I LOVE THE ROBSTOWN WARD!

Man! What great emails this week! Thank you all so much! I got to hear from everyone!!! It made my day!

I wanted to start out by saying that I’m so proud of you Dad. Very proud. Thank you for being the best at everything you do. I know your not perfect, but in all of our minds, you are! What a lucky family they were to have you as their lawyer. I am so proud to be your son!

I know you used to always tell us how bad being a lawyer was haha! But it looks like Chan’s already on his way there and don’t feel too bad if that’s where I end up too. That’s kinda the vibes I’m getting! I don’t know if it’s because of you, or because you let us watch Lincoln Lawyer. Haha just kidding!

But it was good to hear from all the kids! I was cracking up at Rose’s thing too! I can’t believe how old she is! Hannah sent me a picture of all the friends at a football game and Rose was there! I can’t believe it! Tell the Rammells I say hi and that I love them! As well the Ydes, the grandparents, and JAY! Tell the Browns thank you for the package and I will get a letter sent asap!

So this week was a pretty great week! Sabrina passed her interview and is getting baptized next Sunday!! She is doing awesome and this week finally got a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true. She is a very special and legit girl and we are gonna try to get her to BYU haha! Ya never know! She's going on an art scholarship to California but she may not leave, judging on how the ward has taken her in. 

We have all been fighting the flu or a cold and are trying to stay warm. It’s pretty cold up here (hence the 30 dollar coat charge on my card) :) haha! Thank you!

This week was a little hard for Carlos and Margie. Margie's dad has been on Hospice all week and finally passed away this morning. We got to go last night and see them and I gave her dad a blessing. They are a very special family. When we first found them Margie was looking for peace because of the recent death of her mother. She had began to doubt in God and when we saw them last night. She was just at peace. She just kept saying, "I prayed that Heavenly Father wouldn't let him suffer and he hasn't." The ward has really helped out and is taking them food so they are in good hands.  I LOVE THE ROBSTOWN WARD! IT IS THE BEST! I could stay in this area for the rest of my mission easy. Just too many special people.

So as far as the big family we were teaching.. We have hit some roadblocks with them. I can’t say much about what’s been going on, but all I can say is there is just as much bad as there is good. And a lot of bad spirits and evil things. They have been too involved with those things and we have just been fighting to keep them. They have great desires and are doing everything. But we've got some BIG problems to get over. Please keep them in your prayers.. 

So I wanted to end with a funny story for you guys. Especially for Dad and Chan. Last Sunday, Carlos showed up at church and he always has a white shirt on, but he doesn't like ties. So we were like, “OK brother Carlos you need a tie. What color do you like?”  And he sat and thought for a second and said, "Just not red. I like blue."

So I asked why he didn't like red. He just smiled his cheesy smile and said, "I’M A DEMOCRAT!"  haha And I thought I couldn't love him anymore!

  

I love you family! Have a wonderful week and stay warm!

Love Elder Smith

BAPTISMS IN THE 'LAND OF DESOLATION'

Man! It looks like a lot of fun this last week! I’m so glad Addi got to go to the concert! I wasn't surprised at all to see Megs and Katie there. Haha They've probably been camping outside the event center since I left on my mission! They are crazy! I was so excited to hear about Meg’s mission call. She will be an AMAZING missionary. As well I was laughing super hard at the picture Chan emailed me - “Three less lonely boys haha!

So I wanted to thank you all for your emails and pictures. And for your great words of wisdom, Chan. I’m gonna take the advice haha! Thank you for your great testimonies! And I’m sorry you kids have to go back to school! HAHA THAT STINKS! Love you guys!

So we had an awesome week this week. Pretty busy though. There’s not much new that has happened since I emailed just a few days ago, but we had an awesome week at church. Our big family came again and are doing great! They are getting a lot of opposition from the grandma, but are still doing super well. We still need to work with her. As well our girl Sabrina came and LOVED church! She fit in so well with the other kids there and was just glowing afterwards. She is a super special girl and we are super excited for her. She has completely been taken in by one of the member families and she practically lives there now. We have been sooo blessed with these great people to teach.

