Ok wow this week was crazy again here en la boca choica.
Ok so Tuesday was just pretty normal after I wrote. We keep doing a ton of divisions which is awesome but I think this week we are going to have to take it easy because I only know half of the investigators we have found because I wasn't with my comp a lot of the time hahahaha. Boca is huge and kind of maze like so I'm going to have to learn how to get around really quickly this week because elder gomey is almost for sure out of here and I'll be in charge. It's always lame when a missionary leaves a sector because the members generally have a better relationship with the missionaries who stay longer but in this circumstance it will be even worse because gomey has been here 6 months and is really loved by the people here. I'm just hoping that my next comp will be really friendly and that people will love him even though elder g probably won't be around. We are having a ton of crazy spring weather with warm sunny days and then suddenly rainy stormy days which is crazy. It makes for hard planning more than anything. Wednesday we had our zone meeting which turned out really cool. We had a few different trainings assigned to people but the hook was that all of it was focused on the life of Christ. For example we had one missionary teach about how Christ used certain teaching strategies that are found in PMG etc. The coolest part was that we did it outside next to a lagoon that is really pretty. The point was so that it could be like when Christ would teach outside and next to the sea of galilee etc. It was really cool! Only problem is that it started to rain a little bit but we were under a big tree and had umbrellas so it didn't turn out too bad hahaha. We mostly wanted to do something different. It was really cool and i think it helped a couple missionaries in particular so that was cool to see. That day we also had a gran intercambio and we all switched comps for the day and some cool miracles happened in the zone. I went with an old friend elder k who is currently in the mission office so I worked there for the day. It was kind of weird and honestly I don't envy that assignment at all. The only cool part is that they have a car hahaha. I did get to see a lot more of conce and even more to the north to tacahuano etc. Pretty fun. We ate lunch at the house of the senior couple which was weird and surreal. It was so weird to eat familiar food and speak English over lunch etc. Bizarre. We had a good day though and thought of a few ways they can maximize their time in their sector working etc etc. Elder K is a great missionary from Holladay and knows the Sheets. The next day we did another intercambio with one of the companionships in boca which wwas fun. It made me realize that the previous ZLs here probably divided all of boca in a kind of unfair way so we might be fixing that hahaha. Our part of the sector is kind of stacked and the others not so much. It was fun though and I got to know elder m well which was cool. We had an open chapel tour in one of the sectors here which was really cool. It turns the normal chapel into a kind of temple visiting center thing and the ward got really involved too. It actually achieved a bunch in a sector that otherwise sees few results so that was cool. I would love to do that in other sectors including boca etc. We will see what we can do. I'm really bummed that elder g is going to be leaving probably. We really worked well together. Our whole zone got like deathly ill this last week except for me which was a personal relief. The hard thing about this zone too is that generally missionaries with health problems who are in risk of going home serve here while they are deliberating etc. It's really sad to see it. This week I tried really hard to apart some time to give support to some of those companionships and I really enjoyed helping them. A lot of times as missionaries we are the only people that investigators, converts, some members, and other missionraies have to talk to. I felt like this week especially me and elder g were called to bear others burdens and suffer with them. I feel like as a missionary my ability to empathize has grown a lot for better and for worse. It made my problems seem a lot smaller, but at the end of the week we felt kind of weary from it all. It was really nice to be able to take the sacrament and feel kind of renewed spiritually. I think also that through all of that stuff and through the course of this cambia I've been learning a ton about agency. It's a really complex principle and has a lot to do with human suffering. It's a big theme in the scriptures too. Noe (Noah), upon seeing the iniquity of the earth even says that he laments the creation of man because of their misuse of agency. I've mentioned before that Enoch sees god weeping over poorly used agency. I think it must have been so hard to send us to the earth knowing that we would surely suffer greatly from the misuse of our agency. At the end of the day that is why Christ is so central to the plan of salvacion. His redemption is the only thing that really justifies our existence here and that gives meaning to our lives here. That's why our jobs as missionaries is so important. It also makes it a tragic work when we see people continue to misuse this agency and deny the redemption that Christ offers them. The triumphs are more than the dissapointments however. Ok well I'm loving it here. It was a hard week but a good one too. We are working really hard here but still need to learn patience to see our work turn into baptisms here. Next cambia I'm sure we will have one. I had a lot of fun this week too and laughed a lot. I got the packages with the flashdrives and love the music thanks! I love you all a ton and miss you! Elder trevor smith
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Sorry I have very little time it's gonna be short today!
