Mission Log - November 28, 2016 - T1, W6 - Investigator Progress

​Hola from El Paso!

(Always wear your seatbelt, it's very important) :-)

This is "The Golden Gate of El Paso." It's an artistic row of windmills that lights up at night.

And here is a picture of our Zone.

So typically, when we find a new person to teach and it's not through a member, we set up an appointment, confirm the appointment the day before and the day of, show up on their doorstep - and they're not there.  Or they won't answer calls or texts, so we can't confirm.

HOWEVER, let me tell you about Rogelio, a 40-ish year old man who we taught a 5-minute Restoration lesson to outside his house.  Teaching the Restoration of the Gospel, including the prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, in just five minutes is more difficult than it sounds.  We saw him in his driveway, working on his car.  We walked up to him, planning only to ask him if we could come back another time and teach him and his family.  He smiled (also out of the ordinary) and told us, "I don't speak English."  We told him, "Perfect! We're Spanish missionaries."  He smiled wider and asked us, "What is your message?"  I looked to my companion, and asked him, "How much time do you have?"  He put down his oil rag and said, "I have 5 minutes."  We had practiced a 5-minute Restoration lesson that very morning.

To make a long story short, HE called US the day before our first appointment, very apologetic, and asked if we could reschedule, he wasn't going to be there.  This was a very good sign - he truly wanted to hear more!  Stay tuned!

I have learned of the power of prayer.  As I pray for our investigators, our members, other missionaries, my family, and others, I feel my love for them grow.  I also learned the significant difference between personal prayers and public prayers.

We have recently begun re-teaching three Hermanitas (young women), whose names are Maria, Stefanie, and Jasmine.  Their father is in jail, so their mother works a lot for their support.  They also have three younger brothers in foster care.  Whenever we visit, the mother is not there - the three girls, who are 18, 16, and 12 have the hardest time understanding prayer.  We are struggling to teach them - mostly because when we ask them questions, they shrug their shoulders and don't answer.  We explain that prayer is like a conversation with our Heavenly Father - how we can tell Him anything that is in our hearts.  We explain that the scriptures help us find answers to our questions, and we gave them a Book of Mormon with pictures, to help them read.  We ask them to pray during lessons, to see how they pray, and we mostly just hear them repeat the same three things: we thank thee for the Sister Missionaries, we thank thee for our family, please bless us.  We finally had a breakthrough when we gave them each an index card and told them to write the five most important things in their lives.  They had good answers - Family, my friends, my teachers, my goals, my future.  We explained how the Gospel Blesses Families - how families can be together forever only if they all get baptized and sealed in the temple.  We explained how reading and praying and going to church help us keep our covenants.  We are still struggling to teach them, mostly because the teaching methods we're used to - reading from the scriptures and asking understanding/application questions - are not the way these girls learn.  We struggle to figure out what their learning language is.  We'll keep working on them and I'll let you know how it goes!

We went to see Letty Gonzales.  She was a referral from Hna Andrade, in the Primary program.  We actually had a former investigator at the same address, Maria Para.  We learned that Letty and Maria are in fact one and the same - Letty was recently divorced and started going by her middle name.  She lost her son about a year ago.  We reminded her of the Plan of Salvation, which according to her teaching record, she had been taught numerous times.  We came back the next day with Hermana Andrade, and taught Letty the Restoration of the Gospel.  She wasn't nearly as emotional as the day before, which I was happy about.  She and Hermana Andrade knew each other from work, and Hermana Andrade's testimony of the Restored Gospel was powerful!  I believe Letty's clarity of mind during that lesson was essential to her understanding the priesthood and how she must be baptized by proper authority if she ever wants to be sealed to her son.

Jahayra and Oliver are doing a lot better - their faith is strong, and they plan to be married soon.

We visited Guillermo Lopez.  It was an Awesome lesson - he hadn't read, which wasn't awesome, but we brought Karem Vidaurri, the Bishop's daughter, with us.  She bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and my companion and I followed suit.  We opened Preach my Gospel to chapter 5, to "The Book of Mormon answers Questions of the Soul."  We slid it across the table and asked him to read the questions silently to himself.  We asked him if he had ever had any questions like these.  He said, "yeah," contemplatively looking at the questions.  We passed him a pen and an index card, and he wrote down a few of the questions with their corresponding scripture references.  He gave himself homework, which was perfect - we challenged him to read, pray about what he read, come to church on Sunday, (which didn't happen, he was out of town) and be baptized.  I'll keep you updated!