So I don’t remember if I told you this, but according to the mission, the “north”, Corpus and Sinton, don’t baptize. No one wants to get transferred up here because they all think that it’s too hard to baptize. President even jokes around and calls it The Land of Desolation. But things have changed so much! Our zone is being blessed so much and teaching sooo many great families. I got to go interview one of the families yesterday that live up in Beeville and it was amazing - A family of 8! The parents are members and 5 of the kids are baptismal age. Such a cool story about how the parents fell away and after 20 years of complete inactivity, they said a prayer for God to help them get back to an LDS church. The next day the missionaries were walking down the street and saw a big scary looking guy with a beard and tattoos and the Spirit told them to go talk to him. Now just a month later, next week all the kids will be baptized.

There are so many stories that have touched my heart and strengthened my testimony.  I don’t know how anyone could forget them, or say that it was just coincident, because there are no coincidences. The Lord is very involved in even the finest details of all our lives.

So here’s my bit of "wisdom" if you wanna call it, for you guys. It’s something that has been on my mind a lot. It’s the principle of a testimony. We were told by Elder Shwitzer from the 70 that a testimony can never be stationary or stay the same. I’ve been thinking a lot about that and have decided that EVERY second of the day our testimony is either being strengthened or weakened. Everything we do either increases our faith and our Spirit or it destroys it. It’s never stationary and we can never just fly to Mexico and sit back on a lawn chair and say, "I’ve finally got my testimony right where I want it." So I’ve been thinking about everything I do throughout the day. Everything I say, every thought that goes through my head, every joke I make, it effects us. ALOT! And the question I’ve been asking myself is "Is this gonna make my testimony meter go up or go down?”

I know that everything you guys are doing is making it go up!! Cus you’re a perfect family!!! haha But I thought I would share that with you in hopes that maybe that question will pop into your mind right before you do something crazy at a Justin Bieber concert haha! (Mom!)

Haha I love you guys all so much. I’m so grateful for your testimonies and for being soo great! I love you all!

Have a great week and ECHELE GANAS!

Love Elder Smith

The Lord has blessed us BIG TIME!

HAHA, SORRY ITS TAKEN SO LONG TO EMAIL YOU ALL!  We were gonna yesterday but we had zlc (Zone Leader Conference) in McAllen and as well had some other crazy stuff happen that I’ll have to tell you about! But first I wanted to tell you all thank you for your great emails and pictures! I’m glad Addi had such a great birthday too! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUNNY! As well I wanted to tell Chandler that I LOVE the book he sent me! That is soooooo cool! Thanks buddy! As well I wanted to say hi to the grandparents and Jay! And all the family! Love you all!

 Man this week has been sooo crazy! Things just blew up last weekend so I’ll give you the run down! So last Saturday the Lord blessed us BIG TIME! We were lead to a small house at the end of a small little alley/road in the deep south of Robstown. We knocked on the door and a middle aged lady answer (LULU). Well about 30’s. She immediately started to cry. We came to find out she had been praying that week and right at that moment for God to send her help. We sat down with her and her family of 7 and set baptismal dates with all of them. The next day they ALL came to church and LOVED it. They are soooo amazing. All of the kids take notes and make bookmarks for their Books of Mormon and the most amazing part is all of them are 8 or older. And all so excited for baptism! So Sunday night we went over to the house and set BD’s with 3 other people in their family! They have all received spiritual confirmations and are all ready for the 27th of January! I don’t think I have ever felt so blessed to have been guided by the Spirit to such a special family. We are going to meet with them tonight with another member family so keep them in your prayers.

As well, we have been teaching this super cool girl names Sabrina! She is 19 so we have had to play it safe and just get her a ton of member support. She has already been taken in by one of my favorite families here, the Cavazos, and has a date for the 20th. She is a super tight girl and very prepared. She is clean and super susceptible to the Spirit. And she's got a sweet longboard haha!  Our goal is to get her either on a mission or to BYU haha! WE WILL SEE!

