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

9/19/11

from last week.

 

hello everyone. this was another great week here in villahermosa. im going to have to do everything a little more condensed cause i dont have any time. 

this week here went really well. the pictures i sent are of me in the temple. elder sanchez (old comp) and elder piña (old dl). me with a dog named bruno that is way cool like it dies when you pretend to shoot it and gets the keys and stuff but if someone he doesnt know really well tries to pick him up he growls and bites sort of, just puts his teeth on you. this was the first time ive got to hold him so i had to take a picture. also this is the family of the hna. judith and her little girl. she got out all of her stuffed animals to play with me haha. they are a lot of fun and the hna. is really great. 

this week i had some great experiences. we found a really cool family that im exicted for. we had a lesson with the mom nad kids and she told us of some big problems they were having and i felt really really good with them and was able to promise her and their family some really great blessings. im really excited to see them progress to baptism. 

we have been finding a TON of ppl. an average of 13 ppl a week. and this last week 15. so we have a very very big teaching pool that has added a little bit of stress to trying nad find who is going to progress and hwo no. it is a good problem to have and much better than the flip side ha. 

i had a surprise training this week. all the zone and district leaders and trainers in the two zones in villahermosa had a two day training with presidente castañeda and also we got to go to the temple! i was super excited to go in the temple and we did the session in spanish which was way cool. i felt so much peace in the temple and it was really a grat expereice. i learned a lot in the training as well, but it made our schedule really hard when we had to cancel/not show up to lessons. everything here is really last minute. 

Judith is the hna that is in the picture and is going to be baptized this next week. we wnet over the other day and she really opened up to us about all of her life. her experience with her husband leaving why there are problems between her and her family. she is really alone with her kids and been through some really hard things. we talked to her and she is golden. she has a ton of faith and is coming to church reading the book of mormon and learning and applying everything. It has been a grat blessing to teach her. 

we have a lot of other really great investigators as well and we will see if we can get a lot of them to be converted and baptized in these coming weeks. i lvoe the mission and am learning and growing so much . i am trying to work as hardas posible and love the ppl and be happy. sometimes i get stressed with everything we do, and thats what im working most on not doing. the pppl here are amazing and help us a ton and i am grateful for all the relationships ive made with ppl here. 

i love you amd miss you and hope you have a great next week.

love 

elder smith

9/12/11

Hello everyone,

well this was another great week here in mexico. monday we played soccer again but it started pouring rain. it made it a lot of fun, but we were soaked by the end. me and my companion make a pretty good team schoolin the mèxicanos in our ward who are pretty good ha. This week there was quite a bit of rain, to the point where i actually felt cold. if im not wet though, im hot and then i get wet from the humidity. its still not too comfortable haha, but the temperature is cooling down a bit. one day everything got soaked and my planner has servived but it is a little wet ha. .

this week was amazing and i am really able to see miracles happening here. one experience was really cool. we went by an investigator named Jacibes (haseebes) one night and found her unable to move around because her back hurt so bad. she is like 22 and lives with her family who are also investigators. We gave her a blessing and then found out a few days later that she started feeling better right away and the next day when she woke up, she was perfectly healed. We talked a lot about the preisthood and about how we are healed through our faith. Christ always says after his miracles. by your faith you: can see, can walk, can hear, live, are forgiven of your sins. everything that we do in life is based on our faith. 

