More pictures

 A mosquito bite that turned into a blister because my sock was rubbing on it. 

San Pedro in the morning

 Zone Lunch

Thanksgiving and the norm

Thanksgiving was really fun this year! I spend the day telling other people "Happy Thanksgiving" and then educating them of the abnormal method of date selection that we use for the American Holiday. My companion and I celebrated with ice cream and ice cream pie. 

This week passed extremely fast. I made a goal to take pictures this week for my mom (her birthday was yesterday!). While doing so I learned that 1. I don't take that great of pictures and 2. I should probably take more! huh, surprise.

Lautaro and his younger sister Jaquelín are doing great! They love the church and are going to get baptized this Friday if everything goes well! We are teaching them and the rest of their family with hopes to help their mom, dad, and their older siblings. 

Jaquelín wrote us the cutest note yesterday. I sent a picture of it. It says

with love, Jaqui, Lautaro's sister

for the mormon esmit

I believe in the books of mormon and in God and in God and Jesus Christ. Amen

for the "fine Mormons"

ah, teaching her has been great. I am excited about their baptisms and for all of the family to have the gospel together!

Last Sunday's church meeting was exciting. While I played the prelude on the electro-piano, Matías, a member of the church came up to the piano and asked me if I would be playing the piano for the primary program. I responded that if there was music, yes! He brought me the music and I sight read my first primary program as a pianist. The best part was playing "The Wise Man" song with only the first half of the music and improvising the other half! I'm grateful for my primary teachers that taught me to sing or that primary program would have been toast. 

I focused on gratitude in my prayers this week. After reading "Of What Matters Most" by President Uchtdorf, I decided I needed to focus on improving my relationship with God. Doing so helped me feel less stressed during the week and helped me realize all of the things that God has blessed me with. 

I hope that all of you have a great holiday season! I invite all of you to participate in the #LightTheWorld activities of the church (mormon.org). I am grateful to be part of something bigger than myself and love all of you!

Love,

Elder Smith

Ice cream pie from Gridos

me, Elder Pereyrá, Jaquelín, Lautaro

note from Jaquelín

More Q&A

Question: 

1. Do you know any of your neighbors?  Are they friendly?

1. Neighbors

We live in an apartment building. Ten stories tall, with two apartments on each floor. I saw our neighbor for the first time today as she was getting into the elevator. We`ve never talked. When we get home at night, the entryway is always full of cigarette smoke. We don`t smoke so we know its the neighbors. 

We do have a friendly downstairs neighbor. She has a baby that cries really loud at night. Apparently, there have been some problems with the baby being woke up from naps by the missionaries. She slipped a note under our door a week before I got here saying, "Dear Neighbor, you wake up my baby. Please respect the resting hours of the day from 20:00 at night to 8 in the morning and the siesta from 1-4. Muchas gracias. your neighbor" I thought it was pretty funny but to try and make less noise we taped clothes around the bottom of our metal chairs (similar to the metal folding chairs in the church) to stop them from squeaking on the tile floor (only rich people have carpet).

2. Homes -Do most of the homes in your area have computers, cell phones, and televisions?  What are some differences in their homes and the one you grew up in?

Everyone has smartphones and TVs. The only people without them were robbed of them in the past week or so. Computers are rare. The wealthier part of the people sometimes have desktops or a laptop. 

Differences in the homes: They`re all made of red block and a little bit of wood. It can be a mansion or a shack and they`re going to be made of the same red blocks. Almost everyone has bidets. The plugs are different. Water heaters and stoves are run by natural gas. The floors are tile or dirt. Sheetrock doesn`t exist, only bricks and blocks on the inside for walls. Very few people have front yards or side yards or backyards. Most houses are surrounded by fences. All windows have bars. Every bedroom is shared by two or more people. 

1. What is your favorite smell right now?  Least favorite?

3. Favorite smell: a book of Mormon fresh from the box

Least favorite smell: skunk marijuana. Cigarette smoke smells bad but marijuana is terrible. We smell it a few times a day. 

Learning

I love learning. God has given us the incredible ability to learn and progress and grow. Here are some things I learned this week.

1. Little caterpillars can sting you.

There are caterpillars here that have a bunch of spikes along their body. They live in the trees and sometimes drop off of the branches. On Saturday, we were teaching a lesson on Mabel`s front porch (a lady we had just met). As I was sharing the experience of Joseph Smith and the first vision, I felt a little prick. Then I felt my skin burning. I looked down and saw a friendly little caterpillar cuddling with my forearm. It hurt. 

2. God guides you when you plan

Every morning we set goals and plan for the day. On Wednesday we made plans to teach the Gutierrez family and felt like we should teach them about eternal families and how we can live with our family members forever if we make and keep promises with God in the temple. When we got to the lesson there were two new people, Gimena and Fiorela. So, we made a last minute change and taught about Joseph Smith and the restoration of Christ`s church. 

After sharing our lesson about Joseph Smith, I felt like we were missing something. I remembered what we had planned to teach and decided to talk a little about eternal families. That was the right choice because Fiorela broke down crying (side note, she`s 15). Her mom explained to us that Fiorela`s dad passed away 2 years ago and she was devastated. Fiorela had attempted to commit suicide (unsuccessfully) to be with her dad and for doing so was abandoned by her previous church. 

I am grateful that we planned and followed the plans that God helped us make. I know that God is interested in every one of His children and will guide us if we seek Him.

