September 28, 2015

Hello everyone!

Crazy that its been another week. crazy.

You're all welcome for the wonderful email I sent last week, I figured a lot of detail would be good.  Thank you for all the emails, it's definitely weird not getting letters every day like the mtc but its ok because now I'm doing real work.  But please forgive me if any emails in the future aren't as good as last weeks.  just know that Im trying.

Anyway...

This week was good.  President Russell had a meeting with the ZLs and our mission goal for baptisms this year is now 2300 and we only have like 1700ish so far so we've got a lot of work to do.  Our area goal for baptisms this month is 7, our zone goal is 46.  luckily our area has two sets of missionaries: me, hanson, vasquez, naopoto.  Both of our baptisms fell this week, Daryl (i spelled her name wrong last week) drank coffee and Daisy had some problems as well but both look like they'll be baptized in october still but not this week because of conference.  So keep praying for them.  An hombre named Miguel Angel came to church last week and we started teaching him this week.  he said he couldn't come to church this week but then he showed up anyway.  So now he already has the three times at church that he needs to be baptized so hes likely to be baptized the 17th.  Elders Naupoto and Vasquez also have some strong investigators but i don't really know them.  We also have an investogator named Yessenia and she's pretty good, she came to church which is a big step but she's living with someone and isn't married.   We haven't been able to meet her partner yet so her future will depend greatly on how it goes teaching the law of chastity...

These Nicaraguenses are typically very friendly and nice but they're also liars.  Luckily it's fairly easy to tell when they're lying.  They're biggest flaw is that they say yes to everything.  This explains how we can get like three or four (some days like 6) fetchas (baptismal dates) with people every day and only end up with like four people at church.  We go around on sundays to everyone who said they'd go to church and their families open the door and say they aren't home even though we can hear them.  But oh well, it is what it is.  It's important that you're very direct and bold with the people.  If you're not direct the people will never do anything.  We do a lot of persuading (especially on sundays).

The spanish is definitely tough.  I'm definitely getting better every day but it's still pretty rough.  I just need to remember that it's not just going to come in two weeks.  Most people say it takes 3 to 6 months to get it so I just need to be patient and keep working hard.  I'm better at understanding spanish during lessons because of my missionary vocabulary but on the street when there's less context it's harder.  I did manage to get my hair cut today the way I wanted, and they only cut one mole.

It rained every other day this week pretty much (still every day that I wear my less sturdy shoes) but the streak might end today knock on wood because im wearing those shoes and theres no clouds.  Man today was hot...  it's always hot here but Im getting a little more used to it.  oh well

Good job with the mountain biking Peyton, it sounds like you're getting very brave.  Hopefully you'll get some sort of scar from your crash (you're welcome now people are going to start calling asking if you're ok).  Good luck hunting dad, it seems like cheating to not use a bow in Red Cloud...  but that's ok I guess you didn't use a bow for the fanny pack bull.  

Love you all

Love Elder Smith

ill try to answer some questions

im staying healthy, this week hasnt been very bad on the bowels, but i definitely can't trust a fart at this point.  spanish is frustrating.  We just have a faucet thing and an oven and stove and fridge but we never cook anything we just eat cereal and junk food for breakfast and sometimes dinner.  We live in a little house, ill send some pics.   The clothes were nice and smelled good and were white and ironed but my garments smelled kind of weird so im not sure what she did.  We pay her like 300 cordobas a month which is like 12 bucks.  We pay our lunch cita 1200 a month.  We get 4600 cords (cordobas) a month.  honestly the lady that does our clothes is pretty rich and has the only washing machine ive seen.  not many people have a machine.  we have a little church building, you could see it if you went onto interactive maps on the lds website.  i dont have a great pic of it.  people wear street clothes to church a lot, some dresses.  guys usually have a white shirt and jeans.  The branch president never wears slacks.  Definitely different than utah haha.  thanks for loving bo.  We can watch sessions of conf on sat if we bring investigators.  i don't know if any will come.  it honestly depends if we can convince them to show up to bring them because commitments mean nothing to these people.  Thanks for all your details you always send, if i don't respond to them please forgive me but don't stop sending them.  I always know the scores of the byu and utah games about as they happen because missionaries ask people to look it  up on their phones and then the word spreads like wildfire since every companionship has a phone.  Its just like byu to show some promise just to choke and start sucking again.  I'm guessing utah did so well against oregon because they probably didn't let clay touch the ball.  Good job on candy crush mom, just remember that the level im on is the level of death and in like two months i couldn't pass it.  best of luck though, im cheering for you.  We're surrounded by mountains but they're kind of far away.  Not like in utah for sure.and they're not very tall.  a lot of days theres a ton of thunder up in the mountains but never reaches us.  im never really in the main part of juigalpa, just in the neighborhoods but id say that some places seem relatively prosperous but a lot of places definitely arent'.  They're very very poor here but generally people are happy with what they have.  When it rains they stay dry and they usually have a bed/cot to sleep on.

