LETTERS LIKE THIS ARE ALWASY FUN TO GET!!! KEEP IT UP SMILES!

This week has been nuts! We have seen so many miracles I can´t even list them. We have gotten this little kid ready for baptism (story comes later). The other elders had a baptism. Our recent convert blessed the sacrament in full suit and tie. Our family is progressing like champs. We had 10 investigators in the church Sunday. Another record 40 people in church!!! Because of all of the hype President Pace is coming out to see what we are doing because the branch is exploding as it is. I am just so happy to be apart of such a great growth here in Menorca.

On Saturday we had an activity in the church for the primary. (we had about 14 investigators there) Towards the end of the activity I went up to the kid that has the fecha for the 29 of March. I asked him if it was time. He said yes. I asked “why now?”  He said I read the Book of Mormon. I prayed. I finally got my answer. I want to be baptized. I almost cried I was so happy. It was one of the best moments of my mission. It´s just that simple! I guess I am just so grateful to have such a simple message and a simple gospel. We´ve gotta baptize everyone! 

We ate what we call "arroz basura", which translates to “gomi rice.” (if questions ask Dad) Everyone loved it and I remembered all the good (and the bad) "Dad´s Delights" we had.

We have just been seeing tons of miracles and everyone is just coming out. Everyone just wants to be baptized! It is the best! Transfers are next week. I don´t know if I´m going but Elder Ponce has been pleading to me that I stay. He says he doesn´t want to be a bastard and have 2 dads. hahaha He is learning English very quickly but there are things that he learns from the street that are not the best words. It´s been great and I love all of you so very much!

Just keep going y´all!!          Y´all are incredible!

Prayer list:

Jose. baptized this week.

Conferencia General: The prophets can be guided by the spirit to touch the hearts of our investigators.

Alexander and family. Baptism 12. Come to church 2 more times. Read and pray.

Rofina. Listens to her member sister. Baptized 12. Read and Pray.

Dorian. Reads and prays.  Comes to church. 12 Baptism.

I love you and thank you for your prayers. I hope that you all feel the Holy Ghost and are guided by his spirit. Let´s go baptize the world! 

The 4 Elders lighting Menorca on FIRE!!!!!

Having fun walking back

Cliffs by the lighthouse

PAYDAY!!! The future is bright, Smiles needs shades!!!

This week was crazy good!!! I got to return to Bilbao to listen to Elder Kearon a 70 and in the presidency here in Europe! Incredible!! I didn´t have much time in Bilbao but it felt sure good.

We have seen some serious miracles this week y´all wouldn´t even believe me.

Milagro 1: We visited a family that is returning to activity and we said that they can all be missionaries. They were so excited! So Sunday after church one of the girls said ¨Come on! I have friends I want you to meet¨. She took us to 4 houses of friends, 2 of which have families that want to hear more about the church!

This place is starting the fire!!!! 

Milagro 2:(Through this miracle think like God would, like looking at Menorca like a map with streets and everything. Almost like a video game, and we are the green dots and the blue dots are the people who are prepared to be baptized. Elder Archibald taught me this.) We were walking to Manuel´s piso because Elder Ponce forgot his scarf and on our way we walked past a family sitting on a bench that I felt we just had to contact them. We did. We asked if they have time (which is always NO) they said we have the whole afternoon. We talked for a little and they said that they had been taught before but moved and the missionaries lost contact. We invited them to be baptized and they accepted with a huge YES. (The best part) “Will you pray for us Dad?”, we can teach you how. We said start like this blaha blah and then give thanks for... His wife said that he felt that as a family we should go for a walk today and we found the missionaries that we were looking for. I almost cried, my prayers have been answered I was so grateful. They said they have a lot of family here and they would love us to share this message with them too. It was the miracle of my mission. 

We are El Faro mission and this is what we do. We find. We teach. We baptize worthy converts. 

This is why I´m here.

Prayer list:

1.Manuela. Baptized the 22. That we can see her everyday this week to teach her all.

2.Jose. Baptized the 29. We can see him and baptize him before General Conference.

3.Alexander and the family. That they all have desires to listen and be baptized.

