In the service of others...

Christmas!  What a week!  Our numbers are a little lower this week but hardly anyone wants to hear us with their families in town and what not. Plus a ton are gone. BUT Christmas day Elder Hughes and I found this couple macheting their back yard. There was a forest of plants and we worked for like an hour and then asked if we could share a message with them the following the day. There was a problem though. The wife insisted that we eat dinner with them, she made us food. And this family was not well off at all there was no way we could so no thank you right. The problem was that we had just had a huge Christmas lunch two hours before AND we had a big dinner with a member planned for that night like an hour and half later. So we ate her food. She asked us if we wanted seconds. We politely said that we really couldnt possibly eat more but thank you so much. She smiled at us and swiftly grabbed our plates and put another helping on. It was rough, real rough. But their generousity and kindness were signs to us of humility. So we invited there family of SIX to church and they were like Yeah! So we are like okay we will call you a ride from a member to come pick you up. Well in typical fashion of people that say they will go to church they neve come. BUT we see the wife after church in the street and she tells us they were dressed and waiting outside and no one came. That made me upset, real upset. Haha but they are super good and the best family we have found in a while. It was a testament to me that service always opens the doors to good oportunities. 

I got to talk to my wonderful family which was awesome. It was great to see them and talk. 

We ate way to much cake this past week with Christmas and a companions birthday..i havent eaten like this in a long time haha.

Not much more went on...except that the family of Geena(the one with the three daughters) finally came to church!  Like all four of them!  It was amazing they have like found serious desires now it is great. January could honestly be a really, really good month for us I am pumped.

Anyway I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and will have a happy new year.

Love you all

Elder Smith

Merry Christmas

I do not have much time this week but i want to write something.
So I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. It truly is the most wonderful, magical time of the year! My Christmas will be slightly different than the years past!  First, instead of snow on the streets, i will be amongst tens of stray dogs.   I got some awesome presents from my great family. 

 I love hearing how great opf a break everyone is having. We get to stay out until 10:30 for Christmas which is going to be awesome. We had a day where every missionary in Reynosa went to offices and we got to talk to old friends and play games ANDDDD watch Elf...in spanish which means i understood roughly 5%.

Awww all is well. I am most grateful for this oppritunity to be here on this mission and to serve my Lord And Savior Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.   Elder Smith 

Ginger bread houses

MTC district

Mexican Familia

I gave my clothes to another

... My companions are doing great.  We are four in the house right now. Elder Martinez, the new guy, is pretty interesting. He is 22 and has graduated with a degree in some kind of psychology. He tries to read our minds and stuff.  Other than that he is super nice and is a great missionary. We go in twos now though. Elder Hughes is with me and we are really looking for new investigators now. At least that is our focus because our progressing investigators all got baptized.

Oh! I forgot about last Saturday! We were having the baptism for Yazmine and Victor and one of our investigators. Jose, an investigator that really loves the church shows up and says "Oh no i forgot to bring white clothes!" We were like uhhhhh you want to get baptized right now? And he was ready, so I took off my clothes and he used them to get baptized, after a quick call to the president and an interview!  It was so awesome!

We worked super hard this week, and we didnt find hardly anyone that wanted to listen. That was tough but I have faith that they are here. We just have to keep diligently searching!

And now a list, of the things that i miss...

Movies. Movies. Movies.

My mother´s cooking

The High Priests quorom president not wearing tight blue jeans to chruch 

The RED, WHITE, AND BLUE BABY America will always be number one. But dont call the U.S. America in mexico because they consider this whole continent America, and it offends them beacuse they are "Americans" also

Not having to thank God everytime i step out of a car unharmed

U.S. Church. It is sooo much different i cant even describe it

The internet to settle disputes quickly

Nice couches

Carpet 

clean floors

snacks

Decembers that werent 80/90 degrees

Things i learned this week...

