Letter from Joshua

Hello beloved mission fans: Its your ever so unusual elder smart here for a brand new update on this week, first off let me give a special thank you to grandma and grandpa smart for there package, it was definately a help for this crazy week. Okay so heres the story for this week folks, we're knocking the sticks area, and the first house we come to we skip because... I dunno, it looked forsale and empty at first, so we go down and knock all the other houses before coming back, davidson wanted to take a picture of al of the mountains and stuff so we try and take pictures in the front of the hills infront of this house, we start to go to knock the door when it opens and out steps a guy, we're pretty sure he was gonna call us out, that or at least tell us we didn't need to knock, BUT then he asked if any of us were from Arizona, I confessed with enthusiasm to which he then asked me what was the name of my grandparents? So I told him grandma and grandpa Greene's, since his last name was Green. Green: no no, the other ones. Me: glen an- (as I'm speaking my sentence) the man and I both say, 'Carol'! He swore at one point in the conversation but when I learned he knew Grama and Grampa I was like, Holy Crap! We then went and got some ice cream, it was pretty amazing. [Another part of that story is that these people are NEVER home, they are always out of town and it was a real miracle that they even ran into one another.] In other news, looks like the boss has decided to keep me stationary, I'm staying in manchester for a third round.... downside is Is that I will doing it without elder davidson. He has been my best mission friend and quite honestly its not gonna be as much fun without him, I was actually very down since then until then mom threatened to kill me so I perked up. [Another part of that story: Joshua sent us an email at 10:30 am telling us he wouldn't be on right now but that he would be on at 2:30-3 and he would like everyone to be on their computers at that time because he had some bad news. So, I waited, and waited. Blair called our Stake President to see if he had heard anything. We prayed and discussed that whatever was happening, God had a plan for Joshua and everything would be ok. At 3:15 he finally sent a letter. I was nervous and anxious - after all that stress, his bad news was that Elder Davidson was being transferred!!!! Yes, bad news for him, I hurt for him because this is the first companion he has EVER had that he felt was a true friend. None the less, I wanted to kill him!!!! So I told him I felt like I wanted to get on a plane, fly out there and choke every bit of living breath out of him!!! I told him that he was NEVER to do that to me again!!!!! Apparently I gave birth to a drama queen!!!!! Ahhhhhh!] Lets see, we got bashed this week, it was kinda a rough one he was very hostile and not very open, he even went as far as to insult my title a elder because he was older than me. I tried to remember he was a child of Heavenly Father. Anyway we got to a point where i wanted to leave, he had kinda given us his belief in a scripture so I gave him three: Ask and ye shall receive knock it shall be opened unto you. If any of ye lack wisdom let him ask of God. As for me and my house, we will serve the lord. Woe be unto the learned for they think they are wise. BUT our culture night was indeed a hit, our members showed up, unfortunately none of our investigators did. I give a sober warning to Washingtonians.... I am now expected to be the designated driver!!!! I haven't driven in almost a YEAR!!!!!!! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!! I gotta drive over the tacoma narrow bridge!!!!! are you KIDDING ME! The wind BLOWS cars OFF THE BRIDE!!!!!... anyway, that aside yeah I've been alive and doing better today. what else has happened hmmmmmmmmmmm, we are helping a sister in manette get furniture so that will be fun. Mother, I am in need of more emergency food stash, I haven't been eating a lot because of fear of losing money. also, how much chest pain should one be in before he calls for medical help? or any other kind of pain for that matter, I get wary of asking for medical help incase its not a big deal and I look like I'm OCDING. what else has- OH! theres an awesome dog we met named Banti... or something like that. Adorablely lovable dog... yet scary as heck! He liked to put your hand in his mouth when he played, so when we walked up to the front porch and discovered that he had bone fragments all over the porch? I was aware of the situation. -sigh- I'm gonna miss davidson he was a great pal and its gonna hurt to see him leave. alright, soooo I need to send some letterssss today. (p.s. what is mariahs boyfriends name again?) I'm grateful for the love I have received over the past couple of days. I need to know who I need to write to so gimme a heads up if I haven't written you yet. thats all about it for me folks, remember: Woe be unto the learned for they think they are wise. Love, Elder J Smart

