It was awesome to get to talk to y’all on Sunday!

Hey guys, it was awesome to get to talk to y’all on Sunday! And yeah my comp got to talk to his family. Well after an awesome Sunday when it hit midnight I got really sick and started throwing up every half hour until 6 in the morning. So that was not a very good way to top off my Christmas. I spent all of Monday in bed, and at least yesterday I was able to leave in the afternoon. I’m still feeling kind of sick, I just feel really weak seeing how I haven’t eaten much the past couple of days. At least it got me out of a meeting Monday.

But we had a solid day yesterday, and we are making progress with one of the families we are teaching. The dad of the family needed to get a social security number and he was finally able to get one yesterday and we are working with a lawyer in our ward now so they can get married and baptized. I might actually marry a family on my mission!!! We weren’t able to pass by a lot our investigators because I was sick but we are going to pass by tonight and tomorrow.

I really don’t have much to say seeing how we talked for a while on Sunday, but thanks for everything that y’all do and the love that y’all show me. I hope y’all have fun at the football game! Take care guys and enjoy y’alls vacation!

Love, Elder Smith

Four More Days

Hey guys, only 4 more days till I get to talk to y’all! I hope y’all are enjoying your Christmas vacations together. I didn’t get transferred today, but my comp did so now I have a new comp named Elder Leiva and he is from Honduras so another tally for a Latin comp...... I guess the Lord really wants me to learn Spanish or something. That’s scary what happened to Grandpa Brink, but I am glad he still has his sense of humor.

We are working hard here and we are overwhelmed with the work that we have to do here. The area here is so big and we have so many people to teach that we are just getting lost in it all. We are not going to do our baptism this weekend, it is just too crazy here on Christmas Eve and Christmas to do it, but we have plans to do it soon. My companion is a little chunky so I am sure he will lose some weight walking up and down the hills here. We will see what we can do this week, Christmas time here in this country is the worst time for missionary work unlike the states.

I can’t wait to see y’alls faces this Sunday on Skype. I will work on getting everything squared away this week so we don’t have any problems here. I really hope the power doesn’t go out that could be a real bummer but usually it doesn’t go out on Christmas day. The package got held up because they can’t deliver packages that are worth over 200 bucks to the office so they sent in a copy of my passport but as of yesterday they still hadn’t taken care of it as of yesterday, so I am hoping that it gets taken care of.

I hope that y’all enjoy the week, and we will talk on Sunday!

Love, Elder Smith

Last Friday was a crazy day, I had to do 5 baptism interviews in 3 different cities

Hey guys how are y’all doing? We had a pretty good week for the most part, it was really busy and hectic with a lot of work and traveling.

The Texans won the AFC South! Wow that’s crazy and the Broncos are doing well, where have I been for the last 17 months?

Hey thanks for the package and I’m sure my comp will love what y’all sent him! We have transfers next week so I hope the package gets here before Wednesday, it will be weird having a transfer during the week of Christmas.

We were going to have a baptism this week but we moved it forward to the next Saturday on Christmas Eve, so we will see if we will be able to do it on that day. We are working hard here trying to find new people and trying to fish out some references from the members. This time of year is really hard for the mission work in this country. I saw a statistic the other day that said the DR has the lowest marriage rate in the world! So that didn’t surprise me when I saw that stat. We have a lot of families that we are teaching now so we are trying to get them up and going and progressing. It just seems like every family has problems that are getting harder and harder to resolve.

Last Friday was a crazy day, I had to do 5 baptism interviews in 3 different cities. It was weird being on the other side of the table during and interview but it was a cool experience. Some of the candidates were part of a family and it was cool to hear their conversion story and how the gospel has blessed them in their own lives. My District had 6 baptisms this past weekend and this District is one of the Districts that baptize less in the mission but they are working hard.
On Saturday we had a joint ward activity in Mao with the Elders Quorum and they had a dominoes tournament to invite all the less actives, members and investigators. So they did a random pairing for the tournament and my partner and I won the tournament! I beat the Dominicans in their own game. Instead of a fellowship activity it was an activity filled with contention kind of like church ball back home. It was funny to see the faces of the people when they got beat by a gringo. So I got a cool medal, I was lucky that I was playing with someone who knew how to play.

