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

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

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

ADIOS IQUITOS

GRINGOS

So heres a little funny experience.  8:55am, five minutes before church starts and a huge bus rolls in and out walk 26 giant white people.  Yup a giant caravan from utah who was taking a tour down the amazon river decided to take a stop sunday morning to go to church in  28 de Julio ward. haha it was so funny they filled up the whole stinkin church.  Geez laweez seriously gringos are humongous.  They were so great tho.  Only a few spoke spanish and they were all worried about the water in the sacrament cups.  "is this water sanitary? it looks questionable to me?" haha we assured them it was fine. They all wanted to take pictures of me it was kindof weird.  One guy took my moms name and phone number and said he was going to call. haha so just be expecting that soon mom.  This week was awesome.  I think a few weeks ago i wrote about Miguel Angel and how he is struggling to find a answer.  How the Lord sometimes just makes us work for a while.  Well this week another guy Germano only had to pray one time after reading the book of mormon and bang!  He told me his whole chest filled with emotion.  He couldnt describe it but said he knows the book of mormon is true.  Very interesting how the Lord works in answering peoples prayers.  Anyways more on the Miguel Angel story.  We taught him last night and i shared a scripture with him that says we dont look for Christ or believe in him because we have seen a sign, but because we have partaken of the bread and it filled us (i think... thats translating it from spanish) He told us how his faith has grown and how hes happier and this good stuff but still thinks when he prays an answer doesnt come.  So thats why we shared that scripture.  Then we knelt down and prayed together and he ask the Lord if he should be baptized.  He didnt stand up for a few minutes after his prayer and we left him with the spirit to ponder for a while.  well see how he feels tomoro.  The work is being hastened! We all got to do our part. Hope everyone has a good week

Always

Elder Smith

SEEING MIRACLES

wow this week was awesome and i want to write about all of it but i dont have much time.  First, one of the elders i live with thought i had an ingrown toenail and tried to pull it out but couldnt.  I was screaming bloody murder.  We went to the doctor and she laughed and said "thats not ingrown, you were trying to rip the nerve out of the bottom of your toe nail." yes it hurt. 

 

we had so many spiritual experiences this week and there all in my journal so all is good.  But i will just say this, that spiritual power is proof of a divine calling.  Its nothing special what we do for ourselves, but yes my companion and i have been called by god through a living day prophet and we do what we should.  Then He works through us and does the rest.  We are seeing miracles in our area.  I love this this place and i am happy

Elder Smith

NUTS BUT COOL

This week was a strange one.  So theres been some problems with some oil companies down here in Loreto.  so guess what?.. STRIKE!!!! ah it all made me think of newsies so much.  Strike is called paro down here.  And everyone marches down the street chanting.  Un pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido!! (one people, united, will never be overcome) In the streets theres people comissioned or paid by the public companies (who started the paros) basically just to cause havoc.  If theres a store open or if someones driving there moto they stop it and pop there tires and stuff.  There were five motocars burned in the plaza in front of our house.  It was nuts but cool. we proselyted with only the book of mormon in our hand because we didnt want to carry a bag where anyone would think they could rob us.  But ya all the normal people and families were just chilling at home because there was no work so they were good days to teach.  and the paro worked.  Loreto got what they wanted and now there wont be any paros anymore.  so that was good.  Anyways,  this last week was a good one.  we had a buch of people investigating the church in the chapel this sunday.  one whos name is miguel angel.  we call him the arcangel.  He is super rad and is trying very hard to receive an answer to his prayer if the book of mormon is true or not.  Hes stopped drinking which was very hard for him but i know that with all of his efforts he will receive his answer.  Its really interesting how the Lord works.  Some people receive there answer almost immediatly and others it just takes a while.  Im not sure why the Lord works the way he does but yes i do know that sometimes his blessings do require a little bit of patience.  I hope miguel stays patient and keeps searching as well as i hope for all those at home searching for something from the Lord.  Patience is a divine virtue almost always required to receive something from the Lord.  have a good week all

always 

Elder smith