LEARNING TO LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT

Hey Family!

So first off, thank you so much for the great emails and pictures! You guys are the best! I got some news today in one of my emails. Nielle Jensen is going to the Tampa Florida Mission, Spanish speaking! How crazy is that! You will have to get Papa in touch with her! It sounds like you guys had a great 4th of July! I sure do love that holiday!! Ours was pretty good! We cut our P-day short and went and helped the bishop build a play set for his kids! It was great because the play set was a beast and he was grateful for our help! It was a lot of fun too!! It was really good though because the bishop is always sooo busy, so it was great to get to know him better! He is a great guy!!

So Mom, I had an odd question for you!? I was wondering if you could try and get me into like a Paramedic course or the course to learn how to draw blood or something like that, so I can get right into something when I get home! The idea of getting home and having no plans for a couple months is making me nervous! I was just wondering if there are any kinds of courses like that, that I could jump into in the college in the city or at ISU. Thank you! You’re the best!! Also about the cavity? Would it be ok to wait? haha I get nervous about dentists here! hahaha Let me know what you think is best. I couldn’t get your true opinion from your email? So turns out I still haven't learned how to make big decisions without my mother’s approval! haha

Thank you for the update on the Newtons. I just wanted to write about a quick story. . . . Brother Newton was always so kind to me and he always went out of his way at church and activities to come and talk to me. After talking to him I always felt so good! He’s very good at building people up! But most of our conversations were about fly fishing!! We talked a lot about going out together at some point! Eventually Aaron, Dad and I finally found a day that worked and we went fishing! I don’t remember too much detail about the trip other than we had a rough day and didn't catch many fish! We forgot stuff and ran into all sorts of problems. Aaron was the only one that hooked into anything decent the whole day. He hooked a big trout and got it all the way to the boat. Dad told me to whip out the camera for a picture. I fumbled it and the fish flipped and we never got a picture and the fish was gone!! Dad and I weren’t too happy! haha But Aaron continued to fish with a big smile! Even though the day was garbage and everything that could go wrong, did! Aaron stayed happy and loved every minute of the trip! He was so good to be around because it didn’t matter what happened or went wrong, he kept a good attitude about it! Even though it was a garbage day, it was made a lot better by his optimistic attitude! Well, hopefully all goes well with there family!! Please tell him that I am so grateful for his friendship! Tell them that they are in my prayers!!

Well as far as this week goes it was pretty good!! I have tracted more in this area than in any other area! Well, I guess Selkirk is a close second! haha But we are really struggling to consistently teach people! Because of all the tracting, we are finding a lot of new people!! We have found so many great people, but we find them and get super excited about them and then they fall off the deep end!! We are working soooooo hard!! I definitely am doing everything I can to not get discouraged, but I am definitely a little frustrated! haha I have learned a lot from the frustrating things. But I am definitely ready for some blessings!! hahah This ward is just sooooooo amazing!! I can’t figure out why we aren’t seeing more success!! We have been getting people out to church every week and they get fellow shipped like crazy and then they don’t show the next week! It’s ridiculous!! This week we had everyone bail on church!! We had found a great new family and a new Spanish guy that had said the would come too and everyone bailed!! It’s frustrating cus there is so much potential, but people are so busy it’s super hard to meet with them consistently! We had such a great lesson with Mauricio this week about prayer and the sacrament! The Spirit is always there when we teach, but then after that they slept through church! hahaha aaaaahhh, come on!! He makes it out to church a lot and then when we teach the Sabbath Day and he bails! Maybe we should teach why he shouldn’t get baptized this week and see if then he will pull the trigger! He is such a great man and I love him to death, but man he’s taken his sweet time!! He will be such an amazing member once he does it!!

Our Spanish couple is good, but they are really touch and go! We found this amazing family that we are supposed to teach this week! they are pure Canadian and pretty well to do! Their dentist is a member and sparked an interest with them and when we tracted into them they said we could come back this week! Hopefully all goes well!! The Hiddodi family keeps pushing us off, Courtney too! We found a great Chinese family yesterday though!! They are so humble, kind, and smart!! I’m pretty sure China will take over the world! They have a lot going for them! haha

But things are good and I’m doing great!! I love being a missionary sooo much!! This area has taught me a lot, but one big thing it’s made me want to work on is recognizing and listening to the Spirit! I have taught so many people where they know they have felt something, but they second guess it and don’t listen to it and they miss out on so many blessings! I have also seen it with me! It’s so easy to question things or not act on a prompting! And when we don’t, I know we miss out! I’m so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and I wish I was better at recognizing it more! I feel it a lot, but all too often I fail to recognize it!! I’m so grateful for the gospel! I’m so grateful for my wonderful family and all their support! I love you all a bunch!! Have a great week and keep me posted!

