Happy Mother's Day! May 8 2016

Hey so we definitely had the most wonderful of weeks. The highlight of course was calling home on mothers day. It was such a wonderful day. I have the most amazing mother ever. I owe so much to her. It's a good  thing she has never charged haha. Quite the opposite. She keeps teaching and helping me to become the person I should be. I love you mom. I really enjoyed being able to talk yesterday, it was great motivation and well, I'll miss your voices as always now :)

While speaking with family we also made a delicious dish I haven't eaten in about 2 years. Chicken pot pie. It turned out fantastic!

We've had a great time teaching people too. Alejandra is set for her baptism in two weeks now. Los Chicos Lopez are doing wonderful. We are finding new people basically everyday and discovering who is prepared and who isn't. On Saturday we had a lovely mothers day activity where we got to sing a nice arrangement of a primary song with the ukelele to accompany us. 

Life's gong great here basically. I hope it's all awesome for you all too! Go out and have the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Smith

25 April 2006

So life has been the most wonderful thing ever. I have loved this week. My new companion is great. Elder Rodriguez is from Layton Utah. His parents from Venazuela. We get along really well which makes teaching super easy I guess you could say. He plays the Ukelele so I'm trying to learn that from him now. Here's the only pic I have so far of us.

Don't worry I got a hair cut today so it's no longer so long. 

So this week we've been sort of starting from scratch. We have a few people we are still teaching, but a lot of them have kinda disappeared. It's kinda funny. We've been finding a lot of less active members recently without even trying. We were talking with a member, Hno. Jorge, about one such and suddenly he was like wait does he have a kid about 6 years old? We said yes, he says oh! I know him Panchito!, I worked with him. now we've got a great help to start teaching him and his wife who is not a member. 

We went to eat with the Sandoval family the other day. They have very little time here in Agua Prieta. According to la hermana the whole family used to be really active when they lived in Casas Grandes, Chiwawa but now shes the only one that goes to church. we set an appointment to visit them and brought along Hno. Jorge. Members make all the difference. They just got along really well. We had a great lesson and then upon arriving at church Sunday everyone but the father was there at church! Hno. Jorge helped them out with a ride and has kept in close contact with the family. Hopefully well get the whole family back soon. 

Life is just amazing here. Honestly Agua Prieta has been the hardest city to come to love here but serving the people here just makes me love being here. I would be happy staying here till I finish. so if you're feeling down, go out and serve someone. It makes life so much better! I love you all and hope for you to have the most amazing week ever!

Love,

Elder Smith

18 April 2016

So I was really tempted to buy a guitar the other day but decided against it. Maybe I'll learn it well coming home but for now I'll keep to piano haha. If I add much more I'll never sleep. I love music so much. i really miss singing with people that can sing. We got to sing Nearer My God To Thee in Sacrament meeting yesterday. it was literally last second. We got up there and Elder tomatani and Garcia stood next to Elder Allen to whom I said to before starting, 'Stick strong to the melody." and then I made up a harmony on the spot and it turned out really nice actually. 

Elder Allen gave a great talk about acting in the moment. That oftentimes our favorite words are in a minute, tomorrow, later, etc. he told how his mom always left him a list of chores but he spent all day watching tv or what not until he got a call from his mom saying hey I'll be home in 10 and then he just sped up and did everything in 10 min. He explained how when the Second Coming comes, God isn't going to give us such a phone call for no man knows the hour. We need to be ready today., Now. He tied it nicely to missionary work. All in all it was a good day at church

We've had such a wonderful week. I loved this transfer. 

We got here 7 weeks ago and there was next to nothing of work here but we got started and had a horrible first week. We taught a total of 8 lessons. But we just kept going. We were really blessed and started finding great people and by the end of the second week we had 23 lessons and the same number of new people in teaching. From there things just went well. We've dropped many and found many and bit by bit the Lord is helping us refine this area down to bring as many people as possible to His fold. I'm really happy I'm staying. I also escape the heat for a few more weeks. It only gets to about 100 degrees here in the summer instead of 130+.

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So this week has been such a good week. I'm writing quick this week but I tried to send lots of pics to make up for it

I have a new companion, Elder Rodriguez. He's super cool. He has 5 months in the field. 

