Stake conference and a hair cut

What a wonderful week. We started off well tuesday and kept it going until the end of the week. My comp and i made various changes in the way that we planned and worked..and we are seeing some significant improvements.

Unfortunately, it was stake conference and while it was a great conference and a 70 was there and it was cool and all...we weren't able to bring anyone to to other side of town to the stake center. This week we have high expectations.

As far as stories..heres one...

So my sister Jamie and her family were kind enough to gift me the thing tat you cut har with(what is that called? haha) and it has been a blessing since i recieved it. 

Now. In our new house there is only one tiny mirror in the bedrooom..without a plug to reach the mirrior. Sooooo i had an interview with prez and my hair was LONG i had to cut it. But, without a mirror i chose to trust in my companion to cut it. He said he had no experience whatsoever but i had no choice. So he does it and i go to the mirror ever so often to check it. We finish and so i tell him to take off the gaurd to edge the neckline..he does obediently. So then i go to the mirror and notice he missed a spot in the back. So i come back to where we are cutting(other room) and tell him where to cut. 

And that was when i heard it...the sound of hair bein cut wayyyyyy louder than it should have been. I realized it before my comp and just knew what he did. They say a picture tells the story..the picture will be attached because he didnt put the #2 gaurd back on and just buzzed my head.  So yeah i am having to explain this story to about everyone and when i walk away from president and others of authority i back up until the door without turning around.

But the truth is its not that bad it was and is quite funny. My companion isnt really the most observant person in the world i should have made sure hahaha 

We got to go to a friend of a member and share the message of the restarationn with their family. It was a great family and lesson...AND they own this seafood restaurant in town and invited us to come back the next day to eat. We did and it was really good. Crab soup with vegetables and fish and salsa and other vegetables. Super cool and then we got to teach them in their business.

Later that day though..a small hurricane came through and it was just nuts. We used coutless plastic bags to protect our scriptures and had to trudge through town to get to appointments. It was cool though, here drainage doesnt really happen so the whole city floods. And there was a TON of water. Super fun for real i actually enjoyed it it was refreshing. Then we got home and in our THRID FLOOR APARTMENT the main room flooded somehow..luckily we had nothing get ruined or even really wet..just a little mopping and pushing water out of the house.

All and all..a wonderful week. All smiles here looking forward to an amazing week and a brighter future!

Elder Smith

A change in me

An interesting week with twists and turns.

Firstly as far as invstigators we are struggling. All the people that were progressing have like left town or have challenges with commandments. AND finding people right now is seemingly difficult. Which just means we work harder and find different things to do.

And the week finished a nice break from work and the blessing of being able to call home. And oh how great it was, that on mothers day i could see and be with my family that loves and supports me, and my own mother who is always there for me.

We have stake conference this week and President Morales is speaking..which should be cool he should give the members a good ole reminder of the missionary work importance.

I got to run for the first time in 7 months this past monday, my legs were super sore from running just a litttttle bit haha how pathetic.

I have been reading a book called the using(or calling) powers of heaven and it talks a lot about the power of collective faith..how when we support each other together we can increase our faith and recieve more of the blessings that we ask for in righteousness. That is something that as a mission we need, a lot of focus on the collective faith..prayers and service from home really does help us i testify that it does.

Well that about wraps up the week. Something super great is my own spirtual and testimonial progression has allowed me to develop a strong sense of faith and firm testimony. I cant begin to describe the importance of the mission, not just to serve others but to help yourself. I cant see how i would have these changes in me if i were home with distractions and other things going on in life. And we always talk about the blessings of missionary service, i am convinced that a larg part of the blessings is the knowledge and development that the missionary experiences that bring eternal blessings in the future. The stroger desire i have and am developing to be righteous is something that will certianly bless my life in the future, and certianly it came only from the mission. 

I suggest all those that can go..to go.

Enjoy your weeks!

Elder Smith

Mayo ha llegado

Firstly, we think we should all learn spanish it's a pretty sweet language and really learning it is not nearly as bad nor hard as i anticipated. Granite i am still a scrub compared to natives.

