The most crazy week ever!!!

October 13, 2009
Hey family!!

I don’t even know where to start…this week has been a super crazy one!! First of all, you know that I got transferred to White River, or downtown Indy. I love it already! It’s kind of funny, but Heavenly Father moved me to progressively bigger areas each time!! New Castle has about 17,000 people, Lafayette about 65,000 and Indianapolis is HUGE!!! Indianapolis itself has about 800,000 people but then there are all the suburbs around it!! We live about a mile away from the speedway track… it is HUGE!!! Speedway, the suburb that we live in has about 20,000 people (I think). SO, needless to say… there are a lot of people around here! I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new companion Sis. Rich!! She’s so much fun and full of life… I’m going to get along great with her and love her already!! I actually feel like a missionary now!! I’ve had the chance to do a LOT of the work and I LOVE IT!!! My past two companions did a lot of the work and I just felt like a shadow with a name tag. So I’m so excited to actually get to do the work more!! I think I already know the area better than I did my last one!! Sis. Allred had a kind of photographic memory and she would just drive places so I never had to really figure out where to go or how to get there or anything. Since Indy has so many streets we have a binder, let me repeat myself, A BINDER OF MAPS!! The map of our area is about 20 pages long and we have a huge index of streets so we can find things better. I’ve already had to direct Sis. Rich a couple of places, and like I said before… I love being a part of the work!! As sad as I was to transfer, I KNOW that this was inspired of God and that I’m supposed to be here for a purpose… maybe MANY purposes. SO, here is a brief summary of a very crazy week!!!

TUESDAY – I found out that I was getting transferred… but instead of doing the usual transfers where all missionaries getting transferred go to fishers, they did a weird thing called a wagon train to gather up all the missionaries going to new areas! So they told Sis. Allred that she was going to be by herself for 24 hours because I was leaving on Wednesday, but Sis. Stuart wouldn’t get there until Thursday!! I’m glad it wasn’t me that happened to!

WEDNESDAY – We went and visited a lot of people… but no one was home so I just left a lot of notes of doors. I did get to say goodbye to the important people though… like Janna and Tom. So, then at about 4:00 I got on a van and the assistants drove to INDY!!! I was in a trio until
Sis. Stuart left on Thursday which was kind of fun!! Earlier that day Sis. Stuart had had an allergic reaction to something so we had to go to the dr. and gets shots for her and then we went in early because she was all drugged up!!!

THURSDAY – We went around and tried to say goodbye to some people for Sis. Stuart. Then we dropped her off at the church and went and did weekly planning! THEN we went and had missionary correlation meeting with our mission leader and Sis. Rich told me to take my camera for some mysterious reason… the reason being that his wife has about 300 cabbage patch dolls!!! It was a little crazy!! We both took about 50 pictures… she goes to conventions and all kinds of fun stuff like that and at first I was in awe, but then I just got kind of disgusted… that is a LOT of dolls!! I don’t think I have my camera cord on me and I’m running out of time… but next week I’ll try and email some pictures!! Then that evening we had 2 appointments… the first was with a girl named Andria who got baptized on Saturday. They weren’t sure that she was really going to get baptized because she failed her interview, but we had a great lesson with her and went over the questions again. Sis. Stuart and Rich found out on Saturday that she is bipolar which kind of explains things!! THEN, we had another great lesson with Sara who got baptized on Sunday. She is very cool!! I’ll have to see if I can find some time next week to email you about her. My stomach has been acting up lately so I didn’t contribute much to that lesson… but the lesson with Andria I taught about ½ of it… which felt so good!!!

FRIDAY – We talked to a buy named Jerome who was so funny!! He kept saying that he knew he was so funny, that he was a wit and that we were leaving in stitches!! It was very very funny!! We were laughing just because and then we were really laughing because it really wasn’t funny, and that made it funny!!! Then we met with a RC who started smoking again… AH... I hate it when they do that!!! She’s great though, and I made a new friend with her 2 yr old grand daughter… she’s so cute!! It’s really crazy how much people go through and yet they keep their faith… it’s amazing!!!! Then we had a re-interview with Andria and she passed!! THEN we had a dinner appointment and my stomach really didn’t agree with something and we went home afterwards because it hurt so bad!!!

SATURDAY – Sis. Stuart and I switched places so she could come here to her baptisms and I could go to Janna and Tom’s. It was really weird to be Sis. Allred’s companion again!! I think that all of my pent up frustration came out and so we got into a little bit of an argument/disagreement where we didn’t talk to each other for awhile… well actually that was a Sunday… I’m jumping ahead of myself… … but all is well and we worked it out and we still love each other!!! Janna and Tom’s baptism was SO AMAZING!!! I love baptisms!!! The spirit is so strong there and it makes all the long hard hours of work worth it!! Sis. Allred and I sang a song which went really well!! It was “I Will Seek the Lord” on the D&C CD… I sort of forgot the music… but we managed!!

SUNDAY – was a great day!! I got to visit with Diana who I hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye to, and that was wonderful!! As much as I love Lafayette, I was so glad to go back to White River that night!! THIS is where I’m supposed to be and I love it here already!!!

MONDAY – we had a great day!!! We were able to teach a couple of lessons while we were tracting and we visited with some LA’s and made a MILLION phone calls!! In this area we get a TON of media referrals and we were trying to contact them and set up appointments. Then we had break and then we went and visited a RC named Carolynn. She has a crazy personality, but I’m already learning to love her! It’s kind of a pain to have to be inside (either at an appointment or at home) by dark…so we stayed there for about 3 ½ hours!! I’m so grateful for the rule… it keeps us safe… but then we don’t have tons of time to work!! Oh well!

Well, I better run so I can get this off… I’ve been almost missing the log off time for the past couple of weeks and I don’t want that to happen again!!!! Oh, guess what… well, you probably already gathered this from the email… but between the two of us (Sis. Rich and Smith) we had 4… I repeat 4 baptisms this weekend!! Four people who are committed to following CHRIST and striving to come unto HIM!!! What a great week it was!!! I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week too!!!!

Love from INDY!
Sis. Alex Smith