Hello!
Good work on my old room - it is hard to say Cody's room. You will have to send me a picture of what it looks like, but it sounds good.
A missionary returned the other day from his mission in Washington to our ward. I asked him his name and he said Elder Hineb ... I mean ... Nate. It was funny how he looked for all the world like a missionary without a name tag. He just seemed to naturally congregate with the other missionaries wherever we were talking and stuff like that. He just had missionary-ish mannerisms. It will probably be difficult for me to adjust to saying my name is Matt again. I hope I don't forget what my first name is within the next two years.
Congratulations on being done with Sis. Bird's house. That must be a welcome relief. I am glad you are being such a good example of a visiting teacher.
Ouch. Sorry to hear that BYU and the U didn't do too well. It's probably your fault for leaving Super Saturday early. I hope you learned your lesson. Just kidding, but wouldn't it be funny if BYU or the Jazz prospered or failed based on the faithfulness of the members in Utah? Then the coach of the Jazz would probably ask everyone in the audience to say a prayer before every game started.
Sorry you guys didn't get anything hunting. How far away was the deer Cody couldn't shoot at? Who rode which horse? I will make sure to include in my weekly letter to President Sorensen your advice that Holiday should be open earlier to not miss out on revenue from hardcore hunters. I hope you have fun pheasant hunting.
The birthday party sounds like it was a hoot. Falconing is way cool and red-tails are pretty. Did Delaney and Cody wear a glove to feed it? Did Peyton get to feed it? Do you know if the falconer guy goes falconing-hunting with his hawk? Way to go Delaney for being super-fluent (but not superfluous) in Spanish. I hope you can transfer on up to Spanish 4. That would be awesome. But who ate your eraser?
Well done Peyton at the primary program. I can't believe you memorized 3 different parts and the harmony to the song, and on such short notice. That must have been hard.
I love 3rd Nephi! It is probably my favorite book in the BOM. I really like the scripture in chapter 10 where it says "how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chicks" and chapter 11 when Christ comes to the Nephites. The rest of the book is good, too, of course. The only book I might like better than 3rd Nephi is Alma because it has so many good scriptures and stories, but it is probably an unfair comparison becuase Alma is so much longer.
To answer your questions: yes, church news is kosher for us to read. Thanks Diane for the conference issue.
We still get a ride to church with Bro. Davis. After Sacrament Meeting we go to Gospel Principles class, which is like gospel doctrine but more simplified. That is the class to which we take any investigators. I like the Gospel Principles book a lot. It just makes things so easy to understand. Like President John Taylor taught, "It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it"
The church is about 10-15 miles from our apartment, I think. We do not live in the same building as the other missionaries in our ward. They are Elder Carter and Elder Leake, and they live in Parma, which I think is about fifteen miles from us. However, there are some places where more than one companionship live in the same apartment. I think the Spaniards live like that and maybe two or three other places as well.
No, we are not making much progress with any of our old people. Yes, we found some new people. This week we actually did really well when it comes to finding people. We had set a goal to find four new investigators this week, which is higher than most areas. We ended up finding seven new people, thanks to the helpfulness of the ward members. We went teaching with members twice this week, and both times we had lots of set appointments. Well, most of the appointments either called us to reschedule or no-showed, but we brought the members with us to our back-up plans (that is going to be another thing tough to get used to when I come home: not having a plan and one or two back-up plans for every minute of the day. I won't know what to do with myself.), which consisted of contacting media referrals. We ended up teaching several of them, and it made it even better that we had members with us. I am definitely gaining a strong testimony of member involvement in missionary work; whenever we have members with us teaching, the Spirit is stronger and the lessons just seem to go better. Some of the people we found this week have a lot of potential. Our zone leaders also left a message for our whole zone that the zone's numbers have been off the charts this week, so that was encouraging. We had zone conference this week and it was really good. President and Sister Sorensen, President and sister Titera (Stake President), the APs and the ZLs all spoke. It was really good. We talked a lot about how we can adjust our teaching to meet different peoples' needs.
Cody can use my ghillie suit for halloween, hunting, etc. I just want it back in two years. I am pretty sure it was hanging in my closet when I left. It's the green leafy one, you can't miss it.
When you say the lady you met playing volleyball whose son is in the OCM do you mean that he lives in the mission boundaries or that he is a missionary?
I didn't get the box yet, but I'll look out for it.
Sorry I haven't been very diligent about taking pictures. I'll work on that.
Love,
Elder Smith
P.S. LYMNB!
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