January 27, 2015 - Last week of Celebration!

This is my last week with Elder Palma. We decided on Sunday that this week would be a week of celebration, so we are celebrating one thing everyday and making some kind of dinner every night to celebrate. We are going to microwave a cake or something tonight I think! I love Elder Palma. He has taught me so many things for which I am forever grateful. I am sad to be sending him off into the Great Unknown but I know I will love my next comp equally or more. I have learned from Elder Palma how to love. I regret some of the times I wasted to say or express my love in my first 19 years in the home but I am glad I am learning how now! Love. It is one thing to say it, another to show it, another to know it. You can quote me on that. Dad, you asked me to share my most spiritual experience this week? It was 1 Nephi 21:16. I read it yesterday and it struck me, ''sunk deep into my heart'' so to speak. It’s in that chapter in Isaiah where it talks about the Savior never leaving us and it says something like we are "engraven in His hands". And that was for love. So much imagery associated with that. I shared this with Elder Palma in our comp study and told him that even though he is not engraven in my hands, he is engraven in my heart, because of love. I realized the ones we love the most are the ones we suffer for, live for and perhaps even with. That is why I love you guys the most and why each of you is engraven in my heart. I am only beginning to understand this concept but it has helped me tremendously.

This week we had the confirmation of Hermana Mariela. She has changed so much and is so pilas (that means like awesome or really cool) and has the light of Christ in her countenance. Now all we have to do is reactivate her family and baptize her brothers! I have faith. We set a baptismal date for this next Sunday with Hermanito Kayler. I have been praying and hoping hard that we would have a baptism the last Sunday of Elder Palmas mission and it is looking really good that it will come to pass! That will be sweet! We are still looking and doing our best to find new investigators and a miracle family to baptize. It is hard and almost everyone has been  goats. We have the faith to find though! Please include that in your prayers, that we will be able to find the sheep.

To answer your questions Dad:

We go to church from 9 to 12. There is ward council once a month supposedly but we have only seen one. We have a ward mission leader, Hermano MIKE. He is a stud. We have a meeting with him every Friday night. The branch is starting to help us more but it is hard because it is a branch. They kind of rely on us a lot but that’s no excuse. We have been going around a couple times a week and doing an activity with the members where we have them take a piece of paper, draw three columns and write down Familia, Friends, and Neighbors in each. Then Elder Palma and I sing a song while the members write down as many names as they know in each of the columns. Then we challenge them to pray for three consecutive nights for each column. Then in the spirit of prayer they are to choose one name in each. Then we come back after 4 days and schedule a time to have a family night or night of fellowship (that doesn’t translate right) with the people that they chose. Most people have either not prayed or lost their lists but we have a couple of lessons scheduled and are glad that the members are willing to help us. And all the American food was gone before Christmas..... That was so good send more! If you want me to send a list of things I need I will make one.

I am ready for this next change because Elder Palma has been preparing me. I know I will love my next companion but I will miss Elder Palma and our companionship and friendship. He has family in LA so I will see him again.

I love you all,

Elder Smith

From Elder Palma:

Woow!!! Hermana Colemas was in my district i was her district leader please say hello to herman a Coleman.   Thnk you so much    (Sister Coleman completed her mission several months ago and is a friend of Jacobs aunt Lori. She had asked us to say hello to them.   She spoke VERY highly of both of Jacobs companions and said they were the best of the best:)

Well Your son is awesome and he help ma so mucht to be better day by day.  Thank to you sended him to the mission. 

The past week I had my english test and E. Smith helped me to have confidance and trust in me and my skill, and that was cool. 

This is my last week in the missionary field and I am so glad to be with elder Smith he is my brother we will enjoy this last week.  This week we learned about love and charity.  One of the scripture that help me to remember E. Smith is Provervios 17:17 (sorry i dont know how is in englis)

I love your son he is my best companion. I will always remember him.

We LOVE Elder Palma and will miss him too!  He has been so kind to write us notes and sends almost all the pictures we have:)  We are so grateful for him and his kind influence on Jacob.

Antigua

Rio Santiago

January 20, 2015 - Baptism!

I think that will be my title every time we baptize! Because that’s what its all about! Baptizing and confirming the people to open the door to their salvation! That was one of the first things that President told me when I talked with him for the first time. ''Elder Smith, in this mission, we baptize. Are you ready?'' I told him yes. But anyways, we were blessed to have the baptism of young Mariela! She is the one I think I talked about last time who didn’t want anything...church...baptism...blessings...nothing! But we had a miracle last Tuesday after I emailed you guys. We went over to her house and she ran up to us through the forest and said ''I want to be baptized!'' out of nowhere. It was so sweet. And that same day, about an hour earlier we found out that 9 year old Kayler returned from Villa Nueva and we will be baptizing him the first of February. One of our mission scriptures is D&C 46 21 and we are really doing just that. We are looking for 3 more miracles this week so that we can achieve our goal of 4 baptisms in this month. If the Lord wills it, it will be done.

