Letter #33

yes!!! byt the way HELLO FOLKS! its your ever mixed up confusing and ever so...  I ran out of big words.... anyway I'm here so be happy dang it!!
so I think I'll start off to say that I THIS STATE IS FRIGG'N COLD!!!!! I've been walking aroud all week and let me tell you... this place is messed up!!! its all green and crap but NOTHING LOOKS SNOWY like at all!!! I remember being single layered in NEGATIVE TEMPERATURES and STILL being warmer than I was out here!!! my face is chapped and my ears are dead. its false advertisement I tell ya!!!
also, I am kinda outta energy, family who has served on missions, what do you do when your just out of it?
I've felt like crap for months, but I still keep trucking, I know how to work when I feel crummy, but for once I just kinda ran outta juice.
also, how do I connect with mission presidents? I've been so used to adults liking me that i'm not accustomed to them not talking to me much so I dunno what to do there.
but, the first story is to answer moms question, yes I have received all packages, I haven't opened the one from christmas eve but I DID open the other ones.
you gotta label those things darn it! I dunno when or what I'm supposed to do with the box so I normally just open it as soon as possible incase theres instructions that need to be fufilled as soon as possible. so write on the box so I can either wait till the end of the day or something XD
if you send it via regular mail it will be at the post office.
now, on to the story, I got the tree and brother Kirby was able to give us I ride, the only person I knew that we could give that tree to was betty, so friday night we drove over and dropped it off to betty, she was very greatful, I think she almost cried ^^ but the best part was we learned that she destroyed the contraband in her daughters home, so NOW we can go over!... bad news is that the people we were hoping would move into their home would, I remember talking to them about it and they said that for some of the things they did in there they would need some one to professionally clean it.
whilst expressing my disapointment they were like "thats okay, we're still looking around and have made alot of calls to apartments and things"
to which It took me a minute to comprehend what they mean't.
"... OH! yeah right... thats what i was thinking about ^^''''"
wow.... my emailing kinda sucks today XP

alright folks, so heres what we got for this week.
this week we have accumulated.
1 1/2 activated less actives.
2 out of the blue investagors.
2 referals that we are incontact with
and ONE PERSON ON DATE!
BAM thats right folks smart did something right for once!
our first visit was kinda rough, I haven't been able to teach in pretty much a month and have spiritually become rusty and just down right stuck BUT the member there is her roommate and she's pretty much accepted everything we said so far.
we asked her if she had read and prayed about the book of mormon and she nodded.
I then asked her what she felt. she was quiet for a minute before saying and nodding that it was true! so BAM! also, I was sitting there thinking when I got a familiar thought, in Gigharbor I had once had a prompting to look over and ask if the mom in a part member family wanted to be baptized, I didn't which was lame. but I did, not as abruptly as I would have wanted but i asked her if baptism was something she was looking into and she said yes! so we put her on date! tomlinsons really stepped up to the plate since my last anxiety attack, fortunately i panic in silence so hes not really aware... anyway thats not the point.
as far as I go... I dunno. i think I'll talk to some one about it.
I'm wondering if maybe some medical stuff might be affecting me.
tomorrow is the christmas party...  its supposed to from 9 in the morning till 4..... 0.0 thats one heck of a party.... okay folks be honest, has my writing gotten cheesey? I feel really cheesey... like you could pour me on nachos..... well leasha is on date, I already mentioned that, we're gonna go visit betty more often thanks to the car. OH!!! time for my record in skip bo!
today I won again after a really rough start, but the other day I actually SKUNKED dicjose!! i felt bad, she hates being skunked (which is losing with too many cards basically) but I won so that was cool!
.... I don't like other missionaries, like at all.
I have a good couple favorites, namely Rhodes, steed and hamblin green and jameson...
I wouldn't mind as much but since I've been so low its been frustrating the crap out of me that they're starting to rub off on me. I wanna get away from them.
larson is okay, and lately they have been more tolerable (or I'm becoming more a jerk.) but then they start talking crap about people and I.. its those times where I just wanna leave. I've got too much on my plate as it is what with my own problems the LAST THING I NEED IS TO-...  anyway, I won't go there.  anyway, today i will be working on letters! I hope all is well back home, i miss Arizona christmases.

thats all I got time for now folks! feel free to write me I gotta get better at catching up on what I got!

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter #32

 this week I've been just down right burnt out - this whole deal with betty... well its kinda messed me up, a WHOLE lot of crap happened this week... so I might as well go in reverse order, last night we ran into a basher who was kinda a Jerk..... I tried so hard to answer things but he wouldn't let me talk and he pretty much tore stuff apart and really... just wasn't nice. if I had been feeling better from the prior experiences of this week I might have taken it better... writing about it makes me feel a little better... anyway, OH! I did get a letter savannah wrote me!!  it was so short but I didn't care, I just know that I was SOOO happy.  so, I've messed up a crap ton this week... Sunday after church a kid came in asking that we come in and give a blessing to his step brother... his name was Zachary... he had been hit when he hit some black ice and pulled over to the side of the road, the car after him hit it then hit him... I don't know if he's alive or not, but.... when I was finally able to give him the blessing, I couldn't.... I froze up, brother bennion and norby were there and they offered to do it but... I dunno I guess I let pride get in the way. that was a real bummer... I stumbled through it and did my best.
I had another anxiety attack, it wasn't AS bad as the last one I had a couple months ago but its left me a little messed up.

anyway, so up date on betty, its been kinda odd but she hasn't called me in the last couple of days... so we went to mow her lawn last Tuesday, we didn't have the car so we had to walk from the library ALL the way to her house, brother Danielle was meeting us there, well he went there early and was working on her door nobs... she talked to him for FOUR HOURS!!!!! he told us the job SHOULD have taken him an hour and thirty minutes....  on top of that she would continue to call us.. about her situation, she was doing really bad... she broke down at least 2 or three times... each time she called. but as we were mowing she left to go do things because she didn't feel safe leaving her home, brother daniels had ALOT of concerns about the situation (especially with the idea of possibly removing drugs from her home) we assured him we would NOT be touching any of that, but the situation was really sketchy on its own.  so we're mowing and suddenly we get a call from brother Kirby who told us he was coming to pick us up due to the situation, it makes a lot more sense after talking to him about it, I'm just kinda worn out about all of it.

THEN we were in the sketchiest place yet during the thanksgiving church social a guy named david was given a heads up and put on date by the sisters... he lives in a homeless shelter... we go in there and... yeah that place was sketchy, we asked david when a good time to talk to him (AWAY FROM ALL THE CRAZY) and we scheduled a time at the church the next day.... one problem, we forgot that we had a scheduled meeting with an APOSTLE!!!!!! elder Anderson came, it was a pretty interesting meeting, he talked to the mission for about an hour, it was funny how comfortable he was with everything, he would just kinda sort things out and talk whenever to the whole of us.  we got to shake his hand briefly.  he answered a couple things as far as baptisms go, talking about how baptism is a step and how they should have a desire to repent as well as faith before being baptized. he was nice.

well this has been my longest email in AWHILE but I'll here from you all soon! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!
that's all I got now folks

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter to the Thunderbird Ward

To the loving people of the Thunderbird Ward:

Howdy!

