Sister Missionaries Driving .... Aww Stay Off The Road!!! - 4/28/14

Hey there fam damily! :) As dad always says haha. How are y’all? Sounds like it was a great week back home in good ol Utah. A lot has happened these past 2 weeks. It is crazy Ryan is getting married. I am so excited for them. Keelie seems so awesome. I am excited to meet her. And yes I have heard the Big News about Dan and Brit. Dan actually did something really cool. He wrote me and let me know. He said I was the first one to know so even though I am here in Louisiana I still get those great updates! haha. Thanks Dan and tell Brit to get feeling better. It’s good to hear stake conference was really good. Thanks for the messages mom. I really liked them. Tell Jacque good job for the royal butt kicking! She is getting so good. It is going to be so cool to see the improvement in both her and Jane and all of the other little ones. 

             ("Hey Brit take some Try-Actin")

Well this week has been great! A lot has happened. It has been nice having a change of scenery. Gonzales is so much more country. It is so green. There are little canals everywhere. The people call them little bayous. One of the people from the show Swamp People live here in our area. I want to go tract his road and see if we can see him! I'll keep you posted on that. The members here are just so awesome. We have the better ward of the 2 wards here that is for sure. People have been very friendly towards me. I am trying my best to memorize everyone’s names, but It is pretty hard! There are a lot of weird names haha. And it doesn't help that my Companion doesn't know anyone’s names either. He has only been here for 1 transfer so he is still really lost. I think I already know the area better than he does... So I may need to go buy a GPS. Our area is pretty big. In our area we have some awesome things. We have the Cabellas, a outlet mall, some great restaurants, and we are only 20 minutes away from Baton Rouge. It is a great area. I love having a car. It has been nice. I can see how Elders get fat though! Luckily we wake up at 5:15 every day to go play basketball. Or we go over to a school track and run and do crossfit. It is super nice. The members are great. We have been fed every night except for 1. The members buy us groceries and all of our toiletries. Every Elder who has ever served here has loved it. It is nice also having Elder Willis here. He serves in the area right next to us called St. Amana. We live in the same apartments though so that is nice. Some bad news about him though... He might have torn his meniscus in his knee. He was playing basketball a few weeks ago and really hurt it. I am going with him on Friday to get an MRI and if it is bad he will be sent home for surgery. He goes home in July so it wouldn't be too big of deal. So we will see. My companion is great. We get along pretty well most of the time. He is kind of like Elder Jenson. We teach together pretty well. We had 17 lessons this week which is pretty good considering we had 20 hours of service to.

This week we had some pretty crazy things happen that turned out to be little miracles. So on Wednesday I got a call from the Office Elders. They went on to tell me that our sisters here in our area got into a car crash and they needed us to go over there and help them. No one was hurt. So we had to cancel all of our appointments for that night. We were going to go teach one of our investigators named N.  She was really sad, but we needed to take the sisters back to their place. They both had been in accidents before so they both are red dotted which means neither one of them can drive anymore so an Emergency transfer happened. The new sister to the area ended up leaving and we got a different sister. Pretty crazy stuff. President Wall was pretty upset about the wreck. We have had 12 wrecks already in the past 2 transfers. 2 totaled cars and on Wednesday morning we had Zone Conference. It was like a 6 hour meeting with president Wall and for about 2 hours it was on safety and not crashing your cars and then later that day the sisters wrecked their car. But now for the miracle part. After we dropped them off we got a call from a family that told us to get over there fast for dinner. We didn't have them planned, but since we cancelled our appointments we were able to go over there. When we got there they had 2 friends of their daughters over.  One was 18 and the other 19. Both were boys.  We were able to become really good friends with them. They asked us so many questions. We then invited them to come play basketball with us on Saturday morning. They came and we had a great time and then after that it was the day of service for our Stake and we invited them and they came as well. We did a lot of painting and cleanup work and they loved it. They are very interested in the church so we will see what happens. We are going to try and teach them this week. They both were not able to come to church yesterday, but next week they said they will. Hopefully it works out good. So we got 2 new investigators haha. Member missionary work really works!

