Semana 101: The Last Email... : 6/18/18

Hello!

Well everyone, this is it.  My last email as a full-time missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I technically have one more "P-day" in the mission before heading home but I will spend it visitng my old areas and converts and members.  I will be getting back home next Wednesday, June 27th. How very bittersweet it is...

I have loved every single minute of this 2 year adventure that the Lord has so generously allowed me to particpate in. I have learned so much. A lot of joy. A bit of sorrow. But full of experiences that I will never ever forget for the rest of my life.  I have come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ and His Atonement more in these last 2 years than I did the first 19 years of my life.  I have loved being His representative and think that it´s the most amazing opportunity that one can experience here on the Earth.  If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would without thinking about it twice. It was hard to adjust to the mission but I think it will be even harder to adjust back.  I don't know how to sum it all up, but I love being a missionary and I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ.  I know that this Church is true and I´ve witnessed first hand how important it is and how it changes our lives.  This is the most important work we can ever do here on the Earth and I hope I can continue on this journey, even if it´s not full-time anymore, and bring all souls unto Christ.  I think one of my dad´s favorite scriptures sums it up best in Alma 29 in the Book of Mormon...

1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! 2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. 9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. 

I hope I have been able to be a worthy instrument of the Lord in these 2 years and I hope to continue to be a worthy servant and instrument of Him in the years that follow so that men might have joy and life eternal.  I love this gospel and I´m so grateful for it.  I love and miss you all and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Love,

Elder Smith

P.s. We had semana de milagros this week and it was super great! We had different activities in the church every single night!

Pics: you know you have a lot of time in the mission when this happens to your shoes, gallo pinto (the most delicious food in Costa Rica), Costa Rica, cooking for culture night, contacting with the zone, culture night!

Semana 100: How did 100 weeks pass already?: 6/11/18

Hello everyone!

It´s hard to believe, but I´ve written 100 of these things already... They´re not the best letters sometimes but thanks to those of you who actually read these things haha.

This week was a good one! I had my last interview with my mission president and my last zone conference in the mission.  I had both on the same day and they both went really well! I´m going to be finishing the same day as my mission president so the whole mission is about to have a ton of changes, but I won't be here to see them.  We just found out that they changed the mission president who was going to come to replace our current mission president. Another Hondureño was going to come, but they just informed us that it will be a Brazileño now.  It´s weird to think that the mission will have a new mission president, but I´m excited for the missionaries that will stay and see how the mission changes.  

Well, we were able to find a lot of great people this week, the only problem is that none of them came to church this Sunday haha.  The Lord has been testing my faith and patience all throughout my mission, but it´s been particularly difficult these last few weeks.  However, we still had 4 investigators  come to church that were pure miracles! We had one investigator come (who doesn't want to get baptized, even though all of her kids already have been baptized) and she brought a friend that does want to get baptized! So that was a miracle! And then we visit this place every Sunday called Hogar Crea (a rehabilitation center for people with addictions) that is super awesome and full of men that want to change their lives.  We had a recent convert come with 2 other residents from the home and one of them is particularly awesome.  We went to visit them after church and he wants to get baptized as soon as humanly possible.  He´s only 19 years old and entered himself into the center just about 10 days ago, but has never been baptized before and wants to be really badly.  The only problem is that they can only go to church every other Sunday and people can only get baptized and confirmed after their 3rd attendance at church.  So I won't be there for the baptism sadly but I know without a doubt he´ll get baptized.  

Something that really stood out to me and my companion this week was something that my best friends Elder Millward and Elder Larson told us last Monday.  We were talking about faith and we talked about the scripture that says, "faith without works is dead". But then the part that really stood out to me was when they said, "works without faith is deader".  I really liked that and it helped me out a lot this last week as we were working.  It´s really important to have works to demonstrate our faith to the Lord, but if we don't have faith in the works we´re doing, we can't expect to see much success in the things we´re doing.  For example, the Lord wants us to be obedient to His commandments, but if we don't truly believe that being obedient will help us return to Him, why are we going to follow the commandments then? Or if the Lord wants me to find people to help, but I don't believe that I can find those people, why am I working so hard to find them? We need to have works but we also need to have faith in those works or nothing will happen.  

