The Trash Can

This week was a pretty good one following Carnival! It was a little bit tough at first because a lot of our appointments fell through due to the after Carnival hang over but after that we were able to really get things going! 

Yuandia is still doing well and we are excited about her progress! Shalan is doing alright and we are going to keep working with him. This week he asked if he could still smoke so we had to talk about that one but we think he understood!

Also I just had to throw this short story in so that you could here a little bit about what I am going threw lately! So on friday a polynesian elder and a philipino elder were on a tradeoff together. They ended up getting into a little argument over some stupid thing and the poly didn't like it so he tried to put the philipino in a trash can next to the busiest bus stand in St. Lucia so everyone saw it... Life as a Lucian ZL... Ha!

Odellia is really excited for her baptism but I just had to share a story with you! So we have been planning on having the baptism on the 1st of August for quite some time! now they ended up scheduling an all day branch activity on the other side of the island for that day! So we were told that Odellia couldn't do it in the morning but she could do it during the activity, on the other side of the island! So she was disappointed because her dad was going to come but wouldn't be able to come if it was that far. So the branch told her she would just have to do it the next week. Elder Beck and I were ticked! Odellia was devastated! There really wasn't much we could do about it! Then Odellia went to Relief Society and they asked her why the baptism was moved and they got ticked! So they got it all worked out with the branch and now she is getting baptized in the morning before her activity so her Dad can come! She is super excited! It was cool to see the sisters rally around her and get the job done!

Well things are going great! I am loving the work here and we are working hard! I hope all is well at home! I love you all! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

Janais' Baptism!

What a sweet week this was! It was so cool to see Janais prepare for her baptism! She was so excited and on saturday it was such a spiritual experience! I was able to feel the love that Heavenly Father had for her and I also was able to realize why Christ said "For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" Janais is the perfect example of that! She is a very Christlike child!

Odellia is still just killing it! We have started sharing Mormon Messages with her and she loves them! She now watches them on her own and she puts them on facebook! Ha I have never taught someone so prepared in my life! It is incredible to see the spirit work through her! We are going to be teaching her about the temple tonight and she is excited about that! So yeah, she is doing great!

We unfortunately had to drop Sheena because she stopped progressing and that is always really sad to see but unfortunately that is just part of missionary work! 

Oh also the other day I had a really neat experience. I went to get the mail and it was a letter from Grenada! I opened it and it was two notes from my recent converts Alana and Vaniria. It was so cool to hear that they are still going strong and I teared up as I read it. Alana told me that it was just the right time in her life for her to learn about the Savior and that we were sent to her. What is so cool about that is it's absolutely true! I know that because she wanted nothing to do with us at first. But then the spirit worked through her so much and now she is a strong member of the church. They both thanked me for similar things but I think my favorite one was when they said, "Thanks for teaching me that I have a Savior that loves me and suffered and died for me." Now if that was all that I ever really got through to them then I still feel like I did my job. Because that is what they will need to rely on in every hard time they ever go through. That is the most important thing! There are other "appendages", as Joseph Smith said but the love of the Savior and His Atonement is the most important thing. So try as you go throughout your week to teach others that they have a Savior who loves them. I know that Jesus Christ is that Savior and that He really does love us. Never doubt that! I love you all! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

"Now, to anyone within the sound of my voice who has wondered regarding our Christianity, I bear this witness. I testify that Jesus Christ is the literal, living Son of our literal, living God. This Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer who, under the guidance of the Father, was the Creator of heaven and earth and all things that in them are. I bear witness that He was born of a virgin mother, that in His lifetime He performed mighty miracles observed by legions of His disciples and by His enemies as well. I testify that He had power over death because He was divine but that He willingly subjected Himself to death for our sake because for a period of time He was also mortal. I declare that in His willing submission to death He took upon Himself the sins of the world, paying an infinite price for every sorrow and sickness, every heartache and unhappiness from Adam to the end of the world. In doing so He conquered both the grave physically and hell spiritually and set the human family free. I bear witness that He was literally resurrected from the tomb and, after ascending to His Father to complete the process of that Resurrection, He appeared, repeatedly, to hundreds of disciples in the Old World and in the New. I know He is the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah who will one day come again in final glory, to reign on earth as Lord of lords and King of kings. I know that there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved and that only by relying wholly upon His merits, mercy, and everlasting grace can we gain eternal life."

Jeffrey R Holland

 Here are some Pics from Janais baptism! It felt so good to get back in that Lucian Water!

They look a little crazy in this pic!  Too much "Dew"! :)

Don't blow it!

This week was an amazing week and i have a lot to talk about but also not a lot of time to talk about it! So bear with me!

Odellia is killing it! Hands down the most prepared person I have ever taught! She is solid! She fasted this week as well! Ha who does that?!? Anyway, we also were able to give her a blessing to help her through a hard time and she was able to feel the spirit through that! It was pretty cool because Brittany actually suggested it! They are quite the team! 

Next is Janais is getting baptized this week and is really excited! You can just see how the spirit is helping her learn and it is really cool! IT makes me really happy to see! She is sweet!

We also had the opportunity to go and visit a member who is married to the captain of that one ship that was in Pirates of the Caribbean! Remember those pics from last year! Anyway he was just telling us all these stories from the filming of the movie and it was sweet! He was telling us about how he got to know Johnny Depp pretty well and how cool it was to work with him and told us stories about some of the other cast members like Kiera Knightley and people like that! It was sweet! Ha he has some cool stories and he was in the movies! I am excited to watch those in about 4 months or so! :)

We also got to meet Pres. Herrington and he is a neat man. Different from Pres. Mehr but they are great people and it will be a great transition. We didn't get to go teaching with him do to time but I am excited to work with him!