I miss a lot of things haha

But i love everyday here and honestly would not rather be in any other place in the world. The Lord is blessing us immensely and i can see those blessing all around me. We have this one investigator that is like 100 percent wants to get baptized. She is 22 and works and goes to school like the entire day. The only problem is that this is Mexico and they pay her like 2.50 and hour. And she is like the best person I have met in Mexico so far. Super nice and totally prepared for the Gospel. She is literally the only young adult here that follows every commandment without going to a church. But she has come to church 3 or four times now. The only problem is her family. Her mom is going through a divorce with her dad, who is like the worst dude ever.  He basically never talks to his 3 daughters. It is a bad situation. But he won't give her permission to be baptized because..well..a lot of reasons. And she is 22 but she is practically under rule because she lives in the house. And it is not at all possible for them to move right now. It is just a bit depressing because if she was in the States, her life would be literally 1000000000000 times better, because really her whole family minus the dad is super smart and sweet. Oh Mexico. Why are you the way you are?

Other than them we have a couple of other investigators that just need to pray with the faith they have. 

Christmas is coming!!! I hope you all are enjoying the season. Remember what this time is really all about! Remember the original gift that our Heavenly Father sent us and the importance of that gift! I love you all. And if you haven't already, look up He is the Gift on mormon.org and share it with your friends! Hasten the work.

On that note..please help the missionaries in your wards. Especially if they are awesome because really, we need the help of the members so much. We need your food, your rides after church, your teaching with us, your REFRENCES, and much more. Please please please understand the importance of missionary work, and really your obligation to share what you know. Muchas gracias por todas de sus oraciones!!

Elder Smith 

Pics only this week - no time to write

So I have a new companion Elder Koltreyon

Well the transfer is almost at a close. I have no clue at this point in time where i am going or if i am staying. Generally we dont get much of a warning for changes. These weeks just fly by to be honest. I am not sure if 11 weeks has ever gone by so fast in my life. 

The weather here. Okay i dont care where you're from or been or seen. There is no crazier climate then this. Okay maybe a slight exageration but it gets freezing one day and then in the 90s(or high 20s celcius here) the next. And rain can just pour for a minute and flood everything. Its like....something that changes its mind a lot haha i cant think of anything to compare it to.

So i have a new companion Elder Koltreyon. It is only slightly impossible to pronounce haha i called him megatron for the first few days when i couldnt rememeber.

Well anyway we had some great experiences this one lady only speaks english and I was just blessed to have the opportunity to be there and teach her because she is so spirtually ready and prepared. She excepted all the lessons and is getting baptized Saturday. I feel really grateful for the experiences with our people this week. 

We did have a lady drop us saturday, the day of her her baptism. Like really bad we tried to talk to her but she didnt want to talk.

Okay so the things i learned this week...

Mexican Billboards consist of two types...really attractive people.....and beer.

Mexican music can be pretty good...or super, super terrible

When you are white, and tall, you are going to get stared at. And people have no shame they will stare at your gringo face for minutes.

Phil Collins knows fluent spanish.
Okay. This is so cool so my companion has some sweet stuff but he starts playing all these Disney songs but the spanish versions right. Like all the famous songs its sweet. And the tarzan songs start to play and im like,..due thats phil collins and hes like yeah he speaks spanish!! How sweet is that!?! My comp says that listening to the songs and writing down the words helped him learn spanish, because it is a lot harder to understand singers than it is in regular conversation.

Anyway thats all for this week. Sorry i cant spell haha. Hope Turkey day was good for yall we didnt do much just had some chicken ya know.

Elder Smith

Monday is P day so blog post update by Tuesdays

I get to teach a little more because i know a little more about the lessons. This week was pretty good. We got a ton of references last sunday from going to like every class and begging for them practically. I was suprised at how many the ward provided us with so that was great!

Yesterday we commited this awesome man named Andres to get married and get baptized friday. Which is awesome. Our zone is doing great too i think we are arounhd 20 baptisms this month which is good for this mission i believe. 

That one family where the homeless jew taught dropped us. We had an awesome experience with their 20 year old son and he was going to give us a ride to church and everything and we went and they were just like noooope we decided on a diferent church. 

It is so cold here haha like cold without sufficient heat or innsulation(spelling?). And this house is supposedly one of the best so i have that to look forward to haha. But this week was really good we have new investigators and the family we baptized to sabados ago is still in progression. 

Some things that i learned this week...

I am going to have to live without peanut butter or money one of the two

As a friend of mine said ¨Every taxi ride is an experience close to death¨ Seriously though i would never EVER take these things if i didnt believe that God was watching out for me. We were driving to the offices this week and i am in the back seat right. My companion sees a bee in the taxi. And then we look back and HOLY COW there was a bee hive with like 15 bees!!! We just like held on to each other and tried not to move and then finally pulled over the taxi and the driver is just like pshhh americans(not really) and starts to guide the bees out with his bare hands

A free haircut is usually free for a reason, the girl today, it HAD to be her first time ever they were training her and she was learning indeed haha.

