Best Birthday & One Year Mark Ever! - 7/28/14

What up fam! How is the best family in the world doing today? Sounds like you all had a great time on the cruise mom and dad. I'm jealous. Yeah I bet you guys did experience some of the heat! It was a hot week last week. The only difference is you guys were on a sweet air conditioned ship while you were swimming and eating like kings while I was biking and eating pb&j sandwiches! haha I am glad you had a good trip and everyone was safe and had a good time. Well how is the rest of the family? What is Jen, Ryan, and Dan been up to and their families? Hopefully the little girls are still kicking some booty in all of their sports. And Sophie, Brielle, and the boys are having a fun summer. I miss you guys! Hey Christmas is right around the corner and we will be able to skype again! haha

Well my week has been a really good week. As you all know it was the year mark and then the next day it was my birthday. That is just crazy to think about. So to start off the week we had a great preparation day with lots of volleyball and hanging out and then really good food that night at some awesome members house. (they fed us 4 times this week and are feeding us tonight as well. They are legit! I love them haha) Then on Thursday I hit the year mark. I woke up feeling different. Mostly because I couldn't breathe because I just so happened to get a cold.... I had a sore throat, cough, and head ache. That was just the most wonderful thing ya know? ;) haha Mom you would be proud. I opened that package when I got it the Friday before and I read your note saying I could not open it until Thursday and Friday. And I didn't! I had to hide the box so I wasn't tempted. But I absolutely love the one year book you put together. That is an awesome book! It brought back some good memories and it was cool to see everyone. It was great. Then for the rest of that day I wasn't feeling good at all. I took a nap at lunch for about 2 hours because I knew I needed sleep. After that I just decided I don't care how I feel and we just started going out to see people. It happened to be a great day even though I didn't feel good. I knew the Lord would help me get through the day. And he did.

Well the next day on Friday it was my birthday and I woke up sick again.... It was no bueno, but oh well. I had a surprise happen though that made my whole week. So do you remember brother Perilloux and brother Spear that I used to talk about all the time in Gonzales? Well they called me up that morning and said “hey we are on our way down to come take you out to breakfast”. So they came down and took me out to Ihop. It was so much fun to see them again and hang out. They rode there motorcycles down. It was a lot of fun. Then after that I went back and opened the presents! Thank you so much for everything you guys got me! I love the ties and the cologne and the toothbrushes!! They are awesome! I guess I took the hint that I need to brush my teeth more? haha just kidding. Well we could say that it was my best birthday and year mark ever! I mean who wouldn't want to be sick? haha just kidding it really was a good week. I won't lie though I was a little homesick mostly because I was a little under the weather. And then the realization that I still have a whole year left! haha that is still kind of crazy for me to wrap my head around sometimes, but I love being a missionary and serving!

So that was the main events of the week. We are going to celebrate this week with Texas Roadhouse for my birthday where I will actually be able to taste my food haha. So some other awesome news is with our investigators. So E. is progressing really well. He came to church again this week. He loves it and the members love him. We saw him 3 times last week. We taught the plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the word of wisdom. He has committed to live all of them. We gave him a baptismal date for august 9th. He is going to need a mission president interview first.  We are not sure when we are going to be able to get that interview. We are going to call president Hansen tonight. So that is some good news!! Then we have another progressing investigator. He is Asian from Miramar. His name is W. D. S. He is pretty legit! He doesn't really have any knowledge of anything about God. Like most Asian people. There is a member here from Hong Kong and he has been helping us and giving us ideas on how to teach him. Yesterday was our 3rd visit with him and he kept his commitments and said he felt the Spirit. He wants to come to church so next week hopefully he will come! We had a really good week with teaching people. It actually was the most lessons I have ever taught in a week. We had 20 lessons! So that is good. A lot of those are less active members, but everything is going great! The work is progressing and hastening. You can tell. Elder Mellor and I have been working our bottoms off. It has been good, but this transfer has for sure been the hardest transfer for both of us. We both have been struggling with opening a new area and knowing what to do. But the weird thing is we are seeing the most success from our hardships. The Lord works in different ways that is for sure! But we are doing GREAT!! :) 

I feel almost 100% better today. I am thankful for that. It is no fun at all to bike in this heat and humidity when you have a cold. Especially when it is 100 degrees outside. Oh something else about this area is we get anti-ed a lot. It is weird. Actually on my birthday I wanted to go check out the mall and do some store contacting and the people were just nasty! It was hilarious! Boy I have some sweet stories to tell when I get home! :) OH well. We just brush it off. We “doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith”. 

