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