22 TO CHURCH!

Barnaba's Family

Friends and Family:

Mom, Dad, Payt, Alex, and Addison, you are the best! The emails and letters revive and re-pump me up every week! I love and miss you all so much! I wish I could have been there for the first ski trip! Sounds like a great time!! I can’t think about snowboarding or I start twitching and stuff, haha. I get to slide on ice a lot here though!

Let me just start by saying, you can’t imagine the week we had this week! It was the craziest, saddest, hardest, funnest, most fantastic-ly miserable week of my life!! haha It started out with me pretty well just exhausted! Every week you kill yourself with the huge build-up for Sunday! You work hard all week, and then Sunday is so stressful! Especially with a companion who is learning to be a District Leader, who knows nothing about the area, and who thinks that getting 3 people to church is a big deal! I love him to death, but Agnes has definitely been a shocker for him! haha I feel like I’m all alone with a lot of the stuff we have to do and he’s content to let me do it! Don’t get me wrong, he is a really hard worker, but if you’re willing to do the work instead, that works for him too! ha ha, especially when he doesn’t know what’s going on! He’s a great kid though! I’m sure this area and being a District Leader is stressing him out! I guess he just doesn’t show it the way I do! ha ha ha ha.

But the week started rough with a lot of not so great stuff happening. So I was a little down, but then the week pretty much jumped of a cliff and just got insane!! We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and so me and Elder Farr took ysa. They have the whole city of Winnipeg and he’s only been a Zone Leader in this area for a week and some days, haha. And my comp stayed in Agnes with the other Zone Leader, so I had to give him directions for everything and set up the day, so he could know what he was doing. So me and Elder Farr go to street contact for an hour while we walk to an appointment. So we park the car in a spot that says we have just over 2 hours before we have to be back. So we get busy finding and all is good! We get to where the house is supposed to be and the address doesn’t exist, haha so we start finding! We get carried away and get a bunch of new investigators and all is going good! So we head back for the car and about 40 yards from the car, we are walking and we look up and see that our car is in the process of being lifted up on to a tow truck! So we take off running and screaming, going crazy. And then we meet Jim! haha He says, “68 dollars ‘el put ‘er on the ground, cash or visa?” Elder Farr, in his kind, soft spoken voice says, “Can I call my Mission President?” And our buddy Jim says, “I don’t care what you do, you got three minutes to give me $68 or I pull away.” haha So Elder Farr pulls out his Visa and hands it to Jim and Jim cheered right up and said, “Alright, I’ll lower ‘er down and you hop on in there and getr’ warmed up!” haha So he goes to the tow truck with the Visa and Elder Farr hops in the car and I say to myself, “I gotta get a picture of this to send to the fam.” haha So I whip out my camera and start taking pics and Jim busts out of the truck and storms over cussing and screaming all kinds a crazy stuff at me saying he’s gonna bust the camera into a thousand pieces and how you don’t take pictures of a man and his truck and how everything he was doing was legal. So I shove my camera in my pocket and start telling him how I just wanted to get a picture to send to my Mom! haha If I wasn’t in Canada and I wasn’t a missionary I totally would have pulled the my dads an attorney, I dare you to take my camera! Come on Jim, do it! See what happens! haha But I’m not in Idaho or even the states, and I’m a missionary, so I just took Jim’s lecture! From what I caught, I learned a lot! haha I figured out what long suffering means.... I think?? So anyways, while I’m getting chewed, Elder Farr hops out of the car to listen in and shuts the door. Somehow, the doors locked, so now we have a started car with the keys inside and Jim wants to rip my head off and we are still hooked up to Jim’s tow truck and he has Elder Farr’s Visa! So Jim chews me and goes back to his truck and Elder Farr breaks the locked doors news to me! ha ha So Jim comes out all mad and gives us the Visa and a $50 ticket from the city. So right now we are about $120 in the hole! Then Elder Farr and I apologize some more and break the locked car news to our buddy Jim! So he says, “Well I woulda dun it fer free, but because of the camera it’s gona cost ya $40” haha So now we are $180 in the hole! He gets his tools and does it and says, “I’m a nice guy, so it’ll just be $20.” (Jim’s such a pal!) haha But then he says, "It has to be cash cuz this is under the table, me doin’ you a favor." So we say we don’t have any cash and he says he needs collateral, so he takes my camera! So we go and get 20 bucks and meet up with our buddy Jim in a parking lot downtown. He hands me the camera and says, “That’s a nice camera ya got there. Have a great day!” Then he took my 20 bucks and drove off into the sunset! haha I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see my buddy Jim again.

