Semana 28: Semana de Milagros and a Carwash!: 1/21/17

Hola everyone and Happy Saturday!

I totally forgot to tell all of you that I was going to be writing today instead of Monday in my last email so... Surprise! Today, we had our P day and we're not going to have a P day this next Monday.  We had our p day today because we had a zone activity, and we have the mission secretaries in our zone, and their p day is Saturday.  So to include all of the zone in the activity, our mission president let us have our P day today. 

We honestly didn't do anything too exciting for the activity, but it was still fun to have 2 p days in a week and spend the day with the whole zone.  For the activity, we went to Ciudad Colon, grilled some meat, and played some soccer and basketball (not an actual game of soccer or basketball though because that's not allowed in our mission).  I also got a nice tan/sunburn in case any of you were wondering (didn't wear my sunscreen, mom sorry).  

But anyways this week was really good! We had the semana de milagros for the month of January and it's always really fun to have higher goals and expectations for the week, even if we don't meet them.  This week, we didn't have quite as much success as usual but that's okay.  The missionaries in Ciudad Colon came to Pursical one day to help us contact an area we haven't worked in much yet called Barbacoas (think of Chipotle every time), and literally every person was super Catholic and didn't want to receive us... But... On Friday we had a Carwash!  The Carwash was in Escazu and was with the whole zone.  Basically the idea was, we washed their cars for free, and while they waited, we invited them to an open house of the Church.  It was actually a really good idea and more effective than our past zone activities for the semana de milagros.  We'll have to do it again in future semana de milagros. By the way, some guy came and wrote an article about the carwash so you should look it up even though it's in Spanish.  Supposedly you have to search for it on Facebook but it's called mundoescazu or something like that (there's a video with it too!) 

We also had a super cool experience with a new family that we are teaching.  In our last lesson the mom told us that she wanted to join a church, and then one week later, guess who showed up? Us! The missionaries! They already know people in the church and seem really interested and we placed baptismal dates with them for March 11 because they have to get married first. Super awesome experience!

Anyways I hope everyone has a great week this week and I'll write again in a week and a half!

Love,

Elder Smith

Pics: we ate pizza with some members that came with us to teach, me and Elder Lopez in Ciudad Colon at the University for the Peace, Car Wash!, and a video! (Elder Lopez and I were basically hitchhiking and then some guy let us hop in the back of his truck for the rest of the way) P.s. Videos take forever to download so that's why I don't send very many (plus I don't have very many)​

Semana 27: Go to Church!!: 1/16/17

Hola everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a great week this last week wherever you are in the world!  This week was a good one, but had a few more challenges than usual.  

To address my subject title, go to church everyone! We were expecting 10 or so investigators to come to church yesterday and only one of them showed up! We had visited many of them within the last two days and they all said they were going to go (obviously some of them were a little more half-heartened yes's than others but it was still a yes).  It was also a little sad because some of them had baptismal dates that fell (you have to go to church 3 times before you can get baptized here) but we're still hoping to have at least one baptism this month of January.  One cool thing that did happen at church though was that somebody came that we weren't expecting.  He's currently living with a family that are members of the church and he normally just drives them to church, but this week he actually attended! He liked it a bunch and said he felt something different than when he had assisted other churches (hint, hint... It's the HOLY GHOST).  So even though we didn't have too many investigators at church, we still were blessed with a miracle.  But everyone... Go to CHURCH! It's a commandment to keep the sabbath day holy! And the only way we're going to receive blessings is if we keep the commandments! Even if you don't attend this church (although I would strongly encourage it and prefer it if you did) keep the sabbath day holy! And all the commandments for that matter! 

Sorry for getting preachy haha but it's important! We'll have so much more joy and happiness in our lives and with our families if we'll simply keep the commandments.  Maybe it's not always what we'd prefer to do, but I promise we'll be happier in the end if we make the effort even when we don't feel like it.  Other than that, nothing too crazy happened.  I'm still quiet for the most part (in case you were wondering) but I only have 3 more weeks until Elder Navas goes home so I have 3 weeks to become loud/not shy haha.  So... that's what I'm working on right now more than anything and I'll be sure to keep you updated haha. 

