McKinsey returning home and speaking

Hello everybody.

McKinsey will be returning home on Aug 29. She will be speaking in our church services at 11:00am Sunday Aug 31. 15782 Farmway Rd, Caldwell, ID.

You all are invited to attend. We will be having an open house that afternoon that you are also invited to attend.

We can't wait!

Love,

Ken and Vicky

August 11, 2014

Hola familia! 

how´s the week going?? hope all is swell and well. This weeks been hot hot hot and i´m ready for air conditioning. 

Our new companion is Hermana Mattson! She´s a sweet thing from Oregon and she actually had a birthday on thursday! we made her breakfast in bed and we ate lots of sugar that day :D She turned 27! she´s going to be an engineer. quite interesting! We´re having a lot of fun with all this. Honestly we haven´t had any problems of being in a trio. We´ve always heard these horror stories but we´re doing great and Hermana Mattson is such a sweet missionary!! She came with a strong testimony and its so sweet to hear her bear testimony to the investigators! Literally, its the best thing ever. She has no fear, honestly, and tries to do her best. We´re very lucky to have her as our companion. she helps me remember the little things that are important. 

We had an amazing lesson with a man named Francois and he wants to get baptized! The spirit was so strong in the lesson and at the end he prayed!! This was our 3rd or 4th visit with him and he was always ashamed to pray in public but he prayed at the end of that lesson! It was such a blessing to be in that lesson. 

Man, its weird to think that all of this will end in a few short days. Hermana Hansen wrote me to tell me that i just needed to have fun and thats just what i´ll do :) obviously, we´ll still follow the rules (duh) but i´m gonna eat my heart out with all this nice european food! AKA pastries, ice cream, chocolate, etc. ¡VIVA POSTRES!

Love ya! 

Hermana Smith

August 4, 2014

Hey family! 

happy birthday dad! we celebrated by eating peanut butter and eating homemade oreo ice cream. we enjoyed it a lot ;) 

I´ve been showing off all my sobrino pictures and they all say oohhh and aahhhh. its quite adorable :) 

Also, are you excited?! we have another baby!! you´re all uncles and aunts and grandpas and grandmas again! We have a new baby missionary! 

yep! We´re training! Quite exciting. A breath of fresh air. 

But it was a good week! We´re really starting to get around well with the area and especially with the investigators. We´re still cleaning out the old and bringing in the new and life´s just great. We are very blessed to be here in Alcalá, serving these people. My areas are definitely sacred grounds to me.

Something we´ve been discussing a lot was our manner of being as missionaries-whether serious, cheerful, etc. And we came to the conclusion that we needed to use the example of the Saviour, but also of our mission president. President Jackson is this super happy and goofy guy and we all are smiling around him. we just can´t help it!! Sometimes, with an awesome mission president like him, we´d think that the leaders would join. We have heard many stories of leaders using angry words or yelling, etc. and we obviously don´t appreciate that. Something i have learned that there is noooo excuse to be angry (in most occasions) and we should always smile and love. I´ll be taking that as a goal for these next few weeks and for the rest of my life. Its a really good Christ-like attribute. 

Well family i love you!! thanks for your letters!!

love, Hermana smith. 

July 28, 2014

Hey, fam!

This week went really well and we´ve had some awesome experiences happen! We´ve better our contacts in the streets and now we´re trying to meet with all of them. We´ve had sooo many lessons fail us! But that´s ok; it´s all part of missionary work! It´s been quite funny, really, seeing all of our hourly planned lessons get crossed off. 
We have a baptismal date!! His names Luis and he´s from Cape Verde. He told us from the beginning that he´s been look for more peace in his life and thats why he´s listening to us. His families catholic but he isn´t. We set a baptismal date for the 17th of August and he accepted it inmediatamente. Afterwards, he told us that he´s been wanting to get baptized because he´s never been baptized and he wants it in his life! Wow, so powerful. He didn´t come to church on sunday, but he´ll be there next week. I called him and gave him a good talk and he said he´ll come from now on:) no more discos!
We were able to help 2 recent converts NOT go inactive and it was so powerful listening to their testimonies. they gave talks in church and the spirit was sooooo strong! Recent converts really have powerful testimonies. 
Going to the temple this week was SO powerful and sooo needed!! My spirit just feels like it needs a spiritual boost, just like a body needs to sleep at night. I loved being able to sit in the celestial room and to soak it all in. I love the temple!
We have an investigator here who´s family is muslim and she wants to get baptized immedietly. She´s been investigating for 2 years now and her parents don´t even know that she´s graduated from seminary this year and that she´s even investigating the church. I don´t know what to do and we´ve had members tell her to run away and live with them. Part of me wants to give her advice, but I honestly don´t know what my place is with her. We shouldn´t tell her to abandon her family to be baptized, but we should also tell her to put Christ first into her life, etc. She´ll turn 18 in september so she´ll be able to make her her own decision...hopefully. Everytime we meet with her, she cries because she wants it so much. she´s helped us in lessons and always tells the person that her one dream is to be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. It´s so sad to hear all this and I just wanna give her a big hug. 
We have more progressing investigators (investigators who read) and its been nice seeing a little bit of the fruits of our labors. I love working here in Alcalá and its been so much fun seeing the success we´ve received. I hope to leave my area better looking than when i came! 

