Last Drive to Share the Gospel

Family and Others who will be reading these letters for the next 7 weeks,

Wow this week was pretty awesome with General Conference. We truly heard some amazing talks by inspired and wonderful leaders of the church. And I was pretty sad when it was over because it’s my last conference as a missionary. This conference was actually pretty crazy because on Saturday morning they weren’t able to get the conference in English, so we went to President Galvez’s house and I got to watch the morning and afternoon sessions on a huge flat screen while sitting on a really comfy sofa so that was pretty nice. Also since we were at President’s house, we got to eat there too instead of going to KFC and Hermana Galvez always has the best food. For the Priesthood session we watched it in Spanish, but it was still pretty good and right now I am putting it on my Ipod in English so I will listen to it again tonight.

After the Priesthood session President took all us missionaries out for ice cream at Pops so that was awesome too. For the Sunday sessions they finally got it working in English at the church so that was amazing. Also there are two girls from Bountiful that are here in Costa Rica for a few months with some humanitarian thing so they were there too and actually they are the first non missionaries that I have seen from Utah in almost two years so that got me thinking about home. So all in all it was an awesome conference and I loved basically every talk and even though it got me excited for home, it gave me a super huge AMINO BOOST TO FINISH THE MISSION STRONG!!!!

Also last week we had an awesome Zone Conference with President and the AP’s. We talked a lot about how to make better plans and execute on the plans that we make and that was the subject of one of the conference talks (don’t remember who, but is was good). As a zone we are going to have a competition this month. We all brought ties and we wrote what personal goals we have for the month of October. Then we tied our ties to a ¨Title of Liberty¨ and so every time we contact a family or put a baptismal goal or baptize someone, we get to put a hole in our tie and whichever companionship has the most holes at the end of the month wins and gets a free dinner from the ZLs and President. So that will be a fun competition.

We are teaching 3 families right now. We are still working hard with Diego, Mayela and their family. We just need about 3 more weeks for all the divorce papers to finish and then they can get married and baptized. Also we are teaching a family, Juancarlos and Mireza. They are super cool, but they need to get married and Juancarlos is a little reluctant, but last lesson we left the family proclamation and committed them to read it together and pray to know if they need to be married. Also we are teaching the boyfriend of a recent convert, Marlen. His name is Carlos and they really want to get married and we are going to put a baptismal goal with him this week.

It was kind of sad this week though because a couple weeks before conference, I always like to share the story of King Benjamin talking to his people from his tower, because it’s kind of like the first General Conference ever. I basically teach this lesson to everyone--members, recent converts, less actives and investigators in order to get them excited for conference and this will be the last time that I can teach it. Actually, the last people we taught it to were Diego, Mayla and their family and for me it was a little sad, but oh well.

So I am doing really well and oh, I forgot to tell you that with the money that I have pulled out in the last little while, it has gone to help members get new scriptures, Liahona subscriptions, hymn books (because there aren’t any ward supply and so everyone basically has to bring their own) and stuff like that. There are a couple members that work in the temple and when they go, I ask them to get stuff for converts, and less actives so hopefully that is okay.

Well I hope you all have an awesome week and I can’t wait to write you again!!!!

Love, Elder Smith

SuperBowl Week

Dear Family,

Hey so I hope you all had a good week. Well its been almost 6 months since the last general conference and I am super excited for this weekend. As I have said in the past, General Conference is like the superbowl for missionaries. It's basically the only vacation that we have as missionaries and this conference will be super awesome because it's my last as a missionary. It's crazy cause I still remember, like yesterday, when I went to the Priesthood session with Dad, Nick and Spencer and we sat in the High Council room and I slept through most of it. Haha. Oh and like after the Priesthood session ends everyone goes out to eat--well here, after the Saturday morning session ends, we go to KFC for lunch. Also this week we have Zone Conference and so that's going to be fun too. Oh and I'm conducting the meeting and I'm going to record it with the tape recorder. Also this week I'm going to do divisions with the Zone Leaders on Friday so basically this whole week is going to rock. Oh and we are almost in October, which is my third favorite month of the year behind November and December.

This week I did a couple of divisions and that always makes the week go by so much faster. On Tuesday I went to Tres Rios with Elder Johnson to do an interview for a guy, Jeancarlo, who got baptized this Saturday. The interview went really well and Jeancarlo was super prepared and a really humble guy. After the interview Elder Johnson was telling me that when they first started teaching him he was super prideful and could not accept the Book of Mormon or the fact that God calls modern day prophets. But Jeancarlo decided to pray and find out for himself and he received and answer and completely changed, so that was pretty cool. The division was also awesome because we talked about all the cool and funny things that happened in the MTC--we had to coolest MTC district. 

Then on Friday I went on divisions with Elder Stevens. I'm pretty sure I've talked about him before, but he actually grew up in our stake. He  lived by Reading Elementary and so was in whatever ward is by there. He lived there and then moved to Virginia. His family is super good friends with the Bednars, his dad and Brother Bednar were mission companions. Also he was on a baseball team with me, the Mets and brother Bednar was our coach. He is a super awesome missionary and he loves lacrosse too. He played in High School and then for BYU for a year and you know he is good, cause in Virginia lax is huge and the teams are a lot better than they are in Utah. It was fun talking with him about all the people that he remembers from his days in Centerville. I went to his area in order to get to know some of their investigators who are progressing and have the possibility of being baptized this month.

