Hey all,
Ok this week was good and I'm kind of struggling to remember details so I'll do my best! The week started out pretty good but just kind of normal. We have been teaching M. and K. a bunch and they're progressing really well. M. is set to get baptized this Friday so we are super stoked! We made some cool invitations and stuff like that, so it was fun! She is really excited and super funny too. The week of a baptism is always the most stressfull by far so we have a lot to do and to worry about this week so I'm going to try and relaz today on pday while I can hahaha. We went over the baptismal interview questions with M. yesterday and we need to race to clear some stuff up before her interview but honestly it's pretty much always like that with a baptismal candidate. I mean we started teaching her 5 weeks ago so it's understandable that she has forgotton some stuff. But it's all good. Honestly she is just so desirous to be baptized that I feel like that qualifies her the most. She really wants to leave her past in the past and forget it and that's exactly what baptism offers her. K. is good too and also really wants to be baptised but didn.t make it to church yesterday for some emergency of a friend or something. She is also really excited to change and make up for her mistakes as well. It.s been really cool that with both of them the focus of our teaching and their learning has really been about repentance and not just boring doctrinal points. I think it.s been a result of us always focusing on and making very clear the blessings of living the gospel, and at the end of the day almost everyone can relate to and desire those blessings, especially when the spirit gives testimony of those blessings being true and desirable. Wednesday we had the mission-wide Christmas conference which was really fun! It was cool to see so many good friends and see how they are doing. It was a very spiritual devotional as well and had a great focus on Christ and His glory etc. My old comp Elder Gomez from Argentina did a clown show with another Elder from the Dominican Republic and got Pres May to get up and be silly and it was killer and really really funny. There were some really great musical numbers and I got to lead the music for one of the hymns so it was super cool to lead the entire 200 missionaries in singing. We got our packages too of course. It was a really hot bus journey from Saint Peter to Angol for like 3 hours but it was fun to go on a road trip too with the whole zone. The rest of the week was pretty normal honestly. Thursday we had some precious planning time in the morning to be able to think about the next month or so in the zone and we put together some cool plans. Today as a zone we are going to have a white elephant gift exchange and other stuff so that will be fun. Now as a house me Elders Oxborrow, Meiling and Cheney have been living together for like 8 weeks so the silliness is creeping into the house and there have been many shananagins. They are all great friends and honestly the Christmas activity made me realize that I already live with 3 of my best friends in the entire mission and how blessed I am for that. It was also weird to see in Angol how much the missionaries I came to the mission with and others have changed, for better or for worse. I feel like those who really have focused in on and trusted in our purpose as missionaries and really tried to magnify their callings in the right way have progressed and changed a ton for the better, while others just seem kind of sad and bored for other reasons. It goes along with a scripture that me and Elder Oxborrow have been pondering a ton this week which is 2 Nephi 2:27. We built this shelf in M's backyard which was fun and gave me a little nostalgia for working on sets in SCHS. It was fun. Shoot I can't think of much else sorry. I think what I've been learning this week is about this particular phrase in my patriarchal blessing that mentions how the Holy Ghost can prepare us to enjoy the blessings of mortality. At first I didnt really get it but now I feel like the Spirit's presence in my life doesn't just help me have like spiritual joy, but helps us enjoy other things in life like friendships and working and just whatever honestly. It has to do with attitude as well I think. I've also been thinking a lot about what it means to be kind and how that relates with the commandment to love one another. I feel like as natural men our natural desires from interacting socially with friends and others is that we want them to make us feel happy and good about ourselves by interacting with us, and that they make us have fun, when really I think Christ told us that we should have the opposite intention, and interact with others to make them feel happy and loved and not vice versa. It has to do with losing you life and finding it instead as well. I never thought I would love studying the scriptures as much as I did this week its weird to say it. Ok I'm doing great here and we are working hard and well. Really excited to talk to everyone!!! Love Elder Trevor Smith
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Elder Trevor SmithElder Trevor Smith is a Mormon missionary in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission, the same mission where his dad served. Although this is Trevor's own mission, he grew up hearing about the beautiful land of Chile and the loving people that inhabit it. These are the letters from his experience there. Archives
July 2017
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