Love Elder Smith!!!

HAPPY CANADA DAY! I've finally mastered "OH CANADA"

Hey Fam!

Preston is home?!? That’s crazy!! You guys need to give me more details on what he is like!? haha Was English hard for him? What was his talk like? What’s he like!? Have him write me and say hello! Oh and I saw Brennan in the picture! What’s his story? Did he go on a mish or is he getting married or what? Fill me in!

Alex, I’m so excited for you with this whole Chukars team thing!! That’s so great! You are an all star! Payt I liked hearing about the firework war! haha I’m glad we saved that yellow sweatshirt! We need to hang it up or something!!! Mom and Dad, thanks so much for the help with the meds! I hope it isn’t too costly!! Don't stress how I’m handling it though!! I’m doing great! I’m drinking lots and sunscreen-en’ up!! It should be all good!! I do have another item of concern though! haha Well, I haven’t been to the dentist in a long time and I had a tooth with a small black indent. haha Nothing serious, but just one of my back teeth. It is just kind of sensitive every once in awhile. It really doesn’t bug me at all but I just don’t wanna loose a tooth! haha I am fine, but I wanna see if you can get me signed up for an appointment right when I get back. And I wanted to make sure it was ok to wait till then? It isn’t big at all, just like the size of a pin tip, but I’m pretty sure it’s a cavity. Let me know if it’s ok for me to just wait. AND DON’T STRESS IT! (: haha

Things here are going great though!! I just got news today that Elder Lovelace (Patrick) is engaged!! Creepy, right!?! haha We we all saw it coming. His girlfriend waited for him! Crazy stuff! He’s been home like 4 weeks, tops hahah RM’s are getting married right and left! I think I’d like to extend! Creepy stuff! Things here are going well though!! Brother Kahn (the new, half muslim man) is really good and we have had some great lessons with him! We did exchanges to PA again this week and things didn’t go great, but definitely better than last time! haha We taught Carlos and Danidsa and they are super good! They are the couple from Mexico and they are a little flakey sometimes but super good! Mauricio and the Hiddodi family bailed again this week! We haven’t taught them forever!! We have an appointment with Mauricio for this week though so hopefully it goes through! Canada Day was good! I now know have “Oh Canada” mastered! haha We had a breakfast with the ward and it was great! We had investigators come and it was a really good time! Tracting was slow but the for supper, members fed us good!! It was a good day, but man do I miss the 4th of July! hahah It is such a great holiday!! I hope you guys all have a great day!!

The week was good, but kind of slow! We had some good people that were committed to coming to church, but then only one person showed! Her name is Christina and she has been flakey the last couple weeks! But then she came to church and it was wonderful!! She is the amazing artist and she is so good!! Testimony meeting was wonderful and perfect for her! Like 4 or 5 converts bore there testimonies on their conversion stories! It was so good and she had some great questions! After the first convert spoke she leaned over and said, "So does it usually take only 3 weeks after people start meeting with you before they get baptized?” haha Inside I was thinking "Yes! Actually you should already be baptized!” She is super good and in 2nd Nephi! She’s been reading everyday! She loved church and I was worried about our gospel principles class because there are some crazy people in it! haha One of the less actives was there and he asked an iffy question about the Holy Ghost! I was about to dive in for the save, haha but before I could, Christina started talking AND RESOLVED HIS CONCERN!! haha crazy! When we found her she said she was an Atheist and now she is resolving concerns about the Holy Ghost! She said she would be at church a couple weeks ago and she bailed, so this was her first time there and the members smothered her! It was so good!! I think she really enjoyed it! Then a member invited her and us over for supper! It was so great! I really hope she sets a date this week! She will be a powerhouse member!! Hopefully all goes well! Since she figured out everyone feeds us, she is feeding us this Tuesday before our lesson!! It’s so great!! I’m gonna try and get her to email you guys so you can get to know her and do what you do! Things always go better when my investigators email my Mom! haha I’m way excited about her and I think great things are going to happen! Things have been so slow and I feel like if she sets a date that a lot of other things will catch on fire and things will start moving with our other investigators! It seems like success breeds more success!! But things here are great!! I love and miss you all a ton and I’m so grateful that things are going well! Keep me posted and have a great week!! Love Elder Smith

FINDING WHILE BUZZING!

