24 November 2015 -A Crazy Wonderful Fun Week

This week was full of some of the most amazing experiences. 

Wednesday morning we visited the Martinez Family. They are a less active family that just moved here to Nogales. Sister Martinez has one of the strongest testimonies Iv'e ever seen and Brother Martinez is full of faith. Sadly, he doesn't have much of a testimony. We talked about strengthening your testimony and gaining a personal conviction. They also had several questions about the temple and vicarious ordenanzas. This was one of several moments this week where talking about eternal families helped people understand the gospel and prepare themselves for the next step forward. 

Later in the week we were talking with Sergio and his girlfirend. He's a less active that contacted us in the street one day. We stopped by and since he plays piano he taught me a thing or two while we taught them a thing or two about the gospel. While talking with his girlfriend the topic of eternal families came up. She opened up like never before, shes always been rather quiet but the topic of eternal families just rang home to her. We talked with them about the basics of the gospel and how that prepares you to have that eternal family. This moment was one where I could really feel the Spirit helping me know what to say, how to say it, and what to do. It was actually one of the best lessons I've had in a long time and whats more, Sergio and I are preparing a special musical number to play at church one of these days. 

Friday we had exchanges and I wasn't in my area. While I was away the Lopez family went with my companion and district leader to visit the Gonzalez. While there they talked about marriage and eternal families and it touched their hearts. Carlo is now actively preparing to be married and baptized to prepare for that goal of an eternal family. Honestly, the whole thing would have been incredibly difficult had the Lopez not been there. They testified and explained the blessing they've had and are helping and supporting the Gonzalez in their goals. Members are truly key in the work.

One more thing to add. A recipe. One of the easiest breakfasts ever and it's delicious.

Take about 9 corn tortillas and cut them in to rectangularish pieces. Not too big. Lightly fry them in oil with a bit of salt. Drain off the excess oil then crack in four eggs. Mix them about a bit but don't over scramble. Put on the lid until the egg is cooked then pour in tomato sauce. Sprinkle on cheese and once again put on the lid till the cheese is melted and gooey good. Serve it. Love it. Repeat.

Go out and have the best week of your life. Get better every day. That's kinda the point. We all keep making mistakes, just don't make the same ones over and over again! Make every day something special and have the best day every day. For thanksgiving really appreciate what you have and look for a way to share that with someone else. I miss you all tons, love you more, and wish you the best!

Love,

Elder Smith

 A really nice view of the city at night on our way home.

We decorated in honor of the Christmas Spirit.  


Carlos finally accepted a baptism date for the 26th of december which means he will need to get married before then. We will be having a blast working out the details but I'm stoked for the whole family. If the certificate turns out to be a problem we will find a way to get it through. 

The christmas vibe is here but not as strong as I'd like. We decorated the apartment and have been listening to Christmas music since ... really since I started the mission hahaha... but there are a few houses here and there with lights and good stuff like that. Lots of tamales and pozoli and menudo to come soon. I miss all the Christmas goodies like toffee and what not. I'd try to make it here but finding real butter is super super hard and it just wouldn't be the same. I settled for boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk to make a caramel like substance. 

16 November 2015 I am doing great!

Elder Smith sent a couple of replies to letters we sent, but didn't have time to send a real letter this week, so here is an edited version of the responses.  

Love to all who read and keep up with Elder Smith!


I'm doing absolutely great!!! I had the most amazing week! I wish I could tell you all about it but it's always hard to fit in everything haha. I apologize in advance because I doubt I will have time to write a full letter this week but the next will be fantastic! Los Gonzalez are doing great! Well sort of ... haha. Right now we are struggling with the law of chastity with them. They need to get married and I'm afraid that kinda put a bit of a trial in front of them but we will keep working with them. I just really keep praying for the ability to understand what it is the people we are teaching truly need. Honestly that's the hardest part. Spanish is second nature, the gospel is simple, the answers clear. I'ts finding the question that is so so hard. But that's what personal revelation is for am I right?

I'm so happy to hear that everyone is doing great. I miss you all tons! And keep being the great mother and member you are! 

