God's Presence Was There

Hola Hola!

Happy Memorial Day! That's not a holiday in Honduras... but I hope you guys have a great day off!  What's the point of a day off three days before of the end of the school year? I can't believe that it has already been a year since I graduated from high school. That was fast! And the soccer State Championship just ended too. Another great memory! It's crazy how fast things change!

Family news...first of all, FELICIDADES Tami and Brady!!! Paige Hofmann, welcome to the family! I am seeing the other side of my relationship with my cousin Brian now.  I'm so old, haha! Second, my cousin Maggie is the best!! I am so proud of her for going on a mision! I know she's going to be the best hermana ever! Good luck out there! (:

OK, this week was CRAZY!! I know that you don't like crazy Mom... so... don't read this part! (:

On Tuesday we were walking back from a super good lesson. We taught the Word of Wisdom and both of the ladies said they were going to stop drinking coffee. So we were super pumped!  Then we came around the corner and there were these two young guys waiting there with shirts tied around their faces and hats pulled low. They saw us and we knew it was too late... we were going to get robbed. So they came up to us and started demanding our valuables, but because we are poor missionaries we didn't have anything, of course. We told them that, but they didn't trust us. They searched our pockets and backpacks and found out that we really didn't have anything. They took my comp's watch, apologized, shook our hands, and left.  The funny thing is that I felt so calm and protected the whole time. I was thinking about how I could help them to realize that they needed to change. It was an interesting feeling. A really good experience.

The next day we went to the temple with our investigators. Glenda came, and she is planning on getting married on the 7th of June so we talked about temple marriage and how her family could be eternal. It was a really spiritual experience for her!! We had some other investigators come too. And right before the bus left they told me that they needed to go to the bathroom so we went, but then we saw the bus pass by the window... haha we had to run it down! I was having flashbacks to elementary school. But we made it!

The next day we found out about the two Elders who were in the car crash... I didn't know either of them but it was still so sad! I hope their families are doing ok! I can only imagine how hard it must be to know that they won't be coming home... but that is the beauty of the Plan of Salvation. They will be waiting for their family to really come home with them.

Lastly, Sunday after church we were walking all of our investigators back to their houses just like normal. So we walked down a little hill and around a corner and we saw a car flipped over in a little ditch thing, and two people on the ground bleeding a lot! Elder Dalgo looked at me and said "Listo??" (Are you ready?) I nodded.  And we ran over to them and pulled out our oil. He gave the first blessing to the guy in the worst shape. His name was Jeffery. He couldn't breathe and had a pretty big gash on his arm. Then we ran over to the girl, her name was Rixi. She was bleeding a lot from her head and her arm was broken. I gave her the blessing. I blessed her that she was going to be fine, and that she was going to have a great life with her future family. Once again I just felt calm even though it was such a crazy moment. God's presence was there. We waited until the ambulance came and then walked the investigators the rest of the way home. It wasn't until we got to the house of our cocinera (cook lady) that I realized that my hands were covered in blood.

That was my crazy week.  But we still managed to work super hard!  We have a couple of people who are really positive! Please pray for Glenda and Fernando this week! They need a couple of miracles to get their wedding finalized. And also for Lillian, and Vivian. They are both coming to church and doing everything we ask. They just need answers to their prayers. Your prayers WORK!  Por favor!

I hope that everything is going well for all of you. I hope you enjoy your first little bit of summer! I love and miss you all!

Love, Elder Smith

Zone Villa Vieja

Letter To My Little Sister

Hola Chica!

Stefanie! Thanks for writing me a letter...by command of Mom! It really warms my heart, haha. It was pretty cool talking to you on Mother's Day too!

Are you serious!! Lehi lost in the first round? Dang it...so much for our dynasty.  If I had been there we would have won, haha!  

