Thursday, April 16, 2015

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 25th 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

 

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