"This week we have done the most service I have ever done!" - 10/29/13

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!

  ( Mission President Wall )

( Sister I have Been Teaching )

( Baton Rouge Temple... I love to see the Temple )

"These are the Days Never to be Forgotten" - 10/21/13

HOLA!!!!!!!              Aunt Jill's Halloween Costume she sent!  HaHa!

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

I Served my Mission in the Bayous of Southern Louisiana! - 10/14/13

What's up Family!!

Hey there! How is everyone doing? From the sound of moms email y'all are doing really well. Mom and Dad and Grandparents I am glad y'all had such a great trip! That really sounds like a lot of fun! I am a little jealous;) I have received 2 post cards thus far. They look so cool! I am excited to get some more! That sounds like a really long flight! Well how is school going for all the kids? Are they liking it? How about sports? Are the Dunyon girls kicking trash as they always do? And little Boston and Carter are they scoring lots of goals? I bet they all are doing so well! I miss my little nieces and nephews! They are all so cute. 

Well this week  has been a really good week. We have done a lot and gotten a lot of stuff done. This week we had Zone Conference. This is a meeting with all of the missionaries in our zone and with President and Sister Wall. It was about a 6 hour meeting and it took up most of our day. It was really good to get a lot of instruction from our President. He is such a great man and you can tell he is so close to the Spirit. He talked about HOPE. He told us that we as missionaries bring hope to people. I liken this to members of the church. We all have a knowledge that no one else has. We have the answers to everything. When people see us they notice something different about us. So when we as missionaries and members of the church go around visiting and helping people out we are bringing HOPE to them. I love this. I never really realized this until I got out here. That is what we are doing. We see a lot of people who feel like they are alone, sad, and feel like everything bad is happening just to them. It is such a great feeling knowing the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help everyone out, no matter what their problem is. We see a lot of less actives and it is almost like we are their therapists, but they just need someone to talk to and trust. I really like that. Then another really cool thing that happened during our Zone Conference is we had a member of the 70 come and speak with us. Brother Bluph. (I don't know how to spell that) He was a really cool guy and you could feel the goodness in him. He gave us 2 challenges. 1. Never leave a person without helping them feel the Spirit. And 2.  Never give an invitation to partake of an ordinance without having the Spirit with you. He gave a really good talk. Then after the meeting we headed back home. The traffic was soooo bad. It took us 2 hours to get back to Algiers from Metairie. Which is normally only 30 minutes. So that day was really good and really spiritual. I loved it. 

Then we had our service day on Thursday. Thursdays are my favorite days because all we do is just serve people and help them out with whatever they need. So after our studies we went over to the sister we have been working with to get re-baptized. We mowed her lawn and helped her with her garden then she fed us like she always does. She made us Pork Chops and they were SOOO good. She is a really good cook. Then after that Elder Scarlet and I decided to share our favorite scriptures with her for the spiritual thought that we have started giving her again. She really enjoyed them and then out of the blue she started bawling.. She told us how she has been having a really rough time. Her neighbor (a lady we mow her lawn too) passed away. She was an old lady and they had been friends for a long time. Then with all the other stuff with her family she just broke down and asked if I would give her a Priesthood blessing. I gladly did. I don't remember anything I said in the Blessing, but she said it was one of the best blessings she had ever received. I told her it wasn't me... It was Heavenly Father. Then Elder Scarlet and I asked her if she would like to come back to Church and be baptized again. She told us she had been thinking alot about it and she has a couple concerns that she wants to talk about when we go over next time. We were soo happy!! We really think she is going to come back to church! So that was really cool!! I am really happy! All of our hard work is slowly paying off. Then after that we went and mowed the ladies lawn who's mom passed away. She was really struggling and we said a prayer with her. She is not a member so this could be an opportunity to teach her. She invited us to the funeral which was today. We all went, but we must have had the wrong time and no one was at the church when she told us. We will have to tell her that when we see her this week. Then we went and mowed another ladies lawn. It was a busy day with a lot of hard work! 

