July 26, 2010

¿Cómo está familia mia?

Hey family, how is everyone? It sounds like everyone is doing great. Man, I can´t even imagine how pretty the mountains look right now. I am in a place that looks like mesa in the winter. There is nothing green. But I can imagine how it will look in summer. It has to be so pretty in summer. I´ll send you all some pictures. It is definatley my favorite area. I love it so much. That fish fry really sounded good. But I have to go on a good diet when I get home, I still have to loose some weight. I stopped loosing weight. I just got used to the ton of walking and the food i guess. I have a lot to do and a lot of goals to make. Thanks mom for checking up on that stuff for me. Man Brady is right. It is so weird being in this time of the mission. I have to work really hard though. I can make the goal I put for my second year. Just have to work like no other. We are doing really good and we have been really really blessed. There are so many families that i have learned to love here.

Happy Birthday to everone, Grandpa(sorry i missed it) grandma and katie. Grandma i liked the story of caleb. It is way funny how little kids talk. I love when little kids here want to pray. their prayers are so awesome. But it is ok if we are all looking old. Everyone thinks that I look inbetween 28 and 35 years old. I sure hope they are just blind. But it is funny anyway. they always get so suprised when they find out how old we really are. I think it is the clothes.

So we had a really good week this week. really good. We are working with a family right now. The morales family. They are so awesome. The love us. They are always making us presents and we love them alot too. They are so happy and nice. The awesome part is that this family was doing really really bad only like a month ago. When I got here they were about to split apart. They all hated eachother and they were always fighting. One even pulled out a knife and wanted to use it on her sister. It was crazy. Well there were a couple that werent baptized and we were still working with them. We didnt do anything differnt we just really wanted to show our love for them. We tried every thing. Playing dont eat pete, making banana bread and brownies and just being their friends. We have had a lot of talks about famileis and the problems they can have. They thought their family wasn´t good just because they faught. We both talked about our families, i told them i chased emily with a bat and we also talked about how much we love our families, how much we have been blessed by the gospel. We promised them a lot of blessings. The Lord completes with his blessings. He really worked a miracle with that family. The family is together. almost all of them are baptized and they love eachother now. The ones that were fighting and almost stabbed eachother, are now always together and always happy. one of them got baptized yesterday. They were so happy. The smiles on their faces were priceless. The family is doing good and they are going 100% with church. They are reading and praying and doing everything they need to do. Vanesa and Carolina have read 400 pages of the book of mormon. They are almost done. The power of the book of mormon is so true. They love reading it and they always have a ton of questions for us when we go. They are so amazing.

Yesterday they were suposed to both be getting baptized but one of them had problems and i wont go into detail but she is getting baptized next week. but one of them did. it was a great day in church. They learned a lot and the members(in the city not zonda) really helped them out and made them feel good. We have to baptize in the city because dont have a baptismal font in zonda. But we had a priest baptize her and everything was doing good. it was probably the best baptism i have had just because the spirit was so strong. We played a movie where there are clips of converts that are talking well they cuoted the book of alma when ammon is talking. He talks about how they were made into insturments in the hands of God. It hit me hard, that i was used as an insturment in the lords hands to help them. Right then i never felt a better feeling then my whole life seeing these people getting baptized. It was the best feeling every and i never want to for get it. i loved everypart of it. I love the mission and i love the people. they have so many trials and such a hard life, but they are fighting for something better, fighting really hard. It is so true, the promise of being blessed as you obey the commandments.

We are also working with a the montaña family. they are a family of seven. They are doing really good. The mom loves everything we are talking about. especially the idea of her sons going on a mission. They went to church yesterday, or actually the little house. It is so small. but it was really nice. they felt good even though the sister did not teach the lesson verywell. my companion and i had to do an overall summary so they could understand. Mom, i used your ;The purpose of fasting is fasting with a purpose. the members liked it.

