Monday, September 19, 2011

RUNNING ACROSS THE BORDER WITH BAPTISMAL CLOTHING

Hey Family!!

You guys aren’t trunky at all! hahahaha When I opened Mom’s email all I could see all over the page was “when you get home...” haha It sounds like you guys are all doing great! I feel bad for Payt and his boredom! It’s good stuff though buddy! Enjoy it, but Mom just make sure I don’t have to deal with that when I get home! Mom and Dad, thank you so much for the work with getting me into school!! You guys are so great!! Did those letters I wrote work? I felt bad because they were terrible! What did you do with them? You will have to let me know because what I wrote wouldn’t even have gotten me into byui! Thanks for the great updates though! You guys are the best.


It’s been a crazy week because there is just so much running through my head! I have never been so stressed! hahah The Acutane and stress combo started making my hair fall out! So I was like, oh man, what’s less attractive, zits or baldness, then I saw Dad’s picture and I was like zits for sure! haha But the doc still thought I should go off the meds so I did! Luckily before I bought another month worth. I think I’m gonna stay away from that stuff! haha But I’ll get an antibiotic for the rest of the zits and it should all buff out! I’m doing great though! Blood tests were all good and no side affects, other than I was loosing hair when I washed it! Not a big deal and all is well!


It has been super stressful week though! On Monday all of our appointments bailed and we tracted in terrible weather! Like a blizzard with sleety snow rain! haha I felt dumb for complaining about the heat just last week! On Tuesday it was rougher weather again and we tracted a ton and just had one lesson with Gerald. It was ok but he is frustrating! Wednesday went pretty well with apts and stuff and we left in the evening and stayed in Kenora. I slept on the floor and didn’t sleep too well! Then in the morning we drove to Winnipeg for Zone Meeting! It was good but then we had to get Elder McDanel and Pacis's winter gear for them. So we didn’t get back to Dryden till Thursday night, so the whole day was shot. Then Friday we did weekly planning and got to work more than half the day and then the assistants stayed the night with us! It was a blast to catch up with Elder Woods! He is a champ!! Then Saturday morning all four of us left for Fort Frances for the district conference. We worked there Saturday and Sunday was the Conference. Saturday night I slept on the floor again in International Falls which was rough. We busted over to the conference in Fort Frances on Sunday morning and it was great and Elder Woods and President both gave great talks!! But this Sunday was supposed to be John’s interview. Now this is stressful enough, but on top of it, John was on vacation all week and so we hadn’t talked to him since the previous Sunday. We had told him we would call him throughout the week and we got it all set up but when we called, his phone wasn’t working!! So I was soooo stressed all week because the week before the interview is huge! Not talking to them the whole week is super bad news bears!! So I had all kinds of worries of his family giving him anti and stuff going bad so I was so stressed. But that Sunday before we told John we would meet him at the church at 3:30 and talk to him before the interview that was supposed to be at 4, and it had to go through because we are out in the boonies, so it’s gotta be planned well so someone can come for the interview, so he HAD to be there. So when the conference ended, we were gonna bust out and be to Dryden by 3:30, but we remembered that we needed Baptismal clothes from the International Falls building because Dryden has nothing! Which was on the other side of the border and some of our stuff was in I Falls car, but they had already left and they weren’t answering their phone. So finally we got ahold of them and Elder You and I got picked up by them. We crossed the border and booked it to the I Falls church and got the clothes. Then I Falls dropped us off at the border because you have to pay to drive across! haha So elder You and I ran across the border bridge in the rain with a big bag of white clothes hahaha! As you can imagine, we knew we would get questioned for the bag! And we did! haha We thought about saying "Sir these are clothes for a saving ordinance and we are late for an important interview," but we figured that would lead to more questions! Luckily, the Canadian border patrol is a lot nicer than the American one! No offense Sean Marshall! I’m sure you are nice (: haha But we made it across safe and sound and went and jumped into the car with Elder Woods and McDanel! While we were doing our crazy stuff they had gotten all of our stuff bagged up so it wouldn’t get wet in the pickup for the ride home! Then Elder You drove like a champ to try and get us there in time!! We rolled into town at 4 so I was soooooo stressed thinking maybe he forgot, maybe something bad happened, maybe he got stuck on the rainy roads from Thunder Bay, maybe he already came and left because we were 30 minutes late! aaahhhhh! I was all sorts of worked up! So we’re driving through the country road to the church and we rolled up and there’s John’s jeep in front of the church!!! woooop woooop!! We were all super pumped! haha So we talked to John and he sounds great!! He got interviewed and it went great!! He was in and out quick and Elder You said he was super ready!! It was super great!! It was a great end to the week, but this week is stressing me out! haha We have a Fries, Dogs and Movie Night we are doing for the branch and investigators on Friday, the baptism on Saturday and the confirmation Sunday! We still have to get people invited to the movie night and find a projector or something. We have to get John’s program all put together and we have to clean out the baptismal font because it is filled to the brim with stuff because they turned it into their storage closet because they haven’t had a baptism in forever! And I gotta throw together a District Meeting for tomorrow still! And all this would be normal, but all this home stuff is trippen me out and I’m supposed to get the calls for all that done. We’ve got a good week planned out though and we should have a fair amount of apts!


I’m just sad to say that I still have stress issues! haha I thought the mission would cure me (: I just hope it didn’t make it worse! haha Hopefully we have a good showing for the movie night and the baptism and church! I guess it’ll all buff out! But I love you guys all so much! You are so wonderful!!


Oh, exciting news for you!! I got a letter from Nicole Witbeck this week..that pretty blonde I hung out with before I left.... All that was in it was an announcement to her baptism!! She is now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! woop woop! haha I thought it was neat stuff! She has been off and on writing me, and I hadn’t heard from her for awhile so it was really neat! I’ve gotten 4 letters in the last 2 transfers, 3 for weddings and one for a baptism! Neat stuff! Life is so good! Missionary work is the best! I love you guys a ton! Thanks again so much for all that you do!


Love Elder Smith