Ok this week was awesome! We had consejo again which was cool and i got to do an intercambio with elder meiling which was a weird time travel moment. We did a ton of divisions with priesthood holders here and got a ton done! Like probably the most in any week of my mission! We are really blessed to have good and willing members here! N. is a recent convert who is like our third companion who although kind of ghetto has a heart of pure gold! It's also good to have the built in street knowledge to keep us safe and part of the hood hahah jk. We have a good group of people progressing but the problem is that most of the people hjere in Boca Sur are really humble and have good desires but usually have to make very large changes in their lifestyle. Repentance is huge here. We are teaching various unmarried couples and a few that show really good progress and interest, the problem is with the marriage process can take up to months so it's kind of a long term investment. We are still kind of looking for that golden chosen one who we can see baptized here in the next month or so and we are going to find him! The people are really humble here and it makes a huge difference. They have really good hearts and their families are everything to them. Most of them are looking for something more in their lives too. I love this sector! Elder Gomez is really funny so we laugh a lot. I'm going to be really sad to see him go in a couple weeks. We have seen a lot of progress in the zone but we still need to do more. There is a spirit here that is different from when I got here so that's good. The missionaries are taking a lot more of the initiative and are getting a ton more done. I have a goal to be able to say that each one of them is a friend after the next two weeks of the cambio. Cool spiritual thought that I had this week is about when Enoc has a vision of God crying and he asks him how he can cry. God explains to him (more or less) that he cries for humanity's poor use of their agency, and that he can't really change the consequences of our bad actions. Way cool. Another interesting thought was that the Gospel of Christ's purpose is the remition of sins, which alows us to be pure and worthy enough to make bigger covenants with God that are done in the temple, like family sealing. Without the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel like repentance and baptism, nothing would be possible. Our job as missionaries is really important. Ok I'm trying really hard to think of funny stuff but I'm drawing a blank. Next week my letter will be better. Elder Meiling is doing great is cool to see how far he has come. We had a zone activity that was really fun! The hna trainers planned out for us (blessings of delegation) and it was really good. Minute to win it between our three districts. Way fun Ok i love you all and I'll write more next week! Elder Trevor Smith Ok wow this week was awesome ill try and remember it all. So Tuesday we had just the normal district meetings and interviews with president May which was all just pretty normal. It's been cool to see the newish district leaders progressing and getting better at recieving revelation for their districts. With president may it was pretty normal we mostly just talked about rthe zone and ward etc. We were the last interviews and after they took us to a nice Peruvian lunch which was super delicious and a fun birthday celebration even if a day early. It was fun to get to know them better and hear about their missions and eat good food. We felt kind of spoiled it had been a while since either of us had eaten such good food. After that and some work in our sector we had a really great coorelation meeting with representatives from the ward presidencies and got a ton of recent convert helping delegation done and were able to make some cool plans i think. We will see how it turns out when we will all give our next reports tomorrow. I really hope we can form good habbits as a ward now becaue the retention here in Boca Sur is kind of discouragelingly bad BUT it will get better if we really involve the ward and help them develoup that culture i guess. So we have been able to really put our hombro to the wheel in our sector this week which felt great after a while of feeling kind of stressed about all that. We were able to find a great set of investigators in a variety of ways and i think im the most excited about the grandma of a recent convert and a lady and her pregnant daughter in law who should be having her baby like today or tomorrow. With that last lady i swear me and elder Gomez gave the best lesson on the restauration ive ever given on my mission so hopefully it works out and she will gain a testimony! We really feel like there will be progress there because they had a ton of good questions and real intent to be able to know. We will see what happens there. Ilove this sector i think it really is the best in the mission! Ok so my birthday was really good! Pretty much a normal day but we had a ton of success and worked really hard and honestly that is kind of what i like to do now sadly enough hahaha truth is after so much free time during the 18th i kind of realized that resting isnt that fun if one doesnt work before hahaha. Obviously its about finding a balance and i think thats something ive been learning from chileans. They seem to have a healthier work and rest ration than us north americans. We had a FHE with that less active family i mentioned and that was fun. We watched a segment of meet the mormons with them and it was way fun. I opened my package and it was awesome! That night we ordered some rediculously large churrascos and ate like locos so that was a fun celebration. Lorena Oporto surprised me with another rediculously large package of chocolate and treats during the last session of general conference too so send her thanks dad! I had a great birthday but honestly i feel like i never even really turned 19 so this whole 20 thing is confusing. We did intercambios with a companionship that is having some struggles on thursday and that was fun. I think we were able to help a lot. Sometimes all the missionaries need is a break for a day. That night we had coorelation in their ward too which was funny but their ward mission leader just got called and was super excited and really inspired both of us to focus more on member missionary work which was cool. It was obviously really confirmed by conference as well. The hard truth about things here in Chile (and i assume the world) is that if we really expect to see sustained and consistent growth in the church here there needs to be a cultural change in member involvement in missionary work. The thing is we kind of accustom the members here to not participate by doing too much and having a baptism every once and a while so they kind of get complacent and dont help. The bigger problem is that those randome here and there baptisms kind of fade away way more than reference baptisms and thats where the problem is. Especially after conference im really determined to focus better on that and help make that change! Conference was super awesome. Like too much to handle. I felt like every different thing the Spirit and my time here have been teaching me over the last 6 months was in some way confirmed by the talks given. It was really cool. Lots of revelation. Im not sure if you noticed but in the saturday morning session the first 3 talks were pretty much the first 3 missionary lessons. It was rad. I loved all the talks about the difference between preaching a church and preaching Christ. Way cool. I think elder Hales` talk was my favorite. Hard to say. Elder Bednar answered a lot of questions for most missionaries too. I cant wait to read it all again. We are still struggling as a zone and picking up a lot of pieces from like 3 bad cambios here. I think we have successfully helped the new missionaries learn about the basic skills they need but we have kind of decided as leaders that the problem is deeper than that. We are planning on focusing more on the spiritual needs, developement, and conversion of these new misisonaries. The thing is that the 6-9 month mark for missionaries GENERALLY speaking is kind of a rut and like 70% of our missionaries are in that age group. That means the goal is to help them get out of that rut as soon as possible. We have been thinknig about it a lot and a lot of our ideas were confirmed by conference. Personally i think i need to be like alma the younger a little and give up "the judgement seat" or kind of distance leadership and try and strengthen missionaries on a more personal level like he did when the church was suffering. We will see how it goes. The struggle is one ive mentioned before and trying to invite long term missionary development and not just short term success that goes away. We want to have a goal to live more christ centered missions. Elder Gomez is totally killer. Ive had so many great comps. Im doing better on energy i think so no worries. We got permission to go paintballing today and it was surprisingly cheap and all kinds of fun. Shoot i feel like this letter is boring. Ill try and right more funny experiences i guess i know funny stuff happens but i feel like i always forget. The office elders did a surprise check of all the houses but it got leaked to us so we were able to do an amazingly quick clean of the house. Funniest thing was a mark on the wall we have been meaning to paint over but a quick switch of our painting of captain moroni to right over where the mark is did the trick. Best trick ever. dont tell please. They gave us cookies😇 Ok love you all thanks for the bday wishes from all! Elder Trevor Smith Hey ok!
