STAYING IN SELKIRK AND TRAINING!

Friends and Family!

Hey! It was a great week!! First off, family I got to listen to your tape and wow!! It was amazing! It was soooooo great to hear all of your voices!! Addison, your voice is amazing, and A-rod I know you and Dominique are gonna smack some homers this year! Man, I miss all of you guys! You are the best!! I love and miss you so much! Thank you so much for all that you do! Also, thank you to Grandpa and Grandma and Papa and Grammy! Thank you so much for your love and support and great letters! You gotta stop sending so much money! My comps all feel unloved after serving with me! haha

Alright, well this week was great!! We only had one person to church this week, but it was Carl which is great!! We also set a date with Chris for June and he committed to church next week!! Sandy, Kristie and Sharon all committed to church too for sometime this month, so we will see what happens! We are teaching a ton lately and everything is going great! I’m really starting to love Selkirk!! We also found a great lady named Kristen this week!! She let us help rake her whole lawn and we’ve already taught her the first 2 lessons! She is great and she did her reading and she’s praying! We meet with her again Friday, so hopefully she will make it to church too! We also visited a part member family that lives two hours away! President Anderson took us and the lesson went great and they will hopefully drive in once a month for church and hopefully the dad and kids will set dates soon! The dad reminds me of Jordan Boman! haha Will you see how that kid is doing for me, please! It was great to go there with the President though! He’s a great guy, but a big goof! haha He had me laughing pretty good! haha He was way tired so he was falling asleep while he was driving! haha It was scary, but it kept me talking to him to keep him up!

As for Dad’s bad day with the truck, that gave me a good chuckle! haha I am sure that some neighborhood kid locked the door, Dad!! I believe you! Don’t listen to what anybody else says! You know you didn’t lock the keys in! haha Man, I love and miss you guys! haha But I wish I would have been there! I actually learned how to break into a car last week! haha Some people had locked themselves out and they got a clothes hanger to reach in and unlock it! They were working on it with no success and we walked up. I asked how it was going and they weren’t haven much luck. But we got talking and I asked to try. Somehow I got lucky and got it! It was great and they got a kick out of the fact that a Mormon Missionary broke into their car. It was funny, but then I felt bad because it probably didn’t look the best. haha

But it was a great week! Good things are happening here! We have been so blessed!! Missions are so great! Mom as for your talk topic, I wish I could help more but checkout Alma 7. I love what it says about the Atonement! Also try Mosiah 14. I don’t have my scripts with me but I know those two are really good! But you will do great and please send me your talk when you are done! I’d love to read it!! Also, thank you so much for the pics in the email! I love them! Make sure you save all the emails you send me please!

Finally, TRANSFERS! Elder Turner is headed to Winnipeg and I’m staying and I’M TRAINING!! haha I’m like sooo excited but soooo nervous!! I still feel like I’m a new missionary! I don’t know what’s going on! I really hope I get a stud and hopefully I will do okay! It’s sooo weird though because I was just trained! And I’ve only been Senior one transfer! I barley know how to do that! But I go down Wednesday night and I’ll meet him Thursday morning! First I guess they train us to be trainers, haha! Which will be crazy because Elder Riding (he has been an assistant for over a year) just got released as assistant and he will be training too. I look up to him soo much! He is such a stud and I’ll get to be there and learn from him and the assistants and President and all the other trainers. It’s gonna be so neat, but it’s super intimidating. We get to meet them at the Paulson’s mission home and then when they are done talking to us, we will get to meet our new missionary. I’m way nervous but its gonna be super neat! And we get to eat Sister Paulson’s food for lunch! So that’ll be good! haha

That’s the news for the week! I will fill you in next week on the new guy! Hopefully, all goes well! I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do for me!! You guys are all so great! Keep up the great work!!

Love Elder Smith!

WOW! Wasn't Conference Great!

