10 days left.. the end

Hey mom.. i gotta be quick cuz we are going to the zoo. hahaha yeah a zoo. but anyways this is gonna be my last email home. Im still doing great excited to come home and see you all.

Nothing really amazing happened this week. lots of traveling. some missionaries in our zone are being punks and we have to basically babysit them.. its sad.. but its ok...

Well im so excited to talk to you... i will just answer all your questions when i see you! haha Im fine with money thanks!!!!! your the best!

I love you so much

Love Elder Smith

17 days left

Well good day to ya mates! So highlight of the week... 

On wednesday, i had to go to Tacloban to get fingerprinted (dont ask why cuz i dont know) So while i was there, i was talking with a sister from Australia trying to nail my accent. As i was there i noticed a lot of new faces that i had never seen before... So....i tried it... i went around to two or so new people and talked to them in an australian accent. They believed it! THEN!!! another different sister walked up cuz she heard that i was from australia and wanted to talk She was all excited and really giddy and asked if i knew so and so ect..... hahahaha i told her that i wasnt really from australia but i just like the accent. We had a good laugh and she told me that she does that too sometimes..(speaks like an american) just for a chuckle.

Aside from that, its hard knowing that its winding down. the mission that is.. i really dont like it... I liked looking at it as two years more, 18 months more 6 months more... those numbers seemed like an eternity. now its just a few days... unreal...

This week we went on splitz and had some work in our area... Our ward is still really progressive and doing well.. We should have a bunch more baptisms this october..ill miss them by a week or two... but its ok...

Well i will see you in a little bit..

Love ya

Elder Smith

24 days left

Hey famz! Well the days are just flying by... its really unbelievable that im almost coming home... well we have been working so hard this last week. We went on exchanges with the assistants this week and took them tracting in our area... it was a really great time. We talked to tons of people this week. We had some really great lessons with our newly found investigators. You know, whenever you find someone really great, there is always something to make a mess of it just when the spirit come in.... For example.. we were teaching a family of about 15... sons daughters grandsons ect... then right when we were committing them to  pray about Joseph Smith, a man shows up pulls out his cigge and just starts puffin away.. then he randomly buts in and trys to throw the '''Prophets have to come from isreal" schpeal... we quickly shut him down, and tried to bring back the spirit and commit them.. this man looked just like Squidward... but black... he was samok! Well we have also made super progress in our super bukid area: talisay. its great.

Well i love you very much. Cant wait to see you all..

Love Elder Smith

31 days left

Hey Fam.

So this week was absolutely different. We have two new elders in our area so we had to split the area with them. We finally got our boundaries and kinda figured out how we are gonna work.

One of the areas had a dispute that almost made one of the elders walk out... like just get up and leave. So we ran up to their area and helped them fix the problem. I think its one of the deadliest problems in the world. Pride. When we can learn to just stop being a punk and making the problem worse by fighting, by not submitting to the commands of others, even though we are not in the wrong and apologize, we will be a whole lot better off. i really dont get some people sometimes.

So we didnt have much work this week seeing as we spent a bunch of time out of our area, but on sunday we had a good show of people that we didnt expect.

We are basically opening up our area right now cuz its very far from the old area we used to work in so we should see good success. we had a whole bunch of people show up to church from talisay. its a very far place from the church. it was a good show.

So to answer you questions:

I am staying here to die... meaning i wont/didnt transfer. Im still a ZL. 

(I asked more, he didn't answer them)

Well i love ya much...

Love Elder Smith

44 days left!

Hey mom, this week i will email first thing today so that you get it right away. Well the weeks are just blending together. Like its becoming unreal that this week is already over.

The last two weeks have been so busy doing administrational stuff. We found a new house for us and two new elders that will be transferring into the zone. We had to take care of the contract and payment set up method.. Just stuff like that. We also had splits! We didn't have many lessons this week or last week for the matter. We had four baptisms this month and are excited about them. 

