Hey!!
Well it’s been an interesting week! First off, thanks so much for all that you do for me! And Dad thank you so much for checking that out for Elder Woods!! Man I have the best parents in the world!! I’ll talk to you about it more on the phone in a couple weeks! Elder Woods is just a great kid and we’ve become super good friends and so I wanna make sure he gets a good hook-up when he gets home! Thank you so much though!
That’s exciting about the new bishopric! It’s gonna be weird to have everything different! Sounds like everybody is doing great though! Tell Addi to get something ready to sing to me on the phone! But thanks again all of you for all that you do! So I have lots of bad and good news, so I figure I’ll get the bad out of the way and then repent and hopefully cheer you up with some good. So first off, the stupid photo cop got me again...... I hate these things soooooo much!!! 13 k's over again, it’s like 7.5 mph over and it’s the slowest that they give out tickets. I’m soooo frustrated because I’ve tried hard to go slow. But I’m done driving! I’ll just have my comp drive the rest of my mission, because this is terrible!! I’m super sorry and I think I had for sure better get a job right when I get home. It’s so frustrating and I’m super sorry! I wish Dad was here to get it off! haha But I’ll see what I can do. It’s $240 again, but I’m gonna go talk to them again. SORRY!!! I get to clean the dog kennel all of 2012!! haha
Alright, now to some funny news. Edilyn moved out from her family and she and Maritess got an apartment. So I had my mattress double stacked with 2 not so good mattresses put together and they made a good one. But Elder Paulson (President’s brother) is over our apartments and so he was helping her move. She didn’t have a bed so we told Elder Paulson we had double stacked and he was game for us to give one to her. So we gave it and all is well, till it’s time for bed. It’s a terrible mattress! So I woke up super sore! But, we also have this beater couch with tons of cushions. haha So the next night Elder Lovelace and I stuffed all the couch pillows under the bad mattress and I’m sleeping wonderfully once again! It looks hilarious, but man I might sport it for the rest of my life! It’s pretty comfy! But Edilyn moved safe and sound and she is doing great!! She and Maritess now have a place to themselves and it’s pretty nice. I just hope she got a better mattress than me!
But this week was super busy! I got to go on an exchange out to Selkirk and it was a blast!! I saw Sarah, Karl and Chris! Sarah and her mom are doing so great! It’s crazy because her mom didn’t let me come teach the first 5 months I was there and she was on the “do not contact” list! She had even filled out the papers to get her records removed!! Now she is a super Mormon Mom that is teaching the crazy kids in primary and she gave a talk last week! And Sarah is still amazing!! Karl is doing great but he hasn’t been making it to church as much as he should. He’s a great kid with a super testimony, but he is just at kind of a crazy time in life! He’s so good!! I loved seeing him! Chris is just doing ok. He has such a good heart, but he’s been missing church a lot!! It’s a really hard thing to see!! He wants to do the right thing though so hopefully he will pull out of the slump he’s in!! Man, I love all of the people up there so much!! It’s such a great little city!! It was fun to go back!! It’s hard to see people struggling though!
We are teaching so many amazing people right now though man!! Nathan and Maria are so amazing! I gave them your email!! He is in medical school and she is a stay at home mom! They look like a Mormon family and they have such strong faith and they are really searching!! We have taught them all of the big doctrines of the church and they are so smart!! I love meeting with them!! Mom, if they email, you and Dad gotta get em converted. They are so searching!! I hope it clicks for them! Man I love em though!!
Bruce is doing great!! He was out to church again and he is great!! He’s excited for his date and he just needs to get off coffee! He’s so close!! Laury is amazing!! She was out to church again this week!! She has a super nice house and she is also really searching! She is now in like Mosiah 20 or somethine!! She is cooking! And this week she made it to church and it just went amazing!! She got eaten alive with fellowship!! It was so great!! She went to a fireside with some members without us and a member gave her some nice scriptures! Hopefully she will set a date this week!!! Church was sooo wonderful though! Laury, Bruce, and Ronald all made it and they all had a great time! So now for the best part of the week! Ronald was only able to meet with us once a week, so we taught him once and then cheated the system. We were like "Ronald, Elder Woods is coming on exchange and he really wants to see you again." hah So he made the time and his family fed us! It was so good! We had crab and we ate the whole crab guts and all and we picked it over with our hands! haha I love filipino food! It was a blast and super good!! I think Payt will go to the Philippines, or Africa, or if he’s really lucky, Canada! But we finished all the commandments and ended by teaching fasting. We invited him to fast about being baptized on the 14th and us, the assistants, the Henderson Elders, the whole Avila family and Ronald all decided to fast on Sunday!
So, I obviously got Dad’s jeans (ha ha) because the next day after crab, I found myself in a nasty McDonald’s washroom for like 30 mins haha but then we went up to Brandon. We had 2 great kids that got interviewed and are being baptized next week! We drove back and had some good lessons and a lot of tracting. Then Sunday rolled around! It was a great service! Everything seemed to go so good! Ronald had a good day and it just went great! So we told Ronald we wanted to come see how the fast went that night. We told him we wouldn’t have time to teach but we would just come see how it went and chat for 5 or 10 mins! We got there and he had just finished watching The Restoration with his family! Man, they are great!! So we came in and said, “So, how’d it go?” haha He said, "well good." So we were like, “well how do you feel?” And he’s like "good" haha and were like, “sooo?” haha and then somehow something happened with the family, so they got off topic! Elder Lovelace and I were looking at each other. haha So we say, “Well, you were fasting about getting baptized, so how do you feel?” He smirks and says "good." haha So we are like, well so are you gonna be baptized?! He sat there awhile and then looks with a big grin and says "Ya." So we are like, “Well when?” It can be any Saturday between now and the 14th! And he says the 7th! hahaha Man, it was so good!! Like, we didn’t know what to expect or how to go about it but he had already made up his mind! He is so great!! I love that kid so much!! So we were super excited!! The only bad news is that transfer calls are this week! And I’ve been here like 7 months and Elder Lovelace goes home next transfer, so if I did stay, it would be for 2 transfers, which is kind of unlikely! I love this area so much and I really hope I get to be here for it! Either way, he’s getting baptized though and its soooo exciting!! He is such a great kid!! It has been so fun to teach him!! He is such a humble, smart, loving, kind man!!! He will be a great member! It’s been so fun to see him grow!! I met him for the first time like 6 months ago and he wasn’t even willing to listen to us! When we started teaching him he was too busy to read the scriptures, but I knew he liked power aid. haha So I bought a bunch of Power Aid and crossed out the Power and wrote Scripture aid. So every time we’d go over I’d toss him some Scripture Aid. He has read every night since! He is such a hilarious kid and it’s a big joke in his family with the Scripture Aid. Man he is so funny and so great! I wish I could tell ya all the great stuff that has happened with him! But to top off the night, after he set the date, his sister that he is living with was so happy! She is actually a convert as well! But she and her husband got out the guitar and sang to us with Ronald. It was great and then they got us to end by singing a hymn! it was so great!! The Spirit was so strong there!! It was such a great night!!
The church is so true!! Missions are the best!! I love you all so much!! Have a great week!! Love Elder Smith
oohh!! ps!! John Nordness, the excommunicated member, gets baptized on Wednesday!! I can’t believe I forgot! He has an amazing story!! Elder Leonard is baptizing him!! Super neat stuff!!! Love you!!