Which brings up my next subject. This past month we did aweful as a zone. We only baptized 3 people in total which is horrible. This month we really took a beating from Satan, because we had the people and they were progressing but lots of set-backs happened with investigators' work schedules, legal problems and divorce papers. During this coming month, I really want to complete the goal, cause it is my last full month in the mission and so it's the last time that I can complete the goal. In my district we have a lot of possibilities. Our goal as a district is to baptize 4 families and 5 Varones or guys that can hold the Melchizedek Priesthood. As a district we have all the people we just need to work with them really hard so that they can be prepared for this month. Honestly I don't even feel like I have that much time as a missionary, and I'm pretty sure that it won't hit me until I see you guys again. The mission has just become a way of life and so for me wearing a shirt and tie, studying the gospel every day and talking to people about it is just normal. 

Ya so that's what has been going on down here. I love you all and I hope you all have an awesome week!!!!!

Love, Elder Anthony Kent Kohkonen Smith

Big Ward in Los Yoses

Sad to say GOOD-BYE to my San Vito Elders!

Dear Everyone,

Hey its good to hear that you all had a good week. Julia keep up the good work in volleyball. Spencer have fun at your dance activity and keep up the good work in Cross Country. So basically I love my new area and ward. I went from the smallest branch in the whole entire country to one of the largest wards in the whole country. I'm in the Los Yoses ward, which was actually the very first ward in the whole country so that's pretty cool. Also our ward is split into two areas. My comp and I are in Tirrases, which is like the ghetto part of the ward and the APs, which include Elder Sangster are in the nicer part of the ward. I love my area even though its pretty dangerous, apparently people get killed or assaulted every day, but don't worry mom, nothing every happens to us because the people know that we only carry books and phamplets. I think the best thing is that I can finally work again with ward leaders and our ward mission leader. Yesterday church was awesome because I just got to show up and listen. We also had some investigators come which was really cool too. 

Right now we are teaching some pretty cool families. Luis Diego and Mayela are probably the best family that we are teaching. They also have two kids Paola and Diego who are awesome and are starting to memorize scriptures. Luis just needs to finalize his divorce and then he can get married and then they can get baptized. Also Luis works for an ice cream company and so he gives us free gallon tubs of ice cream, which is awesome because a gallon of ice cream down here costs like 12 bucks. So another good thing about being in San Jose is that we can take the families we are teaching to the temple so they can see it and feed the awesome spirit that is there so we will be planning that with the families we are teaching and will be going in the next few weeks. So yeah, everything is going good and I will write more about what we are doing next week, because I don't have a lot of time today. So I love you all!

Love Elder Smith

Transferred to Zona Los Yoses

This is the farthest distance from the mission home in San Jose a missionary can get!

Dear family,

Hey so I don’t have much time to write today. So I had changes and it was a little sad to leave San Vito, because I liked it a lot and I am going to miss the people. Also, it was a freaking awesome zone and I am going to miss working with the missionaries down in the Zona Sur. So now I am in my new and hopefully last area Tirrases. Its like 15 minutes from San Jose center (too bad I wasn’t here when Julia came). So I am in the Zona Los Yoses and I am district leader again. Actually the APs and the secretaries are in my district so it should be interesting to work with them. Oh and as you can see from the subject line Elder Sangster has to buy me a cheescake now, because he just went AP!!

Like a year ago when he was my zone leader we made a bet that if he went AP that he would have to buy me a cheesecake and if he didn’t then I would have to buy him one. 

My new companion is Elder Pastrana. He is from Honduras and had about a year in the mission. He could be the missionary that I end the mission with, which is weird to think about. Oh and the cool thing is that now that I am so close to the center I can buy souvenirs for everyone. So tell me what you want I can get it. I hope I don’t have changes again because I don’t want to have to pack and move again—my suitcases are near the breaking point, well at least the wheels are near the breaking point. 

Also I am going from one extreme to another. San Vito is one of the lowest branch attendance-wise and stuff like that and now the ward I am in right now one of the biggest in Costa Rica. Also there are tons of members and so it will be nice to be able to work with them again. 

Well I love you all and I can’t wait to see ya in 12 weeks. How short is that!!!!!! Oh and I don’t know if you guys remember my companion, Elder Vallejo, well he finished the mission today! Love Elder Smith

Time in the Mission

Missionary Board

Dear Family, By the time half of you read this letter you will be getting home from school and doing homework. It’s crazy to think that both Spencer and Julia are in High School. Wow. Also Landon is almost in Junior High. Oh and thanks for the picture of the steak because I haven’t seen a steak like that for 21 months. So I officially have time in the mission and to celebrate I bought hamburger supplies and pigged out on like 5 hamburgers. It was really good! So not too much happened this week. Yesterday in church we had an attendance of 21, which is really good. There is one family where both the parents work in a Panaderia and they have to work everyday including Sunday. But every few months they get a Sunday off and so yesterday they came to church with their kids which was nice. I don’t know if I told you, but we only have church for 2 hours, Sacrament Meeting and then Sunday School. Also this week we have interviews with President Galvez and so I’m going to talk to him about what’s going on in the branch. Also next week there are changes and I think that I am going to have changes and I’m kind of hoping that I have changes because I really don’t want to finish the mission here in San Vito but again, am willing to go or stay where I am needed. So today I don’t have much time to write, but I love you all and I appreciate all that you do for me and for all the prayers that are offered in mine and Nick and all the missionaries behalf. Have a fun first week of school, I actually thought school started Wednesday, but I guess it doesn’t. Love Elder Abnthony Smith

Branch Status

With Elder Malan

Dear family,

Hey family hows it goin? Well from your letter mom it sounds like you had a very hectic week, but it sounds like every thing turned out good for the activity. One of the things I love about the mission is that I have learned to plan a lot better and actually in the last capacitacion with President he talked a lot about planning, because there are a lot of missionaries who haven't learned to plan yet and he taught us that every plan needs to answer 4 question, who? what? when? and how? 

