Surco? Donde esta Surco?

Hello Friends and Family! 

First off, Let's answer a few questions.

Nope, I'm not used to the humidity. I am currently dying of heat. I sleep okay, it's just super hot. 

 

Bugs, Ha! Bugs, HA! Yes there are lots of bugs. The mosquitoes make a meal of me every night. They especially like my feet.

And now the bigger news. I've been transferred! I am no longer in Stake Vitarte, San Francisco Ward, but now I am in Stake Surco, Villa Alegre Ward. Yes, that's right, I live in Happyville (Villa Alegre).  Another thing is that I went from one of the poorest areas in the mission to one of the richest, so there's a huge contrast between the two. The only thing is that the people aren't as receptive here, so we're going to have to work really hard.

Villa Allegre

So that's the first piece of news. The second is that I have a new companion, Elder Ortega. Elder Ortega is from Chile, He's 25, he has about the same time in the mission as I do. 

This week was mostly spent getting to know my new area. It's a lot bigger than my area in San Francisco and the people have so much money. The houses are huge, and really nice. I even saw a personal swimming pool.

 

This is our room in my new apartment

Our Study Area

Patio

So, the only other thing that happened was that we had Stake Conference. So, I got to see how gigantic the Stake is. I've also heard that our ward is huge too, so I guess I'll see next week.

Oh, and it was my companion's six months, so we burned his tie. So that was fun. Pics included.

 

 

Sad to say, that's about all the time I have this week.  But I'm praying for you all!

Until next week,

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

Migraciones . . . Todo el Dia

Hola, friends and fam! 

You should know that you are officially reading an email for a real live Peruvian. That's right, I'M LEGAL. I finally have all the right paperwork to be a citizen of Peru. Yeah, it only took like eight months.

 

Anyway, before I talk about anything else, here are the answers to last week's questions.

1. The language is coming along fine and dandy. I can write, speak, understand and read in Spanish. I still have a long list of things I'm missing, but I have Spanish at about 80%ish.

2. Yes, we are still having English classes. However, I won't be teaching them anymore because... (Drumroll) I have transfers this week! (Probably. I still haven't received the call about where I'm going, because they always call the night before the change, but all things are pointing to a transfer and I'm going to be leaving this area.)

3. It is very hot here and it is veeeeeery humid. In the afternoon, when I step out of the shower, I immediately start sweating again. (Pleasant, right?)

4. And no, the buildings are not air conditioned. However, cardboard walls do provide for really good ventilation. Our apartment is concrete, so it usually is pretty cool in the mornings.

5. But the afternoon and at night, it's always pretty hot. We sleep with a fan on at night because it gets so hot.

6. For proselyting, I try and always wear a short sleeve shirt if I can, because the sun is relentlessly hot.

7. We had a really good experience in a family home evening with a family in our ward who are only partially members. We had two return missionaries with us, one who served in Mexico, the other in Utah (Salt Lake City).   We all expressed our testimonies of the church. It was really spiritually potent, and a little hard to explain.

8. Wow, my faith has increased tenfold. One of the biggest things about a mission is that your own personal testimony is one of the first things that changes. With all the experiences I've had, and all of the miracles I've seen, my testimony has grown more than I could have imagined.

That's all the questions from last week. Now, Vamos a explicar un poco mas acerca de la tema de este e-mail.

On Tuesday, I had to wake up a five in the morning to go to La Molina, because I had to go to Migraciones (Immigrations). We waited at La Molina for about 45 minutes for the van to get there.

 

 

Then we went on a 2 hour ride to the immigrations office. 

 

 

At the office, we did a lot of sitting, waiting, some fingerprinting, and some document signing, but after about three hours, the process was complete, And I got my little card that says that I'm allowed to live in the country. I also got my passport stamped with my visa, so everything's official. After that, we headed over to a Burger King, and had (almost) American Hamburgers. 

 

 

After that, we had a two hour ride back to La Molina, then we headed back to our area. So, that was the big adventure this week.