I hate when people point at me and say something in spanish and then laugh.

Even missionaries get competitve in soccer.  Dont bring your little 10 year olds to play soccer with the missionaries...

Even missionaries that have been out for a year and a half are not perfect.

I learn well with flash cards. I need more flashcards.

Lukewarm showers, not fun!

Some people dont believe in controlling their children..or hyegine. We were at this members home and her 6 year old kid comes and slams his face into the cake we were about to eat. And it was like nawww thats chill we just gonna serve you this cake eat around the kids facial imprint or something.

I miss my mothers muffins and much much more.

Oh. I wake up in the mornings and can see my breath when I breathe. First time for that haha.

And I still love it here i love the work and my companions and everything. The weather is great except for 6 30 in the morning.

Week 2 in the field - First Baptism

Week 2 in the field. And wow what a week it was.

We had some really great experiences this week. And as the scriptures say there must be opposition in all things. 

This week has been grand. The first few days were just the usual, teaching lessons, talking to people, studies, and sleep. But right about thursday, things started to get interesting.

First...the weather. The begining of the week was like 90s and hot. Wednesday it got cloudy and rained. And it rained NONSTOP every minute until saturday. And it was like 50 degrees plus ice cold rain. Even the rain taste like acid or something mexico just aint that clean haha. But... I loved it. It was awesome i got to wear my scarf and jacket and walking around was so much better. According to my trainers, December to about April is freezing here. They are from Utah and they say here it is a different kind of cold. And then the summer is the worst. But hey, now i have things to look forward to haha.

Thursday and Friday we spent like half of both days trying to get this couple married. It is the biggest obstacle because no one gets married here. I mean like no one. It cost money for a marriage and is very very expensive to legalize a divorce. So we go down into the city for hours and hours to take this family through everything, so they can be baptized saturday. They have two boys, one of which is over age 8. My companions wanted this so bad, the ward can only cover so much of a marriage, and this family has no money for anything other than food, and sometimes they don´t even have that. So my companions like paid 20 american bucks of their own cash to get some medical tests done. One of my companions had his parents pay for it now that i think about it.  So Saturday comes and we have three people getting baptized, plus 2 more from two other elders. I got to baptize the dad, and also ask him about 100 times how to say his name. It was rough. But it was an awesome experience. 10/10 would do again. Haha.

And then saturday night...

So there is this family that we have been teaching. Familia Rangel. And the mom and kids like really want to know about God and everything. But...they never read or do or pray about what we tell them to. And their dad is always kinda hostile to us. And Saturday we found out why.

We walk in at like 9 oclock at night just to say hi and set an appointment for the following day. And we see this man writing on a whiteboard on their kitchen table. Well...man doesn´t describe him as well as hobo-esque. This guy, we find out later, is in fact some random hobo that has been to Jerusalem and converted to judaism. And this man has been teaching the father, who is the only one that believes it i believe, and his wife. He is absolutely homeless, and like they feed him dinner and take him in for the evening and he teaches them.  So...we get there and try to introduce ourselves and shake his hand. He refuses and mocks the name Jesus Christ on our badges. My companions tell him that his accent/spanish is impossible to understand. He starts trying to explain to us about how Jesus Christ and the cross somehow go into an equation and equal 666. We bring out the Book of Mormon and show him a scripture. He says that book is of the devil. We testify to the family of its truthfulness. I tell the family in my beginner spanish that i do not feel the spirit in the room or with this man. He freaks the freak out and starts yelling hebrew gibbirish and calling us el Diablo(devil). He starts to get in our faces and is spitting on our faces and yelling in this weird hebrew tone you might know the type. So we tell the parents that our message is about families and that their family deserves more than this(he is still yelling at us). We shake the shocked familys' hands and walk out with him following us to the door. Yanks the door out of my companion´s hand and slams it behind us.

So that is the watered down version, but we were quite upset afterwards, and he haven't been to the family´s house since. I will keep ya posted.

There´s the week. Everything is going wonderful I love it here i love my work and I love you all.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and I hope you all are happy, healthy, and loving each other!

