That is one big spider! It's hard to tell how big, but it's a good sized one. (Referring to the black widow at our house). I might have told you about the brown recluse I saw at bishop's pond when we were helping him weed whack. It was stationary, and I didn't want to bother it. This past week went great. Nothing too big happened. We made some good contact with LA's, and our investigators are continuing to progress. We are actually going to teach one today! It's going to be an awesome lesson. Our mission did great these past couple of weeks. Hopefully we can continue to do great, and meet our goal for 400 baptisms this year.

I have a good story for y'all! So this past Friday we went to eat at the bishop's with the young men also. We had shrimp, fish, crawfish, oysters in all forms, raw, fried and grilled, and I was also able to try alligator for the first time! It was a hearty meal, and Bishop didn't make us take home any leftovers too! That was a big surprise. We talked, and just relaxed, and we got to talking about a time ago when bishop hid in the woods in his ghillie suit and nobody could find him. The boys were about to play night games, so I asked him, is your suit close at hand?

He unlocked the door to his hunting equipment and got out the suit for me and I put it on and went out into his fields. My plan was to sneak around behind the scouts to scare them, but I couldn't get past the lighted area to where they were at. I stood about fifty feet from where they were at, kneeling next to a tree trying to decide what to do next, until I saw Elder Blain and Elton walk to them telling them that I was hiding and to look for me. I was about to run back into his cotton fields, but it was too late, they were getting closer. I just stood leaning into the mid-sized tree watching them. My heart was pounding as they were walking straight towards me. I thought "It's going to be embarrassing when they find me after 3 minutes. I'm going to be ridiculed by the hunters for not choosing a better hiding spot", but I was stuck. They came within five yards and one of the kids said he saw me further into the field. They walked past thinking I was in the cotton field. I watched them as they looked around the spot I was in before, and continued into the edge of the cotton. There was some high lumpy grass that led a short distance to a tree and past that about fifteen yards to the cotton. When they were looking over in the cotton, I half crawled, half crouch-walked near the tree and I noticed they were coming back. This was my time to scare them. I crawled on the grass right in the middle of the path left of the tree and laid there watching them. But they all walked to the right of the tree, except Elder Blain, who chose my side. He was searching and looked right at me, and continued past. I thought he found me and didn't want to give me away, he was only five feet from me, how could he not see me? The scouts walked past a building and out of sight. I stood up and walked quickly to Blain. He was surprised and said, "There you are!" He quickly motioned me back down, but I wanted to pick a good spot this time to scare them. I shuffled to a spot on the other side of the building and laid in the short grass. Sure enough two kids started walking towards me. I heard him say that he was going to find me. He was waving his phone trying to use it's light. He walked closer and closer until his foot was only two feet from my head. He stopped and the other kid walked around close to me on my right. He said what the? And then he got excited and yelled, "I found him!" The other kid still didn't and said, "Where?" I hopped up and made him jump! They all ran over and asked me where I was hiding and some of them said, "I looked there!" The funny one was when I said I laid to the left of the tree and Elder B was surprised and said, "I walked by you?" That was a lot of fun, you wouldn't think that those suits would hide you that well. I had my experience with a ghillie suit, and I got a picture of it too! I think I'm going to buy one when I get home!

I'm definitely loving the members out here and I am very grateful for this change to help them in return. There are some people I could trust with my life down here, and in case of a civil war, they got the most guns! :)

Thanks for the information on Lexi! I will write her, and I do have some good stories, but I need to drag them out from the depths of my brain.... haha, it's hard to remember things that I used to do, especially music. Thanks again, Love you guys!

The LATE E-mail

Yeah, sorry I couldn't email Monday. We had to use a member's computer and it was slow, and I received many emails. It was funny getting a call from Sister Jensen this morning. All is well! I got here emailing late again because Eufaula's big two lane road narrows to a one lane, and they are doing construction on both sides of the road, so there is a huge blockage.

To answer your questions: the western band is a small group of people that play in Georgetown. The people call it the Music. Mainly old people go and listen to it, and we got invited! It wasn't that big, that's why we got front row. All of the people were nice, and most all were Baptist. An older man really wanted to buy something for us, so we had him buy water for us. It was a good 'ol time. The man in the Hawaiian shirt that's playing the mandolin was there to watch, until he saw one of the performers butchering the chords, so he walked up and started playing! It was pretty neat. They had another performance at a Baptist church last Friday that we went to. One of the people there told me if I wanted to sing that he can arrange for me to get in the program. I told him, I'm good! I was not ready for that, haha.