I hope that y’all enjoy y’alls vacation coming up and I can’t wait till Christmas to talk to y’all! Take care!

Love,
Elder Smith

Santa Clause came for a visit and I won a sweet tie in a scripture mastery contest.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I hope that y’all are having a good week and surviving the cold weather. It’s getting pretty cold here in the morning, it’s kind of like camping when you go to bed it’s hot and when you wake up you are freezing. I’m glad that Jacob and Makenzie are doing well in basketball. Today kind of sucked, the power was out all day so I couldn’t go get my hair cut or do anything else so we just played dominoes all day. Yesterday we had a zone conference and I got to see a lot of friends in the mission and it was a spiritual experience. Santa Clause came for a visit and I won a sweet tie in a scripture mastery contest.

It looks like next week we will have one baptism with an investigator named Arturo. He was a contact we did my first day here. He has two friends that are less active and they are starting to get active as well and we are starting to work with their families as well. It’s getting harder and harder to find people to teach and teach the people that we have. The good thing is that we have a lot of families, but the only problem is that none of them are married so we will see if we can pull of a Christmas miracle. I am enjoying the area here and it is definitely helping me keep skinny.

This weekend I get to do 6 baptismal interviews so it will be cool to get to interview people and help them make the covenant of baptism. My district is working hard and we are getting a lot done.

I’m counting the days down as well until we can Skype on Christmas day, I hope I stay here and don’t get transferred 4 days before Christmas. I can’t believe we are already in December it still feels like it is summer. I hope all goes well in work, school, and sports. I love y’all a ton, take care and have a great week!

Love Elder Smith

Thanksgiving in Mao, Dominican Republic

Hey guys, I hoped y’all had a good Thanksgiving. It looked like it from the photos from Disneyland and the dinner. We had a good Thanksgiving, we had a ton of turkey and mashed potatoes so we ate really well. It was a normal day for the most part other than what we ate for lunch. We had our p day today in Santiago and it was a fun day. We didn’t do much but when we went to the mission home almost all of my old comps and many of my good friends in the mission were there so it was fun to talk with them and chill with them for the day. Elder Montepeque had to get an ingrown toenail taken out at the mission home, and Elder Reyes was there with his comp so it was cool. Today I got to hang out a bit with my trainer and his wife and was weird seeing him outside of the mission. He has a lot on his hands right now, he has a great job, and was just called as Bishop in his ward, and his wife is now pregnant so it looks like I will have a little bro or sis before I leave the mission. We got Papa Johns for lunch so it was good to have some American pizza.

This past week has been really busy with being district leader and having to travel a lot and having to do exchanges with the missionaries in my district. It was cool to be on an exchange with Elder Jimenez who was my old comp out in Sabaneta and work with him and the families that they have. I walked in front of Wandy Rodriguez’s house, he lives out in Santiago. When we were passing by his house, the member with us asked me if I knew who he was and was like yeah he is on my team. So he lives out here in the off season. Our area is keeping us busy and especially my legs moving. We are continuing to work hard with the families that we have and other investigators that we have. It looks like we are going to have to start working on trying to marry people which will be a pain but we can do it. I am hoping that this transfer we will have 2 baptisms and the next transfer we should have quite a few. There are a lot of people that have needs and we have to teach them to help themselves out to overcome their weaknesses.

But yeah we are now into the Christmas hymns, here in the DR they start playing Christmas hymns in the middle of October so I am still working on getting the rhythms down on all of the songs. The mornings and nights are really nice here now, I actually wake up cold here in the mornings. I love sleeping with my big blanket with the fan it feels great with the cooler weather. My comp has been a little sick this past week but now he is feeling a lot better. That’s funny that Coach Miller was reffing Makenzie’s game, that must have been a joke. But hey I hope y’all have an awesome week! Love y’all a ton!