On Friday we had a dinner appointment with an awesome convert to the church and we wanted to see 2 families before, but both were not there so we were at his house 2 hours early and since it is the end of the month we are almost out of miles for our car. We only get 1000 miles a month. You may think that is a lot, but it is not! haha so I decided that we should tract the whole street. Elder Borget didn't want to at first, but I finally convinced him. We started knocking and no one would let us in. We had a couple slammed doors and people calling us bad names. I thought it was pretty funny, but then we knocked on this older ladies door and she let us in. We were able to teach her the restoration. We have a return appointment with her on Wednesday. She was really nice. So we may have another investigator. That was the first time anyone has ever really invited us in to teach the restoration. Most of the time they will invite you in for a glass of water, but they don't want to listen to your message at all. We were able to give out a couple of Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlets. It was really cool. We knocked probably 30 doors and out of those 30 we only were able to talk to about 5 people. Everyone else said they didn't want to listen to our message they are happy with their religion. It is hard to have that happen because you want it so badly for the people. We are just planting seeds. Then we had a great dinner that night.

Well I know this letter has kind of been all over the place, but it was a great week. A lot of hard work and a lot of good laughs. I love my new area. The work is going great. I hope we are able to get some people to come to church next week. Well I love y’all so much. I hope you have a great week. Keep up the good work. Y’all are in my prayers every day.

Love Elder Smith!

PS thanks for the books! My companion loves them as well! I love you guys!

 

Prayers Answered in the Land of the "Milk and Honey"! - 4/21/14

Hey there Family! HAPPY EASTER!! Yesterday sure was a great day being able to celebrate the resurrection of the Savior. I love being a missionary for holidays like those. It really has helped me come closer to the Savior and to feel of his love for all of us. I love being able to share that message everyday 24-7. It is an awesome experience that I wouldn't change for anything. It has helped me grow so much and my testimony has never been stronger. I know y’all are so excited to hear about my new area, but first I want to tell y’all something awesome that happened to me. Something that I will never forget for the rest of my life!

So on Friday I woke up a little sad. I was just thinking about home and Easter and how y’all are eating some of the best food ever when I am here living off of cereal and fried catfish haha. I decided to do my personal study on prayer and recognizing the Spirit when you pray. I read Alma 32-35 and in there it talked a lot about faith in Chapter 32. Then 33-35 talked about prayer and how we need to pray not only when we are in need, but always have a prayer in our hearts. We have been so blessed that we need to have that attitude of Gratitude President Uchdorf spoke about at conference. So I wanted to try that out. And also since Easter was coming up I have never really had that sure answer that Christ lives and that he loves me. I have always believed that, but I wanted to know for sure. So that day after I did my studies I decided to get down on my knees and do what Moroni has promised. For the first time I really felt sincere in my prayer. And I asked the questions which I had in my heart. I finally feel like I humbled myself enough to have the Spirit testify to me about what I wanted to know. So I asked and as I was praying I started to kind of sweat a little bit. It almost felt like I wanted to stop praying. It was the weirdest feeling, but I just kept pushing on and that is when I had the most peaceful and overwhelmingly awesome feeling come over me. I knew then that the Spirit testified to me of the truthfulness of Christ and that he lives and that Heavenly Father knows me and loves me. I now can say with all of my heart I know Christ lives. I know he is helping me out here. I know the Gospel is true. I now have such peace that what I am doing out here is for real and I am not just wasting 2 years away. This is the real deal and I love it. So everyone that reads this email because I know my mom is going to send this to like a million people. If you want to know the truthfulness of this Gospel and if you want to know if God really does know you and loves you I would challenge you to get down on your knees and pray and ask God. It may not come immediately. In my case I have had to keep trying for 19 years. He will answer when he knows you are ready. I know this to be true. 

Alright enough with the tender stuff!  haha. I know y’all are just dying to find out about Gonzales! Well let’s just say it is AWESOME!! I love it here already. It is so much more country with sweet trucks everywhere. I could get used to this that is for sure! There are a lot of trees and little bayous everywhere. Our area is pretty big. We have a little Chevy Malibu and I am in Heaven! Having a car is so nice. We have already had 4 dinner appointments. The members are awesome down here! There are 2 wards and I am in the First ward. The people are so friendly and I have been trying my best to memorize names. I have already had a couple people complement on that! So dad it is working! haha We have about 10 or so investigators, but only 1 is progressing. The last Elder that was here was very trunky so the work slowed down a little bit, but Elder Borget and myself have been working our butts off to get it back to normal. Elder Borget is awesome! I like him a lot. We get a long pretty well. He grew up in Pleasant Grove and then moved to Colorado. He is also a visa waiter. He is going to Brazil as well. He has been out a transfer less than me. Elder Willis is our district leader and they live like 100 yards away from us. His companion is named Elder Gosch. He is a visa waiter as well and he has been out for almost a year. Pretty crazy how many visa waiters there are. Our apartment is pretty nice. It has 2 bedrooms and it has a washer and dryer! It is so nice! haha. I will try and send some pictures when I can. The people are really nice. This area is a lot safer and nicer than my last area! Mom I didn't want to tell you this because it would probably have made you sick, but the area I was last in was probably the worst place in the mission for the scariest area. When I was with Elder Scarlet we heard Gun Shots and we were stopped by cops all the time asking us why we were in that part of town! Our apartment was in the Ghetto!! haha but don't worry! I am safe and sound in the Lords Army haha. This area is a lot safer. The members here are awesome! They buy us everything. We had groceries delivered this morning. We got just enough stuff so we don't need to buy groceries. So we can spend our money on things we want, but don't worry. I am going to save some money here. 

