Things are going well south of the border. Cody is in his last area!!

Elder Cody Smiley:

​Well Bracken and I are going to be home very soon!  July 4^th at 12:05 will be here before we know it.  Bracken’s plane lands at 1pm so it will be cool to see him as soon as he lands too!!

I am now in Valparaíso en Fresnillo.  I will finish my mission here so that is a little crazy to think about!  We live in an apartment.  It is a small town.  There are only big stores like WalMart.

This week is a little short because Valparaíso es a rama (a branch) that is an hour and a half from Fresnillo...... So we got here on Wednesday.

We did find a family that went to church so that is really good!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Jacinto mi nuevo compañero es the coolest comp ever my gosh.  He is just the coolest.  He is from Oaxaca, Mexico.  He has been on his mission for 6 months.   He is a hard worker and we talk to people all day long about the gospel

We also played some football and Jacinto taught me some new tricks and dang I love sports!!

I also said goodbye to Fresnos it was easier than I thought but still a little hard............ 

MARK look for Hermana Cruz she just got home from her mission here and she is freaking cool bro she was like my best friend here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I wanted to be sure to write you and dad an email that would say how grateful I am how you raised me.  I ate with a family on Sunday and my gosh they were just fighting in front of my companion and we felt so weird!  I was glad you taught me manners to at least have the decency to fight with my brothers after our dinner guests left!

I am excited to talk with you guys on May 10!

Elder Mark Smiley:

It was so great to see all of the pictures of you two with Andi and her family in Kansas.  I cannot wait to play with Danny again.

You and dad sound like you guys are fulfilling your callings at the Provo YSA ward to the max! That’s good.  

I am excited to see the new changes to the house; I’m excited to hear about Cody, I’m being reminded of last summer with Kevin.  I love all of you guys so much!

Now here is a story, see if you can keep it straight!!!

Monday 23 April 2018

Elder Cody Smiley

This week was a decent one.  It was week 6 so it is a little hard to work .  

The Tobillas family had problems with the Word of Wisdom.  They would drink 2 litros de café every day.  Now, they are taking basically nothing! It is so cool to see that progression with them!

The Carreon family is doing so well.  They are awesome.  I am sad I will not be able to see them again but I hope they still have that progression!  I am getting transferred tomorrow.

We played fútbol again and I love that sport so much my gosh.  I am so excited to play it in Utah with Josh!  We will play every day! And Watch the Mundial will be so cool with Scott and Smiles! 

Elder Mark Smiley

ok so i am going to start off with tid bits I have been dying to share with the hometown

first off, something my companion told me that struck me today:  ¨elder, we are the luckiest people in this area!¨ ¨Why,¨ i ask, considering we had been proselyting for two hours and nobody wanted a return appointment, he replied ¨because we seem to always catch people on the only day and at the only time they are EVER at home!¨ how i agree with him. we always seem to catch people on the way out or on the only day of the year where they are home for about 10 minutes. how lucky we are to find people in their ever so busy schedules!

also I spent three days in another area of the zone called tepeojuma, and it was super fun because

A - I only had one change of clothes because I thought it was only going to last half a  day, and our district leader decided to extend the interchange two days

B - it is a particularly sunny area, so I have the complexion of someone who puts Crisco on his face and arms in his down time

C - the house bathroom is overrun with spiders, cockroaches come out of the sink when you wash your hands, and a centipede fell out of the shower head when I started showering.

-other than that it really was a good time and I loved my comp for three days Elder Serrano

-one last thing
so we have an investigator named Hugo.  incredible guy, really.  a couple of years ago, he was interested in the church and even wanted to get baptized, but a small thing obstructed his progression. to understand the small thing that obstructed him, i need to give some backstory.  

he is with  a woman named Maria Angeles.  she was married before, I don’t know that man´s name but lets call him Juan.  Juan, before being married to Maria, was married to Hermana Isabel, who is a member of the Izucar Branch.  Hermana Isabel is sick in the head, literally. anyway, Juan divorced from hermana isabel after having two kids with her.  she was not in a good condition to be abandoned so obviously she harbored some hard feelings toward him. after leaving hermana isabel, juan married Maria, but also left her after some time.  

because of this ¨juan¨ character deciding to do this to these women, he caused certain animosity to begin in hermana isabel, who is not 100% ¨all there¨ toward Maria.  Maria, after being divorced by Juan, decided to get with Hugo, but not marry him.  they are together and happy, and hermana maria is a member, so she decides to share the gospel with Hugo, who begins listening to the missionaries.  Hugo decides he wants to go to church.  this is when the small obstruction came to pass.  Hermana isabel was also at church,  and when she sees hermana maria, she is reminded of the heartbreak and abandonment of Juan, and gets very upset.  to the point of going to the pair after the meeting and sharing very rude words with them.  Hugo and Maria are both very mature, so they decide they ought to leave to avoid further contact.  Hermana Isabel is still quite upset so she hits maria on the arm, and at that moment hugo decides he wants to get out of there quickly, so he goes to get the motorcycle so the family can leave, but Hermana Isabel´s two sons (who are as tall as me and both are large in stature) decide to team up on hugo and begin to beat him. literally beat him. he was hospitalized.  he´s better now but at the time he was in a dire situation.

due to this event, Hugo has decided he doesn’t feel comfortable coming back to church.

so.  now lets fast forward to when elder smiley and elder gates arrive.  We made some calls and got permission to go to the nearest house of prayer, which is in a place called tepeojuma.  Hugo decided to be very Christ like and not hold any grudges against hermana isabel or the church, and agreed to come with us to church in tepeojuma.  if he continues on this path he will be baptized soon!

sorry this is the longest email in the world.  please be patient with me but i love you all and hope yall love the gospel.  Also humility mixed with a lack of fear is the key to spiritual power.

