Wow, i pretty much get a stream of the same questions.
Hermana Stepp is from Washington State and she has almost 11 months in the mission. BUT, her spanish is a tiny bit better than mine. she´s fo sho senior in transfers but....i´m kind of in charge so its been a little bit of a transitions process for me. thankfully, hermana hansen wasn´t leaving for a caruña until 2 days later, so we were about to talk it out a little bit. i´m good ahora :) we speak in english in the piso and a little bit of spanish outside. hahaa not smart i know. i never realized how good my spanish is!! i can hold some dang good conversations and i´ve learned to argue. my favorite is que no!! que sí!!! que no!! que sí!!! hahaa its a little childish but i love it. we´re talking with Old Man José as we call him. his real name is just José, but the old man part fits perfectly. he´s probably around 75 and he is UGH a little irritating. i argue the most with him. he calls me niña mala now. thats my point now, back to my companion...
we´re good, she´s very sweet. loves to serve others. but of COURSE i miss my little norweigy!!! but its good that we´re separated. wow this sounds like a break up. but the scary thing is the train wreck. so. i´ll start with that story...
hermana hansen was going to leave after picking her new one up from the stake center. first off, that was a little strange because usually they send you to your new area (hers being A Caruña) and the new one comes up later. but she was opening up A Caruña so thats probably why. ANYWHO she and her new comp. and Elder Ward (who was also going to a caruña) leave at weird oclock in the morning for their train. the office elders accidently gave him a ticket that had left the day before and so they had to buy another one for later that day. Hermana hansen and her new one left for their train ride and elder ward waited. well, you know what happened. he was writing in his journal, driver liked to go a little faster than sane, remembered thinking it was weird how fast they shouldn´t be going then blacked out. he´s fine and recovering at the mtc ahora. i talked to him yesterday and he´s looking sharp in his neck brace. but he is fine. i was asking this other elder if he was related to Holsts in caldwell (he´s not) and then elder ward asks me if i´m like related to 3 of the church´s presidents. hahaa he´s a funny kid. but i was talking with a few missionaries and they said that if anyone would be a great ambassador for the missionaries, it would be him. he´s so positive and a great speaker. elder Uchtdorf called him too. he´s pretty jelly cuz he´s not in the field yet so i´m thinking of asking president if he can help with some of our lessons.
well thats the story!
we´re teaching this man named gregorio and he is a mormon in disguise. i kid you not. our district leader called to ask if he had a weakness or not and i couldn´t give him any. his baptism is for the 17th of august :) he´s a great man. he and inussa get along great. but who couldn´t get along with inussa!!
the majority of our help from the ward are 3 jovenes. we have noche de hogar once in awhile but the majority of the older people that help us are missionaries living in the hostel for the temple. we were at a couples apartment in the mtc yesterday and Hermana Shillenburg had the most AMAZING quilt!!!!! it literally had the plan all on it. i´ll take a picture and send it to y´all.
i have loved the mission more and more this week. we go out in the heat and ring some door bells and i am literally having the time of my life. poor hermana stepp, who is about 7 inches shorter than i, has to run to keep up with me. i´m so not used to slowing down at all. she´s the complete opposite of hermana hansen. hansens the type to GO GO GO GO GO GET ÉR DONE! and stepp is the la lala la la la oh a flower!! i kid you not, she gets more distracted than i do!! but the beginning of the week was super hard and i was way to stressed. but i received a letter from bishop tidwell on monday and that letter was just what i needed. i read that thing like 7 times in 3 days. it really strengthened me and gave me the courage and strength to move on.
well i love you guys so much!! you da best. i´ll send pictures soon!! whitney, HOOORAAAHH!!! i´m making my list of possible areas!!
loves
hermana smith
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
July 15, 2013
Hey family!
Yeah, you can say the mop and I get around. Thankfully no one knew about our incident. well....you guys know and whoever reads the blog, but SPAIN doesn´t know :) Its interesting to read your reaction dad and i try and picture it. did it hurt when you fell off? its similar to your experience taking the trampoline apart i guess.
wow that was a terrible joke. please erase that from your memories! actually the 2nd part i laughed at but still :)
ah man i love our caldwell boys!! they´re such lil stud muffins. they´ve been taught well. reminds me of a quote from Nefi, ``I, Nefi, being born of goodly parents...´´ and its soo true!! i miss the caldwell 11 ward peeps. send them my love and muchos besos at the pulpit daddy!! and say those words too. i´ll be kissin all y´all on the cheeks when i come home.
Scary news, but TRANSFERS ARE NEXT WEEK!!! I´m kinda apprehensive. i´m trying to have the ´´whatever´´ attitude, but its un poco dificíl.
As much as I DON´T like it, this week has flown by. too fast.
