June 30, 2014

Life as a STL isn't much different.  Haven't gone on exchanges this week, will next week though.  I have 6 to do and I already have them planned out throughout the transfer.  Trade offs with members...you mean splits?  Not lately, no, but I've done them before. 

This week was a very interesting one... the weekend sucked up all our proselyting time, but that's okay.  2 weddings and 2 baptisms, what can you do?  During the day on Friday Sister R drove us down to searchlight so we could visit our old part member family out there and she could tackle visiting teaching at the same time.  We found out that the part member family didn't live there anymore....so sister Ripplinger stopped by the house of some old friends she used to visit when she was in the english ward.  We heard all about this less active member who lives out there named C... C is a woman who lives in this little trailer full of cats, cat poop and pee and food and garbage all over the place.  Apparently some time ago Sister R and the relief society went down there to help her clean up some stuff....amongst all the cat pee and who knows what else, the sisters decided to clean out the freezer... and there was a dead cat inside.  C told them that when it died the ground was too cold to bury it, so they stuck it in the freezer.... 8 months later sister R discovered it in the freezer...  We visited a lady named Carol who pretty much has a pet mountain lion.  We didn't see it, but she said there is a mountain lion that wonders around searchlight and always sleeps on the roof of her trailer.  He stays pretty close by her place and is very protective of her.  Then we met a funny woman named Debby who was quite the character.  Searchlight's a different place... it has its own little odd charm to it...half the trailers out there are vacant, too.  Carol told us that all her neighbors are dead.  On the way to Searchlight there is a little road called "Grandpas road" apparently it's a little road in the middle of the desert with 3 or 4 trailers.  You can live there for free, though.  That is, if you're willing to live there.  Funny stuff.

The outdoor wedding was interesting... Julio, the groom, is very negative and was telling us about how once you're married, you're going to suffer, blah blah.... even though he was the one who proposed to this woman.. I just shook my head and went, "Julio, we want to be happy today because it's a happy day.  Let's look at the good side of things!"  After the little ceremony, though, he was happier.  I'm really sick of the whole, 'oops, I'm getting married, it's all down hill from here!'  The general authorities tell us that marriage is intended to be the most fulfilling, joyous relationship we can ever experience.  Now, of course it's something we need to work at and there will be challenges, but it's in the end up to us how our marriage turns out.  I know I'm not married or anything, but my mission has helped me have a better view of how anything works in life.  Make Christ the center of all your relationships, and you will always have a happy relationship.  Making negative comments about marriage only hurt your marriage even more.  I wish the best for Julio and hna. Shumway, but that all depends on them.  Hopefully they'll start coming to church regularly and Julio humbles himself enough to be teachable again. 

The Lozano baptism went really well.  Renee Lozano came up to us afterwards and told us he loved us just as much as hna Hill and Veazey and that we helped them just as much.  That made me feel good, because I feel like we just stepped in to tackle everything after they had already made the baptismal decision, so it's nice to see they appreciate us for the little we did do.  He's going to make carne asada and pastel the next time we eat with them for dinner. :)

I did know sister Maggert!  She was in my district right before she went home.  Super sweet, from Georgia.  She went home early for health reasons.  It was a shock to all of us.  Hope also met the brother of an elder I came out with, elder Fort.  Small world. 

Chris (an investigator) dropped us on Sunday... we called him right before sacrament meeting to see where he was and he told us he was eating breakfast and decided he was going back to the Christian church like the rest of his family.  It's sad to see how people aren't willing to make the simplest changes in their lives - be a little courageous... they'd rather go the "easy" way when in reality, living the gospel faithfully in every aspect is the easier way and brings about the most joy and happiness.  It's especially sad because everyone born on the earth chose this plan.  They didn't choose the easy way to return to Heavenly Father.  They chose to pass through hardship.  They chose the plan that would require a little bit of effort on their part.  You wanted it, so deal with it and make the most of it.  Christ made it easy for us.. it's called the gospel.

HOWEVER, we have a pretty legit investigator named Gustavo.  He seems very sincere.  A little deep, and so it's sometimes hard to understand him because he goes back and forth on a bunch of different deep thought processes, and so it's hard to follow at times in a different language.  It's all good, though.  He really wants to be a better man.  He told us he struggled with depression before, but his dog helped him through it.  He loves his dog.  The funny thing about Gustavo is that he's very attractive and we want to set him up with one of the recent coverts in the branch, Karina.  She's the sweetest and she should dump her boyfriend and Mexico and come meet Gustavo.  Sometimes you have to flirt to convert here on the mission...as long as we're not the ones doing the flirting.  That's what MPLs are for.  Haha.  Just kidding..

I love you all!  Have you found out if I can get released over skype?         

