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Elder Smith returned home on Thursday, July 19, 2012.

The first sighting

Released by President Allen

Hey guys I will see y’all in 2 days!!!!!

Hey guys I will see y’all in 2 days!!!!! So I am trying to get over a stomach parasite before I get home so I will be able to eat something good. So it kind of stinks I got a stupid parasite my last week in the mission but I should be good when I get home.

Take care. Love you guys. 

 Love,

 Elder Smith

We had our baptisms on Saturday!!!!!

Hey guys, 8 more days!!!!!! I hope that y’all had a great week. We had our baptisms on Saturday!!!!! It was awesome, there was a lot of support from the ward and everything was perfect. So I baptized Jose and Elder Carrasco baptized Isabel. So it was the first time for my comp to baptize someone and it took him 3 times to get her completely underneath the water. So they are now baptized and confirmed!!!! It was an incredible experience after waiting a lot of time for this moment.  

That is bad news that Grandma and Grandpa Brink are not well. I hope that everything goes well and they get better, I would really like to see them at my homecoming. I will for sure keep them in my prayers.  

I’ve been sick since Monday night. I couldn’t leave the house yesterday, something I ate on Monday did not sit well with me and I have been in the bathroom all day and night. This is definitely not how I want to be the last week of my mission. 

We have a new family of 5 that we are teaching now that was a reference from a member that are progressing. They went to the baptism and church on Sunday. So I wish I would have been able to start teaching them earlier in my time here in Mao. So the next missionary here will be lucky. 

So this is the last email that I will be writing on my mission, so don’t write anything for next week!!! The next time we will talk will be face to face in the airport!!!! I will show y’all the pics of the baptism next week at home! 

Well I hope that y’all have a good week and I can’t wait to be home!!!!!!! I hope that Grandma and Grandpa get better!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

Here are some pictures I took off a Facebook page their Ward has.

This is the last email from Elder Smith. We are so happy that he was willing to serve the people of the Dominican Republic these past two years.

My week was ballin'!

Hey guys, how was y’alls week? My week was ballin'! So on Monday we went to Villa Gonzalez with the Bishop to marry Jose and Isabel. The Bishop and I were the witnesses so it was legit! They are now legally married and are getting baptized this Saturday! So I am way excited, I was going to be really disappointed if we couldn’t do it before I finished my mission.

This week was awesome, Sunday was one of my favorite Fast and Testimony meeting of my mission. People actually shared real testimonies and not storimonies. For the first time in my mission I had an investigator share her testimony. Yoel and Rosana are doing really good. I thought a couple of weeks ago they were done for but they have made a complete 180.

Today we went to Esperanza and we played basketball and we had a chicken barbeque to enjoy the 4th of July (1 Nephi 13:16-19)! So it was fun.

So my topic is Eternal Life and Exaltation, hey I can use Dad's favorite scripture, haha.

Well I hope that y’all enjoy the 4th of July and save me some fireworks. Take care.

Love,

Elder Smith

Mathew and his companion with Jose and Isabel



Jose and Isabel with the Bishop

A wedding and baptisms next week

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Dang Mike is home now!!!! That is crazy. That journal entry is pretty funny, hahaha. I loved my Pokémon cards back in the day. I feel the same way about the weather, it is definitely way to hot.  

Well today we put the appointment for Jose and Isabel’s wedding with the civil judge for Monday morning. Everything is deposited and all we have to do is show up and they will be married!!!!!!!!!! Finally!!! So the Bishop and I are going to be the witnesses because Elder Carrasco doesn’t have his cedula (equivalent to a social security card I think). So after all of the fight they will be baptized next Saturday :). They are ready to go. 

We are trying to find new people and we have a couple others that are progressing. I was in Esperanza on Monday on an exchange with Elder Olson, having an American comp would be way too much fun. 

We got invited to eat both lunch and dinner this last Sunday for the first time in months which was way bomb. The American missions get really spoiled, that is why all of them get fat on their missions.
  

