Hello Mum.

My week as a trainer has been alright.  I've been somewhat stressed out this week.. I'm not completely sure why.  I think it's because my testimony is growing a lot, and I feel somewhat inadequate at times.  Does that sound like it's from a missionary depression website?  Is there such thing?  I don't know.  I'm really into my studies at the moment.  You'd love how much church stuff I read.  That's not the whole reason I'm stressed.  Elder Wrenger is rad.  He's... pretty quiet.  And when we talk about anything that doesn't involve fitness or protein, he's even more quiet. So.. I've been trying really hard to be really interested in fitness and some guy named Elliot Hout or something.  He basically worships him.  By the way. I'm not into fitness.  I'm not out of shape, but I also don't really care to be in top physical condition right now. He does.

But he's cool enough.  I think I'm stressed about him a bit, stressed a bit about getting the other two missionaries in our branch situated and I feel like when I sleep, I wake up feeling like I haven't slept at all. So I've been trying to do certain things to get my body to be better.  Like not eating sugar after like seven, or doing certain like meditations right before I sleep.  It's.. sort of working. 

My greenie is really tall, but not as tall as Elder Lewis.

Favorite child? Yesssssss.

Yeah.  President called me about the card.  That just like made me mad.  Stupid stupid thieves.  They had to have done it at some ATM.. cause that's the only place I ever really use my card.  Or at the bike shop.  Those are the only two places.  The bike I got was cheaper, and doesn't look as nice.  That's not important.  The lock I got is quite nice, and will not be cut, even if they hacked at it for hours.  Which, they wont.  I shredded my card though, I still had it, so the number was definitely stolen, but can I just tell you how dumb? That's so dumb.

This week I went in and asked how much my trousers would cost to be slimmed down, and the lady didn't speak very good english (she was polish) but I think she told me it would cost me £20 a pop.. and I thought that was a heck of a lot more than it should be, so I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to try and find somewhere else that's cheaper.

What do I need from America? You could put some new pants in.  You know.. those pants.  Get me the ribbed ones, and.. I don't need tops.  If I left any jeans or bottoms that I could wear on P Day, that would be appreciated.  The jeans I have now have a huuuuuuuuge hole, but luckily Elder Houghton left some trousers that I can wriggle into.. but the button broke off.  Other than that? If you find my watch, that.  Not the black one. I have that. But the big one Brooke got for me in Thailand?  I have no idea where it is though, so don't worry if you can't find it.

On second thought, it was most definitely Hound Dog that stole my debit card deets.

Michele is awesome.  We taught her last night and everything is still good for the twelfth.  So, rock on.  She is having some trouble giving up her coffee, but she wants to, and she's committed to live all the commandments.  We have yet to teach tithing and chastity, but I don't expect any problems.  In fact, she probably already knows about both of them.

Patrick is good!  He's going to take a little longer, but he'll be baptized.  This week he admitted that he thinks it's true, but just wants to know for sure before he's baptized.  Coming from Patrick, that means, I already know it's true, and I really like you guys, I'm just a big fat scaredy cat, and don't know if I want to give up my smelly (fishy smelling) tea.  But, he'll come around to it eventually.. I've gotta say.. he kind of has to.  All his friends are mormons now, and basically the only things that get him out of his house are the missionaries, church, priesthood meetings and activities and going to dinner at members' houses.  So, we've got him.  He's gonna get dunked eventually.

I'm only allowed to punch out dumb thieves if they're about to punch me out.   In fact, in our little white handbook, which contains all our rules, it tells us to always carry some money that we could give to thieves if we had to.  Turn the other cheek, right?  You can probably guess that that cheek would be theirs, "turning" into mince on the pavement.  I'm kind of done with thieves, so good luck to anyone that I catch going for it.

No new investigators, mostly I've just been teaching Muscles how to find, so a lot of our time doing missionary work is me convincing him that mothers pushing trolleys wont be overly rude about him asking them how their day is going.  But isss all good.  We're going to find two people this week.

Ron Snyder would be an awesome saint.  Awesome.  And he's totally prepared. Don't be afraid to talk. (I know you aren't) But the worst thing ever is when you bring a member to help you teach and they just kind of stare at your investigator the whole time.  Jump in when you can bare testimony, and laugh at the missionaries' lame jokes.  Actually that probably wont be too much trouble, Ron will probably be roaring.  He's awesome.  I miss him.  Does he still want me to do my mission in the states?  Tell him that if those missionaries don't do the trick, that when I come back, he's as good as converted.

Don't let Taylor teach Ron.

AAAAAH, only five minutes left on the computer.  I'm going to try and get on again today sometime.. but if not, let my blitz through the rest of your questions.

Fishing in Alaska sounds fun.

I always lock all the doors, but we leave the window open at night to cool down our room.  Again, thieves are at a disadvantage right now, with my current love for them.

Haven't heard from Jaren.

I haven't really talked to Paxton or Eli in a long time.  Well.. or anyone back home that isn't family, for a good while..

But I'm sending some letters off this week, so it's all good.

I don't think Paxton trained after 3 weeks.  Probably three months.  That's two transfers, and everyone has to train for two transfers before they can train.  Good try though.

Logan is awesome, I'm glad for Megan and Houston.

I get to watch conference. Hahaha and I'm really excited.  That question is funny to me.

One minute left.  Sorry.
I love you Momma,

Hopefully there will be more later today.

Ta ra!

Love, Elder Smart