End of Transfer 3 In Santiago

This transfer flew by and I am anxious anxious anxious to find out whats going to happen in this coming transfer.  This last transfer has been easily the hardest on the mish so far but in the last couple weeks I have seen a change in the branch here and it seems like we are finding more and more people who are so obviously prepared for the gospel.  Our district is working hard and gaining the trust of the members and we have a pretty good time together.  We will find out transfers tomorrow morning and I have been praying all week that I will get to stay one more transfer here in Santiago.  Obviously I will go wherever I´m needed but I have come to love the members and our investigators and I am going to be a little sad when I have to leave.
 

Speaking of investigators- so the kid that we contacted 3 weeks ago who showed up to church with his cousins?  we went and taught them on tuesday and they are the cutest family ever. About 10 years ago the mom and her oldest daughter had listened to missionaries and loved it but with school and work somehow they got busy and lost touch with the elders.  K is 15 and doesnt remember the missionaries but she shares the same love for the gospel.  When we showed up her first question was ¨what do I have to do to get baptized?¨ and when we started teaching she knew all of the answers because she had already read and highlighted a whole bunch of chapters from the gospel principles book.  She came to church again yesterday and because she wants to be able to go to the temple with the branch on saturday her baptism is scheduled for this Wednesday!  Her mom and sister need a little more time before they get baptized but her mom is already talking about what amazing missionaries her daughters are going to be.  K is AMAZING and I am so stoked about the idea that I get to go to the temple with her this week and that maybe in a few years I will get to write her while she is on her own mission.  My testimony about missionary work grows every single day and I have come to realize that it is all Him.  I work as hard as I can so that when the Lord places the people he has prepared in my path I will be ready and worthy to help them come unto Him.  Pretty awesome job amiright?

I cant remember if I told you about the references yet...anyway a few weeks ago we contacted a very very catholic house and they were not interested at all but they gave us two references.  One was the less active from Honduras that we are working with.  This week we finally were able contact the other reference and it is the cutest couple ever.  They are evangelicos and they moved to Panama from Venezuela about 2 months ago and they are just the nicest.  We had a pretty intense lesson about the restoration because he knows the bible really well and wanted bible proof about everything, but he had really honest, good questions.  I have been studying the bible a lot so that I can be ready to answer his questions the next time we go.  We came out of the lesson and both of us just said how much we need to prepare ourselves more to help him because if we can help him find his answer he will be an amazing bishop someday.  I might just reach my goal of baptizing a future stake president!

My tender mercy this week came in the form of Diablo the rotweiler.  We taught this amazing family and they have a giant rotweiler named Diablo.  I was a little nervous at first but it turns out he's like Wilbur just bigger!  He just wanted some love and he had his head on my lap the whole lesson haha but my comp is mortified of dogs and he tried to put his paw on her lap and she fell backwards off of her chair she was so scared haha!  She kept telling me he was gonna bite me but it was seriously the highlight of my week and made me super homesick for my boy Wilbur!

There are some really hard moments on the mission (sometimes hours) but the days are good, the weeks are good, the mission is good!  

Keep looking for miracles and read your scriptures!!

Love love love,

Hermana Smith

Birthdays, Zoos, and Lots and Lots of Miracles

This week has been really really good.  It rained a lot.  Like so much.  Yesterday we got caught in some crazy fuerte rain and I was drenched!  And all of the houses have metal roofs so when it starts to rain you have to yell to be heard and then it will ease up and you realize you are screaming so you feel awkward and go back to normal but then it starts all over again.  

On Tuesdays we have our usual district meeting and correlation and this week we took our super super old ward mission leader out visiting with us.  Turns out that that was exactly what needed to happen!  We have a family that we have been teaching since February and they are progressing but very slowly.  About 30 years ago he talked with some elders and almost got baptized but not quite.  When we brought Hno O to their house he recognized him from 30 years ago when he went to church (Hno Obando is pretty unforgetable).  We had a really awesome lesson about the spirit and without any real prompting from us this investigator told us this analogy about a man who is drowning and he prays to God ¨save me¨ and then a plane drives right by him but he does nothing.  He prays to god ¨save me¨ and then a boat goes right by but he does nothing and then he drowns and when he gets to heaven he asks God ¨why didnt you save me!?¨   Then he said that he missed the plane 30 years ago but that he wasnt going to miss the boat this time and that he thinks its about time he was a latter-day saint.  WHAT?!  I just about cried I was so happy and just shocked.  We are so happy and so excited to help this family prepare for baptism!

That was our big miracle for this week and could we really ask for any more?