 We went over to the Church on Saturday and we meet the Alo family. They are an awesome family. They asked where I was from and I said Ogden then they asked what school? I went on to tell them Bonneville and they got really excited! They then told me that Malosi was their Cousin! So tell Malosi I found his family out here. They are so cool! We are planning on seeing them this week.

So this week has been pretty crazy. I am happy to be here in Gonzales. Elder Jenson is in LaPlace. He has a different companion so I am hoping he will be alright. I will miss him, but I am stoked to be here! The land of the Milk and the Honey~! Oh and then on Saturday I got a call from the Peays and they were up at Cabellas and wanted to take us out to lunch at the Cracker Barrel. It was really good.  Then he showed us the Gun he was wanting to get. When we were walking out of the restaurant we heard a voice say hey Elders! We turned around and it was Sister Wall haha. Our mission Presidents wife. That was pretty funny. 

Well that is pretty much it. If you have questions let me know. Yes mom I got the package and thank you very much! I almost threw away the box full of those Easter eggs then I had a feeling to look inside of them and it sure was a good thing I did!! Thanks for the little extra spending money!

Well I sure do love y’all so much! I am happy y’all are doing great. There sure are a lot of miracles happening at home. Heavenly Father is watching out for y’all and that brings me a lot of comfort. Tell Boston if he wants to drive fast make sure he drives away slow first then goes fast!! (That's what I would do!!) haha  Well have a great week and even though Easter is over keep that same Spirit because how great is it we have a Savior who loves us. I love y’all!

Elder Smith

Ps I am glad y’all got my packages. Hey I accidentally sent home that member missionary book. Can you send that back? Sorry about that! And I knew you would go through those letters momma that's why I kept the good ones for me!;) haha I like to go back and read some of the letters. 

PSS What is the big news?

Going to Gonzales!!! - 4/16/14

It was a good transfer! I am in Gonzales! That is where I wanted to go! I am happy. I am with Elder Borget. We are in a car area. Elder Willis is my district leader. I am excited to be able to get some good work done! Well I just wanted to let you know so you don't have to stress out. Elder Jenson has a really stiff companion so we will see how he does. Also Elder Borget is a visa waiter for Brazil too. He has been out 7 months so the transfer after me. Well I’ve got to run. We have got some appointments. Love y’all!!

Waiting on a Transfer - 4/15/14

Hey there my wonderful family! How y’all doing? Well I know you all are dying to find out where I am getting transferred to. I am dying too! I will not know until Wednesday. That is the day of transfers. I am excited and I am ready. This week has been great though. It has been pretty tough saying goodbye to the members and the people I have grown to love so much. 8 and a half months really is a pretty long time. This is almost like my second home. Everyone has told me it is weird I am leaving after being there for such a long time. I have said goodbye to some of my favorite members. On Saturday we spent a lot of our day with the Peays.  I helped him change out his breaks on his car then we had dinner with them. They are awesome people and I am excited to see them again later on. We also said goodbye to another one of my favorite families. The Neilsons family. They are awesome. We helped their grandma move and then after had dinner with them and played pool. It has been so much fun just hanging out with the people down here that I absolutely love. Today we are saying goodbye to Sister Marino and Mama Heart. That will be tough. It's all good though, because I know I will see them again. 

