Hola!

 

Yes, I have a fantastic companion. She is very in tune with the Spirit to the point that I don't think we've ever actually taught what we planned to teach. I usually just follow her lead but I often get promptings about what to do too. And they are always the same as hers! So she calls me a good mi hija, pats me on the head, and says that that means it is definitely from the spirit. I just wish I got more promptings more often, but I guess it's something you just have to practice.

We have A LOT of investigators, but that's just because everyone is so friendly and nice here not because they want to join the church. Last week we got 15 new investigators! Which is crazy even for here. Once people understand that we want to share a message about Christ, a lot of them will let us into their house because Christ is very important to them. Especially the women will always say something like, "Oh, I always have time for Christ!" and then give us food or soda. Because white and Asian people also live here we occasionally teach one at the door. None of the Asians speak any English. And the white people are so rude! And never want to talk with us. The Hispanics are also super nice to us because we speak Spanish and we're obviously white, and we live in America. They are touched that we took the trouble to learn it.

 

The problem is that in their culture they are not good at doing things at designated times, so it doesn't matter if we're late but it also doesn't matter if they're not there. It can sometimes be hard to find people again. We have three people with baptismal dates right now. Also, our Bishop cares A LOT about his ward and is super on top of things so we are also constantly teaching inactive members.

 

All of the missionaries I've met so far are very obedient. President and Sister Bowen have set a tone of love and dedication, but they're also not super serious either. I really like this mission. I am worried about my future companions though. The other sisters I have met mean well but do not have very good people skills. I feel like this is very important for a missionary! I feel like I will constantly be having to apologize to investigators and members. Right now I love being in this companionship because we have pretty similar personalities. We like listening to people talk about theirr problems and we have become pros at gossiping with Hispanic housewives. People constantly tell us that we bring the Spirit with us and that they love telling us stories.

 

I would love to be a trainer! I think it would be fun and that I would be good at it. Which probably means that I won't get the chance to because the President will probably assign someone who doesn't want to do it.

 

Thereis an inactive couple in our ward. They haven't been going to church for at least 10 years. The bishop has been trying to find where they live and wanted us to visit them but he couldn't find their address. On Sunday night their two year old son got out to their backyard pool and drowned. The mother found him and took him to the hospital. There, they found a member who worked there and he gave the boy a blessing. He then asked for their address and gave it to the bishop. The bishop asked us to visit them on Tuesday. We didn't want to because we had no idea what to say, especially in Spanish. So we took our member friend, Claudia. She often goes to appointments with us or helps us knock. She is super crazy. her catchphrase is, "I'm Mexican so I just don't care!" We wanted to take her because she speaks Spanish fluently and she is a naturally talkative person and she always has something to say.

 

I wasn't sure how the visit went. We mostly talked to the Grandma and I didn't feel like we had helped the family much by going. But the bishop told us to go again, this time alone, so we went again on Saturday. This time we talked more with the family. They told us that they did not like anyone from the ward, especially Claudia. They said they did not like all these people who had never met them or their son, coming to their house and asking too many questions. But they do like us, who knows for what reason. They said we didn't ask questions, that we brought the Spirit with us, and that they know that God has a message for us to give them. This freaked us out because we hadn't prepared any lesson because we have absolutely no idea what they need to hear. So we shared a very simple message that we felt guided by the Spirit to say. God wanted them to know that he loved them and that his peace was available to them if they would ask for it.

 

We teach them again tonight. We were both prompted separately to speak about developing the Christ Attribute of Hope. So we will be talking about that. And then next time maybe the Plan of Salvation? I don't know. I feel like the Spirit is only allowed to give me inspiration for 24 hours at a time.

 

Teaching other people is a breeze compared to these lessons. And all the members of our ward are super nice. Hmo Torrez wants me to come back after my mission so that he can pick out my husband for me. And I joined a pregnancy pact with my companion and two other ladies in our ward. We're all going to get pregnant at the same time and breastfeed each other's babies.... I don't know, they made it sound fun.

 

Hermana Smith

 

I had to buy a bike. But they did it a really weird way where they bought it but I have to pay them back. Could you send me a $300 check. I forget who it is supposed to me made out to... I'll tell you next time.

