Hey!
Man! It’s almost Thanksgiving! I loved your emails this week! Mom, me and my comp died laughing with your description of Dad’s fit!! haha It made me sad that our mission president probably won’t show those movies for Christmas like Papa did! haha It made me think of many wonderful times!! Mom and Dad, you are the best!! I am so blessed to have you as my parents! I can’t believe all of the wonderful times that we have had together! We went and ate mexican today and I had a “blast from the past” of a lot of times skipping school or something else to go and hang out at Puerta Vallarta with you two! I just want you to know that I love you so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do! Fits and all! haha And I know that the fits aren’t your fault Dad! It is definitely the stubborn washing machine and dishwasher and car and door frame and remote control car, etc! Dad, you are the best! I look up to you so much and you will always have WAY more wisdom than your son! It was great to see Payt’s bad arm with a thumbs up! Thank you so much for all of the emails!
So this week has been crazy! It has gotten a lot colder and it has snowed a ton! The other night we left our shoes in some people’s awkward room (the room between the front door and the house) while we taught. My shoes were all wet, so when the appointment was over they were rock hard!! haha I had wooden clogs the rest of the night!! It’s crazy that the good weather held out for so long though!
This week we had an all day training session and then we had Zone Leader Council at night. It went on for ever, and so we didn’t get home until like 11 pm, so we got to bed late and we had Stake Correlation this week too, so we lost a lot of pros time, which is getting annoying! We had a pretty great week with lots of great lessons. We have 4 people right now with pretty solid dates, but getting them to church has been like pulling teeth! They all work and the one that didn’t, didn’t show! We were planning on a couple people still though, but a big storm hit Saturday night and Sunday morning and no one showed! It was so frustrating!!! Agency can be a pain sometimes!!
I have a crazy update for you though! I don’t know if I told you but Jamie, the Jew, has read half of the Book of Mormon!! I made a bet with him that I’d buy him a burger if he’d read it all in three weeks. Hopefully that wasn’t bad! haha But since then, he has set a baptismal date and he is working on quitting smoking!! He was the one that didn’t have work on Sunday, but he didn’t make it! He’s already been a couple times though!! Hopefully all goes well with him!
We are pretty frustrated with the ward right now because they are so hard to get excited about the Gospel! The only one that is willing to help us is Brother Peterson and he’s a goofy guy! Payt, hopefully he isn’t bugging you on face book! haha I’m never getting a face book because it’s an addiction for people! He’s great, but we need some other help! Do you have any ideas on what we could do! It’s just that everyone in the ward is in need! They don’t fellowship any of the investigators that come and they are afraid of the missionaries. They are struggling in so many ways! The Bishop isn’t supportive of missionary work at all!! I’ve tried so hard to build a relationship with him, but he just doesn’t like the missionaries. We are meeting with him tonight to see what we can do for the ward. Hopefully he will give us something to do that will help us gain his trust! It’s so hard because he really isn’t that nice. haha I have tried so hard to get to know him and help, but he won’t say more then two words to us! I went from feeling like a rock star in Waverly and Selkirk. And then coming here was a downer! haha I’m loving it but I so bad wish that we could find a way to help the ward! If you have any ideas, please let me know! Don’t get me wrong, things are going great, but I just keep thinking that there has to be something we could do to bring some fire to the ward! We are starting to spend a lot more time in the upper class parts of our area!! Hopefully we can find some wealthy kingdom builders that have cars to help the work!
Elder O'Driscoll is a lot of fun and a great missionary, but he is very similar to Matt Collette! We would make great friends back home, but keeping him in line and keeping a good relationship can be stressful! If I learn how to do it, it will be a great blessing for life!! hahaa And he isn’t bad! He just does little things that make ya wonder! He has been very successful though because he loves his mission and he works hard!! We will have a great transfer, as long as we can find a happy medium of what is okay. haha I have learned a ton, though!! After serving with Elder O'Driscoll, I will either lose my mind or learn to stress a lot less! I have gotten a lot better about not stressing stuff, but he is so laid back! It’ll be good for me, I guess!
This next week we will be in Portage, La Prarie tomorrow to teach half the zone and then back in Winnipeg Wednesday to teach the other half! If I see one, I’ll send you a post card. It’s only an hour or two from Winnipeg. It should be fun, but its frustrating because we miss a lot of time in our area!
But I guess I’m out of time! Let me know what you would like me to send more of in my emails. There’s a ton too I want tell you, but I never know what you want to hear or what I want to say so I seem to babble on! hahaha I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for you and all that you do for me!! Thank you so much for all of the great emails and pics!! Stay safe and smart and Payt be careful in the Jeep!! Alex and Addi, thank you for your emails! You are the best!! Mom and Dad, you are the best parents ever! I can’t even tell you how grateful I am for all of you!
Have a great Thanksgiving and eat a ton of turkey for me! And don’t worry about me! I’m sure I’ll be pounding some turkey too! There are some very charitable Canadians here looking out for us!! Love you a bunch!! Have a great week! And thank you so much for the package! Especially the scriptures for Emmanuel! He will be way excited!! And don’t stress what you sent me!! What ever it is, it will be way too much! The only downer is that I doubt any of it will have technical difficulty! haha When I got stuff that didn’t work was always my favorite because I saw how much you cared for me!! haha You two would give your life, just to find batteries on Christmas morning! You are amazing and I love and miss you a ton!! Love Elder Smith
