HEY FAMILY!!

How is everything in the fabulous city of Smithfield? on an extremely random note, when I typed in Smithfield, it said it wasn't a word, and one of the options was smithereens... that brought back some weird memories! To those still residing in Cache Valley... you have absolutely NO IDEA how blessed you are to live there!! When I tell people here in New Castle that in my tiny little town we have almost 3 stakes and 24 wards they really CANNOT believe it!! And in the words of a member we just visited "that would be so weird to have everyone go to church!!" So, just remember to count your blessings!

Alrighty, I have a long list of things to tell you, and no emails to read, so I have an entire hour to type!! Woo-hoo!!

#1 on my list... THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!! I was feeling just a tiny bit sad that I hadn't gotten a letter in almost 2 weeks and then I got that package! Sis. Oliver said "you finally got your letter, and it's a BIG one!!" Everything made it in perfect shape (including the chocolate). Everything was totally perfect and opening it was an incredible moment! OH, and yes mom, I could just feel your love exploding from the package... everything was perfect and a couple of things have already come in handy. I gave Sis. Oliver the stickers, and she was excited, and she said to tell you all THANKS! Oh, and BTW, we've been listening to "a Brand New year" since I got it, and Sister Oliver loves "just say yes". In fact, we had it on today, driving here, and when it came on, she turned it up. To answer the question about cd's, only things with the church logo and efy cd's can be listened to, or classical. So even if the artist is on an efy cd, you can't have a cd of them. So no Kenneth Cope. But YES, I DO love the new cd's!! I really wasn't expecting it... family you are just totally spoiling me out here!!

It's crazy that all my belonging are in 2 suitcases, and that I'm totally and completely happy!! In the words of my wise trainer "we really don't need that much as a missionary" and I'm finding that is so true! And mom, I really don't have hardly any clothes or things compared to other people... it's crazy we fit it all in. My MTC companions wondered what they had that I didn't to make up the difference... :)

GUESS WHAT!! I've seen tons of fireflies, and they are SO cool!! We were out past 9 one night walking home, and I didn't even notice them, but Sis. Oliver pointed them out to me... and now I see them most every night! A member told us that we should go out in the country about 10 (against mission rules, but maybe when I get back we can all come out here and experience it together!) and they are everywhere in the bean and corn fields. A lot of people can't believe that I've never seen them... I'm a super deprived Utahan apparently!

Here are some random funny facts about Indiana... EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE here calls us dear, sweetie, hon, honey, etc. Picture a gruff man with a tank top, tattoos and smelling of smoke... "thanks honey, have a great day!" It's something that taken some getting used to!! The other funny thing is that they definitely have an accent... at least here in new castle it sounds like people from the south... and the funniest thing is that most anything ending with a o sound like window or potato turns into an "A". Like winda, and potata... I really can't think of any others right now, but it happens all the time!! The other funny thing is that when we were driving from the airport the assistants were briefing us on Indianan culture, and they told that people here don't vacuum, they sweep. It's caught me off guard a lot when people say "I swept the floor right before you got here!" I always look at the floor puzzled for a second til I remember! The last funny thing is that they also say things like "a couple two", "a couple three", and so on. To show you how it's used... "and I needed a couple three of them screws" It's SO FUNNY!! I really am growing to love the different culture here and the people, even though it's been a stretching experience! Just beware that when I get back I may start calling y'all honey dear!!

It has definitely been an interesting week!! To start it off, I was feeling really discouraged, and it seemed that I was doing everything wrong. Then on p-day I was writing that short letter to you family and Sis. Oliver came in and told me that I shouldn't be doing that since it wasn't p-day anymore... I didn't know that and something that happened after that was the last straw and I just went to bed and bawled my eyes out! It led to a great bedtime discussion about how I need to communicate better (surprise surprise!) and how i can't expect perfection from myself, especially missionary perfection in my first weeks. That has been really hard for me, but I read an article in an old ensign that really helped me (mom, I was thinking that you should read it {A Balanced life - Ensign April 2005}) especially this quote from Elder Maxwell "self-contempt is of Satan, there is none of it in heaven. We should of course learn from our mistakes, but without forever studying the instant replays"... I loved how the author brought about the point that perfection isn't achieved in a day... and the Lord doesn't expect that, just that we try harder than we did yesterday!! (btw, that quote is from a talk by Elder Maxwell called "Notwithstanding my weakness - Nov 1976 - will you see if it's good?, and if so, send it to me when you have a chance?)

