Hey Mom,

Things are better.  Not quite good yet, but I have some good hopes for this week.  Elder Baker and I have been making some good goals for this transfer, and today is the first day of transfer nine.  Transfer nine is going to be really good.  Our goals are this:

At least one baptism this transfer.

Find 100 potential investigators.

Go by every less-active member and all the former investigators.

So that's going to be good.  I need some help, Mom-Prayer-Power usually does the trick.  These are pretty hefty goals as well.  We generally get about 30-40 potentials a transfer, so 100 is a lot, but still attainable.  Then, each ward over here has like eighty less actives, so that's a lot too, plus about the same number of former investigators.

This week was alright.  It was rock bottom, I think.  We only had finding to do every day, pretty much, and the appointments that we did have all flogged or cancelled.  So it was rough, and our numbers weren't so good, but this week we're going to do really well.  I have a lot of things I'm going to try and make happen this transfer.  It's going to be good.  

As for the suit.  Nah.  It really doesn't stink.  I'll get it cleaned when it does. I rarely wear it.  Church and district/zone meetings.  I have bought some good stuff though.  I bought some nice white shirts that actually fit me (I love you Mom, but English clothing is just better.), some good proselyting trousers and a really good looking sweater.  I'll send pictures of them when I have pictures of them.  So maybe never.  Again, I love you.

Sorry I forgot to tell Sister Chaproniere to Facebook you, I meant to, but the transfer information was a little too underwhelming to pass on to anyone.  Every one in my district stayed with the exception of one missionary, who went home.  But all is well in Wolverhampton.

No news on Ray.  Or Janet for that matter.  She kind of gave us the run-around on Friday, and I think it's only a matter of time before she drops us too.  We'll see.  She asked us to only use the Bible when we come over.  Which we definitely can.. but generally we get a little.. argumentative, if we can only use the Bible.  There's a lot of things in there that are up for interpretation, and we definitely use some of them.  I'm really grateful for modern revelation.  

Sooooooooo... There's not too much to report on this week.  I'll send a few more pictures.  What I will tell you is that I beat Elder Baker in pool today (like billiards pool), and the sun is out, and has been for like two days in a row now.  So I'm doing okay. Don't slack on those prayers though, I think they're the only thing keeping my chin above water.

I guess I haven't talked about anyone yet.

Pal is doing well.  We see him every Sunday night.  He cancelled with us last night, unfortunately, but said that he still wanted to keep meeting with us, so we're not too worried.  We're going to try and put him on a baptismal date the next time we see him.  

Ray and Janet are.. somewhere.

That family that I used to talk about.  They're still awesome.  And still impossible to get a meeting with.  We stopped by on Saturday afternoon and found Matt (the father in the family) with his little boy Sebastian cleaning out their garage, which also meant that Matt was running his motorcycle to get it going again for the Spring.  (He's only cool, I'm pretty sure.)  We started talking to him and apparently his friend that lives in Birmingham invited him out to General Conference, and he said that he'd go with his family.  Awesome.  Then he was like 'and Andy (the friend) told me to download the app, and me and Hailey (the wife) have been listening to it at night when the kids are in bed.'  We were like 'Cool! What app? Just the Gospel one?'  He was like 'Yeah, we've been listening to Nephi.  It's really really good! It's got a ton of good stories in it!"  Then showed us his phone, and he was on 1 Nephi 19.  They are so dang golden!  But so busy and hard to set a time with for an appointment, but he said he wanted to meet with us before conference, so we should be getting in soon.  Pray for that, because as soon as we do, they'll be baptized.  

On other notes.  I don't know how to do my hair anymore.  Some of my favorite food here is chicken tikka meat with "battered chips" aka deep fried potatoe slices with batter on them.  They're delicious and hard to find.  I say things like Uni, Rubbish, 'Can't be Bothered', and Mate now.  Also, I'm starting to keep a dream journal, as well as a few other steps.  I've heard that you can control your dreams.  It's called Lucid Dreaming, and I think that might be a step towards fulfilling my Patriarchal Blessing.

Also, I'm going to the doctor on Wednesday.  I still have a cold, and I finally called Sister Rasmussen.  I think I might have something stupid like Mono, cause I'm tired literally all of the time, I sleep like crap, and I don't remember the last time my nose wasn't either running or stuffed up.  And my cough is back.  Very slightly back, but still back.  Gayyyyyy.

So that's my life right now.

If you want to send me stuff in the mail, I love everything that comes through the postal system.  Also, I need Hillary's email.  There's something urgent I need to tell her.

Love,

Elder Smart