Friends and Family,

Hey, it was a crazy, but good week! First off, Mom and family, thank you so much for the Easter package! It made my day!! Also, your emails were great and Dad, I loved yours! You are such a champ! Also Uncle Kellan, thank you soooo much for your letter! I just got it and I loved it!! You are the man! Also Payton, you are stacked!! I would not mess with you! haha Atta boy! I’m so proud of you! Your hard work is paying off for sure! It sounds like you had a blast in Mexico and I’m so happy for ya! I’m also super happy that all went well and now you are home safe and sound!! haha I was worried about you!

Wasn’t conference great!!! WOW!! And it was all about families!! I loved it!! We went into Winnipeg for it and we have been there since Saturday! We just got back into our area and I’m so pumped up and ready to go again!! It was a needed conference session to get me fired up again! I learned so much from conference! We stayed with our zone leaders and so we learned a lot from them too! It’s funny though because my zone leader is Elder Willardson who I served with, so it was so much fun to work with him again! Their area borders Agnes, so I got to go street contacting on the border line street! It helped me to remember that not everyone there excepts what you say either! haha The area doesn’t change anything I am convinced! Some areas just take more patience than others!!

If you missed the Priesthood Session, you all have to get on right now and listen to President Uchtdorf’s talk! It was such a good talk! He talked about patience and I learned sooooo much! Like wow, I could start giving you quotes, but I’d have to quote the whole talk! It was so good! You have to watch it! But after that I realized that I am an extremely impatient person! haha And patience is such a good Christlike attribute to have!! But wow, was his talk good! Please watch it!! Conference was so great!! The only downer was that no investigators made the drive to Winnipeg to watch it! But hopefully we will have some people to church this week!

Just a quick update on everyone. Sandy and her kids are still coming along. She told us that she knows that we are from God, but she doesn’t know that the Book of Mormon is yet. Which is ridiculous! But good at the same time, I guess. She has been praying and I asked her if she has gotten answers yet and she said, "Well, your still here." haha She’s great though and such a great Mom! I think we are gonna have her watch the conference talk about Moms because I loved that one! As for Karl (he’s the one that set a date a year down the road) haha He committed to start reading 45 mins. a day and praying twice a day! We meet with him again tonight and hopefully he will come to church this week! Kristie is coming along, slowly but surely! We painted her kitchen and it was good. But 5 minutes in to it she took away Elder Turner’s brush and said he was doing a bad job! hahaha She’s a perfectionist, but she complemented on my painting skills! I just wanted to tell you this because I thought it’d make Dad proud. Maybe now I’m worthy to help paint in our house... well maybe I’m not quite that good yet! One day! It was a blast and our Branch Mission Leader was there so he got to know her pretty good! It was great and we are going to meet with her in the next couple days! Hopefully she makes it to church this next week too! We set a date with this kid named Chris but he is kinda flakey, so we will see! We also found a lot of other people, but so many people end up being flakey!

But that’s the update for some of the investigators and transfer calls are this week. It’s insane!! Life is flying by and it’s unreal!! It’s so scary because one transfer in Selkirk is about over and who knows how long I have left here! Hopefully all goes well! I know that good things will happen here and I’m hoping to stay around for a little longer!! We will see what happens!! Oh and Agnes update, no news on Akon or Martha but the Obeing family is getting baptized the 17th! There are going to be 6 of them getting baptized! Everyone but there Dad, hopefully all goes well there! I’ll let you know if I get to go see it! It was fun to be with Elder Willardson because we found them!! It was good talking about ‘good old times!’ It’s weird that I have ‘good old times’ to talk about, and they happened while I was on a mission! haha But all is well! Next week I will know if I’m staying or going.

Life is so crazy but so good! The Church is so true! I love all of you so much and I am so grateful for you! I have the best family ever! You are all so amazing!! I love and look up to you so much! Be safe and keep doing everything right! You are the best!!

Love Elder Smith!!

For in His strength, I can do all things!

