The last epistle of Elder Smith

July 24, 2017

Hey family,

  I never believed this day would come.  It kind of just snuck up on me  (even though sometimes it feels like I've been here my whole life).  I'll start by telling you about our week and then maybe include something kind of gushy at the end.

   On Wednesday we were basically just in the house all day because of the holiday.  On Thursday through Sunday we worked hard as normal.  We made great process this week with Luis (the old guy) and his daughter's family. On Sunday Luis came to church with his daughter Evelin, her husband Ricardo, and their 3 kids (11 yr old and two 6 yr old twins).  They had a good time in church except for one of the 6 yr olds did NOT want to be in primary and started crying.  Guisselle also came to church with her mom and we had some good lessons with her this week. Also Marvin is progressing really well and came to church with his family and has been participating a lot more (and doing things like singing along in church).  

   On Sunday I was asked to speak in church and bear my testimony since a speaker didn't show up and the bishopric knew it was my last Sunday.  It went well and hopefully it was a good way to get warmed up for my homecomeing talk this week.  

   After church on Sunday the Cruz family came and made us lunch (a family from San Judas)  The food was really good and I'm really going to miss them.  They made us a cake that said "Adios ex-misioneros" (goodbye ex-missionaries).  It was really nice and we had a good time.  

   Well here goes the gushy stuff....

   I've been reflecting a lot on my mission these last couple days and honestly it's a weird, but wonderful experience to serve a mission.  Sometimes the time goes by kind of slow but most of the time it's seemed to fly by.  I can say though that these two years serving the Lord and these people have been wonderful.  I've learned so much about just how much God loves all of his children, about his gospel, and a lot about myself as well.  It hasn't been without it's challenges, frustrations, pain, sickness, or heartache but it's something I wouldn't trade for anything.  I've grown closer to my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.  I know that they live and love us.  I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer.  I know that this is His church, and that He guides it.  I invite all who haven't yet done so to humbly pray and ask the Lord if this is His church and follow faithfully in the answer that will surely come.  It's the only way to be truly happy.

   I love you all (especially my family) and I couldn't have made it through without them.  Words cannot express my gratitude for having been raised by goodly parents who both live and love the gospel. Your faithfulness will be felt for many generations to come.  I can't tell you how happy I am to see you and hug you on Thursday, and especially to meet Myles.  Yes mom, I am crying a little right now, but hopefully I can hold it in at the airport. 

   Also everyone that wants is invited to my homecoming on Sunday at 11 am in Riverton.  There will be sandwiches after.  And drinks in bags.  Nica style

Love You!!!!

Elder Smith

Eating nacatamales on Saturday

Lunch with family Cruz on Sunday

"Adios ex-misioneros" (goodbye ex-missionaries).

Happy Liberation Day!!

July 19, 2017

Hi fam,

  I'm writing today because today is Liberation day and because at night it's not safe for missionaries to be on the streets we'll be confined to our houses after we finish writing and so they made pday today and not on Monday.  But this monday will be normal pday.  

    Last week was pretty rough...  I got really sick and on Tuesday morning I just slept all morning but I toughed it out in the afternoon and on Wednesday I took a long nap after lunch too.  Also I puked on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I didn't start feeling better until late Friday, early Saturday.  Now I've just got a bit of a cough and that's about it.  

   Last week Alejandro's pastor came and talked crap on us so now he's not willing to go to church anymore with us.  We've made a lot of progress with Marvin and he came to church on Sunday but he's still not going to be ready to get baptized on Saturday.  Also Flor and Priscila came but they won't be ready either.  Mariel, the lady who needs to get married, her partner came and visited from Canada this week.  He's got a lot of Jehova's Witness roots but we've been teaching him and now he's reading the Book of Mormon and he came to church on Sunday with Mariel.  He goes home this Sunday.  Also we had another 80 yr old guy come named Luis.  He's the father of a lady we're teaching with her husband and son.  We thought for sure the whole family was coming but at least the dad came.  He doesn't hear very well so I don't think he really knew what was going on in church.  

   Yesterday our zone had interviews with President Brown so I was in the chapel with Sister Brown and the APs almost all day.  I had my final interview with President and it was so weird that I'm finally to that point.  He talked a lot about college, work, marriage and such.  