IT was kinda funny when I met him and I told him I was from Brigham City the first thing he said was, "Oh President Packer's old stomping ground!" Ha and then I just laughed and told him about how we were related and he just looks at me and just smiled and said, "You're related to him? Hmm well don't blow it!" And then he just started laughing! Ha it was funny! But then in the interview we talked a little about the Brigham City temple dedication and visiting the Packer's house at Christmas time. It was cool! I will never forget those! It was crazy though because just later that day we get a text from the same member that is married to the Captain saying, "My deepest sympathies on the passing of President Packer." I was in shock! I mean I knew it was coming at some point but I was still caught off guard. I love Uncle Boyd. Great man! 

I also read his final talk in conference and it was neat to see how much he loved his family and Aunt Donna. He always fought to protect the family. That is how I will remember him. And I am so grateful that I got to feel the spirit there in his home. I know that he is doing this great work on the other side now!

I love you all! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

Oh WOW!

This week was really sweet! We had some breakthroughs and we saw some real miracles! It also is crazy that the mission is splitting this week and that the Mehr's are gong home! I am going to miss them bad! My new mission President is President Harrington and he is going to be coming here on friday for a little meeting and then he wants to go teaching with me and Elder Beck for an hour. So we are lining up our superstars for that hour! It is crazy how fast time is going and that the mission split time is here!

Janais is still doing well and we are just working with her! Her grandma still thinks we are hilarious and gives us a good self esteem boost!

We are teaching a girl named Odelia and she is sweet! She is 18 and super smart and excited to learn. We found her a little while ago while I was eating something called an ice lolly, (Similar to a popsicle) and she walked by and we talkedto her. She seemed pretty cool but busy and so she told us to just give her a call. Ha I would like to have a dollar for each time I heard that one! But anyway on Monday we had a ton of things fall through so we decided to give her a call! Lo and behold she was able to meet with us and she loved the restoration! At the end of the lesson we told her, "You remind us of a girl at the church, her name is Brittany." Come to find out that her and Brittany are like best friends from school! Ha crazy! A little bit about Brittany is that she just turned in her mission papers and is a superstar in the branch. So we obviously couldn't have a better fellowshipper! So we called Brittany and told her and lined it up so that she could come teach Odelia with us the next time! We went by on thursday with her and a guy named Silas and we had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. It was really cool to see Brittany teach her friend about the Book of Mormon and it was a really spiritual lesson! Now we move on to Saturday, Plan of Salvation lesson. We had a feeling this would be good and it did not disappoint! She loved it and it answered a lot of questions that she had! We then invited her to be baptized on the 1st of August and she paused for a while, took a deep breath, (Elder Beck and I were getting kinda nervous) then she said, "I'm so excited!" Now everytime she talks about it she gets super excited! She went on to tell us that she had wanted to get baptized for a while and for whatever reason it just hadn't happened. Then she said something that I just loved! She said, "Maybe the Lord has just been preparing me for this moment!" The spirit has been teaching and preparing her a ton! She is one of the coolest people I have taught on my mission! She also came to church and loved it! She is really excited for next week! So yeah that is pretty sweet! Tender mercy from the Lord!

I love this work! It is going great! I love you guys! Have a great week!

With Love,

Elder Smith

Weather the storm!

This week was an interesting one! We had a lot of craziness going on and also a lot of miracles! So to start out St. Lucia is in what they call a "Water Shortage". Which kinda makes me laugh. I mean it's a tropical island! Ha so let's be real here! But anyway it has been raining like crazy! So we've just had to weather the storm! (I'll send a pic about how we did that!)

First miracle is with our girl Janais! She is killing it again! It was kinda funny because we had been trying to figure out what her concern with baptism was and so we went over and I asked her, "Janais, why don't you feel ready to get baptized?" and she said she was nervous and so Elder Beck asked her why and she paused for a little while and she said, "Well, I don't want a big crowd to be there!" Ha so it was funny because she is just so shy and it was totally a Janais answer!

About a week ago we found this cool 20 year old girl Heidi and her brother Matthew! They are sweet! We taught them the restoration and they understood really well and loved the fact that Christ's church is on the earth today! Elder Beck and Elder Brown went back to see them on tuesday, (I was on a tradeoff) and her friend Nicole was there and they taught her! Anyway the lesson went well and at the end they invited her to be baptized on the 25th of July and she was excited about it and asked to borrow their pen so she could write it down! She then was like, "What time is that going to be at? Just so I don't schedule anything over it! Ha so she is sweet! We are really excited about them

Sheena is also doing well! We are excited about her and we also found some other really cool people! 

I also had a good fathers day and I am so grateful for my father and for all that he did for me! He is a "real man" as Elder Christofferson would say! I love you Dad! Thank you for all you do! Have a great week everybody! I love you all!

With Love,

Elder Smith

"Though he will make some sacrifices and deny himself some pleasures in the course of honoring his commitments, the true man leads a rewarding life. He gives much, but he receives more, and he lives content in the approval of his Heavenly Father. The life of true manhood is the good life."

D Todd Christofferson

This is how we "lime" with the constant rain!:)

He liked the fish until he tore off a piece and the brain came out with it, then he couldn't eat the rest. Blach!!!!!:(