Cool Events...No pics...

Family and Friends,

So I did some really cool things this week and took a lot of photos, but the computer that I’m using right now isn’t reading my card and I don’t want to pay more to use another machine. But I had a good Christmas. Well, it was really Christmas just to me, because nobody was celebrating it. But at least I got to talk to you guys, and that was awesome! I made a short Christmas video and took some pics as well. I would like to give a shoutout to all the people that sent me stuff. The Howards, The Gilleys, the Baums, Nana and Pops, Nana Raine and Pops Ralph, Aunt Carolyn, the Kelly’s, and aaaaalllll the letters from the family! Thank you so much!

This morning we went to some caves with really big Mineral crystals, cool lights and really cool other structures, along with some Nephite writings. A lot of really cool photos. I will definitely send them next week. We took some other Elders in our zone too. Cool experience.

I am happy to hear that everyone had a good Christmas. I am so happy to know that next Christmas I will be home with you guys.................. AND THERE BETTER BE EGG NOG!!!!!!

At least I don’t feel entirely away from the cold weather. I happened to pick up a head cold in these past few days.

Anyways, I love and miss you guys!!!!

Feliz Ano Novo!!!! Eu Amo vocês!!!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

Don't you want a little taste of the glory?

17-12-2012

Oh Mylanta!! This week has been nuts! But before I explain, let me resolve all of the questions and doubts.

First off, Coley and Jason will not have a boy, nor a girl. It will be a man just in a babies form, but he will be advanced with a full grown handlebar mustache, already wearing a Harley Davidson leather vest.

As for the Christmas call- Mom and Dad, you guys need to call me at this number: 37-3774-5048, and I’m pretty sure you need to put a 55 in front of the whole number for it to reach Brazil from the States. You will need to call me at 4 o'clock my time. The call can only be 40 minutes. My companion will be talking from 3 o´clock until 3:40. Next p-day will not be on Monday, it will be on Christmas day. I hope that I will also get to email you guys along with the call, but that is if we can find an internet café open.

Nice warm, balmy climate? Not quite mom, but nice try. I would take snow any day over this. But its all good.

This week there will be no pics because I forgot my camera, but my camera that I got is really nice. At least I think it is. The lady gave me a 150 reais discount which is like 75 dollars. It is a Sony, with Carl Zeiss lenses and a large LCD screen and 14.4 mega pixels. It seems really nice. Black and sleek. Has a lot of really cool features too.

Mom, I don’t really like to talk too much about the number of Baptisms I’ve had because in some areas its a lot and for other missions it is close to none. So I know that by saying my numbers I will either look like a rookie or I will look like I’m boasting. But thankfully with the Lords help, I have brought 24 people now unto the waters.

Well, let me explain why this week has been so crazy! First of all, Elder T Santos and I were able to bring 9 people to the Sacrament meeting this last week and we had 4 baptisms planned for this upcoming Sunday. Would be sweet, right? 4 baptisms right before Christmas? Yeah, I was excited, but then yesterday, I received a call from the President asking how the work was going here. I told him that Elder Santos and I were really starting to pick things up, and that my companion was finally adjusting to the mission. But the whole time I was talking to him I was nervous, because the President only makes personal calls for "big deal" things; usually it’s bad news. If it’s ever normal news, the Zone leaders call us to tell us something. Anyways, the president congratulated me on my work and then told me that he felt I needed to be called as Zone Leader. I accepted my calling humbly and almost didn’t sleep at all last night. I was up till 11:30 pm packing my stuff, and I left to catch a bus this morning heading to Belo Horizonte at 5 am. My new companion is Elder Cansino and we are both the Zone Leader's here for 28 missionaries. Everyone has been telling me that its really rare to be called to Zone  Leader with only one year on the mission. All of the District Leaders here have more time than me on the mission. There are over 150 missionaries on the mission and 16 zone leaders, or 8 companionships. I do not say this to brag at all, rather I say all this to let you know how unprepared and inadequate I feel, and how much I am in need of your prayers.... right now....

My new area is Sete Lagoas (seven lakes) and is sooo beautiful. There are palm trees everywhere and a lot of lakes. There are 7 big lakes, but also a lot of small lakes or big ponds everywhere. But it is surprisingly not too humid. I think that I am going to like it here. 

I have to go, but I love you all and miss you a ton.

I love you guys a bunch!! Until next week!!!