Well only 22 more days left.... Well I don’t have too much to say so I hope that y’all have a great week and that y’all enjoy the summer!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

Jose and Isabel finally got their actas de nacimientos (birth certificates)

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Today we went to Santiago, so I was able to get all of y’alls souvenirs so I don’t want to hear any complaining when I get home. It looks like y’all have had a busy week visiting family. It looks like a lot of fun. There are only 4 weeks left.....

Yesterday Jose and Isabel finally got their actas de nacimientos (birth certificates) taken care of!!!!!!! So we just need to put the date with the judge and get the money together and they will be good to go. Our new bishop and 1st counselor are working hard with them to get everything ready. The ward is getting better and better every week. We have some other investigators that are progressing quite a bit. We are preparing a 10 year old kid whose family are members but because he didn’t get baptized at age 8 so it is our responsibility to get him baptized.

I hope that you guys have a safe trip home from Utah!!! I hope that y’all have a great week and that all goes well!!! I can’t wait to see you guys in a month!!!

Hey can you send me my flight plans please?

Love, Elder Smith

I had a farm experience.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Well it looks like y’all are enjoying Utah. I love the weather in the summer up there. I could go for some 60 degree weather right now. Everything is going alright down here, I’m having to have some patience with my companion (he isn’t the brightest guy in the world) but it is all good. 

Well I love having a new Bishopric that actually works. A few weeks ago the church attendance was about 50 people and now it almost hit 90 people on Sunday. Also they are helping us a lot with our investigators. As of yesterday, with some help from our 1st counselor, the birth certificates are ready for Jose and Isabel, they just need to go pick them up. So they just need to get the money together and they are good to go. We had 6 investigators in church on Sunday!!! We are working a lot with part member families and less actives so there are some new people to teach.  

I got to kill my first chicken this week. We were eating dinner at our Bishop’s house and he told Nino to get a chicken from out back and asked me if I wanted to do it so I gave it a shot. So I learned how to chop of its head and feather it and clean it out. I love how it still moved with blood gushing out of its neck after I cut off its head. So I had a farm experience. 

Well I hope that all goes well this week and that Dad will get to be able to fly. I love you guys a lot and can’t wait to see y’all!!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

Well I'm Staying!!!!!

Well I'm staying!!!!! My kid will be killing me (Elder Carrasco will be my last companion). So I will have 6 transfers here in Mao. The new bishop called President Lee to ask him if he would let me stay and finish my mission here. So I am excited, it will be hard but it will be fun.  

How are y’all doing? The house is looking good. It will be weird walking in and not seeing all white. I hope that y’all are enjoying summer vacation.  

So not too much that is new is going on here. I thought I was for sure gone this transfer and I even started packing, so yesterday I had to unpack a little bit. But we had a great lesson with Jose and Isabel last night with a family that has 30 years in the church so that was sweet. We are teaching a guy that doesn’t know how to read but he understands really well from just us explaining the lessons to him. He came to church the 2nd week we were teaching him so he is progressing. We are working on completing some of the less active families we have here. The ward has a lot more energy to work now and the attendance went up by almost 20 people in one week with our new bishop.  

Well I don’t have that many things to write today. Just waiting patiently for the 19th of July!!! I hope that all goes well and that y’all have a great week in the sun!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

The photo- eating dinner with the Bishop, the good bye dinner but I didn’t leave after all

I only have 50 days left

Hey guys how are y’all doing? The house is looking awesome!!!!!!!! Finally y’all put some color into it. Man I only have 50 days left!!! It is super hot here right now, I am fried and I don’t stop sweating. Even with my fan sometimes I keep sweating. So we went to Santiago today and I got to see Cesar so that was legit. He is doing really good and has learned a lot reading the scriptures from when I left La Vega. I got to eat at McDonalds so I’m happy.  

So this week when I was playing the prelude music for Sacrament Meeting I saw the whole Stake Presidency walk in and I was like dang something is going to happen. So the released our Bishopric and called Cristian, our First Counselor as our Bishop so he is starting to get things going again. We are working with him and Richard who are lawyers to help get Jose and Isabel married. They were working to get it done this week but it looks like it won’t be done. So the Bishop wants me to end my mission here to get them in the water. So I might end up staying here after all but we will see. That would be an insanely long amount of time here. It is getting harder and harder every day, I'm trying get Elder Carrasco to take control, but he is timid so I'm trying to help him. 