Well I really am doing so much better. I am happy that the hump date has finally passed! I am looking forward to another great week! Well I hope you enjoyed this letter! I love you guys so much! Keep up the great work back home! Remember that faith is an action word. So continue to share the gospel with others and your faith will grow! I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Smith

  

Ps. You guys are looking good in all of those pictures! Keep up the good work.

My Testimony Is Growing So Much - 7/21/14

Hey there family! I wonder where in the world you guys are today! I know you aren't home because your emails were sent from your iPads haha! :) Don't worry I am not homesick anymore so you can tell me! That sounds like you all had a really good week! The pictures of the annual Smith party looked like a lot of fun! And then the Dunyon girls are getting big! They have some pretty sweet Mtn bikes. They are going to be able to kick my butt on all of the bike rides we will go on. Tell Dan to get feeling better. That doesn't sound like any fun at all. I'm sorry buddy. Tell the rest of the family hi for me! 

Well this week has been a week full of hard work and some awesome miracles. Every day is a miracle out here. So first off I did get both of the packages! Thank you very much! I have been eating those little cinnamon rolls, but don't worry... I haven't opened any of the presents! :) It has been killing me though. Well we are still at the Spanish Elders apartments. I am not sure how long we will be staying here. There has been a lot of talk of us opening up a different area more in the bayou’s called Cut Off. That would be soooo sick! Especially because we would get a car. Either way we will be opening up that area or we will take over all of Houma. That would be crazy! Especially if we stay on bikes. I don't know if we would be able to do it. We will be having interviews with President Hansen on the 30th and we will discuss it. So I will keep you updated on that. I have cleaned pretty much our whole apartment so now it is pretty clean. I wouldn't mind staying in this apartment except for 1 thing... It is pretty funny actually haha. So we have 2 bathrooms. One upstairs and one downstairs. The one downstairs is only a half. So the design of our apartment is the air conditioning unit is in there. So if you ever go to the bathroom in there like number 2 it will take all of that gross smell and filter it throughout our whole apartment!! It is gross! haha. The way we prevent it is by turning off the ac so then it gets really hot in there. It is just a loose loose situation! haha hopefully that wasn't too much information! :) I thought you would get a kick out of that! haha. Other than that it is a great place right in the middle of the most ghetto/ sketchiest place of Houma. It is funny how the church puts us in these interesting places! 

The people down here are pretty much like the people of New Orleans. There is a lot of rough areas here, but a lot more nicer places than Algiers. The members are pretty sick! I really like them a lot. This is probably the most functioning ward in the whole state of Louisiana. Our bishop is the freaking man! He is a football coach to a local college here and he is on top of everything. He gets the job done really well. Also the Stake President is in our ward. We belong to the New Orleans stake still so he has like an hour and a half drive every week to New Orleans. All of the different quorums run by themselves and everyone is a hard worker. Our mission leader is the best one I have ever seen. He has a list of about 35 people and his big thing is if we see each of the people on that list 6 weeks in a row they will make a lot of progress than we can hand them off to the ward and home teachers. It is awesome that it all just works so well. It is like we are in a ward that would be in Utah. I know that is the reason for all of the success here. It is one of the highest teaching areas for sure in the mission. The only problem we come into contact with is finding people rides to church. That is a huge struggle because no one has cars down here. It is so confusing. I don't know how you can live without a car! haha. There are a lot of returned missionaries in the ward that work for the security company called Vivint. They are all about to leave for home soon though because they were only here for the summer. They are all way legit though. So the ward is awesome! We are about to get a new building because they are growing so much. 

Well some really good news for this week. We have an investigator named E. He is 32 and the Spanish elders contacted him 2 weeks ago and handed him off to us. Well he is a stud! He is progressing really fast and well. He has wanted to come to church for the past 2 weeks and we were finally able to get him a ride so he came to church yesterday!! When he introduced himself at priesthood he stood up and said who he was and said he was really enjoying himself and that he for sure would be back! So he is progressing really well. He is going out of town for a week and a half next week which stinks because we want him at church. We are going to see him again on Tuesday. So that was really exciting because I don't remember the last time an investigator of mine came to church! Pretty lame huh. oh well! We have been teaching a lot too. I have connected with a less active member who hasn't been to church in 20 years and who doesn't talk to the missionaries at all. I ended up being able to talk to him for like an hour and a half about golf. He wants to take me! And by the end of our conversation we were able to teach him. He didn't come to church, but I know he will soon! We also deliver the sacrament to 2 elderly ladies and they are both hilarious! We joke with them and brighten their day I am sure! Elder Mellor and I have been getting along really well. We both want to work hard and also have a lot of fun. That is the best way to do it right there! We are learning our area really well really quickly. 