My dad probably will have a hard time reading this due to my handwirting . . .  but that is his problem!

Washington is . . .  well, it's wet - go figure!  The people here are crazy but I like them.

So for you all who haven't read my blog I'll give you a brief summary of my experiences.

I've:
*met 5-10 instance of psychotic people (yet to really teach any though)
*been defended by a drunk guy
*have seen 3 nude people
*had a break down
*baptized an ex-communist
*been a chili cook-off judge
*been a therapist
*helped plan a wedding
*been stranded at a church
*lost seven comrades to the Federal Way Mission plus some to temptation and another because    
   of a surgery.
*watched guys change into good men
*had companions turn into supervisors
*seen people change 180 degrees and some people stay the same
*given a companion a breakdown due to him trying to fix my problems
*been a senior companion in Tacoma (Stadium)

I'm sure I have missed lots of things but I can't remember them all right now.

So, I've been meaning to write this letter for awhile but due to being busy and rules I haven't had much of a chance.  It has been 9 months - holy cow!

I guess I've wanted to say how much I miss you all. I've seen a lot of wards due to constantly being transferred.  I've never stayed in an area for more than 9 weeks, but I think I'm here in Tacoma (Stadium area) for a while.  I've seen some great wards with amazing programs and I've seen wards that were pretty distant.  It's made me realize (well, technically I already knew) and further appreciate how wonderful the Thunderbird Ward is.

I've received several letters from you all, off hand a special shoutout to the Nilsens, Brother Case, Sister Sneddon that seem to write me frequently.  There are several others but again my mind doesn't always work and I am sure I'll remember after I write this letter and it will be late to thank you personally.  Just know that your letters give me the strength to continue and help me to feel loved.  I think about you all, all the time.  I miss seeing your faces, I miss Autry and drinking Jones' soda pop from him.  I miss Bro. Nilsen, I bet he is still working as hard as ever!  I miss Bishop Jorgensen - I'm sure he is still driving around in his Jag, delivering pies to my family.  Sometimes it feels like I will never be back home again, but I know logically I'll be back again.  If I didn't personally thank you for letters you've sent, I apologize, I'm trying to remember everyone and my mind is a blank, which is kind of normal for me, ha ha ha.

Being a missionary and doing this work is a challenge of a lifetime.  I hope that I will be able to continue to help others during my time here.  I hope to introduce them to the blessings of the Gospel.

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter #31

Let's start off with the fact we lost a missionary.... elder duchess.... okay I can't actually spell his name its like dudcheslkajvlfj
but it sounds like (DOO-CHES)... transfer before last (when I was in Lakewood) he went home for back surgery and came back the last one.... at the end he stood up and gave his final testimony, it was a shock because I didn't know he was going home... he came out with us... he LOVED being out here.... I told him I wished we coulda traded bodies, so he could be BIG and I could be small (as far as doing the work.)... we were all pretty bummed.

Elder Sabian went home! my mind was actually kinda blown.... only me and Anderson are left.... major (went home) died forever ago and now sabain.  its crazy.
he gave his final testimony, and I could tell he had changed, unlike several of the other missionaries who faked like they had been obedient, he was open and gave his testimony of the atonement and gave warning to others not to follow in his mistakes... I was moved, I plan on emailing him pretty soon.

so.... we have a lot of people we are working with, some of their situations are very sketchy, but know that they are being worked with, however ALOT of it has been messing with my anxiety BIG time. so we visited sister dicjose, she absolutely LOVES playing skipbo, she's a friggin card shark!  my favorite experience so far with her was we were playing and I played a card that made it so that Tomlinson could play his (which is a bad thing) and she points that out and I being sheepish say "I had to get to 5 SOMEHOW" so we keep playing, then tomlison plays a bunch of cards... or maybe it was sister dicjose... anyway I'm like "naaaaaw -facedesk-" and she looks up at me and says.   "well he had to get to eleven SOMEHOW" it took me a moment to realize it, but then I laughed she's a clever ol' gal!  she always says that skipbo is a great stress releaver.

so the other day we came by to visit. (she thought we had both switched out, she only really remembered Williams.)  But we went over and she said she had a question but she didn't think she could ask it and looked away rather coyly.
.. I then asked her if she wanted to play a game of skipbo to which she lit up and quickly agreed.  you shoulda seen her, she's been really lonely and being over there (especially with this whole betty thing) has been a GREAT stress reliever, which is why we went back several days later which made her just as happy)

I've beene struggling really hard with the anxiety and boarderline depression I've been under, BUT for the first time ever I forgot about P-day I'd been so consumed trying to help Betty that I forgot all about it.

it has been the craziest of my life... so remember that referral the A.P.'s gave me? Rosa?  ... they gave me another one.
Her name is Betty Sorensen... she is in a very very BAD situation...
she lives in a rough part of town.  She fell off a balcony four stories and now is full of 7 pounds of titanium.... that was years ago and her body is STILL messed up... but that's not the bad part... the bad part I have spent trying to help and fix with everything that I have and can as a missionary.   At first after hearing her situation we feared she may have been trying to con us or that she was freakishly paranoid.. but she's too smart to be crazy, (her house decorating skills are FREAKISHLY nice) and we had brother torrella come by and he clarified her sanity.... so since then... we have had kinda a spooky experience with her so far... but she needs help, and if me and my companion can help it we will help her, THANKFULLY the ward is trying to help her the best they can, I've had to tell her to NOT do somethings (like let any of these horrible people into her house.) and there is lots of hope because she is reading the book of Mormon... I cannot even begin to tell you what this experience is like....

I love and miss all of you, I hope Christmas will be okay.. and I hope I can help Betty.

OH! I forgot to talk about Tomlinson!!! he's okay, everyone kept telling me he's Australian and that he's funny and energetic, LIES! ALL LIES!!!... okay so YES TECHINCALLY he's from Australia but he's only lived there for six years, he ORIGINALLY Lived in whenamucka Nevada! and... we'll he's been kinda bummed about leaving port townsmen, he is kinda restless too, so far during my time being lead, I've had us knock in the wrong area, got caught double knocking the centrylink guys and have dragged him into a crazy service job.  he's alright I'll make sure to get a picture of him sometime. I missed getting a picture of jones, I'll have to find him on facebook - well you all will have to!  I don't do facebook... you know that!  well that's all I got for now  I love and miss you guys.

