July 30, 2012
Family!  First off thank you so much for all the letters, Dear Elders and packages! And thanks to the Cottle family for the letters.  I'm so thankful for all of you in my life!  This week has gone by pretty fast compared to last week and I can't believe I have less than a week left!  But our district gets to be hosts tomorrow so tell Aaron to txt Ryan that I will be there when he comes.  I'll try to be his host.  I'm so glad to hear his farewell went good, I'm proud of him.  And yes I have talked to Taylor Rapp a lot here too.  Well where to start . . .Thanks Dad for all the good advice and scriptures, it helps.  I think the way we teach investigators is a little different now then how you did it.  We don't memorize the lessons, just have to know them and the Spirit tells us what to teach that specific investigator at that moment.  It's amazing how the Holy Ghost works through us and tells us what to say, I love it.  I'm so happy to hear about Payton, I look up to him so much.  And I hope Michael gets the hang of things.  To answer some questions....we wake up at about 4 AM Monday and the plane leaves about 8:30 I think.  I can call home also---so Mom expect a call Monday morning if everything works out!  And yes Dad they assigned Elder Bruce in my district to be our travel leader, there are 26 missionaries flying to Vegas at the same time.  Crazy!  I think the whole plane will be converted by the time we get there!  We do service projects every Saturday at 6 AM and our district just cleans one of the big buildings here.  About Jordan, I'm sad to hear that he's moving, but hopefully it's what the Lord wants for him at this time.  Oh and Mom thanks so much for the shirts, they came yesterday.  Tell Lexie Uncle Logan wishes he could come play with her too, I miss her!  I'll share one spiritual moment we had this week out of many, me and my companion are getting along good and we're getting used to each other's teaching styles, we were teaching one of our teachers Bro. Mederios, role playing as "Alan" and we only got through half the lesson when he stands up and he says, "hold on, that was perfect," then was speechless.  The Spirit was so strong guiding our lesson and he said if there was a camera in the room with other teachers watching, they would say we had been missionaries for over a year already.  I was so happy and it gave me a lot of confidence.  Well since today is pday we got to go to the Prove temple this morning, it was really good!  Now I'm in the middle of laundry and emailing so I hope I've answered most your questions!  Thanks again for everything everyone does for me!  Love all of you!  Elder Smith

Hi Family,  I just sent a email, but I ran out of time to answer questions. To answer Dad's questions,--Saturdays are exactly like every other days but we have to get up earlier, 5:40 to go do a service project.  Sundays are really busy too.  And thanks so much for the letter about horses, I felt down and discouraged asking myself if I could really do this and that helped a lot!!  And the studyings going good, all of it is from Preach My Gospel, we wouldn't have anything without that other then scriptures.  Oh on Sunday we heard from Brother Allen of the 70's.  It was really good, he's a funny guy.  Like I said before, all my district is going to Vegas, but there's also a whole lot more Elders here right now going also, I don't know how many, but they sent a lot to Reno that were already in Vegas West so they need a lot there.  And now for Mom's questions--I hope I sent the email to the right emails, but the Pioneer package was great!  We don't get to see a parade for Pioneer Day but there's a devotional tonight (Tuesday), and yes my elbow is better.  I think I've had a constant headache since I got here, Ha Ha, but it's alright, it's just from stress.  We had a stress management class last night though.  I'm glad Cindy's getting better, thats no fun.  And thats cool about all the new technology your getting, I'm now content with my alarm clock, (only technology I have)!  I see Alex once in awhile, he said his Spanish is going surprizingly well.  Well I think I've answered most things, Thanks again for everything. Love Elder Smith.  PS. Can you send my by black shirt with ISU aircraft on the back and by blue shirt, and some tabs to stick on pages, that is in my school stuff.  Thanks so much.

Hi Family,
Thanks so much for the letters and packages.  I'm the only one in my district that gets the most mail and everyone's jealous.  I love it!  Thanks Dad for the great advise, it helped me that day.Everyday here is a 16 hour day and it goes by soooo slow, it feels like I've been here a month already rather than 6 days, but it's great. It's amazing how much I've learned already, the Spirit is the strongest I've ever felt and I've already seen how it can help us to talk directly to investigators.  We're in the middle of teaching 3 investigators.  The work is so hard, harder than my last year of school, but I know it's all worth it.  Las night was very good teaching Brother Coolie, (that's how you spell it) and helping him with the Plan of Salvation after his wife's death.  Anyways, I can't remember  all the questions you asked but yes, the food is great, all you can eat in 50 minutes, and I think I've gained about 5 lbs!!!  I've seen a lot of Elders from school, and Alex a few times. I talked to two Elders last night that are learning Hungarian and this whole week they aren't allowed to speak any English.  It was funny trying to communicate, he had to write it on paper instead.  I'm so thankful to be speaking English. Our teacher Bro. Mendeirous last night (coolest Hawaiian guy ever) told us the building we have class in was newly remodeled, so inside looks brand new and it was meant for Spanish speaking Elders (all 4 floors) but the First Presidency decided to change it to English because they felt there was going to be a movement and a great need for English speaking in the future, so I guess I'm part of that!  Well, I don't have much time left at all, 30 minutes for emailing everyone is not enough time, but I'm glad to hear everything's good at home and so glad my car is gone!  And so jealous Mom got a Droid Razor, I wanted that!! You better learn how to use it to it's full capability.  Thanks again for all the letters and everything--keep them coming! Love Elder Smith

July 18th, 2012:
I'm here and safe!  But, wow it's been a long full day.  As soon as I left the car I was comforted and felt good about everything.  My host carrying my bags was even from Idaho Falls.  We did one thing after the other all day and had no time to spare.  My companion is Elder Hymas from Washington Tri-City area.  He's great and I love the 8 guys in my class, all going to the same mission as me.  The teaching experiences with investigators (role playing) was very spiritual and I loved watching them.  I miss you all and hope everyone's safe!  Looking forward to emailing also.
Love Elder Smith