If you, my fellow full-time missionaries, ever wonder whether you should bring a member along to lessons, I have two words for you: DO IT! Just DO IT! :-)

One last piece of awesomeness - our recent convert, Enrique, who's 67 and was baptized shortly before I arrived, FINISHED the Book of Mormon.  But behold, this is not all - He started reading the index.  The INDEX!  Who reads the Index!?!?  Enrique Ramirez, that's who.  AND he noticed there were a TON of references to "D and C".  "What's D y C?" he asked us.  We happily gave him a copy (it was a miracle we had a Spanish one in the trunk), and he promised to start reading!  AND he said he would start reading the Book of Mormon all the way through AGAIN!  He's awesome. :-)

That's all for this week!

Love Love Love,
Hermana Smurthwaite

Mission Log - November 21, 2016 - T1, W5 - Ukulele Style!

Called To Serve - Ukulele Style!!

Here is a fun video that Marie shared with us of the Elders in her zone singing the Missionary Anthem hymn "Called To Serve" in Ukulele Style!!

Mission Log - November 21, 2016 - T1, W5 - Pictures!

Dear Loved Ones!!


So here's the thing.


I finally got a camera!!!


Follow me, I'll show you El Paso!


Here's our apartment!!!

Here's our fridge - it's inspiring, and useful!!



Here's the mission vehicle we have been given - a Chevy cruise, I think.

Here's the big old Texas sun!



Juarez and Ft. Bliss - two places you hear a whole lot about.
Everyone seems to want to go to Juarez on the weekends - it's the LV of El Paso!
And Elder and Sister Butler, a Sr. Couple, are serving as military relations missionaries in Ft. Bliss.
A lot of guys from around here are stationed at Ft. Bliss.



That big red "X" sits on the border of Mexico.  It is also a restaurant.



And then there's this phenomenon.



It is called the Spaghetti Bowl of El Paso- a masterpiece of engineering.
There are several here in Texas.
No muss, no fuss, no stoplights.



This is my desk.
We have a map of the area on the wall, along with pictures, quotes, and treasures from home.


Stay tuned!


Love,
Hermana Marie

Mission Log - November 14, 2016 - T1, W4 - Service Softens Hearts

Hola!!!

This week was a doozy...of AWESOMENESS!!!  So first of all, Jahayra and Oliver are getting MARRIED on the 26th!!!  We are super excited for them - the whole Relief Society is in on the planning, which is a Relief. :)  It was so cool, because they were so excited to tell us.  Jahayra really showed us that she understood how important her covenants are going to be when she said "I'm not going to get a really nice dress for it - I'll wait til we get sealed!" :)

On Tuesday we had a service project to rival Hermana Karren's ceiling fiasco - (Hermana Karren is a super awesome lady serving in salem, and she helped someone clean their ceiling when the microwave melted)

We showed up at the Reynold's house, a privately owned and cared-for homeless shelter. The owner of the shelter told us not to talk to any of the families we saw - they were homeless, she said, and didn't need to worry about religion right now.  Which was silly, because times of trial are when you need your Father in Heaven the most!  We respected her wishes, however, and went inside. 

There was grime.  There was gunk.  There was gum.  We were Game! 

The walls, the ceiling, the floors, the dressers, the bed frames, the windows, the doors, the blinds - everything, everything was covered in a greasy layer of suciedad! 

So we scrubbed.  We scraped.  We struggled.  We Sang!, until they told us to stop. :)  I found the chisel very handy.  I'm pleased to say, once we got done with our two hours of service, the place looked livable.  The lady who was the janitor - mind you, there were 16 rooms made for families of 5-8, and the 5 unoccupied ones were the ones we cleaned - she looked at the rooms and began to cry.  She asked us for a pamphlet, because she recognized our nametags.  The 4th ward sisters got themselves an appointment with her for the very next day! :)  Service softens hearts.

We visited Hermana Valles, a cute single mom in the ward.  Before we could ask if there was anyone she knew that we could talk to, she asked, "Do you guys have any of those pamphlets in english? I have this friend..."  And she proceeded to tell us all about her friend whom she had been wanting to share the gospel with for some time! :D  It was awesome!

We stopped by with Alma Villela, a referral from the Lower Valley Elders.  She'd just gone through surgery, and they had given her a priesthood blessing by request of her husband.  She was pretty out of it on pain meds, but her husband, her daughter (13) and her mother all sat in on our lesson.  We taught them about Joseph Smith and invited them to read the Book of Mormon.  They said they would!

