November 4, 2013

hey fam bam!
this week was super fun. i am loving the mission!  I love it here in
Telde and Hermana Cassinat is wonderful. I don´t think I´ll ever have
a bad day with her (knock on wood). She´s an amazing teacher and I am
learning many great things from her. She´s super down to earth and we
talk in a sid voice from ice age a lot. hahahaa.
It has been very interesting because Hermana Cassinat and I will run
into many MA´s in the street and looking at the members list, Telde
could be a ward. I´ve been thinking about that a lot and wondering
what we could do as missionaries to help Telde. We´ve heard about
wards and branches falling because of the members falling away and
ever since that, I´ve been feeling a little hesitant about even more
converts, not knowing if they´d fall away right after or not. But our
new stake President, Presidente Deníz spoke in a combined meeting
yesterday about this and it was so wonderful. He lives in Telde and so
he came to church and told us of his journey right from the beginning
of him following his impressions of a new stake to now. He told us
that he felt the same impression that Telde was going to be a ward
very soon. He also said that we need 15-20 active Elders to be
considered a ward, and we were only faulting 8. Seeing it like that,
it is very possible. I´m very excited for the future of Telde! hermana
cassinat and i did a high 5 after that. oh squirrel moment, we have
an investigator named moussa from africa and obvio his 2nd language is
english and so for high fives he says, touch my hand!! hahahahahaaaa
oh gosh we die every time.
We were in charge of the branch halloween party and it was stressful
because the primary were expecting a terror room and we looked stupid
for a second until our mission leader said he´d do it. hahaa but
turned out to be a huge success! We had 2 investigators and their
young kids come and they loved it. The relief society grabbed them and
they were all chatting up the whole night! we felt so good know that
we didn´t have to tell the members to do their job. They´re great in
missionary work.
Leo, our man with a fecha, is reunited with his wife! We had a good
lesson with only him and we went over the baptismal interview
questions. It went super well and i was so surprised to hear his
testimony about the Atonement and repentence. I don´t know Leo very
well so hearing that has helped me so much have more confidence in
him. His wife is super nice and wow is she a babe. we´re trying to
have a lesson with them both but it hasn´t happened so far. We´re
hoping for a turnout this week and hopefully she´ll be receptive to
our message.
Okie dokie! moms questions!
1. I was doing the work of the Lord and the Buhlers came at the end of
the day to sing. then we ate the lovely strawberry with cream cheese
frosting and sprinkles cake and went home to sleep :)
2. you can probably send packages to me in telde. we usually stay in
the islands for awhile so thats what i´m thinking.
3. i have not received anything because the office doesn´t mail them.
the office sends them at zone and district meetings, temple day and
for us islanders, zone conference. we have zone conference the 19th so
thats when i´ll get my stuff. but i talked to the office 2 weeks ago
and the buhlers (from their trip last week to madrid) also have said
that i haven´t received a package. i really am sorry to say that they
thnk its lost :/
4. we didn´t buy anything except go out to eat some turkish food
during medio día. but today i bought new shoes for 8€ cuz i´ve been
sewing mine for awhile to keep them together.
5 or 6. i gave a list of things i wanted to kelly a monthish ago so
you can ask her. but honestly just those church videos. i´m really
doing fine here. oh and skirts from sister missionary mall. i´ve been
trying to look for skirts here and its impossible. i´ve been wearing
the same 3 from that store. oh and borrowing from sister cassinat. i
mean hermana.
i´m really sorry to hear about mama bert and her friends :( and also
brians situation. it hurts my heart but this is a good time for brian.
he was meant to have that job and I can tell he´s giong to be so
blessed by the gospel. go daddy! you little missionary slash bishop
you...
But family, seriously. I am doing fine. I´m doing more than fine, I am
blessed. I´ve been really reading the scriptures and its been really
blessing my life. I know you all keep asking me if i need anything or
what do i want from the states, but I want to ask you all what I can
do for you. What can I do for you? Is there anyway where I can serve
you? I am serving a mission and I am taken care of.
I love you all! keep the letters coming
LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!
hermana smith.