We must learn to be grateful

Hello Friends and Family!
Today my District went to a museum here in Chiclayo. Way fun!

 

 

I am so happy to hear that you guys all enjoyed General Conference! I sure missed our tradition of breakfast once again as I ate my scrambled eggs with bread just like I have every morning. But seriously conference was amazing. I could sit here and write all about it, but as we all know...the schedule of a missionary is crazy and we don't have that much time. My favorite talk would have to be by Elder Uchtdorf in the Sunday Morning Session when he talked about gratitude. I feel I could apply that a little bit more in my life. He said if we want to have an amazing life full of beauty and joy, we must learn to be grateful. He invited us all to live Thanksgiving daily. As I have been in this area, Jose Olaya, it has been hard, we didn't have a baptism this past change, and I have been a little hard on myself through doubts. However, I have been sooo grateful and blessed in this area. My testimony about turning to the Lord and being humble has really helped me grow. Anyway, that was my favorite talk of conference. It was such a great experience. 

Speaking of conference, I couldn't see the first 30 minutes of the Saturday Morning Session, because being in Peru, no one showed up at 11 to watch it and by the time the leaders came at 11:15, and tried to hook up the projector, it didn't work and there was no connection. My companion told me that we should go to a different chapel just 10 minutes away, but we were expecting investigators and I told him that I felt we should stay. Around 11:25, 6 investigators came to watch it and there was still no connection. We decided to say a prayer and sure enough, 2 minutes later or less, the conference came on!

For the afternoon session, the gringos and I watched it in an office upstairs, as you can tell by the pictures. But ya...I didn't hear Holland's talk...bummer.

This is a view of what my area in Chiclayo looks like

So here is a funny/scary story. Mom as I told you last week in my email, that there are some parts here that are dangerous, but nothing ever happens. Well, about 3 hours after emails last week, something happened!! Haha. We were walking down a street and there is this corner where a bunch of drunk dudes always drink, but they never do anything to us so we usually pass by them pretty close.  But this time, I had an impression to walk more in the street away from them. Oh and by the way, we can't avoid them because an investigator lives 1 house down from where they were. Anyways I told Elder Supayabe to walk closer to me and he did and as we were walking passed them they said, "Hey Hermanos!" and we said, "Hello how are you guys" but we kept on walking. However, as we kept walking, so did they. They started to walk behind us. I looked back and noticed they were walking pretty fast so I kind of pushed my companion on the shoulder to walk faster as well and we were walking pretty fast and out of nowhere they started booking it towards us and we looked back and I thought I saw a knife in one of their hands and so we ran sooooo freaking fast I can't even explain it! I felt like Reggie Bush hauling for a touchdown haha!! I don't think I have run that fast in my whole life! Thankfully they stopped because we ran too fast and I think that they were way too drunk. But nothing happened so we are okay (:

Probably not the greatest name for crackers....

More on the spiritual side, we set up a baptismal date with Laura for the 19th of this month! She really wants to get baptized and she attended 2 sessions of General Conference. We are sooo stoked because we have been working so hard to get success. This area is quite difficult. We tracked the other day and we knocked and talked to about 30 people and not 1 let us in the house. Half of them just slammed the door in our faces and screamed, "I am catholic!!!"The people sometimes don't understand that we don't want to change their beliefs in Jesus Christ; we want to increase it and make it more beautiful. I can't describe to you all how strong my testimony is right now of this wonderful true church. My knowledge has increased as well as my testimony and love for the Savior. I invite all you guys to read and ponder the talks of the living prophets as well of the old prophets. It has helped me soo much to read the Book of Mormon. I love this church and I love Him.

I love you all. He loves you.

Elder Smith