Love,
Elder J Smart


Letter to Joshua's Dad:

Dad, your a little late, first off, I MADE OUR GOAL OF TEN THIS WEEK!!!!! no.. no I didn't we did ONE MORE THAN THAT!!! we have a good couple of people we work with... actually things have gotten CRAZY!!!!!
we have one investigator whom has taken a WHOLE LOT of her time... her situation is really bad, you'll hear about it a bit in the blog letter, we also have other people who have to be on hold kinda due to their circumstances...
I hope I can help betty out.... there is ALOT of pressure I've had to hold up it kinda feel like on my own sometimes, but Tomlinson is WAAAAY more helpful, my studies are still kinda lame but I'm working as hard as I can to get things going, I get nervous a lot and my anxiety is waaay off the charts... but I'm still pulling through, the ward is helping with her hopefully we will only need to worry about teaching her and getting her friends in the church to help her and support her... wow, this has all been so crazy X.X... I'm actually kinda starting to like Tacoma! its crazy and messed up and dark... .but maybe I'll pull through, I'll be honest though I think home will be WAAAY more comfortable than this..... and hopefully thhings will get better in other areas too.
thanks for the love dad, I gotta write the blog letter now- OH! I also sent a letter to the ward! that will be fun ^^,
hopefully I can try all that WITHOUT a car but I'll see what happens...  I actually like your advice waaaay better than what other missionaries give. I'm tired of the whole "watac" baptism obsession, but I'm working on relaxing and trying the best I can.
thanks again, by the way you should call bishop luther - he's a funny guy.
Love you dad
elder J smart.

Letter #30

Before I say anything, I know you already know I'm gonna say I'm tired and that I'm not having fun, whilst these are true.... I'm feeling better right now an I don't want to be a debbie downer!

I thought things were supposed to get EASIER after six-months?!?! whatever happened to that part?  sure I'm USED to being out here but I'm still not a fan of how trippy things are.  I still think dad would have been a better missionary that I am, we shoulda just traded places!  he'd have whupped some of these guys instead of letting them be the way they are... I dunno how to let out some of this frustration, I'm not even a legitimate adult yet but I feel like I'm almost thirty, I still have time to be a kid!!!! just because I came out here doesn't mean I have to change... but I get UBER frustrated by things lately, me, the area, people, me, my thoughts, the scriptures, ME, the fact I can't imagine, ME.... did I mention Me?

crap... I can't remember anything that happened this week.... it was kinda dull, I haven't had too many opportunities to use the washing machines -.- Williams used to travel all the way to Lincoln but leaving the area is against the rules so I stopped doing it... well washing them there, it costs MONEY to use it and... well actually I have a ton of quarters now. so... that will be good.

by the way THANK YOU For the package! it was great I enjoyed the little gooey frankenstien head. I got a bit of goo on Williams thank you card by accident though so he got  a tiny bit annoyed with me.

got darcies post card! that was fun.  thank you for that, still haven't heard from orange though so I'm a little worried.

thank you dad for the letter! it was nice I greatly appreciate it - I'll hang up the water spigot..

OH WAIT! HA look at me, I'm a goof ball, so guess what folks, today is TRANSFER day!... Williams is leaving, it looks like my hopping around days are done for awhile.... kinda got mixed feelings about that.  I'm gonna send home a package today hopefully ya'll will get it, as well as something special for someone.

 people here are putting up Christmas lights, its only the beginning of November and they're ALREADY putting up lights, Christmas music is playing... like what the heck man!!!  give thanksgiving a chance!

so I got a question, I read that bit that dad sent me and.... why is laughter a bad thing? maybe its just because I feel iffy all the time, but lately I have been getting angry and frustrated pretty much about EVERYTHING, is this what life is about? it jus doesn't seem right to me.  (you can edit that part out if you want from the blog)

you'll read in my letter that I need a new watch, I want you to know a lot of that is said with comedy because for the past FOREVER I haven't been able to remember to ask for a new one!.

OH! and there have been some rule changes so MAYBE I'll FINALLY be able to write all of those I have missed! =D I have a list of people who need to hear from me and I'm working on catching up to you all!

Something I want for Christmas might be:
well one my sanity, and I would like new gloves, but I might see if I left them at a ladies house.
have santa get me somethings to stay home and you can all surprise me when I get back, things that I can use to recooperate after all of this, I've been so wound up in thoughts that I don't remember what it even means to be me or what that even means anymore.
as for me? send me what you think will make me happy.... I miss you guys a lot and I feel even weirder, I think my voice has changed and on top of that my eyebrows have gotten bushier!  I wish I was normal again.  send me memories... something to surprise me with.  I would like to get some punching gloves so my knuckles don't get all messed up when I go at it on the punching bag.

I might be here for awhile so that will be... new, APPARENTLY I'm getting an Australian companion his name is tomlyson... not sure how its spelt, but he should be nice... hopefully, I hope I can finally take a break from all the leading!!!!!

Sorry I didn't write more about people this week, it's been really slow and there wasn't much to write about.

well, that's all for me folks!
till next time,  Love
Elder J Smart

Questions I asked Joshua

Questions I asked Joshua and he sent back the reply:

1. For your 6th month mark did you burn or destroy anything?  Like a tie . . .
You were right Mom, I didn't!

2. Are you till Studying Preach My Gospel?
Yes, but I'm not a good studier!

3. Are you still losing weight?
I'm at 210 (He was almost 240 when he went out)

4. What is your greatest strength on your mission?
Long suffering??  Aside from that, I honestly don't know.

5. Can you tell that you have grown as a man?  Are their any positive things that
have happened that make you want to be an adult?
(He as always said that he didn't want to be an adult because adults don't
have any fun!)
Not in the ways I wanted.  I am still struggling with growing up, life is hard.

6. What is your favorite meal that you have learned to cook?
Chicken and Pork and Papa Murphy's Pizza

7. Have you eaten anything strange?
Seaweed

8. What is the best lesson you've learned to teach?
The restoration and the plan of salvation

9. Do you still have nerf gun wars?
Sometimes, but not lately.  Sometimes we do, anderson likes to shoot us
but I get shot less since I have a bigger gun than them!

10. On a daily basis, are you usually happy.  What can you do to continue to stay
happy no matter what happens around you.
I don't know about happy, I'm not sad though, I just survive till the end of
the day.  I don't know, I just want things to feel normal and I get more and
more anxious as change happens, it really scares me.  But there are some
good times too.

11. Has your testimony grown?  Only answer this if you feel it has and not just
because you think it's something I want to hear?
I guess it really has - some things don't feel as special but I know a lot
more things.

Letter #29

hey momma!
... its weird I haven't heard anything from you this week.... odd. =/
WELL I have some pretty good news, I HAVE been doing better, ESPECIALLY last Tuesday, we started having loads of success, we ran into three people whom we have been trying to work with, my main target is mikey, a nice black dude who works at home.  at the capri we gave an AWESOME lesson but aside from that he actually didn't show up to church this week like we had been hoping, we taught him the first lesson which seemed to spark a little interest in him but he didn't answer for his appointment after church either.  Today we have a scheduled church tour for a guy named tomas Guy who actually met the guys back in Lakewood first!  he's got some kids but he was divorced (in fact I think the guy who took over as his wifes spouse pulled a gun on him...) anyway he seemed pretty cool.
unfortunately we are sure we got dropped by a lady named Jen'e.  we walked into her on Tuesday during knocking we talked too her.

I wish I was better at being a journal writer.  I've been so out of it that by the end of the day I just lay down in bed and wait to start all over again.  Also, I lost my gloves!!! I dunno where they went, the FIRST TIME I start wearing them they disappear! I was so P.o'ed!!!!

