October 29 "Elder Esmit, porque siempre se pone rojo?

The members in a family home evening last night kept making fun of me because I easily turn red. And each time they asked me why I'm like that, I just turned red again. So that my life at the moment.

I have come to a point where I have been here in Allende for 4.5 months, and I just love this area and honestly don't want to leave. It would be so awesome to be here for another few months. We are working with members, and are find some cool people weekly, and its been fun. I love my little pueblecito.

So onto some stories this week. We went to a members house these week for lunch, and she offered us some Chile, and said that they are spicy. But I didn't believe her, so I offered to try one out, and my comp did it too, and indeed it was kind of spicy. i felt find after and well, elder Croxall, not so much. It hurt his tummy, and after a lot more pepto we are back at 100%. But now I have realized a big change in me, if my food doesn't have Chile, it doesn't taste as good. Going back to american food one day is going to be a very very rough transition. but at the moment, I'm going to enjoy my delicious Mexican food.

i also burned a shirt this week, to mark my one year in my mission time. And it burned up real nice. And kind of burned the floor outside our house. Oops... But its ll good. no pasa nada. We are all safe and I cleaned the floor. We also in our house the past few days have had no water pressure. So our showers are kind of funny, because its just a trickle of water, and itsnot the most fun, but I still think its a fun little adventure. 

well I hope you all enjoy the pictures and enjoy the irony of having a pepsi glass with a bottle of coke to put into it. And I love you all so much. I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

Elder Smith

October 22, Short country + Tall man = Hurt head

Lets just put it this way. People in mexico are generally shorter than they are in the states, and so the stuff he is all shorter. And well Elder Croxall is 6'5. SO last Monday, he WHACKED his head so hard that he wasn't all here the whole week.

So that was the preface of the week. Because Croxall wasn't going to be working because of the head thing, Tuesday I went and did an exchange with Elder Sabey out in Zaragoza which was super fun to work and catch up with him. Then I came back to Allende for our district counsel, and my companion still wasn't doing too well, so we talked with Nurses and tried to get medication to help him, but we didn't end up working really Wednesday or Thursday because his head hurt too much. But we did go to Piedras Thursday night for a health conference Friday morning(it was ironic, because it was about health, and Elder Croxall was not healthy) and then we came back home and got to work. We worked hard all day Friday, and Saturday and Sunday. And we found some super awesome people. So we made the comeback and made the week good.

So I would love the send the pictures we sent this week, but I'm  in not the best Ciber and don't trust sending pictures. SORRY. I will send more next week.

Pero, queria decirlos, que los amo. Ustedes son muy importante para mi, y tambien siempre estoy agradecido por su apoyo. LOS AMO!

Elder Smith

October 15, Brownies are the Best

I ate, one of the best brownies on my life this week. We went to this super fancy restaurant, and holy cow... I don't have basically anything else to say.

Elder Sabey (my first comp) just got moved to my district. so its pretty sweet.

Love you all,

Elder Smith

Oct. 8, 2018 Risk... is a brutal game

And after 2 brutal losses this morning. I dont know if I can return to play again.

Well, this week was a rough one. A lot of work, and not a lot of success, which always makes my companion a little more stressed. But the mission is all stress, and you have to learn to cope with it, because real life is all stress. He will get there, and he will be an amazing missionary. I have faith in that. 

Moving on to a little about the week, the days honestly went by rather fast, but at the same time, they were really slow. Like it was a weird phenomenon(please pardon the english, Im trying) We just spent the majority of the week knocking doors, and doing our best to talk to more people, but its been a little hard. We haven't been having the greatest success in finding, and if you dont find, you dont have success. thats missionary work for ya. So hay que trabajar aun mas. And its pretty rough sometimes, because we think we have time to do stuff, and then all of a sudden, its the end of the week again. 

General conference was honestly pretty great, I would have to say that the best talk would be that by Elder Holland, and I think its something that all of us can learn from. We need to learn to let go things of the past, in order to progress further. We unfortunately didnt have the opportunity to watch conference in english, which made it a little harder. In the sense, I had to think a lot more, because they use some big words. But even still it was great. 

Well I apologize for the sporaticness of my email. Writing is hard. But love yall. Take care and have a great week!