So this week was totally crazy again wow. We started out pretty normal but we are just always really busy here in Boca Sur and can never find time to do all we have to. One reason for that is that our apartment is pretty far away from the part that we actually work in so we have to walk like a half hour or take a bus to get therre and back. Well truthfully it is a blessing that we don't live where we work because that would be interesting. One cool thing about boca is that the ward is totally full of return missionaries and other priesthood that is willing to come with us to do pretty much anything so we can swing splits almost every day! We have pretty much just been contacting with them for right now but it's been really cool. It's awesome to see so much willingness to serve here. Recent converts are also really awesome to come with us and excited to do it. For example recent convert Nacho is 17 and loves to come out with us. He is really special and has an awesome conversion story. He will be a missionary I'm pretty sure of it. The bummer though is that despite a ton of work to try and find (which is generally really easy here in boca) we ended up pretty dry as far as new investigators which I think has to do with post 18th festival syndrome or something like that. Who knows. I think we need to organize ourselves better, use our talents more, and seek more inspiration too. It will work out it was just kind of a slump week. One kind of funny thing was that Tuesday the APs asked us if we wanted to do splits and we said yes of course but we thought that it was going to be in our sector hahahaha turns out when Thursday rolled around we had to go over to their part of san pedro and work there all day hahahahah we lost another entire day of work hahaha. Well I guess we will just trust that our act of kindness will bring us blessings. Their sector was really cool and full of families and we found and taught one which was fun. It's a really peaceful nice (and rich) part of the city and full of a ton of nice people so we were talking to everyone in the street and they were all really nice to us and really receptive. It got our faith all elevated to do the same thing in our sector but when we tried it we remembered that our sector is generally populated by less fortunate (and sometimes scarier) people and it didn't go so well hahahahaha. A few too many drunk people I guess. Saturday was really cool because the whole zone and the stake did a big service project in a branch of the stake called Santa Juana. It was really cool. They had a bunch of stands about diferent stuff and offering a lot of different services etc. I got some other singing elders together and we made a barbershop quartet thing which was really fun and we got together a bunch of hymns. My comp is a clown (literally) so he dressed up and entertained a bunch of kids from the neighborhood and did a show etc which was awesome. A bunch of other missionaries did proselyting and a bunch of other stuff too. It was really cool. Sunday was just normal but our ward has some serious struggles with retention and union so we are trying to work with the ward council etc to fix some of that stuff. The amount of work for this ward is kind of overwhelming so we are trying to help out With that we did see a lot of success with some less active members we have been teaching recently. Two families we have been teaching came this Sunday and seemed really happy there, so that was really cool to see. There is a lot of more work to do there so I think we mostly just need to organize our time better to also be able to proselyte more too. I'm sure we will find new people to teach in that way too as usual. Elder Gomez might be my favorite comp. He's great. It's just been total smooth sailing. I actually think our main problem right now in our work is that we are working too hard. Truth is we have 30 missionaries to lead, a big chunk of the ward's well being, and our normal proselyting on our shoulders and I can tell we are working at maybe too fast of a pace. We are both pretty crazy exhausted and it's taking an effect on our ability to think and work. Not sure what to do about that really because usually the solution to most problems on the mission is just to work harder but i think it's obvious that that is not a solution in this context hahaha. I'm not sure. I'll just try and eat better and rest better and plan better I guess. We definitely need to take it easier or we won't be able to help anyone else. I'm pretty scatterbrained right now. Hey mom can you send me like really basic recepies of stuff you dont need an oven to make? emphasis being high nutrition low cost hahaha. Half hour or less stuff. I need ideas and guidance. Ok so sorry if this letter is dry. Love you all and im grateful for the birthday wishes! I think we will put an FHE together and do something like that wednesday. Love you all Im doing great! Elder Trevor Smith i dont usually carry my camera around here so pics are tough. ill do better tho Wow this week was crazy and felt really long. A ton happened.
