Hello family!!
Man what great emails you all sent! I’m so glad you all had fun this week with your trips. Looks like all the cousins had fun at Lagoon! I’m glad you got to ride the Wicked! That was my favorite! And Dad, those pictures you sent were amazing. I’m so glad you had a fun and safe time. I always laugh at those “del fuego” jokes haha! But I loved the pictures from the reunion and of Aunt Nene. Man I love her! As well, I hoped you enjoyed the concert. Elder Hill shares my love for country music, so we were both pretty excited for you! And Mom, I’m sorry I dropped a lot of money on my card. I ordered a new English triple from Deseret! Love you! And I love hearing about that investigator there!! Keep helping with her!!!
So what a week..... I have so many crazy things to tell you, but I’ll start with Tuesday. We took a rode trip up to McAllen for first comp training, which is for the trainers and new missionaries. There I got to see Elder Stevens and Elder Breshears and Elder Barrionuevo and all my buds from Laredo. It was awesome. It was a good way to start off the week, but it put us a little behind and we had a lot of work to do. Man we worked hard this week. And it doesn’t help that we wake up super early to work out then play tennis! haha But we were just worn out. Things were going really well and we found a lot of new people. And a new family of 4 that we set BD’s with! So on Thursday we have our second lesson with them and we are on our way down Rben M. Torres, which is a pretty busy street. We go through a green light and there is a stop up in traffic so we stop and right when we come to a stop we just get drilled from behind. We didn’t know what happened, so we ended up getting out and seeing that a big Expedition with a lawn mower trailer had ran full speed into a little Ranger truck, which then hit us! Luckily no one was hurt, but our little Ford Fusion got destroyed! haha. So Mom, no worries, we are just FINE! So we ended up getting the police there and got it all figured out. So we were pretty shaken up from that and we missed our lesson!! AH! It was the worst! We got the car a little fixed up and tore off the bumper so it was drivable. Elder Rios, the car guy, said we have to drive it until tomorrow when we I go back to McAllen for training and we can switch it out haha.
So anyways, we were pretty shaken up from that and so we drive out to Olmito, which is a little town where the fruit stand is. We get out to walk down the street to our appointment and we walk past this house and all the sudden hear dogs going nuts and we turn around and they come darting out of this driveway and they were BIG! Like 2 really big Hound dogs! They were going nuts and came right at us. I didn’t know what to say, haha so i just yelled "HEY!" and when the one came at me I gave him the Karate Kid and gave him a super strong right foot to the nose. It was a good kick, haha I could have kicked a 40 yarder with that. Colter would have been proud. So after I kicked it, they backed off and we slowly walked backwards to our appointment. By the time we got there, we were just like shaking and so worn out. We couldn’t believe how much stuff had been thrown at us that day haha! But we made it home alive and slept very well haha!!
So we ended the week yesterday with 2 of those 4 new BD’s coming to church and loving it. They felt so welcome and made such good friends. The young man whose name is Victor was a little uncomfortable at first but after a whole day of pats on the back and people welcoming him he finally just relaxed. They left very happy and we are excited to get back over there this week to help them start progressing.
But the one thing that Victor kept asking during testimony meeting was, "why do they keep saying ‘the one true church’? I heard you Elders say that the other day too?" And we hadn’t taught the Restoration or anything about that because we only had had one lesson. We had only touched on it a little. But I began to listen as every testimony ended with "I know this church is true." I tried to explain it to him and beat around the bush, but he just didn’t understand. So I began to think really hard about that bold claim. THE TRUE CHURCH and I eventually came to the conclusion that...it’s that simple... and we shouldn’t be afraid to say it without the sugar coating.
We should never be afraid of the bold claim that this is Christ’s church, and that we know it. And that’s why we are here and that’s what makes us. And I know for a fact that this is IT! And we are so blessed to be a part of it. We have seen so many miracles and so many blessing because of it. And everyone of those strengthens my testimony that this is HIS work, and how lucky are we to be apart of it.
I love all of you so much and a thank you all for your great emails and letter. You’re the best. Take care this week and enjoy these last days of summer!!
Until next week,
Love,
Elder Smith
