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...
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