Thanksgiving Day with the Newman's

                                    Dear Dutson Family, Smith families and Bowden Family:

We have had a great pleasure of hosting your fine missionary sons today in our home.  They are all four serving in our ward here in West Des Moines, Iowa.  You all have GREAT sons.  We love having them with us and sharing our Thanksgiving traditions was so much fun.  Three of them are sharing their first Thanksgiving away from you.  I remember that one well as I served my mission years ago in Germany.  We also have a son in Brazil on his first Thanksgiving away from home.  His chances of being fed turkey are slim today!  With temps in the 20s, it was a beautiful winter day here.  We ate dinner, played ping pong and cards together and shared pie with your sons.  Thank you for raising great young men who are now representing the Lord for these two years.  They have that “light” in their eyes and have been so courteous and loving.  Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

We love you as parents and families of missionaries.  We enjoy that bond with you.

Mark and Lisa Newman
West Des Moines, Iowa

November 18, 2013

                                              Baptism day November 16th. Yeah buddy!

Let me Just say wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I never thought that it would be so awesome to get the chance to baptize someone. I had to do it twice because I forgot to say a word. Darn it. But hey she was baptized and that's great. I will send some pics for ya. The weather is strange here. On Monday last week it snowed and then it was a little cold for the first couple days, but then it went back up in the 60 and today its like 45 so its kinda dumb weather.  We find out if we are getting transferred today so I don't know what will happen but I think I will be staying, if not I will see if I could send you a message or something to let ya know. I am going to need grandpa Smiths address from ya so I can send him a thank you letter. Tell the people in the Fielding ward I love them so much and they are the best ward I have ever been in. I will have to send a letter to the bishop so he can read it in sacrament meeting or something like that. Kody sounds like he is doing good I miss that kid and I cant wait to get back together with that kid and cause some trouble with him again ha-ha  sounds like he did good on his talk though. Thank you for everything and all you do for me I sent a letter in the mail and it has all of you in it so when you get it read it with the family You, Dad, Weston, Colt, and Sharlee 

well love you all and stay warm and don't forget to smile!

LOVE ELDER BRACKEN SMITH

November 12, 2013

                                                         Loaded and Dangerous!

                                                               He still loves guns!

Hola mi Madre ha ha guess what I'm going Spanish ha ha just kidding. OH TELL DAD I SAID HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I love hearing from you guys and I know I have slacked on writing people back but I will get better. so how has your week been? I hope all is going good there and nothing bad is happening. so this Saturday I have the opportunity to baptize our investigator named Amber Schafer, she asked me to do it so I will have two pictures to send to you of my latest baptisms how sweet is that? we also have 5 people we can set a date with and 1 that has a date for the 14th of December so that is awesome the lord is just blessing us with good things and he wants us as a mission to reach our goal of 550 baptisms this year. we need 75 baptisms a month tell the year is over to reach it but we all have the faith that we can. I hope the pheasant hunt is going good and I need to see some pics so you have a good rest of the day and week love ya!!!

Elder Bracken Smith

Oct. 28, 2013

Hey Mom and family

Thank you so much for the package. Yes I did get it and loved all the things inside. yes even the spiders. My new companion is from Nampa Idaho. the only reason I haven't sent any pictures is because the computers we use to email don't have a place I can stick my sd card into so I might have to go get a converter for it so I can plug it into a usb port or something. Oh there is one thing that sucks. I found out that when we wear sweaters they have to be a solid color and they cant have a pattern on them which sucks. I was so disappointed when I heard that because you sent out one ah I was a little upset. but rules are rules. I will see what I can do to get you some pictures sent to you. Oh just a funny thing I noticed when I was looking at the picture of all the boys at Landon's ordination is that Jacksons face looks like he doesn't want to be there. and also another thing it looks like Colton needs to shorten up his tie haha looks a little bit to long for him even though that looks like a nice shirt and a good looking tie haha but thanks for everything I might be sending home some things that you might get a kick out of. Hope you all have a great day and a great week miss you all oh and another fun fact for ya on the 22nd of November, moms birthday, I will have been out in the mission field for 6months thought that was cool. but love ya

Elder Bracken Smith

November 4, 2013

                                           Me, Myself, and Garth and the other Elder Smith!

Hey mom and family

Sounds like you had a good week and had fun driving down to vernal YEAH!! I got a letter and picture of her and she is cute. Hope it all went great. well some things have changed I no longer have Elder Jordan as my companion. he had to go home because of some medical issues with his knee. long story short he went on a mission to the central pacific in kidibus by the martial islands and got dangi fever or an illness like it which attacked his patellar tendon its sad but I get an elder that is coming back out elder Dutson so I will send you some pictures soon of him and my last comp. but other than that its been a slow fast not much happening week that's cool how Weston shot a bird congrates on that buddy love ya and that's good meeka did good I was a little worried about that.

love elder smith

Oct. 21, 2013

 How's the family doing? Its been a crazy last couple weeks so sorry if I haven't sent anyone a letter. with transfers and packing and going to a new area its been go, go, go, go, go, everyday. We are doing a lot of teaching in my new area so its hard to find time on days to write letters but hopefully I get on today or something wrote for this last week. The new area is sweet we have a baptismal date for November 16 yessssssssssssssss and she is solid ready to be dunked and its great. Tomorrow I will have hit 5 months out its crazy some part of me is like man that went by fast and others its like wow has it been two years yet. But its been great its crazy the other day i was trying to think about what the house looked like back in good old Fielding Utah but for some reason I cant picture it. I did draw a map of Fielding so I can show people what a small town looks like out here. but Mo says its getting bigger and bigger. so how's Weston doing in school? I bet he's not doing as good as I did because I was smrt. hahaha I'm glad your doing ok and hope your doing something fun this week. Tell dad I love him to more than he will ever know. Also tell Weston he needs to stop growing because he is going to make me feel short. haha but I love you to thanks for everything.

Love your favorite missionary

Elder Bracken (bud) Smith