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

Furnace of Affliction

Hey guys how as y’alls week been? It sounds like everything has settled down a bit with not having all of the sporting events to go to. And yes there is only 2 more weeks in the transfer.... So what more does Dad need to do to be able to get his license? Man I can’t believe that Corbin is driving my baby, man do I miss having my dodge. I will love being able to go to the supermarket and back without having to carry all of the bags with me and I can just throw them in the car. It’s starting to get hot here and is becoming the "Furnace of affliction" (1 Nephi 20:10).  

But this past Monday was Independence Day in this country so it has been a hard past couple of days. For Jose and Isabel to get married we need to get her birth certificate and then we will be good to go. They are doing awesome and will be firm members of the church after their baptism. So we have found out in the past couple of weeks that Wilson, one of our investigators, has 2 women and has another family and kids but is always at Morena's house. So my comp and I told him that he couldn’t do that after explaining the law of chastity and for not being able to describe it in other words he got pissed! So he doesn’t want to share with us anymore but Morena wants to throw him out and get baptized. We are also working with our American Dominican, Luisandro, but he is indecisive between our church and another evangelical church. We are trying to find new investigators because we need them. At least we are teaching our 1st counselor's brother and he has a ton of desire to get baptized so hopefully we have his baptism in a couple of weeks.  

Tonight Elder Leiva and I are going to go and crash our Bishop's daughter's wedding in the chapel. We at least we are going to go and eat cake so that will be good enough for me. I hope that everything keeps going well and that y’all have a great week! 

 Love,

 Elder Smith

Is it transfer day yet??

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

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

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

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

Matthew and Elder Richins

Matthew and Elder Leiva

I felt my first earthquake

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Only one more week..... But yeah I’m doing well for the most part, and the area is doing pretty good. It’s good to hear that y’all are doing great! I felt my first earthquake Monday afternoon when I was out in Sabaneta, so that was a new experience. The earth has shaken 5 times in the past three days, so I hoping nothing big hits.

Hey if the power goes out today due to the weather just be glad that it isn’t 100 degrees outside with 100% humidity.

We have our baptism this week! So we went to go check out the baptismal font and it was filled with dead lizards so we got to get that cleaned up before Saturday. Our ward is actually starting to have their meetings and things are getting better and they are getting more enthusiastic to leave and help us out. We have some awesome families and we are finding someone new everyday. Arturo is pumped for his baptism and his brother and his family are getting a little more interested in our message. We have transfers next week so we will see what happens to me, if I will stay or if I will go. It is crazy to think that I only have 4 more transfers left!!!! But we are still working with the families that we have, each of them has their own difficulties and problems and I enjoy watching them progress more and more every week.

I hope that y’all have some good weather so that Dad can go and do his flight. It looks like another rematch in the Super Bowl and we will see if the Giants can do it again. I love y’all all a ton. Take care and have a great week!

Love, Elder Smith

Matthew in Mao

Matthew's companion, Elder Leiva

Ward Christmas party

More Ward Christmas party

Scenery in Mao

We are finding a lot of new families out here

Hey guys how are y’all doing? Crazy news, Elder Bednar is coming to speak to our mission on the 13th of February! So that will be awesome. Yesterday I had a meeting with President Lee to discuss all of the problems that are going on in the wards and branches out here, why does the church have to have so many problems here??? We also had a sweet capacitacion (training) afterwards.

So I guess the Broncos and the Texans won’t play each other that’s a bummer. Tim Tebow forgot to read his scriptures or something.

The baptism that we were going to have last week was cancelled and we are going to do it next week. He was drinking coffee but after not passing the baptismal interview he got right to work and stronger. He is really excited for his baptism next week and is reading and praying more than ever. But news, the Polanco Family in Puerto Plata that I was teaching is getting married and baptized in 2 weeks so they can complete the family!!!!! I got to see them in Santiago today with Elder Montepeque and Elder Feliz so that was awesome. Here in Mao we have dates for 2 families to get married in the middle of February. We are finding a lot of new families out here and the work is so much better when you are teaching families. We have a lot of dates for people to get baptized and we are about to put a bunch more in this week that comes. Life would be so much easier if everyone was already married.

Unfortunately things aren’t getting better with Elder Leiva, he just wants to sleep all day and I’m sick of dragging him around like a little kid. I’m trying my best to help him out and push him more he just doesn’t want to do it. So my patience is very thin with him. At least I just have to survive 2 more weeks.

We had our p day in Santiago today and it was sweet to see all of my old comps and my family out in the Plata. I hope that y’all have a great week, and good luck in all that y’all do!!

Love, Elder Smith

It’s getting down to the 4th quarter now!

Hey what’s up guys how was your week? It’s getting down to the 4th quarter now! My week was pretty good, we met about every one of the goals we put for the last week. I’m jealous that Megan is going to be out in Punta Cana that is the nicest tourist spot in this country, and it has one of the best golf courses in the world. You should tell them to give up the beach for a day and come out to the desert in Mao. I’ve got couple of comebacks for Jacob when I get home, so don’t worry.

Things are still pretty rough with my comp but they are slightly getting better, I have never seen anyone move so slowly in my life. But we had a great week, we had a ton of people in church and we were able to put 2 dates for families to get married. We had an awesome lesson with Jose and Isabel last night, and we put a date for them to get baptized and married in the middle of February. I felt kind of like a priest last night asking them if they were willing to marry each other. This area is starting to progress. We have Arturo's baptism this Saturday and he is a stud and is ready to go.

The members here are starting to work with us more now, but it kind of sucks during the lesson when they start talking and won’t shut up and start bringing in random topics. But it is better than nothing. I’m excited for the new Elders Quorum manual, I was kind of getting over the Gospel Principles book for both classes.

Man I can’t believe that the Broncos pulled the upset on the Steelers. That would definitely be a shock to see the Broncos playing against the Texans in the playoffs. I played basketball for the first time in a couple of months today and it showed. I’ve got a lot of work to do when I get home.

Take care guys. I hope y’all have a great week and that all goes well.

Love, Elder Smith

I’m finally feeling better and have all my strength back

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I’m finally feeling better and have all my strength back, last week was not a fun week for me. Also I finally got my packages from y’all!!! Thanks a ton, now I’ve got snacks and beef jerky for weeks to come. The nerf gun helps me try to wake up my comp in the morning. That’s a bummer that Jacob broke his finger, I remember when I broke my thumb during football season it was a huge downer.

I have already started a countdown until the end of this transfer, only 4 weeks to go. There are definitely a lot of challenges in our companionship right now. Yesterday we had a good 2 hour talk on how we can improve things. I feel like I am babysitting and he is just starting to get on my nerves!

But on the bright side yesterday we had a couple tell us that they want the blessings of being legally married and of baptism and told us that they are working on getting married. They shared with missionaries about 20 years ago, and now they are in position in which they feel comfortable to get married. We are finally starting to find people again after the holidays and people aren’t with their families getting drunk and playing dominoes. We should have our baptism next week. We are working on making sure that he is converted before he makes the covenant of baptism. There are a couple of people that I don’t want to stop teaching but we are going to have to if they don’t start progressing anytime soon.

I hope everything is going well at home in work, school, and in home. I love y’all a tons and take care!

Elder Smith