Familia y otras personas quien todavía están leyendo estas cartas....


Well, week turned around, Elder Santos and I prayed, and had a miracle happen... We baptized the 3 kids and placed 9 other baptisimal dates! Hahaha lets be honest im loving the mission right now and Elder "saints" and i are doing everything we can to bring people to the gospel.... Also, this week i reported another 2 baptisms so im hoping all go well with those...


Also, real quick, thanks to everyone who sent me letters this past week, it was awesome to be able to read a bunch of letters! and Dad, if you could, let Mitt Romney know im really proud of what hes doing hahahha...


Well so this week we had some pretty cool experiences, our president came to, as the mexicans call it, "planchar", which basically means iron out all the wrinkles, we decided to make some changes for the better... Weve been setting goals extremely high, and the lords been helping us achieve those... (Also real quick, i feel like ive just about forgotten english, so if I spell anything wrong, I guess youll know the gift of tounges must only work for one language at a time)... Also, like you said, I dont know what it is about being a missionary, but some weeks are up some weeks are down, but there always seems to be experiences... For example... We always have "noches de hogar" with families, i honestly dont remember what its called in english, but because a lot of families have deep catholic backgrounds, we find ourselves taking a lot of their items signifying the apostasy... Hahaha that is to say, pictures of the virgin mary, crosses, bibles of jehovas witness, interpretations of the bible, or "what the bible really teaches" books... You should see, i literally have a huge box of apostasy items!! Well we always replace the items with paintings of our temple here, picutres of baptisms, or the prophet... Well ive been taking a lot of stuff from one of my converts lately, and the house, litterally feels more and more homely, like the spirit is welcoming you there, and i thought to myself, why in the world are people putting giant crosses up on the wall if their house could feel like this... Well one member got mad at me for pointing out they had a cross on their wall so i gave them "the parable of the bat". It goes a little something like this...


"one day you sent your kid to the store with 10 pesos, (about a dollar), to buy a kilo of tortillas, (and i always use whatever child they have around as the example), and you kids walking to get tortillas and a guy jumps out and hits your kid in the head with a bat... Then continues to beat your child with a bat until death, steals the money, then leaves... Well of course youre really sad, and your family and friends are really sad for you, so they get together and make little bats and wear them as necklaces to remember your son... But if thats not enough, each of them have a giant bat hanging up in their house to help remember your son... (then after telling the story i always ask them)... Now how do you think god feels when you wear crosses around your necks, and hang a giant cross up on your wall? (well now you know what kind of teacher I am when i teach lessons, but to be honest im very direct and I love them and they know that, so they change for the better...


All my companion and I do is tell stories and planchar with love... To be honest, when i first came to the mission field i was afraid to tell people to stop smoking, afraid to tell them they were living their lives in sin, but now, ive learned from Elder Santos just to tell them with love that they are, but everything can change... And as a missionary, IVE SEEN THE CHANGES, and it makes all the hard work worth it... I loved baptising the kids, and afterwards I told their drug addict mom I was going to change her life too, set a baptismal date for april and weve already started...


I guess if nothing else, the mission teaches you a different kind of love... One you just want to share with everyone...


Well anyways, i hope everyone is doing good, Hope Tanner can email me sometime soon, and also i have a song for the girls.... Shes the Hannah Montanna for Mexicans and for anyone who wants to know how fast people really talk here, shes a perfect example... "Danna Poala - Mundo de Caramelo"...


Tell everyone im doing alright and miss them, and it was awesome getting photos, send more!


Hasta luego todos!


Elder Smitheram