April 21, 2015

Hey Family!

 

It was really good to hear from you guys this week!  I totally spaced Sherm’s birthday this week.  So Happy Birthday, Sherm, and Happy Birthday to Andrea this week!  I hope you both had or will have great birthdays!  I miss you guys, and I wish I could be there for your birthday. 

 

The work has been going well lately, and we are just trying to find.  We have been knocking like crazy lately, and it has been bringing us some success, which is good.  I am getting blasted by the sun lately, and I am rocking a nice missionary tan right now.  There is nothing like hot and sand weather.  I love it though, and it’s been really nice to have some sun.  Other than that our investigators are doing well, and we are just trying to stay busy out here in Sunland Park.

 

We were able to find a new investigator this week on Sunday.  It was kind of a miracle how we found him.  We were out in Santa Teresa, which is on the other side of our area.  We hardly go out there to work because there isn’t much out there.  But that might change because we were having some success out there when we went on Sunday.  It is more of a white population, but we decided to just knock till dinner, which was out there too.  We knocked on this house and this lady answered.  She told us how she was busy and asked if we could try to come back another time.  We started walking away, and all of a sudden we heard the same women yelling “VENGASE!!” or “come here” in English.  We kind of just kept walking, but I had this feeling and this voice tell me to turn around.  So I did, and she was outside motioning us to come over.  We walked back up, and she told us that her husband wanted to talk to us.  We waited there, and I feared the guy was going to just tear us apart because we saw his shadow, and he was this super big dude.  This guy came walking out, and he was super happy to see us.  He was blind and had a lot of health problems but told us how missionaries use to come by.  They stopped all of a sudden, and ever since he has been waiting and looking for them.  He knew where our temple was in Juarez, and he told us how beautiful it is.  His name is Juan Ramirez.   It has been kind of hard to teach a blind person because you can’t gauge if they are listening or anything.  He is pretty dope, and we are super happy we found someone new.

 

We also found a family yesterday through a member.  We went by on Saturday to that member, named Hno Silva, who lives in the projects.  He told us how he talked to one of his neighbors, and she wanted us to come by.  We went by yesterday.  It turns out this lady talked to missionaries before, but they stopped coming, and she really wanted them to still come by.  She is super prepared and looking for the truth.  She told us she wants to find out which church is true because she hates going to all these different churches.  She just wants to be part of one.  The member, Hno Silva, was there, and that was good.  They got along really well, so that was awesome.  It was a miracle that the member opened up his mouth and asked her if she wanted the missionaries to come by.  It strengthened my testimony on how powerful member missionary work is and how it is a lot more effective then tracking or talking to people.  So now we are teaching the Familia Reyes, and we are happy about that.

Noe is stilling being Noe.  He still hasn’t come to church, but we are still pushing for the 9^th of May with him.  He keeps telling us that he is going to get the guts to come, but when Sunday comes he doesn’t show up.  We called him on Saturday to remind him at 10:00 at night, and he told us he was going to be there.  When we were about to hang up, he was like, “Don’t you want to come over for pumpkin pie and milk?”  It made me laugh, and we told him we were going to bed.  He is such a great dude and could be such a powerful member if he just takes the steps, but he isn’t taking them.  It makes me frustrated, but that is all good.  We are trying to work with them, and I am hoping that they come Sunday.

 

Jorge our main man is doing really well.  I love him so much.  We invited him to be baptized, and he told us that he doesn’t feel ready yet and needs us to come over more before he knows for sure that this is something he wants to do.  He also told us he needs us to come by some more times before he comes to church also.  He just wants to learn more before he does, which is reasonable.  We are going to see what this week holds for him, and I hope he continues to progress and sets a date to be baptized.

 

I think one of the best highlights of my week was giving Javier Herrera the Melchizedek Priesthood.  He is a youth who is preparing for a mission.  He is stud, and I love him to death.  We have become really good buddies, and he comes out with us twice a week.  He had an interview with the Stake President this week to receive the Priesthood.  He was telling us how he was nervous a little bit, and we told him he didn’t have to worry.  He texted us after the interview asking us if we needed some help that night teaching.  We told him no, but we would let him know when.  We asked him how the interview went, and he told us it went really well and that I was going to give him the Priesthood.  Sunday rolled around, and I did it.  I never thought that would happen on my mission, but it sure did. It was probably one of the most spiritual experiences I’ve had.  It was amazing, and Javier is a stud.  He is going to be a great missionary.

