3 Smiley Missionaries: Missionary days in Mexico

Elder Cody Smiley

This week was slow because Elder Guerrero was sick. We just visited our investigators and we are seeing a lot of progression. We just need Sergio to get divorced then get married and then he can be baptized. We have met with him a lot. He has met with a lot of missionaries over the years. This week he told me that he has never made a connection to a missionary like he has with me. That makes me feels good. We have been teaching Michelle also. She needs to do get divorced and married as well.

As we have taught Sergio and Michelle this week we asked them to prepare for General Conference. We asked them to have a question in their hearts while they listen. We asked them to pray to have that question answered during Conference. I hope they can watch a lot of it.

For P day we played soccer and it was so hot. My feet felt like they were on fire! I only had 2 goals sadly but I did help my team a lot! Then we ate these things like a Wendy’s Frosty that was so good.

I HAVE OFFICIALLY SEEN A WHITE TURKEY! This turkey was so cool! I saw it in the corner of my eye and I was just dumbfounded! I wanted to hunt it!

One member always goes to the citas (appointments) with us. I love him so much! Lehí he is my fav!!

I also got to see Johnathan this week. It was sad because he is not living the kind of life he can be proud of but good to see him in the same time.

Only white guy there....

Three Amigos

Here is our church building

Elder Mark Smiley

We had a super fun experience this week. It started raining super hard while we were in ward council and all of a sudden we hear these crashing noises outside. We look out and turns out it is a freaking rainstorm like nothing I have seen before. So we put on our garbage bag ponchos and start on our way to the next appointments, realizing that the sewage had become overflowed and was pouring into the streets. So we are literally walking through poop, and realize that we have a service opportunity here! So we go to the nearest store and buy all the black garbage bags they have and just start walking around handing them out to all the people. It was incredible! We had already gotten rid of our own garbage bag ponchos, so we were soaked head to toe. Imagine 4 white guys in some far away Mexican town handing out trash bags looking like its the time of their lives. That’s us.

I’ve learned here how to appreciate having a worthy priesthood holder as a father. It’s because so many teen pregnancies happen here. It is rare to find a family together. So many are broken up by drugs, alcohol, or grudges, and they all just accept that their lives have to suck now, which frustrates me to no end.

I love the mission life. The people here are super prepared and looking for us as the Lord´s representatives. We started this week with 3 investigators in total, and now we have 28! And around 13 baptismal dates for April! Hopefully we can keep this kind of grind up and we are looking good for the branch of Izucar!

Some other noteworthy experiences: life threatened by English speaking pothead ¨I WILL SLIT YOUR THROAT AND THEN WHO WILL HELP YOU,¨ our catholic church exploration extravaganza, a woman thinking we were from another church, and then at the end of the first lesson realizing we weren’t and deciding she really didn’t want us to come back

Stay solid! Something I started doing this week was read ¨I have a work for thee¨ by Elder John C. Pingree jr. It talks about how to find out and fulfill with what god has in mind for us specifically. I loved the part that talked about our spiritual gifts.