AND I've started working on boxing during our time in the YMCA, a guy taught me some cool stuff so I've been working at hitting hard... which brings me to my next statement... can you guys send me some punching gloves? not boxing gloves persay but those MMA ones maybe? I have a tendency of tearing my knuckles up also, my hair has been acting weird -.- I miss Ranee cutting it.

Williams and I have been working on staying sane.  He talks about movies a lot so that's kinda what keeps the silence away, he says the plot of lost will last us a good couple of weeks.

we went and visited the naftels last night... not gonna say I enjoyed it much they watched the seahawks game... an I sat in there kitchen petting there dogs... who one of which has flee's I believe XP. I struggle with standing up and saying things, and I've been holding in a whole lot of frustration towards my... well mostly the other companionship... okay mostly holt.  he has a tendency of getting on my nerves the most due to the fact he back bites and gets huffy and says mean things when he doesn't get what he wants... I don't exactly agree with a lot of his philosophies on the church either.

also about rough stone rolling, ask dad to read it so he can tell me whats true and whats not, I don't wanna read it cuz honestly I can only handle so much info at one time and I already have too much on my mind as it is.

OH! so I have some funny stories XD
first off we met MR. French, I've been working on talking to people on the street so when I saw this dude in a jacket and suspenders I was like 'alright!' so he was VERY eager to talk.... I originally thought it was for the sake of bashing... but I was WAAAAAY wrong. this guy talked about his injury that he was thrown from a car and had to be rehabilitated and left him with some issues that I won't share cuz they are kinda gruesome. but he cussed like a WHOLE LOT... I was actually kinda intimdated cuz he gave me most of the crazy looks... he reminded me a whole lot of what an EVIL person during the apocalypse would be like.... yeah. he was probably a nice guy with too many struggles.  he punched himself HARD in the face like three times.... it was scary.  but that's not the funny part, the FUNNY was when afterwards we were talking later (me and Williams) and he's like:

W:.... I kinda hoped he would have hit one of us... well . . . you, and that way I could get up and punch him.... is that bad?

Me: I was actually thinking about that!!!
so we got to laugh and talk about how crazy guys are normally a whole lot stronger that normal people.. but hopefully we still could have taken him !

on top of that this place is CREEPY!!!!  at least at night!

We talk about stratagise about how not to get snuck up on and When people warn us about being careful at night I normally tell them.
Its alright! I have a pen... cuz so help me if something tries to eat me I'm gonna shank the ever living... you get the idea.

SO I'm gonna tell ya'll my story about the creepy lady.

SO we are knocking this creepy neighborhood... okay it was actually a really nice neighborhood but something about that night was just plain creepy, so we knock into the one house, the ONLY not nice house.. okay maybe the second, anyway, I see this cat run under the porch and I had already been thinking about how spooky and sketchy everything was so I had my pen ready, but being the ever determined and crazy elders that we are, we knock it.

the door opens and this wide eyed wild looking woman walks out and stares at us.
later Williams tells me the first thing he thought was that this woman was POSSESSED.  and as we talked to her I was getting flash back of finy fin (Elder Finlayson) telling me about being cursed by a pagan woman, so before the door opens I had rested my hand on the railing ball thing on the fence using it for support, my pen in hand incase I needed to use it... for writing!
but we start talking to this lady and getting weirded out by her so as we're talking all that can be heard is this silent (click) as I cock my pen... just incase she lunged at us... or I needed to write down an address.

well I'll tell ya this has been fun week in someways... I wanna send a special thanks to the sampsons for their wonderful package I will be working on writing you all VERY SOON...

and one to my lovely savannah who I think is the most wonderfully lovely thing of sweetness I have the pleasure to know.

also to Aaron who I hope I will be able to see... sometime before the end of my life and to everyone else whom I will see sooner. ^^ also, has anyone heard from hayden?  has he gone out? and someone tell micheal to send a letter, we all know each others email so he has no excuse.

Well that's all for now!

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter #28

Joshua's 30th Letter

I always have so much on my mind that I forget about all of the wonderful things and I get more and more antsy that I'll never be the same.... I HAVE been getting better all the time but I still worry a lot.  I also have been dealing with a iffy temper that only seems to come out when I think of my loved ones.

I WISH I could be more vocal and firm...
I thank you all so much for the love you've all sent. please keep it coming

OH we did run into a couple Saturday night! we invited them to church and they said they had just been talking about it.... they didn't show but hey! its a good experience.!

folks, I hate to admit but its kinda slow in this crazy city. I'm sure its mostly my own dang fault BUT, I'm working hard to talk to EVERYBODY its weird cuz lately I've been struggling with it, so much time in mental shut down that I've been unable to pick up my ol wacky nature.  sometimes this world just aint any fun but we're working on it the best we can - me and Williams too.

to savannah:
I love what your doing. I'm not upset about any of your work so keep going and try hard, lemme know if I can send stuff to help the blog! =3 something I can work on on my preparation days.

to travis:
hey, so I'm having a difficult time with something, there are MILLIONS on perspectives of the missionaries out here and I don't know how to sort them all out, twixt the work aholics and the junkies I don't know where 'I' fit in.

so I look over at the screen on this ladies computer... and theres a little link that says 'Mormons believe in christ'..... lemme just say that now even the random link people are even on our side.  I've grown too comfortable thinking that everyone thinks we're wrong and that everyone hates us. maybe I need to... -shrug- I dunno maybe I'll figure it out.

remind me to remember some of my Lakewood stories there were some funny times there.  like with lonas, one time he was standing in the door way of the bathroom singing... about how he was going to go to the bathroom when he finishes he closes the door and with perfect timing I come up to the door and start a tiny applause (you know, finger tips to palms, the fancy kind) and he starts going
"thank you thank you, no your too kind" and so forth XD
well I'm not big on how short this letter is XP
I'll let ya'll know when some... oh yeah.. we almost died XD
EVERYONE in our area is a TERRIBLE driver -.- like seriously.. I'm starting to think that 'I' could drive better than them.... I know right?
which actually lead to one of my first promptings for my companions.
so Holt is driving on prep day and its feeling kinda fast and reckless (don't know if it was or not but I felt nervous.)
so I turned off the music and said.
"holt, theres something I need to tell you... I love you, your a great missionary.... but if you crash this car so help me I will beat the ever living crap out of you."
-silence-
so I'm working on it.

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter #27

Take me home these people are nuts!


I swear I feel like I entered the GQ district, lots of folks like in high school, social stuff . . . I mean, their missionaries but... I dunno sometimes I have a hard time believing that people really change and grow up after school...

the first couple of days were kinda rough because they were pretty much wasted.
I felt like all we did was drive around and talk crap about elders or talkabout rap songs.  granted we had excuses for it, our battery kept dying in our car every morning so we had to get a new one, but that's just excuses.  they don't really talk like missionaries.

 I don't know if I like that book rough stone rolling.  (ask dad to read it and tell me what he thinks.)   I keep trying but sometimes the gospel just doesn't feel as special as it used too.

I know I was pretty blown away this conference!  it was like several of them were specifically for ME! it was crazy!

