6 July 2015

Daniel Smith	Jul 6 (3 days ago)
to me

Let me just say, this has been one of the best weeks of my life. Everyday was a treasure. So I'll just jump right into the goodness. Monday night last week. So almost every Monday we have a family home evening with la Hermana Montaño and her husband and daughter. Her husband is not a member and has very little interest but sits in on the lessons and come to church every once in a while (now 4 weeks in a row). We stopped by and he had a friend over and we all just started talking and chatting and what not. The friend of Hermano Montaño and the Mermano himself started asking questions that would be seen as going on the attacking side of things. It was the coolest thing that happened. Instead of getting defensive, or impatient, etc. and before we even had a chance to respond. La Hermana started talking, better said, teaching. She testified simply and clearly of the simple truths of the gospel and bore with power and authority her testimony of the truth, backed up by her daughter, Zulé. I honestly don't remember what the topic was or what the original questions were but I won't soon forget the spirit we felt. The strength and power they had, even though they are some of the more gentle and shy seeming people I've known, I was truly shocked by how easily and clearly they spoke of the truth. El Hermano doesn't have any desire whatsoever to be baptized or anything like that but with influence and faith like that, a miracle won't be late in coming. 

Tuesday we went to visit a member family that lives in our area. We didn't know they lived there so we had never visited them before but we found out and headed over asap. We stopped by and taught a short lesson to the mom and her kids, that although short, we were able to feel the spirit strongly. Using that initial influence, we asked if they knew anyone that would be able to benefit from the message we offer. The mom said "Not right now I don't really know anyone..." and the suddenly her son Josué jumped in was was like "I do!" he said he had a couple friends that had been going to church activities with him for a while and that they really liked it. He invited us to go with him the next day to bring them to mutual and while over there he would present us to their mom and all. So we went. It was amazing. She right away told us that she would be very interested to hear us. We set up an appointment for that Saturday. We of course invited josue to join us and he happily accepted. We helped him prepare a portion of the lesson and it was awesome. Unfortunately the Saturday appointment ended up getting cancelled but we should be stopping by this week. You never know who's ready to listen. Josue honestly thought that their mom (consuelo) wasn't going to accept us but quite the opposite occurred. 

This past Wednesday we had the great chance to meet the new mission president and his wife. President Hernandez and his wife were wonderfu and amazing and I'm very grateful for everything they did for us. Now the keys have been handed over to Presidente Robbinson and his wife. They. Are. Phenomenal. From the first moment I could feel the love and spirit they emminated. On a micro and macro level. They made sure to greet every missionary personally and talk with them for a minute or two. His wife doesn't speak a lick of Spanish but she is awesome even if I haven't heard much from her. When president spoke to us at the meeting we had, he was amazing. Leaving that room I felt infinitely more motivated and prepared to work. He really knows what he's doing. I really liked what he explained briefly about our duty as participants in a meeting. 1. We need to prepare ourselves before hand. He explained that the leader should always give an assignment in preparation for the meeting. A talk or scripture study or what not. And that is was our job to study, pray, and well, prepare for the meeting. 2. Once there (and often times before and after) we need to "interact to edify" we need to participate so that we and others can be edified. We need to learn, and the way to do that is to participate. 3. At the end. there needs to be invitations to act. The leader should always leave an invitation but probably more important we ourselves need to listen carefully to the impressions we receive to be able to know what we ourselves need to do. 

The other thing I really liked that he talked about was conversion. He invited us to look for how we can more fully convert or reconvert ourselves to the gospel. That's a very important point and principle we should all apply. 

These points are awesome because they apply to every meeting we may have in life, even the boring ones, even the work ones. We can apply these things to make every interaction with someone else something special in the which we can learn something.

Other interesting things from the week include adorable puppies (someting every week should include)

 

And a pictoral guide of what it's like to study the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi in a different language other than your native one. Book of Mormon on one side with the Bible on the other to compare side by side with the English version above and a mild headache as well.

Juan is awesome. this past week he was able to come to church with his mom again and is was super cool to see them there. Juan is so ready and willing to apply everything we teach. From fasting to tithing to keeping the Sabbath day holy to scripture study. It's amazing. Do keep him in your thoughts/prayers though please. He's working really hard but struggling a bit with not smoking.

Luis is also fantastic. He's been learning really well and just about all set to be baptized the 18th. 

That's about it for this week. Love you all and do have the best week of your life!. Keep up the awesome and I'll talk with you all soon!

Elder Smith

Hey so a couple things right off really quick.