 Friday we had another meeting. It was our Zone Training meeting. It is just our Zone leaders who teach. It was really good. I got up and bore my testimony. I felt the spirit really strongly. They talked about how we can become better missionaries and also how we are never alone.  Our older brother is always right by us. I am so grateful for our Savior.

So that was pretty much my week. It was a good week except on Saturday I started feeling a little sick.. I now have a pretty good cold. Oh well.. It is all apart of the Journey. I am not going to let it affect me. Oh so for conference we watched it at the Church. It was just the missionaries pretty much. It was one of my favorite conferences ever. I have so many pages of notes. Y'all are going to have to go on LDS.org and look them all up. They have all of the talks on there and it is really easy to find it. So Sundays are really busy days. This past Sunday we had church at 9 then we went to a lunch appointment. It was a spanish lady and she didn't speak any english so I just said HOLA haha. She served us Mexican food. It was really good! Then Sunday night we ate at the church with the Walkers family. They are the best people ever. They do so much for us missionaries. But it is kind of hard to go into our area on Sunday because our church is really far away from where we live so we bike there and then do our studies there. We sometimes get the van to go over and check up on some people.
Elder Scarlet and I have been getting along really well. I have learned a lot of patience out here already! haha Lets just say Heavenly Father has a lot of humor. He knows how to humble someone! haha. I am doing great out here though. I think Elder Scarlet is going to be leaving this transfer to somewhere else. He has been here for 9 months! So I might be staying. I would love to stay, but it is up to Heavenly Father. I love my area. I can't believe I am almost at my 3 month mark! That is crazy! Some days go by really fast, and then others go by really slow. I am loving it out here. I am killing Elder Scarlet in our contacting game. I am trying to hit 100 for the month. It should be really easy! Well I hope all is well back home. If y'all have any questions about the mission just let me know. I hope my letters are good. I just kind of get going. I try and tell some stories and spiritual insights that I am learning. So let me know! Tell everyone hi for me. I really miss y'all, but the Lord needs me right now. Actually I need the Lord right now. I have never felt so close to my Father in Heaven and my older brother before. I love being able to spread Hope with everyone. We do not teach a whole lot of people, but we are planting seeds like crazy! I feel like I am giving my best effort, but I know I can always do better. I am striving to be the best missionary I can be! I love the work. It is hard, slow, fast, hot, humid, and feels impossible sometimes, but it is so rewarding when you start to see someone change or when you make someones day. I love the people down here. They sometimes don't want to change, but they are good people. Everyone has their agency. But as long as I am doing my best I know people will start to change. I know this Gospel is the true Gospel. It is only through our Church they we can make it back to Heaven. Joseph Smith was a Prophet and the Book of Mormon is the true word of God. I am so Grateful for a living Prophet here on the earth and for the words which he spoke in conference. I love this work! I love you all! I hope y'all have a great week! Remember to pray and read! :) Love you all!!

Elder Smith

PS I love you Mom
PSS I love you Dad
PSSS I love y'all!!!'

( Fooling Around )

( Home Sweet Home )

( Driving Around In My Automobile... Ha ha )

Football & A Hurricane! - 10/7/13

Hey everyone!! Man, I am so excited that today is P-day and I get to write to you and read all of your emails! Thank you so much for all of the emails! I absolutely love them! Mom and dad I am glad y’all are safe out there in Europe! That sounds like an amazing trip! I am excited to go on it someday, but not now because I am a Missionary! I love being a missionary! It is such an amazing experience! I did get one of your postcards of Spain and it looked awesome! Bridger is a lucky guy for getting to serve there, but I am even luckier getting to serve in the Bayous! haha :) It is crazy to think that all of my friends are out around the world doing the Lords work. Bryson just emailed me and told me that he is getting his call this week maybe!! And everyone else is almost to that point! That is so exciting! Sooner than later it is going to be Jason going on a mission then Boston and Carter and Drayden!! That is crazy! I am so excited for them. I have had quite the interesting week. It has been one of the BEST weeks out here though!! Alright so starting from Monday..

