Some Pictures

Here are some pictures to go along with the letter from this week!

Baptisms!

Hello everyone! another week has come and gone, and there were a lot of really great things that happened this week. i had a cough for the past two weeks from all of the cold and rain, but its just about better, but its been a little frustrating. it has been really cold here for the past two weeks and a lot of rain. its been a nice break from all of the heat and i´ll probably miss this weather in a month when its 100 or more degrees.

this past week i had a lot of really great experiences. the first that was really great was that i finally got to baptize. we had three baptisms and i got to baptize andres and a girl named lupita and my companion baptized a girl named rosa maria. It was a really great day this saturday but there were also some problems before. we started filling the faunt the night before and in the morning got a text from a member that it wasnt even half full yet. we arrived at the church and looked and it wasnt very full at all. i looked down at the drain and the spicket had been leaking all night. we needed to turn the thing harder with plyers to close it all the way. we did that and eventually found another hose and then filled it up enough to baptize. andres is the one that i taught with elder tanner and we were just waiting for his dad to come and sign the baptismal form, but he wanted to talk to us in person first. it was really great and a miracle that he could finally be baptized. the other two girls are daughters of a woman that i found with elder tanner his last week. they still dont have all of the knowledge but we are working hard with the whole family to try and get them all baptized and hopefully a year from now sealed together forever!

also this week i got to go to villahermosa and got to see elder thompson and elder plummer from my mtc district and also the other 4 elders that were in salt lake with me. we had to go and sign our visas and we got a card also for identification. the only bad thing about this trip was that it took basically two days. we all met up in coatzacoalcos and then with about 8 elders left for villahermosa that is about 3.5 hours away by bus. we got to the bus station in villa and had to wait a long time for someone to come get us. the next day we signed our visas and after that i got to eat subway! it was really expensive but it was fun to eat american food again ha. then we came back and i got back to my area about 7 at night. it was really great to get to see all of my friends from the mtc and they are doing great and it was fun now that we can all speak spanish, mas o menos ha.

this week i also had a really cool experience with a man named alfonso. he is an interesting investigator. the first lesson that we talked to him, he told us that he had already checked two other churches but was still looking for the truth, and he said maybe god sent us to him and he was ready to learn. for some reason though he doesnt want to read the book of mormon because he says he has to know the bible first, and he wont go to chruch because he says hes not ready. regardless we had some good lessons with him. one night he posed the question of that he wants to do good but if we know what is good, why do we still sin and have bad things. immediately i thought of 2 nephi 4 and nephi´s lament. i read a few verses for him and at the end of the lesson he told us how it was really amazing how we could find an answer for his question so close and from the scriptures. hopefully he will get over his doubts and be able to be baptized soon.

we have a lot of people preparing for baptism right now. one of which is hermana cristal. we have been teaching her for a while now and she is way great. she is the one with a little baby girl that is really fun. this past week we had a really good lesson with her about keeping the sabbath day holy and it turned into a conversation about whether she was ready for her baptismal date for this coming saturday. it was really amazing and as i bore my testimony to her about how she was ready i felt so so happy. i really have a love for the investigators here and i am so excited when i see the changes and the happiness in their lives. she is very ready for her baptism and as i was talking about the blessings and the changes in her life i felt the spirit and the joy of this work so powerfully. i am very blessed to be here and to be a missionary. i have been able to see miracles and see the hand of the lord in this work and i have receieved so much help. my spanish isnt perfect but it is gettting a lot better and i can teach everything pretty well and understand most things. there are only a few times now where i really feel like i wish i could speak spanish as well as english, and those times are the times when i want to basically speak very forcefully with people that are closed and its probably better that i dont say anything anyway. I am happy and loving my time here in mexico as a missionary and am so greatful for all of the blessings that i have. i hope that you all have a great next week and have a great valentines day as well.

love,

elder smith

More of Mexico!

