Learning Spanish is not enough, now we move onto Nayatl

Ya Ni Mo Polo

That means ¨I just got lost¨ in Nayatl (Very interesting ancient language, I tell ya).

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo this week, very interesting, very intense, and I FORGOT MY CAMERA I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE, WE HAD SOME A PLUS PHOTOS ON THERE BUT JSUT WAIT TILL NEXT WEEK I BEG YOU.

So we had a district conference in Teotitlan, and just so you guys understand the travel to get there, it is an hour and a half on a sweaty, giant bus that takes every turn on this mountainous path way too fast. Love it.  So we show up the night before to not have to travel early in the morning, and the next day we´re waiting to start, and ALEJANDRO AND HIS FAMILY WALKS IN. I LOST MY MIND OH MY GOODNESS.  Not to mention we had President Alcalá there, who had this awesome q and a with the people who are being taught and recent converts, and afterwards President Alcala pulls us aside and tells us about the conversation he just had with Alejandro, where he said that president had said so many things that seemed to be just for him. So cool!

We were also bustin´ our butts making some ties for the whole zone, and they look great, but the photo will have to wait till next week, sorry!

i listened to a talk by Hank Smith (thanks mom for sending those cd´s, they rock) called ¨he knows you¨ and it was awesome! Definitely impacted me and gave me a new perspective on our Savior´s mission. Super interesting, if you guys have a minute, look it up, great talk

Thanks for the support and the prayers! I love you guys and hope everything is calm in the states or wherever you are found!

-Elder Smiley

Short and Sweet

Well mother I hate to break it to you but our mission president kind of got angry that we were going to get more freedom or something like that and decided to cut our writing time and communicating time and everything so i actually do not have a lot of time to write a gorgeous letter because I have quite little time right now.

We are going to talk to president in two weeks for a conference, but today and next week you guys are going to have to deal with some small emails.

Also I would love to talk to you and Andi for like 5 minutes each, could you get on ASAP and send Andi a text to do the same? Maybe we can try Google hangouts or something.

I love ya!  Hope to see you soon!

-Elder Smiley

Mark John Smiley	Mon, Feb 18, 1:48 PM (21 hours ago)

Yeah well there are some complications in this mission for right now so I am not sure I will be calling you guys much (mostly for lack of devices to do it with) and our mission president is pulling a quick one on us and cutting our time to write and all that, so I am rushing to write everyone right now.  But quick question, when is mom´s exact birthday? I know I am the worst son alive but I can’t remember when it is in March! Thanks Paps!

-Elder Smiley

Great week in Mexico, and not just the weather

Monday 11 February 19

“Pues, pues, pues”

That is a Spanish joke.  Pues is used to say stuff like well.  But not well as in good but like when we wanna say stuff like ¨well, maybe. ¨ or ¨well, what do you wanna do?¨  

So we were saying the phrase ¨well, well, well.¨ And making jokes and stuff waiting for our interviews with president, and this kid who hates language study just says ¨pues, pues, pues¨. And it has been a joke ever since. Poor kid.

Anyway. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT WEEK!! We put two fechas down for this Friday and will probably have 3 more for next week!  This is so awesome I don’t even know how to feel!  This area and work and lifestyle has been so crazy and such a contrast to the rest of my mission.  We are just juggling so many people with potential! I love it!

So we got Silvina and Hector.  Silvina is the mother and Hector the kiddo.  Silvina is this humble, extremely timid woman who hates speaking in front of others, so when we need to get an answer from her, we have to talk one on one without any of her extended family there.  But this week we got her to say that she will get baptized, but IF AND ONLY IF she passes the baptismal interview.  And we are going tonight to go over the questions and get her and hector ready to DIVE IN!!!!!!!!!

The next family is this guy named Alejandro, his wife Elizabeth, and their son Alejandro.  They have two other daughters who have crushes on us.  They're like 6 and 3.  Alejandra is this lit guy who feels a connection to the church and has this dark past he’s trying to leave behind.  I LOVE THIS GUY SO MUCH.  we connected super well and I remember he kind of left Elder Weech in the dust sometimes and made him feel really bad for his Spanish.  Kind of direct, kind of a jerk, but SO AWESOME AND SO PREPARED.  We are getting that family in the water quite soon.

i am learning an ancient language called Nawatl.  It is so lit and we are learning little phrases bit by bit and it is so much fun.

Thanks for the support and congrats if you made it all the way to the end of this email, you survived! I love you guys, I love the mission, and I love God. In case I don’t see ya, Good morning, good evening, and good night!

-Elder Smiley

Look at Mark's "Cowboy Companion"  

Mark and his companion get a whole family to church!!

Monday 4 February 2019

I wrote the subject line as such because my comp Elder Weech found a random hat while we were on divisions and wore it to leaders council with the whole mission, and dressed like a cowboy. We had fun chats about cowboys and now he thinks my papa is just the coolest guy because of the stories I told him.

This was kind of a garbage week because we had to go to Puebla (garbage meaning a lot of little things that got in the way of helping our own area and our investigators), and help the sisters move, and deal with a lot of pesky things that get in the way of the Lord´s work, but we still ended up getting a WHOLE DOG GONE FAMILY TO CHURCH YALL.  WHOOOOOO.  The branch got so excited, and for the second hour Weech and I taught the branch about John the Baptist, and that was fun to lead the whole branch in a discussion.

Changes came and went, and Elder Weech and I are staying together! We were both relieved to be honest, we don’t like the other companion options too much and were both hoping to stay together.  

We don’t know why, but Silvina and Hector have started to decline in their progression.  So, we need to see what the heck is going on there (pardon my language).  The Montalvo Aparicio family is the one that came to church and they have continually said they are expecting something special from us, who knows what it could be? (BAPTISM AND ETERNAL LIFE WOOT WOOT). We would appreciate some prayers for both of those parties. As well as Fany, who needs a push towards baptism, but needs the push to be just right, not too strong, but still puttin´ some pressure.  We are going to try and find that balance this week.

Something I love that my comp shares about the Book of Mormon is that it is either a lie, or the truth. It is black or white, no gray.  There is nothing in between.  Joseph Smith was a prophet, or he wasn’t. It’s that easy.  All we have to do is find out which, and then everything falls into place.  I love this gospel!

Love ya’ll, stay solid and stay purty.

Elder Smiley