Merry Christmas!

So Christmas week was super good! We started the week with our p day and then the next day we were with the whole mission. It was awesome but we were not able to work or have success Monday or Tuesday.  So going into Wednesday was rough.  I was really worried that we weren't going to be able find people. But later in the afternoon we were knocking doors and we passed a little street that I thought in my head would be good because I felt like the missionaries passed it a lot. So, we knocked the whole thing and at the end we found a huge blessing waiting for us. As we waited for someone to answer I whispered to my companion, " We're getting into this house".  I really started to pray  and the guy came out and invited us in. We started to share with him and in the end he said that we was super interested in learning about this restoration. So we passed by his house again on Saturday and taught him the restoration and then invited him to be baptize and they accepted. Then on Sunday he attended church and he liked it a lot. 

I know that God loves us and that he blesses us when we put in our effort. I love him and I know that He loves us and that He wants the best for us. I know  that when we need help he is there to help and I know that he will always be there. 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and that we will all be able to start this new year with good goals and desires to do his will. 

Con harto amor,

Elder Chase Smith

Let's accept Christ into our lives this Christmas!

Well I've had a lot of time to think about our Savior. Really, I was thinking about what I could give to Christ this Christmas...I think I found that while reading the last lesson of this year in the priesthood manual.

We all have received a commandment to be like Christ... not to be 50% like him...to be even as he is. This is a commandment and what we learn in 1 Nephi 4 is that God doesn't give commandments that we can't complete. There is so much we can do to become more like Christ, but it requires practice. Just like anything else we have to practice to learn and to get to where we want to be.

This Christmas I think that I really have learned that the only thing that matters is Christ, the baby that was born so many years ago. I know that he is our Savior and Redeemer and I know that he took every single error or sin of ours upon him so that we could have the chance to be with him and our Heavenly Father again and so that we can have a forever family. I love them both so very much and I know that they live and love us. Let's accept Christ in our lives this Christmas and continue to improve. 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Smith

Faith brings blessings!

Well this week was good we had interviews with the President it was good he always seems to ask me weird questions and I have no idea why. He’s an awesome dude.

So we are trying to work even harder and find more people. Our investigator told us that she doesn’t want to go to church and well that was a hard thing for us because our sector is working us hard.

So I had to talk to the wife of the President and she told me that they couldn’t help me too much with my back. She told me that I need to keep doing what they told me and that I need to stick it out the rest of my mission which I just have to do it.

 So I have been thinking a lot about the faith.

I think that we all lack faith some times. Something that Elder Cook shared with our President was that, "if the missionaries had more faith, they would have more success." I agree so much with that. Now in the mission you could say that things haven’t been going so well and that the whole mission needs a bust. Personally, I think that if we set ourselves in strengthening our faith and doing things to show our faith we will grow and we will have more success. I think a lot about how the Lord says that if we are faithful and continue to have faith he will bless us and will help us out of hard times. There are so many times that we choose not to do things and that shows that we don’t have faith. Recently I heard a missionary say,  “with this new rule we won’t be able to have lessons at all, I have faith but I know that it won’t happen." If we continue to always look and see things from a human point of view we will never grow in faith because we will say the same thing this missionary said.

 I know that God lives and I know that Christ is his son and that he lived and died! I know that only through him Gods plan is possible and that we can have never ending happiness. Be faithful! Trust God! Try it and love it!

 Con mucho Amor,

 Elder Smith

He remembers us!

A couple weeks ago... or maybe 2 weeks. I was faced with something that I never thought I would feel or experience in my life. So, we were having a good week, it was filled with goodness, I had a leader conference and we talked about a lot of stuff we can do better. This also included new rules or clarifications about rules we didn’t understand. This made me feel happy and well the way I feel about it is if they give us a rule we need to complete it and just continue to work hard. Soooo, this stressed me out a little and I think I felt anxious but I have no idea what it was. Anyway. I felt this way because my companion hasn’t gotten to the point where he wants to be obedient with all the rules and I knew that maybe he wasn’t going to like what I was going to tell him. Knowing that I think it freaked me out because I hate feeling a lone in the work. So. after that we went to the house of some old investigators that don’t really like me because we stopped working with them because they hadn’t progressed in almost over a year. We went there and talked to them and I tried to explain what we as missionaries do. She was nice but said a lot of rude things to me. After that night I’m not sure what or how it happened but it did. After a bunch of things that had happened Satan, started to attack me... literally I felt like God had left me... I couldn’t recognize the spirit and the only thing that was going through my mind was the question, "Does God exist?" I suffered for a couple of days praying and reading the scriptures. Finally, I got an answer very clear from an Hermano here in the ward. It was the Bishop actually,  we had to talk to him about ward counsel and then we started talking about the atonement and he was explaining stuff. I felt prompted to ask him what it could be that I was feeling or what was happening with me.  He told me, “Elder Smith do you remember what happened when Joseph Smith was in jail and he said, “Oh God, where art thou?” or when Jesus Christ was suffering for us and said, "Oh God why hast thou forsaken me?” He continued to say, “Elder, Sometimes God leaves us for a little bit to test us, not because we are disobedient but because we need to grow."

During this time the only thing that I was hanging on to was my testimony and the things that I had felt and remember feeling about the gospel or when I was in the temple or any other time that I felt the gospel strongly. Anyway, I got through that but it made me think about how important it is to strengthen us daily. We can’t wait around thinking that all is good because one day something will hit us and we won’t be ready and we will fall.  That could mean that we might not find our way back.

 I know that this Gospel is true. It is the life that we need to live. I know that through Christ we can do all things and I know that he lives and that he is the son of Our Heavenly Father. I know that God our Heavenly Father lives and loves us and that even though we don’t remember his face, He remembers ours. I am so thankful for this time on earth and for the veil that blocks us from remembering so that we can learn and progress and continue to become like God and Jesus Christ and so that one day we can live with them. I love this Gospel. I know that this is the light that we all need.

Remember I love you all!!

 Be happy!!

Con Harto Amor,

Elder Smith

Faith will make us mighty...even unto the power of deliverance!

It's been a crazy day but I'd like to share this scripture, 1 nefi 1:20. I like it because it ends talking about  how if we have faith God will strengthen us and give us the power to overcome everything. Last week I was tested and really I had to find my faith but I know that faith is so important and we all need to have it and continue to strengthen it.