Just to start off this e-mail, I want to share a success story about smiling. This week I have been playing a mind game with people, I am "Over-Doing" smiling, the objective of the game is to get everyone I talk to to smile... on the streets, members or investigators, just everyone. So, I've been doing this by really showing people how happy I actually am, it's like I have a smile glued to my face, not a "fake smile" but a real one, most people smiled back sub-consciously, a lot of people even laughed happily. Just visualize it... it's 6pm, you're coming home from a long day of work, you are tired, you really don't want to talk to anyone, your only thoughts are "what am I having to eat later?" you are slightly annoyed at your colleagues at work for some silly reason and then you are approached by a man who looks Filipino, has an American accent and won't stop smiling.
my thoughts would be: "wow he is freakishly happy! Stop smiling, why are you smiling? Did he just say "Jesus Christ" I'm hungry, wow, he is still smiling. Should I just try and brush him off? Wow, he is still smiling, I wonder what makes him so happy? There is just something so different about his smile... am I inside an alternate reality? Stop smiling"
There is a reason why I smile, I just know how much difference this gospel has made to who I really am. So the success story:
Elder Lamb and I were just talking to a few people, it was a Tuesday morning and we were off to Southport to have an exchange with our District Leader, we were just talking to the people who were near the train station. We had a few minutes to spare so we started talking to everybody. In the corner of my eye I saw a woman. So I ran after her and Elder Lamb followed. I called after her with a smile, she turned around and was smiling back, rarely people smile back straight away and so my smile grew even bigger! As we talked I couldn't stop smiling, I love the principle "happiness invites more happiness" it is so true, I started sharing the gospel with her and she interrupted me "I love your smile" she said. I said "thank you" and started to continue with our conversation, she said "you have got a great smile", I just brushed off the comment again with a "thanks" we established that she had a belief in God and that we could help her strengthen it. She told me she "fell in love with my smile" and so I told her why I smile. We continued to have a great conversation, then out of the blue two drunk men came and started causing trouble, they started just saying negative things toward us, then by surprise this woman who we met on the street just started defending us, telling them to go away because we were helping her. The drunken men left us because of her and we set up an appointment with her. The miracle of smiling!
Of course, as tradition has started we have a picture of me as we are e-mailing, my companion Elder Lamb is with me. Here's a random fact: Look at my teeth, people normally have the bunny teeth in the middle, then some more teeth, and then canines. I only have the middle teeth and then Canines... so it really is a mind trick, there is something different about my smile! Have you ever seen a vampire smile, well... I'm pretty close to it.
This week we have been really able to work as well... running after people has just proven it's worth, sometimes Heavenly Father requires us to go further than we thought imaginable, you would think "I can't stop that person he is too far and he is on a bike, that is way top far for me", I ran after a person on a bike yesterday... it was fun, it was rewarding and the most important thing, we set up an appointment to see him later, sometimes if we look through the eyes of a natural man (we all do it) we only see the "Somethings are possible", when we look through the eyes of someone we can become we see that "EVERYTHING is possible" nothing is impossible. Impossible is nothing.
Well. It has been another great week! What a great time it is to be a missionary!
"one by one"
3 Nephi 11:15
Love,
Elder Sapaden
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