The Elders have a recent convert here from Cameroon and he´s so amazing! He´s the most converted person to the gospel i´ve ever met. In a FHE, we were told to draw an island of our dream and he drew a picture of the tree of life and said he wanted to be there, to have eternal life with his family. WOW. His wife lives back in his country but he´s been telling her all about the church and she´s been demanding missionaries and a book of mormon!! the missionaries there haven´t even called her yet (after a long time), so we told Ebenezer that if he writes his testimony in a french book of mormon, WE would send it with the direction to the nearest capilla. He was sooo excited!!! It was great to be of service to someone. 

Welp, I love ya family! Stay awesome and hopefully things will run smoothly in the trek! 

Loves y mucho hugs

Hermana Smith, ¡LA TÍA! 

July 21, 2014

Hey family! 

This week was SO good!! We had so many little miracles and we were able to talk with a lot of people. Hermana Johns did a really good job being in charge of the area while i was gone for the leadership training meeting. She´s such a hard worker. I was so blessed to be her companion. I remember before this transfer I was praying for a hard working missionary and I received the best one! She´s always willing to do our best, even if it means getting our of our comfort bubble. 
The leadership training meeting was the BEST. I learned SO much and I loved that it was more a council instead of just us sitting and listening!! I learned so much more from that than any other meeting. We were all able to share our thoughts and experiences and learn from each other. I remember when I was with Hermana Fowers and we would read the section about leadership in the white handbook and we both loved the fact that it says we should live the Gospel and it goes back to what President Jackson told us in the meeting, that our extra responsibility does NOT mean that we are better than the other missionaries. 
We had a street lesson yesterday with a man from Africa, named Francisco. He had the most amazing questions about the restoration and as we would explain it, he would interrupt us with more questions about the restoration. These questions weren´t at all annoying, but they tied PERFECTLY with the lesson. We were able to give him a book of mormon and he promised that he would read it. We felt the Spirit soooo strong in that lesson and he invited himself to church next sunday :) We feel he´ll be a great future ward mission leader.
As a district, we´ve been thinking about what we could do to serve more and on Saturday we were able to wear a Mormon Helping Hands shirt thing! My first in the mission! It was great and we helped sort clothes for the children. Plus I gave blood on wednesday again and it was amazing because, obviously, we need to always be sharing the gospel. As my blood left me, I was able to talk to the nurse about our work and what we did, etc. She told me she loved it because we weren´t the first ones to give blood! she told me that she´d seen many missionaries giving blood and loved that we did that, even though we didn´t have too. 

I honestly think giving blood is one an addiction, because I really want to give blood again. 

On wednesday, we STL´s talked in our Zone meeting for 30 min about what we´d learned in the meeting tuesday and it was great! I had a lot of fun with it, mostly because I wasn´t the only one talking. We talked a lot about the importance of the members help and also activation and retention. (i translated those 2 words into english and i don´t know if i said it correctly....)

We had another street lesson with this old man and he was jehovas witness. i was kind of scared to talk to him from the last scary lady but he was sooo nice and we were able to have a good gospel discussion. he was so cordial (sp.???) and my doubts and a little bit of scary jdubs went away. A little mercy from the Lord, I think. 

We´re going to the temple on wednesday!!!!!!!!!!! i´ll finally see the new video!!! whooohoooo!!!!! i´m so stoked for the temple. so. stinking. exciting. you have NO idea.

We have a lot of activities that happens in the YSA center and there´s a foosball table....so obviously i like to show off my skills. I´m tied with another elder here (at greatness...hahaa jk) and its been sooooo fun!! Hermana Lema told me I was the Captain Moroni of Fooseball!! that was such a lovely compliment. 

Ok. What to wear in Spain:

-Honestly it doesn´t matter what you wear. I´d prefer that you don´t look like a tourist in Mexico, for example. We´re in Europe and we tend to dress a little bit more nicer than americans. We don´t see a lot of people in jeans, but wear whats comfortable. Khaki shorts will work, but not denim. It´ll be hot in madrid, for sure, so I wouldn´t suggest layers. In the islands its cooler but very humid, so you´ll be sweating no matter what. I´ll be in my skirt the whole time because its a lot cooler than wearing tight stuff. 

love you all! thanks for your letter, mom!!! i enjoyed it! thanks uncle eric and aunt char for your letter! i loved it!

hermana smith. 

us with our helping hands shirts. all the people standing up, except for the black guy, are missionaries, but their chapas were on the inside.

hermana coburn and i after we gave blood. she got stabbed twice.

July 14, 2014

hola familia!!!!

This week was AWESOME!!!! We were tired of people feeling sorry for us because we were the newbies and white washing so we set some goals and we tore this place apart!! We were able to get quite a few contacts and lots of lessons in the streets. At first it was like treading through water, but then our legs got stronger and the water more shallow and we were running!! It was great and I can´t wait for another week. 