As well we are teaching 2 other families that are both progressing well and we feel so blessed to have our hands full with so many amazing people. I just love them all so much. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned with Elder Sanchez is just how to love. He is a big teddy bear and loves everyone. And it really has changed my mission just knowing how to love, even more.

So last bit of news, yesterday we received another Elder and are now working in a 3-some. He had some "girl problems" so we are helping him out. He's a great elder but we have a lot of work to do with him! It will be a great learning experience for me and we are gonna get him in the water and do some baptizing!

But other than that, all is well! I love my mission! I love ALL of these people and I honestly wish I could do this forever. It’s amazing really how happy it makes me. I stand all amazed every day! But I LOVE ALL OF YOU as well. DONT FORGET IT! Thank you for everything you do! I pray you all have a great week and I will talk to you all real soon! BYE!!!!  

Elder Smith

A CHRISTMAS I WILL NEVER FORGET!

Hey everyone! 

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas morning! It was great to talk to all of you and hear your voices! Looks like there was all kinds of fun activities and presents this Christmas! And it looks like Addi is taller than Monty haha! sh sh sh.. I’m so glad you all had a Merry Christmas! Ours was very interesting! We had a lot planned but our first 2 hours of plans fell through, so we just had to get out and work! In our first 2 hours of the morning we got doors slammed, yelled at, and I almost got converted to the Catholic church, but we made it out alright! Haha The funny thing was we were just super happy and didn't really even care! We then got to go to some members for Christmas dinner. The Loudon family! They are loaded! haha. We had a crazy big honey ham dinner with their family and I was sooo, soo grateful. They are way too good to us. So then before

the sleepy monster could get us, we got back to work with a little more fire! We got out and went by some more people and FINALLY sat down with a new family. We had an awesome lesson and set BD’s with them! It was super, super cool! We were soo grateful and felt it was a tender mercy from God. But we were really blessed. We got hit with another member dinner and ended up finishing the night on a good note. It was definitely a lot different than any Christmas I have had before. But one I will NEVER forget.

So I have to thank you all for the gifts, the money and the ties! Grandpa and Grandma, PaPa and Grammy, Jason & Jenny Brown family, My family! Thank you all soo much! Last night we had a huge cold front and it was like 32 degrees, so the new blanket saved my life, Mom! Thank you!

But we are back to work today! The sun is shining and we are excited for the coming year! 2013 can you believe it! It’s CRAZY! Time to set some resolutions and goals. Write out our dreams and the work out plans we never really follow! Haha I look forward to a lot of EXCITING things in the Smith family this coming year! But I love you all so much! I thank you all for everything you have done! Be safe, Be happy, and remember how much I love you.. And as well, how much I love my mission. Because besides you guys, it has been the most special thing for me and my life. So Thank you:) 

WITH MUCH AMOR!

ELDER SMITH

CARLOS' DREAM

Man! I loved to hear from all of you! Well almost all! HAHA I loved the pictures as well and hope you had a Happy Birthday Dad! Random fact, T Swift’s bday is the same day as yours, so it was only right that you bought her album! Haha but it sounds like the ward party was a success! Good work! As well, tell Preston CONGRATZ!  I got an announcement from them and I really appreciated it. As well tell Art that I LOVED the email. He always has been a "reminiscing kinda guy" if that’s the right word haha! And Alex, you’re gonna tear it up in B-ball bud! Just stick with it! And I didn't here any news from Romeo, but I hope all is well with Kenzie!