Hey Family!

ALEX YOU ARE MY HERO!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH CHEEAAAA BOOOIIIII!!!! BUDDY GRAND SLAM!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??!! HAHA man buddy you are sooo great!! I am sooo proud of you!! Keep up the great work!! That is sooo exciting! Payton, I can't believe you are an Elder! That’s crazy! You will love Elders Quorum! haha I’m so proud of you but I can't believe you are so old!! It’s crazy!!! Mom, I just got off the phone with Sister Poulton and she said you were on the other line! haha Weird! Thanks so much for doing that! Bishop Ledding finally got things figured out for me. He is such a great man! He is a convert and now a bishop and a doctor. He was planning on being a Catholic Priest and he has an amazing conversion story, but he has had funerals and weddings and all kinds of stuff and he finally got the prescription for me! I feel bad bugging him with it, but it should all fall into place! Hopefully our insurance covers it. Sister Poulton told me you just want me to do it, so we will see what happens. Oh the mail system here is on strike and has been for like 2 weeks. So if anybody sent mail, sorry I haven’t said anything about it. And if nobody sent mail... don’t think I’m trying to make you feel guilty hahaha just given ya the heads up! Only in Canada! hahah Dad, as far as next week goes I really don't know if we will be emailing or not. I don’t think there is a holiday, but in Canada the odds of it being a holiday are better than it not, haha so we will see!

Preston is coming home!?! How crazy is that!! Tell him to fill me in when he’s home! Also, when does Landon get home? It’s soon isn’t it? Let me know! (:

Well this week was good! We had Zone Conference and it was a well needed boost!! It was so good to see Elder Woods!! We got to catch up and I got an update on all the Winnipeg stuff! Edilyn sent me these super neat Filipino pillow cases with my name on them! They are so neat and lime green! She is so great! It sounds like everybody for the most part is doing well!! Elder Woods isn’t going to Utah State ): But hopefully he will end up somewhere in Utah in the next year or so! We will see. Zone Conference was great but super weird! Everyone that I looked up to has gone home or is about to go home! haha It’s so crazy!! This week was good! We had people out to church and found a couple great new families! All of our progressing investigators cancelled all of their appointments this week though! aaaahhh! So lame! But it was still a good week!! I really have loved it!! I know I have said this a lot before, haha but this area has been more humbling than any other area!! It’s so easy to get cocky and confident but this is definitely the Lord’s work and the Lord’s timing. I have learned a ton! And I feel like the area is so close to breaking out and seeing some success!! It just requires so much patience! Everyone we are teaching could be such a great kingdom builder! Mauricio is soooo golden!! I just wish he would get answers already! haha He will get baptized...... eventually! The Hiddodi family is so good to but so busy! And Courtney is golden but too busy too!! We are finding people every week, but we just keep going through them and then the fall off the wagon!! It scares me so much how fast time is passing!! It’s been a year this weekend since Karl was baptized!! That’s sooo crazy! I am so grateful for the wonderful experiences I get to have everyday! I’m so grateful for my amazing family! I am so blessed! Sorry my email has been all over the place today! haha

I’m short on time, but I guess I’ll end with a funny story! So in Canada there are lots of apartment buildings... and my whole mission I have been so frustrated that it’s so hard to get to teach these people! So last week in the rain we got the great idea to find, while buzzing! haha And it has been great! haha Like we have found ton of great people, buzzing apartments and then talking to people! But the other day we got let in to the 3rd floor so we sprinted up and they said no, so we went back down and buzzed a different one and got buzzed again to the 3rd floor, haha and rejected again!! This happened 3 times in a row and it was a hot day! haha We were struggling for air and trying to stop laughing!! It’s funny because finding definitely gets old, but man I just love being a missionary! It can be so hard some days, but I’m so happy all the time!! Life is just so great! Even though it’s been harder to see success, I am sooo grateful to be a missionary! I am so grateful for the gospel!! I love sharing it with people!! Missions are the best and if I could, I would definitely want to be in Payt’s spot right now!! haha Life is so much better with a lot of mission ahead of you!! haha But I love you all sooo much!! I am so grateful for all that you do!! Have a wonderful week!!

