January 27, 2014

Well, hey there lovely family of mine!!

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

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

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

Con muchísimo cariño y un abrazo SÚPER fuerte,

Hermana Smith

January 20, 2014

Hey Familiy!

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

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

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

LOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!

Hermana SMith

so my cat again. she loves me.

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

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

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

January 13, 2014

Hey fam!

Sometimes, I honestly forget that I´m serving on an island. In the middle of the ocean. On the coast of Africa.

Just a fun fact.

This week was awesome! It was a little bit of an adjustment from small town Telde to big town Las Palmas but its been super fun. I´m coming from having like no investigators to having too many and I still don´t know all of them! Our área is huge, its most of the northern part of this whole island. Oh and sorry for the random spanish words-this computer is hi-tech and auto corrects my correct inglesh. heehee. We were both trying to figure things out a little bit and may have gotten lost a couple of times (maybe a lot) but its been wonderful serving with Hermana Megan Fowers (Go ahead and Facebook stalk her...). She´s an amazing missionary and I have already learned soooo much from her. I love companions like that! She´s very obedient and is very clear and straight-foward. Most of the time, our investigators need that. No more beating around the bush! She´s from Bountiful and is older than me age wise (not much-21), but she has about 7 months in the misión. Apparently, she remembers the tall blond twins walking around temple square in Madrid! (Hansey and I...if you don´t remember...). She said we were kind of a legend. Hahhahahaaa that sounds super self centered...
I´m still getting used to things. We have all these fancy Madrid-like bus systems and the people are a Little bit colder than Telde but its been super fun. It´s super touristy here and we like to stalk the english people to hear their accents. Plus I´m even CLOSER to the beach and we´ve learned to never go there because Europeans like to walk around nude. FYI, they will never get the tan they want.

Honestly, we´ve had so many lessons this week I don´t know where to start

We have this investigator named Yasmina and she is absolutely wonderful. She has this amazing story because she was married to an Arabic man and her escape from the middle east and of all this craziness, and she gives all the credit to God. She has the biggest heart and the most faith I have ever seen. She truly is a prepared soul. We has all these questions about deep doctrine and we finally had to sit her down and explain that first we needed to teach the basics for a foundation and that things will build up from there.
We have 5 people with fechas right now and we´re working them towards that goal. One is from Ghana, one is literally kind of crazy, and then his brother has a fecha and he doesn´t have a leg. the next 2 are alex and he is just wonderful and Jayson from the philiphines. They´re all really wonderful and I just loooove being a missionary.  We´ve been getting a lot of support from the members and we´re blessed by their support. They definitely keep us busy, for which we are grateful. It was super loud in church and I was getting a Little annoyed when i realized that this Ward was about 5 of telde...then i understood.

Don´t worry family, I´m happy to be here! i´ll miss telde and the elders there have us on speed dial but i feel like i should be in las palmas right now. I´m grateful for the opportunity that i have to be a missionary, to be a servant of the Lord. I´m grateful that I get to search for Sashas family and share our special message with them. I´m so thankful for your support. I think back on the misión and I´m filled with so much love and happiness. I loooooooove the misión so much and I looooooooooooooooove this Gospel. I know that this is THE Church of Jesús Christ. I know that God´s plan will only bring us the eternal happiness that we need, but only if we accept Christ as our Savior. I love you all and pray for you!

Love Hermana Smith

Now. Answers.

Mommy first. I received 1 birthday and 1 christmas package and we are enjoying the reeses and my new skirts. THANK YOU. exactly what I needed!!! and they fit :) my food baby likes these clothes! and the reeses...

i received a letter from some Young women and a new chick annnndd.....on i just received a package from Aunt Char and Uncle Eric! i´m gonna write to them but tell them that I LOVED IT SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.

my companion is wonderful and we have so much fun together. shes a good lil missionary.

ok. now daddy.

i live on  Calle León y Castillo 111, 4C 35004 Las Palmas. The reason why you couldn´t find the address in telde on the map was because its telde and its old. the streets are all mixed around with an old system and a new system. super confusing.

now its just us and 2 other elders. don´t know if shaun served here. yes sasha and paqui´s family live here. hermana fowers is from bountiful.

some cool quotes we Heard this week from an Elder and the other from a member:

Elder Saquicela from ecuador/España: Estamos en el quipo del Señor. Vamos a ganar!

Member: The Prophets see the past, present, and future. But they always speak the truth.

sooooo foto of the week. we were at a recent converts house and she´s 15 years old. she´s soooo ready to serve a misión and so to visit her and i play the investigator and she plays the missionary. thats why i´m without chapa in the picture...

the end!

January 6, 2014

Hey family!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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