Payton!! And Fam!!
HOLA!! MI AMOR TO HERMANO!!! I AM SOOOOOOO EXCITED FOR YOU!!! When I heard the news, I knew you would be soooo excited and I knew it was were you were supposed to be! It is soooo exciting!! I knew you were smart enough to learn a language!! hahaha You will tear it up!!! I’m definitely sad we only get a month together, but I guess someone there needs to be found by you fast!! You better get on that Spanish, buddy!! Hey and now we have somewhere warm to visit in up coming years!!!! woop woop! I do have some advise for you though!! Write down everything that has happened this summer and the way that you feel about it all!! Write down your testimony and your feeling about your mission call and everything and write it down in the beginning of your mission journal! Get on it fast! You will be super grateful for it later on! And study the lessons in PMG, just focus on Chapter 3 because they don’t teach that in the MTC anymore, but you need to know how to teach it! But don’t stress it too much! You are ready to go right now! (: Just figured that’d give ya a head start! haha Buddy, I am soooooooo proud of you and so excited for you!! You will love the temple! Is there one in your mission? Either way, go a lot and we will go a ton when I’m home! (: Oh, last words of advice, promise me now that you will NEVER become a Cowboys fan!!! hahahaha!
Well, this week was a good one! In big part because Payton’s going to Texas!!!! woop woop! haha But things here are going pretty well!! On Monday we had a great lesson with Gerald and we got his kids to join in! They are 9 and 12 and so good! They want to be baptized with there Dad!! The 12 year old is so great and the 9 year old is all over the place! But the lesson went great, but then they left town for the week so they get back tomorrow and it’s commandment time!! Hopefully all goes well! I love them sooo much!! I taught District Meeting here in Dryden and it went well and right now I am in Kenora for an exchange tonight and District Meeting tomorrow!! I don’t where the week goes!! It’s so ridiculous and frustrating how fast time goes! We found a new lady this week named Sandy and she is great! She and her kids have been listening to the lessons and she set a date. Her husband isn’t much for religion, but he is warming up to us and even sat in on a lesson this week! Get this.. she is already in Jacob! Crazy and she remembers so much of what she has read and she will call us to tell us about it. She made it to church and she would be completely golden if it wasn’t for the family dragging! Hopefully they will come along!! The dad is kinda messed up, but they are big into fishing! haha They have some huge fish pics! Neat stuff! Fishing is huge here!! If you don’t own a boat, you are a reject! We have had a bunch of people say, "I don’t like religion, but you guys wanna go fishin’? I’ll show you a good time!" haha It’s a double dagger to the heart, rubbing salt in the wound!!! The crazy part is we have pretty much knocked every door in the city. Of coarse not all of them have answered, but we have started going over areas again, and everyone knows us!! Almost every door they say "Oh, I saw you the other day, don’t you remember waving at me?" haha Small towns are great though!! I love it here!
So I had some funny stuff for you! I’ve started an Elder McDanel quote book! haha It’s hilarious! Here are a few: When anything bad happens he says, "It’ll buff out". When he proves me wrong, he says "Ha! read um and week!" haha I asked him what ‘week’ means and he says, “I donno, but it’s a phrase, ya know like when you win a card game!?” hahahaha I died laughing! He had to do math the other day for something and he was way off so I was giving him a hard time and he said, "I was always bad at math, but I’m great at English! I can talk to anybody." I said, “Oh, what about the class in high school though?” haha He said "Ya, my baseball coach was the teacher so he let me go hit balls and I got an A." hahaha Preston schooling at it’s finest! He is hilarious though and a great missionary and we have a blast together! He is big into hunting and I really want to do it now! It’s crazy here though because there are tons of deer here in the city!! The other day I was literally 10 feet from a 6 point buck a doe and a fawn, just eating off some guys apple tree! It’s super neat! Elder McDanel wanted to chase it down and brake its neck! He is a lot like Jordan Nelson. It’s so funny!
Things here are really going well though! I so badly hope that these people hit their dates! The last one I wanted to talk about is John Meyer! He is so great! He is an Electrician here at the mill and he is a crack up! He’s super nice and I love teaching him! He has a house to himself and a nice Jeep just like Payt’s, but black! We have already taught him the first 3 lessons and now we’re getting into the big commandments! We taught him the sabbath day this week and he was all stressed and he said, "What if because of work I have to miss church?" I was like, Oh man ): But then we asked him how much he worked on Sunday and he said, “One time every year or two, but when it happens, I have to work. What do I do?” I was like, oh ya! haha He is so good! We taught Law of Chastity, too and he is good to go! Tomorrow we are meeting him at the Vahovicks to teach the Word of Wisdom and have supper! Hopefully all goes well! Keep him in your prayers!! He is so good and he can help the branch a ton! He has already been there 2 weeks in a row and some crazy stuff has happened, like eternal mothers and all the temple stuff. And he’s still solid! He’s great! He told his parents about it and I was like well what’d they say? Hoping not anti! And he said, “Oh they didn’t talk much but I’m gonna invite them to the baptism, so I need to get the time of it!” haha HES SOO GOOD! Once we get Word of Wisdom and Tithing out there, he will be set! And then we can start using him and his Jeep to get other people out to church! woop woop! Hopefully all goes well! But missions are so wonderful!! Payton, I can’t even tell you how excited I am for you!! I don’t envy the heat you are gonna deal with! But everything else you will love sooo much!! The Church is so true! I love you all a ton!! Have a Fantastic week! Love Elder Smith!
Oh, PS So I haven’t got mail in forever, right? So I’m told I have three letters, so I’m pretty happy. I get them this week and it’s 3 wedding announcements! hahah Elder Lovelace is now married! Crazy! Elder Schulte, too! Elder Leonard got home and dropped his girlfriend that waited the full two years! haha Pretty funny stuff!! But I guess the only mail you get at this part of your mission is wedding announcements! hahah Funny stuff!! Love ya all a bunch! Love Elder Smith