Well, that's all I have time to write this week, but I love you all! Stay safe and watch out for chipmunks.

With lots of love,

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

Hey! That Thing's On Fire! Oh Wait, No, the Police Put It Out!

Hola! Hey, everyone!

So, this week was pretty fun with New Years Eve and everything. And I can honestly say that NOW I have never seen more fireworks in my life than what I saw this New Year's Eve. The people down here take their pyrotechnics seriously.

...But there was something else more interesting that happened on New Years. 

Apparently, it's a tradition down here to make big scarecrow type things, consisting of old clothing and wood shavings, and putting them out into the street at midnight on New Year's Eve, covering them with gasoline and lighting them on fire. It looks pretty gruesome, because it looks like there are a bunch of people lying in the streets ON FIRE. 

 

 

There were two burning in the street in front of my apartment, and one ready to start, until du-du-du-duh-bah-dah!! The police, with a huge truck which had a giant water tank and giant hose drove by and put the two out. Right behind, a police truck stopped at the one that was ready to light, took the doll, threw it in the back of the truck, and drove away. Thank you, Municipality of Santa Anita!

 

 

Other than this, our week was pretty boring. Because of the fiestas, booze, and possibly illegal amounts of fireworks, no one wanted to receive us, even the members. The only things that really happened this week were that we had our English classes. Other than that, It was really just knocking on doors, attempting to contact in the streets, and crying . . . (Not really).

I have been eating A LOT of paneton recently. It isn't that I like it, because I don't really like it. It's that I can't say no when I'm offered. 

 

 

We really didn't have many lessons this week. I'd like to share more about what's happening, but nothing's happening. If you have any questions, write me and I can respond to those.

And yes, I think that transfers are going to be this coming week. And I'm almost positive that I'm going to be moving to a new area.  

Oh, and Elder Salazar was asking me if they sold Books of Mormon like the originals, with the brown cover, the type that doesn't have verses, etc., like the kind in the time of Joseph Smith?

I love you all, thanks for all your support! Until next week,

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

Abierto Regalos y Pavo

Hello, my peeps! (Yes, I mean the marshmallow snacks.)

What a week it's been. A very, very hot Christmas passed here in Perú, and I am filled up to my nose with panetoné. What's panetoné you ask? It's fruitcake. Peruvian Fruitcake.

So, here's a brief run-through of this week. (I say brief only in the sense that it isn't a second-by-second thing, y'know?)

This past Monday was P-day, so that was pretty alright. We emailed our families like normal. (See below). After this, we had plans to visit with one of Elder Salazar's old investigators who had been hospitalized, so we spent the majority of the day in buses. And the best part is, when we got there, the man wasn't there . . .  Anyway, after that adventure, we got to the house of one of the members and did our Skype calls!! Woohoo!!! That's about all that happened on Monday.

Tuesday!!! So, it was our district meeting like normal on Tuesday. However, afterward, we had a little "gift exchange" in our zone. All of us got something for another Elder (or Sister) in the Zone, and we traded them. The rule was it had to be under about 5 dollars. Entonces, I got a pretty sweet hat. It had a cool arrow design on it.

After that, no pasa nada. Every house we went to (because it was Christmas Eve) were always gone, or too busy. We did get an entire panetoné, though. (Ugh) Anyway, at seven we went to the house of my Convert Mary Luz for dinner. We had Turkey, and rice, and potatoes. After that we went home.

...but that's not all. At about 12:30 at night, everyone in Peru lights off fireworks. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. After that, we went to bed again.

Christmas!!! In the morning on Wednesday, we opened the presents that we'd received. It was fun, I got some cool stuff! (Thanks, Fam!!) So at about 1, we went to one of our neighbor's houses, and had lunch. Which was turkey, with rice,  and potatoes, again.  After lunch, we tried working again, but it was Christmas. No one received us. So, we went to Mary Luz's again and had dinner there. Elder Salazar called the other side of his family (because his parents are separated, he got to call twice. :/ ) And we watched the Testaments while he made his call. That's about it for that day.

