25 November 2014

Ive finally made it here. <now rocking life in <hermosillo mexico. and i get to learn spanish all over again because whatever theyre speaking here isnt spanish. its someting else. the flight went smoothly and everything and lifes good. Im chlling in an internet cafe writing this cause thats pretty much the best way to internet here. My companion is great, Elder González. he speaks very little english so that will be really good or me im sure. I have no quotes this week because i left my journal and honestly not much to say beyond the fact that mexico is super cool so far altough it hasnt even been 24 hours.

fin fat, if you want to say cool in spanish theres several different ways. you can say chevre, padre, or suave. i have no clue waçhat chevre means beyond the contextual use but padre means dad and suave soft so if someting is cool you basically say que padre or how/such dad. or que suave how soft. i find it humorous at least. also everything is short here so i have ben and will be hitting my head a. lot. so if i ome back as a tonto you will know why.

theres so much cool stuff to learn here its awesome. i can officialy say that i can read and almost completely understand all spanish which is a huge blessing. and i probably get to teach my ompanion what it means to be a grateful american and eat as much as humanly possible. but we will see what happens. as far as cooking options go we have a broken stove with a qustionably functionable burner and a microwave but i will whip something up that is well worth being grateful for regardless.

so if you ever need some motivation in life, personally i would hit up helaman 5:12 "and now my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our redeemer who is Christ, the son of God, that ye must build you fondation. that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds yea his shafts in the whirlwinds yea when all his hail and mighty storm shall beat upon you it shall have no power over you to drag you don to the gulf of misery and endless wo because of the rock upon which ye are built. which is a sure foundation. a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." 

so just remember that tough times come and life may beat at you but theres nothing it can do to stop you from having a good time and loving life because you believe in something beter. you have hope for a beautiful future no matter how dark the present.

have a wonderful week all, im sure next week ill have a decent story or two.

Week 5

Someone had the bright idea during gym time the other day to play soccer gringos against morenos. (Whites against Browns) so basically me and the other gringos got destroyed by the a group of Morenos that actually knew how to play but it was still super fun.  Also we play this game where you pretend to blow a dart at someone and if they make eye contact with you they're "frozen" sounds stupid but its super fun. Especially when you freeze Elder Menendez as he is climbing the ladder to his bunk and leave him for a good while. every day. I'm actually pretty sure he's more often frozen than not..  And on a more spiritual note, I came across a scripture i absolutely love last week. The question is asked in D&C 121 "1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?  2 How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?  3 Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?"  and the beautiful response is given "7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;  8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.  9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands." so just remember that times can be hard and life can throw all sorts of trials and difficult times at you but all that shouldn't get you down. You'll learn from the hard times and grow as a person. And when you look at the scope of eternity, It'll be just a small moment. So keep being the amazing and wonderful people you all are and make every day unforgettable, unique, and exciting. And then tell me about the things you do. Love you all tons, have a phenomenal week

Daniel Smith Add to circles Show details

Week Four PS

so i have about 4 more minutes and thought id sent you one more thing. i sent this to kieren because i thought iwas pretty neat oh and the flowers were from hailey

"hey so I was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday and listening to the prelude and all and for some reason it sounded really really familiar. Then it hit me. Elder Yoo was playing the hymns sure but with a little extra sprinkles on top, an chord that doesn't actually belong but still sounds good, arpeggiating this or that, all that good stuff im sure you know. But ya it sounded super familiar because it reminded me a lot of how you play the piano and really every instrument ever but that's all. miss ya and ill see you in a couple years. try not to get married until im back and keep up the awesome!"

It was super cool to hear kierenesque music. 

also if you ever feel an unquenchable desire to mail me something but just dont know what to send i always love everything. dirt sticks rocks a potato

but actually anything at all. pictures of stars or a bough off a pine tree. I doubt you'll be able to top what Elder Moreno got from his brother which includes a skateboard wheel, wood rimmed sunglasses, a crushed ping pong ball, snacks, a stuffed monkey, and cheap plastic bling.

love you

Elder Smith

Week 4

Alrighty so this week has been a gem but so has every week of my life (obviously). 

Honestly its just a lot of the same all the time. Lots of learning, lots of teaching, lots of spanish, lots of goodness. This morning at 5:30 the room next door to ours left for their final destinations which basically got me super stoked about leaving in almost exactly two weeks from today. Keep being awesome and keep spreading around all that joy i know you've got.