I did have my first flat tire again this week.... And of course it was when we were in the middle of nowhere... So that stunk because we were trying to make it to one of our investigators houses and we were not able to make it. We walked like 6 miles to the Wal-Mart. So I put that purchase on my home card. It was bad luck that I got it when I did. So we were biking on this street called Alma street. (sweet name huh) And I thought I heard someone yell at us so I turned and looked. Let me remind you that we were haulin to get to our appointment. When I looked back no one was there and right when I turned back I saw I was heading into a HUGE pot hole. So I kind of died. Luckily I didn't crash. So that was exciting :) 

On Saturday I had one of the most Spiritual days of the mission by far. We were able to go to the temple for the Ward temple trip. I had been praying that we would be able to get a ride to go to it. So we showed up to the church and our high priest group leader was there. He has the smallest car ever! So we had no idea how we would all fit. Elder Mellor was sitting on the cup hold. We decided to wait at the church for 5 minutes before we left and right then the Gonzales family rolled in and had a huge suburban! So we were able to ride in that up there, but the ride back we were in the small car. It was almost a 2 hour drive. So we got to the temple and I really wanted to do a session. So we did. I had called in a couple days before and made a reservation. When I walked into the temple I just had an over whelming feeling of the Spirit. It was just the best session ever. In the celestial room I just sat and enjoyed the great feeling of the Spirit. I was praying for all of you back home and for some success out here. It was so nice to have that reassurance that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me and know exactly what I am going through. It is such a great feeling being worthy to enter into the Temple. Mom I can't wait until we can go every week when I get back. I have missed the temple so much. I wish I could go every week. I love it. So that was a great day!

My testimony is growing so much. I think Heavenly Father needed to humble me a little bit by taking me out of my favorite area and giving me a challenge. Opening a new area that is a biking area has for sure stressed me out, but ever since I have been giving it my all everything has worked out. My testimony has been strengthened because I have been having the Test part. I am thankful for this change. So yeah I have been doing a lot better this week! And now that I am hitting the 1 year mark I am so excited for the next year. Reality has kind of hit. It is going fast, but at the same time I have a whole other year haha. That is a long time! :) But I am excited for it! Thank you all for the love and support you have giving me. I wouldn't still be out here without your love and support. I love you all so much!!! Have a grand week! 

Elder Smith over and out...

Craziest, Hardest, most Stressful week of my life! - 7/14/14

Hey there family! Well it sounds like you all had a great week back home! Lucky ducks! I'm missing me some good ol Utah! Well I am going to get straight into my letter.

So starting off this week we got transfer calls and it was such a huge shock to all of us. Even our zone leaders were really confused. So Tuesday I said goodbye to some of my favorite members and went over to the Hansens one last time. We hung out there with Elder Willis and his companion. Then that night I finished up my packing. Wednesday morning, Elder Willis and I went for 1 last run together with bro Lambeth and Perilloux. Just 6 miles haha. It was hard. Then we said goodbye to them and headed up to transfer meeting. It was a huge meeting! So many missionaries. It was fun seeing everyone and hearing where everyone would be serving. So President Hansen gets up there and starts to call off the names and the places we would be serving. He said all of the zones and I was not going to be in any that I thought I would be in. Then he said New Orleans south zone. That is the zone I was in before in Algiers. Then he said we will be opening up a new area called Tibadouma. Then he called me and elder Mellor. We both had no idea about this. So we were pretty excited I guess. I was bummed because the first thought that came to my mind was "no car" and it is now the hottest time of the year.  Haha!.

(Saying Goodbye to Elder Willis)

(Elder Olsen is one awesome missionary!)

So we start on our way down here. We stop in Gonzales to grab some things I left. Then we started our hour and a half drive to Thibodaux. The office elders had no idea about our area so they said we would just cover a little bit of both Thibodaux and Houma and we would be living in Thibodaux, but what they didn't realize is it is 11 miles just to get to our area. And on bikes that would take forever!! So they moved us to the Houma apartments the next day after we unpacked everything. By this point I was fuming because I hate packing.  Haha  So now we are in Houma and our area is pretty much just west Houma. We are looking for an apartment that is in our area. We are still a couple miles out of our area so we have been doing a lot of biking.

