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