So i guess my highlight of this week would be on Saturday  We went to the Orca families house. They are a less active family that are one of our focus families. The ward right now has a goal to go to the temple this October  We are doing all we can to prepare them for this trip. So we taught them about what the temple was and what the purpose and cool things about the temple. We really emphasized the importance or "need" to do the temple ordinances to be saved into the highest kingdom. They really listened and i feel like they took it well and were excited to keep preparing. The cool part is that the next day, Sunday, they were one of the first people at the church. Even before us actually. It really showed me that they were willing to take what we taught them seriously.

The ward is continuing to progress and show me that they are capable of being awesome. The leaders here are so great. Self motivated, serious about their callings and overall converted to the gospel.

We also had a CSP last week. It was really fun. We dug the foundation for a member to build their house. It was a lot of fun digging and working on construction stuff. Maybe i will look into it when i get home.

Well in the next couple weeks i wanna start getting all the stuff like souvenirs and gifts and stuff like that so if you would like to donate to the Elder Smith fund it would be nice :)

Well i think thats about it for this week.

Well i love you lots

Elder Smith

58 days left (updated and correct now)

Hey mom, Im good. Im not sick at all, the computers just would not load the page. so i wasnt able to email last week. But this week was great!!

This was an extremely fast week!!! This last saturday we had two baptisms!! they were great. I was able to baptize one of them and the other was baptized by her grandpa. We have two more this saturday and one the following week. Its great! My zone is now  just reaping the baptisms this month. I think we might be the most for this month. its a ton!

Our one convert, P, He is so awesome. He had been investigating the church for 1-1/2 years. He just wasn't ready to join just yet. then Elder Sacay and i started to teach him again and address his concerns and then he started to change... its the coolest thing to see people change. Its so cool cuz you can actually see the change.often times its a physical change as well as a spiritual change. He was baptized saturday, confirmed sunday and given the Aaronic Priesthood as well on sunday. He has a calling now in the ward and is doing great!! He is so awesome...

So the ward here is really picking up. they are really doing the best i have ever seen in a ward. All the leaders are functioning, they are so excited in helping with the work. I am so excited to see what happens in the next two months.

so i have been having some really crazy dreams lately...im not sure if they mean anything or not but they are effecting my head. they are mostly about me coming home and trying to start life again; but then i cant stop thinking about the pines.. I think they are making me trunky not to leave. Every time i think about home i get kinda feel weird and immediately think about here.

Dont get me wrong or anything, i am excited to come home but im not excited to leave here and what im doing.

Im really excited about going to school. 

Well i love ya lots and hope you have a great week!!

Love Elder Smith

80 days left

Hey mums

This week was kinda long. Elder Centeno was sick and we didn't work for a few days.

Aside from that, we had a good week. We had zone interviews. I love them so much. Anything actually that i can interact with President Andaya. He is a very special man. I'm glad i'm close with him. This week i participated in two choirs. It was super fun! The first one for our interviews. We sang Hymn number 129, i don't remember what its called.. but you can look it up. That went OK  Sister Smith was our leader cuz she is real good at singin.. Then for our other choir, we sang number 41. It would have been great but two days before i lost my voice... first time of my mission actually. Its almost back now.

We had a meeting with the Assistants and the STL's(Sister Training Leaders..basically the sister APs.) about my zone and what we can do to improve. The sisters are having a hard time, but its to be expected because they are so new and given responsibility so soon.

Sister Smith is doing great! I get to see her at least once a week. Its always fun talking with her. Reminiscing about old time and what not. I think she is adjusting just fine.

Here is my favorite least favorite moment of the week.- We were finding and we were contacting all the big houses in our area and we stumbled upon a giant castle house. We knew they were rich because they even had a door-bell. The guy came out and we told him who we are and the first thing he said was "Oh, you don't want us in your church, we smoke and drink. And that's not allowed in your church... Right?" i got a laugh out of that.. then we continued to talk to him and after a minute or so, he asked us to wait. Like he was going to get something from inside. We waited patiently for a minute, then two then five. We decided that he wasn't going to come back to we yelled thank you and left.

Well i'm just about to send some pics now so 

Ginhigugmaon ko ikaw

Elder Smith