    Today we ate fried fish (picture attached).  It was ok but fish isn't my favorite.  

  Have a great week!  

  See you next week!

Elder Smith

I'm sick... :/

July 10, 2017

Hey fam,

  We had a good week.  It was pretty normal except for Wednesday when we went to Managua for my last leadership council.  It was good.  I like the direction the mission is headed and every time I go I gain an even greater love for President and Sister Brown and the awesome senior missionaries that help out.

   This week we found a less active girl that got baptized a couple years ago and she lives with her 81 yr old grandpa.  He said that if we passed by in the morning to go to church with him he would go (in Nicaragua 99% of the people that say that don't end up going) but we came by and he was ready and walked with us to church.  His name is Alejandro.  The members were really good to him and he seemed to really like it.  I'm not sure if he could really hear anything that was going on but I'm sure he felt the spirit anyway

.
   We also had a cool experience with a guy we always pass by to teach (he's a reference from our ward mission leader) but he is almost never home.  Every time we went by his dad would answer and tell us he's not home, but then after coming by like four times he invited us in and told us that the missionaries used to visit him and he'd like us to teach him again.  Another miracle is that in his house he has a big rug that kind of resembles carpet.  It was awesome to walk on.  Then when we came by to visit this guy he wasn't home but his son was.  And his son was awesome!  

   Yesterday Only Alejandro and Kevin (one of the kids we're teaching from the second counselor in the stake presidency's extended family) came.  Flor, Marvin and Priscila didn't come  because the little baby son of Marvin and Nephew of Flor got sick and they were in the hospital with him. 

    After church on Sunday we went to Jinotepe for our monthly meeting with the stake presidency and the bishops in the stake.  They were doing something in Jinotepe that day called the hipica where everyone gets super drunk and parades their  horses around the city.  We saw some interesting things.... Which you always do when there are drunk nicas around.  I attached the picture I took of the beer float.  

    Happy 4th of July last week, I hope you enjoyed the fireworks because there weren't any here.  

    Also I've had a super high fever the last two days and  I've been super cold.  Which shouldn't happen here. 

Love,
Elder Smith

Soaked in Jinotepe

July 3, 2017

Hey fam,

   We had a good week.  On Tuesday we did divisions with the elders from Masatepe, Elder Farber and Elder Shelley.  I worked with Elder Shelley, who has been here for three weeks in Nicaragua.  The poor guy was probably dying when everyone was reminding me that I have less than a month left.  But hey, we all had to pass through that stage.  We visited a less active family we heard about that lived in a bit of a scary neighborhood.  It´s all of the family of a counselor in the stake presidency.  We taught them and one guy came to church on Sunday with his nephew and his son (both 9 yrs old and not baptized).  The stake presidency guy (the less active´s brother) came up and just said, well Elders, there´s two people to baptize.  Perfect.  We don´t look to baptize kids but sometimes they come.  We´re focusing a lot on the ward to get the whole family reactivated so we don´t baptize the kids just for their family to go inactive and drag them down with them.

  On Wednesday the office missionaries told us to go to Jinotepe to drop off the IDs of a couple missionaries in our zone that are going home this change (myself included) with the zls there that had to go to Managua anyway the next day.  So we did the assigned task and got completely soaked on the way home (pic included) .  That kind of sucked.  The weather has been really cool lately with a little bit of rain every day.  

   On Thursday we went back to China (los fierros) to visit the convert family and show Elder Fotheringham where it is.  The family gave us a couple references down there but they weren´t that positive and definitely weren´t willing to go all the way to Diriamba for church.  But we got lucky on the way back because a pickup came by and gave us a ride.  It saved us like 4 kilometers of walking uphill.

  Other than that it was a pretty normal and boring week.  Flor and Priscila and Sebastian (Flor´s other son that´s already baptized) came to church.  Marvin disappeared.  Also Miracle Lennin disappeared.  We haven´t been able to find him since last sunday and his phone´s been off. The two kids that came to church are named Kevin and Dilan.  

   On Wednesday we have to go to Managua for my last leadership council.  I think that´s the only thing this week that´s out of the ordinary.  Today we played soccer with some kids from the ward and a few other missionaries, cut our hair, cleaned up a bit, and ate pizza like we do every pday.

