I hope everyone had a great week this last week and are enjoying the summer weather!
Well I officially completed my first week here in Naranjo and it was an interesting one to say the least! To remind you all, neither my companion or I have been in Naranjo before. We didn´t know each other, but last Monday we met up, went to Naranjo, and went to work.
Naranjo is super beautiful, but also HUGE!!! We were basically lost all week trying to find places and people, but we only really got lost once haha. And we still have a TON more to get to know. It´s honestly really similar to Puriscal, but on a grander scale. Puriscal had lots of hills, mountains. Naranjo has way more and they are WAY more steep. Puriscal was very large and spread out, with lots of different cities/villages. Naranjo is even larger and more spread out, with even more cities/villages. It will be awhile before we really know our way around everywhere, but after a week, I think we have a pretty good idea now of how to work efficiently here.
Here in Naranjo there´s a branch with about 40-50 active members of the church supposedly. This Sunday, we had an attendance of 59 which everyone was really excited about. There are a TON of less active/ inactive members here (including our branch mission leader) so that´s going to be our area of focus here. The only hard part will be finding them and getting them to go to church. But we at least have some phone numbers and some kind of address. Then we´ll find investigators (the people that aren't members, but want to go to church and get baptized) along the way. The missionaries that were here before us, didn't leave us much to work with so we´re basically starting from zero. They also did not get along very well with the members here (part of the reason they got taken out) so the members are happy to see us and we´ll be trying to gain their trust and confidence as well.
Also my companion is named Elder Islas and he´s from Veracruz, Mexico! He has 21 months in the mission (finishes in the middle of October) so he´s most likely going to finish his mission here and I´m most likely going to "kill" him (be his last companion). That means I´ll have either 1 transfer here (leave in the beginning of September), or most likely have 3 transfers here (leave in the end of November). But anything can happen so we´ll how it all turns out. He´s really nice though and I´m really excited to be with him and work really hard to help the people here in Naranjo!
This week I was reading in John 4 in the New testament and I really liked a part in verses 10-14 that talks about "living water". It explains that all of us need to drink water to survive here on the Earth, but even more important than that, we need to drink (partake of) "living water". "Living water" is Jesus Christ and His teachings. Just as drinking water is necessary to live here on the earth, "living water" is necessary so that we receive everlasting life. Our SOLE purpose here on the earth is to find and partake of this "living water" so that we can receive everlasting life and happiness with our loving, Heavenly Father. I invite you all this week to find and partake of this "living water" (if you haven't already done so) and follow the teachings and guidance of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He promises that we will never be "thirsty" again!
I love you all and hope everyone has a great week this week!
Elder Smith
Pics: Elder Islas and I with a youth (Kendal) that showed us around our first day, when we got lost taking the road less traveled by..., not sure if you can tell, but one of the many huge hills here in Naranjo, the lady that cooks for us here is from Panama and these are her famous Ojaldras!
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