hey everyone. it was really great to get to talk to you all yesterday. I am glad that you are all doing so well and having so many great experiences. it was a little weird to be reminded that the world is still going on back home. i told you all a lot yesterday and dont have much time today so my letter will be very short today and ill do a better one next week i think. I dont have too many new pictures to send. there was a little birthday party for cruz that i will send one picture of that shows some people from the branch and stuff. This week was good. we taught a lot of good lessons and are starting to get into the rhythm again. i dont have to teach quite as much and we are focusing a lot on teaching more direct and clear which is shorter and more powerful so that has also helped. i had a cool experience yesterday that i forgot to tell you all about. after church and eating we were looking for our lesson. the investigator we were supposed to teach wasnt there so we went looking for some of the ppl we´d talked to on the streets that said we could come back. we went to one and the parents werent home. their next door neighbors were also contacts but i kinda looked awkwardly at the m all and could see there was likea birthday party or something and so i decided another day we´d go by. when i was looking in my planner for who to stop by next a guy called over to me "guerros!" (whiteys) ha. i looked over and he waved me over. they invited us in and fed us dinner and talked to us. the one guy that called us over had talked to missionaries like 5 years ago and gone to church and stuff. he told us to talk to his in-laws whos house we were at. as we ate i tried to talk to them and find out more about them. It was hard because they gave us meat, but nobody uses knifes here so i had to use my hands to pull it apart and there was quite a bit to eat haha. i talked and found out a lot about this couple. After we finished i asked if we could share a scriptures (that was my plan). as we started talking more about what we do as missionaries and their experiences and relationship with god i felt impressed to talk about the plan of salvation. i bore my testimony of it as i explained an overview of what it is. the spirit was strong and we built a relationship with them that will help us in sharing the gospel. i was talking to elder watts the other day how i want that to be our goal for the week. i talked about how i could see and feel the strong relationship i had with my recent converts and other investigators and for that i could teach a lot more powerfully to them, but that in a lot of new investigators something was lacking in our relationship. i think a big part of that is love. they need to feel more that we love and care about them so that they will open up and start to love and care about us. when we make that connection they will be more willing to keep commitments to read and pray and to really believe what we say and listen to our message and testimony. the whole mission and life is really about relationships we make, with other people and with god. he is our father and when we truly understand that, that is when we will feel his love and presence in our life, keep the commandments, recieve blessings and recieve eternal life.
I love my mission and my opportunity to be here and to learn and to grow. i have had so many opportunities to share this gospel and to feel the lord working through me. to help me in a situation that alone i would not be able to handle. i have learned to trust in him, though i still often forget, and when i do i have the power to teach and testify and help others recieve the restored gospel of jesus christ.
love,
Elder Smith
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