Hi.
HOLY STINKIN COW!!!! 18 FOR GUYS AND 19 FOR
GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?!?!?!? I CAN'T. MIND=BLOWN!
Ahem. Yeah. Conference was fantastic and I'll address that later
but I just had to get that out of my system. Anyways...
Last week I decided that last few emails had sent were too much
"Blah blah life is hard blah blah" and no one wants to read that so I
decided to change things and proceeded to keep a mini journal of the happenings
of each day. Every night I wrote three or four bullet point items to share in
my emails so they would be more about what I am doing and less about how sorry
I feel for myself. Genius right? So I did that all week and lo
and behold, forgot the book at my apartment. Yeah. I'm the
worst. I'll see what I can remember.
Monday-FHE with a member family whose daughter is basically an
Chinese Kimberly Puckett. They talk the same, love the same things (if kimee
still loves horses), and they even have the same glasses. It was freaky how
similar they are. Great day.
Tuesday-Helped a member move most of the day. I got stung by a
wasp. My hand was swollen for days. I had forgotten how much getting stung
hurt. It was seriously painful. I survived though. Don't worry.
Wednesday/Thursday-These
days always turn to one in my head. We had a Dear John scare. E Hegemann
received an unexpected and uncharacteristically small letter from his girlfriend
and he was freaking out. Poor guy. But all was well, bullet dodged etc etc.
Friday-Temple Trip!!! So worth waking up at 4 am. I had missed
the temple so much and it was such a good thing. I felt so at peace and calm
and it was very very needed. I love the temple. To add to the already
fantastic-ness of that day after the session our zone leaders pulled out our
mail! It had been a very long time since I got mail. I was richly rewarded for
my wait with like five letters from Grandma, two from Dad and two from
Megan. A month without letters really adds up. Boy oh boy! I was so
happy on that ride home and for the rest of the day. It was such a
blessed day. And we talked with this old guy from Germany who bet us that
we wouldn't come back on Saturday to rake his leaves. We did and he was very
surprised. He also offered us cigarettes and told us that our pastor wasn't
there so it was okay. Haha. We said no. :)
Saturday/Sunday-Conference!!! Such a good conference weekend. I
don't even know where to start. We spent basically the whole day at the church.
There are two wards in our building, the Richmond Hill Ward and the Markham
Cantonese ward and each ward has two sets of missionaries so we just spent time
with them and talked and had a great time. Two of the Elders are from Hong Kong
and the others are from Utah. One of them went to Hillcrest and knows Liam. We
all watched conference together in the chapel with the members who don't just
watch it on their computers. It was great. When President Monson got up at the
beginning I knew something was up. I thought it was going to be something about
temples etc but then he started talking about missionaries and I started
freaking out. Talking afterward we all had thought that he was going to send us
all home or something but when he announced the new ages we were all shocked.
Jaw-dropping. It was all I could think about the rest of the session. I was
pretty floored by the guys age being 18 and then he lowered girls to 19
and I could not believe it. This is a game changer. A few
members think we'll have at least 20,000 new missionaries within a year.
That would be great. Such exciting news. My hope is that this change will put a
bigger emphasis on serving when you are ready. It will encourage more people
(mostly girls) to serve and everyone to serve because they want to,
not just because they have nothing better to do. We are going to get some
amazing missionaries in the coming months and years. :) The rest of
conference was fantastic! It makes me wonder what I might have been
missing by sleeping and doodling through most of the sessions in the past. Is
it always this amazing-inspiring-life changing-great or is it just a recent
thing? I loved every second of it and I can't wait until it comes again.
It might be, dare I say it, better than Christmas. It was awesome.
Monday-Thanksgiving!
Or "Fakesgiving" as I like to call it. It was a good day. We cut a
ladies lawn and helped her with some other things and we're going back
again to finish up and to hopefully set an appointment to teach her. Pray for
us!! We might have two lessons this week! I haven't taught a single lesson
since I got here and I am just dying to teach anybody. This is really
exciting news. :)
It was a good week. Much better than last week. I feel a lot
like the people of Alma. They prayed for help from God and he answered them not
by lightening their burdens but increasing their strength to carry them. The
work was the same, the results were the same but somehow it all seemed better
and more bare able. God is good. So, so good. He answers prayers and gives help
in simple and often unrecognized ways. I feel so blessed to be a missionary and
to be able to experience His help each and every day. I want to share this with
everyone and I am so excited for the people who will serve missions now that
might not have before. It is the best decision I have ever made and I would not
trade this time for the world. I love this gospel and I love my Saviour. What a
wonderful thing it is to be a member of this church. :) I love it.
I love you all and it is so great to hear from those of you who
write me. I hope everything is going well and that you are enjoying every
minute of the life that you are living. Look for opportunities to serve and as
always do good things!
Love,
Elder E. Smith
P.S. Canada Fact of the Week: Prepare to have your minds blown.
In pretty much every country but the U.S. the letter Z is called Zed not Zee.
Zed. Everyone says this but America. I feel almost betrayed. Like my life is a
lie. Who knew? I didn't.
P.P.S. I love you all very much. Please keep your head up and
look for ways to serve others. Be God's answer to another's prayer.
Luvs!
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