It seems i haven't written much recently. To fill the reader in..i got swapped to the most downtown part of Reynosa..which has its perks and challenges. The perks being we are super close to the leaders and know what goes on and what is going to happen. The challenges being that its a busy city. And also that our ward and building were made in the early 1980s so expansion is quite difficult as far as the people in the ward. Because everything has originated and spread out from this middle first ward. So the people that wanted to go to the church have, for the most part, been invited or converted.

As far as the first 3 weeks here. My companion is Elder Hernandez. He is from Honduras, likes video games, animate programs, and sandwiches. He is a good missionary though he is a profesional kind of person very easy going. He is never bothered..never haha

We have worked a lot to find people..
and have found people but all have problems getting to church or something happens. Like this one guy we brought to church 2 sundays ago. The guy is suuuuper addicted to smoking and alcohol. Like he hasnt drunk water in years because he hates the taste. We get to talkin to him and he comes to church and loves it and feels good and starts to really feel the desire to change his life. We are like awesome he stops the drugs and goes to church and prepares himself for baptism. Uuuuuuntil this happens. 
Last saturday he tells us that his family(Who he doesnt like) will cut his part of a pension that they recieve from his fathers work(dad is dead) if he gets baptized. And this is an older guy that has NO work and lives in a shack with only his part of the pension to live off of. And he tells us i want to keep going to church and i want you guys to visit me still..but i cant get baptized. UGH well we try explaining all the things to him trust in God do what the holy ghost says all of it. Not sure if he gets it yet but my hopes are still with him. 

Other than that the only real golden opprutunity that we have is this family that watched "meet the mormons" and loved it. They are unlike any other family i have met. 4 kids and they all are great and the parents focus on the family and family time and values..its great i just hope they are prepared for the gospel.

We are moving from our house to live with two other missionaries that share our area. It should be fun to live with 4 people again..but moving shouldnt be too fun. 

Food is really good here. Election campaigns have started here its hilarious you see the face of these candidates that have payed businesses to advertise their face all over the city. What makes me laugh even more is if you ask the average Mexican who they are going to vote for..they just say "Vote? Yeah it doesn't matter what i write the people don't decide the winners".  Be grateful for the partial justice that the politics has in the U.S.

Spring allergies MURDERED me these past weeks. i felt bad splitting the cost of tissues with my comp because yeah i use like 90% of it all. Now i pay for them haha. But it have pretty much gone away for now.

A lot of elders have gotten sick these past weeks..i feel very blessed to have my health..because working and being sick sticks.

That'll be all for now i think..hug your mother this sunday!

Elder Smith

It stormed like never before...

As the transfer comes to a close, i must say it was the fastest transfer of the whole mission. I am not even exactly sure why but it FLEW by. 

It stromed like never before last night. In just seconds it started, lightening every 3 seconds and pouring rain. Aaaaand with our windows open we recieved a bit of that rain in the house. I forgot to mention i think that i had a comp a while ago from Peru that had NEVER seen lightening in his entire life..and was very suprised to see flashing lights in the sky. 

I saw a nun this morning, for the first time in mexico.

We got to play soccer again in the night for the first time in a while.

A family of 5 that we teach came to church for the first time. Sadly, in the ward we start with about 15 people, including the bishop(without his consoulers) and us with our investigators. Everyone arrives so late its embaressing for me with our investigators to sing the opening hymn with less than 20 people. Also this less active woman came to church that we visited. I am so confused with her because she talks about the church sarcastically and never really shows a desire to go..never told us she was going to come..and didnt come until like 3 weeks later. Hopefully she continues.

And Later..the transfers. I will be leaving The Ward Florida to go to a ward named Reynosa. It is like 40 minutes away which is awesome because i didnt want to leave Reynosa the city. Everything happens here. The good news is i will be training a newly an elder that arrived today, the other news and i say news is because i dont know if it is good or bad. We will be opening an area, which basically means you start with no investigators which isnt a bad thing i like contacting and finding and working from scratch i think. But yeah its mixed emotions because i have been in this ward for well 6 months its been my home for so long..its tough to say goodbye but i am ready to meet new people and have new experiences.

