Elder Smith's letter 11-28-11

So guess what? It’s your boi Elder Esmit. I actually have a lot less time to write this week than normal so I’ll just say bits and pieces of what happened. Well, I did receive both of those packages and wow the Christmas one is amazing. I’m pretty sure I got a better package than almost any other missionary! There’s a picture of me walking with it in this album. It was pretty funny having to walk that thing through 2 full buses and a few city blocks, I really am lucky to have such awesome parents. I really can’t promise that I’ll be able to wait until Christmas to open the presents.

Anyway this week has been pretty good, if every thing goes right we’ll baptize 5 people before this transfer is over. A few spiritual stories I’ve had this week are, for one, we found this one woman who told us that she would talk to us because the night before she had a dream that young men would come by and give her a black book. So naturally you can imagine what book we gave her. She’s very catholic and said that there’s no way she’ll change but still we gave her the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and we’ll see what happens. Also, this week in the middle of a conference with the Mission President, I got a pretty strong feeling that we needed to go and teach this one family. All their kids had already been baptized but the father needs to get divorced from his former wife before the parents can be. We went and taught them and way, one thing led to another and not only are the parents getting baptized this Christmas eve but we also set a date for them to be sealed as a family a year from now on Christmas eve or some day around there. It was a pretty sweet lesson.

Well, Verta didn’t get baptized but that’s ok, I hope she can be this week but we’ll see.

In other news I ordered my hammock on Thursday and I found out what would normally be a $140 hammock is only going to be $42 dollars because the man were buying it from is in prison, so making hammocks is just what they do for fun in prisons around here. Double person custom hammock with my name stitched in it. I’ll send you guys the photo when I get it.

The photo of that spider is kind of like the one that came running under the door that one time. Its hard to see because its blurry but ya, those are all baby spiders on its back.
I’ll end with a Mayan peace out.
Ek´i couva t´salma!
ÉL ESMIT


Wes happily carrying his Christmas package all the way to his house!







Mondongo?










A spider with babies on it's back

Elder Smith's letter 11-21-11

¿Que transita valedores?
Sup its yo boi-Elder Smitty here and I thought I might just let you know that all is good here, I still haven’t gotten that package yet dad but that’s okay I’m sure it’ll be here next week. Letters and packages here are a weekly thing because all the letters get sent to the main mission office and we go there and collect it once every Monday, so technically it could show up tomorrow and I wouldn’t know about it for a week.

Anyway news here, this week we actually are planning to baptize someone, named Verta. She’s in her late 50s and about 12 years ago was going to get baptized but changed her mind, but now she’s all in and wants to, so I’m pretty happy about that. There’s another pair of sister investigators named Nuvia and Dalila with the typical single mothers story, which is sad, but any way we started teaching them and the sister Nuvia is now one of the better investigators we have because she’s been reading the Book of Mormon and studying and has told us various times that she’s been searching for an answer her whole life and that now she knows that this is it. The weird thing is, that we were going to baptize her but as it turns out we looked her up in the church data base, because some of her family members are members, and found that when she 8 she was baptized, so although I don’t get to put a baptism statistic in my journal, I know that us finding her made a bigger difference in her life than it did when she actually was baptized.

Also, we found a new family in Viciente Solis that we might baptize, the man when we showed up he told us he had a copy of the Book of Mormon and he wanted us to explain 3 Nephi 11 to him, so we happily did Now he told us he’s going to read the whole book before our next visit, so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

That’s about it for interesting investigators, we have more but the rest of them pretty much think we’re Catholic missionaries here to spread the palabra, haha.

Culture wise, well, I just decided the hammock is more comfy than the horrible bed I have, so now and for the rest of my mission I think I’m going to sleep in a hammock even when there are beds available. This week I’m taking out some money to buy a custom hammock with my name on it, and a sweet black yellow green color scheme. It's gonna be sweet! I’ll send you all a photo of it when its done. Its gonna be stitched by Dalila's Mayan father who lives in some pueblo somewhere haha.

Funny things I’ve seen here…for one, the other day we were riding in a trici taxi down the main street of town and we saw a police car stopped and a bunch of people standing in a circle. At first I thought it was a car crash but when we got closer I found out that some cops were rangling a freaking huge python, idk how big it was but there were like 4 cops struggling to put it in the back of their truck. It was probably about 15 feet but I can’t say for sure. The weird part is that I have no idea how it got there because we were fairly deep in town.

Another funny thing is that it turns out that arsony here is more of a domestic chore. The other day we were walking through a neighborhood when on the side yard space of two houses there was a huge fire about 7 feet tall running up the side of these houses. We yelled to one of the houses and a woman stuck half her face out the widow
"Hey you know there’s a big fire on the side of your house?" she just smiled about it and said "oh no se precupen es la basura" Ya people here are pretty funny. Anyway I don’t have any more time.
Smith out!

