In Chicago

 Well first off I don't know Cameron's email so rip. One of your can forward it to him I guess. For starters I'll  tell you a little about my area and my companions  since that's something all of you asked about. Elder Tapp and Elder Jones are my companions. Elder Tapp has been out for 6 months. Here's a solid missionary but is still building up confidence. Elder Jones has been out a year and a couple months and he's the zone leader. Here's a little hard core but such is life. Teaching in a trio is hard but it makes life a lot easier for finding people on Facebook. Usually it turns into two people leading the lesson and one person kinda sits there and says just a tiny bit, but we're all competent teaching so thats nice. I'd say I'm the opposite

of elder Tapp right now. I have more confidence than I do knowledge so sometimes I go barreling into a lesson and butcher it, but I do it very confidently. Elder Jones just laughs at me because sometimes I'll just get way ahead of myself and introduce the BOM like 2 minutes into the lessons way out of the order we planned on and things get mixed around. 

Our schedule is super busy. Our goal is 7 people on date for baptism each week and we got 5 this previous week. 21 non members came to our ward on Sunday which was huge, but we also have 7 missionaries assigned to our ward. We're gonna have a baptism every week this month. . The work is moving quick here in Indiana. 

The city im staying in is called Hammond. On Facebook I live in Whiting just so I can target that group of people in my area, but I don't actually reside there. Its about 20-30 minutes away but in order to connect to more people in that specific area we "lie" and say that we live there. The farther north you go in my area the poorer and sketchy it gets. Think of the scariest area of Kennewick or Pasco and then make it twice as scary. Walking around in the day is scary at all but night is a little unnerving. Lots of scary dogs mostly. I almost got my arm ripped off by Omar's dog. There's not a lot of homeless people which surprised me. Everyone is just constantly moving in and out of houses and there communication is terrible because they either can't or forget to pay there phone bills a lot. However. In the southern part of our area, its similar to badger canyon. So it's the most diverse group I've ever been with people much more well off than our family mixed with people living in poverty. Crazy group. So many black people, in the north part of the area more so than the south part but most the places we go we're the only white guys. 

Fun news but I'm really unclear on whats happening. The Baltic states are open to many other European countries. I got an email from the church travel agency and they told me to send in my passport because I may leave very soon, maybe even during my transfer. The borders are opening and closing so they're trying really hard to find a way to get me there. For now I'm in Indiana but who knows what is to come. 

We teach usually about 3-7 lessons a day, on a rare occasion more. Usually we have 8-10 scheduled but people cancel all the time. 

We cook our own food so thats an adventure. We're able to eat with members if it's outside. We had Hawaiian haystack yesterday and I went against my will and stacked on more vegetables and fruits than I wanted on my haystack to please the member since they cooked it. 

We have a car since our area is so big. The drive is about 50 minutes from top to bottom. Lots of Facebook contacting while I sit in the back seat of our Rav 4.

The COVID restrictions are loss generally. Members could care less however if we're inside with them we have to wear masks. Theres a devotional this week from President Shumway our mission president about updates/clarification on rules so we'll see.

Fun story of the week. Elder Tapp got groped by a drunk lady while we were at a members home. His lives in the poor area of town. Bill, the member, let her in because she was hungry but told her she had to leave once we got there. We have almost to the point of stumbling drunk and on her way on the door she pointed at us and said "don't have any rights to my children", did a quick magic trick with a deck of cards and then grabbed Elder Tapps crotch. It was super funny to watch his reaction but we quickly showed her out the door. Fun times in Indiana. 

It sounds like everything is going good back at home. Rip BYU. They are a disappointment to us all. Shame on them. 

Lovey Dovey,

Elder Smith