Hey Mom and Dad and the rest of the family!!! How is everything going? I am glad you are getting settled in better! I thought for sure y'all would be in Arizona for UEA weekend! I can't believe how it is already UEA Weekend. I hit my 3 month mark this week and it seems like time is going by super fast! Time flys when you are having fun and working hard! Alright so really quick with Sister Heilesons letter I have not received it. I will be on the look out. Hopefully I will get it!
Well I am glad everything back home is going well! I am glad Brit is taking my spot in cards. I know no one can live up to me when it comes to kicking your booty mom! ;) haha just kidding. So the weather is changing back home huh? Well it is starting to get kind of chilly here as well. It still is about 65-75 degrees, but then with the humidity it makes it pretty cold! I am going to have to start buying some sweaters! I went to the thrift store and got a Nike jacket that usually is about $70 bucks for $3.25! It was sweet! It's a nice rain jacket!
Alright so my week. I got pretty sick. I had a pretty nasty cold from Monday till about Friday. I am starting to feel better now thank goodness!! :) On those days I went to bed around 9:30 to try and get some extra sleep. We have been working really hard on our Branch Roster. We are cleaning it out and going around visiting houses and less active members and seeing what the situation is. On our roster we have over 800 names, but only about 100 people come to church. That is very sad huh! A lot of people moved after Hurricane Katrina. And a lot of people just fell away. That is why our Mission President is so big on Love Serve Teach and RESCUE. We literally are Rescuing people out here. We have been helping one less active member come back and he is planning on attending our Temple trip that is coming up on Saturday! So I get to go to the temple on Saturday! I am so excited and so happy. I have really missed going to the temple. I have been doing some family history work. Guess how many names I have found this week alone? 15! It is going to be so cool to be able to go to the Temple on Saturday and go for one our ancestors. I am really excited to see the new temple movie. I have heard it is soo good. So that is something I am really looking forward to this week.
This week we also did a lot of service. We mowed a lot of lawns! Tell David I am a pro mower now and that if he still needs a wingman when I get home, my skills are going to be PRO! haha Oh so guess who I met!!! The Future Miss Louisiana! haha I will tell you the story behind this. So about a month ago our new district leader fell off his bike and got a concussion so he had to go to the hospital. They called us and asked if we could go to one of their appointments, because they were not going to be able to make it. So Elder Scarlet and I went over to this sisters house. She is less active, but all of her family is active. We go over and she wants us to give her a blessing, but right before I was going to give the blessing her daughter walked in and it was Miss Louisiana haha. She was pretty good looking I must say! Then I gave the mom a blessing and we left. So I thought that was pretty cool. Then on Saturday we went over to this same sisters house and helped her move out. It was a project in a half that is for sure! We moved out all of the stuff that her daughters had collected for 20 years. Then for a reward the mom gave me this little crown and said you could be in the Miss Louisiana Pageant! haha it was pretty funny! I will send you a picture of my new crown! And now this week we are going to repaint a house and build a fence! It is going to be super fun! Service is so much fun down here. It really opens up opportunities to teach people. We are the deliverers of hope and people really notice that. With your question regarding if we teach a lot of lessons right now we have not. We have lost 3 of our investigators. We are trying to find new ones. We have been talking to everyone we come in contact with. That is one thing I am kind of getting down with. I know we can do better.
Transfers are next week so I will not be emailing on Monday. it will be on Tuesday instead. I think I will stay here in Algiers, but just get a new Companion. I am working my hardest out here. I am happy out here! I am so happy I am getting over my sickness!! :)
The Book of Mormon Musical has come to town, but I have not heard one thing on it yet. I am sure I will be though pretty soon. It just got here. I have seen the advertisements and everything like that. That is about it though. We had 5 baptisms this past Saturday and we are having 3 more next Saturday. They have been working with these people for over a year. Most of them are Hispanic, and 4 are English. Elder Scarlet and I am working with our less active sister and we are hoping she will decide she wants to come back. She was out of town this past week so we were not able to talk to her about it anymore. She is back in town now and I am SOO excited to go and see her!
The people down here are great! They always say ALRIGHT after everything. So if I were to say "Hey how's it going!!" They would just say Alright, but they like put up their hand. It is funny! I am loving the people here. The Southern Hospitality is so true. People invite us in and give us water and soda and sometimes just feeds us! We have been working with and helping out a lady that lives next to a member and she always feeds us and she is a great cook! Reminds me of you mom! :) You are such a great cook and I miss all of your cooking! Well that is about it! I am looking and working hard to find new people to teach. I am giving lots of spiritual thoughts, but it is nothing like teaching actual lessons. Don't get me wrong though, we have taught some lessons, but I want to teach more! The Gospel is soo good and I want to spread it to everyone I can!
This week my testimony has really been strengthened with the power of prayer. I had kind of fall into a bad habit of just saying the same prayer and not putting more thoughtful meaning into it. This week I really focused on pouring my whole heart out to our Heavenly Father. I made it seem real and I felt like I was actually talking to my Father in Heaven. I know that when we pray He is ALWAYS listening. He is there for us when we are soo mad or sooo sad. He is someone who we can tell everything to and get things off of our chest, but then he always will embrace us and make you feel soo much better. I know prayer works. As a missionary you pray for everything. You pray before every meal even in public. I have come to like this, because It shows how much we love our Father in Heaven. My scripture reading has been really good. Today I finished Jacob. It was really good. I have been cruising through the Book of Mormon. It is so great! I love the mission. It is hard, but soooo rewarding! I have never been this close to my Heavenly Father before. I love him. I love you guys! You are always in my thoughts and prayers. These are the Days Never to be Forgotten! And I am working as hard as I can so I can say "I have returned with Honor"! I love y'all!
Love your missionary!
Elder Nick Smith
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