A Long Goodbye / The Best Week Ever

I would like to pay my quick respects to Max. He was a good dog with an occasional temper. Very loving and a little bit dainty. May he rest in peace. I know that families are eternal....and does that include pets? Just some food for thought.

This was an amazing week! So busy and full of miracles. We had three divisions this week as always and then on Saturday we had an ‘'Area Attack'' in Puerto San Jose. This is basically where we have the entire zone (10 missionaries) go to one area and do missionary work to find new investigators and work with the converts and more.  For this day, I was asked to teach several lessons to a young boy that was scheduled to be baptized.  That ended up taking a good chunk of the day.  As a Zone, we ended up finding many many prepared people. 

After the area attack we spent the rest of our day with a district leader to do SIX baptismal interviews. It was his first time doing interviews so he had to learn quick! It took the whole rest of the day. 

On Saturday night, we enjoyed our first baptism of the change and month (of Elder Guzman and I). His name is Jose Carlos. He is from another ward that we have responsibility for, and at the baptismal service we were blessed to find 3-4 additional people that are ready for the gospel.

Then came Sunday! That was a fun day. I will do my best to send the picture a little later but it was a blizzard! We had 13 people dressed in white!   Such a blessing to see 7 baptisms as a ward on Sunday, 5 of them were individuals that Elder Guzman and I were able to teach, and an additional two were 8 year olds that joined in this special day of white. It was such a wonderful service, and the ward really showed their support, and even brought a cake.  The power of Godliness was manifest! It was one of those unforgettable memories I will always carry from my mission. Neither Elder Guzman nor I had ever participated in a baptism of so many souls on one day or in one weekend.   The Lord is hastening His work here in this area.   As a Zone, we were blessed with more baptisms in September than we've had in a while.   

I am really loving the work. It is so wonderful and such a privilege to be here in Guatemala at this time. I don't ever want to leave.

Love you guys too. You guys are so wonderful and so supportive of me. Thank you for everything.

Elder Smith

Day of White

September 22, 2015 - Miracles

Wow wow wow what a week we had here. Full of interviews and divisions and drastic changes in the mission. But I am enjoying every second of it and loving the new responsibilities I have and the role I am trying my best to fill. As a mission we are trying to ''Get to the Next Level'' (love that example you gave dad about reaching 1 more inch) and the assistants came last Friday (unannounced) to do divisions with Elder G and I. It was a blast and they told us to plan a little talk for a zone meeting the following day. We got everyone together on Saturday morning and the assistants gave us a big gnarly wake up call. I don’t know if you guys knew this but last year our mission was the number 1 mission in all of Central America. Now we are number 3. Why? Its because we are moving slow. If you remember my first letters (a year ago!) I talked about walking super super fast all over the place. But as a mission our diligence and sacrifice in that aspect has gone way down, as well as our obedience with exactness. But the alarm has sounded and we are heeding the call. There are many new rules in place that I know will be a difficult for some to accept. But if the Lord needs me to change, I will do it. Trying to take the example of Nephi right now. ''As for me and my zone, we will serve the Lord''. Lovin it.

MIRACLES

For this Sunday we have planned (as a ward)..... NINE baptisms. 7 of those are ours, 2 from the ward. And we also have 1 or 2 from another ward that we cover. Elder Guzman and I are walking on water. 5 of those are a couple neighbor kids that are references from the Bishop. I learned that it is important to have a solid relationship with the bishop and to never ever ever criticize ward leadership. But I am really just loving this area because we are going to baptize more in one day than I have in the past 2 months combined. ONLY IN THE COAST!!!!

FUNNIES

It rains here. Hard. And when it rains, we travel in buses. Well, everyone and their dog travels in buses. So this past Thursday we were traveling from one appt. to another that was a little far away when it started to POUR. So we hopped in a bus with 300 other people. So I ended up hanging onto the door out side of the bus with my feet on the platform and every time the bus would stop I would get off to let people out. And on the second stop I stepped off the platform just in time to hear someone say ''watch out!'' and the next thing I know, I am waist high in a gutter. It was just one of those ''now what?'' moments and I just started to laugh along with the rest of the bus. Classic. I have problems here with falling in water if you haven’t noticed...

SPIRITUAL

Have you ever listened for the voice of Christ when you take the Sacrament on Sunday? Enos 1 verse 5.

Love you guys so much. How fun that KK and dad got to head up in the woods. Those pix made me jealous. Matt how awesome it is to hear that Kermit is back in action. Love that. MOM CONGRATS ON ANOTHER PRIMARY PROGRAM ACCOMPLISHED. Well done mother. Until next year! But schedule it so that I can come.....

Love

Elder Smith

September 15, 2015 - We Call it “Sweet”

I titled my letter like that because I am in Puerto San Jose right now with the district here and I have never sweat so much while writing in an Internet (cafe). Its known as the hottest area in the whole mission. Its killer. We attended the district meeting here with District San Jose and we will be having divisions today with the District Leader here. He was in my group in the CCM and he is great. I’ll be taking his companion an hour and a half back to my area and my companion will stay with him. Today is mas o menos insane because its Guatemala’s Independence Day. And when Guatemala parties...they party. Lets just say it took us 45 minutes to get out of Golondrinas because the streets weren’t passable. I love guate.