This week was the last week of my training, or my official training. I feel like my whole mission I will be in training for whatever lies ahead of me. I am a changed person from 12 weeks ago leaving the CCM. I think and act and especially speak differently. It is frustrating at times to see how slowly progress comes but that’s because progress is a time-plus-effort oriented process. If I have learned one thing from my two trainers (and mom and dad you might recognize this from somewhere else) is that I must be willing to improve each and every day. There is always one thing that needs to change. 

Funniest experience of this week. So Mariela has 3 brothers that are absolute demons. They are always annoying us during our lessons and tackling each other and kind of making it hard for the spirit to be in any lesson. Last Thursday they were at their worst. They had found a frog (a Guatemalan frog....yea) and were putting it in our shirts and backpacks and on my scriptures and making it poop and stuff. This went on for more than 5 minutes until we could take it no more! At this point I had already bribed them with all the Christmas stickers (those have come in handy more times than I imagined) and balloons and candy and nothing worked. Then somehow the frog ended up in my hand and yada yada yada it got lost 20 feet behind us in the forest. Everyone was completely stunned but after that the spirit could dwell in our lesson. I call it inspiration I don’t know about you. I really am having so much fun out here. Things just happen in the day that we will laugh at forever.

We went to Antigua yesterday as a zone. It is tourist central! So many white people. We took pictures by all the famous places and then did this gnarly scavenger hunt. They didn’t have the logistics down pat and I think all told we ran 5 miles on our pday. It took forever. After we went to a crepe shop called Luna de Miel. Look it up. It was kind of expensive but the best thing I have tasted here in Guatemala. It was fun to be there and kind of sad to see Elder Palma say goodbye to his old zone. He is so baggy and cries a lot. I am just here to help him in this transition time he is in! Ha-ha just kidding, but really it is kind of sad to kill a missionary.

Well Family I am doing good and from the emails it sound like it is the same with all of you. How sad that Matt Witt passed away. I remember him. I will say a prayer for him tonight. That sounds like an awesome temple night mom and dad!  GB2 shows up!  Kathryn, I hope you had fun in the jacuzzi!  Matt, keep dying in swim, it’ll be worth it!

Love you guys!

Elder Smith

In Antigua yesterday for their Pday 

Christmas Eve dinner

January 13, 2015 - Where’s the email Dad?!

Come on people lets be more consistent! Just kidding dad I love you tons. Sounds like 2015 is starting off well for everyone! Kathryn is still having 100 play dates every week, Matt is dying in swim and following in my footsteps as a TA for Sherman and psychoanalyzing the world (he's taking AP Psych:), mom you are still the most wonderful mom in the world, and Dad you forgot to write me or something so I don’t know what’s happening in your life! I hope you guys are still getting into the swing of things and doing well. And what happened with Matt Witt? That is so sad.

This week was pretty packed! We had interviews with president Markham, zone training, the last training sessions for the new missionaries, among other things. It seemed like there was something every day that took away from working in our area, which was kind of a bummer, but I learned a ton. My interview with President Markham was incredible. He is like everyone’s father here and greets every single missionary with a hug and an ''I love you''. We spoke about fulfilling the measure of our creations through our missions and about these 2 years of coming to know the Savior more fully and completely. And that is by walking the road through Gethsemane with Him. Sometimes we will have to suffer, whether it be emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc. But EVERY SINGLE thing that happens is for our good, because He loves us. To know is love, to know Him as our Redeemer, is to follow Him. Not just to do what He did, but to go where He went: to Gethsemane. We spoke about the mission theme of sorts this year, the Book of Mormon. To let you know, I am reading 45 pages a month this year to finish. Do it with me and lets learn together! And President Markham challenged me not just to read it, but to change principles into values (mind to heart) and let the things I learn change me.

This week we received some bad news... Hermano Kayler left us for Villa Nueva, which is an hour and a half away. So someone there received a miracle. We were pretty bummed because he was awesome but we know it was the will of the Lord. We are working more and more with the ward and seeing more and more miracles. That really is the only way to have the kind of success the Lord wants us to have. It’s through the members that we see miracles! We will be baptizing this week a young girl that is part of an inactive family. Pray for her please! Her name is Mariela and she is the same age as KK.

