The Situation

Hi!
Ok, sorry for last week, that was terrible of me, I didn't really have any time to talk, because we had a rendez vous and we had a hard time finding parking, and I had smashed my leg. There is lots of stories to tell and updates to give so here it goes

Aix en Provence is very beautiful, it makes me think of Carcassonne, The down town is very rustic and old french, there are many many little churches and fountains and bakeries and people painting in the streets. We have the car so we don't work a whole lot in town, the other companionship that is on foot works there, and we travel to smaller villages around Aix and we also work in the more suburban areas of apartment complexes and such. Aix is one of the biggest university cites in France, but because it is summer we don't see alot of students. We have spent most of our time doing door to door and traveling between cities. We had the chance to go back to Nice last week to visit for a district meeting. It was great, I loved seeing all of the missionaries that I had worked with, I had only been away for about 2 weeks but it still was great to see them again. Each time that I get to see old companions or missionaries that I worked with it is like the reunion that ammon had with the dudes of mosiah. Normally we will work close to the universities because there is an institute building and lots of super kool young single adults in Aix but for the moment there is nobody in school so we are just doing old school work. It is nice to have the car, but at the same time we don't get to contact as much and it is a bit of a change for me, but on the other hand when we are not in the car it makes us go even harder because we know that our time is limited to find people. When I got to Aix there was 1 ami and the apartment was filthy and the books and organization was terrible! So we whitewashed and we spent a good day and a half trying to recontact people and clean things and organize things. We also have had the change of the mission president so there are 2 styles of work going on, there is the Toulouse mentality and the Swiss mentality, both are focused on moving the work of the Lord we just do it differently, so that has been fun. Because we pretty much are inventing the new way that the zone leaders work in the mission. Each companionship of Zone leaders is a mix of Toulouse and Swiss, so it is happening all over the mission. And tomorrow all of the zone leaders are going to Lyon to meet with president so that we can learn his new way of working because he has tried to take the best parts of both missions and he has made the France Lyon Mission. It is a bit of a party needless to say with all of the changes.

So a missionary rule is that when you are backing up in the car, you must have 1 missionary outside of the car. And because the parking is super tight and small in France and everybody drives at like 100 mph sometimes parking in town is CRAZY and so last week we saw a parallel parking spot that was a little tight but it was the only one, so we punched it and beat the others to the spot and I bailed out of the car to lead Elder Claflin. We park like 4 inches from the other cars so I was backing him up and I was inbetween our car and a car that was parked behind us, I was waving him on and he came fast and I looked away for a split second at the traffic and WAM I was wedge between the cars right below my left knee. So I tapped the car and be pulled forward. It hurt like a mother but it was super funny how fast everything happend I jumped out of the car and then got smashed in a matter of like 10 seconds, so from the perspective of the other people in the street it looked super funny that I got out of the car in order to stand between the other car and get hit and then to just get back in the car. I was limping for a couple of days, but after some praying and sleeping I feel no problem now, so its all good.

We we doing door to door yesterday and we found a family that is golden. It is a father with his 3 kids and he was telling us about the need for prophets and the need for personal revelation and the fact that other the other churches had been changed by men and that we needed a restoration of the true church on earth, he told us that the only way to recognize that church would be by the holy ghost. It was AWESOME to meet someone that honestly was searching for the truth, I don't know if I have ever met someone that was so honest in searching the truth and who had search with so much faith. He let us in and we taught the restoration and the spirit was very powerful as we talked with him and his children. His name is David, he has 3 kids 11, 8, 5 and a half. Pretty much Garrett, Charlie and Morgan. It made me realize how bless my family is to have found the truth, each one of you that are married have small families like that, and they are eternal families. The scripture rang true to me that "there are many who seek the truth but they know not where to find it"

I am super jealous that everyone is up at the lake, and I am excited to be able to be there next year, that is super rad that the water is so high and I would kill to be up in Laketown with the crew, but you will have to put me with the Yellow Death for Risk and Jens and Garrett can toss my horse shoes. Also each an extra smore for me.

I love you all and I love the Lord we have been blessed this last week to have found 6 new investigators, we came in on a blank slate and the Lord has prepared our way. I KNOW that he leads this work and that these miracles come from him, not his missionaries, but from him in all reality. He lives and I love him.

I love you all as well and I hope that you have a great week!

Elder Smith

Ps some sun flower fields that I saw while we where out in the country side and some brothers in Nice
Pss I loved have an update from the Smiths of 200 South, it was so good to hear about soccer tournaments, church, work, the fam, the vacations, I think that each fam should follow the example of The Tres Smiths ( Jeanell as well sent a great update 2 weeks ago that was equally awesome)