There, I said it! (Now Mom is going to cry)

Hola There!

Oh my goodness, time is seriously flying by. I feel like just yesterday I was with Elder Morgan and now two weeks have gone by!

Before I forget-good news! Last month we broke the zone AND mission record for baptisms which is super awesome because for years la zona Otay has been famous for being the worst zone in the mission. So I'm super glad that we have improved! So basically Juan and Blanca's kids keep on giving me grief, haha, well really just the son. Their daughter is pretty excited to get baptized. On Thursday we decided to just focus on her because he wasn't progressing anymore and then later that day we visited them and he said he wanted to get baptized. Cool. Then Sunday came and he didn't want to come to church and now he's back to not progressing. GAH! People and their agency!!! We also have another investigadora who is super excited for her baptims, and can I just say she is a mexican version of Grandma Erb? She's great!

Well this week I am just so darn grateful for the atonement. I have been forced to learn how to apply it so much, in new ways this week. I've had to learn a LOT of paciencia, mostly with myself. I have made a lot of mistakes, and it's really hard to keep my perfectionism under control. At least once every 24 hours I've had like a mini panic attack, but I can always feel the peace of the holy ghost after I calm myself down, and allow myself to. Haha don't worry, I'm fine, but if I have no hair left, please just love me anyway!

This friday we had a conferencia especial with elder Valenzuela, a counselor in the Mexico Area Presidency. He said a lot of what I needed to hear. It was good. 

The converts here just continue making me so darn HAPPY!!! Frida is through the Isaiah chapters. When I asked her how it went yesterday, she said that she loved them and got a lot of insight from them. Camilo is just a rockstar. They are reading every night as a family, and he has such a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. yesterday he participated in the ordination of a priest and tonight he is hosting a ward noche de hogar. WHY ARE MY CONVERTS BETTER THAN ME??? :)

Last night we ate shrimp tacos. Guys, you have no idea how much I love the food. I love this ward. I love being a missionary, I love this work. I never want to come home. There, I said it.
Well I love you guys all so much! I hope you guys are loving whatever it is you are doing!

Elder Smalley!

Please Pray For Them

Hey there guys!

Wow this week has been a super interesting week. For a lot of reasons. First off, my new companion's name is Elder Aleman, which is hilarious because Aleman means German in Spanish so now Juan says that we are both campeones haha. He's from Cuernevaca, Morelos which I guess is close to the federal district of Mexico (Mexico city). Well I definitely am super lucky because he's pretty great. He's SUPER intelligent and he's not afraid to take initiative sometimes. He's an extremely deep sleeper, haha! We're talking like worse than Erinn, so we're working on that, but it's going pretty good! Also, he's my first companion that will go running with me in the morning so I'm super glad about that! 

It's been a rough transition for me really. I've gotten so used to having a senior companion to answer all the hard questions and stuff like that. Now I just don't have that option anymore. It's been a good learning experience. and the good thing is Elder Morgan left all his packages full of candy so the sugar has helped me cope with the stress haha!

Our week actually didn't go that bad, not as much as I thought it would. We were actually doing pretty alright until Sunday. We were waiting for a member to help us with a ride and he showed up extremely late. The investigators said they weren't going to come to church. I was super sad. Well we showed up to church, very late, and there was only one investigator. Even the people that have been coming by themselves for weeks didn't show up (even though I called them that morning). That's when I lost it, emotionally of course. I became convinced that I just wasn't good enough and I don't even know. It was just a bad time. I think it was just hunger [fast Sunday] more than anything haha. I was seriosuly about to faint! After I calmed down, I could feel the peace of the testimony meeting so that was great. 

Well Juan's kids are still causing me a lot of grief. They both didn't come to church yesterday. There son took it pretty hard when Elder Morgan left and hasn't really wanted very much. He still listenes to us but has stopped progressing. His daughter is doing better but even still - just please pray for them. Juan and his wife are still going strong!!!! 

Well I can't even remember what else happened but |i know a lot did. sorry. love you all so much!

Elder Smalley

PS. okay this is a super cool picture! At the transfer meeting I saw Elder Coutino for this first time since he left Reforma, and his trainer was there too. So here it is: 4 generations of trainers. Pretty cool, if you ask me. Also it's hilarious that the name of Elder Coutino's trainer is ELDER TALL!!! ahahaha pretty good, right?

I'm terrified!

Hello Familia!