we have been finding a ton of people to teach lately. We talk to a ton of people on the streets and stop by the ones who say we can and who seem the most interested. In the past three weeks we have had 41 new investigators. we have had to drop many of them, but have given 20 of those 41 dates to be baptized. that doesnt seem to be enough to always help them get to church though and right now we have three people progressing towards baptism. As you can see, getting people to church is the hard part. we did find some really great people this week though. one lady named Judith is prepared. we talked to her one day in the park and i felt good about her and so i asked if we could go over the next day. she said yes. we had a great lesson with her. she said one of her old boyfriends was a member that went on a mission and one of her friends said that if she wanted a united family that she should go to the mormon church. She accepted a date for baptism for the 24th of september and came to church and everything. she is really great. we also found a really awesome family last night. we stopped by their house cause we´d talked to the parents one day. we talked about who they were and what they believed in and we decided to teach them the plan of salvation. it was perfect. we talked a lot about the family. i asked a lot of questions and was really sincere with them. i asked a 11 year old boy to explain what repentance is. he didnt really know so i helped him teach it with an example. it was awesome that at the start of the lesson the family was all over the place, the kids were in and out, the parents were on opposite sides of the room and little participation. by the end all five of them were huddled together, arms around one another, the littles boy kissed his mom on her cheek, the parents were sitting next to each other holding hands. I explained how our message was true and for the family, and that it brings families together. i joked that it had physically brought them closer in just the little time we´d been there. It was super cool and the spirit was really storng. the mom was crying a lot by the end. im way way excited about them and hope all goes well this next week. we are going by tomorrow to visit them again.

this week one of the daughters of the hna juana (got baptized a few weeks ago) had a big trial. her husband left her. she has a 10 month old girl and is pregnant with another. She had  been shying away in lessons lately but we had a whole lesson dedicated to her. you never know what is going to happen in missionary work and for that it is so important to have the spirit. i walked in and played with the little girl for a little while asking how things were and then very seriously juana told me that he daughters husband left. i was then left to ponder how i as a 20 year old who has barely dated and definitely has never been married was going to counsel this family and this lady who just had this happen. i am faced with problems like this in one way or another almost everyday. life changing problems that people face and they ask us what we think. it is those times when i pray the hardest for the guidance of the spirit. we had a great lesson and at one point i asked her. "nora, why do you think that god gave you your children?" she answered with something like because he loves me. i then asked, "nora, do you think god gave you your children not knowing that this was going to happen, or do you think he knew?" she answered that of course he knew. i then explained how that should give her some peace. that god does indeed have a plan for her, and he knows that she is going to be able to complete with that, if she trusts him and exercises her faith. she will hopefully be able to be baptized this week or the coming week. 

this week we also had the baptism for the hna paola. Paola is amazing and i am so excited for her. i met her the first week i was here when she told us shed like to go to a baptism. we invited her and she asked how she could be baptized. we taught her, and through problems she went forth with faith unshaken. i am astounded more because she wasnt raised in a home that practices a religion. her family doesnt support her, but her boyfriends family does and helped her alot and she helped them also. She has a solid testimony and it was amazing to finally see her baptized. i played and sang "lord i would follow thee" and it went really well. when she was baptized i felt the spirit super strong and had a huge smile of my face. i am really able to feel the joy of this work and know that it is true. 

i love you all and miss you very much and hope that you have a great next week. Thank you for all you do for me. 

love,

elder smith

9/5/11

Hello everyone. First to explain the pictures. Our fridge was completely frozen over and we spent like 30 minutes hitting all of the ice out with the end of a broom and a fork (best tools we had ha) when i got most of it out I found two chocolate coins. I was pretty dang excited cause by the time i finished i was all sweaty and everything, but we got it all working well now ha. Also, the little boy in the door way. We ate at their house and we said we were going to leave and he said "i dont want the elders to leave!" and began piling toys up on the door and the final thing was his spiderman tent and himself haha. other sunsets, my district. One member had those glasses and we tried them on ha. oh and my guitar brand is ESMI. So i added a T at the end so that it is ESMIT, which is how everyone says my name "elder esmiT" haha

