Thursday, December 30, 2010
Mexico!!
Well i'm finally in mexico. The keyboard is going to take a little getting used to because of the shifts and the punctuation stuff, and it says everything that I write is wrong because its not in spanish. So i've only been here for two days, really just one night and today, but it has been so amazing. My mission president is way cool and everything is great. I'll go through our trip a little bit. So sunday night we were at the presidents house (SLC) and I was with 4 other elders from my mtc district that were leaving with me to mexico. We didnt get to bed until like 12 because of stuff we were doing and had to wake up at 530 and then we traveled. We got a ride from a shuttle that was just a big van and we got 7 elders and all of our lugage in the van/on top of it, so that was pretty crazy. Travels went well. We went from slc to mexico city to villahermosa. we didnt have too much time in between mexico city and villahermosa though because we got a little confused about where to go. When we got to villahermosa the president was there waiting for us with two elders that work in the office and he took a ton of pictures with all of us and even took videos and stuff. it reminded me a little of mom and dad when we are hiking because he ran ahead of us and had us all walk by with our luggage haha. He is an awesome president and a lot like his brother that I met. He doesnt speak very much english, but it is about the same level as my spanish so in our interview it was about half spanish half english and it worked out pretty well ha. My interview was funny because he had us fill out a form that had one of the questions being what our interests were. I put down basketball, piano, guitar, and singing. He asked me how long i'd taken piano and if i could play well, and he actually had me play at his house when we went over to eat. he then asked me what i sang (bass or tenor). I said bass and then he asked me to sing something for him haha. He told me to sing i know that my redeemer lives. then he started singing along with me and then we sang i am a child of god and that primary song that says whenever i feel the rain on my face.... It was funny but it was actually a cool experience. He then told me how important music was and how I need to share it and teach the people in the areas that i am in. Last nightwe went driving through the city and everything was so crazy. it is surreal to finally be here in my mission and i am so excited to get out and work! we stayed at the missionaries house who help in the mission office and it is a lot like elder bullocks it seems like. we can go up on the roof and look out at everything. there is no warm water so its going to be cold showers everyday for the next 19 months. there is a big tank that we have to turn on every night. Villahermosa is the nicest place around though. people here have really nice cars and stuff, but i'm pretty sure they spend more on their cars than anything else. It has also been way weird going just about anywhere. Everywhere we go, people stare at us. We have gone into stores a few times and when we stand at the end of the checkout line, all of the other lines down on both sides are all staring at us and whispering things. there arent very many white people here. basically just the missionaries. It is pretty dang cool to be the minority for once haha. We havent done too much here yet. we have been in the mission office for most of our time having orientation. we went over to the mission president's house for lunch today and they live in the nicest house ever. like really nice. its in a gated community and i'm pretty sure they are used for really rich peoples vacation homes or something. when i got here I saw elder eliason and elder hausman who were in my mtc district. they are both working in the office because they got hurt. elder E hurt his knee playing basketball and elder hausman got into a car crash. also elder green got here one month ago and is out on the island in my mission. elder e has also been here for a month and elder h has been here for 2 months because he stayed in the mtc longer. oh ya and the craziest thing is that people drive sooooo crazy here. there literally are like no rules. its kind of like go karts and people drive wherever they want. we dont get to drive, but we take buses and taxis everywhere. tomorrow i am going to get my new companion and area. i'm going to learn spanish and everything so much faster now that i can finally speak it. i am sure that it is probably going to be pretty frustrating for a little while though, but i'm excited to be able to learn everything and to finally be here in Mexico!
Before i left, i had one experience that i want to share about christmas. my christmas was really good and i got to visit a few people. on christmas day i went with elder mueller and elder martin again to go visit the ramirez family. since the dad broke his arm and hasnt been working for a while, they didnt have anything for christmas at all. elder martin and mueller went out and bought a bunch of gifts for all of them and i got them a few things also and we went over there with a big box of presents for them and then stayed with them for a little bit while they opened and played with everything. It was so fun to be able to see them again and then to be able to help them to have a merry christmas. they were saying things like "this is the best christmas ever!" and things like that. it did really make you feel good and I had a smile on my face the whole time! I also stopped by Jose one last time. he got dropped by the spanish elders that are now in that area which is really sad, but i told him to keep going and keep working towards baptism. I told him what he needed to do and i bore my testimony to him. it is sad to have to leave all of those people and especially because i'm going to miss the ramirez's baptism where i probably would have gotten to actually baptize one of them, but i'm way excited to be here and to serve here in mexico. It was also really nice to call and talk to my family and i'm glad that you all are doing so well. I love you and I miss you and will let you know more when i find out.
