Pain and fear...(pictures)

25-04-12

Dear Family,

    So I received the packages! I got the Valentines package and Tiffy's package! They were awesome. I am so glad that I have that seasoning again in my life. What a blessing! And yes, I did receive the two flash drives; I think everything arrived unharmed.... except for the White Powder doughnuts. I ate the first one and went to grab the next and saw that it was green with mold. I was so angry, but I guess that’s what happens to donuts when they are in a humid mail system for almost three months.

    Tiffy! You shouldn’t tempt me by talking about a taco from Taco Bell that has a giant Dorrito for a taco shell! I almost started just sprinting back to the states; even now my mouth is watering thinking about it. I miss Mexican food so much! That’s awesome that Hunger Games was good, I can’t wait. Thank you for the photos mom; they are just what I needed. And thank you Heidi for your photos too, they were hilarious. I’ll be sure to show people here.

    Thank you so much Nana and Pops and Coley for the Easter money. I used it to buy two new ties and some ice-cream and soda. It was a good Easter!

     Yes mom, I know Elder Winsel, fairly well actually. There were three missionaries from a different district at the MTC that I got pretty close to, and Elder Winsel was one of them. 

     Could you guys do me a big favor? I would like a copy of my patriarchal Blessing for my Portuguese Scriptures, the size of them is 13cm X 20cm, Yes, Portuguese scriptures are bigger than English.

     This week has been full of pain and fear; I'll first talk about the fear. I had an interview with the President this last week. When I walked into his office, he set a chair right in front of him, sat down, we started with a prayer, and then he asked me, "Are you breaking any of the Ten Commandments?" while staring deeply into my eyes with his piercing eyes, striking fear in my heart. I replied no, and he quickly returned fire with "Are you sure!?" not smiling at all. I began to wonder if he knew something I didn’t. I quickly went through all the commandments in my head to make sure my answer was right, but when I got to the commandment "false idols" all I could thing about was; Oregon Ducks, Batman, and Taco Bell. I've never felt so vulnerable in my life, but in the end, it was all good.

     But the day before the interview, I was stricken with a fever of 102.1 degrees. I thought that I would try to keep our schedule and teach because we had two investigators that I felt really needed to progress and couldn’t afford to miss a day of being taught. After I left the house, I soon found that my decision was a bad one. I was very weak walking under the hot sun. I felt I would faint at times. After lunch, we decided we would abandon our teaching appointments and seek medical help. With my pounding head, I was more than happy to. We arrived at a so called clinic for help. The lady told us the wait would be two hours. Ok, I can wait for two hours for medicine.... But waiting there is like waiting at the DMV. There are a bunch of people, its loud, lots of people are coughing, and it was just torture. In addition to that, there was a drunk man that would not be quiet. It was so annoying. Anyways, two hours came and went; we decided we would wait a little longer.  2 1/2 hours passed, soon 3, 4, and almost five hours and we were still waiting. We decided rest was more important that medicine at that point and just left. I got some generic medicine. I fell asleep pretty quickly and the next day felt great. But then something weird started to happen to my feet. I got a whole bunch of little red bumps on them, and my skin was almost peeling off where my shoes were rubbing. I’ll add a couple pictures. But now they are getting better. I bought some stuff for my feet too. But this week hasn’t been the best. But if there are charges on my card from this week, it’s because of that. (If any of you can diagnose Jess from the picture of his foot and the high fever, please let me know…. Nurse Elly?)

      We had family night with a bunch of new members this last Monday and it was good. I will put a photo of that too.

      Well I hope all is good back home. I love hearing about the Howard Family, but I understand if they will be too busy to write for a while with the move and all. Also, it might be a good idea to buy that thing Elder Smidt IX talked about for my pictures. Alright, Love you all!

 

Elder Smidt X

I DOOOOOO.....

Captain Mega Man X reporting to the Smidt family on Star date 2012, the eighteenth day of April.

     Hello! I have some good news! I received my Easter Package from you guys yesterday. I'm still waiting for the other packages, and who knows when I’ll get them because I also just received Britt and Shawn’s Christmas card... strange.

     I'm sorry my email last week was short. It would be helpful if the emails to me were a little more limited or sent through mission ties. I love hearing from everyone, LOVE it, it’s my favorite part of the week, but during email time it makes it hard to put more time into my emails. Thank you for the letters Britt, Heidi, Nana and Pops, and mom and Dad. I love hearing about what’s going on. Brittany, I gotta say, that Micro chip thing you talked about is strange. Trust me; they are not more technically advanced than the U.S.