 Have a great week!  Happy 4th of July!  ´Merica!!!

Elder Smith

Family from China

Coming home on from Jinotepe on the bus

View from our area

There was a bat in our toilet

June 26, 2017

Hi fam

  The other day we got home and found a bat treading water in the toilet.  We cut a two liter bottle in half and scooped it out and threw it on the roof.  I don't know if it survived but when we got it out it wasn't able to fly.  It was probably tired, who knows how long it was in there.

   We had a good week.  We worked very hard.  I think we found more new investigators this week than any other week on my mission so far.  And that also means I had more new investigators that didn't go to church this week than any other week of my mission so far :/  But we did find a really cool guy named Lennin.  Here's the story:

 We got into a lesson with a very negative family that is very strong in another religion (some evangelical religion).  It soon became clear that they only wanted to contend and weren't willing to read the Book of Mormon nor pray about it.  So we left them, feeling kind of dejected.  Then when we passed by a house we both heard a whistle.  We looked around and there was nobody, so we contacted the house we were by.  That lady also didn't want anything.  We were late to our next appointment so we got a mototaxi.  We talked to the driver named Lennin and come to find out he had gone to church before and had read a lot of the Book of Mormon and already has a testimony of it.  So we started teaching him and he came to church on Sunday and he even knew the bishop.  He accepted a fecha for the 15th of July.  It was amazing to see that God gave us the impression to contact that house just so the timing was right to be in the Mototaxi to find Lennin.  Had we given up talking to people after the two crappy contacts we wouldn't have found him.

   Also Anielka got baptized and her cousin baptized her.  It was cool to see all of her family there for the baptism too because her mom is less active and her dad and sister aren't members.  On Sunday her mom and sister came for her confirmation too.  Also Marvin, his sister in law Flor, and Flor's daughter Priscila have progressed a lot recently and all went to church with Marvin's family who are recent converts.  

  Things are going awesome here.  It's crazy that I get home 1 month from tomorrow.  God definitely blessed me with Elder Fotheringham because even if I didn't want to work anymore (don't worry I'm going strong) he would make me:)

Well have a great week!  Attached is a pic of the bat in the bottle, it didn't turn out very well...

Elder Smith

Changes!

June 19, 2017

Hey Fam!

   It looks like you had another very busy week.  So did I.

  On Wednesday Elder Peterson had changes.  So we caught the bus at 4:30 in the morning to get to Managua with the zone, and I found out that my new (and officially last) companion is Elder Fotheringham, from San Clemente California.  He's a great, and very humble guy, and he's a really hard worker.  I love him already.  After changes we came back and I spent the day showing Elder Fotheringham around the area and showing him the investigators.  On thursday we had a normal day in the area and in the morning we taught Marvin.  His fecha is for June 24th but it looks like he's not going to be ready for that day, especially since he didn't come to church on Sunday.  We've also been working a lot with Anyelka, who without much help from her family stopped drinking coffee, and is reading the Book of Mormon almost every day.  Her family said they were going to go to church with her on Sunday but in the end they all flaked out and she came early with her return missionary cousin.  It's crazy because she's the youngest in her family (11 years old) and she's being the example for them.  

  Sorry I got off track.  On Friday we had to wake up at 3:40 to go to Managua with the zone for the mission-tour multizone with Elder Ochoa from the area presidency.  It was a very spiritual multizone and we learned a lot, especially about diligence and how to recognize chosen investigators.  After the multizone we sent the zone home in the bus and stayed there with Elder Ochoa for leadership council.  It was good, but it ended up being pretty long and my brain got kind of fried from so much listening.  Then using public transportation we found our way back to Diriamba and got here at like 8:15.  Nicaraguan public transport was not made for tall people like us, and my poor comp is way taller than me.  We suffered on that bus.  

I kind of already told you about Sunday.  Flor and Priscila couldn't come to church because they were in Granada.  Marvin didn't come either.  Really the only investigator that came was Anyelka.  She's getting baptized on Saturday.  Also the primary president asked us to teach primary so we did our best.  We were disappointed to see that the topic of the lesson was about Jackson County Missouri being zion.   But we made it work and played hangman when we had extra time but that turned into a riot so we had to stop.  