I know nothing right now about the new comp..i havent had any really, really tough companions so its probably about my turn. I have heard good things about the zone there, but i will know more the next week.

Until then, take care and enjoy the week.

Elder Smith

I love clouds.

What a great week we had! We had some great success in finding some new people that accepted us these past few weeks. This one little part in a colony here we contacted that i dont think has ever been contacted before..we found someone thats been praying to God to send someone to help her..annnd she wants to be baptized immedietly. She has a few challenges though..family things and stuff shes gotta leave behind but we have faith.

And then later was General Conference. I hope to enjoy it as much as i did this weekend for the rest of my life. Never before have i wanted MORE of conference when it ended it was espicially powerful. I learned so much and recognized a lot of things i need to improve/change. I invite anyone that missed a session to go to https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/04?lang=eng and watch them all. I cant think of one that didnt intrigue me.

On that note i also invite all to share http://www.mormon.org/easter to family and friends on social media or through other means. Its a video similar to ``Because of Him.´´

Everything in the mission is going swell. I have a feeling with the transfers coming this week there might be a change for me..considering i have been here for 6 months haha. In the same ward at least. 

My companion from Lehi lives like 10 minutes away from my family. He tells me he has a huge box with mixed up star wars legos..and with all the instructions. I am trying to buy them from him while on the mission haha i tell him that is worth more to me than gold..the adventure of searching, finding and completing those things hahaha we have to meet up now after the mission for sure.

The weather has been geeting progressively hotter..but with clouds recently which is the best. I love clouds.

I had to negociate(spell check haha?) a contract for the rent on our house. The owners wanted more money. Basically i went to go search for other houses and when i talked to the owners about leaving..we settled on a more appropiate number;)

I have my health, support from my family and firends, my happiness, and my calling what more could i possibly want?

Take care all!

Elder Smith

Baptism of Marlegne

Well this friday was great. We had interchanges. And my former companion(my district leader now) came with me for a day. And well..my acual companion(american from utah) is young. He didnt really get trained and needs help to learn the lessons. Not really my strength right now haha but im trying.

Anyway so Elder Ramirez(formar comp) had been teaching Marlegne for a month of two when he was here. But when she passed the interview tuesday we decided that friday we would be together to have a lesson with her and put a date...for the following day(saturday). She has been resistent to quick baptism..but we had scriptures, we had the Spirit, and it was just awesome when she finally said yes. So we had the baptism Saturday. Elder Ramirez, who is a really good friend now actually, hasnt had the chance to phsically baptize someone in his year here. And Marlegene said she wouldnt decide and that we should flip a coin haha. But, knowing that Elder Ramirez wanted to do it, we agreed to do the coin flip later in our house(without marlegne) and well, no coin was flipped haha i felt that was a little wrong. Elder Ramirez did ordinance, and it was an awesome moment.
Annnnd then Sunday. She goes up to get confirmed, the bishop says something to her and then points to me and tells me to come. So i gave the gift of the Holy Ghost for the first time which was a really, really cool experience.
Other investigators...sufficeth to say we are searching

. We can now touch doors haha which is grand.

Cambios! Transfers!

What a 2 months. Elder Ramirez has been really interesting. I have never laughed so much and so genuinely in a transfer. But alone with him for 2 months has also taught me a lot of things. For one spanish haha. And other things like patience, and hard work things like that.

My new companion arrives tuesday, named elder Warren and he has less time than me, but not in his training(first 3 months) so its gonna be reeeeeal interesting i think. Two gringos hahaha im only slightly terrified.

We have some seriously cool members in our area that i have some to know. The ones that love us are usually returned missionaries. And they have so much success and potential at the same time sometimes i want to skip to that part of my lie haha. But i wouldn’t want to miss out on these experiences.

Welp, 6 months. 3 more of those. It feels like a blink and an eternity at the same time. I can picture myself in my room, or in the living room of a friends house surrounded by brothers. Or in a dorm playing FIFA with roomates. But memories in the MTC or my old area seem like a long time ago. Haha its best to just focus on the task at hand.

The food here is still pretty awesome. Just when they make hotdogs my heart sinks.

Love ya all, thanks for the prayers!

Elder Smith