God prepares the way!

Well last week was a great week.  It has started making heat again! It’s hot!! We have been working hard and it has been nice!  Last week we were super busy with lots of things to do because not only did we have the normal stuff to do but we also had to do the stuff for my new companion because; well, he is new. Anyway, I will tell you a little more about him. He is a cool dude. He was studying at BYU before the mission for a semester and he will be swimming for the BYU team after. He came to Chile talking super good Spanish but sometimes it’s a little rough for him to understand how the Chileans speak because.... well it’s their own language. He is really ready to work and knows the stuff. We have been able to learn how to teach together and I am super excited because I’m sure he will be killing me, and having him will help me finish strong. 

We had some super good news this week because we have an investigator that wasn’t married and we had planned to help them to prepare to marry. We were going to teach that the following time. But this time we taught about the sacrament. After the lesson, he told us that they were going to get married. This amazed me and really what I felt like crying because I was so happy... but I didn’t. It helped me to know that God prepares the way for the people when we do our part.

I know that God lives and loves us and I know that He wants us to help our brothers and sisters to come to the knowledge of this gospel... and I know that it’s the work of all of us members, not just the missionaries. I know that Joseph Smith restored the gospel and that Jesus lives. I know that this is happiness and it’s the only way to return to God. 

I love you all. 

Con mucho Amor,

 Elder Smith

I have learned a lot!

This week was good! We were able to work a lot but also it was my companions last week here and I think that gave him laziness. Anyway, it was good we were able to pass and visit and teach a good amount of people. We were able to do splits with the members last Tuesday so that we could teach two different families; somehow we set up the appointment at the same time. It was good and we were able to help them a lot. For example, we taught Mario more about prayer and the right way to do it because he didn’t pray to God so we had to teach him. Also, we taught him more about why we are here on the earth and what our purpose is here. It was super good and he understood everything and we were able to invite him to church and he came with his whole family!

Jorge, our other investigator that is progressing well but it’s been hard on him to walk so he hasn’t been able to make it to church but we are still working with ward members so that they can offer to pick him up so he can attend church. 

We also had changes this week and my companion left me after 4 months and I can say that I learned a lot from him and I love him a lot. I was able to learn to be a better missionary and disciple of Christ. But, I know that changes happen for a reason and they are here so that we can progress. Last Wednesday the President called me and told me that I would be training again. So, I have a new companion, his name is Elder Birrell. He is from Seattle!!! I am excited to know that I will be ending my mission training.

I know that this is the true church and that God loves us so much that he gave his Son for us so that we have the chance to return to him again and live with him and our families forever. 

I love you all!!

Cuidense Harto

Con cariño,

 Elder Smith

God knows what we need!

Bueno!

Well this week was good. I think that it probably about killed me though. It’s been weird here, we got some rain and then some cloudy days and then it just hit us fast with really hot weather. I think that kills me because I was waaaaay tired. Well this week was like the week of vacations and nobody was home and I guess they also didn’t want to accept us. But it’s all good we had some good experiences. 

Our investigator Jorge is doing good but he struggles with getting to church because he is sick with his legs and can’t walk good and on top of that he doesn’t want a member to come get him in a car. He is stubborn but he really is gaining a testimony and his plan was to get baptized this Sunday but we will have to see if it all works out. 

Another investigator is named Mario, he is doing good. We had an awesome lesson with a member the other day with him and we talked about how he can’t progress if he doesn’t ask God in a prayer if what we say is true. He said we would pray that night and we told him that we were going to pass by the next day to follow up and see what his answer was. So, he got un answer saying that it’s the right path and that he needs to continue and he also has the desire to attend church which is awesome so this week he will be coming to church with us. 

Last Friday we had followed our plans and they had failed us so we were a little bummed and then we decided to do some contacts. We started knocking a street and from there we arrived at a door that I will never forget. We knocked (or in this case we yelled because that’s how you do it here in Chile) and a young dude with about 25 years came out and talked to us. At first he didn’t want to let us pass into the house and then we started talking. My companion said that through the message that we share he could know why there are so many churches... right then and there he asked "Why are there so many churches"? Soo when we first got to this house I started to feel the spirit so strong and really I hadn’t ever felt it so strong like I did when I was doing contacts. This amazed me and I was stunned because I didn’t understand why I was feeling it so strong. Okay, so after he had asked the question we answered and then he opened up and invited us in. We went in and shared with him and we came to find out that he had been looking for God for a while mostly, because he was changing his life around. This has helped me understand that God truly helps people find their way back to him. If we hadn’t been doing what we needed to be doing we would have never found him. Now we have plans to visit him this week and I know that for some reason God wanted us there when we got there.

I know that God lives and I know that Jesus Christ lives and that only through him we can have eternal life. Now let us all continue to turn to him always looking for help because he knows what we need and when we look and ask we will find what we need. 

I love you all!!

Con mucho Amor,

Elder Chase Smith

Refining ourselves!