On saturday we had a really sweet activity with the youth from the stake. They did an activity that they went on an island and they had a whole bunch of games and other stuff to do. They gave them white pieces of papers to buy things there. There were booths like dancing, video games, cooking, soccer, volleball, tie tieing, missionary work and some others. They go around doing all the thing and they sale their white papers for all the activities the have. the also get blue pieces of papers for doing wordly thing and white for doing spiritual things. we had an activity on how they can talk to their friends at school. we had some people but not a ton. well when it all finished they were going back to argenitna in the plane and the plane crashed. then they had judgement. everyone that had more white papers then blue got to go to the celestial kingdom and the others had to go to the terestial and the telestial. in the two bottom ones they were really hot rooms and nasty food. about 90 percent were in there. then the ones that went to the celestial kingdom were met my the stake president and his wife(the best lider i have met in my whole mission). They had some really good food and gave them a nice prise. it was so good. it was an awesome activity. it would be fun at home too.

the thing that suprised me is that the youth here are really strong. they have a huge testimony and they actually talked really well.

well if i am going to send pictures i have to go. but i love you all so much. have a good week.

elder smith

July 19, 2010

Hola familia,

I am glad to hear that Mac (or the name I think I might call him Pichón) is ok. That is scary. It is amazing that he didn´t break anthing. He has some strong bones and what it looks like in the picture some fat. I am just happy to hear that he is ok and that he is learning who I am. He is going to love me. A kid in the ward here fell off the second story of the stake center and nothing happened. Lucky kid.

I hope you aunt will be ok. I guess it is never too late to learn those things. She would do good here in Argentina because you can´t pump your own gas. By law they have to have a professional do it. What a great profession! But I hope she is ok. It has to be really hard to lose your husband like that.

That is pretty cool about Josh´s new rank in the marines. I have like no idea what it is but that is cool. Does he get paid more? I sure hope so. People think that it is like the coolest thing to hear that he is in the marines. They always tell me not to mess with him. I just tell them that I am not scared of him. We will see when I see him again. I havn´t seen him for a long time. right now a little more than two years. I think. But that is really cool that he gets some good words put in for him. Is he going to stay in the marines for longer than 5 years or is he stopping? Just curious.

I hope you all are enjoying being warm. It is freezing right now. It snowed on wedensday or thursday I can´t remember what day. But it had been cold. We are just babies down here. We are just not used to it. The cold weather just came in from no where. We woke up and all of a sudden it was cold and snowing. I was with E Barlow on divisions. He is such a funny elder from Utah. We went to his area and he got lost which wasn´t that fun in the cold. But we had some fun. He is pretty new so I don´t blame him on getting lost. But not only did he get lost but he also doesn´t know spanish very well either. It was really fun though. I am going to send you some pictures of elder vazquez and I in all our winter clothes. The only bad thing is that it is really cold outside and in most houses it is colder inside. We can´t escape it. We are teaching a family that lives in a house made out of mud bricks and it has wholes in the walls. I just don´t get how they don´t freeze to death. But is it what they have.

This week was really good, other than the cold. We are teaching a lot of people and are just trying to help them understand the importance of going to church. All of them are catholic and they are used to going to church once or twice a year. Not every sunday. It is always fun taking to people to church or the house of Elvira. I want to know what they think when they go in. It is a pretty scethcy house.

We were going to have 2 baptisms this last week and the other elders had 4. Everything was going good. We had the interviews done, we have the baptismal clothes ready, talks and everything. The bishos calls us at about 7 pm saturday night and told us that their was a gas leak and that they have to turn off the gas in the chapel. We can´t baptize anyone in cold water right now, it is to cold So we have to wait until next sunday. We have been working so hard with these two girls and we finally had them ready. They have a testimony and are reading and praying. There is always problems though I just have to keep remembering that. But they are going to be good. We are going to have them baptized next week and maybe another lady also. We are trying to baptize 5 this month and we have to work really hard to finish it up. There are two more weeks and then we are already in August. Time is going so fast. I have to work really hard to finish my goal for this year. I just can´t stop until the end. There isn´t much time left. This transfer has gone so fast and then I have one more left. Elder Vazquez is getting down to the wire too. I am glad president put us together. We can depend on eachother and we are both working hard to finish our goals.

We are trying to complete a family right now. (the two girls that are getting baptized) They are the Morales family. They are so cool. They love us. They always get us little presents. The mom is the best. She doesnt understand everything still but she wants to do the best she can. She helps us out a lot. She gets the kid in shape. We played Don´t Eat Pete this last week and they loved it. They have been playing like every night. They are a family of 11 and live in a really small house. All of them are really close except two girls. The ones getting baptized. They fight a lot. That is why we have had to help them. They see a differnce when they are doing what they should do. I wish they would just relize gets nothing accomplished if you fight. I always tell them that I feel so bad when I think about fighting with one of my brothers or sisters back at home. I tell them once you get older all the little things don´t matter and just have to learn to love eachother. We can see in them that they are doing better. I hope they stay like that. They need to relize that the best friends that you will have are the family members.

