Week 11 – My New Diet | Elder Ziering Smith

March 2, 2015

It’s really only cold at night! Ha-ha. During the day it can get pretty hot, or maybe it just feels like that because we are walking 70 miles a week. The thunderstorms here are crazy cool! There’s lightning every night.

This week has been amazing. I ate a chicken’s foot!! It was gross!! Don’t try it…EVER. I have gotten pretty good at hand washing my clothes. It takes me about 2 hours now. Ha-ha! I even got a blister from hand washing my clothes this morning. We have to wash our clothes every week. There aren’t that many paved roads here so its mainly dirt. But that’s all right, its a small thing.

Staying in shape is pretty hard, but I developed a super awesome morning routine, which consists of 600 sit ups, 100 squats, 100 curls, 475 pushups and a jump rope. Ha-ha! The reason its hard to stay in shape is because they feed you about 5 portions of potatoes and rice that fills up your plate. Then they put meat on your plate, which is amazing, and I absolutely love it. But walking 10 miles a day definitely helps keep me in shape. We can’t run here. There are about 1000 dogs that live here and run wild. They live on the streets. People always throw rocks at them to make them go away. That’s super sad. I hate when they do that. Whenever you try to run here in Punata you start being chased by at least 5 dogs that want to bite you. That’s no fun, so we don’t run….EVER!! Our district is amazing. It’s the smallest district in the mission because we live about an hour from anyone else. There are only 4 of us, but we have a goal this month of 7 baptisms. Usually, in a district you have 2 or 3 a month, and other districts have 8-10 missionaries.

I love my companion. He and I are getting along so well. We have had amazing success. We have 5 investigators with baptism dates this month. Their names are Jenny, Juan, Marella, Elly, Moseses. They are all so amazing. Elly is going through a divorce with her husband which is really hard on her, but as we teach her, we can see hope in her. We can see a light growing inside of her. It’s truly amazing to see how much this gospel can change people’s lives. We are working super hard with the members to get more referrals. The people here literally have nothing. The streets are not paved; the houses are made of clay, dirt, and straw. Their roofs leak each time it rains. But they are happy…so very happy. They will do anything for you. As we help our investigators they want to help us in return. They always give us something to drink and peaches and bread. They don’t have much but what they do have they are willing to offer to us missionaries. I am so touched by them. The missions hard. I will not lie, but at the same time it’s amazing. It’s the most unique and special feeling I have ever experienced in my life. My work here has just begun. I know I need to continue the Lord’s work.

Here’s a scripture I want to share with you guys. It’s amazing and I love it. 2 Nephi 2:8 “Wherefore, how great the importance to make the things known not the inhabitants of the earth, that they ay know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save i e through the merits and the grace of the Holly Messiah, who layette down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.” It’s important that we share this great work with all.

PS. Happy Birthday to my big awesome brother, McKay. I hope you have an amazing birthday. Hope you’re safe and keep killing it in volleyball!

March 2, 12015

Hi mom! Thanks so much for everything! Your blog is amazing! The jungle and the waterfall were super cool. We were there for about 6 hours and afterwards we cooked outside. We made a bunch of steak, chicken, bread, corn, salad, and sausage. By far best meal here! But yes, I do my own laundry every Monday for about 2 hours. I have gotten pretty good at hand washing my laundry. We also clean the entire house every Monday, which takes about an hour or an hour and a half. The mission is great! This land is filled with so many amazing people. The camera is a cannon SX600, and if you send anything put on the package that its cheap…like 15 the tiger was a baby. We just saw it running away, but things are cool here. The city is super poor, and there are a lot of farm animals. I can buy 30 bananas for only 5 lbs, that’s equivalent to about 75 cents. Ha-ha! But everything here is very unsanitary…everything! But you just eat it. This week I had a chicken foot. I miss you guys all so much, especially you! Thanks so much for all you do.