Love Elder Smith!!!

AGENCY THIEVES, CROSS DRESSERS, AND RAIN!

Hey family!

It’s always so great to hear from you and get such good updates and pictures! (: A-ROD!!!!!!!! BUDDY YOU SOUND LIKE AN ALL STAR! Buddy, I am so proud of you and the hard work that you have put into become such an all star athlete!! Keep practicing and working hard!! You are such a champ!! I love and miss you a ton! Keep working hard and keep me posted! I love your updates and emails!!

It sounds like the talks went well and everything is going great! It makes me so happy! Things here are also going good! this week was definitely rougher than most! Jelena dropped us because her mom is an AGENCY THEIF, so that was hard. Marcio and the Hiddodi family both had to cancel their appointments because they were so busy. We tracted into a ton of crazy people! We showed up to one appointment thinking we were going to teach an investigator that turned out to be 2 gay Mormons, one of which went on a mission to Brazil, the other was a convert. It was a super sad experience and it caught us way off guard! It’s a crazy story, I will have to tell you someday! It messed me up, but strengthened my testimony for sure. We found out a member of the ward is a liar and she lies about everything! So she was telling us all kinds of crazy stuff! haha Also another crazy, funny story I will have to tell you someday!! And it rained all week and all of our appointments fell through! aahh! So we broke our record of most tracting time ever!! haha It was hilarious because one of the days it just drilled us! haha I honestly felt like I had jumped into a pool! It was way frustrating because people just thought we were stupid and so they wouldn’t listen to us! haha I couldn’t NOT laugh when I looked at our reflection in people’s windows. We looked ridiculous! It was terrible!! But sooooo funny! hahaha We worked so hard and honestly saw like no success!! Well other than this cross-dresser we found that was a YSA turnover, but we didn’t know whether to turn IT over to the sisters or elders? hahaha It was just a crazy week!! I tell you this not trying to whine, or make you nervous, but to set the stage for the weekend! haha So Friday night was when the rain just killed us and we looked like we had jumped into a pool! So all of the streets were pretty flooded, just like in the low spots so there was like more than a foot of water in some places and people were out in tubes floating in it! haha Pretty funny stuff! But we tract all day in it with breaks for meals to try and warm up and get dry. So we are pretty down about it all, but we had one appointment at 8 at night after all day in the rain. We are soaking and honestly too wet to even go in to anyone’s house, so we planned on just rescheduling with these people, if they were even there! But we got there and they were this wonderful Spanish family from Mexico!! They made us come in and sit down, we had them get a plastic bag to put on there chairs so we wouldn’t get them all wet! It was pretty funny. But we had a great lesson with them!! They are so kind and they went and got dry shirts and made us put them on, so we left with different colored shirts than we came with! haha It was soooo great and we are meeting with them again!! I’m so excited for them.

The next day we bought umbrellas and tried tracting apartments. We buzzed from the outside and asked to come in! haha I never had done it, but we actually found tons of great people from it! haha So we got to teach a lot more throughout the weekend!!

It’s so funny all of the crazy stuff that happens and all of the ups and downs that you go through!! There’s a lot of hard stuff on a mission, but the good stuff makes it all worth it!! I’m so grateful for the gospel in my life! I’m so grateful for the amazing people I get to meet and the wonderful experiences I get to have! I’m so grateful for my wonderful family and all the support I have with everything I do!! It’s so good to go through some harder things because it helps me recognize how great my life is!! I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do for me!!

Dad, Happy Fathers Day!! I just want you to know that I am so grateful for you and all that you do for me!! I love and look up to you so much and I’m so grateful for our great relationship! It’s great to know that my Dad is better than everybody else’s hahaha ! I love and miss all of you a bunch!! Keep up the great work with everything and have a great week!!!

Love Elder Smith!

MUSLIM FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!

Hey Family!