First of was all the goodbyes in lebu which were rough but not as bad as i thought. I could pretty much squeeze everyone in by the time i had to leave and i got packed up all nice for the transfer. After that Tuesday we came up to conce and waited for all the missionaries from the zone to get their comps etc. which took a really long time. Elder Gomez is awesome. He is way funny. I'll have to send a pic next week, but he is great. Pretty much more than half of our 30 missionaries are new in their sectors, so that's crazy. Like 25 of the 30 have less than a year in the mission too which is also crazy. Two of our 3 district leaders are first timers as well, including Elder Meiling my trainee -- hahaha that was a really cool surprise. The good thing is that all of the missionaries are really excited and dedicated to the work so that's cool. After they all got off to their sectors we finally got to our apartment which is really really nice and on the 5th floor of a building hahaha it's really cool and big. Then after that that day I got to know the sector a little bit. Ok so Boca Sur has 6 missionaries divided into three different parts of the ward. It's a really big sector even divided. I think our sector alone has had 20 baptisms SO FAR this year which is kind of ridiculously enormous for our mission, but we are having some problems with retention and working effectively with the ward, but we are working on that. A large part of my work here will be reactivating recent converts and working with them but it's ok because a ton of new opportunities will open up too. We are always, always way busy. There is just a ton to do and a ton of people to teach. The sector itself is not like anything else "'ve been a part of on the mission hahahaha it's totally crazy. It' somewhat poor and there are always a ton of people just outside and something is always happening. I don't know -- it's hard to explain but it's like there's just a different energy in the air here that is totally crazy and exciting 100% of the time. Some parts of it are a little frightening but everyone tells me that the missionaries live in their own bubble and that nothing happens to them and I believe it so I'm not scared ever or anything like that don't worry. It's mostly just really fun here and the people are really humble and nice. There's a ton of converts too that are really excited to help the work too which has been cool. We do a lot of divisions here and can get a ton done in one day. It's been intense. Truth is that I only really worked in my sector like a total of 2 days because so much other stuff has been happening. We had another leadership council Wednesday, Intercambio Thursday after a district meeting, and then the 18th de September holiday made it so that we had Saturday, Sunday and Monday free, which was way different from last year and really weird. We had the ward party on Saturday which was just all kinds of killer with all good Chilean traditions like cueca, food, kites, games, music, jokes etc. Everyone teases each other a ton here. I feel like there are so many people that I still don't know anyone hahahaha around 180 people attend here which is huge for our mission. it will be fun to get to know them all if we get the time to do it. Sunday after church we passed by some recent converts' houses and ate all kinds of asado and empanadas and made ourselves kind of sick. We had to be in the house early and we hung out for a while and went to bed. Monday we played some volleyball and ultimate frisbee with the zone and then monopoly after which got pretty intense hahaha. It was wierd to rest for so long and it kind of set me off balance and made me want to get back to work again honestly. I felt like I didn't really have a purpose for a while there it was super confusing. Today we had a zone conference and taught the zone how to plan lessons better and how to study and some other basic stuff that a lot of new missionaries don't learn how to do until way too late in their missions so hopefully that turns out. The APs are in our zone so they helped out with their lesson and a few of the other missionaries did some stuff too. Oh ya I had my first ward mission correlation meeting WHOOOO only 14 months into my mission too hahahaha! That will be a new cool thing I've never gotton to do before! the ward mission leader is a return missionary who got back like a month ago so that's cool. Truth is I dont really know our investigators yet except for a few that I hear are progressing but I'll have to let you know more about that when I can wrap my head around everything and get to know them better. We have just been crazy busy. Wow my brain is kind of fried and I'm pretty tired. I'm going to have to take it easy for a little I think. Mostly it will just be really nice to get to know my sector and getting back into the routine of things will help me feel more relaxed. As far as spiritual learning goes I'm learning a lot about the power of delegating hahaha. I have also been studying a lot about what it means to "know" Christ as the scriptures mention a lot. I think it means a lot to be able to say that we "know" Christ, or maybe that it's something more perpetual than something that we just accomplish. I guess it has to do with conversion too. Ok well I'm loving it here and loving the challenges I have. I have really seen how the Lord will consecrate our work and our efforts so that they turn out better than we can do ourselves. I got my birthday package too! Haven't opened it yet of course so I'll let you know. Love you all Elder Trevor Smith Hey ok so you already know the cambio news kind of thanks to Lebu chains of communication. haha. Ya ok so I leave tomorrow in the morning to go to Boca Sur! It is part of the San Pedro zone so me and Elder Gomez (different from my old comp Elder Gomez) will be in charge of around 30 missionaries I think. It's the biggest zone in the mission so it will be a big change from here in Lebu, but it will be really cool. Elder Diaz actually served there for a while so he was able to tell me a little about it and it sounds awesome. It's kind of a famous sector in the mission for a lot of reasons. For one I think it's one of the top 3 baptizing sectors so that's cool! We will see how that goes. It's aparently a really big and killer ward too of like 150 people which is big for our mission. I might as well be honest and tell you right off the bat that it's kind of sketchy too but nothing crazy hahaha. It's going to be way different from anything I've experienced so far and I'm excited. I actually already know Elder Gomez and he is really cool and funny. He's from Argentina and really cool so no worries about that hahaha. I hear the house is good too and I'll be really close to the mission home etc. I'm way excited! The bad news is that I'm leaving Lebu boooooo. Way too short here. I was pretty bummed and really surprised to find out. I know it's the revelation though so it's ok. If there is one thing I've learned about being here it's that these relationships with these families is eternal so honestly I'm not too sad. Also with skype and everything now it's really not hard at all to stay in contact with everyone. At this point it really wouldn't be a stretch to say that a child of mine will serve here in years to come either. The main rough part is just saying goodbye. It's hard enough in other sectors but I'm kind of dreading the rest of today. I just hope I'll be able to communicate to them all how much i really do care about them. This place is just holy ground for me and for all of our family now I think. To say that this is the end now I think would be pretty ridiculous considering the circumstances. I don't know. My brain is still after 3 months trying to get around all the profoundness and purpose of my being here and I still haven't figured it out. It's sad to go but it's ok. I guess those are my thoughts about it. I just wish it wasn't so short! It's going to be so hard for me to think about walking over the bridges here for the last time or feeling the wind from the ocean for the last time, let alone thinking about seeing these people for the last time. On the other hand as I've mentioned I'm pretty determined that it will not be the last time. The APs kind of explained to me the reasons about why im leaving and it mostly has to do wiht that the San Pedro zone needs help and that after praying about it they felt confirmed that i needed to go there. Thats comforting at least. One half of me is sad about all of this and the other is really really excited for Boca Sur. I hear its totally awesome there. Its giong to be fun to be so busy and to meet so many missionaries there too. There is a saying in the mission that if you're comfortable, you're not growing. I'm pretty comfortable here in Lebu hahaha I know that the challenges I'll face in Boca will help me grow. Anyway. enough about all that. This week wasn't super eventful. B and P were out of town or busy all week so we couldn't connect with them but