Half Way!
Pretty long week for me! But at
least like you said, I will hit a year this week! It is kind of crazy for me to
think that. But yeah, same here, it has gone by slow but fast at the same time!
Well this Thursday I am going to be with my zone leader from Mexico on splits
for my 1 year mark. But not planning on doing anything too special. I'm going
to just burn a shirt for tradition. I never burned a tie for my 6 month mark so
I am going to do that as well!
That is so sweet that you guys ate
at Se Llama Peru. That is where Logan and I ate like a month before I left and I
ate that same plate that you ate mom. It is called Lomo Soltado and it is
probably my favorite dish here. But here...it is served with WAY more rice!
Also yeah I remember Elder Monton! He is way cool and it is crazy to think I
met him like 5 months ago when Elder Nelson came. He ended his mission in
December. I didn't know him that well but he seemed really cool. So crazy that
you ran into all those Chiclayo RM's at the restaurant.
My new companion is named Elder
Supayabe. He has 9 months on his mission and he is from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. He
first served in Bolivia as he waited for his visa and you know who he met?
Brandon Sehestedt! He was his District Leader! Crazy right? Haha I was like,
"Hey did you ever meet an Elder Sehestedt?" And he was like,
"YES! He was my District Leader!" We pretty much decided that it was
him since there aren't many people with the same last name as that. Well anyway
he served in Boliva for around 4 months and then got his visa to Venezuela
because that was the mission he was called to. But as you guys may know...they
took out all the missionaries in Venezuela because it got way too dangerous. He
told me that he got robbed like every other day and sometimes at gunpoint. The
Elders that had 18 months or more just got sent home and the Elders with less time
got sent to different missions. Here in our mission, we received 8 of them. He
is pretty cool though.
Things here, well there is still a
lot of work to get done. Yesterday was a crazy day. We talked to the Dad of
Samantha. Earlier in the week we were talking with Samantha and she told us
that if her dad supported her in this decision, then she would get baptized.
She is 20 years old, and doesn't need permission, but she wants her dads
support. So yesterday we found him and started talking to him about the
decision and desire that Samantha wants to take. Elder Supayabe doesn't really
talk at all so it was a little difficult because when we need to talk to
parents, it is good if the 2 missionaries are talking 1 at a time baring
testimony and things. So I pretty much talked to him by myself and well...he
basically said that it is her decision, but the Dad wants her to be more
prepared. We still haven't talked to Samantha yet to explain to her what
happened. But we really hope that she will get baptized this week, if not the
next.
Yesterday at night we also found the
Dad of Angel. He is the boy that I said that has attended church for like 6
months straight and has always wanted to get baptized but the missionaries
never really got to their house to talk with the dad. Yesterday for the 1st
time since I have been here, we found him! First we knocked on the door and on
the door there is this little window that gets opened and so one of Angels
sisters who is like 25 opened the little window and she told us that the Dad
was busy and couldn't talk (like everybody here in Chiclayo) and she told us to
come back a different day. But I had a thought come to my mind that told me
that I needed to get in that house now because it is way too hard to find the
Dad. So I tried to talk with her saying that we really needed to talk to him
but she said, no a different day. However I saw the Dad in the house and he was
eating so I just decided to talk to him haha. I was like hey sir we are the
missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we need to
talk to you about your son. He finally said yes and we got in. As I said
before, Elder Supayabe doesn't really talk so it was just the Dad and I
talking. I explained to him that his son wants to follow Jesus Christ and be
baptized in His church. That he has been attending church for 6 months straight
and he is very prepared to get baptized. I then asked him why it is important
for us to get baptized and he didn't even know so I explained to him that it is
necessary to get back to our Heavenly Father. Finally we asked him if he would
support his son so he could get baptized. He told us it is not up to me, it is
up to his mother and she gets here in April. We tried to explain to him that we
just needed one signature, not two but he didn't really care. So in April we
will go back and try to talk with the Mom. It was kind of a bummer, but at
least we talked to his parents. I hope that that story made sense haha if it didn't,
well I am sorry, I will explain it when we talk in person in like a year
because there is more to the story haha.
Man here in Chiclayo it is sooooo
dusty it is insane and it is pretty windy and so there are little dust clouds
that come right at you and you have to cover yourself fast or you eat dirt and
you get it in your eyes. I got the contact solution last week and so that has
helped me haha so thank you so much for that!
We have worked really well this past
week and have received pretty good referrals. It is just going to take a lot of
work for all of it to get to a baptism. But really we are working really well
and so I am pleased.
I am happy that you had a good
birthday mother! I wish I could have been there for it but thank you for the
pictures and I hope everything that you ate was delicious. If it doesn't taste
good, just be grateful you don't eat a mountain of rice everyday (;
Allison congrats on your dance
competition! That sounds sooo legit! Way to be for ranking so high in the
nation! That's what's up!
Well I took pretty cool pictures but
you guys are going to have to forgive me because I forgot my card to hook it up
to the computer. But maybe I will do it later, I am not sure.
I love you. He loves you
Elder Smith
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