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

FaceTime at Christmas with McKinsey

FaceTiming McKinsey on Christmas Eve was great! We were so happy to see her!

December 16, 2013

Hey family!

ok so important stuff first: I will not be writing you on monday because pday for us is wednesday. And, due to lack of computers, etc. I will be FACETIMING JASONS COMPUTER CHRISTMAS EVE AT 4PM MOUNTAIN TIME and 11PM MY TIME. i´ll be facetiming from the buhlers iphone. if you want a bigger screen then we´ll talk skype but you gotta get ahold of the buhlers for that. We´re only supposed to be on for one hour so have your questions ready. 

one last thing: we´re in charge of an activity (the end of jan.) about family history. we´re planning on having a stand in a plaza and since telde consists of mostly old folks, we´ll be busy. but i need your (as in mama bert and ben and sasha and dad) help to give me information on how to do it for those who are not members, etc. thanks :)

another thing: i still haven´t received my package but please people you don´t need to send stuff to the buhlers!! i receive letters and packages just fine at my own apartment! but i recieved the thanksgiving letter. it was cute and the buhlers opened it for me and they had a good laugh. hehehee it is pretty funny. ´´THey shoved stuffing up his what?!´´ hahahahahahahahaaa. oh yea i´ll get my package this week. they send it down only with the AP´s or when a senior couple is travelling.

whew! got that off my chest. ok soooooo the week! Each week is great in the mission field. I feel so blessed to be a missionary in this time! Seriously, though. I have never felt so much love until now. Before, I loved missionary work. But I think i was looking at it more on an adventure type of thought process. now, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. ahem. moving on.... 

we toured the islands!!! actually, driving here reminds me a little like driving in mexico...but we were on the edge of mountains. hahahahaaaa ok funny experience. there was this big semi coming and hermana buhlers driving and i´m right behind her. we slam on our brakes so that he could squeeze by then he just wizzed passed us. literally, he missed the mirror by like an inch then was even closer to my face. after hermana buhler and i just went ´´WHHEEEEEEEEEWWW!!!´´ hahahaaa we both saw our lives flash before our eyes. but it was wonderful!! its really chill here. i took sooooo many photos i´m already out of memory cards. we´re buying a flash drive today.

Anywhoooo....Hermana Cassinat (not cassiNUTS. we had a good laugh. so did hermana buhler. i think you two would get along dad) and I have been working with the members and trying to get references from them. We thought that maybe the fact is they just don´t know us very well. Some members we know well but others not as well. We met with 2 families this week and it was wonderful to actually see them in their home setting and how they really interacted with each other. Plus they didn´t have the stay still fold your arms dont scream dont kick your brother rules like they do in church. They´re great examples and they talked about how they´re trying to figure out ways to help us and the branch. I was really humbled at their kindness because we never saw this in barrio 6. I´ve thought many times this week how we´re in charge of Telde and therefore, we should be receiving revelation for Telde. I have never really thought about it until I came to this area and how true it is. We pray for our investgators and the members and to find people in the street. But it wasn´t until recently that I´ve started to pray for the people in the streets, that they´ll be more receptive and willing to accept our message. I feel that what I need and should do here in Telde is clearer and I´m extremely grateful that I am here serving! It may not have the most members or the madrid transportation, but I am grateful for the trust that the Lord has put in me to quidar this area.

OH! something cool!!! We were in intercambios this week and I was staying in telde. so me and this las palmas hermana are walkin home and i´m telling her this scary story about telde (i´ll tell ya later) then we get a phone call...and they said we were on hurricane red alert!!! ´´Get to your apartments by 3 and don´t come out for any reason until we call you´´. heehee, SWEET!! So I call hermana buhler and she says, this is so cool!! hahahaa all the canarian missionaries were super duper excited for this. but it all ended up being nothing and 2ish hours later we were out again. but the winds were pretty dangerous and we got rained on a lot but nada scary. we were all a little disappointed but grateful that nothing bad happened.

So I sang at church yesterday!! it was pretty fun and everyone started talking about how they´ll be lookin for me in the motab choir in the future. i said, you better!! heehee it was a lot of fun. i sang the first noel. we bribed some people from english class to come and here me. theycame! but then scrammed outta there right afterwards. oh well. poco a poco!

We were visiting this less active and she said, oh do you want to talk to my sister? she isn´t a member. ohh. well ok! her sister is bedridden and has a lot of bitter feelings abuot that and plus her mother died like 3 months ago. we had an amazing lessno with her and you could feel the spirit soooo strongly in that lesson. I love that lady so much. hopefully, she´ll accept us more in the future.

hahaa so on friday the 13th, all these events happened in literally 15 minutes and all so bizzar and hilarious. So we´re taking out the trash and she flings the bag into the dumpster. well, all this trash juice just sprays all over me and i´m so seriously grossed out and she´s just cracking up a gut over there. so i run to her and try wiping myself off on her and we have this giant struggle. meanwhile. this old man is just casually watching us from his boxing gym. then hna cassinat just punches me right on the arm and so i lost that fight cuz it hurt. then we realized we forgot something plus i had to go potty and we return to our apartment and i go first and run up the stairs. i hear this CRASH behind me and she´s all sprawled on the steps cuz her big toe didn´t quite make it over the step. i´m tryin SO STINKING HARD not to laugh so i´m just gasping, ´´oooohh aare you oooohahahahahahahaa!!!!´´ i couldn´t even let it out i was laughin so hard plus i still needed to pee and busting a gut was not helping!! then finally we left the apartment. now we pass the old man who saw hermana cassinat actnig like a child earlier (ahem) and then he invites us into his gym and gives us a private tour. soooooo pretty much there was no point to this story but i just had to write it down because all these events were all squished into a short period of time and i´m still laughing as we write this.