   This week we don't have any multizones or interviews or anything.  Just working.  

Have a great week!

Elder Smith

Elder Renlund and China

June 12, 2017

Hi Family!

  We had a great and extremely busy week, and this keyboard sucks.  

   During the week I had to go to San Marcos to do a baptismal interview for some of Elder Lunt's investigators and when I got done the last bus had already left for Diriamba so I had to sleep over in San Marcos.  It was fun.

   On Thursday morning we went to a place called Los Fierros, it's like 15 minutes away in bus, and then about a 5 km walk on a mountainy road surrounded by jungle.  We went to visit a recent convert out there that we hadn't been able to visit all change and Elder Peterson had to show me how to get there in case he has changes.  When we were in the house teaching the convert family (who wakes up at 4 am every Sunday to go to church) it started raining and it was clear that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.  So we bagged up our scriptures and everything in our backpacks and started the trek back.  We stopped a little less than halfway back to take pics during a break in the rain and at that point (as you'll see in the pics) I was about 80% soaked.  We started walking again and it started raining again and by the time we got to the highway we were soaked to the bone and we had little lakes in our shoes.  It was bad.  And I was wearing a silk tie that day:(  The lady that feeds us lunch saw that my backpack was soaked so she offered to wash it since it was wet anyway so I took her up on it.  It changed color because it was so dirty.  

   On Friday we had interviews with President Brown.  My interview, as always was really good, it was my last interview before my final interview.  That took most of the day because we had to make sure all of the missionaries from the zone got here on time and that everything went smoothly. After the interviews we had the baptism of German, who the sisters did most of the teaching but at the last second he moved to our area.  It was a great service and a ton of members came.  

  On Saturday we had the multi-mission with Elder Renlund and his wife.  Both missions were there in Managua and we all got to shake Elder Renlund's hand.  His talk was really spiritual and really funny.  He talked about how when he was a kid in Sweden he saw the missionaries and respected them but never ever wanted to serve in Sweden because it sucks to be a missionary there.  Then he was disappointed that he got called there but he prayed and God told him that's where he was supposed to go.  He also said that we shouldn't be like Finnish people, because in their history and literature they fight and work super hard for a long time and then just end up losing and dying.  It was hilarious.  He talked a lot about the atonement and how it heals us completely and doesn't leave scars.  After the bus dropped everyone in the zone off we got home at about 8:45. 

   On Sunday German got confirmed and we had Flor, Priscila, and Anyelka in church.  Flor and Priscila are doing good, Priscila broke her leg but they still came to church.  They have a fecha for like the 24th of June I think but it might take a little longer. Also, Anyelka who's 11 came to church alone because her  mom and sister were lazy.  Good for her!  We're hoping to baptize her this saturday.  It will depend on if she can stop drinking coffee this week or not.  We're still baffled as to why Nelson and Elia haven't come to church in a month.  They seem to be soooo positive but they just aren't coming.  Pretty soon here we'll have to drop them.  We're also teaching a guy named Mario who kind of speaks English and tries to practice with us all the time.  He has a long past of drinking but he's made it about 4 days without drinking which is pretty good for him.  On Sunday he wouldn't go to church because it rained over night and his pants on the line got wet and his only pants were dirty and he was embarrassed.  We couldn't get him to go.   

   Changes are on Wednesday.  I don't really expect to have changes and I hope I don't but you never know.  Changes are crazy.  I think it's more likely that Peterson has changes than me.  

    Also last night in front of a bar there was a saddled horse outside tied up to a parked mototaxi.  I could see the owner inside in his cowboy uniform.  It was pretty funny.  On Thursday Elder Lunt, Petty, and Aitken go home.  That'll be weird.

Too much traveling

June 5, 2017

Hi family,
   

This week was good but I felt like I spent a lot of it traveling.  On Tuesday we had a leadership training in Managua with all of the DLs.  It was good and as always I got to catch up with a lot of old friends and comps.  The training was good but the AC was out in the church and it was horribly hot.  But the AC came back on towards the end of the meeting and saved us.  The worst part of the trip was the ride home.  We were on a tiny microbus and I had the worst seat where I was surrounded by a ton of people packed like sardines in the bus that were squishing me into the window to make room for more.  In the end, there were between 35 and 40 people in a bus with 20 seats.  It was aweful.  Also the bus we were in only took us to jinotepe and we had to take another bus to Diriamba.  By the time we got back we only had time for 1 appointment.  
   

