Hello my family!
Happy one day
late birthday Papa! I love you 1000 times more being 1000 miles away from you.
Same goes for all you guys. Hope you guys had a wonderful Thanksgiving and
thanked the pioneers for all the turkey they brought to this great land of
America. How miraculous was that miracle. Mommy to answer your question the
Guatamaltecos could care less about thanksgiving...Elder Raudales thought it
was a weird thing to do. But I think on that day I had chicken pieces, which is
kind of like thanksgiving. But oh how I thought of the mashed potatoes I was
missing! I hope you all ate an extra portion for me. Sounded like a fun week
for you all with the family in town and dinners and turkey bowl. And congrats
to mom and dad for finishing your second eagle project. I can do anything my
parents put their minds to! Matthew good job too.
This week I have
been receiving a lot of instruction and corrections (called machete) from Elder
Raudales. He is just worried I think that when he leaves I won’t be able to
carry on the work. He really wants the best for me but it has been hard week of
stretching and growing and learning. I learned that I need to WANT to change if
I really am to make these necessary changes that I need to make to be able to
be a messenger of Jesus Christ. It begins with this desire. But oh how hard it
is to change my stubborn self! But I know that through the Saviors Atonement I
can do all. It hurts but that’s because I am shedding parts of me that are not
good. Mom it reminded me of that one part of the book (Chronicles of Narnia) where Eustace becomes a
dragon and to become himself again he has to have Aslan tear through his old
skin. It’s painful but necessary. The Lord is always willing to change us if we
are willing to let Him. I am coming to the point where I am letting Him. This
life is all about repentance isn’t it? All about becoming better than you were
the day before and bettering yourself. Will you guys pray that I can make the
necessary changes that I need to to be a successful missionary?
We found a really
awesome man this week that I really believe will be baptized. His name is
Gonzalo and he is the humblest and sweetest old man I have ever met. He lives
in a part of our area that takes 30 minutes to walk to…uphill. Anyway when we
found him we were out of breath and tired as ever! Anyways we found him this
week and he is so willing to do everything that we tell him. So willing to
learn, so willing to pray, so willing to change. He is a great example for me.
We will be continuing to teach him this week. We have a few other investigators
that should be entering the waters of baptism in the coming weeks. People just
need to come to stinking church! We teach and teach and teach and teach all
week and people are so pilas but then when it comes to Sunday all we see are
empty chairs and broken commitments... I am exaggerating a little bit but it
gets discouraging sometimes. But it is my fault for not letting them see the
importance of this commitments. Just another thing I need to work on.
Passed my first
full month in the mission field. I think I learned more this November than in
any month in my whole life. It’s good. And don’t worry; I am still happy. I am
learning to love the growing and humbling and changing process. That’s why I am
here is it not?! I don’t want you guys to recognize the person that I become. I
want to be totally different.
Have an
excellent week and remember that HE IS THE GIFT.
Elder Smith
PS (to Kathryn) - LOVE you my beautiful sister of mine. Keep being awesome and sleeping and decorating my room. IT BETTER NOT BE PINK
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