The teaching has been great. Life's been great. Sorry for lack of detail haha

The pics are of my start of a garden, hot dogs, a young men's activity, some people we are teaching, and the missionaries here.

love life, have the best week ever and remember to be awesome!!!

11 April 2016

What an absolutely wonderful week! Life has been just amazing. Regrettably we were only able to work half the week because I happened to be sick, nonetheless what we were able to do was very productive. Thursday we went looking for all the appointments that had fallen through while sick and I could really see the Lord's hand guiding us. We found people at the exact moment they were available and we were able to teach in that very moment. Friday was the same. things just went smooth. Saturday it got a bit rough because we found absolutely no one. I think we knocked a good 150 doors and nothing. But that was all fine because on the way home a guy called us over in the street and we were able to talk to him for a good 45 min. I think he just really needed someone to listen.  Sunday was fantastic! It was a really good testimony meeting but what made it really special for me was to see the Chico Lopez family there. We found them several weeks ago and soon discovered they were  less active members. we've been visiting them and they just really want to start to do things right again. It made me super happy to see them in church Sunday.  Even though its only been about a month I can see a huge difference in them. Like they were happy and all before but as they've started to pray and read and assist church as a family, they just look even happier. The gospel is what truly brings happiness. There is no other lasting solution. 

I love you all and hope you have the best week ever! Enjoy my tree selfie from this morning. Life's good and even better when you live the gospel

!

Love,

Elder Smith

28 March 2016 - Trust in the Lord's Timing

So I definitely had the most amazing week of my life. I hope you all did too. Work was hard due to vacation for Semana Santa. Nonetheless we worked hard and had a good wee. But the highlight was by far the weekend. Let's start with Friday. 

I wake up with the worst migrain and bodily pain and exhaustion I've had since dengue. I'm destroyed. We get a ride so i can get to Tufesa to board the bus to Hermosillo. I pass the most painful 6.5 hours ever and we finally get to Hermosillo around 10 at night. We get to the assistants house and there I finally humble myself enough to accept a preisthood blessing. I go bed but don't sleep due to the pain till 1 or so and that only in brief spurts of 20-30 min. Now I had said this was one of the best weeks of my life right? So what has this have to do with joy and happiness and a week of legend? 

It starts at 4:00 am when I wake up and can't sleep anymore. Within moments I realize that I felt no pain or sickness. I didn't even feel tired. I remember Elder Greany saying in the blessing that I would have the strength and capacity to realize all the works needed in the coming day. That promise was fulfilled in such an amazing way. at 5:30 I took a quick shower and got ready to get to the temple for the early morning session. I was able to stay attentive the whole two hours and had a great experience. I understood more than ever before. Leaving Pitic we went off to Pueblitos to get the church ready for the baptism at 1. Everything happened in the nick of time. We finally found all the baptismal clothing just before one. And then the family arrived. We got everyone ready and it was such a beautiful day. 

I should explain a bit. This is the family Morioqui. 18 months ago while in my first weeks here, Elder Gonzalez and I began teaching them. At that time they were very receptive and we thought that for sure they were ready but it wasn't their time. When I went back to Hermosillo I presented Elder Anderson and Elder Rodriguez to them. This time they were ready. The Lord knew that before wasn't their time. Many things happened in those months that helped them prepare for that impoortant and sacred covenant of baptism. It was amazing to see the joint effort of a dozen or so missionaries and most importantly the Lord as they were prepared. Afterwards we had delicious ceviche and a mild cake fight then I was back to Agua Prieta. Another long bus ride and I got back. We woke up Sunday morning to a beautiful day. Easter Sunday is just so special. It's the day that we most remember Him. What Christ did for us. That he suffered, died and lived again. He lives and as such continues to guide His church through his prophets. He can help us day by day as we seek his help. As we walk in his footsteps we find life become simple and happy. I love being here and love knowing what I know. I love you all tons and hope for you to have a week even more amazing than the last. 

Enjoy general conference this coming week, I know I will! 

Love,

Elder smith

21 March 2016

Life is just so awesome here. We find new people every day that the Lord has been preparing for us and basically the work is going fantastic. 

