Semana 95: African Safari in Costa Rica: 5/7/18

Hello everyone!

This week was crazy busy but super great.  We had leadership council on Friday which meant losing 2 full days of work in our area here in Guanacaste :( but the leadership council was great and I took a lot of stuff away from it.  Nothing too crazy happened while we were in our area this week but Fernando is continuing to progress and preach the gospel to everyone he knows! We went to visit him again this week and he just tells us about how he had just shared the pamphlets that we hand out to people to his friends and that they really liked it! Missionary work works a lot better if the members participate! Super effective! 

We also went to an African Safari today that our stake president owns and it was super fun! We got to go on a tour and feed giraffes and zebras and other cool animals, I´ll try to attach pictures!

But the leadership council was great and I learned a ton from it.  One of my favorite parts from it was when they talked about the story from the New Testament where Christ tells the fishermen to cast their nets to the other side of their boat so that they could catch the fish.  I love this story because I´m sure the fishermen doubted at first, having been experienced in fishing and all, but they were obedient to the Lord and were blessed for it.  We can look at this story in several different ways, but the way we examined it in the leadership council was how following the Lord´s guidance leads us to find what He wants us to do and find.  Maybe we´re experienced in something or we think we know what we have to do, but we´re just not seeing results or what we had expected, but if we just humble ourselves to the Lord, and trust that He knows the way, He will lead us to what we need.  I loved learning about this story again and I know it can apply to anything in our lives.  Just trust in the Lord and follow His guidance, and you will never go astray. 

I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: Old zone :(, in the back of the van, feeding the ostriches, the giraffes!

Semana 94: Monkeys, Snakes, and Cows: 4/30/18

Hello everyone!

Another miracle filled week here in Guanacaste that ended with a baptism!

Yesterday we had a baptism of a man that we met 2 weeks ago.  His name is Fernando and he was just a complete miracle, it was amazing. 2 weeks ago, Elder Waite and I were waiting outside for 2 people that were supposed to get baptized that day, but they never showed up.  We were kind of down and we were just waiting outside, hoping that they would show up.  That´s when my companion and I noticed a man just waiting outside the church fence... It was Fernando.  We went over to go talk to him and we invited him inside for Sacrament meeting.  After like 30 seconds of talking, he walked in and liked it! And 2 weeks later, he is a confirmed member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!! He´s just a puro escogido and has been giving us referrals since the first day that we went to visit him.  

The majority of the people that we´re teaching right now are referrals from Fernando! One of these referrals is a family of 7 (5 of which can get bapized) and 5 of them came to church yesterday.  They showed up after sacrament meeting (had to work) but it was a huge deal to Elder Waite and I because it showed us that they truly want to get married and baptized.  They live in a pretty poor part of our area which is far away from the chapel, but they showed up by themselves (that´s a big deal for us) with the little money that they have, to be able to come closer unto Christ! They´re preparing to get married and baptized the 19th of May :)  

I´m loving Guanacaste and we´re just seeing tons of miracles and having a blast while doing it.  The gospel is true and truly life-changing! I hope everyone has a great week this week!

Elder Smith

Pics: Fernando´s baptism, I finally saw a monkey!, we also saw a "little" snake while we were walking at night, petting some cows  

Semana 93: Guanacaste Miracles: 4/23/18

Hello everyone!

Every week here in Guanacaste just keeps crazier and crazier with surprises every day.  This week was one of the best one yet and ended with 2 baptisms!!  To explain...

So this week we had great days and not so good days and they alternated like that.  We were having one of those not so good days when we get a phone call from our bishop.. He asks us if we know a little girl named Madelyne and my companion says that he does.  She´s a little girl who is 9 years old and isn't baptized but both of her parents are members.  Elder Waite and his last companion tried to teach her but she wasn't ready to get baptized yet.  But the bishop just called us on Thursday night and told us that she wanted to get baptized on Saturday so we needed to go visit her and prepare her... My companion went on exchanges with our district leader to do the interview and I met her for the first day the day of her baptism.  It was just nuts but a huge miracle and just a great blessing from the Lord.

