Letter from Ohio

Hello!

Cody must be excited to get his new and remodeled room. Don't give in to Delaney wanting to paint her room yellow. I'm pretty sure that would be a sin. Sorry that the roof is leaky. When you say we need a new roof does that mean...new shingles? How do you replace the roof?

It sounds like the duck opener was a hoot. How many did you guys take total? Mom, were you sick or something or did she have a meeting to go to that made it so you couldn't go with them? I'm sorry you had to miss it. Cody, did you use your 870? Which gun did Delaney use? That's lucky that they didn't check Chris's license. It sounds like everybody had fun. Unfortunately I can't get this stupid library computer to show the picture. I don't know why Bo doesn't like the suburban. Maybe if you let him sit on the seats (like I did when I took him with me in the escort) he would like road trips better. That is sad to hear about Harley.

Wow Delaney, you must be pretty disappointed! First you "don't pass" your driving test and then you get a "B" on a math test! Holy smokes! You might as well just drop out now and become a ... ummm....fish farmer maybe? Or a hunting guide...or perchance an underwater basket weaver. No wait, I think you need a degree to do that. Yeah, you will probably end up as a fish farmer. Just kidding, of course, I am sure you will do just fine on your driver test and subsequent math tests. (Note from Patty: The testing was closed by the time Delaney got there to take her Driving test. They were open to take our money, but had stopped administering the test by the time it was Delaney's turn.)

Hi Peyton. Don't not pass tests like Delaney does once you are back on track. Can't have all my sisters being fish farmers.

Cody, good job on covering the whole side of the field in your game, that must have been fun.
(Note: Cody's team only had 5 players show up, so they forfeited but still played a game for fun, and Cody was the 3rd baseman, shortstop, and left fielder. BTW - they won)

I hope you watched the conference talk in priesthood session about what sons need to do to have a good relationship with their dads. I really liked that talk. Chuck Norris can blow bubbles with beef jerky. Watching conference was awesome! We got to watch it at the church here which I thought was the coolest thing ever. We got home from priesthood session at about 10:45 or so, I think. Everything is delayed by two hours here from Utah time. The conference talks were really good, though. I like how the whole theme of the conference seemed to be love. Did you find some inspiration as to what the relief society theme should be for next year? Yesterday (Sunday) the ward had a potluck between the sessions. Saturday our district ate at a chinese buffet between sessions.

Yep, I got the package, and thank you very much. The weather is definitely getting colder, but some days, like today, you can hardly tell. Today it is nice and sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and a balmy 50 degrees! The rest of this week has been kind of rainy, sleety, windy, and cold, though, so I am glad you sent the package with the winter stuff. You will probably need to send some thermals (but not thermal garments, I have heard bad reviews from all the missionaries I talked to about them), since I guess it gets pretty cold and snowy in the winter, if you can spare any during hunting season, if not I can buy them here. The jerky is delicious and juicy beyond belief.

That must be hard for Elder Fleischel to be all locked down and not able to work very much if at all. They asked us in conference to pray for the areas where we can't send missionaries yet, but I guess we should also pray for the areas where we can send missionaries as well. I hope Eric doesn't have too much trouble. Do you know if all of Honduras's missionaries are in lock down or just Elder Fleischel's area?

Yes, transfers are just once every six weeks, so I get to stay here in the 'hood for at least that long. Unfortunately, this week hasn't been very succesful. We have dropped or been dropped by several investigators this week and it didn't seem like anybody wanted to talk to us. But we are praying and fasting to be able to find people who are ready to hear and accept the restored gospel. People like Mike. Still haven't found him yet, though, but we will. I guess that President Petersen (the old mission president) said in a mission conference that every area has at least ten people in it at any time that are prepared and ready to accept the gospel. We just have to find them. One person we are hopeful about is Sister Ondrick, who recently moved into our ward. She is not active, but when we visited her she said she would like to come to church and just needs a ride. If we can find a ride to church for her every week we think she might return to active church membership. It's just up to the ward to be willing to make the sacrifice to drive her to church. We also have the same problem with another lady, Sister Orosz, who can't drive to church and needs a ride. We will keep working with both of them and hopefully they will see the importance of taking the sacrament and attending church every week and become active again. Pauly, we found out, is back in town. She is an investigator who we lost contact with for a while but we hope to be able to start teaching her again.

Well, that is about it for now. I sent a letter today, so you should get it pretty soon I hope.

Love, Elder Smith