Love, Elder Smith

Thanksgiving feast in the DR

Matthew and a past companion, Elder Jimenez. They were doing exchanges together in Sabaneta.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey guys, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope y’all had a safe and good trip to California. We just got done buying our turkey for tomorrow, and man are they expensive it was like 40 bucks! Good thing there is four of us. But I am glad that y’all are doing well in basketball and I hope that y’all have a good season.

Everything here is going pretty well, my legs are a little worn out but there is a lot to do. Elder Castillo and I are working hard and we now have a lot of people and families with baptismal dates (fechas) so we are working hard to focus on their needs and help them in everyway possible. We have some special people that we are teaching and people that are actually reading and praying so that makes the work easier. We can tell that our investigators are feeling the spirit and we can tell with the comments that they make and how they express to us the way that they are feeling.

We have a guy name Dany that is working really hard to overcome his addiction to drinking, he is struggling but we gave him a blessing and he has the desire so we have the faith that he will get over the hump soon. Also we have a guy named Richard whose wife is a member and now he has more desire to do the things than her. We also have a guy named Wildi who was a reference and has come to church quite a bit and we have a date with him to get baptized in a couple of weeks. The work here is fun. Our Bishop is a funny guy and is lying down taking a nap during sacrament meeting. At least his counselors and some other guys are strong leaders.

I hope that y’all have a good Thanksgiving dinner with the family and have some fun watching some football. Have a great week and a safe trip home.

Love, Elder Smith

I have a little more responsibility now.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I'm doing great, I really like the area out here in Mao. It is huge! I really would love to have a bike or my truck back again out here. But yeah I guess y’all know that I am DL now, so I have a little more responsibility now. We have a really young district and I have Elder Jimenez who was my old comp in my district as well. Well I kind of have hot water. It is a zapper that only works half of the time but it is nice when it works. And I do have to play the piano here as well so I need to start working on the Christmas songs. That is cool that Britt made it on TV, it looked like BYU scored a quite a few points in the game. Congrats to Makenzie and Jacob in basketball.

On Monday there was another strike (huelga) so we couldn’t leave that house at all so it was kind of lame. Good thing the other elders in Mao live a minute from our house so they came over and had some fun. When I got here I asked my comp for the area book and he didn’t know what it was, and we found it underneath a pile of junk. So my comps trainer was really lazy and they didn’t get too much work done. But Elder Castillo is a stud and is a great teacher and a funny guy. This transfer should be awesome. There are a ton of people in my area and it is a relief after being in my last area. We got some awesome references from the members this week and we have a lot of good people now.

The ward here is kind of small, there was only like 75 people in church Sunday, but the members here are awesome and we are going to start working with them. We have a lot of young couples and families that we are hoping will progress. So I have a lot of excitement to work here and I have a feeling we will have a lot of success. We have an awesome ward mission leader and Elder’s Quorum president and they will help us out a lot.

So thanksgiving is coming up and we are going to buy a turkey in the district and we have someone with a huge brick oven in our ward and we are going to cook it there. It is awesome here there is a member that has a bakery around the corner so we get fresh bread in the morning. I hope that y’all have a safe trip to California and enjoy y’alls vacation. Take care and have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Here are a few pictures from Puerto Plata

Almonte Family and Carlos

Felix, the stud investigator 

Matthew and his last companion, Elder Garcia

Good news about your missionary en Santiago, D. R., please open the attached item.

LA IGLESIA DE

JESUCRISTO

DE LOS SANTOS

DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS

November 14, 2011

Dale and Marti Smith
Katy, TX 77494

Dear Brother and Sister Smith;

Your son, Elder Matt Smith, continues to progress and is becoming an effective missionary. He has demonstrated dedication, obedience, and love of his companions and the people here in the Dominican Republic. He is respected by me and by his peers.

Now the Lord has called your son to be a District Leader. In this position he will have a responsibility for several other missionaries. He will also conduct interviews to determine if baptismal candidates are prepared to make sacred covenants with their Father in Heaven. In my opinion, this is the responsibility we place on these young men that is most beyond their natural abilities; they must come to know the hearts of those they interview. These interviews can only be done well if the interviewer seeks and receives help from the Lord. This responsibility will stretch your son in a good way. Please continue to pray that he will fulfill his responsibilities and expand his abilities.