Well I had a very good week. On Tuesday Elder Malan came to my area and we did divisions. It's funny because Elder Malan is now my zone leader and I am branch president and in Gualipes it was the opposite, I was the zone leader and he was group president so that's kinda funny. Well while we were walking around looking for people to contact a Joven from the branch came up to us and said there was a gringo looking for us who used to be a missionary here. So for the rest of the night we were wondering who it could be, but around like 9:30 while we were talking, the doorbell rang and it was Elder Tisdale, oh wait I mean Dan Tisdale. I don't think that I have ever talked about him, but he finished the mission like 5 months ago. He came to Costa Rica with his family for a week and then they left and he has been by himself for a week just visiting old areas and converts. It was super cool and he spent the night with us, so basically we were up until 1:00 a.m. just talking about everything so that was cool. 

Okay to answer the questions that Dad gives me I think I need to expain better the situation that we are in here in San Vito, because I don't think that I have explained it very well. Basically the branch down here is dying. So like 6 years ago there were tons of faithfull members and there were leaders and everything was going well and there were even plans to build a chapel. Then through a chain of events that involve missionaries and members making idiotic decisions and doing stupid stuff and with a whole lot of gossip, basically everything fell apart. For the past 3-4 years, missionaries have been the branch presidency because the two priesthood holders that are active refuse to take the calling or they can't because of worthiness issues. In the attached list of members, there are like 97 and there are only 9 who come to church every week, and then 10 who come at least once a month. The rest of the members either are not willing to forgive and forget what happened in the past or are just too lazy to come to church or don't want anything to do with the church or us as missionaries . . . so yes, it's super hard down here. 

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on a project for President Galvez and I actually finished it last week. We took the list of members and looked for everything one so that we could find out what their status is and to clean up the list because there are a ton of people who have moved away. Plus for a bunch of the members, we don't have very good address which made it difficult to contact them. Basically what we learned is that we have the possibility of raising the attendence from 15 to 40 if we work hard with the less active members who will accept us in there homes, but its super hard with people not being able to forget the past and being lazy. Right now we don't have branch presidency meeting because I'm the branch president and my companion is the first counselor... so actually we have branch presidency meeting every day at 9 for companion study.. haha! The few members with callings are: 1) one sister teaches the sunday school class for the youth, which is only 4 usually. 2) There is the young womens leader, there are only 2 young women. 3) And there is the Relief Society leader and there only three women. 4) The only Executive Secretary that I have is MLS, which does all that stuff for me, but President Galvez talked to me and said they are going to take the computer our of our building, because apparantly in places were the church is held in regular houses (and not official church buildings) we can't have a computer. This is going to make doing tithing and offerings more challenging. The bad news is that if things don't start to pick up here, they are going to close the branch so thats why President had me do that form about the members to see what members we have and who we can work with.

Well I hope you all have an awesome week I know that I am cause I'm going on divisions with Elder Sirrine to do a baptismal interview. Oh and I hit 21 months in the mission YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm pretty excited if you can't tell. Oh and thanks for that countdown clock. FYI - I was looking at my blog and you put up a picture of a flower with the caption, "A pretty flower". Actually it is a very powerful hallucinogenic plant that people use when they go to clubs and stuff like that. OOPS! Well I love you all and enjoy your last full week of summer HAHAHAHA!!!! Elder Smith

Almost 100 Days Left

Elder Smith enjoying life!

Dear Family and Friends,

It's so good to hear that everyone is fine and enjoying their summer vacation. I am super super tired right now so this letter could be a little short because I'm about to fall asleep. So today we had a zone activity and we went to this really cool waterfall in Ciudad Neily. It was super hot and by the time we got there, I wanted to go swimming so bad just to cool off. Haha funny story, so Elder Sirrines companion, Elder Alfaro fell off a tiny cliff and into the water as we were climbing up the waterfall. Haha it was funny and now he can say that he went swimming. 

So this week was super awesome for many reasons. First I was on divisions with Elder Sirrine for 3 days and we went to San Jose for a Zone Council/ Leadership meeting. I have been going to these meetings for over a year now and it was very good and I did learn some really cool new things. Also on Wednesday after the conference ended, all of the elders that had to travel long distances were sent to others areas to work. I went with Elder Cerato to Garabito. We went to once Barrio called La Leon 13, which is the most dangerous part of Costa Rica and I got assaulted. Ya it was pretty scary and I....... haha just kidding I didn't get assaulted and nothing happened. We just knocked doors and I spent the night talking to two other elders who live in the same house so it was really fun!!! So ya it was a pretty fun week and once again I got to do divisions with  Elder Sirrine. Oh so with BYU, I want to go with one of my friends, Elder Montierth and room with him. He doesn't finish the mission until March and is going to start in the summer semester. So I was thinknig that I could work until then and maybe take some night classes or something. So I hope you all have a really good week and please stay safe for me. Nick have fun completing 3 months in the mission and I will have fun beginning my 100 day countdown! Love, Elder Anthony Smith

Paradisical!

Dear Family,

Hey everyone how’s it going? Julia Happy Birthday!!!!!! You are now 15, only one more year ‘til you can date and drive!!!!!! I’m glad to hear that Nick is going to be out in the field this week!!!!! It’s going to be an adventure that you are never going to forget!!!!! Spencer don’t spend all you money on food, cause that’s the one thing I regret doing is spending all my money on food!!!!! Landon keep enjoying your summer vacation, because you only have one month left. Mom I hope the exercising is going well. Dad, I know you told me to do this a really long time ago, but it kept slipping my mind, but I finally got letters off to Grandpa Smith and Sister Holt, hopefully they get them! Oh and about the C-funds, a bunch of it was used on those crazy 4 day divisions that I went on. The good thing is that Luis, the guy we were looking for, is going to be getting married and baptized in the next month and Elder Sirrine was telling me last night that they are a super awesome family and they are progressing in the gospel!!!

