Monday, May 9, 2011

May 2, 2011

Hello family!
For the first time in a long time, I have lots of news to write! This week was pretty normal, but I have several stories:

FUNNIES
1. So its against the law to ride in the bed of pick up trucks here. But the more often than not I see at least one pick up full of policemen in the bed. Hahah. MLIAIAH
2. So you know how the day after a work out your muscles hurt in the morning because they’ve relaxed so much? I bet you’ve never thought about that happening in your feet. But every morning I wake up, get out of bed and stumble a little as I walk because my feet hurt so bad. Haha welcome to the area La Esperanza. MLIAIH
3. We had to go to the hospital the other day to visit a lady and her baby in our ward. It scared me so bad… it’s like a festival of sketchiness. I’m so grateful for our hospitals! MLIAIH
4. So we have this lady we’ve been working with for a while… I think she’s gonna be an eternal investigator, but someday I know she’ll figure things out! Anyway she had been receiving the Jehovah’s Witness for about a year, and still has contact with the lady that gave her classes. So we went to her house for our appointment and heard voices from outside her house, reading what sounded like scriptures. We asked her daughter who was outside playing who was there and she said she thought the JW was there. Great! We thought we were in a sticky situation, but the girl ran in and told her mom we were there. She opened the door and we saw nobody was there.. just her Book of Mormon. She was reading out loud from the chapter we had left her… FINALLY!! It was the first time she had read in almost a month. Hahaha. Oh me of little faith. She had read it and marked her favorite scriptures. MLIAIH.
5. This more than anything a hint for mom: I had a very trunky dream a few nights ago. All about oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I think I woke up drooling. MLIAIH

So remember how about 2 months ago I wrote about the pastor who walked in on our lesson? Well happened again this week… with the same pastor. Ugh. He told us he thought the Lord was showing him a sign that he had to teach us the Plan of Salvation.. that’s why we had run into each other so much. Ha. After a few awkward and frustrating minutes I realized it was a sign.. but for me. I’m proud to say this time I was a lot more patient and didn’t lose it. I realized the importance of having the spirit, and we left laughing.
It was funny because everything we said he turned back on us. When we told him we didn’t have time and we had an appointment we had to go to he started lecturing us saying there is always time for God, etc… we just laughed and left.. no use arguing. I just wonder what he would have said if he knew our appointment was for lunch. Hahah

Well gotta run. Talk to (some of) you Sunday!
Love you lots, and I love this gospel!
Love, Hermana Smith

April 25, 2011

Hello family and friends!
Another week in the mission has flown by! I can’t believe how fast it goes! But I’m so grateful for this time I have to serve and work hard. It’s coming down to the wire!
So this big news for this week is that we DON’T have transfers… again! Hermana Morales and I are breaking the tradition and staying together 3 transfers…. Hope she doesn’t get sick of me for 4 and a half months! I’m excited because we can just keep working hard and improving.. we don’t have to start new with a new companionship because we’re already used to each other! Haha. She’s awesome.

Funnies:
1. This morning was the worst ever. We woke up at 6:30, a little bit cold because it was raining… and there was no electricity. Just imagine you are tired all day, every day you have to wake up to a cold dark rainy morning and you CANT sleep in. hahah. What a temptation! MLIAIH
2. Today we took a bus to another city for a pday activity. Of course us 4 missionaries were standing up because there was no more seats… perfect opportunity for the zone leaders to dare me to contact the bus (stand up in front and talk to everyone). Then they handed me a pack of ¨Law of Chastity¨ pamphlets to hand out after I contacted. Of course my pride got the best of me and I had to take them and say I’d do it, acting like I WASN’T scared. No way I’m going to look so chicken! So I did it… contacted the bus and now about 55 people have heard my testimony and lots have a pamphlet about the law of chastity. Hahaha. It felt great! Now I’m going to put a goal to contact 15 more buses before I go home. MLIAIH
3. I love the people in La Esperanza, but I cant help but laugh at some words they use. There isn’t a lot of education here so they make up different words or change the correct ones. And now I have a hard time saying them right. Hope people can understand me when I get home! MLIAIH

Welp, things are going well…. ¨regular¨ like everyone says here. Don’t have much time to write more, but maybe more good new next week!

