5-24-10

Buenos Dias!

Going to have to be a little shorter or a little quicker on my email today, had to do some new fangled doo-thingy for reporting Key Indicators and that ate up a good chunk of my online time!

I went to a Pulga (Flea Market) again this past Saturday. Though it was in a different location AND it was sunny which made the experiance very different. The previous Pulga was like a garage sale with tables and some covering. And since it was Rainy not all that many people had ventured out to check the wares. This last time it was in the Pulga that is nicknamed 'Little Mexico' and it was FAR more appealing. I felt like it was a fair or something! So cool! And there were LOTS more people! And it was hot, very hot. Thank goodness for the breezes! Though the breezes meant that there was dust everywhere and that was not especially pleasant. But a good experiance none-the-less for learning. My spanish is improving little by little. But I'm encountering accents that I have NO idea what they are saying.

Also I want to give an apology to those who have sent me a letter a while back and have nto yet recieved their reply. I promised to answer every letter and I stand by that promise! I just didn't say it'd be immediate. The last two Preperation Days have not been terribley conducive to writing letters. But this week is going to be mostly a home-and-recuperate-from-various-ailments day. So I should have time to write several letters. So you are not forgotten! Thank you so much for every letter!

Today I checked the temperature in the dash of our car and in the morning it's already 92 degrees. I've heard that this summer is going to be a hot one. (And it usually is in the 100's, oh goodness gracious) The humidity really does make the difference. I thought it was in the nineties a few days ago because of how hot I felt, but it was only 84 degrees! Air Conditioning is my FRIEND. I want to send Christmas Cards to whoever invented this glorious machine.

And that's it for now. Good luck to you all!

Love
~ Hermana Smart

Fun photos

My District at the MTC, my companion Sister Read who I loved and a few other fellow missionaries.

Guess Who?

I bumped into Elder Anthony DeMagio at the MTC from my home Ward. He is off to serve in Oklahoma!

Week 2 in th field

Howdy, Y'all!

Okay I haven't actually said that yet to anyone (though the 'ustedes' form in Spanish is basically the 'y'all' form) but I certainly do hear it often from the english-speakers that I'm around.

I made a list of things I wanted to type about, hopefully I remembered to write everything!

First I remember people telling me about all the food I would get stuffed with all the time, I was a little worried being of a tender tummy as I am at times. And all the stores about the strange/gross things other Missionaries had to eat did not help my expectations. But one thing I discovered in Texas is that I actually get hungery! I thought I'd be stuffed to the gills all the time, but thankfully that doesn't happen. We get fed dinner at least once a week on Thursdays before Coordination Meeting. But other than that it's been only occasional that we get fed again. But earlier in this week I did experiance five meals in one day. Three dinners in a row, less than an hour apart from eachother. Amazingly I didn't feel full by the time the next one came, I wasn't hungry but I was able to eat what was placed in front of me. That was a little crazy, but I chalked it up as a positive experience.

Friday we had this crazy-awesome Thunder and Lightning storm! While waiting for a ride with a recent convert to the Ward Family Home Evening my companion and I were watching the lightning in the distance and counting the seconds between the flash and the rumble to gauge the distance. It was still pretty far away. But when we went from the little back porch area to look out the front door there was a blue-white flash and an almost immediate crash above us! Then all the car alarms in the parking lot went off! I've never seen that before! I wish I'd had my camera with me! Around then it started to rain really, really hard. Being from Seattle and a storm-lover I was enjoying the experiance. Later while driving the freeway went at a crawling pace and it was like one big bucket was constantly pouring over us. While returning home in the dark it was so surreal! We were not driving on roads anymore, they were rivers! Out of drains and manhole covers water was gushing like fountains! Some smaller cars were in water up to their headlights! It took a while to get home. We could see other cars making waves like speedboats as they went through the lakes that had formed. Houston is so flat, there is nowhere for the water to go!

Also there was an article in the Houston Chronicle, a newspaper that I think has the 7th highest circulation or something, had an article about the Missionaries in Houston as the cover story. Just go to the website and search 'On a Mission' and you can read it! The reporter who had been researching the Mission and going to lessons, meetings, and such did a really good job of being fair and reporting only accurate information. I recommend that everyone go read it directly after reading this!

