Tuesday, February 17, 2015

February 3, 2015



Hey Family!

Another week has flown by down here, and it is crazy to see how fast time is flying.   It is kind of freaking me out to say the least.  I never thought I would sit in these shoes and look back on how long it’s been.  I love it out here.  I love serving the Lord, but it just doesn’t last long enough.   We had a good week out here.  It rained for 2 days straight, and that was rough but good.  We got soaking wet, but it’s all part of the experience.  As we were walking through the rain, I was thinking how at home I would be thinking this sucks, but out here I love it.  When I was thinking about that Elder Folsom turned to me and said, “Is it weird that I like walking through the rain in these clothes?”  It made me laugh, and I said I feel the same.  There is something about a mission and getting dirty and wet, you come to love it.  You come to love the desert where there is nothing but the same looking plants all around you, but you love it.  It has been a ride out here, and I sure do love it.   We had a great week even though it seemed hard at times.

Our investigators are doing well right now.   Noel and Patricia are awesome, and they just have the desire and the motivation to seek after this gospel.  It is great to see them change every time we go over there.   I love them so much, and it’s the greatest time to just spend an hour with them a couple times during the week.   We had a lesson with them last night, and we were able to set a baptismal date for February 28th.  We have confidence that they will make it.  All they have to do is keep on reading and praying.  The area that we are struggling with them right now is church attendance.   They said last week that they would come, but in the end they never did.   I forgot how hard it is down here in the South to get people to church.  Most people go to Mexico on the weekends to party it up and come back on Monday.  Most of the investigators we have go to Mexico, so we are working with them on that.  We are happy that Noel and Patricia are progressing, and we are praying that they will make their date.

We finally got in with a lady named Nely.  Elder Folsom taught her before I got here, and we haven’t been having any luck seeing her.  But we finally did last week.  We read out of the scriptures with her in 2 Nephi 31 and talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her.  Something touched her heart during that, and she was tearing up.   It was a pretty powerful lesson we had with her.  She was going to come to church, but the person that was coming to get the pasole that she made for them never came.  So she had to hang out till they got there.  You got to love Satan.    We are going to continue working with her, and we hope that everything works out. 

We had to be very bold discussion with this one dude this week.   We saw this guy name Jose Angel late one night after walking through the downpour, trying some potentials we had.  We had nothing going for us, and Elder Folsom thought of this guy.  We stopped by, and the whole time he was telling us that the Book of Mormon wasn’t true and he didn’t want to seek after it and find out if it was really true.  It was driving me nuts, and I don’t know what the deal is with me finding people who just want to fight with you.  Elder Folsom and I got bold with him and promised him and testified of the truthfulness of it.  He was finally coming to and started understanding, which was great.  He stopped at one point, looked at me, and asked if I was a descendent of Joseph Smith.  I said that I am.  He then was like wow, I have a guy from his family sitting in my room and I feel honored.  Long story short, he got softened by the fact that I was a descendent of Joseph Smith.  I never really thought that would come in handy in my mission, but I guess there is a reason why, and maybe it is so he can get baptized.  We are going back tonight, and hopefully he doesn’t throw down on us again. 

We had to help one of Elder Folsom’s recent converts move yesterday.  He is a super cool guy who played soccer professionally in Mexico, and then he was working for the Club America in Mexico.  Then he came here to try starting little leagues that feed into Club America, but right now he doesn’t have any money because it isn’t soccer season, so he has been struggling.  He has been living with this kid who all he does is smoke marijuana all day and get drunk.  He was sick of living with him so he is looking for a new place.   He is such a sweet dude, and he feels like a brother to me.  He loves joking around with us and just having fun.  We are praying for him to find a new place and to sell one of his franchises that he has so he has some money.  He is a super dope dude.

Other than that life is the same.  That was my week for you in a nutshell, and life is good.  We are going up tomorrow for MLC in ABQ.  We pretty much just have fun on our drive up, so that will be fun.  I am excited.  Don’t know if I told you guys this but Elder Jeffery R Holland is coming to our mission, and we are pretty excited for that.  I never thought I would have a chance to meet him and hear him speak in person.  We are excited for that.  Other than that not much is happening.

Thanks for your letters this week.  They always brighten my day.  I am happy the SeaHaaawwks dropped the ball.  I am not a huge fan of them anymore.  I don’t like their fans nor there crazy stadium.  The Pack will get them next year!  I hope you have a great week and it is a fun one!  You will be in my prayers like always!  Keep it steezy for me, and I miss you tons!

 Love,

-Elder Smith 

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