Stadium is cool as far as what it looks like, its the closest to big city as I've ever been in my life and it is SLOPEY as crap!  its got loads of hills and such and it ends up over looking this part of the inlet and all of these lights, that mixed with the smoke of the factory over there, it is crazy.

I still struggle with the social part of it, its gotten better after I'd talked with the ZLs and our companions.  we have another companion ship whose in our area and we kinda have to share a whole lot of stuff since the other guys trashed their car....
Me, Elder Smart
elder williams from my MTC group.
elder holdan I don't know who he is.
and elder larson the guy who drove the bus when I first got here.

its quite interesting just how DIFFERENT it is from AZ... I just wish things would feel some form of familiar, good news is I'm getting pretty close! bad news is I think I just kinda accept it.  there have been times where I feel like I'll be forever stuck with this and when I go back everything will be ruined,but, when  i heard Elder Holland speak.... it was funny because I felt like I had some hope.   sometimes I wonder if I should have come in the first place, if the family services guys were right, I mean look at me I sound like I'm falling apart at the seams all the time.  but I'll keep going even on those days where I hear things that sound really sketchy, I still keep going and praying that it will feel special again.  I often worry that I'm going to conform to my companions ways of thinking and the like... I hope not, but I miss my old strength and masculinity to feel strong again would be great... now I just feel like I wanna be left alone.

I hope all of your guys stuff comes soon I would love to hear from you all so I can get some form of escape.  you guys all know I can't re-read letters right?  I can only read them on Preparation days.

I thought it was funny when dad wrote me about OCD and was talking about trying to pay attention to my senses because thats EXACTLY what I do! I have been trying to control everything and make it they way I want but I can't FORCE it or I get the opposite result, I even fight with MYSELF!

I forgot to mention! I cannot use the usb cord you sent me! its TOO SMALL! XD I forgot to mention that!
alright I gotta go, OH!  I got to give a blessing to a pregnant woman! which was fun,
however some of our sisters are crazy... okay sister mcquivy is very eccentric but she means well... but I think she's got Aspergers, or something of that nature.  she went a little nuts this Preparation day.

I miss and love you guys SOOO much!  I hope I'll survive! good news is I 'm close to the year mark!

I remember when I first saw the spirit store in lake wood I avoided it like the plague cuz I didn't wanna feel those familar feelings on my misison... I think I need to rethink somethings about being out here.... anyway thats all from me!

funny thing... I actually just met with a member family that was all about the stuff that our family liked.... they even had quelf.

alright thats all!

Love,
Elder J Smart

Letter #26

MOM!!!! I'm being transfered!!!
I am going to stadium to be with elder williams, I was kinda sad but in funny news Mossbrucker is the new zoneleader replacing lonas XD
he didn't sound very excited but he'll do a good job.

I'm not very good at being tidy or on time with things and lonas and anderson have a tendency to lose patience with me in some ways.

this transfer has been rough because that mixed with thoughts and the feelings that come with them...

Lonas says that I WANT to be miserable, (I talk to he and anderson frequently about my problems) and they give me solutions that to me don't feel like they relate....wait wait wiat forget all this!

I Got the coolest story ever!

okay fans here we go!

SO, this transfer we have had little to NO baptisms in lakewood which is crazy because its SUPPOSED to be a very high baptising area.
BUT yesterday we walked in to church just me and elder Toni because anderson and Lonas don't like meetings so we did the ward meeting.
that ended and we were walking around talking to the memebers in the ward being nice an all and a member of older age asks us to come to the foyer to talk with us, he asks us to sit down on the couch.
of course my first impression was that we were going to get chewed out for something we had no idea of, but president eely sits down and tells us this story.
he had been teaching in china for 7 years prior to being back in the states, he told us that one of his students was coming whom he hadn't seen in FIVE years, so he told us about china's rules and laws and how you can't talk about your religion there if your a foriegner etc etc etc, BUT this morning he had been talking to zhong mou (jon meowis a close pronounciation) and he said that he wanted to becoem a memeber!!!!! so we quickly walk in to the bishops office and make this crazy plan!
chase (jon meow) was destined to be a historiean in china's eyes to which he refused and went to president eely who really didn't have that much time to teach him and... crap I gotta fast forward here!!!!

okay so we came out after planning to skip the other two hours of church to sit and just teach jon all that we knew, wehn we came out we told anderson and lonas and naturally we were all freakishly excited.

(I was actually kinda surprised at how eager we all were I thought maybe rules would get in the way but skip that man!!)
we taught him (I giving out what I could betwixt anderson and lonas)
and then we quickly went to the elly home (which was amazing...!!!)
it was all so cool!
we taught him some of the commandments and gaaaaah so many details guys!!!
so etc etc etc.

I GOT TO BAPTIZE HIM!
it was unconventional... which come to think of it is everything I do so what the heck.
I had to redo it because he would tuck his knees in and he didn't quite 100% get the procedure so when I baptised him for the second time I saw his knees start to go up to which I pushed all of him down before he went back up.
funny thing is he's a member of the communist party!!
but thats just because of his job which is part of the biggest news paper in the world AND biggest T.V.station.
he says the only time he remembers he's a communist is when he gets the bill to pay the membership XD
GAAAh so many cool stuff!
BUT thats all I can give via email folks!

Elder J Smart

Letter #25

Joshua's 25th Letter

Hellooooooooooooooo mission fans!

tis your beloved elder smart! here to discuss this weeks progress!

hmmmmmm whats happened this week.

well, for starters I am feeling slightly better! ocd has been a real plague but this week I am starting to see rays of sunshine!

we've met quite a few crazy people!

so we went to probably the sketchiest place I had been in awhile.

(surprisingly more sketch than chocolate city... and thats the technical ghetto of lakewood.) anyway the complex's are kinda stashed away behind the burger king like two minutes away from the apartment.

so we were going along knocking on these particulary sketch places and for once (maybe it was because I was with the new guy) I felt actually kinda.... uncomfortable.

so we started knocking on the doors and we come up to these two that are side byside, and from the one next to the door that we are about to knock I hear this woman talking from the open door.

"oh those guys better not knock on my door... they wouldn't be dumb enough.. they better not!" and of course my first thought is.

"lady, why the heck would we knock on the door? its open already..." of course I refrained from actually saying so.... even though I really really wanted too!

so of course when theres no answer we walk up to it and I say high, to which this woman says something relatively crude to us and then reaches in to try and pull her busom out to which I quickly turn and say 'okay have a nice day.'

so yeah,  fun.

HOWEVER this was also the first time I ran into a NICE manager!

we knock further down and I see th managers door open and a lady standing and of course my first thought was.

"aw crap.... she's gonna kick us out."

so of course we say hi and we start talking

I told her we had had some interesting experiences with some of her clients and she was like.

"which one? the guy next door?"  Then the overweight drunk lady who had tried to expose her self to us was walking around outside her house now so I nodded toward that lady and the manager was like;

"oh! yeah, she's not a believer, I've been trying to talk to her about it but she's' pretty adamant"

and I was like

"AH! she's religious!" so to our surprise we actually set up an apointment with her.

crazy right?

hmmm aside from that not a whole lot has been happening unfortunately

BUT we are still at work, we're doing the perfect storm thingy this month so we're trying hard.

also I made a discovery, preach my gospel is like a frigg'n homework book!!!! like there's activities and stuff to do in it!