God Speed,

Elder Smidt X

Year One...

10-12-2012

Well, this Friday, I will have done it. My one year mark. I really wanted to think of something clever to write like a lot of missionaries do for their one year mark. After much thought and effort, this is what I came up with...

.....

It turned out that I wasn't able to come up with anything clever. To tell the truth, this week doesn't feel all that different to me. It just feels like another week doing the same things: no extra privileges, no parties, no celebrations, except for one thing. Some immature missionaries like to burn a tie or a shirt or something childish like that. I decided to do something a little more manly and went boar hunting in the jungle, where I caught myself a prize winning 213 pound hog using sheer strength, speed, and intelligence. Then I skinned it with my bare hands.

Things are going good with my new companion. Sometimes he is a little slow to accept feedback, but we are starting to really pick things up. We both tend to laugh a lot which is good.

FYI- I'm cool with whatever for the Iron Man. I just want to make sure that the Family Reunion works out.  

This week we heard gun shots really close to us. The first time, we were walking down an Alley and were called by a lady to come and enter into her house. Not a few minutes later, somebody was shot in the alley. The other instance, we were in our apartment about to leave and I decided to use the bathroom real quick before we left. While I was in there, we heard gun shots. Somebody got shot and died right in front of our apartment; both instances could have been us. I'm grateful that it wasn't. I told my companion that I had never had anything like that happen to me yet, I told him that he was cursedJ. But the crime rates here are rising fast, I don't know why. So, what did I do? I got to preaching MORE about the Book of Mormon. I even went up onto a bridge and called the people unto repentance, then as they were getting ready to shoot me, I pulled off a "Samuel the Lamanite" move, and hop skipped out of there.

Yesterday was testimony meeting in church (since the week before we had a Stake conference) and it was really good. We brought a family that really liked it. But during the meeting, it sounded like a McDonalds Play House because of how noisy the kids were. So I went up there and bore my testimony about how grateful I am to be able to participate in the sacrament meeting every week, and to feel the presence of the holy ghost, and then I told everyone that there are other people that feel the same way and look forward to the meeting every week. Then I said that we need to maintain this sweet spirit and have reverence, and we need to control our little ones and have them focus as well. After that it was quiet….but I don't think I was the popular one, nobody talked to me afterward... Oh well, I couldn't deny that impression I felt!

I am missing snow right now almost more than anything else!!!

I love you and miss you all!

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X

New Companion...

3-12-2012

Family,

Why is Griffin such an idiot? He doesn’t even ever eat the Twinkies, he just hides them from me until it’s too late. By the way, I got the Baum’s package this week and I ate the air heads and the pop rocks, but I am waiting to open the other things. Can’t wait. My companion thought that the pop rocks were very interesting. He had never seen or heard of pop rocks before. Like I said, having pop rocks here in Brazil is about as cool as the cats pajamas.

Happy Birthday Bret! I hope you have a wonderful day and that you send me a piece of cake... I wish I could say I’m just kidding, but that would be lying.

I freakin almost DIED when you were talking about how you smoked a turkey this year, and then when you were talking about ribs, that did it for me. GAME OVER!

From what I’ve seen on cameras here, (I have only looked at one store) it would be 250 US dollars. I’m sure I could find one cheaper though, maybe not. Let me know ASAP.

Yes, I got a new companion, my first Brazilian companion that is taller than me. His name is Elder T. Santos. Fresh!!! Greenie! I’m training this young scally-wag to be an awesome missionary. He is really nice, eager about the work, and funny, just has a lot to learn. We are still in the same area and I feel I could be staying here for a while.

Saturday, I got hit with a high fever of 102.8 degrees. I wasn’t feeling a little bit in the dumps, I felt like the dumps where shoved into my head. Luckily it was only in the head, no vomiting or anything. That morning when the alarm clock went off for the other Elders in our house (I had been lying in bed awake waiting for them because I couldn’t sleep) I immediately asked for a blessing. I was given one but Sister Fortunato wanted me to go to the hospital in Belo Horizonte, so we went there, but by the time we arrived my fever was almost completely gone. That doesn’t happen people. That was priesthood power in action! I just hope that the president didn’t think I was just trying to get out of work. 

Nossa, only eleven more days until I hit my half way mark. Its crazy to think about.

Dad, your letter also just about killed me off, all this stuff is sounding so exciting, its like playing candy land.... don’t know where I was going with that one, but let’s just say that it is one sweet, sweet ride my friend.

