Elder Smith

-----Original Message-----
From: shain smith [mailto:shainsmith@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 1:27 PM
To: smiths@snsnv.com; Julie@snsnv.com; snicksmith@gmail.com
Subject: Elder Smith

Hey family how is everyone doing?
I hope really well. Ecuador is doing great. Still hot but we are working hard. We have lots of people to teaching and lots of people right now that are preparing for their baptisms.
The traing experience has been great. My companion is learning a ton and in the process im learning a lot too.
Sounds like everyone at home is doing well. Looking forward to hearing from everyone this week. Love and miss you are a ton.
Love Elder Smith

Elder Smith 8 June 2009

-----Original Message-----
From: shain smith [mailto:shainsmith@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 11:09 AM
To: snicksmith@gmail.com; Julie@snsnv.com; smiths@snsnv.com
Subject: Elder Smith 8 June 2009

Hello Family

How is everyone doing? Doing well I hope. Another week gone by in the mission. This change is going by really fast, already half way with my new companion in the change. We had a good week. We found some really good people this week that are ready to accept the gospel in their lives. We had three different families that assisted church yesterday for the first time so that was really good. There are two people that are preparing for their baptism for june 20 and this week we are going to put a few more baptism dates with the people that are progressing.

Not a whole lot new here. Still hot haha. Everything is going well. I Hope everyone had a good week and that everything went well with graduation. Hope you took a lot of pictures. Looking forward to hearing from everyone next week. Thanks for the packages from the family! Love and miss you all.

Elder Smith

familia de Elder Smith

-----Original Message-----
From: shain smith [mailto:shainsmith@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 2:24 PM
To: smiths@snsnv.com
Subject: familia de Elder Smith

Hey everyone how is everyone doing? really well i hope. Ecuador is doing well as well haha. We are teaching alot of people and helping people to change their lives. my new comp Elder Merchan is doing really well. he is teaching great and learning alot. im doing all that i can to be a good example to him so that he learns right. its kinda of funny because he still speacks spanish from columbia and doesnt understand alot of the ecuatorian words or phrases so he is always asking me what stuff means or how do you say this and i looka t him and say,,hey im the gringo you have to teach me how to speak haha but its good. ive learned that pretty much every country has their own way to speak so when i got home im going ot have to learn how to speak a different spanish.

as far as the people that we are teaching it looks like Liseth is finally going to get baptized. she is the wife of a convet so that would be awsome to see her follow the example of her husband. we have a few other people that arfe progressing and should be ready for there baptisms this month.

a cool experince that we had this week was that last monday we were in a family homw everning and one of there friends asked if we could finish early to give a blessing to a nieghbor because he was really sick and in the morning was going to go the hospital to be operated. we went ot the house and gave the blessing and explained the importance of faith to be able to be healed. He went to the hospital the next day and the doctors couldnt find anything wrong with him and they didnt have to operate. Lots of faith and the power of the priesthood. Glad that we could be instruments in the hands of the Lord. We have an appointment with him and his wife today and i think that they are going to progress a lot.

Well, thanks to everyone that wrote me today. good to hear that reno is doing well. until next week, Love and miss you all.

Elder Smith

elder Smith

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: shain smith 
Date: Mon, May 25, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Subject: elder Smith
To: snicksmith@gmail.com, Julie@snsnv.com, smiths@snsnv.com


Hey family

How is everyone doing? Really well I hope. I’m doing well here in Ecuador. We had changes like I wrote in my letter last week. I have a new companion from Colombia. He is brand new here in the mission. I get to train him and teach him how to be a missionary. He is really cool. Doesn’t talk a whole lot but I think he is still in a little bit of shock. It’s the first time that he has left his country in his whole life. We went to a city called manta this week and he saw the ocean for the first time. He looks out at the water and says with his eyes super big, how beautiful. Lots of water is what I say haha. He is the youngest of 5 brothers and all of his family is members of the church. We are looking forward to working really hard and having a lot of success.
Lots of people to teach and so little time in the day. Everyday is going by faster and faster and at the end of the day I try to figure out where all the time has gone. We are staying super busy. Im trying to teach my new companion everything that I can. Everything that I have learned in the past year.
I hope to hear from a few of you this week. Its been a while to hear from some friends so let me know how you guys are doing haha. Love and miss everyone
Choa hasta la proxima semana
Elder Smith

Elder Smith

From: shain smith 
Date: Mon, May 18, 2009 at 1:08 PM
Subject: Elder Smith
To: smiths@snsnv.com, Julie@snsnv.com, snicksmith@gmail.com