We truly feel a great love for your son. We pray for the Lord’s blessings upon you for all you have done, and are now doing, to help him be an effective servant.

Sincerely,
Miguel Lee
Mission President

I got transferred to Mao.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? It sounds like everyone is doing good and hanging in there. It sounds like basketball season is going to start up here pretty so that is exciting. I didn’t know that y’all were going to go to California this year for thanksgiving that sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Today I had to say goodbye to the Plata and I got transferred to Mao. They left 2 missionaries in my last ward instead of 4 so I got transferred. My new companion is Elder Castillo so I get to add to my list of Latin comps. He’s from San Jose de Ocoa, Dominican Republic. Here it is way hot during the day but at least it is a dry heat and not as humid. At last I got put into a house that has a hot water zapper, so I can take a hot shower in the mornings this winter so that will be awesome.

I was a little sad to leave my old area especially with the number of investigators we had that were going to get baptized in these coming weeks. It was one of my hardest good byes, but I had to do it. Felix and the Polanco Family were about to get married and were getting the paperwork done to do it. We had some other families too that I didn’t want to leave either but oh well.

I really don’t know how things are here and we will see how it is. Looking at the area book it doesn’t look like there is a whole lot but we will get to work.

I hope all goes well in basketball for Makenzie and Jacob this year and that they play as well as they usually do. I love you guys, take care and have a good week!

Love Elder Smith



Mao is where the "A" marker is



Monkeying Around

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I am definitely excited for next week so we will see what will happen in transfers. From multiple sources I have heard that instead of 4 missionaries in our ward there will be 2 so I might stay or maybe leave. For P-day we went to the driving range on the golf course here seeing how it wasn’t too expensive. We did a potluck as a zone so we had a big Dominican lunch of rice beans and meat. I like the Cinco shirt a lot you got to get me one.


I am definitely excited to have a normal missionary as a companion so only one more week. My comp doesn’t want to be here at all so I have to drag him around and he is just killing me. I keep trying to get him going but he doesn’t know anything and during lessons it is just me teaching. We are trying hard to work with the members seeing how President Lee put the goal of 20 lessons with a member a week so it is something that is helping us out more with their testimonies and friendship. We had a great lesson with Felix last night and we put a baptism date and a plan to get married in detail. We are just trying to do the impossible and trying to get one of our many couples married. Victor is doing well and is continuing to learn and is being blessed already.

We have a family that we are teaching and they have a son that is 12 that has come to church for over a year and just started going to deacons quorum, So during Sacrament I was up front playing the piano and trying to spot him in the crowd and I thought he left, but during Sacrament I looked up and I saw him with a water tray passing the Sacrament. So we had one of our investigators passing the Sacrament and the thing that ticked me off is that after the meeting the Young Men’s president told him thanks for his help during the Sacrament. So the church here never stops surprising me.

So I hope all is going well at home and that everyone stays healthy and is doing well in school, work, or flying. I love y’all so much and hope that y’all are having a good week. Take care!

Love, Elder Smith

He kind of looks like the monkey 

I've always wanted a pet monkey, I wonder if he can bring it home.

Victor got baptized Saturday!

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Well in the past week it definitely had its ups and downs. I'm glad that mom had a good trip up to Utah and I could go for some good October weather right now. Congrats on the interception last night bro! I’m glad that BYU can at least beat Idaho State and I’m jealous that y’all get to go to the BYU game this week.

Well this week, I will start out with the good. Victor got baptized Saturday! So I got to do it and it was a good baptism and the water felt really good. We had an alright show up from the members, but had a lot of missionaries a lot of investigators came which was good. So we are going to keep working with him. Felix is in the marriage process so that he can get baptized, he is the smartest investigator that I have had in my mission. He always corrects the teacher when they are teaching apostasy so that is funny. The Polanco family is doing well and the dad is starting to get his desire back up again and he asked some great questions last night. With Alberto and Linaori, Alberto wants to get married but Linaori doesn’t right now so we are still trying to help them. We have another family we are teaching and the son as a ton of desire to get baptized but we are trying to work with the whole family.

