Ok it was a good week I'll try and fit it all in in the time I have!
First up is the transfer news! I'm going back to Los Angeles but this time the Southern Stake and I'll be in barrio San Martin. I've heard a lot of good things about it so I think I'll like it. My comp is Elder Aravena and he will be my first Chilean comp actually! I know him enough and he is really cool and a great missionary. It's going to be really really hot there though. Can't believe it's been 6 months since I left Lebu now. This could be my last sector too! It's been great here in Saint Peter but a change will be good. 3 cambios w Elder Oxborrow too wow it's gone fast. This week was really cool. Tuesday was pretty normal but then we had a multizone conference with Elder Packer from the area presidency. Yes, he is the son of Elder Packer from the 12. It was really really cool. He talked about a lot of different things but I'll write some stuff that stuck out to me First thing was that he talked a lot about the different between "fruits" and the "means" by which we obtain them. He explained that fruits are souls, or the conversion of souls, and how that always need to be our first objective and is what the Lord commands us to do. He talked about how fruits are hard to measure and that why in the church we often need to measure our means, and how sometimes we get to busy focusing on means and not enough on the ends, or fruits so to speak. I think that was especially meant for our zone and for our companionship as well. Even a baptism technically is not even a fruit but a means to obtain a fruit. Pretty cool way to change how we think about helping people and being a successfull missionary. Me and Elder O kind of analyzed our 3 tranfers together in that light and we could feel really successful about the fruits we got together even though they were few baptisms. I hope I can help other missionaries to see the work in that way too. He also talked a lot about what he called understanding the language of the spirit. Really cool stuff. He talked about how it's pretty easy to detect what things we do and say that drive the spirit away if we are trying really hard to maintain the spirit with us, and in that way make the necessary changes to be able to have the spirit more. Pretty cool stuff and I think it inspired everyone to be better. At the end he told us that he felt inspired to tell us that our mission can have baptisms in every week in every sector which was pretty crazy! He invited us to find a way to do it too. I think it will obviously be a really long term goal and I probably won't be here to see it achieved but it was really inspiring. He mentioned and I also felt impressed that the changes we have to make wont be weird or surprising but will be the simple things like obedience and getting our teaching better and having a closer union with ward leaders etc, opr pretty much just everything said in PMG. Pretty cool. We will have a lot of work to do here though! It will be really fun. Honestly the week was kind of uneventful but we taught a good amount of lessons which was fun. I'm excited for new terrain I feel like ive been here a long time and I think new challenges will help me grow and have the spirit more. We had found this older gentleman who is religious but pretty new to religion and he has a ton of real intent and that makes him really fun to teach. He's reading the BoM and even surprised us and came to church this week so I hope to hear about him getting baptized from Elder Oxborrow in the coming weeks. The majority of our time and concern was dedicated to N! His baptism was origionally planned for the 4th of March so we had to teach him like 5 times this week to get him ready but then we had to change his date to later anyway so his family can be there. He is so receptive and so converted that teaching him is like a more sacred experience. His faith is so amazing. He's pretty much accepted all the commandments now and the changes he will have to make to live them etc. He has learned so much and so fast that we know that most of it hasnt even been from us but from the spirit and prayer. It's been such a cool experience and honestly I don't feel too bad about not being there for his baptism. He can go so far in this gospel and it will be so cool to see in the years that come. I know that finding and teaching him has all been a result of me and Elder O's obedience and hard work, especially when we saw people working and obeying less than us and having more success. God keeps his promises! Other than that we had a cool soccer tournament as a ward and we put together some missionary and investigator teams. Pretty fun stuff. Ok sorry I'm low on time but I love you all! I'm trying really hard to keep growing and keep feeling the spirit every day! I really want to give it all these last transfers so any advice is welcome on how to do that. Also dad send me any converts or people I should look out for in LA. I really want to work well with the ward there! I love you all so much! Elder Trevor Smith
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Ok a long week we worked really hard!