ALSO JOSEPH SMITH DID NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD

-elder smiley

Help for Chris and her "Missionary Mama" talk in the ward!!

Elder Cody Smiley:

Well this week was a little tough.    We have been working with a family who we thought was prepared for baptism this past Saturday.  We later figured out that they had a problem with the Word of Wisdom.  So, now we have to wait for changes to happen.  We will see when they can get baptized.  I also received a notice that I will be leaving Fresnos.  I will finish my mission in a different ward for one transfer. 

Mom sent Mark and I an email explaining that our ward’s missionary moms will be reporting on their missionaries.  She wants me to share some things that I’ve learned.  It has made me think about everything I have learned.  First of all I learned Spanish.  I never speak English until I am emailing my family on Mondays.  I have only had native companions for my entire mission and I struggle to find the correct English words to use to email.  But, somehow I’m managed to make it work.  As far as the spiritual side of a mission goes, I guess it all boils down to the love that dios y jesúcristo really has for us.  Once people figure out that everything else falls in place. Things for future missionaries to learn how to do:

1.    Go to Seminary and pay attention.

2.     Learn another language.

3.     Learn to cook.

4.     Learn to manage money.

5.     Learn how to get along with anyone and everyone.

6.     Learn how to work.

-Elder Smiley

Contacting in front of the town sign

Hamburgers!!!!

Elder Mark Smiley:

Here are some things for your talk:

Things I have learned on the mission: humility.  The biggest thing in the way of a missionary´s success is the missionary himself.  If he sees himself being the person who is having all of the success, then he is not in the right, and he is not going to feel the joy that comes from missionary work. 

I used to think that to get people to be baptized was to teach in the most incredible way possible, and then they would understand it as something cool, and want to get baptized.  Then I went on interchanges with my zone leader Elder Mangum. Elder Mangum is incredible.  He doesn’t learn very well, so even though he has had quite a bit of time in the mission he doesn’t speak the best Spanish, nor is he good with social situations or the like, but he knows his weaknesses and he relies on the Lord, and because of that the heavens open when he teaches. We went to go teach this kid named Hector, and we were teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I began teaching, trying to get him as captivated as possible with good stories, animated teaching and hand gestures, and cool scriptures. Elder Mangum taught simply. We continued teaching like that until he came to a question, and asked us about a certain aspect of repentance.  This is where elder Mangum´s spirituality comes in.  I immediately tried to open to a scripture and give him a doctrinal fact to answer his inquiry, but Elder Mangum beat me to it.  Instead of answering his question with a scripture and 5 minutes on nonstop talk which was honestly going to be my approach, he asked ¨Hector, why are you concerned about this?¨ Simple, but  because of that inspired question, Hector opened up to us about things that had happened in the past and we now are that much closer to him getting baptized.

Alma 26:12 - ¨yea, I know that I am nothing. ¨  I have often asked myself what has impeded me from knowing that I am nothing compared to God, and how i can humble myself further to be able to have the spirit with me as a companion more often in my life

Hope this is what you are looking for mom:)

To Dad-

Mom tells me you are 100% in on your calling (wearing a suit and everything) and that is awesome.  I am still trying to figure out how to give more of myself to this work and its admirable how hard you worked on your mission. 

The Spanish is gowing grate, and the english is awlso souper emasing!!!  How is that for exceling in the English language!!!!!

I really need a Spanish speaking comp though; unlike Cody I could go this whole mission with English speaking companions. The complete opposite! The Spanish is really fun though, and I am thanking my lucky stars I’m learning Spanish instead of Japanese or Russian.  I have worked really hard on developing an accent, and it is starting to pay off. The other 3 elders here are not super interested in developing an accent because they don’t want it when they get home but I have been told on more than one occasion that I sound a lot easier to understand to my investigators so that is a super nice thing to hear.

I am actually really starting to love the mission.  The more often i have the spirit with me the more in love with this work i am. It has taken me way too much time to realize that the spirit is everything in this work and to depend on the Lord is the only way you can serve a mission to its full potential.

Dad read a talk called The Ricciardi Letter.  It is incredible!  it reminds me of how missionaries probably talked about you and I think you would get a kick out of reading that and showing that to the young men back home. Also the Donaldson papers are really good but they are more for in-field elders.

The four amigos!!  About as tall as my comp, even though I am one step lower!!!

When it is time for a S'more, it is time for a Smore!!  Hot Mexican weather or not.