We´ve been visiting the members and getting to know them so that they can trust us more and its been great, because we´re there to stregthen them and they can understand that we´re not there to strangle a reference out of them. 

we had a lesson with a romanian woman named Anca and an RM was with us. we were 15 min in the lesson when the door was knocked and jehovas witnesses came in. now. i have no bad feelings towards them but i try and avoid them as much as i can. most of them here are not nice like that lady that passes by our house at home!!! so they came and apparently this RM had some bad experiences with them and this other lady had some bad experiences with us, so they immediatley got into a really heated bible bash. whew!!! talk about thick, the tention!! we just wanted to run out of there but the ladies finally left and the member had to calm himself. A lot of stuff was said about the church and I just felt terrible that Anca had to witness all of this. Though afterwards, she asked us questions about the plan of salvation and we were able to talk about the plan and the spirit was soooo strong!! it was literally night and day, the difference between our message and what she had witnessed before. It was interesting, because just that morning i was reading in 3nephi11 when Jesus taught that contention is of the Devil and not of Him. EXAMPLE NUMBER ONE. i testify of that scripture!! We called her a few days later and she told us that it would be better that we not stop by....haha ouch. its hard when that happens but i know that she still ahs the book of mormon and one day, again, the missionaries will knock on her door and she´ll be ready for them. 

i went on my first exchanges this week and it was great!! i stayed in my area and it was my first one and it went very well. I had been studying about the exchanges in the leadership section in the white hand book and also i´ve remembered my experiences from other sister training leaders from the past, and I loved it so much! I had good examples and it was great to read int he white hand book that a good leader is a leader that lives the gospel of jesus christ. How true is that!! i´ve been trying to do just that, live more the gospel of Jesus Christ. its been very fulfilling seeing the little changes in my life and in the life of my companion. 

So we´ve been contacting a lot and we had one lesson set up but the woman failed us. we were super bummed because she was a mom and had a lot of potential, but i tried to have a positive attitude. I said a small prayer in my heart and a thought popped into my head; in the mission, there are no coincidences. if we have a failed lesson, that means that Heavenly Father has prepared something else for us and we just needed to get to work to find that person. We immediately set off to contact and we contacted this man and he turned out to be goooollden!!! We had a great lesson about the restaration and he told us that he had researched us a lot online and we gave him a better source :) its called mormon.org and our number! booyah! 

 It´s been so rewarding to see a little bit of the fruits of our labors. Lately I´ve been reading a lot about working in the Lord´s vineyard and how the servants were ´´few´´ (jacob 5 my friends) but they still worked hard and got a lot done. As missionaries here in spain and all over the world, we are few, but we are getting a lot of work done! 

I know that this is the work of the Lord. Uncle Greg sent me a quote and it made my heart squeeeeze good: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an Elder (or Sister) when he/she is preaching the Gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children. He begot them in yonder world, and they came here because the Lord wanted them to come.´´— Lorenzo Snow 

I konw that i am meant to be here in Spain and what a privilage it is! I love this work and I love my Savior. Remember to stick in your sickle and reap reap reap!! 

Loves y mucha hugs

Hermana Smith

PS. In spain, they have 2 last names; the fathers last name and the moms maiden name. Many spanish missionaries ask for name tags with both the last names. 

I´m getting a chapa that says Hermana Smith Smith  :D

July 7, 2014

Hola Familia!!! 

Otra semana en la misión. Es la mejor. Es guay porque puedo hablar español y comunicarme con los trabajadores de las restaurantes mexicanas. Es lo que tú quieres mamá! 

Hoy fuimos a mercadillo (dígalo con un acento argentino!!!!) y compramos mucha fruta. Era muy barato!! Había mucha gente y nos perdimos un poquito pero todo salio bien. Creo que compramos 8 kilos de fruta....QUÉ RRRRRICCCAAAA. Muy barato...pagamos menos que 10€. 

Tenéis que utilizar el google translate o hablar con Jasón para que él lo traduzca. 

Today, we spent literally half our pday with a recent convert. She´s from brazil and her sister did our nails!! I have a french manicure :) they´re really pretty. 

My companion and I keep on receiving letters from people serving in different missions and how they are WATCHING THE WORLD CUP (with pres permission [or so we hope]). obviously we are both super jelly. sadly, spain has been done for awhile and USA played hard and well to the end, but unfortunetely, its just not in the blood for us! We were at a Brasilians house and they turned the game off when we came, but they gave us the shpill of everything and they were hoping that Argentina would lose, etc. We asked why and she said that apparently, the brasilians hate the argentinans!! Haha, i told her i was for Argentina (really i´m for Holland cuz they´re my ancestors and better looking and tall) 

Don´t worry, parents. I get along VERY well with Hermana Johns! She´s the greatest. Her sister is serving in paris france and knows elder miller very well!! they entered into the mtc the same day and everything. what a small world! we get that a lot here in the spain mission.

hermana johns and I have been trying to better our contacts in the street and to try and be exactly obedient also. It´s says a lot in preach my gospel that we need to be teaching about the restored gospel and a lot of times we do that, but we don´t put a big emphasis (oh gosh...how do you spell that?!?! dad correct it and then delete this message!!) on it. We´ve seen great little miracles everyday and it just shows the the Lord is definitely watching over us as we do this work here in Alcalá. 

we have slowly found out from the other missionaries and also what the bishop has told us, but the members here don´t really trust us as missionary. We´re trying to visit as many members as we can and try to gain some trust us. So far so good! The relief Society sisters are really good. they´re very willing to help! 

We have a little investigator named Ana maria. Shes from romania and has 8 months here. She´s a cutie and veeeeeeerrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy touchy. Like extremely. She´s 15 years old and kisses us on the cheek like 10 times each lesson. She´s reading well and likes what she reads. She can´t really concentrate very well (wow this brings back memories...) but we just end up teaching her like a little child. 

