December 15, 2008

Hello Famiy,

Well this week was really good. and it sounds like you week was pretty good too. ya so it is still weird to think that jenna has a kid. weird. but cool at the same time. but it sounds like he is healthy and doing good so that it awesome. so ya chads mom is really nice. she is always happy, kinda scary but cool. so hows the christmas preparations coming? the christmas decorations here are lets just say, they are not like they are in the states. most houses only have like one strand of lights. but at least they are trying. but it really doesnt feel like christmas. yesterday it was almost 100 degrees. we were going to watch the christmas devotional last night at the stake center but we decided to work. i am glad we did. we went back to juan and hugo to give them a book of mormon. they live a really boring life. hopefully us coming by will livin it up a little. they are like 55 they have worked construction their whole lifes and they work monday through saturday. and that is it. but we set a goal for baptism with them on the 3rd of january. i hope they are going to progress. but for the people that we are teaching right now. ricardo, the one who´s house burnt down we are going over there tonight to see if he is really interested. i know he has a lot on his plate. but he just isnt keeping committments. we cant get him to church or read, so we will see how it goes tonight. i want him to see how important it is. but we also have an amazing family. la familia marón. Marcelo, Araceli and their baby Fernanda. they are amazing. they came to church yesterday and i think they really liked it. i will tell you more about them latter.

so bryce to answer your question about the food here. some stuff is just weird to get use too. for one the milk and yogurt come in a bag. so to eat yogurt you pour it in a cup to drink it. it was weird at first but now i love the yogurt. the milk is just weird in bags though. the food is just really not that flavorfull. i guess even pepper is to spicy for them. on saturday we have blain noodles with cheese sprinkled on it. so ya not the best food but it will do.

ha ha i think you will think this is funny. so there is this lady in our ward, hermana marañón. she has this cat that she really likes and she doesnt want it to run away. so she tied a rope to the cats collar and then tied the rope to a bycicle seat. so the cat just drags the bike seat around the yard. they cat looks so depressesed beacuse it cant run or do anything. oh argentina. but it is kinda funny.

oh emily i think it like all of south america who dont obey traffic laws. dont worry you get used to that it a little bit.

so mom can you do my a favor and ask tanner judd the areas that he served in. maybe i will serve in some of them. so i am really excited for the 23rd. i think it will be a pretty fun christmas party. i will get to see the elders from the mtc so that will be fun. and i think we are going to be with like 60 other missionaries so i cant wait. i guess they celebrate christams on christmas eve here. so i guess that night is going to be a little slow for us. but oh well we will try.

so something a little funny that happened this week. so one night i was sleeping and i got woken up by elder lewis. he jumped out of his bed really quick so i thought he had to go the the bathroom. but he just stood there. kinda hovering over my bed. swaying back and forth. it kinda creeped me out so i said, elder you ok??. he was just trying to get rid of a charlie horse. but it was way creepy. he didnt know i was awake. but it was just creepy to have him standing up kinda over me in the middle of the night. but know we joke about it. but ya it was pretty funny. we didnt have anything to funny this week like when the dog peed on that guys leg but it still was a good week.

so bryce when are you done with school. how are you friends and everything going. i still want to hear about call of duty five. and everything.

mom i dont know for sure when we are calling but i will hopefully know next week.

well family i love you so much and thanks for everything you do. grandma and grandpa i love you thanks for everythingk you do too. well i guess i will leave off with like a missionary sprititual thought thing for all the little cousins and brother.