Well this last week was a blur. Monday was pday. Tuesday, zone training and divisions. Wednesday, divisions. Thursday we traveled to all the houses of the missionaries in the zone to do the house inspections. We were with Elder and Sister Fillmore, the mission's ''old couple''. It was such an enriching experience to spend time with them, so full of the spirit and have a wonderful marriage that shows in the way they spend time with one another and converse with one another. And they invited us to Taco Bell which was a small miracle. When we got home that day (at 4) we rounded up the members and our investigators to watch Meet the Mormons. I hadn’t seen that before, but mom I almost cried like you did when we saw the last part about the missionary and his mom. Friday, divisions. Saturday, baptismal interviews. Sunday, Sabbath day. It was a chockfull week (I worked in my own area for only 18 hours) but I felt the spirit guide every step. I loved working with the different missionaries in the zone and celebrate in their progress and successes (we baptized 6 this last week). It is quite different to what I am used to but I loved the new responsibilities and challenges that are before me.

Funnies

1. My companion lost the key again to our house (he lost it last week too). So we had to scale the wall again all Spiderman-like and break in. I’m sick of doing that so we changed the key and printed 2 copies. I am now the designated driver of the keys and we are now in good hands.
2. We were teaching a really old man and I prayed to start the lesson and he started to yell his own prayer in the middle of my prayer. Evangelicals have no respect for prayer ownership. 

Spirituals

1. I started (again) my 40-day purification fast. I need the spirit and I know how to get it. I am ready for miracles because I am ready to change. I gave up soda and some slang that we use in the mission that I don’t think is appropriate and to make my bed every morning (I want to go out when I get home dad!) along with lots and lots of stuff.
2. I learned this last week how to really pray. Cant explain it now. Maybe in a year or in another letter. We talk, but does He have time to answer? We need to remember our manners when we pray. 

I can't believe that in two days I’ll hit a year. Its surreal. I have seen ''real growth'' in my own person. I feel the spirit. I want to be obedient. But I want to find the next level. There isn’t much time left and I have a whole lot to do still. I know I’ll get there. Love you guys so much. Thank you for your love and support and for WHO YOU ARE. May we all be converted and when that is done (will it ever be?), may we strengthen our brethren. Love you so much and I’ll see you in a year.

Elder Smith

September 8, 2015 - Back to the COOOAAAASSSTTT!!!

Oh man how I’ve missed the coast. I am in la Zona Escuintla and specifically in the Golondrinas Ward. We cover 3 areas: Golondrinas 1 and 2 and the Ward El Esfuerzo. We have a giant hugely big area but I am loving it. It feels like coming home because the people are the exact same as they were when I was born in Santa Lucia. And its HOT. But as President Markham told me on my first day in the misión ''We don’t call it sweat, we call it sweet.'' So without doubt I will be sweating like a dog every day till Christmas. And maybe beyond.

Well like you saw mom and dad they called me as a zone leader.  I had an interview with President before the change meeting started and he told me that the Lord had called me to be a zone leader. My mind was going in loops because I didn’t feel I was prepared and I looked around me and saw dozens of competent and able elders to do the job. But I was immediately reassured by the Holy Spirit that the Lord trusted me to be able to do it and that He had been preparing me for a long long time. Basically being a zone leader is this: My companion and I are leaders of a zone of 18 missionaries. We do zone trainings (first one was today) and we have to do 3 divisions every week (that is when we Split up and one Elder comes to our area to work with me or my companion and then the other Elder goes to the other area to work). We also had a meeting with all the zone leaders and assistants in the house of pres and sis Markham. We ate these delicious pancakes and sloppy joes. It was great. 

My companion is so awesome. He is the funniest, most full of life, most touchy person I have ever met. His name is Elder Guzmán and he is my first companion from Nicaragua. He was my zone leader for 3 changes in Amatitlán so when they put us together last Wednesday we were super excited because we are already good buddies. He is a convert that is more converted than most born from the covenant members. He has so many skills and traits that he has developed and is a very very hard worker. I think I will be with him for 2 changes. Its going to be a blast. We already have a full on soccer tournament planned for the zone for our next pday that will be awesome.

Just a couple of funny’s:

1. My second day here I fell in a river. And it was dirty. Real dirty.

2. Elder Guzmán left the keys in the house one morning when we left to drop off our dirty clothes. End result: 3 angry neighbors, 2 used ladders, 1 frayed rope that Elder Smith used to scale down our patio, and one morning destroyed completely! It was frankly hilarious.

I love being a missionary in the best misión in the whole world. We have a ton of progressing investigators right now that are right there and prepared to be baptized. I feel so blessed to be where I am and serving my beloved Guatemaltecos and sweating my buns off in Escuintla. Have a good week my family, know that I always have you in my prayers.

Also grandma thank you sooooo much for the package. It was a wonderful welcome home present when I got home on Wednesday night! loved the Candy and the tie and the brownies were a hit!

Love,

Elder Jacob Freeman Smith