Virtue

Hola Hola!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG SISTER RACHEL! You are getting so old, jaja.  I hope you had a really good day and that this will be the best year of your life! If you will make Christ the center of it there is no way it won't be.

Second, CONGRATULATIONS TO MY LITTLE COUSINS, AVA AND ALLIE, FOR GETTING BAPTIZED! I can't believe you are both already 8. But I'm super proud of you for living the gospel of Jesus Christ and being baptized! 

Also congrats to Daniel Madsen for getting his mission call. Good luck out there Daniel! You are going to be great!

Wow. That is really good news about the soccer scholarship offer to Western Wyoming! That would be super fun to play with Landon again! I would love that. But I haven't prayed or fasted about it, or even really thought about it at all. I would like to take some time to do that... these are big decisions! Let's just hold our horses for a little while and see what happens!

This week was hard. Elder Yac got sick. Really sick. Monday after writing we went back to the house and he fell asleep. He didn't leave his bed again until Friday! Dengue is EVERYWHERE down here right now! I hate mosquitoes. But its OK, the rainy season is now over. So they should all start to die soon. But entonces, I had a really boring week. I was able to go work with some of the youth of the ward a few times, but we lost a lot of progress we had made the week before. It's frustrating to be a missionary stuck in the house.

Besides that my zone is falling apart a little bit. Hermana Randall went home. It was really hard to say goodbye to her. She's a great missionary. Then they took her companion Hermana Zavala to another zone to be in a trio because we don't have anyone to be her companion down here. And last week Elder Moore went to the office to be the new secretary. His old companion Elder Flores is with us now, and we are also in a trio. Super cool guy! But we started as a zone of 16 and we are now down to 13... all three of those things were out of my control, but still we're not doing so hot right now. But this week we are finally back on track and we are going to have the best week ever! 

This week I studied a lot about the quality of virtue. It is one of the attributes of Christ. But I didn't really know how to define it, so I studied it for a couple days. I learned a couple of things that I really liked. Virtue is something that has to do with our thoughts. What we think about when we don't have anything to think about is a good judge of our virtue. It's not just about not thinking bad things, it's consciously choosing to think righteous thoughts. There are a bunch of promises given to those who are virtuous, but my favorite is that we will have confidence in the presence of God! So I've been working on having virtuous thoughts this week. If you guys have some insights on virtue I would love to hear them! 

Oh, also Elder Yac and I had to give a workshop sorta thing for zone conference this week! That was pretty cool. I'll probably remember that for the rest of my life. 

Anyway, that's all for this week! I hope you all remember the covenants that you have made with your Heavenly Father, including priesthood covenants. They are real. They bring blessings and peace. Think about them more and you will realize, or maybe re-realize how important they are.

Love, Elder Smith! 

It's Hot Down Here

Hola Hola! 

It's hot down here. SOOOO HOT! Jaja, I hear you all talk about the cold and snow and it seems like a fairy tale. Walking outside and feeling cold? What is that??? That doesn't really exist. And it's just going to get hotter down here too. Please enjoy the cold. You don't realize what you have! 

Elder Yac and I worked pretty hard this week! We knocked on so many doors. Talked with so many people, visited so many less active people! It was a good week. But with the good always comes the bad. Everyone in my zone is super sick! They all have dengue. Three compañerismos aren't even allowed to leave the house right now. And the worst part of it all is that Elder Yac woke up with some of the symptoms that always come before dengue...I'm worried. 

The worst part of this week though happened last night... Elder Moore, one of my best friends down here in the mission, and the only person in the mission who I had met before the mission, got changed... he is no longer in my ward or zone. He is now the new secretary to the president. Dang it! Jaja, I mean its going to be super good for him! He's going to learn a whole lot and grow into a better person... but I'm going to miss him like crazy.

We had a couple people come to church this week! Will you please pray for Rupert this week? He loved church and said he was going to come back next week. But the best part is that he is actually married to his wife! They are clearly some of the chosen children of God! :)

Well, that's really all for this week, not a lot of news! I'm glad you had a good experience with the family home evening I suggested last week! I have grown to really love the hymns in my time out here, so I wanted to share that a little bit with my family! I'm glad you liked it!

I hope you have a good week! You're all in my prayers! 

-Elder Smith

My Spanish is Better Than My English

Hola Hola!

Hi! I can't believe it's Monday again already, that was super fast!  The time is flying by. Also, my Spanish is better than my English right now. Ok, that's probably not true, but my Spanish flows better. When I speak in English I have to think hard so I don't form my sentences in the Spanish way. But what can you expect when in the last year I have only had an English speaking comp for six weeks?

