Semana 37: New People, New Problems...: 3/27/17

Hello everyone! Happy Monday!

This week a lot of great things happened, but we have a "little" problem with one of our new investigators.  Remember that family of 7 that we found the other week? Well 3 of them came to church this Sunday!! I was SO happy to see them because the other family that we have been teaching couldn't come to church this week.  Anyways, everything was going super great at church and it seemed like they were enjoying it (they stayed for all 3 hours!).  BUT, then i was talking to Eduardo (the one in the family that i feel like has the most potential) and he told me some info that pretty much confirms that he can't be baptized... I won't go into details but to get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ, you have to meet some requirements (basically just keep the commandments).  I didn't get the whole story so we'll see what happens and if we can find a solution, but he is super great and if it was't for this "little" problem, I know he would get baptized.  I've never had this problem with an investigator before though so I'm excited for the new challenge at least haha.

This week we also had the opportunity to have interviews with President Laboriel, our mission president! I hadn't had an interview with him since my training days so it was super great to get to talk to him one on one for a little bit and get his advice and counsels for me.  He is super loving and great and said some really nice things about me and that this next transfer he's going to have an "assignment" for me so we'll see what that is! But he said that I need to be prepared so I'm doing all I can these next 5 weeks to prepare myself for this "assignment"!

Also, if you didn't already know... General Conference is this weekend!!! I can't believe it's already time for General Conference again.  It will be my second in the mission and I'm excited to actually be able to understand it this time around haha.  If you don't know what General Conference is, General Conference is a world-wide conference that the Church has every 6 months where the prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the Church speak to us. Super awesome right?? I invite you all to watch it! And watch every session if you can! They say that every General Conference there is at least one talk that is specifically meant for you or will stand out to you the most, but if you don't watch all the sessions, maybe you'll miss out on that one talk that was specifically for you!  So don't miss it! The Church of Jesus Christ is built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20) and they are here to edify and help us understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this age and time (Ephesians 4:11-13).  I invite ALL of you to watch General Conference (whether you are a member of the Church or not), and see for yourself if these men and women are truly called of God.  But you can't honestly know unless you watch it and see for yourself (John 7:17).  

Love and miss you all!!

Elder Smith

Pics: it was Rachel´s birthday on Friday so we brought her a cupcake and sang her happy birthday!, our cook made us supreme pizza this week! (but we´re not allowed to drink coke in this mission so don't think we drank that), a video of me contacting a "golden investigator" (btw I waited like 15 min for this video to download so I hope you enjoy it!)

Semana 36: Changes, But No Changes: 3/20/17

Hola everyone!

I officially completed my first transfer in Santo Domingo!! The time went super super fast! And it turns out nothing´s going to change for a little bit longer because Elder Canul and I are together for one more transfer! We´re going to end up having at least 16 weeks together in the mission as companions.  

Well this week some super great things happened! First off, on Thursday we had a SUPER great lesson with this family that I've been telling you about! In Santo Domingo, we always go on splits with the members at least a couple of times a week for like 2 hours.  I was on splits with our new ward mission leader and we went to go visit this family together. I was a little nervous to be the one to do the majority of the teaching, especially because this lesson was going to be super important.  We still hadn't placed a baptismal date with them yet and they still had some problems with the word of wisdom. BUT... It ended up being the best lesson I've ever had in my entire mission I think. It was SO awesome! I basically did all the teaching and answering of the questions and didn't have much trouble or stress doing it.  The Spirit was super strong and I saw such a huge change in them in this lesson.  We placed baptismal dates with the mom, Johanna, and the daughter, Rachel, but Maybellin (the other daughter) and Olman (the dad) we´re still working with.  We´re hoping to baptize Johanna and Rachel this Saturday the 25th! I love this family so much and I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to teach them.  I have seen them grow so much and all four of them came to church this Sunday with Books of Mormon in hand! 

Another cool thing that happened this week is that I went on splits with my dad (trainer) Elder Batres.  We basically didn't have any appointments with anyone so that meant contacting... BUT, we ended up having 8 lessons, found 7 new investigators, and placed 7 baptismal dates with these 7 new investigators!! It was such a cool day and great experience.  Not every day is going to be like that, but I know we were being guided and rewarded for our efforts to seek out the elect of God.

I know this church is true and that we have a great work to do here on the earth to seek out the Lord´s elect.  Sometimes it can be scary or intimidating to share your beliefs with other people for fear of rejection or other things like that.  But I invite you all to overcome this fear and share what you know is true with others! If you aren't sure if what you believe is true, make the necessary changes in your life to find the truth and then share it with others! 

I love you and hope you have a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: I didn't take many pictures this week either so here´s some from church this week!

Semana 35: Didn't Think of a Title: 3/13/17

Hello everyone!!

I hope everyone is doing great this Monday! This week was super great but I don't have too much to report on, nor do I have time to report on it so this is going to be a short one. Sorry! 

But first things first, we had 4 investigators for the second week in a row at church! This week, 4 of the 6 members of the family that we´re teaching showed up! The dad came for the first time, the mom for the second, and the 2 daughters for the 3rd time.  They are super awesome and we´re hoping that they´re going to get baptized on the 25th of this month. The ward members here are super great about supporting them and getting to know them and help them feel more comfortable at church.  We visit them just about everyday now and it's super fun to see their progression.  

