Dear Family/ Friends,
This was kind of an interesting week. It felt like I was on a roller coaster, going up, then down, then jerked sideways, through a loop. and now its started to slow down again. The first thing I really remember this week was going to do some service for Mary on Tuesday. We mowed her lawn, picked up some trash, and did a lot of gardening. After we were done at Mary's we got a ride with them to the church and spent the rest of the night doing family history. On Wednesday we just did out regular thing, but Thursday is when things started to pick up. We started out with district meeting and then after we went to an assisted living home to do some service. We went around inviting people to the activity room and once everyone got settled we sang a few hymns and had a little bible study with them. It was pretty fun and they all really loved us being there. They asked us if we could come back, so hopefully we can do that again. After that we started our exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Helie came with me to Kenner while Elder Mills went to Metairie. The first thing we did on exchanges was try to go see Anthony. He had a sign on his door that said "LDS members: I no longer want to be a member please don't call or knock on my door, thank you, Anthony Ardillo" So, that was pretty disappointing. We rode our bikes around for a little bit and then finally after about an hour we went to see Mary. We reminded her about the crawfish boil and talked about being born again. The Sisters had a baptism that night so we quickly rode to the church to begin to fill up the font. We got the water going and an hour later checked the temperature and turned off the water. The baptism was planned to be at seven, but our ward mission leader, who was the one doing the baptism, didn't show up until about twenty after, after he came out of the bathroom he walked over to us and with a worried look on his face held his hands out showing us that there was only about a foot and a half of water in the font. We had no idea what happened and at this point it was already 7:30. We turned the water back on and after 15 minutes we just decided to start. So the program began and when we were ready to perform the ordinance we opened the doors to see that the water was again about a foot and a half, Bro Blair just went for it and miraculously it only took him too dunks to get him all the way under. Everyone was pretty impressed. After it was all done we watched the Testaments with a recent convert and her kids. A man from Benin Africa came in and watched some of the movie with us. I showed him my scripture case and asked him if he had kente in Benin. He said no, but we talked about fufu and just Africa in general. He said he really enjoyed the movie and said that he had never seen the life of Christ portrayed that way. He has come to church a few times but the members that were his friends just moved to Florida so we will see what happens. On Friday, the exchanges continued pretty normal. Me and Elder Mills spent Saturday morning at the temple which was a really needed uplifting day and then went to the crawfish boil that night. This morning, we went on a two hour bike ride that was mission wide. It was just for President and Sister Wall before they leave. We all had the same shirts and just rode around as districts. It was pretty fun! So, thats pretty much all that happened this week. I love yall and hope the weather wherever you are isn't as miserable as it is here :)
Love Elder Smith