MTC departure into the land southward

Garrett is unable to write this week because he has departed the MTC and is traveling to Mexico.  He reports to the Reynosa Mission home anytime now.  He wishes to thank those that sent him the goodies, packages and letters while he was in the MTC.

Elder Smith arrives in Reynosa.

Week 5 MTC - Spanish, Soccer, and Pro-Bowler Chad Lewis

And a wonderful week it has been. I am four short phrases from having the lesson 1 phrases and vocab memorized. It really helps with learning Spanish to have sentences memorized that you know are written correctly. I have other stuff to memorize in Spanish as well, which is tough. Because first you have to know what it means in English, plus you don't know how every word sounds so that is difficult kinda. But I have D&C Section 4(halfway done with that), our purpose, first vision, and baptismal invitation. Those aren't to long though. We had some really great lessons this week. We have made some good progression with our mock investigators. The surety of getting on a plane in less than week to Mexico is only slightly frightening. We have to be at the office at 2:30 AM, and we don't get to Reynosa until 6:00PM. So that's gonna be a long day for sure.

Gym time is a wonderful time. When our district decided to play soccer I was a little irked because I wanted to ball. I was wrong though soccer is the bomb. There are some elders here who are just so good haha. The goals are like 6th grader size, and it is still so much fun.

We went to the temple today which was great. A long wait though there are a lot of people in there.

The MTC mystery sickness made her way to our room this week. So that has been really fun.

The devotional this week was really great his name was Chad Lewis. He played for BYU and a pro-bowler on the eagles. He had cool stories about Andy Reid and how Reid used a conference talk one time during an emotional team meeting.

It is crazy to think we will be south of the border so soon with our limited lingual knowledge. But I know that our lackings will be compensated for. 

I love you all and keep you in my prayers!

Week 4 MTC - Art Rascon influence. It's a small world...

So it has been a month. There is a saying here that the days are slow but the weeks fly by. And it really is true as weird as it sounds. Life here at main campus is fairly different. But the schedule is the same. Still class and work. But class this week was really great. We got into some really cool doctrinal stuff. We had a devotional last night by the head of church media. 

So the food here is a million times better. Classes are much closer. We have a real gym rather than concrete. But we have a lot less freedom. 

We went to the temple today which was really great. Oh! And for all who know Art Rascon, I taught his parents. In a mock situation of course. But it was really cool. Twice a week we teach volunteers pretending to be members or investigators. I mean the MTC has a lot more resources than I anticipated. And I walk in there sit down, see Rascon and just ask if their son is Art. When they yes we talk in English for like 10 minutes about who I am and how their son showed our priest quorum around ABC and how awesome I thought it was. And teaching them was cool as well. 

P'day is now Monday with the move. It is a bit intimidating that I ship out in two weeks. I feel completely unprepared haha.  I want to write letters to people I juist hardley have any time. I´ll try to be better. It is inspiring to think there are people that have been prepared for me to find and teach just living and doing daily things right this instant. 

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, and may God bless you.

Week 3 MTC - move and mock teaching with David Archuletta. Also my unit changed to #374 with the move.

I have been rightly corrected  for my misspelling of week in Spanish. S/O to andrew for that. But don't let that mistake make you think I'm not progressing because I am..even if it is slowly haha. I memorize a lot of phrases in English and then Spanish. Our teacher and PC programs teach us grammar and help teach us gospel principles and missionary/teaching skills. 

My companero and I are doing well with our two investigators. One has committed to baptism, but the other has thousands of doubts. With our handicapped communication abilities, it is sooo much harder to be able to teach all of a lesson. The only thing we can do is rely on the Spirit to help us and hope that the mock investigators have mercy on our horible spanish. They do though, help us a lot. It is gonna be so different when we hit actual mexico haha. This week we had a great devotional from this ex-pro bowler NFL/BYU player who had some great stories. 

General Conference is pretty different in the MTC. It was a really great experience and I learned a lot. The district is moving to Main campus tomorrow so we have to pack tonight, which will be super fun. 

Oh I almost forgot! Our district got to do TRC,  "teaching" investigator, to David Archuletta. That was pretty cool he is singing in the new movie movie meet the mormons which apparently we're not allowed to watch haha. 