So I have a ton to tell you so listen good :)

First off, Carlos and Margy PASSED THEIR INTERVIEWS! They will be baptized next Sunday!!!! A CHRISTMAS BAPTISM! I am sooooooooooo excited and so proud of them! They are doing so well! It has been an amazing week this last week with them and so many miracles that led up to their interviews. I can’t remember if I told you but they have made huge changes in their lives. The night we taught the Word of Wisdom Margy just walked to her kitchen and took out all the coffee and just QUIT! Like nothing! But we had an amazing experience yesterday. While Margy was in her interview, we were showing Carlos all the pictures on the walls of the temples and explained a little about the temple. Then he noticed a painting of Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life. He was just lost in it and wasn't speaking. He started to tear up and said, “After my Mom died, I had a dream of her standing under this tree. In my dream I tried to walk to her but I got lost...then I couldn’t get past these force fields.” And he pointed to the painting at the arches that symbolized baptism, the Holy Ghost, and the temple. He asked what they were and we explained them to him. Then he just looked at us and said, "This is it guys!!!"  It was pretty amazing!

But the bad news is that Elder Porter will be leaving tomorrow and I get a new companion. I have the 1 transfer curse. I haven't been with a companion longer than 1 transfer since my trainer!  But it’s been good. I’ve learned a lot, but will miss Elder Porter. My next companion will be my first native, so I’m excited. He's a big boy and a super good missionary! ELDER SANCHEZ!

So now funny story! So first off there are always police cars and ambulances just buzzing in Robstown! haha But I took another Elder, Elder Quezada, on an exchange for the day and we were on bikes. This cop buzzes his little siren and pulls us over!! He then pulls passed us and into his radio I hear him say, "Two white males on bikes..I’m gonna need backup." And I’m like, FLIP! haha So he pulls over and gets out and asked us to get off our bikes. He then goes on to tell us to put our hands on the front of his car, and as he does this he's explaining that the "backup" is a brand new cop that’s a little bit gung-ho about arresting people and searching people. So he is gonna play a joke on the new guy and have him search us! haha So we were up against the hood of this car and people are like looking at us from their porches and I’m super worried knowing everyone is seeing us thinking we are getting arrested. Then the backup pulls up and jumps out of the car and is freaking out. He says, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??” And the prankster is like, “They got drugs in the backpacks...search them!!” And he's like "NO WAY, THOSE ARE JEHOVAH WITNESSES, MAN!! And I look at him and I was like, “WOW, BACK UP THE TRUCK, MAN!!! WE ARE MORMONS!!” haha and the other cop just busts up laughing!!! haha So, long story short, we escaped, with clean records, and a little bit better sense of humor!

Well we are excited for Christmas!! IT’S coming right up! Will wait to hear from you about the call, but know that I love you all and I pray you all have a great week!!

LOVE YOU BYEE!!!!

Elder Smith

I LOVE BEING HERE AND THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON!

SOOO good to hear from all of you and to see the great pictures! I’ve decided that it will take a lot more that a broken tooth to take away the handsome from GPA! What a champ. As well i laughed super hard at the pics of your christmas party mom and all the others. I’m glad to know that Chan is doing well and having fun. Stay in school... haha And I wasn't surprised a bit to hear that Jake was called into the bishopric. He is a stud. Tell him I love him and their whole family. As well, I hope Teegan gets feeling better. He's now part of the broken bone club! Hello to all the Grandparents, Jay and everyone else! I Love you all! I sent a whole pack of Christmas cards, Mom so hopefully you got it and you can hand them out to everyone! THANKS!

So it’s getting COLD down here!!! Nothing like up there, but I’ve turned into a wimp!! I hate the cold haha! I sleep in sweats and a sweatshirt every night! It does feel like Christmas is coming though. Finally! Just no snow. I keep praying though. Everyone is all geared up for Christmas and we have put up a lot of lights. In our apartment and as well for all the people that we catch outside. Seriously we have to go and catch them!

It definitely isn't the valley (McAllen, San Benito, Brownsville) up here. They call it The Great White North, but still the majority of the people are hispanic. The only problem is, they won’t speak Spanish with us. My Spanish is suffering and all I’ve learned since I got up here is the word Y’ALL. It’s already taking over.

I love it up here though. Robstown is quickly becoming HOME to me and I love the people here. It’s a super rough place and hard to see during this time of the year when not many will have the same Christmas experience that you or me usually have. But none the less it’s still in the air.