mom, i thought about your birthday last week but Elder Hanson told me it takes like three weeks for mail to get home so i didn't send anything because it wouldve gotten there after your bday anyway.  and i don't even know where or how to send mail.  So im very sorry but ill send you a special email next week.  Happy early Birthday!!!

Elder Smith and Elder Hanson

Kkitchen sink?  Outside?

Kitchen

Eating smoothies today.  left to right: Naupoto, me, vasquez, hanson, seui matagi, brito

i'm alive and these keyboards are weird!

September 21, 2015

  

hello everyone!

  i made it here safely and i dont have a ton of time to write and this keyboard is weird so in the interest of time im not going to use very good punctuation so forgive me.

  So the plane landed at like 8 last monday and at the airport president and sister Russell and the APs met us.  We talked for a couple minutes then the APs took me and elder diaz to their house that they share with all the office missionaries and we got to bed at like 11 monday night.  Then on tuesday we went by taxi to the mission home and trained all day with president and sister russell and the APs about rules and expectations and contacting and such.  Im in a very good mission because a lot is expected of us.  We are expected to get 24 quality contacts every day per companionship, teach 7 lessons per day, 4 of them member present, and every week bring 6 people at church per companionship.  On tuesday for lunch we had authentic Nicaraguan food.  I looooovvvvveeee Gallopinto, and all the meats ive tried so far.  Gallopinto is the big staple here, rice and beans mixed together thats a reddish color.  Ive had queso frito a couple times and i dont love it but its ok.  its just fried squeaky cheeze but its got a weird flavor.  its not just like the cheddar cheeze at home.  and there were fried bananas and stuff.  tuesday night i went out with elders henriquez (probably spelled wrong) and Rodriguez and we placed 5 baptismal dates.  We call them fetchas.  What our mission does is when were introducing ourselves to someone we talk about who we are and ask them an inspired question then tell them how our message can help them and ask them that when they come to know our message is true and when god answers their prayers if theyd rather get baptized in four or five weeks (ie oct 10 or oct 17).  Its not a yes or no question, its a yes or yes question and it works pretty well.  oh before we went out on tuesday they gave us pizza that tasted pretty dang american surprisingly.

   

    then tuesday night we slept in the same place and wednesday morning we had change meeting and I got my trainer.  My trainer is Elder Hanson.  Hes from sandy and went to Brighton but Ive already forgiven him for that.  hes been here for just over a year and i love the guy.  hes super patient with me and my lack of spanish ability.  he gives me plenty of chances to stretch my spanish and grow but hes always there when I get stuck or cant understand someone.  He has a blog so if you go to that mission website with all of the blogs youll probably find it.  He doesnt hunt but he does flyfish, hes going to byu after his mission, hes the oldest out of like 6 or 7 kids.  so on wednesday we got our  comps and then they gave us burger king and sent us to our areas.  My area is Juigalpa, its like two hours by bus from Managua.  Its kind of out in the Boonies and there are a ton of hicks out here.  managua is actually a legitish city and has a burger king, mcdonalds, pizza hut and some three story buildings.  But juigalpa just has a bunch of street food and pulperias.  