Saturday was my comps birthday but one of our elders was going on divisions saturday so we had a little surprise party on friday night.  When your comp is the only one in the whole district who doesn't understand english it is way too easy to plan surprises.  The cakes here are all really not that good so we splurged on a real ice cream cake from dairy queen and it was totally worth it!  The rest of the birthday celebrations were fun!  Saturday was actually another really good day.  I taught english class which I havent done I think at all this transfer and it was the first time that I could really tell how much my spanish has improved with a native comp.  The class went really well and we found some new investigators.  We had a whole bunch of people who told us they were coming but didnt show up. why?  because it was raining!  are you kidding me people?  you have got to come up with a better excuse than that because it rains everyday for over half the year in this country, you cannot tell me you couldnt leave the house becuase it was raining.  

Also on saturday we needed a few more contacts to reach our goal so I decided to contact a bus.  This bus at this time usually has like 10 maybe 15 people so I waited until right before they were about to leave to get up and ask the driver if I could talk.  Right as I stood up, all of the people who were waiting outside the bus started to get on and wouldnt you know that tonight they filled the whole bus (a giant shcool bus) so full that there were people standing up inthe aisle.  But I had already asked the driver and he turned off the bus so people could hear me so I had to do it.    I started off with this classic line ¨buenas noches, si puedo tener un minuto de su tiempo.  Yo soy la hermana Smith y yo se que estan pensando pero no, no soy de japon¨ ["Good evening, if I could have a minute of your time. I am Sister Smith and I know what you are thinking but no, I'm not from Japan."]  As soon as I said Japan I had everyones attention haha.  

Today was the zone pday and we went to a zoo in a place called Valle Anton.  Lots of cool birds and a really giant pig...pictures and videos to come.  It is the last p-day for both of our zone leaders and one of our z-ellas (sister leaders) which was sad for me because they have all been super awesome and helped me a ton to transition into this mission.  Our zone is super fun and I have come to super love a lot of the hermanas!  

One more miracle for the week- remember those youth that came and brought their sisters last week?  well this week they showed up with their mom too and they are all super stoked to learn!  

I seriously could not be any more convinced that this is truly the Lord´s work and I feel so humbled and so excited to be a part of it!!  

les quiero mucho!!

Hermana Smith

This Week In Santiago

K Xopa familia?!

This week was long and HOT!  Probably the hottest week I've had so far here in Panama. During the week I was honestly just thinking how ready I was for the week to be over but last night as we looked at our numbers and what we were able to do this week it was really awesome to see all of the miracles, tender mercies, and prepared panamanians!

First- It was hot hot hot...so unbelievably hot but then IT RAINED!  We are finally coming into rainy season and it is a beautiful thing!  When it rains it rains!  And it cools us down for a little bit.  Along with the rainy season comes new fruits.  Last night I broke my fast with 3 huge mangos and a giant avacado.  In the past week I have eaten approximately 25 mangos and 23 of them came directly off of a tree.  Did you know how many different kind of mangos there are?  So many.  I hope I am making you all very jealous right now but I am going to bring you all back at this time of year so you can get it for yourselves!

All week people would stop me and as me if I was excited that my president was coming and I just kept thinking ¨Why is Pres. Carmack coming, he was just here a couple weeks ago?¨ but it turns out that President Obama was here in Panama this week and people were going nuts!  We were in a house trying to have a family home evening on Thursday and we couldnt get the dad to turn off the tv because he wanted so badly to see Obama get out of the helicopter.  But luckily we had prepared a pretty good lesson so we started with the tv on mute but by the end he turned it completely off.

This week we actually went to immigrations so now I am officially legal here in Panama and don't have to have mini heart attacks everytime I see the police.  The police here in Panama are straight out of the hunger games.  I want to take a picture but I'm too afraid so just google panama motorcycle police.  They drive around with 2 cops on a bike and the one on the back has a massive gun.  Also at immigrations I got to see some friends and meet some new cool missionaries.  The immigrations building is always packed with usually pretty grumpy people (who likes to wait 3 hours so someone can yell at you in Spanish?) and I was sitting next to this really nice guy from Venezuela.  I started talking to him and he told me that he had seen mormon missionaries before and he wanted to know why we were always so happy.  It was pretty cool to look around and realize that the 30 or so missionaries that were in this hot, crowded building were all laughing, hugging, or contacting, and they all really just looked happy.  Thats what the gospel is.  Its being happy and joyful even in immigrations which makes the dmv look like disneyland.