Mother, the scripture I would like on my plaque is 3 NE 5:13. That is one of our mission theme scriptures and I love it. 

Something different that we did this week; Elder Palma had different competitions that we did this week that was super fun! How many contacts we could have in a day, families contacted, new investigator, baptismal challenges, and then my personal favorite…unmarried couples in the street that I contacted and taught the Law of Chastity. It was really interesting and people just laughed at me but I love calling people to repentance. Elder Palma is my brother now. We are so united in our teaching it is crazy. We have cried together in almost every single companionship study this week. He shared with me 1 Samuel 20:42 and 43? I don’t know if that’s right but it’s the last two verses in that chapter where it talks about Jonathon and David. He told me about how even when he leaves in 3 weeks, his love and his spirit will be with me throughout my mission and he promised me that he would pray for me every single day. We both hate crying but it is inevitable right now.

Anyways, I am doing great! Pray for the one and only Rio Santiago please and that we will be able to find the lost sheep!

Love each and every one of you,

Elder Smith

January 7, 2015 - Ether 2:16 ''Go to Work!''

Hello My Wonderful Family!

Thank you for your emails this week. I always look forward to reading them. Dad, the stories you shared about missionary work were inspiring. This branch I am in is slowly, slowly receiving that fire of missionary work. It is pretty cool to see. And congrats for having the investigators over! Make sure you ask the missionaries who their investigators are and pray for them by name! And always offer to have them in your house. There is such a remarkable difference when the members participate in the work of salvation. There is no better combination than missionary and member. Especially the one and only Smith Family that I am eternally grateful to be an eternal part of! And KK, congrats on bearing your testimony! Make sure you never forget to share it! I was thinking about you Kathryn last night because we were playing games with a family in a Family Night and this one girl kind of looks like a Latin American you and acted just like you during this crazy game we played. And paint my room pink, looks good on you!! Matt. Just follow my advice,)  Mother, Elder Palma is from Tlaxcala, Mexico and my favorite scripture I will share with you next week and you should be pro Elder Palma because he is crazy awesome! I hope you guys had an awesome time partying in Utah. But I hope everything goes smoothly in the transition!

Well my week. New Years was insane. And I thought Christmas was gnarly. But wow. It was like the Disneyland fireworks in our backyard. All. Night. Long. I always sleep like a dog so I was fine. Elder Palma woke me up at 11:55 and we went out to our forest and watched the nightlong firework display until 12:00 and then we knelt and said a companionship prayer and then went back to bed. That was pretty sweet. I am so excited for 2015 and I realized that I have the choice experience to be a servant of the Lord for all of this year. I think I will remember this year for all of eternity. I can’t see all the changes or the person I will become but from these first 3 months here, I am ready for it. As a zone we are starting this year off with a process of purification and sanctification. We are going to fast to know all the things the Lord wants to us get better at or stop doing or change and write all of them down on a piece of paper and for 40 days we are going to have a ''fast'' of the things the Lord wants us to leave behind. This is to the end that we will be able to testify with the power of the Holy Ghost and be PURE. President Markham has taught us a lot about the purification process. I can’t share all his insights on it in this mode but I wish I could. He is an inspired man. I am ready to change and take out all the bad and let in all the good. 2015 is going to be sweet.

Eddy was confirmed this Sunday. He is such a sweet kid and whenever we teach him he always begs us to never leave. We have a baptism this Saturday for Kayler and another for the following Sunday and then another (and possibly 2) for the 25th. The Lord has really blessed us with miracles in January and I know it is because of the offering we gave him in December. We worked so hard. I read that scripture in the subject line this morning in my personal studies. A pretty direct admonition from our Savior! I don’t think I have ever known how to work until I came on my mission. Sure I had jobs and worked in an arcade but seriously if I take nothing else home with me after these 2 years is that I learn how to work and to put the needs of others before my personal comfort or wellbeing. That is what I am learning right now. It’s all about love and how we give it!

But the word and the branch are progressing in Rio Santiago. And so am I, I think. I can communicate almost everything I want right now but I am still so far away from where I want to be. I want to be native sounding! The Lord has blessed me so much in the language department because he needs me to be able to say things in correct Spanish to his precious souls in Rio Santiago. My teaching is getting better each day and I am learning to teach with the power of the Spirit. There is nothing sweeter than a heaven sent thought or question to ask that changes the lesson and heart of an investigator. I love being a messenger.

Have a wonderful week everybody. Keep up the work! I love and miss you guys with all my heart!

Elder Es-Smeet 

PS- that is how everyone pronounces our last name here. It is awesome!!!