well this was a really great week. we had alot of good experiences. and some hard things as well. first of all we had a cool experience with the hna paola. she is the girlfriend of a member here that we have now taught everything. this week we found out that she cant be baptized here in our area because she doesnt technically live here. we have been teaching her in the house of her boyfriend and have already taught her everythign. she will be baptized in an area close to ours this next sunday. we had a cool experience where we were able to teach her and prepare her for her baptismal intervew. As we taught her she brought up a doubt that she didnt know if thomas monson was a prophet. i explained some things and bore my testimony to her about the organization of the church about her testimony and my testimony and it was really powerful. we ended up talking a lot about just life. why it is so important that we found the true gospel of jesus christ. she is amazing really and so ready to be baptized. it has been amazing to be able to teach her. she also told us that after the last time we taught her. she stayed and talked to her boyfriend about everything and that while talking she received her answer to everything. she said she knows it is all true! her family doestn support her really but she says thats not important and is doing everything for her future family! im way excited for her baptism this next week!

another cool experience is that one day we got a text from a new investigator. she is named paulina and is a friend of a recent convert. she is 17 and came to church last week with her friend. she told us that she couldnt meet with us that day as we had planned. we went about the day lookign for ppl to taech and everythign and it ended up that we were by her house, without the intention but we were going to meet with an investigator that lives close. they werent home, but paulina walked out and was on the phone. she hung up and then said hi. i asked how she was and she said mas o menos. i told her she looked like menos o mas and she said that it was really bad and started to cry a little. she explained how one of her friends had just died of leucemia. We took the opportunity to share a quick message with her. i started off by sharing alma 7:11-12 that talks about how christ suffered so that he could help us when we go through trials and he knows exactly how we feel. I then talked about the plan of salvation, about where her friend is. by the end of the conversation she had stopped crying and i managed to make her smile quite a bit. i felt the spirit as i testified and i think she felt it as well. hopefully she will be able to continue to progress and receive the help she needs from our savior. 

funnier stories. It is funny sometimes the things elder peine says. he is a really great elder and really excited but mixes some stuff up sometimes. one time he asked a lady if she was pregnant and then when she asked what he said he said "nada....". another time he asked who a lady was next to a guy we were talking to and he said "oh thats my wife" and he responded with the same words as him. instead of saying oh thats your wife he said oh thats my wife. there are some other good ones, but he has grown a lot and come a long way in just two weeks. we are working hard and having a lot of success. 

we are trying to get the daughter of juana and her husband married so that they can get baptized, and have found a few more cool families. Yesterday i taught a lesson half in english with that guy from portland. he is a very very stereotypical guy from portland. i asked him some questions and he responded with very obscure answers. like who is god for you? well is depends on who you think god is... i also asked him what he believed and he said he was catholic but that he took things from budhism and muslim and all different types. it was funny but cool to talk to him and to teach in english. it was a little hard, but at the same time easier to teach in english. it sounds weird, and i said weird words that dont translate well from spanish to english, for example. "i know that this will give you grand blessings in your life." then i paused and said "i dont think ive ever used the word grand before right now..."

love

elder smith 

8-29-11

pictures: hna juana and her family. Ireal, jessica, nora, babies (brian and alison), a picture of me elder green and elder thompson from my mtc district. and a picture of part of my area with all the appartements (valle real).

WEll Hello everyone. This was a really great week and i had a lot of really great experiences. Firstly on monday we went around saying goodbye to a lot of ppl. tuesday i dropped elder hernandez off and then went out with the other two elders in my district for the day. i was able to meet some of their investigators and gave one of them a date to be baptized.

my new companion is named elder michael peine (pine). his name in spanish is paine, which means comb so lots of ppl joke about that ha. He is from salt lake city utah and went to east high school and i know some ppl from there, though he doesnt know any of the ppl i know. he is a good elder. his spanish is a little like the guy from the best two years at times, and he has a lot to learn, but it will be good to work with him. he is excited and a hard worker and obedient so i think everything will be fine. he played soccer in high school and plays guitar, but his personality is a little different than mine, but i think it will be good.