Started out with some good district meetings as usual. I was asked to teach a little in one of them about asking questions which was fun. That day I went to La Harina and los huertos to be with Elder Sheidel from Vancouver and elder Pinto and Elder Batista worked w Elder Oxbox in lagunillas. One problem we encountered is that poor Elder Sheidel had been absolutely devoured by a pulga (flea) outbreak the night before and hadn't gotten any sleep so we spent a good chunk of time doing and emergency purging of their house that ended up working well and no new bites. I think they stopped liking me a while ago because I don''t get bit anymore. It was a good day and they are some killer missionaries who cracked me up all day. They had two baptisms this last week and one of them was a total miracle so that was really cool to see. It's really fun to get to know the whole zone. The next few days were pretty normal with quite a few lessons and English class etc. A. is progressing but slowly. It's just hard after so much time with someone when we see how much potential they have and they dont see it. I'm sure thats how God feels with us. He really needs to get more motivated quick because he knows all we teach is true and that he needs to get baptized etc but is just kind of slow to act. We walked all the way across our sector to wake him up for church so he went this last Sunday. I think in part it's hard right now because he has to quit smoking. I think we need to help him grow his faith that the Lord really can forgive him for his past self. He will be such a good convert when he does get baptized. N. (that reference) is doing really good but was pretty busy last week so we didn't get to teach him much but he came to church and loved it again. He is very chosen. The Elders quorom pres is doing a great job of fellowshipping him and it makes a huge difference. He and a few others are going to play on the Mission work team in the ward soccer tourney this Saturday. He loves Elders quorum. We had originally planned for the 5th of March but it looks like he might need one more week or two because we haven't gotten to teach him much. We really rededicated ourselves this week to find new investigators but it proved kind of hard for us. We re-analyzed a lot our first lesson teaching and our door approaches and improved both a lot thinking that in that way we would find more people but no such luck. I think in part its from summer break etc. Im learning how charity really comes into play in finding because like Moroni says without charity we are nothing. I think we have been trying to be less shy about being open and direct about the blessings they can recieve and the change their lives can have and that has helped. In the worldwide training from a few weeks ago they mentioned that we need to "sanctify every door we knock" and I liked that a lot and want to do it better. We went to the temple yesterday with a part member family we are working with to really get them to get the vision to make the changes necessary to get there when it's done in summer of 2018 or to Santiago before that. It was really cool and looks like twice as big as the Newport Beach temple. I forgot my camara (sorry) but they took a lot of pics andI'll have them send them to you. It's really advanced in its structure and looks like 5 stories high. Really cool location too. It's got a ton of cool anti earthquake tech that will make it the last thing standing in Conce if theres ever a catastrophy big enough. Definitely want to come back when its done. It's really close to the river Bio Bio. This week is the last of the transfer - wow it went fast. We did really good a zone even though we had quite a few baptisms fall through last minute. The most likely thing will be that I get transfered and that Elder Oxburt stays and finishes here which, as much as I love this sector, will be a good change. It's really strange for me to be in the same sector so long too. This is officially the longest I've been in one place and the longest with one comp by far. I'm really excited to see what my next assignment will be and to have a good change of pace. hopefully I don't eat my words on that and stay here. We will see and ill let you know what's up next week. I studied a lot this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the plan of salvation. I think a conclusion I came to is that one of Satan's biggest and most frecuently used tools is lying to us about who we are. How we see ourselves has a really large effect on how we act. One testimony God will always give us is about our divine potential, heritage, and even history. The cool thing I learned too about covenants is what it means to be "worthy". It is very different from being perfect, and that's the point. If we have the constant companionship of the holy ghost with us we can be sure that we are keeping our covenants, which in the words of PmG means not only that we have recieved the remission of our sins, but that we are retaining the remission of our sins as well. How cool is that? Therefore we know that if we have the spirit with us we are being found "worthy" and pure enough to have the spirit through the grace of Christ despite our fallen and sinful state. That''s the cool thing about covenants; we are found spotless as we keep them even though we are not. I think too often in the church we talk about the remission of sins as if it is something that happens to us someday far in the future eternities or only right after baptism when its really not that way at all, it's a weekly and even a daily occurrence as we keep our covenants. It's retaining the remission of our sins, from what I understand, which allows us to have the spirit and therefore progress in the transforming process that Christ can do to us if that makes sense. From what I understand its the remission of sins that allows our progress, but maybe I'm wrong hahaha check me on that. I love how Joshua tells the Israelites to "sanctify themselves" so that God could do miracles for them the following day. I think the miracles we recieve as we "sanctify ourselves" occur in us rather than making walls topple or seas part. I hope I'm not preaching false doctrine here let me know if I am. Ok I''m doing great and learning and growing a lot. We want to push ourselves to the limit this week working hard and focusing in a ton to finish the transfer well. I love you all so much and miss you but im happy here! Keep writing me and letting me know what's up at home etc! Elder Trevor Smith Ok it was a quick week I'm having a hard time remembering but I'll try my best!
