Hey guys how are y’all doing? This last week was an alright week, with its usual struggles. We went to Santiago for our p day today and just got back and I’m kind of tired but still standing. I just kind of went just to go eat some McDonalds for breakfast and for lunch. Its weird, back home if you take a girl to McDonalds she would break up with you but here it is like taking your girlfriend to a restaurant. I just had to go to Pricemart (the Sam’s Club here) and go print some photos for some people here.
Jose and Isabel our stud family and is progressing really well and are already acting better than the members here. Also they have a good knowledge and are preparing themselves to not only be baptized but to be converted as well. I was a little worried Sunday during Elders Quorum because three members got into a fight in front of them but they didn’t think much of it thankfully. They went to the Judge to get everything set up and the only thing they lack is Isabel's birth certificate and they should be good to go. Aneudi and Evelin didn’t go to church so we told them we will put an appointment Sunday during church and that they are going to have to earn their visits. We are teaching a guy from New York that is living here now and he is doing pretty well. He contacted us on the street and so we started going to teach him. We are lucky that we have some RM’s that just moved to our area that are helping us out a lot. We started playing basketball with some of the leaders in the ward in the morning and every game that they lose they have to give us a reference so we are finally starting to get some references. We are contacting a lot more and trying to find some new cheese to teach.
Things are up and down as usual with my comp but the transfer only has three weeks left so I am hoping we will work really hard so that they go by pretty fast. I hope everything is going well back home and that is awesome that Jacob is going to be ordained a Teacher this weekend! Take care guys, I love y’all a lot.
Love,
Elder Smith
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The most spiritual week of my life
Hey guys how has y’alls week been? This past week was the most spiritual week of my life!
Happy Birthday Jacob! That is crazy that he will be a Teacher this week, the time passes be so fast.
It’s good to see that the family is growing, there will be a lot of new members to the family when I get back.
Congrats to Makenzie for going up to varsity, atta girl.
Its weird I can now count the months I have left with one hand!
Our Mission Conference with Elder Bednar was amazing! He is an awesome speaker, he didn’t even give a talk. He was with us for 3 hours and the time flew by. He was just asking us questions and we were just asking him questions as well. He tells things how they are! He is a funny guy, but brings and incredible spirit just by stepping into the room. I was in the second row, so he was right there! Too bad at the end we weren’t able to shake his hand. He taught us that we should let our investigators act and we shouldn’t act upon them. Treat them like agents and let them seek wisdom by faith. He is still a pretty young guy and he made some really funny comments. It was awesome to see everyone in the mission, and afterwards we went to Papa Johns so it made it even more legit.
We still haven’t had any marriages or weddings but we have dates at the end of this month to do it. I promised to make them a cake when they do it so they have a little more motivation. But everyone went to church this past week and they were there most of the time which was incredible. Jose and Isabel are stronger than ever and they shared a strong testimony with us last night. Also Aneudi now has a new job that gives him a lot more time to read the scriptures and go to church on Sunday and he has everything to get married with Evelin now. We have an awkward situation with Wilson and Morena, Wilson has another family and children and is now with Morena so we will see what happens tonight in our lesson with them. We are getting some more support from our ward now with our families, they have years without baptizing a full family. We have a stud ward mission leader at least who helps us out quite a bit.
So in my interview with President Lee this week we were talking and all of a sudden he stopped and looked at me and told me that I will need my Spanish in 12-15 years and that it is very important for me to do everything I can to dominate Spanish. So that kind of freaked me out I was like wow, so I don’t know if it was him prophesying or what but that was kind of cool. Also President Lee told be that this transfer with my comp was the "Trial of my Faith" so that made me laugh.
I hope that everything goes well and that Makenzie’s team does well in the playoffs. I love y’all a ton, take care and have a great week!
Love, Elder Smith
Happy Birthday Jacob! That is crazy that he will be a Teacher this week, the time passes be so fast.
It’s good to see that the family is growing, there will be a lot of new members to the family when I get back.
Congrats to Makenzie for going up to varsity, atta girl.
Its weird I can now count the months I have left with one hand!
Our Mission Conference with Elder Bednar was amazing! He is an awesome speaker, he didn’t even give a talk. He was with us for 3 hours and the time flew by. He was just asking us questions and we were just asking him questions as well. He tells things how they are! He is a funny guy, but brings and incredible spirit just by stepping into the room. I was in the second row, so he was right there! Too bad at the end we weren’t able to shake his hand. He taught us that we should let our investigators act and we shouldn’t act upon them. Treat them like agents and let them seek wisdom by faith. He is still a pretty young guy and he made some really funny comments. It was awesome to see everyone in the mission, and afterwards we went to Papa Johns so it made it even more legit.
We still haven’t had any marriages or weddings but we have dates at the end of this month to do it. I promised to make them a cake when they do it so they have a little more motivation. But everyone went to church this past week and they were there most of the time which was incredible. Jose and Isabel are stronger than ever and they shared a strong testimony with us last night. Also Aneudi now has a new job that gives him a lot more time to read the scriptures and go to church on Sunday and he has everything to get married with Evelin now. We have an awkward situation with Wilson and Morena, Wilson has another family and children and is now with Morena so we will see what happens tonight in our lesson with them. We are getting some more support from our ward now with our families, they have years without baptizing a full family. We have a stud ward mission leader at least who helps us out quite a bit.