we did find a couple other young MARRIED couples here that we were really excited to teach and who seemed really interested. They will go far here w Elder Diaz and his next comp. We did a lot of service this week too including painting TA's house and helping move cement and weird other random stuff here, but that was fun. We had a zone conference with President and Hermana May which was really cool. We learned a lot and I think my training segment went well too, so that was fun. I liked a thing that President shared about how Nephi making a new bow when his broke really wasn't a very complicated or dificult solution to their family's problems, but that it made a huge difference. I really love the missionaries here too and it's been so cool to be able to help them. Well I guess I will let you know more about my next assignment and everything next week. We will be writing Tuesday and not Monday FYI because of the 18th (Independence Day) which should be really fun and crazy in my next ward. I guess I'll have new investigators to talk about too etc etc. Sorry if this letter is boring! I'm kind of braindead from all this cambio news. I think a big lesson I've learned here in Lebu is a saying that Hermana May uses a lot, which is that God is in the details of our lives. I keep being amazed by how well He knows each one of his children and knows exactly what we need and how we can help each other during this life, and he doesn't hesitate to put his hand in and shape our lives if we let him. Our futures hold so much for us, and God's plan for each one of us can be very intricate and beautiful. Ok well I better go face the music and start saying my goodbyes. The hardest part will be saying goodbye, but I mostly just have to trust that God will take care of them all. I love you all and am greatful for your letters and prayers and miss you too. I pray for you a lot! Congrats Debbie again!!! Elder Trevor Smith Lebu Branch President Silva and family. Sister Olga Oporto and son. Scott taught her husband, Leoncio Oporto, who passed away the week Trevor arrived. Sister Munoz and her daughter Ximena. Ximena and her sister Lorena were Scott's first contacts in Lebu and joined the church during its first month in Lebu. Brother Munoz was one of the first priesthood leaders there. Saturday at Tamara Alarcon's house. Tamara also served as a missionary in Osorno and returned just before Scott and Wendy re-visited in 1992. The Ulloa-Oporto family. Vinka's family joined the church during its first year when Vinka was only 5 years old. Trevor taught and baptized their daughter. Gorge Chandia. Scott met him, but he was baptized later, along with his family. A great support to Trevor. Says he's eager to meet our grandson "Elder Smith" when he serves in Lebu someday.
Hey all,
Ok this week was pretty bland again sorry guys. We went to Curanilahue on Tuesday after the district meeting to help find some new investigators for one of the companionships of hermanas there and that was fun. It's really huge and there are a ton of houses so we found some cool people and scaled some really big hills. I like getting to see new places and exploring them it's way fun. It was funny because we all of a sudden both had to go to the bathroom really bad and were VERY far from home and we got in a house by asking for the bathroom and handed off the reference to the hermanas hahaha hopefully they don't find out what happened -- that would be embarrassing jk. That night we took the bus home to Lebu. Wednesday was pretty average and we had to go to branch counciM and I think we were able to help there. We are working on a choir w Hna Ximena muñoz for the branch conference we will be having here soon but hopefully we both stay here for another cambio because I'm directing kind of and Elder Diaz is playing piano hahaha. Regardless it will be a good thing to get the branch excited and to help them get something together as far as music goes. Truth is our pool of investigators had pretty much dropped to a hard 0 by Thursday. Even M. kind of dropped out which was pretty sad. We are trying really hard to look for more people with few results right now but I think it was an attitude problem last week. Truth is the people are really religious here and usually don't want much to do with us. Even the guitar has yielded few results but we are going at it still! We had a few long days of door knocking this week but we are also trying hard to train the members on how to do missionary work and invite people etc. Hopefully that turns out well. I know things will be better this week because we really need to find some miracles for the next transfer. I'm trying really hard to keep pushing. Sometimes we're a little discouraged but it will get better. The sad part is that the other companionship here in Lebu is even worse off than us. It's just discouraging to see that after 5 weeks here in both companionships we have made little progress. The good news is that I'm learning a ton about how despair and self pity are totally tools of the devil that we often do not see coming. I'm learning a lot about how to keep the attitude up and how that effects our results and the example we give to the people around us. I'm especially trying to give that example to the three missionaries I live with because they are essencially passing through the same circumstances. I also think a lot of what's going on here has to do with how we are using our time so I'm going to try really hard to figure out how to use each hour of the day in the most effective way. At the end of the day we still have so much to be grateful for too. It's been absolutely beautiful here lately because it's been really warm and sunny for some weird reason so that has been a fun treat. We have been walking around in just our white shirts without sweaters or anything. Lunches here are always fantastic as well, we finished our fast this Sunday w Hermana Tamara Alarcon which was great. The coolest news and events this week is the progress of a yound couple B. and P. and their baby M. who we hadn't been able to find for like 2 weeks. B's mom is a member who is inactive but we had a very spiritual lesson this week with them and they accpeted the invitation to church right away so that was really cool. They came to church and there baby was super chill the whole time and didnt cry once for 2 hours which was pretty miraculous. Hopefully they liked it! We will see what happens this week. They cool part about them is that B. has a ton of doubts and questions which sounds like a bad thing maybe but honestly to us it shows that he really understands the importance of all of this, and shows that he doesn't think of religion and faith as just like a social think like a lot of people in Chile think. Truthfully when people have a lot of questions our job is easier because they are in a place where they will really truthfully look for revelation in a meaningful and personal way so thats really cool. I'm really really excited for them. I've been studying the sermon on the mount a lot again and I'm really loving it. I think the thing that impacts me the most, and that is really a central part of Christ's and Jon the Baptist's teachings is that our status as members of the church or even our testimonies are not what will save us in the end. The only true thing that will make the difference in our salvation (after Christ's personal sacrifice and grace of course) is true, righteous actions and living. I just think thats such a powerful and important message for Chile and especially for the church! I'm trying to apply it to my own life as a missionary and not act as if just "being" on a mission will make a difference in my life, but remembering that it is my own righteous efforts and doings that make the difference. I think being a Christian (or Mormon if you want to say it) is not really a status or even an adjective, but it's more a way of living. Or at least thats what I think they taught. I'm going to try harder with that this week. Shoot sorry if it sounds like it was a hard week or I'm being negative. Still dont see the point in saying something that isn't the truth hahaha. It will all get better though that's for sure. One cool thing is that we will have a zone conference this week with the assistants and the mission president so that will be really cool. I'm going to give a training too so I'll let you all know how that goes. This cambio has gone so fast I feel like it just slipped through my fingers. It's been great despite it all though. I love Lebu and I guess we will see what happens with the transfers this week and I'll let you know. The most likely thing is that everything stays the same though hahaha who knows though my transfers are always kind of loco. Ok this computer is frustrating me and I've already talked a lot so more next week. Love you all and hope you are doing great! I love your letters! Congrats Debbie on Australia -- how cool is that! They are going to love you! Elder Trevor Smith Hey ok so this week was good!
