"Hola mi familia. Les extrano much pero yo se que el senor esta bendiciendoles mucho y que el tiene un plan para nosotros. Esta Semana recibi me greenie se llama Elder Gomez. El es de Peru y tiene 22 anos. El tambien tiene 11 dedos. ha ha El es bakan!"
"I started training this week and it has been a roller coaster. First, we did despididos or good-byes for Elder Balling. The ward threw him a little party and it was fun. I was glad that they did that for him. Then on Wednesday, I got to go to the temple!!! Whoo hoo!!! It was incredible. The temple is so pretty. Inside it has a lot of gold and light blue. The stone is a dark blue granite that is only found in Chile and is really rare. It was beautiful. The best part is that Elder Smart is training with me, so we got to stick together the whole time. ha ha We have gone through the same things at the same times throughout our whole mission. How tight is that?! ha ha The temple workers loved me because I actually did really well going through the temple in Spanish. I understand about everything and felt so good about how far I have come. The celestial room was beautiful and a little small, but the feeling there was the same. The church is true. Afterwards, a bunch of us all went to eat at Subway. There is about six of us from my group that are all training. We received 15 latinos. Oh yeah, in the morning I got to see Elder Tialavea and a whole bunch of my friends and it was glorious. ha ha I missed them and I received a bunch of letters from Barrancas. Guillermo and Norka are still active and I also helped activate Clara Pozo who is so happy and expressed her gratitude to me. It was so cool!"
"We all talked and waited for three hours for our greenies to arrive. We had to face our backs to them when they came in and they had to find us. My greenie is Elder Gomez from Peru. He is 22 years old...which at first was a little hard because he didn't like the fact that I was younger than him. I got to know him and he's gone through some rough stuff. His family is really poor and broke up because he came on the mission. He is really smart and kinda wanted to take the lead because he could speak the language better. I've been working on getting him to think in a more team friendly way. It's also been hard because we don't have many people to teach, which means that we are contacting a lot, which isn't very fun. We are just beginning to become better friends and have strong unity between the two of us. I know he's a good guy. I've just got to help him get the vision of the mission. He is really excited and I like that he has a lot of excitement to work. That's what I want! ha ha It's been good and I'm just praying that the Lord will help me know what to do and where to go. I know that when we are obedient, the spirit will be able to be a strong partner in our companionship."
"On Saturday, we did a service project with the whole zone. We cleaned up the side of a freeway and also a Catholic church. It was great to be out in the service of the Lord. We also had a really cool miracle happen because there was a ton of work and a lot of junk. People just dump stuff wherever they want. However, the community supported us and came out to take pictures and everything. It was really cool. We didn't have a lot of time and there was a lot of work to do. Then out of nowhere, a tractor, that was passing by, saw us and came and did a ton of work to help with the service. It was sooo cool. He got everything done in 10 minutes that would have taken us about 2 hours. It was awesome. I love it when the Lord blesses us."
"Oh yeah, President made me play the piano again in the trainer orientation after not playing for 3 months. It's so embarrassing. I messed up a bit, but got through it. I should have gotten good before the mission. ha ha right? Now I am living with Elder Hansen who is hilarious. He is great and amazing at the violin. He is writing songs and wants me to sing them. It's gonna be fun! All my companions have taught me a lot. Elder Opazo is so proud that he is going to be a grandpa in the mission. ha ha We took family photos during changes. Elder Tialavea is just like the older brother that I would have loved to have. He takes care of me and taught me to just relax and love the work. Elder Balling taught me to have patience. I'm not sure what I am suppose to learn now. I hope that we will be able to have success here. I feel like I've grown a lot. I know I have a long ways to go, but I have faith that I'll be able to get through anything. The Lord has blessed me so much. I only want to do his will...even though some days are harder than others. I love that I can communicate in Spanish and understand everything. Elder Gomez is going to help me improve with that, so I'm excited. It's cool that I can survive in Spanish now. Who woulda thought?"
"Tell everyone "hi" for me and that I love them all soooo much! I hope you are all happy. I miss you a ton and am grateful for your support. I miss just relaxing, but I'd rather be here. Thanks for everything!"
Elder Dallon Smith
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| President and Sister King with Elder Smith and Elder Gomez |
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| Elder Hansen and Elder Smith hard at work. |
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| Fun with the Barrueto family |
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| Helping Elder Smith feel right at home! |