So transfers are next week so I have no idea of what is going to happen to me. I'll find out Tuesday where I am going. Hey I saw in the newspaper in McDonalds today that Mitt Romney won Texas, so legit!! 

I'll try not to do stupid things... I hope that y’all have a great week and that y’all enjoy the summer!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

I gave my dying testimony on Friday in my last Zone Conference

Hey guys how are y’all doing? We did survive the elections but it was one of the most unproductive weeks in my mission. Between the Zone Conference, meetings, a ton of rain and the elections it was almost impossible to get anything done. I gave my dying testimony on Friday in my last Zone Conference so the end is getting near. Danilo won the elections here. One of the places to vote was right in front of our house at the high school and there were two women who got in a fight that we could see so that was funny.  

So today we went to Esperanza and we played basketball as a zone and it was way fun, we have some good players in our zone and it was awesome to finally play with some good people.  

We had a total of like 20 people at church on Sunday, there was only Sacrament Meeting. 

Well we are back to square one contacting all day trying to find people who are ready for the gospel. We have found some pretty good people this week. Jose and Isabel are still doing really well, so I hope we can get their papers figured out this week. He had to work all weekend as being part of the military. Yoel and his wife are doing well as well. 

Well I hope that all goes well back home for everyone. Only two more weeks until transfers and hopefully I am out of here. It is getting harder and harder every day. Take care guys!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

9 More Weeks

Hey guys what is up? It was great to be able to Skype with y’all Sunday!!!! The next time it won’t be in video but I will be with you guys!!! So 9 more weeks, it is still a lot of time and there is a lot to do. Today I finally got to play basketball and I didn’t do too bad. We have some guys in our zone that are really good so it was a lot of fun.  

Well I don’t have too much to say seeing how we talked for 5 hours on Sunday. We are still working on getting the papers figured out so José and Isabel can get married. It is really difficult with elections coming up because the government is focusing on that. So with the elections we aren’t even going to leave the house this weekend, we can only go to church for one hour and that is it. Things will be getting pretty crazy.

This Friday is my last zone conference in my mission so I get to give my dying testimony so that will be fun. On Monday I had an exchange with an American Elder so that was a good break and so much fun.

Well that is all that I have for today, but I hope that y’all have an awesome week and that all goes well.  

Love,

Elder Smith

Here are some pictures of Matthew's surprise birthday party the Elders gave him.

Happy B-day Brittney

Happy B-day Brittney and Happy Mother’s Day Mom!!!!! Hey guys how are y’all doing? I can’t wait till Sunday and we can Skype!!!! It will be about at 1:00pm or so when I get on to Skype with you guys. So y’all can go to church the full time and y’all won’t have to worry about anything. So I can see that mom is patiently waiting with her countdown, haha.  

This week was really rough for us. It is hard having 7 months in the same area and walking the same streets and talking to the same people. We had to let go of a few of our investigators this week which was sad. That is the hardest part of the mission is when you have to stop teaching people that you have been teaching for a long time and they stop progressing. Jose and Isabel are still working on their papers and all will be good. They set the example for the other members. Elder Carrasco and I got to give the Elder's Quorum Class on Sunday to try to get the members motivated to help us in the mission work. So that helped us a bit. 

I really don’t have a bunch to write today seeing how that we are going to Skype on Sunday!!!! I hope that all goes well and that y’all have a great week!!!!!

Pancake breakfast with Elder Carrasco and Alfredo who is a kid in the ward

Alfredo and Elder Carrasco

The breakfast of champions

Matthew, Elder Carrasco and Anthony on the top of Anthony's house

This dog has a Sammie face

Rainbow over the chapel

So that will be a cool way to spend my birthday.