So the first half of this week was spent traveling to San Jose and then coming back to San Vito!!!! Now that I’m not district leader I have so much more time and I’m a lot less stressed!! My new companion, Elder Cabrera, is super awesome. He has lots of desire to help the branch and is also keeping me animated to work hard every day. One thing that we are going to be doing is going through the entire list of members to see who still lives here in San Vito and who has left. And all the less actives who will let us visit them, we are going to basically treat them as investigators and teach them from the beginning. 

Yesterday in church was super awesome, because we broke the attendance record. 24 people came to church and that is the most we have had in a few months, which is super awesome. Also 2 investigators, Gerardina and Adrian, came to church with us for the second time. Which is also really awesome and we are going to put a baptismal date with them for this coming month.

So basically not much else has happened. In my scripture study I just finished the Isaiah chapters in second Nephi, so I can start enjoying the Book of Mormon again hahaha! No, but I did get a book from the mission house that goes through and explains those chapters so that it’s easier to understand, because its hard, especially in Spanish, to understand them.

So I love you all and Nick I hope you have a safe flight to Taiwan. BTW what time zone is your mission in???????????? Love Elder Smith

My Return Date is Set!

I'm not trunky . . . I just like to count!

Dear Everybody,

So I think the biggest news for this week is that my plane tickets have now been bought! The office secretary called my on Monday and said that he was buying them right then. So its official that I will be coming home on the 22nd of November which is so awesome. That means I will have plenty of time to get released and enjoy Thanksgiving Day--I am so excited!!

This week, Elder Cope had changes and is now in Siquirres, which was part of my zone in Guapiles. My new companion is Elder Cabrera from El Salvador. He has 10 months in the mission and Elder Romney was his trainer so you know he is good! So right now we are just waiting for our bus and it will take about 6 hours to get back to San Vito. Also the other really awesome news is that I am no longer District Leader. Since I was out of my area a ton last change doing divisions, President thought it would be better if I could focus more on my Branch and so now Elder Sirrine is the DL and he is also training this sweet Elder from Mexico who is friends with Elder Gomez, my Mexican companion. This is an awesome change because now when I get home at night I just have to call Sirrine, plan, write in my journal, and then work out--BTW with P90X I’m starting to lose weight and get my muscle back, because I got to be good looking when I get home (ha ha).

Things in the Branch are Mas or Menos. With this change we are going to focus a ton on the menos activos. So I don’t have a lot of time to write but I may write some more tomorrow. Love you all and please stay safe. Oh and BTW I hit 20 months this Monday--pretty cool huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love Elder Smith

It's Been Another Crazy Week!

For the Beauty of the Earth!

Dear Family,

Ok so this week was freaking crazy and it was also really awesome. So Monday we had a really awesome party to celebrate the 4th of July. We bought 4 kilos of meat and made hambugers and I just have to say that they were the best hamburgers that I have had in the last 19 months and 3 weeks. We also watched the RM which is a really funny movie and I like it a lot because I am going to be an RM in like 4 months.  

So Tuesday is were the adventure began, because in District Meeting Elder Sirrine, Rosales and I had the impression that we needed to go to Puerto Jimenez and look for Luis again. Luis is an investigator they have, but he had to go to Puerto Jimenez for work and we felt we needed to find him and get him married and baptized. So once again with nothing but my scriptures and the clothes on my back, Elder Sirrine and I took went on divisions for 3 days. So Tuesday afternoon, we took a 4 hour bus ride in order to get to Puerto Jimenez and we got there about 6 :00 at night. We spent the night in the church building there, which is actually just a house, but luckily they have beds. We had to wake up super early in order to be at the truck stop at 5:30. The only way to get to the place where Luis works is in this truck or with someone else who has a car. Well Luis didn't show up at the truck stop and we didnt know if we should go to Carate anyway, because he could have gone there with a friend or work companion. Also we had knew that he could also probably be in the house of his mom. We both felt that we needed to go to the house of his mom in order to find him. Well the only address that we had was that his mom lived in Ciudad Negra, which is just outside of Puerto Jimenez. So when we finally got there, we just started asking everyone if they knew where Luis´ mother lived and the fist lady we asked told us that it in front of her house there was a coconut tree, which didn't help us at all because almost every house had a coconut tree in front of it. Well after asking a couple more people we found the house and when we went to knock the door we saw a guy just inside the house who looked like he was sleeping. Well it was Luis and he wasnt sleeping, but really drunk. Due to losing his job again and due to some problems with his wife and stepkids, Luis had gotten really depressed and had started to drink again. Well Elder Sirrine and I talked with him for awhile and after talking to him about making some changes in his life and after giving him a blessing, he decided that he wanted to go back home and fix things. 

So after taking a nap and after getting him ready we sent him on a bus back to Ciudad Neilly. While we were getting him ready, he asked us to put his boots on and as we were putting them on he looked at us and said, Ustedes son buenos (Translates to "you are really good guys"), and that just made both of us feel really good inside. We basically had to carry him to the bus stop and while we were waiting I looked at him and could just tell that he was not happy at all. My testimony of how the gospel brings us true happines and how alcohol, drugs and other vices don't bring us any true happiness at all was strengthened. After we sent Luis on the bus, we both felt really good about what we had done, because we are sure that if we wouldn't have found Luis and sent him back home, than we would never have found him, because he was drinking heavily and his brothers weren't a very good influence on him.