Oh ya, pday is on monday and i only get letters every like 4 weeks or something depending when zone leaders come to the office. usually not any more than every four weeks so thats different, but i'll be okay.
love elder smith
Before i left, i had one experience that i want to share about christmas. my christmas was really good and i got to visit a few people. on christmas day i went with elder mueller and elder martin again to go visit the ramirez family. since the dad broke his arm and hasnt been working for a while, they didnt have anything for christmas at all. elder martin and mueller went out and bought a bunch of gifts for all of them and i got them a few things also and we went over there with a big box of presents for them and then stayed with them for a little bit while they opened and played with everything. It was so fun to be able to see them again and then to be able to help them to have a merry christmas. they were saying things like "this is the best christmas ever!" and things like that. it did really make you feel good and I had a smile on my face the whole time! I also stopped by Jose one last time. he got dropped by the spanish elders that are now in that area which is really sad, but i told him to keep going and keep working towards baptism. I told him what he needed to do and i bore my testimony to him. it is sad to have to leave all of those people and especially because i'm going to miss the ramirez's baptism where i probably would have gotten to actually baptize one of them, but i'm way excited to be here and to serve here in mexico. It was also really nice to call and talk to my family and i'm glad that you all are doing so well. I love you and I miss you and will let you know more when i find out.
Oh ya, pday is on monday and i only get letters every like 4 weeks or something depending when zone leaders come to the office. usually not any more than every four weeks so thats different, but i'll be okay.
love elder smith
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Last week in Utah!
So, I signed my visa yesterday and am going to be flying out to mexico monday the 27th. The mission president let us stay here for christmas or else I think i'd be leaving today. It is pretty crazy that i am finally going to be leaving. All of this time waiting here, I have become very familiar with this mission and how it works and have lots of families and missionaries here that it will be sad to leave. I am especially sad because I will be leaving right before the Ramirez girls get baptized. I was probably going to be able to baptize at least one of them too, so its a little sad. They will get baptized though and hopefully set a good example for their little brother and their parents. It was fun to sign my visa and i got to see all of the guys from my mtc district. we had some good chats about everything. I also talked to an elder who was in the same mission as elder thompson and he said that elder thompson hadnt gotten his visa yet, so i'm not sure about the other elders from my mtc district that are in other areas.
It is hard to write anything else now that i know that I am going to mexico, but this past week has been a great week, that has also posed its own challenges. English missionary work is definitely different than spanish missionary work here. I have been able to have a lotof good experiences in lessons and such, but it is a lot harder to find people to teach. Also i'm coming into an area that hasnt been doing quite as well as my past ones. I have been the senior companion for the last week and have basically done 80% of everything in lessons and outside of lessons. It has been hard because i dont really know what is going on too much in the area or with people, but it has worked out pretty well for me and has been a good learning experience. I had a really cool experience this past week with a man named Rodger. He has been taught by the missionaries for the past 3 years, and still wont pray. I went over and i think it was my first or second lesson in the area. I didnt know what they had planned to teach other than that it was prayer. I sat there for a while as the elder that went home shared some things, that rodger kind of shot down. He then shared a personal experience that was really cool and i think rodger was a little more accepting to that. He then basically tried to close the lesson, but i hadnt said anything yet, so I jumped in and told him that i had something to share. I linked together a few scriptures that i had found while i had been listening to the other elder and then I bore my testimony about prayer and about the things that he needed to do. I felt very guided in this experience it was really cool to see it happen. I felt the spirit in the lesson and at the end of the lesson he accepted to say the closing prayer. I also went over and taught him one other time this week and i had the same experience. This experience I was not even thinking about what I was saying and was actually impressed with what was coming out of my mouth. I was definitely a mouthpiece for the lord in this situation and was able to teach the things that he needed. He is pretty stubborn though and still wont pray on his own. I have a pretty good lesson planned for him tonight and i have a lot of really good scriptures lined up for him. Some of them that i really feel apply directly to his life and situation that I was helped to find this morning in my studies. Hopefully i will be able to find a way to get to him and help him to exercise his faith before I leave.
I also had a really cool experience sunday night. Hugo Flores got baptized. It was so awesome to see him and i felt the spirit so strongly when he went down into the water. I literally had the biggest smile i have ever had on my face after he came out of the water and it didnt leave me for a long time. It always makes me so happy to see people choose to follow the savior. Especially around this christmas time, there is nothing better that you could do than to show your faith by being baptized. Hugo is an amazing young man and I hope that he will be able to prepare himself to go on a mission. I was trying to convince him to go to byu next year or even uvu and be in a byu ward, so hopefully he will do that and be out on a mission in a year. He has an amazing testimony and an amazing spirit and i know that he would be such a great missionary.
I hope that you have an amazing christmas and have fun with family and friends. thank you everyone for all of your love and support of me on my mission. I will do my best to work hard and be the best representative of jesus christ that I can be. I love my mission and i love this gospel and i know that it is true.
