Planting seeds by the sweat of my brow

How do you do your laundry? Do you have a lady to do it for you?
Ya a member. Hna Patty does it for us every week for 100Q per month....about 12 dollars

How is your knee doing this week?
It’s doing better but it’s not too perfect ya know. It still throbs all the time but the stinging pains are occurring a lot less.

How did your follow up go with Flori? I have been praying for her.
Well we still haven’t been able to do a follow up with her. She has been ¨busy¨ so I don’t know what will happen with her. I think she just isn’t ready for change quite yet. Someday she might have that urge though. I sure hope so. I hope we were able to plant that seed.

Did you find out what happened to Sandy?
Sandy is just fine. Ha I don’t know, I guess that’s how she locks her door. But she is still good and progressing as a great investigator. She missed church last week though. So we will see if we can baptize her by the 17th cuz she needs to go to church.

Do you have an emergency backpack ready with clothing, water, flashlight etc? I’ve heard some elders talk about them being asked to have one prepared at all times.
Ya we have water and I have like 3 flashlights...
(Isn’t it great how he answered that question? Typical boy!)

Do you get the Ensign in English? I can’t put down the conference issue. If you don’t get the English version, I’ll send it to you because it has such amazing doctrine that you can ponder and study.
Ya we don’t get anything in English so that would be great. Also a little Book of Mormon in English that is hardcover, the ones for like 5 bucks...I need to mark some stuff in it but I don’t want to do it in my own...

Anyways...

HI ALL!!
OK the deal is that we didn’t have P day yesterday. Its today! Cuz earlier today we went to the temple as a zone. It was great! 3 members of the 70 were with us in the session! I even understood like 90% of it even though it was in Spanish!

So for this week.. . Let’s see. . My comp has gotten a little lazier so that has been kind of hard. I have gotten in a lot of studying that’s for sure! We taught this family the other day, Family Larrazabal. They are great and have so many questions that can be answered with this gospel it’s just so great. We taught the restoration to them and the spirit was so so strong it was so great!! I just know they will be baptized. There is the mom Yolanda, 17 year old girl Geoselin, 14 year old boy Mario Rene, 12 year old boy Juan Jose, and a 9 year old girl Yoli (Yolanda). They are so great and so friendly. I hope I will be able to baptize them next change.

This week on Saturday we went to Metro Terminal, the grocery store complex in our area and contacted people. We split though, me and Elder Bronson (who came out same time as I did) went together. Two gringos going out to preach in Spanish! That’s how we do! Ha!! So there was this man there who begs and has one leg. My comp tried to contact him while passing by but he wanted nothing to do with it saying he was Pentecostes. Later, I wanted to try again with Elder Bronson, but be more prepared. So I took out Alma 40:23 about our bodies becoming perfected! We went up to him and he tried to resist but I started sharing the scripture with him anyway. After starting, I could feel the spirit and he was listening to me read the scripture. I gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, invited him to church and went on our way. It was great. I doubt anything will come of it because he really didn’t want anything to do with us. But who knows, he might search to learn more about the church....

Well I have been chased by a dog around a tree...there are strays everywhere and you can usually just shoo them away. So I tried and it growled at me and well, chased me around a tree. That was fun. lol. I am pretty much afraid of dogs now.

We have had a few more rainstorms but it has been really hot lately. I don’t think I have gone one day without having to wipe the sweat off my brow. I hope it’s from working hard and not just the heat. I have lost 10 pounds already since coming out into the field. Crazy! I might need a new belt soon with more notches haha!

Magda came to our church on Sunday! It was good to see a familiar face. She gave us some delicious sweet bread! So nice of her! But ya, that’s about the extent of it. (Magda is a family friend that lives in Provo, but is originally from Guatemala and was vacationing down there!)

I am almost done with the Book of Mormon. I am in 3rd Nephi right now. It’s going great, I love it. And then I just finished the Gospels in the bible!! Then I read Jesus the Christ every night too. It’s going so great. I have been marking how many times it says God, or Christ or things like that in my Spanish Book of Mormon too. I am in Alma and so far there are only 5 pages that don’t have references to God or Christ but there has been a total of about 1930 references up to Alma 17 or so. It’s great! And it’s a great tool to show investigators what the Book of Mormon is really about, and not about Joseph Smith.

Well that’s about it for this week! Love you guys! Ah I am so stoked for change conference on Monday. I had a dream last night about getting a white companion. If that happens.... WHOOWEE so sweet!!!. lol.
Stay Strong.
Keep the Faith.
Elder Smith