First we did a gran intercambio and we pulled a fast one on everyone and sent 4 missionaries to Los Alamos and noone was expecting it so it was pretty funny. What happened is that Elder Duffin was living there like 3 months ago so he knows all about it so me and him worked there and two other missionaries. It was a fun day and cool to work in that sector again but the pulgas bit me. Intercambios are a lot of times kind of like a missionary slumber party despite all good intentiones. (also when I referred to "mate" night a few weeks ago it was referring to the cultural drink here mate, pronounced "mah-tay" but I can see where the confusion came from my fault). It was a good thing to get the zone more excited during the hump of the transfer. Now we are looking a lot better for baptisms as far as September goes as a zone. We have some killer missionaries here and some especially killer hermanas. After that it was just the usual grind. We were kind of dissappointed to find that almost all of the investigators we had found the previous week kind of dissappeared so we started pretty much from ground zero AGAIN except for M. (more on him later). We did a lot of looking but little finding, but I think this week will be better we have some better ideas on how to do things here and have some member references cooking. A lot of our time is spent walking because in the end Lebu is a really big sector. I think if we had bikes we would be totally more efficient but whatever. Right now it's pura pie. We have been working a ton on the big hill of Lebu which is good because it's kind of untouched but bad because it's a hassle to climb up and down. Interesting thing was that Saturday we found like a secret neighborhood behind the lebu hill which was cool. It's called a "toma" or a "take" in Ingles which is essencially just where a bunch of people are squating on the land. It's waaay out of the way but we found a really cool couple up there. They're older and really evangelical but they told us that they let us in but they had never done that before and that they just felt like they should have done it. we told them that was the spirit of course. We had a really powerful lesson about the atonement of Christ and cleared up some really special truths for them. That's the thing about evangelical churches here, they've strayed from the truth, but when the people have soft hearts and hear restored truth, it makes a lot more sense to them. Sometimes they actually believe in gospel truths without knowing that their churches actually teach something totally different hahaha. Anyway they were pretty cool and we will see where that goes. They have a car which is a big plus. Other stuff. hmm. We randomly had some really nice sunny days here which was miraculous. Hopefully it keeps up. I worked with Elder Duffin again which is always awesome and we had a good day here too in lebu. We got kind of lonely here this weekend becuase the district of Lebu had a temple trip! A huge number of members traveled up to Santiago Friday until Sunday morning so we were pretty alone. Our ride to look for M. Sunday slept in by accident and 5 minutes to the meeting starting Tamara Alarcon saved our skins and took us up the hill to bring him down! Totally saved us and him. I literally understand like 25% of what he says which is hilarious. As missionaries we get really good at inferring from context. He learns pretty slowly but he still has to make some changes before he is baptized so it might be a while but he is really progressing in his own funny way. When you go in his house now you can tell there is a difference from when we first got there. He's awesome. Ok I hope you like the pics I sent. Today hna Tamara saved us a again and lent us her two bikes and we went on a pretty hard ride considering that lebu is like San Clemente in that it's in a valley, so we had to ride like straight vertical for a while and we are kind of Chilean bread chubby as is the norm here. It was really cool though and I will send more pics next week. No one got hurt ;). I think I've mentioned Elder Montoya before but he is really classic Chilean funny. Like so funny. He does impressions of other missionaries which is probably not ok but really funny. He is a constant laugh. I'm practising cooking! I have chosen to look at my failures just like steps towards progress but usually at the end of the month here we have to get pretty creative with what we end up with in the pantry. I can't believe this cambio is ending. I hope I stay here more time! Lebu is awesome. Pretty evangelical, but awesome. Me and elder Diaz are getting better as a companionship a ton. We realized that we are pretty similar and we were talking about how to get better as a companionship and after a lot of deliberation we decided that we just take way too much way too seriously, like every decision we make is the end of the world. That turned out to kind of be the secret to us being in union better. We have been able to totally tell the difference in our lessons now and so that's awesome. I've been working really hard at listening to the investigators here. A lot of times as missionaries, we don't do that. It is so important. I've been thinking a lot that the people we teach and talk to all need to know, as soon as possible, that we are on their team. If they don't know that, we are failing. They also need to know that God is on their team. The quicker they can feel that, the more receptive they will be to the invitiations we give them. I'm working at it. One cool thing about this week was to see the branch in a before temple and after temple way. It's like when they all got back there was just some kind of spiritual maturity there that wasn't there before. It was really cool and made me miss the temple a ton. We were talking as a house about how much we have progressed and changed for the better in the mission and how it's so cool etc and we realized that a lot of the change we attribute to the mission probably has more to do with the covenants we do in the temple, even though they don't get as much credit usually. Food for thought. It makes me want to think about what I promised God there more and try to magnify that stuff more than I do normally. Ok I love you all thanks for writing. I'm doing great and excited to kill it this week. Elder Trevor Smith Ok hey all,
