February 18, 2019

Week 58: Heyyy whatchwa name men

Hey guys! How is everyone! We are great here in Caborca and it is pretty dang cold. This week was pretty good and very interesting. The title of the email has to do what people say here in Sonora. A lot of people see us ride by on our bike and they yell at us in "English." Everyone yells and says "hey men (because man in spanish is pronounced men) whatchya problem men whatchya doin watchya name where from you." Its been a joke in our zone now because we think its so funny. This week was pretty good. Yesterday I was on my bike and a dog bit my shoe jajaja. Now my shoes have teeth marks in them! At church, we have 4 little girls that are going to be baptized (named Priscila, Jessi, Jenni, and Yolanda)
This week they came with us again to church and they brought some friends. At first their friends didnt want to go in because they were embarrassed. We talked them into going and they were not really liking it. We felt pretty bad because they wanted to leave and they were getting a little annoyed. Surprisingly they wanted to go to the second hour/class and after that, they changed their opinions. They were super excited and one of the girls cried because the spirit was so strong. That was definitely a change. Then after that, we received a call from a less active member that he was going to come to church with his wife that isn't a member of our church. We have been teaching them both so that he can become active again but, we are also teaching his wife too because she hasn't been baptized yet. We were able to go to the church service with them and she came! They had not come to church for months and we always invite them to come and they finally came! It was great! We are very excited for this week. I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Giddy up!

Elder Smith

February 11, 2019

Week 57: Conferencia de Zona

Hey guys! We had a great week and I have some things to share with you all. This week, we had our zone conference which was pretty awesome! We had our zone conference in puerto peñasco (Rocky point) so we had to travel about two hours to get there. We went with Presidente and Hermana Myers in their van and they drove fast. Dang it was insane! We were on our way to the conference and there are a lot of dips in the road and there was this one part when we went down the hill really fast and then shot up in the air when the road when up again and I am almost positive that the car flew a couple inches in the air. As soon as we hit the ground again Presidente and Hermana Myers both yelled "woo HOO!" It was hilarious. When we got there we had a great conference! I lead the conference for the first time which was pretty nerve racking. We are still teaching the 4 the four little girls that went to church last Sunday. They also went this week! It was pretty cool. They are progressing well and know a lot. When we were at church yesterday, we were in primary and the girls were answering the teachers questions about Prophets and Priesthood. It was pretty dang cool. It has been pretty cold around here lately! Seriously it gets super cold at night and in the morning. This week is going to be big. We are hoping to commit some more people to be baptized this week but so far the four girls are going to be baptized on the 23rd of Feb! We are really excited. Soon we are going to take pictures with them so that you all can see what they look like. I have some pictures for you all this week! I love you all and I hope you are all doing great!

Giddy up,

Elder Smith

1. Father and Son (Elder Sosa my trainer)

2.Carlos y Alejandra

3. Western belt club

February 4, 2019

Week 56: Que onda viejón

This week was pretty good. We hard some pretty crazy experiences. The work is a little slower here but it is going along. On Tuesday, we were going down the street that we were contacting and we said a prayer to be able to find people. We went by this one house and I felt like we needed to go back and my companion said he felt the same thing. We went by and we met the people that lived there and we realized as we left that there was a roughed up Book of Mormon that was outside on their bench. We didnt see it at first then we realized that it was from someone there in the house. We have an appointment soon with them and we want to know why we received the impression to go back and why there was a Book of Mormon outside on their bench. Then we kept contacting and we found a really good family and we talked about the Restoration and baptism. The next time we go, we are going to invite them to be baptized. The coolest thing that happened this week was when we contacted a bunch of kids on the corner. There was a lot of kids just playing on the corner and we gave them folletos. The next day we taught and we invited all the kids to be baptized and they said yes! It was pretty cool. We told them also to come to church with us to see the church and we arrived at their house and they were all ready to go! They even had permission from their mom. They got ready and they totally paid atention in church and were interested. It is pretty amazing because we were able to find a group of kids that are ready for baptism and how willing they are to go to church. We are excited to teach them this week. I also heard that some investigators from my past areas were baptized. I am so happy that so many are making this decision in their lives. It is hard sometimes to leave people that I love in my past areas but I know they are being taken care of. I know this work is true. I hope all you have a great week!

1. Una Muñeca Vietnamita

2. Nuestros calcetines de Starwars (Un regalo de Elder Starnes)

3. Bautismo de Gisela

4. Una Planta que parece una piña

January 28, 2019

Week 55: Are Viejon


Hey Guys! A week has passed here in Caborca and we are doing great. We went to a Zone Leader meeting with all the Leaders of the mission and it was a great experience. We are ready to keep helping the missionaries in our zone be the best they can be. This week we had a baptism! A little girl named Gisela was baptized it was so great. The next Sunday her mom and her will both be confirmed because her mom had also been baptized but not confirmed. It was great! The assistance at church is pretty low. We are in a branch and 50 people went to church last Sunday. One of the coolest things that happened this week was with an investigator. There is a member in our ward name Claudia and her mom isn't a member of our faith. One day we didnt have anything to do so I asked Elder Starnes when we were contacting if there was anyone he knew that we could visit. He told me about Claudia's mom but she really didn't like meeting with the missionaries and that she didn't like going to church. We decided to go anyways jajaja. We talked for a while and got confidence and her attitude at the beginning began to change. It was a small miracle. She gladly accepted to read her pamphlet that we gave her sand we have a lesson scheduled with her! Her daughter called us this morning telling us how much her mother loved our visit! It was pretty amazing because she has always been against meeting with the missionaries but she wants to listen. Pretty amazing. 2 really crazy experiences we had was when we were riding on our bikes and we heard this lady screaming at the top of her lungs.We also heard this really loud banging noise and we thought that someone was beating her up. When we got closer, we saw this giant dog like HUGE biting this random woman and there was a man beating the dog to get him to stop biting. It was literally insane. Also, it was kind of sad but we saw a young man smoking weed in front of his family and they thought it was completly normal. Like literally there was a little girl that was 2 years old with him. It is pretty sad to see so many drug problems here. Other than than it was a good week. I am excited to see what this transfer has in store for us!


Giddy Up

Elder Smith

January 22, 2019

Week 54: Caborca!

Hey guys! This past week was pretty rad. I was transfered to Caborca and now I am here with Elder Starnes (my first American companion!) Elder Castañeda and I finished the last week of the transfer really well. We had 3 baptisms! Karla, Luis, and Sandibel Narvez were baptized. It was a really great experience. It was really sad to leave all our converts there and many that will be baptized soon but I know they are in good hands. Today we had our District meeting with our zone and I am really excited to be here. Thats really all! I dont have much to say this week but great things are coming!

Giddy up!

1. El Bautismo

2. La Familia Narvaez

3. El Barrio

1. Mayra

2. Abraham

3. Favorite place to eat

4. New Zone in Caborca