Week 24 - Ice Cream for the kids!

Hello,

Man it is hard to think about what to write because so much happens in one week. This week we had a family night with a member family. We watched Prophet of the Restoration. I have missed watching that ever since I left the MTC. We have been working with the members alot this week and it is so fun to talk to the little kids. ha ha They are so funny. They think of us missionaries as people from different worlds, but then when I start to sing along with them a song they laugh and start to love us back as people ha.

Me and my companion bought two young member kids ice cream this week and they were so grateful for it! It was like we took them to Disneyland! It reminds me of how fortunate we are in the states with the things we have.

Spanish is coming along but the thing I don´t like is that I cant express myself exactly how I want because they have different kinds of sayings here. I am learning them though but I feel like an old man trying to learn the slang of young kids hahaha.

Well love you all Thanx for everything!

Elder Smart

Week 23 - Meeting Pres. Giuliani

Hello everybody!!

This last week has just been full of excitement! We had transfers and so literally the whole week I was running around because after transfers we had a meeting that was 5 hours away in Santa Fe. It was with our new mission President. He is amazing and so is his wife. At the conference I got to see a lot of my friends from the MTC, which was great because I miss them a lot.. We traveled back home that night to Entre Rios and all 9 of us Elders where standing on the curb waiting for our bus. All of a sudden an Elder took of running, and yelling saying "that´s our bus!" ha ha We all ran 200 yds in our suits to catch the bus and we did. People in the streets probably thought we were secret agents ha ha.

Every single day I pray that some one will come and ask us about the gospel because that means they are ready to listen. Well, what happened yesterday after church is that we were cooking and we got a knock on the door and I answered it. It was a young man and he asked me in English about what we believe! In English! Ha A miracle for me because I was more then happy to do it in English. We have scheduled to teach him this week and it is going to be cool. He is here in Federal studying medicine and has learned English from students who came here from the states. He is from Brazil.

Things are really great here and the Spanish is coming along :)

Thanx for the support Love you all!

ELDER SMART

Week 22 - Farewell Elder Black, until we meet again!

Aw man this week felt very long with the cold weather here and all the walking we did. It has been very rewarding though. With one of our investigators that Elder Black and I have been teaching we had a wonderful experience with teaching him about priesthood authority. Elder black taught it really well and it was like a light switch of understanding that showed on our investigators face.

He accepted a date to be baptized and he is working towards it :)

In church on testimony meeting all of the young kids got up and bore there testimonies in the way that cute little kids do. Well then this young boy named Facundo got up and bore his testimony. He is 9 and you couldn´t even see him standing behind the pulpit. He bore his testimony of his love for his savior and started to cry. The spirit in the room was incredible. It is amazing the power of the Holy Ghost, it resides in whatever place that people have a heart to feel it.

Today I found out that I am staying in the same area and that my companion Elder Black is going to a different area. I am not sure who my new companion is yet, so I will let you know that next week in my email. Elder Black is a great Elder that I have learned so much from. I am lucky to know him and I believe he will be one of my life long friends. We fought sheep and dogs and preached this gospel together. These are great memories that I will always remember. "Prepare now for the stories that your kids will one day ask you to tell them."- Elder Holland.

Thanx for all the love and support and Happy 4th of July..... I love AMERICA!

Week 21 - Ghost Town

Hello family and friends!

I hope you are all enjoying summer because it is freezing here in Argentina! People here are all talking about the American Cup, which is soon going to take place. They laugh at us because the U.S. didn´t make it into   it, but Argentina did. Also River Plate went down a division. They are now playing in the B division and people are mad because now they won´t play against Boca. It is like BYU not playing UTAH but times it by 1000!

Here we have been working with a youth who is getting prepared to serve a mission. It is really cool to see him prepare to serve. He wasn´t used to all of our walking at all. He got tired because here in Argentina everyone sleeps the siesta from about 1 in the afternoon to about 5. That makes it hard to work so we schedule time during it to have appointments already preset. We have been teaching a Young man named Lolo who is really sweet. He has come from a rough upbringing. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he says he wants to finish it before he decides to be baptized.

Another investigator that we have is Mariela who is awesome. She loves reading all that we tell her to and can´t wait to be baptized. The only thing is that she is not married and that is what we are trying to work on. She was immediately open to the gospel when we taught her and that doesn´t happen all that much. So it is a huge blessing to see her desire to know the truth.

Kids in the street all know us and they always come up and talk to us. It is really cool because before they did not really know what missionaries did and that we don´t get payed and stuff. Also, there are some dangerous people in the street that we try to avoid. There is a guy who is in the company of bad people when we talk to him and at times it is scary because I don´t know the slang words that they say. The guy we are teaching really wants to turn his life around and we are doing all we can to help.

In church yesterday we had 4 people show up because it is cold outside :/ It is sad that people are that afraid of the cold weather here. There is not even snow on the ground and there is not a soul in the streets at all. Ghost town...

People with the gospel here remind me of little kids. How they are scared to try new foods, so they are not opened to doing so. It is refreshing when we find someone who actually has questions to ask, it shows that god is truly preparing people to receive the gospel.

Thanx for all the love and support.

Love, Elder Smart

Week 20 - Conference in Concordia

This week we spent alot of time in Concordia after the conference that we had on Sunday. It was really great to attend. After we just worked all week finding new people and working with Lolo and a new investigator named Mariela. She is great, she does everything that we ask her to do. She is so funny and I hope we can help her to be baptized. We work with alot of great families here and they are all so kind and caring. I am not quit sure what else to say and so I am just going to end by saying thanx for all the support and love!

Love, Elder Smart

Week 19 - Happy Father's Day

Hello family and friends! Happy fathers day! It is cold here. Ha Ha and you are all lucky enjoying summer. I am sending the pictures I talked about last week and I hope you like them :)

This week we have been preparing for the conference that took place yesterday. Two of our investigators drove the two hours to the conference. We listened to Boyd K. Packer. It was amazing and then after our investigators watched a baptism of another set of missionaries. Someone asked them if they were planning on being baptized and our investigators said it was awesome!

That is basically it for this week but I will write more next week
Have a great fathers day:)

Elder Smart

Week 18 - "Be Mine" Justin Bieber

Hello Family and Friends,

This week has been really cool with lots of different things that I will never forget! We went and visited one of our investigators who is so funny, I love the way he speaks. We went in to see him and he told us that his girlfriend had left him. We were really concerned for him but he didn´t seem very angry because they argued a lot and she drank a lot. Now he is working on quiting smoking :) He is a great guy and I know he can do it! This week we found a little lamb and we took pictures with it, I am going to send them, I just hope the computer I am on isn´t going to be difficult.

This week we helped a less active member paint her fence and it was cool to be able to help serve someone because a lot of people are difficult and won´t let us help them. While we were painting the fence some little girls in this family were listening to Justin Bieber and it was so cute to hear them sing in English. Ha Ha They love the song called "Be Mine" I think cuz it says baby. Ha Ha They are so sweet there is a lot of nice people in this area and it is cool getting to know familiar faces here.

I want to congratulate all the seniors graduating tomorrow! Time seems to fly right passed!

As always thank you for all the support!

Love Elder Smart