So now our schedule is all messed up and we get lost in, who knows were, during our suppers time. Then we go to Jose's interview. He was the Zone Leader’s investigator and my companion interviewed him. But Agnes had an appointment and the interview went long and the Zone Leaders wanted to be there after the interview, so I went with one of the Senior Missionaries to teach Barnaba’s family! We picked up a translator and the appointment was amazing! We set baptismal dates with their whole family! Three people! Then we went back to the interview and Jose’ had passed, so we were all super happy!! I had taught Jose’ one time on exchange and he picked me to say the opening prayer and to be the back-up to baptize him. A member was going to baptize him and so he picked me before both of the Zone Leaders, which was so neat!! So that’s how the night ended, but Jose’s date was for the next day and President said to stick with his date, so the Zone Leaders had to throw together a baptism, that night!! So we got Barnaba’s family to go to the baptism and asked President to give him a ride! haha President was late and Barnaba’s family was even later! We were late to begin with because we had appointments all day so we are ALL way behind! We finally get them in President’s car and get on our way. Then Elder Yorgason calls me and says, “Where are you? The man that is supposed to baptize him isn’t here!! You gotta baptize him! Hurry and get here!” ha ha So we are booking, with President hot on our tail and I take off inside and President has NO idea what is going on! haha He just knows we are late!!

So I bust in and run over to Elder Yorgason and he tells me that the member that is supposed to baptize him just showed. haha So I’m of the hook there, so we run back to our investigators and sit them down and introduce them to the translator and everything. Elder Yorgason said that Jose’ said, Elder Yorgason, it’s time for the baptism and Brother_____ and Elder Smith aren’t here!!” ha ha It made me feel way bad, but it all ended great!! Or so we thought, Barnaba is now kind of worried about his baptismal date! So that was a dagger to the heart, but we can hopefully work it out!

As for Akon, she came to church this week and our ward broke the record again with 22 people to church! The Bishop was so excited! He ran over to me to tell me, as if I didn’t know! haha 16 of them were from Agnes and Barnaba’s family couldn’t come this week and half of Open’s family was sick! So next week hopefully we will top it again!

This week me and my companion had to speak, too. We walked in late, followed by half of the congregation - our investigators and the great members that drove them! They didn’t literally all come in behind us, ha ha But they came in throughout the first ten minutes Sacrament Meeting. Barnaba said he still wants his kids to get baptized but he doesn’t want to be baptized twice, so we have to work on that! Barnaba says he wants his family to sing in church on one of the up coming Sundays! He sang for us and he’s good!! Open’s family will hopefully have a date this week and Akon said, “Elder Smith, I really hope this all works out! I want to be baptized before you get transfered!” This made me want to cry! I love their family! They have been taught everything, we are just waiting on their Dad! She asked for your phone number, so I’m giving it to her tonight, so don’t be surprised if you get a call from Akon, Mom. You will love her!!

Things are sooo crazy, but so good! I love it here so much!! I just wish I could not deal with some of the hard days, but they make the good days so much better!! And the hard days give some of the best stories, and if something bad happens it always means something good is on the way!! I love my mission so much though! And when I get home, I’m totally making a movie called The Other, Other Side of Heaven! ha ha As for my spiritual thought, I don’t know what to say, life is so ridiculously insane! Love everyday!! I love and miss you all soooo much!! You are the best family in the world!!

Love, Elder Smith

PLATO'S BIRTHDAY. . .DID I MENTION THE AMAZING FOOD?

Akon's Family: Deng, Ien, Makeer, Nyandeng, Aluel, Grace and cousin Emanuel

Friends and Family!

Hey! You are all the best ever! I love and miss you all so much!! Tanner you are such a studdly!! What I would do for a day exchange with you! Thanks for the update! It’s unreal that he is coming home so soon! Mom, Dad and Payt you’re emails are the best!! Dad, if you start to look like Doug, that’s great and I am so glad you are all being so healthy, but don’t shave your whole body! haha That’s a little too much. Just kidding Uncle Doug, your the best! It takes a real man to shave like a girl! haha

Wow! All of your emails were so great!! You are the best! So this week was soooooo good and I have so much to say!! First off, Akon’s husband is letting the missionaries in Texas come over, but we are still waiting on his address! Hopefully it will come tonight! Last Monday was amazing! We had Family Home Evening at Bishop Baronin’s and they are the best! The lesson went great and the game was a blast!!! The family loved it!! It was so sad though because at the end we had to break the news that Elder Willardson was leaving. I wanted to cry and I was the lucky one that gets to stay!! Akon was so distraught. She wanted to call the President right then and there and chew him out. She said, "It just isn’t right, you two just go together!" It was so hard, then Elder Willardson promised he would come visit after his mission and then little Nyandeng, with her front teeth missing, said "You better keep your promith!!" We both had tears on the verge and as we were walking out the door Nyandeng said in her sooo cute little voice "Why aren’t you wearing your jackets!!?" Our hearts melted! They are so amazing and the thought of leaving them makes me sick!! We taught them yesterday and they spent a lot of the time seeing when I would have to leave and making me promise to come and visit. Nyandeng made me promise that I would bring Addison so she could meet her. So the whole family has to come in 2 years because I promised. Me and Elder Willardson gave them a picture of us with their family and it went up on the mantle in front of all of their other family pictures. They are amazing!! We have taught them everything but tithing! The Word of Wisdom went great, Akon said she felt horrible because she has had tea before, but she promised she would never do it again. Nyandeng raised her hand in the middle of the lesson and said she doesn’t even drink Pepsi. Oh I love them!

