She has just developed a habit of saying no

Hello Familia!

This week has been really hot! and it just rained so it's really humid. It was 32 degrees [Celsius] and raining! yikes.

Well this week was mas o menos. It kinda just flew by too fast for me. I don't even know why it seemed to go by so fast. Anyway, we weren't really able to come close to reaching our goals, so that was disappointing. 

Yesterday in church, I just felt the greatest peace come over me even though the week was kinda tough. I am so grateful for the powerful blessing of an effective Sabbath day observance! The AreaPresidency of Mexico has asked us to teach the doctrine of the Sabbath day to the families in the ward, because they are worried that we are getting a little bit too relaxed with it.

Anyway, Elva is doing alright for her July 30th baptism, but we still have some work to go. I think that over the years, she has just developed a habit of saying no to everything the missionaries inviteher to do - haha. Her daughter opened her mission call on Monday, she is going to Mexico City! I think that has helped a lot. We have kinda lost contact with Luis. I'm kinda worried about it. He was so excited to meet with us the first couple of weeks and I don't really know what happened... anyway like i said this week has gone by really fast.

So reading Hermana Smalley's emails had made me remember how I felt when I first got to Mexico! You all really just don't even understand the struggle it is to find good milk outside of the USA haha...

Love you all!
Elder Smalley

"I am watching you"

July 13, 2015

Hello Family!

Yesterday we were sitting in la escuela dominical and I received a text from Presidente Gracia that said (in English) "I am watching you". I turned around to see him and his wife sitting in the back. Haha oh man, I love them. he showed me the picture of Bishop Peterson! Small world...

Well what can I say, this week has been fantastic! Oh my goodness I have literally loved every minute. I don't even know where to start.Well so last Monday we didn't have any baptisms planned for this month. Well we baptized Saturday! Surprise! It was  two jovenes that we have been teaching. They live with their uncle who was a less active member but their mother, wouldn't let them get baptized. They have had such a hard life. Well this week we went again to talk to their mom and she said yes! Right before we were praying for the Lord to soften her heart and He did! 

We also had a way cool experience yesterday. We had a way cool experience with Elva, and she said that she wants to get baptized and it is seriously a miracle!!!! Having faith is so much fun! Okay okay I have to go now but thank you so much for your advice last week. You were all just so right. The key is humility and service! I just love worrying about others, instead of worrying about myself! So great!

LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Smalley!

PS. I don't know why I never have any time to write anything!!!
oh and shout-out to the ex Hermana Lance for writing me!!

I didn't want to let these distracciones keep me away

July 6, 2015

Hello family!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your responses! It is so glad to hear that you all still exist! Haha, sorry for being sarcastic. I haven't read them all yet but I wanted to make sure that i had time to write this week. Well it sure has been a fantastic week, a very long one, but quite fantastic. I don't know where to even begin.

I was thinking alot abut what Mom sent me last week, that we were are faithful and obedient in the preexistecia so why not now? I was thinking a lot about that, and why it is so hard. Well there is
obviously a difference between back then and now. We have a physical body. Having a body means new trials and temptations, such as sickness or tiredness. It made me think of that talk from Sister Dalton when she said that all the temptations we have have to do with the body, or something like that. I really hope that i am not going into false doctrine here or anything but it sure was an interesting point for me to think about. I read my patriarchal blessing and was able to be remembered of certain goals that I have, and realized that I didn't want to let these distracciones keep me away from the things that The Lord needs me to achieve. It really was impactante.

Well I also had a huge realization this week. I decided that i need to start working in faith. Perhaps I need to put a little more trust in Gods miracles and trust that he will help me achieve my goals. That it is actually possible. So I am working on it. This week we had 2 new families in church and they both seem really promising! It is just nice to remember that what I do next to nothing, it is GOD that
touches the lives of these people, that prepares them to accept the gospel. I feel like I have finally been able to attack the problem at the root of the source!

Well I am out of time again. Darn.

Love you all! Please send me letters. Today we went to the mission
offices and I got a whole buch of letters from Grampa Erb, and no one
else! They do get here!

MUCHO AMOR,
Elder Smalley

SO EXCITED FOR YOU HERMANA SMALLEY

......and for Sister Campbell, my count is 15 transfers, 4 areas, and
7 compañeros

every time we ask her to pray, she ...

June 29, 2015 

Hey there Family.

This week has been a huge roller coaster. I do not even know where to begin.

Everyone has been talking a whole lot about this 4th missionary talk. I remember that presidente did a zone conferencia about once, but its been a while so I decided to look it up. I printed it out, but only half of it because it is super long and they were charging me two pesos for every page. Well it really was good and helped me remember a lot of important thing. I'm gonna have to print out the second one this week because it it stoped right where it was getting good.

Well I started the week asking myself, "how can I give my heart?" It really helped me to change my perspective and we started seeing a lot of progress and new investigators this week. It was actually way awesome, and I was getting really excited. There is this mother of two recent converts who is not a member and every time we go with her and ask her to pray, she always prays that we will find lots of people to baptize and that she won't be one of them! (haha) But this week she said a way awesome prayer and asked God to make her know if this was right or not!!! Also Sergio finally started to read the LDM (El Libro de Mormon) by himself and is really excited, but still won't accept a fecha and we don't know why. We will have to keep digging. We met some pretty cool families this week. Then came Sunday. Sergio was the only one to come to church. That morning nobody answered the phone or came out when we passed by.

This will be a good opportunity to learn lots of patience. I really worked hard this week, but I guess I am going to have to work harder and wait patiently to see the fruit. It's hard. The adversary is trying really hard to get me down and I am trying really hard to not listen. So I am going to ask a question like Hermana Smalley. How can I keep myself from getting discouraged so easily? I thought i already knew the answer but I would really like to hear your ideas. thanks.

well it's time for me to go.
love you all!
Elder Smalley!