Hola mi familia!!

So I just got transferred to Spanish speaking!!! Woo-hoo!! Isn’t that awesome?!

…just kidding… but I sure wish that there were Spanish sisters, and that I was one of them!! We run into so many Hispanics, and all I can do is hand them a pass along card… and I wish that I could tell them more… Sister Allred knew a couple of phrases in Spanish and she actually used them on a couple of people and got the elders referrals!! We’ve been talking a lot about how awesome it would be if we knew Spanish… I wish that I had kept it up!! I used to know a lot… oh well, we’re onto something awesome and hopefully I’ll be able to learn enough to communicate with people we tract into!!!

So this week was an interesting one!! On TUESDAY we went to a tie exchange with the elders in our zone, and it was out of control!!!!! I’ve never seen so many ties in my entire life!!! We didn’t have any ties to exchange, so we just sat in the corner and wrote letters… while the tie exchange was going on, they were also playing basketball, so that gave us some laughs!! Elders are hilarious! Oh, and that night we got an awesome phone call from Will… he had to reschedule his appointment and asked us why we had him read Alma 32, he said it was really inspiring and that he’s read more from the BOM… woo-hoo!!!!! I’m so excited to teach him!! I’ve had some really good conversations with him over the phone, and I know that learning more about the gospel will bless his life!! Oh, funny story… so I called him a couple of days ago to reschedule, and he answered the phone “hey babe!”… it really caught me off guard… I’m pretty sure he didn’t know who it was at first, then when he did, he kept calling me darlin’. Gotta love the Hoosiers… :)

WEDNESDAY we had DM with our newish district (2 new elders) which was kind of awkward… but good at the same time. I can’t really remember anything funny that happened… well, that’s not true, everyday there are hilarious things that happen, and there is no way that I could write them all!!! After that, we drove down to Martinsville to exchange… Sister Jensen and myself came back to White River and had a great time together… we know so many of the same people it’s so weird that we never knew each other!! So Sis. Humpherys doesn’t believe that I’m her cousin! Sis. Jensen told her that I was related to her, and she didn’t believe her, but hopefully now she will… I named off a bunch of our mutual family members, and we’ll see if she believes Sis. Jensen now!!! It was a great experience to have an exchange… I did about 90% of the talking at people’s houses, and got a glimpse of what it was like to be the senior companion. When Sis. Jensen saw our map she just held in her hands for about 5 minutes and just said “Oh my gosh!” about a million times… it’s a ridiculous amount of streets!! We got so lost… but the GPS came in super handy with it’s “RECALCULATING”. Oh, and the saddest part of the week… Jan Brown dropped us on the way back here… I talked on the phone with her for about 30 minutes, but she didn’t want anything explained, she said that there are things that she can’t believe and such… we’re just praying that that seed that we planted will sometime be harvested… but we know that we did our best!! And that’s all that matters!

THURSDAY was an interesting day… Sis. Summers and I got a rebuke from Sis. Rich about how bad the back of our planners (people we meet and phone numbers and such) looked… never again will it be so empty! Later Sis. Rich said that my enthusiasm is funny… not sure exactly what that means… but I was so excited to call some elders in our zone to tell them about the most awesome referral ever… and she just seemed kind of bugged… but that’s okay… I’m just so excited to be back and involved in the best work on the earth!! I missed my companions SO much in the 24 hours that we were gone… I love them so much!!! That was a ramble… sorry about that!!!

FRIDAY we about froze to death… it was SO cold, even Sis. Rich was cold!! And she NEVER gets cold! I didn’t know that you hurt when you got so cold! My feet hurt so bad!! I wore 2 pairs of wool socks and my feet were STILL cold!!! Any suggestions there?? It was only about 14 degrees, 10 on the coldest day, but we just went to church that day!

SATURDAY we had an awesome lesson with Destiny and Dalton… they love everything that we teach them and are so open… they are so much fun to teach, because you have to try and teach them SO simply! We sat on the floor for this lesson, and it seemed to go much better that way! It’s so awesome to teach by the spirit… I wouldn’t have thought of about ½ the things that I said…

SUNDAY we had church and we sang in sacrament meeting!! It went so well!! We sang “The Olive Tree” and it sounded so good with all three parts… it was totally the spirit that told me to volunteer us… we just had 4 people invite us over for dinner this week, 2 people said that they would love to come on splits with us, and people who’ve NEVER talked to us before told us how awesome it was!!! The ward is starting to love us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh, then the funniest thing happened… both Sis. Rich and Summers went to bed early and I had an amazing talk with Carolynn about all the awesome stuff that I learned being home, and then the DL called and we had the funniest conversation ever!! Elder Hernandez was on the phone too… they crack me up!!! Elder Hernandez had given me a blessing earlier in the day because I’ve been having a sort of hard time lately… it’s all good though… and we were laughing so hard about the most random things!!! Then at the end of the conversation Elder Carskaddon said “Well, we sure love you sisters!!” and I had no idea what to say!! Usually I just say “Love you too!”, but the sisters told me that he left a message on the voice mail last transfer that said “Hey numbers night!! Get your numbers! Love ya!! Oh… I did not mean to say that!! I’m so sorry…. “ (Elder Hernandez said in the back) “In the righteous way!!”(he and Elder Wadsworth used to say love ya ALL the time!, so he has no problem with it! :) Elder Carskaddon “Yeah, in the righteous way… bye”… we think that it was SO funny and we quote it all the time to each other!! Anyways… I just laughed so hard when I told the sisters the next morning… so, we’ll see what they say when I tell them “Love ya elders!” next time they talk to me!!... anyways… this is such a random email!!!

MONDAY we stayed in for most of the day because Sis. Summers has a cold and slept until about 1!! Sis. Rich and I had a VERY long conversation about everything under the sun, and it was so good to talk to her!!! Then we went and tried a referral and had a pretty good conversation with him, and he said he’s most likely going to come to church on Sunday!!! Oh, then we had the most awkward and yet hilarious dinner appointment with Maria and Jorge (the members we met while tracting last week!) they are so generous and funny… when we got in our car, we just all burst out laughing!! Sis. Rich said that I had the most enormous smile on my face the whole time… I didn’t know what else to do!!!!! :)

TODAY we were going to go do something with the elders… but they have to shampoo their carpet… lame… but we’re going to a totally Hoosier restaurant “Mug n’ Bun” and the IMA (indiana something um… I totally forgot what it stood for… but it’s an art museum!!)! And then I have a bunch of letters to write… mostly to my RC’s… I’ve been reading in PMG how it is still our responsibility to encourage the people that we teach and baptize… I’ve been slacking….

Anyways… sorry for the random email!! Hope it makes you laugh… or at least smile!! It’s been an awesome week as I’ve learned more about praying with faith and listening to the spirit!!! I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission… I (no offense to you…) but I really don’t want to come home, and have this awesome life end!! But I still have more than a year left!!! So I don’t need to worry about that yet!!! So, I’ve been reading in the book of Alma about the amazing missionaries there… Ammon, Aaron, Alma, etc.… and they inspire me so much!!! I just want to read those chapters everyday because they inspire me and show me how much love I need to feel for every person that I meet, and the fire that I need to have inside of me… anyways… I better get this sent!!!! I love you so much and really appreciate all the letters (Mac and Wes) sent this week… you are awesome!!! I ‘m so lucky to have you as my family!!!

Love, Sis. Smith