SUPPP :)
Another week has passed. What is happening to the time?!?! And
we had transfers. The news you've all been dying to hear haha!! I'll be here in
Valladolid for 5 more weeks but with a new companion!! His name is Elder Galvan
and he will be getting here on Wednesday. I'm super excited to work with him, I
have heard only good things about him and that he's a super good missionary. As
for Elder Peña, I dropped him off at the train station this morning! He is
headed to the Canary Islands!! He'll more than likely finish his mission up
there and he was super happy. It was a very bitter-sweet goodbye, but I think
the change is going to be good. In Peru, Elder Peña's house is by the beach and
so he's very happy to be going to the coast again! His island is called Lanzarote,
and he and his new companion will be the only missionaries on the whole island.
Since we received the transfer email Saturday night, he's been walking around
the Piso and packing his bags just yelling "Hello Beach!" Hahaha so
needless to say, he's pretty excited.
We had a BBQ with President Yubero and his family Sunday Night
(holy freaking best meat I have ever eaten) to send Elder Peña off on a good
note, and he gave a "fireside" type of deal to us four missionaries.
He thanked us for what we are doing there and recognized how far we have come
with a lot of less-active families. It was cool because when we first got here,
he gave us 4 families to focus on, and yesterday at church 3 of the 4
came!! It put a nice big smile on my face. I love Valladolid and feel
blessed to have 5 more weeks here! It's gonna be a little weird at first to not
be here with Elder Peña, but Elder Galvan and I are gonna have an awesome time
together.
This week we said a lot of goodbyes because we kind of knew that
one of the two of us was going to leave, so we got to eat with a lot of
members. That's always a good thing haha. One of them was with Rosario, Manolo,
Juanita, and the grandma with the bad memory!! Every time we go over to eat,
she always gives us her life story because she doesn't remember that we have
heard it a bazillion times!! It's so funny. We will be sitting down and she
tells us what pueblo she is from and then what she did last week, and then two
minutes later she repeats the same thing!! It's hard to not bust up laughing
because she gets pretty animated with her stories. But they're always the same
ones!! Haha what a good lady. She keeps me laughing :) anyways, everyone loves
the Peruvian haha and he really helped me with my relationships with the members.
I remember my first few weeks here, I was super shy and didn't want to use my
Spanish very much but now that Elder Peña is gone, it's all up to me and I'm
very excited! As bad as I wanted a change, I'm gonna miss him a lot. But the
work goes on and this change is necessary and I'm going to learn a lot from
Elder Galvan!!
This upcoming week we are headed to A Coruña to listen to Elder
Joaquin Moreira of the 70! I'm so excited and he has prepared a lot of stuff
for us missionaries. I'm also excited to see a bunch of my buddies from the
MTC, it's going to be a fun few days! And on Saturday we have a
"Surprise" Piso inspection haha. Normally they're a surprise but this
week one of the matrimonial couples called us and asked us for our address and
told us they'll be in town this weekend for the meetings and he'll be checking
in on how we are doing. I feel a little scattered today and with all the things
that have been going on, transfers and headed to A Coruña for 2 days and then
finally we will start our week on Saturday! So it's been hectic but I'm just
super, super, super ready to get this new transfer going :)
This week I was reading in the Book of Mormon and one passage of
scripture really stuck out to me. It's in Mosiah 26:18 and it says Yea,
blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall
they be called; and they are mine. We as members of the Lord's
true church have chosen to bear his name. As missionaries,
we have his name on our chest every single day and it's the greatest thing of
all time. I am absolutely loving being a missionary and have noticed big
changes in myself since I left. I'm only 18 years old (almost 19 hehe) but I
know that this is the Lord's church. It is the one true and living church on the
whole Earth. He loves every single one of us and wants what is best. His plan
is perfect. Embrace it! Live it! Love it! Take pride in being "THE LORD'S
PEOPLE" :)
thank you all for your love and support, especially this week!!
All the packages and letters and emails are just the greatest. I love every
single one of you to death!! ¡Que tengan una semana FANTÁSTICA! ¡Les quiero
muchísimo!
Con Amor,
Elder Smith
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