On Friday I taught district meeting, and then Elder Smith and Santamaria from la Concepcion came and we did divisions.  I worked with Elder Santamaria who is fairly new on the mission and we had a good time.  
  

 Last week since so few people came to church out of so many committed we worked a lot on how we teach the Sabbath Day as a commandment and we taught it a lot more boldly and directly this week and it helped us.  Elim and Anyelka came and took their less active brother.  Also Flor and Priscila came again.  
  

 In church we had a cool experience this week.  We've been teaching a woman that has been inactive for 2 years named Maria Victoria.  She came to church yesterday and loved it and even bore her testimony about how los gemelos Elder Esmit (the Elder Smith twins) have been helping her.  It's funny because the day I found her I was on divisions with another Elder Smith and she never realized that Peterson was a different person.  Anyway, an investigator of the sisters, German, has been looking for someone to rent him a room for cheap so he can move away from his ex wife and be able to get baptized.  Yesterday he fasted for help since if he didn't find anyone this week he'd have to move to Costa Rica or something.  He felt impressed to ask Maria Victoria after the meeting if she knew anyone who could rent him a room in their house and she has a room that she's willing to rent out.  So due to a culmination of things that God has been preparing for over two weeks German's prayers and fast were answered and now he's going to get baptized on Friday.  Since he'll be living in our area now it will technically be our baptism but obviously the sisters did everything for him.  
   

On Saturday we'll have a visit from Elder Renlund and we'll get to hear from him for a couple hours.  It should be awesome.  Hopefully it has something to do with a temple here in Nicaragua.  That's what we're praying for at least.  
   

As far as investigators, Elia and Nelson are still very positive whenever we pass by but for some reason they just haven't been coming to church.  Flor and Priscila and Elia and Anyelka are doing awesome.  Also We're teaching Flor's brother-in-law, Marvin who's progressing well but was sick on Sunday and didn't come to church.  
  

Congrats on graduating Peyton!  I can't believe how fast time has gone!  When I left you weren't even a junior...

Have a great week!  Sorry I left my camera at home....

Elder Smith

Happy Nicaraguan Mother's Day!

May 29, 2017

Hi family!

  In case you were wondering, tomorrow is Mother's day here in Nicaragua. I wish that meant that I got to talk to you again  ;)

   This email might not be as detailed as last week because not much interesting stuff happened...

  On Tuesday we did divisions with Elder Mendez and Elder Cifuentes.  I worked with Elder Cifuentes who only has about three weeks on the mission.  It was good.  Unfortunately Elder Peterson was pretty sick and spent a lot of the day puking.  Luckily we were on divisions though so I didn't have to see it.

   With Elder Cifuentes we had a really good day. We only contacted four houses and in three of them we found families of two that we taught and in total found 6 new investigators.  One of the families ended up not wanting anything when we went back but the other two are still hanging in there.  

  We also made progress with a 16 yr old named Yasser that I found on divisions last week.  He has a fecha and was excited for church.  But for some reason didn't show up and we still don't know why.

   So basically we committed a ton of people to church this week and felt really good about it and then Sunday rolled around and kicked us in the butt.  We passed by for everyone in the morning and with a myriad of horrible excuses everyone hid from us or just refused to go to church.  In the end only three people came:  Flor and her 8 yr old daughter priscila.  Flor is awesome and comes to church all the time but is working keeping a few commandments that she's struggling with still.  Also, a lady named Mariel came to church but she can't get baptized until her partner comes back from Canada for them to get married.  So it's just a waiting game with them.  I don't really know why nobody went to church this week, we'll find out tonight when we pass by for them.  It was really frustrating though.  Oh well, the work goes on. 

   Yesterday at 4 there was a stake mission activity where every ward had a couple boxes of Books of Mormon and a lot of members went out with the missionaries to the houses near the chapels giving out Books of Mormon and taking information for us to visit them.  We got ten references from the activity so hopefully it turns out positive.  

  The family reunion sounded like fun. I'm jealous I missed it but at least it's the last one I'll miss!

