Week 17 - Crazy Sheep

This last week went by very fast, we worked hard and time seems to zoom right by. I started reading the New Testament and it is amazing actually studying the ways things took place with the Savior. People here when we talk about the Savior for some reason they feel obligated to say all they know about him. It is interesting to hear what people think but also to hear a different opinion.

We contacted a man and a woman and they are really nice. They invited us over for lunch and when I blessed the food the man asked me to bless him that he could stop drinking. So I did and after we said amen he poured himself a glass. He is really interesting. He was in the war here in Argentina and he has alot of cool stories to tell. Also we found a couple and the husband is blind and the wife is sick. She said she has everything but cancer. They are evangelical and they pray so sincerely, it was really cool. They loved our message though and told us to come back whenever we wanted to.

We contacted a young man named Lolo and he is so interested in everything we have to say. He is a great guy and I hope he keeps his interest in the church. Our investigators always give us clementines and I like to give them out to kids on the street. People find it hard to look passed the suits we wear. They don´t realize we are humans. People think I am thirty and when I tell them I am 19 they don´t believe me at all. People try to take advantage of us in shops. Elder Black was buying something and the man in the shop tried to charge him double the price than the item actually was.

The sheep that attacked us before is crazy. It always is trying to ram us now and we have to run from it or we have to wrestle with it and I normally choose to wrestle it. I grab it by its hair and chuck it. Everyone in the area around our house doesn´t like it and it is gonna hurt someone one day when I have to leave this area.

That is what is happening with me. Thank you for all the support!

Love, elder Smart

He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.-Matthew 10:39

Week 16 - 1st Transfer, Staying in Federal

Hello everyone!

Well my first transfer is now complete and looking back on it it has zoomed right past! I am staying here in Federal with Elder Black. I like it because we have a chance to keep teaching our same investigators. This week we have had a bunch of cool experiences! On Sunday we had 12 investigators at church, which was the most in the whole mission. It was really cool to see all these great people experiencing church for the first time.

We went over to one of our less active members house to see how she was doing because she was pregnant. We had helped make a crib for her. When we got there we found out that she had her baby boy just 5 days before! His name is Gabriel and he is so cute. Babies truly are miracles that have just come from the presence of our Father in Heaven. Next time I go over I will get a picture of him and the crib.

We went to one of my favorite members house and we taught Salidad who is progressing. When it came time to leave they told us to watch out for obison! Well obison is a myth in Argentina and he is basically a werewolf. People here actually believe in him. It is crazy and kind of creepy. One of our neighbors who we bought alparagatas (Toms) from has an animal called a carpincho. That is me holding it in the picture. They are funny little things. The man said they grow to be like 400 lbs. That one is only 2 months old though.

Everyone says the first transfer is the the hardest and there is a poem that I really like that I would like you to look up if you get the chance! It is called "The Oak Tree" by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr. I hope you like it :)

Thanx for the support!

Love, Elder Smart

Carpincho (Capybara in English)

The Oak Tree

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

A mighty wind blew night and day.

It stole the Oak Tree's leaves away.

Then snapped its boughs

and pulled its bark

until the Oak was tired and stark.

But still the Oak Tree held its ground

while other trees fell all around.

The weary wind gave up and spoke,

"How can you still be standing Oak?"

The Oak Tree said, I know that you

can break each branch of mine in two,

carry every leaf away,

shake my limbs and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,

growing stronger since my birth.

You'll never touch them, for you see

they are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn't sure

of just how much I could endure.

But now I've found with thanks to you,

I'm stronger than I ever knew.

Week 15 - First Zone Conference

Hello family and friends!

This last week has been really hard, but really rewarding! We went and taught the Baldez family and the mom told us that she had a dream. In the dream she felt the love of our church. Then when we taught the lesson she cried and she said she would be baptized and so did the rest of her family! We invited them to church and we went to pick them all up and they were all waiting ready to go! We couldn´t have picked a better week for them to come to church, because it was Rubins (the 2nd counselors) farewell and everyone was really emotional including the family we brought with us. Rubin is going to serve in brazil and will make a great missionary, first one out of Federal. Rubins siblings are all members except for one brother and his parents.They are the parents of the kids who helped us teach Salidad before. We are going to start teaching the parents and if we can get a few things worked out with their lifestyles I think they will be baptized!

