Happy New Year!!

Hello!!

Wow. Its 2013 already. It doesn't feel different. :) I spent New Year's Eve in Leamington, Ontario (Tomato Capital of Canada) with my district. We read the Book of Mormon for eight hours Monday and then six hours on Tuesday. This was part of our President's plan for us to be productive during the less productive times. So on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day we split up reading the Book of Mormon in 24 hours. It really added up to 28 but that allowed for lunch and dinner. It was sweet. Difficult at times but awesome. We got to see the Book of Mormon from a new perspective, seeing it all at once instead of spread out. It strengthened my testimony of its truth and was a great experience (minus sleeping on the floor that night. Not the best night's sleep. At all.) 

Our investigators are doing awesome. We are meeting with a 30 ish Chinese man named David and he is great. The language barrier is a struggle (and I thought just talking on the street was hard) but he asks all the right questions and just loves the gospel's answers. He is great. Al is doing well. He has a bit of a memory problem due to a heart attack a few years back which keeps things interesting. He asked his fellowshipper to drive him to the liquor store and she asked him about the Word of Wisdom and he said, "What's that got to do with anything." I guess he thought it only applied to smoking even though he had the missionaries dump all his alcohol down the drain two weeks earlier. It will just take some time to help him to understand everything. Sigh. Linda is doing very well. She is reading and studying and really like what she is learning. We have her soft set for February 3rd for baptism which is great. She has a fear of crowds so coming to church is her biggest struggle but she is working hard to overcome that. She told us several times that nothing is going to stop her for getting baptized. It just might take some time.

The work is going really well. I love it here in Windsor. The ward is great and the people are fun. The Holidays were awesome and made me remember how much I love and miss my family. But there is no where I would rather be than here, serving the Lord. The church is true, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and Jesus Christ our Saviour. He paid the price for us and all we need to do is ask and He will help us through whatever the trial. This is God's truth.

I love you all. Work hard and do good things!

Love,

Elder E. Smith