hello everyone hope that everything is going great there. thank you for all of your letters and everything. This week was a great week for me but also had its challenges. i will start off with a funny story that happened monday. we went to teach these people that we had contacted a few days earlier and set up an appointment. it was two ladies. one was like 18 and the other a little older with a baby. we taught the first lesson (the restoration) and it went pretty well, but then we asked them if they had any questions. she had a few questions in the middle of the lesson about the seventh day stuff, but we tried to answer that with that if joseph smith was a prophet he received revelation from god and that all they had to do was pray to know if joseph smith was a prophet. the 18 year old kept asking questions and little by little the questions became less and less about the lesson and more and more about me. she said she recognized me from a movie and then made a comment about how she liked my last name a lot more than spanish names, and then made the comment that i wouldnt mind having the last name smith.. i understood most of the things she said but i didnt understand this last part and so i didnt know she said that until my companion and i were talking about it after hah. it was kinda awkward and we havent had another lesson with them ha. i get a lot more looks and comments now that i´m the only white person here. and for some reason i always am by this one family with these three girls that always say every word they know how to say in english everytime i pass by. their vocabulary isnt too extensive though, but they think its the most hilarious thing in the world to say "how are you" over and over again haha.

though i´m the only white person here in la venta i had a very interesting experience the other day where there were more! we were checking for one of our investigatores at their house and they werent there, but outside the house was two trucks and a trailer and it was from alberta canada. i looked lots of times to double check and sure enough it was alberta canada. a little later these two old ladies walked out and i talked to them in english and it was really weird. i told them that i had family from there and one of them even knew where champion was haha. the conversation was really, really bad. i havent spoken much english since coming here, and basically zero english with my new companion other than to say a word or something. i am so used to talking to people that i dont know in spanish that i literally couldnt speak english. i said a ton of spanish words and forgot a lot of simple words in english and it was really bad. but it was cool to talk to people from canada. the husband of of our investigatos was fixing their truck. their transmission broke on the highway and they were stranded here for a few days but are off again. they said they were going a lot further south even. its a big road trip.

This week i had another interesting experience with alvaro. we had a really good lesson with him for the most part on wednesday. i had good scriptures and everything for him, and i was trying to help him see the testimony that he had. at the end of the lesson i asked him to kneel down with us and to pray and ask for an answer about the book of mormon. we all kneeled down and he said the prayer. when he asked the question "please help me to know if the book of mormon is true" i felt the spirit so strongly in all of my body. i received another witness that the book of mormon really is a book from god for all of us. it is a book of scripture that was translated by the prophet joseh smith which means that joseph smith really saw god the father and jesus christ in that grove of trees when he prayed and that jesus christ restored his gospel through him and that this is the only church of jesus christ with his priesthood authority. I felt this very strongly. at the end of the prayer (15 min, alvaro has to rest his voice a lot in prayers) alvaro told us that he didnt feel anything. i then talked with him about how he had received an answer about the prophet joseph smith and that he had received an answer about the book ofmormon before and that he needed to overcome the doubt that satan is giving him. as we talked he told us that he believed that what he had read so far in the book of mormon was true, and then as we were talking about baptism, his daughter burst in from the other room and started yelling and talking to him, but everything was directed at us. she made some pretty direct comments and its probably a really good thing that my spanish arguing isnt perfect yet or i probably would have been very very, bold... anyways she then stormed out of the room and the spirit was completely gone and so very shortly after that we left as well. these are the comments his family is making when we're there and i can imagine that they are probably worse when we are not there. alvaro wasnt at church this sunday and i am very very worried about him, but i fasted for him and have been praying a lot and hope he will be able to overcome this challenge.

this past week we found some good people to teach and have a few different baptisms lined up. one thing that was really great that happened yesterday is that andres´ dad finally came. the family sent us a message and we went over there right after and then talked to the dad. he had a few questions for us, but nothing too big. he asked me how old jesus christ was when he was baptized, and i thought he was going to try to argue that andres wasnt ready. i then told him 30 and then waited for his response. he then said oh, and then said well andres is only nine. i then explained about the age of accountability and then related a few experiences about andres and that he was ready, and understands everything. i told him that andres would be a great example to his other two younger brothers and that this baptism would be something as a foundation for his life. the dad accepted that and then signed the paper and gave his permission. i am going to get to baptize andres this tuesday or wednesday or thursday! we will also have two other baptisms this saturday and have a lot more lined up for the rest of the transfer that i am very excited for.