Thank you so much for the emails! You are all so wonderful! Mom and Dad you never cease to amaze me! I can't believe the papers that you got here so fast! I have felt bad about it since I got them! haha I feel like the second I ask for anything you all drop everything you are doing and do what I ask. You are amazing and I’m so sorry that all my life I seem to be asking!! Thank you so much though! I’m so sorry to put you through the hassle! I got the papers to the doctor, but I feel bad cus I hope he doesn’t think I’m just trying to take advantage of him. At this point I have given him all I can and now it’s just kind of a waiting game because I don’t wanna be to obnoxious about following up with him! haha Man if you thought I was annoying with following up with doctors before my mission, you should see me now that I have followed up with people everyday for the last year and awhile, hahahah. Hopefully he will get on it but I have a feeling it might take awhile. But thank you sooo much for all of the help! You are so wonderful!! I love and miss all of you a bunch! Sister Poulton called me and said "Your mom is a great lady and she misses you a lot." I just smiled and said "I know" haha You are all the best!!

Well first off, I have a funny story!! So this week we tracted A TON again and we were tracting and I street contacted a guy on the road and he walked by me quickly and yelled, "In a better world all Mormons would be hung for heresy." I grinned and said “Have a good day sir." In the sweetest voice I could muster. He then yelled back, "Go to H***!" I don't know why situations like this have become so hilarious, but man they keep ya going after hours of tracting. And I can honestly say I am a proud Mormon! I think I like the situations cus they give me a little adrenaline and I’ve learned to keep my temper a lot better! Missions are such an interesting thing! haha They are the best!!

So this week once again started a little slow. Transfers came and went. Elder Duncan is a good ol’ Virginia boy. He’s a good kid and hopefully we will see lots of great things happen together! We worked so hard this week and tracted soooo much and it was so frustrating because we seriously were finding no one!! We went and taught Jelena and the lesson blew up! Her mom had gotten into more anti or something but she was all fired up! Eventually her mom left, after getting into it with us and the lesson went ok! It was definitely frustrating! So I was a little down about that and about the fact that we hadn't found anyone new the whole week!! But then on Saturday, we had a great lesson with the Hiddoddi's (the rich muslim family). They are soooo amazing and I love them to death! We then had a great lesson with Maricio and he committed to fast on Sunday. Then that night we tracted into a wonderful Filipino family! I whipped out all the Tagalong that I had and they loved it! haha They let us in and we had a great lesson with their family and we are teaching them next week! It was so great! Then Sunday morning rolled around and everything fell in to place perfectly! Jelena made it just by herself and had a great time and she got fellow shipped like crazy by all of the members and a lot of the single girls and guys that are here from Alberta selling security systems. She had a great time and is going to the young single adult FHE tonight! Maricio fasted and had a good time at church and get this!!! The Muslim family followed us to church in there brand new SUV Infinity, leather interior and all! It was sooooo great!! They got eaten alive by fellowship!! Hopefully they liked it!! haha They are sooo great!!

So Sunday was wonderful! But after church we had no appointments and we were fasting, so we tracted till supper! It was a tiring stressful day but it was soooooo great!! I sure hope that things workout with all of these people! they are all so amazing!! Things here are going so good though!! Everything is a little different than any of my other areas but I think I’m finally getting into the groove of things here! I really hope these people all continue to progress because I love them sooo much!! It’s funny because in every area I say, wow if just this person would come to the knowledge of the fulness of the gospel and be baptized, my mission would be worth it all just for them! haha And then that person gets baptized and it’s so wonderful and you meet someone else that you love just as much and you say it again! haha Sharing the gospel is sooooo wonderful!! And it’s so great to see people keep commitments and receive answers to their prayers and get baptized! It is the best!! These people here are so great and I want it for them so bad!! Hopefully all works out!! Please keep them in your prayers!!

Things are going so great here though!! Thank you for all of your love and support!! You are so wonderful!! Don’t worry about me or my zits at all!! haha everything is under control and everything will work out the way that it should!! I love you all a ton! Have a great week!

Love Elder Smith

TRANSFERS AGAIN! I'M STAYING!

Hey family!

Thank you so much for all of the wonderful emails! It sounds like it was a great week for all of you! Payton, I can't believe you are graduated! That’s just crazy! It sounds like all of the parties were just a blast! I loved all of the pictures! But what was wrong with Papa's eye?? Is everything ok? Fill me in if ya can please. Also thanks for all you do with the doctor stuff! The bishop in our ward is trying to get me the medication. Tuns out that there are only two dermatologists in all of Saskatoon, so they are both backed up like 6 months. But Bishop Ledding said he will find me a good doctor that will prescribe it, but I am kind of at his mercy, so hopefully he will get on it. But I will keep you posted.