Hermana Hansen and I have a goal to completely organize the area books in our apartment and we are almost done!! Well, i call peeps while she organizes everything. But its hard work when you only know a few phrases to say!! With the help of Hermanas Munden and Stepp, we have almost completely contacted everyone from them. It´s a big job! mama would be proud of us. We´ve had a few lessons with some of them and it´s so amazing to see our results come through. We contacted this man name Digno and when we met with him, he said he brought a friend along. During the lesson, Digno showed zero interest. But his friend, Nieves, had so many questions. She was a searching and ready soul! We´ve had a second lesson with her and she just wants out of her bad life. She also says she has no will to quit smoking and to change herself and her life. But we told her that the fact that she is there listening to us tells us she has a will! And a strong one at that!! She was so grateful for the message of hope and love. We see her progressing very well.
We contacted this man, Ginel (pronounced Gee-nel. I keep saying Janelle, but that is SO totally not right.) from Romania, on the street and we had our first lesson with him! We went to his house and his wife came and participated as well. Their 12 year old son had died from some sort of accident and they were SO receptive to our message. I loved them within the first few minutes of visiting with them! I sincerely hope that they feel that our message is true. We see great progression with them!
Another great experience we had was with a man named Gregorio. Gregorio showed up at english class one Saturday and then the next day, he´s at church!! This happened 2 times before we finally set up an appointment with him and we had our first lesson last night. He was so receptive! He believed a little in God, but he wants to know more and he really wants to be baptized when he knows a little more of the church and the scriptures. I´m so excited for him!
Last week, we talked about el Ayuno and we asked Adelson, our Colombian investigator (you were right mom), if he´d fast with us for an answer about the Book of Mormon. He said he would and we parted ways. For 2 days, we tried to get in contact with him and we weren´t getting ahold of him. We were so scared that he got spooked off! Finally, Sunday morning, he shows up!!! He´s hungry, but he´s happy! We were so grateful. Hermana Hansen and I wanted to cry.
Inussa and Gheorghe are doing SO amazingly well. They are both so ready to receive the Priesthood. Inussa wants to do things right, so we have to explain everything in little details, but he´s ready to take on that responsiblity! Gheorghe was born ready. He´s ready for ´´the force of God to come upon him´´. He´ll be leaving for Canada next month and will be greatly missed. Espero que buscará una capilla allí!
welp thats all folks!! I´m having the time of my LIFE and its sooooooooooo CRAZY that i come home in a year. one. year. no me gusta ese. but know that i love you all so much and the Heavenly Father is SOOOO proud of what you are all doing right now! It brings me so much hope knowing that we have such a supportive being in our lives.
love you all!! Besos!
Hermana Smith
Yeah, you can say the mop and I get around. Thankfully no one knew about our incident. well....you guys know and whoever reads the blog, but SPAIN doesn´t know :) Its interesting to read your reaction dad and i try and picture it. did it hurt when you fell off? its similar to your experience taking the trampoline apart i guess.
wow that was a terrible joke. please erase that from your memories! actually the 2nd part i laughed at but still :)
ah man i love our caldwell boys!! they´re such lil stud muffins. they´ve been taught well. reminds me of a quote from Nefi, ``I, Nefi, being born of goodly parents...´´ and its soo true!! i miss the caldwell 11 ward peeps. send them my love and muchos besos at the pulpit daddy!! and say those words too. i´ll be kissin all y´all on the cheeks when i come home.
Scary news, but TRANSFERS ARE NEXT WEEK!!! I´m kinda apprehensive. i´m trying to have the ´´whatever´´ attitude, but its un poco dificíl.
As much as I DON´T like it, this week has flown by. too fast.
Hermana Hansen and I have a goal to completely organize the area books in our apartment and we are almost done!! Well, i call peeps while she organizes everything. But its hard work when you only know a few phrases to say!! With the help of Hermanas Munden and Stepp, we have almost completely contacted everyone from them. It´s a big job! mama would be proud of us. We´ve had a few lessons with some of them and it´s so amazing to see our results come through. We contacted this man name Digno and when we met with him, he said he brought a friend along. During the lesson, Digno showed zero interest. But his friend, Nieves, had so many questions. She was a searching and ready soul! We´ve had a second lesson with her and she just wants out of her bad life. She also says she has no will to quit smoking and to change herself and her life. But we told her that the fact that she is there listening to us tells us she has a will! And a strong one at that!! She was so grateful for the message of hope and love. We see her progressing very well.
We contacted this man, Ginel (pronounced Gee-nel. I keep saying Janelle, but that is SO totally not right.) from Romania, on the street and we had our first lesson with him! We went to his house and his wife came and participated as well. Their 12 year old son had died from some sort of accident and they were SO receptive to our message. I loved them within the first few minutes of visiting with them! I sincerely hope that they feel that our message is true. We see great progression with them!