I can’t wait to hear your guys voices here in a few weeks!

Love you all!

God speed

(Pics: Thanks giving meal! me playing with some neighborhood dogs that follow us around EVERYWHERE)

Elder Smidt X

Last Week Of This Transfer...

Dear Family,

I’m sorry that I forgot to mention Brittany in my last emails. I also got some great letters from you too Sis!!! Thank you so much for the updates. I can’t believe that after my mission I will have 10 nieces and nephews? Is that right? freak...

By the way mom, because I had my toe worked on, it doesn’t mean that I got two days off. I still worked like any other day, I just had a couple hours taken out of my day for the actual doctor’s appointment. My companion was able to take some pics this time, HEHE. We also took a picture of some of the usual R.O.U.S.'s here. That’s right, remember the rodents of unusual size from the movie "Princess Bride"? Well they actually do exist here. These things are literally giant rats. There is a tree on the left hand side, that is about 15 feet tall. These things actually freak me out, but I heard that they aren’t vicious like normal R.O.U.S.'s. They are actually scared of people, but I have heard that their meat is really good. I couldn’t get a clear shot because it was so far away, but I will definitely try to get a clearer shot for the future.

Mom- to answer your questions…

So, as for my area, it is a lot nicer than my previous areas. Also a lot more expensive. I have to do a lot more walking, or in my situation right now, a lot more bus rides because of my toes. Mooooney, money, money, money, I just can’t keep doing this Bob! Good thing is, I turned in my receipt to the mission office, and they paid me back in full for the appointment; not for the bus rides or anything, but yeah, I got my 85 reais back, (probably like 42 dollars). I have one other companionship that lives with me in our house as well. They are kinda funny, sometimes annoying, but I love them. At first it was a little hard to get the Senior Elders respect, but after he realized I was just trying to help, not burn him or anything, he trusts me with everything.

Christmas packages--well, Sister Fortunato wants Me and Elder Cox to put all of our stuff back into our boxes and give them back to her because she wants to hand out all the packages to the missionaries. Its not that bad because I was going to wait anyways to open the boxes until Christmas but that didn’t stop me from eating the powdered donuts. Freak! With every bite I was a nervous wreck, I was crying into my pillow while eating them knowing that it would be the last time I would ever eat Hostess. My eyes glisten with tears as we speak. I also was in need of buying a new pen right when I felt a little present that was obviously a pen, so I also opened up just that present, not any other ones. But I am suuuuuuuuper sad because I lost it the next day. I have NEVER lost a pen on the mission and I just happened to lose my coolest one! I actually was really sad about that. Do you think I could somehow get another one? It was perfect.

Happy late birthday DAN!!! I hope all that time away in Colorado didn’t do more damage to your little closet problem. I know it’s not really possible for you to get worse in the condition that you are in, but hey, we all gotta hope for the best, right?

I’m fine here. Nothing new has been happening, or anything all too exciting other than that I was promoted up to the Jedi Council last Thursday, but that’s about it.

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X

Put another shrimp on the Barbie!!

Family and Friends,

Got some good smelly news and some stinky diaper news. My camera is on the fritz; every time I take a flash photo on the camera it lets off a good amount of smoke. Its kinda cool because it reminds me of one of the olden day cameras, but at the same time I know that it is not a good sign. Today the camera deleted all of the photos on my flash drive. It said "memory card error" but I know that it’s not the cards fault because it did the same thing with my last card. So I’m thinking maybe I can get a new camera, what do you guys think? Or I can just take the pictures from my companion’s camera every p-day until the end of my mission. That’s what Elder Pezzi did. I don’t know. But I have to explain some other rotten news. The bank error (stolen money) falls on us. When they ask the missionaries to bring a credit card for emergencies, it’s for issues like that. Also, I went to a real authorized foot doctor today because my foot started getting worse. The bad thing is, I have to pay for it. It’s not covered under our missionary plan. I could go to the hospital to have surgery done but that would put me out of work for a while and the president didn’t want that. I have to go back in two days... I took some cool photos of the lady using power tools on my feet like Dumb and Dumber, then I asked to take a picture with her afterwards so I gave the camera a big smile with the doctor. She thought it was pretty funny, but then the photos got deleted soon after that. I also took some photos on the bus ride, opening up my huge amount of letters that I got since we were in B.H. We picked them up, I had a cheesy smile while opening up the wonderful Halloween poster the Howard kids made for me. I loved it, but it also got deleted. Brianna Ball, I freakin love you! Thank you so much for the letter! It was so awesome to read. I have the coolest cousins, na verdade, I have the coolest family. But anyways, thank you so much. I will write you a more detailed letter.

