muy susto #44
hello eniyan! welcome back to the semi-half-monthly email of Elder Smith, who recently saw a full grown man at a Big O Tires pick up his coworker in the biggest squeeze hug i've ever seen. it was hilarious because the receiving guy didn't want it but just accepted it in the end. i'm glad we got our oil changed that day
This week's summary! (for my TLDR folks)
☆ My favorite Christmas memory
☆ spent way too long making a facebook story
☆ FIRE combined district council
☆ Choomba! (i'm just gonna start giving all the infriendstigators i'm teaching fun nicknames. better than like.... just a letter and i don't wanna keep copying my friends with what they do 
)
☆ Kho and Co! (im gonna keep this one cuz its already fun 
)
☆ Clara's baptism:))) (not someone we're teaching, just a cute kiddo in the ward. it was dope)
☆ double AA battery (yes these names do in fact have something to do with the friend's name who we're teaching... i promise)
☆ kids love to play guitar, fun fact!
☆ i made,,,,,, a lot of food this week
Stories
- i totally forgot to talk about the best part of Christmas that happened! we went over to a members house, and had dinner with them Christmas eve! it was great, and then afterwards, they decided to do their christmas eve night with us! they read a story called "the Christmas orange". my family always read "the night before Christmas" back home, so it wasn't exactly like that, but man was it lovely. felt right at home with them. it was a beautiful story, too! then we all ate a chocolate orange, another one of my favorite things from Christmas. just can't believe i forgot to mention this!
- i decided to have a cool idea for a facebook story for our mission page this week, and got reallllllllly intricate with it. i ended up spending about an hour and a half on it... way too much time 
it ended up looking really cool tho! i'll include it in the photos album
- we had such a good combined district council. it inspired me so much that i worked so hard that night, i actually ended up starting teaching someone off of facebook! wow! imagine! i haven't had success on facebook in a long time, usually cuz we're just doing so much member work and such. but our lessons cancelled for that night, and i worked my lil booty off until we picked up Choomba! so that was kinda hype!
- went to clara's baptism, if you looked at my google photos album last week, she was the little cutie wearing my name tag 
it was awesome! unfortunately, our friends Br&S (haven't thought of a nickname for them yet) weren't able to come, but this little 8 year old was so ready. she actually loves missionaries so much that she wanted one of us to baptize her! but we let her grandpa do it instead it was awesome tho, as soon as she went under the water, (which wasn't too hard, she's so tiny that the only thing that needed to go under was the top half of her head), i felt the spirit just right there. so cool getting confirmation of the spirit right at the moment one becomes clean. it was so cool!!
- we made a lesson about being "instruments in the hands of God!" (alma 17:9-11) and Elder Bales and i brought a guitar and a kalimba to show an example to them of how we can use instruments, and then God can use us as instruments too! Then all the kids just wanted to bang it out on my guitar while i held the chords. happened quite a few times! it was very fun!
- it's the last week before transfers, so i'm deciding to make all the food i can of our stock before one of us might move. i've made porkchops, pineapple chicken quesadillas, spaghetti and meatballs, you name it. we eat gooooooood the last week before transfers! the sisters also made some german pancakes with some milk we gave them, so we got a taste of that as well 
i haven't had german pancakes since my mom last made them, probably a year ago. now THAT'S a weird thought right there. but they were scrumptious, thanks sisters! they got fudge in return
Teaching Updates
- Choomba! he accepted my friend request quite a while ago. he told me he wanted to become more like Christ, and that he needed miracles and hadn't seen them. i had a cool opportunity to bear testimony to him about the miracles that i had seen. and he accepted the invitation for me to tell him all about it! and we set up a call for the next day. we sent a HYPE success video into the zone chat, it was lit! he has since perhaps sort of ghosted me. but, you know i wont ever give up 
- Kho and Co! we had an awesome time with them. taught them what faith was, and had them try to open a hershey's kiss without using their hands. we have to have works as well as faith! God provides us with the ~chocolate~ and then we have to work to unwrap it! they really vibed with it, and accepted our invitation to read a scripture and pray to understand it! and Kho came to church, which was actually a huge surprise for us! there's 1!
- double AA battery. this man was passed off to us by the one and only Hermana Harmon, and we finally got him to church! only thing is he BOOKED it out of there as soon as possible when it ended. he's still in contact with us, and something really got to him but i definitely see it still moving forward, albeit slowly:)) but hey, for church there's 2!
- Berry (formerly known as N) she... is struggling right now. she's wanted to be baptized for almost a year now, and is losing the faith. it's the hardest thing possible to see. it's so, so, so hard. i thought people coming up to me and telling me that our church was false, Joseph Smith was a false prophet, all these lies that are only intended to hurt and harm, would be hard. as i type this, the lady i'm sitting next to in the bible study nudged me and told me her church was the "true church" and that she doesn't agree with anything. after we've tried so hard for her. (7 day advent calendar). but nothing has been harder than seeing Berry, someone i love with my entire heart, mind, and soul, lose the testimony she used to be so strong in. it is absolutely heart wrenching and breaks me. she used to come to church every week, months in a row, and hasn't been coming the last few times. she has watched the link tho, so that's nice at least. man, it really sucks.
- Mama bear and the Sniper (formerly known as Br&S) they're awesome! Mama bear is back on date, for the 28th of January, and Sniper still loves his nerf wars with us. she needs more time to prepare, but made it to church! so hey, there's 4! the most people i've ever had at church my whole mission! 
we shoulda had two more, Berry and 7 day advent calendar, but alas, they did not use their agency to make it. big sad:( but still big hap! 4 peeps!
- The Santa's (formerly known as the h's) still haven't picked them up. i have absolutely ZERO idea how tho. they're practically members. one of these times we just gotta straight up ask. for real. but we made them fudge and meatballs, (not together, although...... not a bad idea perhaps 
) and they gave us some cookies! best case.
- 7 day advent calendar (formerly known as Ca). seventh day adventist, hence the name. she uh.... well her son thinks we're making good work on her, but she went to a bible study with us this morning, which btw, we sacrificed an hour out of our p-day foor, and uh... as aforementioned in Berry's story, she was nudging me the whole time and making comments on "the true church" and i could tell didn't agree with a lot of what we were saying. which is funny, cuz, ya know, we were reading out of the bible, which she believes in. at the end, she announced to us and even tho everyone in there was quiet... hard of hearing, i'm sure they heard it, she said "you have to be mormon to believe all this junk". oh 7 day advent calendar, how i have to repent of the anger you make me feel sometimes.
- Hatchet! nothin new on this guy. no contact from this last week, heh.
Spotlight
- uhhhhhh if u a homie u get a spotlight. yuppers. and all y'all are homies! yeet!
My challenges for you
- Have a GOOD day. but, you have to MAKE it good. don't worry about the things around you. about what you cannot control. trust me, i understand when i say that may very well be the hardest thing ever to do. i cannot ignore circumstances around me, and i absolutely cannot help overthinking about what other people do and/or say. but i know what i can control is myself. and i know you can too. if you have a mental thing you believe inhibits you from doing this, hey, i have several of those!!! but, nevertheless, i choose joy. and i know you can too.
Every minute, every moment...there was Jesus.
" i'm all right
would you say you depend on the weather?
my sunshine
is a buzz and a light
i'll be singing out:
i know it's hard to believe me, it's a good day "
We can always change something to be better. "joy is not a function of your conditions or circumstances. its a function of your focus and mindset" -unknown
Christ never let adversity or discouragement get Him down! so don't let it happen to you either:)
i love you all! 
~ el dormilón
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