everyone of you boys needs to serve a mission. it is hard but it is such a big blessing too. but you wake up every morning and study for two hours. you walk a lot. alot. alot. you get rejected a lot. you get people who really just dont like you. you get mocked. you get made fun of. you start to chaff. you feel like you shouldn´t be there. like you arent good enough. ya all these things are hard. and all these things have happened to me already and i have only been here a month. you go throughout out the day getting rejected getting lied too. getting some really good contacts too. but all of these bad things disappear when you are in a families house. when you are teacing them the gospel of Jesus Christ. and when you ask the dad to say a prayer. to know whether or not Joeshp Smith was a prophet of God. whether or now the bood of mormom is true and if this is the true church of Jesus Christ. and when he prays you feel the spirit in that little house so strongly. and you look at his eyes after the prayer and you know with our a doubt that he recieved an answer. i looked into marcelos eyes and it was the best feeling i have ever had on the mission so far. he felt the spirit so strong and i knew he knew it was true. when something like that happens you forget all the rejection, all the people mocking you and all the hard times of a mission and it is just so worth it. to have that family sitting with you in sacrament meeting getting a little close to baptism. it is just so amazing. you have no idea the feeling that was in that house. i want everyone of you to feel it. missionary work is awesome and hard. but it is so rewarding. i love you all so much. keep studying the scriptures and say your prayers. i love you.

elder smith

December 8, 2008

Hello Famiy,

Well it sounds like that eveyone had a really good week. so did elder lewis and i. but wow i am an uncle. mac is looking pretty good. that is so cool that he is here. december 1 wow. so ya i heard that the gay marriage thing is still going strong in the states. whats us with that? is it still really big. that so sad that people are like that. but i am glad everything else is going good. and that everyone is fine and healthy. we didnt get to watch to christmas thing but i am glad it was good. we worked lastnight. it was good though. we knocked a lot of houses. a lot of houses and no one would let us in. so we figured it was the lord telling us to go to one of our investigators. we are really trying to help them get an answer to their prayers. they are so amazing it is la famili marón. the gospel would bless their lives so much. we are praying so hard that they get an answer. they are amazing.

but lets see this last week. man time is already flying i will be in argentina for a month on thursday. wow. crazy. but this wednesday we had zone confernce. i loved it. i love president lindahl and his wife. they are so amazing. i had to say the prayer and also introduce myself. i was a little nervous because i still dont think my spanish could be as good as it should. but as i was talking with people they all said that my spanish is way good for only three weeks. everyone kept asking me questions to see if i could answer. i guess it was just a little booster for the week. i sure hope my spanish is as good as they are saying it is. but it was such a good conference. they talked a lot about staying healthy and doing things to make sure you dont get sick. but it was so good. i guess on the 23 we will be having a christmas party and i will get to see the elders from the mtc. i am so excited. but christmas here is a little diffeernt. elder lewis said that the do a lot of fireworks and they drink a lot. ha ha not like the states. and it is hot which makes it feel like not christmas. but oh well we see some christmas decorations everyonce in awhile. but christmas will be different here which will be good because then i wont think to much about it.

so last week the zoo was closed so we went to Cerro de la Gloria. i have pictures but it takes a long time to load them but that should be on the internet i guess it is really big here. but it is a pretty cool statue on a big hill. it is for when they won the war that gave them their freedom. it is a cool statue and a big hill.

so this week was good and bad. so like on tuesdya i started to chaffe really bad. it hurt so bad. and we had to time to get any powder yet. it was hurting so bad i was so excited to go to la familia marón to sit down. but when we got out of their house it was hurting worse. and to top it off we had to run becasue we had to try to catch a bus because we were on the other side of bermejo and it was ten so we only had a half hour. we ran and missed the bus. i was so mad becasue i was hurting so bad. but then some really nice evangelist picked us up and took us home. . i was so greatful for them. but dont worry we got powder and the chaffing is gone.

so to update on my weight loss. lets see. i started the misssion at 230 left the mtc at 222 and now i am 94 kilos which is like 207. so i weighed last week so i have been losing about 5 pounds a week. ya crazy. but i like it. i know pretty soon i will have to get my close tailored. but i am really liken it. hopefull i will still lose weight like this.

so we went to this lady´s house and we shared a message about christmas. as i was saying the prayer she started mumbling something. it scared me so i kinda stopped praying. and was trying to figure out what was going on.. it was so weird. she was mumbling and sounded like some demon thing. i hurried and ended the prayer and we got out of there. it was the weiredest thing it the world.