The food here is still the same, which isn't too bad but I am really looking forward to the food in Mexico.

Not much else to tell, except in less than three weeks I'll be out of the country. Somewhat frightening to me. I am super excited though.

Week 2 MTC - Semaña dos

Week two, wow it really does feel like it is flying by. I've learned more, grown more, but still go to the exact same place every minute of every day. Which I don't really mind haha. Last week we went to the Provo temple after emails. It was really great, and it is crazy how well people treat the missionaries. One of the workers we were talking to said straight up that in his opinion Reynosa was the best place we could be. Not that I believe there is a best mission haha but I am so excited for that area I really am. Tuesday Elder Ballard gave the devotional. My district wanted to sing in the choir for the tuesday devotional. So we got on a bus to main campus(We spanish speakers live 5 minutes away from the MTC) 3 hours early. We had to sprint to get in line for the chance to sing(they only let 150 people in. Luckily we got in and got to practice Joesph's First Prayer, and got to sing for the devotional. It was really cool. The best news came on Friday however. My visa went through!! And, I only have to take the train down to SL this morning instead of flying to Vegas like some other people I have talked to. Myself and another elder are going together. It is a huge relief, it sucks everyone else in the district still has to wait and worry though. Class is not 4 hours a day with a teacher and two investigators. Brother Johnston and Pliler. They are both really amazing people, and fantastic at acting as investigators. 

My companion ships out today to the Guatemala MTC. Which means I have to move to a different room for a week, only to move to main campus the 8th. Lame. My new companion is Elder Tilton. He is a cool guy, kinda crazy though haha. I am still keeping up with my studies, and readings. I get all your letters so I want to thank you for them. It is cool to be able to read during the week. Spanish is getting better, although it is not even a medium speed process. I enjoy it though it is fun to me. Brother Pliler, who was our investigator for the first week, is four months off his mission. The guy is minoring in jazz music of something, he plays the piano ridiculously. And he is studying to be a neurosurgeon, and he is a total bro with us. He has this CTR ring that looks super worn and gold it just looks sweet. One of our elder's mother sent all of our district new Spanish ctr rings. So I decided I'm going to wear mine until it looks like his. I gotta take some pictures of them, and more things. I just am in a rush this tuesday. 

Let me now try to describe my district...

Elder Fillmore-my companion leaving today. He is the best possible roommate, clean and on time always. But he says some real stupid things sometimes. And by stupid I mean it makes no sense

Elder Tilton-He loves basketball and sports. Sometimes it seems as if that's all he cares about haha. I kid he is a smart guy, and from Laredo, literally half a mile from the border and he worked checking trains on the border so he has crazy information and stories.

Elder Matheny- From Georgia with a southern accent that is great. Really good at golf. Small huy but hilarious. Probably the only one that I can just chill with and joke with

Elder Brenamen-ohhhhh elder brenamen. He is the Canadian and we remind him of that alot. He has national pride yessir. He is fairly loud and loves to be right.

Elder Shipp-The tall guy if you have seen the group pic. He is so awesome. He is from Oakland and  he's a convert. He is just hilarious some of the stuff he says.

Elder Eskaran- He is a native hawiaan which I don't think I have ever met really. He is the nicest guy you'll ever meet, and he really, really loves his family

Elder Smith-Yeah two smiths in the district can get confusing, but he is a cool guy. He is smart, and from Park City. 

And elder Baker- Our district leader, he is from a town of like population 20 in Wyoming. He is, well..he's yolked. He bailed hay and the guy is buff.

That's the elders, and I wouldn't be in any other district. 

I love hearing from everyone and I hope everyone is doing great!

MTC Provo - First Week Of My Mission

What a week. I am overwhelmed with so many different emotions and things to write I hope that I can get everything that I want to down.

So my arrival was at 1:30. Mom and I went to some Mexican place for lunch that served missionaries for free on the day that they report. I then was dropped off curbside and immediately was escorted through different rooms to receive my books, name tags, and language stuff. I was on the bus headed to west campus within 15 minutes. At the Provo MTC there is a main campus, and a west campus, west campus is a short bus ride to wyview housing where all the Spanish speaking missionaries reside. I was told to drop my bags in my room and then was immediately taken to my classroom. I met my companion(elder Fillmore) and my teacher brother Johnston. My teacher is amazing, he really cares about us as missionaries. He is really passionate and teaches Spanish really well. He rarely speaks English though, which is fun. In the evening we participated in a role-playing exercise. Now that was the first day, how about the average day...