I have been pretty much having a dream Mission so far. People are generally very nice, even when uninterested in our message. My Trainer is wonderful and so much fun. And I haven't melted from the heat yet! There was one experience this past week though that I will count as a good learning experience even if I do not feel it was especially positive in any way. My Companion Hermana Green and I had gone to a house for an appointment and as it sadly frequently happens no one was home. While trying to decide what to do with the rest of the time until our next appointment I took notice of a man hanging on the other side of the tall fence of a house across the street. He was watching us. I suggested that maybe we should go talk to him. Maybe he was the reason we were here at this time. So Hermana Green and I walked over and started a conversation. I regretted my suggestion rather quickly I'm afraid. This man might have been drunk, or high, or even possessed in some degree. I felt like I was looking at a dangerous animal through the fence. He kept moving back and forth, pressing his face against the bars as if he wanted to get at us. I felt a jolt of fear when he grabbed the fence and pulled it to the side, it was a sliding gate, and he came on the same side as us.And the things he said were not at all in harmony with the doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He insisted that Moses was a false profet and so the first books of the Bible were all false, and that Jesus Christ has said that there was no such thing as the Sabbath Day. He has his own interpretation of the Bible that would allow him to live any way he wanted and still feel good about himself. And he refused to listen to anything we had to say, he just wanted to tell us how to free ourselves from organized religion. I think the greatest thing I learned fromt his unpleasant encounter was that I started to feel downright nauseated while he was talking. That was a sign from the Holy Ghost letting us know that this was not a place that we wanted to be anymore. I have never encountered something, or someone, so devoid of the light of Christ that I felt physically ill before. Later our District Leader gave us advice when we recounted the experiance. He said that if we ever felt that way again, to just get out of that situation.

Now after that back onto happier things! We had an investegatore accept to be baptized! YAY! Hermana Green said that he is my Investegator too because I have been there ever since his second lesson. Oh Pedro is such a good guy! He's around his fifties I believe, recently moved into the area, and is looking for a community to associate himself with. He was actually a referal from a recent convert who made his aquaintance. Pedro soaks up everything like a sponge and is not afraid to ask as many questions as he feels like! When we gave him a Book of Mormon to begin reading, he would read several chapters that were not assigned! The last lesson we had with him he said first thing "I want to become baptised" and we were so happy! Though he wanted to get baptised right before we left the mission. That's a problem, because Hermana Green and I are not leaving at the same time, and she's leaving in five months which is far too long to wait! We got him down to two weeks from now. I'm so Excited! He'll be my first Convert! His apartmentmate has been taking lessons too. Though we found out he has some serious problems that need to be worked out, he's progressing too. Last lesson he said that he wanted to change and become better, and wanted to participate in our church, but to not leave the Catholic Church. We'll see how long that keeps up, but even if it's a little he's still progressing!

I'm participating far more than just bearing my Testimony now in lessons, I can give points of doctrine and personal stories, though those are still a little awkward and I need a lot of help. Still, bearing my Testamony is very strong, the Spirit touches me and those we teach too. When in doubt, bear your Testimony of Christ! It's ALWAYS a good idea!

Oh! Gah... running out of time but I want to mention that on Saturday I went to the Pulga! (Flea Market) where we talk to people who pass by our table, pass out literature, and find the people who would be willing to have the Missionaries come over and share a message about Jesus Christ. In Spanish! I was so awkward but one lady listened to me, and signed the binder and I did that one almost all on my own! That was towards the end, when I wasn't tripping over my words as bad. But we're doing it again this Saturday at a busier location, and there will be tons more people without it raining so bad!

That's all for now, folks!

Love you!
~ Hermana Smart

Greetings from Texas!

Hola Y'all!

Alrighty now... where to begin? I'm already struggling to get my journal caught up on the events since I got here, I've been in Texas for six days now. I haven't melted into a puddle yet! Yaaaay!

My companion is the best companion in the history of companions, and Trainers too since she is my Trainer. Not only is she nice, kind, patient, good at Spanish, and knows how to make sushi and stir fry. But she ALSO likes making stories like I do! When we have a few minutes here and there we geek out over stuff and it is fabulous and does my heart good! Hermana Green is very strong spiritually and I know that I am so blessed to have her showing me the ropes. Since I haven't been given the okay to drive yet I am the one that handles the phone every day. We have a cellphone for Missionary Work, and every time it rings I get so nervouse that someone's going to be speaking Spanish and breaking up since the signal is weak and I'll have to know what they're trying to say! But actually, eat time I've picked up it has been someone who also speaks english, or not someone who is Spanish at all! My luck can't hold out forever though, and eventually I'll need to take the dive and call someone in Spanish, which is fast approaching I know. As in the next few days!

And as for the heat/humidity: actually we haven't spent many extended periods of time outside yet. We have appointments to go to, and everyone lives with air conditioning so once we're inside it's nice. One lesson we taught to someone who got baptised last sunday (and confirmed yesterday, yay!) lives with some family that is not very fond of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they don like the missionaries coming inside. So he brought out a blanket for us Hermanas to sit on while he sat apart under a tree. That was the only time I thought 'I could actually pass out now... maybe... wait the wind's blowing I'm okay... oh it stopped, poo...' So on and so forth. I can understand pretty okay, especially during lessons since that is all vocabulary that I've learned. But when others start talking about other things, really fast, without enunciating all that clearly. Then I'm just kind of lost, honestly.

But the people are so nice! Even when they are not interested in talking to us or accepting any pass-along cards they are very polite. And when we are in the store, everyone is very friendly, even another shopper asked what we were looking for at one point in Walmart. And the Members! Oh they are SO sweet! Everyone wanted to meet me, and the Sisters here give a sweet kiss by the cheek when hugging or after shaking hands. It's starting to make up for all the times, many many times I had to watch all the Elders give eachother hugs back in the MTC. I missed having lots of hugs from my friends. After I'd spent every day for several hours a day with these young men, I couldn't hug them goodbye!!! I made sure to get mission adresses at least. I don't know how many would actually send me a letter back, being young men who are busy on the Lord's errand, but I'll still try.

