For the last time, I really don’t care if Jimmy is Crackin' corn

Family!!

This week we will be having a Zone Conference with the Big Prez of the Mish! It will be a good one! This last Saturday we were able to baptize a city slicker. His whole family are members, but his parents are separated. He went to live with his mom at the age of 5, and his mom completely fell of the face of the earth, lost contact and stopped going to church completely. Somehow the dad found the address and just went to Bahia to pick him up, came back, Wagner (his name is said like "Vagner") went to church a few times, and then we baptized him this Saturday. It was really neat. He is 15 years old, but looks like he is 9 because he has been malnutritioned his whole life.

My companion cried for his first time in his mission last night. He found out that one of his first baptisms here on the mission (which was a whole family that he really got close to) they started going to a different church, and it was really sad to see the loss that he felt. He acted so calm over the phone when the other missionaries told him, but then immediately after the phone call he went in to the other room and started to just let it all out. I felt really bad for him, but it helped me to understand the love that we should feel for every one of our brothers and sisters. I can’t even imagine how our Heavenly Father would feel if we feel that much pain for our loved ones. He’s a good guy, so I sang him a little song that starts like this, "Hey there Elder, I see you lookin' down, don't wanna see my little buddy down with a frown.." and so on. But yea, it was actually pretty sad.

Anyways, don’t have much else to write. I love and miss you all! I support your decisions about the coming to get me. Don’t worry about all that other stuff, it was just an idea that my president gave to me.

Here is a video from Christmas!

Elder Smidt X

We represent, the lolly-pop guild!!

Well hello!!

Happy Birthday Nana Smidt!!! I love you as big as the beach!!!!

This week we had a really neat baptism of a 63 year old lady, but her health made Nana and Pops Smidt look like young rascals! One day while knocking on doors, on the other side of the street we saw an old lady step out of her little house to look around. Me and my companion looked at her, then just kind of looked at each other and both of us had the same strong impression that we needed to go over and talk to her, so my companion just said, let’s baptize her. So we went over to visit with her and started talking to her, and said right then and there, "We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we have an awesome message for you about how Jesus organized His Church on the earth, and how it was returned to earth after it was destroyed by the rejection of our Savior.... Would you like to be baptized in His church?" That’s the first time I have ever asked someone to be baptized in the door way, and she accepted. Unfortunately, her whole family was wary of "The Mormons”!  The problem we had was that she didn’t know how to read and she easily forgot about some things the next day, so we couldn’t leave an assignment for her to read part of the book of Mormon, and we were scared that if we asked her to pray later that night if this was the true church, that she would forget. So we each got on our knees right then and every one of us said a separate prayer, taking turns, asking Heavenly Father to show this sister if this was the true church. Afterwards, she said, “For sure I am being baptized this Sunday”. Later her sons tried to tell her that she couldn’t be baptized in another church, but she simply just told them, "God has spoken to me and has touched my heart. I cannot deny that."

So that was my cool experience for this week. And it really was cool but you had to be there….

As for the coming of you guys to here, Brazil. The president said that you guys could come to pick me up. He said that he wants to eat lunch with you guys too and he also said that if President Firmage wanted to, he could release me over the telephone. Other missionaries have done that. The only thing I’m thinking about now is, I won’t have that grand reunion that other missionaries have at the airport. That is the victory that all the missionaries look forward to. But yeah, just think about what you guys would like to do and if you think I should be released or not in the field if you decide to come pick me up.

Mom- you should send an email to Sister Fortunato and the family as well, thanking her for all that she does for me. She has helped so much.

I love you all!!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X

lots of important stuffs...

14-1-2013

Freak, I'm sorry Coley for forgetting to say happy birthday, but you know
that I love you! I know that I missed other birthdays or that some birthdays
are coming up, but I forgot to look at my calendar directly. From what I
remember, Happy Birthday Dan and JBaum....I think.

Well, this week has been filled with a bunch of crazy things, but they were
important and made me feel good, so that's good I guess. The first was, I
went to a training activity for the stake (which is actually a very big
stake for Brazil, 9 healthy wards) and Me and Elder Cancino did a training
session for all the Ward mission leaders and ward missionaries. It went over
actually really well, everyone was excited to get to work afterwards.

Then this Thursday, we went to B.H. to have our Zone Leader Counsel with the
President. We went there and had breakfast with his family and all the other
Zone Leaders. Then we had a list of changes that would be happening in the
mission and things that we needed to improve on the mission, and then we had
lunch which was freeeeeeaking awesome! Sister Fortunato had a lunch line set
up to make Nachos, but since regular corn chips with just salt don't exist
here, she used Nacho Cheese Doritos for the chips.... need I say more? First
time in a long time I've had nachos, but the only problem is that here in
Brazil there is no nacho cheese so she had to improvise, but it was still
good. Then afterwards, we went back to learning a bunch of things on how we
can be better missionaries and on how we can better our zones. After a long
8 hours, we went back to our areas.

Friday, Elder Cancino and I held our own Zone Meeting and had a lot of
success in getting the other Elders fired up about the work. Last month our
zone baptized 9 people in the whole month with 18 missionaries.  This month
we reached 9 baptisms yesterday already and have a lot more coming. Things
are looking good for this zone in the future.

I finally got the envelope with the Christmas Tree and Ornaments, but I
still loved to read all of them. I got Tawni and Scott's Christmas Card and
Joey and Esther's card too and I love to see the pics and read the letters.
Thank  you so very much! Also, thank you Uncle Tom for the Ornament with
Portuguese on it. I'm glad to see that you haven't lost it yet!

Well, I love you all so very much!

God Speed

*Elder Smidt X*

Can you feel the love tonight...

Family!

So here are the photos that I couldn’t send last week!

There are a lot of really cool places to go to here in "7 Lagoas" (you have to say seven like "sechy"). I’m thinking that when you guys come here, we can definitely do some fun things here. In fact, this is the only place that I know of in the state of Minas Gerais that has cool things. But yeah, this area is also the richest area that I’ve lived in so far. Some of the richest Brazilians end up living here. We live in an apartment, and when I got here it was completely filthy. So I went to the store and bought three gallons of Bleach, 8 sponges, flint, and went to work! It’s still a disaster, but at least I don’t think of the job I had with Lance Snyder every time I walk in the door anymore.

This upcoming Sunday we are looking to have three baptisms. Our Zone has been doing a lot better since I got here, (I’m not saying it’s because of me, I’m just saying that its been getting better since my arrival). Last month, our whole entire zone baptized 9 people for the WHOLE month. This month, we already have 5 baptisms, and three more Sundays to find people.

Mom, to answer your questions: I don’t live with any other Elders, I can only write letters on P-Day, and I have never been to a Temple while in the field. We do not have a temple within the mission area. Stinky.

I am starting to learn Spanish with my companion because he is from Chile. I can actually understand almost everything because it looks A LOT like Portuguese, it’s just that the pronunciation is a lot harder. But I’m hoping to be Tri-lingual by the end of my mission.

At our Chapel, there is a soccer court and a basketball court, so today I went and played soccer, (not really, because we are not allowed), but I practiced juggling the soccer ball, and I practiced shooting. I had some one on one training from a Brazilian from another Companionship who is really good. I actually learned a lot.

Then we played Porco or Pig, and I felt really rusty shooting a Basketball.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful winter. The  weather here is hotter than my other areas, but what can ya do, right? Love you!

God Speed

Elder Smidt X