Turtles And Armadillos

Hola everyone, 

 

Back at it again so here we go. First of all shout out to my lil bro Noah I know it was his birthday so happy birthday to him love you. 

 

Last Monday we taught one of the best lessons ever (says my companion) and my Spanish was the best it's been. Spirit was so strong I was in tears hahaha. We are hoping to invite the people we taught to baptism tonight so ayo. 

 

On Tuesday we had a lesson planned and they weren't there so that was a little frustrating. But that night we had a branch activity and our 3 friends that we taught Monday came! Honestly, crazy surprises. But it's so cool. We also had a returned missionary, Lalo, come. He is obviously a member but his family isn't and he wanted to meet the branch and us before he let us teach them so that was stressful. After the activity at the park Hermano Wachob took us and Lalo to Culver's and Lalo told us after we could go see his family so that's a massive W and we were so excited. 

 

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was surprisingly spiritual somehow even over zoom but I loved it. The invitation after it was to leave 2 hours free in our schedule. Crazy miracle and story real fast...prayed where we should go and we both thought of the same lady (same girl who's stood us up for 2 straight days). Regardless, we pull up at her house and knock and she lets us in. Her husband, boyfriend, I don't really know, was there. He's always seemed uninterested but as soon as we opened up the BOM he lit up. We taught them forever and it was so cool. Here's the wild part. We were inviting them to be baptized and this lady brought her little baby and started FEEDING HIM RIGHT IN FRONT OF US it was so awkward. Didn't think I'd ever see that during a baptismal invitation. Only in Missouri I guess. They said that we are welcome to come teach them more about baptism and they'll consider. Miracles are real, baby:)

 

Wednesday was wild because then that night we went to help our branch president grab something from a friend and he knew what he was doing. His friend was a huge Baptist. Awesome. So he kept trying to lead us in and bait us and bash us a little. Went on for 25 minutes. First experience with that out here. Luckily Elder Burns knew exactly what to say and bailed us out. Our president laughed the whole way home and kept saying he wanted him to meet us. This place is wild 

 

On Friday we had our English class with all of our friends at the trailer park. One of them had read the introduction and knew who Joseph Smith was, which was so cool! The other 5 said they weren't coming, which had me so sad. 5 minutes in they came and snuck up on us. So funny. I wish I had words to describe the love I feel for them. They're the most amazing people ever and make me smile every time I see them. 

 

Saturday we didn't play soccer which sucked. Our Presidente and his son Brayan (our branch mission leader) left and took their families to Florida. Which means our branch members in Missouri just went from like 30 to 17. We had interviews with our President and his wife today and man they are awesome. Such spiritual people, and literally just another mom and dad out here. I was grateful to get to be around them for a little. Still intimidating though....

 

The Area 70 invited our branch to a special dinner before stake conference and I just feel so blessed to be in a branch with the people I'm with. They all love each other so much, and would do anything for one another. 

 

Which just so happens to be my spiritual thought. Love one another. Do your best to serve others and love each other. I love all you guys so much 

 

Fun fact I saw a real armadillo this week. Usually they're dead in the road but I can confirm that armadillos are a real animal. 

 

Email me I would always love to hear from you,

Elder Smythe

 

Also I gave a group google photos so hit me up if you want to be added:)

 

Cutest kids

Father and Son

Pet Turtle

Young Benji

Sunsets

Went on a hike 

Young Noah for his bday














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