June 15, 2016
JK on the
subject line, I didn´t even feel them haha
Right
now the internet´s down so I´m writing this on Microsoft Word and I´ll just
copy and paste this. Keep in mind that all of this is being written
without having read any of your emails.
So… we
had a pretty good week. On Thursday and Friday we had the last Multizones
which ran very smoothly, but went pretty long. Friday was the day for our
zone so we actually participated as much as time participated in the various
classes and sat in when we could while President and Sister Russell were
talking. This, you could say, was President´s goodbye. He explained
how the mission is like a train that never stops, but we as missionaries (and
mission presidents) just get off and on and depending on what we do is how fast
the train goes. So President´s just about to step off the train and
President Brown´s about to step on. President also did a brief
introduction of the Brown family. President and Sister Brown are young,
President went to BYU and Sister Brown went to Utah. The four kids range from ages 4
– 14. Nobody actually knows when exactly President Brown will come and
replace President Russell. President Russell explained to us that one day
someone will call him and President Brown will pick up instead of him.
Then at the end we all got the opportunity to take pictures with President and
Sister Russell and for most of the missionaries say their last goodbyes.
The office staff didn't really say last goodbyes because we´ll be seeing and working
with President Russell until the end so we can do it later.
Internet Came back!!
On
Saturday we were actually able to get out to the area for a good chunk of time
and contact. We had an awesome lesson with an awesome lady and she was
crying and knew there were a lot of things she needed to change. And then
on Sunday she lied to us three separate times, and wouldn't go to church and
eventually sent out her husband to lie to us some more. That was
extremely disappointing. But we did get a new person we have been
teaching, named Hazel, and her daughter to come to church with us. The
daughter loved it but I don´t really think Hazel did. Yesterday Hazel
said she might be moving in the next couple of weeks because of some family problems
but I´m hoping she´ll stay and keep progressing obviously. Please pray
for her.
The real
miracles started coming after church on Sunday. The second counselor in
the Bishopric, Hermano Castro is kind of notorious for giving a lot of really
crappy references to us. Which isn't a bad thing at all, but we´re kind
of skeptical when he gives us references. Well, on Sunday he took us to
the house of a 40 year old lady named Carmen whose mom got baptized several
years ago and went with the missionaries to church several times in the
past. She readily accepted a fecha for the second of July and her
daughter Guadelupe who also went to church previously with her grandma happily
accepted the same fecha. So we´re really excited for them and grateful to
Hermano Castro. But, yesterday we came by for the appointment we set with
her and she wasn't there so I´m hoping she´s not hiding or anything. Then
yesterday we went by the pulperia (food store) of Hermano Castro to buy a
gatorade and he´s like, ya I´ve got two more references. So he showed us
to the house of two people that had been doing some work in his house that went
to the church several times with the missionaries in the past. They were
just awesome in the lesson and really really really understood the restoration.
We put a fecha with the dad, Darwin José, for the 19th of July and tried to do
the same with the son for the same date. Well, he said no because he´s
leaving to work in a farm out in the middle of nowhere on the 28th of
June. So, because he´s been to church more than two times already, we
think we can get permission to baptize him on the 25th if he goes to church on
Sunday and is keeping the commandments. So we proposed the 25th as a
fecha. A fecha for 11 days in the future would freak a typical Nica out
but this guy was really cool and was like, ya of course I will, and of course
I´ll go to church on Sunday. This is very important. So we´ll see
what happens with him. Needless to say we´ll be working a lot with him
and praying a lot. Thank you Hermano Castro. The lesson of the week
to everyone is..... GIVE REFERENCES TO THE MISSIONARIES!!! It
really really helps.
Also,
there was another huge huge huge huge immeasurably huge blessing we saw this
week. President and Sister Russell were cleaning out their freezer and
called me and Elder Petty over and sent us with a huge cooler filled with crap
from their freezer and boxes of other crap. It included Frozen waffles,
frozen pizzas, frozen pancakes, gallons of ice cream, Hamburger patties and
hot dogs and they had left-over buns and condiments and spices so we pulled out
our grill and charcoal and had a barbecue. It was awesome! We
literally ate a fridge full of crap in like one day. President and Sister
Russell were very impressed (like mom was always impressed with how I ate after
swim practice haha). But I actually think they were more disgusted.
Today we also got a lot more crap like easy mac, serial, mashed potatoes, and
crap like sticky notes. I also got a couple micro fiber towels.
Heck ya!!
So ya, it was a good
week and it´s been a lot better since we don´t have to worry about any big
meetings this week.
I read your emails,
and since May 31st I haven´t felt any earthquakes... I didn't even know
about the big earthquake on the border. I think it´s funny that all the
mission mom people were freaking out because none of us really even knew about
it. They just need to take a chill pill I guess.
I´m glad Peyton had a
great birthday! Happy father´s day dad!! Congrats on the
hole-in-one!!! That´s awesome! I´m jealous you did it without me
there...
Love you!
Elder
Smith
