April 28, 2015 - Baptism!

We baptized the older sister of Rebecca this past Sunday, Hermana Juanita. Elder Hernandez was able to perform the ordinance of baptism for the first time. It meant a lot for him and he seemed to be walking on water! It was sweet and a wonderful way to end the change. It has been quite a journey with Elder Hernandez. I have learned sooo much and have changed even more. He has changed as well and we have seen many many miracles. We have another baptism planned for this Sunday. That’ll be 3 Sundays in a row! Miracles baby! ''We baptize every week'' is one of our mission quotes. And we are doing it!

Changes are tomorrow. I will be training again. Hopefully I get the packages and everything goes well. Did you guys send the calculator watch? I have been dying to get that. The kids from my ward said they met Bubba. Except they pronounced his name, “boooooba”. That was hilarious. ''Elder Smith, we met your uncle Booba!'' ''Who??'' They said he was super nice and friendly and gave them a bunch of ties and shirts. I stole a sweet paisley one...

I am really excited for this next change and to start a new chapter. Each change for me is like a new book of scripture with so many things to learn and chances to grow. We have a lot of investigators coming from nowhere and people progressing. I am loving every moment.

Mom, I have heard nothing about the Mothers Day calls. I am sure they will be flexible with the timing. And Congrats Matt on the Lifeguard thing! That is sweet. You will have a blast and maybe even work with Kyle! Super jealous. Be good and learn how to save a life.

I read this week about Abinidi. He gave ALL in the service of the Lord. Not just time or means, but his life. I want to have that attitude. Not of dying, but of giving my all, my life in a sense. To believe what he said in Mosiah 16:9. I love that guy and want to give him a huge hug when I meet him.

Sorry this is short, had to do a lot of stuff on the internet today.

Love you guys to guate and back!

Elder Smith

April 21, 2015 -Baptism!

We baptized una hermanita Rebecca this past week on Friday. It was sweet! And the ward TURNED OUT. All the people I called attended. And they even participated in an impromptu choir for when Rebecca entered back into the water. Now that’s participating in the Work! She asked me to baptize her and it is always a treasured experience to do so. I never feel so much love for another person than when I am performing an ordinance for them, ''for the power of God is manifest''. We have a date for her sister Juanita this Sunday and it will be an excellent way to end this change of miracles! We are also hoping for more miracles to be able to accomplish our Goals as a district, zone and area.  

We had a bunch of family nights yesterday. They were so fun and full of miracles. We brought a super positive family to the house of the strongest member family in the ward and had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon. Practically everyone here is a convert so everyone has a story! We are hoping to baptize this new family the 10th of May. We then had to SPRINT (not run or jog) all the way up the hill to another family night with our ''Missionary Family''. They had invited all their nonmember family that lives in this residence place. The bad thing was that they were all super catholic and evangelical but it was still blast. We taught them a gospel principle and played a game. Then Elder H at the end of the lesson invited every single one of them to be baptized. With a date! I was really psyched about his enthusiasm and faith, but the people there just began to laugh (even the members). So I made them pause and said that the reason that my companion did that was because we believe so much in this church and in His Gospel (we were teaching repentance) that we wanted to invite every single one of them to an opportunity to repent. It turned a really unspiritual moment into a time to reflect. Then we sprinted once again to a family night with the 2nd counselor. They invited a less active mom with her 9 year old son (missionaries have tried to baptize him but he has never wanted anything). Hermano Lopez talked about obedience in a really simple and cool way to explain the principle to a child of 9. The spirit was present throughout and we challenged him to be baptized the 3rd and he accepted. Woo!! Invite the missionaries to bring their investigators to our house for family night. They will love it and they will baptize!

I’ll try to respond to your ?s dad in another email. I love you guys so much and I’m working hard and trying to do what the Lord wants me to do.

Love,

Elder Smith

More zoo pictures

Taco Bell- Some things never change:)

April 15, 2015 -The First Law of Heaven

.....is obedience. For every blessing there is a law predicated that we must obey. I wont delve in the specifics of the lesson I have learned in this change but we finally are baptizing and it is so worth every effort. We MUST obey to receive what the Lord desires of us. It’s true and can’t be changed, as it is a principle that is and was before the world was. We have a baptismal service planned for this Friday. An absolute miracle, remind me to tell you about it when I get home. I´ll write it in my journal mom! And we have another planned for the 26th.

