Elder Calvin B. Smith Email 11/08/2010

Dear Family,
This week I lost my companion. It started off like any normal day. We discussed who were were going to go see, where we were going and how to get there. We were riding down the road and I was a bit ahead of my companion as we approached our turn. I looked back and I saw him behind me. I made the turn and looked back again and saw him approaching the turn and I saw his head turn in my general direction. I looked back forward and road up to a poll to lock my bike on. I hopped off and set my bike against the pole. I looked back and my companion was gone. I looked around, and he just was not there. I looked in the church parking lot to see if he cut through, he was not there. So, I hopped on my bike I road across the street to the gas station to see if he stopped in there to use the restroom, he was not there. I checked the surrounding neighborhoods, looking up and down the streets, he was not there. So I stopped and waiting for ten minutes at the last place I saw him. He didn't come back. I figured he would come back to the last place he saw me. I waited and waited. 40 minutes went by. He didn't have a phone, or a map, or a sense of direction. He gets lost faster than I do. I prayed really hard that nothing would happen to him and that he would find his way back. I police officer drove down the road and parked his car next to the gas station. I rode my bike over to him and asked if had seen another missionary dressed like me on a bike down from where he had come from. He said that he had, he was a long way down the road, but heading back in my direction. I thanked the officer for his help and took off in my companion's direction. After biking two miles down the road I finally intercepted him coming back in my direction.

I asked my companion what happened and he replied that he was looking down as he road his bike. One minute he looked up and I was there, another minute he looked up and I was gone. He just assumed that I had biked further ahead and would wait for him further up the road. He biked for about 20 minutes until he decided that I must have turned off when he wasn't looking. So, he just turned around and biked back. I am glad that he did, or I don't know how I would have found him. After that we had a talk about what to do when you get lost, and we made sure he had some important phone numbers written down in his planner just in case. Of all my companions, I would say that Elder Cooper would be the most likely to get in a bike wreck. He just doesn't look where he is going. He has had a few close calls already. A few days ago he almost plowed into an oncoming car in a parking lot because he wasn't looking. I asked him "Didn't you see the car?" He replied that he had not, because he wasn't looking up. Elder Cooper scares me a lot on his bike, but I still love him. He is a happy hard working guy who doesn't complain about anything. He really likes bacon, eggs and hot dogs.

Love,
Elder Calvin Smith