Semana 11: Patience is a Virtue: 9/26/16

Hola everyone!

This week I completed a month in the mission field and it was so great!  We had our month check with our mission president, President Laboriel, and it was an awesome day.  The temple is about an hour/ hour and a half away from my area, so we went to stay at one of the secretaries´ house the night before because we had to be up and ready to go at 5 am... I still don't know how I get up so early sometimes but I've been pretty good so far.  All of the other elders did the same thing so it was super fun to see all of my friends from the MTC and see how they're doing and hear about their experiences.  We then went to the temple and it was so great to be there and feel of the Spirit that is always there. Everything was in Spanish so I couldn't understand much, but luckily you can feel the Spirit in any language.  The temple is one of the smaller temples in the world I think but I loved it.  We then went to the mission president's house for lunch and interviews which was super great too.  President Laboriel really helped us feel at ease about everything and taught us a lot of really helpful things.  I love my mission president, even though I'm still a little intimidated by him sometimes haha.  The mission home is super nice!  Every person got a hamburger, fried chicken, and pizza (Pricesmart/Costco) pizza!  

Other than that, this week was pretty rough haha (hence the patience is a virtue title).  Every day this week, pretty much, we had little to no success and it was super discouraging.  It seemed like no one wanted to talk to us or listen to our message and we just didn't understand or know what to do.  The mission goal is to have 5 baptisms a month (I think it changed to 3 right before I got here) but we didn't have any this month.  We've had people commit to dates, but then the dates would always fall.  We were feeling pretty down, but I think it helped us to be better missionaries because it helped us to find things we weren't doing, or weren't doing consistently to help our investigators. Now we are a lot more focused I think and hopefully this week goes a lot better.  

Yesterday was the beginning to this better week.  We were busy all day and had one super great lesson in particular.  It was probably one of the best, if not the best, lesson I've experienced in the mission so far.  It was the daughter of one of our investigators and we had never met her before.  We didn't teach her all that much, but we listened to her questions and comments and bore our testimonies to her and the Spirit was super strong! It was so cool to see the Spirit working through us to her and see her open up more and more as the lesson went on.  It was only the first lesson but I really hope we can continue to teach her in the future.

I hope everyone has a great week this week!  Don't forget to watch General Conference this weekend and hear from the prophet and apostles!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: Me and my companion in front of the temple, me and Elder Millward, Me and Elder Millward and Hermana Hansen (some of our district from the MTC) and her companion, Me Elder Millward and Elder Clark, and a pic from my hike (not really a hike but it was still fun) today!

Semana 10: Semana de Milagros! 9/19/16

Hola everyone!

Another week in beautiful Costa Rica!  So many things happened this week! This week I will complete 1 month in the mission field!  After your first month in the mission field you have an interview with your mission president so that means on Thursday I get to go do that in San Jose along with all the other missionaries that I came in with which will be super great to see again!  We also get to go to the temple which I´m super excited about as well.

This week was the semana de milagros (week of miracles/miracle week) in our mission.  Every month apparently in our mission, we have this one week called the semana de milagros.  During this week we do different things than normal to try to find new people to teach and introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We get to do it as a zone and district so that meant I did a lot of traveling this week.  On Monday (p day), we went to Escazu to plan for our zone activity the next day.  Then on Tuesday we went to Escazu for the activity. Wednesday was in Ciudad Colon (the closest area to us but still about 40 minutes away), and then Thursday was supposed to be in Puriscal (our area) but the 15th of September is independence day here in Costa Rica so we were not allowed to leave our houses until 3 in the afternoon.  Independence day here was kind of sad compared to the states.  Once I got outside you couldn't even tell it was different than any other day.  Apparently they have all of their celebrations in the morning.  And then on Friday, we were in Escazu again... We also had to go to Escazu on Sunday for some stake (larger area) meeting where all the missionaries in that stake and the leaders of each ward (smaller area) had to go to.  Anyways, every day of the semana de milagros has a different theme.  For example, Tuesday was the Book of Mormon.  For our activity we each took a different part of the Book of Mormon story to tell and then tried to find people in the park to come and listen to it haha.  It was really fun working with all the other missionaries and see how they teach and interact with people. 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week.  Me and Elder Batres are trying really hard to help our investigators progress.  We have lots of people to visit and teach but they just aren't progressing.  It's really hard sometimes to know that the message you're teaching is true and can bless these people's lives so much, but they just don't get it or want to hear anything more after the first visit. I wish I could speak more to help them see this but I have faith our investigators will start to progress very soon as long as we continue to work hard to help them. 

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

P.s. A volcano erupted here today apparently haha... I couldn't see it but there was ash here in Puriscal.  

Pics: Me and Elder Batres during the semana de milagros, me and our investigator Mario, a typical meal here (I always forgot to say that i love the food! There's always beans and rice and the occasional questionable meat, but it pretty much tastes like a Chipotle bowl minus the salsa and sour cream), it down poured one day and I left my umbrella at an investigators house so I got drenched but i embraced it, we got something called copo today that pretty much tastes like shave ice and therefore was amazing (also I got a haircut)

Semana 9: NO TIME: 9/12/16

Hola everyone!