We celebrated the 4th of july by eating hot dogs and no bakes and rice krispies :) it was quite tastey :D yuummm

I love you family!!! Qué tenga una buena semana. Os quiero un MONTÓN. 

Cartas a mi piso, por favor?!?!?!?!?! Hermana Johns la recibe casi cada día. Porfa :D 

Podréis apuntar vuestras conversiones de la iglesia? cuando mama bert me la envió, me ayudó muchísimo. 

Siempre estéis en mis oraciones. 

con mucho cariño de vuestra hija, hermana y amiga

Hermana Smith

us eating homemade oreo ice cream for whitneys 20th birthday :)

and us celebrating the 4th of july! 

Hermana Lema de Ecuador

My companion! Hermana Johns

Me

Hermana Coburn

July 1, 2014 - Letter from Mission President

1 July 2014

Dear Parents of Sister McKinsey Jo Smith,



We are happy to inform you that your daughter, Sister Smith, has been assigned to serve as a Sister Training Leader in the Spain, Madrid Mission. She has been chosen for this position because she is an experienced and exemplary missionary.



In this role, she is responsible to plan and conduct companion exchanges with the other sisters in her Zone. She is a member of and participates in the Mission Leadership Council, held monthly and is a vital part of mission leadership. She will conduct 24-hour companion exchanges every six weeks with each companionship of sisters assigned to her and report directly to the mission president on sisters’ issues. She is also expected to maintain a vibrant proselyting area in addition to working regularly with other sisters.



We love working alongside Sister Smith. You can be proud of the work that she is doing here in the mission and the growth and happiness that she is experiencing as a result of her labors.



Warm Regards,



President and Sister Jackson

Spain, Madrid Mission

June 30, 2014

Hey my fam bam. 

This week was a lot of fun. But good heavens its madrid heat and i´m dying a little bit. thankfully its been cooler lately plus there´s wind so im not suffering like last summer. haha!! But I never realized how fun it is to contact all the time! It´s a transition for me to try and have lessons but its been really good. We had some good street lessons and have some good new investigators. We´re working really well together and I am SO grateful that Hermana Johns is my companion because she is so positive about everything and she is just always always happy. She is truly a blessing for me. She´s from Ogden and has 7 months in the mission. She´s 19 years old and her birthday is my last day in the mission!! august 20th!!  
We´ve been contacting a lot and have had little miracles happening throughout the week. We don´t get a lot of numbers, but we feel confident that the numbers we did get have alot of potentional. 
Honestly, I think the hardest part about our week was going to church and not knowing anyone. Thankfully we know some of the recent converts and they´re always open and nice. We decided to go to a relief society activity that night to try and get to know the sisters more and it was such a success!! We were able to talk to a lot of sisters and to create some friendship. It helped us feel a lot better. We´ve set up some appointments with some members this week to talk with them and know them so that they can trust us more. From what I´ve heard, and what the bishop has told us, there isn´t a lot of trust between the missionaries and members here. It´s a little sad but we´re going to work hard so that these members feel loved :)

WE were talking with a recet convert named liliana and she was saying how all the missionaries are angels to her. I loved hearing that but it made me think. Lately, we´ve been hearing a lot from the first presidency and the twelve about missionaries and members working together and that  the only difference between a missionary and a member is the name tag. So i was thinking about what Liliana said about us being angels and thought WHY cant the members be angels too? We´re the same thing, just working full time instead of part time. I honestly think that there SHOULD be no difference. Angels should be the missionaries and the members. Its amazing what you learn on the mission. I always write down what I want to apply in my life for after the mission. This is one of them. I know I´m an angel as a missionary, but I want to be an angel to someone as a member. 

I love you all!! Please try this week to be an angel to someone who needs it. I pray for you all and I am so grateful for your letters and support. 

love hermana smith

calle caja de ahorros 21, BºIZQ 28804 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, España

normally, whenever i stick an address down, its because i want letters and not just for dad to google map me ;) heehee. 

June 23, 2014

Wow, family. BIG CHANGES!!

1. Cuenca got whitewashed. They´re bringing a trio of elders in. Thats better because there´s only 2 worthy priesthood holders in the branch, haha. 

2. I´ll serve in Alcalá, a little bit out of madrid centro. 

3. My companion will be Hermana Johns and I think this´ll be her second area. I talked to her on the phone and she sounds like an angel! I´m excited to be with her.

4. we´re whitewashing Alcalá

5. I´m STL, which means Sister Training Leader. Its not training a baby missionary...but I do exchanges with each hermana in my zone. Its like a district leader or zone leader. algo así. 

6. My prayers were answered!! I will be working my tail off these next couple of weeks!! 

So i´m waiting for my new compy and I¨m on splits with hermana fowers...again. hahahaa we see each other too much. 

Another thought, I love how in your emails you always say, ´´oh dad or mom will probably tell you all about it so i wont say anything.´´. COMMUNICATION people! I don´t get anything from anyone! hahahaa!!! 

