Kirk's last testimony to his brothers still in the mission field.

So, just FYI, Kirk will coming home on June 19, in the evening.  He will be speaking on June 24 at 10:50 a.m.   We can't wait to see him.  Perhaps his next post in here will be pictures of him in SLC!   Yeah for us, perhaps not so great for Kirk, but he says he is excited to see us.  Just sad to leave Africa.  As it should be.

Here is his last words to his brothers still in the mission field:[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2"]

Well this is my last newsletter, the funny thing is I will be home, before this could ever reach me. Mission is no joke, and yet its a funny thing. 2 very long/short/happy/sad/joyful/frustrating/funny/tiresome years. You get it all on mission. I am still not really believing that my time is up. So my only advice that i can give is no regrets. Work hard, be obedient, and most important enjoy the moments (As my mom always always says) If your not enjoying it, the spirit leaves. For me i know this is Gods work and we are all called to do it, forever, not just two years. I know this work is true, the church is true. And i know Jesus Christ is my Savior. D&C 76: 22 22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
I know he lives and that he loves us so much more than we can ever explain to anyone. Love you all! Elder Smed

 

Miracles continue

May 25--You know what it is? Today is monday. And I am going mini golfing in about 40 minutes. So i'm excited. Well we had a good week this week. Bad start but good week. Obvious i was sick. I stayed down for tuesday. Wednesday i was feeling a bit better, went to district meeting, then one appointment (Which was way powerful) Then i was down again. So only half day wednesday but from there i am doing good. Lets see so Saturday we had what might have been (probably is) My last baptism on my mission. It was really good. We baptized Michael the one from Sudan. It was just a nice day. He had been waiting a long time for that. Then saturday, night i decided to fast, for a couple things, one of which was that we could have our investigators show up to church and feel the spirit. So then at church imagine we had 10 investigators there, it was so awesome. Like all of them, even 1 we had stopped teaching came. It was so cool to se the Lord answer my prayer. I had been praying a lot for some more miracles before i go home. And i am seeing the lords hand every time. But i think that is all i have for this time. Love you all so much.

Some more recent pictures!

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May 7--Kirk's Birthday!

We had an awesome week at church. 8 investigators were there and i want to tell you about one in particular. His name is steve we had never met him before, but he found a testimony of the prophet joseph smith pamphlet, in the trash, (he showed it to us and it was trashed) and a teachings of the prophet wilford woodruff (Also in bad shape, not really sure where he got it) Well he came with his son to church because he had read the teachings and he was so impressed with what was inside of it. So he came, it was fast and testimony meeting and he gave a testimony, saying the church was right. It was so cool. So i am excited to teach him. On the back of the joseph smith pamphlet it had the name of 2 sister missionaries who i have never even heard of. So probably they served here up to 3 or 4 years ago. God really does prepare people. It was cool seeing you never know what can come of anything.
Otherwise thank you everyone for remembering my birthday i appreciate it a lot. It was wonderful. It still is wonderful actually. Yesterday it poured. It has rained about everyday this entire week. Not even exaggerating. Yesterday we were on our way home from an appointment it was dark like 7 and it just started pouring. We took refuge inside of a small salon that two mrembos were kind enough to let us in. And it just poured, rain the likes of which, are very rare, so the rain stopped and we continued trekkin our way home. Well right before we get to our compound where our flat is, the road that was there had become a river. Completely there was no way around it. We were stuck. We sat there about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do. Finally my comp when around, this way, thinking he made it. Well i didn't see much hope in the way he went (He ended up getting soaked.) So i just took my shoes off, and went in my socks. It was about a foot deep, just nuts. Anyway that was our adventure and the power was out all night, till around 12 30 this afternoon. So i am happy it came back so we could email.

Kirk Speaks

Here is the video that Kirk sent! Love it! He looks and sounds so good!

Conference, color code author visits, last interview with Pres. B.

April 3, 2012--So Whats up everyone? This is elder kirk b smedley? Mom did you get the video I sent you?  I sent it from elder Hartmans ipad. Do you know who taylor hartman is? Mom i know you do. Is the the guy that came up with the personality colors. Red blue white yellow, you know. So he gave us a training for zone conference and it was just awesome. I think i took it before, but i am blue white. But the best part was this... I got to talk to him one on one. It was way sweet. He said I need to be more confident. And some other things but he is just a way sweet guy. I really enjoyed it a lot. It was a powerful meeting. I also got to see both morning sessions of conference, it was way sweet. Just sitting there and knowing, you guys were also just sitting there watching. We were in the same place, yet opposite places if that makes sense. The baptism was this week of maria. It was so awesome. I baptized her and it was just such a good thing. She was so happy, and i was so happy. It was a good day. Lets see what else has happened in the past? I am out of things to say. Oh ya my new companion. Like i said he is elder ndwandwe he is a way cool missionary.  I really like him. He is very humble. He is hard working and just a way cool guy. Man he is one of my favorite companions. We are getting along well. I also had my last zone conference interview with president broadbent. It was great. He is an awesome guy. I am going to miss him a lot. Me and him we've been through a lot. He is the most positive happy guy. Anyway i think thats all i have this week. Love you all so much. Elder Smedley.

