November 25, 2013

Hey fam!! estoy aquí. don´t worry. i´ll do a recap of the last 2 weeks for ya. you´re getting double the awesomeness today!

2 weeks ago we started talking to this guy on a bench and then his friends came and joined us. We had a really good conversation with them but they only wanted to know about English class. One of the men is named Thomas and he spoke English very well. We gave him our card and as we were leaving, Hermana Cassinat and I both felt that Thomas was golden and ready. We didn't see him until a couple of days later when he came to English class. Again, we both felt that this man was special. At the end he told us that he wanted to show us something. He pulled out of his bag a photo of two sister missionaries from 14 years ago with his daughter. He had been receiving the charlas and he said he liked them very much! Hermana Cassinat and I are very excited to talk with him and we both feel very strongly that he's going to be a great leader in the Church. We invited him to church, but he couldn´t come. That really bummed us out. He has an amazing voice. Hermana Cassinat and I call it the spanish Sean Connery voice. I want to video tape him speaking sometime. Sometimes we like to just sit and listen to him speak:)

Oh a funny occasion. So we contacted this slightly crazy guy (thats not unusual) and he kept on saying the only english words he knows ´´looky looky, boogy boogy, i like to move it move it!!´´ we try not to laugh in his face. but each time he wants to have a juice with us and this one (and last) occasion, he took us into this cafe...........well so i´m trying to have a conversasion with him and its usually the same thing, ´´no we can´t go to your house unless there´s another woman. i don´t care if you´re honorable. other people may not know, but we work for Someone who WILL know...etc.´´ meanwhile, hermana cassinat is bombarded by 3 drunk guys and she got some numbers!!! hahaha actually, nothing came of this occasion, i just thought it was overall super funny. don´t worry peeps; they may be drunk, but they are honorable drunk men!

we contacted this joven and he´s super cool. He doesn´t live in our area, but we´ve been trying to send his number to those missionaries. he works in Telde so a lot of times hermana cassinat and i go and try and teach him a bit. we gave him the bom and he´s been reading and praying!! He spends most of his time here in telde and last week we tried to meet him at institute in Las Palmas. In the end, algo pasó and he couldn´t come. but we were promised a ride back by the buhlers so we got to stay a couple of minutes. i remember talking to sasha about a few Canarians that i should say hi to and so i went up and talked to the institute teacher. I told him that Elder Zimmerman is my sisinlaws father and he said no me digas! haha he is such a wonderful man and spoke highly of the zimmerman family!

We had Zone Conference and it was absolutely wonderful. It´s a 2 day thing so we were at the old mission home in the mountains (Canaries used to be its own mission) and monday we played sports and ate all day. then we watched 17 miracles and i cried like a baby. then we had the actual conference the next day. WOW. So amazing! I sang with some other missionaries and well....2 of the elders got a ´´giggle attack´´, as they say it. hahahaaha we were so confused why everyone inthe audience was smiling while we singa super spiritual song. haha now me know. All the speakers were wonderful and I feltt they were definitely following the Spirit and it was all so uplifting. This is by far my favorite conference! The one´s in Madrid were good but i felt more chastized then uplifted. 

Update on Leo and his wife Irma! We have been working with him and his baptism. Yesterday, Leo and Irma came to church! Afterwards, we showed them the baptismal font and explained with the whole process. I dipped Hermana Cassinat. They were both surprised at how simple it was and I think that fear that they had is gone now that they know. We were going to have it this Saturday, but we´ve changed it to the next Saturday, the 8th. It will be so wonderful, because the rama will be so involved! they´re talking about having the primary sing a musical number and its so amzing because b6 never put their 2 cents in and here we can have a lesson an hour before and show up for the service on time and the members have done it all! and that means no more flooding baptismal fonts!!