So we walked into our apartment and it smelt sooooo bad. It was a complete mess. The Houma Spanish elders need to step up the cleaning! I have realized how big of a clean freak I am. I walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge and it smelt horrible. So I did some digging and guess what I found!! Some thawed chicken that one of the elders said had been in there for 4 months.... I almost threw up. So please pray that I don't die from some horrible mold or anything! haha. Then next is the shower. I looked in and it is pretty much all black from mold... So I asked when was the last time this was cleaned? They said they just poured bleach on it. That doesn't do anything haha. So I am going to be cleaning that today with the gloves and mask you sent me mom. Thanks for that package! haha. Then I have just been cleaning and straightening up. Got to love missionary life right?? 

So then it was time for us to start going out to get some work done. Since both Elder Mellor and I don't have a clue about our area we did some splits with the Spanish elders. My new companion Elder Mellor is way cool. He is from Coalville Utah. About 45 minutes away from us. He has been out 1 transfer more than I have.  A Cool kid and a hard worker! So the Spanish elders have a car and we don't. We are the only ones in this area that don’t have a car. Our area is pretty much as big as Gonzales! So if you haven't noticed yet I am really missing a car!! haha. So the people here are hicks. Straight Cajuns. Pretty crazy people. We met an older man that said he was taken by aliens a few years ago. We do have 2 investigators who are pretty solid. One came to church yesterday! We will be working and trying to get to know everyone more this week. I am excited about that. The work here is pretty good. Kind of slow, but that is all right. We will change that hopefully. We are down here in the bayous though that is for sure.

Well that was pretty much my week. Lets just say I have never prayed so much for strength in my life. I won’t lie; I loved Gonzales and was surprised to be leaving so soon.  When I found out I was getting transferred I was sad. I was questioning why. My attitude has needed an adjustment. Haha But today in my studies I felt like I should read a little missionary book of inspirational stories. I read about attitude and about faith. This is all a test for me. I have changed my views and I am now trying my best to have a positive attitude. It is hard. By far the hardest time on my mission thus far, but I am making it through it. I can't let Satan dragged me down. I have to be better than that. I am still praying though for a car! haha just kidding. I am excited to get some work done down here though. Well that is about it. My week was tough. But I am better now. Well my wonderful family have a terrific week! I love you guys so much! I miss you like crazy. Tell everyone hello for me and I love them. I miss you!

Elder Smith

(Saying Goodbye to the Hansens)

Enoy the journey! That is what I keep telling myself! - 7/10/14

Well I am in a new area! I am opening a new area called Tibadouma. It is a mixture of Thibadaux and Houma. We are in a biking area. They put us in the wrong apartment so we will be moving probably tomorrow. I was really upset because I just unpacked! haha We will be living with the Houma Spanish elders. It is like a 5-mile bike ride to our area. We will get our own apartment some time soon so I don't know my address yet. My companion is really quiet. His name is elder Mellor. He is pretty cool though. It was tough to say goodbye to Elder Willis. This has been a tough past couple of days. Well wish me luck!! We both have no idea what we are doing except to pray!! I love you guys!!! Talk to you on Monday! 

Love your son Elder Smith

Enjoy the journey! That is what I keep telling myself! 

"Pack your bags Elder Smith...you are getting transferred! - 7/8/14

Happy 4th of July weekend family! I loved all of the pictures! It sounds like you all had a great time hanging out with the family and playing so much pickle ball. I am excited to play that with you all! Mom thank you so much for the package this week! I didn't end up getting it until yesterday, but when I opened it up and saw garbage I let out a little yell! I was so happy and everyone asked what I got and I said garbage. They were so confused! It was pretty funny. And hey I was very confused about the belt that you sent haha. You'll have to let me know where that came from. Well I missed you guys mostly because all of the family was together and that is my favorite thing ever! But it's okay! We had a great 4th down here!