This Friday we did divisions and I got to be with my favorite sister leader one more time before she goes home in a couple weeks!  We got to wake up way too early on Saturday morning and go to a service project in Chitre.  We went to a little barriada near the beach and picked up trash for two hours and I got soooo tan.  I thought I had reached my peak tan but I was wrong.  And next time you feel like complaining about a church activity/service project/ calling, I want you to picture the little old panamena in her skirt or the single mom with her 5 year old following along who picked up trash for 2 hours under the Panama sun, smiling and laughing the whole time.  Your lives and church service are so easy you have no idea.

Yesterday at church we knew for sure we were going to have 2 investigators who are progressing really nicely.  We got to the chapel and saw 3 teenagers talking to the elders.  I asked one of the elders if they were his investigators and he says no they're yours.  What?  So at the beginning of the week we contacted these two boys on our way home and invited them to church but they didn't seem super interested.  But one of them showed up and brought his two cousins with him!  They stayed for the sunday school class we taught and really liked it!  Talk about prepared people.  We have a goal as a mission of 70 contacts every week and it has been a hard one for us to reach but this week we worked super hard and were able to get our 70 contacts and we are already seeing the miracles!  So even though it was a really hot, exhausting week, we were able to reach almost all of our goals and find some really incredible people! 

This week I was reading in the Liahona for April and I loved the article ¨It Isn't a Sin to be Weak¨ .  It has a little chart that explains how we can look at sin and weakness with humility and helped me understand how I can better react to challenges and weaknesses to make me better and help me grow closer to Christ. 

I think that is all for this week....I love you all and I hope that this week you will all just BE HAPPY!  Even in what feels like a crappy situation, remember that you have the gospel so what could possibly getcha down?

´dale pues,

Hermana Smith

Apr. 6

Alo!

 

This week was Semana Santa and for all of you who dont know what that is, I will tell you.  Semana Santa is the week before Easter when all of Panama shuts down, everyone goes to the beach, and everywhere you go there is the movie of Christ's crucifiction but super intense.  Seriously it's bigger than Christmas around here.  So we didn't do a whole lot this week because there wasn't anyone in Santiago!  We almost went to immigrations (ask me about that later) and we had an awesome zone meeting where we talked about letting the Lord lead us to His escogidos [chosen ones] and that same night we contacted a house that wasn't interested but they gave us a reference for the house down the street and that family is awesome!!  They even came to a session of conference!  Conference seemed super awesome!  I will let you know what I thought about it when I get the English conference ensign next month. 

 

Mango season has officially begun!!  There are mangos EVERYWHERE!  I bought some huge mangos in the super and guess how much they cost me.....15 cents.  As lame as it sounds they are a little bit of a tender mercy. 

 

This week we spent 3 hours shelling pepitas with one of our less actives.  Who knew thats where cashews came from?  Our hands were filthy and blistered but the homemade cashew brittle was totally worth it!

 

Katie

Hit My 7th Month Mark This Week… Whaaaa?

alo!

This week was definitely a strange one.  My companion has been having some health issues and so we didn't get to work as much as we would have liked.  Luckily there are two girls in the branch preparing for missions and they are super willing to do divisions with us so I have been able to go out with one girl and teach the gospel!  She is learning English and I am learning Spanish so we help each other out.  

We had transfers this week and we got some new elders! On Thursday morning we did some service at the church and it was awesome to see all of us working hard!  You should have seen me with that machete just taking on those weeds.  Yard work is way more intense in the rain forest, trust me!

We also had some training in Chitre on Friday and we did divisions with the sister leaders.  I got to stay in Chitre and on Saturday morning we went for a run!!  Pictures I promise!  I had a really awesome personal/comp study that day and I have been thinking and studying about it since then.

  I was studying about self-mastery and as I studied more and more I found out how much it has to do with humility and love.  I had always just thought that I could get better but that I was the way I was and some things would just never change.  Then I remembered a quote I had written down from last conference that says

 ¨to believe that weaknesses and deficienies in your character are unchangeable is to reject the central truth of the plan of salvation.¨  

 It is exhausting and it's going to take time but eventually we can change our nature to be more Christlike, we just need to put our pride on the altar and use the Atonement daily.  I can change my thoughts and my nature as I choose to think good, loving things.  I was thinking about all of this when I came accross this quote from President Hinckley-

 ¨Most of us have not yet reached a Christlike stage of compassion, love, and forgiveness.  It is not easy.  It requires a self-discipline almost greater than we are capable of.  But as we try, we come to know that there is a resource of healing, that there is a mighty power of healing in Christ, and that if we are to be His true servants we must not only exercise that healing power in behalf of others but, perhaps more important, inwardly.¨

When we are willing to humble ourselves then can we ¨be like him, for we shall see him as he really is¨ and if we have the self-discipline and faith to really trust God and give up the weaknesses and deficiencies in our character we will eventually be able to not only change our actions and thoughts, but eventually our heart and our nature to be more like Christ.   I think that is the mighty change of heart that the scriptures talk about and I think that it is a choice, everything is a choice.  