 

I bought bike shorts to wear underneath. Riding in a skirt seems pretty normal now but at first it was weird. My area is huge! At least for this mission. And it is super big for having to ride bikes, but I think we might get a car because our bishop complained to the Mission President so then we can use that for going to far places and things outside our area. We haven't even gone to a lot of our area because it would take an hour. My area is completely flat which I like. I haven't seen any hills in my mission but right now I'm in Newport and there are hills here. I live in Garden Grove.

Yeah we have a phone which is nice. We don't use facebook, but we might in the future. I heard that everyone might get Ipads in January. Each person gets one instead of one per companionship and you get to keep it after your mission so that you'll have more incentive to keep it nice. But these might just be rumours.

 

There is a whole Spanish Speaking Stake! I think 8 wards maybe? There are two sets of elders and then me and my companion in my ward. Haha impromptu talks are the worst! We are having Zone Conference on Friday and Elder Ellis is calling missionaries from the audience to talk. Not quite impromptu but still scary! I really don't want to talk but then I remember that it's in English and it seems  realllllllllllllly reaaaaalllly easy. Haha

I'm fine. The weather is nice here and so is our apartment. I bought a comforter at Target because I was cold. It's fluffy!

I had an interesting experience this week. One night my companion and I were struggling with everything. We couldn't find any of the addresses we were looking for. Nobody was home anywhere and an apartment complex we tried to knock had been JWd so no one was interested.

 

Then my companion felt like we should go to this random member's house that was on our ward list. We didn't know who they were but we didn't know most people in our ward. We got there without any problem. Their door was open and the mother immediately let us in as if she was expecting us. She has three teenage children and we were surprised to learn that they hadn't gone to church in about a year. We started to teach them about the 4 principles of the gospel very simply. In the middle of the lesson we asked the mother to share an experience where her prayers had been answered. She replied, "Right now." And we were like yeah, you don't need to share anything too personal but yeah go ahead and share it right now. Then she said, "No, my prayers have been answered right now. I have been praying all day that someone would come and remind my family about God. Because I know I couldn't bring my children back to church by myself."

 

I love you!

Hola!

 

I am having so much fun! I'm on bike! When my mission president told me I was going to be on bike my pupils turned into bikes, he asked me if I could handle it, and I tried to say yes but I was so excited that I don't really know what came out. I get to do all my favorite things every day! Gospel it! Bike it! Spanish it! Cali it! If I sound brainwashed that's because I am!Whooo...!

 

My trainer, district, ward, zone, and new friends are all awesome. We are whitewashing so we've mostly been knocking doors and trying to get to know the members in our area. Apparently the elders that had our area before us creeped out all their investigators so they don't have any? What. Oh yeah! And they threw away the area book? DOUBLE WHAT. Who does that? Go get some help people! So anyway we've been going around visitng people telling them that 1. we're relatively normal 2. we're refreshingly female and 3. the restored Gospel is here on the earth so you should probably get baptized.

 

I can't understand my bishop. Usually my Spanish is ok and I just fill in whatever I don't understand with what I would like the person to say but with him I got nothing. He is from Panama, doesn't speak English, and apparently his mother forgot to inform him that cosonants exist. Whatever. I'm not bitter.

 

I have talked to real people now! It is so much easier.

 

Les Amo!

Hermana Smith

Hola! I'm in Cali now. My mission president is super nice. My trip was tiring. I started at 2 in the morning. On our way to the airport we drove past this huge parade of protesters. I don't understand why they were out that early.

On the plane I was super confused as to wether I should be speaking English or Spanish. Especially to people who were obviously Mexican but could speak better English than I can speak Spanish. Also I have discovered that the bad side to speaking Spanglish for a month is that I have lost track of what is English and what is Spanish. It is hard to speak only English!

Right now I'm at the mission presidents house just chilling. My companion will come and get me in 30 minutes. There are two sisters here who are waiting on their visas to go to brazil. I can understand their Portuguese! Kinda. The weather is perfect here. I really like it. I like meeting new people.

Why are there so many missionaries there! Do we really need that many? I met a lot of people going to our mission from el CCM. But they all said they were only going to be in Chicago.

Yay obra de misionero!

Love you!