nov 30

So this week was good. We ended up having the baptism of the mother of > jonathan and Diego. So that´s cool. They are doign really good. I gave > them the assignment of erasing the chalkboards SUnday morning before > church to make sure that they come. Hah. Our investigators are doing well. > Most all of them want to get baptised and change, tehy jstu have certain > obstacles blocking them still. One family is coffee and moeny to get > married, the other is the birth document to get married, the other is fear > of marriage, another guy works on sundays, the one girl has to change her > job, another couple is scared of how the church is active with calling > etc, the other is a lazy poo and can´t really read and understand what he > has read, one girl doesnt have permission from her parents.. but every one > of those have told us that they know the church is true and that they have > received an answer. The only really hopeful for a straight course to > baptism is the owner of this internet cafe. He came to church for the > first time, is reading in the book of mormon, and when we went to his > house he asked us golden questions. He is 20 years old. I have so much > hope for him, he is so sick. I would chill with him on the weekends if I > wasnt a missionary. So, if anyone adds prayers for missionaries and people > in the world, pray and beg that they can overcome the obstacles that that > are put in their path to the Lord. Man, I feel like sleeping on the > keyboard right now haha. The weather has changed here, it´s a bit cooler > and windy. The sun is super strong though still. It´s still raining the > same amount, just is a bit cooler.. 70´s I would say. This place is bomb. > Anywho, I want to leave. We need to teach this guy a bit more and get home > to study a bit. Hope all is well.>> Harrison

23 Nov

So yeah. This week we had the baptism of Jonathan, the brother of Diego. The mom is going to get baptized this Saturday. I baptized him and she wants me to baptize her. I feel bad cause I want the members to do it, but I guess they can do the confirmation. This baptism was my comps first in the mission, so that is exciting for him. We are doing well. The investigators are moving along slowly, due to problems with things that arent controllable at the moment. Still waiting for the document for Carmen, they are the coolest people I know. Last night we were talking about what comes after baptism, the temple ordinances and the sealing. They arent even members yet and they are hoping for their temple date. Aww yeah. I think they are the reason I was called to Costa Rica. Haha. But yeah. They even are thinking about separating for a sec if they cant get married yet in order to get baptised. He has to leave to panama soon for 3 months to work on chapels and the temple there, so that would count as a separation and we could baptise them right before he left and marry them when they get back. But, I think we´ll have the document before then. We picked up a new investigator, Alex, that was a former investigator. He had to divorce his first wife to get married and baptized so we dropped him a long time ago, but he got the divorce and is now ready for baptism. Woot. That will be in about 2 weeks I think. The couple wiht twin girls, Rodolfo & Jiselle, have been having relationship problems because they are trying to keep the law of chastity. Jiselle told us that he has almost totally stopp anything affecionate so we had to teach them again what is appropriate and what isnt before marriage. They just need money to get married because they want to get baptised. They are cool. We were going to put a baptism goal for the gorgeous girl, but instead we decided to put a goal to get a new job to help stop the sinning, right? And we taught her that we have to have our own plans and actions to change if we want God to put in his part to help us and the very next day she got an opportunity for a job that´s every day of the week except Sundays. Ahh, how merciful is the Lord. So, there´s progress with her. The others are doing well. We are doing pretty well. The both of us have been super tired lately, but were going strong. Today we are going to sacrifice some sport time to take a nap. We had a tiny lesson with Zacharias in his internet store today and right now we are using his compus. He seems to be a baptism with time. Who knows? People are changing but mostly it´s me that´s getting the changes. I love this.> > But yeah, be good. > Harrison

16 nov

This week was really good. A lot of progress I think, and we had 6 > investigators in church yesterday. We have 5 dates for baptism, and > hopefully 2 are for this week. Remember Diego? The 10 year old? He and his > family stopped drinking and buying coffee. Remember them? This week we > have the baptism of his 12 year old brother, and we are hoping to baptise > the mother too. She got baptized 30 years ago with the first missionaries > in Nicaragua, but never got confirmed. She told me "Elder, I dont remember > the missionaries doing the confirmation with me like they did with Diego." > So I told her, " Dont worry, I dont remember mine either.." Haha. So that > was that until the bishop told us that they have been looking for her > records for about 3 weeks and there isnt anything. So.. she was telling > the truth. She was never a member. Gosh. Good thing we found these people > right? She never really went to church after her baptism, and had been > literally inactive for 20 years until we started teaching them. So, > woohoo. Another soul saved :) We are hoping to have her baptism this > saturday with her other son. We´ll see. I want to check in Salt Lake > before we do anthing. Also, we are hoping to get the birth certificate of > Carmen in order to get the passport in order to give it to the laywer in > order to get them married. They are still gold as ever. Just waiting. We > have their date for the 28th of Nov., but we´ll see what happens. We have > the other baptismal date for the 9th of January, but I think it will be in > december. The gorgeous girl ahs come to churc the past two weeks and is > wanting to change. She is progressing incredibly, its just the whole job > situation that isnt in line with the gospel standards that is in her way. > We are going to put a baptism date as a goal to have a hope to find > another job. She wants to change, but she works to feed 7 stomachs in her > house. Also, there are others, but they have a bit of time before their > baptisms. They need to do a little bit of the thing we call changing. > Coffee, marriages, etc. We are looking like crazy for the poeple that God > has prepared. Contacting, using members, etc. Its going well. Im doing > fine. Our area is huge so when we have to go up in the mountain we take a > bus or taxi (they cost the same) but other than that it´s all walking. > Always tired, always satisfied, right? My comp is progressing a lot. I > just need to stop talking in English totally. But, thats about it. Nothing > super cool.>>
Harrison

