February 10, 2014

Hey fam bam! 

This week was really good. We're trying to work harder and work better together as we teach. With the end of this past week, we looked back and are trying to figure out what we could work on better this week. It will be great to try and work this out this week! We both want to work on our weaknesses and she's really good at making goals and keeping them. 

We have a new investigator named Julio. He contacted us as we arrived for a lesson on a bench and we were able to talk with him. We've met with him a few times and he's an interesting man but he is interested in our message. We gave him some stuff to read from the book of mormon and he read it and studied it! Literally studied it! We asked him to be baptized on the 9th of March and he said yes! He has a smoking problem and we're hoping it won't be too big of a problem. 
We talked with Yasmina with the YW president and it was amazing because Yasmina has the same situation that the YW president had. Yasmina has felt her dead abuelo's presence and that he wants her to be baptized and that he wants her to do the work for him. The YW president had the same situation! it was amazing her testimony and the spirit was so strong. We asked her for a specific fecha baptismal but she didn't want to set one. She's still progressing well and she really wants her kids to get baptized. 
Fi received his answer! He came home from church last week and was singing Gospel songs. He said that God touched his heart and was telling him to get baptized! He is so excited and is getting baptized this weekend. We feel he's going to be a great member and leader.

We're doing well and its been a good week. This is the last week of the transfer and we hope we won't be transferred. But its wherever the Lord wants us to go. Apart from a bus accident and me choking on an apple PLUS hermana cassinat has a boy!!!! (sorry Hna Cassinat…not sure if you're reading this). hahahaaaa!!!! Oh, so the workouts you mailed me? so i have 2 sets of them and i accidentally left part of them in the telde piso. so i go to district meeting and one of the elders told me that he found my victoria secret workout….hahahaaa that was really funny and awkward

i love you family! you're wonderful. until next week!

hermana smith

So pic with the heart is of a recent convert and she has super bad back problems, scoliosis. We were visiting her cuz she was bed ridden for awhile. 

Next is of a less active family. It was really quite an awkward picture. 

Then this is of Giovanni! He's a recent convert too but his moms an investigator. He's the best little kid ever. 

And this is of Sara with a welcome sign! Her parents and grandparents are the ones that are from salta area in Argentina. 

February 3, 2014

HOOOOOOLA Family!!

This week was good and time seems to fly by faster and faster. We´re always running around trying to get to places, so you´ll have to ask for updates later and probably when i copy my companions journal (i´m a wee bit behind). speaking of companions, i love hermana fowers!! we´re two peas in a pod. We both have things we wanna work on and we´re both willing to work on them together! We´ve been trying to improve our teaching, specifically on lessons for the first time. We have many things we can talk about and we just end up shoving a bunch of information into their brains. So after one lesson (which i don´t even want to talk about), we finally talked it out and we´re both working hard to be better at it. Also, for some reason, there are just some investigators that just really rub us the wrong way, each of us a different one. So we´ve been working on that-hahaa.
We have quite a bit of investigators with smoking problems and we have been trying more to have daily contact with them. Its been really good to see the change in them and for them to feel that they´re important to us. We´re trying to visit them daily and just share a strengthening scripture with them each time. It has worked out really well so far!
We were having a lesson with Yasmina and she straight up told us that she had told her boyfriend they were living together in sin and she´s already thinking about what do for her wedding!! She say´s she wants to be baptized so that she can do the work for her grandfather in the temple. Literally, she´s just wonderful. The problem is waiting for her to get married, but she knows the importance of it and said she´d get baptized right after the marriage ceremony.
We talked with Fi from Africa and we´ve been trying to figure out what he needs and whats stopping him from being baptized. Its great, because each time we visit him he´s more and more receptive to the Spirit and to what we´re teaching. He´s got a date for the 26th and we feel that its fijo for sure! At first, he didn´t have testimony, then with a testimony, he had problema smoking, then he wanted to be baptized in a river (ha) but now he´s fijo! (that means...uh...its set!)
We´ve been working hard to try and help our investigators. We have soooo many of them that are just inches from baptism, but there is always one little thing that is stopping them. It´s a little bewildering but we´re hoping that it will be their time soon. We love this work and we love working together!! It´s just a wonderful life.

and i don´t know why my computers acting weird. So if i send this letter and its highlighted grey, i don´t know why.

cool fact: we had our first stake conference after the stake was formed and they said that the canary islands are the first stake to be spread apart by islands. or something like that. it was way awesome!!! the missionaries sang the armies of helaman and it was sooooo cool. the spirit was so strong.

i love you all! everythings going well. i love the góspel and i love being a missionary. its da best!

love hermana smith

January 27, 2014

Well, hey there lovely family of mine!!

