86 YEARS OLD AND FINDING TRUTH

Sorry i dont have much time this week to write but these pics are a couple from my time with portocarrero with menos activos we brought back to church.

                                                             Our pensionista

and the baptism of this 86 year old lady....The 86 year old women is maria.  She absolutly rocks.  She gets to church an hour and half early every sunday while we are still in ward council...

She is the bomb digity.  I love you sooo much mom

Elder Smith

THE WAY YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE

Bueno... all is well in iquitos.  I have a new companion named Elder Jimenez.  He is from Columbia.  Im not sure what language they speak in columbia but it certainly is not spanish.  hes the only columbian in the mission and even the latinos struggle to understand him... so just imagine us gringitos. jaja but its all good im starting to understand him more and more every day.  Hes super rad and a crazy good soccer player.  Last monday after i wrote home i went back to the michigan state clinic down here in iquitos to translate.  This time i was in dermatology for half the time and in pediatrics after.  In dermatology i saw some nasty stuff...  Ayaya everyones skin and nails just goes bad when you sweat a ton and your in the sun all day.  One girl had a huge cyst behind her ear and the doc used all this fancy termonolgy to say that they were going to surgically remove it and was just like "wulp ya they gonna cut the thing off right here right now" haha she was a little frightened but i told her she wouldnt feel a thing and they were going to take her to the little surgery room.  Then i went over to pediatrics and literally every person came in with the exact same story.  "My kid wont eat anything!" carumbus.  we gave everyone vitamines and all was good.  Except for one baby who had a gnarly hernia.  And it was like coming out of her belly button.  That was pretty interesting.  But hey all was a good expierence.  One of the students commented to me that the head doctor that he works for in michigan is mormom and has a big family and that there all "Just such good people"  People see the way you live your life! i promise, Be an example of the believers.  Do good in the world today

Siempre

Elder Smith

BE A SHIBLON

Ok super cool week with a bunch of cool stuff.  First I have this investigator who is entering into the marines.  His name is socrates.  Hes still not baptized because being a marine has limited him from attending church.  Anyways 2 weeks ago he had an awesome experience.  He was standing at attention in line with all of class or promotion or whatever you call it waiting to go to lunch when there sargent called out "who here is catholic?" and about half of the kids stepped foward.  Then, "where are the evangelicals?" and another big group stepped forward. "Protestants?" some more kids.  "Any mormons here?" And socrates stepped forward.  He said his sargent stared at him for a while, smirked a little and said "he will say the prayer over the food"  I was so pumped about this story when socrates told us.  Sounds familiar?? The talk the profet gave about his time in the Navy? Theres a cool mormon message about it that i showed socrates and was stoked to see it.

I got a letter form Grandma this week and heard the family is growing.  Nikki and Rachel both had kids??? whaaaaatt! awesome thankyou for the letter grandma.

Also yesterday i got to do something awesome.  Pay attention please Andrew Kent Smith.  Yesterday a  clinic of about 40 med school students from michigan state university came down to iquitos to treat everybody who needs help in iquitos as fast as they can.  Only problem was that nobody spoke spanish except for like one or two doctors.  But never fear there was a mormon boy is this group of students who had the bright idea to call the mission president in iquitos Peru.  Thats right me and like 7 or 8 other missionaries got to go to the clinic and translate for the doctors yesterday. And were doing it again today!  I was in the part of the clinic that delt with eyes, ears, nose and throat.  all things sinus.  I was with one doctor and 2 med students and was translating for all of them all the same time.  It was so cool we treated like 60 people in 3 hours.  And the doctor let me take a look in the peoples ears and look at there tonsils and stuff.  It was super rad.  Except for that it was so confusing.  Before we started the doctor explained everything to the students.  They were like 3rd and 4th year med students but he was basically just quizing them about all things mouth eyes nose and ears.  Ive never heard so many medical terms so fast in life.  I was seriously just like wulp im never going to become a doctor because that is just way too much to learn and we were only talking about a little part of the body.  Ayaya im so happy i get to stay away from college for two years.  It scares me.  Anyways a little about my personal study this week.  I read a talk this week called truly good and without deceit ( ithink would be the translation) it was a talk about good people who magnify there calling and dont look for anything in return.  He talked about Shiblon. (Shiblon is a missionary in the Book of Mormon that suffers great persecution and continues to serve his people.) it made me think about the Shiblons i know in my life and made me want to be like him.  One shiblon i remember in my life was my sophmore year seminay teacher Brother Sanford.  Theres a lot of shiblons i know that i want to go back and thank.  One day i hope to talk to all them again.  Be a Shiblon!

Always 

Elder Smith

ONE DAY AT A TIME

We have pension for breakfast lunch and dinner.  A lot of chicken and alot of rice.  Thats pretty much all i got to say about that.  Ive learned how to make juanes, tacacho, and some other things.  You guys should make tacacho one night as a fam.  Its fried plantains smooshed oiled and then rolled into balls.  I love them.  Tell uncle david my comp was stressing out during a lesson we had in the water cuz he was certain the noise under the house was of a mother crocodile.  Haha im pretty sure it was just a frog but i dont know any difference.  My knees busted but its ok i can still have fun.  Right now i live with four missionaries including the zone leaders... but theyre super rad.   Were all just learning one day at a time.   say hi to coach lee for me. sorry i didnt have much time to write but i absolutly love you mom!   Love Love Love.

Elder Smith