Alright to I dont have much more time but I just want to say that I love you all. I am so greatful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Really it changes the lives of people in such a great way. They just have to give it a try. Happy people live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dont forget it. I love my mission and all that it has taught me and all the people that I have met. I wouldnt change it for anything.

Have a good week.

Elder B. Smith

July 12, 2010

Hey family,


Wow a lot of stuff happened this week. It is pretty crazy. I also heard but I am not sure if it is true, i heard that there was a huricane in Texas this last week. I just heard it from one member though. Who knows if it is true. That is really sad about Josh´s brother. I sure hope he is ok. Helmets were made for a good reason. That is really scary too. I can´t even imagine how bad that would hurt and how scary that would be. I hope he will be ok. That is sad about your uncle and the guy from Lehi 9th ward. It is crazy how life is just so fragile. The good thing is that he was faithful until the end. Going to the church to help set up the chairs. The last step of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, endure to the end. One of the hardest but the most important. How blessed are we to have the blessings of the Gospel to help us in those kind of times. The Plan of Salvation is an awesome thing. That has to be pretty hard on their grandson that is serving right now too. I rember when grandpa Hiett died, my like third day of the MTC. It was pretty hard for me. We just have to fight to the end and everything will be ok in the longrun.

So Lindsay had her baby. That is so weird that she is a mom already. They were just barely married when I left. There are a lot of new babies in the family. It will be fun. A lot of new faces to get to know. There are three new ones. Mac, Kate and Lindsays new baby. That is really cool. Now grandpa and grandma have two grandchildren.

So the World Cup is over. I am really happy that I was here for the World Cup. It is a lot diferent here. It is more than a sport. Sometimes they get a little to into it. But it was cool. Funny story. So yesterday I went with Elder Morera to look for investigators and we were like 40 minutes early. The whole world was watching the final of the world cup. So we knew it was pretty much imposilble to teach anyone right then. We knocked a door and we said that we were from the US(even though he is argentine) and said we have never seen a final of the world cup and we had like 40 minutes. We asked if we could go in for a little and they let us in. They gave us a cup of Pepsi and some lemon pie. Ha ha they loved us. The wife was going to give it to us with plastic forks and the husband said no give them good silverware. It was really funny we felt really important. So we got to watch a little of it and also we got to meet some new people. A really cool family that had talked to the missionaries in Villa Mercedes San Luis. It was really cool. It was a great game as Bryce probably already knows. But now it is over and the missionary work will go back to normal.

So it sounds like the tomatoes are doing really good. Remember before the mission I couldn´t or better said didn´t want to eat tomatoes or onions. Well now I love them, A LOT!!!!!!! They are so good. Especially how the argentines do it. So I am excited to have a lot more onion and tomatoe flavors in all the mexican food. Next week we are going to make fajitas with some other companionship. It will be pretty good. We will see if Elder Vazquez´s mom taught him anything good.

That is cool that you all had a good 4th of July. We really do live in a great country. Down here they are trying to change a lot too. They are trying to legalize on a country level, gay mariage. The president is a little mixed up with the way she thinks but they members of almost all the churches are fighting on behalf of the families. There are signs everywhere that says ´we want a dad and a mom.´ They are having another strike this next week trying to show that they really don´t want it. The majority doesnt want it. The president said that they have to help the minority too not just the majority. So the members of a lot of churches are fighting it until the end. It is pretty big right now here in San Juan. We have to fight for the good things that we have and if we don´t fight we wont have what we want. I sure hope that the people in charge will realize what they are doing. It will be really bad if it passes.

Like Emily said, the Johnsons just didn´t have much luck this week. That stinks to just get the boat on the water and then have to push it back and get back in the car and go. It is still weird for me thinking that it is hot up there. It isn´t really cold here in San Juan but it is chilly. There are two types of winds here in San Juan. One that is called Zonda which comes from the mountains and is really hot and then there is one that comes from the south that is really cold. Well yesterday right as our sunday school/sacrament meeting in Zonda was about to start there came a really strong southern wind. So right as we are about to start and right as investigators should be getting to church the wind started really strongly. We just started the meeting with the people that we had. We had two of our investigators so we were happy that atleast they came. The wind came in really hard. We could just hear it and dust was coming in from the windows and under the door too. It was crazy. Well the investigators didn´t all come because it really does screw up the head. There was the Zonda wind which is hot then it just changed to southern wind that is really cold. It always gives me a headache but I don´t care. The people from San Juan are kind of like babies when it comes to the weather. So we weren´t too angry about it. We got the two most important people to go. They are getting bapized this weekend. There names are Carolina, 23 years old and Vanesa, 17 years old. We almost have completed the family. We only need the dad and the younger brother. The men are always the hardest ones. Carolina is doing really good. She is reading a lot of the Book of Mormon and she stopped smoking. She is the one that had to do most of the changes. She wasn´t hanging out with the best kids and not doing the best stuff either. But she has changed a lot. They are a really cool family. In the picture that I sent last week, she is the one that is with her head down and the other one is the one with the purple jacket. They are going to be great and they are the first youth of Zonda. They are the pioneers. I don´t think they notice that yet.