Elder Wesley Smith's Letter November 14, 2011

¿Que transa changotes? Sup is Elly Smith and not too much has been happenin here in Kukulcan, but good news I just finished my second transfer, but ya I’m still here in south east Merida, anyway don’t worry I feel like I’m eating a lot better now. This month I got $30 more in my account so we’ve been eatin like reys.

As for my Spanish, I’m at the point where, for a gringo with only 2 months in the country, I speak very well but as for completely fluent I don’t think so. What it really depends on is who you speak to...



Actually what makes the biggest difference when speaking to someone is their accent. Someone that speaks rapid and clearly I can understand just fine but as for the 3-toothed Elote [corn on the cob] salesman there is zero chance. Its pretty funny, the guys who sell elotes here. They all ride their bikes up and down the streets. Everyone has their own yell/chant to let you know that there’s some delicious corn comin your way, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone of them actually say the word Elote, most are like ¡BA BEE!

One woman, the first time when I heard her, I thought it was a car horn. My favorite is this one woman who doesn’t even say anything, she just looks down and screams bloody murder.

I’ve heard several times now that the Yucatan is kind of like the “redneck south” of Mexico, and I totally believe it. This place has just too many funny things to tell. The accent here is pretty funny, if a word ends in an N they replace the sound with an M sound so Yucatan is now Yucatam, at least that’s how they pronounce it.

Lets see, I’m probably not going to baptize for a while because, well idk. We work pretty flippin hard but in the end we can never get anyone to the chapel, the phrase “Oh, estoy ocupado, Quiero ir pero no puedo, otro dia”. has really gotten sickening.

Anyway if nothing else we’ve reactivated a few families, which I am pretty happy about.

Well, I would write more but I’m all outa time, nos vemos,

ELDER SMITH

Wesley's letter 11-7-11

Okay, I wanna make you all know I’m genuinely sorry about the letter I sent last week. It was way out of line. I was still pretty sick and for that I was pretty poorly nourished and idk its easy to get mad when things aren’t going you’re way. Just don’t think things are getting dire here, all that’s happened is I’ve lost a few pounds.

When you’re stuck in a room in an uncomfy bed with a 103 fever with chills con ganas de vomitar it’s pretty easy to loose enthusiasm. But now I’m healthy again I actually went to the McDonalds and the Wal-Mart in Merida today, it took 2 buses and about 20 minutes of walking but still worth it.

The sad thing is that all the things I loved in the Wal-Mart like chocolate and fine imported cereals like Corn Pops must have a tariff or something because I paid un ojo de la cara for them but still worth it. When I get home I’m going to buy so many nice things you have no idea.

Probably the hardest of all is that when I was laying in bed I thought a lot about everyone, family, and friends, and I really do wanna tell you I fricken love and miss you all probably an unhealthy amount. It’s probably not good to plan you’re grand arrival home a year and a half early but that’s what I did haha.

Oh ya if any one wants to look me up on Google earth my address is Calle 38a no.552a x 59y 61. Some of the many calonias of my area are Reparto Gragnjas, Granjas, Santa Isabel, Visientesolis, Nuevo Kulkucan, Mulchechen, Cecillo Chi, San Antonio Kaua, Cerrido de Mulchechen, and many more little ones my area is about the size of 4 normal areas. And we don’t have a car. There are actually only 2 cars in all the mission and one is the Mission President’s, and I think there are now only 2 areas with bikes.


As for people I’m teaching right now, most are pretty superstitious, one lady were teaching is so God fearing we couldn’t even get her to read the Bible, out of fear that she might tear it and thereby be cursed.

Our area has returned to its regular dry state where I’m pretty sure it won’t baptize for a long time, and I’m also pretty sure I’m gonna stay here for a pretty long time because the Mission President likes to keep the new guys in their first area for like 7 months, but we’ll see.

I wanna give a shout out to all the homies who have been writing me like Alec, Lexi, Dylan, Alena, and Brian.

Alena you asked me if I’m in the Kulkucan near the baseball stadium. It is the exact same Kulkucan as that baseball stadium whooooo.

I’m planning on writing you all soon but because of the humidity all the envelopes I bought sealed so I only had one so I can only send one and its going to Brian Moffat. Get ready for awesome letter madness! I sent it to your San Luis address so it’ll probably get there by St Patrick’s day, if at all. Don’t worry I’m planning on writing all of you soon. Sorry Alec I’m writing you next week I promise. It really is just hard to find time...and paper not ruined haha.

Any way I have more stories but I’m outa time so I’ll tell ya next week

Él Smit

Mom if you wanna send a box of chocolaty goodness I’d be more than happy to receive it. haha

Love you too much and miss everyone in the fam especially the rug rats... tell Dad I’m surfing every morning with him when I get back.