Well this week sure was a crazy one!! On Wednesday we had a district meeting with the mission president and his wife. It was such a long meeting. I was getting pretty bored! Our district leader has such long meetings. They are only supposed to be an hour to an hour and a half, but it went for 3 and a half hours. It was ridiculous.  Then President Wall gave his little lesson and then told us his entire plan for the Westbank. He said he is taking all of the English Elders out and putting in 1 more set of Spanish missionaries. They are going to do both Spanish and English work. It will be good because everyone down here has been struggling with keeping busy except for 1 companionship. Guess who that companionship is... Yup  you got it! It is us. We have the most lessons and service every week. It is great. They thought about keeping us here, but he then realized how long I have been here for and they don't want to leave Elder Jenson here in case he gets his visa. So I was pretty excited after that meeting. Then we got a call from Jennifer Thurgood (Jens good friend) saying that she was in town and wanted to take my companion and I out to dinner! We were really excited so we left to go out to the Dry Dock Cafe which is on Algiers Point right by the Ferry. We got there pretty early and just sat on the bench on the levy. Not going to lie I was a little nervous!! haha I haven't really ever talked to Jenn before. Then they show up in their taxi so we ride down and say hello. This place is pretty much a bar and we had never been inside before, but it worked out great!! We only had a few people give us some funny looks, but we are for sure used to that!! It was a success. We had so much fun and it was nice to see someone I knew from back home. Her friends were awesome!! Those girls sure are smart. Elder Jenson said man we are sitting with some very intelligent people! And then there are us 2 dumb little missionaries haha. It was pretty funny. They all gave us some good advice on school and what we should do after we get home. Jennifer is awesome! You’ll have to thank her again. That really made our night! Then she had the idea to take a little video and send it home. I had no idea what to say so hopefully you could hear me! After I thought about everything I wish I would have said “ I love all of the family too”! haha. Oh well. It was a great night. 

So that is about it for this week. We have been doing a lot of service and have had a lot of meetings. We had our Zone Meeting on Friday then we went out with Brother Neil. He is an awesome guy too! It was so hard to say goodbye to him. He moved in like my second week and we both became really good friends because we both had no idea what we were doing. Haha So I had him add me on Facebook. Thank goodness for Facebook. Oh yeah we asked President about the iPads and he said he doesn't want to deal with them. So in July when we get the new Mission President we will probably get iPads. I am excited for that. This week has really been a good week though. I am sad to say goodbye to the people, but I am excited to meet new people and move on. One thing the mission really teaches you is how to say goodbye. I am thankful for that because it has been hard leaving y’all, but it has made me stronger. 

One other thing I forgot to mention is this past week we dropped Brother R. our investigator and told him that when he thinks he is ready and he wants to hear from the missionaries again then give us a call. He didn't take it good at all. We both felt like it was the right thing to do. Now we are going to be handing him over to the Algiers Spanish Elders. We will see what happens. Hopefully everything will work out. I am hoping I go up to Gonzales and get out of New Orleans. I want to get into some country and get a car for this summer because it is going to be a hot one. That is where I am hoping to go, but as you always say mom. Come what may and love it right? :) 

Thanks dad for the Sports updates on the Masters!! I am so happy Bubba won. He is one of my favorites. I am sad Phil didn't make the cut though. I wanted either Phil, Bubba or Dustin Johnson to win it this year. I am glad Bubba did though. Sister Walker called me on Sunday night and told me who won. She is such a sweet heart. I am really going to miss her. She is like my second mom. Mom she is really excited to meet you and dad. I was really sad though because Sunday we were all supposed to go to the church and eat dinner with her, but she ended up being sick with Kidney stones. I am hoping I will be able to see her one last time. She took us out this week for lunch. She took us to a sushi place and it was off the hook good!! 

Well I am doing great y’all! I am excited for this upcoming week and I am excited for Sunday. I love this time of year. I love how everyone is thinking more about Christ. I wish that is how it always was. I am trying to be better at it myself. I know Christ lives. I am thankful for his perfect example to all of us. I am honored to be a representative of him. 

Well y’all I hope you have a great week! I will try and let you know this week where I am at and who my companion is going to be. Y’all are the best!! Keep up the great work! Love Y’all!

Love Elder Smith

PS Congrats on winning Best of State again this year!! Hey that isn't missionary blessings at all.. That is all hard work Yall have been putting into Get Away Today!

PSS Hey mom I sent home some stuff I have collected out here. It is going to be hard to pack everything up that is for sure! 

Conference and Encounters With Creatures! 4/7/14

(Look What We Came Across!!)