I finished reading the book of mormon this week and it was really so wonderful. ah, i just LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON SO STINKIN MUCH!!!!! Hermana Cassinat, by her example, is really helping me set more goals to achieve. In all, she´s a wonderful missionary and I feel so blessed to know that I have this next and last transfer with her. A lot of times, I still feel like I´m being trained (she also reminds me so much of Hermana Hansen!!!!) because I´m learning so much. Oh yeah, and Hermana Cassinat goes home after this transfer, on Jan. 6th or something like that. Its crazy how time flies! I really admire her because she isn't letting the thought of her going home soon affect her teaching or make her lazy at all. Or trunky. We just don´t talk about it. But it WIGS my mind that the transfer is gone and we´re on a new one. I was talking to the Jacksons and asking their advice about going home dates. and they told me i needed to go to school and no i couldn´t do a half transfer....that means times a ticking and no me gusta para nada

thank you so much for all your prayers and letters. oh and the jacksons found my package!! aparently some elder stuck it in a closet in the stake building up in madrid and its been sitting there ever sense...but i´ll get it sooner or later!!

LOVE YA!

hermana smith

oh and we have permission to have a thanksgiving meal with the Buhlers this thursday!! yum.

November 11, 2013

Hola familia!!

This week was really good. Hermana Cassinat and I have been a bit worried about finding new investigators because the ones we have now aren´t really progressing. It´s been difficult and expensive when we don´t have the trusty Madrid transportation but we make it work. we´re best buds with the taxi people and the bus transportation. they call the buses here guaguas or in the english, wah-wahs. hhahahahahahahahaaa. But we are working and contacting and hopefully we´ll see some trusty new souls!
Our Ecuadorian, Leo, is doing really well and his wife is wonderful! Her name is Irma and she just came in from Ecuador and she is so sweet and really understands the doctrine. We think she´s supportive of his baptism but we get down to that this week. He will be baptized the 23rd of this month and we are very excited for him! We feel that when his wife gets baptized, she´ll be a huge support and booster for Leo. Things don´t really click for him, but Irma is super sharp. They came to church for all 3 hours and she was so loved by all the members! We felt so grateful that everyone was her friend. She seems really receptive and we want her to have the best of friends since she´s just moved here.
Hermana Cassinat and I are doing really well. Hahahaa we´re really good at getting distracted, so during a weekly planning session, we were figuring out a baptismal date for an investigator, then hermana cassinat said, oh thats pearl harbor day! then we ended up talking about military and how we wanted to join, then veterans then the goverment shutting down then we sang all the american songs we knew then talked about songs in general with good lyrics. then we scream and blame each other 20 min later. hahahaaa its sooooo hilarious but i don´t suggest it for any missionary!

I´m still trying to get the hang of things because the transportation and finding places here is so difficult, but she´s been a huge support. Our biggest problem is getting the members involved in lessons. Our district leader gave us a good idea to simply bring the investigators to the members houses and we never thought of it that way. We´re going to try it out this week! but the story of old bishop tidwell (not old as in years...)really helped and i took a picture of it so that we can refer to it later in the week:)

i´m glad that you´re week was wonderful! and busy! hahaa but i´m super happy to be here in telde! its a big fam bam here and i don´t want to leave!

now for the daily questions!

1. i received one letter and i´ll call the office just to double and triple check :) did you write another name on the package for them to not know? like rosa for example? (dad) oh and i received the birthday letter with the wonderulness song in it and the monthly relief society letter from my visiting teacher last wednesday:)

2. mail to the islands. please :)

i feel terrible not because i didn´t get a package (please) but because you all put your heart and soul into it. i´m sorry that your efforts and love and everything was lost:( but i´m just fine andi know that all will be well.

I love you all! please know that i love the mission so much. i love serving the Lord. it scares me that my time is ticking and i have t minus something amount of time left. but know that i am working and tring my best to be the best missionary that the Lord expects me to be.

Love you!

Hermana smith

A couple serving on the Canary Islands, Elder and Sister Buhler, sent a few notes about Kinsey to us this week (our dad was trying to sort out how things work there for mailing packages). 

[Sent on Mon, Nov. 11]
Hermana Smith is doing great!  Yesterday we were in her and her companion's gospel essential class for investigators and they did a fantastic job teaching about the Holy Ghost.  Her spanish is really coming along and she is very happy!
[Sent on Wed, Nov 13]
Your daughter is such a joy to serve with on this island!!  She is doing fantastic!!  In fact yesterday she and her companion were contacting all day in Telde and found some wonderful people to teach.  She is happy and doing well! She will probably be here for at least a few more months, as Elders and Hermanas usually serve around 5 to 6 months here.  Don't worry, we will take good care of her while she is here!!

Love,

Elder and Hermana Buhler

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.

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