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