January 25, 2010

Dear Family,

Wow, 8 feet of snow. That is crazy. I have never even seen i dont think more then like 2 feet of snow. That has to be pretty awesome. The mountains must look pretty amazing with all that snow. So pretty strong storms in arizona. It sounds like it just smashed the whole state. Sorry about the roof. If it makes you feel better our house also leaks when it rains, also it comes in from the front door. Ha ha it is an adventure when it rains. Last pday we were going to sleep on the roof because it was so hot in the house but it was a good thing we didnt. At about 3 in the morning it just started pooring. Ha ha it would have been funny though if we would have done it.

That is cool that president osler is still our stake president. He is just such a good guy. Also that is awesome that the Arboleda Branch is in our ward. I was so hoping for that. We were actually just talking about that yesterday with my companions, elder deuel and elder williams, how awesome it would be to be able to go to a spanish branch and keep your spanish strong. I am way excited. They just speak ugly. Ha ha. It will be hard for me to change a little to speak like the mexicans. Elder williams served 7 weeks in chicago and was working with mexicans and he just says pronunciates weird, or different than what we hear all the time. Oh well i would still love being in the spanish branch.

That is so sweet that weston is trying to get into byu. It sounds like he has changed a lot since i have been gone. It doesnt even seem like i have been gone that long but i have. And it sounds like he has changed a lot. But that is good, it seems like he is happier and doing a lot better. Hopefully he isnt at byu when i get home.

So back in the young women again. The bishop is actually really smart. He is helping you stay hip and in on all the new trends of the world. You have no young girls in the house. This calling keeps you in on all the cool new things.

Oh, random thought. Elder williams told me that elizabeth(i dont know how to spell) smart went on a mission to france. That is so cool. That is nice that she is doing good and that he wanted to serve a mission. Elder williams just keeps telling us weird things that happen why we were gone. Like how tiger woods dosent play golf right now because he is a retard. Weird stuff going on in the real world. I am kind of glad i am not in it.

So we had a pretty good week. We started off woking really hard doing really well. And Wednesday we had zone conference. But we have to travel into mendoza for zone conference. We had to be in mendoza at 8 in the morning. We live 5 ½ hours away from mendoza. So we left our home at 1 30 in the morning at got to mendoza at 7 30 and had zone conference all day and then left at 8 at night and got home at 1 30. it was a really good conference but it just killed me. I cant sleep well on the buses and i was just dead after conference. It was a really good conference. Sister lindahl talked about how we cant forget what we have lived in the mission and we cant go home the same we were before. She also talked about an elder that was a great missionary here that went home and got married and went inactive. It was just really sad to think that a missionary can go on a mission and excperience what he excperienced and then leave the church. It is really sad. After being around all these different types of churches i have no doubt that our church is true. It is just so sad when people dont see that.

President lindahl talked about Jesus Christ and the times he came to the earth. He invited us to study all the times that Christ came to the earth after his resurrection. I was studying 3 nephi 11 and i have read it so many times by myself and with investigatores and we read a little as a companionship and elder deuel pointed something out to me. When Jesus came down and first they didnt quite know who he was. They thought that maybe he could be an angel and then Christ tells them to feel the marks in his skin. After they knew it was Him they fell to the ground and yelled Hosana. I never knew what hosana means. But he showed me in the back of the scriptures it said sálvanos or save us. And the first thing that Christ does after the people ask him to save them is he give the priesthood to Nephi and tells him how to baptize. I wish i would have known that sooner so that i could use it with investigatores. That is something that i love about the scriptures, you just keep finding more and more and you testimony grows and grows. People thinking that joseph smith wrote the book of mormon they are crazy. There is now way he could have just thought up that much detail and just amazing things in only 66 days. It is amazing.

The rest of the week we had a pretty good time. Elder deuel got sick and so we were in the house for two days. It was so much more fun with another elder in the house. We studied and played cards. So it wasnt to boring. But we got to teach some people. We saw some pretty nasty looking body parts this last week. There is a inactive member we are working with that lost his pinky toe and with time walking on his foot without his pinky toe his foot started to twist to the side. So the doctors tried to fix it but it didnt work. So right now he just has an opened wound and a bent foot. It is pretty gross looking. And also we found a guy named Juan Carlos that has the biggest mole on his back. I have noticed that we meet some pretty interesting people here on the mission. Ha ha i love it.

We were going to have a baptism this last week but his kids arent going to be here so it will be on the 6th of febuary. We are all pretty excited for it. His name is José Castro. He is a sweet guy. His family got baptized 5 years ago but he didnt because he didnt want to stop smoking and drinking. Well something happened when he realized he needed to go to the temple with his family and stopped drinking and smoking really quickly and now he is ready for baptism. I love this baptism because we are completing a family so they can go to the temple. It is awesome. They are such a cool family. We are also hoping for some more people to start progressing here shortly.

Well, mom i hope you are still practicing spanish with irma. Keep on practicing. Here is a word for you to learn. I remember that you knew how to say potatoe here is some other vegtable words. Zanahoria is carrot. Lechuga is lettuce. Cebolla is onion. Really right now i am done with my email and i am just waiting for my companions. Te quiero is like i love you. Te extraño is i miss you. Well there are some for you. Well i love you all so much. Have a good week and i will write again next week. Adios

Elder smith