Six Months

Tomorrow I complete 6 months since I walked out of the house where I call home in Vienna, Virginia. I literally can`t believe I am a quarter done with my Mission. It's astounding to me how time flies. Even though it has been the hardest 6 months of my life. I wouldn`t trade these 6 months for anything. What I have learned so far just gets me excited for the next year and a half. 

Here in Santa María, Huatulco I have met some crazy people, and some amazing people too. Yeah, a lot of crazies live here. The culture is pretty awesome, though. Everyone, especially the men are super lazy and just lay in their hammocks outside of their houses all day. Sounds like the life to me, hahaha. I don´t blame them. With it being so hot all the time, all of the energy just gets sucked out of you. It can be tough as a missionary at mid-day walking in the blazing sun and wanting to just lay in a hammock for a little siesta. Also, there are a lot of drunks (Barrachos) walking around here. It`s the culture here, drinking and hanging out in your hammock or chilling at the beach. 

We had one experience when a group of Barrachos called us over to break up a fight. "Hey Mormones! Èlderes, ven para acá! (Come here!) Usually we just ignore them but we didn`t have an appointment or anything at that moment. There was one that was causing all the problems and the others said he threatened to hit them. The one causing all the problems started asking me questions, because they always confront the gringo (me) first. He got in my face asking me where I was from and that I don`t belong here. I`m used to that after 6 months so it doesn`t bother me. All I started to do was talk to him and start to act like his buddy. It worked because he calmed down and he started telling me about his plans to sail to France to find the love of his life. I couldn`t help but just laugh, but I went along with it and after 5 minutes he thought we were best friends. We left walking the same direction as the rest of them and they thanked us for calming him down. They tried speaking some English with me like they all do and said we were always welcome in their homes for a meal.

Like I mentioned before, there are also amazing people here. One of those people would be little Grecia. Grecia is 11 years old and she and her mother are recent converts. I think they were baptized a little less than a year ago. Well Grecia is incredibly smart. She showed me all the books she was reading. She reads these huge religion books for fun and also is studying English, and for just studying on her own, she knows English really well! She asked for help the other day because she didn`t understand the word (I´d). I explained to her that (I`d) are the two words "I" and "would" put together. Yeah I know, English is strange. She knows so much about the gospel and as a recent convert little girl, its amazing. Her dad is one of our investigators, so it would be awesome to baptize him soon.

Here in our little House of Prayer, there isn`t a baptismal font. So we have two options here, the River here in town (which is beautiful with crystal clear water with rapids and waterfalls) or the ocean, with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. So you can imagine how bad I wan`t to baptize here. 

Oh yeah and random thing to add.
One morning I woke up, went to the bathroom and found a scorpian in the shower area. Good thing I looked down before I stepped on it. It was a little one, I hope I dont find its parents.

I hope you all have a fabulous week. Love you!

-Elder Smith