The work here is good i think, as i dont have anything to compare it to.  We brought over 6 people to church placed a crap ton of fetchas and met our goals for the week.  This saturday Daril is going to be baptized.  Shes 14 and her family is less active.  hopefully she doesnt drink coffee.  pray for her.  Theres a chance that Daisy will be bapized, her husband was baptized a couple weeks ago but she hates her mother in law and that might keep her from being baptized this week but anyway pray for her too.  We contacted a lady a couple days ago named jesenia and shed been to church four times in the past because her sisters a convert.  she went to church yesterday with us and brought her son.  hopefully her appointment wont fall through tommorrow because shes looking pretty hopeful.  

     

   i know youre dying to know about the culture and heat and rain and such so ill try to explain what ive gathered so far.  to tell the weather you just look at yourself.  if youre hot and wet and your shoes are dusty and dirty its sunny.  if youre hot and wet and your shoes are muddy its raining.  if youre hot and wet and youre not wearing shoes you just took a shower.  if youre not wet youve been laying in bed for two hours with the fan blowing on you.  the sweat here is constant.  its so ridiculously hot and humid all the time i cant explain it.  it rains about every other day.  usually when it rains theres about ten or twenty minutes of downpour then its over.  So far every time ive worn my less sturdy shoes its rained so i must have done something to offend the rain gods.  We have a lunch cita (appt) every day.  The lady that cooks for us is named hma Fatima and i love her cooking.  For lunch we have a plate with rice, beans, some sort of meat that I always love, and a couple tortillas.  Its very mild food but I love it.  one plate doesnt sound like much but this food is super filling.  and yes, thats coming from me.  For breakfast Ive been eating a lot of the crap i brought from the mtc like chips and jerky and such that other elders that didnt have room in their bags gave me.  for dinner we go to a pulperia and buy something like chips or wafers or something.  lunch is definitely the big meal of the day.  During the day i drink a lot of coke because the coke here uses real sugar and its really good and the people here are addicted to soda so its pretty cheap and refreshing.  

   

    The people here are really nice, humble, and friendly.  They live like I imagine americans lived about two hundred years ago except everyone has a phone and a tv and a motorcycle.  The houses are usually like half the size of our back garage with concrete walls.  The floors are usually concrete or dirt but occasionally tile depending on how much money people have.  our house has four rooms.  a bedroom where the four of us sleep, me elders hanson, napauto, and vasquez.  Elder hanson and napauto are the zls for this zone.  the shower is cold but thats actually a good thing.  i wouldnt have it hot anyway.  and its not like biting cold because its so hot here that the water is never really cold.  the toilet is pretty normal and works fine, theres just one tap thing that acts as the sink.  we have to use a bowl to scoop water out of the big basin the tap fills and the water has a bunch of mosquito larvae in  it that float and wiggle around.  Needless to say i use the filter there.  i use the filter as much as possible but not when someone offers juice or something.  i havent felt sick yet but as of yesterday I started getting the runs a bit. everyone says thats inevitable so thats ok i guess and i dont feel sick at all.  on saturday we had to take two more passport photos to take to managua today for immigration stuff.  it ticks me off because i dont think they even did anything with the ones we already sent to salt lake.  it also kind of ruined pday today to take that long bus ride to managua and back because we only just got back and pday is almost over already.  elder vasquez and naupoto took mine and elder hansons clothes to the lady that does our laundry.  She actually has a washing machine apparently.  at least in managua we were able to eat at the pizza hut and we got a stuffed crust pep and it tasted like it would at home.

     

    So spanish... its coming. These people are super hard to understand because they talk really fast and drop all of their ss.  When i do understand i usually know what i can say to them but my pronunciation is awful.  simply awful.  Someone thought im from russia and someone else thought i was from china.  i had to bear my testimony at church yesterday and i was pretty nervous.  i dont think people understood me very well but oh well.  if you see the sister from new guinea tell her that i feel for her.  its tough when people dont understand you.  the people are nice and dont tell you when they dont understand you they j ust kind of wrikle their noses like we would do when we smell something gross.  i wish they would just tell me when they dont understand me.  i dont need their politeness, i need to be able to communicate effectively.  oh well, i know the spanish and pronunciation will come, i just need to be patient.  i hope this email pleases you, i tried to vomit as much info as possible.  sorry for all the typos and such.  since this is a spanish computer it has a red underline on all of my words so i cant just tell when i miss spell something.  oh well im pretty sure youll get over it.  

