Elder Nicholas West Smith: "This week we have done the most service I have ever done!"

Hey y'all! How is everyone doing?? I sure am doing great today!! So last night we got a call from our zone leaders and Elder Scarlet is getting transfered. That means I will be staying in Algiers and be getting a new companion tomorrow!! I am pretty excited! That means I will be taking up my area and being kind of like the senior companion. That will be pretty cool! So I will be letting y'all know who my new companion is next week. I have no idea who it is going to be. Elder Andrews and Elder Vaughn are staying in Algiers Spanish so that will be good. Elder Olsen is staying in the Westbank. Not too many people are leaving this transfer. Which is awesome! It is going to be pretty cool to see who I get as a companion next!

This last week was a great week!! I am feeling 100% better from my cold. We worked pretty hard this week and these last couple of days we have just been saying goodbyes for Elder Scarlet. He has been here for 11 months now so he knows everyone! This week we did the most service I have ever done. We had 23 hours of service for the week! It all started with cleaning out this ladies shed and that took us about 5 hours. It took forever, but she was very thankful and it was a good project. Then we did our usual mowing of lawns and helping people out with their gardens and stuff like that. The lady we have been working with is back in town and she was not feeling her best when we went over to visit. She has been a little sick so we did not get to talk to her for too long. This week I am going to bring up the Baptism question again and we will see what she says. I really have a good feeling about this. I will keep you posted on the whole situation.

Then on Saturday it was one of the best days I have ever had on my mission thus far. We were able to go to the Temple. I will tell you the story. So at 4:30 AM we decided to wake up and go exercising with our ward mission leader who is a marine. We went and did a lot of different exercises and got a good hour work out. After that we went back and showered up because we had to be at the church at 6:45 am to meet there to catch a ride to the temple. We rode with Brother Neal. He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. He just moved to the Westbank when I got here so I have known him my whole mission. He is a recent convert who joined over a year ago and he moved from California. He is a retired marine. He gave us a ride up to the temple. We had some good conversations because the drive up to Baton Rouge is about an hour and a half. So we get to the temple and it is beautiful. It is really small. The smallest temple I have ever been to. Imagine the Brigham temple, but smaller than that. So we did a session and I loved it. The new movie was incredible. I really enjoyed it so much. I haven't felt so much peace in awhile. It was super fun! I loved it. And the kid Elder Olsen and Stratford have been working with ended up being able to make it and go and do baptisms for the dead! He really enjoyed and loved it. I had a cool experience in the celestial room. I have not felt the spirit that strongly in a long time. Temples are so amazing. I love the feeling that I get when I go to them. I was not able to go through for my ancestor because they had to do the baptism first. So they did that and the next time I will go through for them. I will get the name and tell you so you can tell Aunt Jill! haha Speaking of Jill tell her thank you so much for the packages! I sent off a letter the other day. I have received all of their packages. The ties are awesome that they sent out!! haha Alright so moving on with our day on Saturday. There was a baptism for the Westbank Elders. It is a family named the Bradys. It was the dad, mom, and son. It was really cool! I was able to conduct the meeting and the spirit was very strong. Then that night we had our Halloween party! It was a busy day. The Halloween party was a huge success! We had a lot of investigators and new people and less active people show up. It was awesome! I love the people down here. We had a great time and had a chili cook off! They were really good!

Then Sunday was just a great day and the Walkers fed us again. Monday night the 1st councelor and his wife had us over for dinner and it was great to eat some really good Utah types of food! It was the first time I have had veggies for a little bit. Since it is the end of the month I am low on funds and I don't want to use the home card! haha So I have been living off of pasta and rice! Yummy! ;)

Today (Pday) has been a nice and relaxing day. I was so excited to come and to read all of the emails! Hey that is so awesome about your experience mom and how you have so much faith. I love you! It is so awesome how Heavenly Father helps us out with such small things, but they mean so much. He loves us so much. Of course dad would put it in his hiding spot! haha just kidding! I am surprised he remembered where it was at! Just kidding! Ilove you Dad!!

I am glad you and Dad had a good trip to California! That sounds like a lot of fun! Dad you must have gotten really spoiled! Mom I could just see you watching at the airport looking and imagining that it was me walking down the escalators. Just think, It is going to be coming up faster than we both will know it. I won't lie it feels like time is going by pretty slow, but it is cool to look at how far I have come! Next it is going to be my 6 month mark! Crazy!

Well I am doing great! I am loving life! I am excited and nervous at the same time for this next week! Come what may and love it, right? I know I will be happy with whatever President Wall feels like is right. He is the one who knows more than us missionaries and I have learned that a lot. I have grown a lot with Elder Scarlet. I have really developed more patience! haha It is pretty cool! Well I am sorry this is a little shorter, but we have got to run and pack up all of Scarlets stuff! Well I hope all is well back home! I love each one of you very much and you all are in my prayers. I hope you all have a great week and I can not wait to hear from y'all next week! Love you!

Elder Smith!

P.S. Mom will you send me out a list of everyone's Birthdays. I can't remember any of them... I feel super bad about missing dads, but I was soo busy this week! Thanks!