April 28, 2014

Hey family!! 

I know I´m in the dog house. Hahaha, I did feel terrible for not sending the letter. I wrote it early and thought, hey we´re going to the buhlers. i´ll just add a tiny bit more and send it there. haha. nope. I felt terrible for about a day and then forgot (hehehe, sorry) until I got a giant package FULL of easter food!! Lemme tell you, THANK YOU. I truly felt terrible after that!! Hahaa I didn´t send a letter and then get this giant package. Talk about guilt monster. I did eat my feelings after that, so thanks mom and dad!! hahahaa i love the bock bock chicken. good one dad.

So, this week was good! Like always, I am seriously forever grateful to be serving here. We actually didn´t have a lot of lessons but we were able to contact more and to really focus more on the needs of our investigators. A lot of times we´re running around trying to get to lessons on time its difficult to really focus on the progressing investigators. We´re teaching new peeps and dropping the ones that aren´t progressing, so its good spring cleaning! (hey mom dad!! i bet you´d never thought i´d say that phrase!)

Alex was baptized yesterday!! Fam, it was a great service. He bore his testimony and said that even though his testimony was very small, he knew that it´ll grow. He bore testimony of everything. He said, and I quote, ´´I KNOW THE CHURCH IS TRUE. ITS THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. I KNOW THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE.´´ Fam. I can´t even describe this service. Right after he changed into white and I saw him for the first time, I felt this giant burst of joy in my chest. It reminded me of a scripture i was reading in my personal studies. It was in Alma 29:9-10 and says, ´´9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. 10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent,  and coming to the Lord their God [IN WHITE], then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember awhat the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.´´ I will never forget that moment or that feeling. It truly impacted me and it gave me more testimony of the Gospel. Like it says in the scriptures, i can´t even write the feelings i felt. I didn´t have the worries from my other baptisms and the ward was wonderful and very supportive. A moment to remember forever. 

Kalman is doing well and is progressing well. We had a really stressful situation happen with him...he was set to get baptized this past saturday but wednesday (3 DAYS BEFORE BAPTISM) told us his ex wife was sueing him in hungary for child support. Wow that was awesome. That kind of goes against question number 4 in the baptismal interview. We cancelled everything and then later he told us he was going to get more info because he thought it was really weird and unexpected (you don´t say). So apparently, this whole situation about his ex wife sueing him...is false. He has the same name as his father (who died 3 years ago) and the government was writing a letter about a house he had sold. His mom made up a story, thinking that child support was the case. Hahaa, not even close mom!! But Kalman is doing great and strong. We did talk to him about his ex wife, like if she will sue him in the future but kalman said that he´s tried to get ahold of her to ask about that but she doesn´t want anything to do with him. Kalmans doing his best right now. Hopefully he´ll get baptized before transfers, but whenever the Lord knows is right.

I was actually sitting right next to hermana buhler when she received the letter from you, dad! That was great and we both grinned. She loves getting letters from you! ´´Thanks, Ken´´. hahahahahahahahahahaa!!!!!!! But we´ve been talking about lunches we´re going to have in caldwell, so don´t worry. we´ve got about 7 planned. they love mexican food just as much as you two. We said good bye to them for now last night and now they´re off to africa on a safari with their daughter and her boyfriend. Did i ever tell you I wanna be the buhlers when i get older? they´re going to a cheetah reserve! They´ve swam with elephants!! I´ve told Hermana buhler multiple times that i´m gong to hire her as my travel agent. 

Here goes to another week in the mission field. Like always, it has past quickly. It makes me really sad to think that my time is ticking (5 months and counting...haha. name that movie!) but i hope to apply all that i learn and to do my best to serve the Lord with the time i do have. Yesterday in Relief society, they were talking about visiting teaching. Apparently, its something these lovely ladies aren´t doing. I was thinking about that and it just all CLICKED. When I end the mission, I may not be walking the streets with a name tag over my heart, but i´ll still have those whom i´ll visit and worry about and pray about. I will be a visiting teacher and whats the difference between a VT and a missionary? the missionary purpose is invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. What is the difference in our roles? Nothing. That really made me feel a whole lot better, knowing that my work was definitely not done after the mission. Hey bishop smith, put this missionary to work!! I´ll wear my chapa in my heart forever.

Hey fam bam, i love you so much! i am so grateful to be a missionary of the Lord and to preach His gospel. It is truly the path to eternal happiness. Just like Alma says, I am nothing without the Gospel and without Jesus Christ. It is the way to live and learn from and to BE. 

