March 24, 2015

Hey Family!

We had a pretty awesome, busy week out here in Sunland Park, which is really good.  That is awesome to hear that Scott got accepted to Ohio State!  That is going to be a fun journey out there!  I kind of wish I was going out there with you!  I am excited for you, and that is going to be an awesome experience!  Life has been crazy lately, which is really good.  We had a lot of meetings this week, and we had to get ready for Joy’s baptism and teach him all the remaining lessons.  He was baptized Saturday night and confirmed on Sunday.  That was the cherry on top of the Sunday, and we were happy that he did it.  I will write more about that below.  We have been really lacking on new investigators lately, which is super hard.  I don’t know what is up with me and never finding too many new people in any of my areas.  That has been hard, but we are working with it.  Overall it was an awesome week, and we had some success.

The highlight of the week was getting Joy baptized this week.  We pretty much taught him every day this week and just finishing up everything for his baptism on Saturday.  We weren’t here Friday and Saturday because we were up in ABQ.  Our meetings got done on Saturday around 2, and then we made the long haul home and got here about 6.  His baptism was at 7 and so we got back just in time.  We set up the room for his baptism.  I had the privilege of baptizing him, and that was awesome.  His wife came to his baptism so that was super cool.  She is showing interest little by little, so that is awesome.  We are hoping that she will open up and we can start teaching her now.  Joy got confirmed on Sunday, and that was awesome.  Overall that was the highlight of the week - getting him baptized - and we were stoked that he had the desire to change and become better.  We have an appointment with him tonight, and we are going to ask him about his baptism.  He was super happy that he got baptized, and we are just hoping that we find more people to be baptized here.  

We had a miracle with the Marquez family this week.  We went to go teach them this week.  We started walking up the stairs to their apartment and all we heard was just yelling and cussing from their apartment.  The mom and dad were in an all-out argument about their kids.  They aren’t even married. He just goes over and pays the bills and then takes off.  He was also drunk, and when we knocked he came out with a beer in hand and invited us in.  They were mostly fighting over the oldest daughter, who is baptized, skipping school and going to Juarez to smuggle drugs across the border.  The dad was angry about that, and the mom kept on picking on him to fight back.  It was a mess to say the least.  We just listened to them bicker and fight until the dad ran out of the house and took off.  We shared a thought with the family and then asked to come back.  We went by on Sunday night, and we were planning on talking about baptism with them.  The mom and the oldest daughter, the one who was smuggling drugs, told us when we sat down that she wanted to get baptized.  That was a 360 turn for her because the whole time she was telling us that she didn’t want to.  But now she was telling us she wanted to get baptized, and we were stoked.  We set a date with her for April 18^th so we are excited for her and hopefully this will get the kids active again.   We are now working with them a lot, so we are excited. 

We haven’t had any luck with Eduardo.  He has had things come up lately so he has called us and told us he would have to reschedule.  We went by yesterday for our appointment, but he wasn’t there.  Hopefully we can catch up with him this week and teach him.  He is super solid, we just need to find time the right time to teach him.   

We are still working with Noe and Patricia.  They haven’t made any really good signs of wanting to get baptized or wanting to come to church.  It’s weird because they want to but they haven’t put forth the effort to do so.  We are hoping again that this week will be a turnaround week for them, and they will come to church finally.

We had meetings in ABQ this week and they were really good.  We had Lynn G Robbins there, and he is a stud.  He gave a really good training about acting for ourselves and agency.  It was cool to hear about how we are responsibly for everything and we can’t pass the buck to someone else.  He told some great stories about his company, Franklin Covey, and how some people who worked for him just didn’t want to accept reasonability for their actions.   It was really interesting, and he is a great speaker.  He also talked about marriage and having a family, and he gave some really good advice.  It was a great meeting and fun to be with other missionaries.

We also had Zone Conference on Monday.  Hopefully our training went well and missionaries enjoyed it.  It was also a good meeting, and I learned a lot.  It was about the Spirit and The Book of Mormon and it was super tight.  It was a fun day.

That is my week for you.  Not much has changed with me, just the fact the mission is getting shorter and shorter.  April is going to be a crazy month out here, and then it’s May.  I am loving it out here, and I hope we have a great week.

It sounds like everything is going good at home, and I am super excited for Scott and Dad!  I hope you guys have a great week this week and you have some fun!   Just know how much I love you and miss you.  This gospel is so true, and if we just hold true to it and do everything in our power, God and Jesus Christ will help us along!  I miss you, and I hope you have a good week!

 Love,

-Elder Smith 

March 17, 2015

Hey Family!

       

Another week has flown by out here in the desert.  It was a really awesome week to say the least.  The Lord blessed us a lot, and that was great.  I love this work so much, and I am scared to leave it.  We have been working hard out here and trying our very best.  I know there are days that I could have given it some more, but that is all good.  I like my companion a lot.  He is a stud and fun to be around.  I just had to give it a week and settle in with him.  The work is picking up again, and I am enjoying it.  Sunland Park is interesting, to say the least, but I love it.  I swear my whole mission I’ve been in the boonies with Spanish people, except in ABQ, and I love it.  I love the desert and the sand/dirt.  There is nothing better than New Mexico/Texas.  This mission is great.

