Quick Note

I got into internet late and the computer crashed, but the truth is I love you all and I know that the church is true. I have photos to send next week but have a great week!

Love,
Elder Smith :D

Mother's Day Video Call

This week has been excellent. It was really great talking with you guys yesterday. There's not much more to share for now. I was super glad to see all of you yesterday, and I hope you could see/hear me alright.

Last week we had a couple of training meetings with president and he shared a great message I'd like to share with you guys. He shared the story of the Brother of Jared, and focused on the events of building the ships and the when he saw 2 problems, no air and no light. He went to the Lord for the solution, something that he'd always done and likely expected the answers. While the Lord told him what to do for their problem with air, he asked the brother of Jared what he thought would be best to fix the light problem. He then added that He didn't want to hear anything about windows nor fire, because these weren't the ways the Lord wanted them to have light. It may have been the easy response for the brother of Jared to ask for, simply windows and fires, but the Lord wanted him to make a plan, carry it out, and ask Him to help make the final touch so to speak. And it turned out to be a really special spiritual experience for the brother of Jared.

The application to us begins with a self evaluation. How many times do we ask the Lord for a "windows and fires" solution to our problems? How can we work to have our own "16 stones" solution and ask the Lord to "touch" them? As a missionary, I have been trying more to plan more effectively to teach investigators and how we will find more. Not just ask the Lord to help them with their problems, but rather make good lesson plans, use members, and ask the Lord to bless the things we've done so that the investigator can overcome their difficulties.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and is at the head of this church. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that if we read it every day we'll build up a defense that will allow us to be strong against whatever the enemy has prepared for us.

Have a great week guys! Love you all.
Elder Smith
viva  PERÚ !!

Another small miracle

On top in Pro District

Today for P-day we went to a mini mountain in "Pro" (a district in Lima in the Los Olivos stake). It was awesome, the first time I've done something like this in a looooonng time :D

This week we had a really cool miracle. Yesterday we left a ward activity and we wanted to go visit a reference we'd received. It was in a part of the area we don't exactly go very often, but as we were walking by a house with a lot of people coming out. Right as we were passing by them 2 of the men said hi to us, one of them saying "Hi elders". I stopped in my tracks and we went and talked to them. Turned out to be a less active family, both parents are returned missionaries and the man's father lives with them and isn't a member. He is the probably one of the most hard-hearted of people because many missionaries have taught him before and he has never committed to do anything, but during the lesson he committed to read the Book of Mormon and go to church with the family this Sunday. That was an awesome miracle that helped me recognize the need to really talk to everyone. In this case, I think the Lord provided a tender mercy to allow us to help a family return to the church as well.

I know that if we do all that we can to follow the Spirit's promptings the first time we'll receive blessings and be sure that we are doing our part as member-missionaries. I love you all!!!

Elder Evan Smith

Stake Conference

Lunch with our convert

This week we had stake conference! I'd like to share a part of the message our mission president shared with the stake during conference.

Pres. Stauffer told the conversion story of his dad when he was a teenager. He started coming to church when a young mens counselor worried enough about him to bring him to church, and when he stopped coming months later, the bishop and the priests quorum had their class in his living room to support him. Having gone by many years, he served a mission and was sealed in the temple, as well has his 5 children and many grandchildren. The main takeaway was that really the influence of just one "angel" in the life of someone in need has tremendous effects that often we cannot see nor comprehend in the moment.

As our President invited us, I also invite you all to be an angel in the lives of 1 person this week that perhaps needs a little support or encouragement, and I promise you that they'll really be blessed in a way we can't understand.

Love you tons! Have a stupendous week!

Zone pic at the end of transfers

Following the first impression

This week has been so full of things to do and has flown by so fast! Something I wanted to share with you guys before I go is my testimony of the importance of following the Spirit, and following His impressions the first time.

This week we were looking for less-actives and we passed by a woman just standing outside. We felt like we should contact her and my companion led the contact. Turned out to be a really friendly family that really needs the happy message of the restored gospel. It was really just a small moment of something we did for someone we didn't know during the week, but it had an impact that perhaps we ourselves cannot envision and comprehend.

Love you all. Have a great week!

New Investigator and Baptismal Date

Really cool member family baptizing their 8-year-old

We had a really awesome miracle yesterday. A man in our ward came to us with a reference minutes before sacrament meeting started...his 2 sisters and sister and law came to church. One of his sisters and his sister in law aren't members and the other is less active. They had a great experience in church and we were able to teach his sister that is a non-member in the afternoon. Turns out that she had started going to church in Tacna (a province in Peru about 12 hours away) after going her whole life as the only non-member of her family and has avoided the missionaries at all cost. She surprised her family when she came back to Lima and said she wanted to come to church. Her main interest is the temple and eternal families.

During ward council the bishop had given us an assignment to teach the recent converts about the temple and family history, so I had thrown a couple of the new temple and family pamphlets into my scripture bag an hour before we went to the lesson yesterday. As we were about to start the lesson, part of me was ready to teach the Restoration like we normally teach new investigators, but I thought, this person has probably already heard this, she needs to know more about the temple. So I pulled out the new pamphlet I just happened to have and we tied in principles of the Restoration with a big focus on temples and eternal families. Her brother gave a really strong testimony and she accepted a baptismal date! This was a strong moment for me that showed that the hard work we're doing to discern the investigator's needs is paying off.

The "Prince of Peace" video is awesome. I hope you all have been able to see it. It is a powerful message that helps me remember the simple truths of the Lord's Atonement and how it can bless us individually with peace. I know that He lives.

Happy Easter!

Elder Evan Smith

Elder Diaz and I after a work visit

P-day with the zone after playing basketball and eating
"mostrito" (pollo a la brasa with chaufa and french fries...
all for 9 soles! (like $2.50😎)

Baptisms!

Our investigators that got baptized this last week!

Jeremy is the son of a family that recently got reactivated, and his dad is the new young mens president! His older brother baptized him as a practice for his mission he's preparing to serve later this year.

Noemi and Ariana are part of a part-member family and have been waiting to get baptized for a really long time but couldn't due to certain problems. Even though there were a few sudden, last-minute trials, nothing proved stronger than their conviction to follow Christ.

Our district P-day today...we played water balloon volleyball and ate completos - hot dogs with avocado and tomato hehe.

P-day playtime: water-balloon volleyball and
completos (hot dog with avocado and tomato)