My last wonderful week in Cuenca was good but we were not able to see Peter, our bulgarian miracle. He´s getting a divorce with his wife and he´s super sad. He hasn´t had any desire to leave the house or to meet with anyone. It was sad for us to leave but I know that the elders will do a wonderful job teaching him and his mom. He told us that he doesn´t want them to call him. I think and feel that with time things will go well. Plus Hermana Clay will be in contact with him through facebook and she told me she´s planning on preparing him and his mom that way too :) Haha. 
We were able to see some progression in our investigators and we have some people who have a lot of potential! We have a friend from english class named Fernando and he loves coming to sacrament meeting and participating with us. The rama loves him and they can´t wait until he´s converted to the Gospel. Haha! They keep on talking about that. Honestly, its sad, but he does more service for us then any other member. Sometimes I think that some members feel like they don´t have to go out of their way to help people because we have perfect organizations for that in the church. Hermana Clay and I were talking about that and we both have set a goal to be like Fernando and to accept EVERYONE and to serve EVERYONE and to love EVERYONE and to go out of our way for EVERYONE. He definitely takes ´´Love thy neighbor as thyself´´ (or however it is) very seriously. He told us he´s going to italy in august to help an italian priest/father build buildings and paint and help the youth stay away from the Mafia. Haha. Oh Fernando. 

It was a wonderful transfer in Cuenca and I will never forget it. I learned a lot about loving others and focusing on the Spirit with Hermana Clay. I´m very excited for her to help her family out at home. She´s going to see these miracles accure! 

Mom, Dad, we definitely have quite a few people wanting to meet you in Cuenca!! Get ready for lots of love and hugs! 

I love you family! I´ll find out my address today and i´ll let you know next week. Stay awesome and be good!

Hermana Smith

June 16, 2014

Hey family!!! 

This week was probably the most miraculous week in my mission! When I say miraculous, I mean that it was just filled with little miracles! We had so many spiritual experiences, words can´t even describe them.
Our first greatest miracle is named Bulgarian miracle, or Peter. We were talking to a lovely old couple on the street when a Peter started talking to me in english! He told us he´s seen us twice this past week from afar and new we were NOT spanish. We talked with him about the gospel and the plan of salvation for 2 hours after that. We contacted Peter on Friday and have seen him each day since, each talking about the gospel and the plan of salvation. The first day we met him, we gave him a tour of the church and we so happened to have church material and a bom and triple in bulgarian. He took it all home to read and study it. we keep pinching ourselves, it´s like a dream!! he asks the right questions and he´s still going strong. Peter loves meeting with us! When he brought the church material home, he told me his mom had robbed it all and the book of mormon! He said his mom was reading them all! We had a lesson with him and his mom last night and she had SO many questions about the plan of salvation. She had studied the whole pamphlet! It was so amazing to use the scriptures and to testify to her. She had a lot of questions about the 3 degrees of glory and she felt at peace to know all this. We can´t see them today but we´ll see them tomorrow. Tomorrow, we´re going to go over lesson 2 and invite them to baptism. We feel that we´re at the beginning of a wonderful journey for them and for us. I have grown so much to love the gospel even more just from being with them. I´ll end with this because I can go on forever about them! I literally have given thanks each day to my Heavenly Father for putting him and his mother in our path. Thank you so much for all your prayers. This is definitely an answer from a loving Father in Heaven!
We had another great spiritual experience with an investigator named Edith and her son, Jonathon. So Edith has a lot of bad health and she has had a lot of trouble with her legs since she´s been a teenager. She started crying in our lesson on friday, telling us that she fears going anywhere by herself because she thinks she´ll hurt herself. Instead of teaching what we had planned, we felt impressed to talk again about the restored priesthood. We told her that there are worthy men that hold the priesthood that could give her a blessing of health and comfort. The next morning, we had a member and his wife come to perform the blessing and the room was just FILLED with the Spirit. She was crying throughout the blessing and you couldn´t NOT feel it! It was really an experience to never forget.
I´ve been getting little updates from hermana caballero about the people in Las Palmas and it makes me so happy to know that the work is doing so well there and Alex blessed the sacrament!! I´m so happy for him!! And yasmina!!! She´s getting married and her 8 year old daughter got baptized on friday!! That whole family will soon be baptized. Its really amazing, missionary work. It reminds me of a scripture that I haven´t been able to find but it talks about the joy it brings of helping souls come unto Christ. I feel that same burning feeling in my heart. With Hermana Clay ending her mission, I have never been so aware of how important this work is and how SHORT our time is. I love this work! I am so happy and proud to wear this chapa. 

well, family! I´m off!! Happy fathers day to all daddy´s!!! I actually sang in church on sunday and it went really well. I sang for you daddy! Transfers are this week and I´ll have my last companion. I actually asked president that he wouldn´t give me a ´´dying´´ missionary. I just want to work work work!! 

love ya!! you´re in my prayers, always!!

Hermana Smith

´´Es el amor que nos lleva´´.

June 9, 2014

Sorry, fam. REALLY don´t have time now!!! On to business!!