   Good looking antelope delaney, congrats!!  is it bigger than dads?  peyton, you looked pretty at the dance, good luck in moab.  i already knew about the college football games because word spreads fast around here.  good luck with the potatoe fundraiser.  mom i have no idea how mail works, sorry.

love elder smith

Elder Smith and Elder Hanson in Boaco for district meeting

Pizza Hut in Managua

Last Week Here

September 11, 2015

Crazy! time really flies!!  I can't believe I only have like two days left here.  Sorry for the late email today.  

  

Thanks for rushing to meet all of my requests family, you've done a commendable job.  I especially enjoyed the ties.  When I requested them I imagined greatness but what came blew me away.  That paisley tie belongs in an art gallery.  Sorry about the backpack... I found out like two days ago and obviously I had no way of letting you know on time, too bad there isn't reverse dearelder.

   

I'm glad the cabin was fun!! I'm glad you saw some good animals.  It's too bad I couldn't be up bow hunting but oh well, this is more important.  It's not like I can hit the broad side of a barn anyway.

   

Good luck mountain biking tomorrow peyton!!  I'll be looking up towards corner canyon and thinking of you.  

  

So what did I do this week?  Good question

HMO Rockwood was gone last weekend so we had a sub, Hermano Galvez de Leon.  He's from Guatemala, and looks pretty similar to Brandon De Leon so I asked and he's related to the De Leons somehow.  I really liked him.  Because of that we didn't teach Jonathan in the last week but we will today for the last time.  We're done teaching Rafaela now.  Last week we taught her Word of Wisdom and law of chastity.  Hma Folsom told me that when Rafaela informed us that she's an ugly old lady and won't have any problems with the law of chastity I blushed.  I thought I was rolling along fairly smoothly and unawkwardly about law of chastity but maybe not :/  Elder Roberts didn't blush because he had no idea what she was saying, but it may have been for the best, but probably not.  Elder Robert's Spanish is definitely improving.  Mine is too.  We did some of the harder tenses this week like subjunctive.  I understand it but I can't really use it when I'm talking.  I talked with a sister from Mexico City today (serving in temple square) and had sort of a conversation with her going at full speed Spanish.  I do sound very gringo.  I hope I'm not judged when I call on Monday.  Speaking of which, I expect to call somewhere around the 5-6 o'clock range but honestly I have no idea what time we'll actually leave the MTC or how long it'll take to get there.  I would guess we'll leave the MTC at like 4 am on Monday.

   

Yesterday we had something called in-field orientation.  It was basically a full day of seminar type classes where they did cheesy analogies but they taught some decently ok stuff.  I had heard most of it but some was new.  They talked about planning, contacting, and working with the ward.  I liked the stuff about contacting the most because we haven't done any sort of practice with that so far.  Working with members was also really important.  The other day for lunch we had personal pizzas and they were really good.  Today for lunch I had a hamburger and it was also really good.  I never thought I'd say it but I might actually miss MTC food.

   

The pictures were probably my favorite part of the package...   Seriously I loved them.  and don't worry about not leaving spaces, you done good.  

Well, I don't have much else to say.... I have a feeling I'll have a whole lot to say next pday which will probably be next monday.  Wow that's a long time.  Hopefully my shirts don't get too wrinkly and smelly before then.  

Love, Elder Smith

September 4, 2015

Hola Familia!!!

It's seemed like a quick but good week here at the CCM.  I hosted on Wednesday and as I was walking back from hosting someone I see an suv and Calvin´s family crying and waving and such.  So I look around and there´s Calvin so I stole him from the elder that would be hosting for him and I took him from there.   So, I didn´t get to see his family really but I still hosted for him and that was really fun.  I think he´ll appreciate more why I wanted to see him so bad in 4 or 5 weeks when he hasn't seen anyone he knows for weeks.  But ya, he seems really good.