I can´t believe it has been 9 weeks (2 months) that I have been in the mission field.  It feels like it has flown by but at the same time it feels like it has been forever.  

I only have 10 minutes to write this because we had to go to Escazu (San Jose) which is about an hour and a half away depending, and this time on the way back, there was construction in the road or something, so we got back with 30 minutes to email.  It kills me that i can´t read and reply to any of your emails this week.  So try not to send me any next week so I can catch up and read them all. 

This week was pretty good but it had its challenges as well as usual.  There was a little bit of contention between me and my companion this week but we got past it and I feel really good about our companionship now.  We get along really well, just sometimes my companion gets really stressed out because this is the first time he is training and a district leader, and they´re both at the same time.  I thought he was mad at me or something so that´s why there was contention.  The language barrier can be hard at times but I am understanding more and more and am starting to talk more and more in lessons.  

This week i taught Sunday school to the recent converts to the church and it acutally went really well.  People here love to talk!  I pretty much asked one question and then had to try to get control back over the room because everyone wanted to talk haha.  I also saw my first Costa Rican wildlife this week!  I saw 2 parrots in the palm trees on the church´s property.  The only wildlife i have seen besides that is dogs.  There are dogs everywhere!  I´m pretty sure most of them have owners but a lot don´t too.  

Also, we take buses and taxis everyday.  Besides the money for food and rent, thats all i spend my money on.  I found out our area of Puriscal is huge.  Apparently we can see the ocean at one part but Elder Batres can{t remember where it is, so we´ll have to find that at some point.  We've only taught and contacted on the cities around Puriscal because it´s generally pretty hard for people to get transport.  I didn't really realize it until this week, but the majority of people here are really poor.  You wouldn't really be able to guess just by looking because pretty much everyone has a home with everything you need. I{ve only taught one investigator that has a dirt floor.  Everyone has tin roofs though pretty much which makes it almost impossible for me to here and understand what the people are saying sometimes.  

Sorry if this email is a little bit jumbled but I wanted to try to get as much as i could in with the time that i had.  I'm loving my mission more and more everyday and can't wait for the point when i can speak and understand Spanish completely haha.  I love you all and appreciate all of your love and support.  I hope everyone has a great week this week and hopefully next week i{ll have the full hour and half i'm supposed to have to email. 

Love,

Elder Smith

Semana 8: It's rainy season!: 9/5/16

Hola everyone!

It´s hard to believe I've been in Costa Rica for 2 weeks already.  It´s not necessarily going fast yet but it´s not going slow either.  It still hasn´t quite hit me that I´m in a completely different country.  In advance, I´m sorry but this email will be short.  We got to the computers late so I only have 10 minutes to write this.  I really wish I had time to read and reply to all your emails and tell you about everything that I have been doing.  Next week for sure, hopefully. 

Anyways... The rain!!! I thought I knew rain coming from Oregon, but I do not.  Every day pretty much it´s super nice and clear and sunny in the morning (when we´re inside doing our studies) and then the afternoon and nights are always a downpour!!! I don´t have a big umbrella so I pretty much use my rain jacket to cover my backpack and my umbrella to cover my head haha.  It makes it really hard to work and find people sometimes but it´s an adventure.  

Spanish is still really hard haha.  The first week was "deer in the headlights" to the max.  The MTC was nothing compared to the field haha.  Every day get´s a little bit easier though and I´m feeling a little bit more adjusted to everything.  It´s hard not being able to communicate well with the people but I am coming to terms with it and I know eventually I will be able to communicate with them.  I just need to be patient and do what I can for now.  

I wish I could tell you about the people more.  Everyone is super nice and friendly and relaxed.  I´ve hardly met anyone that was flat out rude to us.  A lot of people don´t let us teach them, but we still have a lot that do.  The coolest thing for me is finding someone that is willing to let us talk to them and teach them without hardly any introduction.  It is such a cool experience to talk religion with them and try to help them in their lives, which is why we´re here on missions.  

Every day has its challenges but I´m getting more used to it and Costa Rica is beautiful even though I don´t always get to see it where I´m at.  I love and miss you all and hope you have a great week this week and I'll try to tell you more and answer more questions next week!

¡Pura Vida!

Elder Smith

P.S. Sorry about the pic last week but I´m not sure how to send it so every one can see it.

Pictures!: My last meal in America for 2 years (Qdoba!), an old church in Puriscal that I live really close to, it´s super cloudy/foggy every afternoon too, they have soccer fields everywhere (we´re not allowed to play soccer or basketball here), a view from a lady´s house that feeds us every Saturday and does our laundry, me and my companion with a very subtle sunset (sorry for the selfie), we made pupusas twice this week (a common food from El Salvador that my companion knows how to make), we went to a store today called Pricesmart to get food for the month and it is literally Costco (had to get a picture with my pizza and berry smoothie)​