Reunited...

At the airport in Brazil...

At the airport in Boise...

THE END.

695 

That is how many days it has been since I have embraced my parents; Since I have spoken to them face to face.

Some of the last words spoken to me as I left, were these, "Return with Honor, Son."

I remember that cold winter morning as if it were yesterday, and yet it seems like ages ago. Never had I felt so sad, anxious, excited, scared, and unprepared in my life. 

I have had many wonderful times and many difficult times, but what has always helped me was this line: "Return with Honor, Son".

I had never felt many of the emotions that I have felt in the past two years; maybe I never will again. I honestly do not know. I don't know what it’s like anymore to not be a missionary, to not be on the Lords errand. I don't know how to live, how to work, what to do. I feel lost. 

But am I scared? Not at all. 

One thing that I have learned on my mission, is to put my trust in the Lord. Something that looks so simple on paper, but in action and thought it’s difficult. I have come to the realization that many times we are required or forced to look to the Lord for help. Jobs, kids, money, bills, sometimes we are put into situations where there appears to be no light at the end of the tunnel, and in our trials we learn to look up to our Supreme Creator for help. But there is a big difference in this and learning to TRUST in the Lord. 

Many of us relish and seek deep doctrine, seeking the mysteries of God, but when it comes down to it, we often don't even have the smallest idea what "Faith" really is. Faith has become deep doctrine to me, one that I feel I will never be able to fully comprehend, but it is a doctrine I have come to understand a lot better in these past couple years. 

In the beginning I was forced to look up, forced to rely on God for help. And I went on in the mission praying everyday for it. But it took a long time for me to actually start to trust that the help would be given, to KNOW that it would be given. I had always prayed and had the faith, but didn't have an inner assurance that it would be there when I needed it to be. No matter how spiritually in-tune you are, there will always be that slightest bit of doubt that you will actually get the help you need. I'm not saying that if you jump off a building and have enough faith, that you will start flying like Super man. But I'm saying that we need to believe more, instead of just hoping. Hope is the start, but if we BELIEVE more, it will take us to new heights. "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."

It doesn't matter what situation you are in, TRUST IN THE LORD. There is always a way. The more we believe on a daily basis, the more our doubts are answered.

I don't know for sure what I will do with my life now, but I am not afraid. I know that it will work out. 

I cannot wait to see you guys again!

God Speed!

Elder Smidt X

HALLOWEEN!!!!

Well, this was the first Halloween that I had completely forgotten about until it was too late. I guess I was just too busy involved in the work which is actually a good thing. But I LOVED the emails I got. Just soo many questions. What was Keaton supposed to be? And Dad and Shawn? I think I know Shawn's; Call of Duty? Maybe not, but it was sweet. Even though I don't know what dad was supposed to be, it was the coolest one. Dang, I want a yellow suit. I had almost forgotten just how awesome our family is. I love you guys. I will be sure to participate in the Halloween madness next year. I will get into it. I still can’t stop laughing at the picture of the dogs with the shirts. I can’t wait to tackle Griffin. That little rascal. What is mom? A model witch? That can’t happen, where's the green skin? But don't worry mom, you pulled it off way better this year than last. I have last year’s Halloween pic here right next to me, the one with you and Tiff together. Its weird how time flies. Seems like I just got that picture from you guys. 

Jason, looks like the season is back. Just another Madden Monday.

Thank you so much Nana and Pops for the card!!! I can’t wait to use my first 10 US Dollars in two years. Really cool note, I love you guys and hope you enjoyed the cruise.

Well, this upcoming week will be my last full week on the mission. To be honest, I still haven't fully grasped the concept yet. It still seems like I will just stay on the mission, that I am just waiting for another transfer. I don't know how to explain it but I guess I am just more in denial than anything else.

This past week was once again just a race with the conferences, but it’s really good because it passed by super fast---doesn't even leave me with any time to think about going home. 

Question- have you guys already thought about hotels? Or what were you thinking about with that? 

Next week will be my last email home.

Love and Miss you all!

God Speed.

Elder Smidt X

Choo-Choo!!!

This week was awesome!!!!

So basically, I was just traveling the whole week. We had only two Zone Conferences this week but lots of other stuff to do away from BH.

The first stop was in Sete Lagoas!!! It was awesome to pass by there again and see old familiar places. That place is really beautiful. Going there and back, we just rode with the President. We talked about a lot of things during the trip. We talked first about the mission, then missionaries, then future leadership callings, then somehow we got on the subject about marriage. WEEIIRD, It’s kind of weird to think that now after the mission, any kind of dating situation could have an eternal consequence, unlike before the mission when I knew that whatever kind of relationship I had would have to end at some point.

