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