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: Walking in the jungle again, another shot from the jungle, a member´s car ran out of gas, yesterday at church

Semana 99: The Last Testimony: 6/4/18

Hello everyone!

Another week in the books.  

This week was really great and the highlight was going to my last leadership council. It was really bittersweet because there are a lot of us going home (including my mission president and his wife) but it was an experience that I´ll never forget.  I got to bear my last testimony to everyone there and it was really emotional but I could feel the Spirit and I´m so grateful for all that I could learn and experience.  But it´s not the end!!! I still got 3 weeks to go so I´ll share more on that later...

Well besides the leadership council, this week was actually pretty tough for my companion and I here in our area.  We´ve had to drop lots of investigators in these last few weeks, including our investigator, Yemelin who I´ve been writing to you all about these last few weeks.  She was going to get baptized here soon, but we went by to visit her on Saturday and she barely even payed any attention to us.  It turns out that she had been talking to her neighbors (there are tons of small churches all around her neighborhood) and they told her a bunch of lies about the church, the Book of Mormon, and other stuff like that.  She now doesn't want to receive us anymore and we couldn't help but feel a little discouraged after talking to her.  We did all that we could to testify to her of the truthfulness of the gospel, but she just rejected us and closed her heart to the spirit.  We don't have too many investigators to work with currently, but there´s just one thing to do: move on and trust in the Lord.  

Our mission president actually helped prepare us for this experience because his training focused on success as a missionary and how we should act after people reject us.  We obviously can't help but feel sad that people that we love and that have received confirmations of the spirit that the gospel is true reject the gospel.  But we cannot become discouraged and stop believing in ourselves or the Lord.  We cannot be weak or lose enthusiasm.  We need to move forward, be positive, be strong, forget ourselves, and put our trust in the Lord.  This can apply to anything in our lives.  We inevitably will have tough days from time to time, but we cannot let ourselves become discouraged or lose faith or we´ll never get out of the rut we have fallen into.  Satan wants us to be discouraged. Don't let him win.  Trust in the Lord and be happy.  The Lord will always help us if we allow him to. I invite you all to remember that!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith 

Pics: 12 of the 18 missionaries that are going home this transfer (plus President and Hermana Laboriel), Barrio La Cruz, MTC buddy and I at the leadership council, we´re getting soaked in the rain all day every day, 5 1/2 hour bus ride back to Guanacaste after the leadership council

Semana 98: Semana de Milagros -> Hawaii Trip Round 2: 5/28/18

Hello everyone!

This week we had semana de milagros again and it went great!

The activities included: Tuesday we had a "Hunger Games".  Basically what we did is we worked in our areas, but every 2 hours you would have a few different tasks to complete or you would get kicked out of the competition.  Some examples of the tasks were... contact 3 blue houses, sing "praise to the man" in a lesson, and contact 2 families. On Wednesday we walked around all of Liberia as a zone singing to all of the progressing investigators in the zone! On Thursday we planned a bunch of family home evenings to do throughout the day.  And on Friday we had "viaje a Hawaii"! I don't know if you all remember, but a few months ago in my last zone we did this activity where we decorated the church building like Hawaii but the idea is to teach the people about the plan of salvation aka the plan that God has for all of His children here on the earth. 

Everything is going super great here in Guanacaste even though it´s raining every single day now haha.  I refuse to buy an umbrella because I´m not going to take it home and I just haven't accepted that it rains in this part of Costa Rica.  We´re looking for new investigators right now, but we do have one really awesome lady that is progressing super quickly.  I mentioned her last week, her name is Yemeling.  She tries to memorize the pamphlets that we give her, and she told us this week that as she was reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon this week, she just heard a voice whispering in her ear, "yes, yes".

I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it truly blesses our lives in these last days.  I invite you all this week to start reading every single day if you aren't currently doing it.  My favorite experience this week was just watching Yemeling´s face light up as she started reading it :)

I love and miss you all and hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: Viaje a Hawaii with part of the zone (it was Elder Longi´s birthday so we did the Haka and ate cake), Oregonians!, we were angels for a day, walking with the zone, exchanges with Elder Solis, outside of our investigator´s house