So a little about how Zonda works. So as of right now there are like 12-15 members that go to church. The family that we are working with makes up like half the family. But there is one priesthood holder, his name is Julio Luque. So what we do on sunday is that at 5 30 in the afternoon we go and so does the ward missionaries and a member of the bishopric. He presides. The Zonda branch is a part of the Libertador Ward. It depends off the ward. Until it can be its own branch it will be a part of the ward. We have to find some more priesthood holders for that. So we have church in a members house. Which is tiny by the way. My comp and I have to stand up for it. But Julio and I blessed the sacrament and then they just gave like a sunday school lesson. It was really nice. It would have been better if we could have gotten more people to go but we always have next week. It is pretty crazy. We have church it this tiny house which is not the most pretiest house in the world. But we are in there and it looks like relief society. There are a lot of women and some men. But it is good. We have a lot of work to do there. I want to baptize a lot before I go home. We have a lot of people that we are teaching right now too. Just have to help them out a lot.

This week a member took us out to lunch. This has never happened in my whole mission. It was crazy. She took us to a place called Las Leñas. She dropped a lot of money. I felt so bad but she wanted to do it. She spent 450 pesos on us 5. 4 missionaies and her. It was really good food but now 450 pesos worth. I will send you a pictures of her. She is crazy. But she is a really good member too. She has had a hard life.

We had a really good week. We are just trying to explode things out here. We have three weeks left in the transfer and we are trying to get it ready for my new comp and I. We are pretty sure and Elder Vazquez is leaviing and I will have one more companion that will kill me off. So we will see how it goes.

How are things going with the Book of Mormon reading before I get home? Everyone still doing it? Just so you all know I am doing it too. Well I don´t have much more time left and I have to write president. I love you all so much. Have a good week. Be Safe!!!!!!

Elder B. Smith






Here are some pictures. The picutres of the city is me trying to show you where my area is. In between the big mountains and the little ones is my area. We live pretty far from the area. The other one is of the sister that bought us lunch and a map of san juan. the best providence of argentina.!!!!!!!

July 5, 2010

Hey family,

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!!!!

Well we had a good 4th of July here too. We didn´t do anything diferent but it was nice. We live with a porteño (a person from Buenos Aires). Well not a lot of people like them. They are known to be really prideful and think they are better than us. Well anyways, to make him mad we listened to all patriotic songs. It was pretty funny. I quess it is what we can do in the mission to have fun.

So it sounds like it was a good week for a lot of people. That is so sweet that Gary Whitting works at Lehi Valley. I sure hope he is working there when I get home. Tell him that I say hi. It would be nice. Tell everone in Lehi Valley that I say hi. Tell the mexicans there that they have to cook me some mexican food when I get home. I am with Elder Vazquez right now and we are always talking about mexican food. Haha. He is teaching me some more food. Too bad that we can´t find the ingredients here.

That is pretty sweet and scary that a bear killed a cow. I sure hope they catch it soon. I can´t imagine how nice it is up there right now. It isn´t hot but I have not seen rain in a while. It never rains in San Juan. But I still love it. So I imagine the 4th of July was pretty fun. It has to be more fun with all the little kids out there. I hope mac and everyone got a lot of candy. Did you take picutres? If you did send me them. I have not seen a picture of Marks new baby yet. Thanks. Oh before I forget, did you send me another package? The office told me that I had another package. I was just wondering if it was from you.

I am glad that you had a gook birthday. Sounds like mac is a bunch of fun too. I am still thinking of a nickname for him. I have to think of something really good for him.

So you talked with Elder Deuel, well Jordan now. That is cool. He is a really good guy, I am glad I was with him. It was really nice.