Love,
Elder Smith
It is hard to write anything else now that i know that I am going to mexico, but this past week has been a great week, that has also posed its own challenges. English missionary work is definitely different than spanish missionary work here. I have been able to have a lotof good experiences in lessons and such, but it is a lot harder to find people to teach. Also i'm coming into an area that hasnt been doing quite as well as my past ones. I have been the senior companion for the last week and have basically done 80% of everything in lessons and outside of lessons. It has been hard because i dont really know what is going on too much in the area or with people, but it has worked out pretty well for me and has been a good learning experience. I had a really cool experience this past week with a man named Rodger. He has been taught by the missionaries for the past 3 years, and still wont pray. I went over and i think it was my first or second lesson in the area. I didnt know what they had planned to teach other than that it was prayer. I sat there for a while as the elder that went home shared some things, that rodger kind of shot down. He then shared a personal experience that was really cool and i think rodger was a little more accepting to that. He then basically tried to close the lesson, but i hadnt said anything yet, so I jumped in and told him that i had something to share. I linked together a few scriptures that i had found while i had been listening to the other elder and then I bore my testimony about prayer and about the things that he needed to do. I felt very guided in this experience it was really cool to see it happen. I felt the spirit in the lesson and at the end of the lesson he accepted to say the closing prayer. I also went over and taught him one other time this week and i had the same experience. This experience I was not even thinking about what I was saying and was actually impressed with what was coming out of my mouth. I was definitely a mouthpiece for the lord in this situation and was able to teach the things that he needed. He is pretty stubborn though and still wont pray on his own. I have a pretty good lesson planned for him tonight and i have a lot of really good scriptures lined up for him. Some of them that i really feel apply directly to his life and situation that I was helped to find this morning in my studies. Hopefully i will be able to find a way to get to him and help him to exercise his faith before I leave.
I also had a really cool experience sunday night. Hugo Flores got baptized. It was so awesome to see him and i felt the spirit so strongly when he went down into the water. I literally had the biggest smile i have ever had on my face after he came out of the water and it didnt leave me for a long time. It always makes me so happy to see people choose to follow the savior. Especially around this christmas time, there is nothing better that you could do than to show your faith by being baptized. Hugo is an amazing young man and I hope that he will be able to prepare himself to go on a mission. I was trying to convince him to go to byu next year or even uvu and be in a byu ward, so hopefully he will do that and be out on a mission in a year. He has an amazing testimony and an amazing spirit and i know that he would be such a great missionary.
I hope that you have an amazing christmas and have fun with family and friends. thank you everyone for all of your love and support of me on my mission. I will do my best to work hard and be the best representative of jesus christ that I can be. I love my mission and i love this gospel and i know that it is true.
Love,
Elder Smith
Friday, December 17, 2010
A Day in the Life of a Visa Waiter... Emergency Transferred!
Well this past week was really great, except I got a call late last night that said I was being emergency tranferred to go to an english area because one of the elders is going home because he finished his mission, and the other one got his visa and is going to veracruz. I am changing today so i didnt have time to say good bye to a single person or anything. I am going back to my old area, but am going to be in english which only covers half of the area. I was in the oquirrh and oquirrh point stakes last transfer in spanish, now i am just in the oquirrh stake in english. My new companion will be elder caterson. He is from southern oregon, and I have gone on exchanges with him before for one day. It will probably be good for me, but i wont be able to speak any spanish until I leave, and it will just be hard to be in another new place a week before christmas. On christmas day you get to go around anywhere in the mission and visit recent converts or members or investigators. I had planned to go with elder brown and elder martin and elder cline (elder browns comp now) and go through my area and my last area and it would have been perfect because thats where everyone is that i know. Now i dont know if i'll get to do that and might have to go to ppl i dont know. I'll be fine though. All part of the experience, and i'll try to learn whatever it is i'm supposed to from this experience. I got too sad and mad about being transferred again last time and i'm going to try to learn from that, but it still is hard.
Anyways, on a lighter note. This week was amazing. Wednesday we had the baptism for michelle martinez. She is a 16 year old nicaraguian, and was way ready. She scared us a little bit because she showed up at about 650 and still needed to change and be interviewed. the baptism was supposed to start at 7 and didnt end up starting until about 730. Other than that the baptism went great. I got to be a witness again and I felt the spirit so strongly when she was baptized and I listened to the words that were said. I also had the opportunity to bare my testimony while they were getting changed and then they came back out half way through so I got to bare my testimony directly to her and it was amazing. I love to see the faith that our investigators show when they get baptized. I have so much respect for the people that listen to us and who whole heartedly are searching for the truth. It is truly amazing to see the process of their search and then to see them get baptized. I am looking forward to mexico for this reason because here i havent had the opportunity to stay in an area long enough to see a conversion start to finish. We have many in my area that are about to. The Ramirez girls are close and have a date for january 2nd. Hopefully i'll still be here for that, but i'm not sure.One more cool thing about michelles baptism was that after it was all over and people were congratulating her, she started to cry, and i also saw after she hugged her mom, that she started to cry as well. They both felt the spirit strongly, and it is even more amazing because michelles mom is not a member, and was not always the easiest to work with. Hopefully they will be able to teach her now as well.