i am working hard here and trying to improve my spanish and to complete all of the goals of the mission. i am very close to completing with the mission standard numbers, but am missing the baptisms. i think that things will start to go up from here. we are finding people to teach and have been giving lots of dates, and trying to get people to church, but this is the main problem right now. i love you and miss you all and things are going great here.

love,

elder smith

New Companion!

hello everyone. another week has come and gone and this week really was amazing. I have been greatly blessed to be here and things have been great. My new companion is named elder jared sanchez and is from puebla mexico. he has only been out 5 months in the mission and i have only been out a little over 6 months. it is fun because we're both excited to work hard and also because i get to lead a lot more and speak a lot more in the lessons. i have all of the relationships with the investigators and everything so i do most of the planning and phone stuff and everything. its a good experience for me and i'm learning a lot. I felt like i received a ton of help this week from my heavenly father with this language and also in having success. we put 10 people on date this week to be baptized and taught a lot of lessons and found some new people as well. most of the people that we put on date were people that i found last week with elder tanner. i am a little worried about some of the people whether they really have the desire that they should, but i am going to work hard with them and try to make sure that they are ready. we had a lot of success this week though and the president called me today to tell me to keep it up and keep working hard and that he expects a lot out of us here this transfer. that was way cool, and i am going to work really hard in order to acheive everything that we can. my spanish is getting a lot better, and i felt a lot more comfortable in lessons and everything. it is still hard to understand everything, but i'm pretty good in lessons because were talking about the gospel and my gospel vocab is really good. my grammar is getting better and bettter every day, but it definitely takes a lot of patience and i'm trying to work on that.

there were a few things this week that were funny that i wanted to share. the first one was that I stick out a lot more now that i'm the only white person in la venta. its really weird to be the minority and i get a lot of comments/looks and stuff like that. also lots of people try to talk to me in english. it's usually really bad and just like "how are you" and then they all laugh... ya haha. some other funny things are that my comp saw my drivers license picture and didnt believe it was me with all of my hair and said i looked like i was from a movie, and now he calls me elder brad pitt haha. another funny thing was that a mom threated her kid to make her behave with a chili. like if the kid kept being bad she was going to have to eat a chili haha. i also saw a house that was flooded and needed a boat to get into and also in a hoiuse that we eat at there is a mark on the wall about 4 ft up from a flood that they had a few years ago. the wet season is going to be interesting... also during one of our contacts while i was talking saying "we're missionaries and representatives of jesus christ and want to share a message with you" she was taking pictures of us, and it was weird ha. there were a few other things but i dont have much time.

today we went to the area of the other elders in our district and played soccer on the beach. it was really fun and way cool to finally see the beach. the water was really warm and there were a bunch of spear fishermen out too. i really wanted to go swimming, but i resisted the temptation and made it back here. and i found a whole sand dollar.

