Let the 5 week transfer begin

I know all of you are dying to know who my new companion is. I was too when it was transfer time. I did express that I was really nervous about who my new companion was going to be because on what the next step was going to be in our area. Lo and behold, I got a sweet companion that I actually called that I was going to get. His name is Elder Hulse. He was from my MTC district and we came out at the same time. I served around him once on my mission and that was my last area in Copperwood where he was my district leader. He isn't district leader anymore so that means my DLB days are over. I am just a regular missionary now.

Elder Hulse has been out...well...the same time I have been. 21 months. He is from around Logan, Utah. I don't remember exactly what town he is from, but it is somewhere close to that one. He and I get along awesome. He wasn't too happy about getting transferred like I was in Copperwood, but he and I are almost done with our mission so we should be just fine.

A lot of the Zone has changed. Our two zone leaders both left, one going home and one going to the North. The one going home is from AF. Downing is his last name. Maybe you guys can look him up and see how he is doing. Anywho, we got two new zone leaders who a re pretty young in the mission and seem to take this zone to a new direction. We had a "goal meeting" and discussed what we like to focus on this transfer. We all agreed that we focus on asking referrals from everyone we meet with. While I do agree with this goal, I don't agree with the goal number we set. We set 500 each week for the entire zone. I don't disagree with not reaching it because we could...but our area sucks with this and we would be in the minority and it would just make us look bad. Not that is anything new, but I rather avoid that situation.

Our ward hasn't change much. We have been doing a lot of service and trying to figure out the whole situation with Brother Tinney and Josh. But I feel whatever we tell the ward council what we did during the week, they are always expecting more. There isn't much to tell them. This area....this area is dead! Unless members actually HELP us get to know people and not just DUMP them on us, then we could work on Part member families. But all ward council tells us to do is to just...do it. Plus, we tell them we do service and they don't seem too happy about it either. I don't know what they want or expect of us, but it is getting pretty annoying. Elder Hulse notices it too and he already knows that this is going to be a tough area and a tough time to get through it.

President interviews are this week and I am going to express what all is happening in my area to President so he can suggest a few ways to  get it progressing. Plus, it is President's last interview with us and it may be an emotional time. We'll see what happens.

I guess it is now question time!

Question #1: Did we do any service lately and what was it?

This week we did quite a bit. We went to a farm and put some gopher poison in some holes where the gophers live. That took a while, but it was pretty fun. We also help taking some concrete out of a person's backyard, but there was some re-barb that we couldn't cut through or breakthrough so we will have to wait till we continue on that.

Question #2: Do you have any funny experiences to tell?

Talking to Elder Hulse about our MTC times has been fun. We see sometimes that elders we knew in the MTC have changed. Not changed good, but changed bad. What I mean is they get in our face and think they know everything about the mission and what we should do. But that is another subject I rather not talk about.

Hmmm, well, Brother Tinney invited us over to a fire pit dinner and we went. There was quite a bit of non-members there. The parents didn't seem to want to talk with us, but the kids and teenagers were all over us. They gave us some updates on video games and movie trailers and all that jazz. But during that, the fire got a bit big after throwing a bit of wood in it and a kid backed off without looking where he was going and trip over the concrete that we were working on getting out. He has a little scrape, but the kid was in complete shock and was making a scence. The funniest part was this.

Kid that fell over: I wanna lay down

Brother Tinney's daughter: Then lay down

KTFO: I can't!...I wanna stand up.

BTD: Then stand up.

KTFO: I CAN'T! Is my arm broken?

BTD: No.

KTFO: Oh thank you God!

It was quite a a funny experience, but that is just my sense of humor.

Before I go, about the BYU-I course thing...I have no idea how colledge work and I am not exactly at a place where I can print this off or any place nearby where I can. I will see what I can do though, but I don't expect I will be doing it anytime soon...:/

Love you all and the picture I posting up is a picture of my and my current companion, but it is an old picture. He is the elder that is in the middle with me. Take care!

It gets slower and slower and slower...

Well, the work in this area just came to a screaming halt. We did all the lost sheep that we could do and no members are really helping us with anything like finding or service or nothing. It is really frustrating when we are doing our stuff and we are getting no help at all. The members are cool and everything and say they want to help, but they are just not showing anything. 

Plus the situation with Brother Tinney and Josh didn't improve at all. We gave them a non-formal baptismal interview and told them that Josh is not ready. He needed to know what repentance was and also the Sabbath day which were two very important points. But they took it very hard since they already had the baptismal day for this Saturday at the Kootany lake. They haven't contacted us since and it is very hard to follow up on this because Josh is moving to the Crownest Pass soon and it is just going to be our of our hands by this point. 