Hey Bryce what ever happened of sending me pictures of you and your friends. Send me them.

So I was looking through my pictures with Elder Vazquez and he saw Derron and he said he thinks he looks mexican. I don´t see it at all but I thought it was funny. They also all say that Dad looks Argentine. I dont know maybe it is just because I am used to seeing them all the time but they all see it. So chad is doing good I assume. He is getting married in like a month. That is so weird. I still can´t believe it. Bryce do you know her?

Alright so a little about the week that we had. We had a really good week. We baptized yesterday so that made for a really good 4th of July. Her name is Nancy Morales. We are slowly finishing a family out there in Zonda. The mom and now 3 kids are baptized. We are working with the dad and two more daughters. One of the daughters is getting baptized in two weeks (Vanesa Morales) and the others are a little harder. They know it is true but they just don´t want to stop smoking. She dosnt know who we are. We are going to help her get rid of that trash.

We are teaching a couple more people too. We are having for sure 3 baptisms on the 17th maybe five. There is another family that is looking really good. The family that her husband was beating her. She is really excited about chuch and of the only members there is friends with her. We just have to work hard with them. We were walking down the street and some lady stopped us and asked us if we spoke english. We said yes and she wants us to help her husband with english. well we went there on saturday. They live in a really poor neighborhood. All the houses are made of mud bricks. There was only one house that had windows on it. But the impotant thing was that almost every house had a dish satalite. I was just so amazed. They don´t have windows but they have satalite tv. Priorities. But they are all really cool. Hopefully they progress.

So saturday was a really sad day in argentina. THEY LOST AGAINST GERMANY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not going to lie, it was really sad. Germany trashed them. The family we were with were so angry and their daughter cried. It was hard not to laugh. It is so much more than a game here. We were with elder morera who is from San Nicolás. He didn´t talk for like an hour and a half. It was so funny. There was no one in the streets and everyone was mad. We had to leave and do an interview and everyone thought that elder jones and i were from germany. I actually felt scared. they would kill me if i was german. Good thing Zonda is a really calm place. I sure hope that Spain or uruguay wins. Anyone except germany.

Today we had pday in the afternoon. We played a lot of soccer I am so tired. I can barely stay awake.
But I am glad everyone had a good week. I love you all. Write you all next week.

love,
Elder Smith





some pictues and some of the sad argentine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 28, 2010

Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FELÍZ CUMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That is so sad that the died in the ward. That has to be so hard to deal with. It is just a death trap having a pool with little kids. Good thing we know about the Plan of Salvation. It is still one of the hardest things I can imagine but atleast it makes it a little easier. We just found a lady that her kid committed suicide. She didn´t think she could ever be happy again. We taught her the plan of salvation and I hpe she feels a little better.

So everyone here in Argentina is really happy today and yesterday. ARGENTINA BEAT MEXICO!!!!!!!! It was a really good game. Messi still hasn´t made a goal yet but he sure does help them out a lot. Tevez is on fire. The Mexicans were really mad on tv. Reading their mouths and seeing what they were saying I could tell. It was pretty funny. Sorry Irma that Argentina beat you 3 to 1. . San Juan is a lot bigger city than Villa Mercedes. So the celebration was a lot better here. They but a huge tv screen in plaza and they had a ton of people watching the game. It was really cool. I like how they all get really into it. I hope they can beat Germany. They have a really good team. We´ll be crossing our fingers. Right now I am living with a Porteño or someone from Buenos Aires. He is such a prideful argentine. He wont stop telling me how much better argentina is in soccer than the united states. It was pretty sad to see that they got beat out. But it is ok. I am in argentina.

Thanks for putting some money in my account. I needed it. I had to spend a lot of money this last week in traveling. My area is a pretty expensive area. Thanks for that.

Alright, so about my new area and my new companion. So I got to come back to the promised land of the mission SAN JUAN. I love this place. But, I left Villa Mercedes at about 7 on wednesday morning. As I was traveling the bus broke down and it woke me up. A belt broke and they had to change it. But as we were waiting I looked out to the left and there was a huge cloud of smoke of something that just kept getting closer and closer. Then I could tell that it was dust. But it wasn´t windy at all. Well by the time we started up again the cloud got really close. It got so windy and so dusty that I could hardly see the side of the road. The bus driver was going so slow because he couldn´t see anything. I really don´t get how all the mud brick houses stayed standing up. It was crazy how strong the wind was. The wind is called Viento Zonda. It would be nice if someone could look that up for me. All argentines tell us a different story. But suposefully the wind comes from Chile and when it come above the Andes it picks up a lot of speed. As it starts dropping from the Andes it starts gettin into a warm/hot wind. So as it comes into san juan it is just really hot. There was so much dust and hot wind. It is horrible. We are in winter right now too so it is weird. A lot of people get sick from it too. It always gives me a headache. So that was my first day in San Juan.