this week there were a lot of really cool experiences but the one i'd like to share this week is one that i had with alvaro. he missed his baptism the other week but i have met with him a few times since then. he is having a lot of pressure from his family. I taught him a whole lesson basically by myslef. we went in and started talking about why he hadnt recieved his answer about the book of mormon yet. i talked to him for a long time about this and also the amazing part is that i was given all of the help i needed so that i could understand him. usually icould count on one hand how many words i could understand in a lesson and this time, with a little work, i understood just about everything and was able to help him. i felt the spirit very powerfully in this lesson. it started out when i told him how much he ment to me, and then after he had told me that he wanted his baptism later and later, i shared with him how i felt about it. i said that he meant so much to me and i felt like he wasnt recognizing the temptations from satan. he had already received his answer about all of these things and was forgetting. i shared with him that he needed to have the strength to make the decision and that he would be able to recieve everything that he needed. i felt as though he was going to push the day more and more until he would say one day that he wasnt going to be baptized. i shared my testimony about how he really needed to pray and make the decision and that i knew he could have an answer because he has so much faith. he has seen miracles. i then shared with him my experience with obtaining my testimony about the book of mormon. his wife and also one of his daughters who is really against us was in the room. i shared with him, that i had received numerous witnesses that the book of mormon was true. especially on my mission, but one time in particual about a year ago at school is when i say i really got my strong testimony that the book is true and joseph smith is a prophet. i was reading and praying everyday for a long time for an answer, and then one day when i was alone in my room reading the scriptures, i read one verse, and the spirit hit me so powerfully. i knew at that moment that joseph smith did not write this book. that this is a book writen by prophets and are the words of god for each one of us. and because i know the book of mormon is true i know that htis is the only church of jesus christ with all of the priesthood pwer and authority of christ to perform the ordinances of salvation. when i shared this with alvaro i flet the spirit so powerfully and started to cry a little bit. i know that he flet the spirit and he told me with a very sincere voice that he was going to read and pray. i hope with all of my heart that he can receive that answer and know that the book of mormon is a book of god as i do.

It was an amazing experience and i felt the lord working through me to say what needed to be said. I have been so blessed and i love my mission here. it is hard, and everyday i feel like my body is going to break down, but i'm given all of the energy that i need to make it everyday and i have gained a stronger and stronger testimony everyday that this is the lord's work and that as i stay obedient i can be his instrument to bringing many souls unto him, regardless of the language or situation or person.

i love you all and miss you very much. i'm grateful for each one of you in my life and hope that you all are doing great. i'll talk to you again in another week.

love

elder smith

Mexico :)

Hello everybody. It has been another amazing week here in mexico and things are going great. Firstly you had some questions about what it is like here, and it is basically 100% different and i will try to explain everything. the town that i am in (La Venta) is pretty small, but to walk from one side of the area to the other would be probably about an hour. there is one main road that goes through most of the town and to different towns around it as well and then smaller streets and callejones (alley/side streets) that are smaller with houses on it as well. the area is set up in colonies. basically just groups of streets every so often. we live in el centro with is more or less in the middle of la venta and is where the market is. we live just barely outside from where all the shops and stuff are. there is one road with all of the shops and taxis and bike taxis (camionetas). the market is pretty cool. there are a bunch of clothes shops and then food and small little souvenier shops, that basically just have dollar store things. there isnt anything too cultural about the things that they sell here ha. the thing that is cool about mexico is that there are a lot of holidays. there was christmas, new years, and then another day called dia de los reyes (day of the kings) or january 6th. it basically is just another christmas except the three kings bring toys to the kids instead of santa claus. also they eat this bread the night before and it has little plastic babies inside of it. if you get one of them you have to do something nice or get something for the rest of the people. i think most people do it a little different depending on the house and i'm not too sure about it because we didnt get to celebrate it with anyone. everyone here says hello. everyone we walk by we say buenos días, buenos tardes, or buenos noches, depending on the time. and it is really funny sometimes because they are very specific about the time. if its 1201 and you say buenos días, they will look at you and say buenos tardes accenting the tardes, and then keep going haha. a thing that is kind of funny also here is that i think i've been served hot chocolate here more than in salt lake. its super hot out, even at night and i'll be sweating and then theyll bring in some hot chocolate and be like. ¿oh hace frío afuera no? and i say ITS HOT FOR ME. i'll force down the hot chocolate wiping away the sweat as i go haha. the food here is really good. we eat with the same 4 sisters every week and they just rotate days. usually it is something with chicken and tortillas. the food here isnt too spicy, but the chili here is really good. chili as in salsa. the weather has been better this week except for the first few days. it hasnt been as hot this week, but for three days it rained, and i think i liked the heat better. it rained and doesnt stop. i wore my rain jacket but it just runs off onto my pants and you get drenched. my shirt was dry though. also we have leaks in our apartment so when we got back my bed was a little wet and there wa a big puddle in our room. this caused some problems because then our room became super humid. i sent a letter to elise today and found that all of my envelopes are sealed shut. it was so humid in the room that all the glue got wet and then when it dried out, they all sealed shut. also i thought my backpack was waterproof, but on the bottom it wasnt and my bible got drenched. i've spent the last 4 days drying it out in front of a fan and its still wet. hopefully itll be alright though. hopefully that settles some questions about the place i'm at. if you have any more questions ask them and ill try to answer.

