I will never turn my back on this great work!

Mom thank you for that heartfelt email.

I cannot wait to get your package and I got your letter the other day and I sent one back to you yesterday so you should get it in a couple of days! You all sound like you are doing amazing! Allison finally has a job, and we all have jobs! How blessed we all are (:

We do have a Laundry Lady (: It is sister Ordonez and she is from Guatemala and I call her my mission mom because she is so helpful and she keeps us in line (; we go over every Sunday night and start the laundry. Then we come back on P-Days and she does the rest. I love her so much haha she is so helpful.

We do our emails at the Apache Junction Library and it only gives us an hour and a half to email and then it kicks us off haha.

Mom actually today I translated the Child's Prayer in Spanish! It is so fun to translate! I just love it! I am starting to understand a lot but I still HATE speaking in Spanish haha it is quite difficult. But keep praying for me okay? Like you always do I love it (: But yes I am grateful I brought music, you mom, are always right (: I am sending a hug right back to you! I can feel it (: Be looking for your letter haha it's a long one!  I love you mom.

Dad.  I am so excited to start hearing about football games soon! I hope that Lehi will finally have a winning record! The coach is actually pretty smart and he knows what to do with what he has! So we shall see! Pretty exciting! What is BYU's schedule this year? I am soooo excited to hear about that as well! I am going to miss going to their football games! It is always such a blast cheering them on! Scream extra loud for me (;

I love D and C 121 as well Dad. But I will for sure go back and study it really hard tomorrow during personal study. Thank you for sending that and giving me something to study! I can't wait (: You are so smart to apply scriptures to your life. I can't wait to start doing that as well!

Well, being here in Arizona has really humbled me and blessed me. I have learned so much here and I really think that I have made a difference. I love to think that I will be able to come back and visit a lot since it is pretty close! I can't wait to return  here with you all though! that will be so fun! I love it here. Sometimes it is difficult, like riding a bike in a 114 degree weather or so but I will do anything for our savior. I hope I get to go to Peru soon.Iit gets hard sometimes and sometimes I want to give up. But I just keep pushing through it because I will never turn my back on this great work! please keep praying for my investigators so I will be able to see miracles!  I love you dad thanks for everything! anything I can do, or that you would like me to pray for?

So last P-Day was pretty fun! The sisters planned something and so we went to a "Ghost Town". Pretty much just a bunch of stores in an old cowboy town. Then we went to IHOP, it was a pretty fun District Activity! Haha then after all the fun, it was time for work. But for some reason nobody was home. So we pretty much rode our bikes in the heat for 3 hours straight! Today for P-Day we are going to watch some other Elders do the Pizza challenge! haha one of them wanted me to do it with them, but there is no way I am doing that again!

Tuesday, Elder Duff was sick. So we stayed inside the entire day. Elder Duff slept the whole day and I did studies and I had to prepare a District meeting training all by myself for the next day. It was boring but I studied sooo much so I hoped it helped. I didn't sleep because I would feel bad if I did!

Wednesday we gave the training that I had prepared in District Meeting and it went super well, it was about using the scriptures in lessons and everyone enjoyed it! Then after, we went to a members home and I dedicated it so that was neat and the first time I have ever done that! The spirit was so strong and the mom was in tears! It was pretty amazing! After Dinner, Elder Duff said he felt sick again so we went inside for the rest of the night...pretty boring..

Thursday was finally a good day! We found a new investigator who seems pretty solid! His name is Miguel and he is 18. he just doesn't really believe in God and he believes in the virgin Mary more. Just like your story mom. A lot of people don't really know anything about their purpose on this life. It is such a blessing for all of us to be able to share this message with others! But he is willing to listen, pray, and read so it is really good! We taught Elba again and we invited her to be baptized once again, but she still isn't feeling it. We asked her what is holding her back, and what she is looking for in her answer...she said that if she sees her kids lives change, she will know it is true. But we explained to her that if she gets baptized, and sets the example, then she will see miracles.

Friday, we went by Felipe's house to talk to his girlfriend and daughter. But we found out that Felipe actually moved to New Mexico because they got into a huge argument! But the good news is, is that Joanna (the girlfriend) and her daughter still wants to be baptized so we set a date with them for the 24th of August. We hope she puts forth the effort and she attends church so that she will be able to be qualified for baptism!

Saturday was pretty cool. During studies, I was just feeling a little sad and frustrated for some strange reason, as almost as if I thought Heavenly Father wasn't there, because I have been being so obedient, but I just haven't been seeing many blessings. I decided to pray and it was one of the most sincerest prayers that I have ever offered. I just asked Heavenly Father to please show me a sign that he is real and that he cares about me, and to comfort me. Right after I ended the prayer, I went to my IPod for music and I just pushed the shuffle button and the Child's Prayer song came on. The lyrics hit me so hard, like PRAY, he is there, SPEAK, he is listening. It was just so overwhelming and so humbling. The power of prayer is so real!

Yesterday, only Jose Torres came to church and all of us missionaries gave talks about Missionary Work! I felt that I did pretty well and I was able to say all that I needed to! Then us missionaries sang called to serve as well and it was really unique! At dinner, a member made  us Peruvian food and it was so AMAZING!! It just made me want to go to Peru that much more haha! But you know what's funny? We had dessert first too! That is just whole we role! But later that night, we went next door to the Elders apartment and just talked before bed. A new Elder that just came in, started talking to us about his past life, and he has done some crazy things and had to use the repentance process. It was actually an amazing story and it was really heartfelt. I decided to go talk to him when he went into another room and we had the most spiritual conversation. We just talked about why we were both here. I told him that none of us are perfect, don't worry about what other people say, we all have bad days, just take it one day at a time. I was so blessed to be able to comfort him!

Well that is all for this week! Way to go Lehi 26th ward for leaving on their missions! You are all studs!

I love you. He loves you.

Love, Elder Smith