Go have the best week of your life and I'll talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Smith

Christ is such a perfect example in everything. It's truly interesting how he acted is such a wide variety of ways but when I think about it all I always think of this. Christ has a perfect perception of every situation (hit up Jesus the Christ if you ever need proof of that.. good stuff). I believe He acted in such a way as to create the greatest impact of good possible. That's why sometimes he invited people to see and share other times he asked witnesses to "tell no man". He knows what is best for each moment and we just need to try to be as in tune with the Spirit as He is so that we can understand as such too.

Thanks for the reminder about the patriarchal blessing. It's been a little while since I've last read it. It truly is an amazing thing. 

Also if you find a way to bottle up that toasty stove and send it my way please do haha. Nogales has a similar climate to Ohio so its quite brisk right now and should drop to about 25 degrees overnight tonight. Due to which I did buy a sweater and a couple other fall winter items with the debit card. 

Thanks for everything always. Love you tons and talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Smith

11 November 2015 - Every Day Is Full Of Blessings: Remember That

What a fantastic week! We went full charged batteries on our area and it's been great. This week we weren't able to teach a ton but we contacted tons and already have a good half of this week filled with appointments. My companion and I have been making plans to try to contact more. One of these things is any time we get on a bus (which is almost daily) we contact every person on there. Basically one of us stands in front and talks to everyone there. Then we talk in person to everyone there. It's a little hard at first but every time gets easier haha. There's a word here "fierro" which means iron but in context is very motivational. Like here's an applied example. 

Hey its your turn to speak to the bus you ready? 

Fierro! 

fierro!

FIERRO!

And then we get on the bus and it's great.

Early in the week every appointment we had fell through and the backup plan too and we were kinda at a loss of what to do we started walking and suddenly a kid calls out 

"Hey wanna join and play"

"What are you playing"

"Freeze tag"

"Fierro"

So we play freeze tag for 20 min or so and talk to all the kids there and it was chill. They asked us to come back the next day so we did. We stopped by gathered the group taught a short lesson, set up appointments with all of their respective families and played freeze tag again. It was rather fantastic. I truly hope that this Tuesday we will be able to teach all of their families. 

The Gonzalez are doing great. We have been teaching them a lot and they are progressing a lot and blessings are just flowing from that home. One of their kids who had been inactive for many years has started listening to us when we come by and came to church last week. A friend of their son has been over a lot while we teach but has been a little distant you could say while we teach, but recently he has been paying more and more attention and even asks questions. I've loved being able to work with them.

This week was just full of amazing.

Here are the explanations for the pictures above

1. we bought una waflera for 50 pesos and its the best purchase ever. Other great functions include making quesadillas and toasting bread

2. Every hill comes with a view that makes you feel on top of the world

3. This place is just pretty

4. The Mercado family, just one of the coolest families here

I love you all and hope you have the best weeks of your lives. Never forget all the love that is sent your way. More than anything, never forget that we are children of God. Omnipotent, Omniscient, All-mightly, Loving, Caring, Perfect. we can be like Him. Never stop pressing forward in that goal. Till next week!

Love,

Elder Smith

2 November 2015 - Best Week Ever Am I Right?

Best week ever am I right?!

This past week everyting has just worked out for us. First off as the "native" in this branch we've had surprisingly little trouble finding things. That's been a huge blessing. Then plans have just worked out. We plan every day what we will be doing the next. We always pray for guidance and ask that the plans we make can be what the Lord needs. This week especially we saw planning just work. People were there when we stopped by, as we walked the planned paths people found us and we found people to teach and help. The members this past week helped us out tons too! We went on splits three times and each time found someone to teach that was in need in that moment. 

The Gonzalez family made it to church again and are doing great! Tonight we will be having a family home evening with them and will be making tortillas. 

Sorry for the shortness of the letter but I don't have much time today. 

Go out there and do amazing things and have the most wonderful week. Make a special effort to become someone better.  Make special use of the Atonement this week. these past months I've been reading Jesus the Christ and the more I understand of His life and works, the closer I feel to Him. My invitation is that each of you take a few minutes each day and study something about the life of Christ. 

I love you all and talk to you soon!