As for my new companion, he is a huge change!! He’s pretty soft spoken, and if I don’t stop teaching, he won’t teach. haha So I’m getting better at trying to teach less and turn it over! He teaches really well, but he is pretty slow pace. I like to go through stuff pretty fast and if they get it, move on! He is also still getting used to the pace of Agnes! He is great though!! He’s from Seattle and he’s a really nice kid!! I think we will do great!

It was crazy the other night though because we set a date with Megan Shumner, who is great and we took Emmanuel (the recent convert) with us to the appointment. It was a great appointment, but after it Emmanuel said he wanted to talk to me about some things! He said he is dating a non Christian girl and he said, "I’m doing everything I can to convert her, but it’s impossible!" He said she was getting frisky and wanted to "go to bed with him" and it was so hard for him! He got through that, but he told me he knows it will come up again. I just started teaching and really just talking to him. I shared some scriptures and the Spirit was so strong! It was such an amazing experience!! It’s amazing that a 40+ year old man would come to me for advise. It really hit me what an impact I can have on people, if I’m doing the right things! It’s just so amazing to me! I’m a punk 19 year old kid, but as an instrument of God I can actually help to change peoples lives! It was such an amazing night! After we stopped talking, he said he felt better and he’d keep doing the right things! It was then that I realized that my companion hadn’t said a word. I felt really bad and started to apologize and he said, “No, I didn’t understand a word that man said!” hahaha Emmanuel has such a thick accent, that it really is hard to understand him. But I’ve been around so many people like that, that it didn’t phase me at all. It is crazy!! My comp said that when I started talking about chastity, he was shocked! He said that he had no idea what was going on!

Then we went and taught Sacapo and he didn’t catch much there either! haha I love the broken English that I can understand better now and I love all of the cultures here! It is so amazing what I get to do and see with these amazing people!!

The other day the new missionaries came out and I got to go on an exchange with one of them! We taught Oben’s family and Pious translated. The lesson was amazing but the new missionary was too nervous to teach and I was too nervous to let him (I would make a horrible trainer!! haha) So I taught and Pious translated! It was such an amazing experience!!! The Spirit was so strong! When we left, the new missionary was going crazy about what a neat experience it was! I was cracking up because he is from Australia and in his accent, he was so excited saying the Spirit was so strong! It was great! Then he said something that was a shocker to me! I was telling him about that family and he said, “I hope I get the chance to have some experiences like that on my mission!” I was like, hold up, I’m the new missionary, I don’t have experiences yet!! haha But I do! I have already seen so many miracles and been so blessed!! I am so lucky!!

And that’s not all! This Sunday was amazing! The Waverly Ward record was broken this week with 20 investigators to church! There are 3 companionships in the ward and we got a combined 20 people to church and 13 of them were from Agnes!! It was great, but we had a lot that didn’t show! If everyone would have showed we would have had 20+ just from Agnes and that wasn’t counting Akon’s family! We have been soooooo blessed!!

Church went great but we are hoping next week will be even better!! The mission is doing great and President Paulson wants to up our goal to 60 as a mission!! So that should be good!!

So, after church was just as good as church! We had been invited to Plato’s birthday party so we hustled over there! Unfortunately, they missed church because they were preparing for the party! We walked in and there were easy 30+ Thai people all squished into this little room!! Instantly they cleared a path so we could go to the front by Plato! Then it started!! Let me first say, I want to speak Koren and I love these people’s culture! So it started with church songs that I knew but the were being sung in Koren haha, so I mumbled along!! Then they had the old knowledgeable Grandfather give like a speech for Plato! They would laugh at jokes and get serious at serious parts! He even shared Koren scriptures!! It was sooo neat, but I didn’t understand a thing!! Then the best part came!!! They had another song and prayer, they asked ME to bless the food!!! and then THE FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, WOW I wish you could have been there!! It just kept coming!! It’s no wonder they missed church! There was rice and goat meat and steak and a bunch of different meats ground together as and thick soupy hot sauce and funky egg soup and all kinds of crazy different soup and vegetables that I have never seen before in my life and eggplant and crazy sandwiches and pastas and chicken legs and chicken wings and a ton of other stuff. And no one in the room would eat before we started first!! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE!!! They are so amazing!!! But WOW, the food was soooooo amazing!! And so spicy! I wished so bad that I could some how mail it home!! I want Mom and Powwa to meet up and make a dinner. They could do work!!! It was amazing though and so fun! The love that these people have is amazing! We were all hot and sweaty and squished together sitting on the floor and it was amazing!! I have a picture of all of the food spread out on the floor, so you can see it. I love how their culture has so much love and friendship within there family and I love their spicy food!! I have never tasted anything so different that tasted so amazing!! It was the best!!

I love my mission!! Home life is starting to feel unreal now! It’s scary and weird! I love and miss you all so much but it feels like forever since I’ve seen you but just like yesterday at the same time!! Time is unreal out here!! It’s insane!! But things are going great! One of the things I do struggle with is staying humble!! When you see so much success it’s so easy to think that it is all because of me! Any pointers?? haha I know that that’s not how it is, but it’s so easy to get prideful! This is definitely one thing I am trying to get better at!! It’s funny to how I can have all these great things happen and I still have bad days. I have a lot of weaknesses!! It’s so exciting though because I know I can change!! I loved Tanner’s letter because it really is so true. . .I’m at a point where I need to reevaluate and do a lot of things a lot better and its exciting to see opportunities to grow!

