April 11, 2011

Hello family! Another week has come and gone and I am doing well!

This week has been pretty busy. We had a lot of meetings and
interviews this week. We also continue to teach people and try to find
more people to teach. For the past 2 weeks, we've struggled to find
people. We don't have a lot of progressing investigators right now,
but we continue to walk and walk and search and search. It was a
pretty tiring week.

Tuesday we had a zone conference. It was pretty cool to meet together
with a total of 3 zones. It was a little overwhelming and intimidating
because I had to speak in front of EVERYONE two times and I was super
nervous because my Spanish is nowhere near perfect. Zone conferences
are cool because they are motivators to work harder.

Wednesday we had our district meeting. Unfortunately we didn't receive
letters. I can't really say when I exactly receive letters because it
depends on when the missionaries in the office deliver our mail to our
zone leaders. I am hopeful for this week that I receive your letters
and packages.

Friday morning we had interviews with President Montalti. My
interview with him went well. I was a little nervous because it was
in Spanish, but he complimented me on my Spanish and said that my
Spanish is great. It was definitely a confindence boast with the
language.

Saturday was our baptism day! Unfortunately, Bryan was not baptized.
He started school and working this past week. He also moved to a
different house, so it was really difficult to teach him and set up a
baptismal interview. We're preparing him for baptism this Saturday.

Carlos was baptized in the evening. It was late in the evening
because he had work. It was supposed to start at 8, but he was
running late, so we didn't start the program until 8:45. For the
musical number, I sang the primary song that goes "I like to look for
rainbows whenever there is rain..." (I believe it's called when "When
I am Baptized", but I'm not sure haha). Before I started singing, I
told everyone, "Because I can't speak Spanish well, I like to share my
feelings in a song". I felt the spirit so strong as I sang, especially
when I looked at Carlos dressed in all white. I almost started to
cry. After he was baptized, we sang a few hymns while we waited for
him to change. When he came back into the room, he shared his
testimony. Even though I couldn't understand everything he said, he
expressed his gratitude for the chance to be baptized, to be clean,
and to be on a good path. As we left the church building, he had a
HUGE smile on his face. His smile, his testimony, and the spirit I
felt at his baptism were the highlight of my week. This week was
hard, but Carlos' baptism made it all better!!!!!!!

I am sorry I don't have a lot to report this week. This week feels
like it was a dream. In one more week is the next transfer. So, I'll
let you know where I am going next, if I am staying in Huncavilca or
going somewhere else.

I will send pictures to mom with a little bit of information about them :)

I promise I will have more to say next week. I usually organize my
thoughts before and have notes of things to share, but I didn't have
time.

I am glad to hear everything is going well! I miss you guys and am SO
grateful for you!

Have a fabulous week! I love you!

Love,
Hermana Smith