Love you all so much! Keep your faith strong!!
Hermana Smith

April 18, 2011

Welp here I am another week down! We had the best weekend ever this weekend... Henry and Erika got married and baptized!

Basically that's all I've been able to think about so I didn’t think of any funnies or lovelies.. nothing! sorry.

But here's what happened this week:

After a huge trial of faith and patience Heavenly Father provided the way that we could get them married. Long story, but I can now say I know that He answers prayers. So Friday morning we headed down to the office and they got married. the wedding took about 10 minutes, a few signatures, and ¨you may now kiss the bride¨. I got to be the witness!!! Then after we went to the church, they passed their baptismal interviews and then we went and celebrated with their family with a pretty wedding cake. 3 hours after we went back to pick them up for their baptisms, they got baptized, bore beautiful testimonies, then Sunday they were confirmed and we could finally relax. hahah.

They are so happy and we are so happy. I'm learning more and more every day just how important this gospel is for families. They are the basic unit of the church and the way the church can progress and grow. Next week Henry will be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, and I think they will both receive callings. They are officially the second active family in the branch...we are so proud!!!!

Really there isn’t much more exciting news than this... so I’ll let this be a short email.

The church is true and this is HIS work. I'm so grateful to be part of it. Surely, the joy of bringing souls to Christ is the greatest we can imagine. ¨What are you doing this week to share your JOY of the gospel??¨

Love you all! have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Smith

April 11, 2011

Hello family!
Well, we had another great week this week! (of course every week is great when you’re serving the Lord and learning LOTS of life lessons.. haha)
FUNNIES:
1. In front of the hospital here they’ve constructed a new building… a store that sells funeral stuff. We must be prepared! MLIAIH
2. I swear more funny stuff happened this week, but I can’t think of it. Haha. MLIAIH
anyway so the best thing that has been happening is that we have a family that is progressing... finally! it took about 2 months to get them to go to church and get the wife to listen to us. the truth is I don’t know why we kept teaching them, but we always got led back to their house. they all went to the conference last week and church yesterday... and they LOVE the Book of Mormon (the KEY to conversion). Anyway the reason I wanted to tell you all about them is because Juan Carlos (the dad) has a very interesting story. He is an ex gang member and you can tell from the way he looks and dresses. he has several tattoos and a huge dent in his forehead from a bullet wound that left his right eye permanently closed and without vision. He talks with a raspy voice from a life filled with drugs. He came back from the states after having the accident and changed his life by following God. He left his messed up life to find a wife and have his family. His wife, Rosibel, also has had her stories... she was in jail for 5 years and got out recently. She suffers from lots of health problems but her 5 sons love her just like Juan Carlos.. he totally adores her. (even though she’s about 15 years older than him) anyway they are finding a lot of joy and peace in the gospel. it still might take a while for them to be baptized, but I know it will happen because these wonderful people want so much to change and serve the Lord. I'm excited to keep you updated on them!
So we had the great opportunity to go on divisions this week... I stayed here and my companion went to Marcala for 2 days. It was a great learning experience.. what I learned more than anything was how much I love my companion. Not that I don’t love the sister that came here.... she’s great! but when hermana morales came back we both felt like she had been gone a month... hahah. threes just nothing like being with YOUR companion. It’s like it didn’t feel right to be with anyone else because the Lord put HER as my companion. She’s like my sister and I'm so grateful for all I've learned from her.
Well, that’s about it folks.. sorry if my letters are boring now a days. I know mom and dad don’t care, but everyone else probably does. it’s just that my English is failing and it’s so hard to write creatively. haha oh well.
anyway love you all so much! have a great week!
Hermana smith