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

EMANUEL'S BAPTISM: FONT MIRACLE

Hey Friends and Family,

So it’s been an insane week!! First off, Dad your letter made me mad! haha You are the best father in the world!! I hope you know that! Thank you so much for all that you do and hopefully you had a great birthday!! Everyone else, thank you so much for all that you do for me! You are all so amazing!! Special thanks to Payton for the great Plan of Salvation thing (drawing)! It works great!! Thank you also Mom you’re amazing and Heather, Heidi, Whitney, Chelsea, Uncle Kellan and family (I loved the picture and the notes, my comp loves motorcycling and I got to show him what pro’s from Idaho look like!!) Also thank you Morgan! You are my hero and you and Lauren are a super cute couple! I’m so excited for you!

O.K. so this week was the best week of my mission easy!! I love this mission and I love this area!! First off Emanuels baptism was Wednesday! The day before transfers and it was amazing! So we thought baptismal fonts took 4 hours to fill and no one in the ward could fill it so we got stuck with it! We were really mad because we had to give up most of the day to fill the font! So we showed up about 4.5 hours before game time and the zone leaders came and opened the door for us but they were wondering why we were so early because the font really only takes 2 hours to fill, I guess. So we were a little mad because we were 30 minutes from our area because the church is forever away, so it wasn’t worth it to drive there and all the way back so we decided to just start filling and wait it out. So we start filling, but the water is freezing!! The temperature gages lowest reading was 10 c and it was well below that! haha Just barley above freezing probably!! So we started making calls! We got a mechanic that fixed it eventually and we started filling! The font was full just five minutes before the baptism! It really was a miracle! Everything fell into place perfectly and Emanuel loved it! The Spirit was sooo strong! All the new missionaries and the mission president were there and it was just perfect!

Then the next day was transfers! I got a new comp from Utah named Elder Willardson and he is amazing!! He is such a hard worker and we teach really well together! Change is hard,

but so exciting!! The first night was crazy because I have to be in charge! I know all the people and the area and I had a good night planned, but it was so stressful! hahaha But I am loving it! I am the one that people know now. My comp is so good, too! He just goes and we teach so good together! We’ve already had some amazing experiences, and since I’m in charge we went to a man named Derrek that Elder Ewell dropped a couple weeks ago, but I loved him so much I wanted to go back! So we taught him and he came to church! It was so great! We have just been packed with lessons lately, too! We haven’t done like any finding because we haven’t had time! All of the people are there for the lessons and we have lessons all day most of the days! It’s sooo great! We are being so blessed right now! Also we started teaching another Thai family and I love them so much, like I cant even explain it! They are the most kind, humble people ever and their children are so cute! I actually have learned a lot of Koran, haha! I can say prophets and apostles and hello and good bye and others but can you please try and find a Koran to English dictionary? I love these people so much, like they are amazing!! Every time we go to teach them they have fruit and drinks laid out for us! I’ve had a lot of soy milk, and its not half bad!! We are now teaching three Thai families and we are getting a lot better at it!! I’ve learned so much because we ha

ve to teach everything out of the Bible and there is so much good stuff in the Bible! haha It’s been such a good experience!! We also are teaching Maureen and Lane a lot and we are going to try and set dates with them this week! They are super good! Lane has a family too, and a baby on the way, so I really think he’s ready for the gospel! He is a native and he really has his head on straight! I hope that will go well!! Maureen is a single lady who is pretty lonely, but she does service at the hospital everyday, pretty much! She’d sure help out our ward! haha

Ok, last person I want to tell you about is Burt!! He missed church this week because he was drinking the night before and he was barfing/sleeping when we went to get him for church! This was really sad and hard on me, but also exciting because lucky for him this is commandment week, specifically WORD OF WISDOM!! We are so excited to teach him this and show him the comparison of this Sunday and last Sunday and how he felt. haha Like with this I think he should be able to see the very obvious contrast in his happiness! It really is pretty simple: church = good+happiness, boos= bad+puking your brains out all night and feeling poopy! haha I’m super excited for it and we are teaching him tonight!! woo woo Hopefully all goes well because I love burt to death!!