I am super glad to have served a mission because it has helped incredibly with my ability to just TALK; talk to any kind of person and start up a friendship. My mannerisms towards people have really changed. I will still have some situations where I know that people will be like, "Man, that is one weird dude." But it will be a lot less often than it was before the mission.

After our first Zone Conference, we got back at night, packed our things up and then got a midnight bus headed to Ipatinga, a city about four hours away by bus. Got there, got to our room, slept for about an hour, and then went off to do our second Zone Conference. It was pretty hard to stay awake the whole time, even harder to look excited. But it went really well. After the conference, the president told us that at the chapel that they have in the center of Ipatinga, there would be a special open house the next day for all of the major politicians of the city. The mayor-council,  the commission, the public relations committee, health care committee; all the big dogs with the money. The President said that originally he was going to have the Zone Leaders head up the open house, but then he felt that we needed to do it. So we cancelled our trip going back home that night, got everything prepared the next day and met with the City politicians and leaders. It was really cool. The church hired a company to make appetizers and drinks and have someone in a tuxedo bring it around to everybody on a silver dish. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera so I don’t have any pics, but it might be in the Ensign or in the paper and I'll snatch it. After the open house we did a 24 hour division with the Zone leaders until Thursday night, slept in our room, and bought a bunch of junk food.

The next day we worked for a few more hours to kill time until three o'clock, because we found out that there was a train line from Ipatinga to BH, and come on, like I’m gonna pass up on an opportunity like that! So we worked until our departure time and then took the train home. We got back here at about 9 o'clock last night. The train was awesome!!! You could go between the two cars and just look out the half door. I felt like I was in the time of the Great Depression, train jumping to get places. I felt like a kid again.

This was the fastest week ever! Its weird to think that after this letter, there will only be two left that I will write.

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Smidt X

Zone Conferences...

Family and Friends,

This week my companion and I had our first Zone Conferences. My focus for these conferences is to teach the missionaries how to work with leadership in the ward and stake and to encourage and liven up the missionaries. My parts have been about 50 minutes long during the conferences because we are given a specific amount of time to teach. The Assistants, the President and Sister Fortunato both talk, both the secretaries speak for about 15 minutes each. Then we have lunch and then we just do practices.

It's really interesting to me how much easier public speaking has become to me. I remember before the mission I was asked to teach one Sunday in Elders Quorum. What a mess. I didn’t even know how to TEACH! That is the biggest thing that I have learned on the mission, how to teach, not just talk. I remember that Sunday I finished my lesson with 15 minutes left to go in the meeting. So I just told them, "Well that’s it, I don’t know what to do now." So they all just talked about sports for the last ten minutes. But man, how things have changed dramatically. There should be some pictures on the Misson Facebook by now of the conferences, but I haven’t been able to take any new pictures recently. 

We moved to our new apartment this last week and it is awesome!! Other than that, nothing new has happened this week. 

Hope you guys have a lot of fun in Chicago and eat a lot of Chicago dogs for me. Send Aunt Lori and Uncle Scott a big hug for me.

Love and miss you all!!

God Speed,

Elder Smidt X

Elder Smidt...

*From the Mission President's Wife*

Dear Michelle and Mark Smidt

We are so excited to meet you. Thank you so much to send us your plans to flight. We will pick up you at the airport. 

We would like to invite you to have a dinner or a lunch in our home. We will talk with Elder Smidt about that. 

We love your son. As Assistent of Mission President, we can see his trainings with other missionaries. He is humble, powerfull, like a perfect leader. He knows perfectly how to teach, and I love hear his teachings.

Congratulations to have a wonderfull son as a missionary here in Brazil. We are gratefull to serve with him.

With love

Sister Fortunato

Craziest Week EVAH!!!

Family and Friends,

Mom- First off, we do have Google maps on our cell phones, only the staff does. We have an unlimited plan but the rest of the mission only has 100 minutes to talk and that’s it. I made a picture yesterday of the Staff during my spare time. I was waiting for a meeting with the President and I had nothing to do, so I made this picture. It’s all of our faces except for the girl, she still has the same face. 