This week was really good. It truly is a blessing to be serving here. Its been a blessing to know the people here in Las Palmas and also to work with Hermana Fowers. I am truly blessed! Now, how many times can i say blessed?! hahaa just kidding but its so true. I have never felt more blessed in my entire life. MISSIONSAREDABEST
We´ve been trying to work more with the members and it´s been great because the Relief Society President wants to work with us too! Hermana Fowers and I were planning how to work with the sisters more and then 5 hours later, the president states an idea casí identical to ours! Its amazing to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. It reminds me of when you were doing the ward mission plan, dad, and mark simpson had the same idea!!
Yasmina, our ´´golden girl´´, is doing great!! We had a lesson with a member friend and it was great because we can be straight up with her about everything and she understands it all. We taught the Gospel and she told us right up that for her to be baptized she needed to get married. She literally understands everything we tell her and the significance. On sunday, she showed up only for the last hour. We couldn´t understand why, but then she told us that she got out to leave and someone had hit her car! She´s told us stories how Satan´s been trying to stop her from coming to church and just the little daily stuff. It´s so amazing to talk with her and she wants to be baptized! Plus, she has her 3 kids who love church! We´re very excited for them.
In all, we´ve been trying as hard as we can to have members in our lessons. I think finally, FINALLY i understand the great importance of members in lessons. Because we´re not just baptizing them and ya esta. We´re wanting them to stay and have friends and feel like they´re coming home. For example, Yasmina has 3 really close friends from church already and we don´t need to worry whether or not she´s someone will look after her if we leave. We´re trying to make it so that every investigator has a friend, so that they know its not just the missionaries who are friendly, but the members also. The ward here is good too, because they´re wanting to help us :)

In all, I just love the mission. I love everything about it. Everythings so clear, we know what to do and we just need to take it into practice and do it. We have an investigator that really tries our patience (mostly me--hermana fowers is the loving one of us) and sometimes i just want to teach bluntly and clearly, like if you don´t stop smoking, then THIS is whats up, type of dealio. But hermana fowers helps me stop and take a step back and breath :D hahaa i´m a lot better at it too.

I love you family! Thanks for your letters and your love and prayers. I can feel them here. When I feel more burdened, I stop and think and pray and i can feel your prayers working in me. I love you all so very much and I thank our Heavenly Father everyday for your love and support.

Con muchísimo cariño y un abrazo SÚPER fuerte,

Hermana Smith

January 20, 2014

Hey Familiy!

So this week has been AWESOME!! Literally everyday I´m thanking the Lord because I´m here. But, I could have never reached here without the wonderful support of my family and friends :) So much has happened. Don´t know where to start! (Ok, maybe I do. No tengo ningún problema de hablar) (wow i´m so sorry if i said that wrong spanish speakers)

