September 2, 2019

Week 85: Gratefulness

Hey everyone! This week was fantastic. I feel so grateful to be able to be a missionary in this time. It is a privilege for us to be part of the Lords true Gospel and I hope you all feel how amazing it is to be part of this wonder work. This week we had our zone conference. We were able to feel the spirit very strong and were taught my many great leaders. This week was normal we were able to work hard. What I want to share with you all most right now and what I feel that is important for me to tell you all is my testimony. I feel so thankful for what I have and for what God has given and done for us. We should truly be grateful. We have so many blessings at our hands and we have much to be grateful to be for. I have been thinking alot lately about what the Prophet Brigham Young said:

Why do people apostatize? You know we are on the “Old Ship Zion.” We
are in the midst of the ocean. A storm comes on, and, as sailors say, she
labors very hard. “I am not going to stay here,” says one; “I don’t believe
this is the ‘Ship Zion.’” “But we are in the midst of the ocean.” “I don’t care,
I am not going to stay here.” Off goes the coat, and he jumps overboard.
Will he not be drowned? Yes. So with those who leave this Church. It is the
“Old Ship Zion,” let us stay in it (DBY, 85).
God is at the helm of this great ship, and that makes me feel good. . . .
Let those apostatize who wish to, but God will save all who are determined
to be saved."

This powerful invitation from a Prohet of God I extend it to you all as my own. We are in the true church of the Savior Jesus Christ. This is His church! What a beautiful blessing it is! Let us stay in the "Old Ship Zion" because the waves are high great storms are coming. I cannot tell you how important it is for us to be ok with our Heavenly Father. We need to be faithful. We need to repent everyday. Many think that repentance is a back up plan for when we mess up. I would add that repentance is the plan. Like our Savior and our Prophet and many other leaders have asked us to do, I would ask of you all the same. We need to repent. "Time is running out." Like our Prohet has said. Notice the words of our Savior in the 19th section of Doctrine and Covenants.

16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;

17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.

20 Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit.

These verses can seem harsh but if we think about it, why does the Lord want us to repent? Or why does the Lord need followers. Does he want power or gratification?. Of course not. He has all power and it would be disrespectful to say that. Like my Grandma Gigi explained to me once as a very young man, the Lord wants these things because it gives Him joy. Imagine these scriptures. He doesnt want us to suffer and He wants to help us. We owe him everything for that. If there is any that we need to change. Lets do it. If we havent been to church for a while for what every reason it is, lets go back. It is not worth it to miss out on the blessings that the Lord has for us. Time is running out. I love you all so much and I love my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. They have given us everything. No its our turn to serve them. I cant express the gratefulness that I feel and I hope you can feel it as well.

I love you all

Elder Smith

1. Elder Hermansen- my current companion
2. The missionary I trained -Elder Coronado
3. A past and favorite companion -Elder Duarte

August 26, 2019

Week 85: Fotos

1. Reunited
2. Going to Conocilio
3. Elder Hermansen and I

August 19, 2019

Week 84: A Special Week

This week was very special. We were able to have a very special baptism. A young girl named Angeles got baptized. She is 14 and super awesome. We found her family from a member reference and we have been teaching her and her family this last transfer. Her family is reading the Book of Mormon, living the Word of Wisdom, and living the Law of Chastity. The only thing that that they need to get baptized is to go to church. If you could pray for them it would help us a lot so that they can be baptized in this transfer. Their last name is Leyva and it would help us a lot if you all could pray for them. As Angeles was baptized, we really saw a change in her. We could see that she is now calmer and her mom has even told us that she has seen a huge change her for the better since we have been teaching her. This week also something pretty amazing happened. We were able to teach all the youth in the entire district able missionary work. We taught them how to practice inviting their friends in a natural way to church and church activities and it was a super awesome activity. All the youth were really excited and we were able to get almost everyone to participate. Thats all really what happened this week. Thanks all for your support I love you all. Giddy up

Elder Smith

August 5, 2019

Week 82: The Keystone of Our Religion

We had a great week this week. As far as success goes, we are having success but it is moving slower than I would look. We know its just a trial of faith. This week I had an experience that I really believe I should share with you all. This week I have been thinking a lot about the word ¨Testimony¨ and what it is. I have been studying a lot about testimonies and how we can strengthen them. We all know that reading the Book of Mormon is a very important part of having a testimony. We know it as ¨the Keystone of our religion¨ and Joseph Smith himself said...