 

Well that is a wrap for me!  That was my week for ya!  I love it out here, and I don’t want it to end.  I don’t want to leave this desert paradise.  I love the Lord, and I love his work.  I enjoy how hard it is.  I never thought I would love going up to people and just talking to them.  There are nut jobs out there, but it’s so fun to talk with them.  I know this church is true and that Joseph Smith was the prophet that restored Christ’s church here once again.  I like what you said, dad, about how much you respect him.  He is someone that we are all in debt to, just like the Savior.  He restored salvation to this earth, and we owe him a lot of respect.   I love the gospel and the message it brings.

 

I hope you have a great week this week, and know how much I love you.  It sounds like everything is good at home, and I am happy that it is.  I am excited to see you soon.  Let the gospel shine through you!  Have a great week!

Love,

-Elder Smith

April 13, 2015

Hey Family!

I can’t believe another week has gone by to say the least.  I think I write that every week, but it freaks me out how fast this time is going right now.  I never thought I would get down to 1 transfer left, but sure enough here it is.  I am excited to see what lies ahead in this next transfer.  I am right there with you dad, I have never been so tired in my life.  I swear as the time shortens you get more tired.  I woke up this morning really tired and sleep seems like it doesn’t even happen anymore.  I set the alarm, and it feels like a minute goes by and then it’s screaming at you to get up, but it’s all good.  I love it here in El Paso, and I am excited for this next transfer.  I am staying and my companion is too, so I am happy.

 

This week was really good and one of my better weeks out here.  The Lord blessed us a lot, and that was awesome.  We are seeing success, which is great, but we keep on finding nut job people.  I have felt like all I find on my mission are nut jobs.  New Mexico and El Paso are really the “Land of Enchantment”, to say the least.  I love it here, and we had a good week and saw some success with new investigators and teaching.  

               

We found a new named Jorge this week, and he is a nut, but he is pretty cool.  We contacted this guy awhile back when we were walking around.  We found him with his head in a bucket of water washing his face off.  We decided to go and talk with him, so we wandered over and started talking to him.  He told us that he was trying to get rid of the hangover from his medicine that he took last night so he could go work.  I don’t know how that works, but I guess it does in the Spanish culture.  He told us he talked to missionaries before awhile back, and he enjoyed talking with them.  He knew a lot about our church and mentioned he went to church once.  He seemed promising, but when we have gone back late we have knocked but haven’t had luck.  He lives in a weird house complex thing.  There is a big house up front and two small houses in the backyard.  We were knocking the front house because he pointed to that one.  We went back a couple of times and knocked the front one but not the back.  I thought that we needed to knock one of the back houses when we went back this week.  We went to the big house first to knock, and there was no answer, like usual.  We looked to the back houses, and there was a hand stuck out of the door waving at us.  Then this dude’s head popped out, and he called, “Elderes!!”  It was Jorge in his house that you could barely even get into.  He is a horder to say the least, so we taught him outside.  He was drinking coffee as we taught him, and he loved it.  Elder Christensen went back when we were on exchanges, and Jorge was shirtless putting out the vibe waiting for them to show up.  He seems pretty solid, and he wants to read, so we are excited to see him more often now.  Let’s hope he wants to get baptized, and he is all there in the head.  I love him though.

               

We found another dude while we were contacting one day. We were walking around, and I saw this guy in the far end of this walkway to a back house.  He was reading the newspaper.  I felt like we should contact him, but we kept walking.  I told my companion there was a dude back there that we need to contact.  We went back a few feet and saw this huge statue of a saint in a glass box outside his house.  We were kind of thrown off because we were scared he was going to just kick us out.  We just tightened our belt and flagged him down from the back.  His name is Juan.  He seemed super happy to see us, and we taught him right there about the Book of Mormon.  He was really excited to read it.  He told us he wanted us to come back so we set up a time when we could.  It strengthened my testimony about just listing to the Spirit even if you think in your brain that it wouldn’t work out.   I am excited to teach Juan and see where he goes. 