Elder Smith

I got the package! It's perfect. I've been enjoying cereal with boxed milk that says "this product contains 73% milk" I'ts great haha but I miss good American milk. Transfers are the 6th of December and I really hope I don't get moved because fitting that lot in the suitcase wrapped and all will be a struggle but we'll see what happens 

26 October 2015 Stress is the best!

Did you know that there are two types of stress? Good and bad. One shuts you down while the other is actually healthy and motivates you. I'm rocking that right now. We'll get to the why later. Until then I'll start from the beginning.

This week has been phenomenal. Unbelievable . And straight up amazing. We saw God]s hand in our work here without a doubt. This week we taught the Gonzalez family some more and can I just say, they have been a blessing from the start. They're truly one of the most amazing families I've ever met. We stopped by and friday. they are reading their assignments, they are doing their part to learn the gospel and then they;re the friendliest bunch ever. We walk in and within in 5 seconds the middle child Kiro Shesit is hugging you saying she missed you. then Ángel is having you make spongebob out of clay while La Hermana is making dinner and Carlos is telling you about how much he enjoyed the assignment we had left and how things are just working out in life better and better. They;re fantastic.

Then apart from that we are having the most amazing experiences every day finding and teaching people. Just the other day we were on the bus and an older member got on. He;s a little bad in the mind but nonetheless is a great guy. He always shares the gospel with every one he sees. He started talking with someone on the bus and presented him to us. His name is Andres. We start talking a bit with him but uur stop was coming up and Andres was headed much further so he gave us his address and we hopped off. A few moments later we hear someone calls out to us and we look back and Andres had hopped of the bus. He said something like "Hey I have a problem. I liked the way you talked to me and I think you can help." We happened to be near the chapel so we stopped by and started talking to him. He truly was full of need. We were able to talk to him and when we parted ways I could see a hope in him that hadn't been there for a very long time. Daily I'm shocked by the trust the Lord gives us to speak on His behalf. That day I truly felt like I had done my share. He isn't in our area but I expect great things from the missionaries that will be visiting him.

Those are a few of many amazing moments this week.

So we get to the end of the week and there were 4 baptisms. Two from Elder Bazan and Rivero and two from Magdalena (a small town about an hour from here) that was amazing to see. Right after we were told about transfers. Every missionary in the branch here was sent somewhere else. Everyone but me. So even though I still don't know all the areas too well, I'll be teaching all I know to everyone. This will be a very good stressful experience for me haha. I'm stoked to get lost every day haha. but like I said, everything stressful can be a motivation or a lock down and I'm ready to make this the best transfer of my life.

Have the best week ever I love you all tons! Keep up the amazing!

Love,

Elder Smith

PS. The pic is of a dish a recent convert made. It is called ceviche. It's probably one of the most delicious things I've eaten in many a long moon. It's prepared cutting up in smallish pieces fish and shrimp. These are placed in a bowl uncooked and covered in lime juice. You let it sit for 20 min or so until the acid in the lime cooks the meat. Then you add onion, cilantro, tomato, seasoning, clamato (tomato juice with clam flavoring). Mix the lot and eat with tostados or tortilla chips like a salsa. It's sosossosososoososooooo goood. Don't let the raw seafood trick you into thinking its not. If you get the chance try it. That's all!

18 October 2015 - Life's Just Great Ya Know?

So last week was so so amazing. 

The blessings just kept coming time and time again. The Lord is truly helping us find the people He has prepared for us. Our rededication to his standards is helping so so much. This past week we got to teach several amazing people. One of whom really stands out to me. The family Gonzalez had been inactive for a long long time but as I previously stated they showed up to church suddenly last week and this past week we got to stop by to talk with them. We had a street name but no house number but after a year here that is good enough haha. Soon we found ourselves outside their door. The moment they saw us they ushered us right in saying they were wondering when we'd stop by. We start talking to them all and they are so ready to receive the gospel. most to reactivate and one, the husband to learn all about it for the first time. He is golden. We left Saturday night leaving him an assignment to read several things and Sunday morning when we saw him in church he had already started and had everything all planned out to be ready for the next visit Wednesday. He loved church and is really just a blessing. and then the ward here  they're just great! We hardly have to ask people to visit with us. They come to us asking when the can go visit people with us. We're reaching a point where I hardly know what to do with all the work. its amazing.