Finally, I have to go but Elder Ewell taught me something that really hit me hard right before transfers! He showed us a scripture in district meeting that is really neat! It’s Jeremiah 16:16, he talked about hunting (I was thinking about fishing and pheasant hunting) but he said that he absolutely loves hunting! He does it as much as he can! But he doesn’t just love killing the animal. He loves the whole experience! Even when everything goes wrong and it’s hard, he still loves it because he loves hunting! I thought of a day when I went with Dad and I didn’t catch a single fish and it rained and it was cold and miserable and nothing went as planned! Now that I look back, I can honestly say that I loved that day of fishing!! It was a great experience, mostly because I was with Dad, but it was an all around great day, because I was fishing! Because I loved fishing! Elder Ewell then compared it to mission work and I realized that it’s the same! Days are hard, but then there are those 100 fish days were you are on top of the world! I realized that I love my

mission. Everyday is such a great experience! I’m so blessed and so lucky to be here!! I love you all so much and I’m so grateful for all that you do for me!! Stay safe and love everyday! You’re the best!

Love, Elder Smith

This is what 40 below

looks like!

Staying in Winnipeg!

"Canadian Cold Gear"

Volunteering at the Old Folks Home

Hey Friends and Family,

I’M STAYEN AT AGNES!! WOO WOO! My companion is gone though. He’s going to Regina and Elder Schulte (my zone leader) is gone too, which is really sad because I love and look up to him a ton! It’s sad that good friends are leaving, but the change is exciting!! Mom, thank you so much for the package!! It was sooooo great!! I opened it at district meeting and now everyone wants to be my comp! haha Elder Ewell was so shocked that he got a stocking with his name on it! It was great!! You are amazing! Oh, and I got Grandma’s Christmas early! That has been fantastic! I didn’t open the presents yet, but the toffee and fudge are almost gone. Grandma, thank you so much you are amazing!! No other candy tops your toffee!

So, this week started out great!! I took Burt to lunch! Of course the man never gets good food, so I asked him what he wanted and he was quick with his response of the Big Mac Meal with the fry and drink! haha It was great to eat with him and then we taught him at Brother Browns. It was great!! I love the man to death! But then we were going to take him to the Christmas party on Saturday and he missed his ride. He called us all upset because he had been looking forward to it and he had already had a rough day. He told us he didn’t want to see us for a couple days because he was so upset. We dropped by the next day anyways and he was all mad and yelled at us and told us not to come by. This killed me!! I was so depressed about it!! But then that night we got a call from him. He called and apologized and asked if we could get him a ride to church. I WAS SOOOO HAPPY! We got his ride and church went really good! It was Fast Sunday again already! It was a really good one!! Oh and Terry (the man that I slipped on poop in his house) shaved his head super short and came to church! He missed a couple spots in the back, but he looked great!! I don’t blame him because I had to shave mine and its hard!! But he got there and he was way excited!! He bore his testimony and it was really good! He thanked me and Elder Ewell for getting him to come back to church! It was really neat, he was signing up for everything, too! haha He’s great! He said we just need to keep calling him every Sunday, because he works nights and he doesn’t have an alarm clock! But that was exciting!

Oh and Emanuel’s baptism fell through on Saturday because of some problems but we are all good and planned for Wednesday! The last day before transfers!! That’s way exciting and Burt’s going to be there to watch, which is super good!! I’m really excited for that!

Back to the Christmas stuff, though! It was really neat to watch the devotional and think about all of you lounging by the fire watching it, too! haha It was great! And the Christmas party here was so good!! I love the members here, they do so much for us! It felt like home, except Santa wasn’t a little person (Frank Price) which completely crushed my universe! I’ve grown up loving the little Santa and he wasn’t at this Christmas party! Other than that, it was great!! It was so fun because we nodded the President over and just chatted with him. I love him so much!! We were trying hard to get info out of him about transfers. Just to make Elder Ewell mad, he whispered that I was staying. So I knew before anyone else! It’s so crazy that its Christmas already! Time is flying bye!! It’s crazy! I have all of your Christmas stuff to send though! Hopefully you like it! My comp didn’t like shopping for it. I don’t get these other missionaries, they don’t Christmas shop! They’d rather play basketball, haha. But things are going great!