(Ha Ha Just Kidding This Is What We Saw)

Hey there Family! How y’all doing? Sounds like your week was full of awesomeness like always. I am glad everyone is doing so great. Mom sounds like you and dad are kicking some serious trash on losing weight! I may be needing to get some advice from y’all now haha. And way to go grandpa and Scott on teaching my mom a lesson in cards. She needs that every now and again! She is the luckiest card player I have ever met and then to top it off she does that little squeal after she wins! haha I love you mom :) 

Well this week was another great week here in Algiers. We had some really fun and awesome things happen to us. First off I might as well talk about the highlight of the week. It happened on Saturday and Sunday. Can you guess it? Yup it was conference! All of the teachings and messages were so great. I took a bunch of notes. I noticed when you have a paper in front of you and you write down the things that come to your head when they speak to you that you feel the Spirit a lot stronger and you take a lot more from the messages. I watched all of the sessions except for Saturday mornings, but don't worry! I am planning on watching it today. I will tell you why I missed it later on. But we watched it at the church with all of the missionaries. All 15 of us just chilling in the chapel. It defiantly isn't like home when we come down in our PJ's and relax on the couch. It was really good though. I brought those snacks you sent me this week and that was awesome! Everyone sure did want to sit by me! haha. I have many favorite talks. One thing that kept on hitting me was courage and how we need to always have courage. In my mind I thought of the 5 seconds of courage we heard about in the Priesthood session. As long as you have those 5 seconds to go up and talk to someone you will not regret it. It defiantly works out here and it did when I was home too! haha I loved the talk about the truck too. Yes mom the whole time I was just thinking about my truck back home and how I would do anything to have that out here! haha I thought it was cool how he talked about how we all have loads no matter what and we need to have those loads to help us be stronger. We need to make sure all of those loads though are helping us get closer to the Savior. I had never thought of it that way. Another thing that really stuck out to me was Elder Uchdorfs talk about Gratitude. The only attitude is gratitude. We always need to be grateful for everything. Sometimes it is hard to be grateful when a door is slammed in our face or when an investigator is not willing to change. It just isn't that much fun, but we need to be grateful because Heavenly Father knows everything. He especially knows each one of us and what we need. He never will give us something we cannot overcome. I loved all of conference. Dad I was cracking up with Elder Uchdorfs talk in Priesthood session about Air force one. It just goes to show that they are normal people just like us. One talk that really applies to me out here was the talk I think by Elder Ballard. The Follow up one. I need to be better at that. And also how we need to be known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. Not Mormons. People down here have no idea that Mormonism is actually the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So we have really been trying to help people understand that. Those are the talks that I can remember right now. I left my notes home so I can't remember all of them haha. I loved our Prophets talk too. He is such a sweet guy and you can tell how much love he has for others. That is yet another thing I am working on haha! Loving everyone. So that was my conference. It was great!! Just think.... Only 2 more than I am home haha! :)

So going back to Saturday morning’s session and how I missed it there is a really good reason. So a member in our branch named Sister Neilson she is a teacher at the high school down here. She had a fun run day to raise money for 2 of the students at the school who have a disorder. She asked me about 3 weeks ago if we could come and help her out. So we got there at about 6 to start setting up. So we marked out the 3.1 miles that everyone was going to run and after that they asked us if we would lead everyone in the run. This means that we would pretty much run the show haha. So the time came and the race was about to start so we announced to everyone the route and that we would be leading the race and it was funny because it was a bunch of high school kids, but we felt so old. Then the race started and we led everyone and after the first people finished we decided to keep riding around and just cheer everyone along their way. Turns out that we were the favorite part of everyones day. And I guess we made the whole thing a success. It was a lot of fun. We were able to hang out with the Neilsons and the Peays which are 2 of the coolest families in the branch. And I won't lie, but it was nice being around younger people.  I had a lot of fun and that is the reason we missed the morning session, but it was for a great cause. Then Sister Neilson I guess called up President Wall and told him how awesome we are. So that made us feel really good. 

This week we were fed a lot and had a lot of good appointments with people we have not been able to get into contact with for some time. Sister Walker took us out to this place called New Orleans Seafood and Spirit. I had a huge dish of shrimp scampi with a huge slice of Catfish on the top. It was so great. We for sure will have to go to this place when we come back. Then on Friday we had 2 dinner appointments. The first one they fed us tacos and then we went with brother Neil to go get Chinese food. It was a lot of fun. This week has been a lot of fun. 

