Week 27 - 6 Months

Hola familia y amigos!

I hope that all is well in the states. Here in Federal things are good! This week we found alot of new people to teach and one man that we found is great from the moment we were in his house. He said he wanted to turn his life around. He is reading the Book of Mormon and is very sincere with everything he says. When ever we leave he thanks us and begins to cry, the spirit is always so strong with him. I love teaching him. It is amazing to see how the gospel fits in perfectly with peoples lives like a missing puzzle piece.

We went to one of our part member families and when we got there we could tell that the husband who isn´t a member didn´t really want us to be there that night for what ever reason. Then we had a great activity with them where we told the whole family we were going to go on a trip to where ever they wanted to go. They chose places like Utah, Hawaii, and of course Las Vegas ha ha. Well we said that we are all on the plane heading to where they wanted to go when all of a sudden the plane starts to have difficulties and we are going to crash. We hand out pieces of paper and tell them to write their last words to who ever they want. They had 5 minutes to do so and then they folded there papers in half and handed them into us, and we put them in a box. We then explained that some how the box opened up and all the papers got destroyed. My companion tore all the papers up!! They all said they felt said that they couldn´t say what they wanted to there families.

We told them that we can´t put things off in this life because we don´t know what will happen. Then my companion gave them back their papers to them because we didn´t really rip them up. We invited them to read and many of them cried doing so. I then bore my testimony and I used James 4:14 "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth." At the end of the lesson the wife asked her spouse who he wanted to pray and he said "Vos mi amor?" and she said "Si mi vida" Sorry I had to describe it in Spanish because it is just so much cooler ;)

When we left the spirit was so strong there.The next day at church the hermana bore her testimony of the experience and said after we left they sat around the table and spoke just like an eternal family. When usually on a Saturday night they are off doing separate things. It was a great experience to be apart of. It is amazing that I have been gone for 6 months already. I love my mission and every experience I have had, the difficult ones and dangerous ones too ;)

I want to end with a quote by mother Theresa. Hope you like it!

Love, Elder Smart

People are often unreasonable, Illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, You will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, People may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, Someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, They may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, People will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, And it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God; It never was between you and them anyway.
– Mother Theresa