Hey guys how is y’alls week going? It looks like there is a lot going on with the summer coming up. I’m getting excited to be able to talk with you guys next Sunday for Mother’s Day!!! What time do y’all have church right now? Congrats to Makenzie for her throwing and Jacob looks pretty studly with that bow tie. I have a bow tie Ill bring home with me and Jacob and I can go to church with bow ties.  

So we were going to have a wedding today but there was a little problem with the birth certificates, they only had copies but they needed the originals so they should have them today. They went on Monday to go apply for them. So it looks like Jose and Isabel will be getting baptized next Saturday, the 12th of May!!!!!!!! So that will be a cool way to spend my birthday. They are doing really well, we went with our Elder's Quorum President to their house last night and we had a good lesson with them.  

Also we are teaching a member's wife that isn’t a member and she now has a desire to get baptized and it is a young couple and the husband is a return missionary so we will get to complete a family! Also Winston is doing really well but his extended family is giving him some heat for going to our church.  

This Sunday we get to give a class to the Ward about how they can participate in the missionary work so that will be good help for us. At least the rain has stopped for the most part and we haven’t had any problems with that this week.  

The photo book is really cool! This week one of the missionaries in our Mission finished his mission and his homecoming ward is my ward so it was weird being at his homecoming party seeing Elder Perez for almost my whole mission and now he is home so it trunked me out a bit but not too much. 

Well I hope that all keeps going well and 11 more days till Mother's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Take care and have a great week!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

We were able to get 6 investigators to church this week

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Man I was hoping to get home a lot earlier than 5:15 that is lame. I’ll just go eat Pappasitos in the Dallas airport when I get there. Happy Birthday Makenzie, I won’t be able to say it to you on Friday so I’ll say it now. I will just wait to speak a week when I get back so I can get my English back, but I’m down for whatever. I’m now the only American in Mao, out of the 4 missionaries I’m the only white one. It is way lame... 

It never stops raining here!!!!! And when it is not raining it is so hot!!!!!!! I’ll send you some pictures, our street turns into a river when it starts raining and we can’t even leave the house. 

But this past week was awesome other than that. We had our meetings in our ward for the first time in the 6 months that I have been here and what a great help it was. It is so nice to have some help now. It takes a real load off of our backs. We were able to get 6 investigators to church this week which is the highest that I have had here in Mao, and all of them showed up before the members and were ready to go. Jose and Isabel are doing really well and we are trying to get them to the judge this week so that they can get married and baptized. Winston went to church for the first time and it was a little different for him without all of the yelling and people "speaking in tongues" but he liked it. He felt a huge difference in our church and the other evangelical churches he has gone to in the past. 

We are supposed to get some good references this week to start completing some families which will be fun and we should have some success. 

So funny story, there is a ward temple trip next week so the bishop had our ward secretary pull up a list of people of expired recommends so they could get an interview with the bishop and the first person that showed up on the list was the Bishop, ha-ha and then he tried to deny it. Oh our bishop sometimes...

Well I’m glad that Dad and Brittney got home safe, and that all is well. I wish y’all the best of luck this week and hope that y’all have a great week!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

Watching the river run down the street

The street

The Zone

I’m happy here in Mao and I have Dr. Pepper so things can’t get that much better.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I hope that y’all had a good week, congrats Makenzie for your achievements in track and in school. I hope that Dad and Brittney have a safe trip home from Utah. Here it has been raining everyday the past week but it looks like it has passed by. I’m either wet because I am sweating or because it is raining. I don’t know which one I prefer.  

This last week was hard with the rain and a little disappointing on the investigator side. It is like every one of our investigators is hitting a brick wall and just can’t quite seem to get over it. It is really sad when that happens. We are contacting a ton and we are not finding that many people. Yesterday we went back to some of the contacts we did and they had actually read the pamphlet which shocked me. Our Ward is having a ton of problems and the whole Stake Presidency has been at our ward the past 3 Sundays so there are some problems! I think we will have a new bishop pretty soon.  

Jose and Isabel have there papers they just need to got put the appointment with the judge. We are now teaching Arturo’s brother and he has been coming to church so he wants to get baptized so that would be good for Arturo to have more family in the church. The less actives here are really lame, they don’t want to do anything!!!!!!! But we keep trying, no one in our ward does visits so it is impossible to get them motivated.  