               

One of the highlights of my week was teaching Noe.  I can’t express how much I love him.  We had a great lesson last Tuesday night with him about our purpose as missionaries.  We told him why we come over and how our goal for him was baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost.  We were going into the lesson thinking about dropping him, but the Spirit worked magic, and I know without a doubt the Spirit confirmed to him that night that this church is true.  We set a date with him for May 9^th and he was super excited about that.  His wife wasn’t there but it was really good to just talk with him.  He told us he wanted to come to church but we are working with him on that.  We set up another time to go see him again during the week.  We went over Friday, but I was on exchanges with another missionary so I wasn’t there.  Elder Christensen told me later that night that he read over 80 pages in like 2 days in the Book of Mormon and how he loved it.  He told him that he would just go in the backyard and sit there reading and how he couldn’t put it down.  Noe is a reading machine right now, and we just need to get him to church and he will be in the water.  He just hasn’t made the step to come to church yet, and we are working with him.   He told us he would be at church this week, but when the time came he wasn’t there.  I am very happy that he is back on date, and he is reading to know the truth.  He is a stud.  We are going over this week to have dinner and then a lesson. 

               

Those were some of the highlights of the week.  Another funny story is we contacted this lady in her front yard.  She has this garden of roses and other plants.  She kind of reminds me of mom, nice and super friendly with a garden.  We were talking to her about the Book of Mormon, and she told us that she wanted us to come back.  When we were about to leave she asked, “Don’t you want a flower to go?”  I was chuckling, but she was dead serious.  She ended up cutting us a rose and giving it to us.  That is going to be fun going back; hopefully we don’t walk out of there with a dozen of roses next time.

               

I love this gospel, and it’s a blessing to be a missionary to say the least.  I have grown to love contacting people and wanting them to progress.  It’s so fun to just flag people down and talk with them.  This work is the Lord’s work, and it’s a privilege and an honor to serve him.  I am excited to see what this transfer holds and the people that we met.  I love this Gospel, and I know that it’s true.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and this gospel has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Love the Gospel, and live the Gospel.

               

I hope you have a great week ahead of you.  I miss you, and it’s crazy that I will be home soon.  I hope you have a great week with everything and you all have some fun.  I loved your emails this week, and I hope all is well this week!  Love you tons, and you are in my prayers!

Love,

-Elder Smith

 

April 7, 2015

Hey Family!

               

Another week has gone by, and I am just wondering where the time is going.  I don’t want this mission to slip before me, but it is and I don’t like it.  It feels like I have hardly left, but at the same time it feels like it’s been awhile since I have been home.  I am coming up on my last transfer, so next week I will be emailing on Monday.  Transfers are on Tuesday next week, and I think I am probably going to stay put and end my mission in the hot desert sun.  I love it, and I am rocking a pretty sweet tan right now, so I am happy.  It sounds like the Rugby trip was a success.  It sounds like Oly went crazy and tore it up.  Tyler sounds like he played a lot so that was awesome to hear.  Is Rugby still going to be going on when I get home?  I sure hope so; I want to see the Tyler in action.  He sounds like a beast and fearless.

               

This week was really busy to say the least.  Not much missionary work happened due to the fact that we were in ABQ for 2 days, and then we sat and watched conference all day Saturday and Sunday.  I love conference, and it was a great boost.  We had some crazy things happen to us and we weren’t able to watch half of priesthood.  Then the computer we were watching wasn’t working here or there so I missed some of Sunday session, but that is all good.  I love it out here, and we are just having fun.  We really need to find new investigators because the ones we have aren’t going anywhere.  We need to ship them out and bring in the news.  I hope this week we are able to find some and get the ball rolling on that front. 

               

Noe and Patricia are still where they were a while ago, but he is reading which is great.  They haven’t been making the effort to come to church so that has been really hard.  We are going to have to sit them down this week and show them that they either have to progress and come or we can’t stop by as often.  They love us coming over, and they are starting to feed us every time.  I can’t figure out the Spanish culture and feeding you.  I feel like our day is sometimes just eating because all Spanish people want you to eat, but I love it.  Patricia makes some pretty good food, so I am happy.  But some days it’s hard to eat because we just came from a meal, and they expect us to eat their food as well.  I hope they find the desire to come to church and progress.  They are so close but yet so far away.  They just need the faith, and that will make all the difference in life.  If we have that faith to do what we need to and the spirit of doing, it will set us up for success in life.  When we push things off and not do them, we aren’t going to see a growth in ourselves or our lives.  I sure hope they do something this week that will make us hold on to them.