This week went by fast!!! I loved being able to attend the temple and I received so much spiritual strength from it. It was something I really needed. After that, I honestly progressed more in my testimony than ever before. I´m not sayiing I used the temple as an excuse, but I really did receive a lot of answers to my prayers. 
This week had its up´s and down´s, mostly because Hna Clay was really ill for a bit. It´s been weird because literally every week, she has another illness. We call it the Last-Transfer syndrome. She told me of other missionaries getting sick their last couple of weeks! So weird! Though we were in the piso a bit, I was able to get a lot done. I watched a lot of the district and it is so amazing how much you can learn from their experiences and testimonies. In all, this week was just a big spiritual banquet for me!!
We contacted this lady a few weeks ago and she could never see us. She, Susana, had told us that her siblings and cousins were all members in Ecuador and so we were really excited for this extra boost. But she could never see us. Finally, we ran into her a few days ago in the street and she told us that she had talked to her family about us and they were encouraging her to talk to us and to come to church!! She said she´s interested to know more and I was just so grateful for that little bit of info, to know thta she wasn´t alone in her getting to know the gospel. 
I learned a big lesson this week. So I have these rings that I bought here and one day we went to the bathroom in this library. I took my rings off and accidently left them after washing my hands. I didn´t think about it until 6 hours later and when I did, I felt terrible but also a little defeated. I was thinking that no way was I getting them back and I thought, well, this is just another trial for me to grow from. So I told Hna Clay that and she reminded me that whatever is important to me is definitely important to Him, so OF COURSE I can pray just to find my little rings. So I did and I felt prompted to call a member here. I told him my situation and he said he´d check it out. Later that day in english class, he didn´t say anything. He left to go somewhere and returning he said that the lady from the libarary was looking for him because she had found my rings!! That to me was such a building experience for me because I knew that God had answered my prayers. I always say that prayers are always answered, but I know now that even the LITTLE prayers are always answered, too. 

now other news. HERMANA HANSEN IS ENGAGED!!! aaahhh!!! so happy for her!!! married in august!!

thats all folks!! love you!!!

hermana smith

the first pic was hna fowers and i on intercambios (exchanges??)

and the next two are of us seeing each other for the first time in months. we were pretty happy :D

June 2, 2014

Hey fam! don´t have a lot of time. I´ll probs expain more next week.

This week was great! I went up to madrid!! to my old area!! Plus i had a chitchat with hermana fowers and it was SOOOOO nice and very much needed. we´re doing intercambios today so i get her to myself :D heheheheee. it was such a good experience to participate in Zone conference and all the messages were great and inspired. they mostly focused on Christs love and how we need to show our love in him by being better at missionary work and being obedient and all that jazz. my pen was flying, I was trying to write down all these thoughts and impressions! It really made me think of how i was doing with loving others. I´ve been trying to focus more on loving my contacts in the streets and imagine these people in white. It´s been really good and we´ve been able to have a bit more lessons! 
We started teaching this family from colombia and they´re amazing!! We contacted the son, jonathon, while he was walking his dogs (weiner dogs--I DIED OF CUTENESS) and we asked to explain more and he said that we could stop by the next day and teach them! When we met with them, his mom, Edith, told us her experiences with the missionaries in colombia and how she loved them. She said she was so excited that her son finally was contacted by the missionaries!! It was really quite a miracle. We´ve mostly talked about the book of mormon and the son has read what we´ve given them. We have a lot of hope for them. Edith has a lot of health problems and can´t walk sometimes but I actually just thought of maybe, when we talk about the restoration and authority, we could give her a blessing. I really think that will be a testimony strengthening experience.
We contacted this other lady and her daughter from ecuador and they´re wonderful. They have a lot of interest in coming to church and of learning more. We´ve only had one lesson with her but we feel that she just needs some friends from the church and everything else will run its course :)
They also talked about our attitude in conference and how it should be a positive one. I´ve been trying to change my attitude, like we talked about in the conference, especially while contacting. A lot of people will just reject us and normally I just brush it off and go to the next person. But lately, I´ve been thinking about WHY we were being rejected, because we weren´t doing anything wrong. And then I just felt really sad. I felt really sad that no one was accepting this message and that they´ll reap what they sow type of deal. I then thought of the Savior and how he was completely rejected in every way and how he carried on. That honestly changed my attitude. It changed my way of thinking and teaching. I could feel this urgency in my body, that they HAD to accept this message because it is the key to their salvation! Its really helped me a lot, because I can teach more clearly now. I´ve been trying to just tweak a bit of everything so that we can help these children of God progress!! What a blessing it truly is to do the Lord´s work. I hear a lot that we do the dirty work of missionary, but this dirty work is fun! It´s such a privilage to be wearing this chapa. 

well family! my time is running down. I love you! thanks for your love and support. sorry i didn´t write down as much as usual (ha) but until next week!

Hermana Smith

May 26, 2014

Hey family!! Wow, today has been extra awesome and I¨ve been really uplifted by your letters. I enjoy them each week and apprecite them so much! This week was good and I love this area even more. Its growing, poco a poco, but we feel that there will be miracles soon. I´ve been thinking a lot about this area and what we could do to help it grow. It´s difficult to go contacting and the times we´ve visited the members, they´ve been really good. I´ve been trying to find a way where we can work with the members more in this area. We´ve started doing the 21 day plan and its been going sooo well so far. The members are really excited to do some missionary work! Even though we won´t have immediate results, the future missionaries will at least be busy.
There´s a recent convert here named Mayte and she´s getting ready to serve a mission!! The branch president told us that she´s been progressing more with the hermanas than with her ´´chicos´´, as she calls them (elders). I think its the hermana charm ;) Its been so much fun and I just love being a missionary. I´m so excited for her!! 
Honestly, since I´ve been here, we´ve only had lessons with about 3 people. We´re still looking for new investigators to teach and I´ve been trying to apply what i´ve learned in the past zone meetings and conferences. We have Zone conference this week and I´m really excited to go and be spiritually fed!! Plus, I´m actually really excited to see some familiar faces. I thought we were isolated in the islands, but there aren´t any other missionaries in Cuenca!! Haha, hermana clay and I are getting to know eachother very well. she knows how to cook good and i´ve been learning! 