Keep staying strong! This church is true! Estamos en el equipo del Señor; Vamos a ganar!

Love,
Hermana Smith

April 21, 2014

This week was great! I had a lot of fun and I am just loving the mission and this area. And my companion. We had a little bit of a problem with not having any minutes on our phone (haha!!) but we were able to get by. but, wow was that a headache! 
We´ve been able to teach more of Yasmina and her kids. it is absolutely amazing! We´re teaching a whole family! It´s amazing what has happened, with the change and their desire to participate. Aisha, the oldest with 15 years old, before didn´t want to participate and the youngest ones couldn´t sit still long enough. But now, we´re leaving them little compromises and they´re doing all of it! They´re coming to church and the leaders in YM/YW say that they´re doing great. It´s really amazing to see the change going on in their family. We feel really hopeful for them! The only problem is that Yasmina and her boyfriend aren´t married and they won´t get married for awhile, due to money. We read in PME and we´re just not sure whether to wait until the whole family can be baptized or to baptize the kids and wait for them to get married. Yasmina told us before that they can be baptized, but we just hope we´re doing everything according to what they need and what has to be done. 
Kalman is progressing well and he´s completely stopped smoking! he´s so excited to be baptized on saturday and he loves church. he always feels at home and that its a refuge for him. He´s such a funny little dude. we have a lot of fun with him. 
Alex is doing great! He´s getting baptized on sunday. We went over the baptism questions with him and it was great. He´s reallymaking sure that he does everything well and that he recieves a testimony of everything. He has a little bit of doubts regarding to small things, but nothing at all that will stop him from keeping ALL the commandments. He´s going to be a great leader and I have no problem telling him that! haha!! 
A JAS, Josue, was baptized about 2 years ago and he´s a machine! His 2 youngers sisters just came from Honduras and we´ve starting teaching them. they came to church for the first time yesterday and they loved it! The leaders told us that it went so well and they´re participating in all the activities. the oldest, katerine, 15 years old, is really prepared and hopefully Paola, 13 years old, will have the desires to follow her example. Also, they cook THE MOST DELICOUS FOOD YOU HAVE EVER TASTED. LIKEEVER. oh i die everytime.

love ya!!

April 14, 2014

Hey family!! 

Things are super duper here in las palmas. We spent a great pday writing letters on a bench by the beach. 85ºF. i got to tan my white knees. HAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! ok i really did think that was funny. 

We had a spectacular week in paradise. I´m having a jolly good time with hermana Caballero. did you know her last name means gentleman? Sister Gentleman. Haha!! But its all good and i ABSOLUTELY love having her as my companion. She´s a lot of fun. Of course, she doesn´t speak english real well but we get by with my dictionary. mostly me though, cuz i understand spanish. there are just sooo many isms in american english that you can´t translate it. its really funny cuz i´ll wake up and immediately start speaking in english or whenever i´m in a train of thought i start speaking in english and she just starts laughing. hahaha its realy funny. she´s a beast at soccer though. creams all the american football elders here!! hahaa!

Anywhooo, our week! We were able to meet more with Juan, the street lesson from last week. He had completely read the book of mormon and was in the guide to the scriptures. All studying it. He said that he needs to read it again to understand more. Hahahaa, we were sooo shocked!! It´s really easy teaching him because he takes everything in so quickly and he always asks good questions. He told us he will be baptized when he has received his answer; says he doesn´t want to jump into something and later leave it. Honestly, the only problem with him is that its difficult for him to come to church because sometimes he takes care of his 95 year old mother. He is ALWAYS willing to meet with us and talk. Sometimes i have to pinch myself to see if i´m dreaming. 

Kalman, our hungarian friend, is progressing and he´s smoking less each time we see him. He really is a great guy. He has a lot of trials, like no home, sleeps on the beach and more. But he is always positive about everything. His baptism is on the 26th and he´s preparing for that day. 
Though we could never meet with him this week, Alex came to church and literally the first thing he told us was that he wants his last lesson with us this saturday and that he thinks he´ll have either the 25 or the 26th off for his baptism...!!!! He´s progressed soo much and Las Palmas will be so blessed with him in the ward. He´s going to be a great leader!
We met with Yasmina and we finally have been able to teach one of her kids!! The youngest one, 8 yrs old. We taught her how to pray and Yasmina says she wants to start FHE in her home with nightly family prayers. WOW. Plus, they ALL came to church!! The WHOLE family!! With her boyfriend! We were truly blessed yesterday. They liked it, but obviously its still very new for them. 
We had a big challenge this week. We met with Polo, who was baptized but not confirmed and he told us that he had smoked. It´s hard when you´re investigators aren´t truthful at all but we just got to love them. We can´t help them if we dont love them.
We´ve been trying to visit more members to give them challenges. Hermana Caballero had the 21 day plan and we´ve been planning to give them to a couple of members and their family. We met with one young family from brasil and it was really wonderful. They both felt really good about it. They´ve both served missions and they told us it felt good to be doing missionary work. They also said they felt attacked when the missionaries would ask for references so i´m glad that this approach is easier and better for them.

