Hey

Hellooooooooooooo,

This week has been absolutely brutal. I thought I was exhausted before....boy was I wrong. This has been the hardest week of my mission and probably of my life. In the past three-ish months I have had a few days where we'd be out tracting for a few hours and I would come home super tired and have a tough time waking up the next day but then I would have a day of teaching and be fine. These past two weeks have been straight finding/tracting. Day in, day out. Everyday. Most mornings I feel like I can't move, let alone get started with the day. Plus this morning I woke up with a cold. Stuffy nose, sore throat, the works. Yay. I am reaching the end of my rope. That is the plain and simple truth. It is great to be a missionary. :)

All complaining and whining aside, I am doing alright. I'm sick, discouraged, tired, stressed but somehow I am still relatively happy. Once I fight through the morning and really get going things aren't so bad. Elder Hegemann and I are getting along great. Nothing builds a friendship like enduring trials. On Friday night we were "out on the town" trying to find people to talk to on the streets but we were having very little luck. We stopped at a park and sat down to take a little break and just stared at the city. Our city. Hundreds of thousands of people and we can't find one who is interested in our message. I asked him "What are we doing here?" and he said something stupid like "Taking a break" and we both just started laughing. We laughed and I felt like a normal person for the first time in a while. I realized that its okay to laugh at the seemingly insurmountable obstacles and "end of the world" trials that we all face in life. It was nice to step back and remember who I was, where I came from and truly why I was there. I am here because God wants me to be. I am here because I am needed here. Maybe not to change someone else's life, maybe to change mine. All of a sudden things didn't seem so bad because I was were I needed to be, doing the things I need to do. I am doing my best and that is all that God requires. I am so blessed to have Elder Hegemann as my companion. He is really good at seeing the big picture. He knows that he might not baptize anyone on his mission and for all he knows he may never teach anyone, but he knows that he is doing what he is supposed to be doing and that things will work out. What a great attitude to have. I think that he is training me more than I am training him.

So yeah. I'm doing okay and things are looking up. We found one person who might be interested on Saturday and we are setting up an appointment this week and we are meeting with our investigator this week as well. Hopefully next week will have more exciting news than me being really tired. We had exchanges on Tuesday and so I spent the day with one of the three Farsi missionaries in the mission and the world. Three in the entire world and they are in my district. :) I learned how to write hello and Elder Smith and also got some really good advice. It was a good time. I was so glad to get emails today. We haven't got any mail this week so it was nice to hear from home. I am so grateful for supportive family and friends. The little things you do really help me out and makes a difference.

In summation, this morning I felt really awful about everything and life stunk but after sitting down, thinking about it and getting some much needed advice and love from home, I am fine. Life is good and I feel good about the future. It is all about perspective and just taking it one step at a time. I really love P-Days. I love you all and I hope things go well for you. Do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith

P.S. In other news, God snapped His fingers and it is fall. We walked out the door this morning and there were leaves everywhere and most of the trees were yellow. I swear they were green last night. It has been cool the past two weeks but now it is officially fall. Like over night. I love it. :D