December 26, 2017

Area where our ward is

One of my favorite teaching spots

View from the lighthouse we run to in the morning

December 18, 2017

Hey guys it was another successful week in Peru. I guess my wrist isn’t broken because it feels a lot better but still hurts a tiny bit. My guess is I just bruised the bone really bad or sprained it. I do have some bad news about my pictures though. The computers here aren’t very good so last week when I put my sim card in the computer it reformatted it and deleted everything. I have the first 4 weeks of the CCM saved in google drive but everything after that is lost which stinks.

We got to go to Piura on Thursday for the Christmas party so we had to leave super early. We had some trouble getting there because our bus broke down on the way there so we got on another bus which eventually broke down also. The trip took 8 hours instead of 6 but the party was a lot of fun. We got to eat a lot of pizza and candy, play games, and watched "It’s A Wonderful Life.” We stayed the night in Piura and got back to Zorritos in the afternoon safely.

Our investigators are progressing well and we’re baptizing our golden investigator (Juan) on December 30^th. We’re also going to try to baptize our pensionista this Saturday because she has been ready but she’s been waiting to be baptized with her friends who are also our investigators. Hopefully I have some good news about her next week.

I had a close call with almost speaking in church this week. We share a ward with another companionship and the Bishop told them he wanted me to speak. I was freaking out a little bit so my companion texted the Bishop to not have me speak because I was still very new. It worked out because he called another missionary to speak.

Anyways, I’m excited to get to Skype with y'all next week! We don’t know how or where we’re going to do it yet but we’ll figure it out. We should get to call or something on Sunday or maybe Saturday to set up the time with you guys. Take care and Love you guys!

Elder Smith

Scary experience on the combi

It was another exciting week. We were able to find some new investigators and our others are progressing pretty well. 

We were able to find the perfect investigator who driving us around in his moto taxi. He had a lot of questions for us and we were able to set up an appointment to visit him during his break. He knew the Bible in and out which actually helped us a lot. Our 2nd lesson we only taught a little about the Plan of Salvation and gave him a pamphlet. He came back the next lesson with a whole page of a sketch pad with a diagram and what he learned from it and it was all correct. It will probably be the most impressive thing I see on the mission from an investigator. We were able to get him to church and he loved it. A member actually asked him if he was baptized because he was participating so much. We hadn't invited him to be baptized yet because we hadn't taught about it yet but his answer that he will be soon so me and Elder Shumway freaked out a little bit. We just hope that he is married because that is a big problem here of people living together but not being married.

A scary experience we had this week was in a combi (little transportation bus) on the way back from a district meeting. A tire exploded and we were swerving all over the road and almost ended up in a ditch as we were trying to stop. All the Peruvian ladies were screaming and crying which didn't help but we eventually stopped safely. Then we had to wait on the side of the road for another combi to come by.

Today we had a soccer game against another zone which was fun but it was to make it to the Copa Piura next week. It's a big tourney between all the zones but we had to win to go because our zones are so far away. We ended up losing but they still might let us go. I also might have broken my wrist playing because I was going for a ball but ended up falling and slamming against a wall. It hurts to do a lot of things with it but I'll see how it feels Thursday and ask Hermana Rasmussen on Thursday during the Christmas Party in Piura. Other than that all is well here and we´re hoping to have multiple baptisms these next few weeks. 

Love, Elder Smith

Zorritos

This week has been a very long and exciting week but pretty hard because I'm still not that comfortable with Spanish. After lunch at the mission home we got assigned our trainers and our new areas. My companion is Elder Shumway who is from Spring, Texas which is pretty cool. He has been out for 9 months and we´ve been getting along really well.

Our area is Zorritos (La Cruz 2) which is in the Tumbes zone. We´re like right on the beach and this is probably the nicest area in the whole mission. However, we had some trouble getting out here because it´s a 5 1/2 hour bus ride to our area from Piura. We were planning to get here Tuesday night but there were no buses that night so we had to stay the night at the office where the assistants live. We did get to proselyte for a few hours though in Piura and it went great. We were able to get 3 new investigators for that area and they all seemed ready to get baptized already. 

We were then planning to leave for Zorritos on Wednesday morning but that didn't work out because there was a protest going on in the streets and nobody could pass them to get to Tumbes. The President decided to put us on a bus to Paita which is an hour away and then take a different route to Tumbes. But when we got to Paita the roads to Tumbes from there were also blocked off so they sent us back to Piura to stay the night there again. 

We finally got on a bus Thursday morning to Zorritos and got to work. We only have 1 member in our area but we have 3 others who are ready to be baptized they just get nervous every time we bring up a date and they all want to be baptized together because they became best friends at church when they went. We are always busy because we have plenty of people to teach and a lot more to find. I already love the people here and many of them are ready for the Gospel.

One of our investigators is actually our pensionista who makes lunch for us everyday. She makes great food and she always asks us what we want so I never have to worry about eating something gross from her. However, the members make us lunch on Saturdays and Sundays and their meals are a little different. We ate fish both times which wasn't too bad but they load huge plates up with rice and usually something else that isn't good. It's tough to get through it but I'm thankful that the members are willing to feed us. 

We go to to a church that is 20 minutes away and is actually a pretty good size with a decent amount of people but we need more Priesthood holders. I got the opportunity to introduce myself and share my testimony. They all came up to me after asking if I´m related to Joseph Smith which is pretty normal now. 

Our mission President is also super cool and chill. He trusts us a lot and let's us use our agency for most situations. 

Love, Elder Smith