Semana 76: ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!: 12/25/17

Hello everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS y PURA VIDA!

I hope everyone had a great week this last week and are enjoying your Christmas vacation with friends and family!

This week was a really good one, full of Christmas miracles!

The biggest miracle we had this week was that we had 7 investigators at church on Sunday!! And how many were we expecting to come...? Only 1! The one that we expected to come, Brian, did come and the rest were family of the members of the ward here in Flores! It was a huge miracle for us and we´re super excited to start working with these families! 

Brian is "echando fuego" as we say here in the mission.  He´s just super awesome and a "puro escogido" as we also say here in the mission.  He undestands everything that we teach him super well and is progressing very quickly.  He will be getting baptized on January 6th if everything goes well.

This week we had a Christmas conference with the ENTIRE mission which was super fun but also super tiring haha... We had to wake up at like 3 in the morning and it didn't end until 6pm.  Something that I really liked from the conference was how we need to consecrate (consagrar) ourselves as missionaries and as sons and daughters of God in general. Maybe we do good things, we pray, read our scriptures, go to church; but are we really doing it for the right reasons or getting everything out of it that we can? Or are we just going through the motions? Our Heavenly Father loves us all SO much and wants us to come nearer unto Him.  But we can't do that without an effort from our end.  I invite everyone to come unto Christ, look for Him, and experience this eternal love that our Father in Heaven has for us.  

I hope everyone has a great day! 

Elder Smith

pics: Christmas conference, MTC comp and I, part of the MTC district, other missionaries, our gringo friend Miguel is going back to the states :(

Semana 75: Semana de Milagros: Light the World: 12/18/17

Hello everyone!

This week was the semana de milagros for the month of December and it was pretty great! Our goal was to "light the world" and I think we definitely accomplished it. 

In the church, there´s been a worldwide project going on called "light the world", and our mission actually somewhat focused on it this year, which was nice.  It´s specifically for the Christmas season where you try to serve in 25 different ways, on 25 different days! In our zone, we tried to do a different activity on each day and try to have it relate to the Christmas season.  On Tuesday we contacted people and offered them pancakes and Books of Mormon that we wrapped as gifts.  On Wednesday and Thursday we worked as districts, and on Friday we had a HUGE zone activity.  Friday was my favorite day by far.  We had an open house the entire day in one of the chapels in our zone and it went really well! We didn't get too many people to come inside, but of the ones that did enter, they were pretty awesome! I got to teach someone that we call "escogidos" here.  It was a lesson that lasted 10 minutes maybe, but she accepted everything that we said and told us that she was looking for a church to attend not too long ago but couldn't find one that she felt comfortable in.  Pretty sure she´ll be getting baptized here pretty soon in this area of the zone!

That same night, we had a culture night where we had foods from each one of the countries that we´re from as missionaries.  It was pretty diverse actually! Of the 14 missionaries in the zone, we represent, the states, Canada, Panama, El  Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and New Zealand!  We decorated the church with Christmas decorations and it turned out pretty beautiful if I do say so myself :)

Well... Widelban didn't get baptized this Saturday, in case you were wondering.  Everything was going great but he didn't pass his baptismal interview this time around.  It was a little sad and frustrating but we´re not giving up hope yet! Continue to pray for him please! 

I know my Savior lives and that He died for each and everyone one of us.  He loves us and has a purpose for us here in this life.  Share the gift, that is His Atonement and help others find the purpose that our Heavenly Father has for us here!

I love and miss you all and hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! 

Elder Smith

pics: one of our zone activities, other zone activity, another pic, the zone!

Semana 74: Baby It's Windy Outside: 12/11/17

Hello everyone!

To explain the subject title, there´s a cold front (not sure that´s correct) that´s coming from up north right now and so it´s "freezing" here right now haha.  We checked the weather last night when we were super cold and it said it was almost 70 degrees outside haha.  There is a lot of wind though so it´s chilly outside.

But this week was a really good one! Don't have much time as always, but to make a long story short, we found a new family to teach, another new investigator, and we´ll have a baptism on Saturday!

Widelban is finally getting baptized on Saturday!  I´m so excited for him and I know he is so ready.  He´s 18 and from El Salvador and we´re teaching his whole family, but it´s just him that´s going to get baptized right now.  He was pretty indecisive, but we sent the bishop to talk to him on Sunday and they had like a 2 hour long interview/talk.  We haven't been able to talk much with Widelban lately, but his attitude is completely different now.  He´s nervous for his baptism, but ever since the talk with the bishop, he has been talking about baptism as if he´s really going to do it and not just a maybe.  It will be awesome and I know the family will follow his example soon!

We also were able to find a few new investigators this week that we desperately needed! And the Lord did not disappoint us.  We have a family of 3 to teach as well as a 17 year old young man that is totally "escogido".  HIs name is Brian and we found him on Friday, placed a baptismal date with him, and he came to church with us on Sunday! Only the dad was able to join us on Sunday from the family of 3, but they have a very strong desire to get married and get baptized and we are very willing to help them.  Their names are Darwin, Elizabeth, and Marvin and they seem really great! 

Something I was pondering about this week is how much God loves us and looks out for us.  Even though we´re imperfect and can be so much better than we are, God takes care of us as long as we try our hardest and try to do His will.  I know that He lives and understands the things we don{t (Mosiah 4:9).  If we trust in Him and put it in His hands, He will carry us and deliver us! I hope you all have a great week this week and are trying to "light the world"!

Elder Smith

pics: planning in the morning, lunch :), the side effects of eating lunch twice in the same day

Semana 73: Gringo Power!: 12/4/17

Hello everyone!

I literally have no more time to write a big, long letter to you all this week, but I could reply to everyone that had written to me so I had to pick and choose.

But I had a great week this week! It has been very interesting being with a gringo 24/7 again haha.  I´m used to latinos that don't speak any English now! We still speak in Spanish 99% of the time but it´s definitely different.  

We have been searching for new people to teach but have not been having too much success so far.  I´m super excited for this week though and know we´ll find LOTS of escogidos and great people to teach this week.  

We had our leadership council with President Laboriel and the other zone leaders this week and it was really spiritually uplifting.  We talked a lot about love, and how it is something we need to show and demonstrate more, especially as leaders.  It is the way Jesus Christ taught, and why so many people loved and respected him.  I invite you all, especially in this Christmas season, to find ways to serve others and show your love for them.  Follow the example of your savior, Jesus Christ and love and serve others as He loved and served us.

Sorry I don't have more time, but I love and miss you all and hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

P.s Sorry didn't take any pics this week basically :(