So this week was a good one. It started out really slow but it picked up a lot in the end of the week! The district meeting went really well. It was a lot different and a little crazy but it went good and hopefully it helped! It’s fun to get to teach missionaries every week again.

We found a lot of good people this week! One of which is an amazing artist! Her stuff looks like the real thing and it is done with colored pencils! But she is super good! Also we got to teach Jelena's mom Nina and it went super good! We finished doing service for her and she has softened sooo much! Jelena is doing soo good and she and her mom and her daughter Isabella all came to church! They had a great time! But, haha Isabella is only 2 and she ran up across the stand in Sacrament meeting! aaaahhh! She is crazy!! We figured if the people her want make fast and testimony meeting normal and super great then we will bring crazy investigators to make it crazy! It just wouldn't be normal if crazy stuff didn't happen! HAHA THIS WARD IS SOOO AMAZING AND SO SUPPORTIVE!!! They just eat up investigators and they are so much help!

Maricio made it to church, but he was to busy to meet with us this week! aah! So frustrating! He is so good! I wish he would just get baptized already! Courtney made it to church too! It felt great to have people come!! Hopefully they keep coming!!

We have been tracting a ton still! haha We tracted like 22 hours this week! haha We have definitely seen blessings from doing it though!! We taught a wonderful Muslim man for the first time this week and we taught him in the church! It went great and he should be at church next week! Also, get this!!! Remember the wonderful, super rich Muslim family I told you about last week!? So this week we confirmed the appointment the night before and then we showed up and JEHOVAH WITNESSES are in teaching them!! aaaahhh! haha So we walked in and sat down next to them and it was super awkward! haha The Muslim family is so nice though and they asked us if we want tea and we said no thanks, water is good, and the J Dubs smirk and giggle a little, haha I wanted to say “No, but we'd love to donate blood or come to your birthday party!” haha But I held my tongue! haha They were really nice though! haha And they left quick! Turns out they don’t have a closing prayer! Or maybe they were nervous because we were there so they just got out fast! They were a pretty old couple and all the ones that knock doors that I have ran into have been super nice! But after they left, it was great because the investigators questions set up the Apostacy and Restoration perfectly! We had a wonderful lesson and they committed to coming to church next week! woop woop!

Also on Friday, because we helped Nina, she had us over for supper and a lesson! IT WAS SOOOO GOOD AND SHE WENT FROM BEING SUPER ANTI, TO REALLY LOVING US AND COMING TO CHURCH!! It was neat because we had been struggling to get people to church and we fasted for it and lots came! It was a great ending to a great week!!

Oh, and transfer calls came!! Elder Porter is going to PA and I am staying here! I am getting an Elder Duncan. I’m super nervous because he is only a transfer younger than me and kind of a rebellious kid! haha Hopefully we will hit it off good! He seems nice and funny. I guess we will see what happens! I’m nervous but really excited! Hopefully I will grow a lot! I’m sad to see Elder Porter go! He is a diligent beast!! He is such a hard worker! He will be senior now and he will tear it up!! Funny story! haha He is actually senior with Elder Turner! The same one I was first senior with over a year ago! haha Elder Turner is great though! They will do good!!

Well things here are going great! The ward is wonderful and we are teaching some great people!! Elder Leonard and Elder Lovelace go home in 4 days and it is sooo sad! haha He’s called a ton this week, he is such a good missionary and friend! I will miss him a ton! He saw Akon this week and promised her that we would be there in October, haha so we are on lock! It’s stressen’ me out! I love you all a ton!! Thank you so much for your love and support! Have a great week!!

Love Elder Smith

ELDER PORTER IS TEACHING ME TO SING!

Hey Family!

Thank you so much for the wonderful emails!! You guys are all so great! Payton I’m so excited for you! TURN YOUR HEAD AND COUGH! haha Once that’s over, your papers are on the way, woo woo!! You are a champ! I can't believe you are so old! You are such a stallion! I loved the pictures! Mom don't feel bad about the senior pictures, I’m pumped for the super senior pics when I get home! We should definitely send out announcements again and see if I get more money!! Just kidding, don’t worry about the pics! I definitely wouldn’t have lasted longer than your pictures took and they were all pro, anyways!! Thank you so much for sending Payt’s though! That was neat! I love all your emails!