I went to the Saints vs. Dolphins game with a bunch of the Spanish missionaries! It was so awesome!! People down here love their football that is for sure! The stadium was so cool and it was huge! It was cool being able to go in it after seeing it on TV from Hurricane Katrina. The people we sat next to were diehard fans! It was super fun! They all were having a good time! They were very nice and respectful to us! The game was great! The Saint's just destroyed!! One bad thing that happened to me though was my camera died right after the kick off... SO I will have to go to another game when we all come back to take more pictures! Our mission President told us that we needed to be in my 10:30 so we had to leave the game before the 4th quarter. It was okay though because they were dominating! It was really fun! :) Then we got right back to work.

So for our contacting game, between my companion and I, I have been dominating him... Haha! I have contacted almost 40 people in just 2 days! It has been way fun. He has got about 19 :) I really like this game because it gets me out of my comfort zone. This week we had a fun opportunity to help out the lady that we want to re-baptize. She needed a tree cut down in her yard, so we did it. The tree was about 40 feet tall! It was huge!! It took us awhile. Let’s just say I am getting pretty good with an axe! ;) We had a really good week. We contacted all of our referrals and we met with some less active members. My comp and I are getting along really well again and we are working really hard. 

Alright.... so Thursday Elder Andrews, Scarlet, Vaughn and I were over cutting our less active lady’s that we have been working with lawn. After that she fed us some jambalaya and Elder Andrews and I left to go mow another lady's lawn. Right when we finished we heard our cell phone ring. We looked and saw that it was President Wall. We looked at each other and thought Oh no.. What did we do haha! When we answered, he said hey y’all, I am evacuating all of the missionaries in the West Bank and south of them. You are to leave asap! So Elder Andrews and I were so excited! haha It was a rush. We helped the sister put up boards over her windows in case of the storm then we booked it home and started packing. While we were riding home a HUGE storm came up from nowhere and started dumping water on us! We got so wet it was ridiculous! Then we packed really fast and had the West Bank elders come and give us the car. We were only evacuated to downtown, so only 15 minutes away from where we live. President said he just had a bad feeling about the West Bank. So "Hurrication" began! That is what Missionaries call it when we are on lockdown. So we got to the apartment and we ran to Wal-Mart to get some extra food. The lines were crazy! It shows how much we need to be prepared in case of emergency!  So I used a lot of my money for the Month. I may need to use a little money out of my home account. Is that alright? So then we were on lockdown where we are not allowed to leave the apartment until the storm passes. Unfortunately, the storm moved directions. It is a good thing, but we all kind of wanted one to happen so we could give a lot of service. Then President called and told us to go back to our areas. This was Saturday morning. So it worked out great! We got back and then ran right to the church to watch Conference.

This Conference was probably one of my favorites. Just like President Monson said, "one of the most inspiring conferences he had ever attended. I loved every talk. I have about 5 pages worth of notes. My favorite talks were in the Priesthood meeting. President Eyering, and Uchtdorf. I loved them so much. I missed watching conference on our couch though and going to Priesthood session with you, Dad. It was a different experience, but I loved it. Conference was so amazing. I am so grateful for all of the words that they spoke. Our church is amazing. I know we have a prophet here on the earth today and that he receives revelation for all of us. My testimony this week has grown so much. I know what I am doing is the right thing for me at this time. It is making me stronger and a better person. I am so thankful for all of you back home for keeping me in your prayers. I know they are helping me out. I LOVE THE WORK. It is so rewarding. It is so hard, but I love it! It is all worth it! Well I have got to run! We are playing a big game of basketball and soccer today! I can't wait!  I love you all and every one of you is in my prayers. Like mom always says, "Remember who you are and what you stand for!”  I love you all! 