This week we also had a cool experience with a girl named jade. She is 16 now (had a bday last week) and has a baby. She lives with the family of the boy that she had the baby with, and they are active memebers. We started teaching her about two weeks ago and she seemed a little shady at first, but became progressively interested as we came by. We went over on thursday or friday and we asked her some questions about how things were going. We asked her if she had been reading and she said she had been with her boyfriend everynight and that he was explaining what she didnt understand. We then asked is she had prayed about it. She then told us that the first time that she prayed about it she started to cry. She receieved her answer! We were way excited for her and we had not planned to do so, but when she said this, we gave her a date to be baptized for the 9th of january and she accepted.
Friday was an interesting day and didnt go as planned at all. We were supposed to have an family home evening with the ramirez family and the escodero family (members in the ward). We went by the Ramirez family to have them follow us to the house, and found that they were all sick. We knew that some of them had been sick but thought that theyd be better by now. This gave us the opportunity to help them by giving them priesthood blessings. I got to do the annointing for the first one, and then Ermalinda asked me to give her a blessing as well. It was a great experience, and I havent gotten to see them much, but when I went over the other day, they were all feeling better, and they were all able to come to church on sunday except for the dad. The priesthood power is real and can always be used to serve and perform the will of God. We ended up going and doing the fhe with just the member family, and we watched mountain of the lord with them. It is a good movie and it went well until the last 15 minutes, which is the most important part, where it kept skipping. It wasnt the greatest lesson so hopefully we'll get to try again and get everyone there.
I have been super excited about this area because we have been finding so many new people. The last week me and elder mueller have been doing a bit of tracting. not a lot of time, but it has been increadibly affective. We would choose houses, and almost always they would be hispanics and would be nice. One lady we talked to had to g around the side of her house to talk to us becuase her front door was sealed shut, but she talked to us for a while and was super excited about reading the book of mormon and told us about how some of her family were recent converts, including her mom who had just gotten there for vacation from mexico. We also met this couple whose names are Veronica and Fransico. We went by and taught them, and they were really nice. We taught a good first lesson and had the spirit in the home. I was able to teach about joseph smith and give the account of the first vision and i felt the spirit very powerfully as I recited his words. We gave them a date to be baptized as well and they accepted. We taught them one other time this week and veronica read a lot, and is really excited about learning more. We also found the Soto family of 5 and also a lady and one of her friends who i'm pretty sure are going to get baptized nad are totally ready, and a few other couples as well, all just in this week.
Hugo is for sure getting baptized this sunday. We went over to their house and we walked in and he said "i have something i need to tell you guys. I got my answer, and i'm gonna get baptized on December 19th!" I was so excited for him when he said that. I knew that he had been praying sincerely for an answer and I knew that his answer would come. He is getting one of his friends who is a recently returned missionary to baptize him, which is awesome and will help him to stay active. He is also making a ton of friends in the ward and is doing the ward activities and sports that they have every tuesday night. He is oging to be a great new member, and hopefully he will be able to prepare to go on a mission in a little over a year as well!
the last experience I want to share is about how the Lord guides us in his work. We went to a families house for dinner after church this last sunday. We ate and talked and everything and it was great. then an older lady came in and asked if we could help give her a blessing. We did that, finished eating and then I shared a scripture. I wasnt sure which scripture I wanted to share, and this time I felt that i really needed to think about it. Sometimes I can just pick and it works, but this time i really took my time choosing. I ended up picking my missionary plaque scripture 2 nephi 22:2. I hadnt shared this scripture hardly at all this transfer and i felt like it would be a good one, especially around christmas. I started to introduce the scripture and everything seemed normal, then I started to read it. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also has become my salvation." After i shared the scripture I began to explain the significance of it to me and how we could all apply it to our lives. I explained how we all have our struggles, but that if we trust in our savior, that we can be helped through any difficulty that comes our way. I said a few more things as well, but as I began talking i looked up and notices the women who's house we were at had started to cry. I was not sure and i didnt ask what she had been going through, but she told me how that was one of her favorite scriptures, and how she new that she could receive help by trusting in Jesus Christ. This was a testimony to me of how I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands. He helped me to find the scripture thatthat family needed at that very moment. My moto for the past few weeks has been, "slow down, and love the people." This encompasses everything that missionary work is. I need to slow down and really have a love for the poeple that I serve. As I seek for the spiritual guidance that i need to help these people, and as I teach with the power and authority of God through the Holy Ghost, I will be given what i should do to best serve the people here.
I love my mission, and I love being able to learn and to grow from all of my experiences. I am sad that i have to leave, especially to an english area, and that i didnt have a chance to say goodbye or anything, but I'll be fine, and am going to learn from the mistake that I made last time. I am not on my time and its not my decision and there is something more that I need in this new english area before I leave for mexico. I love you all and I miss you. Thank you so much for all of your love and for your support.
