October 29, 2013

hey fam bam! here´s some fotos for y´all.
ok mom´s 20 Q:
1.Did you get the package?  I called the office and they haven´t received any package for an
hermaña smith. that was a couple of days ago but i know that a
missionary couple are heading to madrid this week for a fútbol game
and they´ll pick up all the mail. if they don´t bring it back then
hopefully í´ll get it at zone conference which is november 19th. if
not, then.....i don´t know when. maybe in january.
2. Are the people of the Islands different than Madrid?  its so different here and we get a lot of receptive people. i
haven´t met as many rude people here opposed to those i´ve definitely
met in madrid. we´re working hard but its really a lot of contacting
or finding some old less actives. which is a lot.

3. Hair problems with the salt water? yes i do have some hair left. we´re going to the farmacia and
grabing some hair pills and  special shampoo and conditioner for this
stuff. poor hermana cassinat is at her whits end with her hair. my
skin does feel softer though, so its a win win situation.
oh now dads 20 q´s:
1. unfortunetely i speak less spanish here because its more contacting
then teaching, so a lot of times hermana cassinat and i are passing
time by doing the whole name this movie! trivia. in the zone, don´t
know. but there are 2 spanish speakers in our district, somos 14
2. we cook mostly. i haven´t eaten at a members yet but we have an
investigator named aida that made us pancakes. hermana cassinat and i
cook a lot and we like to cook fried chicken and pasta and all that
good stuff. we haven´t had money for awhile cuz its so expensive to
travel so we´ve been eating a lot of pasta and mucho of the instant
packages from the states. we had mac and cheese yesterday! wow that
was good. members are super good with la obra misional. they pretty
much do it for us instead of us asking them.
whew ok now the week! This week was fun and honestly i gotta be
careful because its like having too much of a good thing! i´ve been
trying to improve my teaching skills more that i´m not stressed with
other stuff and its a slow process since we don´t really teach a lot.
but its been great and hermana cassinat has been a great example and
teacher. she´s just awesome. it was so cool, we went into this bar to
grab some water (now hold your horses bars here aren´t as bad as the
states) and i saw a pass along card of jesus christ on the counter! i
look at it then look on the back and it was my card! i had written it!
hahaa it was awsmoe because at least someone was jkind enough to put
it up instead of tossing it.
we have an investigator named leo, from ecuador (soon to be the 2nd
south american in the rama!) and we taught the gospel of jesus christ
and temples. what we do is we take the pamphlet for the Gospel (which
is la fe, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, el don del espíritu santo y
a preseverar hasta el fin) and in the pamphlet they have pictures of
jesus to go with each of them. we take them out and then cut up a big
poster of the madrid temple and we stick the pieces on the back. we
show the steps and then in the end we can reach the temple. he was so
focused on that and it was such a good lesson! we asked him to be
baptized on the 16 of november and he said yes! we´re so excited for
him and hope that he´ll continue to preseverar hasta el fin.
so it was day light savings time here last saturday and oh my
goodness!! they shut everything down and they partied ALL NIGHT LONG.
we have some awesome videos of it.
but i love telde so much. i am so blessed to be here. its so different
than madrid, but i´m glad that i have this chance to be here.
oh we´re in charge of the halloween party for the branch and i looked
in my recipe folder and lo and behold! most of them were perfect for
halloween! so we´re cooking no bakes, carmel popcorn, apple crisp,
rice krispies, hot cider, etc.we´re very excited :) but yes a little
stressed. we´ll send pics next week! we´re dressing up as eachother so
i get a chance to wear hermana cassinats clothes! yesssss.... :)
i love you all so very much! i´m so grateful for all of your letters
and your kinds words. know that there´s someone in telde that loves
ya!
con mucho amor,
hermana smith

October 21, 2013

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.

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.

October 14, 2013

Well family. TRANSFERS!! And yes I did get transferred. Tooooooooo.......(drum roll) the islands! I'm on La Gran Canaria in an area called La Telde. It's super awesome but I'm still trying to recover from the 3 hour plane ride. Yeah, I know it's a little pathetic. But I really am happy to be here even though EVERYONE was super sad to see me leave. It was really humbling for me because I never really knew that...my Colombian investigators were crying and their daughters gave me these great bracelets. Plus leaving the members was super hard. I'll miss them a lot. It's sooo different because I'm moving from one of the biggest wards in Spain to a small branch with 30ish members. There are two districts for all the islands and most of the people in my district are from my group! So it will be great to see them all again. My companion is Hermana Cassinat and she's super sweet! I'm very lucky to be working with her and I hear that she's a really hard worker. I am SO grateful for that! We work with this senior couple named the Buhlers. Elder Buhler is from Caldwell! I showed him a picture of you dad and he didn't recognize you. Lo siento. 