This area is probably going to be dead soon. And it seems we are going to be at our last resort which all of you know I hate. Tracting...-_-. This is probably one of the toughest areas I have been in. It is pretty close to Parkland in South Calgary. I just have no clue of what to do here anymore. Plus, Elder Bench is getting transferred. Yep, I am going to get a new companion and it will probably be a district leader unless they call me to be the district leader. Just all this stuff is happening to this mission and I have no clue how to react to it or what to do about it. Ugh, I am kinda glad I am almost done with this mission. I will still do my hardest till the end, but I am going to be sweating a lot of blood to keep sane.

Sorry for the short letter. Things are not happening frequently or exciting as they used to. Thank you for all your input about how BYU-I is and all that. I have been thinking about it for a while now and can't wait for that time to start. It will be a grand time and another hard working time as well. I have two questions before I go:

1. Is my ipod still good? 

2. People have been asking about my name and where it comes from. I tell them Italian. Am I right? Also, who were the ancestors that came from Italy or wherever this name originated from. If you could tell me that would be great! Love you all! See ya!

Weird crap is going on...

Sooooo...some wierd stuff is going on in this ward and we are not too exactly sure to do with it. First off, remember Josh? Well, here is the situation we have at hand. Brother Tinney, who is Josh's father in law wants to baptize him in about two weeks. Josh is not ready at all. He hasn't done anything we have asked of him and we believe he is doing this just so he can please his father in law. He has moved to Crowness Pass however so I guess he is technically out of our area and other missionaries responsibility. But this still leads to another problem. Brother Tinney wants to baptize Josh at Kootany Lake near Creston. He hasn't even asked the Bishop or our Mission President. He has problems with authority and is just going to do this because he wants to. That is probably going to get him disfellowshipped. :/ So we are going to talk to our mission president tomorrow because it is zone conference and see what he will say on the matter. We hope to figure out how to solve this problem.

Not much progress has been made on the matter of lost sheep because no one wants to answer the door or members won't freakin tell anyone about anybody. It is a really frustrating time with these lost sheep stuff because they weren't like the last ward when we did them in. In Bow Valley, people actually reported and did the lost sheep work that they were assigned. But here, they don't. They just basically dumped it on us and only us to work with these people. Sure it is busy work and keeps us working, but without member help on this matter can be really frustrating at times. Oh well, can't say much or do much about it. It really is all dependent on the ward council to do anything on the subject matter.

Also, some really terrifying things are happening around our area. In Lethbridge recently, there was a killing of 3 people and police were everywhere searching for the killers. Then, just last night, a 17 year old sliced a 45 year old womans neck and went to an apartment complex which some missionaries in our zone were and was knocking on doors to get help. Let's just say that the missionaries are in a bit of shock now and are pretty scared to leave their apartment now because of this tragic experience. They are going to move apartments soon, but still it was a pretty scary experience. I am just glad we are a bit far from that kind of stuff. Still pretty close, but still far enough. 

So now that Josh is kinda out of our area, that leaves us with no investigators at the moment which is not new to me. Happens to most of the missionaries out here. So, we are going to give these members one more chance and ask them to see if they can help us find investigators or give us a couple names to stop by. Some of them are pretty missionary minded, but they don't act on it as much as we hope to. You guys basically know my stance on member missionary work and all that. So it will come to no surprise that I think that is the best option we have for this area.

As for Mothers day Skyping: On Mother's day, we have dinner with the family that Mom wanted here to hug me for her. We are thinking that we will skype then and there. We are going to ask her if that is still alright. Early evening is totally fine with me. What exact time is the best for you guys? Just let me know and I can look back on my email and see.

Alright question time!

Question #1:Have you used up all your gift cards that I gave you? 

I have used all of them except for $5 left on my Tim Hortons card. Thank you so much again for these and I really do use them!

Question #2: Do you know who the new mission president is going to be?

I believe I answered this question already, but his name is Steven P. Miles. President recently send us a bio on him and his wife. I will put an attachment on it at the end of this email.

Question #3: Do you know exactly when the new mission president is scheduled to arrive?

At the end of June I believe. We are not quite exactly sure, but that is the general date.

Question #4: When do you have your interview with your current mission president to determine the exact end date of your mission?

I am not sure exactly sure how the getting ready to go home process goes out here. I think I get my "trunkie papers" where it tells me what flight I am going on and when I am going soon. 

That is all I believe. I can't wait to talk to you on Sunday. By the way, my new piano video should be up on facebook now. Check it out! Love you all!

Smylski Photos

Hi Carrie This is Stephanie Smylski Look who I found? (End of April 2015)

(End of May 2015)