January 13, 2014

Hey fam!

Sometimes, I honestly forget that I´m serving on an island. In the middle of the ocean. On the coast of Africa.

Just a fun fact.

This week was awesome! It was a little bit of an adjustment from small town Telde to big town Las Palmas but its been super fun. I´m coming from having like no investigators to having too many and I still don´t know all of them! Our área is huge, its most of the northern part of this whole island. Oh and sorry for the random spanish words-this computer is hi-tech and auto corrects my correct inglesh. heehee. We were both trying to figure things out a little bit and may have gotten lost a couple of times (maybe a lot) but its been wonderful serving with Hermana Megan Fowers (Go ahead and Facebook stalk her...). She´s an amazing missionary and I have already learned soooo much from her. I love companions like that! She´s very obedient and is very clear and straight-foward. Most of the time, our investigators need that. No more beating around the bush! She´s from Bountiful and is older than me age wise (not much-21), but she has about 7 months in the misión. Apparently, she remembers the tall blond twins walking around temple square in Madrid! (Hansey and I...if you don´t remember...). She said we were kind of a legend. Hahhahahaaa that sounds super self centered...
I´m still getting used to things. We have all these fancy Madrid-like bus systems and the people are a Little bit colder than Telde but its been super fun. It´s super touristy here and we like to stalk the english people to hear their accents. Plus I´m even CLOSER to the beach and we´ve learned to never go there because Europeans like to walk around nude. FYI, they will never get the tan they want.

Honestly, we´ve had so many lessons this week I don´t know where to start

We have this investigator named Yasmina and she is absolutely wonderful. She has this amazing story because she was married to an Arabic man and her escape from the middle east and of all this craziness, and she gives all the credit to God. She has the biggest heart and the most faith I have ever seen. She truly is a prepared soul. We has all these questions about deep doctrine and we finally had to sit her down and explain that first we needed to teach the basics for a foundation and that things will build up from there.
We have 5 people with fechas right now and we´re working them towards that goal. One is from Ghana, one is literally kind of crazy, and then his brother has a fecha and he doesn´t have a leg. the next 2 are alex and he is just wonderful and Jayson from the philiphines. They´re all really wonderful and I just loooove being a missionary.  We´ve been getting a lot of support from the members and we´re blessed by their support. They definitely keep us busy, for which we are grateful. It was super loud in church and I was getting a Little annoyed when i realized that this Ward was about 5 of telde...then i understood.

Don´t worry family, I´m happy to be here! i´ll miss telde and the elders there have us on speed dial but i feel like i should be in las palmas right now. I´m grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a missionary, to be a servant of the Lord. I´m grateful that I get to search for Sashas family and share our special message with them. I´m so thankful for your support. I think back on the misión and I´m filled with so much love and happiness. I loooooooove the misión so much and I looooooooooooooooove this Gospel. I know that this is THE Church of Jesús Christ. I know that God´s plan will only bring us the eternal happiness that we need, but only if we accept Christ as our Savior. I love you all and pray for you!

Love Hermana Smith

Now. Answers.

Mommy first. I received 1 birthday and 1 christmas package and we are enjoying the reeses and my new skirts. THANK YOU. exactly what I needed!!! and they fit :) my food baby likes these clothes! and the reeses...

i received a letter from some Young women and a new chick annnndd.....on i just received a package from Aunt Char and Uncle Eric! i´m gonna write to them but tell them that I LOVED IT SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.

my companion is wonderful and we have so much fun together. shes a good lil missionary.

ok. now daddy.

i live on  Calle León y Castillo 111, 4C 35004 Las Palmas. The reason why you couldn´t find the address in telde on the map was because its telde and its old. the streets are all mixed around with an old system and a new system. super confusing.

now its just us and 2 other elders. don´t know if shaun served here. yes sasha and paqui´s family live here. hermana fowers is from bountiful.

some cool quotes we Heard this week from an Elder and the other from a member:

Elder Saquicela from ecuador/España: Estamos en el quipo del Señor. Vamos a ganar!

Member: The Prophets see the past, present, and future. But they always speak the truth.

sooooo foto of the week. we were at a recent converts house and she´s 15 years old. she´s soooo ready to serve a misión and so to visit her and i play the investigator and she plays the missionary. thats why i´m without chapa in the picture...

the end!