I got the package!!! Thank you so much for it. I loved every bit of it, except I still haven't opened the Cereal yet. I'm going to try to save it for later. I love the Old Spice. Did they stop making the Fiji Old spice with the white stick? That one is by far my favorite. If possible, I would like some of that ready for me when I get home……and Axe hair puttyJ

So this week was by far the craziest week ever! It’s a blessing to have all the new missionaries coming out, but it is also a challenge when they all come in. I won’t even be able to explain it fully, you just had to be here to see it. We start our Conferences next week, but this week was transfers. NUTZ. So, Tuesday morning we had a small meeting with the President and we talked about transfers. The President had already decided on where he wanted the missionaries, but we still discussed what would be good and bad and made some changes. Then we had 15 new missionaries come in. 13 in the morning and another 2 at 1:30 in the afternoon. Elder Schendroski and I went to the airport with the President and Sister Fortunato in the morning to pick up the Elders and 3 sisters at the airport. We got there about 11:30 am. It’s about a 1 ½  hour trip. Right when we got there, the sisters got in the president’s car and headed to the office, but Elder Schendroski and I took all the Elders, their suit cases, and the sisters suit cases and took a bus back to the city. Right when we got there we left all the missionaries with the two Secretaries and Elder Schendroski to do a new missionary training while I left and went with the President again to pick up the other two missionaries. The President wanted me there to translate because they were both Americans. So I was the translator during that car ride back, but going there the President and I had some good one on one time. We talked about some things we can do in São Paulo when you get here.

After we got back, we went straight to the Mission home to eat lunch. Elder Schendroski was in charge of bringing all the other missionaries from the office to the mission home, but apparently they all left and locked the office without knowing that there was an Elder in the Bathroom. When he came out there was nobody left in the office and the door was locked. He got scared, grabbed the office phone which happened to have the President’s number next to it, called it and was just like, "Uh President, I went to use the bathroom but when I came out everybody was gone. What do I do?" So Elder Schendroski had to go back. We got him, ate lunch, bore testimonies, everybody was crying (I think more out of fear than anything) but joined in one cause; to serve the Lord. Then they stayed at the office while we finished up planning the transfers. The office isn't that big, so 20 people in total is a lot. They were all really loud and hyper waiting there, playing stupid games that were just irritating. Then the transfers were finally released, all of forty of them, which meant calling 80 missionaries. A HUGE transfer, and it was already 8:30 pm and we had to still wait a little longer for the President to call the new leaders. He likes to call them personally and tell them about their new calling, and then we call them afterwards confirming their calling and their new areas. So we just started calling the missionaries that were being transferred without new callings. I accidentally called one Elder that was being called as Zone Leader before the President called him. Right after I told him, I realized what I was doing so I was just like "Uh, just kidding, I read the wrong thing! You're staying exactly where you are. BYE!" And hung up.

Then we took them all to the Secretaries house which is where we were temporarily, but they took up all the beds, so we went with the sisters to the Hotel to sleep. It was already like 11:30. We checked into our rooms and tanked out, but it was pretty cool, my first hotel stay in Brazil. The next day was crazy! All the new trainers arrived at the office at the same time. Now about 40 missionaries stuffed in the office, with ALL of their bags. I was hurdling over things for 5 hours trying to help everybody. It was a mess. We had to get their phones organized, get DVD players to them with the training DVD's, give out their blankets and pillows, and help them locate their houses. It was just a mess, a lot of impatient missionaries, a lot of lost people, and I was getting super impatient because I was being asked a lot of stupidly ridiculous questions. Finally I just yelled out loud, "Whoever is able to leave, can leave now!" They all got nervous and started trying to leave, but there was only one working elevator on the tenth floor that holds only one companionship at a time with all their luggage, so that took another hour or so. Then we had to rush to lunch at the Mission Home with all the missionaries going home. We ate quickly, came back, went to the airport with three of them, checked them in at 9:00 pm, came home, got our stuff, got to the apartment at about 12:30, changed, went to bed, woke up at 3:30 am to bring the rest of the missionaries to the airport, got them shipped off, came back, and I was just dead. Right about now I'm recovering from the transfer. It was just a pure headache that lasted for about three days straight. But it’s all part of the job, Workin hard or hardly workin, eh Mack? 

The leadership experiences that I’ve had in the office are teaching me a lot, but apparently I have a lot left to learn.

ONE MONTH!!

God Speed,

Elder Smidt X

Conference...

Family And Friends,

Today will be excellent. I am super excited to hear the conferences today. Too bad I wont be able to eat pizza with you guys. But we got something fun planned today. We will be watching conference today in the office. Since it’s our P-Day, so we will hook up the projector and watch it here and we will also be eating waffles with maple syrup. Then afterwards in between the two sessions, we have the office Olympics planned. I made an invite for the office today. You should read it and see if you agree. 

Anyway, my new companion is from São Paulo. His name is Elder Schendroski. His name comes from Prussia. He is a really cool guy. I will be happy to end my mission with him. 

Next week I will do my first complete transfer. I will have to get the greenies from the airport and call in all the transfers the night before. It should be good. 

We are getting a lot of new missionaries in this week, this month in total there is an estimated 20 missionaries that we will be getting. Just waiting on some Visas still. But during transfers, it’s just crazy!

