Semana 19: Baby it's cold outside: 11/21/16

Hola everyone! Or as the Tico's say, "¡Pura Vida!"

I hope everyone had a great week last week!  Everything here in Costa Rica is going great.  The only thing is... It´s cold!  Summer is supposedly starting, but that means it's hot during the day, and really windy and cold during the night.  Now when I say cold, it's probably only in the high 50's at the very minimum, if that.  I think I've just gotten used to the warmer weather so I'm not used to the cold yet.  I've refused to pull out my sweater just yet because of my Oregon pride/grew up in a cold climate attitude but we'll see if I give in this week.  My current companion just came from Guanacaste/Liberia (a super hot part of Costa Rica) so he's been freezing haha.  

Apart from the cold, this week has been a pretty good week!  To be honest, nothing too noteworthy or crazy happened but it was still a good week overall.  My new companion is great!  He's a convert to the church and is super humble, and hard-working and is super good about finding each person's need and then having a scripture to share with them to help them.  Basically this is how the week went: I know the area and the people (more or less), but he can go in and get to know the people better in one lesson than I have in 12 weeks haha.  Granted he can speak Spanish fluently and has more time in the mission than me, but it's still impressive to me.  It kind of feels like I'm in training still, I just have one hour less of study time in the morning.  It's going good though and I think I'll grow a lot as a missionary these next 5 weeks.  At least I hope haha. There's a promise that if you read the Book of Mormon in a different language, you'll be able to speak that language.  I'm going to finish it before Christmas so we'll see if I'll be able to speak some Spanish by then.  

This week, I also gave a talk at Church.  I wasn't that nervous to be honest, but then again I don't think the expectations were too high because it was in Spanish haha.  I had an open topic but I gave my talk on the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it's the keystone to our religion.  If people can just read it, ponder it, and pray about it, they can come to know of its truthfulness and receive the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There's only two options: it's either the truth or a lie.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that we can come closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through reading it.  The Bible is just as important, but the only way we can come to know that the church is true, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc. is through reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it.

I love and miss you all and hope you all have a great week this week and a Happy Thanksgiving!  Christmas has been in full effect here since October haha. 

Love,

Elder Smith

P.s. Sorry no pictures this week :(

Semana 18: Finally a regular, old missionary: 11/14/16

Hola everyone! Happy Monday!

I have officially finished my training as a missionary after 18 long weeks haha!  It honestly doesn't feel like that long but it feels good to have finally reached this point in my mission.  Everyone says that this is the point when the mission really starts to go by fast.  Also... Hopefully I should have Spanish pretty much down after 6 more weeks I believe, so that will be nice haha.  I feel like that's when the mission will really start to go by fast.  

But, today we had transfers... I am staying here in Pursical for at least 6 more weeks (spending Christmas here!) but I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Cunal, he has 11 months in the mission, and is from Mexico.  Haven't talked to him a ton yet because we just met each other this morning, but he seems like a really nice, hard-working guy so we should get along great together.  It was sad to say goodbye to my last companion (my dad), but I'm looking forward to the future and being the only one that knows my area at the moment.  It will be more difficult for sure, but I also know this is a great opportunity for me to really start to grow and improve as a missionary.  

This week was good though!  It definitely had it's tough moments, but one day really made up for the rest.  This was Elder Batres and I's last week together, and I had realized that we still hadn't really fasted as a companionship apart from Fast Sundays.  Since we hadn't had a ton of success lately, I thought it would be good idea to try it out.  That day we ended up having 2 super great lessons.  One with a family of four (which the parents are getting married Dec. 10) and the other was a lady that we had met with once before. All 5 of them accepted dates for baptism for December!  I have come to learn though that just because people accept dates for baptism, it doesn't mean they will get baptized for sure.  However, I feel really good about these people and the Spirit was super strong during both lessons.  The most amazing thing for me though about this day though was just seeing the faith and righteous desires that these people have.  As missionaries, our primary purpose is to help people come closer to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  To watch people do this is amazing to me and one of my favorite parts of the mission.  It's not always an easy path to follow the Savior, but if we do follow Him, we will be eternally blessed and feel more happiness, joy, and peace than we can feel in any other shape or form.  