So first off, Elder Porter is like an all state singer! haha Like he was in these competitions and stuff and he has a beautiful voice and as you all know, I do not! haha So, he has been teaching me to sing while we drive to appointments. It’s been hilarious, but I think I am getting better. So Dad and Payt, I’ll have you know that one day I will sing and it will sound ok!! haha But Elder Porter is a great kid! We have been working super hard and things are going well. This week we had a lot of great stuff happen and a lot of frustrating stuff happen! We set a date with Jelena on Monday and I think I told you about it last week! She is doing great! We taught her 3 times this week and she is way good but then she bailed for church! aaaahhhh So frustrating! But hopefully she will make it this week!! She has a ghetto apartment downtown, but we always teach her at her Mom’s house and her Mom is loaded! The house is way nice. This week on exchange Elder Porter and Elder Clarine did service for her and it went great, which was really good because she had some serious polygamy issues! She has softened a lot and we even got to teach her this week! Hopefully some great things happen there!! It’s crazy because our area is so rich! We don’t get to teach as much and tracting is hard, but man we teach some wealthy people!! This week 3 of our new investigators were from Iran!! They live in this huge house with an indoor pool and everything! Like man they are so loaded and they are Muslim! We had such a good lesson with them, like wow it was the best lesson I have ever had with a Muslim!! It’s funny because back home the Muslim people from Iran are catagorized as terrible people but it is just the opposite!! Muslims are way nicer than the a lot of the self-proclaimed Christians in our area! It’s super interesting and to me it’s been a testimony strengthener of the apostacy. People can be so cruel and rude when they meet us on the door and they claim to be Christians. I have committed myself to never talk down on other faiths or group people because of there faith or culture! haha It’s still a work in progress though, because I think I just barley bashed on self-proclaimed Christians! haha I’m working on it! It’s so interesting though because there are good and bad people in all faiths! I just hope I can always live my life in a way that is in line with the way the Savior would have me live. I have also met some wonderful Christian people that are very kind! You get to learn and experience so much on a mission! It is so great!

So as for the update on Maricio, it was kind of a downer week! He is so good and we gave him 3rd Nephi 11 to read this week. He had big issues with the animals it talks about and the grapes and chandels and all this stuff that he says he knows wasn’t apart of the culture there. He said other than that, he feels really good about everything we have taught and he is still reading and praying about it, but it is definitely a struggle for him! We had a great RM with us (it was actually at his house so we were with him and his wife) haha But he was tons of help and we had some good answers for his concerns, but he is definitely still struggling with it! I sure hope he gets over it!! We had a great lesson plan and we were hoping to set a date, but it all kind of blew up in our face because of his concern. But hopefully this week will be good!! It is so different teaching people here. Like I have had to change my teaching a lot because the people we are teaching know so much! They are so great, but it’s just different than a lot of people and they are so ready for baptism!! ahahhh Just pull the trigger already! And I am getting super tan. My skin went back to its old ways, so I’ve got more zits, but I don’t burn! haha I have a nasty farmers tan and it’s only been summer here for like a week! But things are great! The ward here is so wonderful! It is like a young married ward with a ton of cute young couples, fresh off missions and struggling through medical school!! I love them a ton and it’s way fun teaching with members that are RM’s because everything goes right!! All the lessons are way fun but more stressful too because you feel kind of inadequate sometimes. I have learned a ton!!

Well it’s crazy, but transfers are this week!! It’s insane! I’ve got bets that the next assistant is Elder Platt!! He’s a champ and one of the only ones still young enough, that is a still Zone Leader. We will see what happens! I’m also super interested to see who gets sent out this way because I think Elder Porter is gone this transfer. I guess we will see, but things here are so great! You all are so good to me! I am well looked after and I feel that there are some great people here that I am supposed to find. Please continue to pray that I can find them! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you all! I am so grateful for the Gospel and for the joy that it brings!! I sent you a package this week so keep an eye out for it! It should be there in a week or two! Payton I am so proud of you! "keep getten’ better everyday!" (The legend Scott Berger) haha

Love Elder Smith

oh ps: I got to talk to Elder Lovelace! He and Elder Leonard go home in like 2 weeks!! aaaahhhhh!!! Gut punch!! But Ronald and Bruce are doing great!! They have callings and are passing the Sacrament and everything!! Good stuff!! Edilyn is doing well and Belatu emailed me and said she has been trying to email you! You will have to see if she writes. Her emails are more broken English than Edilyn’s! haha I love it!! But have a wonderful week!! I love you all a ton!!