Yeah as far as the language thing goes, you're definitely weird. And everyone in our family is weird too. So that's probably it. My comp also right now doesn't have the greatest vocab so that's making the way I talk feel extra not normal. The words I have had to explain to her today are auspicious, flippant, reprimanding, and what a round is. How do you not know what a round is!? It's also weird because even though she speaks Spanish better, I have to explain longer Spanish words to her that have English cognates.  Like Hipócrita or parelelismos. Because she doesn't know what hypocrite or parallelisms are in English she doesn't understand what members are saying to her....

Yeah me and my comp are good. We actually get along perfectly! It's just forced me to work on my patience because she is sooo slow!! She is the nicest though! And I'm actually happier than I was with my other comp because there is a lot less drama and I like running the show. It's just stressful because I'm not sure how good of a job I'm doing. I never get any feedback good or bad. People just tell me to pray and I am like goodness I am praying!!! And He told me to ask you!! It's not like you always get answers from angel visitations or something!!!

On Wednesday we went to visit our investigators in the hospital. Lizbeth Mejias son has leukemia and has been in the hospital a lot lately because the treatments they're giving him make him have almost no immune system. They are very worried that he will die from the common cold. We haven't been able to teach them because she doesn't want anyone to come to their house. She did agree to a blessing though. Obispo and hermano Alfaro came with us but  they didn't remember that she wasn't a member until they started talking to her. Then they explained what a blessing is and gave Sergio one. It was very nice. We were in a meditation room within the hospital. And you could feel the spirit very strongly. I felt an overwhelming approval from God for arranging the blessing. Lizbeth is super solid but she she can't progress right now because we can't teach her and she can't go to church. It's so sad!

On Saturday the elders baptized 6 people! Since I've gotten here mine has been the only area in the ward baptizing except for one so this was super good! Lots of missionaries had taught these people so we had a cute missionary reunion of sorts. Everyone was so happy! We brought our investigator Alessandro and he loved it. The members were joking with him, saying he could just change into white and get baptized too! We had to explain to him that he wasn't ready yet hahahaa. We haven't even taught him the plan of salvation yet!

Gomez' are good. Valerie had a dream that it was the second coming and Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father descended from the sky in front of their house and gave them back Maxi. Everyone was crying because we all realized that even if it doesn't happen exactly that way that dream will happen and they will be reunited. Also max thought the dream was amazing because no too long ago Valerie didn't have hardly any knowledge about what Jesus and Heavenly Father were like let alone what the second coming is.

I can't find Lizbeth Cruz. She stopped going to church and no one is ever at her house. Her number is disconnected. I'm worried about her and the worst part is I think I'm the only one. The ward and my comp don't seem to care. #toomanysheep

There was an earthquake mom! But it wasn't that big. And lots of after shocks!! Saturday night during the millions of after jiggles I woke up, looked around and was like oh it's okay I'm just on the cruise. Feeling comforted I was about to go back to sleep when I realized no I'm not!!! Freaking after jiggles. Disneyland closed for a day but it's back up again. It was very interesting to see who texted us during the earthquake and in what order and what they said. Max Gomez wins the prize for most sincere concern. Successful natural disaster social experiment!!!! I'm pretty sure I'm fine, but if something does happen you can find me with Gomez. :) and then maybe grandma and grandpa smith if any of the trains still work.

No, the Gomez' haven set a date yet. He still needs to take a class to get the Melchizedek priesthood.

They are showing conference in my building. I've told a couple people that's it my birthday but I've tried not to tell too many because I don't want to have to eat 5 times on Sunday. But I'm going to tell my investigators and then invite them to my party at the church. Then when they're there I'm going to be like let's watch my favorite movie. You've probably never heard of it because it just came out today!!

Loveeeeee you!!!!!!!

 

 

Hiiiiii MMMoommmm!!!!!!!

Belated happy saint Patricks day to you too!!!!! I did wear green!! I
stole my comps shirt.

