February 23, 2011

¡Hola Famila! ¿Que tal? Once again another week has FLOWN by!!! I´m
kind of freaking out that in two weeks I will be in the mission field.
I am so excited, but so scared! Here at the Peru MTC I am able to
talk in both English and Spanish, but starting in two weeks it´s "todo
Español"....AHHHHHH! My Spanish is no where near ready to communicate
with people every day.

So here´s the updates of this week. Last Wednesday we got to tour
Lima. There was some miscommunication or misunderstanding with the
bus we rode on. It had an advertisement on the windows, so we
couldn´t see ANYTHING, only when we got off the best. We were all
pretty upset because the point of touring Lima is to actually be able
to see it all. Nevertheless, it was a great experience. We got to go
to some cool places like the beach and downtown. I have some cool
pictures that I will have to send.

We got back from our tour and most of our companion have arrived. My
companion is Hermana Cruz, she´s from Guatemala and just turned 22.
She´s going to Bolvia for her mission. She´s super skinny and makes me
look like a cow standing next to her, but she´s the sweetest girl
ever. Two times this week while I´ve been in the shower, she has made
my bed. She leaves notes on my too. She´s the best. She doesn´t
speak English and talks very fast, so it´s hard to understand her
sometimes, but she is very patient. She helps me alot and she really
wants to learn English, so this week we taught eachother the words to
"I Stand All Amazed" in the languages. She said my reading and
pronunciation of Spanish is really good. And when people talk slow,
she says I understand pretty well. She also said my speaking of
Spanish is pretty good too. It helps when your companion thinks this
(or at least makes you think you´re good at Spanish). The other day,
the two of us taught in the TRC and it went SO WELL. I really enjoy
teaching with her.

Well, there hasn´t been anything super exciting this week. I´m just
learning more and more every day and feeling the love of the Savior
help me in EVERY aspect.

I´ve gotten 3 DearElders from Dad, 2 from Mom, and 1 from Hannah. I
haven´t received any regular letters in the mail, as with many North
American missionaries here too. I believe until Saturday is the last
day to send Dear Elders to me at the Peru MTC. I get them on Fridays.
Here is my mission home address which letters should be sent to
now....

Hermana Taylor Nicole Smith
Misión Ecuador Guayaquil Sur
Casilla 09-06-286
Guayaquil, Guayas
ECUADOR

(I believe I put the address for packages to my mission on facebook,
so make sure to tell people that if they are sending packages...which
no one has too, of course, to send it to THAT address, because it may
be the same situation with packages here).

Well, I actually don´t have much to say. I´ve had some neat and very
spiritual experiences that will shared at another time.

Just a side note, I´ve heard SO many wonderful things about my mission
president. A general authority came here and said that my mission
president is amazing and that I will have baptisms. So cool huh?

I love you all and I keep you in my prayers every day. Have a fabulous week :)

Love Always and Forever,
Hermana Taylor Smith