Well this week was good! We were able to work hard and find a lot of new people. 

In church we learned about refining ourselves. The teacher asked us if we thought that being a member was easy. One of the brothers said that after he got his testimony it was easy for him. I said that the idea of us is to progress always and I think that it’s hard because giving the example of a return missionary because sometimes they get back and they stop to study the scriptures and then with time the progressing stops. This happens with all of us. We get comfortable with where we are and we don’t move forward. But it’s so important to keep active and always move forward. 

I know that God lives and loves us. I know that he wants us to be happy and i know that when we feel pain he feels pain. HE is our Loving heavenly Father that sent his son Jesus Christ so that we could return to him. I love him and am so thankful for Christ and I love him so very much for what he did for me and all of us. 

Be happy!! Move on! 

Con mucho Amor,

Elder Smith

The work is progressing!

Bueno,

Last week was super good! We have been finding more and more people every day and the work is progressing. We taught one of our investigators named Jorge more about trusting God. He really wants to go to church and really he believes everything and loves what we teach him but his poor little wife is so sick and he doesn’t want to leave her alone or bring her with him. We testified that if he did what God wanted everything would be okay and he would be blessing. So at the end of that lesson he said, "I’ll think about it".  Then we asked if we could call him to help him wake up and go. He said, "don’t bug me too much”.  So, we ended with that, said a prayer and hoped for the best. Personally, I didn’t think he would come... or I guess it was more of forgetting because I thought he was bugged with us. 

Then on Sunday he walked in.... and this guy lives pretty far from the church. He walked and he walks with a cane. HE put his trust in the lord hoping that everything will work out fine. I love seeing this in people, when they do things that aren’t easy especially because we don’t know how God will bless us but just know that he will bless us and help us!

Also, another one of Gods children decided to get baptized and make a promise with him yesterday! It was so amazing seeing this little boy grow and understand. Even though it takes little by little for him to grow to understand he has changed and I truly love him and am so grateful that I am able to help him and his family. 

I love you all!

Con Mucho Amor 

Elder Smith

We are here to help!!

Well this last week was so good. We worked hard and tried to do our best the whole week. We have started to find more and more people that are ready for the gospel and it’s interesting to find people in places that we never thought would really have success. 

We have been finding a lot more people and I think we will start to see more success. We will be having a baptism this Sunday... well if all goes well. His name is Vicente he is 11 and is special but his mom and sister are members and his dad is not. They are very good members and I think that it will be good for them. Basically, he didn’t get baptized at the age of 8 because he was afraid of water. But now he is good. We have taught him everything in very simple ways and it amazes me to see how smart and awesome he is. 

This week was full of cool things. On Saturday afternoon I got a call from the President’s wife and I was confused why she would be calling me at this time. She told me that one of the sisters in our district was having an asthma attack and couldn’t breathe so we ran to where they were and found her on the ground.  Thankfully, right when we got there a member showed up with his car so we put her in the car and ran her to the emergency area. We got there and the sister couldn’t walk and the ladies that helped her out of the car couldn’t carry her and I had all my hands full. So I asked my companion to help but he looked at me like he was in shock... soooo in that moment I picked up the sister and I ran her into the place. They helped get her stable and now everything is okay. It was funny because I had called the Sisters to get their number for the week and then she started going off about how embarrassed she was for what happened and well it was a weird conversation. I told her that it was fine and that, that’s why we are here... to help. Anyway, it was a crazy experience that happened.

I talked in church  about how we need to listen better to the spirit and think more about the simpleness of the gospel and focus on our heart and how we can feel the spirit. I know that we can feel the spirit by doing good things and what God wants.

I love you all!! 

Con mucho Amor,

 Elder Smith

Can we decide to live the gospel more fully?

Well this week was good. I think that I have learned a lot about something.  The gospel doesn’t change and neither does the spirit. Well a lot of people have talked to me and said “Well sometimes we have to spend money on Sunday and so we have to do it,” or other things like that. Someone else said that the Sabbath is personal and that we all live it differently. My opinion on that is that is true. It is personal... but we all have to follow the spirit to know how we can sanctify the Sabbath Day. I think that if we all follow the spirit we will all be doing about the something because the gospel doesn’t change depending on your family or who you are. The gospel is here to help us and we need to follow it to show love to God and Christ for everything that they have done for us. 

Well, I have thought a lot about the talk from President Uctdorf this last conference.  Last week someone invited me to read it again. Really the gospel is so simple and we don’t need to look for something big to show us the way or an answer to a prayer like Joseph Smith’s. We need to focus on our heart and how we feel. No bad thing is from God.  All good comes from God, therefore we need to follow the good that comes to us. 

I know that this is true and that this is the true church and that Jesus Christ is guiding it and us through President Monson. I love this gospel and am so grateful for the change that it has brought me. I pray that we all can decide to live the gospel more fully so that we can become like Christ. 

Con mucho Amor,

Elder Smith