Happy New Year

Hola hola!!!

Happy New Year everyone! It was super good to talk to you on Christmas! Which was like three days ago! Haha, I feel like we caught up that day, so I'm not going to bore you with a long letter! The good thing was that we had a baptism in between then and now! Franklin got baptized! He is the best! 

Another thing that happened since then was that Zach Glassett came to see me today! It was really cool to meet his family and be able to talk to him again for little bit. He also delivered to me a birthday package from my family! I'm super happy about that! 

I love you all a whole lot! Have a good New Year's Eve. Be safe. Make some resolutions! 

-Elder Smith

Merry Christmas!!!!

Hola Hola!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! 

I am so happy to be in the service of God at this time of year! I miss you all at home a ton, but I have probably never had a better Christmas season. I think for maybe the first time, or at least stronger than ever, I understand what people mean by "The Spirit of Christmas". I have shared the 2nd chapter of Lucas with anyone who will listen, and with it my testimony of the importance of the life of that little baby who was born. It's been special. 

Apart from that spiritual stuff it has been a great week! I had to travel to Tegus twice this week! One to take care of my legal papers again. When I got my new ID I realized how fat I have gotten in the mission! DANG, jaja I need to stop eating tortillas! There is this thing that missionaries do called "the Sexy Six" which is when they work out super hard and stop eating so much for the last six months of their missions to get home looking good! Jaja, I'm on my last month of eating as much as I want and doing lazy exercises in the morning! Then things are going to get serious! 

The second trip to Tegucigalpa was for the Christmas party. It was so good! 

We started it off singing musical numbers that each zone had prepared. We sang Noche De Luz. It was super good. Nothing brings the spirit like music. There is an Hermana Steele in our mission who sings so incredibly! She sings like an angel! Then President Bowler shared a really great message. The spirit was so strong. Lunch came next, honey ham! OHH! It was so rico! And then we played sports. There was a ping pong table, I kicked everyone's butts! Except Elder Riveras, he beat me once... and then I played soccer for like three hours. I'm super sore! 

Tonight we are going to do a Secret Santa with the zone. It should be great! And then tomorrow I get to talk to you guys!!! I'm super excited! I love Christmas time more than anything.

Well, see you tomorrow! 

~Elder Smith

A New Companion

Hola Hola!

It was a pretty good week, full of goodbyes, hellos and a lot of waiting around. We had changes this week, that's always a lot of fun. President is still doing his giant power point presentation. It's always exciting when you know someone's face is going to pop up there with yours. But it was really sad knowing I wouldn't be with Elder Yac anymore.

Monday and Tuesday were spent with Elder Yac saying goodbye to all the people in our area. It was super sad but at the same time super good! He was testifying with all his heart because he knew it was his last time as a missionary. So we touched a lot of hearts in our last little bit together!

We have some new people progressing, I'm excited to see how it goes. The most pilas one is Franklin, please pray for him! 

On Wednesday I received my new companion, his name is Elder Porter. He's from Arizona, and I heard that his aunt works with you, Mom! Jaja, it's a small world! I was super happy when I found out! He was already one of my good friends in the mission, so it's going to be a lot of fun. 

Then came the worst part...he had dengue all week! So after changes we had to stay in the city for three days...nobody told me about that. I spent three days in the same clothes, jaja! But it was alright because we got to stay in the Assistant's home. Everyone who stays there gets to eat for free! Best week of food ever!

So we got back to our area on Saturday and got to work...a little. Hermana Bowler wants us to take it easy until Elder Porter gets completely better. But we're going to do really good together! I'm super excited! 

My zone didn't change that much, just Elder Yac. But he was a pretty big part of it. I'm really going to miss him a whole lot. 

I'm glad you are all doing so good! I'm still not sure about our plans for Skype on Christmas, but I'll figure it all out this week and let you know! 

Merry Christmas, I love you all! 

-Elder Smith

Mi Querido Companero

Hola Hola! 

This week was pretty... SAD!! It was my last week with Elder Yac, mi querido compañero! He has actually been really good at keeping it out of his head, we have worked super hard. But this week the gravity of it kind of hit him, he's going home. But we still managed to have a pretty good week. Let me tell you about it. 