Wow this week went by super fast! Today is transfers. I have some terrifying news. Elder Morgan went to Ensenada as a zone leader, so I'm staying here in Casa Blanca. I'm going to be the new district leader, and I'm going to be TRAINING a Latino. I'm terrified. When we got the call, I started like hyperventilating haha I thought I was going to have an asthma attack. I'm so darn scared. Well this should be an adventure. I'm super nervous but just trying to keep a positive attitude! 

Well now that that's out of the way let's see what else happened. We've visited Juan's kids every day this week. and FINALLY they both accepted to be baptized yesterday!!!! It was super bittersweet because we all knew that Elder Morgan wouldn't be there :( 

Other than that we've been having a really hard time finding investigators for a couple weeks now, so we tried something new on Saturday. Here they have what are called sobre ruedas, which were people set up tents and stuff to sell stuff in the street. It attracts a lot of people. Anyway, we set of a table of pamphlets and copies of The Book of Mormon and just started contacting the people that walked by! It was great, we made a lot of great contacts so we should have a lot more investigators this week! But i got super sunburned so my face is really red right now.

On Tuesday they cut our electricity. We never payed the bill. oops. It's back now :)

Well this Sunday was stake conference and we got a new stake president. President Hoyos (the new area Mexico president) came down and I got to meet him so that was cool! We were worried about getting investigators there but somehow it all worked out. 

Ugh something else happened this week but I can't remember what. I'm sorry, I just can't really focus very well today. OH! I remember now! CAMILO WAS ORDAINED AN ELDER YESTERDAY!!!! He is seriously doing great. All of our converts are. Frida is in 2nd Nefi and LOVING it!!!!

Love you all! Please wish me luck!!!!!
Elder Smalley!

Extreme Highs & Lows

Hey Family!

Please pray that the computer doesn't freeze today. I think we'll be okay. Well this week has had some extremely high ups, and some extremely high downs. First of all, Juan's wife got baptized this week! That was awesome! Yesterday was the first time I've ever confirmed a new member, so that was a fun experience! We were super pumped about her baptism because we wanted to have the kids get baptized too. 

On Monday, when we went to visit them their son said that he wanted to be baptized. That was a MIRACLE, because before that day he didn't really show much interest so we had kinda backed off and focused on his sister. Their son couldn't be baptized this week because he hasn't gone to church enough, and their daughter could, but she didn't want to. it was really a tough situation. Their son wanted to get baptized with his mom and he didn't understand why he couldn't. We tried asking for special permission but we didn't get it. At the same time, we were trying to help the daughter to feel ready for baptism. It was just a big mess. Oh well. They are a great family. 

Also, one of the most interesting things about Tijuana are the drunk people, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. The other week, we saw a woman dancing like a Jeanie in the middle of the street and in front of store windows, with a piece of cloth tied around her forehead. 

On Saturday however, we had a not-so-hilarious experience. We went with a less active member. She told us that her husband wasn't a member so of course we set up an appointment to come back when her husband would be there. Well he was extremely drunk. He spoke English to us, half screaming half shouting about random things for about an hour, with the worst vocabulary I have every heard. I have never heard so many F-bombs in such a short period of time and that says a lot because I went to Summit High school haha. Don't worry, he wasn't dangerous or anything, it was just a really hard experience and we couldn't even leave because he was in he way of the door. Oh well. 

Well yesterday was pretty cool at church. We had a great turnout of investigators and all of our recent converts were there as well. Life is good. Hard, but good. and can I just say that I still just LOVE MEXICAN FOOD!!! I  might just never leave :) big shout-out to Jenn and Clara! I LOVED getting your letters!

muchisimo amor,

Elder Smalley

p.s. good luck at school Erinn don't gain the freshman 15!

p.s.s. congrats Spencer on your race. you are going to ROCK it this season!!!!

It's all okay, you know why?

August 18, 2014

Hey there fam! 

How's it going? I'm really sorry about last week. My computer froze for the majority of the time and we only have 1 hour to use the computer. Really frustrating. I finally just tried sending an email without any picture. Not sure if the picture made it. I'll send it again this week.

These last few weeks I have really come to understand a little bit better how Heavenly Father puts people in our path. There were so many instances of that these past couple weeks. I have really learned to ask myself "why am I here", because there have been so many times where we are looking for a direction (address) that doesn't exist, or nobody's home and "BOOM!", we find someone to teach. It's been really cool. 