Szypkowski Family

Friends and Family,

You spoiled, rotten punks! haha Just kidding, I’m way excited for you and your trip to Mexico! And yes, I plan on going multiple times while Payton is on his mission! It’s weird to think that you are there soaking up the sun in Mexico while I’m here in good ‘ol Selkirk! It’s crazy that it’s spring break already! You will have to tell me all about Mexico and get me lots of pics!! Have a blast!

Alright, this week as been pretty good! First off, I cut my hair again this week and I need some balding shampoo or something! haha I’m starting to look more and more like Dad everyday! Dad asked what my favorite thing about Selkirk is and I’m gonna have to say people’s hobbies! Everyone here fishes and hunts! They are definitely not fly fisherman, but they like their fishing and they love hunting! I’ve ran into like 3 hunting and fishing guides, so its a blast to talk to them! It’s tough though because when I work some gospel into it most of them won’t have it! They all give me there phone # but not to teach them. But we’ve got some good fishing and hunting trips set up for 2 years down the road! It’s frustrating that a lot of the people will talk to you all day until you go into the gospel. But a couple people have listened, but its just because they feel bad after they get talking to me about fishing or hunting. Any ideas? Iv’e tried so many different things! I swear I’ve done every door approach known to man! We are finding some good people though, but they are few and far in between! The work has picked up though!! We have some people that we are really excited about! The Chaneys came to church again this week, but Sister Chaney took a smoke break across the street between every class. Word of Wisdom is this week! woop woop! They also actually aren’t a part member family because she was excommunicated, but she has talked to the Bishop about getting re-baptized and her kids both want to get baptized, so that’s good! We want to set dates this week, but we are worried because we don’t want them to get baptized unless they have the support to stay active, so we are trying to figure that out! We have a lady named Sandy that we are meeting with tomorrow and we are on the 3rd lesson! She is great and has two super smart kids! We are hoping to set a date with her this week, too. But she is a really strong member of her church so we will see what happens. Karl (a single kid that is 20 something) set a date for one year from last week! haha So that’s great, but we are gonna try and cut it down too less than a year away. We meet with him tonight so we will see what happens. He set it so far away because he wants to finish the whole Book of Mormon before he gets baptized and he’s too busy to read it any too fast. I’ll let you know how that goes! We are meeting with some other great people, but they all seem to progress really slow. They are great but out here in Selkirk, they aren’t in any kind of a hurry, which is frustrating but we are trying to make it work!

I have learned so much here, and there have been so many ups and downs! It’s funny because it has been super humbling for me! It made me think a lot about the scripture in Alma 26:12, “Yea, I know that I am nothing. As to my strength I am weak therefore I will not boast of myself but I will boast of my God. For in his strength I can do all things.” I came out to Selkirk thinking I could take names and show everyone how missionary work is done. haha Boy was I wrong! Anything that has happened that was good has not been because of my strength. I know that as we work hard for things we will be blessed, but only if we put faith in the Lord and become an instrument in his hand! In Zone Conference they shared a great talk that really helped me! It talked about how competition causes pride, and if we have pride we aren’t doing what God wants us to do. We are actually on the other side of things! It was a great talk and it really hit me! I am such a competitive, prideful person, and pride is such a hard thing to beat! Unless you are a missionary in Selkirk Manitoba, of coarse! It can knockout pride pretty fast! But I have learned so much! It’s funny how you don’t notice so many of your weaknesses, but when you do, you see so many places were they have slowed you down it the past! I still have so many weaknesses but Selkirk has helped me a lot to see some of them!

I’m starting to love this area more and more and the people more and more everyday, but I still have some “Agnes sickness” haha But things are going really well! The next couple weeks will either be really great or rough because we have a lot of people that are at the point where they have to choose one way or the other! We will see what happens and pray and hope for the best!