I was reminicsing the good ´ol times with Fourth of July and thought of eating carmel popcorn while watching fireworks and long story short, if you could send me the recipe for the soft carmel popcorn, I'd love it. (not the microwave version)

You all are awesome love you tons. a full email to come shortly

1 July 2015

So I doubt you remember but last week I mentioned that it hadn't rained in over two months. Well guess what? Last Wednesday, 0Thursday, and Saturday it rained. Like it was amazing. Around 6pm the wind would pick up and start blowing and you could smell the rain coming in then it would downpour for 45 min or so and flood everything and then it was gone. But I loved it so much. 

I was really happy for rain. That's all ha ha.

Also on an unconnected note, I've ranted and raged about how amazing the hot dogs here are and now I have a gift to you all. The key to a good dogo is the bread. I got the recipe. Good luck, but give it a shot. If it turns out let me know. Don't forget to wrap the weiners in bacon and put all the good stuff on top. Whole cooked pinto beans, tomato, cooked onion, chorizo, cucumber, guacamole, cheese, nacho cheese, and more cheese, and to top it off a really good salsa verde.

Here's the recipe

PAN DOGO

1.5 kilos of bakers flour

200 grams of sugar

5 grams of salt

10 grams of dry yeast

950ml of water

let it rest for 1.5 hours

cook for 8 minutes at 225 degrees celcius. 

Good luck, I've never seen a recipe like this but if it turns out let me know!

So Luis is progressing so well. It's amazing. He came to church this last week even though he felt super sick. Side note. It was super cool because we were able to give him a blessing and by the end of the third hour he was feeling just fine. Like he came to church and could barely stand and was super red and by the end he was more or less his jolly self. Super cool. Then I was so proud of him. After the meetings we were talking with him and his parents, as they were leaving Luis said "I don't want to eat tacos today because were not supposed to buy things on Sunday" just the other day we taught about the Ten Commandments in specific keeping the Sabbath day holy. Before they always went and bought street tacos but it was awesome to see Luis put forward the example and say no. 

Juan is also awesome. he didnt come to church this week but he is still taking everything great and is making plans to make it this next week.

These are they who are progressing but weve also been talking to Aaron who is interesting at times. He's awesome but hard to teach sometimes. He has lots of doubts but its been so helpful to just listen and then teach with the spirit. We stopped by last week and he basically tried to tear down the Book of Mormon more or less and when we had left he promised to read it and to come to church (regrettably he didn't make it) but we were able to explain thing clearly and in such a way that he understood instead of feeling attacked like I was afraid it was going to come off it was cool. Then we were talking with Berta. She is super cool but super busy so its hard sometimes but she has true interest in learning about it all.

I'm having a really good time here just saying. Sometimes the days aren't easy but man, it doesn't even matter cause life is just awesome. keep being awesome all of you and let me know how you're doing!!

Love you all!

Elder Smith

23 June 2015

As far as things we've done this week. Nothing to crazy but some cool stuff. Friday we had a special conference to say goodbye to President Hernandez and his wife. It was a super cool meeting that I really liked. My zone and I sang a special musical number, Plancentero No Es Trabajar (Its a hymn that doesn't exist in English but I like it a lot it's super cool) They put me in charge of organizing' directing and teaching the whole thing. Do you know how hard it is to teach people parts when they have never sung parts before in their life?While at the same time sight reading the music yourself half the time? Nonetheless it turned out really cool and I felt super official and kinda foolish standing in front of them all waving my arm around haha but it did turn out really nice. 

This week was super cool becuase we have some really cool people here. The area I'm in has a reputation for being full of old people (It's true to be honest) but its super cool nonetheless, 1. Because I like old people  2. There's still tons of work. We found a few people last week that really want to listen so we will see how the progress this upcoming week. Funny story. We were teaching Juan and he gave us some bad news. they were going to put his mom in a retirement home and he was going to have to move to Tijuana. We went by later that week to help him get everything ready and get his address in Tijuana to send the missionaries over there to him and what do you know his mom is chilling there in the house. It turns out she got kicked out of the retirement home in less than two days. Like for someone that can't even really move, that's gotta be some kind of record. But long story short, he's staying for the next while and everything's all good and he's awesome. 

Luis is also super cool. We have two more lessons before his baptism and he's just a cool kid. He's super smart, he remembers everything really well, and this past lesson his dad joined us in the lesson so that was super cool too. 

Things are really going awesome here and i know it's not me that is making it happen but I'm doing my best to be the means by which our Heavenly Father works here in Mexico.