Mom, Dad, Payton, Alex, and Addison, I love you all soooo much!! Please be safe and keep up the great work! You are all the best!!

Love Elder Smith

HEAT WAVE IN WINNIPEG

Friends and Family,

I’M STAYEN IN AGNES!!! But I lost another great companion! He is now the Zone Leader for the zone next door!! We can meet at the boundary line and wave at each other, haha! But I have a new companion that I have heard great things about! Transfers will be Thursday!! It’s hard to loose another companion, but change is always exciting!! This week has been great!! First off, thank you to Heather, Chelsea, Uncle Kellen and family, and Grandpa. Grandpa, I love your letters!! And as for the country here, it is soooo flat!! I need mountains!! I really haven’t seen much of it because I’ve been in the city surrounded by buildings. And the cold hasn’t been bad at all. They say that this has been the warmest winter in years, but people keep saying that February and March will make up for the warm January! I’m looking forward to it!! It’s funny because it was just at 0 c (32 F) and it felt amazing. People are out with no coats, soaking up the sun!

Mom, I have some requests for you and Payt. Can you get me a ton of EFY music and some good MoTab. My comp this transfer had it and it was great for the 20 min ride to church.

As for Akon’s family, their Dad in Texas agreed to have missionaries over, so we are hoping and praying that it works out! Thank you so much for all of the prayers! They are so amazing! Like I can’t even tell you, they are the best!!

We found another family from Africa and they are great! They made it to church this week, so we have a ton of families and if they all make it next week, I don’t know what will happen. The Primary teachers are gonna stop coming to church! Just kidding. But it is sooo great!! The new family speaks Arabic and some other African language! We found a translator in the ward named Benedict, and that went great!!

Thank you so much for the great emails from the cabin and the great email from the (Doug & Jenn) Clarks!! You are all the best!! Payt, live it up skiing, but you better pick up boarding!! And be careful, football season is coming soon!!

Hey, so this week was great! It’s funny because I so badly wanted to learn a new language, but on my mission I really have!! It’s called Broken English, and I already can pick up on about 20 dialects! haha There is a quote in Preach My Gospel that I have learned to love!! It says, "It is true intelligence to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it!"(John Taylor) I love this quote, because I have learned to use words to teach the Plan of Salvation so that a four year old kid can understand it and teach it back to his parents in another language. We have gotten it down so that even without a translator we can teach!! All these people have Bibles in their language and we just teach out of that, and some of the languages have Book of Mormons that we were able to order and teach out of! It is so fun! All Sunday while we are juggling kids, we also find scriptures to go along with whatever the speaker or teacher is talking about! It is so great when you know scriptures to share but so hard and humbling when you know there’s a perfect scripture, but you don’t know where it is! I love the scriptures though, because they teach soooo much better then I do! It is so fun to teach these families because they are so patient with us and so humble! They feel the Spirit and they know that this is what they should do!! They sit at church for 3 hours when they don’t what’s going on. But they know it’s what they should do, so they show up!! They are amazing!! It also is so fun to teach people that speak English! haha Because we have learned to teach so simply, that we can answer a lot of questions before they even ask them! It’s definitely a big gear change though.

Akon’s family speaks great English and they are doing so good if their Dad would stop being an Agency Stealer!! But we have another appointment with them tonight at the Bishop’s house. After this week we will have taught them all the lessons and we will then be waiting on the dad! They are soo amazing!!

We have so many families right now that we are teaching! It’s crazy!! I feel bad for my companion because he is really sad that he has to leave! He has seen one baptism his whole mission and he is such a hard worker and this transfer was looking so good for next transfer!! Next transfer is going be so stressful, but hopefully everything falls into place!

I hate smoking and alcohol because it is a hold up for so many people! We tried to help Derek and Ivonne quit smoking (they’ve been to church like 4 times) and they said they can’t do it! It’s so hard because they know its all true, but they just aren’t willing to put forward the effort to change!! Derek said, “Maybe I’ll get baptized in ten years or so.” Ahhhhh!! It’s so hard!

Uncle Doug I loved your email and it is so true!! It’s so hard to know which people are ready, though! I wish everyone had a check mark or an X over their head. It’s so easy to get in houses and to get them to come to church, but it is so hard to get people to want to go to the effort to really change and be converted! They know it’s true!! They just don’t want to got to the effort! It’s ridiculous!! But there are some amazing people right now and hopefully they will make the effort!

Thanks for all that all of you do! Be safe! Love you all a ton!

Love, Elder Smith

PRAY FOR AKON AND HER CHILDREN

Friends and Family,

Hey! First off, you are all amazing!! Uncle Doug, Aunt Jen, Kaylee, Kortney, and Taylor, I LOVED the Christmas present! I’ve had cookies or brownies every night this week! I’m getting a double chin!! You are so amazing! And Whitney Dansie, your present was also great! (It was a Christmas ornament with a recording). I was so excited that I pushed the wrong button, so I never heard the recording! haha I did it in front of my whole district and they were die-ing laughing! I didn’t think it was that funny!! I was actually pretty mad, but thank you anyways! I’m sure that whatever it said, was inspirational! Now all it says is “Ahhhh I’m soooo stupid” haha I thought that would be great to listen to in a couple years! Heidi and Nicole, your present was great too!! The guns were a blast on P-day!