This week went by really really fast. We were really busy so I think that's why and taught a ton of lessons! Tuesday I went to los Alamos with Elder Loose on an intercambio. I had heard a lot of negative things about that sector for a while but I thought it was pretty cool. The bummer part is that its really like 5 really tiny sectors rolled into one because it pretty much consists of 5 little pueblitos. We had some days of really beautiful weather here and Los Alamos kind of looks like some weird tiny town in northern Utah or something. We found a lot of new people to teach which was exciting too. I think it helped E Loose have a little bit of a more positive experience about his sector and I think it helped them throughout the week because they reported a killer week at the end. I really like training and helping other missionaries and then seeing them grow from it. They all end up having something to teach me too of course so that's always really cool. It was a good day but Elder Loose gave me his cold boo. I'm already better though. Also Los Alamos has a lot of pulgas (fleas) boohoo. It was good though. In Lebu we started to find a ton of people all of a sudden, And almost all of them are actually interested in the message! It's been kindof miraculous. I think it has to do with a set of changes we made ,but it was really exciting to see. A lot of it has to do with our union as a companionship and attitude changes. Having a good attitude helps us be more receptive to the guidance of the Spirit. Example. We had like an hour to contact and find someone and I told Elder Diaz that we should go up Cerro de la Cruz (Cross hill? hill of the cross I guess). The thing is that its the biggest hill in Lebu and takes like a half hour to get up. We were walking up just kind of meandering and we finally got to this like secret neighborhood on top of the hill and went waaaay to the back amongst a ton of barking dogs and were about to turn back and knocked the last door and found a super nice little family!!! It was really cool! We have taught them like twice now so we will see where that goes. When we got back to the house Elder Diaz told me that the whole hour of looking he was just kind of brooding in his head and complaining about potentially wasting time and climbing the hill etc. and that he was super surprised and humbled when we found that family at the end. We decided that in that moment I was receiving guidance from the Holy Ghost and that maybe he was missing out on that because he was just feeling too grumpy. tI know that shoe's been on the other foot before, so we tried to apply that principle to the both of us this week and we saw a pretty big increase in our results, so that was really cool! We are also working with a less active member and her two children and that's going well. The younger sister of the two loves to read so we got a Book of Mormon in her hands the first lesson and we are excited to see where she goes with that. Her brother is like 24 and we are teaching him and his girlfriend too so that is promising too. They are all really smart and have a ton of questions so that makes them pretty high priority. They will be in church this week if we die trying. It was funny becasue one day me and Elder Diaz were walking and he passed in his car and gave us a ride which was really nice. We are also teaching M. still! He has a baptismal date for the 10th so he his making a ton of progress. He is only kind of half committed to it hahaha but we know that as he makes changes in his life and repents that he will feel ready by then and want to do it. It's crazy because at the beginning he wasn't following our message too closely but now he is getting stuff really fast. A lot of it has to do w Hno Florin accompanying us who has been a huge help. They knew each other from the mines a long time ago too. It was super cool this week in the church because we went to go pick him up w Hermano Florin and when we got to the house we were pretty scared because no one answered the door. We called him and he answered and he told us he was already in the church! We were obviously cutting it too close for his taste, so he got a ride down the hill with some acquaintance all alone! it was pretty cool. This time he stayed for the class too so that was good. He is awesome. We are trying hard to have a better relationship w the members here as I said the last time. We are trying to use the worst hours of the day for tracting to take the time to visit people on the fly and do it in at least kind of an inspired way. Sunday all four of us did a lap and "caroled" to as many members as we had time for so that was a good move too. Tamara Alarcon has proved to be kind of a secret weapon blessing as well because she is a return missionary and has a car so in an hour and a half one night we got a ton done together. We are meeting with a few different single moms so bringing members has been super important. We didn't have a ton of success bringing the new people to church but a lot of times people need two weeks to make that committment so this week will be key for us. Our zone isn't progressing too well this month but I think they will be getting better this week. We are going to be trying to do lot more intercambios aand maybe not just with the district leaders to try and give the example to the zone better. It's hard sometimes when we are all so spread out. I think a problem we had in the past and that the zone is now facing is that a lot of times when we find new people to teach we judge them on the first visit and don't go back or give them a real good chance. We made the change to not do that at the beginning of this transfer and it has been helping us a ton. We are going to try and help the zone to have the faith to do that too. I finally met Lorena and Ximena Munoz´s mom Dad! She's getting on in years but is still really spunky and funny and really bright mentally. That was really fun. We are getting to the end of winter here and slowly rolling into spring and it's starting to get really pretty here in Lebu. August means a lot of rain that stops and starts every hour or so but when it's not raining its really really pretty here. Some of the blossoming trees are starting and the river is rising and the grass is getting really green. Next week is supposed to be a really weird heat wave too so that will be a weird but nice change from the rain. We went to a really cool forest today and I took a bunch of pics but this computer is really fighting me about uploading pics so they will have to wait to next week and I'll send a bunch of everything. I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a child of God these weeks. I think for me that knowledge is the really only true source of confidence for me. I was reading in the Pearl of Grand Price about Moses´s vision about when he saw all the earth and all of God's different creations. He asks God the purpose of all His creations, and God tells him that all of His purposes are to bring about the inmortality and eternal life of man. In other words, all of creation, this world and the cosmos and all the intricate processes and systems and details that exist all were created by God for the purpose of our eternal progression and eventual exaltation. The cool thing was that after reading that today I got to walk through a really pretty part of that creation and think about how important I must be to God, if He had set up all of that beautiful nature for me to walk through, then I thought about how important all of His children must be to Him, and about how in a very miniaturized way, right now God and my purposes are united. Pretty cool stuff. Ok so this is long but it's been a really good week and I'm loving my mission. I have a lot of things I want to do before I get home and I want to grow in a lot of ways before then too. Loving it here! love Elder Trevor Smith Hey all!