I don't have a lot of time but I just want you to know that I am very grateful for the opportunity everyday to preach the Gospel. I feel very blessed to be here in Spain and that I have a wonderful family that supports me in every possible way. I love this Gospel and I know that we can receive every blessing from our Father in Heaven if we follow His teachings. I know that through our Savior Jesus 

Christ that we can return to our Heavenly Father. I love you all so much and I pray for you. Now that I'm in the islands I'm not sure when I'll get my package from y'all but I hope you know that I am grateful for all that you do. Have a great week!

Love y hugs

Hermana smith

Mom I do have an embarrassing Spanish mess up story but its not exactly.......appropriate. :) love you!

October 7, 2013

Hey familia!! 

Thanks for your wonderful and encouraging letters. They are greatly appreciated! I want you all to know that I have literally felt your prayers on my behalf and am so grateful for them:) 

This week has flllooooowwwwwwnnnnnn and it shocks me to know that transfers are right around the corner! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to listen to conference (except the last session) and to hear and feel the words of the prophet and his apostles. Can I just tell ya? That line from Elder Bednar...Hermana Stepp and i have changed the words up a little for Barrio 6....´´If you are praying for missionary opportunities, then I [thank] you. But, if you aren´t praying for missionary opportunities, I advize you to rethink your ways and REPENT."

WWWOOOOOWWWW. ouch. man. i was cheering that man on. Every talk was defintitely revelation from God. I had a bunch of questions and Hna Stepp and I would talk about them a lot. Then they were mentioned or talked about in Conference! I can´t wait to get my hands on a Liahona. We know of some people who´ll need this.

I don´t have a lot of time today, but I hope you know how much I LOVE YOU ALL. Each one of you have a special little spot in my heart! I have been thinking a lot about being a successful missionary and what that means. I thought of a lot of things, but it all comes down to love. If I love them, pray for them, worry for them, study for them, help them, then there is no way where they cannot say no. I have been studying a lot about humility. Claro, every person needs humility and more each day, but I felt prompted to study more on it. And you know what I found out ? I need to rethink MY ways and repent. But instead of feeling a burden for that, I feel uplifted. Like someone said in GC, repentence is NOT a punishment! I felt so much better and free-er. Because me declaring repentence to la gente de españa is not a punishment. it is a privilege! I love you all soooooooo very much. and excuse my preaching to you. i get into these little tangents sometimes. 

loves y hugs!! hopefully next week you´ll read of where i´m going!!!

hermana smith

September 23, 2013

Hola Familia!

Wow sounds like every one has had a busy week! I hope everything is going well and that you have learned lots :)

your talk is amazing dad! i love that a lot. it reminds me of the scripture 2 nefi 29:7.

Well, this week has been quite interesting. We´ve had a lot of downers come up, but the Lord has been blessing us with these wonderful miracles.
Our investigator, Adelson (the one from columbia-my heart melts with i hear his voice), was having trouble deciding whether or not he wanted to be baptized. He believes the Church is true, but he´s worried about his exwife getting all antsy about it because she´s super catholic (he still loves her). Then we found out monday night that he was leaving to London for 3 months. WOW this sounds like a movie. I was pretty depressed. But that monday night we had a noche de hogar with this family at the temple grounds and for our spiritual thought, we took a temple tour. At the end, Hermana Stepp gave this amazing testimony about eternal families (she had just found out that her grandmothers brother died) and we gave her a framed family proclamation. We were all crying and in the end, the Lord blessed us with Adelsons sister and her daughter, Gabriela. They both are very interested in the Church and Gabriela has a member friend, as well as Adelsons sister, Nayibe. Gabriela has stated many times that she wants to serve a mission (she´s 8 years old) and that she wants to be baptized. We had given her a fake name tag but she was quite disappointed to find out it wasn´t hard and plasticy like ours :)  We think Nayibe wants her to be baptized too! The problem with Nayibe is that she works all day Saturday and Sunday, so she´d never be able to take time off for church. We´re praying for another miracle and are planning on asking her about changing schedules hopefully. Hermana Stepp and I feel that Adelson will get baptized in London, for him now, it´s a better place to know more about the Gospel. The Church is very old there and he´ll be able to find a lot of member support. I´m super excited but so help me if he doesn´t call the church office for the nearest church building, he´s fired and i´ll hunt him down to his grave. He sent me an email which i sent to ben and sasha to translate for me :) I feel very blessed to have so many spanish speakers in my family. i´ll marry one and then i´ll teach all y´all the spaniard accent. its very fun and quite easy :)
I feel very blessed to be serving in Barrio 6. The Elders have been absolutely wonderful and supportive and I feel incredibly blessed for all this. They helped us this morning move into our new piso and what a work it was! I´m grateful for the power of service. How unselfishly they gave it!

