It has always been my goal to be a missionary and to be one right now is such a huge blessing

 Here is a picture of me getting tickled by this funny 8 year old who lives with our pencionista.

 Elder Manley and I singing "A Child's Prayer" 

for our Karaoke Ward Activity

Here is a picture of Gerardo (the boy on the right).  He is a member from Los Amautas ward in my last area.  He came to see me today since he leaves on his mission tomorrow! He is such a stud.

(Note from Elder Smith's Mom:  It's funny to me to see how much Jake has forgotten English. When he writes his letters, I can tell that he is thinking in Spanish and translating his thoughts to English because the sentence structure is written in Spanish form. Sometimes I change his grammar before adding it to his blog, but I've decided that it'll be much more fun for him and our family to look back on this and see his language skills go from learning Spanish, then mastering it and forgetting English little by little.)

My amazing family and friends

I can't even explain how fast these weeks are flying!!! It sometimes seems that Pday is everyday because of how the weeks fly. Especially this year!!! We are almost done with October and soon we will be able to talk on Christmas for our last time!! Ah!!!  I am excited for all that and I am also happy that I still have time to finish the work that I am doing because I know that I still have many things to complete and to accomplish.

You guys seemed like you had an amazing fall break! Just reading all of the fun memories made me tired and so I bet you are all tired of all that fun! But I am happy that you were able to spend time as a family!! I can't wait to get out golfing with dad! I dreamt that I went golfing this past week! I love the tender mercies haha. But thank you for being such a strong family.

Honestly it would be hard to live forever where I am living right now because there really isn't that much to do besides play soccer. We are so blessed to have all those fun things that we have in Utah and the beautiful place that we live in.

We had another great week! All the investigators are still progressing. They all want to get baptized, they are just having struggles doing it. Angeles and Noeli want to be baptized but have some family issues to take care of. This past week we explained more about following Christ and the blessing that we receive by living the gospel. They both said that they know the things are true. Also we had a ward activity this past Friday and they came. It was a karaoke night and they loved it. Elder Manley and I sang "A Childs Prayer" and everyone could feel the spirit. It was great! 

We taught Mari again. But she couldn't come to church because of work. But she wants us to keep teaching her. She is getting better from the tragedy that she went through and she thanked us for coming to her house. She also gave us thanks for coming to Peru and learning Spanish so that she could learn these things. She is such a sweetheart. 

We are also teaching a man named Gilberto. His nieces and cousins live in another part of the zone and they are also investigating the church and so we started to teach him and his daughter Lorena since they live in our area. They want to be baptized as well. They attended church yesterday so as long as they do their part, the Lord will help them. This past week we taught them and I was talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has blessed my life. I explained that I have grown so much closer to the Lord throughout my mission and how it has always been my goal to be a missionary and to be one right now is such a huge blessing for me. As I said these words, tears almost burst out of my eyes because I just felt how true it was. But I kept myself strong haha.

Well I love you guys. He loves you. Thank you for your prayers

Elder Smith