING TO BE SUCH A BIG BLESSING FOR THE YOUTH HERE IN HUNGRAY. THEY ALSO HAVE LOTS OF LAND OUT HERE IN VESZPRÉM, SO THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE IT INTO FARM LAND FOR THE CHURCH!!!

Ammon, Mon, 28 Feb 2011

THE WEEK-

We had a good week, everything went by fast again. We only have 2 weeks left in this transfer. So we are trying to end strong. Five of our investigators are progressing again this week, it’s not big progress but they are improving weekly. One of our biggest problems here is getting our investigators to church for some reason they are just always full of reasons why they can’t come. We promise them the blessing of a better week and other great things, but they DON’T COME? We were blessed with 3 new investigators this week, so the work is always getting better and bigger.

 The youth are very strong here in veszprém, the strongest I have ever seen in Hungary and there are lots of youth. So I called president and asked him about getting a real institute building here. He thinks it’s a great idea. For that to happen there needs to be a least 3 people every week at institute and family night.  Right now we are at 9 every week and that needs to happen for 3 months, and we have met all of those things. There’s just a little problem, prez B is not in charge of this branch like I thought.  We are in the only stake in Hungary so Pres. is going to talk with the stake prez and try to get things rolling with that. If everything works out, veszprém will have the first institute program and building and all that good stuff in Hungray. We are so excited.

As for teaching programs and out time limits we have special rules here in Hungary. 1) If it’s a dinner program, we can stay for an hour and a half.. 2) Any other programs can be up to an hour long. 3) A lot of our investigators here in Hungary come from our english class, so english students/investigators are also an hour and a half.

STORY-

We met with a couple for the first time this last week, they are 2 of the 3 new investigators, János and Mária. They are a very nice couple and have been taught horrible things (that I won’t talk about because there are so many). We asked János  why they are meeting with us and what they expect from us meeting. He then told us his life story and also a crazy dream. Janos,” I was in a big open area and there was a person in the distance, he walk up to me." János said it was satan." He told me to follow him, I told him no and then I woke up". He said he started praying for help and then we showed up and he knows that we were sent here as an answer to his prayers. Cool story, I know.

Missions are AWESOME. I hope everyone has a great week. I love you and miss you all.  I’m doing great, everything feels good. :)

Elder smith

Ammon, Mon, 21 Feb 2011

Hello family,

Another week in the mission. This week just flew by with lots of work and even a zone conference on Friday. We were able to meet with lots of people this last week. We have five of our 16 investigators progressing, that’s pretty good news. No one this last week had received an answer to their prayers about the book, maybe this week.

Hmmm I don’t really know what I can speak about this week. What will Nathan be doing for his birthday and is he going to get married to that girl? lol I spoke with nana and papa last week they sent me a letter, it was great hearing from them. They sent me an awesome letter.

 I really don’t know what else I can talk about this week so maybe I’ll tell you a story from this last week. On Saturday we met with some inactives we have been trying to get them to church. We stopped by their house 2 Sundays ago, before church, to try and pull them out of bed and get them to church but it didn’t work. This last week we met with them and had a great lesson about faith. We wanted to speak about baptism but while we were there they kept speaking about this new plant they got and how beautiful it will be once the flowers start to show. So we changed plans and instead spoke of faith and related it to a seed and the thing we can do to make it grow.  So this program was being taught to a couple, the wife is the inactive member and the man in just a nice person, but this lesson he really liked. We told them one of the biggest things we can do to grow personally is go to church. We asked them if they would go and the husband jumped all over the idea. He was ready to go to church right then, the wife not so much. She kept trying to come up with an idea so that they would not have to go but he would not let that happen he wanted to go. So we said, “Great we will be here in the morning to go with you”.  They agreed. So we went the next morning, rang the bell and nothing. Then some crazy old lady said that they moved. We told her we were just here last night. She said No, NO, they moved lol ? So they never came to the door and we haven’t talked with them since Saturday. So maybe they moved, I think not. Just a funny little story from our week we always have.  I can’t tell you them all or I will have no stories to share when I’m home.

That’s all from me this week.  I hope you all have a great week. We are just going to hangout today and maybe watch a movie. We also have a few programs today. Yes we work on our Pday for extra blessings? maybe. Are we working to much? idk  Me and my comp don’t mind, so no worries.

