6 April 2015

Elder Smith:  Okay so I'm just hitting up the computer now and more details to come, but long story short, our house got broken into in the middle of the night and they robbed my wallet and my watches. The deal is my wallet had my debit card so I need you to cancel that bad boy asap please. I was told the mission already sent you an email but I thought I'd better double check. Please tell me when you get this thanks!:)

Oh also, I don,t know if there,s a way but if I could get a new licence as well that,d be great. If i have to wait til I come home okay that's fine too. 

Dan replying: 

Got it, we have not heard from the office yet, but will cancel and get a new one for you. Then send it out. 

We will check about license but I am not so confident on that. We will for sure find out and let you know.
Glad you are safe and it's only things. 

Elder Smith:  Okay, thank you so much. Also I found out something useful. I will need to find more details but because I'm so close to the border there are several members that have addresses on both sides of the border so you can send stuff national to them and then when they head up to the US or Mexico or what not they can take the package with them. It's a lot cheaper and takes about the same amount of time if not faster, depending. but for the debit card you can just send that normal cause it's small. 

Also any ideas for food you can give me I'd love since everything was robbed I'm running off of about 100 pesos or like $7 or so for the next two weeks until I get a replacement mission card. So any ideas for a half kilo of flour, some rice and 8 eggs hit me up. Don't worry I wont starve just if you have any creatvie ideas let me know. I have some vegetables too I cook up in olive oil and add some slap ya mama and its delicious. I have stuff to make salsa too, like really good salsa I learned from Elder Martinez. 

Dan Replying Back:

Ham fried rice minus the ham. 

Arroz e ovo. An exotic Brazilian dish called an egg over rice

Make tortillas and have veggie burrito

Make big googly eyes at the members while your stomach growls

Noodles with egg flour etc

Pancakes?

Moms heart is hurting :)

They cancelled the card, you are set on that.  

Let us know on the member mailings. We will do what is best. 

Pray for food miracles!  I found luscious blueberries along the road when we were making things stretch in Kongsvinger. They were the best. And as many as we could ever eat. 

Love you. 

From Elder Smith:

Sounds good. I'll give what I can a shot. 

Oh also delicious drink I like that Elder Martinez showed me. Super easy. Take whole cinnamon sticks and boil a few in a pot of water until the water turn reddish brown then add sugar to taste add some milk and the end, it's delicious.
Also I'll be sure to keep you updated on all the food miracles this week!

This week's regular letter:

Hey all!

Okie doke.

This week has been phenomenal for several reasons. One the iniciativa that the church has put on (I don't know what it is in English but in Sspanish its Gracias a que Él Vive). It's a super cool video that we are using right now. We also have little cards we give out to everyone. A few experiences with that. One, we were walking down the street and saw a family walking around, like the happiest most perfect family I've ever seen. It was insane. So we were like, "Hey lets talk to them!", so we went up and  we got closer I realized I'd seen them before, they were members. But it was cool because Elder Martinez and I (We were on exchanges) were both like, they look so freaking happy! Let's make them even happier. We realized they were members and said with reason they're so happy haha. But ya, living the gospel seriously brings a lot of joy and blessings it's awesome. We kept walking after talking to them a bit and found a ton more people using Gracias a que Él Vive. Another time we were giving a lesson to some less active members with a lot of marriage problems and we showed the video and testified that Christ lives and that He is here to help us and basically they really liked it. They seemed happier after that visit and closer than ever before. 

Next reason that this week has been phenomenal is General Conference. when the Prophet and Apostles and all the church leaders speak to the world its always a super cool experience. Like amazing. I heard about half in English and the other half in Spanish but ni modo I understood them both which was super super cool because I still struggle to understand Spanish sometimes. My personal favorite was a talk that told about an Indian healer that healed through dance. This healer was talking to a doctor and the doctor asked, "Can you teach me to dance?" the response was gold. "I can teach you to dance but you have to hear the music". I love that. Cause its so true. Maybe you get the rules and the steps but if you can't understand the why, the motivation behind it, you've got nothing. In life you've got to find the music and listen to it closely then dance according to it. Anyone else getting the vibe that this is personal revelation the speaker is talking about? Cause tha'td be 100% true. General conference was awesome.

Reason three. We got robbed Friday night. The house was broken into and they stole our wallets, watches and my companions backpack. Long story short, we will have a tight couple of weeks but its awesome because now I get to apply Elder Eyrings talk about fasting haha. Also it was cool. Carlos saw us walking around today and stopped us to talk and it came up that we got robbed and considering that he was robbed just a few weeks ago he was like "Dont you hate it? Doesn't it just make you angry? You just feel powerless don't you." etc etc. and we were like "well... not really, honestly it just sucks for the robbers, they have that sin they'll have to repent of one day and they got the short end of the rope really." it was a cool time.

Fourth reason. Life's awesome, Is there anything else I need to add?

Update on the people were teaching:

Carlos-nothing new to be honest, we starting from the beginning with him. We talked and basically we are going to start from page one and see whah we can do. Read pray go to church. Regrettably he couldn't make it to church this week so well see what's going on.

Lucero- still going strong. made it to the Sunday morning session of conference and is on track to be baptized this Saturday!!! So that will be super cool.

Ramón- Disappeared kinda. He got a sudden job change where he's gone a lot a lot. So we need to find him again.

Valenzuela Family- Still lots of interest but still haven't come to church so we will see what we can do this week.

That's about it honestly but we should have a ton of new people this week, thanks to Gracias a que Él Vive so I'm stoked for that

Anyway, I've had the best week of my life and hope that you all have weeks ten times better than me because each and everyone of you deserve it. Remember that He lives. Christ suffered for us . Every sin, trial, sadness pain, rejection the whole lot. He suffered it all. Then he died for us. But he did what no normal man could have done. He did the impossible, He rose the third day. Jesus Christ lives. Hhe loves each and every one of us. If you just reach out your hand and take a step of faith He's there for you. Never forget that.

I love you all more than I love a buffet of tacos de carne asada (which is a lot of love btw) and hope the best for you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Smith