So my area is called Zonda. I am the 6th missionary to be there. It was opened just recently. There are about 15 members and about 10 active. There is one priesthood holder there. He is so awesome. He was baptized in Febuary and has already read the whole triple and two book about the teaching of the prophets. He goes with us every saturday to help us teach. It is a really differnt area. There are not any members with a lot of experience, so everyone depends on the missionaries. It is about 45 minutes from the city and it is inbetween two mountains. We are in a vally that is why it is called Valle de Zonda. It is really small. Just a small city where everyone knows everyone. There are about a grand total of like 10 cars that pass us in the road in the whole day. So every morning we take a bus at 9 30 and come back at 930 pm. We have a lot of people to teach right now. A lot of people are interested in us because we are still new. And being Sanjuaninos or those of san juan they just let us right in. It is really easy to get into a house. The hard thing is to get them to progress. So we have to filter out the people we have. Something I have noticed is that for some reason there are a lot of problems with families here. Every person we are teaching has a problem with their family. Suicide, leaving children becuase they dont want them, abuse and a lot more. It is so sad. One family we are teaching just this last week came home and was beating her daughter and so the mom jumped in and he hit her too and gave her a concussion. He is in jail now and she says that he is not coming back (which is good because now she can get baptized, she wasnt married). But it is just really sad. So we meet in a members house 3 sundays out of the month and on fast sunday we have to go the the state center. It is part of that ward. I havnt gone to a meeting there yet, because it was stake conference yesterday but I can imaging it is going to be way different with only like 10 or 15 people there. I can´t imagine listening to the hymns. No one knows the melody because they are all new. I am excited.

So my companions name is Elder Vazquez. He was born in Los Angeles and now lives in Provo, Utah. His parents were born in san jose iturbide, guanajuato, mexico. I don´t know where that is but that is where they are from. I don´t know if Irma would know where that is. We have about the same time in the mission. He has one less transfer than I do. That makes it nice and easy to have him. He is really cool. He worked at a car dealership giving trucks lifts and tuning them up. He was really sad that mexico lost yesterday. Every one in Zonda knows he is mexican and they are goint to be making fun of him like crazy tommorrow. I am excited!!!! :).

So about some of our investigators. We have a girl that is going to be getting baptized on the 4th of July. A great way to celebrate it in the mission. There are still more to baptize in that family so we are working really hard with them. The are the Morales Family. We are also going to baptize Mitilda and Soledad on the 10th. If the husband gives us permission. Then we have a lady and her son that went to church on sunday that are sweet and that are going to get baptized.

On saturday we went with Julio Luque (the priesthood holder) to teach our investigators. When we were walking down the road he was teaching us how the grape fines work. It is pretty interesting. He was been working with them his whole life. He is from Tucumán (another providence). He is such a stud. We were going by all the members and investigators to tell them that the church rented out like 4 taxis to take them all to stake confernce. So we have like 18 people going. Then we get a text message from his saturday night at 10 that the taxis couldnt go anymore. So we had to figure some thing out. So we called some of them and a lot of them couldnt go because it is expensive. They are really poor. So sunday morning we went to go get our investigators atleast. We got a partmember family and another lady and her kid. We paid for their bus tickets because we told them they didnt have to pay for the taxi and we felt bad telling them they had to pay. It wasnt too bad. Sunday mornings buses are really bad. They dont pass by that much. But we got on a bus and we started for the stake center. Everything was going good. We got three people that were investigators. We were on time and everything and then the bus broke down. It broke down right in the middle of the canyon. So we had to wait like an hour for the next bus. We got to stake confernce an hour and ten minutes late. We missed President Lindahls talk but we got there for Elder Ávilas talk. He was the old mission president and now he is a seventy. it was such a great talk. He talked about Christ´s life and the Holy Ghost. He had all the missionaries stand up. The then talked to all the people that were not members of the church to listen to us and do what we are teaching them and he talked about the blessing they will have. It was so awesome. He then ivited everyone of them to get baptized. It was good that he did it. There were 32 people that we not members. It was such a great confernce. There were so many people. There were not enough chairs for everyone so a lot of people were standing in the eilse and sitting in them too. It was amazing. It was really good for Mirta and her kid Romiro to see all those people too. President Lindahl then talked to all the people from Zonda. He talked to Mirta (not member) he took her hand and looked her in the eyes talking to her for like a minute about how she would be blessed by this church. He said to us. Call me when she gets baptized. After he left she asked us if we told him the problems she was having in her family. (she is the one that her husband is in jail for beating them). We told her no. She than said that she felt like he new about her problems and that she felt like he knew her. We talked to her about the Holy Ghost and how it works and who Presidnt is. It was so awesome. She for sure is getting baptized. It was so awesome. One of the best days that I have had in a long time.

