Worn Out Shoes

This week was full of activities, meetings and conferences. It was a fun but tiring week, and we didn't have much time to work in our area. On Wednesday it was the meeting for new missionaries and trainers. The meeting was in Salina Cruz and we got to travel in the nice charter buses :) Its also exciting because they play movies and there's nothing we can do to not watch ;) They never show good movies though, but I prefer to wait to watch the good ones in English when I get home. It was my fourth new missionary meeting so it was the same old stuff. But I always come out of the meetings with President Madsen uplifted and ready to take on the world. 

On Friday we had a Leadership council in Juchitan. Usually just the Zone Leaders are invited, but this time all the District Leaders were invited as well so I got to go and participate. We talked about the difference between administer and minister. As leaders in the mission we have many administrative responsibilities such as deal with housing, materials, money and logistical issues with transfers and conferences. That's something that we learn to do in the mission and it's helpful to learn how to be good administrators, but we are set apart as missionaries to minister our investigators and fellow missionaries in the leadership positions that we have. Jesus ministered among the people all of his life. To minister is to attend the needs of someone. We all have needs, especially the investigators that we have and the gospel of Jesus Christ is what we teach in order to serve and minister the people that God puts in our path. 

We had interviews with President Madsen on Saturday and we also rehearsed for the Christmas Program that we do every year for the members and investigators of the Stake. That means Christmas time is around the corner yayy! Later that same Saturday we had a special activity with recent converts and investigators in the stake.

A lot of missionaries in our zone were there to help and we had stations, where at each station we taught a principle of the Gospel in an interactive way. It was a good time. Yesterday we got to see a satelite transmission of a special conference for Mexico. Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, Elder Hales and President Russel M. Nelson spoke and their message was clear and to the point. Keep the Commandments. They talked about tithing, family history, and family home evening. 

I have one comment of the picture of my shoes that I uploaded. After a hard fight, I finally decided to put my second pair of shoes on the mission to rest. It was a tough decision but it had to be done. 

Love you all and have a fabulous week!

-Elder Smith