. . . I HAVE REALIZED THAT I CAN'T DO SQUAT WITHOUT HIS HELP.

Good to hear from everyone and to hear about Grandpa’s birthday! Happy Birthday Grandpa! I loved the pic of him and dad. What a bunch of handsome brutes!

And Mom, I have to apologize I’m sooo bad! I have had your Mother’s Day package ready since February but still haven't sent it! Forgive me! I need to get it done!!!!

This week has been real great, but has gone by super fast! It was full of good news and some mas o menos news but I’ll fill you  in, right!

So we started off on Monday, we were all over the place with President Trayner all day, picking up new elders from the airport, going out for a quick lunch, back to the mission home for more training, preparing for President Maluenda, going to the bank, organizing, giving trainings, preparing. We didn't get to work at all in our area. We have been working with a part member family that came to church again and another couple who has been progressing really well. We knew that going into this week we had to find some new families to get to church so we have really been focusing on that and Monday was frustrating cus we just wanted to get out and work.

Tuesday we trained the new district leaders that will begin next transfer on Tuesday, one of which was Elder Hobbs. He's doing great. I’m super proud of him. We then got a few good hours of work in that night and found some cool people. Wednesday was a pretty good day of work. Thursday was MLC (mission leadership council) a super busy day..... Running everywhere getting things set up, doing role plays and trainings. We have to get graphs and movies and examples and it’s just super wild. Finally we finished and got all the ZL’s cars checked and got to start an exchange with the Robstown ZLs, Elder Rodrigues and Elder Martinez. They gave me the good news that N. Ysassi was finally let off of the problems that she had and will be baptized the 9th!!!

As well a family that we had taught (the ladies) made some changes and are now going to get baptized. Super cool news!

I found out that Margie Y. went into surgery Tuesday and I got to call her and check up on her. She's doing great. She made me so proud. She has been called as the first counselor in the Relief Society :) I love her and her family.

We had a wonderful exchange (they are always crazy) but all the ZLs want to find out what the AP life is like haha!? They all just wanna come hang out at the office. Little do they know we actually have to do work here. haha punks. But I love them!

So today we went and hit up the pulga (the flea market). It’s always fun to bargain now that we can actually speak Spanish. We were joking that no Hispanic can handle white Mormon charm haha! We got some great deals:) And then we went to the mall and I got a beautiful gray suit. Thank you so much for letting me do that! I love it! I may have to buy a new tie to go with it:)

But that about sums up the crazy week that we had! And this next week will be another back buster with 8 new missionaries coming in and 17 going out including all my buddies. Then we start zone conferences and will travel the mission and then President Maluenda comes. Pray for us haha! We are in pretty deep.

It’s humbling...I really have realized that I cant do squat without HIS help. He's always watching over us. I love you guys!

Take care this week and be safe! Love Elder Smith

A BAPTISM AND A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE. . . . BROWNSVILLE!

Wow! So great to hear your emails. I am gonna be feeling real sick about Art this week. What a difference he has made in my life. I’m glad everyone is doing well and I hope Mom and Dad are over their colds and are back on their feet. Even though I know you never got off them. It’s good to see Coach Guza. I have been thinking about him lately and decided I’m gonna baptize him when I get home. He’s prepared. I just never pushed hard enough before my mission. He will be a ward mission leader one day, mark my words.

So I hope Chan is doing well and that he knows that I understand how busy he is. I love you buddy. Keep up the good work. Echele ganas. Glad to see you enjoyed your prom, Mom and Dad. You were the best lookin’ ones there. And I love that old green tux. Speaking of that, I went and tried on suits today, but I decided to wait to make sure I get the right one. But don’t worry, I’ll get it done.

So this week was wonderful. I’ll start with the miracle baptism we had on Sunday. We threw it  together and got L. Cruz baptized.  He was sooo nervous, but it went great. President and Hna. Trayner came to the baptism and enjoyed it.

This week has been crazy with a training on Tuesday for all the new missionaries and their trainers. It was cool because Elder Porter is a trainer, so I got to see him and as well Elder Hobbs is training, so I have a new grandson. It’s weird to think that Elder Porter is done in 2 weeks. He is expecting some pizza from the oven, as well as Elder Stevens haha! It was super good and after that we got some good work done in “The Waters”. 