So that is the good, the bad is that Hermano Reyes had to go home a take care of a couple things so he was sent home, my new comp is Hermano Garcia, . My new comp leaves on his mission to Mexico in 3 weeks so the next 2 weeks he will be with me and he is pretty tight. Also our Elders Quorum President just got in a huge fight with his wife and has ditched his family so our main member support is now gone.
So I am just hanging on here, we will see what happens next transfer. I have had 4 different comps in this area and its killing me seeing how I have to do everything. Monday and Tuesday I was chilling in Santiago with the assistants for the day driving around with them and teaching with them. I also got my first hot shower of my mission.

So I hope y’alls week is going good and better than mine. Take care guys, I love y’all a lot!

Love, Elder Smith

Elder Matt Smith, Victor done de Paula, Hermano Reyes

Victor done de Paula

Matthew's new companion Hermano Garcia

P-day beach picture

Coconuts

Yummy coconut water

Five American Elders Sitting in a Tree

Victor is getting baptized on Saturday

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I’m doing pretty well for the most part, really tired but I’m doing alright. We just got back from Santiago and I got to eat McDonalds for lunch which was amazing. So when I was eating I met a girl that is a Jehovah’s Witness missionary that graduated in 08 from Cy Ridge high school so it is a small world when I meet people from Houston out in the DR. In these past couple of weeks I have learned a lot of patience with my comp Hno. Reyes.

But this Saturday we are having a baptism! I’m going to get to do the baptism of Victor on Saturday! So the waters of baptism will be a nice cool off. Its funny that he was a contact we did on Sunday afternoon which is the worst day to contact during the week. He told off his other pastor when he tried to say that we weren’t Christians. But also we have Felix who is a stud and a half and is getting ready to get baptized soon. We are working hard with him to get him married. Also we have the Polanco family with who we did a family home evening with them and watched a movie and it was one of the most spiritual lessons that I have had on my mission when the family began to give their testimonies and it hit hard on Otoniel that has been kind of weak lately. So they should be getting married pretty soon. This past Sunday during elders quorum are elders quorum president was teaching apostasy during the class and our investigators were correcting him throughout the lesson so that was pretty funny. So our investigators are strong and we are getting a lot of people to church right now so that is really good.

So last week I was teaching the Elders Quorum on tithing and I think the problem with tithing in this country is that people don’t know what 10% of their income is. I was putting examples on the board and no one could pull 10% from the numbers, it was kind of sad having grown men that can’t do simple math. Math is a huge problem in this country, it is really frustrating.

I hope that all goes well this week and that dad had a good birthday. Take care and be safe!

Love, Elder Smith

Happy early Cumpleaños Dad!

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Happy early Cumpleaños Dad! I’m doing all right for the most part, a couple of complaints but oh well. Thanks so much for the package those Skittles and Swedish Fish really made my day Saturday. I taught a mission high of 38 lessons last week so that was my bright spot for the week. I sent 2 Cd's of pictures home last week so y’all should get them soon.

I’m dying here little by little in this area. Yesterday was one of my hardest days in my mission when every one of our appointments fired and there was just no one to teach. There was a lot of walking involved and getting rejected by the same people over and over again. It doesn’t help when I have to babysit my comp all of the time. I just want a normal missionary as a companion. Now he has got a thing for a girl in our ward and I just can’t seem to catch a break. On top of that the mission is barely giving me any money to cover his expenses so I am barely surviving.

At least we have some good things going on in our area so those are keeping me alive. We have the baptism of Victor next week so we are finishing preparing him and helping him get ready. We had success working with the members this week in helping Felix go to church. He showed up early for his first day all dressed up with a white shirt and tie! He liked it a lot so I am hoping this helps him get closer to baptism. We are struggling a bit with the people that we have and trying to find new people.