Coley! I miss your homemade chicken noodle soup. That letter just made me hungARRRY. Don’t worry about a Christmas Gift! Really, there is nothing that I can really do with gifts on the mission. How is Romney the dog? Only have heard one sentence about him since I left home. I’m glad that the girls got to go to Les Mis. Sad I missed Russ' 1^st B-day.

Tiff, thank you so much for the wonderful details on Halloween. We had one trick-or-treater come to our apartment and we didn’t have anything so Elder Cox just gave them a piece of gum. It was kinda funny. They don’t do trick-or-treating here, but just in our apartment they were doing it. Halloween doesn’t even exist here, so I guess I just got lucky to see some trick-or-treaters.

Dad, that is awesome that you got to go camping with KJ. I really miss those days. Too bad you weren’t able to make it to our real spot, I love that place.

Congrats Heidi!!!! I am so happy that things are working out! Your new baby is so cute (I mean that in the most manly, grizzly, big bearded, lumber jack way)!

I think you mis-understood me mom. Christmas will only stink in a way that I will be away from the family. I do not regret being here instead. I do not regret giving service rather than getting presents of Cheeseburgers under the Christmas tree (even though that tradition will still continue here) and I most certainly look forward to celebrating Christmas how our Lord would celebrate it. I was just saying that I will sure miss you guys and that is the part that will stink.

We have made a lot of progress this week, talked a lot, and will continue to progress a lot. I don’t have a lot of time, but I love and miss you all!!!

P.S. This week I will have Thanksgiving dinner with a Brazilian that studied at BYU for 8 years, so he knows what’s up. Other than that, Brazil has never even heard of Thanksgiving.

God Speed-

Elder Smidt X

I'm not cryin', its just been rainin' on my face...

Dunnn dun dun dun!!!

Hey, so we did it, we baptized that family and they are super firm! The baptism was a huge success. We had 31 people there which is like half of our ward. We had a little video presentation and after the baptism when everyone was giving them hugs welcoming them to the ward, they gave the parents some church books and the kids a cd, and afterwards there were snacks and soda for everyone. It was a way cool experience to be able to see the ward helping out so much. Then yesterday we did the confirmations and I did it for my first time  (I should be embarrassed, but I always just let my companions do it or ward members). I confirmed Artur and his dad, André. It was such a neat experience. Then after the sacrament meeting more members came up to the family and gave them scripture cases, a hymn book, books of Mormon, bibles, and they gave the kids a book about the book of Mormon but like the comic book version almost (I don’t really mean comic book, but there are a lot of pictures and the scriptures are abbreviated for the kids to understand better). The members made a temple visit this week and bought all this stuff for them at the distribution center. Then later that day when we went by the house, Artur had already read the first couple pages about Joseph Smith and had a question about it, so then we started to explain some things to him when his sister asked another question and then something really neat happened. Artur turned to her, explained the whole story perfectly, detail for detail, and with such ease too, and I almost had a vision of him just serving a mission in the future explaining those exact things for another family. I didn’t have any kind of girly situation where I started crying, but I did get super excited when I saw how much they all were progressing and thinking about him serving a mission in the future.

One other blessing this week has been the rain!! It has been so stinkin hot this past week, but this week it has been raining every day. Sure, its turned a lot of the roads into mudslides, but hey, I got to use my rain coat for the first time in my mission this week. Guess who has the same rain coat...

This morning we were able to take a family to a county office to mark a wedding date. In thirty days I will be marrying a couple so that they can be baptized. I just have to stay here for the next transfer.