We started out the week with a good set of district meetings. We have a new goal as a companionship to train the district leaders more and in a better way. Really the leadership section of the missionary manual is super good so we have been trying to teach them principles from that to apply to their own ministering and service rather than just telling them what to do. Our zone is awesome though. It looks like we will meet our goal for the month which will be awesome. We had a gran intercambio that day and I went back to Boca Sur with Elder Huerta which is always really fun. I got to see some old faces as always and we taught some good lessons. Elder Huerta is kind of like the Chilean comp I never had. hahaah We are great friends now after so long in the same zone. I got to go visit that family me and Elder Gomez reactivated and they are doing great and we got it all figured out so that the daughter can get a new baptismal record so that she is a member. It was kind of sad but really funny too with a lot of jokes about lost records and not being a member technically etc. She had even gone to the temple to do baptisms and she never was technically a member! Boca Sur is so fun and I'm still kind of envious of it. Wednesday was Elder Oxberries birthday which was pretty much just a normal day but really good. We ordered sushi to the house and ate that which was fun (yes sushi exists here but its different than in the states. Not quite as good). The coolest thing ever is that about two weeks ago we realized as a companionship that we had enver prayed to recieve any references from the ward so we started to pray just asking God to help us receive a reference from the members and in a week we got a really good one from the Elders quorum president. We taught him Wednesday and he is so prepared to hear the gospel! His name is N. and he is 27 years old and about to graduate from college and had tons of interest in the restoration and plan of salvation and everything. We pretty much just read the lesson pamphlets with him and I had never seen the heavens open up so much onto an investigator like that. It was like as if everything we said was something he had wanted to hear for so long. The spirit was very strong in both lessons we had with him, but in a different way than normal. I feel like often the spirit kind of has to work really hard to get into people's hearts to change them etc. but with N. he has been so open to the Spirit that the lessons have a more sacred feeling than just spiritual. Really cool. He has a baptismal date for March 5th and came to church and loved it so I think he is in the water. Only bummer is that transfers are in two weeks and it's pretty likely that I'll go but you never know. Thursday was interviews w/ President May which was good! We went to lunch with him, his wife, and the hermanas caps which was fun but kind of weird hahah. When we got back to our sector we had a lesson at 7 and he wanted to come so we taught C. and D. together. It was pretty cool. We showed the old Book of Mormon video of Elder Packer's talk "the Mediator" and it was good. President honestly let us to pretty much all the teaching. I think earlier in my mission I would have been pretty nervous but now I wasn't really at all. It turned out great and we figured out how we can help them better than we have been doing and they even came to church on Sunday so that was really cool. We were considering closing out the lessons with them, but now it looks like they are getting a second wind so that's good. Friday and Saturday were pretty normal days but we had a great time. It's kind of hot again right when we thought summer was ending but whatever. Sunday was cool because we had a "zone attack" in La Marina and Los Huertos in San Pedro and we helped those Elders out a lot. It's always really cool to see the zone all working together. We got a lot done together and it was a great way to finish out the week. I worked with Elder Sheidel again who I think I mentioned is from Vancouver Washington andi told him Christian served there. I think this week we have really centered our studies and teaching on the need for a Redeemer in our lives. I think most investigators (and members and missionaries) need to in some way see shackles and chains on their wrists and ankles first to really appreciate and understand what Christ did and can do for us (break those shackles and chains obviously). From what I understand that is what the Light of Christ does too. Its like the spiritual nervous system, and through spiritual pain (guilt or sadness) we realize that we need to change. I think true repentance really needs to be preceeded by us choosing to allow ourselves to feel guilt, and that we realize how bad off we are without Christ as our Mediator. Then its way easier to choose to follow and accept Him. Bondage and freedom are symbols all over the scriptures too. It makes investigators realize that the conditions that Christ gives us (faith, repentance, and baptism) for our own salvation are so much better than how we would end up with just cold hard justice for our faults and sins etc. One really cool story me and my comp were talking about is about Elisha from the old testament. It's when he is with his friend and they are standing in front of the entire Assyrian army and his friend kind of panics and says in effect "what in the world are us two going to do against the biggest army of the world" and then Elisha responds to him by saying "dont worry we are more than them". He prays for his friends eyes to be opened and then he sees hosts of fiery chariots and angels. Pretty cool. I cant remember the exact reference but I'm sure you'll be able to find it. Ok love you all thanks for your letters etc. Hope you're all doing great! Elder Trevor Smith Ok I have super poco time right now sorry!
Ok this week started out with a leadership council and me and Elder Oxbutter did our presentation like I mentioned and sure enough our "idea" or revelation or whatever got applied to the whole mission so that's cool. Mostly we just talked about not having vain traditions in the mission and especially not in leadership issues. we also talked a lot about making missionaries turn to Christ and their comps for the help they need and not us as leaders. It was cool to be able to show off the crazy numerical results we have gotten as far as how many baptisms we are going to have so that was cool. We were honestly kind of the central part of the training there so we didn't hear much else just a little bit about the new schedule etc. The day after we met with the Hnas Capacitadoras of our zone and made some good plans with them for the next month in our zone. They're awesome and honestly pull a huge chunk of the weight of the zone without even being required to do it, so that's nice. We have some cool stuff planned for the month and were able to 'plan out our zone conference really well for Saturday. They thought it was really funny that Sasha our street dog has followed the missionaries around in Lagonillas for like 6 years. After that it was mostly a lot of teaching and working. The new schedule stuff is awesome but we've had to learn how to use our time here even more effectively and that's been a challenge but we are getting better. We had some awesome lessons. Me and E Oxbrandy are in such a groove now that we are like a married couple or something after so long together. We felt like we taught and worked so well here but it still kind of resulted mediocre as far as upcoming progress in our investigators. Oh well. We were still really happy and felt the spirit a lot this week. Coolest thing has been teaching this new family we found a few weeks ago. The dad and son are named J and the mom is named C and the daughter A. They are so golden. C has got serious health problems that give her a lot of constant pain so with that and some family unity problems they were just so prepared for us to knock their door. They've been doing family prayers every night! No one does that! J said that he wants his family to be baptized together and that is just the best thing he could have said hahaha. Main problems there are work schedules and health problems so they didn't come to church but I think this week they will. Only bummer is that they will be baptized next transfer and the most likely thing is that I will leave befoer that so E Oxbugle can finish here. Our zone conference was awesome and like 70% done by the Hnas Caps and we were happy about that. hahaha They really like to take the reins and that's ok with us. We gave a similar presentation to the zone like the one we did to the mission leaders, but used 2 Nephi 2's description of the plan of salvation as an example for how we enter the mission and grow as we let the Saviour intervene for our weakness. It was really cool. Our zone is so awesome and we are going to have a lot of success this month. I'll be sad to leave maybe in 3 weeks! As far as my studies real quick I studied a lot about what it means that Christ is our "Mediator". I read a lot about the conversion process and I think that we grow and act way better when we are motivated for our love for our mediator Christ rather than if we are motivated only by fear of justice or obedience. I guess thats what charity is too; being motivated by love rather than some other thing. DC talks a lot about that with the priesthood as well which is cool. Christ can mediate for us in all problems we have. Ok I'm doing great here and working hard. It's been a good week with less fires etc. I love you all and your emails etc! I'll try and write more next week! Elder Trevor Smith Ok so it was a really busy week here! Went by really fast!
