Hola Familia, Well i had a pretty hectic semana this week but to be honest, its been amazing! Weve been trying our best to prepare for all the missionaries that are now going to come into the mission, and also all those who are finishing their missions. Its been kind of weird to call other parents and tell them their kids are coming home. You can tell who has other kids though, because they are just like "oh alright sounds good", and the ones who its their first kid, they ask every question under the sun about what the need to do, and how they need to do it... Its fun times... Hopefully we´ll baptize them this sunday... anyways, this week like i said was great. Some guy came up to us this sunday telling us he wants us to prepare his 12 year old and 8 year old little boy for baptism. Just one of the nicest guys who really is giving everything to raise his kids. Its nice because they really are a very proper family and you can tell they are trying their best to raise their kids and he knows that the gospel is the only way. Hes been inactive though for the past 20 years and is just now coming back to the church, but what i was going to say is his kids really are super gifted and just all around geniuses. The ask profound questions and really do understand things LITERALLY better than probably anyone else ive EVER taught... But the funniest thing, the other day we were teaching about the restoration in the pamphlet and theirs a panting of 3 old prophets writing scriptures on papyrus paper or something and Elder Juarez asked a question to the little boy asking him, "what do you see in this pictures?" And bless his little heart, the boy stared at the painting for about 15 seconds and then said, "Well thats the prophet and the other 2 are his friends." And elder Juarez asked, "and what are they doing".... and the little 8 year old boy said, "Well the prophet is writing a letter to his girlfriend and his friends are helping him".... After looking at the painting and laughing i realized he was probably right hahahaha. Also lately weve been visiting a lot of inactive members and been finding a lot of people who really are ready to come back to church. Yesterday we found a lady who stopped going to church simply because no one came to visit her while she was taking care of her son in laws mom who was dying of cancer. She promised to come back to church and the best part is she makes and sells homeade icecream and gave us some really good CORN ICECREAM and Fresh Cherry icecream. Really good.... But the BEST BEST part is her daughter was there and isnt baptized and just had a baby! Well we talked about all the blessing of the gospel and she wants to be baptized.... Also this sunday when we went to church and an older sister came up to us and asked us if we could visit her husband and give him a blessing. Well the only problem was, we had NO time. Something told me though, we needed to visit her. So i cancelled some visits and we went and visited him. Well it was a nice little visit. A very "together" family that was all their. The older brother had just a little cough, but we gave him a nice blessing and left. Well... yesterday we got a call to go help set up the funeral service at the church for him because he died just yesterday... I cant even explain how great it was to know that it was truly inspired to visit him and give him that last blessing. I talked with the sister and their wasnt much to say because i didnt know the family very well, but i could tell it meant everything to her... Tanner is at MTC Camp? That's great. The more I've been out in the field the more I've wanted to just go back to the MTC. Really there are some of the greatest spiritual experiences in the mtc and hopefully tanner will be really excited to serve a mission after. Same with all the other boys. Well also dad, i saw the best talk of my life the other day. Jeffrey R Holland gave a talk at the MTC a little while back and we just happened to have it stored on the computer. I put it on a flash drive to watch again, but he talks about Peter. I want Tanner and everyone to watch this talk before his mission. He says that the savior and peter and all the apostles were just doing the work of the lord, and when Jesus died, peter and all the other apostles didnt know what to do so they just went back to what they knew how to do. Fishing. He then tells the story of how they were fishing all night without success and someone on the beach, the savior, tells them that they should cast the net on the otherside. They do, and catch a ton of fish and then realize its the savior. Then after that follows the famous if you love me speech. Elder Holland says, "peter do you love me, because ive asked you once, ive asked you twice. I only hope that the first time i asked you to follow me, you didnt mistake it for just a moment or just this little portion of life, IT WAS FOREVER!" He says to be a missionary isnt just to do this for a little while and then nothing. Its forever and then we can step into exaltation like peter. Well i love you and one day we will watch that :) Well Familia i love you all a ton and thanks so much for all the letters ive been getting. Im sorry i cant write everyone because to be honest it isnt like before, i dont have a ton of time, but throughout the week at least i can check my email here and its nice to see all the letters.... Also my prayers are still with Michael Phelps and the whole American team... Oh also i still havent gotten the package. but im sure itll come this week. Love you all and cuídense mucho! Elder Smitheram