The other baptism that we had was Jordy! His family was finally willing to support him this week and he got baptized and confirmed on Sunday! We had to wait quite a long time for him to get baptized for his parents but it finally happened and was honestly just a great day.  

We had lots of other small miracles this week and other difficult things that happened, but the Lord truly blessed us greatly.  It made me think a lot and I came to the conclusion that when we do all that we can and we try our best, we may not see the results or the blessings right away or in the way that we wanted or expected, but the Lord ALWAYS blesses us.  Every time that my companion and I are just having a tough day or something bad happens, we just say to each other, "The Lord must be preparing us for something really good".  And vice versa for when it´s going really good haha.  We´re here in this life to learn and we learn from the good times and the bad, but if we´re truly doing all that we can to serve the Lord, He will bless us.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Smith

P.s. Saw my first scorpion here in Guanacaste... And it was in my suit jacket! I didn't get stung, don't worry...

Pics: baptism of Madelyne, baptism of Jordy, Elder Solis and I when we found our investigators house in the middle of nowhere, when you get locked out of the house...

Semana 92: Semana de Milagros + Zone Conference = Crazy Week: 4/16/18

Hello everyone!

Another awesome week here in beautiful and hot Guanacaste!

Like the subject title says, this was a very crazy, hectic week! We originally thought that we were only going to have zone conference, but then they advised us on Friday (3 days before semana de milagros) that it was going to be the semana de milagros.  Normally we spend like 2 or 3 weeks, preparing and planning for the semana de milagros so it was a little hectic but it ended up going really well and with us seeing lots of miracles!

Elder Waite and I are just having a blast here in La Victoria and we´re super excited to help our little zone progress and have tons of success.  We weren't able to spend too much time in our area this week, but we were still able to see lots of small miracles and enjoy the week.  In the zone, we have LOTS of potential (at least I think so) because we have several people investigating the church that have already assisted, but just haven't gotten baptized yet. Just in our own area here in La Victoria, we have like 4 people now that could possibly get baptized this week or the next...

Jordy was going to get baptized yesterday, but again, he had family problems and couldn't come :(.  He told us that this week "for sure" so we´ll see what happens.  If it was all up to him, he would've been baptized weeks ago. His mom just doesn't make it a priority to be able to go to church with him on Sundays. We also had a really cool miracle with an investigator that we have named Marley.  She´s a single mom of 4 and one of her daughters is already a member.  We haven't been able to visit her too much in these last 2 weeks, but on Saturday she told us that she feel likes God has answered her prayers and that she has received her answer!!! We told her that she could get baptized the next day, just that she would have to have her baptismal interview during church.  She agreed but then didn't come to church the next day and we still don't know why :(. We will be visiting her tomorrow to see what happened.  And then we had ANOTHER cool little miracle on Sunday.  We had just called Jordy like 15 min before church was about to begin and he had told us that he wasn't going to be able to be baptized.  We were a little crushed, but then my companion and I noticed that there was some guy just standing outside the church gates doing nothing.  We invited him to come in and he just walked in and sat in sacrament meeting with us!! We challenged him to be baptized afterwards and he accepted! We will be visiting him tomorrow as well!

Lots of little miracles this week and I´m so grateful for the chance I have to be here to witness them.  The Lord lives and loves us and truly does put little miracles in our lives every single day if we open our eyes to see them.  I have seen them plenty this week and I will continue to open my eyes and look for them.  I invite you all to do the same.  Even if you have the worst day, the Lord will bless you in one way or another and we need to CHOOSE to be grateful and focus on the blessings and not the problems we may be facing.  We´ll all be happier if we CHOOSE to be. 

Hope everyone has a great week! Pura Vida!

Elder Smith

Pics: Liberia zone with president and hermana laboriel in our zone activity!

P.s. I promise I´ll take more pics this week :/ sorry mom