New Challenges!

With Kelly's transfer last week he was made zone leader and is being trained by his very first companion in the field. So he gets to serve twice and be trained twice with Elder Harrison! I asked Kelly what his duties were as a zone leader and he responded.

Well I made it to Forth Smith alright and my reunion with Elder Harrison was sweet! We got to talk about old times and things that had happened when he trained me. It is kind of a relieve to be serving with some one that I have already served with because I'm not so worried about getting to know someone new and all the awkwardness that comes with it.

This transfer is going to be a very tough transfer. I already feel the refiner's fire heating up and I can feel that there is going to be a lot of growth from this fire. The ward is sweet here and I love the people we are teaching, I haven't been able to meet with all the investigators that we are teaching but I'm way excited to teach them.

So I wrote about a family that we were teaching when I first came out and was in Springdale, the Jackmen and Landert family. They were a family of five and we had baptism date set with them while I was there but one day they randomly moved! Guess where they moved? Fort Smith! Elder Harrison found them here and half of the family is baptized now! Now he and I are teaching the rest of the family! It's a testimony to me about how God knows what He is doing and how He is going to get things done.

Last transfer was awesome with Elder Clinger. I have never worked harder and been more obedient in my life then last transfer! The last few days were tough because we said good bye to everyone we loved and were teaching. While teaching several of them the Spirit spoke through Elder Clinger and me very strongly to them. While we were at Andrews and Kristy's we taught them the importance of following the commandments and how we need to be worthy to go to the temple. This family had just lost a child before I got there and I knew that this was a huge concern for them. Elder Clinger and I gave them blessings before we left. It was a very powerful good bye lesson!

Fort Smith is a town of about 40,000 and there are only two missionaries that cover it, Elder Harrison and me. Since I have been here it has been in the hundreds everyday! Keeping hydrated is very tough here but people are nice and they give us water. And so far I have been able to us the talents that I do have to serve others, meaning I have recharged a ladies car AC and have done some fender repairs on a car that went off the road into a ditch. I miss working on cars so much! I never knew how much I loved it till I got out here.

As a zone leader we inspire and uplift the zone, which are about 25 to 30 missionaries. We teach at zone conferences and go on exchanges with the district leaders and assistants to the presidents. I guess you can say we lead by example and help other missionaries reach their potential. We also take the indicators from all the missionaries in our zone and we report them to the assistants and then they go on up the line to the president of the church. I'm sure there are something's that I have left out because I haven't quiet learned everything about what we do as zone leaders yet.

My hands have been doing great! I have cut out all pop from my diet and have cut out all other junk foods out as well and I am as fit as a fiddle. I'm pushing 202 and I have really felt the difference of eating good healthy foods. We don't have a place to work out here but we have some equipment that helps out. We have pull up bars, perfect pushups, elastic bands and a 50 pound sack of sand that we use in the mornings. If that place you got those last vitamins from has a good multi-vitamin pill I would love that, as well as some more vitamin c that would help a lot. That's good that those pants will be getting here some, I will treasure those bad boys for the rest of my mission if they just let air in!

Love your son,
Elder D. Kelly Conrad