Another highlight of the week was devotional on Tuesday where elder oaks came and spoke.  There was nothing too crazy because he just quoted PMG the whole time but that's what he's supposed to do and it was good.  He talked about teach lessons not people, the importance of the Plan of salvation, and teaching with the spirit.  Even better than the devotional on Tuesday night was the lesson we had from Hermano Rockwood on Wednesday night.  He definitely understands how to teach with the spirit and he really helped all of us to realize that we're preparing for people that need us.  Some of the people we come across may seem hopeless or completely lost but God knows everyone perfectly and if we teach through the holy ghost we can help anyone to repent and come unto Christ.  He told us the story of the real Jonathan that he taught on his mission and how some horrible things had happened to him and he hated God.  He looked like a genuinely scary individual that could never find happiness but once he became converted to Jesus Christ he changed completely in every aspect of his life (including his appearance).  It's tough for me to realize that in just 10 days I'll be teaching real people that have been prepared for me and I just hope I've done, and will keep doing everything I can do to have the holy ghost and teach with power.

Investigators... Rafaela is being baptized in 3 weeks, she's felt the holy ghost and wants baptism so that was really cool.  Jonathan felt the spirit in our last lesson and it went well but we only taught him once since I emailed last so not much news on him.  Jorge, our TRC investigator was great on Monday and said he wanted to be baptized but he still wanted to talk to his family first so we were ready to seal the deal yesterday at TRC but we found out he quit.  They wouldn't tell us why Jorge quit working for the MTC but I guess that just means we drove him off or something.

I'm glad to see that Utah and Bingham won!  Sounds like the Utah game was pretty exciting, though probably not as exciting as the T Swift concert.....  The shuttle driver told me that Utah seemed to be doing pretty bad but the pic 6 kind of sealed the deal.  

   

Good luck with antelope hunting next week, just don't shoot one bigger than dad's or it will have to go in my room.  Good job on your race last Saturday Peyton, when's Corner Canyon?  Congrats on the new dryer mom, sorry about the hole in the wall.  I anxiously await the package next week, Wednesdayish would be great.  Also, Diane sent an amazing package this week so I'm definitely set for a long time with food stuffs.

Have fun at the cabin this weekend, I wish I could be there.... But I'm at the right place.  Also have fun at the hot springs Delaney.

Love, Elder Smith

Another Week Down

August 28, 2015

Wow it seems like it's been forever since last pday.  We decided that Pday actually stands for party day.  So ya the highlight of the week was definitely hosting for the new missionaries.  I saw the sister videoing and asked if I could take a pic for them because I only thought she was taking pictures but she was videoing everything so I just stood back patiently as they said their last goodbyes.  It did get slightly frustrating on Wednesday when new missionaries kept giving me their first names, like what am I even going to do with a first name?  The sister (who's last name I have long since forgotten) was going to Argentina I think but since I'm of the opposite gender I was only allowed to take her as far as check-in and I went back to the curb to look for Calvin again.  So I was out there at 1:45 when calvin was supposed to get there but I never saw him.  After not seeing him yesterday either I asked the front desk and they said he's coming in next week.  So I can stop looking for him this week.  The good news is that I'll be hosting next week too so will you ask Calvin's mom what car she's going to be driving for me?  I'm actually the only elder in the district that enjoys hosting.  Everyone else just moans and groans about it because it makes us miss gym time.  They'll probably get over it eventually though.  They just send a letter in the mail to the district leader saying we've been assigned to host again.  On Wednesday I hosted for 3 elders and 1 sister I think.  They try to make elders host elders and sisters host sisters but sometimes we're pretty short on sisters which is why I was hosting the Hermana in the video.  Obviously it was a miracle that there weren't enough sisters on Wednesday so you could see my beautiful name and hear my beautiful voice.  I'm actually really self conscious now because I was probably a really awkward host and now the whole world knows... Oh well I'll get over it.

So this week was basically the same as every other week, we taught Jonathan, Rafaela, and Jorge some more.  Everyone's progressing and all but Jorge are coming to church on Sunday.  Jorge wants to be baptized but he's scared that it'll make his kids hate him so we'll talk about faith some more on Monday with him.  Hopefully these investigators are progressing because we're actually somewhat decent at teaching and not just because they're required to for our MTC experience.  Either way I'm learning a lot from them and things are going well.