Every day as we plan, we pray and ask for help to know who to visit. Then as we leave each day we pray for those people to be there as we seek them out that day and if they aren't there that He will guide us to those that need us in that moment. We have  to put in our part, but here more than anywhere else I've seen the blessing come pouring down. Yesterday we had an awesome moment. We went looking for someone we had contacted several days ago. We had the exact address of around that corner the house next to the one with the brown car. .... we go around the corner and there are 25 houses and about no brown cars. So we decide to just start knocking all of the doors. Almost no one was home door after door nothing. Then someone pulls into their driveway and we talk to them and they invite us in. It's a young couple Alondra and Martin and their grandpa. We begin talking and turns out Alondra had been listening missionaries in Caborca 5 years ago and almost got baptized but moved to Agua Prieta and lost contact. It was cool to see how the Lord led us house cross house with nothing to put someone in our path. It's been so cool. Moments such as that happen all the time here.

 

i don't remember if I mentioned it the other week but the Morioqui family is going to be baptized this Saturday. They are the first people I really taught in the mission. They are finally ready for that sacred covenant. Needless to say I just had to ask special permission from President Robinson to be there. Our Pres. is just amazing. That sort of permission almost never is given, but he said I could go. Upon hearing that, the fam. Morioqui, they asked me to be the one to baptize them. I'm so so happy and excited for this Saturday. It'll be a 7+ hour trip each way but it'll be so worth it. More to come next week.

Saturday we spent all day in an amazing meeting with Pres. Robinson. We talked about many subjects; simplifying teaching, missionary qualities, etc. but of everything I really liked talking about Sabbath day observance. We used 3 Nephi chapter 18 when Jesus instituted the sacrament among the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. Verse 7 talks of how the sacrament is a testimony we give that we remember Him. If we partake of the sacrament we show Christ of our love for him but if we decide to not go and participate in said ordinance, what kind of testimony are we giving? Food for thought haha. Then in verse 12 it explains how it's a commandment to participate. What is not complying with commandment called? Sin. Bleak and harsh. We need to respect the Sabbath Day to ensure our purity before God. #DoctrineAndCovenants59:9-10

All  in all life's just great. I hope its been treating you as well as it has me. I love you all and hope you all have the best weeks of your life. Remember Him. Christ. Remember in this Easter season. That He lives! That we believe in a living God of miracles and life. Learn of Him this week. Read of Him. Pray. More than anything love the life He has given us.

Love forever,

Elder Smith

pics

The Amercan Mexican border

A group from Utah that stopped by here and scared us as they stopped several cars and all hopped out and we were overwhelmed by gringo. I discovered that day that my English is horrendous.

Other this and thats

13 March 2016

Agua Prieta is the promised land for missionaries. It's the best. We go talking with people or knocking doors or what not and it's literally a 50% acceptance rate. 10% is normal here. 50% is unreal. There is literally no way to not have work here. Wednesday we got to have one of the assistants to president join us for the day.They came by Agua Prieta to go on exchanges with zone leaders and us, it was super cool. Literally every appointment we had that day fell through but just as fast as they fell we found new people to teach. By the end of the day and between everything we had done Sunday through Tuesday we had the agenda super booked till basically tomorrow. It's been super cool working here. 

There are people here that are just super prepared. Everyone just receives us well.  The hard part is getting them to church. It's pretty far away. Two busses or car, but most people don't have a car so we're struggling with that. I didn't even make it to church on Sunday. Elder Allen woke up crazy sick and could barely move. I ended up staying with him since I too was somewhat sick. It was the weirdest feeling to not go. 0/10 would recommend haha. i definitely missed going.

One of my favorite moments this week was while we were walking down the street and I felt like talking to a lady getting out of her car. We introduce ourselves and make an appointment. I didnt think too much of it but the next day when we stopped by they opened up and said they had been waiting for us, that's a phrase we don't get much. We start talking and realized that they were members that had moved 2 years ago and since then hadn't had the missionaries visit. They don't have too long being members. It was just super cool to see how happy they were that we had found them. I'm excited to keep visiting them and helping them as they reactivate themselves in the gospel. 

Go out there and have the best week ever! Keep up the amazing and make every moment the best you've ever had.

I love you all!

Elder Smith