On Thursday, it was a pretty normal day, other than no one wanted to talk to us. The best part of the day however, was that we had English Class in the Chapel. There were about five people there, and it was actually pretty fun. It's funny, because the sister missionaries in our ward were supposed to be giving the lesson, but they didn't want to teach, so Elder Salazar and I ended up giving it for them. 

On Friday, nothing happened.  Saturday, Tampoco. It really was just a normal day.

On Sunday however, there was one thing in particular that made it different, (besides church). We had our first real Mision correlation meeting (Is that right? I have no idea what it is in English). 

Well, that about covers my week. I do have to say though, This Christmas was pretty rough, however, it wasn't too bad, just... different, that's all. It's hard passing the holidays without your family, y'know? I do feel a lot better about everything though, so no need to worry. :D

Thank you all for all your support! I pray for all of you, especially you. (Yes, you.) Thank you for your emails, and for your prayers! I know the Lord will bless all of you!

With lots of love (and dirt),

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

Here's Daniel's message from last week:

It's been a pretty interesting week for me. This past Thursday we had a little party with several of the zones and our mission president. All of the zones performed little sketches that they had prepared, we got little gifts from the mission president, which consisted of a little card that had all the names of the missionaries with pictures, a little letter from the first presidency, (It was the same for all of the missionaries) and a new journal. After that we went to a buffet to have lunch. After that we went to a park called La Parque de Las Aquas, which had a whole ton of fountains, and there was a little light show, kind of like the world of colors at Disneyland, but not nearly as cool. After that we went home, so that was a fun day. :)

We also did our last choir performances this Saturday and Sunday. It was fun while it lasted, but sadly it's over now. Maybe there'll be another one next year. :P

Because we've been doing so much stuff this week, our numbers are a little low. However, the numbers are always lower at Christmas time, because no one wants to take time out of their holiday to listen to the missionaries, so that's something.

Questions, Comments, Concerns? Contact me at daniel.smith@myldsmail.net. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic Christmas!!

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

Feliz Navidad! . . . Almost

Hey Everyone! It's that time of the week again! (Yay!)

Well to start off, here's a little useful information about THE CHRISTMAS SKYPE-CALL!!!

The call can be any day from the 19th to the 25th. There will be a 5 minute call on one of the days preceding to set everything up, and to make sure that everything works. Other than that, I don't know what day the call will be, when I'm going to set up a Skype account, and what computer I'll be using, so that's comforting.

Anyway, this week, nothing really happened, but I'll give you a brief run through.

Me and Elder Salazar had Elder Gomez with us until Wednesday this week. 

Our zone has been recently practicing a small "sketch" for this coming Thursday, when we'll be having a Multi-Zone Christmas Party with our mission president. So for some of the mornings, we've practiced that.  It's kinda cheesy, but none the less, it's pretty fun. :)

Elder Salazar is from Equador, he's 21 years old, he doesn't like to eat much, and he's pretty hipster.  (Follows trends)

It sounds like life a la casa has been pretty fun as of late. Wish Evalee a late Happy Birthday for me. :) 

I think I'm going to use a little of that Christmas Cash to buy a new set of Spanish Scriptures. (The ones I got in the MTC are really... kinda crappy.) Thank you so much!! And thank Grandma for me, I don't have her e-mail address. :/

We haven't been having very much success lately, so please remember to pray for my investigators. :)

I love you all so much! Until I'm able to write again, (or until the Christmas call) ,God be with you! I'm praying for you!

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

P.S.  Wow! Tell Melissa's girls to slow down, because they're growing up Waaaaayyy too fast!

-Elder Smith

Nieve?, Nieve? Hay Nieve en Utah? O, y Intercambios

Hey, everybody! 

I miss being in a place where there is snow in December :)! Entonces, this week has been pretty interesting. 

To start off, I have a new companion! His name is Elder Salazar (Slytherin). Yeah, that's the only time I'm going to make that joke. Elder Salazar is from Ecuador, and I finally have a companion shorter than I am. :D Elder Campos was shorter, but only by about a centimeter. Anyway, I'm out of my training, and a Junior Companion. The only problem is, I'm the only one who knows the area, so our companionship is pretty equal right now. 