Also thank you to Jensens, Bergers, Stewarts and especially my amazing family!! You are the best!! Dad I loved your quote!! I actually have a couple for you! Tim Jackson (our recent convert) said the Winnipeg-er winter motto is “Bundle up, hunker down and complain!” haha It’s so true!!

Now for my favorite quote of the week, it’s from my hilarious companion! He’s the best! There were some really rough looking natives down the street that we chased down when it was really dark, right before we came in for the night. Right when we got close to them they turned down a dark, spooky alley! My comp stopped dead in his tracks and said, “I know God loves those children, but I know he loves me too!” haha I died because it reminded me of Dad telling me not to be stupid because missionaries aren’t invincible! My companion is so funny and he says a lot of funny stuff that reminds me of Payt and Dad! Oh and I have one more funny quote! Daniel Dang, a great investigator from Sudan, has been doing great and he finally said that he believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and the B.O.M. is true! He is amazing and we are helping him work towards a date but the other night I was talking to him on the phone and he said, “Good night and God bless you.” And I said, “You too.” And then he said, “May Joseph bless you in your sleep.” And I said, “Uhhhhhhh........ yah, Joseph was a great man, bye!” We definitely have some more teaching to do, but he is great!

So this week honestly was going amazing!! I was so excited to tell you about how great everything was and then Saturday night at 10:30 Akon called and she was all upset and she said that she had called her husband all excited about the church and their baptism that was coming up and he said that he didn’t want them going to the church anymore. This was a dagger to the heart!! I have never been so upset on my mission! Me and my companion hit total depression mode and had a rough night trying to sleep! It was horrible and so sad! I can’t tell you how much I love this family! They are so amazing!

After church we went over to there house and knocked on the door. Nyandeng (who is Addi’s age and also missing her 2 front teeth and is sooo cute!!) looked through the spy whole and screamed with her missing teeth lisp “ITH ELDER THMITH!!” My heart melted, and my comp said, It’s only because my name is too hard to say.” haha because she is his favorite. Oh, they are soooo amazing!! We walked in and all the kids were pretty down because they love church and they had missed it. But we just left them a little message to cheer them up and then we left! I am so sad but I am so sure that things will workout! They are so amazing and so prepared for the gospel! Please keep them in your prayers and hopefully I will have better news on them for next week!!

Other than that downer with Akon and the kids, the rest of the week was amazing! We found another family of 9 that is from Sudan as well and I love them so much!! We taught them once this week and they wanted to go to church but we had already used pretty much everyone in the ward that had a car. So we called up President, haha! He and Sister Paulson showed up in two cars to get their whole family to church!! It was amazing!! At church I had a 4 year old a 6 year old and an 8 year crawling all over me! haha It was so crazy but so fun!! I didn’t catch a word of the meeting because I was juggling kids!! I loved it and I regret ever loosing my temper with Alex or Addison in church, or ever!! I was such an uptight jerk, so I am sorry!! But I love being around all these kids. It feels so great!!

So we had their whole family at church and Derek and Evone! Akon dropped the news on us the night before so they weren’t there and Sacapo’s Mom was in the hospital, so their family was with her. Daniel’s daughter was also in the emergency room so he missed his ride too! These people never miss an appointment, but this week everyone had problems with stuff on Sunday! We had rides for all of them, and we will next week too. But if they all make it, it’s going to be crazy!!! We’ve sent the primary into shock the last couple weeks! They have double the kids and if they all show this next week, I don’t know what’s gonna happen!

We also had Deon, who set a date and he has a wife and a bunch of kids, too. But he’s kinda flaky, but he wants us to keep teaching him and he said he wants to come to church next week too, so who knows!! It is crazy, and we keep finding new people!! It’s funny because street contacting can get addicting!! We are rushing between lessons but it’s hard to pass people up! I love this area and these people so much and if I get moved this transfer, I’m gonna be so disappointed!!! We have been so blessed in this area!! This transfer went so fast it is insane! I will know if I’m staying or going next week! As for baptism dates, we have a lot, but they all are next transfer and Akon, Deng and Ien’s will all depend on their Dad. Akon is still in debate with him about it, so hopefully that will work itself out!

Robert is a man I haven’t even talked about but he’s been taught a lot and set a date but its so hard for him to get Sundays off! The whole mission is doing great right now though! As a mission we had 72 to church this week, which is a record! 67 was the most this mission had in at least 2 years and probably longer!! I’m loving it here so much!! Some days are hard, for sure, but somedays are sooo good!! I’ve decided that any day can be the best day if you have that attitude!! It doesn’t matter what happens.. you should love everyday!! Everyday is such a blessing!! I have days when I get down and its so ridiculous because I am so blessed!! If you want to be happy, you can be happy! It’s just how it is!! Life is great!!