Ok this week was pretty super normal butI'll try and think of some stuff to say. I usually don't have a problem as you all know hahha. Ok so Tuesday we woke up really early and me Elder Diaz, Duffin and, Loose along with Hermanas Bently and Flores all went up on a roadtrip to Conce for that big leadership meeting we have once a month. It was cool to see a bunch of friends and recieve a ton of training too. We came home with a ton of new ideas and stuff to try with our zone and presented it all in a zone conference Wednesday, so that was really cool. We are trying big time to help our missionaries be their own agents and not be reliant on us as their leaders so that's been a nice change and I think it's working out. We were pretty exhausted the day after but the week just got better after that. We spent a couple mornings helping Marcelo Oporto and his wife (son of Leoncio Jr) paint their house. They are now living in Hno Oporto Sr's house which is right next to Vinka so that was fun. I found out that Hno Oporto was a blacksmith and we got to see his whole shop behind the house which was pretty rad. He's so tranquilo, I can't picture him banging out ironworks in days gone by! We have been teaching M! I think I mentioned him last week? He's a old retired miner who is super cool. He is really humble. He learns pretty slow and cant read but we are helping him get it all slow and steady. The thing is is that he is there for our appointments and follows through with the invitations we make so that makes him like 2000x closer to baptism than anyone else which is really cool when you think about it. The best part of it all was him coming to church. He said he would come no problem but Saturday night we found out the hour was changing in Chile and he didn't answer his phone so we couldn't tell him! We were pretty scared he was going to have no idea and get up late! We went w Hermano Florin in his truck waaay up the hill where he lives and we had like 5 minutes until church started so we were pretty worried and then as we drove by the house we saw M. standing there with his cane all dressed up in Sunday clothes waithing at the door!!! MAN I was so excited!!!! It was really cool. When we got to the church we felt pretty proud to show him off to the branch and it was even cooler because he knew a bunch of them back from his mining days! He seemed really happy but we will verify tomorrow and see. He is really special!!! Ok other stuff. We have been trying to have more fun together as a house every nightand that's been a nice break and has helped us relate and be happier, which in turn helps us have the spirit more with us during the day. Short list of our activities is spa night, taco night, mate' night, restauration movie night, etc. I think the peak has been a mission version of monopoly I drew up on a piece of paper ( I won ;)). We just try and do something for 15 minutes at the end of every night and it really does help a ton. I've been really trying to not worry this week and it has helped a ton we are all way happier and more successful too. We are still trying hard to have good relationships with the members here so that they are more likely to help us and it's been going pretty well. We have a fhe tonight w Hermana Olga and some other people so that will be fun. Yesterday Lorena and Cecilia Oporto were in town so we went over and taught Caroline a little review of the lessons with them which was really fun. We are also working w a list of less active families to try and find people who are already members of the church but who's families aren’t etc. Lebu when it isn’t raining is really beautiful. Flowers are starting to come out. Every time I cross the bridge or climb the big hill I am always taken aback by how lucky and happy I am to be here. It's crazy how fast it's gone. Other people we are teaching hmmmm. We found a family whose dad was baptized a long time ago in Antofogosta so we are teaching them now and they seem like they will progress. We are still looking a lot but its going better now slowly our pool of investigators is growing so that’s good. I've been thinking a lot this week about how the Lord looks upon the heart. That means a lot to me now especially as im in charge of leading missionaries and helping them grow etc. I've been thinking a lot about the health of my own spiritual heart and what that has to do with my spirituality and happiness, and have been really enjoying meditating and practicing whith that. I think I'm learning about that with M. as well. It helps to try really hard to look at other missionaries' “hearts” when trying to know how to help them. The same goes for investigators too. I really want to have the purest and most good(?) (best?) heart I can have. I'm trying to care only about what the Lord thinks about me. It's freeing in a lot of ways and helps me feel more confident. Shoot I'm running out of things to say. I love your letters! I love my mission too. A lot. It's just bliss sometimes. I cant believe I hit 13 months today but who's counting? I love you all too! Elder Trevor Smith Oh ya today was Elder Diaz's birthday so we bought him a cake and played ping pong which was fun. Also soccer. I'm learning more on how to cook and am trying to expand my ydiet so that has been fun too Ok still trying to figure out this camera but heres two pics I've taken. I'm still trying to get back into the habit! |
Elder Trevor SmithElder Trevor Smith is a Mormon missionary in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission, the same mission where his dad served. Although this is Trevor's own mission, he grew up hearing about the beautiful land of Chile and the loving people that inhabit it. These are the letters from his experience there. Archives
July 2017
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