Elder smith

AMMON,  14 February 2011

Hey Dad, thanks for writing. Yeah, I really am learning a lot. It’s really weird, but I have changed so much from when I left home, I am almost a different person it feels like.

You asked what is whipping; you tube Hungarian whipping and you can see for yourself. It’s the funniest thing ever.

That’s weird, I heard that North Korea was bombing South Korea and America sent the navy to deal with the problem, idk, I heard it from a Hungarian newspaper or maybe I read it wrong. 

Mom’s email is not working when I try to send her an email, so I’ll just write to you.

So this week went by fast.  My comp and I are really working hard this transfer and we are being blessed for it. The work is really picking up here in Veszprém. It’s really cool to see our teaching pool so big and to be blessed with so many investigators.  We tried to ask all of our investigators this week if  they will be baptized when they receive an answer about the church and everyone we asked said yes!! So please pray for them all to get that answer.

This week we were able to do something very cool. Here in Veszprém there is a club called American Conner.  It’s for people who speak English or want to learn. Inside this club there are smaller clubs and one of them is a book club.  The leader of the American Conner is one of our investigators and she offered to us, a few weeks ago, to give a book report on the Book of Mormon after we taught her a lesson about it. We agreed and we were able to do that this week.  It was awesome, one because it was in English and I don’t really get the chance to often to teach in my our language, so it was a little bit of a challenge, but the report went great. After the report, there were tons of questions.  Some were hard to answer and that’s because they were all great questions. There were about 15 people there, so it was pretty fun being able to do that.

Last week we were even able to teach the plan of salvation to a group of over 30 people. That was scary, but it was also great because mostly everyone there was not a member or investigator. We got a few new investigators from that.

The language is coming along great.  It’s really been a big help serving with a native.

I would also like to say that I got and new pair of church pants and yes they are a size 34? I swear I’m not fat, I workout every day, maybe I’m just a growing boy? So anyway, since I’m a size 34 now, that beautiful suit you guys got for me does not fit any more, it’s just to tight. Since I was only able to use it for about a half a year or so, it still looks great and brand new, so I think I’ll sent it home for Danny to use for his mission. You think I should do that?

My back its doing great no big problems. My knees have been hurting me though, lol.

I hope everyone has a great week.  In 10 days I will hit my year mark and then it’s all down hill from there :(

Elder Smith

Ammon, 7 February 2011

 Hey family and best friends,

 I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t get a letter from me last week. I sent one and just now found out that it was rejected. It said it was something with your email address mom? So I hope this weeks goes through.

Just to fill you all in with what I said last week. We had transfers last week. I will be staying here in Veszprém with elder németh. He will be my first comp that I have served 2 transfers with. I am grateful for the chance to serve with him again.  I am learning lots of hungarian from serving with him. Other than that he is a tuff elder to serve with. The first week of our transfer was amazing though. We were amazed when we did our numbers for the week, how high they where. We asked 3 of our investigators, when they get an answer about the church, will they be baptized and they all said yes!  These are 3 different people in different lessons. So I was amazed at that. I got a few letters from sister tryon about some of the other elders out in our ward and I was looking at how often they have baptisms, at least it seemed that way.  I’ve been blessed to be a part of 1 baptism on my mission and I am grateful for that time and the feeling that I felt and the friendship that was made through it. I called Irán (the baptism we had in szeged) a few days ago to see how she was doing because I heard that she hadn’t been to church for 2 weeks. I flipped a little so I called her and found out that she was only sick (there is something going around here in Hungary). I’ve been feeling good though so no worries. Irán is doing great.  I love her so much, she is such a good friend and member.

This week we were teaching a program with someone and we were closing with a prayer when there was an earthquake!!  It was crazy! It wasn’t a big one, so no one was hurt or anything but it was weird. I also heard from someone that America is at war with North Korea? true?

That’s so awesome that Dan is so close to leaving on his mission. He is going to have a good time at the temple. I can’t wait to hear where he is going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hurry up already.

I didn’t get a letter from dad so maybe something came up idk. I got one from Dan and TJ though, so that was cool. We are going to go hiking today and go look at this old Hungarian hunting store and after that we are going to go whipping lol

I hope everyone has a great week. Thank you for your prayers and I think I like the game chess now lol yes

 p.s. mom’s email address is not working I can’t send anything to it