Oh and for anyone that knows a bit of spanish here's is a lovely cheesy joke before some quotes

¿Qué hace el pescado todo el día? .... Nada

"so hipster he only bought starbucks with two dollar bills" -Elder Thompson

"And everything was going to be hunky dory" -Elder Thompson

"Can I...?"-Elder Lemon "No." -Elder Moreno

"Hasta la nunca" -Elder Menendez

Pues, no tuve muchas cosas interesantes este semana pero quiero enviar algo que vale la pena de leer. basicamente, yo estoy muy entusiasmado para servir en México en solo dos más semanas. Sé que estoy haciendo algo importante y bueno para mi y para todas las personas que voy a ayudar. Que tengan una semana increible y que recuerda que usted es una persona importante y fantástica. También recuerda que se amo a todos ustedes. Hasta la próxima semana

Week Three

Okie Doke. Its been a good week. including a lot of stuff.

Ill just kinda dump it all in here as i think of it

we perfected the intricacies of rock paper scissors lizard spock. named the fake spider in our room Thor. and celebreated Halloween for a grand total of about ten minutes. as seen below.

Oh so while I'm in training and all we practice teaching people to help us learn the language etc and guess who we taught on Wednesday. David Archuleta and his mom. it was pretty cool just saying. Also on Friday Elder Memendez and I started doing a thing where we no longer speak english. ever. and for every time we do we self punish. I have to do 20 pushups and not eat dessert if i say anything in english. so basically i've done a good 700+ pushups in the past couple days. But i can already speak the language ten times better. 

AAAAAAANNNNND Quotes of the week

"I now have to check around corners because the rubber chicken is on the loose" -someone in the hallway

"De nada granada" (you're welcome pomegranate) -Brother Pliler

"Que pasa calabaza" (what's up pumpkin?) -also Brother Pliler

also one of the words for sunrise is aurora which i think is super pretty. 

Also Shout out to good friends cause this week i got the most wnderful package from Dave and Carol and kids with the most amazing letters and goodies inside. If youve never had chile y Limon pringles, rethink your life. and then i got a bunch of letters from the priest quorum which was awesome as well. and then another freind sent me a sunflower mixed with some wildflowers and it made my day 100% considering now the dorm has a bit of nature in it.

 I'd throw in some other pictures but they won't upload for some reason. 

So this week i decided to reread the story of the strippling warriors, cause its just so cool. Take a bunch of young people who want to help defend their rights. The had no clue how to fight but they had faith. they went without fear and changed the course of the war and because of they're faith none of them died. they got cut, injured, hurt, sick, etc but all of them made it out alive.

(its in alma 56 btw)

44 Therefore what say ye, my sons, will ye go against them to battle?

 45 And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.

 46 For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.

 47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers,saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.

 55 And now it came to pass that when they had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain.

 56 But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war.

I dont know about you but thats pretty cool. Anyway I'm stoked about being here/eventually getting to mexico and cant wait to help the people there in everyway i can. I love what I'm doing.

Love you all

Week Two

Okie doke so not much changes week to week here at the MTC but I'll ty to say any interesting things.

-Since we dont exactly have a ton of free time, we make the most of it. The other night we got off the field after gym and hopped in the shower. i dont know who started it but we jammed hard. like the entire floor probably hated us an we sung/screamed at the top of our lungs but we arent even close to sorry.

-we also had a guy move up from the beginner class to the intermediate class with us. His name is Elder Menendez and he is quite the character. he always talks with a fake nacho libre type mexican accent. and also farts a lot. like with any one else it would be embarrasing and annoying but hes just hillarious. maybe its just cause we're a bunch of dudes but still. we doorknob him all the time (basically if he farts and we call doorknob before he says safety, we get to punch him till he touches a doorknob). He claims theres either a clown in his stomach constantly blowing up balloons or theres a zeppelin down there but anyway, enough of that.

-We have a lot of personal study time here so i decided, since im a bit of a fan of nature, to find a bunch of nature scriptures and such. a couple favorites

Doctrine and Covenants 88:45-46 "The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God.
Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?"