But the week got really amazing on Wednesday night. I got to take a trip down memory lane and went on an exchange in Brownsville with Elder Stevens. He’s been a zone leader forever and it was a blast being with him. I worried that it would be weird because last time we were together, he was training me and now I was going to train him, but we had a blast together and did some work. We found a ton of people and set a bunch of BD’s with them. We had a wonderful day and it was cool to see how much different of missionaries and people we are. A lot of progression, luckily haha :)

But the best part was Thursday afternoon when we went over to the Crockets house to visit the girls. Man! It was sooo good to see them and they are doing great. They are super funny and when I called them they were freaking out. Haha there’s no better feeling than seeing your RCs, and the crazy part is in a week it will have been a year ago that I got to Brownsville for my first day!! Crazy right?? Freaks me out...

But it was a wonderfully crazy week. I love the TMM. It’s the best. I never wanna leave!

But I love you all so much and I pray for you everyday! Please be safe and happy and know how much I love you!

Take care!

Elder Smith

Payton Smith Lawn Care - Procrastinating lawns since 2001!
                                                        Somethings never change!

I LOVE BEING HERE IN "THE WATERS OF MORMON"

Hey guys! Thanks for your emails! It was great to talk to you all on Sunday as well! You haven’t changed a bit. I’m glad to hear Gpa is doing ok and hope you know I’m praying for all of you. I sent some pictures so you can get a little more of what’s going on. Today we drove down to Brownsville to take Elder Steven’s comp out to lunch for his bday. It was alot of fun. They are our favorite zone leaders. As well the other pic is of me, Elder Wilson (old AP) and Elder Munsey. Then of me and some driving cows, haha!

This week has been really great, we had a miracle come out of nowhere and things are looking like they will come together so we can get a miracle baptism this Sunday.  A probation letter came back and so things are looking great. Me and Elder Munsey are working out the teaching kinks so we can teach better and things are improving. We teach a lot here even in the short amount of time we have to work, when we aren’t in the office.

We did however, have a scary incident that kinda made me grateful for the grandparents. One of the senior missionaries from the office Elder Niel (who is my favorite) took a fall in the parking lot, so we had to drive over and help him up and to the hospital. I was on an exchange with a zone leader and it was super hectic because I was up at 4:00 am that morning getting visa waiters to the airport and then Elder Neil fell at like 8. So we got him to the hospital, which was tough because he has muscular distrophy and got him checked out. Luckily everything was ok and he didn’t break anything. Pres. Trayner got there after a little while and was able to help us get him back into the car and we got him home. The last few days we have spent on call helping him with everything because he can’t get out of bed on his own. I love him alot and worry about him, but it’s hard for him to be here. He doesn’t want to be a burden, but he may have to go home.

Besides that we saw some great miracles. We found some cool families, set some baptismal dates, ate alot of fast food (that’s all we eat everyday) and just had fun. It really is a blessing being here in the “Waters of Mormon”.

Besides that all is well. Just a quick update and a crappy one at that. I just found out my release date is Nov. 27th,  the day before Thanksgiving. So that might throw a wrench in your plans. But I though I would throw it in and let you talk about it. Thanks! LOVE YOU!!!!!

LOVED THAT 3 MINUTE 'PREPARATION CALL'!

Whats going on?? Man, it’s great to hear from you! I knew Mom was gonna be way too excited about the 3 minute "preparation call". I know you too well Mom!! Haha but HAPPY ALMOST MOTHERS DAY!! I’m excited to call you, but sadly I have not had a chance to send out your gift. This has been the craziest week of my mission. But I will send it out asap.

So this week was crazy busy! Tuesday through Thursday we had mission wide leadership training with all district leaders, zone leaders, and trainers and it was crazy! We had to give a bunch of trainings and plan everything and do role plays and it was wild.  In the evenings some Zone leaders stayed with us and I got to work with Elder Sanchez again and then some young missionaries. It was a lot of fun. And today in like 10 minutes I have to go to the Trayners to help with dinner preparations for some outgoing missionaries. Then in the morning we run them to the airport. Hijole!

So I better get going but I will call tonight to confirm a time and as well I sent some pictures!  I love you all a lot and will talk to you soon!!!

Love you all!!!

Elder Payton Smith

THE WATERS OF MORMON

How are you?:)

Man thank you all so much for your emails. I really appreciated them! I know Chan is busy, so I will think about forgiving him haha! Maybe.... :) Just joking, I hope work is going well Chan! I know you’re using your best priestcraft to sell people on. . . whatever it is that your selling! That’s my boy.

