Friends and Fam!
Hey! It’s been a great, crazy week!! I’m losing my mind! haha First off, thanks so much for the great emails! Dad, I hope after all that work, it makes good pizzas! And family, if it doesn’t make good pizzas, I hope you are ready to eat a lot of bad pizzas! Dad, it looks great and I’m super sad I didn’t get to help! Don’t do anymore projects for the next year and a half so I can help! Mom, congrats on your new calling! You are going to do such an amazing job!! That’s sooo great!! Payton, it sounds like you are having a blast of a summer! haha Live it up because pretty soon you don’t get to wear shorts for a long time!! haha Luckily you don’t sweat as much as I do! It’s been rainy a lot here though so I’ve been blessed, but there have still been some hot days! It is so good to get your emails! You guys are the greatest!! Thanks for the update on Kody Morgan!! It sounded like him for sure! He’s a great kid!
Alright, so this last week was insane!!! Selkirk has just blown up!! We are teaching sooo many people that its super stressful to keep track of everything!! A lot of them are single woman, so we have to bring members to the appointments. We are working the members to death! On average every week we have 7-10 appointments that we take members with us too. Some members are going out with us 2 or 3 times a week and we are using like every member in the branch! It’s so hard because if we can’t find a member to help, we can’t teach them, so we go finding and we find more people that we need members to help us teach! It’s sooo good, but so frustrating at the same time! We have set a couple new dates with people and things are going so good!! On top of it all, this Saturday we had a move to help with in the morning, the font to fill, Chris's interview and then Karl’s baptism! It was crazy! And our Branch Mission Leader has been out of town, so I had to put together everything for both of the baptisms. The branch is going crazy because they haven’t seen a baptism in awhile! The move went great and we taught a couple lessons and then Chris passed his interview, the font got filled and we even had some investigators to the baptism! It couldn’t have gone any better than it did! We have been so blessed!!!! Karl loved it and it was so great! His Catholic parents came too, so that was great!!
The Baronins are the best! They met Karl once and they made the trip down to see his baptism, after they had already helped with two moves and another baptism!! They are amazing and get this! They told me that Pious and the Obeing family all went to the temple in Regina and did baptisms!! How amazing is that!!!! AAAAHHHH! Missions are the best!!!
I felt way weird at the baptism when President Anderson spoke though! He was supposed to be inviting Karl into the branch, but instead he broke down about how I was an answer to his prayers. He said that when he taught with me, he felt like he was on his mission again. He said a ton of other great compliments and I just sat there feeling all awkward, haha It was neat but not really the time or place for it. He is such a great man though! I love him so much!! I love this branch so much too! They are so amazing!! It was funny because Bishop Baronins came to me after and said, “See I told you you’d love Selkirk.” He definitely has a sweet spot for Selkirk!! President Paulson came up and said, “Elder Smith, how do you feel about Selkirk now?” I said how much I loved it and he said, “Elder Smith, that’s what you said about Waverly Ward and thats what you will say about everywhere that you serve.” He is so right! There are so many amazing people everywhere! I don’t want to leave anymore areas though because it is so hard!! When I see the Baronins, I get so Agnes trunky! Agnes and Selkirk are definitely the greatest areas in the whole mission!!!
After the baptism things have been super crazy! Chris gets baptized at 4 on Saturday and he will be confirmed on the 4th of July! woo woo! Karl was interviewed by President Anderson, and he will get the Priesthood on the 4th too! Best 4th ever! haha Which is good because all the older missionaries say the 4th is the worst because nothing happens!! haha Luckily good things will be happening here!! I’m super stressed though because we still have to throw together a baptism! It’ll go great, I’m sure though!
Chris is such an amazing kid and he has such a good heart!!!! Life is going great!! Missions are funny because a lot of bad stuff happens, but when you look back, all you remember is the good! And the bad, if it has a funny story too it! haha I love this area and this mission so much!! It’s so great! And it is so insane because it’s also transfer calls already on Saturday!! It honestly seems like last week that I got the call I was staying! I’ve been in Selkirk 4.5 months! It’s so crazy!! I’m hoping for one more, but we will see what happens!
I love and miss you all sooo much! Stay safe and smart and have a great summer!! Payton, have a blast but don’t do anything too stupid!! hahaha I love you all sooo much!! Talk to ya next week!!
Love Elder Smith
