Semana 67: Zona Belen: 10/23/17

Hello everyone!!

I hope everyone had a great week this week!

This week was full of new things, new experiences, new people, and new places.  It was a little bit crazy trying to get adjusted to everything, but it was an awesome week full of miracles!

First off, I do have time to write still.  I was just confused last week. Sorry! Since i failed to say much last week, I`ll give a little more explanation this week.  My area is Flores (San Joaquin de Flores de Heredia) and my new companion is Elder Rodriguez from Guatemala.  I`m in the province of Heredia again, but I`m in a different zone than when I was in Santo Domingo.  I`m still super close to Santo Domingo, but I won´t be able to visit :(.  But... Elder Rodriguez and I, the zone leaders from the other zone in Heredia, the bishops of Heredia, the stake President, and President Laboriel had a meeting yesterday and I got to see some familiar faces which was nice. Also... I`m in the same zone as my son (Elder Parma)!! He`s training right now so I`m in the same zone as my grandson as well! Of the missionaries in our zone, I`m one of the missionaries with the most time which is crazy.  I only have 15 months in the mission so our zone is pretty young, but full of energy! It`s going to be a great transfer!

And we`re going to be starting off the transfer on the right note because we have 5 baptisms on Saturday!! We have a family of 2 named Victor and Liliana.  We also have a single mom, Virginia, and her 2 daugthers, Kimberly and Luz.  Victor and Liliana are super awesome and super ready to get baptized.  They`re going to be getting married the same day so it`s going to be a great day! It`s weird because I basically wasn´t here to teach them or prepare them, but I`m super excited for them all the same.  Virginia, Kimberly, and Luz are super great as well but it`s not as sure that they`ll get baptized this Saturday.  For the moment, it looks like they will, so keep them in your prayers please! I have had the opportunity to teach them this week and they are prepared as well, they just had a few doubts and worries.  Elder Rodriguez and I were able to have a few really powerful lessons with them together and clear up these doubts and worries.  I`m so excited to be here in Flores and work with these amazing people that we`re teaching and finding.  

I know that this Church is true.  Not because someone told me it was, but because the Spirit has testified to me that it is.  I would not be here in Costa Rica if I did not know this was true. The Spirit teaches us the truth of all things and I was able to increase that part of my testimony this week.  I invite you to do the same!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Smith

Pics: I`m in the same zone as my son (Elder Parma) and his son, my grandson (Elder Muñoz), my comp and I 

Semana 66: Transfers to...: 10/16/17

Hello everyone!!

This week was crazy and I have no time to tell you about it. But to sum it all up quickly, it was semana de milagros, we had a baptism, and I got transferred!

To start off... I got transferred... And guess where?? I´m going back to Heredia!!! But this time in the other zone that´s in Heredia, Zona Belen (Bethlehem in Spanish).  And... I will be Zone Leader! I´m super excited but also a little nervous.  It will be great and my new companion, Elder Rodriguez, I already knew from before and he´s super awesome.  It´ll be a great transfer :)

But... Since my companion, Elder Islas, finished his mission, they´re going to have to do a whitewash in Naranjo... again haha.  I´m honestly a little sad to leave Naranjo so soon but I´m excited for what lies ahead.  We left 4 baptisms in Naranjo for this Saturday so we´re leaving a great gift for the new missionaries there at least haha.  

But we did have a baptism this week as well! Alonso finally got baptized and it was great! I got to baptize him and everything went really well! The only sad thing is that he couldn't go to church yesterday so he hasn't got confirmed yet, but he´ll get confirmed this Sunday if everything goes as planned.  

Well I seriously don't have any time to write today, and I´m not sure I will for the rest of my mission if I continue as zone leader, but I´m doing well and I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: Alonso´s baptism, Carlos and Natasha are going to get baptized this Saturday, saying goodbye to the Esquivel family, Hermana Juliana (our cook) and her family

Semana 65: Tropical Storms and a Baptism!: 10/9/17

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week this last week!

Don{t have too much time to write today but this week was definitely an interesting one haha.  A tropical storm, I believe, hit Costa Rica this week and it was nuts.  It flooded in a lot of places and did quite a bit of damage. Luckily, nothing happened here in Naranjo.  We have too many hills and things here for it to flood.  But... We still had to stay inside for more than half the day on thursday which sucked.  It was raining super hard, but it rains hard every day during this season so it would have just been a normal day for us haha.  Oh well.  All is well.

During that time, we were on exchanges with the district leader and we were able to have baptismal interviews with 4 of our investigators! Now, if everything goes well, we should finish the month of October with 6 baptisms!! It´s so awesome and I´m so excited for Naranjo!

We also had the blessing and miracle of having another baptism this week! Emili from the Esquivel family got baptized on Saturday and it was a great day! She was going to get baptized on the 14th, but she was ready, so we moved it up to the 7th.  Her and her whole family have come every sunday since we found them and it´s just been super good for them and the branch.  Yorleni, the mom of the family, told us she was sick on sunday, but that she HAD to go to church because she can{t leave the things of God out of her life anymore! That was so great to hear and a real testimony builder to me.  

Alonso also came to church this week, the little brother of Ricardo, so we should have another baptism this saturday to finish the transfer! And then we have 4 baptisms programmed for the 21st! We have transfers though the 16th, so we´ll see what happens! 