Have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Smith

We built a fence and I juggled mangos

May 22, 2017

Hi Fam!

  This week was very eventful.  

  On Monday after pday ended we went out and found a cool family with good questions.  Most of our other plans fell through though.  

   On Tuesday we did divisions and I worked with Elder Smith.  There are currently 4 Elder Smiths on the mission (I'm the most experienced and by far the coolest don't worry) but the one I worked with is the one that was my comp my last change in the office.  It was great to catch up and hear all of the stuff we got used to like questions like: Is everyone in your church named Elder Smith?  Are you brothers?  Are you Elder Smith because you worship Joseph Smith?  Of course the answer to all of the questions is "no".

   Then on Wednesday we went to the church in Jinotepe for multizones.  There were about forty missionaries there and we learned about how to better teach the restoration and how to improve our Love, Faith, and Humility and how to better our prayers.  To help us with prayers and faith, President Brown assigned us to study Enos in personal study for the next three weeks so I've read it like five times this week so far.  I really like it and I'm pulling stuff out I didn't catch just reading it once.  I invite everyone to thoroughly study Enos.  

   After the multizones we got home and visited investigators. 

  On Thursday morning we had a planned service opportunity with the Catholic mom of a recent convert in the area.  We built her a barbed wire gate between her house and the fence.  It turned out pretty well for two people that have no experience in pounding staples into barbed wire to attach it to little sticks with one crappy miniature hammer.  It probably would've taken a nica an hour but it took us all morning haha.  But hey you get what you pay for right?  We were getting pretty fried so we asked the lady if she had hats or something to protect our faces and necks from the sun and she really pulled through.  She came out with two really stylish womans sun hats.  We looked FABULOUS!   

  Then on Thursday night the ward had an "open-house" activity where members and investigators came and there was an emergency preparedness demonstration and a family history workshop thing.  I showed the family history coordinator the 9-generation chart I carry around and she freaked out because it is so complete.  So she borrowed the chart and used it for her presentation to show people what their family history can look like if they are diligent for several generations.  

  On Saturday night we had another ward activity that was like a talent night thing.  It was pretty aweful honestly with iffy dances and sing along stuff.  Dad would've hated it especially.  They were frantically scrambling for more stuff for the show so I volunteered to juggle but there were no balls or oranges or lemons or anything to juggle so I had to settle for mangos.  It worked out though and I nailed a couple of my classic tricks (under the leg, around the back, off the head etc).  I don't think the nicas had ever seen that kind of stuff outside of cartoons before and they liked it.  Then we went to an appointment really far away in the dirt road poor part of our area and the family wasn't home.  And right when we were there the light went out. I was a bit nervous but we made it back into the city and visited another guy. Then it started raining really hard and the lights came back on.  By the time we made it back to the house we were soaked to the bone and my planner was soaked.  Luckily I had my scriptures in a bag and my camera survived.

  In church we had a gay named Marvin, a guy named Carlos (both are family of some recent converts that we're teaching) and a new lady we found last week named Andrea.  Unfortunately there were four investigators that went to the talent show but not church.  They think that if they go to a church activity they're good to not go to church or something.  We're still working hard with Elia and Nelson.  They're super cool, just waiting for a divorce to come through so they can get baptized.  Also Elim and Anyelka, but they didn't come to church. 

   Today pday was cool, we went to a field and threw the frisbee around for a bit then slept a bit then went with the Hanson's  and ate lunch.  Catching up with Elder Hanson and eating with his fam was awesome.  They're legit.

 Anyway, I hope you have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Smith

Happy Late Mother's Day!

May 16, 2017

Hi family!

   Talking was awesome yesterday!  I'm sorry the connection was kind of bad and you guys got a little gypped because you couldn't see me but I'll let you look at me all you want when I get home.

 
   So... This week was good.  We worked really hard and struggled to find enough time to teach the investigators we already had and find news but somehow we made it work.   So... We're teaching a lady named Elim that is very positive but doesn't have any support from her partner.  Also we're teaching her little sister Anyelka.  They didn't make it to church this week so we'll have to verify why when we pass by again.