 

Friday we had a 9-5 meeting wtih president and the zone. 8 hours of some of the most edifying teaching and learning I've had in a good while. One of the things that really stood out to me was President Robbinson and his comments of conversion. He spoke about several things but he referred to the Old Ship Zion (Elder Ballard last conference) and how there's really no where else to go. No other way will take us to the celestial kingdom. Too often people see a crack in the wood or a fading paint job and decide to abandon the ship and try swimming on their own but it never works. people will attack your faith and your beliefs but if we have a testimony of what matters most, we will be safe and secure. "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"

Personally im looking forward to the best week of my life and I hope the same to you all! 

I love you tons and please enjoy the pics haha. 

Love,

Elder Smith

1. Giant centipede we found

2. The largest body of water I've seen in over a year. (Where all the rain waiter joined together after the rain last week)

3. Gorgeous sunset

4. Border hoppin'

5. Walmart selfie with the comp (fun fact, my current hair cut is called the willy. hence forth everyone has been calling me Willy Smith (Will Smith spoken with a Mexican accent))

12 October 2015 - The Blessings of Obedience

So we had a truly amazing week. It was a bit slow but so much good happened. 

Both me and my companion got hit by a cold that had us essentially bed ridden for two days. We left for appointments but that was about it. Nonetheless things went amazing. I remember one of the days we left around 5 or 6 to go to an appointment. I felt horrible but we went out anyway. While we were walking my companion and I started talking about how we could improve "What lack I yet?" to a certain extent. In that moment we talked a bit about being more diligent. Later as we went to the appointment, no one was there. So we left a note and went to the next. Same. No one. We were walking away and ran into them in the street on their way home. Sadly they were unable to attend us at the moment but we set an appointment for the next day. At this point I was crazy exhausted. bad bad headache and serious nasal congestion. I wanted to head home basically. But my companion said hey lets check and see if Elena is home. So we went. Not home. Once again I'm ready to go home but I think I needed to learn a lesson that evening. My companion said Hey lets check one more place before heading home. It's on the way anyway. It was a reference we had received a few weeks ago. We had been trying to find them and had even made appointments and all but never had the chance to really talk to them. This evening we stopped by and a young mom came out. We asked if Carmen (the reference) was home. she was Carmen it turns out. She let us in and we got to talk for almost an hour. It was amazing. She had had some questions and had talked with a member friend that lives in Southern Mexico and even chatted online through mormon.org. She also had watched general conference at home by invitation of said member. It was awesome. We were able to clarify some of her questions (some of which I could really notice the Spirit's help in answering). Basically it was an awesome lesson. What's more, as we talked I felt no pain or discomfort due to being sick. We were truly blessed for diligence that night. 

As we made it home that evening we decided to keep in the improving spirit and we pulled out the good ol missionary manual. We went though page by page and set goals to ensure we were keeping in line with the mission standards. We had several things to change and I can already see the blessings. For one, these past days as the alarm goes off, while groggy, I haven't felt too tired. Normally I feel destroyed come 6:30 am but right now it's almost easy to get up. Sunday was awesome. Out of the blue a less active member and her nonmember husband and child came to church. We didn't even know they lived in our area (we are slowly trying to get to know the 300+ less actives in our area). They have a lot of interest in reactivating and want their child baptized and the husband as well. More to come in following weeks I hope :) and then we went out working and things just went great that evening. We searched for several people and didn't find them but after scaling what would be a moderate staircase here (some 15 flights probably) we decided we  better get something useful out of that effort so we stopped by a less actives house and their dog tried to eat us and no one was home but we stopped by the neighbors to see if they knew when we would be able to find them home. They received us in a very friendly manner. They're an older couple living with their daughter, son in law and grand child. We shared a short message with the grandparents and set a return appointment for today when everyone will be there. It should be awesome. The Lord really blesses those who are obedient. We had been seriously struggling to have any work or progress in our area but after recommitting to being obedient things just started going great. Keep trying to be perfect and even though we all mess up, our efforts go far from wasted. They take us to success. Never stop being amazing and have the best week ever! I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Love,

Elder Smith