First we started out Tuesday with doing divisions in our sector with the APs and we got a ton done! We visited like all our investigators in one day and had some killer lessons with them so that was really fun. We are seeing some more progress than last week too, and M. and M. came to church this week! M. is reading the Book of Mormon. I love being able to plan and carry out lessons for people we care about according to what indicates the spirit. Our job is really fun. Wednesday was awesome. We started out the day with a small zone service project in an elderly home washing windows and talking to the old people and it was a great opportunity to get to know the zone better and stay united in a good purpose. Service really does invite the spirit. Only problem was how crazy hot it was (no fires yet). Right after that the whole zone got together in the stake center for the world-wide training which was just totally awesome. It's crazy how the spirit prepares us for the messages that are given by guiding us to study and ponder the same topics months before they are mentioned by the First Presidency and quorum of the twelve. It was awesome. I especially loved how it kind of followed suit with what Elder Holland's last talk in general conference was about, or not letting regulations and rules and the letter of the law getting in the way of doing what Christ would do and helping people anyway we can. They talked a lot about how no effort or good deed is wasted even if the people don't end up getting baptized. A lot of it was about faith too, and how we often skip that step as missionaries which keeps a lot of our investigators from really being able to progress. Of course the schedule changes and more p-day etc. was awesome too. Thursday we had a kind of badly timed intercambio with La Marina. I worked there in San Pedro with Elder Batista from the Dominican Republic who is like a character from a movie or something becuase he is so happy and excited etc. It was really fun. I seriously don't think he stopped smiling the entire 24 hours I was with him, even when all of Chile started to burn hahahaah. Honestly, our mission was barely affected by the fires, even though it was too smokey to work that much in our zone on Friday. The main hassle was members and investigators telling rumors to missionaries like how the Chilean army was going to come and wipe out all the Mapuche (native tribes) in the middle of Conce and absolutely crazy apocolypse stuff like that. They would call us and ask if it was true and we had no idea hahahah but with a little investigation pretty much all those rumors were debunked. When we got back to the house in san pedro one missionary had literally filled every container that could hold water because he had heard that they were going to cut the water for like a week or something to put out the fires so he had like literally every cup, big and small, filled to the brim sitting on the floor of the house hahahaha. It is pretty tragic though. I felt pretty used to it all with the usual California fires we would have and honestly there hasn't been as much smoke as those fires in elementry school. It's a great lesson in ecology too because most of the forests that are burning are ones that had already been destroyed by foresting companies and "replanted" in cooky cutter lines of pine trees that are literally later used as fire wood for houses so all of this was pretty likely to happen at some point according to my environmental science knowledge. Still pretty sad though. I feel like as missionaries we were pretty overprepared for earthquakes but had no idea that fires were a risk too. Saturday was a normal day again with a little smoke and Sunday was good too how I mentioned with some people in church. We did a zone attack in San Pedro on Sunday and it was really inspiring to see how awesome the missionaries in our zone are at work. Seriously all of them will become such better missionaries than I will ever be hahaha the next generation here in our mission is really good. I know part of it is from the new stuff we have been trying as far as leadership and accountability as a zone too. A month ago we had like 3 baptismal dates as a zone of 26 people and now we have more than four times that amount so it's been really gratifying to see the improvement we have been working towards here for more than 4 months now. I think it has been a sustainable growth too. It's crazy how much the success missionaries have depends on how they live the gospel and how happy they are. One really cool thing I've been thinking a lot about has to do with a talk from Elder Holland that Macy sent me actually. He talks a lot about how Christ's mission in part was to emulate the Father perfectly to show us how He is and to be able to know Him by knowing Christ. That is why they are referred to as "one" while they really are two different beings. The cool thing I discovered as well is that we know Christ by knowing His Spirit, and by knowing Christ we know the Father. It has a ton to do with our job as missionaries and makes sense to why we are called "representatives of Jesus Christ", becuase our principal job is to mostly be worthy vessels of HIs Spirit. Therefore the idea is that as people come to know us, they come to know the Spirit, and therefore Christ and the Father in that order. It's evident that as people (missionaries members and investigators) comprehend and take seriously this principle and feel the truth of it, way more progress in the work of salvation is made. We have a really cool job that you can really only have as a missionary or as an apostle.. Ok I'm doing great and love you all and hope you are all doing great! Love Elder Trevor Smith Ok wow its hotter every week here!
