Transfers...New Companion!

My last day with Elder Vidal

This week I had some powerful spiritual experiences. On Wednesday, Elder Christenson (Presidency of the Seventy) and Elder Godoy (President of the Area) came to visit our mission. They shared very good talks. One of my favorite points from what Elder Christenson said is how our daily scripture study can have effect in our lives. I understood that while many times we may feel that our study time is filled with goals to read x number of pages of the book of mormon or from preach my gospel, we need to remember that the fundamental principle of personal study is to connect ourselves with heaven and receive divine revelation, and this requires preparation. I hadn't thought of the importance of this before, but I now understand more the need to prepare for my studies.

This week Elder Vidal had transfers. It was sad to see him go, but he's an awesome missionary. My new companion is Elder Diaz! He's from Huaraz, Peru. On Thursday we had some crazy spiritual experiences back to back. We had like 3 appointments that we were going to that I was so certain we would teach, but every single one fell through. We exhausted our plan B's and plan C's, and even our plan d's. I felt a little confused, but a member family popped into my head. We knocked on their door but they weren't home. Then I remembered that their next door neighbors are less actives. The 20 year old son was home watching the Peru soccer game, but oddly he let us in and turned off the game to let us teach ( 😮  I thought this guy was crazy, nobody does that here...). We taught a short but powerful lesson. It was cool because he said he'd gone to church a lot as a kid and went to seminary and everything. He ran to pull out his book of mormon that had a book cover and everything was marked. Elder Diaz said something that inspired me as well.
He asked, "Did you have it planned out today that the elders were going to come by to visit you?"
"No."
"Well, the Lord did. That's why we're here, because the Lord needs you."

It was awesome. But that's not the end of it. Leaving that lesson, we were going to contact as we made our way to our next plans, and I recognized a family that we'd contacted months ago, that I thought were members less active. Turned out to be that the dad isn't a member yet and he was really excited to let us come back another day. While we were talking to them, a man came up to us and asked where the church was because he's a returned missionary from another part of peru but had just moved to the area. And, his family aren't members either. So we jotted all that information down. Walking another couple blocks there was a young woman in her 20s walking into her apartment that exclaimed from across the street, "Hey are you elders from the Huandoy ward?!" She turned out to be a less active member as well that had moved away years ago but had just moved back last week and also has family members that aren't members.

In short, I truly testify to you guys that the Lord really DOES put prepared people in our path. Sometimes they'll come to us, other times we'll be guided to them. But if we open our mouths we'll find the ones that the Lord is preparing to hear His gospel.

I love the mission so much!

Love you all a ton as well. Have a great week! :D

Elder Smith

The Huaman family, our pensionista (They're the best!)

Two future missionaries in the ward