Hey Y'all!
This week was pretty awesome and really crazy. A good chunk of it had to do with two families we met this week! the way we met them was after leaving B's (which already was late . . . 935) we were walking around to the front of the house. (he lives in the back of a shotgun house which he is kind of the caretaker for the two main parts of the house are rented to people visiting new orleans) so we were almost to the front and we hear some squeals saying elders elders! we get to the front and see three young women and two adult women unpacking an suv. They tell us we have to share a spritual thought with them and then one of the moms leans over and tells us they were scared that some bad stuff had happened in their half of the building (namely voodoo) so we went in their home and talked for a bit and shared our testimonies with them and prayed for them before we left. They were really grateful and we left probably an hour later (so now its 1035) we get home talk to the other Elders for a bit about what happened and crashed. Well they gave us some money to go out to eat so the next day we are at the restaurant because we are meeting them there. one of the waitresses comes over and asks us if we are missionaries and asks if one of us is from Wyoming. she talked to us about living in Jackson for a couple years and really loved it. then a few minutes later another waitress asks if we have a Jesus pass along card because she used to keep one in her car. we didn't but promised to give her one before she got off work. well it turns out she used to live in Baton Rouge and met with the missionaries before because her friend was a Rotolo. (back in slaughter the ward next to ours that was in our district called pride was where the rotolos lived the father is now in the stake presidency) so that was all crazy and not something that happens when we eat somewhere usually people just try to avoid us haha. so after we get done eating we walk to the back room where the team was (ok i forgot to mention they were in New Orleans for a volleyball competition) and only the girls we met the night before were members so about 10 other girls were there and their parents and coaches we just introduced ourselves and kind of talked about what we did and then left. the next day Stacy calls us in the morning (she is the mom in the picture) and asks us to give one of the assistant coaches a blessing because he skipped his dialysis. He was in lots of pain and wasn't sure if he was going to be able to make it home. So we gave him a blessing and he pretty much balled the whole time. he was a big tongan or samoan guy and afterwards just immediately got his energy back. He made it home safe and everything went good. well as we were leaving the convention center a few members who were there stopped us and asked us what we were up to haha they were kind of giggling (they were also Islanders so they always are laughing super loud and joking) (haha they asked if we were public contacting haha at the volleyball tournament . . . two young men at a building with a bunch of young women) a little awkward. well they gave us some money for dinner as well. then saturday stacey asks if we can give them the sacrament before they leave because their flight leaves during church so we bike to their apartment at 6:45 in the morning to do the sacrament and pray that they will be peaceful flying home. We find out the the mom has anxiety (not Stacey) the other mom and she was the one flying home then and her daughter was also leaving early by herself so she was super nervous. so anywho it was just crazy how it all worked out and definitely wasn't a coincidence that we met and that everything that happened happened.

PS Stacy also grew up in Garden City (bear lake) so I talked to her a lot about the road from Evanston to Logan and getting smoothies and stuff.

PPS also they talked to B a lot which I'm sure helped him since we are getting him moving along back to being active.

also we got D moved out to the east and thats a relief her niece A is going to be baptized in two weeks. So all in all a good busy week full of little miracles!
Love Elder Smith

Sweet Sunday dinner member

Friends

Dear Family,
It's been a pretty fun week this week so ill let you know what's been going on. First off we were thinking that we were going to spend a good time of our week helping a member move into her new apartment but she got sick this week and so we didn't do anything. Instead we went to her Mom's house everyday and taught her and her niece. It's kind of fun teaching a really young person just because she is so willing to accept everything we teach. We watched the Restoration video with each of them and as we watched the part of the first vision she kept saying, "Its so Beautiful!" that was just super funny, just saying girly things. So, we have just been trying to get her to understand principles like what a prophet is and what the Priesthood is. Then we ask their mother to explain things and I'm surprised at what she remembers. The mother, I think sometime plays like she doesn't get things but deep down she is really focused because she knows how important it all is. The one member that is going to be moving in a few days or maybe weeks, won't be with her niece anymore. Once that all settles we are going to figure out if the neice can be baptized. Her mom is ok with us teaching her and everything but I don't know how supportive she will be for rides and just helping with the little things like prayer and scripture study. That's something we really need to get a plan for. A funny story from this week, would be, when we were going home after teaching the two of them. Elder Jones and I hadn't eaten all day so he decided to buy us some chicken. On the way home he bought a ten piece bucket and once we got it we raced home. It had just been raining, so we didn't want to get everything all soaked. When we got home and open the box we realize that they gave us 3 extra pieces of chicken and an extra biscuit. Elder Jones wa really excited because he had used all his money to buy us lunch. So we started eating all the chicken and biscuits, spent a few minutes resting and then went to see a less active. As soon as we walked in the door he asked us if we ate chicken and then asked if it was from Church's haha, We must have really stunk, if he could even tell what place the chicken came from. so that was pretty funny. Speaking of him we have been able to see him more often and he asked us to remind him to read his scriptures everyday. We have all committed to study the Book of Mormon searching for a particular precept.

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

So I chose to study looking for gratitude, Elder Jones picked charity, and Benjamin picked peace. Its been great to see just how grateful the Prophets are in the Book of Mormon and to see what they are grateful for. I have learned a lot, and it hasn't even been very long. This week we are excited to see everyone again and to just really enjoy the heating up summer . . . not really (well just the heating up we actually are really excited to see everyone again). Well I love and miss everybody!
Love, Elder Smith

It's been a pretty busy week for us. We have been helping the new convert a lot so that took up pretty much all of our time. We spent one day helping her deep clean her new apartment, then two days painting, and another day helping her get moved in. We haven't finished it all so we will be doing that this week. It will be good to have it all done. It looks like the weather here is going to be pretty rainy all week. It looks like it's definitely going to storm today, its pretty dark outside. We've had a lot of rain the last few weeks. There was a lady that fed us last night and she was so nice to us. She fed us a really good dinner and then while we ate, she cooked another meal for us to take home. Then she pretty much grabbed everything out of her fridge to give us! She is going to feed us every Sunday and she always gives us a ton of food. When I meet people like that it makes things not so bad because I know there are just good people out there! The news for this week is that both my companion and I aren't getting transferred, so it will be another 6 weeks in downtown New Orleans. We have some good plans for this new transfer so it should be really good.
Love,
Elder Smith