Doing the things that Zone Leaders do . . .

so wowza probably one of the fastest weeks and time of my mission.  So incredible! we are working our butts off with the zone and in our area, and it is making the time pass by in the blink of an eye.

we have been going out with every companionship this week because no one had a single baptismal date this last week, and by the end of the week we had 2 baptisms and 7 baptismal dates for the end of October.  obviously it wasnt us it was our FREAKING INCREDIBLE ZONE I LOVE IT HERE.

we had an awesome experience after the services on Sunday: We left third hour, and literally were bombarded with families saying they were gonna do family home evenings with friends and wanted to know when we could go with them, then the ward missionaries started talking to us about different days in the week they could go with us, and the list goes on and on!!!!  we all got up to give our testimonies and i just couldnt help but tell the whole ward how excited we were to be with them. we have a lot of work ahead of us!

so we found this guy named Omar Márquez, i suggest looking him up on Spotify, because he is SO LIT.  this guy is literally my hero, he is hilarious, speaks english fluently, plays the guitar like a freaking master, and raps in spanish which is one of the coolest things I have ever heard.  he told us last night that music helped him find God and find peace in his soul.  and boy this guy is going places (i hope).  T´would be pretty sick if we were able to baptize him and get him to be a member before a rockstar.

i love yall, we have so much to do today i am not gonna be able to respond personally but i read all of your emails and i absolutely LOVED THE PICTURES KEEP THOSE UP.

you are all the dopest and i count my lucky stars i know you guys.

-elder Smiley

Things are going well in my new area

Monday October 8, 2018

SO WE ARE GETTING A HOUSE OF THE LORD HERE IN PUEBLA

YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH WE FLIPPED IN OUR LITTLE ENGLISH SPEAKING CONFERENCE ROOM

Conference was a great experience as always, we got to watch in English, which made it not be a headache for 8 hours, we were all happy about that, especially because we had two new missionaries with us.

This week was a whirlwind I tell ya.  We had tons of running around and planning and conferences and fun adventures.

First off, the ward is incredible.  They are the most organized and devoted members i have ever known to missionary work.  They have ward missionaries that actually go out and proselyte on their own and find us investigators.  

Everyone here is also very extremely wealthy.  We are in the wealthiest part of the mission.  There is a community here (like the heritage village, but MUCH larger) that has its own mall, gas station, and tons of parks and waterfalls.  it is its own little city.

Our mission leader is a beast.  He is a federal judge here, and when he´s not doing that, he is training other people to be judges in courts of law.  On Sunday we ate with him and he made us tacos and then told us in a quite normal sounding tone ¨oh, also, we were in Costco yesterday and we bought you guys four boxes of cereal, they´re right here. ¨ And just handed us four large boxes of cheerios.  The best!  Mom, dad, you guys do not have to worry about us here they treat us rela well.

My companion is named Elder Hall.  He does not have a lot of time in the mission left, but we think he will finish his mission in another area, or spend his 3 remaining changes here.  He is weird, not gonna lie, but we don’t fight nor disagree.  We also live in a house of 4, and the other missionaries are BEASTS.  I love these guys.  Because we all get along so well it is really easy to unwind at the end of the night, so everything is going really well here in our little house.

Also what the heck with two-hour church? My first thought that came to my head was telling my kids ¨well, when I was your age, we went to church for THREE hours, EACH WEEK.¨ I sure am excited and it is quite obvious to tell that the prophet is getting us geared up for something big coming up.

I love you guys! This is a huge email so I wont blame ya’ll for not reading it all but just keep up the good work and look back on conference if you need some revelation and inspiration

-Elder Smiley

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Great family in my new area

I love these Elders

Sleeping arrangements when you lock the keys in the storage room.

so real quick let me tell ya’ll a hilarious story

So we went with the assistants to the offices one day, knowing we were gonna have to spend the night with them.  What ended up happening was that other elders took the assistants keys to open a storage room, and locked the door on their way out... with the keys inside!  So you guys are gonna see an image of us on the floor with play mats and one mattress as a pillow for the 5 of us, because the keys locked in the storage room also had the keys of the assistant´s house, so we spent the night in the offices with the assistants!

New Area -- New Companion -- New Responsibilities

So we got changes this week.

I am in the wealthiest part of the mission, called Angelopolis.  i am a zone leader! And elder Hall, my comp from Orem, Utah, has also not ever been a zone leader.  This does not usually happen in the mission.  We are both new to being zone leaders so any advice or prayers would be appreciated.

Twas a difficult week, my comp was not loving being a missionary these three months and this last week was especially hard.  But we that is behind us and now we have new challenges in front of us.  

I got to see a whole bunch of my good friends from the mission at the bus station before they went home.  I have the pictures but the computer is not allowing me to upload them so that is kinda difficult.  be ready for a whole lot of pictures next week!

I love yall, we don’t have a lot of time but we will have some good stuff ready for next week!

-Elder Smiley

Mark John Smiley

Well i am excited to go back to telluride with you guys again.  Looks absolutely gorgeous.

Hope you guys can survive normal, because changes just came and we are in for a new area and comp!

Don’t worry mom!  Sorry I don’t have a lot of time to write but I appreciate the email and I appreciate the support I get from you guys.

A package should be arriving soon for you guys and the brother in the ward will be contacting you guys this weekend for the package!

-Elder smiley