Yesterday was my comp's birthday so we had a good day. We left with some good members and had some great lessons. We ended the night off by getting some ice cream. For my birthday I don’t need anything really, I just want a phone and my old iPod when I get back home and I will be fine. So just save the money, I’m happy here in Mao and I have Dr. Pepper so things can’t get that much better. 

I would prefer to speak the first week I got back so I can just get it over with. It will be difficult but I think I would be able to pull it off. I just hope I don’t start going off in Spanish during the middle of my talk.  

So Nike is now starting to make the NFL jerseys? That is sweet!!!!! Well I hope that everyone keeps safe this week and that all goes well!!! Take care and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Santiago ruta, the car where you squeeze everyone into a 82 Camry

Companion's birthday treat

Walking up and down mountains all day is not the easy on shoes.

Hey guys how has your week gone? I can’t believe that my departure letter has come, but I’m still not trunky, well maybe a little bit. It looks like Jacob is starting to dress up with the fly sweater for Easter. I don’t think before my mission he would have worn that, haha. I hope that Easter was good, I don’t think the Easter Bunny visits the DR. We got to go to Santiago today so that meant McDonald's for breakfast and dinner, McDonald's never tasted so good!  

Elder Carrasco is doing well and he is a hard worker and has already gone through two pairs of shoes. Walking up and down mountains all day is not the easy on shoes. I hope that the shoes I have now will last me until I get home. He keeps me alive for the most part, even though sometimes I have to get him going. 

Still there are no marriages unfortunately :(, we are working and they are supposed to go put a date with the Judge today so hopefully they have the 3000 pesos. It is starting to get tough again to start getting investigators to go to church. They go one week and one week no. Our ward is having a lot of problems, someone is stealing the tithing money so someone is going to get a pretty big punishment.  I think a change is coming soon, the whole stake presidency came to interview everyone on Sunday so that is something that rarely happens. 

At least I got to give my talk this last week. My comp and I spoke. Elder Carrasco spoke a whole 2 minutes so I had plenty of time to fill. One of these days I need to get the topic for my homecoming talk but that is still a little ways away. 

Well I hope that you guys have an excellent week, take care! I love you guys a ton!!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

"Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you"

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I see that Jacob was making Moro de habichuelas. It wasn’t quite cooked Dominican style, Ill show y’all how to do it when I get back. It looked like he did a good job and Ill still be down for some rice and beans when I get home. I hoped y’all enjoyed Conference it was really good this year. And yes we saw David Archuleta, we were watching the Conference online and one of the elders saw him and started screaming like a little girl so we rewound it and saw that it was him. It was lame we had to watch the priesthood session in Spanish which wasn’t as impacting as listening to the actual voice.  

I learned a lot during Conference. I liked the bumper sticker that Elder Uchdorf saw that said- "Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you" which made me laugh. I also like how they talked about how we can be active in the church but are we active in the Gospel. Elder Holland spoke pretty strong when he said it is getting late. 

We had Nino's baptism during the sessions of Conference on Saturday so that was cool that is brother could baptize him. Also it was special that we could do the confirmation on the spot. 

Jose and Isabel are working hard to get the 3000 pesos raised up, the Judge isn’t working this week so they couldn’t get married this week but we are pushing for next week. We are working hard and trying to meet as many people as possible.  

We never get invited to eat here, I have eaten in the house of a member two times in the 5 months that I have been here, the church is so not true here, haha. This week should be the most spiritual week of all, but here, everyone just gets wasted and goes on vacation making it one of the hardest weeks in the year. But we do get habichuelas con dulce this week a Dominican favorite during the holy week. I do get to talk this week in Sacrament Meeting which I am looking forward to here. 

Thanks for the Peyton Manning jersey, just keep it till I get home that will be sweet! I wanted a white one anyways. I hope that all goes well and that y’all have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Smith

Matthew and Francis

Nino's Baptism

I still can’t quite say that all is well in Zion, but we are fighting.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Everything is going well down here for the most part. I still can’t quite say that all is well in Zion, but we are fighting. So you are the pianist again, that’s a bummer that it is Relief Society and not in the Primary. The Primary would be so much more fun. I’m glad that Makenzie is doing well in shot and discus, keep working hard!  