I was reading some parts of it and was like.

"oh... that looks kinda fun to do...."

oh how I learn.

well thats all from me to day folks remember, drunk people are weird.

Love,

Elder J Smart

Letter #24

HELLO!

this elder smart, your ever wacky, ever... um something that rhymes with whacky.... glitchy?  I dunno.

anyway thanks for reading everyone, heres the set up for today.

starters, we said goodbye to christensen and hatch who were some of my favorite companions so far so I wanted to quote them.

hatch quotes:

"elder smart, as your personal therapist I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you CAN do this"~ on the topic of ME driving.

Christensen: in his final testamony~ "I WANNA TALK ABOUT CHICKENS!"

and quoting me. "salamander!"

 and had a reunion with elder anderson, one of my trainers, we also had the opportunity to welcome the newest watacian missionary, elder Tani! who.... well might be the most feminine hawaiian I have ever met!  (for those of you who know me my reaction was like this. 0.0 -facepalm- OH COME ON!!!!) 

he is a pretty funny guy though:

"I just want everyone to be happy, if your happy, I'm happy.

if your not happy... well I'm still happy but I'm less happy for you!"

I've also had a movie experience.  it was kinda like in the movies where a crazy kid takes you on a grand adventure and you end up in a mystical place with great experiences?  well in this case we went on a chase through a apartment... into a hilly trailer part... and met a family! so yeah!... still the same concept!  this kid was like 'hey! you guys! you took us to church!'

and me and elder tani (still working on saying his name right) were like 'we did??'  so we followed him on his bike where we met his mom and sister who wants to be baptized and her name is tyler... or tylee... or maria... or whatever the heck she feels like being called at the time.

also I'm going to delve back intime for a bitback to my ol' rochester days.

so we all remember natalie right?  right.

well at one point she was 'dating' a sixth grader by the name of Jacob wolfe or if your me (or saphira tristan or maralyn) making fun of him

"YACOB VOLFEE!!!" in a russian accent.

well we were hearing this long story about this boy and some of her trials with him (natalie being a typical middleschooler issue gal)  when some one asked what his grade was which she  or her mother replied that he was a sixth grader, to which I quickly reply with.  'wait, so your a cougar??' to which I received an evil glare from her, but a high-five from her mother.   aaah good times.

well folks I'm off! I believe I have sent good blog-fodder for today!

a special shout out to my mother, my savannah and all my other friends who are routing for me!

peace off!

Elder J Smart

Letter #23

Hello everyone, tis elder smart relating his week so far!

lets start off with the the goodies!

for starters, I got my super awesome package from my beloved madre! thank you!I love all of the stuff ya'll gave me! 

good news is that we have had 3 baptisms this week all at once. ^^ maria,  louise and william foote.  I only really know maria and louse and helped int heir teaching.  but hey! a baptism is a baptism.

so here are my two funny experiences XD

during this week we met a guy named, mark anthony, one fo the nicest black dudes I have ever met... and the drunkest.  we talked to him for like thirty minutes... and this is as far as we got with him!  These were his tidbits of knowledge:

* mother theresa is worth 15 billion dollars 

* the most expensive dog is named trouble and

*  obama is spying on us... 

* aaaaand oprah is worth less than mother theresa

* I was smarter than elder lonas and more intune (even though I hadn't even said more than ten words to the guy) 

* and that I had freakishly huge hands.... 

however that wasn't the only part..  as we were talking another guy walks up and as lonas is about to say hi and the first words out of this new guys mouth are, threating cuss words and then he said if you talk to me again you will pay the price!'    and as soon as he said that up pops mark: 

"HEY! yo-you SHUT UP! you don't talk to them!" and was ready to stand up and probably pick a fight with this guy. fortunately lonas stopped him and got him to sit down... till the other guy kept talking so up pops mark again:

"don't you talk to them!!" in which lonas had to ease him back down, however  we were finally able to walk away so we could avoid the confrontation!  soon after he was SO protective of us that he wouldn't let us go down the street we were aiming for.  Mark then began to  stereo typing his own race as thieves and not to throw pearls before swine and as we were walking the OTHER way, up walk two normal brotha's just walk'n along,(mark turns and tells us that these guys would shoot us up.) in which mark felt inspired to protect us from... by first spitting in front of them... and then pounding one of their fists  he walked away talking to them but kept telling them to "let them alone."... crazy right? 

The next guy was a really nice guy who tried to help me play basket ball and

he kept calling me ray ray!   and for once in my life I felt like I actually did a cool basket ball shot!  also, lonas and Hatch owned two black dudes in STREET basket ball!  it was awesome!

also had a pretty nice interview with president... he basicallly told me to be the best missionary that I could be... he was talking to me about how heavenly father had made me the way that I was so I could touch peoples lives...... he even tried to make sure that I was looking him in the eye... I think they actually do care alot, but I just wish they'd take the time to know me better so they could help me more.

Well, talk with you next week.  Thank you all for keeping me in your prayers and thoughts - I need all the prayers I can get - I am working hard at trying to work even with my OCD driving me nuts.

Love,

Elder J Smart

Letter #22

Hello everyone!

Its your ever adoring Elder Smart coming to you via email!

for starters I would like to just start with a big thank you to all of you that sent me letters, Cortnie Johnson,  Brother Nilsen, Sister Sneddon, Brother Case and my Aunt and Uncle, Becky and Travis and the kids.  I appreciate you remembering me and caring about me.  The words of encouragement and words of wisdom have helped me and I am trying to work harder and be happier.

alright, there is something you all need to know as far as letters go, 

last monday we had a mission picnic where I was approached by several of my comrades handing me letters!  so I JUST got a good chunk of them all!

We've had so much happen and I am sure that I won't remember everything. 

first I wanted to tell you about a play we got to see called, THE JUDGEMENT! dun dun dun.... -snrk-

here is my review,

the way they did the show, it was in a small church called the door a small place in town, it was rented space kinda place but that aside it was a lower budget product meant to 'inspire' spirituality into non believers.

it starts with a subpar explaination of the plan, where appearantly the devil got one over the heavenly father and he had to humble himself and become Christ so as to save us....   so they would put people in these situations  where two types of people would die, randomly normally at the same in various ways the first being two families, one of which was a father and son, who wouldn't go to church due to some normal silly reasons, his son asked him about it and his father gave him a silly excuse but h loved his dad  and said he wanted to be just like him and then they crashed into the 'righteous' family who were off to applebees on the sabbath....

they all end up in heaven and the righteous family got to go into heaven whilst the father and son who was totally ignorant of what was going on were banished by christ to and escorted into heck by the devil... (dressed as a member of kiss.) ... to sum it up it was an atrocious debatchery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   the son was sent to heck without any knowledge of good and evil, in the end it was simply a way of intimidation to force people to go to their church, on several occasions they called us out in obscure ways that I think were a pathetic attempt to convert us.