The gun is our recent convert's. We were talking about guns, and Elder Lane is a hunter, he shoots coyotes on his land, and Chris told him about this gun he got at Walmart. He pulled that out and I just thought, I need a picture with that! It had a 500 dollar laser on it, he said when we get off our mission that we could come back and use it!  Elder Lane and I made plans to come back and go hunting with him. Nugget is the dog. She is big, and nudges you when she wants to be pet. If you ignore her, she throws your arm on her back with her nose. I pushed her over and made her stay! :)

The picture, of the picture..... We made a picture frame for the Proclamation to the Family, and cut out the old advertisement picture that used to be in it. Elder Lane has one where I took the lady's teeth and made it look like my own. It was weird, you couldn't even notice the difference. We had a lot of fun with that one, we were going to put it on the picture of Jesus, but we decided not to....

Zone conferences... we had one a little while ago, there were some funny and good performances. Our district stood up and sang a hymn with another elder playing. We didn't plan on doing it, but he couldn't really play it so he wanted us to drown it out! It was pretty funny, the last note was off every time. We also had a missionary show off his lack of flexibility. He told us he used to be able to put his foot behind his head, but because he got fatter, he only got close. He then went on to show us another trick, and he pulled on his legs to form like an egg, and started to roll around and he split a HUGE hole in his pants! We all busted out laughing and he sat there just staring down. Even President and Sister Jensen were laughing. He told us as he was sitting down, "I'm not as embarrassed as you'd think I'd be." He was a goofy kid, and he is very outspoken. He walked out and sewed his pants back up himself. It was a good zone conference.

I am senior companion, I was one when I got here, but it doesn't really mean much. I make final decisions and I am the one who lets the DL's know we are safe. Elder Blain thought he was for a little while, until we looked at an email that Pres sent. Elder Blain just barely got done with training, so he's been out three months in the field. He has the drive, but he is the kind of guy that thinks he is right about everything. He is really loud too. He is quiet when we are at homes or in lessons, but when he gets into a lesson, or gets comfortable at someone's house, he uses his outside voice.... I know that I wouldn't go through my whole mission without getting a couple companions I didn't get along with. I am very thankful for the email Dad sent about getting along with everyone. I have really been changing my mindset recently. He is from West Point, Utah, and what else I've learned from him is he likes football and he went to Syracuse. Also his dad is a air traffic controller, and I learned that it's one of the most stressful jobs in the world! Does Ashton know that?

I'm glad I didn't watch that game, I would've lost all hope in BYU. By the way, who's the quarterback?

Cool story, we met a man with the last name Acosta. He has been all over the world. He isn't a member, but he taught with a missionary and learned all the lessons for our church. Weird right? His daughter is a lawyer that works in SLC and she is making big money! She is pretty big over there, she is in her thirties and already has a partner, or whatever they call it. She is the head honcho for the corporation. He is also a super nice guy and is fun to talk to, has a thick accent, but is understandable.

Anyway, I'm sorry for scaring y'all, I hope I don't do that again, but I can't make any promises. The work is going well! Stressful, but well! I'll be alright though, I know how to deal with stress.

Love you guys and stay good! And make sure Casey keeps playing good! I want an All-American soccer player nephew!

I knew that USU and U of U was playing, but I didn't get to hear about it. That is great news though! About the teams, I am more of an Alabama fan than an Auburn fan. Mainly because of the people, and the colors! Plus there is an Auburn fan that bugs me here, so that turned me away from them. Funny thing happened, we went to visit a family that we have been working with and they are renovating a home they have, and they painted a room perfect BYU colors! I made sure I mentioned that to them! It was fun looking through their house, they have half done, and they really made the other half look good, except the ninja turtle room that their daughter painted. Cool theme, but the room looks hideous. :)

Everything is still good! We are having another baptism Tuesday, and have been working with this member for a while. We also set a baptism date for another investigator for Oct. 13. Funny thing is, Elder Blanchard taught with me on that one and he asked her what she had against baptism, and she didn't have a reason, so we set a date! He was our zone leader and him and his companion came up to interview our baptismee! It felt weird teaching with him again. We had an awesome low country boil and it was delicious. They boil sausage, corn, potatoes, and shrimp in a big pot with Cajun seasoning and pour it onto a table and people dish it up! We were left with a lot of leftovers.

Transfers are Wed, and Elder Lane will be leaving Eufaula. I will be getting a new companion named Elder Blain. Funny right? Lane to Blain. I hope he will be a good companion like Elder Lane was. We did some work here in Eufaula and now I have to pick it up again and start pushing forward! I am always nervous to see who I will have to get along with next. Especially now that the Elder who has seen most of the movies I've seen, and jokes like I do, is going to be leaving. We really had a great time here. It's weird to think that after this next companionship I will be out a year! I hear it only gets faster from there.