So...food.  Yes, food.  "Hermana Smurthwaite, you're in the United States!  You have it easy!"  Ah ha, ha ha; that, my friend is where this story begins.

Once upon a time, we had dinner with Hermana Granados.  "Vamos a tener Caldo!"  She said to us on the phone.  'Caldo,' I thought, pulling out my dictionary.  It translated directly to Soup.  Helpful. :)

We arrived, unsuspecting, to discover she had concocted a seafood stew.  It had crab legs and oyster shells and tiny tentacles in it - it literally looked like she had taken a colossal ladel, dipped it into the ocean, heated it, and served it as-is.  For background, I'm not a huge fan of seafood.  It smelled good - like heated brine mixed with saltwater - and as I looked at it, and at this sister who had lovingly prepared it, I began to appreciate all the meals that we had hitherto enjoyed.  As we ate, she asked if we liked it.  With tentacles in my teeth, I smiled and said, "Muy rico!"  Because I made a goal before I came out here to love and scarf down anything and everything that was put in front of me.  Goal still unbroken!! :)

In our district council, Elder Jones gave the Parable of the UPS guy.  He said, "Imagine a UPS guy walks up to your house.  You know who he is - you see his uniform, and you see he has a box under his arm.  You know the box is for you.  The UPS guy then says, "So how's your day going?"  You reply "fine."  You wait for him to give you the box.  He sits and talks to you for twenty minutes.  He talks about the box, about his job.  Then he says, "Is there another time I can come by with this box?"  No!  You want your box!"

"We're like the UPS guy.  People know who we are - they see the name on our chest.  If we go through a lesson and don't extend an invitation to baptism, we're no better than the UPS guy!  They want eternal salvation, but they're never gonna get baptized unless we ask!" 

It was a good perspective.  I liked the analogy.

We had our first real lesson with Cecilia and Fam!!  Because they had so many questions, our half-hour lesson plan stretched to two hours!  We talked about Joseph Smith, and they asked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, the Young Womens program, the Second Coming of Christ (we promised to explain more the next time,) the Word of Wisdom, and infant baptism.  We tried to answer concisely, using scriptures wherever possible.  We invited them to be baptized, and they said yes - all five of them!

A Spanish joke: An American, a Mexican, and a Chinese man were parachuting together for the first time.  They were trying to decide who would jump first.  They decided whoever had the shortest name would.  The Chinese man said, "It's me- my name is O."  The American said, "Well, mine's shorter- it's Casio. (Casi O, which being translated means almost O)"  The Mexican said, "Well, my name is even shorter than that, it's Nicasio. (Ni Casi O, translated as 'Not even almost O')"

Tune in next week for more....

El Paso: the Final Frontier. :)

Love, Love, Love,

Hermana Smurthwaite

Mission Log - November 7, 2016 - T1, W3 - Teaching Awesome People

Helloo Loved Ones, 

Huge Shout out to my Mother, who had a Birthday this past Thursday!! Love Love Love!

So, I must apologize for the lack of pictures - I promise to send lots next week!

So this week, was one of the best weeks I've had on my mission thus far!  Last Monday was Halloween - which made it difficult to find people at home, but the costumes were awesome to see! 

On Tuesday, we went to see Linda, the Familia Ballesteros, and The Familia Campos. 

Let me tell you a little bit about the people we teach. 

VALERIA - she's so awesome.  Her fiancee, Nefi, was less active for many years, and they are returning to Church!  Her testimony of the Restoration and of Joseph Smith are so strong.  Whenever we go over, I honestly just feel like she's teaching us.  

JAHAYRA - Similar situation; she's also so solid, we love visiting her.  She and her intended, Oliver, are getting married within the next two weeks!  We get to go help plan her wedding tonight, because we already had an appointment with her, and we're bringing Hna Reza from the Ward to help!

LUCY - Super cute young college student - a bit hard to find; everytime we go knock on her door, a different family member of hers answers - her father, her mother, her older brother.  Soon we'll be able to teach the whole family!

CYNTHIA - She's a smoker; she's got four little kids and her husband works a LOT - her mom lives with her as well.  She's really interested in the message, and evidently has been sharing it with her husband and mom after our visits.  We're working with her!