Kirk has a baby and car named after him!

This is an email i got from elder munatsi who is home now. Just a funny awesome story. But anyway he pretty much named his nephew after me.  Here is his e-mail.  (A note from mom here--Elder Munatsi was one of kirk's favorites and an awesome missionary:))

"thrice in one l find myself in a bewilderment..see l really dont know how to explain wat u are seeing ryt now but suffice me to say it was totally worth it.dude that car is my aunt's car.she jus gave birth to a bouncing baby boy.so dude l named him.how cool is tht?ya it is ha.wait till u hear his fetchin name."kirk malone mengich."hahahaha.she loved it.so thts not the climax of the story tho.her husband....flipn loaded myt l say......bought her a mercds ya tht car ryt there..she later put a plate on it n guess what she writes kirk on it.l told her wre the name came from n she digs it.showed her the pics of one kirk b smedley who loves to walk on the beach barefooted with his dog mica....she still digs it so u in hommie...she likes u lol.so thts the car l roll in to work everdy hommie.half the time l dnt bliv myself.its not mine but still rocks....u said u wantd details man..[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2"]

.hommie l miss you.l think its a man crash n no..fetch no l'm not gay.lol.dunno man.how goes u man?  its the mission of missions hope u know tht.l miss tht place....

Training and new comp on the way

March 26, 2012--K as per this week, i don't have much to say, for i am a man of few words. As king david said i have a slow tongue and am of a slow speech. (Moses said that) Well for a man slow of speech he sure spoke a lot.
ANyway there is some great news. Maria is getting baptized on saturday her interview is tomoro. I am so freaken excited for her by the way, she was one of my most legit investigators.
We got another baptismal date he is from sudan he is a way cool guy, like 20 years old, and he is Sudanese from Sudan. He is awesome though his baptism will be next month. And then i think by the end of the week we could have two more baptismal dates, whilst we also got 2 new referalls at church sunday, which by the way referals rock. I just spelled refferals 3 ways all wrong. I am sure there is a right way to spell it, but i don't know it.
Lets see what else is there. Not really anything... Oh ya i am getting a new companion. Or in other words I am training. He gets in from the mtc on tomoro. I am excited. My seed will continue. If that makes sense his name is elder ndwandwe, from south africa. Thats about all i know about him. So with 2 transfers i will train for two transfers and then i'm gone. I think president really wants to keep me alive, because he left me as zone leader as well. SO freak i will be busy these 3 months. Anyway i was pretty surprised, president trusts me, and the lord trusts me, which is a good feeling. But i definitly need your prayers. LOVE YOU ALL TO PIECES. Love elder Kirk B Smedley

Kirk misses another major family event--Noah's birth

Wow kimmie, can't believe it. Noah, thats a sweet name, did you know that comes from the bible? there is a prophet in the bible, and his name is noah, he was pretty great. He did something with animals, i don't really recall, i think he was a zoologist. Or a marine biologist? Or both. Look it up in the bible if you want to know more about noah. Anyway seriously that is way awesome. I am so excited to see him, and bradley, and hailey. Ya three months is just a short time, and a long time, but not that long, mostly just short. As per me i think still that this is my last area. We get transfer news on saturday and i am pretty sure my comp will be leaving as he has been here six months. Anyway in other news we had stake conference this week, and it was great. It was at upper hill, which meant i got to see a lot of people i knew from upperhill including a guy named john who i baptized, he got the melchizedek priesthood and is preparing for a mission so that was awesome to see him. We also had 3 investigators there which was awesome considering, it is far. The work is going really well. I really want to have some good success at the end of my mission. I hope my next, and probably last companion is willing to work. Kimmie i am so glad everything went well for you. I have been praying for you a lot. I am so happy everyone is healthy and happy. Noah seems pretty bomb. I think i already like him.[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2"]

I love you all i am excited to be there, and i'm happy to be here. LOVE YOU
Also i think its pretty messed up, that i have only heard one word about march madness, and it was from MOM. That ain't right.