Yesterday was also full of spiritual growth because we helped the bishop make some visits to sick people, and this is the first bishop I’ve seen on the mission that serves purely out of love. You can feel the love that he has for the members. You know that he isn’t just doing visits because he feels obliged to as a bishop, but he does it because he wants to. How many times have we accepted a calling and said, "I accepted the calling but I was comfortable where I was".  How is that putting your heart into the work? I have been learning to not only go through the actions, but to also do the things I need to, more because I want to. I have been studying a lot on how I can be a greater missionary and have learned a lot. I do not aspire to become a "great" missionary; rather, I aspire to be a "servant".  I know that "greatness" implies my performance in relation to others. I know that the critical measure is my conduct in relation to my own abilities and in comparison to my past performance. While I fully understand and do not resent the need for statistics, numbers, and measurements, I am not motivated by the praise or recognition of men. I am motivated by my desire to give myself and all that I am and have, to the Lord and to his work however that may compare with others. I know that Jesus taught his disciples (who at times aspired to the honors of men), that "whosoever will be great among you... shall be servant of all." He said: "for even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:43-44)

         
I've had so many cool spiritual experiences this week, I feel like Moses might have felt. Somebody put a freakin cloth over my face so that I don’t start to freak the people out around here.

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X

I'm a little concerned for your salvation and stuff...

5-11-12

Family and Friends far and wide,

This week has been excellent. Let me tell you why. We have been teaching a family this past week who have been progressing so much that I have literally seen miracles with Erika, Andre, and their two kids, Artur, and Mariana. We found them a few weeks ago and after the second visit they were all reading the Book of Mormon as a family. When we first got there, the couple was arguing a lot and planning on a divorce. The mom had a lifelong addiction to cigarettes and the dad had a drinking problem. Since they have received a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, they haven't argued once. Since we taught them the word of wisdom, the mom hasn't let another cigarette touch her lips nor has the dad even touched a beer bottle. The whole family gave up drinking coffee that next day, and they all drank a lot of coffee. They only waited on the baptism because the mom still wasn't sure if she wanted to unite herself to this church yet. As my companion and I kept praying for miracles, we saw yet another when the next day we passed by their house. For the first time it was the mom that wanted the baptism most. She said she woke up at 5 o'clock for reasons unknown and just decided to say a pray concerning baptism. She said that as she was praying, she felt an indescribable feeling, a feeling of warmth and love and comfort, and an impression on her mind that baptism is exactly what she needed. We have it scheduled for tomorrow and it will be my first "family" baptism. I have baptized families in the past, but it never worked out on the same day. There was always somebody with doubts. I'm pretty stoked.

This week my ingrown toe nail just became unbearable, so I finally decided that I would do something about it. But I wasn't ready to just go spend a bunch of money to get it removed. So I went down the free route, and had it removed- "Not pain free". I really would have liked some numbing stuff for my toe because as the crazy lady (ex-investigator) with her knife and giant tooth picks was going to town on my toe, tearing out chunks of infected skin and nail and chopping it all up, I was only left with a red tarp to bite on to endure it. Wasn't too fun. But at least the infection, smell, and pain is somewhat gone. I included some (not all) photos of the surgery, walking in flip flops, and biting the red thing. I also included a photo of us just being cool with our shades and of us walking in the wilderness. This week we were talking in another church and told them whats up. SEM MOLEZA. Maybe next week if I have more time I will tell more about my experience there.

Thank you so much for the email Nana and Pops. That's awesome that you were able to make a visit to the good Ole Star before it got too cold. I hope you guys have an awesome trip.

Please send me Craig's address. I have a letter for him, but I lost his address. Does he have a mission office address? I would like to just have one address to send stuff to rather than changing it.

Also, I would REALLY like to have this little puzzle that I saw about the plan of salvation. There is a website called LDSpuzzles.com I think that sells the puzzles in every language. The one I saw was pretty small which would be convenient. But if its pricey, don't worry about it. Its not going to hurt not having it.

Well, Happy Birthday Jayden!!!! Sorry I missed it!

I love you and miss you all!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

What A Long Week...

Family and Friends,

This week seems like it has been very long. It’s been stressful (not too stressful, just a little) having to care for my district. All of their errors fall on my head now.

I could really use some new garments though. I have been meaning to say that for a while now, but have kept forgetting. Just bottoms. I feel like an Indian now with a cloth piece by how much they are wearing down.

So this past week, we did something that I’ve never done before. We went wedding crashing. We taught this couple the first lesson, and they said that they were too busy to even think about religion right now because they were getting married that weekend. But they left us with an invitation to go to their wedding rehearsal. So that’s exactly what we did. We went there and went around to every table of people eating, talking about our church, made a lot of appointments, and made a lot of friends. Then we headed out, but not without snatching some food.

Anyways, yes, I got the SD card. Thank you! I also have put the wrapped presents on the corner of my desk waiting for Christmas. I can’t wait to open them!