This week I am working on not just changing my behavior to look like a disciple of Christ but really working on changing my heart to be a better disciple.  

Love you all!!

Hermana Smith

Mar. 16

This week was full of little miracles and just good things that make all the hard parts worth it.  

    Last Sunday I went on divisions with one of the hermana leaders and while we were walking from one appointment to the next she stopped in front of a house and asked if we had contacted it before.  We hadn´t, so we walked up to the front door and asked if we could come back another day.  He accepted but didn't seem too excited and I didn't really think much of it.  Then I went back on Tuesday on divisions with one of the youth in our branch and we taught the restoration...holy cow!  It was the dream first lesson- they listened, they asked a ton of really good questions, they were excited to read the Book of Mormon, and they are just a super awesome family!   We went back to teach them again on Thursday and when we arrived he started to tell me that she didn't understand anything about the chapter we had left them (Moroni 10) and he started talking about Shez and all the weird names and the wars and the kings and we were so confused because Moroni 10 isn't really that hard to understand and then we realized that they had read Ether 10!  Haha ooopps!  But how awesome is it that they read all of Ether 10 even if they didn't understand?  I think they are the first people I have taught that have actually read what we assigned the first time!  I am super excited to see where they go and so grateful for inspired companions and prepared investigators!

   Craziest moment of the week- On Tuesday morning right before we left the apartment we didn´t have any running water.  My comp turned the faucet in the bathroom to check but forgot to close it again before we left.  Sometime in the next 2 hours the water turned back on and luckily I had to go back to the apartment to grab something because when we walked in the bathroom and the room with all of our suitcases and clothes were flooded with water!!  so we spent the next hour and a half trying to get all of the water out of our house and dry out all of our soaking wet clothes!  Dont even want to know what would have happened if it had been left on til 9 o'clock!

   On Friday we did divisions again with the hermana leaders and I don't know why but it was the best day!  For some reason everyone we talked to had a reference for us and all of the references we contacted seemed super positive- one even came to English class that night and brought a friend!  We also found a cute little restaurant owned by an Italian couple that moved to Santiago 2 months ago and don't speak very much Spanish- that was an interesting contact haha!  They sell real Italian pizza and real ice cream:)  It was just the day I needed to remind me why I am really here and what can really happen in this work if I am willing to consecrate myself completely and do what the Lord asks!  

I LOVE being a missionary and I am so grateful and humbled that the Lord has trusted me to help His children here in Panama!  I miss you all so much but I know this is where I need to be!  Love you,

Hermana Smith

Surprise Transfers (Mar. 2)

Hey so suprise!

This week was going mas o menos but honestly we could tell that something was off.  Then on Saturday morning during companionship study we got a call from the APs and Hermana Patrick looks at me and goes ¨This is it, I'm going to Blas, I've had a feeling all week¨ and I didnt believe her because transfers aren't for two more weeks but we answered the phone and sure enough they told us that Hna patrick was going to San Blas Islands and that I would be getting a new companion here in Santiago and that we should be in Panama as soon as possible.  Patrick packed like crazy and said goodbye to a few people and by 3 we were on the bus to Panama to pick up my new companion.  We knew we were getting changes, they just came a couple weeks early!

My new companion is the Hermana Contreras from Guatemala and she has almost 5 months in the mission.  We have only been together for about 36 hours but I can already tell that I am going to learn a lot this transfer!  First off I am going to really get this whole Spanish thing!  And then I am going to learn how to be bolder in all of my teaching...Hermana Contreras is BOLD and the members and investigators are already responding and I really hope and think that it will be a good thing for Santiago.  More than just knowing the language, Latinos have a real gift for teaching and making people listen and understand so I hope a little bit of that will rub off on me during our time together! 
    This is something completely new and completely different!  Missions, I´ve decided, are super uncomfortable.  If you feel comfortable on a mission then you aren't doing it right.  As soon as you feel comfortable- with a companion, with the language, your knowledge of the scriptures, with teaching, contacting, working with members- The Lord is going to give you something to push you out of your comfort zone again and show you where you´re lacking so that you can cry and be scared and then do whatever it is you´re being asked to do. Sounds terrible right?  WRONG.  It is the best and everyone should live life this way because all of these things are preparing me for all of the good things to come in my life and all of these things are preparing me to be HAPPY, not just right now but for eternity!  Do something that makes you uncomfortable (in a good way, obviously) this week and know that I am right there next to you, except I´m in Panama. 

Love you, miss you,

Hermana Smith