June 23, 2014...the last and busiest transfer of her mission

Yes, Sister Pecjak told me on Sunday that she sent you a message.  She is super cute.  Actually, we were talking on the phone with President Pecjak this morning and she was in the background going, "She's an STL" and he's like, "

oh, I was just informed by my wife that you're an STL. Congratulations!"  My companion is still sister Hutchinson and I'm staying, but she's not an STL.  Just me.  There are certain companionships that are both STLs, but not all of them.  They're still working on that, I think.  Oh, and guess what?  I'm over the largest group of sisters.  I have 3 companionships and everyone else has only 2 or 1.  That might not seem like a lot, but it's 6 exchanges in 6 weeks... and it's going to suck on miles.  I'm in henderson and I cover Montebello and Los Feliz, which are both up by the temple and then El Rancho which is all the way in North Las Vegas.  It's interesting because they only have 2 spanish STLs.  Sister Webb and myself.  She was put back in Desert Bloom and covers Paraiso and Ensign.  It should be good, I just really hate giving trainings in front of other missionaries...

Not much happened this week other than that.  The Lozano couple is getting baptized on June 28th, this Saturday and our recent convert Carlos is marrying his gf and awesome fellowshipper Diana on Friday....and then one of our interesting on and off investigators who doesn't speak english is getting married to his member "girlfriend" who doesn't speak Spanish and is almost 10 years older than him... they just informed us this morning that they want to get married in her backyard on Saturday in the afternoon.....in 100 degree heat.  Interesting.  Lots of weddings!  Working on the baptisms.  We've been finding like crazy, but we're just trying really hard to work on retaining them.  

Yes, Hope really is a different person!  She doesn't sound shy at all based on the emails she sends me.  I'm very proud of her.  

Hey, can you let the sisters know that I would LOVE to go on splits with them and that I think they're awesome?  Thanks.  Also, does Renee still go out with them?  

Those dinosaurs are from the dinosaur house.  Not a museum.  The caveman is just chilling by the door.  Haha.  No, sister Veazey is not in my zone.  Yes, we did go as a district to those things, and yes, the water is even more beautiful in person. :)  Our district only has 8 people in it... right now 9 because the other sisters have been in a 3 pack for a while, but that will change tomorrow.  

Aunt Erin just told me they'll be in Vegas during the first week of July and want to come to Alta Vista.  That would be cool if it happened.  

June 16, 2014

I'm very excited about that movie now!  How to Train my dragon, I mean. 

Yes, it was so funny because as soon as we get out of our meeting Sunday morning, Sis Pecjak calls us into the YW room, writes "happy fathers day" on a piece of paper, and takes a picture of us holding it.  Totally her idea.  Haha.  She's legit.  I sent a letter today with an SD card in it.  Make sure you send it back because sister Hutchinson wants pictures from it.  By the way, she's from Woodruff Utah.  It's super north, tiny town.  We have a lot of fun times together. 

Yes, this week Rene and Rosario got married and will be getting baptized on the 28th of June.  I don't know if I've mentioned them much to you, but they have been waiting for divorce papers to come since forever and they finally did.  They're pumped for their baptism and can't wait to get sealed in the temple. 

Chris came to church for the first time on Sunday.  He LOVED it.  He turns to me right after and goes, "you know what, sis Smith, I want you to know I really loved that.  It's much better than those churches with the guitars and lights.  It was more spiritual.  I feel good." 

We continue to find new people, we found a new couple named Flor and Eduardo and they are legit.  They had a lot of questions about the BOM and other things...good questions.  Flor told us she doesn't like a lot of the things in the Catholic church, like baptising babies and telling someone their damned just because they're sinners.  She loved our views on all those subjects and loved that we believe in resurrection.  Very excited about them.  Myra is in California until next week, but she's still interested.  Good things ahead, I can feel it. 

7 weeks left, yikes.  Next week will start my last transfer.  I'm going to make it!  Just this past transfer 4 sisters went home early... a lot of them had even been out for a while.  Satan's taking down a lot of people...I think it's because our mission is doing really well... he knows that if he can attack the individual missionaries, he can tear down the success and put a dent in the Lord's work.  most have been going home because of anxiety and depression.  I definitely think the mission is stressful at times and tiring, but I've never gotten to the point where I couldn't handle the stress....I can't imagine getting to that point.  I guess I handle stress pretty well after all.  Who knew!? Ha. 

I love you all dearly!  Happy fathers day!!!! See you in less than 2 months.  

   

June 9, 2014

Yes, I did get the little package!  Thank you!  Is that the bracelet you bought in tarpon springs or whatever?  

Today we went on another district hike.  We hikes around lake mead.  It was really cool, we went through tunnels.  I have pictures of that, too.  Apparently the trail goes all the way to the dam, but we didn't go that far.  

Seeing Tomas in the temple was an awesome experience, by the way.  I didn't say much about it.  The entire session was in Spanish, super legit.  I have just a couple pictures of that as well.  The only reason I haven't been emailing pictures is because this computer is super fancy and I don't know how to...but I'll probably send the memory card this week.  There's some good stuff in there.  

This week was busy.  We had zone conference AND zone training meeting.  Also, sister Hutchinson was throwing up on Friday, so we stayed in for that night. 