this week there were a ton of great things that happened. Hna. Paula is really great. her boyfriend is a member and we have everything set for her baptism. she is an amazing investigator and our lessons are always really great with her. She lives in a different area than her boyfriend though so well see what happens with that. she wants to be baptized here and we've already taught her everything.

found a new investigator this week named paulina. she is a friend of a recent convert. she is looking for a new church and we taught her once and she came this week to church. she seems really great. the same member also brought her cousin who now has a date to be baptized the 10th. we had 158 ppl in church this week. it went way up! usually there is 100-125 there. we have been working hard, and hopefully it will be able to stay up. we had 5 investigators in church and it was a good day even though a few didnt come that should have.

miracles of the week. we had been teaching a girl named ana for a while. she is really great and has received an answer that the book of mormon is true, but never acted. this week her and her mom said that they want more religion in their life and family and that they are going to start coming to church and hopefully will get baptized. Also this week hno Irael. the husband of juana (got baptized last week) had a great experience. We were teaching the taught jessica and he usually just listens from afar but we always knew he was listening well. this time he blurted out, "i have a comment" he then said "i havent talked to anybody else about this yet because i wanted to wait until you got here." he then said he was think a lot about what we had taught him the other day, and then he went to sleep. he then went on to explain how in his dream he was reading the book of mormon and then defended it when someone said that it wasnt true. he woke up with the feeling that the book of mormon was true. He then turned to me and said, "what do you think that means?" I felt the so happy when he was telling me the story and i knew that it was an answer to his prayers. we are working with him to be able to have sundays off so that he can be baptized. the rest of the family is progrsssing to baptism as well.

yesterday we also were contacting and we said hi to a guy. we usually say "buenos tardes". we walked by and said buenos tardes and he answered. hey whats up guys! (without an accent. thats important because lots of ppl try to do it to here to immitate us ha.) Anyways we talked to him and guess where he is from? PORTLAND OREGON! he lived there and has a sister in beaverton. I was shocked. I tried contacting him in english and my companion was just laughing. i couldnt speak english at all and said half the words in spanish ha. It was pretty crazy though. i havent seen hardly any americans apart from other missionaries and the first one i talk to here in mexico is from portland!

I feel like im forgeting some stuff, but overall this week went really well. i can now work how i want and work hard and we are having lots of success. I am trying to have more faith and trust more in god and that has helped me a lot. I love it here and am doing well, even though it is very hot, and humid. I love you and miss you

love

elder smith

8-23-11

fotos. temple with elder hernandez, baptism with hna juana. hna juana and her daughters and their kids, hna gave us rootbeer floats- that is the first time ive seen rootbeer in mexico. a little girl made a heart for me. i made her do it for the picture but the first time she did it without me sayng anything ha.

Hola,

well this was a big week and a lot happened. As you all noticed, i was a little frustrated with things. sunday i was working really hard but just beat. i said a prayer that i just wanted something good to happen. from then on the week went really well. We had a miracle with the hna. juana. she didnt go to church, but we went over monday and things changed. she didnt come i think because she wasnt sure about her date to be baptized and didnt want to tell everyone there that she was going to or wasnt going to. we went by monday and she said ive got great news. she then went on to tell us how she was was washing clothes but that she was mad that she couldnt think of an answer of why she wasnt going to be baptized. as she was thinking about it she said that she felt good about being baptized and made the decision. she couldnt think of a reason why she wasnt. she has read up to mosiah in the book of mormon and has felt the spirit. i was able to baptize her and the service went really well. we did the baptism and confirmation after the stake conference and had to get permission from the president and bishop. everything was well planned, except an hour before i asked her if shed brought clothes and said no. we ran around looking for clothes. luckily the assistants had a very big overall that she used, but couldnt zip up all the way, but she brought a shirt so it worked out. Also the water was green coming out, but there wasnt anything to do about that. the service went well and an 8 year old got baptized at the same time too. i also arranged and played guitar and sang "i am a child of god". im trying to compress a video to send but idk how, and i dont know too many computer words in spanish ha. hopefully it works. it went well and i felt the spirit singing and i got a lot of compliments. it really was a miracle that she got baptized and i am thankful for her faith and for the lord for these blessings. i have been studying a lot about faith lately and have learned a lot. faith is a theme that is in many ways very simple, but at the same time something that we cant quite understand completely. i have been striving to increase my faith through study of the scriptures and prayer and hard work, and have received many blessings.