Letter #35

yellooooooooooo mission fans! heres elder smart here delivering another week of elderly mayhem. so.... this week has kinda been a weird one for me.... whilst the work has been slow the oddness of things remains... well odd. SO! to start off this week I may or may not have seen a ghost. (not that I don't believe in them its just that it didn't seem ghostlike to me.) we were driving down the road on the way back from a lesson or something like that and we turn a corner to see this random guy standing on the corner of the road in a grey hoodie and an VERY plasticky face.... once our headlights hit him he froze... even when the guys AHEAD of us their head lights touched him first and he didn't move an inch so he was FREAKISHLY still. he had this white plastic bag and.... anyway if you know my area this place is friggin weird and creepy..... so me and davidson were like, "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!?!?!" followed by me saying, ".... I'm bring the maul in tonight..." so yeah... unfortunately that wasn't the weird part this week. I.... I ......................................... I blessed a chicken. okay okay stop laughing I get it, and for those of you who are righteously indignant it IS something we can do..... its just not recommended.... HEY if that lady from legacy can do it then we can too alright! so, it all started when Christian, Fawn's boyfriend brought it up... to which I hesitantly agreed, however I didn't exactly do it right and it felt kinda weird... but I felt like it was if it was important for them then maybe The Lord wanted me to help them. Davidson didn't anoint, I just dripped the oil on its head and started the blessing. HOWEVER when I started I was waiting for the blessing vibe to come up and I felt an experience kinda like this. me: ummm.... Spirit?? Spirit:................................ What? ME: 0.0... uh.... uh... can you bless this chicken.... and not kill me later?? To make things worse I told everybody about it... okay that part was actually kinda fun, even president was like, 'just don't do it as a joke okay?' HOWEVER we went over there again and kelly, (the chickens owner) came out of the bathroom at one point saying she had found an egg... to which I found dubious after the original HOLY CRAP set in... then davidson was like, WHY ARE YOU DOUBTING IT, so I figured what the heck I'll believe it... only to find out YESTERDAY that it had been a prank................. I was a little upset about this at first, but now I'm okay and I guess we got a good couple of laughs... I'll tell ya brother shaw was right... the mission makes you lose your flipp'n mind. half of the stuff that went down during Preparation day yesterday.. halfway through everyone jumping around and blowing each other up with their invisible guns laughing and screaming It kinda dawned on me.... we had ALL LOST OUR MINDS!!!! and considering the fact I may have been the only one in there that was actually still kinda sane!!!!!.... for all of those reading all I can say is I KNOW RIGHT?!?! aside from that I can't seem to remember much aside from OH snap thats right. (see grandma I didn't say crap! HA!) I WENT BACK TO GIG HARBOR! it was SOOOOO weird all of the memories driving through the same place me and jones used to... I kinda yearned for it again whilst Jones was a hard ball he was a good guy who was trying his hardest. I got more respect for him than many missionaries I've met since. I noticed I've had a hard time with singing, my voice feels very soft and vibrato which I am not that big a fan of I couldn't seem to belt anything, it was odd. on top of that, I noticed I couldn't run very fast either. like even KITCHEN could out run me yesterday and he was a pretty big guy.... geeze. OH! and i think I figured out why nobody wants to talk to us. this is a revelation me and davidsion figured out my first couple days here. by societies standards here is the problem. We are young, male, white, american, middleclass, mormon, missionary.... everyone, HATES us. that was our favorite joke for awhile. davidson has been a good guy patient if not a little odd. so as far as I'm doing, I live and breathe, and I check my pulse regularly. well thats this weeks mayhem. Love, Elder J Smart

Letter #34

hallo! mission fans its your ever enthused elder Elder smart! well, this note might be a bit brighter than the last ones I've given on account that my new place is AWESOME!!!!!!!! I met with elder davidson (turns out I knew him from rochester) and he drove us back to our new 'apartment' I walked up the steps and I could see this comfy looking chair through the blinds I commented on how fancy Our stuff must be to davidson and sure enough, we open it up and the place is HUGE!!!!!!! we have a BIG family room with furniture that looks nice! a walk in CLOSET where we garage our bikes, a kitchen with a BAR and a NICE bathroom and... I have a HUGE desk (now covered in pictures of my favorite lady) the only downside is the water heat is really short.. and my bed is rather uncomfortable. I've had a weird couple days... first night there I met a basher... who was pretty low grade, I'm kinda sick and tired of bashers. and people, but aside from that I feel alot better than my last area... aside from missing the people.the ward relation is kinda distant... everyone here works at the shipyard with ALOT of hours... they don't like Our rules either, so theres tension there. second day was kinda weird too, I think I'll call it area lag, my lungs were starting to get kinda sore for a little bit but I feel better now, the second day in I pretty much, knocked, slept and knocked.. and then slept more during whatever time we weren't doing anything. so, this area is okay but the area is kinda stiff.... so that will be fun to work with! they are nice people an all but.. I dunno. aside from that we have a couple people we can work with so that will be fun. I get to finally split wood again!!! something to do to work out! that will be nice. well that has been my experience so far this week! I hope you all have a very merry christmas. I've been thinking about home a lot and all the stuff we would be doing. I miss you guys lots, fortunately the new place smells a bit like christmas at home, its been very helpful in a lot of ways so I'm doing MUCH better (that should make mom and savannah happy to hear about that) I can't wait to talk to you all (maybe savannah too?) thank you all for your time and patience! I gotta go now! Love, Elder J Smart