This week went so fast I'm struggling to remember everything. We worked really hard but there was quite a bit of opposition in the lives of our investigators so that was a bummer and the week definitely didn't turn out how we wanted it to but it's ok! We started off with the craziness of cambios in Concepcion on Tuesday. Goodbye Elder Cheney from the house and welcome Elder Wasquebich who was actually elder Molina's trainee from a while ago so he spent 6 months in Puren so that is fun to talk about. He baptized a lot of the people I was teaching there so that was cool to hear about. Tuesday was just a ton of suitcase lugging and meeting new zone members etc. It was very warm as well in the bus terminal. After that we got home at a reasonable time for once and got quite a bit of work done. Wednesday we had our first meeting with the new zone and it seems way more excited to work than before and that's awesome! A lot of really cool newer missionaries. For example Elder Batista from the Dominican Republic who is so funny. It's going to be a good cambio here the zone is doing a lot better and i know it's from being more obedient. That day I got to go on an intercambio to Boca Sur with Elder Glach which was fun to go visit an old sector and old friends. They had coorelation that night so I got to say hi to a bunch of people there. Sometimes I miss that sector a lot! It was really a fun day. Elder Glach is awesome. I feel like every time I go on intercambios with people they expect like huge miracles to happen but then we always somehow end up having a long difficult day where appointments fall etc. hahahaa maybe I've been called to teach my missionaries about patience or endurence or something - I don't know. We did find some cool new investigators and teach some that are progressing now. It was actually way cooler weather there in Boca as well. Thursday and Friday were normal days. All of a sudden the absolutely stunning investigator pool we had 2 weeks ago is kind of drying up and it looks like February won't be a month as good as we thought it would be so we are looking for new investigators and families like crazy to replace the investigators that aren't progressing anymore. It's really bizare because I feel like the more I learn about how to be a better and more effective missionary and teacher the more I feel like I realize how little this work and our success has to do with us and our efforts and abilities. It's crazy how I can feel like I'm the best missionary I've every been but still feel as powerless to control the results we have. More and more I realize how our only job is to be a conduit for the spirit to allow investigators to make a choice according to the influence of the holy ghost. The sad part is how often they don't make the right choice. Even with all that, hearing M. share her testimony in principles of the gospel is enough to feel like one soul saved and one life bettered really does make all the dissapointment worth it. She is doing great and that makes me so happy. We did divisions with the APs on Saturday and it was really fun to teach some killer lessons with them. I've been trying really hard to get better at asking good questions during the lessons to help them open up and apply the gospel and our lessons to their lives instead of just telling them it will bless them. I've been focusing a lot on revelation through prayer like I said last week and it has been really cool. It's a good way to help people to see where their faith is at. Those who have high faith are totally willing to ask away to God, but it's surprising to see how many choose not to do just that. It helps us to see the true intentions of the people quickly. I feel like this week even though it wasnt exactly what we wanted I really enjoyed and got better at forgetting myself and losing myself in the work. So often we as missionaries believe this is our work and depends on our abilities and our will when really it has nothing to do with us. It is so much the work of the Lord, and our will is always secondary to His. I have felt so many times how even when we don't have much measurable success how the Spirit will speak peace to us and tell us we did our parts. Ok sorry if this is short! I love you all and love your letters! I think staying in Chile until the 13th would be too much probably and a week to 10 days would be better but you're in charge of all that. Love Elder Smith Ok wow it was a busy week but a good one. Last week of the transfer is kind of weird usually. Cambio news is no news! We stay together here one more transfer! Finally I stay in the same place with the same person! We have an awesome groove on so that's really cool.
The week started out pretty normal with an intercambio with some Elders from Boca Sur. I went with Elder M. who's a recent convert from Uruguay. It was funny because we sat together on the plane from Santiago to Conce our first day in the mission so it was cool to catch up and see how far we have come. It was really good because he doesn't have a ton of friends in the mission but is a super awesome missionary and really committed to our purpose. One thing I liked is that he was super open about sharing advice with me and talking about how we can do things better in our sector and I learned a ton from him. I feel like a lot of the time people don't talk to us like that because we are the zone leaders or whatever but it was nice to get some really useful feedback. He is a really good missionary and it was cool to get to know him better and help him how I could. Oh ya the day before we did a family home evening with a really nice less active family who the wife is a return missionary and the dad is a convert from like 5 years ago. We had a message prepared to share with them but then as we prayed to start the lesson we both felt really impressed we had to share a video about temples and we did and it was really amazing how much the spirit hit the nail on the head with that. It was totally what they needed to hear and we talked a lot about having the spirit of the temple in the home and in the family and it was really cool. We had a great time and they came to church Sunday! Sometimes people just need an invitation to come back and they do. There was some serious opposition in our sector in the beginning of the week when it just seemed like none of our plans or lessons turned out how we wanted to. A lot of our really hopeful investigators kind of didn't commit baptism like we thought they would and didn't really even do their part to pray and know if what we have taught is true etc. Kind of dissappointing but we still feel like this cambio we will have a ton of success. Towards the end of the week stuff started to turn out better. We did divisions with the smallest sector in our zone La Marina and the poor Elders there were really greatful we could come and shake things