This past week was amazing!

This past week was amazing and a lot of cool things happened. First, we had a good week of proselyting and we were able to find some good people and some good families. It's sad that I won't be able to teach them for very long but it looks like they can progress really well. 

This week I was able to go and do a work exchange in my other area of Talara. We had a pretty good day there and I was able to pass by some people that I taught there and also say bye to my convert and some other members. 

I also was able to go to Zorritos today for pday and say bye to the people there. It was sad to say bye but I know that I will at least be able to have communication with them after the mission. 

We had a meeting with Elder Gong, Elder Godoy, and Elder Falabella this week which was so awesome. The Spirit was really strong there and they have such strong testimonies. It was nice to get to meet each of them and learn from them. 

Love y'all and see y'all soon!

Elder Smith

Gave my final testimony

We had a decent week here in our area. We are seeing a little progress here and finding more people little by little.

We had our multizona this past week and we had some cool experiences. We slept the night in Piura and I was able to pass by and surprise some of my converts for a few minutes. They were all doing well and are still progressing in the Gospel. In the multizona something really cool happened as well. Yaris, one of my converts from Piura Central was invited to share her testimony and the experience of her conversion. It was awesome to see her and see that she’s still doing great. I also had to give my final testimony which was kind of weird but now it’s starting to kick in a little bit that I’ll be going home soon.

Other exciting news is that Elder Gong will be here Friday and we will get to meet him and have a little meeting with him and the whole mission. 

Love y'all!

Elder Smith

We are starting to see some progress in our area

This past week was really good. We are starting to see some progress in our area and the zone is starting to improve. We were busy doing work exchanges throughout the week and we were able to see miracles in our own area and in the other areas. It doesn’t look like we will baptize this transfer but this area will have at least 1 next transfer. Things are going well though and we found some good people this week. We found a mom and her daughter who used to go to church and were closed to getting baptized but the mom wasn’t married. However, he doesn't live there any more and is separated from her so we will try to work with them and help them.

This week will be busy because we have interviews and we’re traveling to Piura for our multizona.

Love y'all!

Elder Smith 

We found a monkey

Compi

Still adjusting and getting to know our area

We had an alright week here. We are still adjusting and getting to know our area but we are starting to feel comfortable. We are starting to find people little by little and a few of them have potential to progress. We’re just going to continue to work hard and hope to have some miracles in these last few weeks. Not too much has been going on but we're preparing for the multizone coming up and also for when Elder Gong will come. 

Have a great week and I love y'all! 

Elder Smith

Talara

This week was pretty good but very busy. It feels a little weird being here because every once in a while I run into people from my last area in Talara Alta. Anyways, we have been getting to know everyone here and getting to know the area. We have a few members that have been helping us a lot and taking us to all the places so we are grateful for that. There wasn't much left for us from last transfer so we are trying to find a lot of new people. We had some success and found people who are ready for the Gospel but it looks like they will have to get married. 

I really do like the new area though but it gets cold at night and in the morning so our showers aren't very enjoyable. 

We did get to go to Piura during the week for leadership council and it was nice to see everyone there and we learned a lot. It's hard to believe how fast time is flying. 

Love y'all!

Elder Smith

Some pictures from the last area before being transferred to Talara 

How we felt after getting transfers 

Back in Talara

Well, we got transfers this week and I have been transferred 1 last time. I am now going back to Talara but to a different part and it has the beach. I'm still Zone leader and my new companion and I are replacing the 2 other zone leaders before us. My new companion's name is Elder Vera and he is from Uruguay. He has 10 months and this is his first time as zone leader. I'm not exactly sure what has been going on here before us but let's just say we have a lot of things to try and fix. My companion and I have already bonded pretty well because we cleaned our room for 3 hours after a 2 hour bus ride together. Neither of us know the area so it's a similar situation as to last transfer.

I'm really sad because I wanted to finish in my last area but I hope to have a good last transfer here. Time has really flown by and it's weird thinking about it. Not too much out of the ordinary happened this last week in my last area but it was sad saying bye to some people after such a short time. 