this last week was really good. the first few days with the rain were a little slow, but after that we picked things up and had some really hard working days. we are supposed to get 140 contacts each week, 20 per day. this week, because of the rain, we only had 5 contacts after thursday. friday we got 55 and saturday we got 50 and then we got some more on sunday as well. contacts are just when you talk to someone at their house or on the street and invite them to have us over to teach a lesson. we did a ton of walking these days and also a lot of teaching. we found a ton of new people to teach, and had some really good lessons. this week there were also hard things though. andres was supposed to get baptized but his dad still wants to talk to us before he is baptized and he isnt coming until next sunday now. also alvero almost changed his date to the 22nd of february because thats his birthday, luckily we were able to convince him to keep it to 22 of january. also we met a lot of anti-mormon people this week. last night we talked to a guy and he basically said the same thing over and over about how the book of mormon was an apostetic book and that to find christ we needed to throw it away. i dont mind when people dont accept the message, thats their agency, but when they act like they know what we believe and tell us what we believe it bothers me. i bore my testimony to him that i knew that the book of mormon was a book from god because i read it and i prayed about it and i received an answer the only way we can receive wisdom about spiritual things, from god is through the holy ghost. i told him, you cant tell me this book is not from god and you cant tell me that it is not true if you have not read it and have not prayed aoubt it . we left shortly after ha, but the spirt of contention is bad.

we had some amazing experiences being guided by the spirit and in finding people that are ready. we contacted a man one night who was visiting la venta. he invited us to his house. we went to his house, met his brother, found out that their mother was about to die. we said a prayer for her, and then we taught him the plan of salvation. he accepted a baptismal date for the 5th of february. It was an amazing spirit from the moment that we entered the house, and it caused me to think a lot seeing the woman on her death bed. it made me really appreciate the knowledge we have about where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going and that god has a plan to be together forever and to be happy.

I had a lot of other really great lessons and experiences but dont have any time to write them. we taught a lot of knew people and had a cool experience where we contacted the husband of a family and the wife at two different times within the same week, and then found out they were together when we showed up at the house. the husband was the only one there, but he was very interested and had some very strong morals and was excited to learn about and to read the book of mormon.

I have felt the lords hand in this work so often and am so grateful to be a missionary. i am having experiences here that i could not have anywhere else and couldnt have if i was not a missionary. the instant trust that people have for you and the confidence they have to tell you everything about their life in the first 10 seconds within meeting them is amazing. i am learning so much and am so grateful for these experiences and for the opportunity i have to serve the lord and see my testimony grow. I love my mission.

i love you all and miss you. thank you for your emails and for all of your love and support.

love,

elder smith

Another week in Mexico

hello everyone. i dont have a lot of time this week because we had a zone actiity today that took up a lot of our pday time and we just barely finished laundry which takes forever now, but i´ll try to say everything that i can that happened this week. overall, thinks are going very well. we have put a few more people on date to be baptized, and we have found more people to teach, and my spanish is getting better every day. i can understand a lot more, and am getting used to the accent here, though it is still hard to understand everything that they say, and i have to really focus to get it all. usually i get the gist of what they say and go off of that. when teaching and talking to people normally, i can say what i want a lot easier, and i think more correctly as well. i dont speak very much english with my companion except to ask a word, or occasionally a sentence or two, but we try not to. other than that though, all spanish. nobody here speaks english and nobdy is white. we still get lots of looks from just about everybody, and its funny sometimes. today at our zone activity we had our zone all together which includes me and elder clark nd elder knight from my mtc zone. we had a contest thing where we did different little game things, egg toss was included and some scripture things and some different races and stuff. it was fun and i got to know the zone a little bit better. we also played a litttle basketball after too. the hoops outside the church were at least 11 feet tall though so it was erally hard to shoot anything but a layup, but it was still fun. the only downside is that when you start to sweat here, you dont stop and it doesnt go away. so the whole way home almost until we got on the bus with clima (air conditioning) i was sweating haha. that is the thing that is hardest for me is the heat. i have a very nice tan line from my collar of my shirt, and all the missionaries look really goofy in our tshirts at the zone activity haha.