Another great experience we had was with a man named Gregorio. Gregorio showed up at english class one Saturday and then the next day, he´s at church!! This happened 2 times before we finally set up an appointment with him and we had our first lesson last night. He was so receptive! He believed a little in God, but he wants to know more and he really wants to be baptized when he knows a little more of the church and the scriptures. I´m so excited for him!
Last week, we talked about el Ayuno and we asked Adelson, our Colombian investigator (you were right mom), if he´d fast with us for an answer about the Book of Mormon. He said he would and we parted ways. For 2 days, we tried to get in contact with him and we weren´t getting ahold of him. We were so scared that he got spooked off! Finally, Sunday morning, he shows up!!! He´s hungry, but he´s happy! We were so grateful. Hermana Hansen and I wanted to cry.
Inussa and Gheorghe are doing SO amazingly well. They are both so ready to receive the Priesthood. Inussa wants to do things right, so we have to explain everything in little details, but he´s ready to take on that responsiblity! Gheorghe was born ready. He´s ready for ´´the force of God to come upon him´´. He´ll be leaving for Canada next month and will be greatly missed. Espero que buscará una capilla allí!
welp thats all folks!! I´m having the time of my LIFE and its sooooooooooo CRAZY that i come home in a year. one. year. no me gusta ese. but know that i love you all so much and the Heavenly Father is SOOOO proud of what you are all doing right now! It brings me so much hope knowing that we have such a supportive being in our lives.
love you all!! Besos!
Hermana Smith
Monday, July 8, 2013
July 8, 2013
Wow, it sounds like EVERYONE is having a blast!! I was just talking about Idaho wind storms to my norweigy this week. i´m sorry i missed it and that the computer doesn´t work. what are you guys to do!! haha sorry...
well, we have another baptism!! Gheorghe, pronounced Jorge, from Romania was baptized saturday at 10am! (birthday gift to Whitney Whebster!) So, knowing the elders AND our ward mission leader wouldn´t be there, we get there are 8:15am and start the font. We go back to the apartment, like 2 secs away, and are gone for maybe 20 min. then we run back and may or may not have flooded the boys bathroom as well as the girls bathroom and mothers room and a wheel chair bathroom. I pulled a whitney on her birthday!! it took us probably 30 min to mop it all up. hahaa oh the memories i´m collecting....the sad part is, it was my fault! hermana hansen was all ready to head down but nooooooooo i had to try and finish my hair! whew. yes. lesson learned. haha oh yeah plus the bishop yelled at us for not having programs. haha well bishop, we did give YOU the program thursday night to take care of it. then he got all huffy and puffy and threatened us because apparently, A) Hermana Hansen and I talked back at him and, B) There were no programs. again. I just want you to know that if we did talk back at bishop, A) I don´t know how in spanish and, B) Hermana Hansen is too nice to talk back. She just say´s things the way they are, which is the truth.
i about DIED hearing about Elder Miller!! hahahahahaaa!!! it´s soooo like him. man, i´d laugh too. his trainer needs to chillax.
Inussa is doing GREAT! We are teaching him about the priesthood and he KNOWS that it´s serious business. I´m so grateful that he knows its not all fun and games! I´m not worried at all about Inussa. He´s going to be a rock for the ward, I can already tell. His attitude is, if its not right, you don´t do it. He´s very much a black and white type of guy, no grey areas. It´s perfect, because the Church is exactly that! oh and inussa is from New Genea. Ginnea, Gennia, Geanaua....
Our other investigator, Adelson, is SUCH A GEM. He´s the next Inussa. He´s from Columbia. He´s a tough one though, because he loves the Bible and he is truly searching through the Book of Mormon to know if its true. He say´s the he doesn´t feel for it yet, but we challenged him to start from the beginning and to pray each time he reads. We know he will, because I honestly think he wants to believe. He comes to church and to all the activities because he wants to come! He loves it!! But I´m so glad that he wants to do things right, just like Inussa.
Ben, cuantos bebés tenía? Tuvo? Hermana Munden say´s hi btdubs.
Well, i love ya guys!! The weathers so stinkin discustingly hot here. hermana hansen and i look like spaniards with our cute fans. its in the 40´s!! too hot. too. stinkin. hot.
