Hey there family! Hi Mom and Dad! Sorry it has taken me so long to write y'all this morning. When we woke up I looked at our kitchen and said we are not leaving until we clean our apartment! So I have been cleaning all day and then we just went to Sam's club to get some food. I went a little over board and bought some good stuff for this next week and the week after!
Well I am doing OUTSTANDING!! I am having such a great week and a great day. I love this time of year. Christmas is for sure my favorite time of year! Well it sounds like you have been busy back at home doing all of the fun Christmas traditions that we always would do. That is one thing I am missing is all of the fun things we would always do. The Kurt Bester concert was always so much fun. I remember when we were going to buy those race track tickets and we were bidding against Troy Child. That was funny. And then the buckle! Man that is my favorite one. I bet you all are looking good in your new jeans. Tell Jacque she better pick some good ones out because she is taking my spot! ;) She is a lucky little girl. Hey what movie are y'all going to go see on Christmas Eve?? I am hoping that our mission President will allow us to watch a Christmas movie. I think they let them do it last year. So we will see. One cool thing I am pretty sure we are going to be able to do is watch the BYU Bowl game. I am hoping so because we have a member that invited us over to watch with him on his new smart TV. So we will see. That would be the first game I have watched since the Monday night saints game I went to. Well I am glad everything is going great back home.
Alright so now for my week and some really cool things. First off I love this time of year. All of our lessons we decided to just talk about Christ and the true meaning of Christmas. It really has brought me closer to our Savior. There is a Mormon message that is about some kids that put on a play and they start out kind of fighting over presents then it changes and they talk about what they can give for gifts to the Savior. They talk about how they can smile more and help one another. It is a really good little message that kids can understand. I would encourage y'all to watch that. So this week it was really busy! We had a couple of dinner appointments. That was super nice. On Tuesday we went over to the N. They are a returning less active family. They have one son and he is super funny. We ate dinner and then I gave the lesson. I talked about the true meaning of Christmas and showed that little video. All I know is I felt the Spirit so strongly. It came over me very strongly. I was fighting back tears. So I felt like I needed to bare my Testimony about Christ. I couldn't hold it any longer. I started to cry a little bit and then the family started to cry a little bit and after I was done the family said they haven't felt the Spirit that strongly in awhile and they said it really put them into the Christmas spirit. Then there little kid Sam said why are you crying so that made me stop and kind of laugh. It was a great night. Then a few nights later Elder Willis and I went and visited Bro N. He is the coolest guy ever. He is a recent convert and we just talked and gave a little lesson. (He is the one who invited us over for the game if we can go). So after that it was late and we needed to get back to our apartment. So we started to bike and we made it about a mile or 2 towards our place and then I hit a curb really hard and blew my back tire.... Most annoying thing ever!! We were still like 10 miles away from our place. So I got off my bike and looked in my bag to grab my patch kit, but then I realized Elder Andrews had taken it out to fix his bike so we were stranded. We could try and walk home, but it would take us like an hour and a half to two hours. If we were to walk we would get in way past our curfew. So I decided to say a little prayer in my heart. It was nothing special. I just said Heavenly Father please help me out here. Right when I was done I looked in the parking lot and noticed a truck was coming towards us. I looked closer and it was a member Brother J. He has a little toyota tacoma just like mine! And he came over honking and waving at us. He jumped out and said he was driving home and looked to the side and saw two missionaries and one was on the ground looking at his tire with steam coming out of his ears! I told him that was me... Haha. Then he said can I give y'all a lift home so we threw our bikes in the bed and jumped in. It was such a great experience. It was a huge testimony gainer for me. It was something simple but it made me realize how much Heavenly Father loves us and watches out for us. He knows everything and wants us all to be happy. And that sure did make us both happy because walking our bikes home did not sound like fun at ALL!! So that was a little miracle that happened this week. Then on Saturday it was the stake Christmas party. We went up to the Stake Center and it was pretty fun. Sister W. gave us a ride up there. Then afterwards she took us out to this place called Moes pizza. It is the best pizza around! We had a great time and just laughed. Then when she dropped us off I decided to give her one of your books dad and she was so thankful. She asked if I would sign it. So I did and I wrote her a little message and when I gave it back to her she said she couldn't read it or else she would start to cry. Then on Sunday she came up to me and said she just bawled last night and she was so thankful. So mom you don't need to worry about me getting taken care. She is my 2nd mom pretty much. She always makes sure we have food and things. I defiantly want you to meet her when we come back here. Dad your book has been a success down here! You have no idea how much people love it! The kids love it too! I have given out about 10 and everyone of the people said it was the best present ever! So thanks for sending me out some! Oh so on Sunday Elder Willis had to give a talk. It was the first talk he had given on his mission. He has been out for 17 months and it was his first talk. He only had about 20 minutes to prepare too! haha
Well mom and dad it sounds like your new calling is going to be a great calling. It is going to keep you on your toes just like how missionary work is! Hey it is supposed to be hard because during the hardest times you come closer to your Heavenly Father. Don't worry about anything because with Christ and our Father in heaven anything is possible and he will make sure the work continues no matter what. You both are going to be the best missionaries ever! Hey at least you don't have the same schedule like I do! So with the mornings we wake up at 6:30 and I try and go run. Then I eat something good (AKA anything I can find!! haha) Then studies start at 8 and go until 10. Then we start our day. We have an hour for media time to go on LDS.org and look up talks and get familiar with the site. So that is good then we can have 2 breaks throughout the day. One for lunch and one for dinner. They can go up to an hour. And then to answer the question about what religion most people are down here. There are so many different religions. There are Baptist, Catholic, Christians, and a bunch others. We have a Baptist investigator and a Catholic investigator. We meet so many people from different religions and let me tell you something.... They know their BIBLES! So that is something I have been studying to become better at. Is there any other question y'all have? Hopefully I answered them all.
Yes mom I will send some pictures with me in it! ;) I am sorry it takes forever. I am bad at that. I just don't really think of it because we are pretty busy this time of the year. I will send some today though. I have not been doing any Christmas shopping because I have had a very busy week! So I will try and do that some time later.
Well my wonderful Family I love y'all so much. I love this time of year. Remember that this is the time of year to remember Christ. I never really got that until I came out here. It is all about Christ. It is a very special time. I love giving gifts to Christ by being an example. By giving service to others. and Bringing hope to people. We all can do this. I am so thankful for my savior. I am so thankful he loves us so much that he give his life for us. I am so thankful for this Gospel. It is so true. I know it without a doubt in my heart and mind. I love being apart of Gods army. I love knowing I will be able to be with y'all for time and all eternity. I love you guys so much. I am so excited for Christmas. I can not wait to Skype y'all!
PS mom you need to make an account and send me all the information about it. I will be able to skype. I don't know what time yet, but we for sure are going to be able to see each other! :) Well y'all I love you! Have a great week and be safe. I am doing great out here so don't worry about me. Thanks for all of the love and support. I love you guys! The Church is true! The book is still Blue! And i'll see you in 9 days! haha peace out!
Love Elder Smith
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