I’m glad to hear all is well back home and that everything is hunkey dory. Things here have been good, but super crazy. It’s kind of a hard schedule to get used to here. We are always running around, but I thought first I would tell you about my area. . . Our area is called "THE WATERS OF MORMON".  It is the coveted area in all the mission, but it is also the smallest area in all the mission. It is super dense and full of people and most of it is puro apartments. That area is called "Apartment City". It’s super nice to be there because there’s always people out to talk to. There are a ton of members in my area and most are recent converts who have been baptized by other A.P.’s within the last 3 years. It’s funny because you are treated really well here but everyone expects alot cause there have been so many great missionaries here. So this passed week I’ve just been working on earning a little love from them. Its a mostly spanish area and we cover a spanish and an english ward.

I already love it here though.Its an amazing place and everyone wants to do missionary work. The members have been trained well.

We live in a really nice house about 10 minutes away from our area and 2 minutes away from the mission home and mission office. We actually are living with 2 other elders and one of them is my grandson (Elder Doman) who elder Hill trained. It’s a lot of fun and I love the set up we have here.

We get to spend a lot of time with President Trayner, especially during this time when we are preparing for trainings and getting the low down on everything about the mission, before President Trayner leaves. It’s a great blessing and Sister Trayner makes some great chocolate chip cookies. Just not quite as good as Mom’s :)

But along with the fun stuff, we also have a lot of dirty work we gotta do. We always are here helping the Senior couples with records and stuff, but luckily that isn't our responsibility anymore since they came in. But Monday we had an emergency transfer and we had to drive down to Brownsville to pick up a missionary. We met Elder Stevens and his comp to do the pick up, haha! It’s always kinda hard to be in between things like that. But then the next day we went back down to train some new district leaders and we got to go visit San Benito. It was great!

So besides all that stuff, I wanted to finish with the most important stuff. Our peeps..

When I got here, a bunch of the investigators had just fallen off, so we started fresh. We are working with a RC (recent convert) family who invited 2 friends over for a lesson and we had an incredible lessons with both of them. We set baptismal dates with both and will have both at church. It’s such a blessing because even though time is short, the members are always working for us and it makes things a lot more effective. We look forward to seeing some baptisms the end of this month.

Other than that, all is well. I love being here and am still coping with the fact that this is probably my last area. So I’m settling in and gonna put the shoulder to the wheel. A lot of time left and a lot of people to baptize.

Update from Robstown: Six of the Abrego family were baptized last Sunday and the other 5 will be baptized in 2 weeksI I saw the picture and it was amazing... Sad I missed it, but so happy for that family. It was a big group of people in white! Now we just gotta find a big family here!

I love you all so much and am so grateful for everything you do! Take care family!

Con amor,

Elder Smith

THE BEST SUNDAY MY WHOLE MISSION. . . . and Many Sad Goodbyes

Hey Guys,

Long time no see haha! Sorry about monday i just didn't really feel like emailing you all...!  Haha just kidding! Man I’ve got alot to tell y'all!!!

So, lets start with last week! Last Thursday we had interviews with President Trayner in the Robstown chapel. We were all there and we were able to get Mikey interviewed during the interviews, for his baptism on the 28th. HE PASSED! I was stoked enough, but then President called me in for my interview. It was weird because he brought Sister Trayner in too and I was kinda weirded out! Haha He sat me down and told me that he wanted me to serve as his next Assistant. He told me that I was gonna be one of the assistants that sent him home and welcomed in our new president, President Maluenda. They just told me that alot was expected and that he would be passing all responsibilities to us including transfers, trainings, conferences and all that because President Maluenda won’t know how. Haha crap!! I will be with Elder Munsey, who is 2 transfers ahead of me and will die as an A.P. so it’s looking like that will be my last area.....yikes. So, I was excited but a bit overwhelmed. It will be good though.

So I started saying my goodbyes, but we knew that we had to have a BOSS Sunday before I left so we got over to Mikey’s and the Abregos, and Natalie’s and a new family we found Wednesday. We got them all prepped for church and Sunday was the best Sunday my whole mission. Sacrament meeting had started and the Abregos family came late. But all 10 of them came!!! They took up a WHOLE bench. We had 14 people at church and they all did great! I just felt so grateful and blessed. The hard part was saying goodbye to those investigators, but they are ready for baptism and I’m so excited for them.

Sunday after church we packed up my stuff and drove down to Mcallen “The Mothership”. I got there and met my new comp Elder Munsey from Colorado and the other assistant who would be with us until Wednesday (Elder Wilson NV). I love them! When I got there, things got crazy right away because of transfers. That next morning we were in the office early until 2 o'clock and then we went to the airport to pick up 21 new missionaries. The largest group since President Trayner has been here. It was CRAZY! We then took them to the LaVista Chapel (mission office) for their first day orientation. . .the same one I did my first day! haha Then we took them to the Trayner’s house for dinner!!! Dinner was great and afterwards we had a testimony meeting and told stories to the “Green Ones”.

