Peruvian Birthday Celebration, BBQ "Service" Project

It was a Happy Birthday indeed!

It has been an awesome week. I got some sweet new ties for my birthday, ate german pancakes, peach cobbler (microwave edition), and had a surprise party in the church in the evening. Boy what a surprise. I walked into a room with a blindfold and left covered in eggs and flour and glitter. But my companion reassures me this is how peruanos celebrate birthdays and the ward really does love me.

We also did the funnest service project ever for a family of investigators. They sell barbeque food at the market and they had a huge order to fill and asked us to help, so I helped prep the spicy sauce and grill the chicken and pork. The nice thing is that when you do service helping at a barbeque, you get free barbeque too.

My companion and I also decided to start English classes in the church on saturdays, and the first week wasnt so good attendance wise, but last week we had a decent turnout and I taught how to pray in English, and we learned how to sing "Jesus Said Love Everyone".

I am really enjoying my mission and I love serving others. I testify that this is the true gospel, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It is by His Atonement we can be saved.

I love you all. Have a great week.

Elder Evan Smith

Interviews with Mission President

Monday we had to go Huacho for interviews with president, and my companion and I went to the doctor to get our ingrown toenails taken care of, and after a nightmare of waiting and misunderstandings, turned out that the doctor wasn't in. So we went yesterday and didn't get back until late. It our P-day because of travel to get to interview, but I got some new sweet ties and found a decent hamburger joint in the mall in Barranca. A nice change from arroz con pollo, but I felt like it was missing something...the arroz con pollo!

Finding a new family

Here's a photo of us when we played fútbol today on
the grass field! (a rare find in the deserty coast of Perú)

Wow, here is August.

This last week, we had a pretty cool experience. We have been giving away the youth messages that come in the Liahona magazines that are collected up in our room, like the full page ad style messages with a quote and image or something, and using that as a way to contact people and teach them.

We were in a part called Atusparia looking for where one of our street contacts lived to give them one of these messages, and we asked for directions from this one nice family that was sitting outside on the porch peeling, separating, or whatever you do to prepare green onions. They were super nice, and sent one of their family members to guide us to the right house. Turned out that the person was busy, so after we set an appointment we turned away to move on when I stopped a moment.

During this time that we were talking briefly with this family and walking away, I felt like we should contact them and give them one of these messages. We were a little far away from them, and I thought it might be awkward to reappear in their porch having just been guided away from there, but I thought, what the heck, if we end up teaching them it's worth it. They were really interested in the message that was about the family, and I gave them a Family Proclamation too. We talked a little more and they let us share the message of the Restoration and they accepted a baptismal date.

I testify that this is the Lord's work and that it is super important to follow the Spirit's promptings the FIRST time we receive them. I love you all. Hope you have a great week.

New investigators, a week full of miracles

My new fuzzy hat

Well this week was awesome. We found a lot of new investigators to teach. Wednesday in the evening, we were doing one of our finding ways, singing hymns to families. In particular, we knocked on one door and sung to a family "Families Can Be Together Forever". They let us in to teach them a little more and we taught the Restoration and they accepted a baptismal date for 20 Agosto! They have 3 Aaronic Priesthood age boys, so this could be a huge help to our quorums.

The other Elders in our barrio had a baptism on Saturday, and we invited one of our conversos to bring her family and they were really interested and we got to go visit them on Sunday and they too are interested in the gospel and how to help their family.

In short, it was a week full of miracles and tender mercies for us.

On the subject of food, I did eat a super great lunch today. If you guys feel in the mood for some popular Peruano food, look up papa a la huancaina con arroz con pollo. Also, something to try for dad, my companion, who is from northern Peru, and apparantly the crazy side, has suggested that I try my spagetti with banana. It really isnt so bad. He also had me try chaufa (fried rice) with banana and also not so bad. Sounds like a dish for dad.

I love you all a bunch. Sounds like a fun High Adventure (Dad & Marty) and I cant wait to hear about trek (Catherine & Carson)!

Elder Evan Smith

Investigator's superman puppy

Teaching with a member

This week we have been teaching the Familia Huertas, and focusing more with them to help them keep the Sabbath day holy. They always work on Sundays to have enough money to provide for their family, but we had brought our converso reciente with us to this lesson and he testified of the truth that our Padre Celestial really does bless us when we obey his commandments. He is a mototaxista and said that he works hard during the week to earn money and has enough to eat and help provide for his family too. He doesn't take out the taxi on Sundays but his friends sometimes call him a fool and other names and say how they've made double because of all the people there are on Sundays. Even though it was hard to hear that, Hno. Guerrero said that he has never lacked food to eat. It was such a perfect teaching moment when having a member's testimony really brought home the lesson and the investigators could feel it.

I hope you guys have the opportunities to go out with the missionaries often. I personally testify of the miracles and effects that a testimony from someone with more life experience than a 18 year old missionary has.

I love you all. Let me know if you have any questions or something you want me to share with you.

Elder Evan Smith

New Mission President!

This last week we got to know our new mission president, Pres. Stauffer! He is the best. The work keeps moving along. In our meeting with President, he focused a lot on a few principles. In John 14:15 it says "If ye love me, keep my commandments." And there is a lot of truth in this sort little scripture. It's hard to love the Savior if you don't know Him very well, and that's why it's so important to repent and accept His Atonement in our lives, to let Him change and heal us. When we feel His love this way, it provides a strong source for us to keep His commandments, because we really love Him! And with that kind of love we can feel, it is so important to repent every day.

This goes well with 2 Nefi 25:26. The actions found in this scripture apply well in the missionary life, but in normal lifestyle too. As we feel the Saviors Atonement we are able to rejoice in Him.

This week we have been working with our current investigators to help them get baptized and we found more people to teach too. More specifically we found a family that really likes having us come teach them and they accepted the invitation to be baptized, but they work on Sundays. It was a great opportunity for us to listen carefully to them and the Spirit and teach about faith and the importance of prayer.

I love being a missionary.

I love you all. I hope you've all had a great week.

4th of July

 Happy 4th of July

I actually forgot it was 4th of July until my Peruvian companion reminded me this morning.

Today to celebrate our holiday p-day we got together as a zone and played futbolito, volleyball, and ate "completos" (a Chilean food...)

It was the best week this past week we've had in a while. We have some new families in our teaching pool, and one of them came to church last Sunday. We have a new mission president as of 2 days ago which is a pretty big change, but from what we've heard from our leaders already is that he is awesome.

Last Tuesday, as we were waking up to the alarm going off on our cell phone, I picked it up, having forgotten that it was plugged in on our mesita charging (I just woke up...) and it fell and broke. And it was a Nokia indestructible brick phone! It's only a little inconvenient that now whenever we want to call we have to look for a public payphone. I'm still figuring out the spiritual lesson I'm supposed to learn from this experience.

The weather this last week has gotten a little warmer, which is strange because we are in the middle of winter.

I tried a new kind of food from our pensionista, chanfainita. Because it sounds like chaufa, which is fried rice with chicken, I thought I'd love it. All I can say it is nothing like chaufa, unless the recipe was changed to include cow lung and cow heart. It was good.

We were teaching a family the other day and the father was expressing his concerns for his recently lost job and his rebelious 12-year-old daughter and how he can improve his family. He was asking us for counsel, and it was a really great opportunity to bear my testimony of the blessings of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to have grown up in a family active in His gospel and now I have a perfect knowledge of those blessings.

I love you all very much.
Have an awesome week

 PERÚ 

Elder Evan Smith