And then the rewards:)

What up, so last week was kind of a downer, but this week made up for it a hundred times. So you know my investigator maria i told you about last time? if you don't remember look it up before you read this or you'll be confused. Well we went and saw her on wednesday, and obvious she was mad. But it turned out the reason she didn't come to church was because we didn't come, and because she got antied. She was fearing a little but after a day she was like "Its not true" (as in all the rumors she had heard about the church) So we talked to her and asked her how she felt when she came to church. She said good so i asked who gives us good feelings, she said the spirit. I said who gives us bad feeligns? She said satan, so she realized more that this church is good and we taked about whenever we do good satan tries to stop us from doing it, so the closer we are to the truth the harder he works to move us away, so this week she came to church, and guess what? She bore her testimony. She said she knows the church is true, we also gave her a baptismal date on friday. We talked about baptism and how it is supposed to be done. So she said, i was baptized when i was like 2 months i don't even remember it, should i be baptized again, then we threw down a date right then. So her date is on the last day of march. So we are excited. We also had 9 other investigators at church this week.
That is 10 times the amount we had last week. And we got 3 legit referals. It was just powerful.Anyway in short things are good this week. We also got challenged by our district leader to be much more obedient so here i am in the cyber wearing proselyting clothes, something i haven't done since kilungu hills. These are the blessings of obedience.
I also went running this morning it was sweet. I was exhausted by the end. Love you all so much, today i am going to see some kind of animals not sure which ones. ANyway take care everyone. Kim have that baby, today if possible so i caan win the prize. Ty have a birthday, filled with feelings. Ya dig?
Mission is awesome, and I ain't care! I just haven't said that in a while so i thought i would throw that in. Lovey ou all so much. Meg if you haven't finished the play, keep rockin it. Dane you've been pretty quiet lately, and actually i don't think i got emails from anyone this week, save mom and dad. I excuse you kim, and mike. And bradley i am sure he is pretty stressed with the new baby coming, and his new responsibilities so bradley you are excused... Hailey on the other hand, there is no excuse. Love you all though anyway.

And more Pics from Kilungu--love the watering hole

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a few more pics from way back in Kilungu Hills

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recent picture of kirk

mission is hard

ANyway according to the week. It wasn't great. We had 5 investigators at church last week. This week 0. It was indeed frustrating. One thing is the girl maria i told you about last week, well we saw her tuesday and it went very well. So we were supposed to see her on friday, and i was on exchanges my comp was in my area, and for whatever reason he didn't see her. Well she doesn't have a phone so we could call and apologize or anything. I was and am pretty upset. So she didn't come to church obviously, and so i was pretty down. I still kind of am. But we will go tomoro. So now i really need prayers because she has to forgive us, while still accepting the book of mormon. That is just not easy. I have physical therapy tomoro i think it will be my last time or maybe one more i am not sure. But ya, thats what up. It just seemed like all the good things that happened the week before, went wrong, this week. So we have to start back from square one, Its hard cause we don't get many referals, if these people we were teaching were referals then when we screw up they still have friends, but its like our investigators only rely on us, and we do something stupid, and its all over. So i really hope she forgives us. Anyway i do still love my comp. He is really a hard worker. But ya. I think thats pretty much last week. Did you know mission is pretty much kind of hard.

STILL A BALLER!

I just finished playing basketball for the first time since i broke my leg. But here is how it went. We blew a huge lead the first game and lost 21 19. Second game we one it 11 7. 3rd game we were up 17 13 and they were on the momentum. So i called a hudle, it was 3 on 3 and we had elder ramananaivoarison (Yes that is really his name, he is from madagascar and he is a baller) say some motivational words to us. He learned english on mission cause madagascar is french speaking, so his words were simple yet profound. "We must be them" Followed by "They are terrible" After that they scored once and we were up 19 14, so i thought just to take it over, and i dropped a game winner 3 ball! Love ya homies!!!!!!!!!!!

Tracting--do it with a smile:)

Joseph Smith and Valentine's Day

Ya my valentine is elder sarlo, he is serving in upper hill. Today we are having a valentines day barbeque with a few guys in our area. My meat is currently in the fridge marinating. Elder Tsegaye is my companion and he is staying which is great news, cause it means i will most likely finish my mission here which would be fantastic. I got the family video it was way stellar you did it great again. Megs song was super. I was listening to it as i was watching the video and i was like who is this lady, i have never heard this song... Then i was like wait i think thats meg. She has a sweet voice. puts me right to shame.
As pertaining to Joseph Smith, it can sometimes be frustrating. Alright i get different responses all the time. People usually here believe in visions. But the thing that can happen a lot is that we will tell the story and feel the spirit and stuff, but to them it is just normal. Like Joseph smith seeing god and Jesus Christ isn't that important. And you sometimes want to shove it down their throats and yell "HE SAW GOD" That means this is the only true church. Sometimes they claim to believe he is a true prophet but they think there church is still ok and they don't need to come to ours. So that can be frustrating others actually feel the spirit and pray for themselves which is awesome. ANd others believe till we tell them about the book of mormon then they get offended because it is another book and there bible is enough. I think that is a good explanation?