FAMILIA BALLESTEROS - So get this: this family owns a Bouncy House business!!  Ever wonder how to say bouncy house in Spanish?  It's brinca brinca - which comes from the verb brincar, which means 'to jump' or 'to frolic.'  Very Catholic family, but they - Mom, Dad, two teenage sons, and Uncle - all seem to have a real desire to know the Truth, esp. the Dad.  He told us he wants to know what God's will is concerning his family.

FAMILIA CAMPOS - Ah, what fun! They are a rambunctious, fun-loving family, and we have an appointment with them this friday.

NALLELI - Pronounced Nayellie.  She's very nice, and she's got a cute little daughter.  We taught the Restoration as our first lesson, and she really seemed to know it was true.  It was awesome to see that light in her eyes!! 

JUAN MANUEL - Oh, Juan. :)  He already wants to be baptized!  The only problem is we haven't taught him any of the lessons yet - but we will!

CECILIA - Finally, we have Cecilia.  She has three YW-age daughters, so we brought with us the YW president on our first visit.  Though we had planned to teach Restoration, we ended up doing a Word of Wisdom lesson - they had a ton of questions!

...And that's just the ones who have yet to be baptized!  I sometimes think our investigators - the sons and daughters of God that we have the privilege to teach - are like American football.  When they're baptized, we act as the quarterback, tossing them towards Eternal Salvation, the 'End Zone'.  We can't just walk off the field - the touchdown can't be made unless there is a receiver to catch the ball.  That's where the members come in - with their help, we can run the ball into the End Zone, which is the Temple.  There's gonna be opposition - Satan's players are some of the biggest, meanest players out there: namely, fear, doubt, hopelessness, and loneliness.  We must muscle our way past these big guys with the football tucked securely under our arm, never fumbling.  Only then can we raise our fists and voices in victory.

Whoa - that was a pretty sweet analogy. :)  Pretty sure I've heard it somewhere before, so don't quote me on it. 

So it was actually this week that Valeria received her rock-solid testimony.  We went in as usual, and showed her the 20 min Restoration video.  We then asked Hna Mendoza, who had come with us, to share her own testimony of Joseph Smith.  She did so, powerfully.  Hna Martin and I then testified briefly.  We then challenged her to pray for a personal witness of the truth of these things.  We told her we would all be silent for some minutes afterward.  She offered a very heartfelt prayer, telling God she had the same question that Joseph Smith had, and asking if this Church was the true one.  Afterward, she began to cry.  The Spirit was so ridiculously strong in that room, it was awesome.  I have felt the truth of the restored gospel, and now I have seen that Spirit of Truth work through another daughter of God!!

Last experience: so the other night, we randomly decided to visit the Familia Granados, less active members.  Hna Granados is a truly amazing woman - she breaks her back every day in a laundromat to help her husband support their family.  She is a convert of ten years - before her baptism, she drank, smoked, did drugs, you name it - but after, she never touched any substances.  Amazing.  My companion was inspired to share a scripture with them - Alma 34:40-41.  My comp asked me to read it, because we'd been practicing reading scriptures in Spanish.  I did so, sounding like a broken record, with many pauses.  When I finished reading I looked up and realized that Hna Granados was crying.  She told us that she's been praying and praying to know how to handle life, and how busy it is - she testified to us that God had answered her prayer through this scripture.  It.  Was.  Amazing. 

Love, Love, Love,

Hna Smurthwaite

Mission Log - October 31, 2016 - T1, W2 - Week of Miracles

Dear Loved Ones -

Que pasa, calabaza?

Second week in the field, still going strong!!

So much has happened this week!  Feel truly blessed, because this week, we met and exceeded our goals!!

But allow me to expand: so, this Tuesday, we met an old man by the name of Jose Salvidar.  He didn't believe in any one church, saying that all churches claim to have all the truth, but none of them do.  He said that all these people in the street say "Yo soy profeta, yo soy profeta," but none of them really are.  We told him, "Exactly!  You know, in 1820, a 14-year old boy named Joseph Smith had the same questions you do."  We then had a very good Restoration lesson.

We then went to see a long-time investigator of Hermana Martin's.  She told us she'd found an apartment in El Paso, but that she wanted to visit her family in Juarez first.  Her visa's expired, so we're not sure if she's gonna make it back across the border.

We went to visit the Sidas.  Hermana Sida was cooking fish.
   "You sisters want some fish?"
   "No, we're good, Hermana."
   *hands us each a heaping plateful of fish, veggies, and chile*
   "Here's your fish."
   "...Thanks, Hermana."

