Email ochenta y dos

March 12, 2018 

I've noticed lately that as I've tried to make my emails more doctrinal and gospel focused, I've told very very little about what the work is like. Mom emailed me the other week and told me she was surprised to find out I was in such a small town. She hardly knew anything about Dardanelle, because I simply haven't talked very much about it. So I'll try to find a good balance of gospel food for thought and letting y'all know what the work is like.

For starters, let me explain a little bit about Dardanelle. I mentioned before that it's really close to Russellville, and it is. If fact, pretty much the only thing separating the two is the Arkansas River. The sign says the population is just under 5 thousand, so yeah, it's a pretty small town. You can walk from one end to the other in about a half hour, maybe a little more. Our entire area however, is all of Yell County, population 22 thousand. Yell County is pretty spread out, lots of little towns all over the place. The second biggest town is Danville, 20 minutes southeast, with just over 2 thousand. Yell County is different than any place I've been. It's very very southern. The people here are simple people. They like the laid back life style. With few exceptions, everyone I've met here has been really nice. The one thing that's tough is getting past "I already have a church." I really feel like coming to this area has helped me get better at talking to people in general, so that's been super helpful. President Hansen challenged me to talk to at least one person every time I got to any kind of store, so that's been kind of hard. I sort of cheat and just talk to people in the Walmart parking lot, for some reason that feels so much easier than talking to people than actually inside the store. Maybe I feel that way because for me personally, I don't know why, but I really dislike having to go to the grocery store. Couldn't tell you why, but I absolutely loathe it. I think I'm going to be one of those people who orders groceries online back home. But so far I'm making improvement with the talking to people thing. Back in Jonesboro I had the same goal that I made personally, but I kinda got away from it for a while.

There are a lot of Puerto Ricans here! I had only ever met one person from Puerto Rico, and that was Elder Santiago, who went home in January. In Memphis, I met people from just about everywhere but Puerto Rico, but for some reason there are a ton here in Yell County. Their accent is so funny! It's basically super ghetto Spanish and a lot of the time they pronounce r's like l's and oftentimes don't pronounce s's. Also their accent sounds a lot like a Spanish (as in from Spain) accent to me. Elder Alonzo and I try to imitate the accent a lot while in the apartment and it's soooo funny. "Hey, que está haciendo paaaapi?", "Naaaada loco, no metas la nariz boricuaaaaaa." Good times.

So since the closest missionaries to us are in Russellville, we go to Russellville all the time, I don't know if I clarified that. But we are know part of the Russellville Spanish District (we were in the English District last transfer but President changed it). It's weird because it really does feel like I was in Russellville just a few weeks ago. I can hardly believe that I left for Jonesboro over a year ago. We did an exchange with the Russellville Spanish Elders, Elder Bybee, and Elder Lawrence.

Elder Lawrence was trained by Elder Jorgensen right after I left Jonesboro, so he was there to baptize Ianne and Enzo. When I first met Elder Lawrence, I thought "Man this kid is pretty awkward." I have gotten to know him better since then, and I really feel genuine love for the kid. He also has pretty severe ADHD as well as high functioning asbergers syndrome. On top of that, he also has diagnosed depressed, so the poor kid has been going through a lot emotionally on the mission. I've also come to find out that he has a great sense of humor! The whole exchange he had me busting out pretty good. He has a this German accent that's hilarious.

Being back in Russellville was sooo nostalgic. It was super fun, Russellville Spanish is a full bike area now, so once again I got to take a ride around the old stomping grounds. I'm in a lot better shape now than I was then. We met this man named R, who is from Honduras. He was really cool and super open to talking to us, and also super buff. This guy was huge. I wanted to ask what his secret is haha. (Side note: I lied last email, somehow I've dropped down to 187, which is a little depressing).

The next day we went and did service at an Episcopal church, helping to run a soup kitchen. It was a really awesome opportunity to serve others. They had us sit down and talk to the people there. And I met a Hispanic man who lives literally one street down from us in Dardanelle, so we are going to pay him a surprise visit tonight ;).

The lady that was in charge afterwards was asking us about our service as missionaries, how long we serve, how long we stay in certain areas, and how we pay for the mission. After we explained everything, she said how impressed she was with such young men who would sacrifice so much. She asked us what our motivation was for doing so, and I think my response was guided by the Holy Ghost because I learned something new as I spoke. I bore testimony that the mission is not only a wonderful opportunity to share our message to the world and spread the love of Jesus Christ, but it is also an opportunity to learn to love people that are different than you. I hadn't really thought about that before, but it's absolutely true. On the mission, the people that are humble enough to accept your message aren't typically the kind of people you would chose to hang out with in high school if you get what I'm putting down. They are usually lower class, and often lesser educated. They are people that you normally wouldn't associate with unless you were a missionary. But as you teach them the Gospel, and you come to know their problems and their struggles, you feel genuine love for these simple, good hearted children of God. If we take a look at who the Savior spent His life ministering to, He spent much of His time among the poor and the destitute, because they were humble enough to see Him for who He was. I am touched by His words when He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." My mother told me that on my mission, I would see poverty like I'd never seen before. At first I thought "well it's not like I'm going to some third world country or anything, it's just Arkansas, it can't be that bad." But those words were 100% true. It does get pretty bad down here. The longer I serve among these people, the more I believe that God truly does love those afflicted by poverty. The Savior of the world himself was born in the humblest of circumstances. Elder Holland said: "From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus loved the impoverished and the disadvantaged in an extraordinary way. He was born into the home of two of them and grew up among many more of them. We don’t know all the details of His temporal life, but He once said, “Foxes have holes, and … birds … have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”2 Apparently the Creator of heaven and earth “and all things that in them are”3 was, at least in His adult life, homeless."

There more I learn about Jesus Christ, the more gratitude I have for who He is and what He has done. The more I serve Heavenly Father's children, the more I come to know Him and His Son. This Gospel is true. Christ is our Redeemer, and He lives! Have a wonderful week y'all!

Sorry no photos this week!
Elder Jonathan Spencer Smalley
Arkansas Little Rock Mission