Well before I get into what we did for the 4th I have some news you all are dying to hear. First off for a HUGE shock. So this week is transfers and last night we all get the calls from the zone leaders telling us if we need to pack or if we are staying. Well everyone thought that my companion was going to be leaving and that I was going to stay in Gonzales. Well this is the shock.. This was our conversation with the zone leaders. "Elder Smith you are getting transferred... So pack up your bags!" So I am getting transferred and elder Borget is staying here in Gonzales. That was such a huge shock to me. So I will not know where I am getting transferred to until Wednesday. I have no idea where I will go. I at first was a little sad and very confused. But I am happy now and I know that Heavenly Father needs me somewhere else right now. So come what may and love it! 

Next is we got our new mission president this week! We had a meeting with him on Tuesday morning for a couple of hours. He is a REALLY cool guy! I am excited for interviews so we can actually talk and get to know each other. He and his wife are very nice and loving. He is a lot different than President Wall. All of the missionaries miss President Wall, but all of us are really liking President Hanson. We haven't had too much of change yet, but I think there will be a lot of change coming really soon. He is really dedicated to finding which I really like! We need to find more people to teach so I think our mission will see a big change in that way. Well he is from Idaho and he owned a phone book company. You defiantly can tell they are new and have the "greeny fire". That is so good though. Just like you said mom it can give us new enthusiasm. They both are starting to adjust. They were very nervous, but we all greeted them very well. I will let you know more about them after our interviews these next couple of weeks. But I do like him. He has a very nice Spirit about him and you can tell he has been called here for us. I am excited to be able to work with him!

This week has been a really good week. We had a really fun day with our whole zone. We had a zone Service day. We went to a catholic store house for clothing and toys etc. We were there for a few hours just helping them all sort everything up. We had some great laughs. We have an Elder named Elder Navitacola he is from Fiji and he is the coolest guy ever! He is so funny. We have kicked it off really well. He called me this morning saying how sad he is that I am getting transferred. This zone has been pretty cool. A lot of cool people and a lot of weird people haha! It has been super good though. So that day was a lot of fun. 

Alright so I did have one of the best lessons ever yesterday with brother L. and his wife. If you remember a couple weeks ago we had a lesson with him and I asked him to pray with us to know if this is true and he received his answer. Well his wife is not a member and he has been trying so hard to get her to come to the Gospel. So last night he had us over for dinner and asked us to share a message about why bad things happen to good people. His wifes aunt is in stage 4 cancer and is about to die and it has been so hard for her. So that morning I was studying and a Mormon message popped into my head. It is Mountains to Climb. Go check it out it is the best video ever! But anyway we showed that and shared some scriptures and she all of a sudden just broke down and shared everything with us. (She has never sat in a lesson before this and she didn't want anything to do with the missionaries) So Brother L. and us started to talk with her and help her understand the plan of salvation. It was a two hour visit of just talking and helping her. By the end I felt we needed to tell her to pray and ask God what she was feeling and to help her understand. Well after this lesson we left and it was one of the most Spiritual lessons I have ever been in. Brother L. texted us that night and said she prayed the most powerful prayer that night and she had more understanding she said. He has been trying for years to get her to come to the church and he thinks she is ready. Elder Borget is going to go back and teach her after I leave. It just goes to show that no matter what happens in life Heavenly Father has a plan for us. He wants to help us and sometimes the best way to help us is to give us a trial. After all you cannot have a testimony with out the "TEST". So it was so amazing to feel the Spirit and have the spirit direct us and help us know what to say. So even though I may not be baptizing like crazy out here I know I am helping others. This is my test right now and I know as I continue to always help others and listen to the Spirit and seek to do the Lords will as it comes in front of me that I will be blessed. I am here to help others come unto Christ and I know I am doing that even though I have not had 1 baptism on my mission. 

Well those 2 referrals we got this week don't want anything to do with the Gospel at all. We had 1 guy yell at us on the phone so that was very encouraging! ;) haha just kidding! But I did meet a lady and she was very interested so I got her information and am going to try and see her before I go. I feel as if I am leaving Gonzales better than I found it. We have served a lot of people and have helped people's faith grow in Jesus Christ. 

Well family I am excited for Wednesday! I will try and let you know where I am going as soon as I can. It is going to be good! Well I miss you all and I love you all! Have a great fun safe week! Go take the boat up for me this week and crank up the music!! I love you all!

Love Elder Smith

PS Love you mom and dad!

