Hey fam bam! hahahahaa i just laugh thinking of Telde now. not in a rude way, but in a YOU DA BEST way. i love it here. and sure the oceans awesome and every thing and i see it like 5 billion times a day, but its all good and i´m having a blast!
Thanks for all of your kind words. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. and i´ve had like 400 conversations with Elder Buhler about Caldwell. He´s awesome and we keep figuring out people that we know. He worked for the Christenson mint farm! he knows them and was good friends with kelly jenkins. his parents live by the kimball building, so maybe you know them dad?
ok. moms questions.
1. Her name is Jamie Cassinat and she is from California. she is the funnest person to be around with and an amazing missionary. She´ll be going home the end of next transfer so she´s hoping to stay with me one more transfer. she´s a nurse going to byu provo and we have a lot of the same qualities and tastes, which means she wants to snuggle up, pig out on good food and read a book at the same time. like me.
2. Buhlers are amazing. They´ve been on almost all 7 continents and they are one wild couple. hahahaa just spending a couple of minutes with them can give you a good discription. you can read their blog to find out more information. oh and i would love to have some dirt to tease elder buhler with. hermana cassinat and i are very excited :)
3.oh yes the islands!! i was told that it was super humid and i shouldn´t bring lotion. so i didn´t. big fat lie. its more of a desert than idaho! there are cactisus here!! oh and we can´t drink the water because its salty and your hair falls out. we have a picture of the hair we collected from sweeping. just 2 weeks of hair.
4.yes i will send pictures.
5. Buhlers live near las palmas, not in our area. they live in the old mission home. we live alone in a big apartment and i found one cockroach but it looked like the one from the last apartment so i´m thinking it just crawled in my luggage for a ride. too bad the thing didn´t die on the plane. but they have cockroaches here, but they´´re about an inch and a half longer and fly.
thats so exciting for jay!! ´he´ll be blessed. cant wait to hear where jess will go.
Ok! So more about my week! This week was absolutely amazing. I have literally never had so much fun in my entire mission. I love Telde! The people here are so wonderful. We have had the privilege to talk with so many people on the streets and even though most of them are crazy drunk, I have never felt unsafe.
The members here are amazing. They are so hard working and very aware of helping one another. The movie about President Monson (on the lords errand or something like that), there was a story about a branch in Canada when he was mission president. The Branch President had asked for a big church building, but obviously they couldn´t have one until they had more members. For the telde branch, the ward list is 10 pages long, with about 8 pages of them inactive. Now, when we have a first lesson with someone, we write their name on a list in our study room and we think of what calling will be good for them in the Church. With this mindset, we feel more of an urgency for them to understand, so that they can fulfill that calling. Even some investigators, who have been investigating for many years, we have said, "But Ignacio! We NEED a Gospel Doctrines teacher!" I have had so much fun doing missionary work with this!
We had a first lesson with this man from Nigera named Gabriel. When I was in B6, I´ve taught Nigerians and I´ve gotten no where with them. They were either evangelical preachers or they were in the drug thing. But Gabriel was so receptive. He told us that he´s been baptized in many churches but if he doesn´t like one thing that doesn´t go with the bible, he leaves them. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he was so astonished, saying that ´´he has never heard of Christ visiting the Americas´´. He had heard that the Mormons didn´t pray and were devil worshippers, etc. We had a wonderful lesson sincero with him and he kept on asking us to tell him more. He was absolutely wonderful and I can see him doing so well in the church. He has a Canarian wife and son and he said he wants a spanish book of mormon too so that his wife can read it too. We feel so blessed to have met with him!
One thing I have learned more this week is compassion and charity. We contacted this man who was either drunk or a little not right in the head and since then we´ve met with him 3 times. The first 2 times, it was mostly contacting his friends around him, but this last time, a women came up to us with we were talking with him and she starting talking to him. He completely changed and was worried for whatever mishap happened to her. She looked at us, and seeing our faces, said, ´´He may seem crazy, but he´s not. He´s a good man and a good friend.´´ After that, he completely changed and he was very focused on what we taught about the Book of Mormon. I was very shocked and was able to see him in a different way, a way where he can actually progress to a calling in the church. He´s gonna be our geneology expert :)
Many miracles have occured this week that I can write down. But I am so grateful to be here in Telde! I feel like I am supposed to be here and for a reason! This feels like a completely different mission than in Madrid, but I´m excited to work here.
The members here are amazing. They are so hard working and very aware of helping one another. The movie about President Monson (on the lords errand or something like that), there was a story about a branch in Canada when he was mission president. The Branch President had asked for a big church building, but obviously they couldn´t have one until they had more members. For the telde branch, the ward list is 10 pages long, with about 8 pages of them inactive. Now, when we have a first lesson with someone, we write their name on a list in our study room and we think of what calling will be good for them in the Church. With this mindset, we feel more of an urgency for them to understand, so that they can fulfill that calling. Even some investigators, who have been investigating for many years, we have said, "But Ignacio! We NEED a Gospel Doctrines teacher!" I have had so much fun doing missionary work with this!
We had a first lesson with this man from Nigera named Gabriel. When I was in B6, I´ve taught Nigerians and I´ve gotten no where with them. They were either evangelical preachers or they were in the drug thing. But Gabriel was so receptive. He told us that he´s been baptized in many churches but if he doesn´t like one thing that doesn´t go with the bible, he leaves them. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he was so astonished, saying that ´´he has never heard of Christ visiting the Americas´´. He had heard that the Mormons didn´t pray and were devil worshippers, etc. We had a wonderful lesson sincero with him and he kept on asking us to tell him more. He was absolutely wonderful and I can see him doing so well in the church. He has a Canarian wife and son and he said he wants a spanish book of mormon too so that his wife can read it too. We feel so blessed to have met with him!
One thing I have learned more this week is compassion and charity. We contacted this man who was either drunk or a little not right in the head and since then we´ve met with him 3 times. The first 2 times, it was mostly contacting his friends around him, but this last time, a women came up to us with we were talking with him and she starting talking to him. He completely changed and was worried for whatever mishap happened to her. She looked at us, and seeing our faces, said, ´´He may seem crazy, but he´s not. He´s a good man and a good friend.´´ After that, he completely changed and he was very focused on what we taught about the Book of Mormon. I was very shocked and was able to see him in a different way, a way where he can actually progress to a calling in the church. He´s gonna be our geneology expert :)
Many miracles have occured this week that I can write down. But I am so grateful to be here in Telde! I feel like I am supposed to be here and for a reason! This feels like a completely different mission than in Madrid, but I´m excited to work here.
I love you all! Que tenga una buena semana!
Loves y hugs
Hermana Smith
ps. mom. is this long enough for you? hermana cassinat and i had a good laugh at that. i´ve spoiled you too much.
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