Reptile City

Well looks like everyone is keeping busy, that probably means its a good summer then. I could try to run through my week, but I honestly can't remember half the stuff that has happened... my bad memory or I'm just always thinking ahead, one or the other. Well yesterday we got a surprise Barbecue with our friends the Barrons, and they bought loads of stuff from Costco and just had a massive fry up in the backyard, so good... and we ended up spending most of the day there because my companion is a bit ill at the moment from hey fever and allergies and goodness knows what else... but I'm still pretty healthy at the moment. Yes, I'm eating more vegetables because we found a cheap place to buy them, so now I can eat better. The barbecue probably wasn't the best for me though :P But boy, was that some good food. I don't know if you know about a special barbecue sauce, but it is made with Jack Daniels flavouring, no alcohol of course, but it is just incredibly good. You should find some so I can use it on my chicken when I get back :) We've also got a big family ready for baptism in two weeks as well. It's my companions first baptisms in his mission, so he's super excited. I'm excited as well because we are making my area into the highest baptizing area in the mission. Thank you. I've managed to pull off something amazing while I've been out here. Since the beginning of the year Southend has had about 8 baptisms, and now with 5 more will make us the highest baptizing area in our mission. I'm a bit proud of that because I've spent nearly 5 months here so far, and our Mission President is quite pleased as well. Knowing that this is England... and that not many people are baptized, this is a pretty good thing :) Plus our retention rate for all of our recently baptized people is still 100% at the moment. So I thought I'd brag a bit, but not to be overly prideful because it's not me that convinces people to be baptized, it's God.

So anyway, we're doing pretty good here. It's under two months till I see you guys, and I'm excited to be finished with all this business out here. It's been a long road, but guess there isn't anything else that would have taught me how to grow up than a mission. It feels pretty good to know that I've managed to make it this far. Sometimes I thought to myself that I wouldn't make it or that I would give up first, but it feels pretty good to accomplish something so big. Random thought, I now get to add like 300 hundred people to my facebook when I get home... Great, I thought keeping up with people in Utah was bad. I'm probably just going to delete facebook when I get home and have people contact me through real means like calling me :P I'm joking about that, but I am worried about things that will waste my time when I get home. Mom is probably going to reiterate those words to me in a few months when I'm playing a computer game or something and then tell me to do something more productive. Well, I've learned a few things about time management out here, so lets see if they actually carry into real life. Well enough of me ranting, I love you guys and I'll catch you in a few weeks as I've been saying for quite a long time now, but really I'll see you in a few weeks :)

Elder Smith