We had a ward activity and we were able to get into pday clothes and i learned some soccer skills. i´m really good at blocking things because of basket ball, but thats really all. We had a great success and were able to get new investigators from it. 

I really do love the mission. It definitely has its up and downs but i really am so blessed to serve these canarians. We were able to talk with Sasha´s family last night, Pino´s family and Loli (?) and her husband. It went really well and we´ll be seeing them soon:) we were able to talk to them about the restoration and they were really open about it. Pino asked a lot of questions about what missionaries do and why. They sang us some canarian songs on the guitar and we sang Nearer my god to thee for them. It went real well :) 

Well, family!! have a good week. hermana caballero just told me that we talk to our family next month and i completely forgot about that!! (not that i would ever forget mothers day....) talk to ya later!

Hermana Smith

Hey speaking of Easter and this lonely missionary. She would love to receive an easter basket with easter goodness!!! AHEM. *cough* *COUGH* HINT·HINT.

April 7, 2014

Heeeyyy family!!

Wow, what a week! It was AMAZING! I absolutely love serving with hermana caballero. She has so much faith; i am learning so much from her. She also speaks spanish like a boss. We´re having so much fun together!! Hahahahaa!! 
We had such a week full of miracles and blessings. I feel like Heavenly Father was helping us prepare for General Conference because I absolutely LOVED these sessions! I can´t wait to read them all, but I learned soo much. I loved the common themes of loving others always and enduring with trials. I really feel like we´re being prepared and our investigators are being prepared. Not only with us, but also the other missionaries. 
Our first morning together, we were able to have a street lesson with this man named Juan and we were able to talk about the Restoration. It went really well and we gave him a book of mormon and he told us he would read it. He said something that I will never forget; He said that normally, he never sits in where he was sitting then. Today, he said he had a feeling that he should sit in this bench facing the street and the crowd. Then we talked to him. It went really well and we had a second lesson with him. He had already read a bunch from the book of mormon and he had a lot of questions. As he opened it up, we could see that he had written notes in the margins. He had really good questions and it´s such a pleasure to talk with him.
We had a powerful lesson with Alex. We talked to him about being baptized this next coming saturday and he said that the only thing stopping him from being baptized was his family. They would definitely not agree, he said. We were able to talk about the roles and gift of the Holy Ghost. e challenged him to be baptized the next week and he said that if he receives his answer after general conference, he´ll do it. He could only come to priesthood and apparently there was a talk about being valient. German Guerra, a member that befriended him, came up to him afterwards and said that his decision to be baptized is a valient choice, but one he´ll have to make. he said that he couldn´t get baptized this week...but next week yes!!! AAAHHH!!!!

So we have an investigator named Julian. He had a fecha but always showed up drunk at our lessons. He was in love with hermana fowers. we had a lesson with julian. haha it was soooo funny. so we were planning on meeting him at the church and we had just finished a lesson with kalman in the park. we were catching the guagua when we saw julian!! he said he would speak to us but only for a moment because he said he was supposed to go to the church to meet with miss fowers...HHAHAHAHAA!!! he didn´t last long because the police starting sniffing around, looking for residency cards. he said he was sick and literally DASHED off. wow. we´re not seeing him again. 

Conference was SO AWESOME!! Because of the time change, we were able to watch all the conference sessions. the only ones in the mission!! We had our own little room for the english speakers and we watched it on the buhlers laptop. (btdubs-thanks candy for the photos!! hermana buhler and I had a good laugh!!)

So it´s literally getting sooo hot here now. I´ve already gotten a nice tan in :) Amen to street lessons!!! Heat and sun also means naked europeans on beaches which stinks because most of our lessons are in those proximities. 

HAHAHAA i´m soooo sorry but there´s this guy sitting next to me in the locutorio doing dances and directing and singing to whatever is on the screen. i am trying SOHARDNOTTOLAUGH. 

hahaa, well!! love ya!! 

Hermana Smith