Haven’t heard anything yet on the bank situation with my money that was stolen.

Mom- Elder Cox's family moved away from the Boise area this past summer due to work issues, and now they are living in San Francisco, or at least close by there. But Elder Cox was telling me that they don’t have other "Cox" relatives in the area, or so he thinks. His moms email address is "kerriejcox@gmail.com". He is an awesome companion! He has been helping so much, since he already has almost 6 months here. He knows just about everybody.

Tell Tiffany to send me an email. I’m allowed to email her since she’s immediate family, but I don’t have her email address with me and I always forget to bring my address book with me. If I arrive here next week with an email in my inbox, it will just be way easier to remember to ask her a question that I have in mind.

Attached is a picture of me in the area, and a really ironic picture. Its pretty dark so its hard to see exactly, but there is a picture of a Bar, and above it is a Building for Alcoholic Anonymous. I thought it was pretty funny.

Well, until next time!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

A lot of change and sadness...

Hello Family and Friends!

Before I forget, mom, you need to send an email to Sister Fortunato (sisterfortunato@hotmail.com), our Mission Presidents wife with an attachment of our family pictures that we have on our wall in our house. She apparently needs it for the Christmas conference. Write down my whole name and missionary name, and yeah, I think that’s all.

Well, this week has been interesting. There have been good things as well as a lot of sad things that have happened. I was transferred this past Wednesday to Divinópolis. It’s about 2 hours away from Belo Horizonte in the opposite direction of Montes Claros, so its a lot cooler. I will miss my companion A LOT. We became so close. I would really like to return someday to São Paulo after the mission just to stay at his house for a while. I told him that I would leave the Oregon shirt for him in the mission office. We both grew so much together. My new companion is Elder Cox, my first American companion. He is way cool. We talk Portuglish during the day without really even thinking about it. He has two more months than me on the mission. But the weirdest part is, I knew him before the mission. Yep, Aaron Cox. Before Rocky Mountain opened up, he was going to Eagle High and we were even in the same Seminary class. I remember we did some group activities sometimes, and once in a while he was my partner. I could have never imagined that I would ever be walking down the same streets with him in Brazil. Its weird. I was also handed a lot bigger load of responsibility this week. I was made District Leader here in just a little over 10 months on the mission. That will give me a lot more time to get the district leader calling down, and maybe it will work into zone leader. If not, I’m totally chill with being D.L. till the end. Too much responsibility might cause problems for me :)

But anyways, this last week, I was robbed by the bank. They deposited our money into our accounts, but when I went to take the money out of the ATM, the machine just said error, and then later showed that I had no money left in my account. Apparently this has happened to almost all the missionaries here. So I had to use all personal money for travel expenses and to buy new food as the mission tries to figure out what happened.

I finally received letters and packages! It was about 7 weeks. Because Montes Claros is so far away, we weren’t getting anything, and the mission president forgot to bring the letters and packages for the missionaries when he came. But he gave us permission to read our many letters when we got them. We don’t have to wait till p-day. So when I went to Belo Horizonte for the transfer, I picked up all my mail, but just to be clear, there were two box packages from you guys, and an envelope package from Tiff and a lot of mission ties letters. Is there anything missing? I haven’t read them all yet because there are so many. But from what I have read, I will make my comments now.

If Elder Taylor Wood is reading my emails, tell him to tan those Samoan hides. A lot of missionaries think that its like tattle-telling when they talk to the president about what’s going wrong with other missionaries, but what it really is, is reporting about our missions. Some missionaries may think "its his mission, he can ruin it if he wants"… Not true, its your mission as well. It’s all of our missions. We can’t allow for one missionary to stink up the program.

Heidi, I am so glad that things are starting to work out for you. I knew that the prayers would work, but now I have a challenge for you. Pray now more than you were before just to thank Him. Always continue in prayer, even in your heart. Don’t forget who it is that blesses us.

Shawn, thank-you for the many updates. I would love to go duck hunting (not talking about NCAA) some time with you. I have ALWAYS wanted to but never had the opportunity. Keep me up-dated on KeKe.

Tiff, it was great to hear about your new life, how all the kids are adjusting, how brave Keaton has become. It was awesome to see those pics of the Kids, especially Jack with his awesome little duck hat.