Love Elder Smith

A Great Missionary Week - 10/1/13

Hello Family!! How is everyone doing? From the sound of it all is well and everyone is doing great! Mom and Dad I got your letters and I am very jealous of y’all being over in Italy right now! You are so lucky, but I am the luckiest one of them all!! I get to be here in Louisiana! Land of Duck Dynasty and Swamp People! Haha! I had a pretty good week last week. It was a lot of hard work and tracking. We have been trying to get into contact with all of our referrals we have received. It has been really cool because we always end up meeting new people. A lot of the people we try to come into contact with don’t live there anymore or they were not home. We were in some of the scariest places in Louisiana looking for people. If you think downtown Ogden is bad oh just wait until you see Downtown Algiers! haha it was really cool though.

We are referred as Jesus people. Everyone is pretty friendly to us. Although, we have had some funny experiences where the people have not been the most friendly.. The other day we were on our way to a members house and a car drove by and was honking like crazy and we thought it was a member or someone, but to our surprise it wasn't a member... It was a big fat "bird finger". It was pretty funny! My comp and I just laughed it off. This week we have visited a lot of member and less active families. As we have been doing that we have tried to contact more people and get more investigators. That is our main priority. We have started a game for the Month of October. Whoever can contact more people and give more pass along cards by the end of the month wins, the loser has to buy Canes! I am so going to win! I am very excited because I love to contact people. My comp has struggled with it his whole Mission so I am trying my best to help him out.

My companion and I have been getting along a lot better this week. We had a really good companionship inventory. We talked about our strengths and our weaknesses. I was straight up and honest to him and he was to me as well. After that we have started to help each other out. We have been setting goals like you said dad. I am trying to implement that as much as I can, but he likes to do things his way still. It is okay though because I still kind-of do what I want to do. It has gotten so much better though over this past week. I am very grateful for that and my prayers are being answered!

Alright, so some cool things that happened this week. The sister missionaries asked If Elder Scarlet and me would come and give them a blessing. We both gave blessings and during those blessing we felt the spirit so strongly. I felt like the Spirit was working through me. I don't remember what I said, but I know it wasn't me saying it. Priesthood blessings are so amazing and so spiritual. They really do work. I have been reading my Patriarchal blessing almost every day out here and it is so cool because it is a guide to us in our life. In Sacrament meeting this week we had the stake Patriarch speak to us and he talked about what is in our blessings. I never realized how important they are. So with that being said, I encourage all of you to read your Patriarchal blessings tonight. Whatever trial or hardship you are going through I know that somehow it will help you out. Mine has brought so much comfort out here. I have not been as homesick this past couple of weeks. Yes I miss you all like crazy, but I have peace knowing that y’all are in the Lords hands.

Another cool thing that happened this past week is that the sister who had her name removed has been coming to church and she told some members that she really enjoys it. We are going to ask her if she wants to get baptized tomorrow! We are really confident that she will say yes. That would be the coolest thing ever! I will let y’all know how that goes next Monday. This week we were fed A LOT! We had 4 dinners and a couple of lunches. 2 of those dinners were Chinese Buffets! I felt so sick after them! Surprisingly though I am still losing weight! haha! :) I am not getting fat yet! Some of the elders out here have let themselves go and they have nasty stretch marks!  I don't want that for boating season when I get back! ;) Jen thank you for all of the Healthy eating Ideas! I have been grilling chicken up like crazy! Mom thank you for sending me out that package! It was a crazy story about how I got it! My prayers were answered on that one!

Well everything down here is going great! I am happy and loving the work. Being a Missionary is so AWESOME! You see sooo many miracles. Even just the little tender mercies like not raining until we get inside! haha This week it dried up a little bit, but rained hard this morning. the weather is starting to cool down. I have a feeling that the winter is going to be getting really cold! haha Not Alaska cold though! haha (David did you ever get my letter?) Well anyway I am very excited for tonight because I get to go to the Saints game!! About 10 of us missionaries are going! I am so excited! Our Mission President is the best for letting us go!  I will take a lot of pictures and tell y’all about it next week! Well I need to wrap this letter up. I love you all so much! I hope y’all have a great day and a great week! Remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures like mom always says! haha I love you all!!!

Love Elder Smith!

Gods Army!