Scorpions

Another week has flown by and it was another weird one.

On Thursday as I was taking clothes out of my bag I got stung by a scorpion because I couldn't see it. It freaked me out because it hurt super bad and I couldn't feel my finger for awhile. They made me go to the clinic in Tumbes just to make sure everything was good and it was. I just had to take a pill everyday for 5 days. I also found out I've lost 21 pounds on the mission now. :( 

Also, last night I got kind of sick and couldn't do anything which stunk because we missed an important cita. All is well now I just feel a little fatigued.

We had a good week of teaching people and my new comp is a super good teacher so I'm learning a lot from him and my Spanish is improving a ton. I even had my first dream in Spanish this week which kind of freaked me out. We have some good investigators progressing but it's kind of frustrating that they don't want to accept a baptismal date. 

I'm looking forward to a good week and trying to stay healthy.

Love you guys!

Elder Smith

Elder Meza and sea life

The new Elder Smith

One of our investigators owns this super nice resort so we get to teach there

New Companion from Peru

So it was another good week and it was a lot of fun. We did have transfers this week so I finished training and I'm staying in Zorritos for at least another transfer. My new companion is from Peru and he has 2 transfers left in the mission. He seems super nice and cool so far so I'm excited to work with him. After being with him for only 2 hours I can already feel my Spanish improving.

My birthday was good and we got to visit my favorite people (the only member in the area) and they made us lunch and everything. 

I also got to do a work visit Thursday afternoon until Friday morning with 1 of my good friends from my group because they trusted our Spanish enough. I went up to his area while his companion stayed in mine for the night. It was cool to see how much we have improved at Spanish and as teachers. 

We have found some new people here that are awesome and we actually taught someone who was a pastor of another church but he and his wife accepted lesson 1 so we'll see where things go from here. 

Take care and love you guys.

Elder Smith

My First Bucket Shower

This week was another good but interesting week. It rained a lot and they turn off the water in Zorritos when it rains. We had to go without water for 3 days so it was an interesting experience and I got to take bucket showers for the first time in the mission. I also almost got sick this week as I had some pretty bad stomach pain but it didn’t stop us from working.

There was some good progress in our area and a lot of good things are happening. David, our investigator who has a baptismal date for this week is progressing well but we may not be able to baptize him this week because his wife might be getting some type of surgery Friday. He has desires to continue progressing so we’ll see how things turn out and hope the best for his family.

We also have another investigator who is the wife of the only active member in our area and he is a recent convert of 5 months. They’re easily my favorite people to visit ever just because they’re great people. She goes to church every Sunday and reads and prays but her only problem is she’s afraid of becoming inactive like 80% of the ward.  It’s kind of frustrating because she’s already more active than most of the ward but she’s afraid to accept a date for baptism. However, as we visited them yesterday she seemed like a different person and all excited. We helped her husband dedicate their home and then talked for a little while. After some time she decided she wanted a blessing for her health to help her with her spine. We asked her who she wanted to give her the blessing because her Husband has the Melchizedeck Priesthood and can do so. However, she picked me right away because she told me my Spanish has gotten good really fast and she wanted me to continue practicing. I was nervous because it was my first time ever giving a blessing and especially because it was in Spanish. After the blessing though she was super greatful and really the most excited we’ve ever seen. That visit really made the week so much better and we’re excited because she’s even closer to baptism.

This week will be my last week of training and probably my last week with Elder Shumway before I get a Latino companion. We don’t know what will happen yet but we’ll find out Saturday. Anyways, I’m looking forward to another good week and hope you guys have one too.

Love you guys

Elder Smith

Wasps

It was another good week in Zorritos. We were busy all week and we found some good new people. Some other investigators are continuing to progress well also. Our investigator (David) that came to church last week and loved it went again this week with part of his family. His baptismal date is right before the end of this transfer so Elder Shumway and I are hoping to have a baptism together before we split apart.

We didn’t have too many exciting things happen this week but we had a funny and scary experience this morning when cleaning the room. I was organizing the dresser a little bit while Elder Shumway was cleaning the bathroom and all of the sudden he came sprinting out of the bathroom freaked out. It turns out there was a huge wasp in the bathroom and it was a terrifying experience but we eventually killed it after about 10 minutes.

I love you guys and hope you don’t have any terrifying experiences with wasps in the near future.

Elder Smith