I'm still super excited that Michelle is pregnant too!!!!! Except that
she has been pretty sick. But that just gives me a better excuse to go
over there and help her more. :) Also they finished their temple prep
classes!! I'm so proud of them.*tear* Now Max just needs to get the
Melchizedek priesthood and get their recommends and they can be sealed
for always!!! Yayyy!! They asked Elder Summers to stand in for baby
Maxi. This probably doesn't mean anything to you, but Summers has been
here even longer than I have so he has been a huge part in helping the
Gomez family. He sang with us at the funeral and has helped us teach
them, so he is super close with them too. Haha they told me before
they told him and it was SO hard not to tell him because I was
ridiculously happy about it. When they did tell him everyone was
crying.

I love your service club thing! Not only are you helping others but
you are helping the children learn how to give service too!! Qué
lindo!! Which is a combo of nice, beautiful, and cute all rolled into
one.

I finished el libro de mormón!!!! I'm so pleased with myself haha. Our
stake president asked everyone to read it in the month of March. I
even finished early! I give it a ten out of ten stars. It was so good!
The perfect mixture of action, spirituality, and heartfelt sorrow. It
was so cool to read it that fast in Spanish! I still don't understand
all the words, especially in the Isaiah chapters... But I did learn a
lot of new words! It's so cool when the prophets repeat a word like
five times and then on the fifth you're like ooooohhhhhh they're
talking about robbers!! Or something like that. It was also cool that
a lot of the scriptures made sense just because I've read them in
English so many times. I guess reading the Book of Mormon a million
times was good for something after all!! Haha completely kidding.
Broma! Broma! In order to complete this goal I had to be reading at
any possible moment I could while still keeping on top of everything
else I had to do. This was really hard! But it was good for our
companionship because I think it made her realize that I probably
shouldn't be the only one washing the dishes, calling people, and
updating peoples teaching records. *no bitterness* Plus I lost weight
because I didn't have time to eat. So all in all a good project, but I
am looking forward to being able to clean more often and make gifts
for all the children again.

Somewhere in preach my gospel it quotes a promise that if you read the
Book of Mormon in your mission language you will be fluent. Still
waiting..... Nahhh my Spanish isn't that bad. Still can't understand
my bishops Panamanian accent though. We were teaching this boy named
Eric who is 17 and his mom in Spanish because she doesn't speak
English. But she decided she didn't want to be taught anymore. I guess
he felt bad? Because he has been helping us find more people to teach
in his neighborhood. Anyway, the point of the story is that we were
walking around, me biffy and Eric, and we were speaking English with
him because he speaks that better than Spanish. He had never heard me
speak English before and he told me before he thought my sentence
structure in Spanish was weird because it's not my native language but
now he realizes that I just talk weird no matter what language I'm
speaking. He said maybe you have your own native language? Thank you?
I didn't really know what to say.

We had a really cool ward missionary activity!! It was a tad stressful
because it was all planned last minute but it turned out great. We set
up an obstacle course and put a rope through it that was the "iron
rod". Then we all went to the chapel to talk about what he had learned
about the trials that life brings us. Super insightful! And definitely
helpful to the investigators there! One of ours that was there is
named Alesandro. He is super funny he soaks up everything we tell him
like a sponge. Everything that the members talked about he was just
like YES yes ysysesyesss. He wants to be a better father and person so
badly! His new favorite movie is the one that we gave about the
restoration. He thinks it's super chistoso or funny for some
reason.... And he made his family watch it seven times. Oh dear.

Love you!!!!! Tell Phin happy birthday from me. Hope you are doing
well and staying happy. Mwah!!

Ohhhh and transfers happened but everything is staying the same.
Almost my whole zone is the same! Yayyyyyyyyyyy garden grove. Everyone
at church was like are you leaving???? No???? Ok when do you want to
hang out. And we had a celebration dinner at Gomez complete with made
up song about president Bowen thinking we still have so much to learn
from each other and all that jazz.

Sent from Tommy the iPad

Hola!!

