Elder Jacob F Smith: May 21, 2015 -Baptism!

Surprise! Writing on Monday like a regular missionary! Zona Amatitlan decided to switch it up a little bit and go to the Safari in Escuintla tomorrow, so we had district meeting and Internet today. It’s weird stuff to write on Monday so we will see how this goes. My mind and body says its p-day and time to rest a little bit but that’s not the case today!

This week was awesome. Everything is sunny when there is a baptism at the end of the week. Makes everything so worth it. There is something about being able to see someone take that huge step through the door of baptism that never gets old. I wish everyone could feel that. I think if the members caught a better vision of that, we would WANT and even thirst to invite our friends and family that are not members. It is a beautiful thing. I read an article titled the ''Challenging and Testifying Missionary'' that was written like 50 years ago and the theme was to basically be the kind of missionary (or member) that invites everyone to be baptized and testifies of the truth of the message in such a way that the Spirit helps them make the decision. I am at a point (or maybe I’ve done it so many times) that there is absolutely no fear in inviting someone to be baptized on a specific date. Even if it is in a first lesson talking to someone through a window in their door. So many miracles have come from doing that, one of them including an increase in my own faith. Well anyways the guy that got baptized is hermano Mario. He is the little brother of the kid I baptized 2 weeks ago. He has tons of family that are members so he has the support system and everything to be able to live this Gospel.

This has been a fun change. I love the area, the members, the awesome investigators, and my companion. Elder Duran is incredible, so humble and obedient and quick to learn. For being a new missionary, he can do so many things that I couldn’t do when I started. For one of them is speak Spanish, but he’s Latino and that doesn’t count. He is super sensitive to the spirit and helps people with their needs. It seems like all of our investigators have some kind of addiction to overcome or some major challenge, so he came at the perfect time. Just a testament that the Lord knows who he wants in a certain place and he puts them there at the perfect time. Wherever we are or with any calling, we can be certain that we are where we are supposed to be to learn what we need to learn in that specific time...even though its hard. Mom I remember when you became the teacher of Gospel Doctrine and you being worried and nervous but then just developing all your talents and being the #1 Gospel Doctrine teacher in all the world. I love that example.

Well I don’t know what else to write now. Other than that it is raining a bunch here. And it is rain like I have never seen before. And lightning too. The lightning storms here are terrific. It turns into daytime. But I use the coat and everything’s perfect. Maybe if you could look for one of those jackets that can fold into its own zipper? Like a super lightweight one. That’d be sweet. And the district is doing well too. We have baptized every week since April and things are rolling. This Sunday we have something that’s called a Dia Blanco where all the people that will be baptized in the whole stake go to the stake center to be baptized. Like the waters of Mormon! We are expecting something like 40 baptisms this Sunday so that will be quite the picture! That is going to be awesome. And tomorrow we will be going to a safari. Our zone leaders have something with the animals because last change we went to the zoo...someone just wants to pet a lion. Well sorry I couldn’t tell you guys I would be writing today so you could’ve written me yesterday.

Love you guys so much! Hope you enjoyed Santa Cruz! Was thinking about that a little bit!

Love,

Elder Smith