Matthew 6:28-29 "And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin;
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

but seriously. nature is so pretty all the time. i dont care how cool the next skyscraper or gizmo is, it cant compare to nature's infinite and constantly changing beauty. also i doodle a lot to stay awake during lecture type lessons so ya

-next while kinda on the subject, sunset soccer will never get old. i mean just look at this beauty #nofilter

​

also during the later classes and study times i try to be outside as much as possible cause stars are sweet.

-theres and oak tree right by the outside door to the building my spanish classes are in and it drops acorns and i dont know how to explain it but please meet Corporal Henderson

​ They both have compelling backstories and everything but ill save that for some other time.

-moral of the story, make dull moments great and have fun doing what your doing no matter what it is. have the most wonderful week and i love you all!

Oh! quotes of the week

"That didn't sound like glass, that sounded like a baby kangaroo!" -Elder Johnson

"Eres un muffin de stud" -Elder Moreno

"Man this Reeses Pieces wrapper is Shawn-proof!" -Elder Allen

       -just now update "I still can't open them..."

'I just feel so special saying it!" -Elder Moreno

"Buenos Nachos" -Unknown hooligan on floor 3

"I'm gonna go use the restroom" -Elder Taylor "Well don't use it on me!" -Elder Menendez

"Aye Papi no quiero" -Elder Menendez

Week One

So my P-day is monday which is nice. I get to start the week doing laundry and emailing and what not. Its busy here is the best way to describe it. The planned ship out date to Mexico so to speak is Nov. 24. So thatll come really quick. About an hour after being dropped off here I'm in class with my teacher Brother humble and we are speaking solely spanish. typing in english feels weird at this point. We are moving super fast and are already practicing teaching and talking to people in spanish. I'm continually amused with the sentences we put together to try and say soemthing. we will rearrange and entire sentence just to avoid a word we dont know yet but its still pretty fun. I've got five other people in my room so its crouded but we all get along really well. Our scheduled gym time is in the evening and generally we head out to the field and play volleyball or soccer. during which the sun is setting so thats really cool and i love it. also still wondering why the Missionary training center hasnt picked up on the whole mountains as temples sorta vibe from the biblical times and such and send us all out on hikes through them. cause they are absolutely stunning right now. anyway things are good. and im learning to get used to being here. please enjoy the Quotes of the the day below.

"There's pants under my butt" -Elder Moreno (we found a pair of pants under his mattress)

"Your tie vibrates when you talk!" -Elder Allen

"But he looks like he's actually doing something. You're looking at a banana." -Elder Allen

I guess i should mention something about my companions. I'm paired with Elder Shawn Allen who is super cool. he was converted about a year ago and is from california. His girlfriend is actually at the MTC right now and leaves for Mexico city in a week so thats really hard but kinda fun for him too. Elder Moreno is Paired with Elder Taylor who both have outspoken and fun characters. And elders Johnson and Thompson are paired. they're the more quiet and studious ones but are also a blast to have.

So it can be really hard to be basically secluded from people and i majorly miss people and being outside (besides the hour or so gym time, we are in class from 7:00am to 9:30pm). So I have felt like im going slightly insane being cooped up all day and such but i opened up the sp[anish book of mormon and just started reading in in it and hit up Alma 27:19 which says "Y el gozo de Alma, al encontrar a sus hermanos, fue verdaderamente grande, como tambien el gozo de Aaron, de Omner y de Himni;" basically Alma was traveling about doing his thing and hadnt seen or probably even been able to talk to his bros in a very long time and they all eventually met up and were thrilled beyond words and basically it just reminded me that life's good as always and although i wont see many of the people i love for a very long time, they'll still be there and be fantastic when i eventually see them again. 

also the MTC mailin address is 

Elder Daniel Gavin Smith

NOV24 MEX-HER

2009 N 900 E unit 101

Provo Utah 84602

attached are a couple pics of my district and other such things. 

heres a wonderful tree selfie with Elder Moreno and Johnson

Ya and we went to the mexican consulate to finish the visa process on saturday as seen above

below is the train station to get to Salt Lake with in order from right to left Elder Taylor, Moreno, Smith (me duh), and Johnson and in front Sister Jackson and Strong.

above is the whole district. Sister Strong and Jackson and Elder Moreno, Johnson, Thompson, Allen, Taylor, and Smith

enjoy the bad male models pic below.