And the language is coming. I actually get a lot of help from the people we teach while I'm trying to speak. I do pretty well in some areas, but others I just mix up the grammar or mispronounce a word, or just straight mess up. But everyone helps me through it, everyone is willing to repeat what they said. And the ones who know some english will sometimes just be nice and say if they know it. But on the flip side, many of them are trying to learn English and so I help them. It is just such a sweet spirit that the Saints have here. I am SO blessed to be in this mission. The Mission President and his Wife are so kind, really wonderful people. And all the Senior Missionaries in the Mission Office are also just good people. They love you the moment you walk in and I feel it every time I see them or hear from them.

It is so wonderful being here, and seeing the real people that I am here to serve. I now have the opportunity to share the simple, wonderful, saving truths that people are searching for. Whether they know it or not.

I send you all my love from Texas, and I hope each of you called your Mothers yesterday!

~ Hermana Smart

Leaving Utah and heading to Texas!

I got my travel plans! Whoo! I got them last week Thursday, I am actually leaving Wednesday May 5th, not the 4th, so they changed the date on me again but that's okay. I report to the Travel Office at 5am Wednesday morning (not as bad as 2 or 3 in the morning like some missionaries have to) and there a bus will shuttle me to the Salt Lake City airport. By 12:58pm I'll be in Houston Texas where my Mission President will be waiting to pick me up. AH, that's exactly 7 days and four minutes from now!!! Can you believe it? I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my brain around it too. But let the good times roll.

Speaking of good times: Elder L. Tom Perry spoke at the Devotional last night! Can you believe our luck? Two Apostles of the Lord spoke to us since we have been here. I feel very blessed. His wife spoke first and it was about taking Missionary Work seriously, it was exactly what I felt I needed to hear before heading out into the Mission Field to teach and help people for real. Elder Perry spoke about the Book of Mormon and its great significance to our Church, and especially to our work. And how important it is to be a Witness of its truthfullness. It is the single greatest tool that we have for conversion. If anyone, and I mean eanyone, reads the Book of Mormon with a heart that sinscerely wants to know if it is true, and also with the willingness to change if they do know it is true, then the Lord with manifest the truth of it unto them by the power of his messenger the Holy Ghost. I know this to be true. And if the Book of Mormon is true, then that means that Joseph Smith really is a Profet, and that means that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored at this time and the Fullness of his Gospel and Priesthood are present on the Earth again.

I said it last week but I'll say it again: I am so blessed, so lucky, so privlaged to be a part of this work of bringing souls unto Christ. Thereby allowing them to repent, recieve a remission of their sins through baptism by one holding the true authority from God, recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost to remain in their lives as a blessed guide and comforter, and then help them to prepare to Endure to the End so they can earn the Fullness of Joy that will come to all Saints who remain obediant to the laws and commandments of God and Jesus Christ.

I am a Missionary. I am happy.

Thank you again to all of the lovely people who have been sending me letters and DearElders and packages. Though do keep in mind that DearElder won't work anymore once I'm out of the MTC, so if you wanted to use it, you have just a couple more days! Letters sent to the MTC I think will be sent back with my Mission Home address on them. My Mission Home address is on my blog, and sending letters there will always be assured to get to me, though I might get them only once a transfer (every 6 weeks) but while I've heard that, I've also heard that the Mission Home will forward them on to the missionaries. I'll have to find out once I'm down there how my mission runs the mail. I will not be living at the Mission Home, but in other places around the area. Either an apartment, or in a Member's home. I've also hard some rather terrible stories about Missionaries living in chicken coops or sharing their homes with cockroaches. BUT: I think that since I'm in the States and also I'm a Sister Missionary, my chances of decent living quarters is higher.

Also remember: if you have any questions about what I'm doing or things I mention, or a question about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) in general feel free to post questions here (with your name preferabley) and my Parents can answer, or forward the questions on for me to answer (if you don't want to write me a letter for some reason) And also the Church website www.lds.org is a wonderful source. I've gone on there and found my own answers for questions I've had. There are past General Conferences recorded on there in text, audio, and video form. Also news about the activities of the church. The Book of Mormon is all online (though you can order a copy for yourself for free in the mail as well!) and answers to many issues going on in the world today.

I love you all! Good luck in your lives, I am praying for many of my family and friends and I also appreciate all the prayers that I feel given on my behalf.

This is a wonderful work I am engaged in, and no matter how often I become depressed, or discouraged, or frustrated with myself and others, I knwo that they will pass. Because I am on the Lord's errand I am entitled to share in his strength. I have not been sent out to fail. There is every reason I should succeed, blessing my life and more imporately the lives of those precious Children of God who have been prepared to recieve the Message of the Restored Gospel.

Buenos Suerte y Amor en Sus Vidas!

~ Hermana Smart

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