Speaking of fathers, A VERY VERY HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL!!!! I know its a day late but I really mean it. I can't begin to describe how good and amazing my dad is. He has taught me so much and I know I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing without him. He taught me to work even when your tired beyond words, he taught me to finish through and do it right that there's no such thing and quitting early. I couldn't begin to number the number of projects hes roped me into from cars to kitchens to bathrooms to retaining walls you name it. He taught me how to serve and love others. He truly knows what it means to have charity. He has such a developed and true love for everyone. He shows me daily by example how I should treat those around me. My dad is one of the most spiritual people I've ever met. He has a fierce testimony of the truth and I strive to gain the same.

I could go on and on about everything amazing about my dad but I'd need a lot more time haha. I just love you dad. Keep doing the amazing things you do. Keep being the best father in the world. Keep striving to be the perfect Father.

To everyone, have the best week ever, keep doing the great things you do and remember that youre amazing in so many ways! 

Written with love,

Elder Smith

Picture 1 - These can give you a heart attack....

Picture 2 -Me picking Mangoes

Picture 3 - Trying to keep cool

Picture 4 - Our District

Picture 5 - Happy Father's Day

Picture 6 - Such a cute puppy

17 June 2015

So first off. I know I promised to send pics this week but sorry not gonna happen because the virus still isn't cleaned up but next week I'll get on it.

So interesting things this week. I don't really know how it happened but I budgeted really bad last week and started off last week with the equivalent of about $1.25 and no food. To say the least I was pretty sure I was just going to starve out the week until today when we got money. But we went out and worked hard anyway and decided not to worry about it. To spoil the end of the story. I wasn't hungry basically ever this week. Day after day something happened that we had just enough. Tuesday we stopped by a members house to teach them a lesson and because I'm like that, I asked to climb their mango tree. (pics next week). Side note. Climb a tree sometime soon its good for you haha. But before we left the sister was like oh hey some mangos got ripe earlier than usual you want some? So basically we left with a bag of mangos. Then the next day we were teaching Juan and as we left he was like hey! take a couple of mangos to go. (if you couldn't tell mangos are basically in season right now ) Then later in the week we taught another member and they sent us away with a bag full of tamales. Around Friday another member stopped by the house and gave us a couple of the famous hermosillo hot dogs and a bag of food. like it was incredible the whole week. Shall we hit up a favorite scripture of mine in Matthew chaper 6? 

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This is truth guys. Dont worry about what's going on in life. Worry about what your doing, choose the right, and life works out nicely. Never a need to worry.

Honestly thats the bulk of the interesting stuff from the week. But as far as people we are teaching right now go:

Juan- Juan is awesome thats all. We´re really good friends with him at this point and he really has enjoyed going to church the past few weeks. His mom couldn't come last week due to illness (in more detail, she suffers from a condition called. "locked-in" basically she can barely move and less and less each day. She can understand but can't talk and can barely move her head to show yes or no.) But as possible he brings her to church. He takes everything so well too. He´s hit the point where he just follows with faith because hes gaining his own testimony of the truth. We taught the word of wisdom the other day and he was just like okay. That makes sense and hasn't touched coffee since and no longer buys cigarettes. Just like that. It's super cool to see.

Aaron- hes someone we found yesterday but he's cool enough that I want to mention him. He is living here in Hermosilllo for work reasons but has lived in Tucson Arizona most of his life. He's more fluent in English than Spanish so I actually ended up teaching him in English (probably one of the weirdest things I've ever tried to do. It's so much easier to teach in Spanish haha). He has A. LOT. of questions but we happen to have a lot of answers so that was cool. He asked me how I learned Spanish so well and I talked about how I read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and how I attribute a good bulk of my Spanish to that. How reading it and speaking the language helped me so much. So we gave him a copy and he said he would read it and we helped him download the gospel library app so he could have the English reference and we´ll see how it all goes this Tuesday.

Luis- he's a young child of 9 years of age that we are teaching. His mom is member and helps a lot in the teaching. his dad isn't a member and isn't ever there for the lessons but he does support them and goes to church and everything. It is really hard to teach children sometimes. Mostly because I'm a child at heart and get distracted just as easily as they do haha. but Luis is awesome. He understands really well. He just takes everything super literal. Like you cant use analogies at all. But its been helping me a lot to see how I can teach clearer and more direct. We have a deal where if he reads his illustrated Book of Mormon and goes to church and all. I give him avengers sticker that come in the packs of cookies I buy way to many of sometimes. It's chill. But its really hard to part with those stickers cause they are super freaking cool.

That's about it as far as people we are teaching right now but its super cool honestly. We are finding more people every week. The area we are in is known to be a hard area as far as the work goes. 