Dad, thank you so much for your letter. I got all super excited again about my bike, then I started telling all the other missionaries how cool my dad was and what he was doing for me and they all just got depressed because they don’t have cool dads like I do. So then I upper cutted each one of then, except for one shorter one which I decided to give him a round house kick to the face instead, then told them to get back to work. Mom, thank you for your updates. I always love to hear of the dogs and what’s going on with the family.

Nana and Pops! Thank you for the updates! I can’t tell you enough how excited I am to have a family reunion. The only thing that I ask, is that we have some really cool water activities planned. I love water activities and I’m missin them. Oh, and plenty of Doritos.

Mom, as far as the ties go, thank you so much! I was really suffering there for a little while. All the ties that I got I love. The ones that were my favorites before my mission as well as the new ones, I love. I noticed one tie though that really stuck out. The golden tie. I love to wear cool, modern ties, in fact those are my favorite type of ties to wear from day to day, but then there are other ties that are just pure beauty; ties that I would like to only wear in the presence of heavenly beings. The Golden Paisley tie is one of those ties. I’m almost scared to wear it on any other occasion.

Well, this week has been great so far. I just am missing my last area a lot. I REALLY got close to the members there.

I love you all so much!

God Speed! 

Elder Smidt X

Here are some photos of my first service project with Elder Cox and holding a baby chick. My companion is 6' 5" so I look like a little kid next to himJ

The big guy on campus...

Hello Family and Friends,

     I thought that I should start off getting my requests out of the way. Please send me a picture of me eating the homemade sandwich that I made my last week home. I would like to show it to my companions and the people that I teach. Also, I am sorry to say this, but I no longer am in possession of the watch that was given me by the Howard Family before I left. After breaking the front face, it was already reaching its mourning days, but then when the battery died, I thought about just taking it in to get the battery replaced and just keep on keepin' on, but then one of the young men that is preparing to serve a mission told me that he wanted a watch for his mission, but that they were all too expensive. I told him to take my watch and use it; replacing the battery would be a lot cheaper that buying a new one. I'm very sorry Tiffy that I don’t have that cool watch anymore, but I want you to know that it went towards a good purpose.

      Well, the Big President came this week and it was awesome! He is such a neat guy and very funny. He decided that it would be easier for him to come here than for all of us in our zone to go to BH. It was the smallest zone conference that I’ve ever been to ( 8 missionaries) and it was my first Zone Conference where I was the only American. I liked the Zone Conference way more this way because of the personalness. We got to talk with him during the conference, like it was more of a conversation than it was a conference, resolving all of our doubts, problems, and questions. It was really cool. Then for lunch we all went to a Rodízio, all you can eat steak and a bunch of other meats. It was gooood, and then afterwards we got to have personal interviews with him. It was a really cool experience.

      I was telling my companion that it was a good idea in my opinion that they lowered the ages for young men and women to serve missions. I've seen too many times when teenage boys get out of high school and use their new found liberty to get into bad things and screw up their life. I think that the sooner they can leave after high school, the better. And for women also. I know that A LOT more women will be serving now with this change. 21 years was such a long wait.

    So yesterday we had a baptism and it was really cool how we were able to baptize her. We weren’t able to get a hold of Patricia ( our investigator) for almost a whole week and we thought that she must have just been avoiding us. We started to give up, but didn’t have any investigators to bring to church Sunday, so we just decided that we would pass by her house to see if we could bring her to the church. Luckily she was finally in the house. While we were walking with her to the church, she gave us a bunch of reasons for why she wasn’t able to talk to us forever. In my mind I was just thinking, "yeah, nice try, but I know that you’re just telling us lies and excuses." But as we were arriving at the church, she turned to us and said, “so today’s my day right?” I was kind of puzzled and just said, "what?" and she said, “todays the day that I’ll be baptized, right?" I kinda just froze up and was shocked that she actually had a sincere interest to be baptized still. I tried to not let my jaw hit the ground. When I collected my senses I said, “well sure you can be baptized today, but we still need to teach you some of the commandments before you can be baptized”. She told us to teach them to her right then. I taught her about tithing and the Sabbath Day, and then I talked with my Zone Leaders so that they could have an interview with her and decide if she was ready to be baptized. It all worked out perfectly except for that the Baptismal Font didn’t have any water. It was back to the buckets and running back and forth down the hallways getting it filled.

    But anyways, those are my experiences from this week. There is a picture of the baptism and the zone conference attached.

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X

300 days....