Oh, one more thing, I met with the Szypkowski family (great branch members) this week and had a great supper and lesson with them! They also told me that they are going down to BYUI soon for their son. So I told them to look you up! They are the best and they are already planning on taking us hunting with there pointer in a couple years. They also want to learn how to fly fish! They are so great and in the lesson with them they gave us a great referral and they want to have this family over for supper with us! So that’s way exciting too! They are great and I think they already e-mailed you but they said you haven’t emailed them back (probably because you are in Mexico). Let me know how that goes and let them know they are free to my room when they come down, if thats okay with you of course.

Well I love you all so much and I wish you the best! Have a blast in Mexico!!

Love Elder Smith!

SELKIRK IS COMING AROUND! SPOKE AT JULIET'S BAPTISM!

Juliet's Baptism!

Elder Leonard, Juliet, ME

Hey Friends and Family!

First off, thanks a ton for the emails from everybody! I loved them! Tanner (Crezee’) is an animal! We couldn’t get anyone to church our first week here. . . let alone have two baptisms!! What a stud! And I loved Clark Hatch’s email! I feel for him and I loved what he said! Oh, also I got your emails (that didn’t come through) from the Watson’s that next day! They are amazing and thanks so much! You’re the greatest Mom!

This week was definitely a turnaround!! But man it was a roller coaster of emotions for me!! My comp I think is sick of the way I like to do things, but he knows its what we should be doing, so he goes with it! It’s been hard and I’m doing my best to get along! He’s a great kid but he’s sick of tracting! ha ha We have mixed it up with members and less active work, which has been great, but we are still tracting a lot! I don’t know what we are gonna do though because there are only so many houses in Selkirk! haha But we are definitely seeing things turn around! We actually got part of a family to church this week! It wasn’t much, but it was an improvement! They are a family that the Mom got excommunicated, but she wants to change and I think the kids are coming around too! The missionaries used to go just hang at her house and the few other investigators that have been around for years. So I ended that and said we would come and teach with a member but otherwise we weren’t coming to just hang out. I think this frustrated my comp but it’s what we need to do, and he agrees with that. So we’ve actually been teaching some of these people and its been great! The excommunicated Mom made it to church with one of her kids and we taught them and both kids said they wanted to be baptized! We are meeting with the whole family this week! Crazy Dad included, and we are going to try and set some dates!

We also met with a lady named Sandy, who has been around for a bit and she is starting to progress! The other day we were teaching one of the old investigators and she said, “Wow, you’re a lot more aggressive than the other missionaries! haha I hope that’s a good thing! But she has agreed to meet with us, with members from now. We had a good lesson with her the other day! We also found a great kid named Remi that we taught and we are hoping he will be ready to set a date this week! We will see! We also found a family of 6! They are great and we helped them set up there blinds and we are meeting with them tonight! We have three appointments tonight with investigators, with members coming! That’s unreal! haha I’m way excited!! We are being blessed for sure and I really think things will start to happen here in Selkirk!!

Also, we got to go back for Juliet’s baptism and it was the best night ever! She asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost and I got to be a witness for her baptism! Elder Leonard baptized her and it was great!! And Akon was there!! So I got to see them and I really think they should set dates soon!! President talked to her about her husband and about a game plan!! It was sooo great though! Juliet had a huge smile the whole night!! I’ve never seen her so happy, excited and confident!! She probably shook my hand and thanked me a thousand times! I love her to death! haha And Elder Willardson was there! When it was me, him, and Elder Leonard there talking to Akon’s family and Juliet and the Bishop, I could have died right there and been happy!! haha It was sooo great!! It was such a pick up week, but hard too because I don’t know how to handle my comp! I’m worried that maybe I’m taking too much charge, but at the same time he agrees with what we are doing, he just wants some things different I think. There are a couple ladies that he still wants to stop by and just chat with, but I want to either teach them or not go over. We asked them if we could come teach them with a member but they said no. They are women, so we aren’t aloud to teach them without a member, but my comp wants to keep stopping by their house just to chat on there doorstep (which I think is breaking the rules anyways). But I don’t know, I can tell he isn’t happy with it but he knows it’s right. And don’t get me wrong, he is a great kid and we get along fine but I don’t know! haha Things really are going good though!! It was a great week! We are hoping to have a lot more at church this week, but we will see.