Uncle Doug wrote me a letter and its amazing how much I needed it. He doesn´t write often (this is probably his second or third time) but he´s always telling me the right things at just at the right moment. Both of us are preparing for this next coming general conference by rereading the may issue of the liahona (the ensign for you guys) and i feel sooooo blessed and enriched while reading it. Especially reading the priesthood session: reading those talks gave me a focus of what my future husband needs to be, my future mommyness and my future home. I am going to write down all of this so i won´t forget. its super important.

thanks for all your love and support! I feel very blessed to have such amazing friends and family. i love you all and if you want, pray for some spanish skills!

love you tons forever and ever

hermana kinsey emit (as the southerns spaniards say it- they dont say their S´s!)

September 16, 2013

Hola Familia!

well, we´re moving!! we´re leaving out of that apartment....its RIGHT SMACK on the metro and that is sooooooo beautiful!! we don´t have to take a stinkin long walk from who there to our old apt. we move in wednesday :) its brand spackin new as in she JUST finished renovated it all. 2 baños, 3 habitaciones, 2 hermanas. ssssíííííííí.....

oh and I love Section 135 of D&C. ´´They lived for Glory, they died for Glory and Glory is their eternal reward´´...wow such powerful stuff.

and to answer your questions about english class, we do! there are 2, wednesdays and saturdays. we teach saturdays and its super fun. we have 2 classes within the one class: basic and conversational. i teach basic and its always so much fun. we did the body a few weeks ago and then taught them ´´head shoulders knees and toes...´´ and then we´d play hang man. hahaa its so much fun!

and to answer your questions dad, those ideas to interact more nonmembers is a great idea. the problem is actually getting people to really participate. i think a person can really see some character and pretty much the Gospel itself is when there are service projects. but especially for those families with missionaries, have social visits! more is better, because then they feel more comfortable to ask questions. and who wouldn´t want to know why your child is gone for a long time!? its so cool hearing about the progress of the stake and ward. you´re doing a great job! I´m so proud of you guys! go Caldwell Idaho Stake! i know it will be sooooo difficult for some members. but ask the presidency from each organization to keep tabs on each of the members and their progress with missionary work. make it a PRIORITY. it is a big one and if we make it so, then it will be so. every 1st and 3rd sunday we´re in ward counsel, but yes it is mostly the Do you need something? oh good moving on... each organization, primary, YM, single adults, has a VITAL key in this work. have specific parties or functions for each organization. the missionaries will focus on that and they´ll see some grand success. i promise you that as a missionary.

Well, we had an amazing surprise this past weekend! We had the privalege to hear and shake hands with Elder Russell M. Ballard. He was here to a stake conference in another zone but last minute wanted all the missionaries from the the madrid zones and mtc to come for a mini fireside at 8 am. it was amazing. he focused a lot in section 11. i don´t remember word for word (its too good) but these are the words from someone else who recorded it word for word....

´´Elder Ballard gave a wonderful message. Part of it focused on D&C 11, where the Lord answers Hyrum Smith’s question, "What would the Lord want me to do?"

Verse 3 states, "Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God."

And then, in verse 8, "even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you; and, if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation."

Notice the word DESIRE in these verses. The key to success is desire. Elder Ballard told us that all things that we desire and really believe in righteousness can be achieved.

Elder Ballard said, "Your success is directly proportional to your desire."

Then, he asked, "How much do you love The Lord? Do you love Him enough to get up on time?"

He said that this had been a very busy trip for him. Then said, "Frankly, I’m tired. Sometimes I ask myself, "What is an old 85 year old doing running around like this?" Sometimes he is tempted to get discouraged. When he does, he pulls out a small picture of the Savior that he always travels with, and looks into His face. He said that he keeps going because he understands Gethsemane." ´´

I was deeply touched by his words and it honestly helped me so much. Elder Maynes and Elder Dyches from the Seventy and presidency of the Seventy were there too and we shook their hands. Elder Maynes (or dyches i cant remember) said that our we should recite 3 Nefi 5:13 whenever we leave the house. now its taped by the mirror right before we leave. its an amazing scripture!

Now, about my week! This week was really good. Honestly, I can´t really ever say that a week is bad in the mission. Sure, there are trials and difficulties, but in all we´re doing the best thing any one can ever do and there is nothing negative in that! hahaa i´m glad to say i´m blessed with positivity. 