I had my first zone conference this last week and it was good. I didn´t understand everything but it was still good. It was my first and last meeting with president Villalba, he is really nice. It is sad I didn´t get to know him very well. Yesterday was the River vs Boca soccer game and everyone is a fan of one of the two teams. I felt like it was BYU vs Utah, but it was way more intense. The streets were empty and when Boca scored everyone yelled! When Boca won and the game was over, Boca fans were so happy they cried and they ran outside and started lighting off fireworks. It was crazy! I have decided that I like River, so elder Wells no pressure on what team to pick because you have to pick.

I am going to send pictures of animals that I have seen, but I don´t have one of the spider that I saw a few days ago. It was so big it should be paying rent at our apartment. It was as big as the palm of my hand! The picture with me and other kids is with Pablo, who is deaf. (he is on the far right). The one with the bird is at a members house in Concordia and the family has 14 kids. The kids let the bird pick at their teeth...I think I am used to all the dogs running around and people starring at me finally. And the spanish is coming along more and more. It is difficult getting used to the ways that they speak and the words that they choose to use in their vocabulary. Some people don´t understand what I say at all and other people talk so much that I don´t need to say anything anyways. haha

Well that is what is happening here in Argentina ;) thanx for all the love from everyone!

"Upwards and onwards"- Grandma Smart

Week 14 - Happy Mother's Day

Hello family and friends!

Happy Mothers Day!! Calling home was really nice and it was great to talk to everyone. Also it was awesome to hear that Ryan gets to go to Argentina on his mission! I was sooo excited to hear that:):)

 This last week we has been really good. We have found a lot of new people to teach :) including Salidad, she is about 25 or so and she lives with a family where the kids are all members but the parents are not. We taught Salidad and the mother listened to the lesson. It was really cool. Then we went back to teach again and the mother wasn´t there, which was disappointing. It was still a great lesson and it was so great because the kids help us with teaching and when they pray or answer a question the spirit is so strong. They are only like 7-12 years old! It is awesome! Well we invited Salidad to church and she came but also, so did the mom of the family. It was awesome!

One day during the week there was a lot of Jehovah witnesses out. Probably about 30 and they were going around 2 by 2. It was kind of awkward to go door to door while they were also. Surprisingly though people said that the jw's are pushy and they didn´t like them. So they would let us in just because we were not Jehovah Witnesses. We taught a lot of cool lessons that night!

There are really great families in this area and it is always great when we find them. We are teaching another investigator named Griselda and she is trying to quit smoking. We got Alejandra who just recently quit to agree to come help us teach her and give her support! It is going to be really great. Whenever we have the help of members it is a lot of help because sometimes when people see us in
our white shirt and tie they don´t see us as normal people which is difficult.

That is what happened this last week and sorry about my short letter last Monday. Sometimes the computer that I am on is really hard to work with. ha ha

Thanx for everything!
Love, Elder Smart

Week 13 - My Pench

Hello family and friends!

Landon's Pench (House)

This week feels like it just flew right passed me! We taught a lot of lessons this week and there are people who say they want to find faith. They invite us into their homes and then they try to find fault in everything we say. It makes you feel really awful. Then next thing you know we knock on a door and there is a family and they all are so happy that we are there. They want to know everything we have to say and then they want to come to church. I know that the Lord prepares people to hear our message. That family has truly been prepared to hear from us and things are going well with them. I wish we could teach them everyday. Some people we have taught say they need to receive a dream from God, as to weather or not they should be baptized. Like Elder Bednar said, most of our revelations won´t be like light switches they are like sunrises. I have learned this week that the Lord dose not need to move mountains to build testimonies, all we need to do as missionaries is try to find those people. Sometimes they find us though. We were walking to a meeting and a man walked up to us, and normally when people walk up to us they are little kids or they are drunk old men. This man said his wife is a member and he said he was drinking that morning and wondered why he was doing it. He was walking home because he did not want to drink anymore and that is when he saw us. He wanted to stop drinking and he wants to change his life so now we are the ones who the Lord put in his path to help him!