I hope that Dad has a good birthday, and y’all can enjoy Pappasitos for me. Good luck tonight in your football game Jacob. I love y’all, take care and have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

A kid asked me if I had been shot at yet.

Hey guys how are y'all doing? Conference weekend was way sick even though the power and signal kept going out. Every time there was a good talk the power or satellite would go out so that wasn’t too fun. But I enjoyed a lot of the talks and I learned a lot of things I can teach to my investigators. So I got the letters from the Primary kids and my favorite one was one that a kid asked me if I had been shot at yet. So they were fun and good humor. So did BYU really pulled Heaps out, dang he must have not done very good then.

But things are going well down here with the mini, he has learned a lot in the past week and it helps that he was the Ward Mission Leader before. He is 18 and is expecting his mission call in these coming weeks! The transition from being at home and in the mission the next day was a little rough for him but he is starting to adjust, he is dead at the end of the day. He is doing really well and I can almost teach with him as if he was a normal missionary. I have to put a lot of the work on my shoulder but it is fun having someone who is new in the work. He doesn’t know any of the rules so I had to help him out there. The first couple of days he would ask me if he could use the bathroom, and I would tell him dude you don’t have to ask me.

Our area is doing pretty good, I am slowly dying as I don’t know where there are any more we can contact seeing how I have contacted it multiple times. We should be able to baptize Victor next week if everything goes smoothly with him. We still have the problem of trying to get people married but I think we will be able to pull off the marriage of Alberto y Linaori soon. But we are trying to meet as many new people as possible.

But I hope everything keeps going well back at home and that temperatures cool off there and here! Have a good week and take care!

Love, Elder Smith

Hermano Reyes and Matthew

View of Matthew's house from the gondola

View from the top of the gondola

What a blessing is it that we have a loving Heavenly Father that talks to us through his servants

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I'm doing alright, so I didn’t get transferred but my comp did so I am was disappointed that I didn’t get transferred, and my new comp is Hermano(brother) Reyes. So notice how it doesn’t say elder, I am going to have a mini missionary this transfer. So I am not too excited for that, it is like training from scratch. So I have heard it is you just do everything and they are there to just take up space and be your comp. So I will have at least 2 more transfers here in Puerto Plata. I am going to miss Elder Feliz. But you have to make the best out of every situation. At least I am in an area that is progressing and we will have baptisms this transfer.

But a funny story for this week, one night we were sitting in our room talking at night and Elder Yepez went outside on the balcony to enjoy the night breeze and Elder Childs his comp thought that he went to bed. So when we finished talking Elder Childs went to go shut and lock the door, but Yepez fell asleep outside and Childs thought he was in is bed asleep. So we locked him out of the house. So my comp was woken up by someone knocking on the iron security thing on our window and it was Elder Yepez trying to wake us up to let him in the house. And so Elder Feliz thought it was someone trying to rob us at 5:00 in the morning. So after a while he realized it was just Yepez trying to get into the house. So it was kind of funny.

So I will have to do almost all of the workload this transfer but it will be fun. We have some people that can get baptized this transfer. Victor will get baptized in a couple of weeks and we just need to get Alberto and Linaori, and Otoniel and Zoraida married this transfer. No one here in Puerto Plata is married! I have never had an area as bad as this one for that.
But I am excited for Conference this weekend! What a blessing is it that we have a loving Heavenly Father that talks to us through his servants and we have the opportunity to listen to them this weekend! I am hoping I can watch it in English but we will see what we will do. I hope y’all enjoy it as well. Good luck to everyone, I love y’all!

Love Elder Smith

Our area is progressing well

Hey guys, how has your week been? Yeah it looks like BYU is filled with a team of a bunch of weaklings, they got destroyed. My week as been pretty good, I am slowly dying in the area but we are still working hard. Having the smallest area in the mission isn’t the easiest thing in the world, but oh well. Elder Feliz and I are getting along well and he is a fun guy. But transfers are next week so we will see what happens, a part of me wants to stay but the other part wants to leave.

