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
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