As far as the learning of Spanish is concerned... This week has been the best so far because we're moving past things that I'm already pretty good at from high school and I'm starting to stretch myself a little more.  We did Direct and Indirect object pronouns this week and it was super helpful.  I love it when Hermano Rockwood teaches us about lets say commands and then immediately after when we're teaching him as Jonathan I use one.  

So our district pulled a really funny prank on our teachers (pay close attention Peyton).  Elder Beckey is missing a tooth similar to Peyton's and a fake one is in a retainer that he can pop out.  So we had Elder Raban get his metal umbrella stick and smack him on the name tag really hard when the teacher was looking away.  Elder Raban was like, "Elder Beckey! did that hit your mouth??!!!!" and he's groaning in pain hunched over and when he looked up his tooth was gone.  We were all in on it so everyone starts freaking out that his tooth came out and the reaction of the teachers was priceless.  Hmo Rockwood laughed first then got mad at them and said to go to the clinic immediately.  Then Elder Raban started trying to put the tooth back in (because Elder Beckey put his retainer back in) and Elder Beckey wiggled his tooth up and down by putting his tongue on the retainer in the back of  his mouth and Hmo Rockwood freaked out again.  Then we told him it was a joke and we laughed for like ten minutes.  When we did it to Hma Folsom she freaked out, almost went into shock and just stood there stunned for like a minute then she started looking for the tooth on hands and knees.  She was so freaked out we told her pretty quickly and laughed for another ten minutes.  So ya, maybe not the best things we could be doing with our time here but it was a good way to add color to a long day.  Also I guarantee it was much funnier if you were there, I was having a tough time describing it.  

The strain of these long days in seats is obviously taking a toll on the district.  I feel  like I'm handling it fairly well but some of the other elders are really breaking down and going kind of crazy.  They just tend to lose their focus much easier these days.  

I'm glad to hear the garden and animals are doing well.  It's going to be a long two years for poor Bo.  I'm glad you had fun at the lake although you had bad water.  Rich, I'll give you credit for getting up on the wakeboard so consider it official.  I'm excited that you've been blessed with the opportunity  to get a new dryer since I'm on a mission.  Lucky lucky.  Congrats on the tazer matt...  Good luck on your race tomorrow Peyton, I'll be beaming my support.  I'm sorry... I can't really think of much else to say...

Love you all, 

Elder Smith

August 21, 2015

August 21, 2015

Hello family and those that read my emails,

I'm emailing earlier today because our district got smart and we woke up at 6 to do our laundry.  We put the loads in the washer then changed to get ready for the temple then went back and put it in the dryer.  While it's in the dryer we go to breakfast and then we take the clothes back to the room and go to the temple.  We don't have much time to get to the temple so I just lay out my clothes on my bed to avoid major wrinkles (but Ill probably have to iron today anyway).  Today we did Initiatories because Elder Raban got a bunch of family names and next week we'll do a session for them.  It was really cool to do Initiatories again and remember what is said.  Since we have so much extra time from doing laundry early I'm also emailing early and you can probably expect that for the rest of my MTC stay.

Thank you family and Katie for pulling through with the candy:)  You did a marvelous job and I'll be set for several weeks probably.  Seriously thank you.  It made my week.  Also thank you to everyone who sends letters.

So my week....  Was very interesting.

On Sunday the devotional was the Nashville Tribute Band and it was as spiritual as anything in the MTC thus far.  Seriously I love (and miss) music so much.  I'd recommend looking up the Nashville Tribute band.  I really like the songs from the restoration and missionary albums.  One of the missionary songs even made me cry (sorry I forget which one, something about an airplane maybe idk).  The real craziness was on Tuesday.  Elder Echo Hawk of the 70 spoke (I'm pretty sure he spoke in conference recently) but after his wife spoke, when he was coming up he stopped and invited his wife to join him at the pulpit.  He said he had an impression to talk a little bit about eternal marriage.  He said the day he was married in the temple was the best day of his life (and the mission was the best 2 years...).  It turns out one of the sisters in my district had been thinking of going home to marry her RM boyfriend but didn't have support from her family.  She decided to go home but was kind of second guessing herself.  What Elder Echo Hawk said confirmed to her that she was making the right decision and I imagine it saved her from second guessing herself.  So ya, if the spirit tells you to do something do it.  Just do it.  So now there's only two of us left going to Nicaragua Managua South (Me and Elder Diaz).