Today for pday, we hiked for about 45min to this giant jesus statue in cuenca and it was soooooo beautiful!!! i loved it soooo much and I never realized how much i missed hiking!! it was great.

well, family. i love you!! i´m so happy to be serving and I hope you all have a splendid week. next week i´m doing exchanges with the sister trainging leader...her name is hermana fowers :) and she is currently serving in B6! so i´m going to visit b6 for a few days! plus on wednesday we get to go to the temple!! OOOOHHHH YEEESSS!!! finally!! i´ve missed it sooo much. 

ahem. well fam! love ya!

Hermana Smith

Us at the top of the statue!
45 min hike all uphill and SO WORTH IT. it was sooooo beautiful!!!

May 19, 2014

Ok, family. Like dad said. Here´s the drill:

1. my address: calle francisco de luna 16, 4A 16004 Cuenca España

2. we are the only missionaries for about 2 hours. at least in the madrid mission.

3. we are currently looking for people to teach, but we´ve got a few investigators.

4. members are good. don´t know enough to give you details. There´s only one branch.

5. we get fed once a week, los martes.

This week was good. Not going to lie, it was a bit of an adjustment, but its all good now :) Hna Clay´s helping me a lot to know the area and the members and investigators are doing well. We´ve been contacting more and its a little bit more difficult here than in the islands but we make it work. I certainly walk more and I´m missing the guagua´s in las palmas! hahaha! I´ve got great butt muscles now from all the hills and we have less food appointments so hopefully i´ll be able to see my belly button soon. hahahaa!! ok gross just kidding. 

It´s really interesting, because Cuenca really reminds me of Telde. Its cute and small and quaint and the members are wonderful! The situations are kind of the same. But honestly, there´s a different spirit here. I seriously feel that this area will grow. We´ve had many miracles this week and its been wonderful and needed, because the Lord is telling us that He´s with us. It was hard the first 3 days because we were just straight contacting and I had just come from a really successful area and we hadn´t taught one lesson yet. Then, we were able to finally teach a lesson and it was soooo nice!!!! I actually felt a little useful after that. 

We had an amazing experience. It was 15 til 10pm and we were heading home. We were both very tired and just wanted to go home to rest our feet and not think. While waiting for the light to turn, we saw this young man walking on the street. Right when Hna Clay was thinking about it, I went over to contact him. While introducing ourselves, I felt that I needed to explain that we had a message that would help him know his purpose in life. The young man, Miguel, then told that he doesn´t believe, but was JUST thinking about his purpose in life. Why was he here? Why are there bad stuff in the world? If God loves us, why do we suffer? It was such an amazing experience and we were able to have a lesson right there. We met with him 2 days afterward and we were able to teach him and his friend. He pretty much exploded on us the bad stuff he´s done and that he wants to change and he wants to be happy in life. We were able to testify to him that wickedness never was happiness and what we need to do to be happy. He told us that he would go to other churches to feel better, but would never life them. He then invited himself to come to church :) Hahaa, no problem! Come on over! He never showed up (he was partying the night before) but we feel really good about him. He has SO much potential. Just needs a little push in the right direction.

We had another lesson with a young guy and hna clay told him that I sang like an angel. well, this kid then asked me to sing and i said no. then he said he´d sing for me if i´d sing for him because he was a professional singer. hahaa ok ya right. well, ok. then he sang. WHOA. ok i believe you now. so i had to sing. talk. about. embarrassing. he then told me he had a song he wanted me to sing.

hahaa. maybe another day.

But we´re doing good. Hna Clay´s great and I feel like i´m living with kelly a little bit ;) Last night, we sang the Nanny theme song and we just felt better after that. hahahahaaaa!!!!!! Literally, there are no quiet moments with her sometimes. we don´t have a picture together yet, but she is my height and is very white and a pretty red head. 

Well, family. I love you!! talk to you next week!

Hermana smith

so with this new address and all, that means i´ll get new letters in the mail right??? 

just saying. 

So we went to tour this AWESOME cathedral and it costs 4 euros to get in. well. we got in for FREE! perks of being a missionary!! oh sí!!!

May 12, 2014

Hey family!

so i just tried to stick my SD camera card with it FULL of pictures into the computer and it ate it. sooo. yeah. thats my problem here. there goes my past 3 transfers of loving life.

but other than that, what a crazy couple of days! I´m glad i´m finally on settled ground. its weird to look around and not see the ocean. i really loved doing that before. What wonderful blessings come from God´s creations!