We received a call from President Jackson and he told us that a Seventy was coming down and he wanted to come visit our ´´golden´´ investigators, but only in Las Palmas. His name is Elder Ruiz de Mendoza and it was absolutely wonderful to speak and listen to him. He is an absolutely wonderful man! We were able to meet with him before seeing the investigators and we had our questions prepared (as asked) and he gave us wonderful advice. He told us that we needed to go into peoples homes and think, what would the Savior say to them? He´s very humble and really cares for others well-being. He talked with Yasmina, our Golden girl:) She always has questions to ask us, some of which are quite deep, but the one question she asked him was why there were so many churches. At first, I felt bad because I thought maybe we hadn´t taught it clearly before, but then he just opened up his scriptures and spoke directly to her heart. He applied every small detail and applied to her and her question. Before, she didn´t really want to pray to receive her answer. To him, she said she was going to pray. We feel that she´s going to do that and we´re so excited for her. We, missionaries and members, can feel that she´s going to be an amazing leader in the church and they´ve told her that repeatedly.
We were incredibly blessed to have this privilage and we will never forget it. We seemed to be blessed throughout the whole week and its just been so wonderful!
We´ve been trying to work with the people who have fechas and helping others to that goal as well. Its been a little tricky meeting with people, mostly because they have exams at this time or work. But we´re working well and its been wonderful.
Fi from Ghana still needed to gain a testimony so we took him off fecha but just recently, he received his answer!! We´re helping him completely drop smoking (he only smokes one a day now which is so good) and he wants to be baptized. We gave him a date in 3 weeks, and he said he´d be baptized in 2! He also said he wanted to be baptized in a river but we can´t really give that to him hahaha. We could try and have him baptized in the ocean but it wouldn´t fly. #islandmissionaries. (<--hashtags are a district joke) It was a great lesson! We´ve been focusing on families with him, because he has a 4yr old son and I think thats just helping gain more of a testimony of the Gospel. 

This week was just good!! Its a fast life here in Las Palmas. I´ve seen some of the Telde peeps walking around, so I´m definitely not too far! Plus, I´ve never snuggled so many animals in my life. its awesome :) one big puppy came runnin at me then just clamped his mouth right on my arm. he wouldn´t let go!! hahaa he wasn´t being mean and i knew that so i just petted him and played with him. then the owners started freaking out because he had my arm..haha. I was ok.

LOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!

Hermana SMith

so my cat again. she loves me.

then las palmas at sunset! it was cold that day :)

Yasmina and her kids. then pres. Déniz (pres. de stake) and Elder Ruiz de Mendoza, the Seventy.

Sasha´s faaaammmmiiillllllyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!! They´re great. i´m glad they know sasha because they understand american humor too.

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!

January 6, 2014

Hey family!

Oh, yea! Transfers. they´re awesome. First thing first, I´m leaving Telde. Oh Telde. My heart will forever be there. Seriously. Telde is the beeeeeest plaaaacce ever. Only as missionaries and tourists, though. The economy is not so hot like the weather here. So this week is a big long story and I´ll give you bits of it.

First thing first, Telde peeps! We had a lesson with Leo and Irma and their cuñada was there from Vecindario (another area with missionaries, like 20 min away). She had soo many questions about the many churches on the earth and we were able to teach the 1st lesson with them. She was very open to it and it was amazing because Irma was answering mostly all the questions!! It was a really powerful and simple lesson and Leo was a good suppor through it all. He´s doing so well and he´s so much happier now. They said they´d come to church with the cuñada, but they never showed. It´s really sad because I still haven't been able to explain that I was leaving.

We taught the plan of salvation to tomás and he took it very well. it was an amazing lesson and we asked him to be baptized on the 18th.. I was quite shocked at his reaction. He was surprised that we had asked him that and it makes me wonder if any of my investigators understand our purpose as missionaries. Obviously, he knows now, but in our last lesson together, I explained to him clearly our purpose as missionaries, why we left and what we do. He understands now and I really hope he will continue on the path that he´s on now. It was really sad to say goodbye because he´s such a sweet man, but I know that we will see each other again. Just like D & C 130:2 says!

Hermana Cassinuts er-Cassinada, i mean Cassinat se fue a casa! Wednesday. That was super sad. It was really like saying goodbye to a seestor. But I´m grateful for the example that she was for me. I´m a better missionary because of her help.