A little frustration and that's a mission for you

February 6, 2012--This was one of those weeks, that was just like every other week. Church was a bit frustrating, we have an hour and 35 minute sacrament meeting, and so church went about 50 minutes long. So we were frustrated. We are going to talk to bishop tomorrow, because everything is kind of always late and we need to fix it. We had an rc who was really annoyed cause her kid can't handle more than 3 hours (She can hardly handle 3 hours.) Even me i cant really handle more than three hours. Anyway, we also had few people at church this week, but hopefully it goes better next week. We have been teaching a lot, but the hard thing with tracting is that no one has any support and so they dont' want to come to church. But there are good things. My companion is way sweet. He is funny i laugh all the time with him i rarely stop. Transfers is on saturday but i think we will be staying together. I think if we do stay together, i will probably finish my mission in this area. If he leaves i probably won't finish here. So anyway i am excited to find out. But the big day is tomoro. I pray i will be takin this stupid boot off tomoro cause i ain't gonna lie i am sick of it. Anyway love you all so much i think my words are finished. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!  (Yes, we will teach Kirk to spell tomorrow when he gets home.  He has definitely simplified the English language since he went to Africa!!)

Update on broken leg and more...

So mom you were askin about my leg. And how it will heal, so ya i take it off next week but i am in physical therapy. I go to the place once a week and i have excercises i do everynight and morning so its already doing good. I don't knowif i told you but for about the last two weeks, i have been walkin around my flat without the boot on, its just on during when i am working and stuff, so i have already started strengthening it.  LAst night i went for a walk around our huge compound, about a third of a mile, so it really is doing well. But it will still take some time.  The work is going well too. WE have beeen tracting and tracting and this week we got like 10 new investigators so its starting to pay off. Today we are going bowling. I am so stoked. And jackson goes home on wednesday i am going to miss him for sure. BUt anyway the beat goes on  We decided this week we are going to focus a lot on recent converts and less actives so we can find people in that way, its always better, when the members bring the people. I love you all so much i am sorry this one is a bit short. So Enjoy school, and work, and momming, and i don't know whatever else you do. Dad enjoy jazz game. Lets get a win ok? Love you much

MISSION TOUR--Freakin Awesome!

Its healing good, i still have the boot for a while but at home ican walk around without it. My flat is more like a town house. Upstairs downstairs. I will take a picutere. Food is cheeper and better, i actually eat cheese here. Fresh milk sausages stuff like that.

 SO anyway guess what! we had mission tour yesterday and guess what it was freaken awesome. I am going to write a letter all about it. Cause i have to leave soon for physical therapy. But man it was awesome. Elder Carl B Cook Came and he was just awesome. I just loved it so much. Our mission is supposedly doing way great in retention. He was complementing us highly on that.  I love mission- did you know that. I Decided I don't want to die on my mission. But ya it was a sweet day. Plus me and jackson and some others went to kfc.Love you all so much. Thanks for the support you give me. Mom i was just thinking whenever you send me another package, if you do. I want candy and junk food basically. Thats all i can say on that side... ANd those hand flossers. Anyway take care everyone.

Here are a couple of pictures from senior couple's blog of Kirk in Arusha

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Kirk's first e-mail from Nairobi-

January 9, 2012  Ok so here are the few words i have. He is elder Birhanu seyoum Tsegaye. He is actually good friends with negera, from home, and reminds me a lot of him. He is from debre zeit, a place i will get to before i die... Well hopefully. He is a hard worker and very easy to get along with. He is funny too. He is not a zone leader as he is only like 2 months on mission. It is just me alone. So my last area in nairobi was way tough because it was a very rich area, so you couldn't even get to doors to knock. Everone had gates and guards and the guards don't let you passed the gate so it was kind of lame. But here it is much better.   So as for investigators, we have a lot of people who we are teaching that felt like yesterday would not be a good day to come to church. So taht was dissappointing but we had i think 2 there. I am mostly following tsegaye around since i don't know the area. Oh i am also down to zero crutches. Just walking on the boot. So that is pretty cool, my leg is feeling pretty good these days. There are 4 guys in my flat the other two are elder lawson, from ogden, bonneville high i believe. And elder muwanguzi, from uganda. They are both sweet guys. our zone is 10 missionaries. 6 in the greater buru buru area, and 4 in kasarani. I am in the greater buru buru area, and my area is called Umoja, and we cover Nairobi second ward.Food is so much cheeper here than in arusha that is the best part of this place. I think thats all the words i have. Love you all so much.   Elder Smed.

Kirk is getting Transferred--:( or :) not sure

January 2, 2012--Fantastic. TRANSFER NEWS: I am going. Back to nairobi. And i am actually a bit excited. I will be in the other zone of nairobi, called eastlands. I will still be zone leader. The only zone leader which will have mild stress. But not too much cause my zone is sweet. My companion is 1 and 1\2 transfers on mission. Because he came half way through one. His name is elder Tsegaye from ethiopia.