Our two new investigators are Rafaela and Jhonatan (sp?) Who are actually Hermana Folsom and Hermano Rockwood.  They're really good at taking on the character of the investigator though.  They're tough.  Rafaela is 62 and works all the time and has a bunch of grown kids living with her and leaching off of her and she divorced her husband and they have a terrible relationship.  At least she's mostly willing to keep commitments.  We've basically only gotten to know her and told her that through Jesus Christ she can be happy.

Jonathan is a 21 yr old illegal immigrant from mexico who is lazy and basically does nothing everyday and let us in only to please his mom who's a member.  He looks half asleep to start but you can tell when the spirit is there because he sits up and leans forward.  It's a pretty effective way to gauge how the lesson is going actually.  We've only taught him once but he's exercising faith by reading the BoM.

Hermano Rockwood (haha dad hermano Piedramadera) has been really influential to me thus far.  He teaches us some good Spanish but he really has taught me that Spanish is merely a tool to help our investigators feel the spirit.  I think in 1 Corinthians 2 or somewhere Paul talks about that.  Haha that's really vague but whatever.  Paul was like, Im just going to go around and all that matters is that Jesus is the Christ and was crucified for us

.

We taught our TRC (ask delaney if you don't understand TRC) investigator, Jorge, 2 more times.  He doesn't like praying because, "it's weird and I'm angry at God for taking my son".  He did say he'd pray more though.  Yesterday he had just been to a friend's son's funeral and it reminded him of his son who died of cancer so he was really emotional.  We saw that and switched our lesson plan on the spot and talked about the atonement and plan of salvation some more.  He really wants to know how he can apply the atonement to himself so we were like "Seguira el ejemplo de Jesucristo y ser bautizado!!!!!!!!!! but he wouldn't because he has to talk to his wife and pray more.  We need to do a better job of helping him realize that our message is for everyone, including his wife.

Now I'll attempt to answer some questions I've received.

I feel great about my Spanish at this point.  I can basically figure out a way to say whatever I need to (though sometimes it's pretty crude).  I don't have to plan out everything I want to say anymore.  I actually think way more about what I need to say during lessons than how I need to say it in Spanish.  Hermana Folsom went to Spain on her mission and talks really fast with a thick accent and I understand her fairly well too.

The biggest surprise during my first two weeks is probably how we are doing something every second of every day.  There's always just barely enough time to get from place to place but that's about it.  Elder Roberts is struggling with having enough time to get ready to go everyday so we've been late to some meals and such but I'm trying to help him.

I've only seen a couple new recruits that I knew this week but most of the kids I knew on the first day are still here.  I might be a host, it depends on if Elder Raban submits the request for our district anytime soon.  Hopefully. 

For church we meet in the big building by the gym in a largish room with our zone.  The Sacrament is just on a folding table.  After Sacrament meeting we have lunch then have priesthood right after lunch.  No sunday school.  After priesthood we go for the temple walk.  I took a ton of pics of the temple walk last week.  In my room it's usually fairly noisy.  Everyone eats a lot of mine and Elder Day's food.  I need to do a better job of hiding it.  Katie, everyone LOVED your cookies.  Mom, the brownies were great but I didn't tell anyone else about them because I was selfish.  Did you make the brownies the same day?  Because I could've sworn they were still warm...  Everyone talks very openly about their home lives and such.  We know about Elder Beckey's GF because he has an album of a ton of their pictures and he showed us.  

It doesn't sound like the visa is a big worry because I'll just be there as a tourist before they get the visa.  I haven't heard anything from the lady at the church though, just Pres. Russel.

Sorry about the dryer mom.  I'm excited to see a pic of Delaney's antelope.  Hang in there with mountain biking peyton.  Good luck for school to start, let me know how that goes.  Sorry about getting pepper sprayed Matt, that sucks.