The next day we had to travel to Golfito to do a couple interviews for 2 Jovenes. One of them, Angelica, asked me if I would baptize her and I said yes. The next day, Friday, we had to travel to Perez Zeleon, which was another 4 hour bus ride, for zone conference which was really awesome. President and Sister Galvez, the APs and the ZLs all gave really good capacitations and also I got the package you sent me. Thank you so much for the pictures I have looked at them like 100 times!!!!! On Saturday, we had the baptism of Angelica and Stif. I baptized Angelica and the District President Castillo baptized Stif. It was a really good service, but we had to leave right after in order to catch our bus back to San Vito. So from Tuesday morning to Saturday night I was outside of my area, but had some really cool experiences. And yesterday for church only 3 people showed up--my companion, me, and a guy from Guam who is doing some work here in the Botanical Gardens. So we just had the sacrament and then we left. Due to vacations everyone is either at the beach or in San Jose so that is why no one came to church. So this week I calculated that I spent about 24 hours riding in buses and that is why I pulled out so much money, because we also had to buy food. So this week we are going to to temple and I want to buy some things for members and I am really excited.

WELL I love you all and I hope you all have a really good week!!!!!!!! Love Elder Anthony Smith

I Love America!

BBQing dogs on P-day!

Dear Family,

Hey, today is the 4th of July. Last year I didn’t do anything because it was a Sunday and my comp was from Honduras so he didn’t really care. But this year my comp is a gringo and I have cool people in my district so we are going to have an awesome party!!!!! We are going to have a BBQ, play some basketball, and watch the RM!!

So this week was pretty good. I have had to travel a lot because in the Zona Sur everything is really spaced out and so it takes time to travel and its kind of expensive. On Thursday I went to Rio Claro with Elder Rosales, one of the ZLs. We worked with the Sisters there, Hermana Nava and Carcamo. We had some really neat experiences with them. One thing we taught them was how to challenge people to be baptized in the contacts and we contacted some really cool families. The reason we want to challenge in the contact is because that is basically our purpose as missionaries, to invite others to come unto Christ and be baptized and so in order to do that we need to focus on the people and more importantly, on those families that are willing to accept Christ and be baptized. Right now the mission is really focused on doing all we can to complete our weekly baptism goals. Before we were just focused on the monthly goal, but what happened was that everyone just waited until the last week of each month and so we had to do a lot of running around that last week. Now if we focus on our weekly goals every week than we are going to have baptisms every week for the whole month!

Yesterday for Fast Sunday, we had 4 investigators at church, Maritza, Gerardina, Adrian and Ivan and two of his kids. It was a very interesting testimony meeting because only 4 people got up to share their testimonies—me, my comp, and two members. There was a lot of silence, but it was good. I shared my testimony about the prophet Joseph Smith because last Monday was the 167th anniversary of his martyrdom. 

I hope you all have an awesome week and I love you all so much!!!!! Have a fun 4th of July!!!!! Nick should have fun because he will be able to hear what happens at the Stadium of Fire program at the BYU stadium!!!!!!!  Love Elder Smith!!!!!!!!!!!

From Borrowed Suit to Wearing White!

The Best 2 Years!

Dear Family,

Holy Cow this week was really crazy. So much happened and I'm not going to have time to write you everything in detail, but let me just tell ya that it was CRAZY!!! 

So Monday we had an awesome P day activity and finally I get to see the parts of Costa Rica that I have wanted to see for my whole mission. So after the activity Elder Cope and I were supposed to go back to our area, but we missed the bus so we spent the night with the Zone Leaders in Ciudad Neily. The only problem was that I had no mission clothes and the next morning really early we had a conference with Pres. Galvez. So Elder Sirrine  let me borrow some of his clothes, which by the way were really tight on me cause he is super skinny (see attached photo and you'll know what I'm talkin' about). So the conference with President Galvez was super good and we watched a talk given by Elder Holland in the MTC this past Jan. I had already seen the talk twice, but in Spanish and this time we watched it in English. Maybe next week if I have time I will write some of the things I liked about the talk, just know that it was super good. One of the things we talked about in the conference was doing everything possible so that our investigators can be baptized. 

Well the ZLs have a family they are teaching, Luis and Maria. They are super awesome and were going to get baptized on the 18, but Luis had to go to this one place called Carate to work. Its a place by Puerto Jimenez which is like 4 hours away from Neily. They still wanted to get baptized so we decided that we were going to do everything possible so that they could get married and baptized. We planned that elder Rosales, one of the ZLs and I would go to Carate, do the baptismal interview with him, then have the APs drive down and bring his wife and a lawyer, so that they could get married and baptized right there on the beach. So I went on a 2 day adventure with Elder Rosales to Puerto Jimenez and just remember that I had basically nothing, just that clothes that Elder Sirrine lent me, a Book of Mormon, and toothbrush that I bought and this really awesome book that Im reading called Life Everlasting, check it out, cause now I have a whole new perspective about life after death. 

So anyway we took a 4 hour bus ride to Puerto Jimenez and spent the night in the church which is just a small house, but they had beds so we didn’t have to sleep on the floor. The next day, Wednesday, we had to wake up at 4:30 in order to be able to go to Carate. The only ways to get there are by driving yourself or going in the back of a truck that has two rows of benches in the back to sit on. So we took a bumpy two hour truck ride to go to Carate and something that I forgot to mention is that Elder Rosales was really sick with a flu. So we got to Carate and spent all day looking for him. We had been told that he was working as a security guard for a hotel and in Carate there is only the beach, one small store and hotels. I think that the population of people who actually live there is less than 50 and they all live in these tent style houses called rancheros. Some funny things happened while we were looking for him, but I don’t have time today to tell them all, but one funny thing is that everyone thought we were from the FBI and they were all scared. Well we only had until 4 in the afternoon to look for him cause that is when the truck left to go to Puerto Jimenez. Also what made everything difficult is that the phone reception is really bad out in that part of the country so we couldn’t get a hold of Luis. 