4. That we can help the menos activos and the members stay and keep coming to church.

Elder Smiley

Go Baptize Someone Today

Enjoying some sunshine

See the little white house...

...and here it is with it's own beach. 

 

Greenbean Baptizing in Menorca!!!

BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!! BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stiven went down!!! It was great! Elder Ponce and his friend from the MTC were the first of his group to baptize and the whole mission is fired up for him! He is just loving all of it! It has just been a crazy week!

The whole branch is fired up!  Lots of people came to the baptism and the members brought 2 friends in specific, and they said ¨Here is my friend, he wants to be baptized like that.¨ We have seen countless miracles. It is too hard to count them all! It has still been hard, but I have just been thinking all about all the miracles and the help from the members! It is something incredible! We have helped out the branch so much that President Pace wants to come out here to see how we are doing it. Woooohoooo!!!!

The assistants to the president called us and told us that Menorca is a lighthouse to the rest of the mission. With the smallest branch in the mission and baptizing and seeing a whole bunch of miracles. It is nice to finally see the fruits of my labors here. Elder Ponce is teaching me so much it really makes me humble and love him that much more. Here comes Menorca!!!! 

Teaching in Menorca after Carnival

Stiven get baptized!!

Just another week in the life of a Smiley missionary!!!

This week I think we could have set the record for the most fires in a week. It was the worst!!! I am not joking! I think we planned for 50-60 visits this week and we ended up with 17. It was super dumb! It was a test of my faith and a test of my patience. I am really becoming more and more patient every day. Y´all would not believe how amazing my Nuevo is. He is truly amazing!!!! I love him to death! He has a huge desire to be obedient, to work hard, and he knows why he is here.... To BAPTIZE!!!!  He is the best! He is coming along 50 times faster than I came along. I love training him. He teaches me so much Spanish but he won´t agree with my compromise to only speak Spanish, because he wants to learn English. I guess we´ll just have to live with that. My Spanish is really improving. I do have a long way to go but we´ll get there. I am always working on taking more pictures so y´all can see how it is out here. A lot of people have either dropped us or we have dropped them. Looks like this week is going to be another finding week.

(side note), Lots of lessons as you may know can go south really fast.  So we came up with a signal to know that we have to get out because it isn´t going well. It´s the sign from The Sting. It reminds me of y´all when I do it too. I love it. We have even starting doing it with the other missionaries on the Street. It is so funny.

A lot of things have really happened this week. We found a man last week. We had our third visit with him this Thursday and he told us he read the whole book and loved it, but because Nephi kills Laban, it can´t be true. It´s a Little sad. Last night we found a woman who was really distraught. Really looking for something more in her life, but more than for her, for her sons who don´t believe in God. It is really hard on her to see where the world is taking her kids.

(side note) She told her kids to come to the lesson and they came but didn´t really listen, and said ¨yeah whatever.¨ Elder Ponce and I talked about that a little and thought. “Wow If I said that my mom and dad would beat me like a rug.”  Thanks for teaching me good principios!

STEVEN!!!! Our fecha for this Saturday. Boom. He has been progressing slowly and slowly but this last week he skyrocketed! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he said that he had always drank alcohol and was unsure about that. After a bit of talking he took out the money he was going to buy a beer with that afternoon, and said he would buy a treat for his kid. We announced his baptism in church and every testimony was aimed right at him and he loved every minute of it. All the members attacked him. All the investigators asked him how he knew to do it. It was miracle miracle miraculous!

We have been working a lot with the members and we should have a couple new investigators that can be baptized in 3 weeks if they jump on it.

The curse of Menorca. The reason this island has never grown much is because of the tourists. Dang them!!! The tourists come and everyone works Sundays including the members. Then in the winter everyone goes on vacation and doesn´t give time to god. It´s starting up again and all the missionaries and the leaders are on “code red” right now!!! I am super nervous!!! Ahhhhhh

Pray for us!!!

Pray list:

Steven. Baptized this Saturday.

Katelina: Gives us time and accepts una fecha bautismal for the 22.

Find find find! using the members too!

I love you all and thank you!!!

Elder Smiley

Go baptize someone today.