Did you talk about me singing in your talk? Because I don't do it anymore :). Elder Tialino egged me on every time we talked to someone so I got used to it, but now, I know my limits, and solos are past those! But I will make this commitment, I will join the choir when I get back. I will not make my choir teacher bribe me to come. :) If you would cancel my solo for my homecoming that will be great! :) We'll work something out though next year.

I wonder who Jameson will date next! Since he's going through my grade I can refer people to him! :) Naw, I won't bug him about it. I do want to know if he's considering the ViSalus. But it sounds like he's doing good! He should wear my tiger shirt to some dates! That is a girl getter! I wouldn't be surprised if they ask him to marry them with that beast on! haha.

From what I heard, the world is going downhill fast. Everything is going whack. There are many rumors I've been hearing, and so many people are concerned about what the turn out will be. Hopefully everything is going good where y'all are. But I do know that if y'all are planning on buying guns anytime soon, that the cost of ammo is going to explode. I know that you aren't the guns type so I think you will be fine. Now everybody down here is worried, because they all have guns! Some people reload their bullets so it's nothing to worry about with them.

Well, I hope everything works out for this week. Everything should be fine, I don't think I will be involved in the cleanup crew further south. Our ward was advised to get their tetnis shots if they were to go down there, how scary is that?

Love you guys, and I hope all continues to go well!

All is well! We didn't get as much rain as we thought. We were preparing for the worst since Pres sent a message to everyone to prepare. We bought the same provisions as the elders on the beach! We were ready to stay at the church for a day, the car was loaded up with crackers, granola bars, a big pack of water, and even a blow up sleeping mat! A member heard we were staying at the church so he lent it to us. If that Hurricane came over us, we were ready to stay there for a week! We were also going to bring putters and golf balls in case we got bored... that would've been fun! But we got the message that we didn't need to worry about anything, and that it was going to miss us. We were very disappointed. I thought I was going to get a picture of the eye of the hurricane, but we were well over 100 miles away.... It is a blessing to miss it though, we got some work done this week. We have another baptism set for next Tuesday. A kid we, and the past elders, have been teaching for a little while. We hope that this will get his whole family coming to church. Elder Lane might be leaving next week and that's why they want to do it. There was much prayer and pondering, and planning, and many other things that end in ing! Who knew that baptism could be this hard of a decision, for us! He is a real good kid, we just hope his family follows through with him. We heard from the lady in the hospital, she is fine right now, actually back to work again! She is TOUGH! She is going to get stints for her heart in Columbus, and she is working.... Crazy right? But someone has to earn the money, and her husband isn't doing a good job now. We confirmed our investigator, and now he is an official member! So now we can't count his lessons as investigator lessons, we are going to have a lot of recent convert lessons though. It is great to see how fast, and how well he is improving. I know that nothing comes easy when it deals with salvation, but it definitely wasn't a cake walk for him! He is still dealing with quitting, still clean, but still dealing with it!

When I get back, I'm going to come back for his dog! Her name is Bella, she is like a tiger in color, slender and fast, has a cool white spot in her eye, and it isn't cataracts! She has the softest fur! And she is a good defense dog, super friendly, unless she doesn't know you! Catahoola, red nosed pit bull mix, awesome dog. I have also learned that some of the best dogs, and also the smartest, are the ones you find off the streets! He found three of his hunting dogs on the streets and they are real smart. Anyway, enough about dogs.

The hardest thing I find now is continuing to improve. I don't mean to sound arrogant and prideful. The easy changes are over, and if I get content with how I am I move backwards, I start regressing. We are working on charity, and humility right now, and it's real hard to not make fun of these people down here. Of course, if it isn't offensive or negative we can joke about it, but I find myself thinking negatively about many people. We watched an old short film about pride, and it's one of those cheesy eightees shows that you watch for seminary. It helped so much. It said plainly that pride can thrust you down to Hell, and is condemning, even being prideful to those who are prideful. Satan is very tricky, you really need to watch yourself these days. Now that the outward sins aren't a big problem on my mission, I need to work inside myself.

That is awesome that Dad is getting even closer to becoming a motab man! I brag about him over here for that, also that he supports the paddle and switch in his school ruling! haha Jk. The Mormon videos that we are allowed to watch remind me a lot of Roger's. There is a lot of the same actors in many of the short clips, and one man is in almost EVERY ONE!! The guy who plays the dad in the Testaments is EVERYWHERE,

Reply to:

Reply to Parker Smith