I am really excited to talk to my family this Sunday. It is going to be really cool to hear from them :)

Thanx for all the love and support!
Love, Elder smart

Week 12 - Happy Easter

Hello family and friends!
I want to start out by saying congrats to Gentry for getting his mission call to Alabama! That is so awesome!
Also I want to say Happy Easter to everyone!
This last week has been really cool, but also kind of crazy. It rains buckets down here, but then it will all of a sudden just be way hot. The weather can´t make up its mind. I am starting to get used to the fact that people stare at me wherever I go haha. Everyone asks me and my companion to speak English and a cute little girl told me that I speak like they do on the tele! We were teaching her brother who is deaf and he just got baptized. That is probably the person that I have taught the best lesson to because we didn´t speak at all haha. We had to travel two hours by bus to Concordia last week and when we got there we contacted and no one was willing to listen to us and we were in a more wealthy area. Then we went to the door of a man named Alberto and he was so kind and he understood everything we said.It was an amazing experience, he was truly prepared for us to teach him. Then the next day in Concordia I was with a Latin companion for the day because Elder Black had a meeting. I saw a dogoargentino, they are dogs that are huge! Like rottweilers but they are white. It was scary. We went to this house for lunch and I have never seen so much food in my life. It was a members birthday and they tried to sing to her in English, it was so funny haha. Also in the week we went to eat at a members house named José. He made pizza for us and was so kind, it was awesome. The members serve us with everything they have it´s awesome, but I also feel awful eating their food. We got invited to a nonmembers house and they did a BBQ for us. The food was so good I was in heaven! But... he also had me try blood sausage. It was not very good, I ate all he gave me though! To conclude my week I was on my way out from church and there are sheep by our pench and I got chased by it and it tries to headbutt me. It is crazy. I grabbed it by its hair once and flipped it on its side and we got away from it haha. That´s what is happening with me down here and I´ll write again soon!
Love, Elder Smart

Jose, Elder Smart and Elder Black

                                                   
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Week 11- First Baptism

Elder Smart, Allegandra, Augustina, Elder Black

April 18, 2011


Hello family, after we talked I got on the plane for my 9 hour plane ride. I didn´t sleep much but in the morning right before we landed I saw one of the most pretty sunsets ever. Then I got off the plane and we had to get on this little shuttle and we all didn´t fit on it so me and 4 elders, I didn´t know got in some little tiny car to drive to the mission home. We got there in 5 hours and the shuttle that i almost got on, got lost and arrived 3 ½ hours after we did. It was way lucky for me! Then we had interviews and spent the night there. We woke up the next morning and played some futbol and me being the big white kid got picked last haha but i held my own. Then in the afternoon I met my companion, Elder Black. He is from Idaho and everyone told me even before I met him that he was the best at speaking Spanish, in the whole field out of the shanky missionaries. (shanky=American) He is really cool and talks way fast. We then got on a bus for 9 hours to go to our area of Federal and it is pronounced Feder-all, not Federal like a prison. I already made that mistake. The buses here are so sweet and nice, they all have like lazy boys on them it is nice. We arrived at our pench as they are called at about 11:00 and Elder Black said it is a nicer pench than other missionaries have. To me it is ghetto and not really clean. My area is just full of poverty. It is like a combination of country and city. There are dogs everywhere and I mean everywhere. Most of them are nice, some bark but never bite, but once my companion said I almost got bit but I barely dogged it. It is crazy, everyone here wears “Toms” and here it is almost a symbol that you are poor. In the states rich people wear them. Me and Elder Black are the only missionaries here, within about two hours and I am not sure where Elder Winger is exactly? (MTC Comp) On Thursday we taught Allegandra and her daughter Augustina and we asked them to be baptized and they agreed. All I can do is bare my testimony, but Elder Black is a good teacher. He is the only person I speak English to and he translates stuff sometimes because people talk so fast. Well then on Saturday we had the baptism and it was cool. I got to baptize them I had to memorize the blessing in Spanish and now I will never forget it. On Sunday it rained really hard and people kind of used it as an excuse not to come to church and the streets are empty. So it feels like I am playing Call of Duty or something with the dogs everywhere. Since there wasn´t a lot of people in church it was good for me because I had to give a talk. I think people understood me haha. Elder Black said that he hasn´t really done service a lot because no one understands really that we don´t want to be paid or anything. I told him we need to find people and there is a member who is going to have a baby soon and we are making her a crib and the Dad of the girl having the baby invited us over for a BBQ! I am excited because all we eat at the pench is hot dogs, pasta, rice, and cereal. We are gonna shop today. (Dad) People give us fruit sometimes and yesterday we got a huge bag of oranges. They were the best I have ever had in my life!
I am sending some pictures and I will write again soon.

Love, Elder Smart!!

I will call you on Mothers day don´t worry :)

I also met Elder Hanson who went to Brighton. I can´t remember if you told me about him? I love you!