I've really noticed that because this week has been tough in several ways. first of all, IT IS EXTREMELY HOT AND HUMID. I am just always sweating. I'm not sure what really happened, and I don't really know what we did wrong, but we did not come even close to reaching our goals. oh well! 

It's all okay you know why? Cause FRIDA WENT TO THE TEMPLE! she went to the San Diego temple and did baptisms! she said she really liked it. The bishop asked her to share her testimony in sacrament meeting and she did it! that in itself was a huge miracle because she's super shy, but the spirit was SO STRONG! I tell ya, sometimes I think that the converts have a stronger testimony than I do because they are all just so great!

Well this week we planned an open house in our church, a time for people to come in and get to know the church, and the organizations. on Thursday, we went with the youth and handed out invitations to people on the street. Each organization got their own room in the church to decorate and prepare a brief presentation. it looked awesome! Unfortunately, we didn't quite get the turnout that we expected but I'm super proud of the ward because they did their part. At least we got them working!

So yesterday we had a cool miracle. We went to go get a family and walk to them to church. Well we were running late. I didn't think we were going to get there on time when suddenly, a taxi driver that Elder Morgan and I had contacted the week before pulled over and gave us a ride because he was going to church too!!!! that was so darn cool!

Well that's all i got! love you all have a great week!

Elder Smalley

p.s. happy birthday grampa! I would try to send you a letter but I have no idea where in the world you are!

2 for the price of 1 - "Cheezy bread"

August 11, 2014

Hey there! I´m sorry I don´t have very much time today. my computer froze and now I have like 2 minutes.

I´ll try to be quick. We had a double baptism with the Hermanas! It was super awesome. After receiving a blessing, our investigator went from drinking 10 cups of coffee a day to zero. I still think that is awesome. The priesthood is REAL! He really has a great testimony of that,and the rest of the restored gospel. yesterday he asked us to give school blessings to his kids. Hopefully they will get baptized here in a couple weeks!

Really funny storyj: On Wednesday night I ordered pizza. We were feeling some cheezy bread, so I ordered "pan con queso" the guy on the other line said corrected me saying that it was called "cheesy bread" only with a Mexican accent. hahahaha we almost died laughing. I don´t think he realized he was talking to a NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER. Yeah, don´t teach me my own language please. haha it´s an inside joke between us now. Cheesy bread haha so funny! This week has been great and really, wish I could tell you more about it but I guess not. I need to go.

LOVE YOU ALL

Elder Smalley

p.s.mom I need a new journal

August 4, 2014

Wow you guys, 
I am just sitting here typing and sweating like crazy. Well this week might just be a quick one, because I don't even know what happened. We have just received a lot of blessings. A lot of people have been put in our path this week and it has been real fun! Okay I'll just skip to the best day. Sunday. Our most recent convert, who is very very timid, got up and bore her testimony yesterday! It was so powerful! even though she was really nervous. But it gets even better because she told us after that she invited her mom to listen to us. Her family has really not wanted very much to do with us, so it has been a super huge blessing!!!

Sorry this is really short. I'm out of time.

Love you! 

Elder Smalley!

12 cups of coffee a day to ZERO

July 28,2014

Hola Familia!

Okay it's just like really hot here. I can't even explain it. So jealous of everyone that went to the lake. 

After the roller coaster of trying to put a baptism together in 2 days everything kinda just slowed down. This Friday we planned a talent show, as an opportunity for members to invite their friends. A lot more people showed up than I thought would. For my talent, I walked on my hands. I only made it 26 seconds pathetic. 

I sure do love mexican food, but it is making me REALLY FAT! well there was a pretty good turn out. we were pretty late leaving and so we were walking pretty fast to get back to the house on time. I saw something in font of us and I couldn't quite figure out what it was because it was already dark. I didn't realize what it was until I was practicaly stepping over it. A BODY. I freaked out pretty bad for a second, and then we kept walking. DON'T WORRY, we are pretty sure it was just a drunk guy cause the next morning it wasn't there. 

We have a pretty awesome investigator who has gone from 12 cups of coffee a day to ZERO!!!! Also our converts are doing super awesome. We just need to find more investigators! I say that every week.

Well I took no pictures this week except for this morning. hah Elder Morgan and I thought we were pretty funny haha. also I think I sent the blurry picture of frida's baptism so here's the good one.



LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH,
Elder Smalley
p.s. big shoutout to mckay fro actually writing me and for the music. happy birthday and sorry about your stuff