this week we had a lot of success. we were able to teach a lot and to find a lot of people to teach. alvero is one of our main investigators. he is a 70ish year old man and i cant understand anything that he says because he has an infection in his throat, studders, talks really really fast, and really really quiet. it just sounds like mumbling to me and i pick out a few words. my companion cant even understand all of it. Though it is hard to understand him, he has a ton of faith. one night we taught him lesson two: the plan of salvation. at the end of the lesson we asked him where he wanted to go after this life. he said the celestial kingdom, where we can be with god and christ and our families forever. we then went back and reviewed the 5 points of the gospel that we have to complete to obtain that. faith, he had. repentace, he said he had. then when we brought up baptism, he said he hadnt and said "quiro ser bautisado pronto". (i want to be baptized soon!) it was so awesome when we heard him say this and we gave him a date and he will be baptized in two weeks. another occasion with him, at the end of the lesson he told us that before we started teaching him, he was really sad because of all of his injuries with his body, but now that he has had lessons from us and learned about the gospel he feels happy all of the time and he doesnt mind the probelms quite as much, and he thanked us for what we have done and for helping him. and then just a few nights ago he told us that he prayed for the pain in his arm to go away which he has had forever, and he said that he hasnt felt the pain since. He has a ton of faith and is an amazing example to us and i have been able to feel the spirit in his house so much.

we are also teaching a boy named andres who will be baptized hopefully this week. we have to talk to his dad. his baptism will also be somewhat of a miracle. we have been waiting to be able to baptize him forever! he lives with his aunt who is a member but his dad has never given him permission. at an fhe one night his cousin came up to us and said andres´s dad said that he can get baptized completely out of the blue. we asked andres and he said yes and we set the date for the 8th right then. it didnt wokr out because his dad wants to talk to us and its a little complicated, but andres will be baptized this week or next week.

this week has also had its down side, well just harder times. the couple that we have been teaching crystal and pedro. I love them and they are awesome and have a little baby girl who is about 1 who loves to come play with all of the random stuff around me and is lots of fun. we were planning on giving them a date one night. we had an amazing lesson 2 with them and i was able to bear my testimony very powerfully to them about the plan of salvation and about eternal families. they really liked the idea of eternal families and the spirit was very strong in that lesson. from the very start when we sang families can be together forever to the end where we all bore out testimonies. the next lesson went well also but at the end they said how they werent ready for baptism. it was sad, especially when we heard their reasons. i think that they will still come around, but they might take a little more time. the wife is a lot more ready than pedro, but i think that they will be very strong members one day.

ah i dont have much time but a ton of stories. a cool story about planning really quick though. is this week we taught a less active lady who has a big problem. elder tanner asked me in planning that morning what chapter i thought we should read with them. immediately 2 nephi 2 came to mind and that was the one we ended up reading. i didnt know her at all or anything about her situation. It was perfect for everything going on in her life, and then the lesson went amazing and had a very storng spirit. it was another testimony to me that this truly is the work of the lord and he directs all of our actions.

my birthday was pretty much a normal day. nobody really knew or anything here and i definitely didnt announce it haha. at the end of the day me and elder tanner ate a twinkie ish type thing, and thats about it haha. on sunday also i tought the gospel principles lesson and it went really well, though i was a little nervous about talking for an hour straight in spanish, but it was really good and i think everybody learned a lot

well i got to go, but i love my mission here, and things are going excellent.

