Monday, December 15, 2014

JOY IN SERVING and a few personal issues...oh boy


The work is moving foward! Great week with Elder Roque. Baptised little Carlito and commited another woman Karina last night to her baptism.  All is good.  This week in my first consejo de barrio, ward council, i almost died.  My stomach was literally killing me and i had to go to bathroom so bad but there was no toilet paper in the church bathroom.  then all the sudden i turned around in the bishops office and sitting behind me on a little table was half a role of toilet paper.  Haha i grabbed it said permiso to everyone in the consejo and bounced.  So embarrassing but i think im gonna be ok.  Anyway ive had diahrea since which stinks but i think im getting over it. haha the people here are so nice.  the members of the ward are such a big help.  Some families literally love the missionaries.  I kid you not a family brought us over to there house to have a slice of this kids birthday cake before the party because we couldnt attend the party.  They cut the cake early and watched me and elder Roque eat while they just sat and talked with us.  There nuts!  There so nice and willing to help.  Evrything we do is through the members and its amazingly helpful.  Be sure to go out with the missionaries to teach.  Members can make such a difference in lessons.  Please help me and pray for me in regards the spanish language.  Its so hard to help when you cant understand or speak very well. But i know its going to come.  Thankyou for all the prayers already love you guys have a good week!
Always
Elder Smith

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

CLARITY IS IN THE EAR OF THE LISTENER

"Hey guys i got an idea. when elder smith gets here lets all talk really quiet and fast and make sure theres a bunch of distractions during his lessons so he cant understand a thing" Im like 98 percent sure this was said in a town meeting of Pulcalpa before i got here.  O my gosh why cant everyone just speak with a little clarity!? ugh anyways ya Pucalpa, Centenario is my first area.  its the furthest south zone in all the mission which you´d think would mean the coolest as well... its not.  everyone calls it the inferno.  its the dryest heat in all the mission.  its rediculous haha but i love it.  our area/ward is Primavera and mi compañero es elder Roque.  Hes from Honduras and hes legit!  He knows everybody and they all love him.  Its so weird being just a little tag along at the beginning because i dont know much spanish and i dont know the area at all.  O ya and Roque speaks 0 english which is cool...  So ya planning and companionship study is pretty hard, but not too bad.  We live in a little outhouse on the same property as Pedro y Martha.  Theyre our pensionistas. There super cool and have a little dog named dokie who is the best! Theres a bunch of chickens on there property too.  its nice cuz we eat in there house so ours never gets dirty from food.  Our house is tiny but its really organized.  Of all the missionaries, at leat in pulcalpa, ours is the smallest.  i like it though.  just two little rooms and a shower.  the showers freezing.  You know how shower heads have a bunch of little holes for the water to shoot out? ya ours has that too except it only shoots out of like 6 of them.  haha it takes for ever.  Anyways about the week... so when i first left lima there were nine of us who went to iquitos.  We ate at the mission home and had a little bit of training and stuff and then everyone got companions and got to work.  However me elder Sampson and Elder Asmad were all in zones that we had to fly to.  Moyobamba, Tarapoto, y Pulcalpa.   So we joined other companionships for the night.  I was with Elder Overstreet and Carillo who both only had one or two tranfers left in there mission.  We taught two lessons and it was all good.  then we went to there apartment and there was only two beds.  i was trippin because this place was distgusting.  But then we found a waterlogged matress on there balcony so está bien.  Anyways the next morning i flew to Pulcalpa to get to work.  Its all been good so far.  everyone is so nice and gives us drinks and food when we visit.  a lot of the times the chairs are like 6 inches off the ground which is so hard to sit in haha.  i love it though.  In all seriousness this work is hard.  i am struggling with language but i know itll all come with time.  Yesterday was stake conference for all of Pulcalpa and the area seventy Elder Wadell came and reorganzied the stake presidency.  there were so many people there.  All of the missionaries were standing in the back packed against a wall.  Elder Wadell was legit though.  i could actually understand him because he was a white person that spoke spanish which was cool.  alot more clarity.  He talked alot about the priesthood and progressing and how all we do is to lead to the temple and eternal life.  So much more but i dont have much time left.  anyways all is good i hope all is well back home love you guys
Always
Elder Smith

Thursday, December 4, 2014

WELCOME TO IQUITOS



READY TO WORK


SWEET NEWS FROM IQUITOS

Dear Smith Family,

                I hope that all is well. Recently Elder Smith arrived to our mission. We are sending you a letter that he wrote today, some pictures and a letter from President and Sister Gomez. We want to let you know that he arrived safely and is very happy to be in the mission field. He will be able to write you on Mondays.

I hope that you have a great week.
Sincerely.
Elder Zamalloa

READY TO GO

What a week! Next time i email ill be in iquitos! thats legit, alright first the funny stuff.  so we took district pictures with presidente and his wife and two of the guys in our district made funny faces in them.  so they called our whole district into hermana gonzalez's tiny little office and pulled up the pictures.  she then zooms all the way in so there two faces are taking up the whole screen and our whole district just busted up laughing.  it was seriously the hardest thing in the world trying not to laugh.  and presidente and his wife are just drop dead serious.  it was so bad and of course it was my companion and were zone leaders so we have to talk to presidente alot which is now no fun and there not even going to hang our picture on the wall and we dont get a copy so its basically like we never came... haha but ya it was hilarious there faces were rediculous.  As of right now i am the reining champion in foosball and pingpong here at the CCM.  its whatever haha except for that presidente kicked my bum in pingpong the one time we played but the net was too high you know threw off my game haha hopefully i can play him again.  but ya the ccm is getting a little old.  im stoked to leave next tuesday.  Anyways the temple was amazing as usual. this was the last time ill be able to go probably for a year which really stinks.  But it was a perfect last time.  We had Two awesome devotionals this week from Elders Oaks and Holland.  Im sure we've all heard it, but i love this quote from Elder Holland "Salvation is not easy, it was never easy."  Our saviors task was never easy for him and we and doing His work.  why should it ever be easy for us?  this pumps me up to take on the trials that are ahead.  Elder Oaks talked about being instruments in the Lords hands. Being servants of the Lord.  That means we perform His work on His time table and in His way.  I love having the spirit so close to be able to help me with these things. Oh also me and another kid in my district, not my compañero, were asked to demonstrate teaching an opening lesson in front of all of the new latinos this last week.  LATINOS... they know spanish and were supposed to be helping them?   it was rediculous .  But ya im a little nervous about the language but then again nahhhh i know i dont know it as well as i think i do here in the ccm but if im nervous and going to be taken back then some of the other elders in my district are actually going to die because some of them know next to nothing.  it is crazy to think that they are going to be speaking fluent spanish in like 6 months.  Crazy but ya everyone says Iquitos speaks different than everywhere else.  supposedly they kind of sing/talk and also they speak with a different order to their sentences and they dont pronounce f's.  weird right? i dunno well see.  K sweet Next emails coming from the campo! the real deal! im stoked cant wait to get started! Love you all
Always
Elder Smith