up a little and get them out of the normal grind. It reminded me a lot about how grateful I was for that way back when I was in Via OHiggins. We lost a lot of time in our sector being there but we felt really good about doing it after. After that our lessons started to turn out a lot better but we still didn't quite reach the goals we wanted to in the church. A. progressed a lot and finnally understood better the doctrine of the gospel and understood that he doesn't have to be perfect after baptism (that's the point). He has changed a lot but is not quite committal yet. He could very well be baptized in February though. The coolest miracle that happened is that we didn't have contact with M. or her daughter R. all this week but they BOTH showed up to church on Sunday!!! We were so stoked to see R. there. The week before we had fasted together with M. that they would be able to find jobs and they both did! They were so touched to see how God answers prayers and R's heart softened a lot and she committed to baptism the 18th of February so we are going to focus a lot in on that and help her get ready for that. She has changed a lot too. I've been studying the restoration a lot this week and had an impression that when we talk about the restoration we need to talk about temples. We had a lesson where this lady said to us after we explained the restoration "yeah well all churches pretty much say they're the right one etc., but whats the difference between yours and the rest?" Instead of giving the normal primary answers about the priesthood and profets etc that I would normally give I felt very impressed again to talk about temples and the power to seal, and that that really only exists in our church. After studying more me and my comp realized that the temples really are a huge symbol of the restoration and evidence of it too. At the end of the day the scriptures about sealing say that with out it the earth would be entirely lost, so it really is the point to all we do in the church. Pretty cool stuff. I have also been thinking a lot about recieving revelation. I feel like at this point in my mission I've been really dependent on and gotten good at recieving and recognizing revelation and the spirit through the scriptures and through church attendance, but as missionaries I think we forget the power of prayer a lot. Maybe it has to do with praying so much that it kind of loses its meaning to us. That kind of seeps into our teaching sometimes too and we sometimes mention revelation through prayer and asking God as like an ending side note when really it should be some of the investigators first spiritual experiences. I want to study it more this week and get better at my prayers. I think a lot of times we expect an inmediate answer and then dont realize when things are revealed to us during later dates that its a result of asking in prayer. Elder Bednar's videos about "patterns of light" explain it really well. It will be a good new challenge. Well I'm doing good here and me and Elder O. are trying to set high goals and really push ourselves so that we stay really committed to our jobs here. We want to work really really hard this transfer now that we have more people to teach. Pray for us! Love you all so much! Hope everyone is doing well and I love your letters! Elder Trevor Smith Hey all!
Ok it was a good week here, but felt really long for some reason I'll try and sum it up! First we started out with another half pday when I wrote you last, so it ended up just feeling like 3 weeks without any pday which was really long but today was a really nice rest. Tuesday we had another leadership council in Conce which was fun to see some cool old friends like always. I feel like those meetings are kind of always the same thing at this point but it was still really spiritually edifying. We mostly just wanted to rush home to get to some of our lessons but it was a good day. Later we had interviews with President May! Well before that on the same day we went and surprised some of the Elders and helped them clean their house because it was like rediculously disgusting and we had found out from going on exchanges there etc. It was seriously a nightmare in there and I literally through away like 20 bags of trash from a tiny apartment. It's crazy how that by the end I could already feel the spirit more in the house when it was only like halfway cleaner. The elders there were a mix of embarrassed, repentant, and grateful but honestly I didnt feel bad because we had told them to clean that house like 10 times and they did it so we just went over there and did it with them. After that we had interviews which was cool. After we went to lunch with them and got some good sandwhiches and that was fun to get to know them better and stuff like that. It's been getting super super hot right now which is a new challenge. Lots of sunscreen. The bummer is that the ozone is so dissappeared here and the days are so long right now that the sun can burn you up until like 9 at night which is wacky. There is usually a nice wind too at night and I sure am glad I'm not in Los Angeles or some other inland place right now. There's some really good icecream they make in Coronel that's famous and definitely the best I've had in Chile and it's cheap too so that's been fun. I'm getting better at cooking! There was this guy on a bus selling a cool like hindu veggie cookbook for really cheap a while ago and I bought it for like $2 and its come in handy because I'm so sick of meat and potatoes right now. I made some cool stuff this week but the best and most price effective one was a delicious veggie lentil soup. I'm learning! Mom you were always right about soups being good. We had quite a few lessons this week but quite a few fell through as well. We are teaching a lot of people like I've mentioned but its seems like all of them lack a little bit of faith in Christ to get really progressing well so we are working on that. I think this week we will be teaching about the atonement a lot to help with that. M. and M. are good but need some more time. I think to get more committed to really start investigating and think about the idea of baptism. Ca. and D. are awesome and came to church woooo! only problem is kind of the same thing, that they need to grow their faith a little more. It was fast and testimony meeting too which is kind of a weird impression usually first but we will follow up with them and see how they felt. They are very studious but sometimes don't really apply what they learn to themselves, or do it in kind of a selective hearing way that is kind of common here in Chile. We have a super good fellowship for them though that is a family that lives really close and both the mom and the son are return missionaries and not shy at all to invite. A. is finally progressing more too now! I've mentioned that he was just really