Love,
Elder Smith
Anyways, on a lighter note. This week was amazing. Wednesday we had the baptism for michelle martinez. She is a 16 year old nicaraguian, and was way ready. She scared us a little bit because she showed up at about 650 and still needed to change and be interviewed. the baptism was supposed to start at 7 and didnt end up starting until about 730. Other than that the baptism went great. I got to be a witness again and I felt the spirit so strongly when she was baptized and I listened to the words that were said. I also had the opportunity to bare my testimony while they were getting changed and then they came back out half way through so I got to bare my testimony directly to her and it was amazing. I love to see the faith that our investigators show when they get baptized. I have so much respect for the people that listen to us and who whole heartedly are searching for the truth. It is truly amazing to see the process of their search and then to see them get baptized. I am looking forward to mexico for this reason because here i havent had the opportunity to stay in an area long enough to see a conversion start to finish. We have many in my area that are about to. The Ramirez girls are close and have a date for january 2nd. Hopefully i'll still be here for that, but i'm not sure.One more cool thing about michelles baptism was that after it was all over and people were congratulating her, she started to cry, and i also saw after she hugged her mom, that she started to cry as well. They both felt the spirit strongly, and it is even more amazing because michelles mom is not a member, and was not always the easiest to work with. Hopefully they will be able to teach her now as well.
This week we also had a cool experience with a girl named jade. She is 16 now (had a bday last week) and has a baby. She lives with the family of the boy that she had the baby with, and they are active memebers. We started teaching her about two weeks ago and she seemed a little shady at first, but became progressively interested as we came by. We went over on thursday or friday and we asked her some questions about how things were going. We asked her if she had been reading and she said she had been with her boyfriend everynight and that he was explaining what she didnt understand. We then asked is she had prayed about it. She then told us that the first time that she prayed about it she started to cry. She receieved her answer! We were way excited for her and we had not planned to do so, but when she said this, we gave her a date to be baptized for the 9th of january and she accepted.
Friday was an interesting day and didnt go as planned at all. We were supposed to have an family home evening with the ramirez family and the escodero family (members in the ward). We went by the Ramirez family to have them follow us to the house, and found that they were all sick. We knew that some of them had been sick but thought that theyd be better by now. This gave us the opportunity to help them by giving them priesthood blessings. I got to do the annointing for the first one, and then Ermalinda asked me to give her a blessing as well. It was a great experience, and I havent gotten to see them much, but when I went over the other day, they were all feeling better, and they were all able to come to church on sunday except for the dad. The priesthood power is real and can always be used to serve and perform the will of God. We ended up going and doing the fhe with just the member family, and we watched mountain of the lord with them. It is a good movie and it went well until the last 15 minutes, which is the most important part, where it kept skipping. It wasnt the greatest lesson so hopefully we'll get to try again and get everyone there.
I have been super excited about this area because we have been finding so many new people. The last week me and elder mueller have been doing a bit of tracting. not a lot of time, but it has been increadibly affective. We would choose houses, and almost always they would be hispanics and would be nice. One lady we talked to had to g around the side of her house to talk to us becuase her front door was sealed shut, but she talked to us for a while and was super excited about reading the book of mormon and told us about how some of her family were recent converts, including her mom who had just gotten there for vacation from mexico. We also met this couple whose names are Veronica and Fransico. We went by and taught them, and they were really nice. We taught a good first lesson and had the spirit in the home. I was able to teach about joseph smith and give the account of the first vision and i felt the spirit very powerfully as I recited his words. We gave them a date to be baptized as well and they accepted. We taught them one other time this week and veronica read a lot, and is really excited about learning more. We also found the Soto family of 5 and also a lady and one of her friends who i'm pretty sure are going to get baptized nad are totally ready, and a few other couples as well, all just in this week.
Hugo is for sure getting baptized this sunday. We went over to their house and we walked in and he said "i have something i need to tell you guys. I got my answer, and i'm gonna get baptized on December 19th!" I was so excited for him when he said that. I knew that he had been praying sincerely for an answer and I knew that his answer would come. He is getting one of his friends who is a recently returned missionary to baptize him, which is awesome and will help him to stay active. He is also making a ton of friends in the ward and is doing the ward activities and sports that they have every tuesday night. He is oging to be a great new member, and hopefully he will be able to prepare to go on a mission in a little over a year as well!