The only down side to this week is the progress of our investigator Brother R. We went over on Thursday to read from the Book of Mormon with him. Turns out he had been smoking a lot. He says he can stop anytime he wants and we believed him because he doesn't have any money. When we got there we asked him how it went this week on not smoking and he told us he had smoked so we asked him how he got it. He told us that he wheels around in his wheel chair and picks up cigarette butts and then takes them home and takes the tobacco out and smokes it in a pipe. So we had a big talk about that. Then he asked if we could change a light bulb in his bedroom so we did and on his wall he has a huge poster of pornography on his wall and I turned around and asked him if he remembers our talk about the Law of Chastity and he said yes and then I asked him if he would take the poster down and he said no. Then he got really mad and started saying bad things to us and saying he doesn't like to be told what to do by two 19 year olds and he said our brains must be messed up if we think that is bad so we had another 30 minute conversation about it and the whole time he was just getting mad so Elder Jenson and I left. We were super BOLD with him though. The boldest I have ever been and I told him how we do not believe in that. Elder Jenson and I have talked and prayed a lot about what we should do about this. We have talked to the other missionaries and members and we have come to the conclusion that we have taught him everything we can and now it is up to him whether or not he wants to change so we are going to tell him that this week and tell him when he is ready then he can give us a call. I just don't want to be around that stuff at all. So that was a bummer this week, but oh well. It is up to him now. 

This week has been a great week though! We had a great night last night and were able to go over to a members house and just have a lot of fun with them. I will admit it was pretty tough during conference when it was showing the temple and the mountains and all of that stuff. It just made me think of home and our family and all the fun memories, but I am alright don't worry! :) Well that is about it for this week. It was a good week and I am looking forward to this next week for sure! My testimony is growing every day. I feel myself becoming more converted every day. I miss y’all, but it's only 2 years. Y’all are the best! I love y’all and have a great week! 

Elder Smith

A very interesting Monday....3/30/14

Hello they’re my awesome family! I am sorry it has taken me a lot longer to write y’all today, but lets just say I have been extremely busy. So this past Thursday we had a member pass away. She was suffering from cancer for about 8 years. So the funeral was this morning. Elder Croker (senior missionary) conducted the meeting. It was at a catholic meetinghouse so it was a very different funeral. The viewing was from 9-11 and then we had the main meeting at 11. So on Sunday Elder Croker asked me if I would dedicate the grave. He said he thought I would be the best for that. So after the meeting we all lined up in the big line and it was funny, but they treat the pastors really well down here so they had Elder Croker line up right behind the Hurst. The family was even behind us so that was pretty cool I guess haha. So we got to the cemetery and there were probably 250 plus people and Elder Croker announced what we do as an LDS church with graves and announced my name and said I was a missionary. Then I got up and did it. I won’t lie, but I was pretty nervous. After the blessing the family came up to me and thanked me. It was a really cool experience. People were surprised that a young man like me was giving the blessing. So I felt pretty cool haha. Then afterward sister Walker took us all to a pizza place called Moes. It is such a great place to get pizza! It was a good morning. Defiantly a different one.

Well anyway how are y’all?? Sounds like y’all had a great week as usual. I am glad. I am glad you were able to go to Arizona and play some golf dad and enjoy the good weather. We have been having some crazy weather here lately. On Thursday night it started raining and it seriously was like a hurricane rain with crazy winds that night. It was hard to sleep. 1. Because of the crazy rain. 2. Because Elder Andrews and Elder Hale came and spent the night at our place. It was a lot of fun. Then on Friday we woke up and it wasn't too bad of weather so we got ready and went out to do service and all of a sudden it was a complete down pour again. We had flash flood warnings all over. It rained the hardest I have ever seen. Over by the library there was about a foot of water so we decided to have some fun and go ride through it and walk around in it. It was some good fun. Then we got a phone call and my district leader (the horrible driver one) said that the car just stopped working.. Well turned out that he flooded the engine... So the van is gone for a little bit so we have no form of transportation except for members. All the members have been giving him a rough time for that one haha. He stopped in the middle of a huge puddle. Oh well.

