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

We had a really good week

Hey guys how are all y’all doing? And the hurricane hit the other side of the city that I live in, they got some damage but live on the other side so we didn’t get much. It’s weird that everyone is back in school and football has started again. It’s really weird not knowing what in the world is going on in football. It looks like it is way hot there, I bet Jacob is dying. But today we went to Santiago for p-day and not really anything interesting there. I'll send a photo of my comp and me next week when we go to the beach.

But this past week as been rather hot as well, I am just glad that I was in the MTC during the month of August. But we had a really good week and are having one right now. Monday and Tuesday together we had 12 lessons so we are working hard and trying to meet as many as new people as possible. We are working hard with the families that we have and we had an awesome FHE with the Polanco family with another family in our ward. But we have a guy named Felix that we contacted last week that is the most golden investigator that you can have. Every time we leave him something to read he reads it and figures out the theme and studies it with the index in the Book of Mormon. So when we show up he pretty much knows everything. He isn’t married but that is what the topic is next lesson. But we are doing really well.

I hope that everyone is doing well, and I hope that BYU has a good team. Good luck in school and sports guys! I hope that y’all have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

I did survive the hurricane

Hey what’s up guys? And yes I did survive the hurricane. I have never seen it rain for 2 days straight like I saw Monday and Tuesday. I love how I didn’t even know that a hurricane was hitting until it actually started hitting us. Monday Elder Feliz and I were out teaching and contacting and getting drenched when we got the call that had to go to the house and that a hurricane was hitting us. So we had to stay inside the house Monday night and all of Tuesday so that sucked. Yesterday we had 2 references to go contact with members and had appointments but we couldn’t leave. Oh well at least we have a house of 4 and we could play dominoes as the storm passed. Yeah we didn’t have power most of the storm but we have it now. So it ruined our plans to go to the beach today, so I was bummed out.

But my new comp Elder Feliz is a stud and sometimes acts a little childish but is a good missionary. We pretty much have to start from scratch this transfer, we left a lot of the people that we were teaching that stopped progressing. So we are contacting a lot which is hard seeing how we have the smallest area in the mission. It gets old contacting the same houses. But we are finding some people here and there. We are still working hard with the Polanco Family to complete it, we had a sweet Family Home Evening planned with them Monday night but thanks to Irene we didn’t get to do it. All of the baptisms are doing awesome, Engher and Carlos have the priesthood and help in the sacrament.

Yeah I won’t be able to imagine a 25 hour car ride when I get home, to get from one side of the island to the other here it is only like 3 1/2 hours. Enjoy some good pizza and Chipotle for me. I hope all is going well with football for Jacob and work for dad. Take care guys, love y’all!

Elder Smith

Our 3 baptisms went down this past week

Hey what’s up guys? I’m glad to know that y’all enjoyed y’alls trip to Florida. Here it is hot and humid like none other right now and I could use a trip to the beach to cool off. Here I am just constantly sweating, my scriptures have sweat stains from when I am studying to when I am out teaching and it sucks because the pages stick together. I’m glad to hear that Kirk is back in the game, and yeah the Astros are just sucking this year. Dude Jacob you got to pick up the slack man, where are the sports updates man. Football is about to start and I know nothing, and I heard John Beck is starting for the skins, dude hook me up!

But on to more important things, our 3 baptisms went down this past week as y’all can see from the pictures. It was a really good service and the room was packed with members and we had a good turnout. I did one of the baptisms and one of the confirmations so it felt good to get into some cool water in this heat. I love it how in my first 11 months I didn’t have a single baptism and in these last 2 months I have had 6! But the baptism was a good experience for the parents and for the family in whole. I’m hoping to get them married this transfer.

But on the other side Elder Montepeque got transferred and I got a new comp that is named Elder Feliz (he is always happy). He is from Santo Domingo and is energetic which is good. Supposedly he is a baller at basketball so we will find out soon. We have a lot of work to do this transfer. We have to stop teaching some people and find new people to teach. We are both new in the area so we got to start knocking iron railings. Yesterday we had a sweet ward activity and we did an open house for friends of members and investigators which turned out really well! We showed them around the different parts of the church and different groups and quorums and had food. I ate Mexican food for the first time in about 5 months last night with soft tacos with guacamole and it was amazing! We met some new people last night so that was good.

I hope y’all have a good week and enjoy the last week of freedom, and also luck to Jacob on his talk. Take care guys, Love y’all!

Love, Elder Smith

The Contreras Polanco Family



This is the little Contreras Polanco that Matthew baptized..I need a name for him



We had a dry weekend

Hey family how was y’alls vacation in Florida? I liked the photo on your blog, nice! Thanks a lot I love y’all a lot too! Ah dang it, I was hoping that Javier would come to this mission, but I'm glad that he is going to Chile. I think my roommate from college is serving in that mission. The summer went by way fast, I think it is has been one of the fastest summers that I can remember. It looks like there will be a lot of new members of the family when I get home. Keep working on that flying dad, it will come soon. It’s just like driving a car right?

But we had a dry weekend this past weekend, but we are going to have 3 baptisms this weekend. We have a family that we are teaching that we were going to get married this week, but in the process we found out that Otoniel is already married to another woman and he has to get divorced first which makes the process quite a bit more lengthy. So that was an unwanted surprise that wasn’t expected. So we are working with them to get everything figured out so they can get married and baptized. We were going to baptize the whole family this Saturday, but the parents still want their kids to be baptized so we are baptizing Angel, Ruth, and Israel this week if everything goes as planned. Otoniel finally got motivated this past week to put things in action, so we hope his desire keeps going. Also we were going to baptize Marcos this week but last week when we went to his house he had some friends over with beer so that baptismal date failed. We are still fighting to find some new people, but it is kind of hard right now.

I hope that y’all get home safe and sound. I can’t believe that Brittney is already heading off to BYU already, dang time passes fast. Enjoy the last part of summer and take care!

Love, Elder Smith



The picture from the family blog.
This was our response to the message he sent us in the sand.
I think the sand where we were at was a lot whiter, but the beach there in Puerto Plata looked much nicer than our sand.



I'm ready for a good ole tropical storm, bring it on!

Hey guys, how are y’all doing? And yeah I'm ready for a good ole tropical storm, bring it on! And yes our baptism did go down this past week, and it was legit. Carlos with some other kids from the ward got baptized this week so our ward had some fun Saturday. I also got to do my first confirmation Saturday with a girl in our ward that wanted me to do it. And finally I got a letter from Andrew so he is off the hook for now. But yeah I'm glad y’all got the DVD and I hope everything works on it. I'm praying that Javier comes to this mission that would be legit!

Well the past week has been a little rough in trying to find people, so on Monday Elder Montepeque and I went to the coast and started contacting people on the beach so that was fun. Next week we could have a possibility of 5 baptisms, but we have some barriers we have to break first. We have the Contreras- Polanco Family which has 3 kids that have gone to church for over a year straight and really wants to get baptized next Saturday and the mom with them. But we have to get the Dad convinced, and there is a good chance that we get them married by next Saturday. The Dad is kind of the stumbling block of the rest of the family. Also we have a guy named Marcos that is almost ready to get baptized, and we are hoping he pulls through soon.

Well I hope y’all enjoy your vacation in Florida, hoping that it doesn’t rain. Take care, and have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Carlos with his parents

Matthew, Carlos and Elder Montepeque

Carlos with kids from the Ward