Alright, I have some questions! Is Landon (Walker) alive? How is Matt (Collette)? Can you get me their information so I can say hello? Also, can you send me my orthodics that Uncle Kelvin made. Thank you so much for everything! Tell Addison, “Yes I miss and love her sooooo much!” The same with all of you!! Tell Tanner he is a stud and Clark too! And thank Grandpa and Grandma for the great letters!! They are the best! You guys are the best and I love you so much!! Keep up the great work!! Love you! Payton is a stallion and Dad is the best! Alex and Addison are too cute! haha Just know I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for you!

One last thing, I wrote a letter to Bishop Russell awhile back and I was pretty excited when I wrote it! haha Did he say anything about it? Hopefully I didn’t say anything too crazy.

Love, Elder Smith!

P.S. Sorry I was so down last week! I was on exchange with my District Leader and he is a real pile! haha He is so disobedient and he goes home in four months! It’s ridiculous but I learned sooo much because of it! I was really down but going on an exchange with him got me excited about getting back to Selkirk! ha ha I’m so grateful for how hard things have been though! I’ve learned a ton!! And I’m sure I’ve got a ton more to learn! ha ha It’s so funny though because you can let every experience either take you away from God or bring you closer to Him! I’ve really learned to love the harder days. . . not more than the good ones of course. ha ha But things are great! Life is great! Thank you so much for all of your prayers! I know they have helped!! I love you so much! please tell the rest of the fam i love and miss them a ton! i loved all of the emails!! they were sooo great!

LOOKIN' FOR SOMEONE TO LOVE IN SELKIRK!

Hey Friends and Family,

First off, I didn’t get any e-mails, other then Dads, so I cant really write back to them, but things are good here in Selkirk. This was definitely one of the hardest weeks of my mission! We have honestly tracted ourselves silly! I really, really miss street contacting! haha Things are coming along though! We found 14 new investigators this week. Last transfer they only found 5 the whole transfer. So it was definitely an improvement! We will actually have some appointments this week! The downer is that we, once again, had 0 people to church! I was not happy at all.

My comp is great, but he’s just okay with the fact that we didn’t have anyone come to church. It’s kinda driven me crazy! He is a great kid, but this week has done him in! haha When we get home, he sleeps and he sleeps through workout time every morning. I don’t know what to do or say though because with everything else he is obedient and willing to do.

Missionary work is sooo weird out here! We are the only missionaries out here and it seems like a ton of pressure. We are working so hard and we have found some good new people but a lot of the people are kind of flakey, and a lot of people here aren’t nice! haha I’ve heard more cussing here than probably anywhere else! hahaha The members are really good though. I don’t know what more to say. . . . we have worked our tails of this week! I’ve heard so many funny excuses when we’ve knocked on people’s doors! The funniest had to be from a 30-ish year old guy a couple days ago. He opened the door and before we said a word he said, "I’m born again Christian and I’m having sex with my wife." It was one of the first times on my mission that I really had noooo idea what to say! haha We laughed a lot about it though!

I am really excited about what could happen here though! We talked to the branch president and went through the whole ward list. We have some reactivation plans and we are gonna work with some part member families. We also went to Stonewall this week and found a couple really good investigators! Stonewall is about 30 minutes away and it hasn’t ever seen missionaries before! It seems like everyone in Selkirk knows about us or they think we are Jehovahs but there are tons of jehovas here too that we run into a lot! haha But Stonewall is pretty untouched by any kind of missionaries. We are hoping to get more kilometers so we can go to Stonewall a couple times a week! So hopefully that will workout! I’m so excited to see what happens here, but man it’s hard! In Agnes, if you had a bad day it was okay because you always had at least one solid appointment with a good investigator, that you loved. Here I don’t have anyone that I love yet. haha We are sure looking hard to find some but man it’s tough!