HOWEVER I was aproached by a guy who tried to talk to us about it.

Here are some of my other experiences, we have been doings ALOT of church tours with some success.

OH! we have a guy names tomas we're working with, he originally lived in vegas and wants to have faith so he came to us.  so far he's pretty much just jumped in without even looking so we are teaching him whenever we can!   he's a great guy with... a couple of issues.

Also, we talked to a guy named scotty.... he was probably the most bitter person I have ever met in my entire life like, he was okay, but he really clung on to the things in life that made life so hard for him.  I kept looking at myself and going '... is that me?'  I got to experience the home bubble again, I got a new hair cut and... she... she shaved my eyebrows.  okay she didn't SHAVE them but she cut them! she was a master hair stylist and... holy crap she did her job thoroughly! it was insane! she was LOOKING for hair to cut!

she also said that it was her calling and that she would be the one to do Christ's hair (so I don't know if she was all there), she also said that Heavenly Father made ME who I am and thats perfect!  I liked that!!   I wish I could enjoy that more minus the OCD. I'm working on getting it all together.

I look forward to hearing from home.  I am very busy in my new area and I am learning to like it.  I'm with a greenie, as well as the zone leaders and they are all pretty cool.  I'm okay, struggle here and there but heck I'm alive so thats good.

can't wait to see you all again but I'm doing my best here.

Love,

Elder J Smart

Letter #21

yellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow my beloved mission fans!

let me esplain my current situation!

I am no longer in rochester!... that was a relatively tearful and bummer full day BUT I have survived the infamous 'lakehood'.... which is basically like AZ only wet... and they have lots of trees....

its pretty busy here for the most part, my new comps are christensen, lonas, and the greenie, Hatch, there all pretty cool... 

I do have my griefs with them that will make up the biggest part of my 'funny story of the week' so.... we have already had ONE baptism. Jeremy sanchez, kinda reminds me of Javier and Jared put together... only short... and mexican... and he's in the army...

anyway, we woke up and left pretty early to go set up for his baptism, Christenen and lonas left us to go and fill it up so it would all be ready... I think they had a church tour... something like that,. so the baptism started even if our fearless leaders were late XD and I gave a very brief talk on baptism, my second one so far.

so AFTER the bapstism everyone was leaving and we were setting things back up.   our leaders rushed off to do ANOTHER lesson but we were going to get another ride via other elders, when we remembered  that the stilecoom sisters had a baptism later that day.   we were GOING to leave the font full for them, BUT our ward mission leader unplugged it and what took and HOUR AND A HALF to fill, pretty much drained with in fifteen minutes -.-

SO we stayed to fill the font, our ride left and we sat and waited, well by the time it filled the sisters came and we texted christensen and lonas to come get us...... four hours later we are sitting there talking to sister wilkins and her greenie whom, after finding out we had been there since 9 this morning gave us the 'your crappy missionaries' look.

a couple hours earlier we had sent a text to our leaders saying we were ready to be picked up.... they sent back 'come get you soon'.... I still question there definition of 'soon.' because we didn't leave till the sister's baptism started.... at FOUR!.

needless to say hatch was rather P.o.ed  and I couldn't blame him.

HOWEVER, before the SECOND baptism started we called steed and dedchus... I think thats how tis spelled... my complaint was that I had been rather hungry and been wanting to grab a pizza but we had some pretty amazing luck, cuz Steed and his companion were JUST at a birthday party as we called them. SO we got to eat a bunch of pretty awesome authentic tres leches cake!!! 

so all in all aside from almost killing our leaders everything turned out okay.. in my book, it was still kinda messed up how the ditched us though.

Love,

Elder J Smart

Letter #20

Dear Everyone: I've kinda had my worst week ever! I've been transfered to Lakewood now. Me and mosbrucker had a HUGE fight and I went on an exchange and felt kinda lonely and left out... I'm with ZL's and a greenie. president needed someone to take over the area, and I obviously didn't have it in me. In alot of ways my OCD is alot worse, I feel fuzzed out and i had a HUGE anxiety attack so I was panicking and fighting an... it sucked XP sunday was pretty dry, I felt pretty bummed that I was leaving, despite all of my grief and anxiety I really really LIKED rochester... not as much as home but still. I was fine until I got to the striblings.... I cried a little, but then my stupid OCD keeps messing with things and I keep... gah, I'm so frustrated with myself. well, I got to see epriams rescue!!!! we LOVED it! it was so awesome! WAY funnier than the other church movies, honsetly the most entertaining church movie I have ever seen. I really really liked ephriam! we had two baptisms though!!! right before I left I got to see natalie get baptized, ate a couple cups of ice cream etc etc. then on sunday... the day before I left I... well yesterday, Jean got baptised... I had a hard time with the missionary moment, I couldn't think of really anything to say.... I feel kinda like a defective elder mom.

Letter #19

Dear Friends & Family: I'm feeling better LOADS better for some reason today. I spent time to look over some art I got and its helped me get over things. I got your letter an it made me feel better in someways, I'm working on loving it out here. Things have kinda slowed down, but I don't normally get too discouraged by slow work, what happens happens (k sera sera). This week has been hard but I learned I wasn't the only one having a hard time. Mosbrucker has been struggling as well and it really had him down for awhile. I had a pretty spiritual experience! I'll hopefully remember to mention it in the home letter... I gotta gather all these things up for my journal. that would be nice. I feel uber energetic today an I don't know why. In someways its good in others I'm kinda like whats the deal here. Also HOLY CRAP MOM! All I needed was some stuff to help me sleep! I didn't need a pharmacy of pills! I made a joke about brother Larsen about it. I was like, "dang! when Larsen turns 80 I'll STILL be taking more pills than he does!!!!" Brother Larsen was pretty sad when Mosbrucker said he might be leaving. Then he keeps telling me that I'M gonna take over the area!''' noooooooooooo thank you! or training! I don't think so! well let's see . . . OH! you know whats funny? how people act around here. We just finished tracting Oakville and we had some relatively funny experiences. for starters MY favorite and really the only one I can remember right now aside from Jack is we were knocking on this door, it had little Christian stepping stones talking about god and two angels on either side of the door, we walk up and knock on the door and this little girl about jessah's age opens. we say high in a friendly manner, introduce ourselves etc etc. She looks at us with wide eyes like we were gonna eat her and says. "w-we're jewish!" we stand there for a moment and are like. .... oooookay? well have a nice day! then another kid from the backyard yells 'we're jewish!' I thought it was funny! its so wonderful to be able to write you all today! I sent Orange, Aaron and savannah a letter today and we are rather busy... okay maybe not - but we're changing gears and going for reactivation efforts!! also, we are running out of tracting room! this town's too small to just tract a year... so everyone is pretty familiar with us. We also ran into an old friend... during my first week here we had a guy who was rather miffed at us because we told him 6 o'clock we had an appointment which got in the way of his having us 'follow his lead' he immediately hung up, of course not waiting to hear WHY but we heard him yell WOOOOW, and his WIFE hung up. so guess what happened. not only that, but he told HIS missionaries that we could burn in HECK for all he cared... such a lovely guy right? Well guess what. HE CAME TO OUR WARD! brought his guy to our ward since he's in OUR area despite the fact that he's getting bapised in Olympia.... he was kidna rude at first and honestly he was rather Arrogant. asking me if our gospel essentials was NORMALLY a set thing or not. he wasn't even wearing church clothes!!!!! Then close to the end of our lesson the topic being work the investigator asked why we hadn't said a prayer to open, we had forgotten especially since he and that other guy were the only ones there for the first fifteen minutes of the lesson. we explained that it had been forgotten and the guy who had called us turned to me and said 'aren't you glad your not the one teaching him.' and I promptly told him we LIKED it when we had questions asked and such. it kinda ruined mosbruckers day even though I kept wanting to talk to him and let him know that we WEREN'T going to go to heck despite his wishes and that we were SUPPOSED to go tracting at that time and that he should LISTEN before hanging up! ..... -.- anyway yeah. SO that's about it this week! jean fell off date but Natalie is still going to be baptized! =D yay! well folks I gots ta go! I'll see you soon! FIVE MONTHS DOWN! BOOYA! I've gotten everyones packages! Tell Grandma Greene I LOV ED my package - it was great! and its been a GREAT DAY! Love, Elder J Smart

