Monday, October 26, 2015

SACRAFICES PEOPLE MAKE

Wo lots of cool stuff going on down here in Nueva Cajamarca.  Everybody is getting ready for EL NIÑO! dun dun dun.... haha you gotta look it up some phenomenon where it rains for like 3 months straight.  No ones really sure if its going to arrive here.  I heard its more for the coast but everyones still getting prepared.  Better safe then sorry.  This week were working hard to marry Donald y Maria.  This is the most rushed wedding of my life.  Were looking everywhere for birth certificates and IDs so they can get married.  Its super fun.  Were going to travel to Pueblo Libre to marry them cuz its way cheaper out there.  This family is so cool.  They are changing so fast.  They had a lot of family problems and really just had no idea how to raise their kids.  That had bad examples from there parents so it was the only way they knew how.  But weve talked a ton of The Family Proclamation for the world and have had a ton of support from the branch here in counseling them.  They are very excited.  Well see if it all works out this weekend.  Well i dont have much more time to write but yesterday we had a conference for all of peru and bolivia where Elder Neil L. Anderson addressed us.  So rad.  His spanish was the bomb!  He talked about the sacrifices people make to get to the temple.  There are only 3 temples in all of peru and Bolivia.  But his talk was powerful.  I know the temple is the place were supposed to be and it gives us the strength to keep the covenants that we have made.  Hope everyone has a good week
Always
Elder Smith

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

IT'S ALL FISHY STUFF

so i went swimming this week. Nueva Cajamarca rocks.  The food here is pretty much the same as all of the jungle in peru.  Mom your gonna be so proud and jealous. haha yesterday our pensionista made us this plate called tarapulcra. You have to look in up.  Its all fishy stuff and i ate it. and i loved it. weird right? it was oysters, crab, and a bunch of other fishy stuff that i had no idea what it was.  But it was sooooo good.  You have to look up the plate to see what it is.  Nueva is really jungly.  Theres one highway that runs thru town and a little town center.  other than that its all dirt. and the animals are rad.  We played with the monkey of our investigator the other day.  O ya and we ate armadillo yesterday. ay so many things to tell but i have no time! i love you mama.

Elder Smith


Monday, October 12, 2015

NUEVA CAJAMARCA

Are you stinking kidding me! Chow Iquitos and hello Nueva Cajamarca.  Pleease look up Nueva cajamarca on google or something because this place in the bomb!!!!  Its absolutly gorgeous highly elevated jungle.  Its a small pueblo but it rocks.  We are just a branch out here for now but we are working hard to become a ward soon.  I was very bummed to leave the people i was working with in Iquitos but i know they will be alright with the new missionaries that were sent there.  I am here with my new companion elder Loayza from Chiclayo Peru but spent a lot of his life in Mexico as well.  Hes an absolute stud.  We live with 2 other missionaries and us four are in charge of all of Nuevo cajamarca.  We belong to the zone Moyobamba.  Which is a two hour drive out of Tarapoto.  Then another hour or so from Moyo to get to Nueva cajamarca.  We are away from it all.  it is so rad.  Best area in the mission.  This week we had such a cool experience with man whos door we knocked on.  He was super stirn and justed talked very strongly at us for like 20 minutes without us saying a word.  Then he let us talk and all we talked about were the profets, Christs earthly ministry, and the apostacy.  By the end he was yearning for more.  The spirit worked intesnly inside of him.  When we came the next time he had read the whole pamphlet and had his whole family waiting for us in the front room.  He gave us big hugs as we walked in.  He then tried to explain what he had learned from us to his wife and couldnt  remember a thing just the feelings he had.  It was awesome.  He was so pumped to hear it all again and that his family too could here our message.  It was very special.  His wife wasnt as excited as him but we will keep working with them.  A real conversion can take some time.  I know that only the spirit of the Lord can truly convert people. And we are doing the best we can to keep Him with us at all times
always
Elder Smith
Just to let you know i visited miguel the next day and he accepted to be baptized but that same day i had a plain ride out to moyobamba.  Yup im out of iquitos.  In a little pueblo called Nueva Cajamarca.  Its the coolest place in the world and its the furthest away from the whole mission.  To get to moyobamba you have to fly into tarapoto and then drive 2 hours up to the higher elevated jungle.  Then to get to nueva cajamarca you have to drive another hour or so.  But its stinking cold here ahh its so cool.  I havnt gotten the camera but i will take tons of pictures when it gets here.  The zone leaders are going to iquitos at the beginning of october and will bring all the packages back.  Love you mom