confused and finally one day we were teaching him and we decided we had to just clear up the Jehova's Witness stuff he had been reading once and for all and we kind of hit him with a scripture bomb (which we like almost NEVER do) and he was kind of mindblown and really believed us! It was a nice change from just really stubborn people sometimes. He really has true desires to learn but we are working on changing those desires to action desires. He did come to church and was kind of mindblown by the whole thing because I think he was just expecting some hole in the wall non denominational thing and our church is kind of bigger than that hahahah. We will see how he is tommorrow too but I think we will be able to put a baptismal date soon. M. is doing great and R. found a job which is cool! It's like semi-permanent but still a really awesome blessing. Only problem is that she works nights so is kind of hard to find now but it will work out. M. is just very Mormon now all of a sudden it's really funny. Shes awesome. One kind of hard to explain but big thing happened this week too. So up unto this point in our mission we had been doing this kind of controlling daily verification with our missionaries by calling every companionship every night and asking for a set type of information about their work etc to encourage "accountability" but I had been studying it a lot and realized that it was kind of counterproductive because the missionaries ended up being more accountable to their leaders than to God and for a lot of other reasons too. It was noone's fault that we worked in that way as leadership up until now, I think it was just a weird idea some APs had like 2 years ago or something that got treated as a rule and doctrine when according to PMG it didn't really have any written basis. I have a pretty good relationship w the current APs and asked them why we gave accounts and verified in the way we did and they pretty much confirmed it to me by saying it was just tradition like I thought. I told them that we should try and do it how it says in PMG in our zone of San Pedro first to test the difference out, and they and Pres May gave us the go ahead and also asked us to give a presentation of all of what we found out about how a zone and mission should actually run as far as accountability and verification and leadership etc for the next leadership council, so that was unexpected! It was cool to see that just from a good study of PmG and some revelation me and Elder O. could make such a large but productive change in how the entire mission runs. The week was filled with a lot of talk and study about accountability and leadership and I think we reached a really good conclusion and long story short we will be working a LOT more like a team now in this zone, and in the mission too in like a month. Other than that I studied a lot about the light of Christ this week. There are a lot of super cool scriptures about it if you look it up in the bible dictionary and index etc. A great topic to study. The cool thing I learned is that as one obeys the light of Christ in themselves (or their natural inclination to do good), that light (or inclination or concience or however you want to call it) grows and, according to doctrine and covenants, will eventually lead them to the restored gospel (or in other words us as missionaries or other members etc). When that happens they will be able to choose to accept the gospel and recieve even more blessings, a stronger guide in the gift of the Holy Ghost, and just a lot more holiness and godliness in general as they do it. It just is so amazing to me how perfect God's plan is for us, and that how as anyone strives to do good they will always be led back to Him. I love how Christ is called the "light of the world". I am learning a ton about what it means to follow "His light" or "the light" and how good one feels as they do it. There is no blessing greater than feeling how He can light one's heart. Ok I love you all and I'm doing great here!!! Congrats Taylor and Brynna WOOOOO! I hope you are all doing great! Talk to you next week and thanks for the letters! Elder Trevor Smith Hey all!
Ok it was a good week but it felt kind of long for some reason but it's ok! So Tuesday we did a gran intercambio with the zone and I was with Elder Pinto in San Pedro and it was pretty fun. Hes a really good missionary with a lot of experience and a really good teacher, so it was fun to learn from him and get to know each other better. I got to catch up with an old friend Elder Acevedo who I got to know way back a year ago while I was in Cunco so that was fun. I am also very glad I'm in my sector and not in any other hahaha. Lagonillas is awesome. I'm not sure if I've mentioned but our zone is kind of "mah o menoh" right now so me and Elder Oxborrow had been thinking and praying a lot about it and we felt strongly that it was an issue of obedience and the intercambio we did made that pretty clear that it was. We had like a zone inventory kind of Wednesday and talked a lot about what challenges we have etc and what we do well and what we can do better and I think it was pretty helpful. At the end we pretty much told everyone that even though there were a lot of problems in the zone that are different, we were sure that just obeying to a higher degree would help with whatever problem the missionaries had (that's kind of the beauty of the gospel; its a cure-all). What I think made it a success was that the missionaries could really feel that we were talking about that because we genuinely care about them so I think their hearts were really opened. We talked a lot about how the natural man is an enemy to God, but also read Alma 5:7-12 and Mosiah 3:19 together and talked about how Christ can change the hearts and desires of all of us and that obedience can be easy if we really do have that change. We did a zone fast that day to be able to obey better and we have seen some serious changes in a few of the missionaries here and it also has shown in the fruits of their labor too, which is really cool to see from our perspective. After that the week was pretty normal but all of a sudden we have a ton of people to teach and that's really nice. We have a lot of help from the youth of the ward here, and a few who have or are preparing for mission calls and school got out so they have a lot of time. We taught a lot of lessons this week. M. is super awesome and is just very, very happy still. She had an interview with the bishop which was good so I think she's being integrated pretty well. We are working on R. and she is trying really hard to grow her faith in Christ to be able to take more steps towards Him but moves slower than M. obviously. M. speaks her mind a lot so we had to kind of tell her to be patient with R. hahaha. I think she will get baptised too but we are praying really hard for her. M. M. are