 

We had a lot happen this week.  We had missionary work to do, we had to help missionaries out, give a training in Zone Conference (my boots were shaking on that one), and some other things, but it’s all good.  Life has become a lot buzzier ever since I was called to be a ZL, but I really do love serving missionaries and helping them become better.  It been great, and I love it.

 

Our investigators are doing good right now.  We found a new this week!  We were super excited about that and happy that we did.  His name is Eduardo Rodriguez.  We found him through a media referral which came from the church.  The English missionaries actually got it and tried calling him, but he didn’t speak any English.  So they called us and told us to call him.  He referred himself online through the church website.  He told us that he was going through a hard time, and he talked with missionaries in Arizona when he was living over there. They just couldn’t work things out with work and everything.  He moved over here, and life has been going, but it has been hard lately for him.  His wife walked out leaving him with 5 kids.  He knew that the missionaries could help out.  He referred himself, and that’s how we found him.  We taught him the restoration this week, and he loved it.  He accept a soft baptismal invite this week.  When we ask him if he knew this church is true and everything would he be baptized, and he said that he would.  We are going to try and set a date with him this week, and we are super excited for him.  He is awesome, and we are working with someone fresh now.  It strengthened my testimony when we found him.  We have been praying to find a family of 5, but we have had no luck with it the past weeks.  We have been praying and praying and finally we just starting praying to find just one.  What do you know, we found a family of 6, and we have been so happy.  I love the Lord.  He goes above and beyond what we ask for always.  It may not be what we think we need, but the Lord and God know what we need.  Praying works, and it’s so simple but people sometimes think it has to be complex.  The Lord only asks for a simple prayer with our heart to him, and he delivers us always.  So that was a miracle we had this week.

 

Jose “Joy” Gomez is doing really good right now.  He has a date for the 22^nd of March right now, which is this Sunday.  He told us he really wants to get baptized so he fashioned his schedule to be baptized.  But we have MLC this week on Saturday, and that will be all day, so we are going to have to baptize him on a Sunday.  Our Ward Mission Leader, who is a RM, isn’t really on board with it.  He told us that we would have to talk to our mission president to receive permission to do that on a Sunday.  We did that, and President was fine with it.  The only problem is he would have to wait a week to receive the Holy Ghost, so that would happen ther next Sunday.  Our WML just wants to have him baptized next week so he doesn’t wait a week to receive the Holy Ghost.  But why keep someone from receiving blessings from baptism a week when he wants to do it?  That is kind of frustrating us right now, so we are just hoping something pans out with him.  The sad thing also is that no one in the ward is really supporting or fellowshipping him.  He comes to church, people shakes his hand and then walk away.  We have to sit by him and help him when a member should help out.  We have brought members over and tried to get a friendship started, but nothing has worked.  We expressed this concern to President, and he told us that his baptism right after church might be a good time to have the members step up  to the plate and bring him in.  We are praying hard for what we want to do.  I hope we get a baptism this week, and that would be really great.  Joy is awesome, and I am excited for the future he has ahead of him.  He is super prepared, and it’s great.

 

Noe and Patricia are still kicking it.  They are struggling, and we are working with them.  We are just hoping they come to church, and I know without a doubt if they do that they will get baptized.  They are just struggling to get there.  They know it’s true and everything, but they aren’t doing the actions to get that conversion.  We are praying for them a lot lately.

 

We tried finding new investigators a lot this week, and we found nothing but hard-headed people.  Anyone we found who was solid we had to hand over to the English Elders because they preferred English.  I never meet so many devoted Catholics in my life.  They are usually open to hearing us out, but the people we found this week were just nut cases.  One guy we found and gave him to the English Elders came running off his porch drunk as a skunk telling us that the work we were doing is awesome.  It was making me laugh because this guy with a beer in hand was getting in our faces and telling us how awesome we were.  When we were waking into the area he was in, he was blasting the Lion King movie music in his house and singing along and all.  When we were walking back is when he came running out of his house telling us how awesome we are.  He told us we could come back, but he wasn’t there.  Hopefully the English Elders have some luck with him.

 

We had Zone Conference yesterday, and it was awesome.  We gave a training on the Holy Ghost to our Zone and another one in front of President again.  I was shaking in my boots to say the least.  Hopefully it came out well and missionaries took something from it.  We have a special MLC this week with Lynn G Robbins, so we are excited for that.   We get to make the trek up to ABQ this week, and I am looking forward to that.  Other than that my week was just a missionary week. 

 

It sounds like all is well at home, and I miss you guys a lot.  You are always in my prayers, and I will keep on praying for everyone.  I hope Tyler doesn’t get hurt, Dad settles in more at work, and Scott hears a yes.  I love you guys tons, and I know this gospel is true.  There is no way this gospel isn’t true.  It brings people joy and happiness.  I love you tons!  Have a great week! 