the last experience I want to share is about how the Lord guides us in his work. We went to a families house for dinner after church this last sunday. We ate and talked and everything and it was great. then an older lady came in and asked if we could help give her a blessing. We did that, finished eating and then I shared a scripture. I wasnt sure which scripture I wanted to share, and this time I felt that i really needed to think about it. Sometimes I can just pick and it works, but this time i really took my time choosing. I ended up picking my missionary plaque scripture 2 nephi 22:2. I hadnt shared this scripture hardly at all this transfer and i felt like it would be a good one, especially around christmas. I started to introduce the scripture and everything seemed normal, then I started to read it. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also has become my salvation." After i shared the scripture I began to explain the significance of it to me and how we could all apply it to our lives. I explained how we all have our struggles, but that if we trust in our savior, that we can be helped through any difficulty that comes our way. I said a few more things as well, but as I began talking i looked up and notices the women who's house we were at had started to cry. I was not sure and i didnt ask what she had been going through, but she told me how that was one of her favorite scriptures, and how she new that she could receive help by trusting in Jesus Christ. This was a testimony to me of how I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands. He helped me to find the scripture thatthat family needed at that very moment. My moto for the past few weeks has been, "slow down, and love the people." This encompasses everything that missionary work is. I need to slow down and really have a love for the poeple that I serve. As I seek for the spiritual guidance that i need to help these people, and as I teach with the power and authority of God through the Holy Ghost, I will be given what i should do to best serve the people here.
I love my mission, and I love being able to learn and to grow from all of my experiences. I am sad that i have to leave, especially to an english area, and that i didnt have a chance to say goodbye or anything, but I'll be fine, and am going to learn from the mistake that I made last time. I am not on my time and its not my decision and there is something more that I need in this new english area before I leave for mexico. I love you all and I miss you. Thank you so much for all of your love and for your support.
Love,
Elder Smith
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Brad's Email!
Hello everyone. It has been another great week here in Utah. I am excited to go to Mexico, but i am very blessed to be here in slc and speaking Spanish and i was a little bit selfish before when I got transferred and was a little down about being moved again. Hopefully I learned my lesson from it and will learn to just always try to be happy no matter what. The longer I stay in any area the better it can get. It is kind of sad about my last area because the missionaries there now have dropped some of our investigators that we had been working hard with. Some of them i saw it coming, but some of them it was very sad to hear about. hopefully they;ll have another chance in the future and be more accepting. I'm glad to hear that everything back home is going well. I am doing great here. The weather has been significantly warmer and that has been nice. I have had to do a lot of walking this week though. I think I'm getting a little too used to having the car. We trade off the car every two days with another companionship. I am excited for all the the things that we have coming up in the area and in the mission. WE are doing some special things for Christmas which will be fun. One of which includes being able to hear from Elder Holland! I got to hear him in the mtc as well and he is one of my favorite speakers. I don't know if we'll get to meet him or not. Elder Mueller said that when Elder Bednar came last year that they didn't, but maybe we'll get to shake his hand or something. Either way it will be way cool! We also have a decent number of baptisms scheduled for its month and the very beginning of January.
We have a baptism for a 16 year old girl named Michelle tonight. She is from Nicaragua and we have been teaching her for a while. It is a huge blessing that she is being baptized tonight i feel though. Earlier this week she was still praying about the date, and didn't seem to crazy about it. One night it was just me and elder mueller because elder martin was on exchanges. We had an appointment with her and our objective was to go over and to teach a little and then try to make sure/ resolve any of her doubts about being baptized tonight. We were both thinking before hand that it really might not work out and I was really nervous that she was going to say that she didn't want to. We went and shared a message about temples, and about eternal life with our families and an eternal perspective. It was interesting that that was our topic, but it flowed very well. We explained how baptism was really just the first step and a door to obtaining all of the blessings that our heavenly father has for us. It went great and she told us she was ready to be baptized, and now its happening tonight and I'm way pumped for it!
Another funny thing that has been happening that last few weeks is with our recent convert Gilberto. He is from Cuba and awesome, even though he is about impossible to understand. He has come out with us and has born his testimony very powerfully about the book of mormon. It has been cool to see him progress even further after his baptism. He is going to get the priesthood this Sunday, a temple recommend, and he just got a calling to be a ward missionary. The problem that we are having with him though is with his old girlfriend. The real problem with them is that he doesn't speak English and she doesn't speak Spanish. He has been trying to get divorced and has been dating this lady, but she had no idea that he wasn't already divorced and she found out a little while ago and now there is a ton of drama about it ha. I was surprised she didn't know though because i found it out the very first time that I talked to him. Basically we have been the mediators/ translators for their drama, and it feels a little bit like junior high again. Hopefully it will all resolve for the best though, but its made for some awkward/funny situations.
The last thing I want to share is an experience that I had with the Ramirez family. We went over one night and talked to them about the restoration. We watched the Restoration dvd about Joseph Smith's vision and it went great. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony to them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. After I asked them all how they felt, and they all share their feelings on it and explained the spirit. Some of the girls are very shy so its hard to get them to talk, especially the 18 year old, but we are working with them. I asked Ermalinda (the 15 year old) if she had read more. She said she was almost done with 2nd Nephi. I then asked if she had prayed about it yet. She then said that she hadn't, so i explained the importance of reading and praying and committed her to pray about it that night. The next day me and elder mueller came back because one of our appointments fell through. We started teaching and I asked Ermalinda if she had read. She said that she had. I then asked her if she had prayed about it and she said yes. Then I asked her how she felt. She then looked up and said that she felt a warmth and then chills. I was so excited when I heard this. And with a huge smile I told her that that was the holy ghost and that she had got her answer. I felt the spirit when she told me her experience and I am way excite for her and for the rest of her family to have the same experiences.
