Hey Friends and Family,
So it’s been an insane week!! First off, Dad your letter made me mad! haha You are the best father in the world!! I hope you know that! Thank you so much for all that you do and hopefully you had a great birthday!! Everyone else, thank you so much for all that you do for me! You are all so amazing!! Special thanks to Payton for the great Plan of Salvation thing (drawing)! It works great!! Thank you also Mom you’re amazing and Heather, Heidi, Whitney, Chelsea, Uncle Kellan and family (I loved the picture and the notes, my comp loves motorcycling and I got to show him what pro’s from Idaho look like!!) Also thank you Morgan! You are my hero and you and Lauren are a super cute couple! I’m so excited for you!
O.K. so this week was the best week of my mission easy!! I love this mission and I love this area!! First off Emanuels baptism was Wednesday! The day before transfers and it was amazing! So we thought baptismal fonts took 4 hours to fill and no one in the ward could fill it so we got stuck with it! We were really mad because we had to give up most of the day to fill the font! So we showed up about 4.5 hours before game time and the zone leaders came and opened the door for us but they were wondering why we were so early because the font really only takes 2 hours to fill, I guess. So we were a little mad because we were 30 minutes from our area because the church is forever away, so it wasn’t worth it to drive there and all the way back so we decided to just start filling and wait it out. So we start filling, but the water is freezing!! The temperature gages lowest reading was 10 c and it was well below that! haha Just barley above freezing probably!! So we started making calls! We got a mechanic that fixed it eventually and we started filling! The font was full just five minutes before the baptism! It really was a miracle! Everything fell into place perfectly and Emanuel loved it! The Spirit was sooo strong! All the new missionaries and the mission president were there and it was just perfect!
Then the next day was transfers! I got a new comp from Utah named Elder Willardson and he is amazing!! He is such a hard worker and we teach really well together! Change is hard,
but so exciting!! The first night was crazy because I have to be in charge! I know all the people and the area and I had a good night planned, but it was so stressful! hahaha But I am loving it! I am the one that people know now. My comp is so good, too! He just goes and we teach so good together! We’ve already had some amazing experiences, and since I’m in charge we went to a man named Derrek that Elder Ewell dropped a couple weeks ago, but I loved him so much I wanted to go back! So we taught him and he came to church! It was so great! We have just been packed with lessons lately, too! We haven’t done like any finding because we haven’t had time! All of the people are there for the lessons and we have lessons all day most of the days! It’s sooo great! We are being so blessed right now! Also we started teaching another Thai family and I love them so much, like I cant even explain it! They are the most kind, humble people ever and their children are so cute! I actually have learned a lot of Koran, haha! I can say prophets and apostles and hello and good bye and others but can you please try and find a Koran to English dictionary? I love these people so much, like they are amazing!! Every time we go to teach them they have fruit and drinks laid out for us! I’ve had a lot of soy milk, and its not half bad!! We are now teaching three Thai families and we are getting a lot better at it!! I’ve learned so much because we ha
ve to teach everything out of the Bible and there is so much good stuff in the Bible! haha It’s been such a good experience!! We also are teaching Maureen and Lane a lot and we are going to try and set dates with them this week! They are super good! Lane has a family too, and a baby on the way, so I really think he’s ready for the gospel! He is a native and he really has his head on straight! I hope that will go well!! Maureen is a single lady who is pretty lonely, but she does service at the hospital everyday, pretty much! She’d sure help out our ward! haha
Ok, last person I want to tell you about is Burt!! He missed church this week because he was drinking the night before and he was barfing/sleeping when we went to get him for church! This was really sad and hard on me, but also exciting because lucky for him this is commandment week, specifically WORD OF WISDOM!! We are so excited to teach him this and show him the comparison of this Sunday and last Sunday and how he felt. haha Like with this I think he should be able to see the very obvious contrast in his happiness! It really is pretty simple: church = good+happiness, boos= bad+puking your brains out all night and feeling poopy! haha I’m super excited for it and we are teaching him tonight!! woo woo Hopefully all goes well because I love burt to death!!
Finally, I have to go but Elder Ewell taught me something that really hit me hard right before transfers! He showed us a scripture in district meeting that is really neat! It’s Jeremiah 16:16, he talked about hunting (I was thinking about fishing and pheasant hunting) but he said that he absolutely loves hunting! He does it as much as he can! But he doesn’t just love killing the animal. He loves the whole experience! Even when everything goes wrong and it’s hard, he still loves it because he loves hunting! I thought of a day when I went with Dad and I didn’t catch a single fish and it rained and it was cold and miserable and nothing went as planned! Now that I look back, I can honestly say that I loved that day of fishing!! It was a great experience, mostly because I was with Dad, but it was an all around great day, because I was fishing! Because I loved fishing! Elder Ewell then compared it to mission work and I realized that it’s the same! Days are hard, but then there are those 100 fish days were you are on top of the world! I realized that I love my
mission. Everyday is such a great experience! I’m so blessed and so lucky to be here!! I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do for me!! Stay safe and love everyday! You’re the best!
Love, Elder Smith