Everyone, I love you and miss you so much! Oh Mom, and we have had days with prayers where we do just give thanks, and they are the best!! That was a great idea, keep up the great work!! I love you all so much, be safe, be smart and good luck with everything!!

Love Elder Smith

BLACKOUT YEAR BEGINS!

Friends and Family!!

My Blackout Year just started and it is crazy!! This is the year that for the entire year, all I do is missionary work! It’s absolutely crazy that it’s here!! You look forward to your mission your whole life and it goes so fast!! Oh, and this was the first New Year’s that I wasn’t awake to welcome it in!! ha ha I was out at 11!! But I stayed up 30 minutes more than usual, so that was new, haha!

ADDISON!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Sound like the party was a complete success!! I’m sad that I missed it!! I’d do anything to be your escort to a big party!! haha Everyone, thanks again for all of the letters and stuff! You are amazing!!

Oh and Jose, I totally forgot to tell you congrats on the baptism last week!! You are a stallion!! You are such a great kid and an example! Keep up the great work and keep smiling! Your grin could lighten anyone’s day! haha

Alright, this week has been pretty insane!! Missionary work is super stressful!! I’m getting zits again! haha This week we had 7 at church, 11 with kids that are under 8! ha ha It was crazy!! I love the families that we are teaching!! Mom, could you please send a bunch of kids CTR rings? Like 20 of the cheap ones? If it costs a lot, don’t worry about it, but after Primary all of the kids we are teaching ran to tell me and my comp that they knew what CTR means. It was so cute!! These kids are so smart! They could teach the Plan of Salvation a whole lot better than I can! hah We don’t know what to do because the kids are learning faster then the Mom!! Akon doesn’t understand some things and she has some needs we need to address, but the kids know it and learn it so fast that I think she is worried to ask questions. And when we ask questions, they want to answer! They are such an amazing family!! There date is coming up fast though!! Tonight we are teaching them how to do Family Home Evening and we are doing it at the Bishop’s home!! I am so excited, we have a great short lesson and I’m really excited to play the game we have planned with them!!! It will be a blast!!

We taught Sacapo this week and it was amazing!! We have taught the first lesson 100 times, and the other day we just questioned him!! In his broken English he taught us the whole first lesson! It was amazing! He said that he believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but he still has hang ups that we are trying to find!! They are so smart, but they can’t get out what they want to say a lot of the time! But we are super excited for them too!!

We have 5 baptismal dates set. Two of them haven’t come to church yet though and they both have families, as well!! We also have a lot of people close to dates!! We dropped Burt this week. That killed me, but he isn’t progressing and he wasn’t showing up to a lot of our appointments. We have so many people we are teaching that I feel like I’m loosing my mind some days!! It’s crazy!!

But yah, it’s so hard to be a missionary though. You work soo hard and you are tired a lot of the time and you are always happy and smiling and working! Some days you wake up and ya just don’t feel like being that happy! haha Or someone is a jerk and you just wanna unload on them!! haha I know I could rock some of the people that aren’t very nice to us. haha It’s been so good for me though, because I’m not aloud to loose my temper, haha I just get to smile and say, “Have a GREAT day!” haha I sooo wish that I could have been like this at home with friends and family! I know it would have been a ton easier with them to be nice! It definitely gets hard out here!! You work so hard and some days it’s so easy to get down when you don’t feel like you are seeing enough success!! Satan sure is good at what he does! It’s funny though, because my companion taught me something that I really like. ha ha Every time something horrible happens, he says “OH YA!” all excited like. haha It is his motto that if something really bad happens you’ve got something really good coming your way, haha! It really is kinda funny to see it though!! Something so depressing and bad will happen and we get to say “OH YA” a lot. I’m really gonna try to get this down!! Grandpa Smith has this same attitude. He wouldn't say “OH YA” when something bad happened, haha, but he’d just take it and get excited to fix the problem! I should have mastered this long before the mission after being around Grandpa’s great example so much!! Actually being around both Papa and Grandpa, I should have learned this! They both take what life brings and make the best of it! So I’m gonna work on it! Even though I still think Dad’s way of handling bad stuff is pretty effective, as well!! It just isn’t “mission approved” I don’t think. haha Dad, so much stuff has happened that I wish you were here to laugh about with me! I love and miss you a ton!! And let’s plan on that hunting trip here in a couple years!!

Alright, some funny stuff that has happened. The other day a man told me he lived on 666 Boulevard. My comp just stopped walking and I just wrote it down and said, “hhmm, I’ve never heard of that before, where is it? Then he turned into a dark alley and I’m still talking to him, haha! My comp grabbed me and I was all confused. It was funny, I guess 666 Boulevard is like a devil thing or something. . .went right over my head!

Other funny story, the baseball Blue Jays and the Toronto Raptors basketball team are both in Canada!! haha I had NO idea! Payt sent me that letter about it but I didn’t understand what it was talking about. So the other day a man told me he was a Raptors fan and I said something like, “woo woo an American boy” haha He gave me a funny look and walked off and my comp just died laughing! Who woulda thunk that Canadians had teams in American sports!! haha Wow! Did I feel stupid! I thought Toronto was on the east coast in America somewhere! Like I knew there was a Toronto in Canada, but I just thought they were different! It was pretty funny!

