Februrary 16, 2011

Hello family :) Once again another week has flown by! These past few
days have been days of changes. The Latino missionaries left for the
mission field early yesterday morning. It was really sad to say
goodbye to all of them! I´ve created such great friendships and it´s
sad that I will probably never see them again :( But I am looking
forward to after the mission when we can all be friends on facebook
and I will be able to communicate in Spanish with them. It´s been
very quiet around here. We´ve changed bedrooms and districts and will
be getting new companions today. I was lucky with the new room
assignments. I´m the only missionary that is in the same room and the
same bed, so I didn´t have to move all my stuff. I´m very thankful
for that. Also, Hermana Kendell and Hermana Cochran are in my room
now.

Today we get to go on a tour of Lima! I´m SO excited. We get to see
the beach, go downtown, go shopping, and if we want, eat McDonald´s (I
never thought I´d be excited to eat McDonald´s). I´m going to try and
find a way to send pictures too at some point in time.

Well this week, once again, has been one of spiritual highs and
emotional lows. On Thursday, my companion and I were randomly picked
to teach a lesson in the TRC (which is where there is a pretend
investigator and we go up in front of our classmates and teach). I
wasn´t expecting to go and became super nervous. After the lesson, I
became very upset and started crying. It´s hard to teach lessons in
Spanish because there is so much in my heart that I want to say and I
can´t do it. I have to "dumb" down my words so I can say them in
Spanish. And it´s hard to communicate with people because I´ll say
something in Spanish and people will barely understand what I say. And
then they´ll say something back and I have a look of confusion on my
face. Well, anyway, immediately my teacher Hermano Vasquez took me
outside to talk. Then, later in the afternoon, my other teacher
Hermano Lazo took me out of class to talk. They both were very
understanding of my frustrations and gave amazing words of comfort.
In these moments, I knew these two were relying on the Holy Ghost to
prompt them of what to say, which brought me so much comfort! I am
just being reminded that I need to practice patience. Patience is a
Christ like attribute which means you wait for something without
getting frustrated. I´m working on it day by day.

Saturday was another day out tracting. This Saturday we had a little
more success, but not amazing miracles I was hoping for. We got into
4 houses and taught lessons. 2 of these houses had small children and
I was reminded of my love for children. These experiences really
touched my heart when I realized I planted a seed of the gospel in
their homes and hopefully one day they will receive blessings of the
gospel. I wasn´t able to say or understand much, but when I bore my
testimony of the Book of Mormon (and gave 2 away), I could tell these
people were really listening to what I was saying and they all had
smiles on their faces. It was really amazing!

Well, it´s time to get off again. There is always so much more I want
to say, but I want you to know I am happy! I love being a missionary.
I love sharing the gospel and I love that I´m learning how to do it in
Spanish. You are all in my prayers. Have another great week. I love
you and miss you :)

Love,
Hermana Smith