     Dad, I prefer my Hush Puppy Shoes, only because of comfort. They feel gooooood. Anyways, you Hoser, yes, you can use my Lacrosse Bag, but you have to pay a price. Using my bag might give you a disease from the stench. But it’s ok, you’re a Crazy Cannuck now. You don't care about things like that.

    Mom, my language is coming along pretty good, but I still feel I am VERY far from being fluent. Many times during lessons, I still will stumble to find a word. And it’s frustrating because it makes me think that our investigators “think I don't know a butt load about the Gospel, but I DOOOO!”

The Chapels are really nice, but don't have big lawns like president Firmage said; very small lots. You don't have to send the Oregon shirt, but after hearing about dad’s wonderful miracle of witnessing a living Oregon Ducks Plane, I still want SOMETHING Oregon.

       I'm slowly starting to come out of my shell with members and am starting to feel comfortable talking with people. I told a youth in our ward about me and Terik’s YouTube videos that we made before my mission. Now most of the ward knows about Terik, and our videos.  It spread like wild fire. So yea, we are pretty much world famous. :)

      I'm a little Jealous of John’s Conversion Story from General Conference. I would love to have an experience like that. Please don't forget to send me all of John’s emails; I really like to hear what’s going on with him.

      The couches look good! But are they comfortable? With the brown couches, you felt like little Wilbur in a basket full of blankets and pillows. I'm not really sure what that means, but the couches were awesome! They could put any man (old or young) to sleep.

     I'm glad you informed me about Heather. I will be sure to keep her in my prayers; she is such a trooper and an awesome example to everyone because of her perseverance.

     I hope you all have a great week and I love you!

      

Elder Smidt X

Testimony...

*Our ward historian asked me for a picture of Jesse along with his testimony to be put in our ward history book. Hence the reason for him including it in this email. I asked him to do that for me.*

Michelle Smidt

4-4-12

Dear Family,

        So first of all, I am still waiting for that Valentine’s package. But sometimes packages take 3 months for missionaries to receive them. Also, sometimes the post office will hold packages until you give them more money because "there wasn't enough shipping". I don't know, it’s kinda retarded. I heard that if you put stickers of the Virgin Mary on the seams of packages, they won’t open them because everyone here is Catholic and very respectful of Mary. Also, I heard that with priority mail, packages are more likely to make it to the person. Just some thoughts. I'm sorry there are difficulties with the packages.

       Dad was right, I'm not too big of a fan of yellow shirts, but I do like gray, so whatever works. My companion is awesome; He is so hilarious and helpful. He is very in tune to the spirit. He is Brazilian and he knows a lot of English, which is actually very nice because he helps me with words while we are walking on the street. This week I decided to open my peanut butter though and share it with him even though I wanted to wait till my birthday because he had a rough day yesterday. Apparently the mission president called him and was pretty harsh with him because he let his last companion break a rule, which was singing a song on a karaoke machine.

       Anyways, I'm sure General Conference was awesome, but I feel like I missed out on a lot of it. (it was translated into Portuguese) Could you send my some talks that you felt were really good? I would love to fully understand what the Prophet and Apostles said. I know it was good though because every investigator that watched it wanted to know more. The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning! 

       I don't have much more to write so I will just write my testimony that you asked me for. 
       I feel honored that my testimony will make it to the ward history. When I heard that my feelings about what I believe were wanted for our ward’s history, I wanted to write something very special. For this purpose, I wanted to write something creative and unusual. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that my efforts were in error. Simply put, the gospel is simple. The gospel is something that anybody can understand, old or young, uneducated or intelligent, rich or poor. It is what can create a level of understanding to everybody on the earth. As missionaries we teach with simplicity, and the spirit testifies to people in simple terms.

       I believe with all my heart that God loves each and every one of us. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and he would never want us to dwindle in unbelief and not hear his word. That is one of the many reasons why I believe that God started his work again nearly 200 years ago by answering a young boy’s humble prayer. I not only believe that the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ, but I know it. I stand every bit with President Holland’s Great Grandfather, who said simply enough: "No wicked man could write a book such as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so."  I am grateful to have this witness in my life and to have knowledge from on high. I am so grateful for the marvelous blessings that we have been promised if we just do our part.

        And lastly, I am grateful for my family, a beacon of light in my life. I know that God put families on the earth both as a temporal and an eternal blessing. I love this Gospel and I love my family.

      In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Smidt X