So in my interview with President Lee this week we were talking and all of a sudden he stopped and looked at me and told me that I will need my Spanish in 12-15 years and that it is very important for me to do everything I can to dominate Spanish. So that kind of freaked me out I was like wow, so I don’t know if it was him prophesying or what but that was kind of cool. Also President Lee told be that this transfer with my comp was the "Trial of my Faith" so that made me laugh.
I hope that everything goes well and that Makenzie’s team does well in the playoffs. I love y’all a ton, take care and have a great week!
Love, Elder Smith
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The ward here is starting to progress quite a bit
Hey guys how are y’all doing? That’s awesome that Makenzie's team went undefeated! Good Job! So the Giants beat the Patriots again that is what I like to hear. Things are going pretty well down here. I had to play the piano for the Stake Conference we had, and that is why I didn’t leave for transfers. So the Stake President told President Lee to leave me here and I got stuck here. Good thing I love the area here. My comp and I are kind of like the Nephites and Lamanites, we have or times of peace and our times of war. Luckily this week there was more peace than contention.
We are making progress with the families that we are teaching and some of them actually traveled to Navarrete to go to the stake conference. Jose and Isabel just need to get the information together and 3000 pesos and they will be good to go. They are learning so much and every time we go to teach them they are ready with questions and are really doing their part. Wilson and Morena aren’t living together and Wilson has another wife and kids that he lives with that we didn’t know about until this week so that is kind of an ugly situation so we are going to try to work something when we teach them the Law of Chastity tomorrow, oh boy. We also found out this week that one of our investigators is a drug dealer so we are going to have to drop him.
The ward here is starting to progress quite a bit and the leaders are starting to leave with us and do exchanges with us. It was weird this week they came up to us and asked us when they could leave with us. Now only if they would give us some references for once!
Well I hope that Dad can go fly this weekend, and in 6 months I will be on the couch with Jacob and Dad taking that Sunday afternoon nap! I hope all goes well this week. I love y’all a ton!
Love,
Elder Smith
We are making progress with the families that we are teaching and some of them actually traveled to Navarrete to go to the stake conference. Jose and Isabel just need to get the information together and 3000 pesos and they will be good to go. They are learning so much and every time we go to teach them they are ready with questions and are really doing their part. Wilson and Morena aren’t living together and Wilson has another wife and kids that he lives with that we didn’t know about until this week so that is kind of an ugly situation so we are going to try to work something when we teach them the Law of Chastity tomorrow, oh boy. We also found out this week that one of our investigators is a drug dealer so we are going to have to drop him.
The ward here is starting to progress quite a bit and the leaders are starting to leave with us and do exchanges with us. It was weird this week they came up to us and asked us when they could leave with us. Now only if they would give us some references for once!
Well I hope that Dad can go fly this weekend, and in 6 months I will be on the couch with Jacob and Dad taking that Sunday afternoon nap! I hope all goes well this week. I love y’all a ton!
Love,
Elder Smith
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Yeah for the power of prayer!
Hey guys how are y’all doing? The countdown as started again, 6 more weeks here in Mao with Elder Leiva...... Oh well I got stuck staying here so that I could play the piano for the Stake Conference they are going to have this week. Why did the stake president have to talk to President Lee! But congrats Dad on doing your solo flight, that is awesome! Ill be brave enough and go up with you when I get back, but maybe you will have to bribe me with some Chipotle for lunch. It’s been really hot out here too, I can’t wait to get back in some cold weather next year.
We had our baptism this last weekend and it was crazy! I had a meeting Saturday morning in Navarrete so we couldn’t clean and fill the baptismal font until the afternoon. So it took a while to clean it with all of the lizards and bugs. We finished cleaning the font at about 4:00. So we started to fill the font and just as soon as we started filling the font the power went out and the water pump turned off. So we went to go turn on the generator but the battery was dead so there was no way to fill the font. Elder Leiva and I were a little worried seeing how we had a baptism coming up and there was no water to baptize. So we waited half and our and still nothing. We decided to get down on our knees and pray and as soon as we finished a couple of seconds later the power came back and we filled the font just in time. What a miracle! Yeah for the power of prayer! So we had a good turnout for the baptism, and it was a spiritual experience, and Elder Leiva got to do his first baptism.
So we are back to work trying to marry people, I want to baptize a full family so bad!!!! So we have 6 more weeks here to get work done. Elder Bednar comes in 2 weeks so that will be legit. I hope all goes well back at home, I love y’all a lot! Take care and have a good week.
Love, Elder Smith
We had our baptism this last weekend and it was crazy! I had a meeting Saturday morning in Navarrete so we couldn’t clean and fill the baptismal font until the afternoon. So it took a while to clean it with all of the lizards and bugs. We finished cleaning the font at about 4:00. So we started to fill the font and just as soon as we started filling the font the power went out and the water pump turned off. So we went to go turn on the generator but the battery was dead so there was no way to fill the font. Elder Leiva and I were a little worried seeing how we had a baptism coming up and there was no water to baptize. So we waited half and our and still nothing. We decided to get down on our knees and pray and as soon as we finished a couple of seconds later the power came back and we filled the font just in time. What a miracle! Yeah for the power of prayer! So we had a good turnout for the baptism, and it was a spiritual experience, and Elder Leiva got to do his first baptism.
So we are back to work trying to marry people, I want to baptize a full family so bad!!!! So we have 6 more weeks here to get work done. Elder Bednar comes in 2 weeks so that will be legit. I hope all goes well back at home, I love y’all a lot! Take care and have a good week.
Love, Elder Smith
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| Matthew and Elder Richins |
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| Matthew and Elder Leiva |
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