so yesterday we knocked a door and it sound like someone was coming to the door. someone opened the door and a dog poked his head out of the door and looked at us. he was at eye level. so me and elder lewis just laughed. but then the dog opened up the door all the way and came out. it was HUGE and scary looking. elder lewis and we either about ready to kick the dog or run. we were terrified because we didnt see a chain. but then finnally we say a rope and knew we were safe. but oh my goodness it was scarry.

so this satruday we ate at la familia chauque. they gave us a lot of food and i thought we were done. then she brought out a soup and by then i was so full i couldnt eat anymore. then she also had dessert. she came in and said. Who dosnt want deseret? i was thinkg in my head. me hermana i dont want any. i am so full but i had to eat it ant it was flan that didnt taste very good. oh i felt horrible after that. but oh well.

so today for pday we went to the zoo. it was pretty cool the best part were the monkeys. they were going crazy fightiing eacc other and just running around like crazy. it was so funny.. but somehow one of the monkeys got out. so elder sullivan thought it was a good idea to touch the tail of the monkey. the little monkey turned aroung and looked like it was about to kill him.. ha ha it was so funny becuase he got so scared. oh man it was funny. but that was my week. we are trying to find more people becasue we had to drop a couple of investigators. but we have ricardo, the one whose house burnt down and la familia marón. so we are working with them tryig to get them to church. and everything is good.

something that i have learned to not like here is the word mirá. it means look. i hear this so many times. mirá, soy católico. yo respeto su relígion. pero no. no guerro escuchar. it means. look i am cathlic. i respect your rilgion but i dont want to listen. if they only knew what this message would do to them and their family. it would change their lives for the good. i wish they would just be able to see that. but i will keep trying. i saw today that the us dollar is at 3.42 that means stuff will be cheaper for me. yay. but family, i love you all so much. you mean the world to me. i hope everyone is safe and happy. i lov eyou all more then you can imagine. til next monday

elder smith

December 1, 2008

Well hello family,

everything is fine here in argentina. yesterday the weather was amazing it didnt rain but it made walking around alot better. we finally had a break from the heat and i slept witha blanket last night. well to answer some questions. my debit card doesnt expire did i get back so that is good. but i am so glad to hear that there are three new babies now in mesa. wow i am an uncle right now. weird. but cool. well i hope you thanksgiving was really good. we actually had a really good thanksgiving too. we have some pretty good investigators right now. so we went to a lot of them on thursday. we dont really eat dinner because the lunches are so big. but la familia maron invited us to eat with them. they are from peru so the food actually had some spice to it. it was so good. so thanksgiving was differetn. a lot different but fun at the same time. so we finally got a refrigerator but it dosnt work that good so we have to get it fixed. i have been going this whole time with out one but we have been fine. i am still getting use to the food here. it just isnt very flavorful but i guess when you are here for a while you get used to it. ya so last week we played soccer as a zone. i scored three goals and it was so fun. we had one native play with us the totally blew us away. he was so good. and we have to play during the siesta or during the middle of the day so everyone was so burnt. except me i got darker. i am going to be black when i get home.

the funniest thing on the mission happened last thursday. ha ha we opened the mouth why we were on the way to an appointment. and they guy we were talking to was talking bad about the church and missionaries. he just wasnt being nice. ha ha and then some dog ran up to him lifted his leg and peed all over that guys leg. i had to try so hard not to just crack up laughing. he deserved it though. he was being mean. man i love that dog. oh something else that was funny so on one cuadra or block. which these blocks arent very long we say 21 dogs. it was so funny that is our record right now with 21 dogs on one block. this week we are realy working on getting people to church i think we have 16 investigators right now and so we are trying to get them all to church this next week. in all reality only like 3 will show up but we have to invite them all.

well i am so glad that everythig is going good. that the store is busy and that everyone is happy. oh mom i am going to pull out like 90 pesos today like right after i am done here so just check and see how it takes it out in dollars. well i am glad to hear everyone is ok. mom my feet only hurt because i walk all day. everyones feet hurt i guess like the first month but right now my feet are just fine. so dont worry. i am doing good. i hope you are all enjoying the nice winters in mesa. i cant wait until like march when it starts to cool down. bryce call of duty 5 already came out? i love all of you so much.