After church we went to the Family Millans house for an asadazo or bbq. It was so good. They are a really cool family. It was a really good week. I am really excited for the next coulple of months. I have to work really hard. I dont have many more weeks to baptize but I have to baptize some more people. Elder Vazquez and I are going to have a lot of success. But have a good week. I love you all.

Con cariño

Elder B. Smith




these are of the valle family, when i make my cake and the villa mercedes zone

June 21, 2010

Hey Family,

So Bryce had to talk again on Fathers Day. Lucky duck. I am sure he did really good. That is good that he is writing his own talk and everything. We had fathers day and they didn´t talk anything about fathers or the priesthood. They do things weird down here in Argentina. I am sure Bryce was mad about the Slovenia vs. US game. We watched the recaps in an investigators house. I was so mad. I am sure Bryce has already seen it and everything. The reff robbed a goal from us. We would have won and now we have to fight hard to make it to the next round. If we do better then England I will be happy. So we watched the Argentine, South Korea game in the gas station by our apartment as a zone. It was really exciting. IN YOUR FACE BRADY!!!!!!! ARGENTINA CREAMED SOUTH KOREA!!!!!!!! Just thought I would say something about that. A little mission pride. But it was a really good game. We had to walk through downtown Villa Mercedes right after and there were a ton of people there honking horns. With their painted faces, flags and Argentine jerseys. It was really cool to watch. There were a ton of people. I am in just little old Villa Mercedes. If I was in Buenos Aires it probably would have been a lot more fun. I am still mad though about the reff that robbed us. But everyone is saying that the world cup is going to be a South America world cup. That would be cool. Everyone is so excited down here. I really hope that the US doesn`t have to go up against Argentina. People would not leave us in peace if we play eachother. If we lose they will rub it in our face, if we win they will kill us. (just kidding). Either way it would not be cool.

Well, I am glad that you all had fun up in the mountains. Enjoy is Bryce!!!!!!! You need to send me some pictures of the new dog. I want to see what she looks like. Oh ya, Bryce you said that you were going to send me some pictures of you and your friends. What happened???? Send me some pictures.

I liked your idea of the The purpose of Fasting is Fasting with a purpose. That is the one thing that so many people forget and one of the hardest thing to remember to do. In the mission we always have things to fast for and so it is easy but the members have a hard time with it. Just keep giving good lessons in church though. We have some interesting lessons here in this ward. I kind of like hearing them. They are sometimes funny.

My shoes are doing good. Ya they are getting worn out and everything but they are doing good. They should last until I finish. I have one set of shoes that I don´t use that much that I only use on Sundays. So I should be good. They are going to last but they are going to be really used up too.

Sounds like a whole lot of fun picking corn and working in the yards. I sure hope that it all turned out good this year.

So this week we had a really awesome week. Elder Mendoza and I worked like crazy. We were just working really hard and a lot of people just started opening the doors. We got into 11 houses and taught 21 new people just this week. It was on of the best weeks we had together. We were really blessed. We found a lot of people and also an inactive family that has a kid to get baptized. We were trying to get the area really ready for the next transfer. They told us that we both might be leaving so we wanted to leave them with a lot of people.

Well this morning they called about transfers and I am way excited. I AM GOING TO SAN JUAN AGAIN!!!!!!!! I was so happy when I got the phone call. I am going to be with Elder Vasquez. He is a Chicano (fake mexican from the states). He is sweet. We almost have the same time in the mission. I am going to Zonda. It is about a 40 minute bus ride everyday from the city of San Juan. I am so excited. It had only been an area for like 6 months and it is growing like crazy. I am going to die there and I will be able to see all the people that I met in San Juan becuase I think that Santa Lucía is in my district. So I am leaving Villa Mercedes and going to San Juan again. Elder Mendoza is staying here. So on wednesday I go to San Juan.