Finally I’ve decided that when I get home I am never gonna get a date because of the habits I’ve formed! I’m so used to calling people to get them to church or to set up an appointment. I can see me calling a girl and saying, "Now what would keep you from wanting to go on a date?" or "what are some reasons why it would be a good idea for you to go out on Friday?” or “Are there any reasons why that wouldn’t be able to work?” “I promise that if you make the decision to go out with me it will change your life!!” hahahaha there are so many more!! And the worst ones are when they say they can’t go! If a girl ever said she couldn’t go out with me it really wouldn’t be good!! “Girl, this decision is impacting your Salvation! We’re not just talking about making this life better but we are talking about eternity!!” haha It’ll be fun! Good thing I got forever before I gotta deal with that stuff!

I gotta go. I love you all a ton!! You are the best! Stay safe and good luck with everything. Love Elder Smith

P.S. Addi, your birthday package is getting mailed today! Sorry it’s late, but it’ll be good! Hopefully you like it!!

THE CHRISTMAS PHONE CALL

Friends and Family!

Wow! What an amazing week! I have so much to say, but no time to say it!! First off sorry this is late. I love Canadians and Dad would too because they drag out Christmas as long as they can! After Christmas, they have Boxing Day and because it was on a weekend the figured they’d give the whole country another day off! haha So on Monday nothing was open, including the library, so that’s why I’m late! But Christmas was amazing!! It so funny how I have had 19 years to talk to my family, but an hour and a half of just hearing their voices was the best Christmas present I have ever received by far! It was definitely an emotional week, but I have never been more grateful for what I have! I am honestly the luckiest kid in the world! Thank you so much to everyone for all the Christmas stuff and all the support! You are all amazing!! And family, it sounds like you had a great Christmas! Dad, you will get the perfect electronics Christmas one of these years I know it! ha ha It’s funny because I was talking to my comp about my bummer christmas, that one year and I was die-ing laughing thinking about it! Then I just wanted to bawl when I remembered the look on Mom and Dads face when they saw the look on my face when nothing worked! I was such an ungrateful little punk!! Mom and Dad you are so amazing!! You talked about how you were grateful for our relationship, thank you so much for how you are!! Our family is amazing! It was soooo great to hear all of your voices!! You all sound so good!! You are the best and I love and miss you all so much!! The rotten post Christmas blues definitely stink! haha But I cannot complain at all because I have the best family in the world and I am loving Canada and the people here!! I have no reason to ever be down ever again!! I am so blessed!! Alright, I could go on forever, but I’ll send this portion and then talk of other things.

Ok, first off there are some funny things I forgot to tell you! The other day I was walking in our apartment and my companion said that I walked like a dinosaur. So I said, “Really? My Dad always said it sounded more like a bull in a china closet. haha Actually, when he told me I just died laughing! I guess you were right all along. Everyday I’m out here I learn more and more that everything that Dad said was true! Dad, I miss you so much!! Thank you so much for the email!! Everything you say is what I need!! You’re the best!!

Another funny that I forgot to tell you is that Manitoba is the Slurpy capital of the world, and this is the 10th year in a row!! And I believe it! It’s crazy, it’ll be -40 outside and you will see people with a Slurpy in their bare hand!! They are crazy! I figured it out though, it’s because you can feel the warmth! haha The other day I came in from outside and my hands were frozen and numb! I reached into the freezer and grabbed a frozen chicken patty with my bare hand and it warmed up my hand! I’m a believer and I’m getting me a Slurpy this week!!

Also the other day I saw the “My Flag” song in the Children Songbook and my eyes watered up! (The song Addi sang for my Eagle Court of Honor) I’d give anything to here Addi sing that song!! I feel horrible because I remember yelling at her to stop singing that stupid song. But I would honestly give anything to here her sing it right now! haha I am sorry for the mess up that I was Addi! Keep singing! Your voice is beautiful!!!

Ok, moving on. One of the amazing investigators that I forgot to tell you about is Daniel!! He is from Sudan also and he is amazing!! He said that he’s will get baptized after he talks to the bishop and the bishop says that his other baptism doesn’t count. We were going to tell him that we new the answer, but we figured it would be good for him to talk to the bishop and build that friendship, so we are going to do an appointment this week with the bishop! He knows the answer, as well, because I’m pretty sure we taught it to him pretty clearly before we extended the commitment. But it’ll be great for him to talk to the bishop and I’m super excited for that!! He is taking everything in and he is amazing!!

Also Derek and Yvonne are doing great! We actually meet with them in about one hour and it’s Word of Wisdom time! We are on exchanges and I’m with a new missionary that came out with me, but he’s taught very few lessons and he says he’s never taught the Word of Wisdom. haha So it’ll be interesting! I’m so grateful for my area and my companions because we teach so much more then a lot of the other missionaries! This Elder that I’m on exchanges with says he has only taught about 10 lessons his whole mission! In Agnes we teach like 5 a day! He has never gotten to extend a baptismal commitment either and sometimes I think we extent to many. haha It’s sad too because I’ve tracted about 45 minutes my whole mission and he says he’s tracted everyday, most of the day, and not seen much success. So I’m excited to take him in our area, and we are going to extend a baptismal commitment to Deon tonight and I’m gonna let him do it!! It’ll be a great night!! I have been so blessed with my companions and area and everything!! I get so many blessings it is ridiculous!! I am sooo grateful!!