 
   Our most positive family is familia Davila.  The parents, Nelson and Elia are super humble and cool and always receive us even if they just got home from work and are exhausted.  We did a family home evening at their house this week with a lot of members and it turned out really cool.  They came to church this week with their 6-yr old daughter Amy.  They are just waiting for a lawyer to finish up an old divorce so they can get married and baptized.  In their home I always feel the spirit stronger than I've felt in any other home in Nicaragua.
  Also we're teaching a guy named junior and his partner and son.  They're cool and receptive but we're fighting a lot of problems.  It's become very clear to me that it's way easier if someone just doesn't sin in the first place.  But that's why we're here, to help people repent.  

   We're also teaching a reference named Andrea, as well as her sister Elena.  They were positive all week and then didn't got to church because they were embarrased because they don't have formal clothes like a blouse so they refused to go.  But supposedly they're going to buy blouses this week so they feel better about going so they can go next week.  We'll see what happens.

   This week we have multizones on Wednesday in Jinotepe.  As always, I'm looking forward to it because multizones are awesome.  I always learn so much.

 
     Shou tout to all the mothers out there.  You're awesome and the world wouldn't keep spinning without you!  Thanks especially to the best mother out there, which is my own of course.  I LOVE YOU!

Have a great week!

Elder Smith

.

Cody's District

Mural in the park

Diriamba

May 9, 2017

Hey family!

  So... I had changes from Masaya to a city called Diriamba.  Diriamba is in the department of Carazo (Masatepe also pertains to Carazo).  Diriamba is one of the bigger cities in Carazo but it's not that big.  There are four other sisters in the city.  The zone is Zona Carazo and it has 20 missionaries and me and Elder Peterson are the ZLs.  So my comp is Elder Peterson from Morgan Utah.  Thankfully he's not a city boy.  He likes motorcycles and stuff.  He has about 13 months in the mission.  He's awesome and he's a really hard worker so I'm happy.  

  It was a very eventful week

  On Monday I had a feeling I might have changes so I bought a  ton of crap from the market in Masaya.  

  On Tuesday we found out I had changes so I said goodbye to converts and members I had met and stuff.  It was probably hardest to say goodbye to Mayra and Arecelly because they are awesome converts and they both go to church with their husbands every week.  Both of them have temple goals.  Then I had to pack and it was a nightmare because of all the crap I've accumulated over the last 21 months and especially because of all the crap I've bought at the market here in Masaya.  But somehow I made it work.  

  On Wednesday our bus went to Managua where I found out where I'd be going then we got on and dropped everyone in the zone off in their areas and got back here at like 12:30 and ate lunch.  The lady that makes us lunch is awesome and really funny.  She kind of reminds me of Mom because she's so nice and has a similar personality.  

  From Wednesday to Saturday I just went around getting to know the investigators here.  There are a ton of them.  There's a woman named Elim and her little sister Anyelka (both of whom went to church), there's a young and very sincere family, the husband is Nelson and the wife is Elia.  They're awesome and they came to church with their little daughter.  Also there's an awesome guy named Junior who came to church and to our surprised brought his wife and son.  Plus there's a couple more.  In total 9 investigators came to church this week plus on Saturday we had the baptism of a guy named Robin.  I don't really know much about him though because I just kind of inherited him but he's cool.  

   We're so swamped with a ton of investigators that we're having trouble finding time to find new investigators and visit converts and less actives.  

   Today for pday we went to San Marcos where Elder Lunt is and played basketball with them and one of their investigators from Bluefields.  Then we came back and I had a quesadilla.

   This area is very cool and the shower is freezing but I'm used to it at this point and it doesn't bother me too much.  In the morning and night it feels perfect.  I can't complain too much.  It did rain a few times this week but mostly at night when we were already in the house.  

  Also I've been sick for about two weeks now with a ton of congestion and a horrible cough.  It got so bad that I took my mattress out to the study room and slept there to not wake up my poor comp.  But I'm taking some pills now so hopefully they'll help.  Luckily my bacteria seems to be dormant for now.

Well have a good week!

Love you!

Talk to you on Sunday!

Elder Smith

Robin's baptism (Robin is the one on the left)

Otilia and Marta

Drinking a bag of coke

moto taxi (see the machete on the right of the guy)

Sunset and storm clouds in Diriamba

  The rat we found dead in the shower in our Masaya house.