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!
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