I have so many stories, but I cant think. We had to drop a ton of people the last couple weeks because they weren’t progressing, which is hard! We teach so many lessons, but people just dont keep their commitments! I hate sounding like I’m complaining at all though, because we have been so blessed! We will have had 2 baptisms this transfer and we are hoping to set another date tonight! We are also getting a lot better at teaching Thailand people!! THAILAND PEOPLE ARE AMAZING! THEY ARE SO HUMBLE AND KIND! They are poor, but when we come to teach they have food and drinks waiting for us! We are doing all of our teaching out of the Bible because there isn’t a translated Korean or Burmese Book of Mormon! Everything goes well until you try to teach the Restoration. But we’ve been studying a lot for them and so hopefully we can get them to understand it. We are teaching 3 big Thai families! I’m hoping they let us start a Thai Branch! Oh, I love them!! They are learning English fast, so hopefully all goes well there!!

I am loving it here!! It is so good, but there are hard days! Derrek, a man we have been teaching for a while, got a new girlfriend. I love the man and he had finally decided to come to church and then he totally changed! He told me straight to my face that he just wasn’t interested anymore. I like lost it and just started ranting a crazy testimony about how this is salvation, and what IS his purpose in life, and who knows what else! He just said “I don’t know” over and over and that he just didn’t care anymore and he just wasn’t interested! I just can’t understand how people can do that! It’s ridiculous. My comp doesn’t let that stuff bug him, but man it sure gets me upset. But things are great other then a few crazy things!

Oh and my new comp is Elder Willardson. I don’t know how to spell it or what he’s like but I’ve heard he’s good and a super hard worker! I am a little nervous because I’m the one that has to know the area, members, and all the investigators because he’s never served here before. He’s coming from Regina. It’s super exciting, but sad to see friends go! It will be great!!

Usually I have a thought or something, but I don’t have anything particular today. haha I do have a quote that Heather Hill sent me though and I love it! It’s by Neal A. Maxwell: "The Lord doesn’t ask about our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, the Lord will increase our capability!” Out here I thought that ability would play a big part, and it does. But the best missionaries are so good because they give everything! When they have spare time at meals or before bed they just study more. I really look up to them and I hope I can be like them! But this quote really applies to members! It’s all about just showing up! haha Like really, if everybody would just show up their lives could change! We have members here who are the goofiest people ever and they come and help us all the time and it makes such a huge difference! There is a man named Elton John who just got more active a couple months ago and he helps us every day! He is amazing!!

Dad your birthday is here! I’ll probably tell you Happy Birthday again next week! haha but Happy Birthday now too! I love you a ton and I sent you a present! Hopefully you like it!! I love you all a ton! Good luck with everything and keep me updated!

Love ya bye!

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!

Hey Friends and Fam!

Thank you so much for all of the support! I feel horrible, I really don’t have time to write everyone back. But please keep them coming! They are so great!! ha ha It sounds like it was a crazy week and Alex, I feel your pain! That sounded like a rough weekend! I’m worried about Grandpa! I got Grandma’s letter and I know he will be fine because he’s a stud, but that really stinks that it didn’t go good! Please keep me up dated!!

Alright, this week was crazy! I just need to get used to having hard days and amazing days because that’s just how it is. You hit higher than you’ve ever been and you drop lower then you’ve ever been. But you grow through it all! First off, Thanksgiving was depressing, straight up! ha ha I just wanted to find something wrong with the day because I wasn’t in Mexico eating turkey ‘till I was sick and then tanning it off! ha ha So as you can imagine, I was able to find a lot wrong with the day!! Me and my comp weren’t getting along, it was just a hard day! We still worked hard, but when you have a bad attitude and the Spirit isn’t with you, nothing goes well!

I met a man that is going to sue all of the churches because he has proof that they are all wrong! He remembers all of his past lives and he can prove it! He used to be General Custer, actually! He remembers it all very clearly! I was wondering if Dad wanted to take the case, because ALL of the churches in the world have a lot of money! ha ha He also said he can see the future, so I asked him when would I go home from my mission. He said, June 10, 2010. So maybe I’ll see you sooner then you think! ha ha I told him he was wrong and he said, “I know. Come back tomorrow and then I will know, it takes a little while!" ha ha He also has worn a suit everyday for the last 8 years so he is used to it when he sues the churches next year! He’s way nice though, so that was interesting!