3. I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON

This isn`t completely new information but my testimony of the Book of Mormon and its purpose grew this week. I am currently studying the BoM with the question "What does the BoM teach me about Jesus Christ?" This morning I read in 1 Nephi 11 and was amazed as almost every verse taught me something about Christ, His plan, His power, and His divinity. 

I love how complete the Book of Mormon is. I know that it is true. 

I hope that you all have a great week and that you can invite someone to church this Sunday. There is no better way to show gratitude to the Lord than by sharing the blessings we`ve been given.

Love,

Elder Smith

Does Verano mean summer?

Buen día gente! I hope you´re all doing well. This week was a good one in the Zarate 1st ward of the Zarate stake of the area SudAmérica Sur in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is Elder Smith speaking. I will be your reporter today

the weather

"it´s indecisive. it can´t decide" (thank you Justin Beiber)

"it's hot and it´s cold" (thank you, Katy Perry)

Rather unspiritual references but that´s what it´s been like here, haha. In the morning, we´re soaking wet and freezing and by the afternoon we´re sunburned and sweating. 

the people

we found a good number of new people to teach this week! We contact a lot of people in the street and this week we found Lautaro. He was sitting on his front porch when we knocked on his aunts door. His aunt (his next door neighbor) kindly told us she was Catholic and didn´t want anything but Lautaro listened to us. We invited him to read the book of Mormon and he accepted. We set an appointment for Thursday.

Thursday we passed by his house but he wasn´t home. But, his mom talked to us and said we could come back Friday. 

Friday we had interviews with President Smith (our mission president). After the interviews, he came with us to the lesson. Elder Pereyra and I were nervous to be teaching with President Smith there but we ended up having a really spiritual lesson. Lautaro and his mom accepted the invitation to be baptized. I almost couldn´t believe when Lautaro´s mom said "baptism would be great for my kids. My oldest kids are baptized by the youngest few don´t go to a church and aren´t baptized yet." We´ll be explaining on Wednesday that being baptized will be great for all of the family but we were happy that she is supportive of her son going to church and being baptized. 

Lautaro came to church on Sunday and had a great experience. More on him to come. 

We also taught Noelia for the first time this week. She was a street contact from another set of missionaries that said we could visit her. She lives alone, has one daughter, and is a cat lady. We taught her about the restoration of the gospel and she had a million questions. We answered a good number of them but assured her that going to church would help her understand more. 

This Sunday was stake conference.

The stake patriarch spoke.

Noelia has more questions. 

the missionaries

We are happy! Elder Pereyra and I are getting along better every day. I am learning how to be more humble and more supportive in this companionship. Elder Pereyra doesn´t have a lot of support from home and he is here anyway. I am impressed by his desire to serve the Lord despite the challenges he has. I am grateful for him and hope that you can all keep us in your prayers. 

This week I studied happiness. I´ve been thinking about my boss from home (Dale Perry) and how he is always happy. I wondered, "why is Brother Perry so happy even when everything breaks and the people renting his property trash everything and don´t pay? That doesn´t sound like things that would make me happy." 

Hours of wet contacting in the rain led me to the conclusion that he is happy because he´s obedient and obedience brings happiness. 

Mosiah 2:41 says:

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

I know that this is true. I have seen the gospel of Jesus Christ bring happiness to so many people; a happiness that is not just a condition but rather a state of joy that perseveres through all situations. I know that Christ is the source of this happiness and invite all of you to seek this Jesus. 

Love,

Elder Smith

Fireflies

Preaching the good word in the grand continent of South America is going well. My week started out with two trips to Capital. As I now live near the border of my mission, the trip to big mission meetings is a whopping 2 to 3 hours, depending on the traffic. On Tuesday, I got to see Elder Ryan and Elder Elkins, two of my previous companions. We had a great time talking about the people in Suarez and how they're doing.

Elder Pereyra and I had a good experience yesterday. We were talking to a few teenage boys, Lautaro and Cristian, in a passageway when Norma, a lady we had talked to a few days before, came out of her house and asked us "quieren tomar unos mates?" (classic Argentine way to invite you into their house). We accepted the invitation to drink some mates with the condition that we could drink something fresh (we can't drink mate, only soda or juice or water if it's life or death). Norma let us in and we had a great lesson with her and her family. She is hardcore Catholic and believes in Saint Death. But, she listened to us and agreed to let us come back. We'll see if the mate offer leads Norma to the living water of the gospel. 

Two new investigators showed up at church this Sunday, Pablo Vega padre, and Pablo Vega hijo. They were a complete surprise as our only contact with them was 2 or 3 minutes in front of their house. More on them to come. 

We've recently been teaching the Galarza family. They got baptized a month ago and live in a barrio about 20 minutes from where we live (it's called Barrio Bosch if you want to look it up. a small neighborhood close to Zarate). During a lesson with them, I kept seeing a little light flash on and off. I originally thought it was a light from a factory in the distance but I realized it was a firefly when it started flying around the yard! Fireflies! I'm fairly sure it was the first time in my life to see fireflies. I'm grateful for the amazing things that God has given us without us even asking for them. Fireflies make me grateful for God. 

I love you all and hope that you can find lots of little things to be grateful for this week!

Love,

Elder Smith 

Zarate from the Bridge

The Bridge crossing the Parana River

Me on the bridge

The Elderes de Zarate (LtR: E. Naylor, E. Pereyra, yo, Elder Gonzalez)