I wish I could send pics because I have a lot to send but I won't be able to till next week. 

Love y'all!

Elder Smith

We had a pretty good week here in Miguel Grau

We had a pretty good week here in Miguel Grau. Nothing out of the normal happened but we are happy because the mom and son that we were teaching got baptized. It's been awesome to see the changes they have made in their lives as we've been teaching them. We will continue working with the daughter and hopefully she will have more desires to get baptized. 

We have some other people that are progressing as well and coming to church but the only problem is that the majority of them aren't married. We are still looking for more people and hoping to have more miracles. 

Love y'all!

Elder Smith 

We will have 2 baptisms this week

We had a pretty good week but we were very busy. We had our multizona and interviews this week and we had to run around and do a lot of errands. 

Other than that we had some success and we will be having 2 baptisms this week. The mom and the son that we are teaching will be getting baptized but the daughter doesn't want to yet. We will still be working with her but the other 2 don't want to wait to get baptized. We're excited because they're awesome people and have really been converted to Christ.

We had a really fun p-day today because we woke up at 3:30 to go to a place called Canchaque and hike as a zone. We got some pretty cool pictures and had a lot of fun as a zone.

Love y'all!

Elder Smith 

I was able to go back to my last area for another baptism.

We had a pretty good week here. We found a lot of new people to teach this week and some of them have some potential to progress. We’re still improving little by little. We are still working with the family of 3 and the mom and son are progressing really well and coming to church. The daughter that is 17 is progressing a little bit but still needs to come to church a little more. They all have a baptismal date for August 10^th and we’re hoping they can make it as a family because the mom and son are pretty much set.

I was able to go back to my last area for another baptism. We baptized a 16 year old whose mom was inactive for a long time but has been to church every week for the last 5 o 6 weeks after we found them. She also had an 8 year old son that wasn’t baptized but wanted to get baptized and he chose us to do it. It was probably the last time that I’ll go back to my last area for a little while so I’m a little sad for that but excited for the future in this area.

Love y'all!

Elder Smith 

Ruth's Baptism

This week was pretty good and we saw some progress in our area. We have a family of 3 that is progressing really well and came to church on Sunday for the 3^rd time. They have a lot of desires to follow Christ and they have a goal to be baptized on August 10^th and it looks like they will be able to.

Things are going pretty well in my new area with my new companion as well. Things are starting to progress little by little.

I also had the chance to go back to my last area and baptize Ruth. She was the reference from our recent convert Yaris that got baptized like 4 weeks ago so that was really cool.

Love y'all!

We had a pretty Good but stressful week.

We had a pretty Good but stressful week. We got lost a few times in our new area but we feel pretty comfortable here now. We have some cool people that we are teaching that are progressing and may get baptized this transfer.

I was able to go back to my last area for the baptism and I’m going back again on Saturday for another baptism. My new ward is pretty good and it has some awesome members.  However, my zone and my district are super cool so I'm excited. 

I don't really have much else to say but have a good week!

Elder Smith 

I will send some pics when I get them downloaded

This is a family we activated and the daughter got baptized

I'm now in a zone called Algarrobos and I'm still zone leader.

Well this week was pretty good but pretty sad as well. We had transfers and I got transfered to another zone in Piura. I'm pretty sad because I wanted to finish there and it was hard to say bye to some people. I'm now in a zone called Algarrobos and I'm still zone leader. However, I'm opening up the area with my new companion Elder Cabanillas from Lima. We're opening it up because the zone leaders before us were taken out so we're just going to try and get things figured out this week. 

The week was awesome though because Pierina and Miguel got baptized. It was another awesome experience and we were able to get a lot of people there to support them. We are also still working with them mom so that she can be baptized in the future. 

I'm sad as well because we had plans to baptize the next 3 weeks in a row but I was transferred. However, I should be able to go to all of their baptisms. 

Love y'all!

Elder Smith