30 March 2015

So it's been a real solid and awesome week (as always duh ahha)

Here are the updates on the people we are teaching

Lucero is progressing really well. She keeps coming to church with her husband and seems to enjoy it a lot. She reads and asks questions and everything, and I think we will be able to arrange it for her husband to baptize her if he keeps attending regularly. So that's awesome!

Carlos has been difficult recently. We want to take him to the temple gardens to teach him but need special permission. We'll see. Also he's having a hard time in life right now. He got robbed, is about to be fired, and things are going really hard for him. He's trying so hard to change and be a good person but bad things keep happening. Sometimes I don't know what to say to him. How to tell him that all that doesn't matter because the blessings of doing whats right outweigh any pain or trial you have to go through. That you just need to be patient and strong even if your feel destroyed and have nothing left. Cause life's just so cool .and it'd be such a shame to miss out on something just cause you let yourself get down. One thing that really helped is that we were able to take a member with us to talk with him. Never forget the importance of members in the missionary work. It helped a ton.

So we've been praying to find a family to teach and this week the coolest thing happened. We got a text from the ward mission leader saying hey head over to this address, there's some people that want to talk with you. It turns out this family just moved from Michoacan to Hermosillo and went to the church building to see what it was. Luckily there was some people there and they showed them around the place and then sent us their way. They are super interested and I'm super stoked to keep teaching them. They come from a small town where there was hardly any church period, and want to see what a church is like. So that's super cool. 

Ramón is the inlaw of a member here. We started talking to him a week ago and he is super interested as well. He wants to be baptized the 25th of this next month. He already believes this church to be the true church and is super interested. He made it to church and everything and liked it a lot.

Luis we can't teach right now for some personal reasons but he is coming to church and is trying to read the entire Book of Mormon and in five months the missionaries will be able to head over and teach him again

That's about it for the people we are teaching. I'm still having a blast here and enjoying every moment. We got robbed the other day so that was fun. But the guy only wanted our phone which is an old school Nokia that's basically worthless so he ended up just throwing it back at us ( it crashed to the ground and didn't break cause Nokia haha) saying this is useless and the as he rode away he apologized. It was kinda funny to be honest but other than that, nothing too crazy going on here. Tranfers came around and I'm still in the same place so that's fun.

Anyway have the best week of your lives and remember to do awesome things. I love you all tons and hope to hear from you soon!!!

Love

Elder Smith

23 March 2015

I keep meaning to write a big e-mail to everyone,  but its really hard for some reason. The truth is that right now it feels like every day is the same as the next. I'm working to get around that but it's really hard. I mean I'm working hard we're doing good work and all, it's just I sometimes feel like there's nothing to tell. Everyone we work with almost makes it, but in the end there's always something holding them back. 

Luis has addictions to hard drugs he's getting over them and we can't work with people who have used that type of drug until they're clean for 6 months. Carlos is awesome and hes changing a lot, but something always comes up. He gets held back over and over every time we teach the next thing, law of chastity, word of wisdom, all of the good stuff. It's just hard right now.  I don't know. It's not like I'm disannimated, we led the zone is new investigators and had a really good week as far as numbers go, but each day just feels the same as the next. But fear not. I will write a good email asap.

Oh also good news. Lucero is still progressing. I'm super excited for her. I just hope we can get her husband active and worthy to be the one to baptize her. I'm afraid I won't be here to see it because odds are i'll be transferred this next week but that's okay. 

Oh also, we found a family last week. I don't know if they'll progress but I hope so. We contacted the daughter in the street carrying three chihuahuas in her arms. We passed by the house a few days later and the son, Jesus, answered and we explained that we were missionaries, the whole shindig, and if Estefania was home. He said no but come in anyway, pasanle pasanle. We were like okay I dig it. We came in and were talking and basically an hour ago the dad had fallen off a ladder and was recuperating in his room but to this family the "Word  of God" was so important to hear they made time for us to come in and share a short message. They also gave us dinner first, like the friendliest family ever. The mom doesn't believe there is any one true church, but I hope we can help her see the truth.  The dad will believe anything written in the Bible so that's helpful. The son and daughter both are in relationships and they're boy/girlfriends, also find what we say interesting.  We came back a second time and same deal come on in, right on in. We found out that they had gotten back from work about 10 min ago and that it was the mom's birthday and once again they put everything aside to hear us. We stated teaching the restoration but couldn't finish because it got too late and we had to head home but at the first of the lesson we were like hey we'll share something quick so you can celebrate as a fam and all, but the mom said no, no, no, take all the time you want this is more important. 

