Dear Family,
This week was a pretty good week. The mission did something really cool - under the direction of the Church mission department we gathered together all the leadership and met in Columbia for four days and learned how to be better missionaries. It was a pretty cool meeting. I sent you all a bunch of pictures from the meeting. I am sorry that I am not able to send pictures from my camera, the computers here don't take USB drives.
The last few weeks it has been pretty hot. I read from a printed out email ya'll sent me from another Elder that his companion was struggling with heat in the 90's. Well, this last week it has gotten up in the 100's here - not counting the heat index and it is expected to get hotter in August. The humidity is what really brings the heat home. We really have to be careful to drink a ton of water. It get so hot here and I think the gnats here are driving me insane! hahaha Those gnats are everywhere, unless you are moving on a bike the gnats hone in on your ears, eyes, mouth, and nose. I don't know what they are thinking, trying to crawl up in there, but its enough to drive some one crazy. haha Other than the heat and bugs things are going great. We have a few people we are working with who are coming to church. YAY!
That's pretty crazy that Dustin is getting married. There was one Elder here who was an assistant a few months ago- he got engaged 17 days after he got off his mission! Before I leave the mission field I want some one have me swear on a Book of Mormon (can I do that?) that I will not get engaged within a year of returning. Well, maybe I won't swear, just promise myself that I won't. While I have been out here I have come to notice how much emphasis the Church places on marriage. Almost every ensign has something relating to marriage, a lot of the ensigns talk about how to find your eternal companion and having the courage to marry - its pretty intense. Our mission President tells us that he is instructed to teach us about church doctrine, church policy and procedures, and prepare us to become great fathers. Its pretty funny some times. Last week he was talking about how he gets lots of lovely letters from parents who are sending their sons on missions and how they say "Oh, little Johnny chose for himself that he wanted to serve a mission...." He said that its great that their son or daughter is coming on a mission and has the courage to make that choice, but a better situation would be if the parents trained their children from the very beginning that they were going to go and be great missionaries so they would not have to make that decision. With that President told us that the greatest person we will impact on our mission was our selves, and with that when we go home we need to marry a woman who will teach our children the doctrines of the Church and we need to teach them so that they will become worthy missionaries and righteous parents.
I am thankful that I never had to choose to go on a mission. I am thankful that I was raised by righteous parents who taught me what I needed to do. Dad, I know some of your family gives you gruff for being "controlling", whatever that means... If such a conversation arises again you tell them that you are in good company and that you have enough love for your children to teach them the right way to follow and expect them to live it. That is nothing more than what our Father in Heaven does for his children. Some may think that God's commandments are a little too "restraining" or a little too "controlling" - well, such attitudes and perceptions come from people who do not understand God's love and desires for us - to bring to pass the eternal life of man.
Maybe you might share some of the thoughts and ideas from this email with Dustin.
I hope he marries a righteous temple worthy daughter of God who will instruct his children at her feet from a young age the doctrines of the restoration of Christ's gospel.
I would appreciate commentary on my stories.
I love you all!
Elder Calvin Smith
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