Finally Akon’s family is doing good but they aren’t home from Christmas yet, so I will fill you in next week!! I love you all a ton and thank you soooo much for all that you do!! Love Elder Smith!!

FROM THAILAND TO SUDAN!

New Companion Elder Willardson

Hey Friends and Family!

Payton! Bud sounds like a rough week!! I would feel a lot more sorry for you if i didn’t know you were sitting in the warm comfortable leather couch playing video games! Just kidding, I’m worried about you! Be careful and get feeling better!!

(Payton had an emergency appendectomy on Thursday.)

Thank you to everyone again!! You’re the greatest! Thank you for all of the packages everyone! It’s killing me to not open them!! I’m way excited!! As for the call, I’ll call you around 10 or 11 in the morning! Don’t stress it though, you know me, haha I’ll make sure it gets made. I’m super excited to hear all of your voices!!

Ok, and now I’m gonna ask for permission/tell you that I’m about to spend some money on my investigators. ha ha I have too!! They are amazing and they all could use at least something. So watch my account, I’m gonna try and be thrifty!!

This week was absolutely amazing!! Me and my comp are both just giddy about everything that happens! haha We are very easily excited, and we do everything we can to have something to be excited about! We had one of the best weeks ever!! We had 13 people to church and the President and the Assistants called wondering what we were doing! The President said that we had more to church than an entire zone! There are only 5 zones in our mission! It was an amazing week and we are just more excited to do better! We see so many areas where we can improve!! It’s so exciting!! But wow, the people we are teaching are absolutely amazing!! Like I can’t even explain how much I love these people!!

The Sacapos family (the Thai family) are actually starting to progress and we got permission to teach an all Thai class at church so the word is spreading with the people from Thailand! Only three made it this week, but we are counting on a lot more next week, now that we have this class! They are so kind and they give everything they have! They gave me a Thailand bag/purse and I’ll send it as soon as I can for Addi’s birthday! Don’t tell her about it though! But please go shopping for this one family for me!! They are a family of four! Two boys that are 8 and 9 and then the parents. They are amazing!! But ya, this family is so good and so I was wondering if you could find some neat little toys for the kids and something American for the parents. Don’t go crazy, but just something neat, pretty please! That would be great!! haha

Alright, miracle story for the week, other then pretty much the whole week! haha We street contacted a lady named Akon. She is from Sudan and she wanted us to come back! We came to teach her and she has six kids that are all absolutely beautiful! They are black and I have never seen a cuter family, other then ours of course! haha We get there and they are all so well behaved and so fun!! The 10 year old (Deng) then tells us that he had prayed a couple days before, to know more about God and then we showed up! He said that at first it scared him because it was so crazy! It was so amazing and I love their family! We then taught them the first lesson and I don’t know if I have ever felt the Spirit so strong! The Mom kept saying how good she felt inside and how she felt warm inside and how she was so happy that we had found her family!! It was absolutely amazing! We got outside and we were jumping around and soooo excited! haha It was the best!! Then they showed up on Sunday and all of the boys had suits on (all of the kids are under 10) and all of the girls have dresses that would actually have a chance at competing with Addison! haha They looked sooooo good and church was absolutely amazing! The musical numbers were great and it went so good!! We meet with them Tuesday and we are hoping to set baptismal dates for the Mom and Deng, the 10 year old and Ian the 9 year old so I will let you know how that goes!!

We also have an appointment tonight with Maureen who as been sick but she’s doing better so hopefully, we can set a date for her and get her to church this week! We meet with Daniel tonight too! He was at church this week, but he was just by himself. He loved it and he is hoping to bring his kids next week!! We are also hoping to set a date with him tonight, as well!!

It is craziness, but I am loving it!! I’m stressed a lot, but especially the night before church and on Sunday! haha It’s gets crazy!! Lately we have had as many missionaries and investigators at church as we have had members! Well, not really, but it feels like it! I love this so much, but it is soo hard!! You get to love these people so much and it just becomes so stressful! You constantly see how inadequate you are! Everyone of the people that we are working with is truly a miracle!! We are being so blessed and I know it’s not because we are good. Everything that is happening is such a blessing!! I’m so grateful!!

Finally, I’m excited to talk to you! It will be 10 or 11-ish. It’s crazy because at Zone Conference, we got to watch Miracle on 34th Street!! I love that show! The attorney reminds me of Dad, except Dad’s a lot better than he is! haha But I realized that I’m in Canada and it’s Christmas! It just feels like a crazy dream!! I’ve looked forward to a mission my whole life and I’m in the middle of it right now!!! its soooo crazy! ha ha But know that I love you all so much and I’ll talk to ya on Christmas!! Payt, get feeling better! Love ya! Love Elder Smith