Ehh I have time I think so I will tell you a little bit about the miracle! A little 9 year old girl has been going to church for a few months with an awesome member. And we found that out last Monday! She had the desire and the number of times going to church already there to be baptized. All we needed was the permission of the parents. After 3 times teaching her, we asked her (and her older sister that will be baptized the 26th) to ask permission from their parents. Which was utterly...denied. Sadness. When we found out that the father didn’t give permission, we in desperation gave them the baptismal record form with the scripture Matthew 19:14 under the place where he needed to sign. We then worked the rest of the day as hard as we could to show God that we were ready for a miracle. The next day... miracle. Such a sweet experience and the sweetest little girls we are teaching. A little quote from the 9 year old Rebecca. I was speaking with the Sister that is bringing her to church because she and I have to give talks this week on missionary work and we were saying things like our knees will be shaking and wont be able to speak and she said to us ''Do not fear. I know because Jesus will be with you. And he loves you.'' WOW. From the mouth of babes. We were finishing a lesson when she said that and the spirit filled the room so strong! She will be Relief Society president of the world some day.

In other news, we went to the Zoo yesterday. That’s why I am writing today. We went as the zone Amatitlan and it was sweet not to have to contact anyone or knock on the doors of the animals to teach them or anything. It was a relatively small zoo but really well kept and with some penguins and stuff. I’ll try to send some pics.

I love being a missionary. I can’t believe this change has been going by so fast. I feel so grateful to be here. Thank you for your sacrifice family for letting me come here.

I love you so much,

Elder Jacob Freeman Smith

 Amatitlan Zone at the Zoo

His companion is on his left

Zoo Kids

The 13th Article of Faith (April 7, 2015)

Buenas buenas.....

Is everyone back from the trip alive? What a fun time to relax and to chill out! I cant imagine doing that now. But im glad everyone made it home safe and that GB is getting a little bit of rain. Long live Folsom Lake! And wow...what a conference. I have honestly never been so moved or inspired by any other conference. Simply incredible. I have never cried before in a conference, but Elder Holland brought them down, that was sweet. Could you guys send me that talk? And also the one that the RS pres gave the first session on Saturday.  I cant wait til the church gives us the magazine with all the conference talks. I could apply almost any talk to some situation that I have currently and the Spirit was guiding all my thoughts. A special experience.

Also we had interviews with President Markham last Tuesday. It was awesome and I learned a ton. Love just radiates from that man. One of our focuses in the mission currently is the principle of  Love and demonstrating that to those around us through a constant smile and by focusing on the needs of the individuales. I learned that we cant have a mirror in front of our face, because ''the household of faith'' has no mirrors...only windows. Think about that for a second or two! I love President Markham.

I also love my companion! Just to tell you a little bit about him, he is from El Paraiso, Honduras. Apparently its on the border of Nicaragua. His dad is from spain and mom from Brazil, so he has a gnarly accent that I have finally been able to understand completely. He was baptized 2 years ago and is the only member of his family. A real example to me he is and glad to be here to learn from him.   

Things area going well in Linda Vista. We are working with a family that needs to be married currently, that'll be a new adventure. We are also looking to baptize a miracle girl this Sat or Sunday. Her name is Rebecca and she is so pilas. The ward is supporting us so much and I love it here. And mother, I still have not adjusted to the chill of this place. And our water heater exploded on me my second sunday, so its like im back in Rio Santiago almost! My skin wants to go back to the coast soon. We shall see!

Thank you for your love and support and kind words of loving support,

Elder Smith

P.S 

Dad, thanks so much for the FHE game ideas! i will be using those for family nights. We try to have as many family nights as possible during the week so thanks I wont get bored playing the same games over and over! i was about to ask you for some ideas cuz you are creative like that. I tried playing Boola Boola in Rio Santiago and it was a disaster. But thanks for the others. I will use them. Whenever you have more, just send them please!!! love you T H I S M U C H ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 

From the "other" paradise (March 31, 2015)

How goes it there in Hawaii?! The Hilburns and the Smiths partying it up as always! That looks like so much fun! Drink an extra pina colada for me and save me some sand. Tell Matt to lay off the nachos, you’re still in swim season bro! And poor Hilburns...have to travel with the Plane Traumatizer...Kathryn Smith! Those are some memories made right there. I remember that vividly mother, Kathryn sneaks out a small ''I don’t feel very good'' and every one hits the deck! Exaggerating but that’s how it is! Hope everything goes well and you locos enjoy your vacation!

Well I will just recount one experience we had this week that was eye opening in many levels! We had an impromptu family night this week with a less active family and last minute they invited a nonmember family and a 13 year old that can possibly be baptized this week.

