Ok this is ridiculous!! Man, I can’t believe that! aaahhhh! I don’t know what to even say because all the words that come to my head are extremely undignified!! Man, I just wanna have a couple minutes with that ref!! And man, the coaches have some serious guts to put THAT on the jerseys! That’s like so risky! haha Like man, I don’t even know what to say about that! They complained about new jerseys forever and then they go and buy ones that say ‘BEAT I.F.’ That’s insane!!! hahahaha What a gutsy, crazy, ridiculous idea!! WOW!! Payt, you are a champ! Don’t stress the P.I. calls!! You’re just bigger now, so you can’t get away with what you used to! hahah Just kidding, love ya buddy! And I know it stings!@! Good news is that you will have a great story for years to come! I love you guys! Dad I know you probably haven’t slept the greatest the last couple nights, but live it up the next couple weeks because the season will be over before you know it!! I love getting your emails because you guys sugar coat everything, but I know how the mood of the house has probably been the last couple days!! hahaha Good times!! Live ‘em up because you’ll miss um!
So this week was crazy! My email might be shorter than usual because I just had an interesting experience. A girl from the ward, that has been less active lately, just walked up to me in the library and just kind of bore her soul to me! She came out and said she hasn’t been coming to church and her family is going through some tuff stuff lately. It amazes me that as a missionary people just trust you and feel that they can rely on you! This girl, I’m sure is pretty popular at school and not at all the type to go up to someone she doesn’t really know and tell them she has had struggles and isn’t reading or praying or going to church. I was very caught of guard, at first, but then just taught her like an investigator. We talked for about 15 minutes and she is going to have us come talk to her. It’s funny how much I’ve changed with situations like this. It really was a humbling experience for me!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY SO MUCH!! I have had so many amazing experiences!
This week was crazy great and bad!! Belatu had her interview and passed with flying colors! The same night I interviewed one of the assistants investigators for baptism!! They have taught him for 4.5 months and he is like the only investigator they have because they don’t get to work their area much!! He was a great kid, but it was a very interesting interview! It lasted 2 hours! He is a super deep thinker and he had a couple concerns that hadn’t come out before! I was pretty nervous through it, but it ended up being a great experience in the end! He passed and he will be baptized with Belatu on Saturday! Being a missionary is such a weird thing!! I can’t believe that the Lord puts so much trust in 19 year old kids!! I feel so unworthy and incapable of so many of the things I am asked to do, but somehow they get done! I truly have been so blessed and the Lord plays such a huge part! It is such a neat thing when you truly feel that you are being an instrument in the Lord’s hands!! I love being a missionary so much!! It is such an amazing thing!! Belatu is amazing!! She hasn’t missed a day of church since we found her the first week of this transfer and she reads and prays everyday!! She speaks English great, but just reads pretty good. But she is almost to 2nd Nephi!! Every word she doesn’t understand, she looks up for the translation!! She has such a solid testimony and she is such an amazing lady!! We had a lot of wonderful experiences this week with finding new amazing people and we had some great lessons! We set a date with a lady named Molme in the first lesson. She was a referral from Juliet and she is so good! She and her son both made it to church!! Akon is amazing and has such a strong testimony, but she is facing so much opposition!! Mequer was so excited about what we taught him this week (he’s 6-ish) that he told his dad the whole Joseph Smith story over the phone. This led to them not being aloud to go to church again! We got a call late Saturday night and it was pretty devastating! Gabriel showed up for church and was wondering where Akon was. When he heard, he was mad! He called and got a meeting set up with Daniel and some others from the tribe. He received the Priesthood on Sunday, Bishop Baronins gave him a beautiful blessing. Then he went home and started up the meeting! We still haven’t heard anything about what is going to happen. We’ve decided that Gabriel is the supreme optimist! You punch the guy in the face and he will smile and say “That’s ok, I could have gotten hit harder”. hahah He is amazing and eventually he will get Akon baptized. We had an amazing lesson with Akon and Gabriel and Elder Willardson were there! We ate amazing food and Akon and the kids remember everything we have taught them! They all still have a strong desire to be baptized! They are so amazing, it is just Daniel that is messing everything up!! We have taught a couple people from Gabriel’s list and they are Sudanese and great! But they have needs, just like everyone, so there won’t be any mass baptisms. But we will definitely have many people to teach and I would imagine many baptisms will come. We will just have to be patient and pray that people with vans move into the ward!!
This transfer has been so scary because every transfer goes faster and faster! I just got here and transfer calls are next week!! It is so insane! I hate how there is no time! There just isn’t enough time in the day! I love it her so much!! Things are going so great!!
Payt, I’m sorry about the loss! I guess it goes to show that humility is a Christlike attribute and as we are humble, things usually work out for us! I guess you could try teaching that principle to Berg to make sure he doesn’t make jerseys for next week! Let me know how that goes, it can be your missionary moment for the week! hahaa Cheer up though and just win the rest of the games and the Emotion Bowl won’t sting so much!! Have a great week and a great Birthday!! Buddy, I love you so much and I can’t believe you are so old! It’s insane!! Have a great week and let me know if you get your package!! I love you guys sooo much!
Love Elder Smith!!