We went all the way back to Puerto Jimenez and we were a little disanimated, but the Lord blessed us for our work. The next day, the Branch President of Puerto Jimenez met with us and told us about a young man whose dad is a member and was listening to the missionaries, but when the missionaries were taken out of Jimenez he stopped going to church, but that in the last month he had been coming and wanted to get baptized. So we went over to his house, oh his name is Michael, and he told us that he wanted to get baptized. I did the interview and he was baptized this past Friday. So even though we didn’t get Luis and Maria baptized, we did baptize Michael, who is 20 years old so he also can get the Priesthood. Luis was eventually found and they are getting baptized in the next two weeks or soon thereafter. 

After our 2 day adventure in Puerto Jimenez, I helped the Sister Missionaries a little bit for a couple days so I was out of my area Monday until Saturday morning. And for those 5 days I wore the same clothes and so I smelled kinda bad, but that’s how the mission is (brings back memories of scout camp!). It was a fun experience and I wrote like 5 pages in my journal so when I get home you can read about it in detail.

To answer some of your questions dad, the computer in the church is fully equiped with everything necessary, even with the new Microsoft 7. The branch presidency consists of my companion and me. Thank you for sending me my setting apart. I have listened to it and enjoy it. In our branch there are about 16 active people, two families and a couple of single people. There are about 4 young men and women and a few kids in the primary. Also the computer has MLS and I´ve basically learned how to use it. Thank you for the talk outlines and if you want you can send more, cause I will basically be speaking every week. Also please send the recorder because it would be fun to record some of my talks. I think and hope that I answered all of your questions  . . .  it just that I’m trying to do a bunch of stuff right now.

Julia thanks for the pictures of your trip . . .  I enjoyed them. Inbioparque was in my first area and so you saw were I walked in the first months of my mission. I’m glad to hear that everything is going well and I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. I love you all!!!! 

Love Elder Smith





P-day at the Beach

Me and Elder Sirrine -- I like this photo!

Dear Family,

There is so much that I want to write you, but I have such little time. Thank you all for your letters I will print them off and read them tonight. So today was the funnest p-day activity that I have had in the mission. We went to the beach and it was AWESOME!!! I am uploading pics right now!!!! 

The work in the branch is going well. We are working with a bunch of less active members to try and get them reactivated again. We had an activity on Saturday for Fathers Day and suprisingly a bunch of people showed so that was nice. Also we are trying to find new families to teach every day and this week we found a couple of new families so we will see how they progress. 

I am pretty sure that Sundays are going to be the busiest days for the next little while, because I am basically in charge of everything. Yesterday I gave a talk in church, about Faith in Christ. I taught the Sunday School class to the youth and I also taught Priesthood. So I was pretty busy all during church. Oh and we had an attendance of 16 which is an improvment from last week! 

I am sorry that I don't have more time to write--it's just that we missed the last bus that goes to our area and so we are stuck here in Ciudad Neily with the ZLs and we have to sleep in their house tonight and borrow some of their clothes because tomorrow we have a meeting with President Galvez. So at least you can look at the pictures that I put up. Oh and the C. Funds were used to help an investigator that we have named Geraldo. He needed 40 bucks to take out and send some documents to a lawyer in San Jose. He had an accident in his work and the insurance company won't pay him. But he is going to pay me back within 3 weeks and he is also going to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. That was part of our deal.

Well I love you all and btw HAPPY FATHERS DAY YESTERDAY! Too bad I couldn't be there to enjoy the nice food you all had but hey, we roasted hot dogs today!!!  Love Elder Smith

My tag . . . worn with pride!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, I’m glad to hear that you are all doing fine! I hope Julia had a fun time in Costa Rica, I really was planning on trying to see her but I couldn’t with transfers—oh well. It sounds like Nick is doing good in the MTC. I can’t wait to get a FREE Subway sandwich from Spencer when I get home. Landon, I hope you and Dad have fun at Camp Tracy and Pirates 4 is one of the first movies that I will watch the night I get home! Dad . . . thanks for all the information that you sent me. The church building is a really big house and yes, it has everything like a computer, printer, MLS and all the forms and everything. I also have both the instructional manuals for bishops and stake presidents.

Being Branch President has been pretty easy so far (it's now been 5 days ha ha). I haven’t had to do too much yet. Yesterday, it was Sunday and we went to a Priesthood Conference. A man in our branch got the Melchizedek Priesthood and I had to give a talk in church, but that was about it. So the branch has an attendance of about 15 members. Our number one goal is to get attendance up to at least 30 members. The branch is actually very old and there are a lot of less active members. From what I have heard there were a few missionaries and leaders in the past who did some things and for that, the progress of the branch was stopped and last year they were even thinking about closing the area. So we have a ton of work to do.

As far as investigators go, we are teaching a man named Jimmy. He has a baptismal date for the 25 of June and he came to church yesterday. We are also teaching a lady named Maritza and her 5 daughters. There is a recent convert named Orlando and he is Maritza’s brother, and we are also teaching another one of their sisters named Gerardina.

Basically we will be working to reactivate the less active members, find, teach, convert and baptize more investigators, keep the active members involved with activities and stuff like that, etc. The youth have a temple trip next week. Also, I am in charge of 4 sister missionaries and the ZLs are in my district. BTW Elder Sirrine is in my district and he is one of the ZLs, so basically we have been the same zone for like our whole missions and finally we get to go on divisions and do fun stuff together on P-days.

Well, I love you all. I have almost started my 20 week countdown (ha ha) and my D&C reading countdown (You start at section 138 and read a section every day until I get to section 1 and then I will be home!!!!) I really don’t care what you send in my package, but make sure there are a bunch of family pictures.

