Hey!!!!
Thank you so much for all of the great emails! You are the best!! Mom I feel horrible because your present will be way late because this week went crazy and I sent it way late!!! I’m sooooo sorry!! But Happy Birthday!! You are such an amazing woman and I love and miss you so much!! I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for you and all that you do!! Sorry the package is way late, but hopefully it gets there soon! I told my new comp I was way late with sending your birthday present and he told me to cross out Happy Birthday and put "Just thinking of you." haha It gave me a good chuckle and then I felt more guilty! Hopefully it gets there soon!!
Congrats to Tanner and the family!! Will you please send me pics of the wedding and him and her? I haven’t seen any. Keep me updated on Uncle Kellan and tell him he’s in my prayers! Tell Alex I love the totem pole and his does look better then mine did! Except my bear, it was legit!! haha Alex and Addi look so old!!! It’s crazy! Tell Addi I miss hearing her sing and I’m sure she great this last week! The weather here is great!! Global warming is for real! haha It hasn’t snowed and stuck yet!! And it really hasn’t been that cold yet! Hopefully it stays that way! Tell Payt I’m so proud of him and I miss and love him a ton!! Same with all of you! Thank you so much for getting the face stuff!! Keep it coming and I’ll try to do everything to stay on it this time! I’m also “Super Face” so don’t worry about me at all!
So this week was crazy!! First off, I went in and got the same judge as last time for my ticket! haha I thought I was done for because other missionaries have had bad luck getting even their first ticket knocked down. I was pretty nervous, but I whipped out the puppy dog face charm and gave him my excuses and he cracked again! He said, “Well, since this is your first offense I’ll cut it in half.” I was like, “Sir, this is actually my second and I talked to you the last time.” He was like, “Well, I respect your honesty, I’ll still knock it down.” I was pretty happy until I realized that I still had to drop 120$. But I guess it’s just like getting one ticket, right??? I’m soooo sorry and I won’t speed by photo cops ever again. IF I ever get to drive again. But I’m so sorry, and I feel super bad!! Those things are dumb!!
But the Baptism went great and I was so stressed and it was so crazy that I didn’t have time to even think about Mom’s birthday!! It was unreal because we had district meeting in the morning that we had to rush to and then appointments and then filling the font and then getting everything set up!! Both speakers showed up 10 minutes late! Then I did the missionary presentation. Elder Leonard Baptized her like an old pro! It went so great!! Then, the second it ended I said congrats and talked with Celia for 5 minutes and then left with another missionary to book it across town to another Baptism in the Waverley Ward! Her name is Kim and she has been investigating for over a year! She was a hardcore Jehovah’s Witness! She has been investigating behind the J-dubs back and her family’s back the whole year!! She would come to church every other week so they wouldn’t know about it! The sister missionaries have been working with her the whole time! She teaches preschool and so of course I hit it off great with her right when I first got on my mission!! I’d always talk to her at church and she would always ask how Mom’s preschool was and for details about it and my family! I never taught her, but we got to know each other pretty good from church. They got some sisters there that were amazing together! They were in my district when I was in Agnes and they were tearing things up! Then Kim finally decided to make the leap!! Giving up her friends and family to join the church!! But the neat thing was that she asked me to be there to stand in for the confirmation! So, the time was way tight because Celia’s baptism started at 6 but it started like 15 minutes late and Kim’s started at 7! It’s a 30 minute drive from one building to the other! So I left Celia’s baptism right and 7 and got to Kim’s right at 7:30! I walked in just in time to walk up for the confirmation!! It was so neat! They did a waterside confirmation because of certain circumstances, so it worked out great!! Bishop/President Baronins (yes, he’s still both) gave a beautiful blessing and President Paulson, Elder Scheel, And Elder Masters (both senior missionaries that helped the Sisters teach Kim) and the elder that taught Kim online flew in from Utah for her Baptism, and me, all stood in for it! It was such a neat experience!! She thanked me a bunch for coming and she was just so happy!! It was such a neat night!! Both Baptisms went so great! Celia’s whole family was at hers!! Non members and all! She was so happy and her confirmation, on Sunday, went great!! It was a crazy great week!!
Missions are the best!! It was crazy though because after the crazy day we came in and and I was like man it’s my Mom’s birthday!! I sat there completely confused because it had come and gone so fast!! It’s so weird to think that it was my last chance to have Mom’s Birthday in the mission field!! Birthdays in the mission are so great because you just get the chance to think for a bit about how blessed you are!! I am in the best mission in the world and I have the best mother in the world back home that would do anything for me! I am sooooooo blessed!! Mom thank you so much for all that you do and Happy Birthday!!! I love and miss you so much!! Sorry again for the late gift! I am definitely thinking of you!!
Transfers were crazy!! Elder O'Driscoll is a fireball but he does what he wants! He is definitely very similar to Matt! It will be a very crazy, fun, great transfer, if I can keep him under control! haha He loves to work hard and he’s game to do whatever, but he’s pretty undignified with a lot that he does! And it’s hard to know how to handle it!! I’m sure I will learn a ton from him though and I’m way excited to see how the transfer goes!! It’s been pretty stressful with all the stuff to do!! The missionary work part is easy to keep up with but its all the zone leader stuff that I’m still trying to get down that stresses me out! haha I should have payed better attention to all that we did last transfer! It’s definitely been a learning experience!! Right when you get a little bit comfortable with what you are doing, ya get new stuff to pull ya out of you comfort zone!! It has been a crazy week, but such a blast!! The ward has grown on me a lot and I love the people we are teaching and the zone I’m in!! It’s a blast!! We have four people with baptismal dates right now and hopefully more coming. The ones we have right now are great, and our zone is doing really good!! It should be another great week!!
I love and miss you all so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do for me!! Be safe and have a great week!! Love Elder Smith
PS Please give me an update on Grandpa, Grandma, Papa, Grammy, Jay Kellan and anybody else!! You are the best! Thanks so much! Love Elder Smith!