Hola Familia
How is everyone doing? We had changes today. Just one change with Elder Estrada from Columbia. He left to Guayaquil in the morning. I have to wait to see who will be my new companion Wendsday because I get the chance to train a brand new missionary. Im pretty excited to teach a new elder and be an example of how we should do the Lords work. Looks like im going to have a lot of responsibility but that’s good. Im ready to do what I have to do. If we didn’t have chalenges in life we wouldn’t be able to progress so im thankful for this opportunity to serve in a leadership position.
This week in the ward we had a talent show. It went pretty well. Lots of members came and where able to enjoy themselves. My companion and I did a little act. Ill try to send pictures next week because we don’t have any more time.
Rosa shared her testimony in front of ward conference this Sunday and Fabricio blessed the sacrement. We are looking for more people to progress like the familia farfan has progressed.
Thanks for all of the support from home and for the letters that I received this week. I hope everyone has a great week and ill talk to you all next Monday.
Choa Elder Smith

Hola familia-Elder Smith

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: shain smith 
Date: Mon, May 11, 2009 at 2:27 PM
Subject: Hola familia-Elder Smith
To: snicksmith@gmail.com, Julie@snsnv.com, smiths@snsnv.com


Hola familia,

¿Cómo están todos? Espero que todas las madres tuviesen un día muy feliz ayer. Ya pude hablar un poquito con la familia y me parece que todo está bien.

Another week gone by. Another change gone by. We get changes next week but I’m pretty sure that I won’t have any. But time sure is going by fast. This past week we didn’t have any baptisms but Fabricio Farfán received the priesthood so that was good. He is going to be a good in the church. His testimony of the church grows every day. His mom Rosa is doing really well also she went visiting teaching for the first time with the president of the Relief Society this week and now she has her own companion and families to visit. It’s always good to see the new converts’ progress in the gospel.
As far as the program goes of new people to teach this week we had a much better week than the week prior. We have a couple of people that are progressing but still aren’t ready for a baptism date but we are working to be able to help them get there. The door knocking isn’t working out too well. The best way to find new people to teach is defiantly through references.
Thank you to everyone that has written me this week. The support from home always means a lot. I would like to share with everyone that I know that our Heavenly Father sent His son Jesus Christ to the earth to be our savior(John 3:16) and that Jesus Christ resurrected the third day and is a living being with flesh and bones (Luke 24:20-23) and that He is on the right hand side of God (Acts 7:55-56) and all this I know with all of my heart because the Holy Ghost the third member of the God Head has testified these things to me (John 14:26). I hope to be able to share these truths with everyone that I come in contact with.
I love and miss everyone. Hope to hear back from you all this week.
Love Elder Smith

Elder Smith

-----Original Message-----

From: shain smith [mailto:shainsmith@myldsmail.net] 

Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 1:05 PM

To: snicksmith@gmail.com; Julie@snsnv.com; smiths@snsnv.com

Subject: Elder Smith

Hello Family

Hey family, how is everyone doing? Another week gone by. We ended the week with the marriage and baptism of Fabricio Farfan. We had the help of a lot of the members to make the marriage come to pass. We thought that we were going to have to postpone the baptism again for the third time but we have a lawyer in our ward and she helped us a ton with all of the paper work and everything. The baptism was a really good service. Fabricios wife didn't follow the example of her husband but we still have hope for her. The only thing that she is missing is the prayer and to receive an answer. We are trying to help her see the importance of the gospel in her life and more importantly in her family.

Besides the baptism we had a pretty rough week. We are having a hard time finding new people to teach. Like Elder L. Tom Perry said in conference that the missionaries are spending more time looking for people than teaching. That is defiantly the truth. Here in the mission the main focus is to find people through the references because those are the people that will progress. The problem that we have right now is that there aren't very many references. But nothing to worry. Even though we had a low week in references and people to teach we are with buen animo, I don't remember what that is in English haha I think it would be like excited. We are going to start this week with lots of faith and we are going to find the people that want to listen to our massage and that are ready to receive the restored gospel in their lives.

uno de mis compeneros dice que escriba en español. Para que aprenda español. Algunos de ustedes ya saben español entonces pueden responderme en español la proxima semana.

Just a little bit of Spanish to throw there. Im looking forward to hearing from everyone. I hope that all the moms have good mothers days and im looking forward to calling home. Love and miss everyone a ton.

Elder Smith