Elder Calvin B. Smith letter written 08/03/2009

(Excerpts from a two page letter...the letters are getting shorter)

3 August, 2009

Family,

Hey, I thought I would write in sections this time, a few sentences each day as I write in my journal. Just a few notes, not a full out letter writing session. Lets see how it goes. Some nights I don't have time to write because we take an hour to plan.

07/29/2009

I weighted myself on a member's scale today while washing my hands in their bathroom before dinner and found out I weighed 120.5 lbs! I lost 4 lbs. since my last weight in at the MTC! I promise I am eating a lot! The members feed us a lot of good food and I stuff myself at breakfast with 1 cup of oatmeal and 2 medium sized eggs. Lunch I eat well too. I guess the bike riding up and down hills in intense humidity and heat will do that to you. I sweat so much! The member that fed us today made a comment about the seat of our pants sticking to our butts...it was rather embarrassing, but we can't help it. Baby powder doesn't really do anything, just put white stains on the outsides of my pants where the sweat carries it through my pants. (ya, I sweat that much)

07/30/2009

Today was a good day in that I was in a good mood all day. Not that I have days where I am in bad moods - I think tracting in a wealthier area refreshed me. By "California" standards these people were by no means wealthy, but it was a lot nicer than the areas we had been tracting. There are some really poor areas in Greenwood, often times people do not have cars. It makes it difficult to get people to church sometimes because of this.

08/01/2009

I had the opportunity, honor, and privilege to baptize Wilda - an investigator that my companion had been working on since before I came into the area. My companion "volunteered" me for the baptism without discussing it with me before hand, so I was very surprised. He told Wilda that he "Heard I was a very good baptizer."

I am very thankful for the opportunity to baptize Wilda. If I didn't answer some of your questions in the email or mail please send them to me again and I apologize in advance. P-day is pretty fast paced, as we do all of our activities out in the field. I can hardly believe how much we can get done.

Yesterday was pretty interesting. While searching for the Lord's people - those who are willing to change their lives and listen to us, we ran into 2 Masons (as in the hard core old school secretive ritual Masons) who wanted to bash and another guy who stopped his car in the middle of the street, got out of his car, put his hands on our shoulders and proceeded to ask some deep questions - when I tried to answer he would cut me off, preventing me from explaining entirely, then proceeded to tell US WHAT WE BELIEVED in. Which was total hog wash. He tried to indoctrinate us - not listen to us - and then drove off. It was so frustrating - he would not let us explain. My companion told me the bashing does not get worse than that - so I think I can handle it.

Love,

Elder Calvin Smith