Friends and Fam!
Hey! ha ha It’s been a pretty great week! First off, you are all amazing!! Dad, I loved your email!! It’s soooo true and it’s crazy because I had a long talk with a girl about agency the other day. We talked a long time about the Plan of Salvation and one of the things that I said that made me laugh was, "You signed up for this." haha And it’s so true! It was one of those lessons that really strengthened my testimony because I truly know why we are here, where we came from and what’s gonna happen next. When sooo many people have no idea!! I love it when the gospel just clicks! It just makes sense! But all of your letters are great! Mom, if you could email Sister Baronins and tell her the connection it would be really good, she misses her boy! She reminds me of you. She’s amazing! but she doesn’t come close to you! haha I’m pretty sure that everyone in the mission now knows that your the best mom ever! And they know I have the best family!! You guys are the best!!
All this skiing Payt and Dad are doing is making me miss you a ton!! When I get home we better go a bunch!! All I get here is sliding on ice!! Payt, tear it up! Dad, don’t tear anything!! haha just kidding. I hear you’re ripped now!! I want you to get a business card like Uncle Doug with your shirt off and send it to me!! haha Man I miss you guys!! Mom, the choke cherry syrup was gone weeks ago. It was amazing!!
Oh and as for the Olympics, I forgot to tell you that I went down where the torch came through because it was in our area! We sprinted down during supper, got a couple pics and got out! We did it in under an hour and we didn’t see anything OR get supper! But I have pics to prove I was there.
Also, I got a great package from Heather Hill! You will have to tell her that it was soooo great and I was die-ing laughing about it the whole week! haha She cracks me up!! Send her a big thank you if ya see her! As for everyone else that was writing me.... I think they don’t think I’m that neat anymore! Letters are farther and farther apart. hahaha I think it might be because I have no time to write anyone back!
As for this week, it was great!! I never want to leave this area!! It is honestly the best!! We found another family from Sudan and they are amazing!! The mom’s name is martha and her baptismal date is the 27th of March! I love her!! After all of the people I have met from Sudan, I honestly want to marry someone from Sudan!! They are the nicest people! She is a single mom of 2 kids that are 1 and 3 and they are adorable!! She came to church this week and it went great! Akon made it too and they know each other!! It was sooo great! Juliet was also there and her date is the 20th and she is so good! She came to the baptism this week and when the kids ran up to the front to watch, she ran and sat on the floor too! haha She is soo great! And Dad, the advice for Akon was great and it’s what we decided to push for with the Bishop, too! The Holy Ghost is a huge help with running life and a family and we are going to talk to her about it this week! I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE AGNES!!! I’m so worried that it will fall apart when I leave, and that’s horrible of me because I know what happens will be from God, but man am I nervous! All of these baptismal dates are coming up and I’m stressing!!
This Sunday was a mad house and my comp is a great kid and I love him, but while I’m getting kids to their parents and lining up rides and getting people into interviews with the Bishop and things are going insane, my companion sits there oblivious!! aaahh! I am having some serious patience issues and I don’t want to leave him here in charge of stuff! Now I feel horrible, but I don’t know what to do! The area is doing sooo good right now and my comp is a great kid and teacher, but I’m way nervous about leaving!! I love the members and the investigators so much here!!
We just keep finding new great people and the old ones are still progressing! Open’s family and Barnaba’s family are still being taught and they are progressing, but very slowly. Sacapo’s family is good but they aren’t progressing as much, but they are still borderline. Martha, Akon, and Juliet are amazing and should be baptized next transfer! We are going to have to find rides for 20 something people this week and I don’t know what we are going to do!! I used to check out nice pickups and corvettes, but now I check out Calvary Temple Buses!! It’s frustrating to though, because at first the ward loved all of the investigators, but now they aren’t as excited because it’s the norm and so the new investigators aren’t getting the love that they should! At least that’s how I feel! At church it’s so hard to make them all feel loved!! This ward is amazing and they do so much more than any other ward, but I just wish they could do a little more! I wish that I could focus on just one family, but I love all of these families and people so much!! It’s just hard!! There are so many amazing people out there and there aren’t enough missionaries and members!! aahh!
But I pretty much told President that I never want to leave...... multiple times. I asked him if I was going this transfer and he gave me the reasons why I would stay there and the reasons why I would leave and then he said, “Does that help?” haha He’s a great man!! But I will know next week what’s gonna happen so I’ll let you know! Any hints on dealing with my comp? Because he is so nice, so smart, so hardworking such a good teacher and he loves the work, but when it comes to some common sense things and just doing things he’s a little slow. It’s frustrating because he really is trying hard but he can tell that I get frustrated. Maybe I’m the problem! I don’t know.
Also Akon has had serious issues this week! Turns out she snuck a niece into Canada as her daughter and that girl went rebellious and got into trouble, left the country and now she is back accusing Akon of all kinds of crazy stuff so the child services people are coming to her house tonight! I’ve been stressing this all week and I made some calls and got her to meet with an attorney in our ward and the bishop and they are gonna be with her when the child services comes! Hopefully all goes well tonight, but keep her in your prayers! She has been stressed sick all week!! She is so worried they will take her kids or something! It’s way crazy but the bishop thinks all will go well and he will be there, so hopefully it works out!
Things are all good and I love and miss you all so much! That’s all I got for now! Love you all a bunch! You’re the best!
Love Elder Smith