Well, family, thats all folks! I love ya!! I´ll talk to you next week. If the times are no good then email hermana buhler and we´ll get it taken care of.

love hermana smith

December 9, 2013

Hey! So we had a baptism! Leo was baptized and it was such an amaaaaazing baptism! We were freaking out a little bit because Leo and Irma were super late (came 15 min before baptism was supposed to start) but only because they went to the store to buy food for the baptism! They are so wonderful. He loved it and his sister and her family came. It went so well and the members helped a lot. He was confirmed yesterday and when he sat down, he put his hand over his heart and said, ´´whoa´´. Then he patted his heart. The Spirit was so strong! Plus, under the direction of Pres.  of the Stake and not under the direction of the missionaries and the Branch members, he received the Aaronic Priesthood right after his confirmation. Jolly good. Now this week we´ll explain WHAT he received.

Other than that this week went really well. We do a lot of contacting and talk with less actives since there are more than the actual active members. But we´ve received some good references and we´re hoping to get to teachin´ soon!

Thats so exciting about your lives right now! We´re going to tour the Islands with the Buhlers today so i don´t have a lot of time to write.

now for your questions: yes i´m getting leather covers. no i will never wear closed toed shoes. my feet want to be free plus i hate shoe shopping. all my winter stuff is in the peninsula so i bought just like 2 cardigans but thats all. i´m good and warm.

oh i´m singing next sunday and speaking the sunday after that.

love you all! have a great week!

loves kinsey poo.

December 2, 2013

Hey family!

Look like your week was just splendid and jolly and full of food. We were seeing a lot of that too. The Buhlers were kind enough to have a Thanksgiving dinner with all the missionaries on the island and it was sooooooooooooo much fun. The Déniz family came (family from telde and the husband is the first stake pres on the islands) and they´re soooo hilarious. That family plus the buhlers called for 3 hours of us busting a gut and peeing in our seats. We ate our hearts out and it was deliiiicious food. but of course, your food is better mom :) (shhh don´t tell hna buhler)

This week was good and we walked around a lot. We´ve cleaned out the area book even more and so we´re on the hunt more than ever to find new investigators. We haven´t had a lot of success but we fasted about it and during those 24 hours the Lord blessed us more than I was expecting. I shouldn´t have been surprised but I was. It takes a long time to go out of Telde to visit other areas so most of the time if lessons fell us, then we´re walking around and we pass like 3 people in 30 minutes. Especially at night time, then its a kiss of death sometimes. We´ve had quite a bit of meetings as a district and as a zone about finding new people and we´re trying new stuff. We had a chit chat with Hermana Buhler yesterday because Hermana Cassinat and I maybe had a bit of a panic attack and she calmed us down and told us that we´re just planting these seeds and then the missionaries in a year will be grateful for our hard work, because then Telde would be a ward, etc. It was a nice chit chat. 

Leo and Irma are doing really well but they didn´t come to church on Sunday to go to a family thing (we´re almost positive he went to play soccer with his family). We´re still planning on having the baptism on Saturday but we´re waiting to talk with him to know more before before making a sure decision. He´s a good little guy.

There was a branch FHE and we played this x box game thing. ok, they picked us first to play and of course, we blew it! score of 62. so all these little primary kids are creaming our rear ends and we felt that justice was not served and we were delt with unjustly. So we petitioned to play again and of course we went. and won. more like CREAMED THEIR LITTLE HINIES. 104!! oh yeah!

thats so sad that the tidwells are leaving!! nooo!!! what ward are they moving into? 

I love you family! you are all such great examples to me. I love hearing from each and every one of you. Please know that I love this Gospel and I know that Jesus Christ lives and that God lives, too. He is literally our Savior and our Redeemer. I know that it´s only through Him that we can all return to our Father in Heaven with our families for eternity. I have such a strong testimony of that and of the scriptures. They are true and they are the word of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it holds the answers to our questions and it holds the plenitud del evangelio. Hermana Cassinat and I are always wanting 4 more hours of personal study every day! haha but we are so blessed to be missionaries, especially at this time. I remember something from zone conference and Hermana Jackson spoke about D and C 4. She went into details of it and I know for a fact that what has been profesied has come to pass and the field is white and it is ready to be harvested. People are ready to hear and receive this message of hope and of peace. Please don´t hesitat to share this. Can´t believe i´m saying this, but I´m a Mormon! I´m a Latter-Day Saint! I´m a missionary! I´m a representative of Jesus Christ and His servant! I know it! I live it! and boy, do I LOVE IT.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Until we meet again,

Hermana Smith