The very best part of my week was an activity we had in our ward to help la obra misional! It was called "La Fiesta del Albedrío" which means "The Party of Agency". The first hour of this activity we just played games and stuff, there were spiritual games, and just fun games. Every time you played a spiritual game you won a white ticket. But in order to play a worldly game you had to sell your white tickets for 5 colorful tickets. It was a lot of fun! Everyone had a blast. But then, the second hour we had a spiritual part to it. We had everyone line up, and one by one we asked them how many white tickets they had. If they had five or more they were accepted in the celestial kingdom, a bright room with plenty of space. If they had 2-4 white tickets they went to the terrestial; a smaller room with just a little light. And if they had 1 or 0 tickets they went to the telestial--a tiny pitch black room. There were lessons given in each room and everyone really learned and felt firsthand the importance of our choices here in this life. It was awesome!

Another cool thing that happened this week was we had Consejo de Lideres. Consejo is always good! But this time something happened that I will remember forever. Ok, to understand this story you have to know that President Bowler is a little like Dad at times. He is super good at focusing in on one thing! So we were all in Consejo sharing what we thought and I had an idea, so I shared it. My idea was good and valid, but President had already thought about this topic a lot and had decided to go in another direction. So he said, ¨NO!¨ pretty sharply. It was shocking to everyone! It didn't bother me, I have pretty thick skin, but if it had been someone else it could have cut them pretty deep. But the cool part came the next morning. President Bowler called me and apologized. He said he had not been able to sleep because he was thinking about how harshly he had rejected my idea. He showed a lot of humility. I respect him a lot. 

And then yesterday was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was so good! I watched it in the home of the family that I saw sealed when I was working with Elder Glassett. It was great! 

Besides that, we went to the beach today. That was pretty dang cool! Honduras is the best! I love it here. You are all invited to come join me any time, jaja! The beach is about an hour drive from where we live here in Choluteca, so we rented a little bus and spent the morning in paradise!

Well that was pretty much my week! I will get a new companion this week, so I'll let you know next week! Please keep praying for Marisol and Jensi, they need it! And I need it.

I love you all! 

-Elder Smith

 Elder Yac baptized a girl from the hermana's area.  It was pretty great!

I Almost Forgot About Thanksgiving

Hola Hola!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I almost forgot about it! It was late in the evening when I remembered, so I bought some fried chicken from this lady that sells it in the street, I had to eat some kind of bird! And I made strawberry jello. Jaja, that was my Thanksgiving dinner. But I did take a moment to think about all the things that I am grateful for, I had a nice little moment with my Padre Celestial. 

Way to go Dad! That's a pretty fast half-marathon! And the story about Landon is super funny! Jaja, we might end up being teamates, who knows?? 

I'm super proud of Caleb Rodabough!!! Atta Boy! You're going to love Mexico! And you're going to be the best missionary ever! It's good to have you in the ranks! 

This week was a pretty good one. We spent the whole thing in a trio with Elder Flores. There are good things and bad things about being in a trio. It's good because it is a BLAST!!! There is just another dynamic, a third opinion, another voice. It's really a good situation! It's also good because we did divisiones with the youth in the ward almost every day! So two of us were always together, and the other one was always with one of the kids from the ward getting stuff done and helping them get excited for their missions! It's bad because the flow of teaching is thrown way off! Showering in the morning is all messed up, sometimes in lessons all three of us want to talk, and sometimes no one knows who should talk... it's just because we haven't had as much practice, but it has been a little rough!

Today, finally, Elder Flores got his companion. His name is Elder Grey. He is pretty new too, but he seems like a super cool guy. I'm super excited for him and  Elder Flores! They are going to be a really good companionship!

The best part about this week coming up is that we finally have a baptism here! Her name is Cindi, she is awesome! I would love it if you would say a couple of prayers for her this week. And then next week we have three more baptisms planned, Jensi, Marisol, and Eliam! If you would pray for them too it would mean a lot to me! 

I can not believe it is already December. This year has gone by so fast! This time last year I was training Elder Arteaga! So much has happened in the last twelve months, I can't even believe it! But I love it too.

Well, that's really all for this week. I hope you all have the best week of your life this week! Jaja, thank you for all the prayers and love you send our way. It is felt! Just remember to keep the Lord in the center of your lives this week and it will be a good one! 

-Elder Smith