So this weekend we have Nino's baptism and it will be cool seeing how we are going to do it Saturday after a session of general conference. We will have all of the members there and there should be good support. We had a good lesson last night with Jose and Isabel. They are some of the first people to get to church on Sunday and they get there 20 minutes early in the same seats every week and act as if they had years in the church. They even read the manual for the classes on Sunday. We are working hard for their baptism next week. I don’t know what more to teach them, they know more than most of the members here. 

So we have a problem with a member in our ward who is always offending members in our ward and now is starting to offend some of our investigators which isn’t cool at all. So I’m pretty ticked with him. 

On Sunday there is this guy that we contacted about 2 months ago and we left him a Book of Mormon with the time of church inside of it. We tried passing by a couple of times but he was always working and we could never find him. So this week he found the Book of Mormon in his house and started reading it and he liked it and saw the schedule of church inside of it and showed up during Sacrament Meeting with the book in his hand which kind of shocked me! He asked us why we never passed by and we said we did so we are working with him now. That has never happened to me on my mission. 

On Saturday, Zoraida and Otoniel got married and Zoraida got baptized! They were the family that I was teaching in Puerto Plata and they had to go through a lot to get Otoniel divorced and them married. I wished I could have gone to the wedding and baptism. They are just the coolest family ever and they are going to be strong in the church. 

This weekend is my last General Conference in the mission!!!!! What a better way to celebrate it than having a baptism :). I hope y’all enjoy listening to our living day prophet! Take care and have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Smith

A lot of times I miss home but I know that this is where I need to be.

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Peyton is a Bronco!!!!!! That just makes me so much more excited for football when I get back home. That is crazy, I never saw that coming. So what are they going to do with Tebow then? I’m glad that y’all survived trek and glad that y’all enjoyed the rodeo. Training is rough but it is fun. It makes me remember how little I knew when I started the mission.  

We pulled a little prank on the new guy last Friday and it was so funny. We went with our 1st Counselor to go to a reference that he gave us (Richard a member). So we get to the house and we knock on the door and his wife answers the door and lets us in. So we hear Richard in the other room and his wife tells him to come out. So he starts saying that he is drinking and doesn’t want to come out. So I get him to come out and he comes out with red eyes and a sweaty face with a huge beer bottle in his hand (filled with sprite). So we are doing the best to keep from laughing. So he starts saying that he doesn’t want to share with us and just wants to drink. He then asks us if we can drink in the church and our first counselor said no and he said he still didn’t want to share with us. So I tell my comp that we are going to teach the word of wisdom so my comp is freaking out and pulls out a pamphlet. So Richard tells us that he will share with us if we take a drink of his beer. So Christian (1st counselor) tells Elder Carrasco and I that we have to take a sip or there is no chance with him and takes a big gulp. So my comps eyes got big and started sweating a starting thinking wow what apostasy there is here in Mao. And then I take a big gulp and Elder Carrasco really starts freaking out. And I give the bottle to him and I said hey man you got to take a drink, just a little bit. And he sat there for about a minute thinking about it and finally went and took a sip to find out that it was just sprite and we busted up laughing. So he was really worried for a moment, but it was a good prank, haha 

Elder Carrasco is a stud and his working hard. The first day our working he got a blister on his foot so that wasn’t fun but he kept fighting. He isn’t afraid to open his mouth but sometimes that’s not a good thing either but at least he is talking and teaching even though he does teach a lot of apostasy. He just doesn’t know how to explain things sometimes but he is learning. It is difficult having to be a perfect example in everything. Whatever I do he does. But I’m learning a lot from this experience as well. It is helping me be the best missionary I can be. 

