12 Days left - 1 maybe 2 letters more - 22 Sept. 2016

( The title of the post came from his Mom.  She's not counting or anything though. :)​


I am doing so well:) We had the most wonderful week. My companion and I have been crushing it. We had amazing lessons and amazing moments everyday. I'm so happy here and people always ask me if I want to go home since I have so little left. I never know what to say. I want to see my family and home so bad but I never want to leave ya know? Maybe not but I really do love it here. I was so happy on Sunday we had an amazing district conference with President Robinson and the temple president present too. It was a successful week for missionary work to be honest. We were stoked when Abel was already inside sitting when we got there. He had woken up at 5:00 am to walk almost 2 hours to church he will be baptized the 8th of October. Then right as it was about to start the Arvizu family walks in. I was so happy. They are a less active family we have been teaching. They are changing so much. They have years of not going and it's amazing to see the difference just one assistance makes. We are preparing their 9 year old daughter to be baptized and their 13 year old son to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. Then to top it all off. President "se lo rifó" ("killed it" best translation?) he gave an amazing talk about how God loves all his children and how we are the means by which he ensures all have the chance to hear the gospel. 

Check out the classic scripture in Malaquias about turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa. I love the phrasing Moroni uses as he quotes it to Joseph Smith. "and he will plant the promises in the hearts of the children" or something like that but it reminds us that we have promised to help others find eternal joy starting with our family both living and dead. 

Its all true. All of it. Every facet of the gospel is real and veridical. 

I love you all so much!! Have the best week ever and enjoy the pics of the Mexican Independence Day!

Love 

Elder Smith

12 September 2016

Lifes been so great here. For real. 

We had another great zone meeting with president. We went in depth about the atonement. We talked about 4 major points.

1. Christ suffered our sins

2. Christ suffered our pains and sicknesses

3. Through the atonement all will resurrect

4. The enabling power of the atonement

I'll have to talk more in detail about everything soon because it was truly an amazing meeting.

The work has been great here too. We are teaching tons of people and so many are so close to progressing but struggle to get to church. Nonetheless, we will be working with that and I hope to leave several people ready for baptism.

I'm not going to write a big letter this week but I will next week. I love you all so much!!!

5 September 2016

What a week can I just say. It was amazing. We had an awesome time running like crazy everywhere trying to teach as much as we could between all we got to do. 

This past week was full of the most extraordinary meetings and trainings. I wish you all could have been there. Wednesday we left early in the morning and traveled to Caborca where we all met up to have a great multi zone meeting with Elder Pino of the area presidency. I think one of the best parts among many many many was when we talked about the importance of studying the words of Christ. He compared it to sharpening the ax. Most have heard the story of the man who spends all day cutting at a tree and his neighbor asks why he hasn't sharpened his ax and the man responds that he has had no time because he's too busy cutting at the tree. Do we see the irony?? We all have that happen to us sometimes. With a dull ax we won't make much progress. But as we all take the time to sharpen our minds in the things that matter most we will become sharp instruments the Lord can use in all facets of life. 

Later that night the zone leaders were  invited to the session with all the branch and district leaders in both Caborca and Peñasco.  We spoke of many things. How to better coordinate member and missionary work. Things specific to those areas and things generally applicable to all. But in the end what I most enjoyed was this. That the success of a meeting is not about what plans were made or what we learned. It's in what is accomplished afterwards. We can have meetings every day but if nothings changes it is essentially useless. So here we are trying to make these meetings a success. 

We got back to Peñasco around 2pm Thursday and worked till night time. Then Friday about noon we were on another bus headed to Hermosillo. Saturday we spent all day in another great meeting haha. Here we planned how to make the mission as a whole leap forward and reach new heights. We came down to 4 points of focus

1. obedience. 

                We know that we have to make sacrifice and invest someting to see results. God asks our obedience and the investment to see chancge and miracles. We all help to make our lives 100% obedient

2. look for a new angle.

                 We can't do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. That's insane haha. So we all need to look for God guidance to make things different and change things for the better.

3. Work with the members

                  We can't do everything alone. We need to work with others. We need to work as a team and then, only then will things happen.

4. Our mentality

                  The way we think is so important. We have to have a positive attitude and truly believe we can do it. The way is there. Divine help is there we just have to do our part and truly have the faith that it can happen.

I love you all and hope for the best week ever for everyone!!! 

Love,

Elder Smith

 The youth in Caborca

 With President Robinson and below the group with Elder and Sister Pino