I had a lot of other cool experiences this week and really felt the Lords hand in helping me to speak Spanish perfectly when I needed to and also in finding more people to teach and in being guided in the lessons. This really is His work and I am doing my best to be a worth instrument. I hope that you are having a great week this week. I love you all and miss you. thank you for all that you do for me.
Love,
Elder Smith
We have a baptism for a 16 year old girl named Michelle tonight. She is from Nicaragua and we have been teaching her for a while. It is a huge blessing that she is being baptized tonight i feel though. Earlier this week she was still praying about the date, and didn't seem to crazy about it. One night it was just me and elder mueller because elder martin was on exchanges. We had an appointment with her and our objective was to go over and to teach a little and then try to make sure/ resolve any of her doubts about being baptized tonight. We were both thinking before hand that it really might not work out and I was really nervous that she was going to say that she didn't want to. We went and shared a message about temples, and about eternal life with our families and an eternal perspective. It was interesting that that was our topic, but it flowed very well. We explained how baptism was really just the first step and a door to obtaining all of the blessings that our heavenly father has for us. It went great and she told us she was ready to be baptized, and now its happening tonight and I'm way pumped for it!
Another funny thing that has been happening that last few weeks is with our recent convert Gilberto. He is from Cuba and awesome, even though he is about impossible to understand. He has come out with us and has born his testimony very powerfully about the book of mormon. It has been cool to see him progress even further after his baptism. He is going to get the priesthood this Sunday, a temple recommend, and he just got a calling to be a ward missionary. The problem that we are having with him though is with his old girlfriend. The real problem with them is that he doesn't speak English and she doesn't speak Spanish. He has been trying to get divorced and has been dating this lady, but she had no idea that he wasn't already divorced and she found out a little while ago and now there is a ton of drama about it ha. I was surprised she didn't know though because i found it out the very first time that I talked to him. Basically we have been the mediators/ translators for their drama, and it feels a little bit like junior high again. Hopefully it will all resolve for the best though, but its made for some awkward/funny situations.
The last thing I want to share is an experience that I had with the Ramirez family. We went over one night and talked to them about the restoration. We watched the Restoration dvd about Joseph Smith's vision and it went great. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony to them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. After I asked them all how they felt, and they all share their feelings on it and explained the spirit. Some of the girls are very shy so its hard to get them to talk, especially the 18 year old, but we are working with them. I asked Ermalinda (the 15 year old) if she had read more. She said she was almost done with 2nd Nephi. I then asked if she had prayed about it yet. She then said that she hadn't, so i explained the importance of reading and praying and committed her to pray about it that night. The next day me and elder mueller came back because one of our appointments fell through. We started teaching and I asked Ermalinda if she had read. She said that she had. I then asked her if she had prayed about it and she said yes. Then I asked her how she felt. She then looked up and said that she felt a warmth and then chills. I was so excited when I heard this. And with a huge smile I told her that that was the holy ghost and that she had got her answer. I felt the spirit when she told me her experience and I am way excite for her and for the rest of her family to have the same experiences.
I had a lot of other cool experiences this week and really felt the Lords hand in helping me to speak Spanish perfectly when I needed to and also in finding more people to teach and in being guided in the lessons. This really is His work and I am doing my best to be a worth instrument. I hope that you are having a great week this week. I love you all and miss you. thank you for all that you do for me.
Love,
Elder Smith
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Week 19
Well another week has come and gone and it went well. The only bad thing was that I was sick for a few days. We went on exchanges to an english area friday, and had a good day, but then saturday morning, Elder Mueller woke up sick. We were supposed to exchange back and go back to our area, but he said he was too sick to go in a car, so i had to stay with him in the english elders house for the day. I read a lot and tried to use my time productively, but then i started feeling really tired, and fell asleep for like 10 min here and there. I didnt feel super great, but i figured that i was just being lazy and tired, so i forced myself to just keep reading. At about 5 oclock, someone knocked on the door so i stood up and walked up the stairs, and then had the feeling like i did that one summer when i got really dehydrated and passed out and i felt nauseous and everything. Thats when i realized i wasnt just lazy and tired, but i was actually sick. The guy needed to borrow some tools or something and said he'd be back so i waited for him upstairs and just put my head in my arms on a table and fell asleep. Then for the rest of the day and then all day sunday I was sick. I was really really tired, but I couldnt sleep. I was nauseous, but i never threw up. I learned from the last time I threw up, and didnt want to do it again and pass out and all that stuff, so i just didnt move too much ha. It wasnt too bad, but i missed a lot of time to go out and work which wasnt fun.