So in preparation for all of this there is a huge need for more houses on the mission. My companion and I just went traveling this whole week, doing a lot of house looking, picking the best quality houses, best locations, for the cheapest prices. We found a bunch of really good houses for cheap. It took a little bit of searching, but it will all work out. I just wish that the missionaries had done that before I got on the mission because when I got here, the houses were horrible! But slowly we have been trading out the houses for good ones.

After next week we will start the Zone Conferences. I'm kind of nervous but I'm sure it will be fine. Elder Bond told me that during Zone Conferences the time just flies by because EVERY day you are traveling to a different zone. And this is my last month so the end may come sooner than I will realize.

Love and Miss  you all!

Elder Smidt X

I didnt win the Chubby Bunny Contest. I'm just a cotton headed ninny muggins!!

Elder Smidt X

Call Me Ronaldinho...

So this morning we went and played soccer and I really surprised myself. Nothing but goals, and some misses. Pretty good! Better than before which was nothing but misses.

This week we had some cool experiences doing divisions. We also were able to baptize Andréa, an investigator that has been going to church for about two years now, but just now decided to be baptized. She is 23 but looks like she is 12, but that's OK. She's really cool. 

We have a bunch of missionaries coming in soon that we need to organize here and find new houses for. Looks like we will be finding a new house for us too. We found a really cool one.

I was reflecting on how I have changed during the mission. I really don't think my personality has changed, but I feel that my ways of thinking are a lot different now. I feel a lot more dedicated and smart with my choices. I didn't really think about much other than myself before the mission, but that has all changed a lot. I have really learned that when I want something done, I have to see it through until the end. I don't just settle for things of the moment. I really try to see the big picture of things. When I think about what has brought me to this point, it didn't just happen from one thing to the next. It all started when I was called to be Senior companion for the first time on my mission with only 4 months in the field. I didn't know anything yet and I was terrified! But my district leader said something that really changed my mode of thought. He told me in English, "Just do your best and the Lord will do the rest." From then on I started just doing my best without giving up, trusting that the Lord would do the rest. I probably had heard that phrase before, but I had never really applied it to me personally until then. Having that go through my mind often really had an impact on me. I realize I still have a lot of faults that I hope to improve on, but now I have faith in knowing that I can overcome these things as long as I just do my best. 

I wish so badly that I could celebrate this birthday with you Mom. But we both understand that this is where I need to be. Not a day goes by though that I don’t think about you.

“All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my Angel Mother” – Abraham Lincoln

I love you and miss you as big as the beach! Happy Birthday!!

I love and miss you all!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

Who let the dogs out...

Hello Family and Friends,

You wanted to know how my health was? Well besides eating a bunch of beans and rice every day for lunches (one thing that I wont miss too much), I have been really trying to get in shape. Its hard to trim off the fat when you are almost force fed until the point of exploding every day, but I'm getting slow results. Today me and my companion ran 8 miles in 1 hour and 10 minutes (a few second under ten) but it felt good. We didn't run it too fast, but we also didn't walk once, so slowly but surely I'm getting ready for this Iron-man. 

Dad, remember our goal that we made years ago? When I get back do you wanna hike Mount Rainier together? That would be awesome. We could do a guys trip. Shawn, Jason, Dan, and Keaton. 

Christmas is just around the corner! Woo hoo!! Remember my Christmas wish list? hehehehe. But seriously, if all goes according to plan, this might be my last normal Christmas at home. Its gotta be a good one right? Mmmmm Buffalo Wings under the Christmas tree this year. 

So I just saved 250 bucks by finding a different place to live during my stay at BYU-I, the location is better, and the place is way nicer with a lot more benefits. John said I can get it for 850 dollars for the semester instead of 1150. It’s a bummer that it will be farther away from Bryan and Melissa, but it’s only about a 5 minute bike ride away.

Wow this letter is really trunky, I’m sorry. I’m not like this during the week. The whole week we have been doing divisions with other missionaries, and we conducted a surprise zone meeting this week for the last zone I was in before coming here. Its been suffering a little bit this month. First Aid!! Every day was just extremely busy, but way full of blessings. 

Have you gotten my package yet?

Still haven’t gotten the package yet, but I think the postal service is on strike again.... Darn wages that are extremely too low.

Who delivers the mail to all the missionaries? Do you sort through it and give it to the Zone leaders to deliver?

The normal mail man delivers the letters to this office, then the secretaries divide it per zone. Then when the zone leaders come they get the mail for their zone. 

Are there a lot of missionaries coming in with new Visas?

Yes, I think before the new year there is an estimated 40 new missionaries getting here.

Well, I love and miss you guys, The Ducks are awesome, can’t wait to see them in action again kick some trash.

Elder Smidt X