November 24, 2008

Hello Family,

Well this week was something else. Lets see, i guess having president lindhall as a president is so amazing. i guess president avila was way strict but was good. but on preparation days you couldnt really do anything. but with president lindhall we get to do fun stuff. last monday we went to the mall and went bowling. and today we are playing soccer. bowling was pretty fun except i am not very good at it. but we still had a lot of fun. and we went shopping i didnt get anything but elder lewis did. he got a tomba jersey. it is pretty cool. it is the team that that member plays for in medoza. but bryce to answer your question on the the messi jersey it is 249 pesos of 75 us dollars. i will get you one sometime. they are so sweet you have no idea. they are an amaing jersey. oh mom could you send me like how much money i have in my account every couple weeks or so and i want to see how it transfers it over from pesos to dollars. thanks. well this week we have a lot of investigators. we have david who on saturday was supposed to get baptized. we have everything set us and got a call from gabriel his friend who was baptising him. i think his mom was giving him trouble for getting baptized and he told gabriel that he didnt feel ready. but we are going over to his house tonight to talk to him. i know that he knows it is true i know he recieved an answer we are just going over there to help him feel comfortable and to ask Father in Heven if he should be baptized. we also have la familia barosa the mom dad and two boys. they are golden tonight we are watching the restaration with them and getting them annimated for baptism. we are trying to get 7 baptisms in december. we have to work hard. but we have two other families and two other people that we are working with. this week we are trying to get them to know the importance of going to church. but we are working on it. we found this guy on saturday. his name is alberto. we taught him the first lesson and he said that he thinks we were supposed to be here. because two hours early he got a phone call that his grandma wasnt doing good and he feels that we were sent from god to help him at this time. the only problem is that he works in buenos aires monday trhough friday. oh well we will help him. but that is about it wiht ivestigators. we are working hard with them and are trying to change up are lesson plans a little more to fit each families need.

So something a little funny about argentina is that they dont have ice cream trucks. they have old men on bikes going around selling ice cream on bikes. they ride around and blow wistles. ha ha it is funny. our branch here isn´t very big. ther are like 10 primary kids. yesterday was the primary program. ha ha lets just say mom your primary programs are golden compared to the one yesterday. it was still good but wow it was kinda funny. ha ha i have come to appreciate so many things in the states. for one this air conditioning. oh how i miss it. we had a stake priesthood meeting last night and they only builing in our stake that has ac is the stake center. i was in heaven . becasue it is so hot outside. no house has ac. and a lot of the times they dont even have fans. so after we have been walking outside in the heat we go into a hot house with no moviing air. oh i swet so much!!!!!!!!!!! well i am going to send pictures this week. theres not much but i will take more about what argentina looks. like or atleast bermejo. but i am doing fine. my feet seem to be hurting alot latley but thats ok.. i have a feeling that i am going to be way black by the time i get home. there are rarely clouds. what can i do. well i love you all so much. i cant wait to hear the articles in faith in spanish mom on christmas which is coming way quick. bryce what is flarp? keep working on scouts bryce and reading scriptures and doind homework i know they are all hard but trust me you will regret like i am now for not doing some of that stuff. i love you little brother. jenna i hope mac and you and todd you good in the next couple weeks i cant wait to see pictures. emily and josh. thats so cool that you get to go to brazil we wont be to far away anymore. have fun and be safe. mom hope the store does good this christmas and hope you are doing good to i love you so much. dad i hope you are doing good. love you. there is a quote that i want to leave you all with from President Hinckley about missionary work. "It will be a great day when our people not only pray for the misssionaries throughout the world but ask the Lord to help them to assist the missionaries who are laboring in their own ward" i know now more then every how important members are in missionary work. talk witht the missionaries. see what you can do they will be so greatful and you can reap the rewards from missionary work as well i love you all so much. you are all amazing!!!!!

the picture of the girl sign is in the chruch. but anyways i love you all so much. love you. those keys are really what they use. love you