Juliet’s baptism is this week though and I think I’m aloud to drive in for it so I’m excited about that!

It’s funny because it’s been a slow hard week but I’ve learned sooo much! I’m sooo grateful for the chance that I have to serve here! I read a quote that I loved! "No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won’t make it worse." haha Now as you can see I’m still working on this! haha But it’s so true!! Whining accomplishes nothing! And it does make things worse!

Also, dwelling on the positive makes things so much better!! So heres the positive. . . we more than doubled the investigators found last transfer and we did it in a week! We had a lot of good things happen in Stonewall! I have a lot of funny tracting stories! My comp is great and he knows how to work. The branch is great! We have some people to teach now! I’ve learned sooo much! I have great friends! I have an amazing family! I’m safe and happy! I’m on a mission! We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and life is great! haha It’s funny because when you look at what you’ve got you really feel like a PILE for ever feeling sorry for yourself! Life is so great! I’m so excited about this area and I really think that if we keep working hard things will turn around here in Selkirk!

I love all of you so much and hopefully you send those other emails fast! haha If not, just send ‘em next week. I only got Dad’s, so I wanna read the others! I love all of you so much! Stay smart and safe!

Love, Elder Smith!!

WELCOME TO SELKIRK!

"charlie the catfish"

Hey Friends and Family,

WOW! What a hard week!!

First off thank you so much Aunt Jill and the rest of the Jones family! I loved the package! You guys are great!!

Aright, so this week was sooo hard! I had to go say all my good byes and it was horrible! I got a lot of great notes from investigators and it was great, but so hard! Then we got asked to go out with the new missionaries on their first night! This was a blast, but it started out rough! haha They only asked me and my companion to go, but we had to take out four missionaries. So they gave me the assistance car and cut me loose with two brand new missionaries! I hadn’t watched the way we had taken to the mission home and I hadn’t driven in quite awhile so I’m sure they were like, “Who did President send us with!!” But once we found the Agnes area we tore it up!!! It was soooo much fun!! I really hope I train at some point because that was a blast!! We went all over street contacting and it was so fun! It helped me to see that I really have improved. The new missionaries were so nervous, and they were trying so hard to impress! It brought me back to my first night with Elder Neff!! Man he is a stud!! He promised me he’d go see you mom. His report should be great! So that was so fun with the new guys, though!

Two Idaho Boys!

Elder Nef & Elder Smith

Then it was transfer day!! Elder Turner is a stud!! He is definitely a follower though!! Which is so wierd. He is older, he’s been out longer, he knows the area, but I’m senior and he expects me to call all the shots. It’s been a blast, but its weird too! I feel like there is so much pressure on!! This area is DEAD! I don’t know what they have been doing the last six weeks! There is like one and a half investigators that they were working with! I guess all they did last transfer was drop by people that weren’t progressing! It’s ridiculous! They hadn’t found one new investigator in the last three weeks, and there were ZERO investigators to church this week! It has been such a shock and really so hard for me! I got a call from Elder Leonard and Open’s family all finally set dates the day after I left! So all together there are seven baptism dates in Agnes right now and Akon and others are close! I honestly have been sooo homesick for Agnes! I feel like I did the first week in Agnes! And the pressure is on because President is expecting a lot! I’ve been thrown into the fire for sure. It’s a downer but at the same time its super exciting! We have no where to go but up!

Since I got here, we’ve found seven new investigators, which is more then they found all last transfer. My knuckles are all bruised up! haha I miss street contacting!! People here are nice, until they see the tag and then they can get nasty. And yes it feels like Firth!! I am so excited about it though! Like, I miss the people at Agnes so much!! I never thought I’d be so homesick for Agnes!! But it’s really just because of the people that I loved so much there! I’m sure that once we start finding people to love here, it will be good!