I worked in Las Palmas in a trio for 3 days and we went to Telde to work on saturday. It was soooo nice to be home!! (Little did I know... ;) ). Then we found out transfers that..and well...yes long story. So there are Hermanas that have a gift for finding out transfers 2 hours before we get the official calls. Hermana Fowers, my new compy de Utah, happened to hear from another hermana that we were companions and so for awhile, we were both freaking trying to figure out which area was being closed, the hermanas de las palmas or de telde. So the district leader calls and he´s giving us all the details and then he says that i was moving to las palmas....THAT i wasn´t expecting. then he goes on to say that an elder from las palmas was taking my place. So, knowing I had to do some big things without a companion and the fact i was leaving, i may have kinda cried like a baby. so for like the first 12 hours i stressed my little hiney off and may have cried in testimony meeting, then i thought, ´´oh my gosh. why am i an emotional wreck right now!! I´M GOING TO LAS PALMAS NO MARS. sheesh´´. the poor members. hahahahaaa one of the members came up to me and said that leaving the first area was always hard....hahahahaa oh my goodness. I´m used to members coming up to me to tell me that I´m only on my 2nd transfer. They´re just so used to seeing fresh newbies. SO. Being the only working missionary in Telde, therefore i was in charge of closing it and re opening it for the new elders. During that process, I learned a few lessons. First, about updating the area book daily. Second, about updating our future investigators list daily. And thirdly, keeping everything clean. Para que sepaís, I have learned my lessons. Thoroughly. By the way, i hate packing. I´m cleaning everything out and organizing things. 9 months of missionary collection is so not cool.

But honestly, I am sooo excited for this new transfer!!! I heard the members are wonderful in Las Palmas and we eat some dang good food, I hear. The work is amazing and we´re going to kick butt! I love being a missionary!

I looooove you family!!! you´re awesome. the church is true and remember that i looooooves you.
Hermana Smith

December 30, 2013

Hey Family! I hope you got my package and everythings all good. We had a good week but I´m so turned around because we had district meeting on monday and pday on wednesday and I´ve been a day behind all week long! The weathers getting colder and its feeling more and more like Madrid! The waves are huge and its been fun to just watch them and other people get white washed for a wave, hahaha. But we´ve been good and working hard. We got in a lot more lessons this week and we´ve been walking the streets a lot. We´ve had a lot of first lessons and so far so good!
We finally were able to start teaching Tomás! He´s the one that has a Sean Connery voice. We told him that too and we may have gone on a big shpeel about the James Bond movies and then A Team because I was whistling the tune at that moment. Hahahaaa seriously, everytime I hear the name Murdock, I think of the moment when he´s swinging on the blades and singing, ´´You spin my head right round...´´ Hahahaa! Oh we´re going to get along great. He´s wonderful! He´s come to church three times so far and its been wonderful because he´s slowing warming up to a new environment. Slowly, but surely. He´s a little hesitant but alls good.
It´s been a good week working with Hermana Cassinat. She´s doing fine and said she doesn´t even feel like she´s going home, so that's good. We don´t talk about it and I told her not to start packing until the day before she leaves :) She´s leaving Wednesday and spending a day in Madrid then flying away! So I´m heading to Las Palmas to work with the Hermana´s there and I´ll say goodbye for Telde for 3ish days. We´re coming back to work on Saturday and I´ll come to Church for Sunday, so we have it all planned out. I´m excited for my new compy.
Leo has been a good support for his wife, Irma. She´s still getting used to the regular church schedule, but yesterday she showed up to church alone and we had no idea where Leo was. Later, she told us that he got a call saying he had to come and work and then he told her that she HAD to come to church! haha it was great, because at least she came on her own and not just for her husband. I could tell that she wasn´t too excited to be there though....oh well.
There´s a man named Gonzalo and he´s great. He´s wanting to change his life again and be a ´´mormon´´, as he says. He´s a really really smart guy and loves the temple soooo much. We had an FHE at his house and he taught the lesson and honestly it felt like he was a member and everything. He´s an amazing man but sometimes we can´t figure out whats going on in his brain. He´s also part of the Mafia, so whenever he talks with us in the street, some guy would come up, greet him, and then pat our arms. Gonzalo just goes and does a back kick, nearly smacking the guy in the face and says, ´´NOBODY touches the Telde hermanas!!´´ hahahahahahahahaaa then he told us that if anyone gives us trouble we just say, ´´we know Gonzalo´´. hahahaaa he´s great though. I love that man. He´s quite facsinating.
It will be sad for Hermana Cassinat to leave but I am sure she´ll be fine and I had the most wonderful 2 transfers with her! Literally, I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. But I´m excited for the new companion to bless Telde even more!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!!!

Love

Hermana Smith