Hey!!
Payt, keep your head up! You’re gonna have bad games! It happens! If you get down about it it’ll just mess you up!! Just stay positive and get a couple pick 6’s in the dome!! Dad, you are the greatest! Sorry about your tough cases! Just so you know, whenever we were down after games you always handled it perfectly! You are amazing!! Mom, you too!! Payt’s real problem is that he can’t enjoy the losses because he doesn’t like apple pie enough!! haha I learned to enjoy losing because apple pie usually followed! Addison, thank you soooo much for your email!! i love and miss you so much!!! I love and miss all of you so much! Tell A-rod to write me!!!
So this week was so crazy!! It started out great. . . great lessons, everything going good and then get this!! I get a call from President on Wednesday! Elder Felix was called as the new assistant and so I got my transfer call a week early! I am now a zone leader serving with Elder Leonard in the north end of downtown! Right above Agnes! It was so crazy and depressing though because I got the call at 9:30 Wednesday night, and I had to be packed and ready to go by 8 the next morning. I got packed and ready and we left for Dauphin to do a baptismal interview!! We drove all morning on Thursday and right when we got there, Elder Leonard said that I was doing the interview. So I hopped out and walked into the branch building and started the interview. The man, Brent had a super solid testimony but I ended up finding out that he had slipped up with Word of Wisdom problems the night before!! So I had to teach the Word of Wisdom and help him understand that he couldn’t get baptized until he was living it! So I was in with him for about an hour and 15 minutes and then I had to break the news to the missionaries! They are really good, but really young and not a whole lot of experience. Brent really just didn’t understand the Word of Wisdom, but he is way good and if he is clean for 2 weeks, we will go back up for another interview! So then that night we went on exchange in Dauphin! It is a beautiful city and it was a blast! The next morning we drove all the way home and on the drive it started to set in that I had left my favorite ward ever without talking to anyone! I was as Agnes sick as I was homesick in the MTC. It’s been hard because I miss them all soo much! But President is letting me go on a day exchange next week to teach everybody one more time!!
I got back to find out that this area is dead! They had some baptisms a month or so back but since then nothing is going. So it will be fun to build it up! Hopefully all goes well! I’m way excited to serve with Elder Leonard again! He’s great!! So we had a rough Friday and then Belatu and Jr. (the assistants investigator that I interviewed) got baptized! Elder Skinner baptized Belatu and he was way nervous but it went soooo great! It was a great day!! She’s so prepared and she will be an amazing member!!! It was a great day!! I love her and her kids so much!! They are amazing!! She is a big fashion buff and she had both her kids dressed in all white! Then after her baptism, she came out looking great with all kinds of fancy, flashy clothes on!! Every week at church the Relief Society attacks her to ask her were she gets all her stuff! haha She is so great and will be an amazing member!! Also this Saturday Sarah Anderson got baptized in Selkirk!! Elder Platt is still tearing it up up there and Lauren gets baptized after conference! Both people me and Elder Platt found and were teaching! Sarah was in a family that her mom asked for her records to be removed! We started teaching Sarah, who is 11 or 12 and her mom’s heart softened a ton and she set a date right before I left!! I guess since then Sarah’s mom and grandparents have come back to church because of her! she is amazing and it is so neat the impact she is having on her family!! Lauren is a little crazy, but it’s exciting to hear that he’s getting baptized soon too!! And get this!!! Elder Platt is now a district leader in Agnes!!! hahahahahaha He’s only had me as a companion and one jr. companion! He is a champ and I’m sure he will keep the work moving there! Oh and get this!! Karl is now a primary teacher in the Selkirk Branch and he is super solid!!! I am going to call and talk to him tonight!! I’m sure you will hear about it next week! It’s funny because once again I have that homesick gut ache feeling because I don’t know this area or the members and I miss Agnes and Selkirk sooo bad!!! This ward I’m in is the most disfunctional ward in the city! It is full of needy people. There were 75 people at church on Sunday and 8 of them were missionaries and a lot of the people that came are struggling. There are only a couple solid members. Elder Leonard says that it feels the same as when he trained a new missionary. haha You don’t expect a whole lot from them, but when they do do something good you are like wow, I didn’t expect that, that was pretty good! haha It would be so great to find some solid kingdom builders for this ward because they could really use it!! I’m sad because I miss so many people so much, but I’m super excited to take it on!! Hopefully we can get some good things going!!
Oh and zone leader is definitely not my favorite thing. More dumb missionaries to deal with and more lost time with busy work! But I’m way excited and hopefully we will do a good job with things!! We have some exciting fun ideas for some of the training and I love working one on one with other missionaries because it’s neat to see that you have helped! Oh and get this.. I forgot to tell you that we had 0 people to church this week in Tyndal! I haven’t had that in a while and it stung pretty bad!! I was glad I had excuses, but hopefully we get people next week because I won’t have any!
But I’m doing great and things are crazy! I haven’t even told Akon that I’m gone yet so that’ll be fun??? Belatu was sad, but happy that I’m going next week so she can feed me and they know I’m not far!! I’m loving everyday and things are great!! It’s weird to be with a missionary that knows a ton! I’m not used to teaching with someone older than me! It’s way different because I’ve been with new missionaries that you kinda have to set up so they know where you want them to go with it. haha It’s been way fun and weird though!! It should be a fun transfer! Oh, and President Paulson said that I will probably be here for two transfers. So that’s good because I can settle in and know I won’t bounce around for a bit! Sorry I’m all over the place, haha I just have said what I remember as it comes!! Payt, glad you like the sweatshirt. I wrote you a letter, but it still isn’t sent yet. I’ll try and do it today! I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!
Love Elder Smith
P.S.
Oh, thanks again for the great pictures!! Can you get me an update on Landon and Matt!? Oh and get this! Elders Willardson, Schulte, Randall, Scott, and a bunch of others all go home on Thursday!!! If you can go to Utah to hear homecomings Elder Willardson or Schulte’s will be sooooo good! They are amazing! It will be so sad to have them gone!
