Semana 15: Semana de Milagros Round 2: 10/24/16

Hola everyone!

This week was the semana de milagros for October and it was great, although very tiring.  I had to wake up at 4:30 3 days in a row to travel to different parts of our zone but it was totally worth it.  On Wednesday, we had our activity as a zone in a park in Escazu.  It was very similar to our last semana de milagros except for this time the theme was the Plan of Salvation (God's plan for each one of his children on the Earth to return to live with Him again).  My job this time around was to contact people in the park to come listen to our presentation/activity.  It's scary sometimes just going up to random people and trying to talk to them about religion but super cool at the same time.  I was able to contact a few people by myself and they actually could understand me and agreed to come listen to the presentation/activity haha.  It was super cool for me to see how far I've come since our last semana de milagros.  

Also this week we received 2 new references (people interested in hearing more about the church) from the church.  They both seem super great and one of the references is a couple that wants to get married.  They came to church yesterday and they liked it!  We're going to start teaching them and we found out today that they're getting married on Saturday and we're invited!  Super cool experience and a miracle for sure.  

Lastly, I started to read the Book of Mormon the second week of my mission and just finished it this week.  I have read the Book of Mormon a few times before, but this time was significantly more meaningful to me.  I have never enjoyed reading a book more and I know now more than ever that the Book of Mormon is true and the word of God along with the Bible.  I read the Book of Mormon looking for the Characteristics of Christ and I was able to find at least one characteristic on every page.  I invite all of you to do the same because it truly was an amazing experience for me and brought me closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Something that has really stuck out to me so far in the mission is the power of faith and prayer.  It is so important to always have faith and exercise this faith daily.  Life isn't always easy, but we always have our Father in Heaven to turn to for love, support, and comfort.  

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

Love,

Elder Smith

P.s. I found flamin hot cheetos this week!!! It has doritos and sun chips and pretzels in the bag as well but I'll take what I can get haha.  I know you all were super worried about me not having flamin hot cheetos in my life so you can all rest easy at night now 

Pics: Me and Elder Batres during semana de milagros, Our zone activity, a cool view from one part of our area, a really cool sunset/sky one day, and a view of the city center of Puriscal

Semana 14: I can speak Spanish! Kind of...: 10/17/16

Hola everyone!

This was a great week here in Costa Rica!  Why?? I could actually understand and speak Spanish better!  I'm definitely not fluent still by any means, but there were times when I could understand almost everything the people were saying and could respond with pretty good Spanish, if I do say so myself.  The gift of tongues is real and amazing!

Another cool thing this week.  We committed 6 new people to baptism!! One of them is a family that was a reference from a member in our ward.  The mom and dad want to get married and were wondering if they could get married in our church building because the church they want to get married in won't let them for some reason.  We've only had one lesson with them so far but they are all super great.  We've also had like 3 people in the last week just come up to us and ask if we could teach them haha.  We are always so taken aback when that happens and don't know what to say haha.  

Also this week I got to go on splits with the zone leaders!  Half our zone are Americans now so I have some more people to talk in English with. Yay!  The zone leader I was with for the day is named Elder Mitchell and he is from Arizona.  He actually has family from Lake Oswego though!! Super small world.  He's related to Ashley and Audrey Buchanan from the Lakeridge ward! He was really great and it was nice to be able to learn from him and ask him questions and everything.  

Other than that this week wasn't too exciting but it was great.  At one point we helped a member pick fruit from their trees.  He had 3 different types of lemon trees and gave us a ton to try.  We also helped him chase down either a huge chicken or rooster that had escaped the chicken coop.  Sorry if this email was a little bit jumbled but I didn't have too much time.  I love my mission and the opportunity I have to share the gospel of Jesus Christ while at the same time grow as an individual and come closer to my Savior and Father in Heaven.  

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Smith

P.s. Didn't take any pics this week sorry!  Will send more next week!

Semana 13: Insert Creative Title Here: 10/10/16

Hola everyone!

Another week here in beautful Costa Rica!

I don't have a ton of time to write this, but this week was a huge improvement from last week mission work wise.  One of our investigators, Mario, committed to be baptized on the 22nd of this month!!  I'm so excited for him, especially since he has been an investigator for about a year I think. He has had some struggles in his life, but I know this baptism will be such a huge blessing to him in his life.  We also contacted some new areas this week and almost every single person let us in to talk to them!  It was so great and I think we will be able to find success with these areas.  

Also this week we got to do some service for one of our investigators.  Our job was to clear this ivy stuff from this hillside by their house and what was our gardening tool? A machete haha!  It was so awesome and just a little bit different than doing yard work at home haha. 

Other than that I can't think of anything else too exciting that happened this week.  It was a great week overall and I'm so excited for this week and hopefully me and Elder Batres can really get the working going here again.  The language is still really tough, but I know I will get it eventually. Elder Batres is pushing me to participate in the lessons more, whether I like it or not haha.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people here in Costa Rica.  It is amazing to watch people grow closer to their Savior and come unto Him.  The mission is hard sometimes but it has been such a blessing in these 3 short months that I have been here.

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: Me trying (and failing) to look intimidating with my machete, a more normal picture with me and my machete, me and Elder Batres with our machetes, got to make macaroni (my favorite), and I found a crepe shop that is right next to where I live!

Semana 12: General Conference Weekend is the Best Weekend: 10/3/16

Hola everyone!

I am officially half-way through my training here in Costa Rica!  Today was my first transfer day in the mission and I'm staying in Puriscal with Elder Batres but this is most likely our last transfer together.  Even though so much has happened these last 6 weeks and it sometimes seems like time isn't passing very fast, I can't believe I've been here 6 weeks already.  

This week honestly was pretty uneventful as far as teaching goes.  It seems like we have a lot of people to visit each day, but none of them are progressing very well which is really sad.  It's great talking to them and teaching them, but I'm not sure they are following through with their commitments such as praying or reading the Book of Mormon/ pamphlets we give them. It's frustrating sometimes because we know doing those things will bless/change their lives so much, but they can't see that until they actually do it themselves.  But we just need to figure out what we can do better as missionaries/teachers to help them keep their commitments and come unto Christ.  

This week we had a multi-zone conference and it was with about half the mission, which there are 132 missionaries in our mission right now I believe.  It was super great to see other missionaries that have been here awhile and see the kind of missionary I want to be like.  We also had general conference this past weekend and it was great!  We are so lucky to have  a prophet and apostles and other church leaders on the earth and listen to them speak twice a year! It was all in Spanish so I couldn't understand hardly anything which was really sad, but what I could understand I liked a ton.  One member let me listen to like half the Sunday morning session in English on his phone which was super nice.  My favorite talk probably was from M. Russell Ballard during the Sunday morning session (one of the few talks I could listen to in English).  He talked a lot about having faith in Christ. It's not always easy being a member of this church and we may sometimes have questions or doubts, but it's important to always remember that the answers are always there, we just need to have the faith and desire to sincerely search, ponder, and pray for them. I also loved listening to the missionary choir during the Saturday afternoon session.  They sang "I'll go where you want me to go" which is my favorite song ever and always helps me to feel the Spirit.  

I hope everyone has a great week this week! Watch general conference online if you missed it!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: soccer field in a super cool part of our area, me and Elder Batres wearing our Costa Rica soccer team shirts, me and my trainer, Elder Batres, and him with his trainer at the Multi-zone conference