No one came to church this week and they work Sundays but I really hope they progress cause they're super cool. The other people we found were member references. The daughter Eileen has 11 years of age and wants to be baptized but her mom won't let her so we are working with that family and we'll see what we can do. They're also awesome. Anyway that's a rough sum of what's going on here. I'll do my best to write better and soon haha, Love you all tons and have the best week ever! I know I will.

Elder Smith

8 and 15 of March 2015

I am doing awesome. Rough week honestly. Carlos didn't go to church and is disappearing again. We had to drop the family we were teaching because they didn't progress and we aren't finding many people. 

I plan to put dads 100% advice to use this week so that should be good. Good to hear you have lots of investigators in the ward. Remember that the members are so so so so so so so very important. Be sure to do your part, but I already know you all do. 

A girl named Lucero came to church and she is married to a member but not member herself, so we will start teaching her this week, that should be good. Luis is another guy who is going to church and really likes it.  He says he knows it's true. He already pays ttihing and wants to be baptized, but we have to wait 5 more months because he is a past meth addict so he needs 6 months clean to baptize. 

Things are goood. I love to hear about everything, Enjoy nursery Mom, that calling you've been waiting so long to have. haha.

Keep being awesome and all.  I love you all tons. I'll talk to you all soon!!!

Love

Elder Smith

Sounds like an absolutely crazy week and I love it. It's so cool that everyone is home. One day i will be too ha ha but I'm not trunky no fears. Guess what! Lucero came to church again and has a baptism date for the 11th of April. Odds are I'll be transferred by then but it's super exciting. She came with her husband who is an inactive member of 8+ years so that was awesome. 

Carlos came late because the bed grabbed him and didn't let him go, but he made it after all so that's awesome. His date is for the 28th this  month and I really hope it comes through. It'll be hard though because he has a new problem we just learned about that is a private thing but I have almost no clue what to do. Like its really hard. Which brings me to my next topic, could you send me basically a talk of your own making about personal revelation? We touched on that subject in the leadership meeting this morning (my comp is district leader and they invite the junior companions to join the meeting) and I thought of you because you're basically the expert on it. Like basically more than anyone else I know. Also if someone could take a good pic of Dad's galaxy map thing that shows how small earth is in the office I'd love it.

But ya things are going good here. I'm quite enjoying myself. 

More to come!

Love you all tons!!! 

Elder Smith

2 March 2015

This is in response to if he would want a Taco Bell sweatshirt sent out to him that finally came after he left.

( Picture of flowers he has been growing)


Go ahead and leave it with my stuff at home. I would only use it for two or three months of the year which I've
already passed this year so for the sake of not having too much stuff just keep it safe for me please. 

I loved hearing about everything and it sounds like they're all having an awesome time. Which of course is awesome and as always I wish I could join the fun! 

I've been learning this a lot recently, but mostly that you really grow more when you're outside of your comfort zone. For example I really don't like walking up to complete strangers and trying to start a conversation with them, especially when I'm learning the language, but I do it a lot, and it's awesome. Sometimes the people are very curt and abrupt with you others times they're some of the coolest people you've ever met.  Just do yourselves a favor and do something that makes you uncomfortable but that makes your learn something. It's cool. 

So if you remember a couple months ago we were teaching a guy named Carlos. He disappeared for a while but we re found him and are teaching him again and well he is an interesting case. He wants to believe but doesn't you could say. He goes to church, reads here and there and says prayers here and there, but he's kinda stuck. 

Any prayer you send that way is very appreciated. Same with Carla and Laurissa and Rocio (and the whole fam really Jorge, Adriana, Maria Jose, Veronica) those are the people we are primarily teaching right now and they are just super cool. Anyway have the most amazing of weeks and that's for everything!!!

Love,

Elder Smith

Picture of the Sunset