Hey Family!
It feels like yesterday that I was typing away an email to
you. Time is flying so fast right now it’s crazy. I
think the longer you’re on your mission the faster time goes. It is
super weird to me that in just a couple short months, I will be chilling on the
couch of our house and not knowing what to do with life. Its scaring me,
but that is ok. We had a good week out here in Sunland Park.
We had to travel up to ABQ this week for MLC, a meeting where the Zone Leaders,
Sister Training Leaders, the assistants, and President Miller attend.
President Miller trains us and instructs us on things, and then we have to give
training the next day on it. This month it was on the Book of Mormon and the
Atonement. It was an awesome conference. We had a little bit of
time to work because we had like 3 days gone dedicated to teaching and training
missionaries, but that is all good. I love it out here, and I love New
Mexico.
I think one of the highlights of the week was hearing that Claudio
was getting baptized Saturday. I am bummed I didn’t see it, but I
am super happy that he made the steps to do that. I think about him every
day and think about the other people I have come into contact with. It
feels like yesterday that I was in Canutillo chilling and teaching the people
there. I am super happy the Claudio got baptized.
Our investigators are doing well. We have been working with
just a small teaching pool right now. We have been trying to increase it,
but it has been hard. We have been using the Book of Mormon in contacting
people and knocking doors right now. The trained us in MLC to start doing
that, and you will see blessings from it.
It has been a miracle worker to say the least. It is crazy to
see how much it softens hearts super-fast and how willing people are to read it
and visit with us again. We saw that on Saturday with this guy getting
out of his car. We saw a family pull up,
and I felt like we needed to contact them. I started walking that way, but
Elder Folsom wasn't coming. I looked at
him and he was like, "Let’s go, you don't have to wait for me." I
looked back at him and stopped because I thought the people went inside, and I
said, "I think it’s too late, let’s just keep on knocking, it’s too
late." But Elder Folsom kept on walking straight to them, and we pushed on
together. Armando is the guy who we
ended up talking to, and he is an awesome man. He was super interested when we
taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he lit up inside. He asked us to come
back, but when we did he wasn't home.
But we are going to keep trying till we find him. It was a cool miracle to see. It is amazing what the Book of Mormon can do
and the power behind it. We have been
having fun contacting with it. We are going to be using it a lot more,
and hopefully our teaching pool increases.
Noel and Patricia are doing well. They are willing to
progress. The only problem we have been
having is getting them to church. For some reason they keep telling us
they will come, but when Sunday rolls around they don’t come. They love
our message, and I know they know it’s true, but they just won’t make the next
step and come to church, and that is hard. We will be praying for
them to come this week, I know they can - they just got to do it.
I can’t remember if I told you about Nely, but we have been
working with her. She is super awesome, and I know she feels like this
church is something good and true. We had a family home evening with them
yesterday at a member’s home who turns out to be her best friend. She set
it up, we showed up, and it was an awesome family home evening. We talked
a lot about baptism, and hopefully we can get her on date real soon. It
is an awesome family who truly could be blessed if they just make the steps to
be blessed.
We were teaching this one family one night, and it was turning out
to be a pretty awesome short lesson. We were teaching this daughter and
this grandma of this woman. Elder Folsom told me before that she was taught
before and was going to be baptized, but something stopped her from doing
it. We knocked one night with a member, and we asked if we could see the
mom. But the kid said she was showering
or something, just another typical excuse. We then asked if we could see
the grandma, and she came to the door and let us in. We sat down and
started teaching. The mom was nowhere to be seen till we saw this head
peek around the corner, and in came strutting the mom in the shortest and
lowest dress I have seen in my life. She was like, “Oh, sorry,” and she
kept on walking to the back room. Elder Folsom and I just looked at
each other and tried super hard not to laugh. It was ridiculous. So
there is something weird that happened to us this week.
Other than that we are just hitting the ground running out here
and trying to find the people prepared to hear the gospel. I started
reading the Book of Mormon this week, and I sure do love it. I have
noticed I am a lot happier when I read it. It’s such a true book, and
it’s from God. We are working hard, and I love being with Elder
Folsom.
It sounds like
everything is in one piece at home. Dad, that is funny you heard
Aerosmith this week because I did too. We walked into a store, and it was
just blasting. It took me back to Denver 2012 and our roadie
together. I hope you have a great week and things slow down for you mom
so you can rest! I will be praying this week for everyone. There isn’t a second of the day when I don’t
think about you. I love you and I hope you have a great week!
Love,
-Elder Smith
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