I've also been learning that I was SO BLESSED (and still am), but I never realized it because I was looking on the negative side. I've also never realized that the church expects so much of us... I wrote a list down in my journal, and it was about 1/2 page and I didn't get everything. That's one of the things that an MTC teacher pointed out to me, that our church expects a LOT of people and that they are going to have to make MAJOR changes. Those changes that are so hard (chastity, wow) are things that are just second nature to me, and I'm SO grateful for that! We might have lost our only investigator because of what we know about the importance of chastity... but it's been amazing to see my testimony grow leaps and bounds as i've realized as never before that our church is the most AMAZING thing in the entire world!!! I love every aspect of it, and am way beyond grateful that I was born into the church and that I was raised in such a great town with such INCREDIBLE parents!! Probably the biggest thing I've learned since being here in Indiana is gratitude... I've taken so many things for granted... I've also realized and learned the hard way is humility. One of my new favorite verses is Alma 26:12 "yea, I know that I am NOTHING, as to my strength I am WEAK; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea many mighty miracles..." It's amazing how little i am... I really feel like that "frail, uncelestial being" that Elder Holland talked about. But I had an amazing experience when I just OPENED MY MOUTH (D&C 42:14) and words literally poured... no kidding... I wouldn't have said such bold words and I really can't think that fast. And I believe the reason was that I was trying to be humble (I'm not even close to being there though)... This scripture comes to mind "and no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble" (D&C 12:8) That's probably why that was the first lesson I learned here. WOW...that was a totally rambling paragraph... I hope that it made sense and can help someone.

Well, I haven't even really told you what I've been doing... here in New Castle we do quite a bit of tracting, not so much teaching, a lot of member visiting (the members here are mostly converts and AMAZING beyond imagination!! Esp. one of the pioneers here... her story is incredible!!), and tons of praying (esp. that our appointment won't fall through). We only have one investigator named Earl. He believes all that we've said so far, but we just had a totally uncomfortable discussion about chastity. I've never been asked such prying questions... it was a doozy of a lesson!!! He didn't come to church on Sunday, but we've praying that he still wants to learn. Like I said... the gospel of Jesus Christ is a LIFE changing thing... and some people can't handle that.

Probably the most interesting thing that happened this week was getting fleas... we did service at someone's house, and it was flea infested and we ran home after and showered, washed clothes and vacuumed (swept actually), and prayed that we didn't infest our own house. I'll keep you posted.

I also got advice from a 95 yr old lady - the way to reach 100!! I told her that she DIDN'T look 95, she looked 70, and I asked her secret (we were going around painting fingernails) are you ready for this... the fountain of youth!! She said that she exercised everyday, took vitamins (see mom, you knew you were on the right track!), esp. vitamin e. She also gave me the great compliment of saying that I'll most likely reach 100, she said that i looked like I would!!

Well, the time is up - I'll try my hardest to write more later, but I can't promise anything... p-day is crazily busy here! Oh, guess what happened yesterday! We had zone conference... which was AMAZING (I'll try to write about that) and I was asked to sing! I was really nervous... but it went great! Sister Corey played the piano for us... it was supposed to be 2 elders and me (bad grammar :(, and then Sister Oliver joined us, and then we didn't have an alto, so 2 other sisters joined us... and it was GREAT!!! I also had a great talk with Sis. Corey and she asked me to play the postlude and closing song... which was great fun. i haven't played the piano that much since being here.

Well, now I really better go... I have a lot of fun things to tell you, so I'm hoping that I'll have time to write... just for a preview - I've been writing down all the funny things that church signs say... it's been a lot of fun!

I love you all SO much, and I'm so grateful for all the support and prayers that you give me!! I'm sorry for being so ungrateful at home... I'll definitely try to be better when I get home!! I never quite realized what an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, AWESOME, FANTABULOUS family that I have!!! I love you more than I can say!!!

Until next time!!
Sister Alex Smith:)