I fear something may have gotten lost in the translation, there. :)  Hermano Sida is less active, and they have two deacon-teacher-age sons, Jose and Seth.  We asked Hno Sida what he did for work.  He told us he fixes motors on trailers.  We asked how a motor works.  I asked for him to explain in VERY SMALL WORDS, palabras mas pequenos.  He complied, explaining the principle of combustion.  We listened for understanding, then challenged him to come up with an analogy of how faith or other gospel principles were like a motor.  He laughed, but I sure hope he takes the assignment seriously.

Because P-days were switched to Mondays the Day I got here, Hermana Martin thought it was Wednesday. We went to our usual wednesday lunch appointment with Linda Harper, a funny old lady.  It turned out to be a blessing, because of the following:

Wednesday, we had two hours of Service in the morning and couldn't make it.  We did service at a food pantry, (it was a get-back-on-your-feet-style pantry), stocking shelves and refrigerators.  Turns out Hna Jackson from another district actually worked a similar job before coming out to serve her mission.  She became the leader.

We took Hermana Reza, a YW leader, and went to visit Nancy.  We read 2 Nefi 9 with her, and testified of the power of reading every day.  We then went to visit Marta Sanchez.

Let me explain a little about this house:  you walk in the door, and the first thing you see is a glass table secured atop a shiny black stone jaguar.  Your eyes travel up to see that this table, along with the back wall, is covered - covered - with porcelain figurines.  There were many more little jaguars, of different shapes and sizes.  There were angels, cats, flowers, you name it.  And what I thought was a giant mirror on the wall behind the couch?  Was the other room.  With just as much porcelain figurines.  I thought to myself, go figure! :-)  That was a little joke.  Chiste!

Because service was in the morning, Language Study and Training were in the afternoon.  We went to a park.  We then went to see Nalleli, pronounced N-eye-ell-ee.  She was very sweet - as we taught the message of the Restoration of the Gospel, the spirit strongly testified to her that it was true.  She'd already read the scriptures, up to 1 Nefi 4.  We challenged her to baptism, and she said yes!!!

Wednesday night was the Ward Missionary Activity, a monthly occurance.  All the members went out to less-active members' houses to confirm 1) that they still lived there, and 2) that they could come to church on Sunday.

Thursday was a day of MILAGROS porque I kid you not, EVERY DOOR OPENED TO US!  Every investigator or potential or less active we sought was home!  We were able to make appointments and make contact. It was awesome!

We visited Jahayra.  Her dog was a crazy ball of Energy, bouncing of the walls, literally, and bounding from person to person in a happy frenzy.  He reminded me of an Elder Slaugh I knew in the MTC, especially when he growled, burrgh. (the dog equivalent of pouting) :-)  We taught a lesson on Chastity.  She agreed to be baptized on Noviembre the 27th!  The reason it's so far out, is that she needs to get married before she can be baptized.

After dinner, we met with Cynthia, a woman with four kids who smokes.  We wanted to teach the Word of Wisdom, but didn't end up having enough time.  We were only there for 7 or 8 minutes, so we simply testified of the blessings of attending church, reading, praying, and being baptized, and challenged her to do all those things.

We then had another Milagro.  Valeria, who has a baptismal date set for Diciembre 17, told us that she and her less-active boyfriend, Nefi, had started to read the Book of Mormon together as a family!!!  We were overjoyed and as we went over Lesson Three with them, they basically taught us, they were so in tune with the Spirit!  It was awesome!

At the end of the night we visited Mariana.  She's a less-active member; she's 30, but looks 18.  She works as a nurse practitioner in the Hospital Del Sol, literally right next door to the church.  She expressed to us how much she missed going to church, and promised if her work schedule allowed, we would see her there!  We didn't end up seeing her, so I guess it didn't allow, but at least she has that desire!

Friday was Zone Training. It was awesome- really motivated us to work harder.  As it happens, Jose Salvidar believes in reincarnation.  We testified that we have a purpose, and being recycled lifetime after lifetime was not it.  He hasn't agreed to be baptized yet, but he did agree to a return appointment.

AAAAND that's all we have time for this week.  Tune in next time to hear more adventures from...
The Mission Log!  Mission: Baptize!  The Final Countdown! . . . (Name suggestions would be awesome. :)

Love, love, love,

Hermana Smurthwaite