Monday, December 27, 2010

The Call Home on Christmas Day!

Dear Family,
Hey thank you so much for posting the pictures . . . it's kinda weird to see that the house looks basically the same and not too much has changed. Hey Spencer, get ready to move out in 11 months. Also, it looks like our neighbors, the McArthers are moving??? I´m so glad that I got to talk to you all and it was really good to hear all your voices on Christmas Day.
So I really don't know what to write because this week not much happened. On Thursday, we had zone conference and they had a ton of food and my companion, Elder Gomez, ate something bad so he was basically sick until yesterday. For the month of January we are hoping to have 2 baptisms, but we also want to find a family and help them to prepare for baptism this month or the next month. So that will be our work for the next couple of weeks.
Well I love you all and I hope you all have a happy new year. The next time I write you it will be 2011 and all the kids will be back in school. HAHA!!!!!! Love Elder Smith

Monday, December 20, 2010

Merry Christmas Week

Saying farewell to all the returning missionaries this weekend -- bye to Elder King!
Dear Everyone,
Hey I hope you are all excited for Christmas! I am because I get to talk to you guys on Saturday!!! Ya!!! Okay so we might have a little problem because we have a new phone line and so we can't make international calls, but I talked with one of my investigators who works for the phone company and he said that we can most likely receive international calls. So we need to check and make sure before Saturday. So what I was thinking is that maybe on Wednesday you can try calling our house in the morning before 10 a.m. and see if it works. If it doesn't work then email me and I will check my email on Wednesday in the afternoon! This is how most missionaries talk to their parents -- they give them the phone number and you call us. Hope this works out.
So I haven't written a good letter for awhile, sorry. So a couple weeks ago was the one month check-up where the trainers and their companions have an activity with President and the AP´s. For part of it, we got to drive up one of the mountains so that we could see the whole Central San Jose valley. It was really cool and while we were up there President asked us what we could see. The general consenses (don't know if I spelled that right) is that we have a lot of work to do and that there are tons of people and families waiting for us to talk to them and share the gospel. While we were up there, I was also thinking about the temple because the Central Valley is really big and from where we were we couldn't see the temple and so there is pletty of space and there are plenty of people...we just need to find them and teach them. And in a few years there could be enough members to build another temple here. So that was a pretty cool activity and the food afterwards was amazing.
So this month we have been working to find new investigators that can get baptized in January. We have 2 baptismal goals set right now for January. The first is Isabel, she is the mother of a recent convert and we have been working with her for a while. She would have already been baptized, but she went to Nicaragua to spend Christmas with the family. Also we have German and he has a goal for January too. He just needs to come to church and get married. Also we have found some new families to teach and so we will see how they progress.
This past weekend was kind of sad because Elder King finished the mission and is now in his house! Also Elder Sorensen finished too! Alot of my friends are leaving and now from the original cool group, I just have my group who came with me and the group that came before me (Elder Sirrine, in particular). So it's kinda sad and I almost cried when I said good-bye to Spender King (he is no longer an Elder). Then Saturday morning he called me while he was in the airport. He has been my favorite companion so far in the mission and I am going to miss him a lot.
So I hope you all have an awesome week and I´ll talk to you on Christmas Day!!
Love Elder Smith
P.S. Hermano Jimenez loved the book about the Dominican Republic and has actually found some people that he knows in the book. Also, Arturo loved the quad. scriptures that you sent and almost started to cry when I gave it to him. We have also bought small presents for some investigators and members for Christmas.

More Photos

Strumming away


Monopoly is a serious game.


Bye to Elder Sorensen

My first district leader is heading home this weekend.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Photo Update!

My Companion, Elder Gomez and Me with San Jose City as the background.

Elder Duncan (MTC Comp.) and Me reunite at training session.

Elder Smith (AP) and Elder Smith (DL)

Me, Scarlth, Christopher and Elder Menendez




Happy Birthday to Me (Back in October)

Cut the Cake. Cut the Cake. What a party -- isn't it GREAT!

With Elder Centeno (AP) from Panama (he knows cousin, Adam)

With Elder Sorensen -- he leaves for home this month.

President Galvez and me!

San Jose Valley

Meal at Zone Training -- Serving #1

Trainings are awesome -- they sure know how to feed the soul!

Meat -- Yum!

What a mess!

Filling out the weekly reports

Who's Hungry? (I didn't eat all of this)


Monday, December 6, 2010

This Is A SHORT LETTER Week

Dear Family
Hey, so I hope you all had an awesome week! Christmas is getting closer and the Christmas spirit is in the air... not! So basically I will never spend Chirstmas in a warm climate again. Ha Ha!
So last night we were able to watch the Christmas Devotional in English, and it was super good. I actually got really homesick listening to the talks and all the songs that were sung. Elder Sangster and I just kept looking at each other because a year ago we were watching the same Christmas devotional, except we were in the MTC and now this will be our last Christmas in the mission! So the devotional was really good and I especially loved the talk given by Elder Ukdorf. The chior sang the best christmas songs and when Brother Russon's face popped up on the screen I jumped up and said, "that guy lives in my stake!" So it was really good.
Today was really awesome because we had the one month checkup for all the trainers and their companions. I´ll write more about it next week, but I took a bunch of pictures with my companions camera and I´ll load those up too.
I got the package with all the goodies, socks and CD´s. Still hope I get the other package because I´ve been using the same contacts for a really long time and I still have no camera!
Love you all and I hope you all have an awesome week!!!!! Love Elder Smith