WELL DONE

 

FOR THE LAST TIME

Mother! Happy Birthday.  I love you so much and cannot wait to see you.  Thankyou for writing me all along.  I seriously love you and dad with all my heart.  Hope your day was amazing! 

For the last time,

Elder Smith

GOLFING IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE

Just tunning up my game to take down big daddy miyahara when i get home.  Im pretty sure this is the only golf course in the whole amazon jungle.  and as you can see it is a 5 star course

THE SAME FLIPPIN SAM

 Not sure how it really works but ya the video is of me and my best friend elder marriott

REALLY REALLY BUT REALLY

mom are you seated? maybe it would be good to drink a hot chocolate or something before continuing... seriously go drink a hot coco.

well the other day we were doing the transfers with president Li, we had already picked the new assistant and done almost all of the transfers, and then all of the sudden president shouted "wait your going to stay until november right?"... It was as if he had seen a ghost when it dawned on him.  i told him no and that we had already spoken about this but he got really really but really worried. (thats how us latinos speak).  it was super strange and he is now doing all he can to have me stay. i told him if he felt that strongly about it he could go ahead.  as you know the flight has already been bought (you have the itinerary) but hes calling salt lake tomoro to see what he can do.  So ya i dont know how its going to turn out im really confused, but put things on pause for now.  However it goes i will make the best of it.  Im sorry for the inconvenience.  Hope the hot coco was good.  Love you mom

Elder Smith


its been nuts but yes i am coming home in october.  tomoro i will write about the week but before that could you send me a bunch of pics of before the mission.  like as a child, sports, high school, and the fam.  that would be rad.

love you

MAKE EVERY ONE COUNT - CONSECRATED PERFORMANCE

Last friday night a huge storm came to Iquitos.  I havnt read official reports but the people we teach have told me it got up to 80 mph winds(now that i think about it probably kmh).  Anyways roofs went flying.  Not all of them but a good amount.  So we went out in the morning with our pata de cabra(not sure what that is in english but its a tool used to pull out nails.  like the back side of a hammer but bigger) and hammers.  First we went to the Del Castillo family´s house to take apart the roof that fell and get all the branches of the trees that broke off the part that hadnt fallen.  As we did, i noticed a man watching us and i felt like i should talk to him.  But i looked at the top of his house and his roof looked fine so i just kept working.  At the end he was still there so i went to talk with him.  His eyes watered a little when i ask if we could help him in any way.  His house was very narrow but really long.  i had only seen the front part. The back had flown up but was still barely attached by a few nails.  Me and one of my comps, Elder Huari, got up on the roof and pulled it down into place.  (Just to understand it a little more, roofs here are made of metal sheets called calamina that are nailed into a wooden structure below.)  anyways after bending it back into place we needed to nail it down.  But no body had nails.  So we found all the old ones we could.  Lets just say we needed to make every one count.  It sounds a little rediculous but right before i would hammer in a nail i would ask the Lord to "consecrate my performance"  Usually i mess up and bend all the nails, but this time the Lord just made it happen.  i didnt mess up a single one.  We literally had the perfect amount of nails to get the job done.  Not one to spare, but it all worked out. It may sound crazy but i know the Lord helped us out.  After we got down we went to another house.  This one didnt take much discerning to see if the guy needed help because his roof was literally caved in.  We took it apart and built a little structure in the back so him and his daughter could sleep that night.  It was such a pleasure to serve all day.  Last night we went back to the houses of some of the people we helped.  They received us gladly and have now heard the glorious message of the Restoration.  It was an amazing weekend.  Also we had stake conference here and an area seventy, Elder Espinoza, came to preside.  He talked about the culture in the church and the culture of the world.  Now matter how bad the culture in the world gets, the culture in the church does not change.  I really liked that.  Hope all is well at home

un abrazo

Elder Smith

FAMILY NIGHT - AN ANSWER TO PRAYER

heres a foto (i took it) with pdte Li and Hna in the house of the family i wrote you about.  It was a huge blessing to do a family night with them and pdte li.  it really was an answer to prayer and it encouraged this family a ton.  Now we are teaching them with their sister in law who is not a member but is very interested now in the church(they gave us the reference).  The work is amazing. My comp didnt get the picture that i was in off of sister lis camera so this one is all i have for now.  But there are more to see all in due time.  Mom i love you