But after the rough Thanksgiving, me and my comp made up and did some serious work. And we had worked really hard everyday before! I taught one man that has 12 cats and he feeds them all something bad because they all have the runs and the poop is all over! ha ha So you can’t breath in his house and of course when I walked in I slipped on a big juicy poop! (I’m aloud to say “poop” but turd isn’t dignified) ha ha So all the way up his stairs I’m slipping all over because my shoe is covered in poop! But the lesson went okay. Then I was street contacting a man and he gave me a box of raisins and he started eating a box. Then right in the middle of the Restoration he just chucks his box over his shoulder! This hit me and my companion’s funny bone real bad!! ha ha I’m just starting the First Vision and I can’t hold it in, so I just loose it laughing and my comp did too! We couldn’t regain our composure! ha ha We laughed harder and harder until all three of us were die-ing! In between laughs my comp asked for his number, and we are teaching him now! He is soo good!! ha ha

Oh! And it finally snowed! We were sliding all over. It was a blast! But this week I learned so much about attitude! Attitude is honestly everything!! Something is only as good as you make it! I ate amazing food on American Thanksgiving prepared by amazing ladies who stayed up all night making it for me and I complained and made the very worst of it!! It was horrible! But I taught a man where I couldn’t breath and my suit will never be the same and my shoes still have poop on them! But because I was trying to be positive, the Spirit was there and it went good! If we stay positive and open to the Spirit, it will be there for us. I learned this more then ever this Sunday! Last Sunday we had a ton of investigators and it was so good, but honestly I wanted more and I had a negative attitude about it! I wasn’t positive and I didn’t get anything out of that meeting because of it! I’ve been that way every Sunday I’ve been here because their wards are so small and have so few strong members that I just had a negative attitude about it and the Spirit wasn’t there! This week we had two investigators show and I was so happy for them! I love them to death! It was Burt the man from McDonalds and Emanuel, the one who has been investigating for 9 months. It was the best Sunday I have ever had! The choir sang and they were horrible and small, but the Spirit was so strong! They were all trying so hard! Everything in the day seemed perfect! I don’t know if I would have learned any more if a General Authority had been there and it was all because of my attitude!! Emanuel is being baptized this Saturday and Burt set a firm date for January 2nd. Both decided on these dates after Sacrament Meeting! It was the best day ever! I love them both so much! After church I was so excited that I told Burt to meet us at McDonalds on Tuesday for our lesson! ha ha That’s where we first set a date with him, and eating at McDonalds for him, and us, is a big thing! ha ha It’s a treat! I’m soooo excited for it! ha ha I love Burt! He’s a goofy native, but he really is changing and it’s sooo amazing!

I never want to have another bad day again, though! Even if it’s the worst day in the world, if I look at it with a good attitude, good things will happen! And if they don’t, they will the next day! ha ha I honestly love it out here but I am scared about transfers! I love the people we are teaching and we have Robert who has the same baptismal date as Burt, if we can get him to come to church! His job is messing things up! But I love this area and I really don’t want to leave! It would kill me! I can see already that this mission thing is all about leaving people that you care about. It’s ridiculous! I’m sick about it already and the transfer hasn’t even happened. ha ha I need to get a better attitude about that one still!! ha ha ha I know that whatever the Lord wants, will happen and I guess that better be good for me! Missions are hard, but so great. It’s crazy!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all that you do for me! Oh and mom the package is here, but I get it tomorrow, so thank you so much in advance! I’m sure it will be amazing!! Oh and you talked about choke cherry syrup! Is there anyway you could get me some of that??? ha ha It sounds amazing!! Oh and also a mini preach my gospel, if you can find one. They might not sell them anymore! Oh, and a super small Book of Mormon and Bible for street contacting, just like a cheap one that we would hand out, but one that is super small? If not, that’s totally fine but that would be neat! Thank you sooooo much! You all are so amazing and I love and miss you all soooo much! Good luck with everything and Payt snowboard it up!! I want stories and pictures!

Love ya! Elder Chandler Smith