November 17, 2008

Well i want to first say that it is nothing like i expected. NOTHING!!!! well i will explain that later. so lets see. our flight to peru was long but it was really fun too. we talked to a man named Gustavo for a while about the gospel. but he was atheiest so it was really hard not talk to him. not only was it in spanish but he didnt beleive anthing we told him.. all we could do was to bear testimony and gave him a pamphlet. elder kirk and chase were on the other side of the plane and they had people all around them and so they talked to all of them too. we gave out all of or pass-a-long cards and it was pretty fun. the flight from peru to argentina was, well i dont know i slept i was so tired. but when we got to argentina we had to go past immigration. which was hard because we had no idea what they were saying. but we made it through. at this time we still had no idea who was picking us up. we fininally found some guy that said he was picking us up. and another guy took all of our luggauge. for all i knew they could have been some person wanting to steal us and all our stuff. but luckily they were the right people. we drove to the buenos aires temple where we stayed til 3. buenos aires was just run down and dirty. nothing like i imagined it. but it sure was nice to go the temple. the temple was smaller then i imagined it. but it sure was pretty. i am going to send some pictures with this email. but we got to do a session. it was a lot different then all the temples i have been in. but the same feeling. oh man was the endowment session hard. we were all running on like 4 hours of sleep in 2 days and doing a session!!!! and to top it off it was in spanish!!!!! that was a hard session. but it was so worth it. the mtc in argentina is SO MUCH SMALLER then the one in provo. and the cafeteria is so small too. we even had to wash our plates. it was so long since i did that. haha but i do it now everyday.

well when we flew to mendoza we met up with 4 more missionaries. elders briceño, cardus and hermanas pinto and valleran. they were all really cool. all of them only spoke spanish but it was still fun to talk to them. elder briceño joined the church because his friends pullled a prank on his and had the missionaires go over to his house. but he let them in and now is a member.

meeting president lindhal and his wife was awesome. they are so amazing. right when he saw me he said. Elder smith i am so glad you are here. now because you 8 are here we are going to have the best baptism misison in south america. he made me feel so welcome!!! driving to the mission home was something else. mendoza in nothing like i expected. throw every thing you thought about mendoza out the window. i love it. but it is nothing like i expected. everything is so fast. there are like no traffic laws. or if there are i couldnt figure it out. everyone just went when they wanted to. and everyone is going so fast.

well the president did was i was afraid we were going to do. dropped us off in the plaza and had us work. i worked with one of the assistants. elder arario. he is the most amazing missionary i have ever met. he told elder kirk and i. there are people that God has been preparing for baptism in december we just have to find them. so we would go up to people and say. hola somos reprentantes de jesucrist. buscamos la gente que dios ha preparndo para bautizarse in deciember. ¿esta listo? i thought it was bold. we said we are looking for the people that god had been preparing for baptism in december. are you ready., it was so cool we all did like 4 contacts and gave out a book of mormon. oh it was a perfect way to get rid of the fear.

dinner at the presidnets house was really good. i like talking to him,his wife and the assistants. on the of assistants is gardna randalls grandson. elder west. it was good to see him but then he told everyone that i play the piano. ggrrrr. oh well. i will sent some pictures of the first room that i slept in. it is about the size of my room at home but with 6 bunk beds. that night was something else.

the next day i met my trainer. it was kinda weird because we both live in mesa. we both went to mountain view. and i am pretty sure that mom you know his mom. my trainer is Elder Lewis. mom he said his mom sold stuff to the orange patch too. her name is kim lewis. i dont know if you know her our not but it was worth a try. so we ate lunch together and we off.