               

We finally saw Joy this week, and I was so happy.  He is a stud with great amounts of faith.  He just eats up the gospel, and he knows the blessings that come from it.  We watched the restoration film with him this week, and after we asked, “Do you have any questions or anything that you didn’t understand?”  He looked at us, smiled, and told us, “No it makes total sense!”  I just laughed, and we just went on with the visit.  He is amazing, and I am so happy I have become his friend.  He keeps on asking me when I am going, and I have told him, but I promised I would come back.  I told him my family is going to come, and we probably will want to do something that is fun.  He was happy.  I love him so much, and he is one of those persons that the Lord prepared.  He just needs his servants to come in and teach and baptize him.  I am excited to see what the future holds for him.

               

Come to find out, the crazy Marquez are still in our area.  We were looking on the map to see where they would fall, and we found out that it’s still in our area.  We went over this week to their new place, and we were driving in the outskirts of our area.  It was kind of freaking me out.  It seemed like these paths should be in a scary movie.  We were passing by this power plant that looked just super old, and then a few feet down was a business that is run down.  We went down this dead end road, and there house was.  We went in, and the oldest daughter looked completely weird like usual.  The mom asked us where the sisters were because we explained to them that the sisters where going to come by and teach them.  We told her that they were going to come by, and then it was us.  She was like, but I want sisters, and we were like sorry.  The dad was piped in and was like but we got the missionaries who know us.  It was pretty funny.  I am still happy we are going to be teaching them.  I hope they go somewhere.  So the Marquez are back with us!

               

We had MLC this week, and it went really well.  The mission has kind of gone downhill, so we counseled together for a while about what has been going on.  President Miller spoke up about boldness.  We received a lot of trainings on how to be bold with the spirit, and it was really good.  I love MLC, and it was good to catch up with Elder Folsom and everyone. 

               

Conference was great this week.  I loved Elder Holland’s talk about the rock climbing experience.  I also really liked Elder Perry’s talk about marriage and how our church has the only true marriage.  The 70 who talked about dancing was one of my favorites as well.  That got me chuckling, and it was just awesome.  The whole conference was great, and I really enjoyed it.

               

That was my week for you in a nutshell, like usual.  We didn’t get too much done which was hard.  I love missionary work and how much joy it brings to you.  This is the Lord’s work, and I am his servant.  Through him and by him is the way we are going to receive salvation.  We don’t need to fear because he has overcome the world.  He is life, and I love him.  I hope your Easter was great, mine was.  I hope you have a great week ahead of you.  I hope work, school, and whatever is going on goes well.  I would be fine to come back on June 15^th but anything floats my boat.  I love you tons, and have a great week!  You are in my prayers!

 

I forgot to tell you why I was late to Priesthood.  We showed up at 5:45 to watch it at the Stake Center, and Hna Silva called.  She is a really nice member whose kids are somewhat crazy now as they have grown up.  She was pleading for us to come over to her son’s trailer because it sound like he was about to OD on drugs.  We booked it over to give him a blessing like she requested, and we walked in to this trailer.  By the way Elder Folsom baptized their son but then he moved into the sisters’ area which is part of our ward.  We walked into the trailer, and there was this Buddha statue broken on the dinner table with drugs spilled out all over the table.  We found him in the bathroom, and he was sitting on the toilet.  We brought him out and gave him a blessing.  We told him to call us when he had any problems and needed someone to talk to.  I think his parents are trying to get him to move back into their house because the woman he lives with isn't the greatest influence, and the sisters haven't really helped him out.  I hope we get to work with him and he moves into our area!  Just another story, I thought I would share!

 

Love,

 

Elder Smith

March 31, 2015

Hey Family!

               

I can’t believe that another week has gone before my eyes.  Time just flies now, but at the same time it drags.  I love the mission and the work that has been happening lately.  We had a good week out here with finding and teaching.  We managed to teach a lot and also find every day but 1 or 2 days.  I don’t know what has gotten into me lately, but I have loved contacting people lately.  It’s one of my highlights of the day, wandering, knocking streets, and busting out a nice missionary tan.  It has been getting really hot lately down here.  It feels like summer.  I think the thing that I won’t be missing when I am gone is sweating super badly while trying to sleep.  I love it though here.  I love this desert and the beauty it has.  I never thought I would say that I like the desert, but I really do.  I love this area in the Southwest because there is nothing like it.  I am excited for you to see it and get some good Mexican grub!  We had a fun week, and I really enjoyed it.