Today we went to Rio San Juan for p-day with the zone and we played football on the beach so that was way sweet. I didn’t get sun burned so I called it a success. I still can throw a football so that made me happy. On Saturday our Stake cleaned one of the beaches in Puerto Plata so we got to go help out which was fun. A lot of members showed up and there was free food so it was legit.

Our area is progressing well, we have a lot of people that are interested so that is good. A lot of our investigators don’t want to have anything other than the Bible so we are trying to help them accept the Book of Mormon as well. But I think this past Sunday was the worst church service that I have been to in my life. If you ever think church is boring back home you don’t know anything.

Thanks for the hurricane update, those are always good to prepare for. I am glad that everything is going well and I am so thankful for your thoughts and prayers, they really help. Some days I think why I am here or what I am doing here, but I really know that this is the Lord’s work and he needs me. I hope y’all have a great week, and I love y’all a lot!

Love, Elder Smith

Wow the time passes by fast

Hey guys, how was the game and y’alls week?

It was weird this morning I looked down at my hands and realized that the fingers I have are how many months that I have left in the mission! Wow the time passes by fast.

I just can’t wait for it to be winter here, the sun isn’t being too nice right now.

I’m glad to hear that Jacob got a TD in his first game, that’s awesome. I kind of wanted to see BYU beat UT but I can’t complain we won either way.

We had a zone conference on Monday with Elder Vinas from the seventy that was awesome, I also liked it because the conference was only 4 hours long. If you think church is long you just have to go to an 8 hour zone conference.

This last week was an awesome week. Our area is progressing a lot, we have a lot of investigators that are progressing and a lot of people with interest. We had quite a few people come to church this past week so that is always good. We don’t have any baptisms in the next couple of weeks, but next transfer there should be some. We have some cool investigators; we have a guy named Victor that is progressing a ton. He is a little slow reading but his desire helps him read the Libro de Mormon, and he is doing everything that he should. We also have a big black guy that Jacob would love that is named Omar that is doing pretty well too. Alberto and Felix are also some other people that we have that are awesome.

Everyone in my house thinks that I am a tacano, someone really cheap, and they are giving me a hard time for it. Every time we are buying things I always try to argue down the price, so today they were teasing for that. This past week I had a bacteria infection on my neck but I got it taken care of and all is good now. Cesar is doing well for the most part, a few problems with the wife but he says all is good. I’m glad that all is going well, I love you all. Take care and have a grate week!

Love, Elder Matt Smith

This past week has been the week that I have worked my hardest in my whole mission.

Hey guys how are all y’all doing? And yes it is very hot here,. I have blisters on my arms and my neck form the sun, its not very fun. I'm jealous that y’all are going to the Texas- BYU game, that’s just not fair. I'm glad that Jacob is doing well in football. And I could go for a midnight In-n-Out run right now. I miss fast food like none other. Good thing I only weigh 160 right now so I'll have some room to put on some weight. But today we had a fun p-day, we went to the beach in Cabarrette to go play some soccer on the shore so we all got fried.

All is going well with Elder Feliz, he only has a couple months in the mission. Sometimes he likes to talk a little too much in lessons but its all good, he works hard. We have some awesome people that we are teaching we have found a lot of people in the past couple of weeks. We are still working with the Polanco Family, he has to go to San Pedro to check his marriage information. The mom has a lot more desire than him right now. This past week has been the week that I have worked my hardest in my whole mission. We had some great numbers and people to teach. We have investigators in all different types of levels in how the understand and how well they can read. We have the whole spectrum and we are learning to work with the needs of each investigator. It is a lot of fun when there are people to teach and you aren’t just walking out in the sun.

This week we have a zone conference with Elder Vinas from the Presidency of the Caribbean so that will be good. I hope that all goes well at home and that y’all get some rain soon. Take care, and I love y’all!

Elder Smith




Matthew and Elder Feliz, his companion, he is always "happy"



Elder Childs and Matthew

Matthew and the other 3 Elders in the house

Matthew, a ward member and Elder Jimenez