But anyways, I love and miss you all and I hope everyone has a great week this week! Especially those in Lake Oswego with the snow! I'm a little jealous but the weather here is pretty nice :)

Love,

Elder Smith

Pic: Elder Navas and I with Moises (our investigator we're hoping to baptize this month) and Erick and Gerald (Moises has the long hair and the american eagle shirt) 

Semana 26: 6 month mark!: 1/9/17

Hola everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week this week! This week I officially hit my 6 month mark in the mission! I still have 18 more months to go (I´ll be going home with the sister missionaries that just entered the MTC) but it´s honestly crazy how fast the time goes by when you stay focused and are working hard.  It doesn´t feel like I´ve been gone for that long at all. I´m super excited for what lies ahead for me in the rest of my mission, especially now that I can understand most of what people are saying to me haha (still wouldn´t consider myself fluent by any means yet though).  I´m super excited to be able to participate in the lessons more, have more responsibilities, communicate with the people, and see how I can better help and serve them.  

I don´t have a ton of things to report on this week, but we did have a few pretty cool experiences that I want to share.  First, every day we try to have at least 15 contacts (talk to 15 new people and invite them to listen to our message/go to church/etc.).  My companion is really pressuring me to talk more and break out of my shell to help me grow so he´s leaving me in charge of initiating all of the contacts.  Not surprisingly, we didn´t have a ton of contacts this week haha.  BUT... sometimes the people come up to talk to you if you´re lucky enough.  We were walking to go eat lunch one day and a lady that we passed stopped us in the street and asked us what church we were from and that she wanted to visit it this Sunday! And she came! She seems super interested and she liked church so I´m excited to see what happens with her next.  

We also had 10 investigators at church on Sunday!! It was 10 among all four missionaries that were in Puriscal, but I was technically the one who helped find all 10 of them (we gave some of our investigators to the hermanas when they came) so that was super cool to see! 

Other than that, nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week but it was still a super great week! I´m loving the mission and I´m super grateful to be in Costa Rica and serving the people here. It has it´s challenges at times, but it´s all a part of the process and I´m super grateful for this opportunity that I have to grow in my testimony of this gospel, while also helping others grow in their testimonies at the same time.

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

Elder Smith

pics: A family home evening that we had with investigators, recent converts, and our mission leader; the Puriscal missionaries with Marta at church on Sunday  

Semana 25: Happy New Year!!!: 1/2/17

Hola y Feliz Año!!! 

I can´t believe it´s already 2017!  I complete 6 months in the mission this month on the 13th and I can´t believe how fast the time is passing.  I can now officially say that I go home next year (even though it´s still 18 months away haha).  

This week was a really good one! It´s super different but super fun to have four missionaries in Puriscal.  In the area it´s me and Elder Navas, and two sister missionaries (Hermana Allen from Texas, and Hermana Henao from Colombia).  All of them have more than a year in the mission so I´m still the newbie technically.  We spent practically the whole week working together and teaching the area to the Hermanas. We weren´t able to visit quite as many people as usual this week, but I think it was effective and this week will be really great as well.  Puriscal is huge (I still haven´t visited all parts of it in my 4 months here), but with the Hermanas, we´ll start to be able to visit new areas and hopefully find a lot of new, great people to teach.  

Right now, we´re preparing two people for baptism (one of them we technically gave to the Hermanas to teach) and they both came to church this week for the first time!  Moisés is 16 years old and he´s awesome.  His whole family is really great, but his mom (who came to church yesterday as well) is moving to Minnesota this week with her fiance who´s from there.  He doesn´t move to Minnesota until April or May and so we´ll be able to continue to teach him and his mom practically told us to baptize him yesterday.  Our other investigator preparing for baptism is named Yaosca.  She´s super great as well but actually didn't want anything to do with us when we first met her.  We originally were teaching her sister, but now she doesn´t want anything but Yaosca does now haha.  

We´re also starting to teach a 16 year old exchange student from Switzerland who is Atheist which is new and really different for me.  Basically everyone here is really involved in some sort of religion (usually Catholic) and believes in God and Jesus Christ; it´s just part of the culture here.  She´s super great and interested and has lots of questions, but it´s a whole different ballgame trying to teach someone who doesn't believe in God.  

I´m so grateful that I know I have a Father in Heaven who loves me, and loves me so much that He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for me so that I can live with Him again someday.  I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve Him for these 2 years of my life and help others obtain this knowledge as well.  

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Smith

P.s. Sorry I didn't take any pics this week :/  Maybe I should make it one of my new year's resolutions...