Hey Fam!
It sounds like your week was absolutely crazy!! That is such sad news about the Newtons! Hopefully all will go well for their family! They have such a great family! You have all been so great to them! Thanks for keeping me updated and send them my love! Dad, it sounds like the talk was very hard for you, but it sounds like you did a wonderful job! Mom and Dad, I am sooo grateful for you and the wonderful people that you are! You never cease to amaze me!! I just can’t tell you how grateful I am for the lives that you live!! It sounds like you are putting out more pizzas than Papa Toms!! I don’t know how you both do all that you do!!
Payton, I loved your email too! haha That sounds like a great date idea! I have the best family ever! It was good to hear from Preston! He is a great kid! I’m excited to see him! It sounded like he was hinting at the fact that I shouldn’t be emailing friends! haha You can tell him that he is free to email and I’d love to hear from him more. Because we have lots of converts in our mission, who don’t really have family to write, President allows us to email friends and family! And family friends like the Rammells, for sure!
Mom, thank you so much for getting all the University stuff figured out! How long do those essays need to be and when do they have to be done? Also was there anything I needed to do for Utah State or ISU? Let me know and I’ll get on it! Thanks soooo much for all that you do! As far as the meds go, I am doing great and it’s working better and faster than last time, so all is good!
Ok now for the news......We got transfer calls and get this!! I am a District Leader, a trainer, and I am opening a new area that hasn’t had missionaries in 15 years!! Oh, and get this!! It’s in Ontario!! haha It’s called Dryden!! I will go from being a Manitoba missionary for a year and a half to a tri-province missionary! I’m super excited, but dreading the long journey I will have for the next couple days!! haha I guess they weren’t gonna put missionaries back there but President Paulson went out there and they begged to have missionaries. President said they would get them if they found an apartment for them. President got a call 3 days later that they had found an apartment and were ready for missionaries! hahah President also opened Kanora and Elder O’Driscoll will be there to finish his mission! There used to be just one area in Ontario and it is staying open so we have an Ontario District!! It will be soooo neat, and I’m sure soooo stressful! haha I’m way excited! It’s just gonna be way weird to train and have an area that is starting from scratch! It’s gonna be crazy!!! I am way excited about it all, but sad to be leaving Wildwood! They are such an amazing ward! I am frustrated that we didn’t see more success while I was here, but I think good things will happen soon with the people here! It was so hard to say goodbye to Mauricio and Angelica! They are so great!! I don’t know if we will get to go and see them, but he committed to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of my mission! If we don’t go see him I want to come up after with Elder Woods! haha I guess we will see what happens. It’s hard to leave an area that I don’t feel like I saw the success that I would have liked to see, but I learned a ton and I met some wonderful people! I’m very excited to see what’s to come in Dryden!
So this is way off topic, but I have a ridiculous story that probably out does all of my other ridiculous mission stories!! So first off it was my idea to start buzzing apartments to try and talk to more people. We have seen lots of success with it, but Elder Duncan wasn’t a fan. So he asked President about it and President said "Well is it successful?" Elder Duncan said, “Well ya.” haha And President said "well then keep doing it!" So the argument was over and the assistants and others started doing it. So there’s the background, pretty much Elder Duncan isn’t a fan! So we were doing it one day and usually we talked to people through the buzzer and then they let us in. But a lot of times people just buzz you in without talking, so you go talk to them at their door. This often times causes awkward interesting things to happen. I have got some great stories!! But we have gotten to teach a lot because of it and it has been great. But this week we were doing it and we got buzzed in without anyone talking. So we walked up and knocked on the door and a lady yells "come in!" We sit there hoping she will come to the door, but she doesn’t, she just yells louder "come in!" We wait longer and the third time she yells, "doors unlocked, come in!" So Elder Duncan has his nervous face on! haha I grabbed the handle, open the door and take three steps in. On my right side, there is a lady in plain sight, sitting on the toilet, using the bathroom! I dive into the hall, I’m fumbling words she is fumbling words! haha She asks who we were, we tell her from the hall, where we can’t see her, hahah and she says, "Oh, you’re looking for Chris... he’s in room # 14." haha Now, I don’t remember if his name was really Chris, but I do know he was in room #14. At that point though Elder Duncan would NOT let me go talk to the guy in room #14! We were done working that apartment for the day. It was rIdiculous and kind of hilarious.......later!! Luckily she wasn’t mad at all and I think she just felt dumb. We were curious about how she buzzed the buzzer though! haha I guess we will never know.
But it really was a good week! We found some good new people, we taught a fair amount and we had people out to church! It was good! We got to have a great lesson with Mauricio on Saturday! It was so great and I felt that he is so close, but he is a very smart man and when he does get baptized, it will be for all the right reasons and he will be super solid!
Last night had a sour end, though. Christina called us, she is the one that fed us and has now been taught all of the lessons. We were so excited for her! She loved church and we thought she was so close, but she told us she had a letter for us! So we went over on our way in and she was waiting out front for us, because she knows our fellowship rule. She thanked us and said she didn’t want to waste anymore of our time and she said all of her thoughts she had put in the letter. It was super sad and then we read the letter! aaaahhh! It was terrible!! It was 3 full pages of anti!! She wrote all the reasons she couldn’t join our church!! It was harsh and sad because it was a lot of messed up anti, a lot of which was half or full on lies. I wish we could have taught her after she found it, but by the sounds of her letter, we won’t get to teach her. She was very grateful for all that we had done though. That’s what was so weird is I thought that we and other members had a pretty good relationship with her but obviously not that good! She is a great lady though, it makes me super sad! We thought that she was golden!! Thus is a mission, I guess! haha Lots and lots of ups and downs! Missions are the best though!!! I’m sad to be leaving, but super excited about all the craziness to come! I teach district meeting tomorrow and then we will hopefully teach a bit and then we will leave at 6 PM. We will stay the night in Regina and then leave the next morning to be in Winnipeg by supper. We will work in Winnipeg and then the next morning have the training meeting with the new greenie. Then load up all the furniture and dishes and whatever else you need for an apartment and all our luggage and take off for Dryden. After that, I have no idea what’s gonna happen. Hopefully someone has a directory for me and a map. I’m just glad I’m not the greenie! I thought we didn’t teach enough when I came into an area that was doing pretty good, hopefully we can find some great people fast!
But I love you all so much! Thanks for all that you do!! Have a wonderful week!! Love Elder Smith!
PS I typed fast this week, so if it doesn’t make sense, just ask me about it next week! Love you! Have a great week! Oh and tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks a ton for the letter they sent! The mailing system finally started running again and I got it! Tell the grandparents and Jay I love em all!