We are looking forward to some pre Christmas baptisms with Carlos and Margie the family we have been teaching They are doing so well and are feeling super comfortable at church already. Keep them in your prayers. They are a really special family to us. As well Linda, our RC, is already running the ward. I’ve never met such a tender heart and she got her first calling (missionary meals coordinator) Works for us :) She is an angel.

So this week was pretty crazy. We talked to ALOT of unique people this week. A lot of which didn't take a liking to us. We got grilled for going by the name ELDER. This guy knew a ton about the scriptures and totally roasted us for being called Elder. He rudely informed us that he was a TRUE Elder and that you had to be married and old to be and Elder. And all I could say was, "well....we have badges." haha just just kidding. It’s good to get picked on a little bit every once and a while. Just harder to hold back the smart alec remarks. :) Luckily I’ve never had a problem with that, haha!

We even had an old like 80 year old lady sick her dogs on us haha! I had to jump in the back seat as Elder Porter drove away. It was very humbling. The good news is, there’s never a dull moment in Robstown. And we always drive away laughing. I love being here and am so excited for this Christmas season. It really is something even more special when we really use it for what it’s for. And at this time even more that usual, my testimony is strengthened, tested, and strengthened some more, that Jesus is the Christ, and our Savior, and that He loves us. I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week. Be safe and smart and I will talk to you soon!

BYE!!!!!

I KNOW IT'S TRUE. . .AND THAT'S WHY I'M HERE!

I’ve got a ton too tell you all today haha! So we will see how fast I can type. First off, I LOVE YOU ALL! I loved your emails and appreciated the pictures and stories. Especially about Alex. Man that kid... What a stud!  And Chan and Kenzie... YOU’RE BOTH STUDS:). My plan has come together perfectly haha!! So Mom, I did get my memory card back and I’ll send you the other one for Christmas. As well, I just got your Hawaii package and it was great! THANK YOU sooo much.

I’m glad to hear that you are all ready for Christmas. Last night we got invited to go to the stake president’s house to watch the devotional and it was amazing. Amazing the things you can learn when you actually listen to those, right? :)  I thought a lot of Dad when President Eyring spoke about the barometer that didn't work. That’s nothing compared to the incidents that we've had haha!!! But our apartment looks pretty festive as well! Too bad we don’t spend much time there haha! We have been soooo busy! We were down in Mcallen on Thursday and Friday for a ZL conference, then a big mission tour with the whole mission and a General Authority from the 70 came. It was super super good. I got to see everyone and hear what’s been going on with all of my families!  On Tuesday and Wednesday I was in a small town called Alice on an exchange and it was super good. I got to work with a super great elder who is really new and he whipped me into shape. I always learn the most from the young missionaries. But it was a pretty crazy week and we didn't have a ton of time to work, but with the time we did have, we found some great people and had some awesome lessons. On the exchange we found a super prepared family and they spoke puro espanol! It was the biggest blessing I received here haha! I LOVE teaching in Spanish.

So the cool story for this week...

Linda was confirmed on Sunday and it was super spiritual. She was in tears, like always haha she is a super spiritual lady. But she went and sat down and testimony meeting starts...next thing I know Linda's up at the pulpit... She gave probably the most powerful testimony I have heard on my mission. She spoke of how she was lost and praying for help, and the Elders randomly knocked on her door, while she was praying. She shared her whole conversion and then said, "And that is why I am here. And so I’m here today to testify that God is our loving father. That Jesus Christ is MY Savior, and that Joseph Smith was his chosen prophet to guide this church. AND I KNOW THAT IT’S TRUE."

I looked at Elder Porter and we both had tears running down our cheeks.  IT rocked my world... and THAT is why I’M here.

There is just WAY too many blessing that come from the gospel. I know I was never too good at math, but counting them almost seems just impossible. I Love this... I love every minute and I love you all too:) 

I hope you have an awesome week and I will talk to you soon!

CON MUCHO AMOR!

Elder Smith