We took some back to our house to stay with us and had to get up real early to get to the Trayner’s for breakfast and giving them the calls for their first areas. We talked about each of their trainers and then got them to the chapel for the transfer madness!!! It was NUTS! After the transfer madness, President Trayner took the 3 of us out to our favorite taco restaurant, Taco Pelenqui. We got some grub and then we went to the Trayner’s again to help prepare dinner for the going away missionaries. Man, I’m gonna get real fat here! We had the Goodbye Testimony Meeting for them and once again got home real late. Then the next morning we took them to the airport and wiped their tears as they got on the plane. I sent home a few of the Sisters that came out with me....Weird!  So after that craziness we had a big training for the sister missionaries that afternoon and finally by yesterday we got to get out to our area. It was sooooooooo good to finally teach people. I was missing it. But I love still being a normal missionary! I feel the same, but get treated different...we get really spoiled...I donno how much I like it, but oh well.

I’m soo grateful to be here in this mission. It is the greatest in the world!  And we are gonna baptize.....a lot!

I love you all so much and pray that you are all safe this week. Take care!!

Love, Elder Smith

Oh yeah 2 p.s's. I bought new shoes today...hope that’s ok, and my P-days are Fridays now! Love you!!

PROGRESS IN ROBSTOWN!

WE HAD AN AMAZING WEEK HERE!!! :) Sounds like everyone there at home is doing well too! So good to hear from you all! I love you guys! As well I wanted to tell Grandpa and Grandma HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! I LOVE YOU!! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDMA!!!! I SHOULD HAVE SENT SOMETHING BY NOW!!!! I love you Grandma!

As well I wanted to say thank you to Papa and Grammy for the great Easter letter!! And yes, I did get the package, Mom!! Thank you so much. I LOVED it!!! You guys are the best!!

So, Jazz game, train set, Chan’s at home....sounds like a party. Don’t get too crazy!!  I hope Chan enjoys his last week of freedom! I love you buddy!

This week was amazing! I may just live here in Robstown permanently after the mission if that’s not a problem! I love it here! I feel like I have talked to everyone but it’s still the best! We continue to find great people and have had some amazing experiences!

This week has been crazy with the Abrego family!! Brother Pablo had been in the hospital for so long but he finally got out and we got them all back on track! We went and bought a giant poster board and made a giant Baptismal Plan for all of them to sign and get them all on the same page! As well I had to order a giant Book of Mormon because Pablo is blind but I promise it’s worth it. They are amazing! They are so aware of the Spirit and are just eating it up right now. The whole family of about 6 came to church, minus Pablo because he was on bed rest for one more week. They loved it! Elder Rodriguez and I start every lesson singing a hymn and have had about every member in the ward over to their house! They are so great! It’s like wrangling cows trying to get the whole family together but once they are, they do amazing! I feel i have grown with this family maybe more than any other. Maybe thats just because I’ve worked with them off and on for 4 months but they are gonna make it :) PLEASE pray for them!! They are a very special family to us.

As well Natalie Ysassi passed her interview and now is just waiting on President Trayner for another interview because of some other stuff but she is super excited for baptism and I want to get brother Carlos into the water to baptize her! We have been pushing for it!!

The Ysassis continue to throw down in every lesson we bring them too and we even started teaching their kind of daughter who they took in when she was 17 and put her through college and got her work and pretty much saved her life. She and her boyfriend both have baptismal dates and are doing pretty good as well!

We had a cool experience this week because we did a mini mission with one of the young men, J. Alvarado, who leaves for his mission to Bolivia in 4 weeks. He will be a great missionary, but it was like training again. I loved it! We had some amazing experiences with him and by the end of the week he was contacting, giving blessings, throwing down when investigators wouldn't come to church, and crying about his knees because we pray too much, HAHA! He's a great kid and I’m excited for his mission!

So we have interviews with President this Thursday and we will find out transfers then! I don’t know what will happen. But I guess we will see. I’m just excited for all the great things that are happening here. We have a lot of baptisms coming up.

Man I just love the mission. I feel that is what the Lord created me to do. It truly does bring me more joy than anything...besides my family of course :) But it really is the BIGGEST blessing. The BIGGEST.

  

Thank you so much for everything you do I love you all so much! Pray that if I do get transferred, my heart won’t break into too many pieces. Hahha I’m afraid it might!!

Sorry for the scatter brained email!

I love you all and I will talk to you next week!! LOVE YOU!!!

BYE!!!

Elder Smith