Lesson #1: There are always miracles when we work with the members. I have knocked so many doors thus far and will continue doing so but there is a better way! Every member a missionary.   It was very unplanned so I had to think on my feet a little bit, so I decided to do a little lesson on repentance and play a little game/example with them (15 or 16 people). We shared some different scriptures and bore testimony of the atonement and the repentance process. The spirit was very strong. I could tell that some people in that room (investigators, converts, less actives, faithful members) really needed to hear the Good News.

Lesson #2:  The Atonement is for EVERYONE because it is infinite and stretches out to include all of us and every part.

Lesson #3: Talking about the Atonement always brings the spirit because it is so sacred. It can change attitudes and thoughts and behaviors and the Spirit of a room.   We then played a game that Elder Palma taught me. Basically we all stood in a circle and at two opposite ends of a circle were two ties: one red and one white. The red represents the end of our lives, death. And the white represents repentance. While the red tie one must throw one loop and with the white one must do two. After doing the required loops, you pass it to the right and wait for the other tie. The trick is that at some point, the death will pass to someone before they had completed the two loops with the white tie. At that point they have died before they repented! A bit harsh but that is the reality. It was pretty hilarious because no one wants to die so the kids (and even the adults) were screaming and causing a ruckus and trying to do the loops as fast as they could. Eventually a man that only has the use of one arm received the red tie (totally unplanned...felt bad) and the game stopped. I asked him how he felt. He said ''mas o menos'' or more or less.

Lesson #4: If this happens to us, we will feel a bit worse than mas o menos. It will be the gnashing of teeth that is prophesied in the scriptures. 

Lesson #5: The reality hurts. And there are millions that ignore the pain.

Lesson #6: Parables and games and examples are what people enjoy and will eventually remember.  These kind of experiences I will never forget, because in all the fun and noise that existed in that game was a Principle. That we must always repent. And do it fast.

I love my mission so far. I have learned so much and every day I learn double. There are hard things and there are hard moments. But as I have tried to thrust in my sickle, I have found here some of the greatest moments of joy. There is nothing better! We have interviews tomorrow with President. I am looking forward to that and to be taught by him! He is so awesome and I love him.

And I love you guys too! I hope you guys get the chance to relax with the sand in your toes and just chill! And that Kathryn can hold it in on the plane ride home. Luv ya K (:

Amorosamente (no se si esta es una palabra)

Elder Smith

Week 2 in the wonderful sight! (March 24, 2015)

Linda vista translates to "wonderful sight" so thats why I said that haha. Sounds like you guys had a wonderful week and still busy as always. Its so strange to hear that there is still real life far away from me! But life continues. Thats awesome that our ward had a baptism! Thats so good to hear. Make sure the ward retains them and helps them endure to the end! Especially you Mom and KK because you have relationships with them in the Primary! Extra responsibility!

This Sunday we had one investigator come to church. Her name is Lilian and she has accepted her baptism date for the 5th. We are trying to help the members rally around her and do all we can to get her baptized. The members in this ward are INCREDIBLE. Always offering to help and teach with us and go out on visits. The enthusiasm here is contagious and I have to keep up with it! This ward is quite a bit larger than Rio Santiago (200 compared to 70) so there are many more hands able to support the work. The Bishopric and the leadership organizations are also super pilas and want to help out. I am learning how to do work with a ward for the first time which is an excellent experience for me.

Elder Hernandez and I are getting along really well. We are striving every day to be more obedient with exactness and diligent. I have learned that obedience doesnt just happen. It is a constant mental effort to prepare yourself and those around you to follow the will of the lord that he has established. That is something I am trying to focus on in this time and then for forever! I read in Jacob 5 about the Lords Vineyard and found some sweet verses (esp 72 I think) about obedience with exactness. Jacob is maybe my favorite book in the Book of Mormon. So many useful verses and concepts to use in the Work and with investigators, etc.

And yes this area is still super cold! My skin was accustomed to the heat and now I am in a winter wonderland! Its not really that bad, just a ton of wind. We are about to enter the rainy season so we will see how that goes here!

Quick questions, did you send a calculator watch in this first box? I didnt see one if you did. Just because you said ''another calc water'' dad. Some things that I would love is a USB with a ton of church music on it and a usb or 2 (or if you have more Dad from work thatd be good) empty. They kind of cost a lot here. I also might be in need of a new head for my razor. Cant be scruffy! 

Love you guys from guatamala and back

Sigan Pilas,

Elder Smith