i had interviews with the president this week but didnt get to talk with him too much because he got a phone call. he gave me a really big complement that surprised me though. he asked me how i was working with the ward and i told him of some things we were doing with the bishop and to help with some problems the ward has and then he asked me. "what would the difference be if elder scott and elder ballard were working in your area in your place." i wasnt sure what he was going for so i answered. "well...it´d probably be better :)" he said a few things and then said. "well i think theyd be doing the same thing that you are doing there in helping the people and the ward."

also i am going to be receiving a new companion tomorrow. elder hernandez has been a junior companion his whole mission and has 10 months but has grown a lot and is a great missionary and now is going to be a senior comp and district leader. i am going to be getting a new missionary straight from the mtc again so im really excited for that and for everything we have going in our area. There is a girl named paula that will be baptized in 2 weeks that is really amazing. we taught her the plan of salvation and it was a powerful lesson guided by the spirit. The mission is hard but worth it. i hae learned a lot and grown a lot. i sometimes get too serious but am trying to find the balance between serious, organized, responsable, obedient, and fun and myself. but its still in the works ha.

love elder smith

8-15-11

Hello. well to answer the questions. it is still super hot here. idk why but its just a little hotter here in villahermosa than any other part of the mission. It is hot and humid and i am more accostomed to it, but it is still super super hot. i have had day dreams about an oregon fall, but dont think it will be that way ha. There hasnt been too much storms or even rain this week. a little at night but not much. i am currently serving in both areas. a little time in both. in a few weeks im going to be totally in nacajuca, but im delaying going in there completely because of families we have here, but ill have to do it soon i think. the baptism was super stressful because the other elders didnt plan anything. it wasnt our baptism, but we ended up doing a lot for it but they didnt do anything. and so it was really unorganized and the members didnt do what they were supposed to and we brought 6 investigators that all made comments after of "why wasnt anyone else there" or "why did it start an hour late" so it wasnt a super great experience. not completely bad, but the organization part was really bad.

this week we had some good things happen and some hard things as well. on monday we had a meeting with all of the district leaders and talked about how we can be better at meeting our goals in our districts and as a zone. it went well and i learned a bit.

this week we had to stop teaching the robles family. the dad doesnt want to be baptized because he is catholic. he is catholic because his family has always been catholic. they say they know the book of mormon is true and everything. it is really hard. yesterday i spoke very boldly to him. so that you have a picture, we read 2 nephi 33 with them and i explained. we love their family and it was hard to leave them. in the end it ended on good terms that they could continue reading and praying and coming to church and maybe someday they will be able to be baptized. we spent a lot of time with them in my time here in this area.

we were able to find a lot of good ppl and had a lot ready to be baptized this week or the next but they didnt come to church which has been pretty hard, but hopefully next week they can come and keep progressing.

yesterday i had a pretty cool experince where i was pretty down about church and was trying to just work really hard. we were contacting and i prayed and told my companion. "i just want something good to happen" After following a prompting to go to another area and contacting a few ppl, we found a family. we taught the grandma, a daughter, and a boy of about 13 years. they all felt the spirit and accepted to be baptized! it was a great experience. the only problem for me is that the grandma and daughter live in another area so we have to pass them to other missionaries. but hopefully the family of the boy that lives there will be able to accept as well.

well i love you all and miss you. i am happy here working hard and trying to do everything i can to complete with the work that god has prepared for me here. I hope you all have a great week.

love

elder smith