Semana 33: In-grown toenails, a new ward, and a Temple trip!: 3/1/17

Hello everyone!

Long time, no talk! But that just means I have more to talk about and more pictures (I finally figured out how to shrink the files so i can send more!).  

This week was super great! The reason I´m writing today is because we went to the Temple today! They changed our p-day to the day that we went to the temple so as to not lose time to work.  The temple was super great and was just what I needed to recharge my missionary batteries! If you are a member of the church and haven´t gone to the temple in awhile, go! 

And it´s true, I had in-grown toe nails on both of my feet... Not a very pleasant experience to say the least.  Normally, missionaries go to the hospital to take them out with anesthetic to numb the pain. But I didn't know that... One of the hermanas in my district used to be the mission nurse so she told me she could take them out... Not sure if I have ever experienced anything so painful haha. It took like an hour to take them both out.  But the good news is that they´re out and hopefully my toes aren´t infected :).  To recover, I received permission to wear sandals during the day.  And I just happened to have Jesus sandals so it works out perfectly! I´ve gotten some weird looks during the day to say the least haha. 

Also, Santo Domingo became a ward this last Sunday! For those that don't know what that means, a ward just means a bigger congregation basically.  It was super exciting and we spent all week visiting less active members to have a ton of people at church.  Now we just have to sustain the assistance and increase it! Go missionary work!

I also went on splits this week with one of the zone leaders and it was super great! He´s from Texas and our personalities are pretty similar so it was super fun  and we had a ton of success together.  

We´re hoping to have at least 2 baptisms this month of March but the people we´re teaching still don´t feel ready and don´t feel like they have received an answer about the church yet.  As missionaries, we share a message with the people, but we´re not there to convince them, but rather to help them.  There are tons of churches in the world today, but Jesus Christ only established one.  We simply invite them to pray (ask and ye shall receive) and ask God if what we shared with them is true.  I know the God listens to and answers our prayers.  If we simply pray to God with faith, believing that we will receive an answer, he will hear us and answer us!  I invite everyone to pray this week, at least once a day! If anything has increased my faith and assurance that God lives, it´s prayer.  

I love and miss you all and hope that you have a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: In-grown toe-nails (before), in-grown toe nails (after), the church building in Santo Domingo, District Santo Domingo, My "mom" in the mission and her other "son" who I have a lot in common with, on the bus