Friday, November 28, 2014

Adios Tijuana!

Hello Familia!

Well today are transfers and it's a big one! Greetings from MEXICALI!!!! That's right, I left Tijuana. Mexicali is the capitol of Baja California. It is also the hottest inhabited place in Mexico. I've also heard that it is the 3rd hottest city in the WORLD, but I'm not sure if it's true or not. But it gets hot. We are talking 130 in the summers. It's pretty hot right now, but I've heard that it's actually colder that TJ in the winter, so I got really lucky. 

Because I am/was in the Christmas choir, I wasn't supposed to leave Tijuana. Not sure what happened there, that's kinda a bummer but oh well the Lord wants me here so I guess it's okay. What's more, I am district leader, and my companion and I are BOTH NEW to the area so this should be very interesting....we both have no clue where anything is! My new companion is Elder Cruz, he has 7 months in the mission and is from the state of Mexico. He seems really great. The truth is I am just so darn excited! 

It was so hard to leave Casa Blanca, especially the converts. You all know. The converts in that ward are seriously awesome. They have been just incredible examples to me. Yesterday we visited Camilo and basically he explained 50 reasons why he loved the church and was never going inactive. That was just so amazing.  Every time I realize how far they have come, it just amazes me. 

You know what I love? Seeing the gospel change people. Seeing how it changes me! I am so grateful for this amazing opportunity to serve. It has been so rewarding, so challenging, and the food is just so good!

Well not sure what else to write. My new camera broke yesterday so I hope that I can take it back and that the warranty covers it....sorry no pictures this week :( I'll try to send them soon! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE MEXICO TOO!
Elder Smalley
p.s. please pray that I can find my way around, and pray for my camera too! sorry it's so short today!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Please pray for her parents

Hi there!
This week has been long, and short, I can't decide. Oh well. Well anyways we are in the semana 11 of training which is the greatest week ever (for the trainer not for the trainie) because they have to take the initiative in all the lessons and planning situations. Literally just the best thing every. My poor companion. It was kinda a rude awakening for him. I guess I haven't been delegating enough to him, so it was a rough transition. I don't know WHY I didn't do it earlier cause it was seriously such a relief for me haha!

Also I just need to say that i am tired physically. 2 or 3 weeks ago was Mexican daylight savings only it makes no sense how they do it here. We gain an hour in winter which makes no sense cause it gets dark at 5 now and when we wake up at it's completely bright. I seriously don't get it but whatever. I am tired because my body has still not adjusted to the time difference. How am i supposed to sleep another hour in broad daylight???? I'm done now. sorry.

Well our converts are seriously just so awesome here. Yesterday in church Juan raised his hand in gospel principles [Sunday school] because he had a comment. I got super nervous cause he is still adapting from coming from another christian church and we are still working on fixing his false doctrine haha. Don't get me wrong, he has an AMAZING testimony of the restored gospel but yeah anyways so i was nervous for what he was going to say. Well his comment was about the importance of coming to church EVERY WEEK to partake of the sacrament. I was seriously on the verge of tears. It was just so beautiful. If there is one thing I want every convert to understand it's that. So Juan gets a giant golden star this week. 

The converts in this ward are just so great. The bishop always tells me that they are the ward's strongest members. I think it's true! Frida is constantly struggling to have her parents let her come to church but she has been able to come every week so far. Literally every week it's a miracle. She went to the temple for her 2nd time, but she went to Hermosillo cause she didn't want to wait for the next trip to San Diego :) Please pray for her parents, that they will let her keep coming to church! Also we had an appointment fall through this week so I called up Camilo to see if we could stop by. He said that he was busy trying to help his daughter finish her homework (it was Saturday night) so they wouldn't have to doing it on the Sabbath day. I know I ask this all the time but WHAT ARE THEY BETTER THAN ME???


Also I've learned a great lesson about not procrastinating updating the area book. The lesson is simple-don't procrastinate it! haha I've had to do some serious catch up this week cause I might get transfered this week- but hey! who knows. I was absolutely positive I was going to get transfered 3 months ago and look what happened haha. The bishop says he's considering giving me a calling. 7 months....wow.
LOVE YOU ALL TAKE CARE
Elder Smalley

Sunday, November 16, 2014

I believed him: my first mistake!


November 10, 2014
Hola Hola!
Oh my goodness. I am really in denile. I feel like time just ticks away so fast. The Elders that had a year when I got here are getting ready to go home! This is ridiculous.