 

Love,

-Elder Smith

March 10, 2015

Hey Family!!

Well Dad is a free man now, that’s awesome!  I hope this email finds you dad and you’re all settled down in your new office.  I can’t believe you are gone from First American, which is weird to think but I am really happy for you and I just hope you get this email!  I am doing well and this week was stressful but good.  It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Folsom and take on the area this week.  I had no clue what I was doing.  I am doing good though besides the stress.  I love it out here in Sunland, and the work is going to say the least.  I have a new companion, and he is good.  I will talk more about that down below.

               

Like I said above this week was one of the most stressful weeks I have had on the mission.   We had transfers, losing a flash drive that had everything on it (luckily I found it), adjusting to a new companion, and doing MLC Reports and a Zone Training.  I think I grew a head full of gray hairs to say the least, but it’s all good.  Things are settling down and life is good.    I have a new companion, and I am training him to be a Zone Leader.  I never thought that would happen because I am pretty young as a Zone Leader.  His name is Elder Christensen, and he is from Park City.  He is like a world class karate fighter, and he is good guy.  He is not the same as Elder Folsom by any means, but he is still good.  I am learning how to get along and figuring out everything.  I love him, and I am excited to see what the transfer has in store for us.

Our week was a little hard with investigators, to say the least.  All the investigators we have are kind of stopping in their progression, and that has been stressful.  Joy Gomez is progressing the most right now, and he is going to get baptized, that is for sure.   We taught him this week about the Plan of Salvation and it went really well.  His life has been kind of crazy with work and everything, but that is ok.  He came to church this week for all 3 hours and that was a miracle.  He hasn’t done that yet so that was really good to see him take that step.  He also had an interview with our bishop on Sunday, and they talked forever about who knows what.  But he is ready, and we are excited.  He has a date for the 14th, this Saturday, but we might push it back so he can prepare more and receive an answer.  He is a stud, and we are excited for him.

Noe and Patricia are doing well.  I just don’t want to let go of them yet because they are still progressing little by little, but it might be their time to rest from the missionary lessons.  This week we taught them twice, and during one of the appointments we talked about the great apostasy and explained really clearly about the authority being lost and everything.  It looked like it made sense, but they still aren’t coming to church, and that is frustrating.  They keep telling us one day they will make it and come, but they haven’t yet.  I guess I just have to be patient and just let them come when they want to.  I know they know this church is true, but they just don’t want to take the steps, and it’s killing me.  I love them but we might have to put a lid on them for a while.  

We finally went back to Jose Angel’s house this week.  I think I wrote about him before and how he just wanted to fight about The Book of Mormon.  So I was really scared to go back.  But we were just sitting there not having anything going for us, and I heard his name come into my head.  I was saying, “No, he just wants to fight,” to myself, but I thought some more and felt like we should go.  I told my companion about him, and he wanted to go visit.  We drove over, and I hesitantly knocked his door.  He opened and let us in.  They lesson turned about to be an amazing lesson, and he didn’t want to fight or do anything.  He listened, and we got to know him.  We read out of The Book of Mormon, and he loved it.  He even told us he might come to church and sit by us, but he didn’t, and that’s ok.  I don’t know what changed him, but it turned out to be an awesome and super spiritual lesson.  We have some high hopes for him, and I am excited to see where it will go with him. 

Our MLC canceled this week, and that was a bummer to say the least.  It got canceled because we have a special one the 21st of March with Lynn G Robbins, so that will be cool.  The hard part of it was trying to plan a 2 ½ hour Zone Training by yourself and not having any instruction by President or the Assistants.  We were left in the dark to plan something about Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel - the Spirit.  The worst part was we got a call from President Miller on Thursday night telling us he would see us bright and early at our Zone Training.  I might have peed my pants when I heard he was coming.  It was awesome to have him along to say the least.  He motivated the Zone, a lot so that was great.  He told us after that we did a great job, and the spirit was there.  That brought a lot of comfort to my stressed soul.  It was awesome to have him there with his wife.  He is an amazing man. 

A funny story from this week happened when we were with the Marquez family.  They are a crazy family with 6 or 7 dogs in a tiny apartment, and they have 3 kids.  My companion had to use the bathroom so he asked if he could.  When he got up and closed the door all the dogs got up and went in the tiny hall and started peeing.  One lifted his leg and peed on the door my companion was in, and all the rest just stopped and peed in their corners.  It made me laugh super hard.  That family is crazy to say the least.

Well there is my week for you.  All is well in the South, and I am happy.  It’s weird I’ll be seeing you shortly, and it has been hitting me more and more as the transfers just start coming to a close.  I love it out here, but it’s all good.  I hope you have all have a great week and Tyler doesn’t start bleeding everywhere like last week.  That was a sick pic to say the least.  I hope it’s in his room.  I hope Dad is loving life, and I am happy for him!  Don’t know about the date with Tyler.  If she is cutie I would do it!  Haha.  Tyler can make the choice, and he knows best!  I miss you guys tons like usual, but we will be back together shortly!  Love you, and you’re in my prayers!

 

Love,

-Elder Smith