Called to Serve in the Honduras, Tegucigalpa mission. July 2013-July 2015

Called to Serve in the Honduras, Tegucigalpa mission.  July 2013-July 2015
"I love my mission! I am so grateful to be here!." ~Elder Smith

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

I Made It Through The Elections!!

Hola Hola!!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!! YOU ARE SO OLD!!! haha I hope it was a great one! 

 I made it through the elections!!! After three long days locked up in my house, about a million push ups, endless reading hours, one huge card tower, all of my laundry cleaned, a billion throws against the wall with my bouncy ball, a ton of food, like five naps, and a whole lot of being really bored I'm finally free again!!! And honestly things were super tranquilo down here in the south anyway... stupid elections wasting the Lord's time. But I guess a little descansito (resting) wasn't really that bad. I'm very excited to get to work though, that is for sure.

In other news, I'm going to miss Thanksgiving so much!!!! I didn't realize how much I loved that holiday until now! I think the plan is to go to KFC down here so we can at least be eating some kind of bird. But even though it won't be the same feast, I'm still using this time to be extra grateful for the things that I have, and I encourage everyone else to do the same, and be a little more expressive of your thanks in your prayers to our Heavenly Father!

I hit my four-month mark on Sunday! This is crazy, it feels like I just barely left for the MTC, and I'm already done with one sixth of my mish... it makes me realize that we have such a great responsibility to fulfill, and such a short time to do it.

"You gotta GO NOW!" I remember Dad yelling that to me in the middle of cross country races. It was crazy how I could be in the middle of the biggest crowd of parents and coaches, and everyone would be yelling their own advice to their own runners. But I could always pick out Dad's voice. And it would always help me push a little bit harder, and run a little faster. I think that is what the Lord is doing to all of us now. We live in a world with a lot of crazy stuff going on, but if we listen to the right voices we will be able to find that strength to push a little harder. 

I'm glad you are all doing OK, and I hope you all have a great week! I'll be thinking of you guys in St. George this Thursday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Elder Smith

P.S. haha I'm totally getting facial hair!!!! Check it out! This is after five days! I was locked up so no rules were broken...

(Mom, I leave full discretion to you over whether you should put this up or not cause I'm kinda in my garments...)

Monday, November 18, 2013

Election Week

WE GOT TO PLAY SOCCER TODAY!!!!! IT WAS GLORIOUS!!! IT HAD BEEN LIKE 3 MONTHS SINCE I HAD PLAYED SOCCER! Do you know how hard that has been for me?? And holy crap, my touch needs some work! haha 

Soccer had been banned from our mission because some Elder broke his foot, but after a whole lot of missionaries asked and prayed for it to be brought back, President Hernandez finally cracked! Plus, the kid who broke his foot is back in the mission and is now my zone leader so he's obviously doing alright... anyway, he was the one who told us that it is back! haha

We also received some info on what's going to happen this week. So, as I'm sure you don't know, this week is elections for Honduras, which means that there is a whole lot of excitement going on. President had a conference with the Area Presidency who said that the Mission Department is pretty worried about us. So we aren't allowed to leave our houses at all on Saturday through Monday. So I won't be able to write until at least Tuesday next week! And we have to buy at least five days' worth of food and water just in case things get really crazy! We also went over our mission evacuation plan just in case we have to get 200 missionaries out of the country as fast as possible...... it is apparently kind of a big deal...but don't worry mom...I'll probably be fine (; haha

Anyway sounds like things are moving right along back at home! I can't believe that basketball season is already starting up! And so many people are getting their mission calls! That's awesome. I'm glad Stefanie is doing so well.  But I can still tumble better than her. haha Sounds like everything is going great! I love you all.

Love Elder Smith 

Monday, November 11, 2013

My Favorite Day of My Mission So Far!

Hola Hola!

I got to go to the temple this week!!!! It was amazing! It is so beautiful! I love the temple!


