Accent: Fixin' to Get One

Justin's e-mail this week came in on Tuesday; they must have moved P-Day this week. Sorry I'm just getting around to posting it. It sounds like Justin's really getting to like the South! Justin's even likin' the accent, and fixin' to get one! Remember to write Justin; I'm sure he'd be thrilled to hear from y'all!

What's going on with Brianna? That majorly sucks, hopefully they get it all figured out soon. It seems like by now they could have figured something out. So was removing her gall bladder a waste or do they think that was also a problem? Fixing one problem just so you can find another... Her body is acting like Christopher's car! Hopefully it gets better soon. But I am glad to hear that Andrew is actually acting 13 and that he's not as perfect as we thought he would be. Christopher and I don't look quite as bad now... I'm also glad to hear that Mark's bells palsy is clearing up a little bit. And that Steven's eye was fixed! Crazy! our family has the weirdest health things going on... Any others I should know about? At least my body is doing alright. I don't have any exciting stories about hurting myself or anything yet. But I haven't touched my bike yet, so when I start riding it that will probably change... By the way I know I mentioned it last week but it's pretty cool that you've been having all of my friends over and everything. Next time you just need to tell them all to write me!

I'm way excited for Tucanos. Make sure you keep them in business until I get back. :) But yes Dad, we do get fed really well here so it's alright. One time the Eubanks (he's the high priest group leader) had just gotten a new smoker so they had us over to try it out. We had these delicious ribs (from their own cows, like most of the meat we have here. That's really cool too.) that they had been smoking for 7 hours and they were so delicious! One of the best meals I've had out here. One time I was on exchanges in Alma and we had this smoked tri-tip steak and that was really amazing too. The Kennelly's have taken us out to 2 different really good steak houses, which I loved, but the other home grown and cooked meat was just as good. We've been eating really really well. And I'll eat (and enjoy) pretty much anything now. But I have learned that I'm not too fond of potato salad, which isn't a good thing when you're serving in the south. (the rest of the mission is midwest, but the people here in Arkansas consider themselves south. And they sound it too. :) Elder Simakov can't understand anyone, but I LOVE the southern accent! I'm fixin to git me one...) As for the rest of your questions Mom, his full name is Maxim Simakov. I've got all those pictures, you'll get some eventually... The last preparation day before Elder Johnson left we printed a bunch of his pictures at Walmart so you'll get those as well. Lloyd's last name is Weitkamp (pronounced white camp). I have no idea how he's doing. We haven't seen him since his baptism... But just because he moved up to Bentonville. He actually moved the day before his baptism and just came back down for it. I'm sure he's doing fine though, they've got some good missionaries up there, and the church is really strong up there. Alot stronger than here. Down here it's really struggling. It's kind of funny hearing that Alex is now covering 2 wards because he has the whole county, whereas the ward that I'm in (which was a branch until just about 6 months ago) covers almost 3 counties). It's insane. It is really interesting to read the other missionaries letters though, and just see the differences between the different missions. Like for instance in some missions they do nothing but tract all day, and here we only do 1-2 hours of finding per week. The rest of the time we're in teaching. We are expected to teach 40 lessons per week. Most missionaries don't (we've done it a couple of times, and we're always close) but the First Presidency has said that all missionaries in the US should be able to teach 40 lessons a week. It's hard, but possible.

But anyway, back to our struggling stake. The Fort Smith stake is having a tough time, which is really amazing since Elder Bednar used to be the stake president here. It's kind of funny though because when he was here you had to have at least 50% home teaching to get a temple recommend, because home teaching was so bad. Now it's way down again. Last month the Fort Smith ward got 7%!!! Unbelievable. Our ward was actually one of the best in the stake, around 25%. But this month we're doing well, we may even get 30%... It's bad. And because of that the inactivity rate is through the roof! Especially in Fort Smith itself. The funny thing about it is that the Fort Smith Zone is actually leading the mission in most categories. The work is just exploding down here, in spite of the members.... I can't really say that about Clarksville though. They're doing alright. But the work here is exploding too! Last week alone, we had 14 new investigators!!!!! People here are SO receptive! I love it! We're having alot of success in finding people to teach. Right now we have 4 baptismal dates: Francis on March 21, Kurt and Krista Lemons on March 28, and Thom Vannoy on April 4. It was tough for awhile because we were opening a brand new area, but it's exploding now. I'll probably get transfered on April 10, which sucks because we are probably going to have alot of baptisms in April and May. Alot of baptisms. But if I do have to leave it's ok. Wherever I get sent I know that's where the Lord needs me so I can't complain.

For the rest of your questions, I honestly don't remember my first teaching experience in Clarksville. My first day after I got here we went out with some of the other missionaries in Tulsa and I had a couple cool ones then, that I wrote you about back then. After I got to Clarksville we didn't have anyone to teach yet so our first couple hours my first day we spent contacting less active members in Lamar. I think. I don't remember much though. I think it was this crazy couple named the Baxter's who haven't been to church in years. I do remember being AMAZED at the awful living conditions there. I didn't know there was so much poverty here in the United States. Now it doesn't even phase me. I'm just like "yup, that's Arkansas..." Not to complaing though. I really do LOVE Arkansas. I could even see myself living here some day after my mission. I don't remember the first door I knocked on either, but I do remember my first street contact. (we call them OTM's here. I'd explain but I only have 9 minutes left on the computer. Remind me to explain next week) It was this really overweight man in a wheelchair. He was drinking a mountain dew. His name was...shoot I forgot! I remembered up until like a week ago! I have it written down, I'll look it up. But he was Methodist and wasn't really interested. The next lady I talked too wasn't interested either, she actually ran away... But that's all I remember. Sorry. But thngs are going really great here. All of a sudden we just have so many people to teach! The warm weather has really helped, there are so many more people outside to talk too, and so we're finding alot more interesting people. My companion is also a stud and a way good missionary, so that helps too. We've been working ourselves to death and we pretty much just get home and collapse every night, but we've seen so many blessings because of it. It's awesome. So I'm really loving everything. AHHH!!!!!!! 20 seconds left before I get logged out!!! Love you! Bye!

Jessica Scott, Tim Trotter, Eliza Griggs, me, Heather Scott

Jessica Scott, me, Heather Scott (Bishop's daughters). I don't know what I am doing there. I think I'm about to laugh.