Hey Family!
It
was great to hear from you this week. I love my Tuesday’s out here in the
mission. They are always so great to relax and email. I am loving
life right now, and the work is moving on like usual. This week was
a bit of a struggle, but it was good like usual. I feel like you learn
the most in hard weeks. We had a special Stake Conference this week
because the old Stake President got called to be the head of media operations
for the church in Germany. So he is
heading over there. It was a good Stake Conference. We also had a
special Zone training this week because we had President Corbridge of the 70
and his wife touring the mission. It was
good to have that meeting. It was a good week, but we struggled, but it’s
all good.
This
week started off a little hard. Most of
our appointments with our investigators fell through, and that was really
hard. In spite of our hard week we did find a new investigator, which was
a miracle. It is the Family
Ramos. We were able to get a member to come out with us on
Sunday. He is the former bishop of the
ward named Carlos Lopez. He is Puerto Rican and a really sweet
member. He is in that video that I told you to look up. He is the
young men’s president. We had all these
plans to contact all these people but they all fell through. He was
determined to find someone with us. We had to run back to the church to
get my companion’s planner because he forgot it. We pulled up in our car,
and my companion jumped out. He grabbed his planner. In the meantime, I am in the car trying to
think of people we could see. Obispo Lopez then said, “We are going to
knock that house.” I was asking myself in my head, “What kind of member
is this? I haven’t had any of the members that come out with us wanting
to knock a door.” My companion got in the car, and he explained the
story of how when he was the Bishop the missionaries used to stop by this house,
and how awesome the family was. He told us how he has been meaning to go
by but just hasn’t got around to it. He told us that he doesn’t even know
their names, but we were going to go for it. We drove like 2 feet,
parked the car, and we got out. We went up to the door, and we
knocked. While we were waiting up there in my head I was like, “Wow, is
this really happening?” They answered, and right away Obispo Lopez and
the guy just started talking. He let us in, and we talked a while in the hallway.
We were able to share a quick message with him and set up a return date.
It was one of the coolest things I have seen. It was cool to see how
affective member missionary work is. As we left Obispo Lopez was like, “I
will be here on Tuesday with you guys!” So today we are going back over,
and I am really excited about that. It was a really cool experience.
We
have been really focusing on Osvaldo this week. We have had some really
good lessons with him at members’ houses and also at the church. The
church’s TVs have this device that lets you get on The Mormon Channel, and we
have been teaching him with lessons. It
is awesome. Lessons at the church make the spirit increase so much.
We are working with him to get a baptism date. He keeps telling us that
he wants to get baptized with Magda, but we think he should just get baptized
solo. He is an awesome guy, and he is just eating it up right now so it’s
a blessing.
We
were not able to teach Jamyll this week due to him being in Mexico, I
think. I think he is off there asking him mom, and we are praying that he
comes back with some good news of him being able to be baptized. We
weren’t able to see Francisco due to him being out of town. The Guajado’s
kind of dropped us this week. We had a Noche de Hogar at the same
member’s home this week. We read 3 Nefi 11 with them this week because
they didn’t read it. We asked after if we could come by again to teach
them, and they told us they would call us. They say it’s too hard to
study two religions at once right now, and they were going to stick with the
JW’s. That kind of made me mad, but it’s the mission life. They are
super awesome, but they are just not wanting to follow what is right. It
is crazy how much Satan works to take people down. He is so real and alive
in this world. Hopefully we will be able to set something up again with
them. They are awesome. We journeyed out to Maria’s last night with
a member and shared a short message with her. She has no lights in her
house at night, so we had to us flashlights. We had a member check out
her pipes that the toilet runs through.
They just go outside into the desert. I think it has been freezing, so they have had
problems with the toilet. The member said he would get on it, so that was
cool. It was sure an adventure, like usual.
Our
work with the less-actives is still moving along. It’s hard at times for
sure, but we have really built up trust and friendship with them. We are
just hoping what we are doing will get them back to church. I love
working with them, it’s really hard and rewarding. I think it has been
one of my strengths on my mission, and the Lord has helped me to see
that. I can sit there and chat with a less-active and try and get them
back to church. It has been really rewarding to see less-active members
walk into the church again. It makes me so happy inside to see them
coming back. I hope we will continue to have success and we find
more less-actives to teach. We found a new one this week. His
name is Salvador Bailon. We found his name on the ward list, and we
thought we should stop by. We went to his house address, and we realized
it was shop. We were both like, “This is a shop, there is no way someone
lives here.” We walked past the shop once, and then we thought we should
go in. We walked into the shop, and it’s a seamstress shop. We
asked the guy if he knew Salvador Bailon, and he said yes. We asked him
where he lived, and he gave a basic area. He later told us that it was
him, and we asked him if he was a member. He said yes but he had not gone in a
while. We asked if we could come to his house and talk with him, and he
told us to give him a call. He handed us
his card, and we left. We tried calling him but we haven’t had any luck so
far. Hopefully something will turn out with him.
Other
than that life is good. Something funny happened to me this week.
When I was getting up one morning and went to say my morning prayers, I
realized that my sheets had ripped down the middle. I have no clue how it
happened. I was pretty much sleeping on a mattress this whole week, so I
have to buy some new sheets this week….hopefully that is ok! My companion
also had a showdown with a dog this week. The dog was showing him his
teeth and barking up a storm. I just kept on walking, laughing my head off.
It’s so funny how the dogs just go after him. One of the members told me
he is my good luck charm with dogs, and that is true. I don’t have any
problems with dogs when I am with him. Also our special Zone conference
was good but long. Elder Corbridge talked for a while, and at times I got
lost to what he was saying. My favorite part was President Miller’s
talk. He talked about what the church is doing for Christmas this
year. They have a new movement called, “He is the Gift” and they
are giving us special cards to pass out to people and everything. It is
really awesome. They also have a new website called Christmas.mormon.org. They have a
new video as well, and it is super sick! Check it out. It will be in the Ensign for this month as
well. That is my week for you in a nutshell.
It
sounds like everything is good at home, and life is good for me as well.
I am super jealous of the trip to Green Bay. But that’s ok, I am enjoying life out
here. I just want to go see the Giants play next summer, and that’s all I
need. I don’t need this paddle board,
just a trip to San Fran. You guys better bring me something back! I
am also glad to hear about Beary the rescue dog! He is a stud! I am
stoked to hear about Scott and his interviews! I hope you guys have a
great week, and I miss you tons! I will be thinking about you on
Thanksgiving! We are going over to the Bishop’s house so that will be fun.
We also have a dinner with a less-active family afterwards, so wish us luck
that night! It won’t be as good as Mom’s! Love you tons, and have a
great week!
Con Amor,
-Elder Smith
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