Burning weeds

Repairing a water line.

I have gotten a little more callused! I've been quite surprised with how much service I have done on my mission. Especially here in Slaughter. I have had a pretty busy week. We literally did service the entire week. We were helping brother Gordon build stalls for his horses, clear his yard of junk and scrap metal, and then we burnt two of his fields. We had 10 missionaries one day and then four of us one day and 8 of us another day. Elder Porter was on exchanges with one of the Elders who came, so it was a ton of fun being around him all day, especially since this is his last week. I was hoping to be able to go to the temple with him but they weren't able to make it with miles. He said that when he comes back he will come pick me up so we can do a session. The temple is only like 25 miles from Slaughter. Well I don't have a ton of time today since we have district meeting in just a few minutes I might be able to write a little bit more tonight and send some pictures thanks for everything I'll talk to you soon!

Love Jeff

Dear Family,
This week we mostly did service work. There is a less active man, that we spent a lot of time with, who is taking care of his parents, since they are sick. He's been out of town most of the week, so he had us take care of his animals while he has been gone. He has four horses, some turkeys, and a dog. We have been doing that and cleaning up his barn a bit. We also helped out at the dairy, bottling milk and going to the farmers market with them. We then helped out another member clean up his property. We have a big service project scheduled for this week, to help him clean it all up the debris and stuff around his place. Then we'll burn all the trash. He said the last time he burnt a pile the flames went higher than the trees around it. Hopefully, we can get that much trash gathered up to burn this time too. haha. That would be pretty awesome. We also will be going to the dairy to set up an electric fence to keep the cows off of the grass around their house. We get to go to the temple on Friday, so that should be a perfect end to the week. We had some changes in our Branch leadership on Sunday. This should get the priesthood more involved in home teaching, so Im excited about that. We had an investigator at church on Sunday and it was great to be able to teach the Gospel Principle class about the scriptures. The Spirit could definitely be felt during the class and hopefully she can continue to make progress. The lady that is investigating lives across the river, so we can't go teach her, the only time we can teach is when she comes to church on Sunday. Technically she should be going to church somewhere else but her husband used to be in the Branch Presidency here and since then has gone inactive. Now he has come back to church so thats good and she comes with him. Hmm thats it for me this week!
Love Jeff

Hi Ya'll,
It was a really good week for us. We started out like normal with Pday and then district meeting on Monday and Tuesday and then the rest of the week week went by as usual. We had a lesson with the Huddleston family, which went great. We watched the Testaments with them and brought brownies and popcorn. By the end of the movie they were all pretty much in tears and they all just noticeably felt the Spirit. After that we did service for different members of the Branch. We helped one less active member burn one of his fields and take apart a truck frame. We helped at the dairy some more, bottling and also going to the Farmers market with them. This weekend we had Stake conference. We had our Stake Presidency reorganized and Elder Perry was supposed to come for that. Sadly he took a fall this past week and so he couldn't travel. We are going to have another Stake conference though at the beginning of next month. Bishop Stevens is going to be coming. Well, we have a mission conference tomorrow with Elder Teh so that should be really good. Im getting a little under the weather, so Im hoping its not Strep. Talk to ya'll next week!
Love Elder Smith

Hi Ya'll
This week ended up being pretty good. We were over on miles at the beginning of the week and when the month changes we get fresh miles so we actually get to do things. The first part of the week we had p-day in Denham playing dodgeball, basketball and volleyball, Tuesday we had district meeting and then we went to see the Huddleston family. We had a pretty good week here. The members here are honestly just too good to us. We had a ton of fun on Wednesday at the bonfire and they just make us feel like we are part of the family. People in Kenner were nice and all but up here its just a different kind of nice. The rest of the week we pretty much just did our rounds. Saturday is was really stormy so we really didn't get a whole lot done. Sunday was really good and we got to see the Huddleston's again. Today we are planning on going to Denham again for P-day to be with all of the missionaries in our zone. This coming Sunday is Stake conference and we are getting a new Stake Presidency and Elder Perry is going to be there. I'm super pumped. After that we have zone conference and Elder Teh of the seventy is going to be there. So pretty much we have a lot going on. The mission is getting pretty anxious and I'm sure President and Sister Hansen are worried as well. Well that's all for me this week!
Love Elder Smith