December 6

But anyways! It has been a rather eventful week! Teaching has been getting more fun everyday, and while I feel like my Spanish has plateaued it’s still getting better slowly. I’ve been tackling it from the spiritual side, and not so much from an academic standpoint. And the gift of tongues helps me all the time, however I should probably be a bit more diligent in learning vocab and such. This past week, I’ve spent a lot of time studying about Joseph Smith this past week and his life and teachings. He was such an amazing man, and on my way to ‘perfection’ I aspire to be like him. Speaking of perfection, It reminds me of what elder Bednar said thanksgiving day, that “be ye perfect” means to just be mor complete than you were the day before. Early in the week I was feeling pretty dang sick because something was going around in the district, plus I was feeling sick from my shots. But my comps were looking after me and kind of let me sleep it out in exercise time and a lil but during personal study... oops... but i got better, and that’s what’s really important. We’ve been teaching someone named rolando for a few weeks now, and he is from Argentina. It is so hard to understand his accent. Everything is slurred together. But teaching him, and getting to know him has been an absolute blast. It makes me so excited to get out and teach the people of Mexico. Teaching is so much fun, and I absolutely love doing it! I’ve had some issues with my companions. Both have been struggling in a lot of ways, and I feel like I’m carrying them on my back at times. They’ve been having hard times feeling the spirit, and neither of them really value the Book of Mormon as they should, and instead spend time reading other resources. But I know that if they would read the Book of Mormon, so many of their problems would become much less significant. That being said, as the week has progressed, they both have been getting a bit better, and not so reliant. Sunday was a crazy day. It snowed a lot of they day and WAS STUPID COLD! I DONT KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I CAN DO THE COLD BTW. But on Sunday we had some leadership revisions within the district, and to everyone’s surprise elder Jensen was released as district leader, and I was called in his stead. It’s been super cool. I feel like im able to help everyone in the district as a whole a lot more. I’m like the dad of the district, checking up on everyone all the time and just loving them. I love the position. I know I’m supposed to help some of the younger people get through their mtc experience. I spent a bit of money on a pencil this week... but it’s legit the coolest pencil I’ve every had. It’s 8 colored pencils in one mechanical pencil, and I’m obsessed with it. Everyone in the district is buying them because they’re dope. Im so tired of this food already. And I need to gain weight, but if I have to eat pork with mashed potatoes again, I’m probably gonna lose my mind. Elder North suggested that when I get tired of the food that I should justeat cereal, but I’m getting tired of that too. I’m getting more excited to leave and go serve in Mexico already, but my Spanish still has a very long way to go till I’m ready. I’m glad for the extra mtc time I get. I would very much enjoy if everyone would send pictures! I’d like to see how everyone’s doing! Something that’s totally crazy is that one of the sisters in my district, named hermana Miller, her birthday is the same day as Chloe’s! It’s pretty exciting stuff! I’ll leave this for now with a quote from Moroni “32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.” I know that all of us can be perfected through him. Through his atoning sacrifice we can all be made holy, without spot. So I invite you to deny yourselves of some ungodly aspect of your life, and instead turn to Christ and have him help repair and correct that part of your life. I know that he lives, and leads his church. I know this to be true, and I’m so grateful that I have the opportunity to share the gospel with the people of Mexico. I’ll send some more pictures in a bit, but those were from our temple walk this past Sunday. The elder who is helping me “Titanic” is elder stites. He’s not one of my comps, but is in my district. In terms of my companions, elder Christensen is the shorter of the two and elder Clark is the very tall one. I love you all and be sure to send me emails and pictures! Love, Elder Smith