love,

elder smith

2nd week in Mexico

hello everyone. Well it has been a whole week in mexico already and it has gone by fast and a lot has happened. First things first, i am in the city of La Venta. i´m not exactly sure where it is, but i think it is about 45 min west of villahermosa. the city is very small. we live in a one room "appartment" here that is pretty nice. it is one big room, tile floors, two beds, a refridgerator, a washer type thing, and a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink all in one small room. It is pretty nice compared to most peoples houses though so i cant complain at all. we live in the centro or downtown area, but the downtown is only about a block of different stores and then the rest of the area is houses. the area is pretty big and we take taxi´s sometimes up and down the main road to get to different parts of the city. the taxi´s arent too crazy here because theres only one lane, but its def different than the US. my companions name is Elder Tanner. He is from spokane, washington and has 23 months in the mission. he gets home the 28th of january, which means that i have to know the area well enough in 3-4 weeks to be able to take over when he leaves. That is going to be really tough, but hopefully i´ll be able to do it. the streets in the neighborhoods are really hard to follow and there are a lot of alleyish type things and different paths and stuff, but i´ll try to learn it the best as i can. he is a good missionary and has really good spanish and teaches well and is obedient, so i am happy. he is helping me with my spanish and I am trying really hard to be better. it was hard teaching in english right before getting here, but it gets better everyday and hopefully soon I will be able to communicate without problems.

This week there have been some fun things that have happened. New Years we went over to the other two people in our districts house and spent the night. there are just 4 elders in our district and my comp is the district leader. elder clark from my mtc district is in the other area so it is nice to still be together with him. on new years we didnt go to sleep on time because it was way too loud. everyone gets together in their families nd blast music from 7 at night to 9 the next morning. they also light off nonestop fireworks all ngiht. the majority of the fireworks are just these popper things that they light and then go off and just sound like a loud gun shot. at midnight they take this jumpsuit filled with paper and fireworks that they have made look like a man and then light it on fire. It was pretty funny to watch the man on fire and explode with fireworks.

Also this week while tracting i had an accident where i ran into a cement block. It was sticking out of the side of the wall like a foot and a half right at head level and I hit it pretty square on. It didnt hurt too bad but was a bit of a shock. Luckily we were close to our house so I got my companions little towel thing to put on it and then we passed a few people that I think probably thought we just got mugged or something, that gave us some weird looks, but i got cleaned up quick and then didnt have a headache really or anything after, but it was a weird feeling for the rest of the day.

We are teaching a lot of really great people. We didnt have too many people when i first got here, but we have been working hard to contact people and have three people on date for the 22nd of january now! we are trying to build our teaching pool and are trying to talk to everyone on the street. We have had some really cool experiences in lessons and have been teaching a lot. I am getting better at my spanish, but it will be a process. Also this week we had a zone conference. The president got up on the stand a little before it started and asked me to play prelude music and then all the music for the zone conference. i wish i knew more hymns by heart, but it went pretty well. also he got up and had all of us new missionaries sing a song for everyone that he had just had us practice once in the car one day. its not a song i know in english by was called se que me ama el senor. it is a good one and i like it a lot. the president played piano for that one. he is a great president and jokes around with you but it very spiritual. he had us sing it once for everyone, but then said that one was practice and told us to come over. he then told just us to really sing with all of our hearts and bear our testimonies when we sang and he teared up while he said it. We sang it agian and it was much better. This mission is much more obedient than my other one and i am really excited to keep working hard here. There are challenges, but i know that i am given the help that i need. this is the lords work, and as long as i keep myself a worth servant of him, i will be given the ability and the spirit to accomplish his work. I have had many opportunities to bear my testimony to people ehere this week, and also to give the experience of the first vision. we have taught a ton of first lessons which is the foundation of our church. it has helped strengthen my testimony as i testify to others and say that I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and the only way that we can return to him. I love this gospel and i love these people. there is no happier feeling than hearing the words come out of someones mouth saying that they will be baptized. We taught a man named alvero yesterday where after we taught him the plan of salvation he said. ¡quiero ser bautisado pronto! I felt the spirit and felt the joy of this work when he said that and know that he is doing what his savior wants.

Dont worry about me here, everything is going great and i am loving my mission.

love,

elder smith