I have been trying to relay more and more on the Spirit. Literally every decision I make, I try and relay on what the Spirit tells me I need to do or what to focus on. It reminds me of what Elder Bednar said in his MTC talk about listening to the Holy Ghost. I have been trying more to do that and Hermana Stepp has been a great help. Every grand or small decision I make, later I´m doubting it. For example, our investigators daughter was returning to her home with her mom in the North. She had been staying with her dad for a month during vacations and while teaching him, she started praying and reading the book of mormon. She´s only 8 years old, but she told us that she likes the way we pray better than the Catholic way. Her mother is very Catholic and its difficult because we don´t want to get Adelson (our columbian) in a bad situation. But after giving it to her, I started to doubt, wondering if that was the right thing to do and wondering if we just nailed the coffin shut permanetely. Hermana Stepp asked me that when we made the decision, did I feel good about it? When I told her yes, she said, then it was a good decision. I have felt more sure of my decisions, knowing that they are in line to what my Heavenly Father would want me to do.

Its been a little disappointing with our investigators. Just this last week, we´ve literally have had half of our investigators ´´kind-of´´ drop us. One won´t answer his phone, the other doesn´t do the church thing, and the other one doesn´t want to get his ex-wife angry at him. Thats Adelson. yes. my adelson is doubting. siigghhh....i´ll write more next week on that. I´m trying very hard not to get discouraged because I can´t work with that spirit. Faith has been brought a lot in our discussions and they have helped me more I think than they´ve helped our investigators. Faith is the key and everything will fall into place.
I love you all very much! i hope you know i am so grateful for your support and everything that you do for me. know that I have a strong testimonty of this Gospel. That Jesus Christ lives and he is the only way to our Heavenly Father. I know this and I try and live it. i love you all and keep smiling! Because there is someone is Spain who loves you very much!

Loves and Hugs

Kinsey

September 3, 2013

Hey family! 

well hello transfers!! 

no i´m still in Barrio 6 with hermana stepp. i´m glad and not glad about it, but i know that I apparently need to learn a lesson i didn´t learn last transfer. which i can understand, because last transfer felt too much like a warm up transfer, which i do not like. honestly, the next future missionary i´m going to talk to is to warn them about the transfer after being trained. I´m going to make this transfer a hard one for me (poor steppy) so that it´ll be second nature to be super duper hard working and exactly obedient. i´d rather give up my luxuries now then be a lacking member and mother of the church for the rest of my dying days. no. me. gusta. para. nada. but dad we usually find out saturday nights, like at 10pmish. except if your district leader forgets to call you, then it might be like right before bed (thanks a lot). when we had our last district leader, he knew all the leaks. plus i lived with hermana munden and she knew everything and everyone about the missionaries.

hahaa i would love a picture of you and the coupe with the new plaque.

Thats great advice mom, but its a little different here in Madrid. we´ve asked out ward mission leader to give us service opportunities but nothings come up. i´ll try harder though:) I´ve been trying my hardest to be a nice and cheerful missionary for the ward members so that they´ll feel comfortable around us. next stop-the trust! i´m excited to finally get to work. Like I said before, I felt that last transfer was a warm up one and this one is when I actually know what I´m doing and NOW i can punch right in! I was just thinking of all the ward activities that they have and that we need to be very involved in them. I´m hoping that we´ll see some great success with this! Kyle Lee sounds familiar, but i dont know him :( but thats super sad that he died.  

well, mom, my best remedy for lack of sleep is A) infusion of lavender, B) exercise right before bed, and C) PRAY. but i know what you mean! millions of things runnin through your head! 

We were talking with Elder and Sister Riggs (some american missionaries workingin the employment center) yesterday and he asked us to share our favorite scripture. well we were all flippin through and we had this 20 minute discussion about the scriptures after wards. I just want to tell y´all that I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON SO MUCH. if i could, i´d spend all day reading and studying it. i love how Heavenly Father helps us so much to retain what we´ve learned. Of this i´m certain, my love for the scriptures will be with me until my dying day. I´ve already made a scripture plan in my head after the mission. i don´t want to lose that burning fire in me to learn! 

Last night we taught a noche de hogar and we decided to teach the gospel of jesus christ and how the 5 pasos to the gospel (fe, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, el don del espíritu santo, y preseverar hasta el fin) lead us to the temple. When we were teaching this, I felt so strongly in my heart that this Church is the church of Christ. that this is the perfect church in all the earth. My testimony was stregthened so much in that little noche de hogar (fhe). 

I want you all to know that I am proud to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. I´m proud to wear this chapa (name tag) and to bear testimony of Jesus Christ everyday. I love my Savior so much and I love my Heavenly Father and the plan He has for all of us. I will cherish the day when I can be wrapped in His arms again. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and I know that it is ONLY through Jesus Christ and our FAITH in Him, that we can return to our Heavenly Father. I can and never ever will deny my testimony. I wear my heart and my testimony on my sleeve and that is waht the rest of us should do. We wear the name tag over our heart and of all the reasons because its there, i know its because as missionaries and as members of His church, we have Him in our hearts. We are His Representatives and i am proud to be chosen as so. I love you all so very much and may God be with you until we meet again :) 

Con besos, abrazos y mucho amor, 

Hermana Smith