Love Elder Smith

Ps. I did pull out some money because I had to do some cleaning in our house and there was no food!

New Branch Presidento

Saying Good-bye in Pococi

Dear Family,

Hey sorry I didn't write you yesterday, but I had to take a 6 hour bus ride and I didn't get home until 10:30 p.m. So I had changes and my new area is San Vito, which is in the Zona Sur right next to Panama. So any chances of seeing Julia in the next week are gone because I am super far away . . . so she will just have to wait 5 and a half months just like the rest of you to see me. Well my new companion is named Elder Cope and guess what? He is from Spanish Fork Utah. Yay!!!!! I have a Gringo Companion again which is the best. He has 5 months in the mission, the time that I lack haha! but his Spanish is really good. Well I am also district leader and there are 4 sisters in my district. This is the first time that I will be in charge of sister missionaries so it will be very interesting. 

Also the most suprising and overwhelming change is that San Vito is a rama (branch) and there is no branch president so guess who is the branch president.....ME!!!!!!!! I have no idea how to be a branch president and so it is going to be a very interesting learning expirience. So basically this is going to be the busiest last few months of my mission and President Galvez knows me better than I thought he did cause without this responsibility, I would probably get lazy and trunky!!

I am going to miss Pococi a ton!!! I love the people there and I made some amazing friends so I will definitely be visiting there!

This is going to be a short letter cause there are a bunch of things that I need to do right now, but I love you all and I can't wait to see you in November. I am uploading some pics right now! Love Elder Smith

Met Zone Goal!

Look . . . a beautiful flower!

Dear Family, So today I am writing super early because we have a special zone council today. Usually just the zone leaders go, but this time all the district leaders are coming too. This week has been super awesome and it's weeks like these that make me wish that the mission would never end!! So this week, we started out with 8 baptisms as a zone and we ended the week and the month with 19 baptisms in total. We all worked hard this week to meet the goal. Basically from Wednesday to Saturday we did not work in our area. On Wednesday, I went to Siqiurres to do 3 baptismal interviews. On Thursday, I went to Limon to do another interview, but the kid never showed up and my companion traveled a ton to do a few baptism interviews. On Friday, the APs came to visit the zone and so we went with them to other areas. On Saturday, we went to La Rita where they baptized 2 families, a total of 8 people. Basically we made the goal because of this area and so we are really grateful for them. So basically that was my week in a nutshell. It was really crazy but really awesome!

So DAD Happy Birthday to You!!!!!! I hope you have a happy birthday, I hope you cake is really good, only 6 more months till I can eat an ice cream cake again. I also hope you go to a really cool restaurant to eat really good food! So this is the last week of school! This school year has gone by really fast and I hope you all have a really good summer. Julia only one more week until you come to Costa Rica! I hope you have lots of fun!!! So yesterday during church, I was reading my Patriarchal blessing and I found something new that I had never noticed before. It mention faithfulness about 12 times, either me being faithful, being blessed for my faithfulness, helping others be more faithful or people looking up to me because of my faithfulness. So I was thinking about that all yesterday, about how I can be more faithful as a missionary and as a regular person after the mission. So I love you all and I hope you have a fun last week of school!!! Love Elder Anthony Smith P.S. tell nick that I have like 3 letters for him, but I have had no time to send them so I will do that this week!!

May 23: Officially 18 Months Out!

Dear Everyone,

Hey so I hope you all had a good week. Thanks for sending me Nick's letter . . . it's good to hear that he is doing ok!!!!!

So this week was really busy with lots of divisions and trying to help the zone out so that we can make our goal. Right now we have 8 baptisms and the goal is 17, but this week we have a lot of possibilities and so we are going to be working super hard this week too. Remember how last week I said that we finally had some new investigators. Well all of them are super cool, but for every single one, there is something that impeeds them from getting baptized this week--which kinda is too bad, but oh well. Franklin, this super cool reference that we got, totally wants to get baptized, but the only problem is that he has to get divorced. Alejandra just gave bith to her baby boy yesterday night and another investigator named Yesenia is in labor right now. The only posibility that we have is Martin to be baptized this week, but he isn't sure if he has to leave town this weekend for work.

So something I'd really like to do for super awesome really awesome converts is give them a triple and the bible after their baptism. Not the hardback or paper back version, but the leather ones that are really nice because it's a lot funner to read your scriptures when they are nice. So this week our ward is going to the temple so I am going to ask someone to pick me up some scriptures so that if and when I do have a baptism, I can already have this gift. So I'm hoping that using the consecrated fund for this is okay. I plan to give them to the adult converts and maybe something smaller for children . . . I will make sure that the scriptures will be for someone who will use and enjoy them!!!!!

Well this is going to be a short letter because I don't have a lot to write about. Some good news is that I completed 18 months in the mission this week so yeah, that's pretty cool!

So I hope you all have a fun week! This is basically the last week of school for ya all since the actual last week of school nothing is done. It's crazy that it's already summer vacation again!!

Well I love you all and I miss you all and I will see you in 6 months!!!! Love Elder Smith

Two Elders!

Dear Family and Nick oh wait Elder Smith,

Hey everyone I'm sure last week was super exciting with Nick entering the MTC. Its super cool that there are two missionaries in the fam!! 

