9/26/11

hello everyone.

a lot of cool stuff happened this week, and some stuff not so cool ha.

tuesday i did divisions with the zoneleaders. i was in my area with one of them and was able to learn a lot from them and to be more direct. i am working harder at speaking with authority and directly so that the ppl know what they need to do to change and can make the decision if they are going to or not.

we also found a girl that is 17 that works as a housekeeper for a family in our ward. she spoke a dialect that is basically the same as spanish and i couldnt tell the difference but she is hopefully going to be baptized next week on the day of conference.

we found a cool family of 3, mom and two sons when we were walking and in a car they yelled. "elders!". we went by and found that they were investigators from 2 years ago but never got baptized. we had a powerful lesson and they know it is true and need to get baptized, but the father isnt too thrilled about it. we havent been able to talk to him yet.

judith got baptized and it was super great. she is really amazing. she is going to be a great member. the bishop didnt show up to the baptism and didnt send us a message saying he wasnt going to or anything. so i called president casteñeda and got permission to do it without him. so i presided in the baptism haha. it was a little frustrating though because we waited until 640 when it was supposed to start at 6,. then the next day judith was really sick. she came anyway though just for the confirmation but the bishop forgot to do it. when he announced the prayer at the end i threw my hands up in the air to get his attention. in that moment he remembered but sat back down anyway. i felt terrible becasue she came just for that and she wont get confirmed until hopefully next week. there are a lot of problems in this ward with the bishop and stuff. litterally like 50 or more ppl are inactive for things the bishop has done. its rough without much support from leadership. there are some amazing families that help us out a lot though.

we also had a cool experience where we got a reference from the mission for a family, contacted them, and then walking by the house they called us over to talk. it was a family that is less active that moved into our area. we met the wife of one of the members and gave her a date to be baptized and she seems really great.

this week i completed a year in the mission field. it is weird to have been out so long, cause thinking back, utah didnt seem that long ago. and also with conference coming up, i think of the last conference, and that doesnt seem long ago at all. the mission is going by really fast and its hard to think i just have ten months left. im going to try to make the most of it. we have a lot of great things coming up and are finding a ton of great ppl

a funny story.  we contacted this guy on the street and he told us to go to his house. we got there and found this lady outside. we asked her if the guy lived there and she said she had no idea who he was and that she lived alone and was named romana. we said we would coe back the next day. walking out we found the guy and walked to the same door. he called for his wife elizabeth. the lady eventually came and acted like nothing had happened. we taught them the law of chastity and shared the restoration because they werent married. they seem okay, but it was funny. at the end of the lesson she  changed a little and apoligized for actions ha.

oh we also found a guys credit cards and went to his house and he seems pretty good. hopefully he will accept everything. he is a 19 year old alcoholic, but not so much now. he wants to change and hopefully he will.

we had a zone activity today and played soccer and volleyball and it was fun. it was an hour long bus ride standing to get there and come back though ha.

love you and miss you and hope that everything is going great for you at home.

love

elder smith