Well Familia,
I am in Rio Santiago, Santa Lucia, Zona Costa! When Presidente Markham told me the Coast was my place I was like yes the ocean! It was not to be. We are pretty far inland, about 2.5 hours from the ocean. And it is hot, hot, hot. It has been a struggle to adjust to that.
I’ll just give a quick overview. The ending of the CCM was excellent. We sang our song a ton of times, once even for a nonmember group of people that was visiting the CCM for some reason. Everyone cried. Then we sang it for the Nortes. Everyone cried. It was an awesome experience! On Tuesday we all woke up super early and said goodbye to all that were leaving. Almost my whole district headed off for Coban at 6 am. Presidente Markham, Sister Markham, and the APs came and greeted us and had a little meeting in the CCM. Then we went to his apartment in the city to have some training and lunch. I told them that Steve and Cynthia were my family and they were so excited to hear that! They remember them fondly. Then at 3 I think we went and did splits with some of the mission leaders. I went with Elder Clause. It was fun. We went and taught lessons, contacted, did everything that missionary’s do. I felt like the real deal. I found out that I can get across almost everything I want in terms of Gospel discussions, but normal conversations I am of no use! I am being patient though. The Gospel is what matters is what I tell myself. Something that shocked me was how fast we walk the Guatemala City Central Mission. They are all Olympic speed walkers; it is insane. So I was sore that night to the max. We finished that day, went back to the apartment and they surprised us with pizza. Yum. Then the real thing began.
We woke up at 4 in the morning to head to the Changes Meeting to meet our comps and find out where we would be going. My companions name is Elder Raudales from Comoyaguela, Honduras. He has 21 months in the mission so I will be killing “my dad”. They call all the trainers “fathers” and the trainees “sons or daughters”. Its a little humiliating but I am over it. Elder Raudales is a machine. When they were calling our names to call us together, we both stood up and he made that motion with his hand over his neck like slitting his throat like....get ready you’re going to die. And die I have! It has been so hard. I have never sweat or been so tired in my entire life.
Our days go like this. Wake up at 5:30am, exercise, shower, get ready, personal study, 2 hrs. of comp study, and then 1 hour of language study. If we don’t have another meeting or training, we then go out and eat lunch till 1 or 2. Then we go be missionaries! Our mission goal for this month is a hefty one...400!! They tried it earlier this year and it didn’t work out so they really psyched us up for this one. And Elder Raudales and I are working so hard! Its discouraging at times because I have no idea what’s going on or what people are saying to me but I’m trying really hard to keep my head up and be optimistic!
I am learning to work hard. I am learning to forget myself and do the work. I am learning to defeat the thoughts that the Adversary brings that I cant do the work that I am supposed to do here. I am learning to love people and see them as people that can and will enter the waters of baptism. I am learning to be patient with myself. I am learning how to teach. I am learning that at a beginning of a mission, you are going to fail the whole day but I need to be able to learn and be patient. The Lord is humbling me. And it hurts! But after the refiners fire comes His blessings. A theme of this mission is "You are going to suffer" and I thought to myself at the beginning...yeah right! But it’s true. And that is why we are here, to endure to the end and bring souls to Christ along the way.
Please pray for my investigators, Yenmi, Stephen, Jonathon, and the Familia Pelen. We only have one confirmed baptismal date and we need 5 others in this next week or two to accomplish our goal! So these next two weeks will be nonstop pain but I will endure it well and do what I need to do!
I will learn how to send pics better next week and send more! I love you guys so much and thank you for your kind words and everything that you are all about.
Elder Smith
My first area
Meeting new missionaries in the mission home
Our shower
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