March 24, 2014

Hey family!

ugh. TRANSFERS. i don´t know whats going to happen next week!!! So normally, a missionary is in the islands for 4 transfers. Hermana Fowers and I flew here together. I went to telde and she went to las palmas. Then i went to las palmas with Hermana Flower Power. We´ve been on the island for 4 transfers. And we don´t know whats going to happen!! They could White wash or they´ll take me and leave her or take her and leave me. Ah! The stress of it all!!!! we have random outburst moments about this. It mostly stresses me because i HATE packing. When i unpack, i UNPACK. Every tid bit. It´s my home (so mom, dad, you can imagine that now.)

This week was good! We´re seeing a lot of miracles and it´s amazing to see the Lord´s hand in our lives. I did my first service project!! EVER. Like, never before on the misión. We painted a room in a members home! She´s a Little in-active and afterward she really poured out her heart why she wasn´t very active and that she was fixing up her life. It´s wonderful what a Little bit of service will do.

We came to the church early for a lesson and a baptism was about the start! We were like, ´´say, wha?!´´. We had NO idea. So we go in and it was a baptism of a man that was ex-communicated and it was SOOOO wonderful. I have NEVER EVER felt the spirit sooooo strong in a baptism. It was very simple, but literally one of the greatest experiences I have seen. That baptism right there is evident testimony that the Atonement of Jesús Christ WORKS. It is forever funcioning. It never skips over anyone. The more and more i read about it in the scriptures, the more i am grateful for it. I have a VERY firm testimony of this.

Our investigators have been progressing well and they´re really feeling the spirit. We´ve been trying to focus more on the book of mormon when we teach and its been amazing the difference its been, because honestly, they are not converted if they aren´t reading.
Polo didn´t come to church yesterday and it was mostly because he didn´t have the ganas (meaning: desire) to come. It was really sad to hear that and we talked about the importance of the covenants we make when we´re baptized and when we renew them by taking the sacrament. Polo said he hadn´t been smoking for 4 days!!! We´re excited for his baptism this Sunday and Polo is really excited. We receive a bulliton page from the mission and they talked about if our investigators were converted to the Gospel or converted to the members and the missionaries. It made me sit back and think. so i thought to myself, ´´Self! how are my investigators? Are they converted to the Gospel or to the missionaries?´´. There are those who are truly converted. But we do have those where its only the missionaries. We´re planning on have a DTR with them. (DTR: determine the relationship. Did you know that its also used for dating people?! I have never heard about it until i came to spain!! hahhaa!!)
Fi has his fecha for this sunday. He´s completely converted to everything but he wants to wait to be baptized until he´s received a testimony about Thomas S. Monson as prophet. We´re trying to see him often and just give him animo :) Things are going well, but its all waiting now. We can´t force a testimony on anyone. It still makes me wanna bang my head against the Wall again, but the misión never is easy!!

we have an investigator named alex and he´s wonderful. He´s canarian and we´ve been teaching him since December. He has progressed sooooo much and he has such a strong testimony. He´s just finishing 2nd nephi!! We talked to him about baptism and he said he wants to wait until he has a testimony of everything. Hermana Fowers and I both feel that we shouldn´t push him. He´s really a wonderful man and we´re very blessed to visit him. His parents don´t agree with the Church and we´re slowly trying to see if we can visit them and just get to know him. He´s 28 yrs old and still living with his parents but i guess thats normal here...

Well, family! I´ll talk to you later!! love you!!

Hermana Smith

(imagine me singing this)

leeettteerrrss!!! Ohhhh, leetttterrrss!!!

they are so WAAAANNNDEERRRFULLLL.....

lleeeeettterrrrss!!! please come to MEEEEEE!!!!!

just in case. c/león y castillo 111, 4C 35004 Las Palmas de G.C. España

heelllooooooooo ocean!!

FHE with a member family. their girls are sooo cute!!!

food with an investigator. she´s from Colombia and it was delish :D

more painting!!

and finally!! polo and Francisco!!! Francisco´s on the left and polo on the right. they´re wonderful. Francisco´s a Little crazy and i´m always laughing when we visit with them. Polo will get baptized this sunday!!!