It's an area of a lot a lot of old people and nobody has been baptized here in the past 8 months or so. But we're bumping up this place 100% haha its a good time.

This is all I've got for you all for now but I hope you all have the most incredible weeks ever and I love you tons and climb trees and love life and do the right things always and just be the awesome people you are. Love you all and I'll hit you all up next week!

9 June 2015

So this week has been splendid as always. Quite the good time. I forgot my planner in the house (my number 1 resource for writing the weekly emails) but I'll try to remember everything I can.

So the first thing is that mangos fresh from the tree are so so so so os oso so so os osos oso sosos o oossosososos goood. Like life changing haha. A friend showed me a technique for eating them that I quite like. You roll the bad boy around in your hands and get it all juicy and such and then poke a hole and suck out all the goodness. It's a good time. 

So the other week we talked to this guy on his bike and set up an appointment but he called and cancelled but we set up a different time and this past week we stopped by. He was so cool. His name is Esgardo. We were talking to him and he was like ya I'm reading this book I found right now about the life of Christ. It's a treasure that I want to read over and over and over again. He showed us the book at the end of the lesson and guess what it was. Jesus the Christ. by James E. Talmage. It was such a surprise and a perfect opportunity to explain more about prophets and apostles and their role as special witnesses of Christ and it was just really cool.

Then we were with Juan and his disabled mom (Sara). Its been the coolest thing teaching them. The love that Juan has for his mom is something I honestly could only hope to strive for. We were able to help Juan accept a date for baptism this upcoming month and then we helped them both make it to church yesterday and they loved it. Then we are going to have a family home evening with them and some other members and investigators tonight and its just awesome.

So we were in the leadership meeting this morning and I honestly don't remember what we were talking about but it triggered a thought processes that I liked. I started thinking about the new converts and the excitement they have for having found the gospel and the joy in every moment and little thing. I got to thinking why shouldn't it be the same for us? Why shouldn't we get pumped and stoked about hearing about the amazing things the gospel has? About the plan God has through which we have the opportunity to live with him once more, with the people we love too!!! It's so freaking cool. Life here is amazing and awesome so just imagine how cool life will be afterwards as well! If we can feel that sort of excitement about everything, I have no doubt that life would get infinitely cooler than it already is. Just a thought I had.

Oh and the other week I talked about doing something to become more Christ like. So I was doing it this past week and I discovered something kinda obvious but at the same time I really liked it. Its just that when you are focusing on one attribute, all the others kinda just go hand in hand. For example. charity and love. if you love God you will be obedient and humble before Him. If you have Charity, you will be diligent in your work and seek the best for them. If you love everything good, you will seek knowledge. etc etc etc. I just thought that was super cool. So ya keep being better people everyday, it's so worth it.

Love you all and hope you have the best weeks ever! I'd send pics but I got a virus in my card so I'll have to have someone disinfect it first. Keep up the awesome and talk to you soon!!!!

Love

Elder Smith

4 June 2015

So its been a wonderful week but not to much to tell. We're working hard and keeping the energy high just like the temperatures. We've been doing a lot of contacting and searching for less actvives cause there's not too much going on here. Honestly its been super cool, we've found a lot of awesome people, that for the most part live outside of the area so we send their address off to others to contact but its cool nonetheless. We had an awesome day sunday, It was stake conference so I really liked that. Two topics really stood out to me. One. Here in Mexico there is a really strong focus on self sufficiency, emphasized on the temporal needs. Like work and what not, because that's a big need here. But one of the talks talked about that and then added in being self sufficient in a spiritual manner. How all the temporal needs we have facilitate and become easier as we put God first and trust Him to help us where we are lacking. It goes right with Ether 12:266which talks about how God gives us weaknesses so that we can be humble and trust in him. "and I will make the weak things become strong unto them" this is so key. When we are trying to becomes self sufficient in our lives we need to have the strength to be humble and let "Jesus take the wheel" as the song says haha. But its super true, we cannot have success, we cannot change, we cannot progress, until we forget ourselves and let God make our weaknesses our strengths. This doesn't mean that we don't have to work, but quite the opposite. It's "by grace that we are saved, after all that we can do." after we put everything in and give our best that's when the help comes to finish the task where we aren't just quite strong enough. The other thing from the conference that I really liked was a talk about becoming Christ-like. It just really made me think. I'll give you all a challenge (to myself as well) this week, everyday choose an attribute of Christ for each day, as mentioned in preach my gospel chapter 6. faith and hope, charity and love, virtue, knowledge, patience and humility, diligence, obedience. Each night we will write what we did that day focusing on that attribute. 