So I don't have much time to write, but this week has been super good!!! For the past couple weeks my comp. and I have been trying to find new families to teach and we were a little discouraged cause it has been super hard to find people. Knocking doors has not been very effective so we hardly to it and whenever we contact a family, they are always from a different area. But this week we are starting to see the blessings that come from working hard. We received a couple references and one of them is a guy named Franklin who had an anurism, I think, a couple months ago and so he can't move half of his body. Well he came to Stake Conference last week and he really loved it. Yesterday we met with him for the first time and had a super awesome lesson. We taught the restoration and he sayed that last week he was praying and asking God to help show him the correct path just like Joseph Smith was trying to find the correct path. He also said that he believes that one of the ways that God answers prayers is though other people and that we were an answer to his prayer. So that was pretty cool!!! Also we did finally contact a family that lives in our area and they seem really cool and we are going to visit them this week. Also this week we are going to be doing lots of divisions!!!!!

So I love you all and I will send Nick a letter in the mail!!!! Also me and my comp will start thinking of ways to use the fund to help people.

Love Elder Smith

Happy Mother's Day

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m so glad that I got to talk with all of you yesterday I really enjoyed it and it gave me lots of animo (encouragement) to work hard for the next 6 months. So yesterday we had a super awesome Stake Conference here in Guapiles. President Galvez and his wife came and also Elder Laboriel who is a member of the Quorum of the Seventy. Before the conference started there was a little meeting for the recent converts and investigators and it was super awesome!!! President Galvez and Sister Galvez talked. President Galvez said there are 5 things that new members need to do, read the scriptures for 5 min. daily, pray at least 5 times a day, have family home evening, fast every month and pay tithing. As missionaries that is our goal with new converts, because if they can do those 5 things constantly than they will be prepared to go to the temple in one year and won’t go inactive. The stake conference was really good too. Elder Laborial gave a really good talk.

So I’m glad to hear that all went well for Nick’s farewell. It’s crazy to think that so much time has passed since my farewell. I’m sure Nick did a great job on his talk and I know that he is going to be an excellent missionary. Just have fun buddy and don’t worry if it’s hard at first, because it’s going to be. Just remember that it’s going to get harder before it gets easier and remember that as a missionary you are going to have special gifts of the spirit and you have the power of faith and prayer on your side! While you are in the MTC I will write to you, so mom please send me his MTC address, and then when you get out into the mission field I will email you, so also mom could you send me his email. Also upload pictures of the farewell and prom.

So since I haven’t written a lot about the people we are teaching I will write a little today. So we found this inactive family, the Bonilla family and they have been inactive for quite some time so we are trying to reactivate them. One of the daughters is living with a guy named Omar and he isn’t a member so we have been teaching them. He is really interested and is reading the Book of Mormon, the only problem is that they aren’t married and he works on Sunday. Something that we want to do with them is take them to the temple, now this is where part of Dad’s consecrated fund could come into hand. I could use some of the money to take families for a trip to the temple. We are allowed to take families to the temple because the spirit is really strong and lots of people get converted right there. Also part of Dad’s fund could help some people get married and something that I would like to do is be able to buy scriptures for the people that I baptize! So those are some things that I was thinking about! We are also teaching a young guy named Jose Luis. He is about 24 and has some member friends in another ward. A couple weeks ago he went to a young adult campout and he loved it. The only challenge we have with him is that he likes to visit his family in the morning on Sunday and so it’s hard to get him to come to church, but we are going to keep working with him. I told you about Alejandra--we are trying to fix a couple problems that the husband has and fortunately the members are willing to help us with this family. We are also working to find new investigators.

Well I love you all and once again I hope mom had a happy Mother’s Day and Nick, get ready to begin the coolest thing you have ever or will probably ever do!!!!!!!!!!!

Love Elder Smith

Please remember in the package you send to incule lots, but lots of family pics. and Dad you can send more talks too, cause I actually do listen to them and I like them too!!!!

NICK I LOVE YOU AND I WILL SEE YOU IN 2 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's May . . . only 6 more months!

Dear Everyone,

So you all have heard the news of Osama bin Laden. I was at a member's house last night and it came on the news! So I'd have to say that was the highlight of my week! Not too much has happened since the last time I wrote you. Thursday we had zone council with President and all the Zone Leaders. It wasn't too much fun because as a mission we did horrible this month. We only baptized 99 people and that's the lowest we have had in a long time so President kinda chopped our heads off (term we use as missionaries here) The good thing was Hermana Galvez made us these really sick hamburgers and I think they were the best ones I've have in 17 and a half months!! Also we watched a really cool talk that Elder Holland gave in January to the missionaries in the MTC. Nick you are going to be in the MTC for 3 months so I'm sure that some Apostles will visit while your there. Also Nick one thing I would suggest is that you take a voice recorder or a recording device so that you can record talks and lessons in your mission. That is something that I wish I would have done because I have heard some pretty amazing talks. Also I will think of some advice that I can give you this week and will share it with you when I call home. So about calling home this week. Well I can't call Sunday morning because I have church in the morning so maybe I could call in the evening or Monday evening. What I'm going to do is buy a international calling card so that I can quickly call you guys like Saturday in the morning and we can plan it all out.

So today we had a fun activity. A member took us up the mountain and we went hiking and it was pretty fun. This past week has been super super super hot, but today it rained a little bit and so it was a lot cooler. It was really jungely and it was really cool. I tood some pictures that I will upload right now. Well finally we are in May and I will be completing 18 months in the mission. It's hard to believe that I only have 6 months left and I'm sure that it is going to go by super fast.

So my new companion Elder Martinez is cool! We are working to find new investigators and help out our zone complete the goal we have. This week we have interviews with President, but this time he is going to come to all our houses, so that should be interesting.

Also about the shoulder bag. I actually don't have it anymore because I gave it to a missionary whose backpack broke, but in the MTC store they have really good bags and they are pretty cheap, so Nick could get one there. Well So I hope you all have a good week. Love you all and I cant wait to talk to you all for the last time in the mission!!!!

Love Elder Anthony Smith