Enjoying work in Slaughter

Hey Mom,
How are things going. Its been a pretty crazy week. But it ended up being pretty fun. This morning we went mountain biking so that was a blast. My companion and another missionary in my district didn't want to go so it was kind of nice to have a break. IT was a pretty easy course and we didn't get into to much problems. I didn't know biking could be fun haha I was so used to just dodging cars and all sorts of crazy shenanigans in Kenner. Lets see what else. Hmm we cleaned out some dog kennels for a member this week haha it was kind of funny. I have been able to do a lot of cooking because my companion would just eat poptarts for every meal if he was left to himself. I made a cake the other day out of just the deseret food cake package thingy but it must have been kind of old because it didn't rise at all. I added some vanilla and maple flavoring to the cake and then made a maple frosting with milk and powdered sugar it was pretty delicious. Since the cake didn't rise it was super moist and more like a pound cake. I had been eating it for breakfast the past few days. It was just like a super tasty maple bar. Oh I still have the honey that I want to send home but I don't have anything to put it in. If in the package you send this wek you could put in some sort of container for the honey I will send it home for yall and Grandpa. I still have quite a bit of it. Hmm that's pretty much it I think for this week. We have a ton of meeting this week and we will be going on exchanges so we will see what happens. Thanks for the email Ill talk to you soon!
Love Elder Smith






Dear Yall,
Well sorry I didn't get to send an email last week it was a pretty crazy day. This is going to be another short email so hopefully that's ok. Next week I will do better. We went mountain biking this morning and that was just a ton of fun. We had to dodge mud and huge banana spiders and we even saw one snake. It was probably poisonous so we didn't mess with it. No one wrecked though so that was pretty good. I didn't know that riding a bike could be fun. The most excitement I got in Kenner we an occasional rouge car that we would have to avoid. Umm we had a ton of fun this week and are just trying to get the ball rolling in Slaughter because there really wasn't anything going on here when we got here. It been a slow few weeks but we are trying out best. Ill try to take some pictures this week so yall can see how awesome it is. It has been really nice being able to drive and our truck is pretty nice. Everyone here either wants to talk to us about football or hunting so it has been pretty fun. We heard the Broncos did pretty good last night. Wooo. Other than that we have just been trying to find some less actives to visit. Pretty much the whole branch here is related and half of the families are less active so its just been interesting. That's pretty much it this week!
Love Y'all

Teaching in Slaughter

My new area is called Slaughter and It covers about 900 square miles. It's about as country as it gets. There are the same amount of dirt roads as there are paved roads. It is pretty awesome being able to drive down these narrow roads and be literally surrounded by huge trees. It's a much better environment than the city. The members that I met are all super nice. The branch here gets about 50 to show up each Sunday and they pretty much are all related. The area is pretty fun and is going to be a lot different than Kenner. The ward here really wants us to help them reactivate less actives because they feel like they can't support new converts. The people here are also a lot more "local" than the members in Kenner. They all have the slow southern drawl and it is just fun. Things are really quite a bit different, but it's going to be fun! The apartment we are living in is definitely the nicest that I have seen so far. It is a little part of a members house that they are renting to the missionaries. Well that's pretty much all that has happened so far. Next week I'll be able to explain more about where I am and what I'm doing, because right now I'm still trying to get this area figured out.

Love Elder Smith

Last Day in Kenner

Dear Family,

   Well the big news for the week is that I'm finally getting transfered out of Kenner. Im pretty excited but also pretty nervous. Its going to be a big change. My companion is also getting tranfered out of Kenner so Im hoping that the two new missionaries that will be taking over will be able to stay in touch with all of the people I have seen over the past year here. Other than that it was a pretty good week. We had set a baptismal date with one of our investigators and that really all the big news for the week. We didnt get to do any exciting service. We didn't have any crazy weather. And really all that I can think about is the fact that Im leaving. haha I never thought that it would happen. It is pretty weird. Hopefully I can let yall know what and where Im going to be soon. Im praying for somewhere a little more green instead of gray! I love ya'll and keep you in my prayers!

Love Elder Smith

A few weeks ago an investigator randomly showed up to church that I havent been able to see for about 9 months. The missionaries first met him about 3 years ago. As soon as I saw him at church I went over to him and asked if we could come by and see him in the next couple of days. Well he was expecting it and so we got an appointment set. We get to our appointment and said a prayer and then after seeing how he is doing he asks "when can I get baptized?" and then laughed and said, "beat you to the punch didn't I?" haha it was pretty funny. He said that when the missionaries first met him we was smoking and just had some things in his life he had to change first. His Aunt passed away a few months ago which motivated him to quit smoking and get things figured out. So now those few months later he has quit smoking and is much more prepared to be baptized. I was pretty excited because he was one of the very first investigators I met on my mission and seeing him a year later preparing for baptism is pretty neat. So the new missionaries that come here better make sure they stay on top of things :)

The spelling and grammer is pretty atrocious sorry!

Hey Family,

You asked about my interview with President Hansen. It was a pretty short interview and he mostly just asked me about how Elder Mills is doing and what we have done to see success and where we could improve. He didn't really give me any hints for transfers, so I don't really know what is going to happen. Transfers, are next week, so I'll let you know when I find out. Things in Kenner were pretty good this week. Last Sunday we had a random investigator show up to church and were able to see him this past week. He came to church again yesterday so things are looking pretty good. We also had a part member family come and one of the investigators we had been teaching a lot this week. 

Those pictures from the reunion looked hilarious! I had completely forgotten that the reunion was this week until I checked my email. Umm lets see what is something interesting about the week. On Saturday we went to a non denominational church with one of our investigators. It was a pretty different type of service. It started out with a little rock concert of about 5 songs and then a preacher got up in the middle of the crowd and talked about the "church family" It definitely made me appreciate how much more spiritually uplifting our Sacrament meetings are. He was the one who came to church on Sunday and I gave a talk so hopefully he feels like he can come back again and that he enjoyed it. Lets see what else happened . . I got to see Elder Porter again this week. He has had a car this past transfer and has really been loving it. He think I'm going to be leaving Kenner as well but I have sort of felt that way for these past few transfers, so I really have no idea!  whatever happens will be alright. We are getting quite a few new missionaries so I might end up training again.  If I were to train I would want to stay in Kenner because I dont want to jump into a new area and try to train. Ill let you know though!
Love Elder Smith

Dear Family,
Monday, was a normal day and then on Tuesday we had interviews with President Hansen. After interviews we went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. They are spanish missionaries, so I just was along for the ride mostly. Exchanges lasted until Thursday and after that we just tried to get back into the swing of things. On Thursday we had a really great lesson with some investigators. We were talking about how God answers prayers and we just asked them a simple question of how God answers their prayers. One of them told us a story of how he was praying asking for help to get a job when he heard a "quiet voice" say "I will help you". He then went on to say that he doesn't always get his prayers answered that way and that usually he just gets either a good feeling or bad feeling after he prayers. It was a really good lesson and now we know that they know how to receive revelation. We have invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it but obviously they haven't, otherwise they would have gotten an answer by now. So, we just need to instill in them a desire to know if it is true. They both are a great example of humility and they understand the scriptures really well. When they join the church they will be a great asset in helping the Ward with their missionary efforts. Friday and Saturday was similar. Sunday ended up being a little different because after church we went out with the ward members and the Stake resident "ministering" we spent about an hour figuring out who we were going to see and then were going to meet back in an hour to discuss how it went. Everyone we went to go see wasn't available so it was kind of a bummer.
Love Elder Smith