November 16, 2009
Hey Friends and Fam!
So today I came to do email and it wasn’t working ha ha i thought i wasn't gonna get to hear from you! ha ha you know how i handled that hahaha but all finally worked out and it sounds like your doing great!
Ok so this week was great! haha I don’t know if you got to check my debit card lately, but I got to pay my first Canadian parking ticket! Canadian Police... firm... firm, but fair! haha But the week started out a little rocky! I woke up Tuesday and I was like deathly sick! I couldn’t breath and I was achy all over, but I got up and tried to work still but after 5 minutes, my comp had me go back to bed. I was out cold for 4 hours and woke up miraculously healed! haha My comp knew I loved potatoes, so he woke me up with potatoes and chicken nuggets with chicken noodle soup poured over the top! ha ha He is amazing! But I still haven’t felt great but we’ve been able to work everyday without anymore incidents!!
Then the week got great! Tim got baptized!! woo woo! It was way stressing though, ha ha He showed up 5 minutes late for his own baptism! He lumbered in and waved at the crowd and went to change! ha ha ha He is a huge man though and we lost the XL jumper somehow and he barley could squeeze into an XL as it was! ha ha But somehow he made it into a Large!! Me and my comp wanted to die laughing!! I’m talking super power wedge-y! But it was so amazing! It didn’t even phase him! haha He has such a strong testimony and he was so ready!! It was a great experience and me and my companion did the first lesson for the whole audience after the baptism! It went great!! His whole family was there and none of them are members, but after they asked for the missionaries to come and we gave some of them Book of Mormons! It was great!! The only bad part is that he has H1N1 so he missed church and still hasn’t gotten the Holy Ghost yet! So we are hoping he’s better by next week! But we can’t even go see him because he’s locked in! Hopefully that all goes well!
We are also teaching a family that the guy is a member and he knows 20 languages so we are lining him up to translate for us!! If we get him to help it could be huge because we are teaching a couple families who all speak other languages! So hopefully that goes good! But listen to this!! It’s crazy and hilarious. . .the man that knows 20 languages is a member but his wife isn’t and so we are trying to teach her but they are married and they don’t speak the same language!!! He knows 20 languages and he doesn’t know hers! ha ha ha What are the odds!! But they speak the UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, I guess! ha ha ha To communicate, they use like sign language and a mixture of each other’s languages. It’s insane and I don’t know how we are gonna teach her! Her own husband can’t even talk to her!
Other funny stories, I saw my first blood trail the other day. ha ha I’ve heard it won’t be the last I see. Also my comp reminded me of Dad on Sunday because he was talking to an investigator and he said, “You said you’d be sober by church?... well, will you be sober later tonight so we can come by??" haha I died laughing because all the church members walking in heard and gave some looks. It was great!! Oh and my first super scary super great experience happened! We were street contacting and we started talking to this huge native! He was way nice and pretty interested! But then... ha ha This other big native came up and said we were blanking this and that and blanking liers and just went off on us. ha ha So I said something to him really polite like and he said some more bad stuff and then said, "dont look at me again or ill mace you!" So I turned my head away to not get maced, ha ha but I’m still talking. So I’m like looking away talking and then the native that we were talking to, to begin with starts yelling at the one that said he was gonna mace us!! He stood up for us and was like, "I’m calling you out! You aint gonna mace them, go ahead do it, I dare ya!! You aint gonna do it!!" And I’m thinking, “Hey now, he might do it! ha ha What are you thinking calling him out for us, haha! But then the native with the spray totally backed down and he was like, "Sorry bro I thought I was helping you out." And then the native that stood up for us chewed him out and talked some more trash, and the one with the spray took off! At this point I’m pretty cocky, ha ha I wanted to call the native with the spray out and be like, “Ya! Come on, we can take you!” ha ha It was way neat! After that we talked to the native that saved our life some more. I thanked him and shook his hand over and over, then we gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he told us all the fights he’d been in and showed us the scars! He had stab wounds all over his face and a scar across his neck and more stab wounds on his body and scars in his legs from getting shot by a shotgun! He was way nice and he said that in jail he turned to Jesus. ha ha It was great though! I don’t know if we will ever get to teach him more! I asked for his number, but he said he wasn’t that interested and I didn’t want to push the point with this guy, ha ha!
I’m starting to love missionary work! The first weeks were a little hard but I learn and grow so much every day!! We taught a man the first lesson and in the first vision the spirit was so strong!! Both me and my companion got a little choked up! It was really neat!! We have no problems finding people to teach or getting in their home! They even admit to feeling the Spirit and wanting what we have! The biggest problem is getting people to commit to do things!! They just can’t keep commitments!! They instantly forget how they felt and they don’t read or pray or come to church! It’s so discouraging! Every week we have like 15 people that promise that they will be at church and we get them rides and everything and they don’t show!! We have to drop so many people and find more every week because no one wants to do the work!! They know it will help them, I swear, but they are just to lazy or something! aaahhh! It’s hard! But I’m loving it! I love you all a ton and I wish you the best! Keep lots of letters coming! They are the best!! I have a quote for dad that I loved! The other day I told my comp that it stinks that I don’t even have time to write back. He told me this quote: When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes a quest, in that moment God will endow us with power!! ha ha I love this quote and I want to be worthy of that power!! Times can be hard, but man this is so worth it!!! I love you a ton!
Hopefully you’re getting all my emails! I got your frantic letter, but you should get 2 every week that are long and then maybe some short ones, it just depends. I’m gonna try and get the amazing Bishop’s wife to email you this week too, so hopefully that works out!! I love you all so much! Keep the letters coming! Mom your gift should be there in a week from today-ish! Love you bye!! Oh send me a recorder and tapes or something and I can send you those. I want you to send me some too!! love you bye! Elder Smith