(Moving A Mattress) 

It's Been a Crazy Day So Far! - 6/30/14

Hey there my wonderful family! How is everyone doing? I am glad to hear everyone made it home safe and sound. That is always a good thing!;) I'm glad the flu bug has stopped. Hopefully Dan gets feeling better and hopefully mom you don't get it. But hey if you do, think of the bright side! Thanks for the wonderful pictures and emails this week. You all look so great and so fit! Keep up the good work.

Well sorry it has taken me so long to get to the library today. It has been a very crazy day so far. First off we got up at 4:30 to go running. I had to stop half way today because my calf was acting up and I don't want to strain it or anything that could affect the work out here. After our run brother Perilloux picked us up for one last Monday p-day hooray for elder Willis before he goes home. He took us down the Grand Isle. It is wwwaaaayyyy south. It was a 2 hour drive. We went down there and he showed us how to catch some crabs and shrimp. We were fishing and having a great time. The only problem is we only caught 1 crab, 1 shrimp, and 1 cat fish... haha. It was a slow day, but it was still way fun. He said usually they catch about 5 dozen of crabs and then he was going to cook them up and let us eat them that night. That would have been soooo good. Oh well. Instead he then took us to a Chinese restaurant. Almost as good as fresh crab... haha then after that we headed to New Orleans to pick up his mom. We drove past the airport haha. It was funny because elder Willis said he saw his plane already. So we just barely got back just in time to email. Today has been a great day! Hey mom and dad you'd be proud of me. We went to a bass pro shop and I got a sweet hat that covers my neck and face! I just forgot to put sunscreen on my arms so I look like a lobster. Oh well. So that was my day so far.

(Don't Worry Mom I Got Permission) 

This week has been really good. We were able to get some good lessons and a couple good referrals from members. We are going to teach 1 of them tomorrow night and then the other one I think Wednesday. So maybe we will see some good success from that. Oh some other crazy news is President and Sister Wall went home yesterday. So we officially have a new mission president. President Hansen. We will meet him tomorrow. We have a meeting up in Baton Rouge with him. I am praying that I will love him as much as I did President Wall. He was the man and he will be missed. Next week is transfers so I will be emailing you on Tuesday. Crazy that it is the end of my 8th transfer. Only 9 more to go! 

Well yesterday I gave a talk in church. I luckily had a week to prepare for it. He told me I would be the closing speaker so prepare for about 10-15 minutes. He told me to pick my topic too. I think that is so much harder! So I started to pray to find my topic and 1 word kept coming to my mind. Conversion. I didn't know why that word kept coming into my mind, but it wouldn't leave. So I based my talk off of that topic. I gave a couple stories and I talked about how there are 2 conversions. 1. is where you join the church and 2. is becoming completely converted. I told the story of John Tanner. I also told the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's. Then I related it all back to the Savior at the end. So you know how he said only prepare for 10-15 minutes? Well I came prepared because I had a feeling I would have to talk longer. I prepared a 27 minute talk and made it so I could cut it off at 10-15 and if I had to go longer than I could. Well guess how much time I had to give it? 27 minutes! haha It was such a long talk, but it was so great. I loved it. Hopefully the Spirit was able to touch someone’s heart from the talk. I had a lot of complements. which was nice. So there ya go I gave another talk! 

Well other than that not a whole lot has been happening. I will be real with you guys. It has been slow, but I know it will start to pick up. We have been really pushing the members into doing member missionary work so we can get some new investigators. We still do our finding activities, but not a whole lot of success from them. But don't worry! I am still being super positive!! It is getting really hot. Like mid-high 90's with 90% humidity. It never gets cool anymore. Even when we go outside at 4:30am it is still super-hot. It is hard to breathe haha. You are always sweating. It is getting really annoying. The bugs are crazy too! I am missing the Utah Summers already!

Well I just want you all to know how much I love this Gospel and how truthful this Gospel is. It changes lives. It makes us happier. I know Christ lives. When we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ he is there to help us at all times. And when we fall he is still there pulling us up. All we have to do is reach up and grab his hand. I know prayers are heard and answered. I know there is a God who listens to those prayers. He loves us so much! This is the best church ever!! I love it and I know others who have not heard it will love it too! 

Well I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Be safe and don't forget to pray! 

Elder Smith

PS hey mom so those madeleine's are little cakes. I will send you a picture. Those would be awesome!! I have been craving them haha. 

PSS Dad of course I remember our trip to San Diego and that picture of me on the Lego sign. That was the best trip ever. I remember walking on the beach and thinking those big seaweeds were going to get me. We will have to go on another daddy/son trip. I love you dad! Or as the people say down here I love you papa!