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: made a new friend, the sky was super cool one day, we got Christmas gifts from a member of the branch before Elder Batres left, a recent convert family that got married and baptized a few days before I got to Costa Rica, saying goodbye to Elder Batres today

Semana 17: 2 Gringos Alone in Costa Rica

Hola everyone! Happy Monday!

This week had it's good moments and hard moments as usual, but that's the mission and I love it! 

Referring to my subject title... Me and Elder Millward had splits together this week!  For anyone that doesn't know what that means, missionaries sometimes change companions for the day.  Me and Elder Millward were together this week for the first time and it was awesome!  I was honestly a little nervous about it to start off because neither one of us can speak Spanish fluently yet, but it actually went pretty well.  The coolest part for us though was just realizing that 11 weeks ago we were companions in the MTC, but that day, we were back together again preaching the gospel in Costa Rica.  We're also starting to have English classes once a week to try to find new people to teach.  Me and Elder Millward were together for the first class and it was actually harder than it sounds haha.  

I also had splits the day before that with one of the zone leaders.  His name is Elder Dunyon and he is from Arizona and goes home next week.  It was a super great experience for me as well and I learned a ton and hope I end up becoming as good a missionary as him one day.  

Apart from those days, the rest of the week was pretty tough for me.  This is my last week of training and I just felt really nervous for what lies ahead for me.  I felt like I hadn't progressed much with the language and that we hadn't had much success still.  I was feeling pretty down but then my companion Elder Batres talked to me and shared a scripture with me that really helped.  It's in Ether 12:27 in the Book of Mormon and it says, "And if men come unto me I will show them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

This scripture helped me a ton this week because we all have weaknesses, but that doesn't mean they have to remain weaknesses.  I know the language and success will come with time, I just need to be patient and continue to have faith, and eventually it will come.  

I love and miss you all and hope everyone has a great week this week!  Thank you for all of your emails and love and support!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: Pupusas! (a common meal from El Salvador), Halloween! (thanks to the best mom ever for the package), Cerbatana (one of our areas that is literally in a cloud in the afternoon/night), a hike that we did today!, supposedly the ocean is in this pic but it was still super far away

Semana 16: Mormon Wedding Crashers: 10/31/16

Hola everyone and Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great week this week!  This week in Costa Rica had its ups and downs but I also had some super cool experiences. 

First off, to refer to my title, I went to a wedding this week!! Last Sunday we had a new couple come to church for the first time who Elder Batres and I had never met before.  They had a good experience at church and they invited us to their wedding on Saturday.  It honestly was pretty weird because we didn't really know them (or anyone else at the wedding) but a wedding is a wedding.  

Also this week we had some experiences where I totally felt that we were put in the right place at the right time. Since I don't have a ton of time, I'll share the coolest one.  First, this week we have had 4 different refrigerators... We keep getting new ones but they end up not working.  We ended up having to throw away a lot of our food because of it as well.  But anyways, while we were switching out fridges, we started talking to this one guy who we assume is our neighbor.  He was super friendly (and could speak English) but we didn't really think much of it.  Then, later in the day, we were walking in a completely different part of our area, and who passes us on his motorcycle? This same guy who we had talked to earlier.  He invited us to come to his house to teach him/talk to him.  When we got there, we found out that he's a member but isn't active anymore.  We didn't really have time to find out why because all of the sudden we hear someone crying and it sounds like they're in a lot of pain.  It turns out his wife had given birth recently and was in a lot of pain from the birth still.  We were able to give his wife a blessing and she was still in pain afterwards but was definitely a lot more calm and not crying while they waited for an ambulance.  It was super cool to have that experience and realize that if we hadn't met with him earlier that day, we never would have been able to give his wife a blessing.  

Other than that this week was good but not too eventful.  I hope everyone has a great week this week and has a great Halloween!  Everyone enjoy a scary movie, corn maze, or candy for me!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: wedding, pics of our apartment (sorry I don't have any other pics from this week)