Well I'm going to start with the good stuff today! I was pleasantly surprised by a lot of people! Wednesday morning, I went to CHOIR PRACTICE!!! They are doing a Christmas choir of missionaries and Elder Lier told them that I sing (sang) and they invited me! It was so much fun to sing again!!! And it was nice to finally see Elder Lier! I miss him so much! We really had so much fun, and so much success together, after I finally got over a few things. We really didn't see the results until after he left. It was a nice break from all the DRAMA that has been going on.

I did exchanges on Wednesday, and when I came back that night, my companion told me that a family had a referral for us and they were going to meet us on Thursday at 7. I believed him: my first mistake! Well Thursday morning came and it hadn't really sunken in that I had one year, or it was my birthday. We found a family of 5 new investigators, so that was a nice present.

Also that day I got a call from the president and his wife. I was really reluctant to answer because I was almost sure that it was relating to the incident that i mentioned from the last week. But no, they called to wish me a happy birthday! Well we went to the church at 7, and the family hadn't showed up yet so we were waiting (it was a ward activity night) and the sister missionaries told everyone it was my birthday so then everybody was congratulating me and everything oh well. Well finally the family showed up, but they didn't bring a referral - they brought a CAKE! I was super confused at first!


Turns out my companion arranged the whole thing the day before. Well the bishop's family had invited us over at 8 so we were walking to the bishops house when we ran into the sisters and a few members waiting for us. they also has a cake. I was wondering what I was going to do with one cake, haha that was nice. Then us 4 missionaries went to the bishops house, and what did we find? ANOTHER CAKE. haha I really can't complain. 

The bishops wife had made us pineapple tamales as well. I was really surprised. Well here in mexico on someone's birthday there is like this really weird song you sing before you blow out the candles and then you take a bite and they push your head in. sometimes. haha well I was just really surprised.

I love this ward, even if I have been here for an eternity and a half. Everywhere i go everybody asks "you're STILL in Casa Blanca" yep, still here! We had a zone conference on Friday and that's when I got the package! Thanks so much!!!! Speaking of packages, the policy is changing in January so quick! EVERYBODY SEND ME PACKAGES BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!!!

Apart from that it's been another tough week. More problems in the district. more emergency calls to the president and the zone leaders. Just trying to keep on swimming - figuratively of course because that goes against the missionary rules. 

Love you all so much!
hmmm I can't send the pictures from this week from the computers. I'll send them through wifi tomorrow I guess.

Elder Smalley!

Saturday, November 15, 2014

He explained exactly how I felt without me saying a word

Nov 3, 2014
Hey there Family!
Usually I start out every letter talking about the date and how time just flies by but today we are not even going there today. i am in denial.

This week has probably been the most memorable week of my mission, and my life. I wish I could explain exactly why, but i can't. But I'll get to that.

Well Monday we had special exchanges because Tuesday morning we had a special training for all the district leaders. The other district leader came here to work with me in Casa Blanca. I learned that his companion, Elder Pearson played water polo for Kearns so that was cool and he also did ODP. Anyway I was super grateful for that training because I learned so much and I had a lot of prayers answered. 

This week I have really tried to be very motivated and it has really payed off! I've seen so many blessing, and we are finding so much! But there have been a lot of hard things. T

here was an incident that went down on Thursday. One of the missionaries in my district is going through a very hard time and I have been aware of it for some time now, but this week it has been particularly worse. Let's just say I have never had to make so many calls to the President in one week! It has seriously been a very odd experience. Well I don't really know what else to say about it but we've all just been super uncertain about what is going to happen next. On Friday, Halloween, I had to visit the house of the zone leaders, because of what went down and we couldn't go home because we all had to be indoors after 6 cause I guess Halloween is super dangerous here or something like that. Well Elder Aleman and I had to stay the night in the zone leaders house. So there's my only Halloween on the mission for ya. 


With everything that has been going on, I've just felt really distracted. I feel like these problems are taking my focus away from the work. We also had interviews with the Presidente this week. That was something that I really needed. To my amazement he was able to explain exactly how I felt without me saying a word. He helped me realize how these experiences would help me grow and will be a blessing for me and this missionary. He made some pretty awesome promises to me. I left feeling even more motivated. Well that's what's gone down. Sorry if I left you all with a lot of questions but oh well. 

The only picture that I have made me laugh because everybody pronounces my name wrong. Because of the double L, they pronounce smiley haha but I don't complain! I like being the Elder Smiley!

Love you all so much!
Elder Smalley

shoutout to Spencer! congrats on getting your Eagle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!