really good and we had a good conversation with them after an English class and they are really looking for the gospel but don't quite know it yet so we are working on that! They definitely need the peace it brings. We are going to have an FHE with their friends from church tonight so hopefully that helps!!! We are still teaching C. and her mom D. as well and they are awesome! They are very studious and learning a ton but they're lacking a little bit of the spiritual progression and revelation part. I guess it's the application. We need to keep challenging them to be baptized and i think if they come to church this week they'll understand better as well. They are very very smart. K. is kind of on standby right now because she's like impossible to find. It's crazy how much progress we have seen in our sector this transfer. It was kind of rough to get people to church with Christmas and new years back to back on Sunday but I'm sure that next transfer here will be full of baptisms. I hope I stay! We will see in two weeks. New years was fun! We ate dinner with a very nice family Amestica here who have a daughter on a mission so that was fun and very delicious. We were kind of tired in church but we had half our p-day yesterday and took a good 2 hour nap and recharged. We have eaten so much meat these last two weeks that we are re-evaluating our word of wisdom compliance and trying to go more veggie. Hopefully we can do it. As far as what I've been pondering this week it's been a couple things. I'm still thinking a lot about obedience etc but also about what judgement will be like and how relieved we will be to see that keeping our covenants the best we could will allow us to be perfectly clean when that day comes. I think it's obvious that Christ has a perfect faith about that considering the fact that He is the one who suffered for it all in the end, but I think our faith is what will allow us to really believe that that will happen, and to trust that we really will be clean that day. Covenants are amazing and so key to the Gospel, and something that is really only understood in our church (the restored one). I also was thinking a lot about accountability and agency and the parable of the talents, and I want my missionaries to know that we (and God obviously) trust them with the talents (the sectors and companions or districts), and I've learned that as we allow people to act freely in the dominion they've been given while feeling an opposing force, they really do grow. There's an awesome summary of that subject in 2 Nephi 2 that I feel like im finally growing to understand and it's a really important leadership and life concept, and central to our purpose here on earth. I have a new year's resolution to read all of Isaiah before I finish the mission so wish me luck on that hahaha. Ok I'm doing great but missing you all a little! Loving it here a lot and learning a ton every day. Hope you're all doing great! Elder Trevor Smith ps are my letters getting shorter or not? Hi all
So we talked yesterday! It was awesome but way short but super good to see you all and get to meet Daniela! Sorry we didn't get to talk long. I guess I'll just go into some details about this week and then leave it for the next. This week was very busy becasue we had 3 baptisms in the zone and so it was pretty hectic with 3 different interviews and all the intercambio craziness that comes with that etc. Especially a baptism in Boca Sur was very hectic because he had to get permission to be confrimed the same day because he was going to travel home to another city and go to church there on Sunday and there were some miscommunications between the missionaries, the mission office, and the stake presidency but at the end of the day P. got baptized. I got to do his interview and it was super easy for him and he will probably be a missionary next year. We went to the service too which was fun. He is giant too so it was cool to see Elder G. baptize him and it kind of sent waves around the font hahaah. That day I got to spend w Elder H. from San Antonio Chile and we worked in Boca Sur and I got to see a ton of old good friends and I kind of missed that sector for a little. I also found out that this less active family that I helped reactivate one of their daughter's baptismal record might be lost so she might have to get baptized again! it was a huge surprise so I might get to go to her baptismal service and do her interview too hahahaha. Elder H> is a great friend too and he could maybe become a comp of mine someday because he will probably be a zone leader soon. I've always wanted a Chilean companion as well. M's baptismal service was great. She passed the interview no problem. She actually had quite a bit of opposition the day before but was really committed to her goal and was baptised and confirmed this week. She's a really funny lady who really speaks her mind hahaha. Her daughter R. is next. We had a great Christmas Eve and Christmas day too. We actually had to work quite a bit and didn't get much time off but surprisingly we had a ton of success and a lot of good lessons and new investigators. A few families too! We will see where it all goes this week. Two English students ( I think I mentioned them) came to the ward activity Friday night and then we got a lesson with them Saturday with the 2nd counselor who gave us the reference in the first place. They were kind of iffy about coming to church and totally surprised us by showing up Sunday morning! It was awesome. The zone isn't doing too hot and definitely not seeing the miracles we are. After thinking a lot about it I think it's a problem about not being very committed to obedience and not really having faith that there can be progress in their different areas. I've been thinking a lot about obedience and the spirit and how to help them all progress in that aspect other than just giving a good example. One scripture that has really stuck out to me has been Helaman 3:35 that talks about turning our hearts over to God and letting him purify them. I think that has a lot to do with our desires changing and giving our will to Him. I've learned a lot these last few months that when we commit ourselves to obey we can have the total security that God will bless us so having faith becomes way easier. The spirit enters our lives much more as well. I still have to study and think about this more to know how to help them all or I think January will be a rough month for us. Regardless me and Elder O. are pretty stoked about everything that is happening here too. Ok that's about it but I love you all so much!!! I'll write better next week but I'm going to try and upload some pictures etc! It was so so fun to talk to you and I love your letters!!! Elder Trevor Smith |
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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