 

We had a crazy week, but a good week.  We found 3 new investigators, but the sad thing is that most of the ones we found aren’t that solid, except one named Alfonso.  We found him contacting one day.  We were walking down the street, and we saw him painting outside.  We stopped and talked to him, and he told us we could come back.  We finally were able to find him at home.  He invited us in, and we talked with him about the Restoration right there.   He is super prepared, and I felt like he is searching for the truth about everything.  He kind of freaked out when his wife came in because she is supposedly super catholic and doesn’t let anyone in from other churches.  When she came home, he jumped straight to the prayer, but she seemed super nice and was happy to pray with us.  We were hoping to invite him to be baptized, but she kind of cut it off, but that is ok.  We are hoping that we will be working more with them and we can get a date for baptism with them.

 

We found another guy named Jaime.  He is a nut job to say the least.  A member referred us to him, and he is super catholic.  He was showing us his saints that he has around his house, and he was telling us how they had been baptized because they are unworthy when they are made by man, so baptism makes them holy.  I was trying hard not to chuckle a little because I was just thinking how wrong it is to baptize things that don’t exist.  He made me chuckle at some points when he was talking to us because he seemed like a mad scientist with his hair and everything.  We have been tempted to drop him, but he is reading the Book of Mormon and everything, so we are hoping that will soften his heart.  We are praying that he will want to be baptized and have a change of heart.

 

We found another crazy this week, her name is Ether.  She was a referral from some English missionaries that contacted her, but she doesn’t speak English.  We went by, and when we were walking up to the house there were some weird noises coming from the house.  We knocked, and she came to the door.  She had a neck brace on and everything.  She just looked like a nut to say the least.  We taught her outside about prophets, and then we asked her if we could come back.  She said yes.  We went to say a prayer, and we asked her what she wanted us to pray for.  She told us, “Can you please pray that I can have a husband, because I am 40 and its sucks to be single!”  She gave us a weird grin after that, and I was weirded out to say the least.  We said the prayer, and then we took off.  We will see how it goes this week, and hopefully she won’t tell us to pray for one of us to get married to her or something.

 

Some sad news is that the Marquez family is moving outside of our area, so there goes the fun adventures every week.  I like them a lot, and we have some fun with them.  We are going to be handing off them to some sisters this week because they are just moving to the area right over from us, but they are still in the same ward.  The sisters are going to be picking up people to teach with a baptism date.  I was bummed we were losing that date, but the Lord is so great and blessed us with another one.  We finally got in contact with Eduardo yesterday.  We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and he really soaked it up.  We asked him to be baptized on the 25^th of April, and he said yes!  We were super excited and happy that he wants to get baptized.  That was a miracle from the Lord.  We are happy with his desire and everything.  We are going back Friday, which will be awesome.

               

We have a busy week ahead of us, but I am excited.  We get to travel up to ABQ this week and get trained up there by President Miller.  It’s like a vacation kind of but probably one of my most favorite meetings in the mission.  I am super excited to receive counsel and in return apply it to our missionaries.  I love serving missionaries and working with them.  I didn’t know how much happiness it brings you till I became a leader in the mission.  Mosiah 3:17 is so true, when you are serving others you are serving God.  When you’re serving God it makes you happy because you’re pleasing him.  I love serving the Lord here in this little slice of his vineyard.

               

I am super excited for Easter.  I love it and the time we have to remember him.  We should be always remembering him, but this week is when he did something that changed man forever.  He did something that we can never do for him.  He paid the price of our sins, problems, trials, tribulations, and on the last day he rose from the dead.  I love serving the Lord and carrying his name on my chest.  He lives today, and he stands there in the mansions of our Fathers.  He is with us on our right hand and on our left, with his angels round about us.  He is the reason why we live and breathe every day.  I love the Lord, and I love the mission.

 

I hope you guys have a great week ahead of you.  I was super happy to get your email this week, and you sound like you’re doing great.  I hope you have a great week with sports, work, and whatever is going on this week!  I love you guys tons, and you are always in my prayers!  I am excited to see you in a short few months.  I hope you have good week and it’s fun!

 

Love,

-Elder Smith