Elder Smith

Oct. 1, 2018 Pinta azul? Si, por favor

So the past two weeks I haven't really written, and for that I apologize. But this week we bought these suckers that are called pinta azul, and they legit turn everything blue. Your mouth, your teeth, your face. You name it. They are the best. So like responsible adults, we bought a LOT of them... I'm so happy(:

So things with Elder Croxall have been getting better. He is adjusting to mission life, and we are having fun and working super hard together. We are teaching better together, and I love this guy. He is so bold in trying new things. He is just an awesome guy, and he is going to be a great missionary. Its all coming day by day.

This week we had the chance to go to Piedras Negras for 2.5 days for a zone conference, in which we stayed with Elder Sabey and his companion. SO, that probably wasn't the best idea to go stay with them, and Elder Sabey is hands down on of my best friends. But we were about to catch up and talk about a lot of things within missionary work that we are working on improving. We also had an amazing Zone Conference. It was such a spiritual and uplifting experience.

This week we are going to have the amazing opportunity to listen to our living prophets and Apostles on Saturday and Sunday. I invite all of you to tune in and prepare spiritually to receive further light from them. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Wow Parenthood is tough Sept, 17, 2018

I have a kid. Here in the mission, when you train a new missionary, you say that the newbie is you kid. So I have a new companion, and he is also new in the mission. He is MIJO. SO exciting. But we are still here in Allende, but now, with Elder Croxall from Brandon Florida(Its by tampa) and he is very willing and excited to jump into spanish. He is a little overwhelmed at the moment, but all missionaries are at the beginning. He'll be a great missionary.

This week we started out a little weird. I had to go down to saltillo to pick up my kid. And Tuesday we had a bunch of meetings. And I had to translate in both english and spanish. It was so crazy to see how far I have come. Like I have changed to much. Im so proud of how far Ive come, but I want to get even better. Spanish is growing on me so much. I love the language, and I love the people.

Well this week my kid got to start his mission off with a baptism. This week Melany got baptized. She has been waiting for 8 weeks, and she just got baptized. It was a super special service. And then Sunday my comp was sick and puking so I went to church while he stayed home with a member of the Elders Quoryum, while I went to the confirmation. And then came home and took care of him the rest of the day. So how is that for a first week.

Well I feel lazy yet again, but I send all my love and a few pictures of my work here in Allende. The baptism of Melany, and then some pipe for smoking weed we foudn in a house. The lady thought it was just some normal decoration, and didnt realize!!! LOLOLOL

Love you all.

Elder Smith

A blessed week of my mission - Sept 4

This week, has been one of the best weeks in all of my mission. Hands down. It was a long and hard one, but I have found those to be best. But something a little more special this week, was we had the opportunity to learn directly from one of the lord special servants. Elder David A. Bednar visited our mission this week and gave us a special and unique conference with just us missionaries. There are only 100 of us, so it was very personaly and something that I will never forget.

So Thursday night Elder Reyes and I traveled to Piedras Negras to have a zone meeting before we traveled down to Saltillo for the conference, so we had 1.5 hours up to Piedras and then our bus left from there at 12 AM. The Middle of the night. And arrived in Salitllo at 7:30ish in the morning. And then we had to take a taxi over to the building where the conference was to be held. After waiting for a little while, Elder Bednar showed up, and we took a picture and then we all went inside and had the single most amazing conference of my life. We did a question and answer format for the conference, and addressed so many topics in 4 hours about. Most of what we talked about seems rather sacred and i would prefer not to share, but to share just a little. We all need to learn to accept and love the will of God. In there lies happiness. At the end of the conference, he told us, he had never had an experience as such with missionaries in his 14 years as an apostle. So it truly was something I cant ever take for granted. 

Then after our conference, we had some burritos, and then myself and 3 other missionaries went to Dairy Queen, because it had been too long since my last blizzard, and it was amazing. we then went ack to the bus station to go home. We got home at 12:30 in the morning, and jsut collapsed and slept for a very long time. But after we woke up we had the chance to help 3 more of Gods children into the waters of baptism. Edith, Erik(her son) and Emañuel. It was another blessed and special experience. I am so humbled and grateful to the lord for blessing us with success. He is great and marvillious.

I just want to let you all know, how much I love you. Keep making good decisions, and spend a little less time in facebook, and a little more reading the scriptures. It will change your life. I promise you as a servant of the Lord.

Elder Smith