Letter #18

Joshua's 18th Letter HEY GUYS! so holy cow so much has happened this week!!!! to start off I'll give a brief synopsis: Wrestled a cow, buried a goat, laughed at mossbrucker, worried about an injured mossbrucker, gave a church tour and Natalie set a date for baptism! NOW for the long part! Okay, we did a lot of service for Sister Sisk and whilst being up here, (she's kinda a regular, she's stuck in a wheel chair so we often go by), she fed us lunch as she does everytime and well... it varies. She made tuna melts and those were.... great! I can remember mossbrucker trying to eat cream of mushroom soup because he HATES it but unlike me he doesn't let people know. He just kinda toughs stuff out... I on the other hand either avoid it or try and eat it... in which case I can only take a couple of nibbles. I need to work on this. I remember pulling off all the toppings off a deluxe pizza and getting looks because of it. Moss and Sister Sisk just stared at me as if I was strange. I looked at them like, "What?!" Anyway! back to this particular service project! So we were picking cherries for her in her tree for starters, I had gone to the other side of the electric fence. This fence was the same one elder mossbrucker had zapped himself on weeks before which was funny but not as funny as this time. We had been testing the electric fence to see which wires were live or not and he decided to try and HOP over the fence from the ladder onto the other side to try and save time. Well he fell short and ended up hitting the ground while his legs were all tangled in the fence! So he's squirm'n around yelping: OW! and I was laughing everytime he got zapped! THEN we went to go chase down a bull! There are about three houses two on either side of sister sisk that have ALOT of cattle. SHE only has two heifers and a HUGE FAT bull who got out, we chased off the heifers and the two calves so THEY wouldn't get out too. These other bulls were having hissy fits with the bull on the other side of the fence. One bull took a little more yelling at to go away whilst the fatty was a pansy and left pretty quick. We chased this bull and the entire herd of heifers down at least half a mile, the frigg'n punk knew EXACTLY why we were there. BUT he didn't wanna leave his 20 new girlfriends so he would dodge around into the middle of them. At one point we almost had him but he bucked and trotted back around, it was then that Mossbrucker said it was time to give in.. I got mad at the bull and yelled at him. 'YOU TWO TON PIECE A CRAP!' at which the bull ignored me. that's my BIG story for this week! Spiritual time! NATALIE suddenly wants to be baptized! we had a bishops meeting on Wednesday... I think that's why we were there, BUT mutual was going on and Natalie came up to us and said she wanted to be baptized. Now, NORMALLY we'd be pretty excited, but we KNOW Natalie and she is kinda an over complex individual, so afterwards we met with Natalie and her mom and sat down and had a chat. We don't know how legit she's being but we have decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, we're very hopeful and we are trying to teach all the lessons to her. Pray for her sweet crazy head! well folks that's all for now! I gots ta go!

Letter #17

hello all you happy people!

Elder smart is back and he has a raspy scrappy voice!  That's right, I've been sick.  I've been bouncing around with respiratory illness and a fever that was gone come Saturday thank heavens.   Sister Weaver was telling me they might have to have an exchange so that I wouldn't get 5 people sick!  But thanks to bed rest I just BARELY made it down to the wedding!  And it was great.

I had the blessing of doing the missionary moment, despite a really messed up voice I gave what some said was a very good restoration story.

In all honestly I am so excited to be married some day.  Both Chris and Sarah are so lucky for that blessing and I couldn't help think about what my life would be like when I get married.

They were both baptized and married on the EXACT same day for which in itself was a miracle.

Also, another brief miracle, I had been doubting I was going to make it to the baptism at all, but my fever suddenly dropped and I was able to make it.

I'm sorry for such a short letter but I am still not feeling very well.

Love,

Elder J Smart

NOTE FROM HIS MOTHER:  Joshua is still not doing very well.  At one point he was coughing up a little blood so if you could, please pray for his health.  Ever since he had Valley Fever (as a sophomore in HS) he is prone in pneumonia so when he gets respiratory illnesses it becomes a concern.   He has lost 25 lbs.  

Letter #16

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo my friends!

great news! we have been UBER busy lately!   we have two new investigators, Daralyn Shoe and Jean wilder (no not from willy wonka.)   we have had so much crazy stuff happen this week that its not even been funny.... okay a lot of it was.  my favorite being the fact that elder Mosbrucker almost soiled himself because of  a run-in with a german Shepard.  we were walking up to a house talking and I see a german shepherd.

Me: thaaaats a german shephard

Moss: oh yeah that is.

us:.... (silence)

the dog:..... (silence . . .  the starts to growl)

instantly we both turn on our heels and walk towards the exit praying we making it past the electric fence before he feels like eating us.   

we've been doing a lot of service today too!  Helped Rebecca get some furniture from all over and the like. 

I am SO grateful you write me as much as you do, it helps me.

OH!!!!!

I defended the faith and did a GREAT job when a guy tried to bash with us. I was calm and dignified, Mosbrucker was impressed!  sarah and chris went away for the week so we helped Rebecca and all the kids every other day or so.  I am almost out of smarties because maralyn and saphira try to eat them all and sometimes steal them!  BUT this sunday they behaved SO much more than they usually do! This sunday we made sister bently cry because even though we already have to kinda babysit saphira and maralyn during sacrament (we sit on either side of the pew so they don't get away.) but trina's boy braden (who is very rude to his momma)  came and sat with us, so that was nice.

we had an anti-child abuse presentation this sunday which was hard to hear about.   brother pickett stood up and almost to the point of sobbing testified that we should all talk to our bishops about it, he was abused physically and its rubbed off on him so he needs help with that often.  

I'm really confused by the scriptures you sent me in you hand written letter. they make it sound like you think I've been arguing with everyone and being contentions, and hey, wheres ethan! he's the one I Actually WROTE to so far!

Tell Aaron I am way proud of him!  His artistic ability is improving greatly.

Got to go

Love,

Elder J Smart