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

Elder Smith

Pics: a famous hill in our area that we call "the iron rod", the view from the home of the Iraheta family, Emili and I at her baptism, comp, Emili and I at her baptism

Semana 64: General Conference 3 of 4: 10/2/17

Hello everyone! Pura Vida!

I hope everyone had a great week and an even better general conference weekend!

I LOVE general conference, it's so awesome. Even though I'd still honestly rather listen to it in English, it's still good in Spanish, I guess haha. But for those who aren't familiar with general conference, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a worldwide "general" conference every 6 months where we have the privilege of hearing inspired, spiritual messages from the prophet, the twelve apostles, and other leaders of the church. Cool right?? Who wouldn't want to listen? Unfortunately, lots of people haha... We only had 25 people at church with us on Sunday, and my companion and I brought 15 of those 25 people with us haha.

But guess who those 15 people were? The two inactive families that we're helping to reactivate!! The Esquivel family came for the second week in a row, and the Iraheta family finally came as well! It was awesome! I can't remember if I've talked much about the Iraheta family much but they're super great as well. There are 6 of them in the family, but we also found out that David, the dad, has an inactive sister that lives in our area as well. Her son came with the Iraheta family to church on Sunday as well and now has a baptismal date for the 14th of October!! If everything goes well, and I hope and pray that it does, we should have 5 baptisms in the next 2 weeks!!! 3 from the Iraheta family, 1 from the Esquivel family, and 1 from the family of Ricardo (our first baptism that we had here in Naranjo). It'll be a miracle if it all comes together in the end, but God is a God of miracles :)

From this general conference, there were several talks that I liked. But, I wouldn't say there was one, particular talk that stood out to me from the rest. What did stand out to me though was a topic/theme that I felt like was mentioned in a grand part of the messages given. I think President Uchtdorf put it best in his talk Saturday morning. We are here on the earth, preparing ourselves, to return to our "Heavenly Home". Our time here on Earth is only temporary, our real home is up in heaven with our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Now, how is it that we return to this "Heavenly Home"? There are many things that we could say to answer this question, but to sum it up from the responses of the apostles and other leaders who spoke: have faith unto repentance, keep the commandments, and follow the "light" and example of our savior, Jesus Christ. We're not perfect, God knows that. We'll mess up from time to time. But that's okay. Thanks to Jesus Christ, we don't have to suffer in our sins forever. When WE, ourselves make the decision to repent and truly come unto Christ, this is when we experience true joy, happiness, and a remission of our sins and imperfections. He simply asks us to follow and TRUST in Him. He has prepared the way, but it depends on us to take to initiative to follow it. It's not the easiest route to take, but it's the route that leads us to eternal life.

Hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: a part of our area called San Rafael, my comp during "exercise" in the morning haha

Semana 63: Baptize and Activate: 9/25/17

Hello everyone y Pura Vida!

I hope everyone had a great week this week and are adjusting smoothly back to school and work after summer break!

Well we had another really great week this week and I'm excited to tell you about it! First things first, Sara got baptized!!! It didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped that it would, but at the end of the day, she still got baptized so that's what matters. She got baptized on Friday, and then I had the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church and give her the gift of the holy ghost on Sunday! I still can't believe it. We haven't even known her for 2 weeks yet, but she already got baptized. It truly was a miracle and a testimony builder to me that this truly is the Lord's work. I know that the only reason that Sara got baptized is because she had the desire and that it was His will. My companion and I were just simply instruments in His hands. The Lord is preparing people and He promises us that the field is white, already to harvest, we just have to go out and find them.

The other great experience that we had this week was another inactive family that we found here in Naranjo, the Esquivel family. I had previously called them on like 10 different occasions, but they never stayed on the line long enough for me to be able to put an appointment with them and confirm their address. BUT, this last week in the semana de milagros, we found the dad in a park in the area of the hermanas in our district!! We were having a park activity and were inviting everyone we saw to come participate. Near the end, one of the other elders contacted the dad, not knowing who he was, and we were able to get to know him and establish an appointment with him and his family! We visited them twice this week and the WHOLE family came to church on Sunday after not going for the last 5 years or so! There's 8 of them in total and it was so cool to be able to see them walk in the chapel and see the reaction of the other members. They're all super great and I'm super excited to continue working with them. There's also 2 of them that we're going to be working with to help them her baptized as well!

This week I was studying a lot about faith and repentance and it really deepend my appreciation and love that I have for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I know that He lives and that He loves each and every one us.  Because of this love that He has for us, He was willing to die for us.  Without this great and eternal sacrifice, there would be no hope for any of us.  He is the light and the way that we should follow. BUT, something importnant that we sometimes forget or confuse, is that we can only participate of this great and eternal sacrifice when we follow Him and keep His commandments. He wants to cleanse us of our sins, but He doesn{t obligate anyone to follow Him.  We make the choice to follow Him, and He is OBLIGATED to bless us and cleanse us of our sins.  If we don{t want to follow Him or keep His commandments, we have no promise.  He can only bless us and cleanse us of our sins when we follow Him and keep His commandments.  Wickedness never was happiness.  I´ve never known that to be more true than now.  Follow the Savior and I promise you will be glad you did.  

Hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: we went to go play soccer with the Esquivel family today!, the dog of the family that cooks for us had 5 puppies this last week, Sara and I at her baptism, other baptism pic