Baptism Day

The Baptism we had before transfers

The week started out pretty normal, we had exchanges on Tuesday, and I showed Elder Salazar around, introduced him to our investigators, inactive members, etc. However, on Thursday, the companion of my district leader went home, (after only two days in the field), so I've been in a trio for the past few days. This isn't permanent however, and Elder Gomez (My district leader) should have a new companion soon.

 

Our Scary Faces!

The first performance of the missionary choir was yesterday, at the Stake Center in Sta. Anita. There were other choirs of members in that Stake that performed as well. I could tell that our choir had the most practice. :)  The Christmas Broadcast was right after the performance, but the missionaries couldn't watch it, because we needed to go back to our apartments. 

 

Choir Practice

Something funny about our area is that the people are really giving. Especially now, because it's almost Christmas. At almost every house we go to, they always give us something to eat. It doesn't matter if we just had lunch, we can't reject it. This is one of the ways the people here express their care for us, I guess.

 

P-Day Service Project

Anyway, that's really about all that happened this week, it isn't all that exciting. :P But, Thank you all for your emails, all your support, and everything you do for me! 

I Love you all!

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith

 

P.S.  Here are the pictures I couldn't download last week from our Zone's trip to the Center of Lima to visit the cathedral and catacombs.

 

 

 

Acerca Eso Tiempo

Well, it's about that time of the week again.

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's already been four months? I can't. The time is flying by faster than a eagle on fire racing toward a body of water. 

Here's a brief run-through of my week:

Monday:  After I finished writing my letters, we went to the Center of Lima to see some of the sights. (It was P-day, after all.)  We went and ate at a Pollo a La Brasa restaurant (All we ever eat here in the mission is chicken. :P ) and after that, we went on a tour of an old Catholic cathedral, and some cool catacombs. So that day was pretty fun. :)

 

 

Tuesday: Tuesday was pretty much just a normal day. nothing really happened.

Wednesday: On Wednesday, I went on splits with my district leader. His name is Elder Gomez. He's from Guatemala. We went and did the normal stuff that missionaries do, so that was pretty alright.

Thursday: We ended the divisions with Elder Gomez, But later that night we had baptism interviews, so I saw him again that same day. He interviewed two of our investigators, Victor Linares, and Enoc Paz.  That's about all that happened that day.

Friday: On Friday, Elder Campos got really sick, so he spent the day sleeping and vomiting. I was fine, so I read Jesus the Christ, watched a couple of church videos, and slept a little.

 

That same night, something interesting happened. Elder Campos and I were going to the house of one of our investigators, Enoc Paz to go with him to an interview with the stake president.  However, when we got to his house, his family wasn't there. (Him, his wife, and their two children, all of his family are members except him), and there was only about 15 minutes until his interview. We thought to ourselves, what are we going to do, because he didn't have a cell phone and we needed to find him before it was too late, or he wouldn't be able to be baptized the following day.  So after talking about it for a couple minutes, we bowed our heads and said a simple prayer to help us find him.  After this prayer, and trusting in the lord, I felt something in my heart telling me we needed to go down this certain street. At first, this was a little weird for me, and for a few minutes I didn't listen to it. However, the more time I didn't follow this prompting, the stronger it felt. So I said to my companion, I feel like we need to go in this direction, and we'll find him. Sure enough, we followed my prompting down this street, and we found him and his family buying some movies. I actually felt a little shock when we found him, but I know that we found him because I heeded that prompting. So, that was pretty interesting. It was an experience like 1 Nephi 4:6.

 

 

On Saturday: We had the Baptisms for Victor And Enoc and we helped the Hermanas with their baptism later in the day.

Sunday: We had the confirmations of our two investigators. Other than that, it was a normal day.

So, my pictures won't attach, so I'll send them next week.

I love you all! Keep up the good work, and always have faith!

-Elder Dañel Jacob Smith.