 We've been finding a lot of new people, but the problem is retaining them...BUT we had a super awesome lesson this past week with a really legit new investigator named Myra.  She texted us asking if we could meet at the chapel for a lesson and had invited a member friend to come along and everything (setting up MPLs for us).  We taught her the restoration and when we shared the first vision she told us that she felt something super powerful in her heart.  She was like, "I've never felt that before, that's super cool."  And by the end of the lesson she said she was probably going to be the example in her family and lead the way so they can eventually hear the lessons, too.  She was totally fine being the pioneer in her family.  She also had a lightbulb go off in her head over the whole modern day prophets thing.  She was like, "It's so easy for me to believe Noah was a prophet, so why not in these days, too?  That totally makes sense!"  It was super cool.  She's already being a missionary herself, too.  She said she almost brought another friend to come to the lesson who was also curious..  That was one of the coolest lessons I've ever been in.  We were just like, 'wow, is this real life?!  It's never this easy!" Haha. We have another lesson with her tomorrow.  The only down side to this is that she's 20 and might do better in the singles ward... but for now she seems comfortable going to the Spanish branch.  Eventually she wants her family to listen, too, so I think she likes the idea of a spanish ward.  We'll see.    

We also had another cool lesson with some new people that we had been trying to contact for a while.  We street contacted Karen back in April and she's only 15, but we stopped by one day and finally met the mother, Veronica, and got inside.  Veronica was up and down the whole time, but shared with us some insights about how she views God.  She believes that we should not and can not blame God for our misfortunes.  Powerful testimony.  Come to find out, their dad/husband is dead as well as one of their sisters/daughters.  Veronica was all over the place, but you could see that Karen and her little brother, David, really are hurting over the passing of their loved ones.  When we asked them what they would ask Jesus Christ if he was sitting with us, David said, "I want to know why he took my dad."  We testified of eternal families and how God has brought back to earth the knowledge of how we can truly see our loved ones again and live with them eternally.  It was such a cool moment because 15 year old Karen lit up when we testified and tears even started to form in her eyes.  She told us, "I would love to know that."  They didn't keep the return appointment we had, but we're gonna keep trying.  They're worth it!  

I gave my "last testimony" at our Zone Training Meeting...haha.  I didn't get the chance to at Zone conference, so they let me and a few other elders share our testimonies at ZTM.  BTW, it's a tradition that every missionary gets to share their testimony at their last zone conference...I didn't get to because the Neiders spent the whole last hour saying goodbye, which is fine with me.  Ha!  Did I mention that elder Dahneke is in my zone again?   

I love you all SOOOOO much!  Muchisimo!  See you soon.   

June 2, 2014

Hello hello!  Guess where we went this morning?  The hoover dam!  We didn't do the tour, though.  We just walked over the bridge and took some awesome pictures.  Did you know lake mead and Hoover dam are right next to each other?  Both in Boulder City.  About a 20 minute drive from where we live.  We went as a district.  It was one of the sister's birthday and so afterwards we went to Ihop, and then we came here to email. :)  You'll get pictures soon.

This week was a good one, last one of May.  Can you believe it's June again?  Last June I was still being trained.  Ah, memories... I'm starting to forget things about home. :(

We ended the week with 4 new investigators.  Enadina Ramon (actually, it's Roma) said she'd come to church, but she didn't.  We're not really sure how she is.  She said it's best if she comes to church and we teach her in the chapel, because her Husband is really controlling.  Chris and Abraham are cool.  We taught them lesson 1 and watched the restoration movie with them.  They LOVE movies.  It was the funniest thing...he asks us, 'so I heard mormons can't drink coffee, is that true?"  I expected him to make a bigger deal about it, but as soon as we told him it was in fact true, he asks us , 'can mormons go to the movies?'  When we said yes, he said, "okay, we're good then."  They also said they'd come yo church, but didn't show.  We also found a new woman named Maria Lopez and her 2 sons Ricardo (15) and Danny (17).  Danny has down syndrome and loves hugs. Ricardo plays the piano, guitar and trumpet.  They're really sweet.  We're excited about them.  Only problem is they'll be in California for a few weeks. :(  Also, yesterday we visited with Myra for the first time.  We street contacted her outside her house one day and turned out to be legit.  She's 20 and her mom wanted to sit down with us, too, but couldn't because her nephew was throwing a fit.  We'll see them again on Thursday, where we hope to sit down with the mom, too.  Also, we talked to a woman named Flor while looking for her husband, Eduardo (potencial).  She asks us where our church was and said she really wanted to go.  We have a return apt on Tues.  So things are picking up slowly, but surely.  We also picked up a former investigator, Julio, who moved back in with his 'girlfriend' who is almost 10 years older than him and doesn't speak a word of Spanish...and he barely speaks English.  She's a member and he has a lot of potential, so hey, why not?  They're a little cookey, but nice and not hurting anyone, so whatever.  At least they're finally thinking about getting married. 

I know of some movie theaters in Las Vegas, yeah, but I hear they've got some really intense theaters around....I don't know where, though.  Desert Bloom had a regal theater right by our apartment. 

How do you all feel?  Is 2 months a lot of time or not at all?  Are you already preparing?