The branch is amazing but I can tell they definitely don’t like the missionaries, like what I’m used to! I felt like I couldn’t even look any of them in the eye on Sunday because we had no investigators there. I didn’t know what to do. It was so ridiculous and I hope it never happens again!! It has been such a huge shock, but I know it can turn around!! It’s gonna take some serious faith, though. Iv’e realized that all the success I’ve had has purely been a blessing. This last couple days have been super humbling for me because I’ve “found” every day strait and we really haven’t found that many people. We have made plans to literally tract out all of Selkirk! And we are already well on our way! We also have some good ideas for workig with less actives and part member families. We scheduled a meeting with the Branch President to see if he can help and see how he feels about our ideas! I’m so excited but we are gonna have to work this area to death! I wanted a mix-up and something that would push me, but WOW this is gonna be interesting! haha WELCOME TO SELKIRK!!

Oh and I really, really, really miss black people!! Oh and those members that emailed you about the library being closed on Mondays are amazing!! They have an amazing conversion story! They were baptized and put into a four person branch and they were put in charge of it and the missionaries left! They were told they would get missionaries back if they converted more people! haha It’s a crazy story! I’m gonna have them put it on my tape! But they are great! I honestly am embarrassed almost to be a missionary here though! It’s so sad that this amazing little branch has had such little missionary work success! I sure hope that things turn around!! They deserve it!! And yes, being in a branch on Sunday was crazy! It was like 30 or 40 people! Definitely not home! And I thought Waverly Ward was small!! It’s so funny because now I love Waverly more than anything!! When at first I hated it! I’m sure I will feel the same about Selkirk soon enough!!

I just want you to know that I love and miss you a ton!! Sorry if I come off sounding discouraged. I really am excited for this new area. It’s just definitely been a hard change but it’s gonna be great!! I love you all so much and I am doing great!! Hopefully I’ll have some news next week of some new amazing investigators that we find!! I love you a ton!! Good luck with everything and tell Al happy belated b-day! He’s the best! You are all the best! I love all of you so much!! Talk to you later!!

Love, Elder Smith

THE INEVITABLE TRANSFER!

Friends and Family!!

Wow, I have a ton to tell you!! First off, missions are horrible! haha I’m getting transfered and I feel like I did in the MTC again! Now I have two places to be homesick for! aaahhh!

I got a great letter from Grandma Smith!! It was really good, but tell Morgan I am jealous out of my mind! Tell him that I am Grandpa’s work buddy and he better understand that the second I get home I get my spot back! haha Tell him to enjoy working with Grandpa while it lasts. Also, thanks a ton to Jay, Payt and Alex! The letters were great!!

Alright, as for transfers, here’s how it went!! This week was amazing and I DID NOT AT ALL want to leave! Juliet has a firm date for the 20th of March. Martha has a firm date for the 27th and Akon could decide to get baptized any day! Akon got her car fixed so she now drives to church and Martha’s family and Juliet have solid friends and rides in the ward! All of our lessons with them this week went great and we found a ton of new great people!! I was sooooo hoping to stay! Church was amazing and the week and day was just going great and then President called.... He said, "Elder Smith, I’m sorry but good things don’t last forever." haha It was downhill from there. He said that I am going to Selkirk (a small town 45 minutes outside of Winnipeg). It has a branch and it was where Bishop Baronins was found and baptized. I’m going to be serving with Elder Turner, which is crazy because Elder Ewell trained him before he trained me!! I’m going to be senior companion, and he’s served in that area for a while already. I’m way excited and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to go because I’ve wanted to go to and out lying branch. But it still stinks sooooo bad!! I wish I could be more excited about it but I don’t want to leave this area!!