9 de Nov

Well, I still feel like Im going to die or fall apart, but we are having a > lot of success. This week I counted and we have 15 investigators who have > said that they want to get baptised, and 2 different ones taht have said > they know that Jospeh Smith is a prophet etc. We had 8 investigators in > church, and we will be putting baptismal dates with them soon hopefully. > About the marriages.. um one of the couples has stopped coming to church > and we havent seen them for a while. The other one is freaking awesome. > Their life is super tough but their faith seems unshakable. We went with > them last night and we were going to have the opening prayer and the > little 4 year old said, "arent we going to do it like this?" and he got on > his knees and folded his arms. Those 3 kids are the best. We are jsut > waiting on a birth document from Nicaragua so that the wife can get her > passport for the lawyer. They either will get it today from a consul of > nicaragua or the 20th from their neighbors mom. So, we will have a baptism > and marriage this saturday or the 28th. We have been contacting solely by > the spirit and about 80% of our contacts have given us their addresses and > we have put appointments to visit them. We´ll see what happens with that. > The family of Diego, the 10 year old that got baptised, havent bought > coffee ever since I talked strongly with them and committed them to stop. > The less active mom, the nonmember brother, and diego have all stopped > drinking so we are going to have a hot chocolate party with them on > Wednesday. I think we are going to put a baptismal date with the brother > soon. We contected a guy that was hugely inspired by the spirit, it was > like, you have to talk to this guy, and turns out that he is the husband > of a member, but he didnt get baptised then. So we taguht him and he told > us that he knows its all true, but hasnt done it yet. So we are working > with him as well. He told us that he wants to get baptised too.The brother > of the gorgeous girl finally finished his first communion catholic thing, > so the mom is going to start coming to church again and hopefully will > bring her kids. The gorgeous girl and her borther did come to church > without the mom and the other sister and the frist communion brother, but > they asked us how could they all get baptised as a family and I told them, > read, pray, come to church, and gain your testimony. The gorgoues girl > already knows and has felt the truth, but her life has been hard to > change. Hopefully she´ll change this time around and help all of her > family get saved. Haha. She will bring a lot of preisthood to the church, > that´s for sure. We have a ton of others, but time is limited. I > compromised the couple with the twin baby girls and his sister to not buy > any more coffee after what they have runs out, and I taped a picture of > Jesus on top of their coffee makers, so we´ll see waht happens with that > too. They will get baptised soon I think, they jsut need money for a > marriage and change their life. Haha. Anyway. Hope all is good. I am > really craving Christmas music right now. And a thanksgiving meal. And > snow. Utah, that is the place. I am doing well. No grand news. Got a > haircut today. Played soccer too. My companion is slowly getting better > with his Spanish, slowly being the key word. I think the practice I got > with my cmopnaions in the MTC was inspired. Im healthy, super skinny, and > tired. Hope all is well with everyone at home in the lovely USA.>>
Elder Harrison Smith

November 2

Hey. This week has been super long and super tough. I dont want to complain, but really, I´m beat.
We have had really good success with a few of our newer investigators and their growth in their testimonies. And what that really means is that they got off their butts and decided to look for the God and the truth. That´s really the obstacle in the mission. Ya have to find the people who want or who are looking for Christ. They are the only ones that will do the things necessary to plant and grow a testimony. We had 5 investigators in the sacrament meeting this week, and we have about 17 lazies,or in other words, not coming to church. Right now I am trying to focus on finding the part member families, because most of them are inactive and they are a good source for references and people who will actually try to get a testimony. Ive been reviewing the Area Book and the membership lists and Im gonna get things together to search for them. A lot of missionaries are baptising jsut to baptise and the dont have much retention. In our area we have tons of inactive people and so I want to work with them a lot too. I dont want baptisms that turn into less actives the week after their confirmation. So, yeah.> MY companion is doing well. I really like him a lot. He´s from Idaho and is a farmer (with a 1000 acre farm). He talks like a farmer and Ive started talking like him because before him it was almost no English. But, we are working on his spanish, Im still teaching every lesson and all of the lesson, doing all the contacting and conversating, but we are progressing with him. I feel like I have two missions right now... Teach the people and teach my companion. Its hard to find time. Pray for me and mostly for him. He and I really are a lot alike, just not with spanish. Anyway, nothing more has happened. Still waiting on the lawyer for a marriage. We have another marriage date for the 20th, but they seem weak right now. We might put a few more baptism dates and a third marriage date, but we just have to help them find the money. That´s another huge obstacle. You find the ones who are willing to look for a testimony, and then they get the testimony, but dont have money for a marriage, a decent lock and door to protect their house, or money to buy the bus passes to church. Haha. Goodness. I cant beleive how much I have changed. Thought process, actions, words, etc. Everything is centered on the gospel and obedience. Did anyone read the message from President Monson in the Ensign about obedience? It was awesome. And the one by Scott on temples. Wow.> But, anyway, have a goood week.
Elder H. Smith