Our family that we are teaching has a date to get married the 6th of April and get baptized the next day so they have time to raise 3000 pesos. We might have Niño’s baptism during the sections of General Conference which would be cool. I have always wanted to do that. He is the first counselor's brother. We will see if we can teach him everything before that date. We are contacting like none other and we are finding new people. We kept the people that are progressing and the others we dropped and we are working like crazy. I have never been so tired in my mission. 

I hope everything keeps going well at home. A lot of times I miss home but I know that this is where I need to be. Take care and have a great week!!! 

Love, Elder Smith

The Zone last transfer

Rice fields between Navarrete and Mao

15/15

Hey guys how are y’all doing? So today I got my kid and his name is Elder Carrasco. And yes he is Dominican as usual. That means that I will have 15/15 transfers with a Latin comp. I don’t know what I did to my mission president to deserve this. He seems pretty excited to be out here, he is the only member in his family so it will be a little tough being out here for him. He is a smaller guy and it will be fun being able to help him learn and progress. It was weird for me being in the grocery store and having to tell him everything that he needed and didn’t need. And it is a little weirder seeing how he doesn’t really know how to use a computer and trying to teach him how to use it.  

So I’m not district leader anymore so I’m okay with that. I can just focus on my companion and my area. It’s weird I can say that I have 20 months in the mission. It has passed by fast but I still feel like I have an eternity left. I’m glad to be staying, I might just even ask to finish my mission here. A part of me wants to go to Santiago and go serve in my trainer's ward. 

Our area is doing awesome. Jose and Isabel got their birth certificates ready to go and they had to work a lot to be able to get them that fast. They know the commitment they are making is not with us but with God and for that they are working hard to live according to the commandments. I asked them why they wanted to get married and they said to live the law of chastity so they can get baptized so that when they die they can enter into the celestial kingdom. I was amazed by their answer, there are few people that can put that connection together. We have some other people that are progressing too. I’m excited to get out and start being able to work full out with Elder Carrasco.  

The Colts let go of Peyton Manning? What are they thinking? Well that would be legit if he went to the Broncos and maybe they can put Tim Tebow at tight end, haha. Well BYU might have won their first game but they are going to choke as always. 

I hope that y’all enjoy y’alls spring break and that y’all will be blessed in all aspects of your lives!  

Love,

Elder Smith

I'm getting a kid but I don't know who the mother is....

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I’m getting a kid but I don’t know who the mother is, ha-ha! Imp going to train next transfer, and yes that means freedom from my comp in a week!!!!!  

That would be sweet if Mike and I were roommates. He was asking me about it today so that is legit. I told Andrew if we didn’t room we would be right next to each other. 

Dang spring break is coming up, that will be fun.  

So I am going to have to step my game up a bit this transfer. I’ll start training next week. President called me Friday night and we had a meeting in Santiago yesterday. And my favorite part of the meeting was Pizza Hut. So Elder Leiva is out and we are going to work hard here. There is so much to do! We should have a good number of baptisms together. So I only have 3 more transfers left in the mission and I will train for at least 2 so I might die being out in the country my whole mission. I’m glad I’m out here in Mao, it has everything that I need and want. I can keep adding to my Dr. Pepper tower. 

Our ward is helping out Jose and Isabel a lot, our Bishop even gave them a ride to Santiago because Isabel had to go to the doctor. So we are pushing them so they can get the papers settled as fast as possible. They are converted and you can see the change in them. We also have our 1st counselor's brother that will be a sure baptism in a couple of weeks and went to church the full three hours his first time. We have an investigator named Winston that we contacted a couple of weeks ago but his Aunt is Adventist and wouldn’t let us into the house. But this week we passed by and she let us in and we were able to teach the Book of Mormon to him and he accepted it really well and was like this is even better than the Bible which was nice for a change. We are trying to use the doctrine of Christ as much as possible and but dates with the people we teach. 

I hope that all is going well back home and that y’all will have the spirit in all that you do! 

Love,

Elder Smith

Pictures from the wedding reception of the Bishop's daughter

Matthew and his companion

Matthew, his companion and the Bishopric

Matthew and Moroni
And you thought only people in Utah named their kids Moroni

Papolo and Matthew

Moroni
"Isn't this kid fly?" The quote Matthew used to describe him