Wake up at 6:30. Get ready and be at class at 7:00(about a five minute walk from our rooms). Study for 45 minutes on your own until breakfast at 7:45. Eat until 8:15 and return to class for 3 hours of studying items of your choice, with a mock investigator lesson thrown somewhere in there for about 20 minutes. at 11:15, it is daily planning time/more study until 12:30 for lunch. I usually choose to get a sack lunch(a lunch where you pick from pre-packaged foods) so that I can eat after gym time. Gym time(including preparation time before and after) is from 1:00-2:45. Class(this being the only three hour period where we get a lecture from our teacher) goes until 5:45 at which point we eat dinner and then return to class at 6:15 and do PCI(Personal(1 hour) Companion, and Language study) until 9:30 when we return to our rooms and shower/write in our journals and such. Quiet time at 10:15, lights out at 10:30. Repeat.

I'll go a little more in depth now, Waking up is not NEARLY as hard as i expected it to be. I wake up and have energy practically all day. Right now in the first 3 hours of the 9 hour class day, we teach this guy named Raul, who literally only "knows" and speaks Spanish. So communication was nearly impossible at the beginning but now we.re getting the hang of it. My companion and I usually prepare our lesson beforehand and I study Spanish for the rest of the time. The west campus food isn't like incredible. But some people make it sound worse than it. It is set up like the canon center and I actually enjoy eating with my district. Oh my district! So much to tell haha they are a crazy bunch. I might not have pictures this week because we cannot figure out how to upload them:/ but I'll have them next week for sure. There is nine people(one trio) in my district and another district that is fluent in Spanish in our zone. We are all pretty close in the district. I mean there is just some characters in here I'm telling ya. They probably mess around a bit too much haha. I remember thinking before the MTC "oh high school Spanish won't help me i forgot all that." N.o. I remember quite a bit about conjugation and a lot of verbs. Not so much vocabulary. But with my limited knowledge, I still have most of my district coming to me for questions when the teacher isn't here, even though I am seriously one tiny, tiny step above clueless haha. I feel like I have learned so much in just 6 days as far as the language. I honestly feel like I am already experiencing my first taste of the gift of tongues, or in Spanish el don de lenguas. We have focused a lot on church and missionary words and phrases. I can remember a lot of stuff, the challenge for me is to be able to create sentences and say them immediately when responding. I can almost always understand what my teacher says, I just have to respond so, so slowly haha. But I believe that it will come with time. Anyways my district has really good guys, all with strong testimonies. I feel very blessed. 

The MTC is unlike any place I have ever been. The spirit is just unbelievably strong here. Everywhere I go I just feel happy. Not to say it is not hard work because it is. But I really honestly love it here. Like a lot haha. Learning new things everyday, being surrounded by kind people and the Spirit, and everything is structured for us time-wise. It is just awesome I can't think of a better way to say it. I am so excited for the weeks to come and eventually the flight to Mexico. It feels so far in the future kind of like the weeks leading up to my mission. 

Gym time is alright, we have these large inflatable igloo-type things that have basketball, volleyball courts, and some weight-room-type stuff. It is always nice to be able to run around after so much sitting and studying.

During PCI, I do my 5*5*5 challenge, which is our branch president challenging us to read 5 chapters of the BOM, 5 pages in PMG, and 5 pages in the missionary handbook daily. In our time here, that would complete those first two and the handbook is something they really stress.

Speaking of which, the rules are huge. Nobody ever exaggerated when talking about how serious the MTC is about its rules. Some of the most difficult to keep are as follows: Don't call fellow missionaries "bros" "man" "dude" or when referring to a group "you guys." Or their first name. That is SO hard to do haha. Awake at 6:30(that snooze button is still tempting haha). Always be sitting or standing while studying. And always have your top button buttoned and tie uptight. There are more of course but those I break most frequently haha.

I have so many stories from just a week here. I can't even imagine what this week will bring. I just want you all to know how much I love you and hope you are doing well. To my family I miss you guys but I am so excited about the work that I am doing currently. I appreciate all your letters and prayers so much. I can't wait to here how you all are doing.

Mucho amor,

Elder Smith