Ok here's the story!  So about a year ago, my companion, Elder Glassett, baptized a family.  You have to wait for a year to do your endowments after you have been baptized. So we are home on Tuesday I think, just chillin, when we get a call, and its Carlos and he's super excited and he invites us to come to his endowment and sealing!! So then on Thursday we drove up to Tegus and we get to do an endowment, (plus the new video was there and it is AMAZING!!!) and then right after we got done we went straight to the sealing room and we were able to watch that as well! It was by far my favorite day of my mission so far! Days like that make all the hard things of the mission seem very small. Even though they weren't people who I had found and taught or baptized, I still felt so much love for them and with them as they made their family an eternal one. It was just a beautiful thing to watch their kids come in and kneel across the alter. I loved it! 

The other days of this week were good as well... just kind of uneventful. Sunday was this girl's birthday from our district so we wrote her a rap and sang it to her today! haha It was awesome! It is not letting me send the video, but I will find a way!!! 

I had a dream about my sister Rachel the other day, so I decided to write her a letter, then I thought I should probably write letters to all of my family.  So you guys can expect a letter in like 3 months probably. haha  But just know they are coming!

Well I love you all a lot! It sounds like everything is going well. I hope you all know that the church is true!! Cause it is!  And if you want to know more about the gospel go talk to the missionaries! Those guys know a whole lot of stuff about this stuff! Honestly, I wish I would have been more open and sharing about the gospel while I was still in high school, and before my mission! So I encourage each of you to share it more! Cause it is true, and people might not accept it right now, but when you get to heaven they are all going to be like, "You were so right!!! I'm so sorry for not listening to you! Thank you so much for trying to help me out!" And you will realize that it was worth it! 

-Elder Smith

Monday, November 4, 2013

You Learn a Lot of Really Cool Stuff on Missions!

Hola, Hola!!

Como esta todo en los Estados Unidos??? Espero que todo este bien! (How is everything in the United States?  I hope that it is all good!) Haha I'm working on the subjunctive! (verb form) It's coming along! 

Anyway, happy Halloween everyone!!! I hope it was really fun for everybody. Halloween here is called La Dia De Las Brujas, which means the day of the witches and it is not really a good day...people stay inside and don't go out that day because they think dark spirits are going to get them or something. We actually weren't allowed to work that night at all. It was a nice little break.  


One good thing about Halloween this year was I got a package from my mom!!! I am so grateful for this package!!! haha The gold fish are actually already all gone in this picture... but I figured they still deserved a place in the box!!! 



I also got a couple of letters!! So if you have sent me a letter and I haven't written back, it's not because I hate you or because I'm not going to, it's just that I hadn't gotten them until last Jueves. (Thursday)


I am glad our tradition of carving pumpkins is still going strong! It looks like it was fun! I missed burger beef stew!!! But we don't eat too bad out here. We made homemade McGriddles this morning! Oh my gosh, they were delicious! 



I'm actually becoming a pretty good cook! You learn a lot of really cool stuff on missions! Like how to cook, how to do laundry by hand, how to pretend like you know what's going on, cosas así! (things like that!) haha Who would have thought?



My comp is our district leader. So this week we had to go to the Hermana's area to do the baptismal interview for some of their investigators. We decided to walk cause it "wasn't that far".  Then like 7 miles later we finally got to Yusguare! 


When we got there we went to the cita (appointment) with them and they taught a lesson. I was so impressed with the way they taught! The spirit was so strong and they were very united. It was amazing! It is no wonder that the age for sister missionaries was lowered, because sister missionaries rock!!! I was very impressed. So for any of you girls out there reading my letters home, because I know there are thousands of you...(haha that was a joke!!!  My confidence is at an all time high! And it has never even really been low!  It might be because of three months of walking around Honduras with every single girl staring at us just because we're gringo talking. Mom, feel free to take that part out if you want!)...if you feel like you need to serve a mission, I really encourage you to do that! It is incredible the difference you can make.


I love and miss you all!!! I hope you have a great November! 

-Elder Smith