Love
Hermana Smith
oh sorry no pictures! next week. it no work ahora :(
well, we have another baptism!! Gheorghe, pronounced Jorge, from Romania was baptized saturday at 10am! (birthday gift to Whitney Whebster!) So, knowing the elders AND our ward mission leader wouldn´t be there, we get there are 8:15am and start the font. We go back to the apartment, like 2 secs away, and are gone for maybe 20 min. then we run back and may or may not have flooded the boys bathroom as well as the girls bathroom and mothers room and a wheel chair bathroom. I pulled a whitney on her birthday!! it took us probably 30 min to mop it all up. hahaa oh the memories i´m collecting....the sad part is, it was my fault! hermana hansen was all ready to head down but nooooooooo i had to try and finish my hair! whew. yes. lesson learned. haha oh yeah plus the bishop yelled at us for not having programs. haha well bishop, we did give YOU the program thursday night to take care of it. then he got all huffy and puffy and threatened us because apparently, A) Hermana Hansen and I talked back at him and, B) There were no programs. again. I just want you to know that if we did talk back at bishop, A) I don´t know how in spanish and, B) Hermana Hansen is too nice to talk back. She just say´s things the way they are, which is the truth.
i about DIED hearing about Elder Miller!! hahahahahaaa!!! it´s soooo like him. man, i´d laugh too. his trainer needs to chillax.
Inussa is doing GREAT! We are teaching him about the priesthood and he KNOWS that it´s serious business. I´m so grateful that he knows its not all fun and games! I´m not worried at all about Inussa. He´s going to be a rock for the ward, I can already tell. His attitude is, if its not right, you don´t do it. He´s very much a black and white type of guy, no grey areas. It´s perfect, because the Church is exactly that! oh and inussa is from New Genea. Ginnea, Gennia, Geanaua....
Our other investigator, Adelson, is SUCH A GEM. He´s the next Inussa. He´s from Columbia. He´s a tough one though, because he loves the Bible and he is truly searching through the Book of Mormon to know if its true. He say´s the he doesn´t feel for it yet, but we challenged him to start from the beginning and to pray each time he reads. We know he will, because I honestly think he wants to believe. He comes to church and to all the activities because he wants to come! He loves it!! But I´m so glad that he wants to do things right, just like Inussa.
Ben, cuantos bebés tenía? Tuvo? Hermana Munden say´s hi btdubs.
Well, i love ya guys!! The weathers so stinkin discustingly hot here. hermana hansen and i look like spaniards with our cute fans. its in the 40´s!! too hot. too. stinkin. hot.
Love
Hermana Smith
oh sorry no pictures! next week. it no work ahora :(
Monday, July 1, 2013
July 1, 2013
Hey you guys!! This was a GREAT week!!! don´t worry, Inussa was baptized. he is such a lil stud muffin. Inussa was confirmed and it was so special! Elder Pizarro, our district leader, confirmed him and we couldn't hear much, but we did hear him say A LEADER IN THE CHURCH. oh my goodness its so true. its amazing to see the progress of inussa, and each of our investigators, because they are so much closer to Jesucristo y nuestro Padre Celestial. Inussa pretty much gave us a talk how he doesn't like sunday school because everyone say's, well, i think this or that....hahaa he said, ''no! not what you think! that doesn't matter!! *slaps the bible and book of mormon* its what matters in here!''
oh inussa. my heart gets all warm like when i think of him. oh and because the ward mission leader decided not to show up at inussa´s baptism, we started the font and we may have flooded the womens bathroom and the mothers room.
Its amazing the affects of the Spirit, especially at baptisms. we had 2 investigators show up and, they knowing inussa, it was so much sweeter for them seeing an example of a friend. one of those investigators, Gheorghe from Romania, is getting baptized this saturday at 10 am :) we are very excited for him. he´s a bit of an odd ball. his answers to everything is, ´´Con el poder de Dios...Con FE...necesita el espíritu, sabes?!´´ and he usually screams it all. he´s quite loud. and he always, ALWAYS ends his prayers as ´´en el nombre de padre, hijo y espíritu santo...´´ hahaa he´s orthodox. he cracks me up.
oh so i made chocolate chip cake!! it turned out quite good except i forgot salt and to sprinkle sugar on top.
We had a ward talent show on saturday! It was supposed to start at 5 so naturally it started at 630. the B6 hermanas (4) sang a song and then we later danced the macarena with Inussa, juan luis (the next mission leader), and another investigator, Adelson. IT. WAS. SWEET. i think some people video taped it. we didn´t have the music so we screamed it, ´´duh duh duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh duh duh-duh-duh (etc) EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH MACARENA!!!!´´ and Hermana Stepp played the harmonica.
its great reading the letters from yáll!! i wish i had time to write everyone, i barely have time to write my own brothers y sister in law! (sorry ben and sasha!) but i´m so glad everyone is doing great. I am so happy to be serving a mission, SO HAPPY. i don´t want to change anything. i miss you guys! love you mucho. take care!
loves y hugs.
Hermana Smith
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