We will see how everything goes. I have two transfers left and I want to make them really good. One thing that I forgot to tell Kylie. Tell her to try Mate before she goes on the mission. She doesn´t want to go the whole mission without trying it before. Everyone is going to ask her if she likes it. Tell her to try it.

Well I don´t have much time left but I love you all. Have a good week. I will let you know how I am doing in my new area next week. Chau chau.

Elder B. Smith

June 15, 2010

QQQUUUUEEEE TTTTAAAAALLLLL!!!!!!!

Ya someone is actually going to be speaking spanish in their mission other than me. That is so awesome that she is going on a mission. She is going to love it. That is sweet she is going to Bahia Blanca. I don´t know a ton about that mission just becuase it is pretty far from me but she will love it. Tell her to get ready to eat some asados, milanesas, ñoquis, pastel de papas, pastas, facturas and some more good stuff. She is going to love it. The only bad thing is that SHE LEAVES THE SAME EXACT DAY I GET HOME!!!!!!! I get home on the 15th at about noon. So I wont see her for 3 and a half years. That is pretty sad but I am glad she is going. She is going to speak like those from Buenos Aires though. She is a lot closer to the capital then I am. She is going to be speaking with a porteño accent. Irma will love her accent (not). It just stinks that I will be missing her by hours. What a coincidence. Well tell her congradulations and to get ready for a hot christmas with fire works. Tell her to study the first three lessons for preach my gospel a ton and just practice teaching them with good easy examples. She will be great!!!! Tell her that is awesome that she is coming to argentina but she will just have to live with the fact that the best mission in argentina in La Misión Argentina Mendoza!!!!!!!!!!

Ya I got the package. Everyone loves it. We had a baptism yesterday and when all the members left we were in the church playing with the helicopter. You would be amazed how fun a little helicopter can be for a group of missionaries that have been kept from technology for a couple of months. But we had a lot of fun. Thanks for everything in there. We are going to play some ultimate freesbie today. Thanks for all the awesome, delicious candy. Elder Mendoza is happy he was with me when I got the package.

Ya Chad already told me that he is getting married. He is getting married August 12th. A month before I get home. Este chavón. I was a little upset. I wanted him to be single when I got home but oh well. Hopefully he is happy. I still think that it is too soon.

So this last week was an awesome week. We worked ´como negros´ (a lot argentines say it). And got blessed a lot. We got into a lot of houses and taught some really cool people. Lets hope they begin to progress.

We had a baptism this friday. ROSA FINALLY GOT BAPTIZED. I swear that is why Elder Mendoza and I are still together. We had to see her get baptized. It was an interesting baptism. The water ran out in the church and it was cold water. But we were not giving up. There were two members there and we still started anyways. We got her into the water with her husband and Elder Mendoza so that she felt better. Well he tried to baptize her but she got to scared of going so low and going backwards and she wanted to get baptized another day. Elder Mendoza looked at me (i was one of the witnesses) and shook his head. We closed the door and he showed her other ways of getting under the water. Well after like 20 minutes of trying and trying to make her calm. she did it. I think he said the prayer like 9 times. But she went in and got confirmed. She is happy and so are we.

So on saturday we went to the bishops house and watched the game. I am so glad we got permission. It was an ok game. It was a sweet goal by Heinze but really I think the best player was the goalie from Nigeria. He blocked shot after shot after shot. No one could get it in. There was a big parade going down the main street after the game but we stayed away from it. It was just a whole bunch of PIBES (teenage kids) blocking off traffic and blowing horns in the siesta. I bet a lot of people were bad, the ones who were trying to sleep. But it was pretty cool. There is blue and white all over the place. I really like the colors. The argentine jersaey the us jerseys are the coolest that I have seem yet. The US England game was better. A lot more exciting. They gave England a good fight. GO US!!!!.

Elder Mendoza and I have one more week together. I am for sure leaving this area. We had interviews with president and he told me I was leaving. I hope I go to San Juan and die(end the mission). I want to die there. I want to see Raúl before I go home. This is my only chance I have. But were ever I need to go I will go.

Well, I better get goin. That is so sweet that Kylie is going on a mission. Even better that she is going to Argentina. ¡AGUANTE ARGENTINA!!! I love you all so much. have a good week,

Elder B. Smith