I've been doing ok. My eyes have been super dry and I haven't been
able to stop crying!! I'm not sad though but I feel like I've been
bawling since Friday. This has made me kinda sad. It's just really
annoying. And I don't know what caused it or how to stop it. And it's
not bad enough to go to the doctor or call the nurse.

My friend Whitney Manson, I'm not sure if you know her. She was in our
stake. Well she sent me a talk type thing written by a missionary. In
order to be more successful he wrote down all the things that were
keeping him from feeling the Spirit down on a piece of paper and then
fasted from those things for 40 days. And the end of the 40 days he
was able to testify better. I've been doing this but only one thing at
a time. I didn't have enough faith or strength to do it all at once.


Oh and my mission leader told me to tell you that he says saludables
which means something along the lines of greetings! Except its a
little nicer. And that I'm doing a good job and am a good girl and
that you did a good job doing whatever you did with me.


Love you!!!
Sent from Tommy the iPad

Yes that was Katie's baptism. Isn't she and her brother adorable???
 Obispo Gomez baptized her. She was so nervous for her interview and baptism that she hasn't been able to eat! I was nervous for her interview too..... I kept reminding the elder giving it to make it easy for her haha.

 Guesssss whhaattttt!!!!!! Michelle is pregnant! She is due in October and she thinks it's a boy, I'm so excited for them!!!!! This will be really good for them. I can't believe Ariana died. We weren't super close but we were friends at school. She was one of the nicest people ever with very high standards. We always respected each other a lot. And had a lot of classes together. Wow that's super sad. She would have had a great life.

 One of the families we are teaching (villa señor) has a little boy about four years old. His mom told us that he has taken to sleeping with the restoration folleto. He told her that he loved the Jesus picture on the front and knew they would be safe at night if they slept with it. Isn't that the cutest!!

 Love you!!! I will try to send you pictures later!!!,

 Sent from Tommy the iPad

I forgot to tell you that I went to the temple today and did initiatories!!!!

And I got to see Morley on Sunday because she came to the baptism!!!!!!!

And that I think you might have been born the wrong race. I was
feasting with a table of Argentinian women on Sunday because Katie's
mom is from there. They were making fun of me for speaking Mexican
Spanish and teaching me cool new words. They also all reminded me of
you.

Hello!!

Michelle basically passed her immigration thing but it could still be repealed. But she is not worried about it. Yeah, she has been really depressed lately about her son. It is so hard to watch, especially since I don't feel like I can help her in anyway. I think they will be fine eventually. Right now they are on the right path and using the gospel for strength. They are still working towards going to the temple. But if they ever stop, especially after I get transferred I don't know what I'll do! I think they should have more children.

Katie is adorable. She will be baptized this Sunday. I'm so excited!!! I'm worried about her interview though. She has a very bad memory, but we have been quizzing her and we made flash cards for her so she will hopefully remember everything. Her mom is back as far as her testimony is concerned but church attendance is hard for her because of her job. Because they went to Argentina for a month she has been working overtime and she is not in a position to ask for Sundays off. But she has this Sunday off!

I think all of gods children's lives are a lot more similar than we realize. Sure we live in a country where we don't have physical hardships, but that doesn't mean we don't go through anything. Tango lessons, clothes and food aren't everything. If anything they distract us from what we are actually supposed to be doing. Also you have to take into account that people experience their trials in comparison to what else they have experienced. Even though the facts are different, everyone feels a certain  amount of heartache and misery. God puts people where they will best be able to learn to be like him. Sometimes I feel like I haven't gone through any trials, and it makes me angry when people talk about how they wouldn't be the same person without (insert terrible life problem here). This problem has been further amplified by the fact that I got sent to easiest mission ever. Perfect weather, nice people, America, etc. But then I remember the times when I was really really sad for little reason. I didn't know how to handle it because I didn't have any actual misfortune to compare it to.  But my feelings were still real. And terrible. Even if I was just being a baby. Hopefully you can make some sense out of that.

Love you!!!!!!!

Sent from Tommy the iPad