 

Today we actually got to play soccer!!! It was awesome, we always rent a little field to play on, and we played for two hours. And then we were getting ready to leave, and a bunch of the best players got a super good team together and said, "Hey, why don't you guys play against us one more time, a game to ten goals and whoever loses has to pay for the field." So some guys got on the field and asked me to change back into soccer clothes and play with them. So I did, but our team was crappy except for me and one other kid so the other team was expecting to kill us! But I played SOOOO GOOD, haha, I scored six goals and we ended up winning ten to six!!! It was awesome!!!! But then the other team started whining about having to pay for the field so we ended up splitting the cost anyway. But it was legit!

And that's real cool that Trevor got engaged. Good for him! But poor Maggie, she's going to miss the wedding! I guess things don't always work out as well as they did for us with Rachel and George's wedding. But I'm super excited and happy for him. I'm sure she's an awesome girl because Trevor is pretty much the coolest guy I have ever met! Haha, maybe I'll meet her someday!

Ana Rosa, the lady who I had asked you guys to pray for, got baptized this Saturday! I am so happy about this one, she is great! I am super sure that she is going to stay in the church her whole life. We had to fight for her a little bit, because the first time we tried to talk to her she hid from us! Haha, but with time she opened up. We really had some of the most spiritual experiences and lessons of my misión with her. I'm super happy about it! (:

This week was also "La Semana De La Familia" or Family Week. we had a ton of activities at the church: a talent show, workshops, talks, all focused on the family.  It was awesome! We saw a ton of miracles getting people to come! We were running late and thinking about not going because it wouldn't be worth it and then we had a private bus, which usually costs like 1000 limps to rent just stop on the side of the road and give us a free ride right to the church, which was way out of the way! It was such a blessing. God is aware of what we need. It was crazy. I'm pretty sure that happened because we're doing "Power Hour" again! 5:00-6:00 p.m. every day!!!  Please help us out with that, it works!!!! Just start with a prayer and pray for an added measure of the spirit for that hour in particular!

Well Stef, I love you! You rock! Don't go to prom next year! Go to school. and read the Book of Mormon!!! (:

Love, 

Your Big Brother,

Elder Smith

Alma Chapter Five

Hola Hola!

It was great to talk to you guys for Mother's Day!!! It always makes me way happy to talk to you but it sucks when we have to hang up!!

Like you said, there isn't a whole lot of news today since we just talked yesterday. So I'm going to leave you with a challenge: read Alma chapter 5 this week and talk about it as a family on Sunday.  It's probably one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon!

I love you guys and I'll write more next week!!

-Elder Smith

Consejo de Lideres (Council of Leaders)

Valle de Angeles

Hola Hola!

 Happy Cinco De Mayo!  They don't celebrate that here, or in Mexico. Haha, it's kinda an American thing...anyway, Mom and Dad, thanks for the letters this week!!! It sounds like you guys had a good time at Layton's birthday party! How the heck is he three already??? That's crazy! You both wrote about that so it must have been fun. You also both wrote about the BYU track meet. I'm glad to hear they are doing so good. And Stefanie, RUN CROSS COUNTRY!!! Stop thinking about it and just do it!

Don't worry about me, Mom! Haha, I'm perfectly fine. Maybe I will refrain from telling you stories like that from now on...I love you though!! I'm super excited to talk to you on Sunday!!! It will probably be at about 3:30 or 4:00ish! We still haven't figured out all the details. You guys should set up a Skype account and then email me the password so I won't have to stress about it this week.  

We have a couple of baptisms lined up for this month. Ana Cruz is going to be baptized on the 17th, and Glenda is going to be married and baptized on the 24th!  I'm really excited about her! But will you guys please pray for them these next couple of weeks so that everything will go smoothly? That would help a lot.

Today we went to this place called Valle de Angeles as a zone. It's a really touristy area, and really, really pretty. We went on a hike to a waterfall and it was incredible! Vines and moss growing everywhere. Trees and mist, birds and frogs and lizards. It was awesome! I will try to get someone to send me some pictures. But this country really is amazingly beautiful. I love it here!

Well that's all for this week! I will talk to you guys in a few days! I hope you all have a great week! Do some cool stuff to tell me about on Sunday! (:

Love, Elder Smith

Last week we went to the temple with some investigators from the zone.  Here are a couple of photos!