This week, I've been thinking a lot about Keeping the Sabbath Day HOLY.  I think it's one of my favorite commandments if not my favorite.  We have 6 days to work, study, shop, etc., but we have one day set apart to focus solely on our families, church, and our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ.  It's a day of rest in the week, but that doesn't mean that we should just sleep (like I often did before the mission haha).  We need to think of how we can truly SANCTIFY our Sabbath day, to keep it HOLY.  If you´re not already doing it, go to church and spend time with your family on your Sundays.  I promise that if you do, you will receive tons of blessings and feel more joy and happiness in your lives.  

Sorry this is a short one!

Elder Smith

Pics: Elder Gonzalez and I on splits (we got to Costa Rica together), and this horse literally wanted to eat me

Semana 34: Monte de la Cruz!: 3/7/17

Hola everyone!

Sorry again that I´m not writing on Monday (our normal P-day).  We were allowed to have a zone activity today (Tuesday) so they changed our p-day for this week to Tuesday.  Sorry! But at least it´s one day earlier than it was the last week!

Anyways this week was really good! We had a zone activity today with our zone, and the other zone from Heredia, Belén (Bethlehem in English).  We went to a place called Monte de la Cruz which was super cool! It was kind of like a campground kind of place and reminded me a ton of Oregon actually haha.  Costa Rica isn´t all beach and jungle, there´s forests too! We played capture the flag, ate lunch, and then there was a lookout point with a cross (the cross isn't really the cool part though).

Not too much to report on for the rest of the week, but I'll tell you about one of the families we are teaching! There´s about 6 people in the family (not sure the last name still...).  Last names here are weird haha.  We´re planning on baptizing 2 or 3 of them on the 18th of this month and the rest of them another day soon hopefully! They´re a super great family and 4 of the 6 of them came to church this Sunday and had a really good experience! One of them is named Rachel and is 11 years old and she´s awesome.  She understands everything super well and is trying to help her grandma and the rest of her family with some of the problems they have to overcome to get baptized with her on the 18th.  She´s my favorite! 

The members of the church here are also super great as well.  They´re really well organized and are really committed to helping the missionaries! They also feed us really well which is always a plus haha.  

For the spiritual aspect of my email this week, I´d like to address a misconception that a lot of the people that we teach have.  A lot of people think that they have to have everything in their life perfect (money usually) before they can go to church and have a relationship with God.  But it´s actually the opposite.  There are various scriptures that say, we should put God first, then seek out riches.  I know that this is so true.  If we simply turn to God, and try to do all that we can to grow in our personal relationship with Him and keep His commandments, we will always have what we need in this life (food, money, house).  Seek out your Father in Heaven and you will have everything that you could ever need and a happiness you can't find anywhere else.  

I love and miss you all and thank you so much for all of your emails each week!

Elder Smith 

Pics: Elder Navas came to visit! (my last companion), walking on the train tracks, view of San José, we played capture the flag on this field, Zone Santo Domingo at Monte de la Cruz!, My mom and I, a fellow gringo in my zone, Elder Montgomery and I in front of the "cross"

Semana 33: In-grown toenails, a new ward, and a Temple trip!: 3/1/17

Hello everyone!

Long time, no talk! But that just means I have more to talk about and more pictures (I finally figured out how to shrink the files so i can send more!).  

This week was super great! The reason I´m writing today is because we went to the Temple today! They changed our p-day to the day that we went to the temple so as to not lose time to work.  The temple was super great and was just what I needed to recharge my missionary batteries! If you are a member of the church and haven´t gone to the temple in awhile, go! 

And it´s true, I had in-grown toe nails on both of my feet... Not a very pleasant experience to say the least.  Normally, missionaries go to the hospital to take them out with anesthetic to numb the pain. But I didn't know that... One of the hermanas in my district used to be the mission nurse so she told me she could take them out... Not sure if I have ever experienced anything so painful haha. It took like an hour to take them both out.  But the good news is that they´re out and hopefully my toes aren´t infected :).  To recover, I received permission to wear sandals during the day.  And I just happened to have Jesus sandals so it works out perfectly! I´ve gotten some weird looks during the day to say the least haha. 

Also, Santo Domingo became a ward this last Sunday! For those that don't know what that means, a ward just means a bigger congregation basically.  It was super exciting and we spent all week visiting less active members to have a ton of people at church.  Now we just have to sustain the assistance and increase it! Go missionary work!

I also went on splits this week with one of the zone leaders and it was super great! He´s from Texas and our personalities are pretty similar so it was super fun  and we had a ton of success together.  

We´re hoping to have at least 2 baptisms this month of March but the people we´re teaching still don´t feel ready and don´t feel like they have received an answer about the church yet.  As missionaries, we share a message with the people, but we´re not there to convince them, but rather to help them.  There are tons of churches in the world today, but Jesus Christ only established one.  We simply invite them to pray (ask and ye shall receive) and ask God if what we shared with them is true.  I know the God listens to and answers our prayers.  If we simply pray to God with faith, believing that we will receive an answer, he will hear us and answer us!  I invite everyone to pray this week, at least once a day! If anything has increased my faith and assurance that God lives, it´s prayer.  

I love and miss you all and hope that you have a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: In-grown toe-nails (before), in-grown toe nails (after), the church building in Santo Domingo, District Santo Domingo, My "mom" in the mission and her other "son" who I have a lot in common with, on the bus