Dear Family And Friends,

     This week has been good. I loved the talks during general conferences. I think that my favorite talk was during the first session Sunday, by Jeffrey R Holland. I love his talks. Mom, if you think that not being able to watch the talks live and having to watch them recorded kind of stinks, try watching it in a different language. I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to watch it, but it’s not even close to being the same as hearing them first hand. The people translating don’t do a good job of translating the humor. You don’t get to hear the people laugh. But what really kind of stinks, is you don’t get to hear the emotion of the speakers, the tears, etc. All you hear is a monotone voice translating the words. Its still great, but not the same. We were able to bring several investigators to the meeting, three of them were teenage boys that we met on the street. Im not sure if the conference was really up their alley, but hey, I tried.

    Saturday afternoon, the other missionaries had a baptism but forgot to fill up the water in the font. As we were about to leave the conference, we heard that the baptismal font was empty but there was a baptism in thirty minutes. My companion and I decided that we would help to fill up the font. We were running back and forth carrying buckets of water trying to help fill up the tank. It took about 40 minutes and a lot of sweat to get it filled.

     So I've been slowly losing weight just by rationing my food better during lunches. This wednesday I will reach 300 days! Three hundred is a cool number because some people made a movie called "300" about my life. And this Sunday I will be hitting my 10 month mark. I will be making a lot of Jell-O to celebrate.

     I finally got some hand written letters done and sent them out with more news and details about my mission. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get letters done. Im glad you guys had a good trip to the Ducks game. I would have really liked to go. I really miss them but there is work to do here. But don’t worry, I’m spreading two kinds of the good word here in Brazil! Baptisms, and my companion now has an Oregon Ducks sticker behind his name tag. So, you see, we are doing lots of good works in Brazil.

     God Speed

Elder Smidt X

P.S. I would like to just say how extremely happy I am that I have a chest being filled with all of all my favorite things I am missing while on my mission. I would also like to express my long felt love for a certain video game called "Halo". I think that it is so fascinating how Uncle Tim, Aunt Janet and their family all pitched in to buy a Halo game for John while he was on his mission. Seeing how our family is so cool, I suspect that Halo 4, which comes out sometime soon, will also find its way into the chest. And I especially love the fact that usually when you pre-order the Halo games using "Best Buy”, they always throw in a really cool bonus feature on the game. And I'm pretty sure that John loves this too, and if you guys have any questions or need any assistance, he'd love to be of help for you guys. Way to go fella's!!!!

hey, hey, hey...

Well mom and dad, 

I think I may have officially become the strongest man in the world. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think it finally happened. 

That photo that you sent me, maybe I can put it on my flash drive and then bring it to photo printer but I think it would be easier sending it through the mail. I was also thinking that maybe you could start planning another calendar for me? I love the calendar I have. Its probably the coolest thing I have on the mission. And before I know it, I will be hitting my one year mark.

If I have any really cool "Aha" moments, don't worry I will be sharing them with you, but this week I haven't had any. Except for when I found my jello mix under the refrigerator.... mmm, it was pineapple. We are still waiting for the president to come. I think it will be tomorrow, but we never know. They like to make the visits unknown, like the sixth sense, they just randomly occur.

I'm trying to read the entire bible, cover to cover and now I am about 1/8 of the way done. Its very interesting. I never realized how many things Moses did that are the same things that we do today, especially with temples. But I never have had such an interest in the Old Testament that I have now. Its really neat. So today I will be going to a "Mall" to look around, that should be fun.

I'm glad that the postal strike is finally over here. I was scared I wasn't going to be getting any mail for a long time. Its been a while now.

I really don't know what to say this email. Elections are really funny here because every person that is running has their own music, which is always really cheesy and there are millions of cars that blast this music everywhere. I have political music stuck in my head now. 

Yes, I dream in Portuguese and English. I don't remember all of my dreams, but sometimes I wake up and realize that my whole dream was in Portuguese. One time I talked to my companion in my sleep and he said that it was Portuguese mixed with English, and he told me while I was sleeping, "I didn't understand anything you said," and I just replied in Portuguese, "me neither."

Hopefully I will be able to send you guys a package for Christmas with some things, what do you think?

I loved that photo that you sent me mom. I'm glad to see that you are opening up to the truly pleasant things of the world. Please tell John to save  that photo that he made for me so that I can put it on Facebook after the mission. I was laughing soooo stinkin hard. I love it.

Well I love you all!

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X