When one door closes, another, much better door opens...

Interesting week certainly. I felt like it went by super fast. We started off with this:  the past elders here in this house have been less than responsible and the water and electric bill hadn't been paid in like 4 months. So our owner of the apartment where we live is kinda crazy, too. So with that combination we were trying to figure out what all to do, and we ended up calling the president, who happened to be at the airport sending a sick missionary home early for medical reasons :(  And he passed by to take the bills to go pay them. Whew! That was a relief I tell you. So in this ward there are just some fantastic members.  The majority of them are converts, and we get to spend a lot of time with them for 1) retention and 2) members of their family that aren't baptized. Somehow, we met a brother of a teenage convert young woman, and the following day he went to the ward talent show and liked it and then to church the following day, and THEN we got him signed up to go to EFY and this morning he left early to another city called Monterrey. He is really great! His name is Etmer and he is definitely going to get baptized :D

Baptism of Silvestre

Also we baptized a 23 year old YSA named Silvestre, which translates to "wild" haha. which totally does not describe the brother. He had this eye infection thing that was really a problem for him, but it settled down in time for his baptism Saturday. Yesterday, Sunday, we were supposed to go visit him at 4:00 pm. but we were held up and the food appt was super far way so we couldn't make it and we were kinda worried. But then, a member family told us that he waited for us, but when we didn't come, the other YSA members invited him to make visits with them to less actives and youth going to EFY the following day. So it was another example to me that sometimes thngs happen for a reason and that occassionally when one door closes, another, much better door opens. I was glad he got to go with the members. That was way better for him :D

We are teaching a sister named Lidia. When we found her, I was this close to ending the contact and moving on to the next house. Something, obviously the Spirit I realize now, made me stay and try to reason with her so that she listened to us. Which i rarely do because i want to find the people that are prepared from the start and let us in right away. But after we started to talk to her we came to understand that she had been to many churches, and hadn't been satisfied and in some circunstances pleased with her experiences. We taught the Restoration to her and a grandchild (the sister is like 50 I believe) and the mood changed. I could tell that she believed what we were teaching. And she came to church too! And the members did an excellent job I might add in helping her feel comfortable. The 4 talks given were really really good too which helped her have a great overall experience. Now with Lidia, the only obstacle is that she isn't married to her husband #mexico but we will be working on that this week!

We got to play basketball today. 2 on 2 but I had a lot of fun. I was inspired because a brother and I were talking about how much fun we had playing basketball as youth and I told him about high school basketball and he told me about the state tournaments in Mexico he played in. The brother could play ball haha and I showed him a video on youtube of when i played in high school. It made me miss organized team sports though :/ so today we played and it was a lot of fun, even though the heat made everyone only want to play for like 20-30 minutes haha.

These past few days I have been super happy. I have the privelidge of being close geographically to some past converts. And Janeth surprised us and came at the end of church to say hi to me and I was sooo happy to hear about her experiences, such as 1) Reactivating a girl in her high school class AND getting her to go to EFY with her 2) Going to EFY 3) She has taken her brothers to church and activities 4) She passed me a reference of a friend in the SAME colony or subdivision where I live right now. Also I have been able to hear from other converts that are going to EFY which I think is going to help them so much to develop and grow their testimonies. There is Joanna in Rio Bravo going, and Vennessa Janeth's friend. Etmer from my current ward. And Valeria from Ward Reynosa who wrote me excited about going to her first EFY. So i have been high on happiness for the progress that these incredible people have been making :D so happy.

By the way, on the mission's face book page there is a new video that you can look up that Elder Rodriguez made (my companion in Juarez) where he interviews a lot of people from Juarez about the missionary work and such. There you can see Elder Tilton, Vannessa and her mom, Bishop Valentìn, and Mercedes I believe. The video was awesome!

We move onward this week. There is much work to do, and goals to accomplish! Love to all!

Elder Smith 

I found aquafina water in a store here for the FIRST time in my whole mission. i was suprised to see they changed their design..but it tasted goood haha