It was really sad to leave Las Palmas, but I have a firm testimony that it will never be goodbye. That's part of the great plan of happiness. D&C 130:2!!!!  I´m grateful that in the final resurrection i will have a perfect memory and be able to remember my missionary experiences, because that is something i definitely don´t have! 
I actually feel really good about serving in Cuenca. I know it will be difficult, but as we were flying over the ocean, I was pondering over what this next transfer will be like. I felt that there were people in Cuenca that needed the gospel and I knew that I needed to be the hands of the Lord to bring them to the knowledge. It just really makes me grateful for the calling i have, that the Lord and His angels have prepared the way for us to preach the gospel. 
Hermana Caballero and I worked really well this week. The investigators were working well and progressing, but not a single one came to church. It was really sad because we have like 12 good/progressing investigators and they didn´t come :( 
The ward is preparing Alex to receive a calling and I am SO excited for him!! he´s such a good kid. so solid. He really is the miracle of my time in Las Palmas. 
It was SO good to talk you guys! I really tried to focus on what our president said we needed to do: be an example and thank my mom and it was a really edifying time. Mom´s truly are the best! 

my area is like Telde but bigger and more spanish and....quietter? the spanish are more closed people than Telde or even Canarians in general. i said hi to like 5 people in the streets and they just stared at me. ok. thanks. whatever.

hey family! i love you! see you next week!

Hermana smith

btdubs, i got my card back. there´s just a random hole in the dang mother board thingy. whatever its called. 

FaceTime with McKinsey on Mother's Day 2014

We were very excited to FaceTime Kinsey!
She looks great!
Only 3.5 more months til she comes home!!

May 5, 2014

Heeeeyyyyyyyyy FAMILY! wow I´m really happy right now. I don´t know why because our pday was really not cool at all. hahaa. we wanted to go to the south and all the missionaries have never been there before except for me and another elder and so we decided to try and plan a trip down there. well. the bus dropped us off on a beach resort with hotels, beaches and pools. how many stores to shop at? one. any paths to take a stroll? the beach. so after an hour of travel, we waited for the next bus to take us back to las palmas. hahahaa. the elders were plotting our deaths! but it was great and the elders joked about it the whole time. I got a little sick on the bus but it was great to say my last good byes to the islands! sniff. plus we passed Telde and it was great! i pointed out all great sites. its pretty small, so we only passed it for like 4 seconds. haha.

Well, other than that, this week went well. We saw witnessed little miracles and were able to experience a lot from the Spirit. We´ve been trying to get some of our investigators to really progress and its been going well. Hermana Caballero kick butt here and we´re a firehouse! haha no worries mom, we get along great. Each companion I´ve had has been great and they´re my sisters and we treat each other as such. We´re very blessed to be serving here in Las Palmas! With 5 transfers in the islands, its PROBABLE that I´ll be leaving and for me it´s super sad; I feel like the islands and the people here are part of my heart. I remember Presidente Sitterud telling us in the MTC that our missions are our holy places and i can definitely understand what he meant by that. Though I might leave, I know that the Lord´s work is the same everywhere and I will be needed in other places, if that is His will. But seriously, my heart is breaking. I really hope i´ll be one of those weird cases and have to stay here 6 transfers. never heard of for an hermana. but definitely heard of for the elders! i hope i´ll be a first!
We´ve been working with the hermanas of a member who just came from Honduras and they´re doing so well. They love to fail lessons but its not surprising with them being 13 and 15 years old! the YW are doing great at befriending them and they feel loved and welcomed there. THAT I am grateful for. The YW group is so strong in this ward. they´re probably the strongest part of the ward.
Yasmina is doing really well and with her 15 yr old daughter preparing to go to EFY, we´re wanting to focus our teaching on her. She´s in for a wonderful suprise! Yasmina is a woman with never ending questions and it´s difficult to teach a solid lesson with her! But she loves coming to church on sundays and her youngest daughter loves coming too. In the future, this family is going to get baptized and they will be so strong in the Church. I can´t wait to see that day!
Alex was confirmed yesterday and right after sacrament, he received the aaronic priesthood. Alex was so prepared. He´s going to be such an amazing leader in the Church. They are truly blessed to have him! Alex has a lot of friends in the church and he told us that the one thing that helped him most to gain a testimony was hearing the testimonies of other people. It reminds me of a scripture in Alma 4:19= ´´And this he did that he himself (Alma) might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them.´´ I love this scripture and it has helped me a lot of times in my mission, especially in the beginning. I knew i didn´t have a perfect knowledge of the Gospel or of the scriptures (still dont!), but at least my testimony was sufficient.
In church, we´re getting a lot of investigators from Ghana! We have quite a few and the other elders have a lot (they´re teaching like 10 on a boat!) and the other elders have theirs and his friends. We´ll soon have a branch in english again here! We were talking with Willy Roka yesterday (ward mission leader) and he said that he wouldn´t be surprised if they split Las Palmas this year. I can understand! We can´t fit in the sacrament room now! The work is progressing well here and I´m happy that the Lord is blessing these people here on the islands.
We have a new missionary couple named the Larsons, from Houston and they´re are doing great and they are just so sweet!! The members in las palmas brought them in and they´re so happy to be here. We´re going to see a lot of miracles with them!
I am so grateful for this opportunity that I´ve had to serve both in Telde and in Las Palmas. I´ve been very blessed and I hope, if I do leave, that I´ll be able to bless the lives of others in my next area. I was reading in PME that I needed to leave my area better than the way I found it and I sure hope I did just that! But seriously. my heart will be ripped in half. so dramatic, i know.

well fam! I´ll talk to you on sunday! wow. i can´t believe its time again. welp. i´ll be calling 8 pm my time!! that is....1pm your time. that ok? LOVE YA!

hermana smith