The other thing I really liked from this week was Sunday night when we had a family home evening with la familia Ochoa the other missionaries in the ward and some investigators. we talked about Mosiah 14 which is focussed on the atonement. I really liked something that Hermana Fletcher pointed out. She talked about how Christ knows us perfectly so he the best friend we could ever have. But often times we focus on the sad side, like He's there for us in trials and sin and sickness and all. Which is very true and very important but I liked how she mentioned that since He knows and loves us perfectly, He also is there in the joy and laughter and happy times. I just liked the idea of Christ smiling and being filled with inexplicable joy when we do good, or when we are happy and I just really liked that thought. and then I got to talk about my favorite part. I love the verse "all we like sheep have gone astray" cause I love the symbolism of sheep and shepherd. I talked about when I was with Grandpa Ward and how he has some sheep behind the house and how as much as I could try I never could get them to come to me but when Grandpa called for them, they all ran immediately to him. How it's the same with us as sheep, we need to be able to recognize the voice of our shepherd and come when He calls. And then of course one of my favorite lines I've heard in the mission that I'll say again. "I like to repent because I like to feel like the lost sheep on the shoulders of the Lord."

We're teaching several awesome people right now which is super cool, we just need to help them come to church is honestly the real problem. Jorge, Francisca, and Juan are the main people we are teaching right now. 

The pics I have this week are mostly just a bunch of super cool flowers I've found here. It's blooming season or something like that so there's lots all around and it makes me really happy because its usually super, well, brown everywhere. Anyway its been a great week and I hope you're all having the best of times as well. Love you all and talk to you soon!!! 

28 May 2015

So interesting things abut this week. monday We had a family home evening with a bunch of people. La familia Ochoa hosted and we had around 15 people there, many of which were investigators. it was super fun. We used a pretty cool object lesson. We bought a pack of cookies and asked for a volunteer. Hermano Peña (preplanned) graciously volunteered. We then went and offered cookies to each person. The first took a couple and then we asked Hno Peña to do 10 pushups. Then we went to the next. She took one cookie and we had Hno Peña do ten more. The next person refused the cookies and then we asked Hno Peña to do ten more. and on and on in the circle until everyone had had the opportunity to receive cookies and Hno Peña had done 10 push ups for each person. We connected this activity to the atonement. Our forgiveness and trials are paid for just like the cookies whether we take advantage of that or not. I'll let you all draw the rest of the analogies yourself but I thought the activity was awesome and it definitely captured the attention of the kids that were there.

Later in the week we went to keep cleaning up the burnt house from the other week. We got all the rubble out and cleaned the floors. I came out black everywhere even despite the face mask I was wearing. I had black mucus for several days but it was definitely worth it. The lady is being taught by the Sister Missionaries and plans to be baptized in a couple weeks. 

Thats about all the interesting for the week. Here's an update on the people we are teaching.

Efrén- we taught him one last time this week but it turns out he is moving to the south end of the city so we set him up with the missionaries down there. Hopefully he keeps being golden.

Manuel- we talked to him about the blessings of keeping the commandments and he made plans to go to church and everything but didnt make it. We are trying really hard to help him with the things going on in his life as well, more to come.

Juan- He's awesome. I don't even remember how we started talking to him but we have been talking with him. He lives with his mom to help take care of her. She suffered an accident and can't talk or walk or even move very well. She can kinda write more or less but she understands everything perfectly. It's so cool to see her smiling and sometimes with a tear in her eye as we are teaching them or singing a hymn or what not. They planned on going to church and everything but the mom couldn't sleep well and had some problems in the night so they were unable to make it this week but we´ll see what we can do for them. 

Francisca- She is pretty awesome as well, she has a lot of desires to change and do the right things, she just needs a little extra push. 

That covers the bulk of the teaching we are up to right now but things are going great, talking to lots of people still and we'll see what comes

I don't have a lot of pics this week but here's two, kinda random but it's what I've got

My chips toldme to say no to drugs. I am obeying

Its a stop sign I now have. Still trying to figure out how in the world I'll get it to the states in 18 months.

Oh so I've almost almost finished reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I have two chapters left. I love the words of Moroni about charity. How charity is the pure love of Christ and without it, faith hope, humility, the whole lot, has no real worth. It's so true. Without truly loving the people around you, your actions will be in vain. If you have Charity, you will do the things correct because you know its what you are those around you need. and then I love what he says after he speaks strongly and directly. I speak boldly because I have authority from God; and I fear not what man can do, because perfect love casteth out all fear. Wise words. True words.

I love you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Smith