¨Take away the Book of Mormon and the revelations, and where is our religion? We have none.¨

I decided to really focus on the Book of Mormon and the power it has in our conversion to know that the Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I have always had a powerful testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel but I honestly felt that my testimony of the Book of Mormon shouldve been stronger. I decided to read the Book of Mormon again, meditate about it, and ask of God again to know that to know that it was true (the awesome part of growing in you testimony is that you can ask many times if these things are true). I started to read a lot every day. Every free moment I had I dedicated it to reading the Book of Mormon. I prayed at the beginning before I studied and after. Little by little I felt small impressions of the things I read. I kept reading as much as I could. One day we went to a far away small town named Sonoyta to do transfers with some other missionaries and the hour ride I read the entire way both ways and even when we got back to Rocky Point I walked off the bus readying with the book in my hand. I remember that I had just started reading the book of Moroni and I started with a prayer and then started to read. I ready the whole book of moroni before we went to bed that night. I finally had arrived to the moment that I was waiting for. I closed the book, got down on my knees on the hot floor and began to give thanks to God and I finally asked him the question after saying ¨God, I have dedicated the time to sudy, meditate, and to pray to thee to know if this book is true. I am willing to accept the answer you give me so that I might continue preaching of this book¨ and then I asked him. After I prayed, I stayed kneeling down for a couple minutes and just waited. I slowing felt a warm and loving feeling come over me. As I waited, it became stronger. I sat on my bed thinking and meditating for a while knowing that God loved me and that the book was true. As I got in bed that night and laid in my bed, the feeling became even stronger. It was one of the most beautiful feelings I had ever had. That feeling never left me once that entire night until I fell asleep. I could recieve an answer again that the Book of Mormon was true. As I write this, my heart continues to burn because I know that the book is true. And like they said before...

¨And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen. And we lie not, God bearing witness of it.¨

I can say the same now. I give my name to the world and I lie not God bearing witness of it. If you have not read the Book of Mormon, please do it. You can recieve your own testimony and you can know for yourself. It is time for our to be self reliant in our own testimonies so when the hard times come, we will hold to the rod and not let go. Follow the Prophet Harold B. Lee´s counsel...

¨Youth should let no day pass without reading from these sacred books.¨


I Love you all


Elder Smith

July 15, 2019

Week 79: First week in Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco)

Hey guys! We have officially finished our first week of the transfer in Puerto Penasco. This week was pretty interesting and I have a lot to tell you guys! Penasco is truly a magical and interesting place. To start, in my area there are NO paved streets. EVERYTHING is sand. It is pretty crazy. I have never experienced something like Penasco in my entire mission. The weather is pretty cool here. It feels like really humid but we feel the beach air so its pretty nice.

We have been teaching a lot of families. This week we taught a lady named Maria that wants to be baptized. We invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and she did it and she told us that she knows its true. Right now she is going through some hard stuff with her husband but we are trying figure things out so that she can be baptized. We taught her about the Spirit and Elder Bednars videos ¨Patterns of Light¨ and we talked about revelation. It was a super rad lesson.

I had some crazy things happen this week! When we went to eat yesterday at lunch, as we ate cockroaches were walking on the table around our food so that was cool. I got to kill cockroaches as I ate lunch that was a first. Also yesterday, we were teaching a man on the street when all of a sudden his wife came and they had a huge fight. I literally thought they were going to fist fight in front of us and we calmed them down, taught them, and then we took their beer so they couldnt drink it. We asked the guy ¨Hey would you like us to take your beer so you can start to change now¨ and hey told us yes haha. It was pretty cool. This week also an american family came to church and they helped us with some rides to take investigators home. I also got to speak in church. It was a pretty cool week. I love Penasco. It was a pretty normal week and we are going to have a lot of success in the next few weeks. Our zone had two baptisms this week and we will have 6 this week! I love you guys thanks for your support!

1. Presidente Zepeda
2. Rocky Point El Camaronero