June 1, 2009

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like everyone was really really busy this week. Ha ha and it must be really nice to have that eagle project done with. It sounded like everyone there in whiteriver loved all the clothes and was very greatful. Now did you have a whole big u haul full or one the little ones. If it is a big one that is a ton a ton of clothes. Wow. Sounds like everything went smooth and everything. I think the people in whiteriver would be a little like the people here is argentina. By the things i here they sounds pretty similar. There are some areas here that are a lot like it. Some areas are really poor and some are rich. I like the areas with a little less money. They just seem to be a little bit nicer. It sounds like they had a really nice youth conference too. I love president ostler. He is such a great guy. Everyone loves him. He reminds me a lot about president lindahl. People just like to be around him and want to be like him. I love president lindahl. I could ask for a better mission president.

All ready starting to bottle corn. That souds fun. (that may of sounded sarcastic, but really it sounds a little fun). I got the pictures that you sent. When they cut down the tree. It looks really empty on that side of the house. It will be weird with out that tree. But i also saw the new trailor. It is really really nice. Ha ha i wasnt picturing that. Really really nice. I bet you are way happy right now with that mom. Oh and two questions about the pictures. is the suzuki at lehi valley? And what is these t shirts. TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY TEA PARTY thing??

So i got the newsletter from the missionaries from mesa. One missionary that is already home told me that i am not mission anything. He says are new president has no moral values and that the country is going down hill. I dont know why every argentine loves him so much. well we will see with time.

So now i will tell you a little about my week. So i had my first baptismal interview. I will explain because i didnt know about any of this before the mission. Before a baptism you have to be interviewed to see if you are ready for your baptism. It is to see if you have been taught everything and if you are ready to keep all the commandments. Tithing, law of chastity, word of wisdom and sabbath day. Also to see if you have commited any crimes in the past of has problems with the law of chasitity or abortions. So ya that is a baptismal interview. But mainly to see if the person is ready. So it was my first. His name in eduardo fernandez, he is 64 and is missing parts of his feet on the feet. He has been walking to church and really wants to get baptized. So i had his interview and he said in his prayer that he wants help seperating himself from the past and starting over again. But i had to call president because something happened in the past that needed to get cleared up. I told president what happened and he asked me what i thought. I told him. President this man doesnt have feet. He is walking to church and i told him what he said in his prayer. President starting crying and said, elder smith baptise him. He wants to change, he is walking to church and to baptize him. It was awesome. Eduardo was so excited when we told him he was getting baptized and he did. Saturday night and was confirmed a member of the church yesterday. It was awesome. I also think i will be doing interviews this week with 3 kids and her older sister. They are so excited to get baptized. It was such a great experience. The i have a greater testimony about the atonement and baptism now and it really helped me with this interview. I loved it.

So i went to the other elders area, Los Pinos this week and we are teaching these four people that will be baptized this next week. We taugt the plan of salvation and asked for a prayer. A little five year old wanted to pray so we said ok. It was her first time praying and she said. Dear Heavenly Father, we give thee thanks for the missionaries and that they could come today and that today it was cloudy, in the name of Jesus Christ amen. Oh it was so awesome. It was just a sweet inocent prayer from a little girl her first time praying to her Heavenly Father. It was amazing and i loved that little girls prayer.

So we were walking to an investigators house and we passed a car and a little kid was sitting in the car. So we both gave the little kid a thumbs up and kept on walking. About 10 seconds later the little kid got out of the car and was crying and screaming. Ha ha i guess we scared him. It was really funny becuase we really didnt do anything.

So elder alfonso wanted to learn a little more english and i dont know what to teach. So i have been teaching him stupid stuff. Like ´i want to punch you in your face´ one day he told me. Elder smith, you really need to teach me english. I told i have been teaching you some english. He laughed and said. Elder smith i am going to be in a job interview and i am going to say that i know some english. He will ask me what do you know how to say. Well i can say that i want to punch you in you face. Elder smith how is that going to help. I laughed becuase it was true and funny. But ever sice we have been learning a lot more english that will be useful.

We have also been working with a really inactive family that said they are never going to go back to church. But we have been working with them a lot and being a little tough. It is called, DROPPING CANE, it is when you pretty much are getting mad at them using scriptures and testimony but you are doing it with love. They got the picture and they told us Saturday night that we have been helping there family. And guess what, the dad went to churhc. So even though we didnt have an investigator in churhc we had one of our people we have been working with come. It was really awesome.

Well that was my week. I hope bryce has fun at efy and everyone is safe. I lov eyou all. Les amo mucho.

Elder smith