We had Consejo De Lideres again! The first week of every month we have this consejo. So we travel up Tuesday night, stay the night with some elders up there and then the next day we have a great meeting. I really love going to these consejos! It is such a great opportunity to listen to and learn from President Bowler and the Asistentes! We are really changing la obra misional. And it's going to help so much!  I'll spare you the details, but when I get home I'm going to be the best missionary member ever because I'm learning how important it really is! Just wait, you'll see. Oh, also President gave us SKYPE back!!!! I'll see you on Christmas!!!

Elder Yac and I had kind of a hard Sunday. We had like 20 investigators who all said they were going to go to church with us, so we were super happy Saturday night. Sunday morning rolled around, and we woke up early like normal to go pick them all up. One by one they all told us no. "We're busy." "I'm sick."  "Something came up." The same old excuses you hear a million times as a missionary. It was a long, lonely walk to the chapel. We sat in the back row by ourselves for the first time in a while. Just crushed.

Just before the sacrament one of the inactive families we had been working with for awhile walked in the chapel for the first time in three years. There was a change in the atmosphere of the room, I was so happy I wanted to cry! It was such a tender mercy from the Lord! After the meeting almost all the members went to welcome them! To tell them how good it was to see them! 

We gave the lesson in Sunday School on the worth of souls. With the Ramirez family as our key example, it was one of the most spiritual Sundays of my life. I will never forget it.

I'm glad your primary program went so well, Mom!!! That makes me so happy! I can tell you love your calling and I know the Lord is happy with you for all your hard work! 

And WAY to GO LEHI!!! Dang, I loved going to the Lehi volleyball games! Probably one of my favorite parts of high school! Too bad they didn't win.  But good season! 

I'm feeling much better! Nothing to get in my way this week. Look out Gentile world, Elders Yac and Smith are coming straight at ya this week! Jaja.

Well, I hope you have a great week.  I encourage you to read the introduction of the Hymn book for Family Home Evening and then sing some of your favorite songs and look up some of the scriptures that go with each song. You'll have a great experience! 

I love you all, especially you, my family, And especially you, my future wife! Maybe someday you'll read this and laugh at me! Jaja, I pray for all of you every night! 

Anyway, talk to you next week! 

-Elder Smith

Changes: I'm a Fan!

Hola Hola!

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween doesn't even really exist down here... nothing happens.

This week consisted of changes! So that's always fun! I had a new experience of receiving the changes first this time! It was fun to call everyone and let them know if they had changes! I look forward to being able to do that again! 

Changes are done differently now. So President and the APs spend about a week working hard with the spirit, trying to get all the changes down! They call new ZLs, look at the new group of missionaries coming in, look at the list of elders leaving, look at how long everyone has been in their respective areas, and just try to receive revelation for the mission and for the people who live here. That part hasn't changed, still very inspiration lead. The part that has changed is that President now doesn't tell anyone where they are going or who their new companion will be. It's crazy! 

So the day before changes the assistants call us and let us know which elders in our zone have changes. We tell them, and they pack their bags and say their goodbyes. Then the next day we all go to the stake center where President lives and all the elders that have changes are in the chapel. Nobody knows where they are going, or who they are going to be with, The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife, it's awesome! Jaja, then President makes us sit through a 30 minute presentation, listening to announcements, the testimonies of the elders that are going home, ect. Meanwhile everyone is dying with the anticipation of who their next comp is going to be!! It's kinda like torture! Jaja.

Then one by one president goes through a power point presentation. One face shows up, then the area, then the other face!!!! It's so exciting, it's so much fun!! People become Zone Leaders without even knowing they were going to! People are assigned to areas they have always wanted to go! It's really just so exciting! It helps the whole mission have a lot more animo. I'm a fan!

My new zone is awesome! Today for p-day we made a slip and slide. So that was pretty fun. I'm super sunburned... like normal! But it was a good time! I'm still not feeling super good... I've had diarrhea for like a week and a half... in the worst kinda way... jaja but its all part of the Honduras dengue experience! Thanks for your prayers! You guys rock! 

I got two letters from Grandma Smith this week!!! I love you so much Grandma! Thank you for always writing me! And sorry for being so bad at writing back! 

Also I wanna give a shout out to Elder Moore's girlfriend. Jaja, he told me you read my blog and that you got mad at him because my letters are more descriptive than his! But don't get mad at him, he's the best! Jaja.

Well that's all from me this week! Good luck with your primary program, Mom! I'll be praying for you! 

Love you all!

-Elder Smith