(Biking in Flood) 

Well the work has been going really well this past week. We were able to get into contact with some members that I still had not met since I have been here. One of those ladies was sister Hubble. I only knew her from church because she is a strong member, but then I found out she lived in our area. She wanted to feed us so we started our trek to go out to her house. It was really far away. Then all of a sudden Elder Jensen’s peddle fell right off of his bike... So we were in a pickle. We didn't know what to do when we looked over and saw someone working on the rail road. We went over and asked him if he had any tools. He first said no then asked if we were Mormon missionaries. We told him yes and he said man that is just too funny. He told us that he grew up with Dallon H Oaks and his family. He went to school with them and knew their family really well. He then told us how he doesn't believe in coincidences and how the Church has been brought up to him a lot lately and then all of a sudden 2 missionaries just show up and ask for some help. We ended up talking for about 20 minutes then he said yeah I do have some tools and helped us out and gave us some water. He was such a great guy. I asked if we could come by some other time to teach him. But just my luck he lives in Mississippi haha. Oh well! We have him a card and he said he is going to look into the church and call the missionaries. It was awesome. Then we went over to Sister Hubbles house and she made us a huge turkey dinner. It was so great! She is an awesome lady and she actually is a cardiovascular nurse. So I was able to talk a lot to her about that job and get advice and see kind of what I would be dealing with if I became a doctor in that field. She thinks that would be an awesome job. So do I. I would love to be able to help people. So that day was a great success.

We had something kind of funny happen this past week as well. We visit this guy who lives in an old folks home. To go in we have to call him on their microphone thing out front. He told us he was sick and we couldn't come in. So we walked away and then we both turned to each other and said.. Hey we should just do a lesson through the microphone. So we turned around and Elder Jenson gave a little spiritual thought. It was pretty funny, but hey we are getting work done haha!!

This week the Zone leaders came and spent the night at our place. They were on exchanges with the Spanish elders. The whole time they were begging me to come and play golf with them and the assistants this morning. I really wanted to, but we couldn't figure out a ride or anything, but I think it wasn't meant to be because of the Funeral today. So I told them we could next week. Word I guess is getting out that I play and all the missionaries want to go and play haha. I live pretty close to the TPC Louisiana and I am trying to get on and play there with a member. Brother Walker said he would take me if I am still here next transfer when he comes home from being off shore. That would be awesome. We have also started to play tennis! We got some racquets from the church and we went last P-Day and we are planning on going today. I went and bought some sweet grips haha. I actually am not too bad. I remember the swings Dave taught me and my serves were really good actually. Where was that during the season?? Oh well.

I received some emails today from some other Elders out here. One was Elder Borget asking if I would want to be companions with him haha. And then the other was from Elder Willis. He said this past week he saw an ad for Getaway today in a magazine down here. That was pretty crazy!

Well that is about it for my week. We only had 14 hours of service this week. We had 13 lessons I believe. Brother R. came to church again, but he is not really progressing. He loves coming to church, but he doesn't want to get baptized yet. Oh yeah and something awesome happened on Sunday. I sat down and looked over to my right and guess who I saw?? SISTER M.!!! She came to church for the first time in like 6 months. I ran over and said hello and she said she wanted to surprise me and come to church. She is so cute. She was also at the funeral today. She was really good friends with the sister that past.

Well I am doing great out here in Algiers. I have no Idea what is going to happen for transfers. I have 2 more weeks here for sure. I don't mind either way. I know if I leave that I will miss this area, but I also know that if I leave that I will be happy as well. Well my testimony is growing. I have been reading Alma this past week. And I Love in chapter 17 where it is talking about the Sons of Mosiah and how they are such great missionaries. I love in verse 13 where it says they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest.   That is true for today as well. I have left y’all and we are separated, but we will be reunited again really soon at the close of the harvest. Thanks for y’all

For your support and love. Mom and Dad y’all are just awesome! I love you both so much. Thanks for the great letters of encouragement and all the quotes. You both are the best. Yup it's true... I have the best family by far! haha Well I love y’all and y’all have a great week!

Love Elder Smith!

PS Here’s some answers to your questions: with my Sundays we get to church at 9 and have sacrament. I have only given 1 talk, but I feel like I am going to be giving one soon before I leave. I have bore my testimony a few times as well. Then for second hour we either go to Gospel Principles with our investigators or go with Brother Neil and teach his class with him. Then we head to priesthood which I have had to teach a few times. Then after Elder Jenson and I go back to our place instead of staying at the other missionary’s apartments. It is so much nicer. We study and take a little nap then go out and do missionary work. Or go to the Church again to have dinner with Sister Walker. So that is my Sunday schedule. Pretty relaxed.

Any other questions? haha