my area is in the mendoza province(STATE) guaymallen(county) but my area is bermejo. my area is pretty long and we walk everywhere. i am pretty sure i will be deffinatley losing weight. on saturday. oh man saturday was rough. we taught one lesson. they rest of the time we were either opeing the mouth or talking to people of the street or knocking or clapping doors. but we walked from 1030 to 130 and 4 to 10. oh man was i sore and did my feet kill. ha ha i even said this to an old lady. i said we have been walking all day. my whole body it tired. my feet are killing me. no one has listened to us. can we please come in and talk to you about Christ. she had the nerve to say no. but we did get some cold water from her which was good. it was pretty good to have saturday because now i dont think a day could get worse then that. but it did get us charged up for the next day. }

well i will tell you a little about bermejo. we live in a small pench.. that is was they call the appartments. but our pench is like i want to say a little smaller then emily and joshes old appartment. but two stories. i thought it was a little sketchy but i get it is a pretty good pench which i like. but lets see. the neighborhoods. EVERY SINGLE HOUSE has bars on all the windows and a like 8 food wall aroung in. well almost every house. but still every house has somehing around it. so if their gate is not open we clap if it is open we go knock on there door. so they house are really small and i thing everyone makes their own houses. but they are really cool house. another thing about bermejo is that there is like a million dogs. dogs are everywhere. everywhere everywhere. and on every road there are acekias or little ditches and dogs are always playing in the water. i will send some pictures of that later. }

but as of right now we have a couple of people that we will go back and talk to and see if they are going to progresss. but we have one baptism date. david is getting baptized next saturady. i am excited for that. he is 19 and he is ready. other that that we did a lot of walking. elder lewiss last companion lost forty pounds in 6 weeks. lets hope i do that too. oh i forgot. the next area i want to serve in is called maipu. but it is pronounces my poo. ha ha i want to serve there. oh the hair cut that is popular here are mullets.

well here are the rules for emailing. i have to send all my emails through you mom and then you send them off to friends or cousins. i can only email mom dad brothers and sisters directly. same with people emailing me. they have to go through you. so mom can you send this to brittany. and brittany when you send me on back you have to send it through my mom. but mom can you send this to dad too. thanks. oh and letters i think i would rather get emails because we only get mail every transfer which is six weeks. but i mean it will still be nice to get mail too but i wont be able to read if for a while. oh and packgages i only get 2 a year. birthday and christmas. and they said to send them a month anda half in advance. i know it is a pain but its ok. well i think that is it i will be sending some pictures. but i love all of you and i am doing just fine. i am sore, but thats a good thing. well cant wait to hear from you all next week. love you. (actually the computers that we are at this week are so old that the pictures wont work. but next week i will send you all pictures because we will go somewhere else. i love you all talk to you next week.

Elder Smith

Arriving In Argentina

Elder Smith arrived safely!!! What a delightful young man you have entrusted in our care. His companion is Elder Lewis who is now training your son. He will compliment your son's talents. We spoke with them today and they are reaching their goals and are very happy. There is nothing that makes a missionary happier than when he or she is being strictly obedient and making their goals a reality. We expect a lot from our missionaries just like we did with our own children, but we also extend love and compassion to each of them. We extend to you our thanks for bringing up such a fine young man. We look forward to getting to know him better as the months go by. If at any time you feel concerned about your son please feel free to call the mission office here in Argentina. We want this mission experience to bless the lives of the entire Smith family. We know the Lord will bless your family during the next 22 months because of all the sacrifices being made. May we also add that we have a personal testimony of the strength of a mother's prayer. We believe that the Lord answers those prayers with impressions. We encourage you to empower him with your enthusiasm and belief in him. We know a mission is hard, but we know that he can accomplish this hard thing and it will allow him to understand in a small way the sacrifices that have been made by those who have come before him and paved the way in the church. Thank you again for sending us a wonderful missionary with a strong testimony. With Much Thanks, President and Hermana Lindahl

First MTC Letter

hey mom.

i only have a little time to email so i am just emailing to tell you i love everyone. today we went to the temple again. which is alwasy nice. this is going to be a really short letter beacause i have lunch in ten minutes. but anyways the mtc is going good. the only problem is that we will be losing four elders in our district becasue they are going to the dominican republic mtc. they are all really cool too. well i am going to write you a letter todoy because it is my preparation day. so i will write you a longer letter while i am doing my laundry. well i love you all so much. tell bryce he better be studying hard!!!! and ya i love you and will telll you a lot more in my letter later today. love you

Elder smith