So I’m headed to Selkirk and I should be so excited, but its so hard! President said, "You two have been a great companionship and you have done so much with this area and so we are going to split you up so we have two good areas instead of one." President’s funny because he just makes everyone feel so good. If he ever didn’t talk you up it would be a shock. He’s so nice and such a good guy, but I’m pretty sure he could tell that I wasn’t to happy. haha But I asked for permission to drive in for the baptisms and he said I could, so that was really exciting!! The worst part was that I got my call and I already wanted to cry and mostly just whine to somebody about it. haha But then I had to go and tell both Akon and Martha, who we had appointments with! That honestly was the hardest thing on my mission so far! They took no mercy! Akon was pretty mad and really sad! She said all kinds of stuff that made me feel horrible, like "Nyandeng is gonna cry all week" and "I don’t know if the new missionaries should come this week because it will be to hard on us" and "Why don’t they just leave you here so you can keep teaching our family". It was sooo hard!! Martha said, "I want to sneak in your bag and come with you." I just tried to make them feel good and talked up Elder Leonard, but they wouldn’t have it! aaah! It’s so hard and it made me feel guilty too! After that, I decided it’s definitely the right thing!! I want to stay so bad, but it’s for me! The best thing for them is for me to leave! I worry that they like me too much and not the gospel enough! I know that they have strong testimonies, but with me not teaching them anymore I think it will definitely be best for them and their conversion! It is soooo hard because I love all of them so much!! But it’s what is supposed to happen and I’m gonna do my best to stop whining and make the best of it!! I’m way excited to serve in a branch and to serve with Elder Turner! And any area that converted a Bishop Baronins has to be good!! And no more city! I thought I’d be excited to leave city life but man it’s giving me a gut ache just thinking about it!! It will be an interesting change for sure!! I wish I could skip the next couple days though because it’s just gonna make good byes that much more painful!! I am amazed at how fast my mission is passing!! It’s so scary!! It feels like I just left home and now I am going to be senior companion in some area I’ve never heard of! It’s so crazy! And really scary! Everything is going too fast!! It’s weird because the gut ache I get about leaving this area is the same, if not worse, than the gut ache I get when I think about home!! I’ve decided that missions are just one big gut ache! haha I hope I don’t get moved too much throughout my mission because it’s so hard!!

But I am loving it!! Everyday is so great and I learn so much!! I am so blessed to have this opportunity!! Missions are the best, even thought they really stink a lot of the time!! haha I love and miss you all a ton!! Keep up the great work with everything and be safe!! I’ll look forward to telling you more about Selkirk next week.

Oh, and don’t write to Agnes anymore, I won’t get the letters for weeks, if I even get them at all! haha I’ll send you my new address next week! I should be able to write more letters because on P-days in Selkirk you don’t have to drive all over.

Oh and my comp is staying and training!! aaaahhh! Him staying with a good comp makes me nervous, let alone a greeny!! haha He’s really excited though and I know he will keep working hard!! It’s what the Lord wants, so it will go great!

What’s the weather like there and when do the ski hills close? I forgot and everything here is different because they say the snow won’t be gone until April or May and some years even June! But it really has been great weather the last couple weeks! You hit 0 celsius and people are out in t-shirts!

Can you get me updates on all my friends that are out on missions? I’m curious how they are doing! Things have been so weird lately! Time is flying by!! The more I learn the more I feel like garbage! I need to improve so much on so many Christlike attributes that it’s ridiculous! It’s funny how you grow, and get cocky, and get cut down, and then grow even more just to be cut down again with more weaknesses that you find!! It’s also funny how much easier life is when you aren’t thinking about yourself! Days that I think about me and my problems or me and how good I am, seem to be the hardest days! But days that I am worried about everything but myself fly by and go great! The thing is that it’s hard not to think about myself!! haha But I saw a neat quote the other day. It said, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but it’s thinking of yourself less”. haha I like it but it’s a lot easier said than done for sure!

So I get to drive again because I’m senior! No more worrying about my companion from Seattle who had never driven on snow. Now you can just worry about me!! I’m gonna be in a branch!! haha How crazy!! And I thought Waverly was small! If we get ten investigators to this branch we will really double the branch. I’m getting excited, I just want to leave now though because it’s hard being here!

Payt, tear up the slopes and lift hard! I expect some great football stories!! Go Canada Hockey!! It’s because I’m here! Just kidding.

I love you all so much! Love Elder Smith