Other than that, the week was good. I had a lot of good experiences with the people here and was able to teach a lot. On wednesday after pday ended I got to go teach Hugo. He is a 17 year old boy who is really cool. The experience we had with him was very powerful for me. We went over wednesday night and when we got there we talked to him to see how he was doing, and we kind of got off topic, and talked about dumb unimportant things, and basically I just felt like the spirit wasnt there at all. We had planned on giving him a baptismal date that night, and I knew that it wasnt going to go well unless we had the spirit with us. I had my scriptures out, and so I opened them up, and then spent the next 10ish minutes reading through some of the highlighted scriptures that I had. I didnt talk or anything for that long, and they all continued in the conversation, which did develop roughly into our lesson. When I finished reading through, I looked up, and elder martin was about to give him the baptismal commitment. I somewhat interrupted/ just said I wanted to share something. I told them that i felt that the spirit wasnt there and I took part of that blame for letting the conversation drift from what it should be on. I then told them that was why I was reading in the scriptures. I then bore my testimony on the power of the book of mormon to bring the spirit and on knowing that it was true. I then related when I received my testimony of the book of mormon, and related that to how Hugo needed to do so and how he needed to show his faith in both continuing to read and pray, and to be baptized. WE gave him the date for the 19th of december, and I think that he'll make it. He is a good kid, and he has a good heart. He is smart and he likes to think and ponder about things a lot which I like. It was a great experience for me to have, and also helped me to see the importance of having the spirit as we teach to do anything.
Thanksgiving was an interesting experience. We didnt really have it ha. A lot of the spanish people dont really celebrate it and then if they do, i'd say 90% of them dont eat turkey or anything thankgivingish at all. We went to our dinner appointment at the same time as usual, at 5 oclock, and had a normal dinner, and then left and worked again. The only thing that was different about this day than any other was that we just mostly went by members or investigators that we knew pretty well, because we didnt want to bother anyone ha. I'm excited for the chirstmas season though and for everyone to get more religious and stuff. Hopefully it will help us get into a few more doors, and teach more people about the gospel. One thing that the christmas season brings is an opportunity to serve. My companions and I joke around that we are going to make a new key indicator (like baptisms, lessons w/ a member, other lessons, referrals, etc) but we were going to make it for driveways shoveled. We have a car every two days, so we drive down the street and if we see a woman or an old person shoveling their driveway we usually get out and help them out.
Friday on the exchange we taught a really cool kid named nathan. He's 18 and is one of the english elders investigators. I've never seen anyone so excited to just learn. We got there and walked in and went down to the basement. I then saw that he had a ton of amps and keyboards, an organ, a ton of recording stuff, a mac computer, and an acoustic guitar. I got to sit and play a song or two while we talked to him about himself and got to know him a little better. We told him where we were from and he said he'd been in portland and did some cool music stuff there. He also likes a lot of the same music as me, and had a john lennon poster in his basement. If i wasnt on my mission, i'd be good friends with this kid for sure ha. Anyways so we had our lesson with him, and I wasnt really sure what we were going to do. We asked him what he was reading and he said he'd been reading in the pearl of great price. We then spent some time talking about the church and about the book of mormon. We taught and explained a little better what the book of mormon was, and then spent some time all going around and sharing some of our favorite scriptures. Oh and before this he walked in with a pen and paper, and took notes on all of the scriptures we talked about in the lesson, and stopped us in the middle to go and get a highlighter so that he could mark the scriptures. The whole time he was talking about how cool it all was. We shared the story of alma the younger in alma 36 and he was way pumped about reading it. We talked about joseph smith and the church and a ton of stuff, and just had a really good conversation with him. It was probably the most fun lesson i've taught so far on my mission. I wouldnt really like to be an english missionary here in this mission, but its people like that that would make it worth it i think.
Also this week I went with Elder Brown and Elder Meuller in my old area for studies because my comp and elder browns comp had a district leader meeting. I ended up being there until like 2, but at 1 we had an appointment with Jose. I got to go back and teach jose again and it was awesome. We talked to him about eternal families and the need to be sealed in the temple, and it was a really great lesson. At one point we had all 5 elders there teaching him, which was kind of funny but really good.
Also we taught the Ramirez family. We found out that the parents, though they've been together for 19 years, arent married, but we put the rest of the family on date for january 2nd. One of the girls is super excited about learning and everything and she's really fun. Another one of the girls who is the 15 yr old with the baby, has already read to 2 nephi 25 in like a week! I'm excited for this family and I think that they will be great members. Hopefully i'll still be here for their baptism.
Overall it was a great week, and there are a lot of other good experiences as well. The people here are great and i'm improving my spanish and everything. I love you and miss you all and hope that you have a great next week.
Love,
Elder Smith
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