Well, Thanks for the goodies, love, letters, prayers and support.

Love, Elder Smith

one down, 103 to go‏

August 14, 2015

Despite the subject line I really do like it here although it seems like days go on forever.... At the same time it seemed like the week flew by.  Weird.  This week I taught 7 lessons.  Yes 7.  We taught Miriam 5 times, committed her to baptism and to keep the WoW and to read the BoM and pray.  Yesterday was our last lesson with her and since she's our teacher apparently tonight she's coming in to teach us about how we did.  But I thing we did ok.  Our other investigator is Jorge.  His son died 6 years ago and he's pretty sad and bitter towards God.  He wants to receive peace and happiness for him and his wife.  Another nice thing is he tells us how to say the words we don't know in Spanish.  Actually he talks quite a bit in English, which is a relief.  The first day we pretty much just got to know him and testified that God loves him and we can teach him about how he can be with his son again.  Yesterday we taught him about the atonement and how to pray.  He was very glad to hear that through Christ his pain can be taken away.  So ya.  Lots of Spanish.  I understand most of what I hear in Spanish and can usually figure out how to say about what I want.  This week we learned about simple concepts: ser, estar, tener que etc. so it was more of a review for me and I've had the opportunity to help teach a lot of the kids in the class that are struggling.  I probably do about 85-90% of the teaching because Elder Roberts is still struggling with the Spanish quite a bit though he's miles ahead of where he was a week ago.  

   Basically a day consists of waking up and attempting to eat breakfast (I don't usually feel very good in the mornings...) then 3 ish hours of class where we might do personal, comp study or we might have a lesson with Miriam.  Then lunch (usually a burger of some sort and fries) then gym time.  For gym time our district plays 4 square outside because the inside gym is still closed because the did finishing on the wood.  We're 4 square bosses.  Seriously gym time is awesome.  After that we shower up (thanks for the robe mom) and go back to class where we either have a lesson from Hermano Rockwood (served in San Diego Spanish speaking 3 years ago) or just individual study time.  Then dinner (which is usually pretty good but starting to get repetitive).  Then more class.  If we're not being taught during class we do personal study for an hour, comp study for an hour, then lang study for an hour.  The Devotional on Tuesday was pretty good.  It was by C Scott Grow (probably spelled wrong). So ya..

    My favorite and least favorite part of the CCM is teaching.  It's super stressful preparing and knowing that if I don't know how to say something I won't have someone there to help me (with the exception of Jorge) but the spirit is always so strong.  I love the spirit here.  Like Hermano Rockwood said, " We're only kind of here to learn to teach in Spanish.  mostly we're here to learn how to teach with the spirit."  

I'm so glad AJ liked the stuff, I had a very strong feeling he would.  Its crazy thinking of Peyton terrorizing the roads on her own.  I'm definitely going to miss hunting (so enjoy it dad) but what I miss most right now (other than my family of course ;)) is definitely Taylor swift.  Man I miss her.  In class we translated You Belong With Me into horrible gringo Spanish.  Hopefully I'll get you a pic.  Hermano Rockwood came in and corrected it and basically everything was wrong but it was fun (When I say we translated it I mean Elder Day and I).   I really love the branch presidency and my zone, they're all so supportive and loving.  But really I can't wait to get out into Nicaragua.  That's really why I'm here, to serve the Lord and the people of Nicaragua.  Well that's all I can really think to say.  Feel free to dearelder me if you have questions and I'll try to respond with a letter.  Seriously, write me letters and send me lots of candy, it makes my day whenever I get something in the mail.  Also, congrats Matt and Taryn on having a boy.  Sorry you blew your streak dad.  Myles sounds like a great name.  I was worried you were going to name him Marshawn or something.  Jk.  But really Marshawn would be pretty cool.

Alright, Love you, write me lots of letters.  Sorry if I don't respond very well.  Geez that sounds selfish of me.  Oh well.  Bye

Love, Cody

Or should I say Elder Smith?  I'm actually not sure...

                                                             Elder Roberts and Elder Smith