PSSS can I get Jen and Dave’s address? And I am going to send letters to Scotts kids and also the little girls!

The Average Day of the Life of Elder Smith! - 6/23/14

Hey you guys! That is awesome you all are in Cali right now! That sounds like such a fun trip except for all of the sickness. Hey I guess it is only fair because of the Hawaii trip where I was the only one who got food poisoning. haha Payback! ;) Just kidding. That is pretty crazy though about how you all got it so fast. Hey you know what would help?? And since I am a missionary I get to say this haha. A priesthood blessing! :) Those blessings work miracles! Tell Brit to give the try-actin to Dan haha. That is scary about Brit. I'm glad everything worked out well. I'll say a little prayer for you all. You guys will have a great rest of you trip! Hey dad sorry I had to jet so fast last Monday. It was a crazy day. We actually got permission from our mission president to watch the USA game for our P-Day so we went out to dinner with brother Perilloux. That was a sweet game! But anyway you will have to tell Grandma Smith Happy Birthday from me. Well I hope the rest of the trip goes smooth. I'll be praying for ya! All of you guys go do a big cannon ball into the pool for me! ;) 

Well this week has been pretty slow to be honest. It just seems like nothing is happening. So mom you wanted me to give you an idea of what we do every day. It all depends on what day, but for the most part we get up either at 4 to go run or 6:30. Then we get ready and are at studies at 8. Studies are by far my favorite time of the day recently. I have really been enjoying the Scriptures and they have been answering questions I have had. Our mission President told me about something he does in his Scriptures. He says whenever we highlight anything there is a little revelation given to us and the Spirit is trying to say something to us. So he writes it down and sticks it in his scriptures. So now every time I mark something I think of the importance of it and what my thoughts are. I write next to the verse a page number and then in my study journal I write my thoughts. I love this and would encourage all of you to do something similar. Then after 3 hours of study (Personal, companion, and language for my companion since he is a visa waiter.) We usually will take an hour break for lunch. Then we go to the Library for an hour for media time which is LDS.org, mormon.org, and mormonchannel.org. it is really good because we get to learn more from the prophets and prepare for our lessons more in the day. Then we usually will do 3-5 hours of finding. So we tract, store contact, referrals, and service opportunities. Then we have dinner around 6 at member’s houses then we try and see maybe 2 more people that night, either a member, less-active, or an investigator. We try and have set appointments because I like that more than just dropping in. Then we are in at 9-9:30 and do a little planning for the next day then go to bed before 10:30. I am so dead by that time. So that is an average day of the life of Elder Nick Smith haha. 

This week we only had 2 dinners which was very little. Then on Friday we had a Specialized Training for the last time with the Walls. It was a 6 hour meeting.... I wanted to die at the end. It was long, but so good. We were only able to get into one of our investigators homes this week. Then another investigator dropped us. We found out that our mission right now is the lowest baptizing mission. I am wanting to change that! In this area we do not do as much service and I am wanting to change that as well! Oh and another thing that made this week pretty slow was my companion was super sick so we didn't leave our apartment all day on Wednesday. So guess what I did? I cleaned the whole apartment. Let’s just say our kitchen and bathroom are sparkling right now!! 

Thanks mom for the great package this week! I love that shirt and those protein bars are so good. I eat one after every run. We ran 9 miles last Saturday and in 2 Saturdays we are planning on running a half marathon for elder Willis’s last Saturday in the mission. He is kind of trunking out. He is so excited to get home! Hey tell Jacque thanks for that cute letter. (I’ll write her back this week, but can I get their address?) Hey also it is peach season here and a member sells them for a living and they are incredible so I was wondering if I could get the recipe for Peach Crepes? I am becoming the master chef out here :) 

(Gator Jerky)

Well even though the work may not be doing super great right now we are still planting seeds. We may not be the ones to harvest them, but we defiantly will plant them. President Wall said the average of contacts it takes someone to get the missionary discussions is 7. So we just are trying to contact people 7 times so we can teach them! ;) haha just kidding. And the most important person to be converted at this time is myself and I am becoming more and more converted every day. 

Well that about sums up my week. Not a whole lot to report on. I am excited for this week. I have a good feeling about it. Well you all take care and enjoy the trip! I love you all very much and I miss you all so much. Tell Jane I will tease them extra when I get back! ;) I love you guys! 

Love Elder Smith