Remember not to fear men but God because we can't fool Him

An English lesson with my little pal Artenisa

Hello Everyone!!!!

I am so happy to hear that you all had a great Thanksgiving! Mom you killed me when you told me all of the things that you made!!! Oh my gosh like seriously...a pumpkin cheesecake, lemon pie, pecan pie, and famous rolls....I could kill for those right now...But I'm glad that all turned out so well!!! So that you can all be jealous...here is a picture of my Thanksgiving and what I ate...hahaha. But I'm grateful (:

So yeah about High School teaching. I'm not quite sure yet but I'm thinking about it a lot. Since I've been on the mission I have grown to love teaching and I have been blessed to be a leader in this mission and so I have learned quite a bit. Also I would love the High School environment. Plus I could teach Spanish and I love history. So we shall see. Yeah it's kind of funny that it would be the same as Jordan. But yet again, I'm not too sure yet. I'm not worried about it right now though. I'll have to look into it more and pray and fast. But so far that's what I am thinking most. Plus they make just as much as a police officer with better hours and it's a lot safer!!

So this past week we were able to rescue the Aguilar family and so now they are active in the church. I'm not sure if I've ever explained the whole rescuing process to you guys. But as missionaries we have been asked to not only baptize, but retain the recent converts, and rescue the less actives. In our mission, to rescue, is just as important to baptize because we are helping all of them to return to their Father in Heaven. But to rescue, they need to attend church 3 times at least, receive the missionary lessons, and receive an interview from the bishop. Daniel Reyes was also able to be rescued this past week. So we had 4 rescues. We were so happy to see all that work with them get paid off and they seem so much happier.

Giberto is pretty much already a member though. He has attended church every week without fail for like 2 and a half months and he accepts everything that we teach. His testimony is sooo strong and he is praying so hard for his divorce to go through so he can be re married to his current wife and be baptized. He is very humble when it comes to the gospel and he loves learning and asking questions. He always reads the Book of Mormon and so we know that Heavenly Father will help him in this process towards his baptism.

Also this past week we were able to meet a recently married couple who has a little girl. A member ran up to us in the street and told us that she wanted us to go and give a blessing to a man that got in a car accident and broke his leg. So we were able to go over and give the man a blessing. But first we explained to him about blessings and we read in Mark where it talks about anointing with oil and how Jesus Christ healed the sick according to their faith. So we are excited to start teaching them. It was a really spiritual experience and we are praying that they will accept us when we go back.

We found Elayne before church yesterday and she has been really busy with college because she has her finals right now. Her semester ends in 2 weeks and so we are planning to start teaching her seriously then. But for now we see her about twice a week. But she is still interested. So that is good.

I really enjoyed that conference talk by Elder Robbins. President Williams used that talk in the interviews that we had about a 2 months ago and it really impacted the whole mission I feel like because it's sometimes a big problem with disobedient missionaries. I really have been striving to remember that in everything I do and that I need to remember not to fear men but God because we can't fool Him. But what has really helped me to do that is to be a nice and loving person to everyone. Last week a 70 came in and talked in Stake Conference. He explained that many times as members we don't even talk with other people in church and sooo many times there are people that need a person to talk to. He invited us to sit down and ask people how they are doing. I have been striving to do that as well and it has helped me to be more loving toward men and God. Sometimes we just need to stop thinking of ourselves and sit down next to a person with our arms around them and show them our love and concern. That is what the gospel of Jesus Chris is all about!

It is getting a lot hotter here in Chiclayo and sometimes I want to run in snow. It doesn't even feel that it's already December!!!! I swear we are still in August. Plus the heat here is just gross and I don't know why I don't get as dark as I do in Utah. But anyway, we don't need to put on a jacket at night anymore so it's nice.

Don't worry about sending me glasses or money for them because I'm fine. My eyes are getting better. Here and there they get a little red but I bought really strong eye drops that help me out a whole bunch. So don't worry about that. We can just get some when I get home!

 I love you. He loves you

Elder Smith