February 19, 2018

This week has been absolutely crazy. I have a lot to write about and not enough time for energy to do so. First off, I want to apologize for spelling mistakes. Spanish keyboards, are weird and I dont know how to correctly type with them. Also it says everything I type is spelling incorrectly. So Sorry. So to start off with a little story. Last monday I woke up nice and early. Around 5:40 am to get ready to go to airport at 7. Had a lovely flight to mexico city, where a driver for the CCM came and picked me up. I got to spend the night on the Mexico City Temple grounds in the dorms there. I got there about 4:30, ate and went to bed because I had to be up and going at 2 in the morning to leave At 3. But I couldnt sleep. So I just read some books and played games by myself. Which isnt very fun incase you are wondering. I finally got to sleep around 10ish and my alarm didnt go off. I thankly woke up at like 2:16 which was a huge miracle. got ready and was ready on time to go to the airport again. Where I had luggage problem. Got it all figured out and went to my gate. Where I waited for 4 hours. My flight got delayed, and By the time I got to saltillo I was just completely exhuasted. After some meetings with the new missionaries, I got to drive to my area which is in Northern Mexico. Another 6 hours to get to our house for the night. SO this was probably the longest day of my life. is was bad. But since then Mexico has been pretty great. Ive been growing through a massive culture sahock. It is nothing like the states. And everything is in spanish (surprise) and it can be frustrating. the transition has been brutal to say the least. Its so poor here. and no one really takes care of anything. The streets are a mess, and everything is ust different. Spending all day walking hurts mis patos mucho. And by the time we get home Im ust dead beat. This week unfortunatly I wont be able to send any pictures as the Ciber ( internet cafe) that I am in is super ghetto. But I will send them when we find one thats a bit safer. My new dad is named Elder Sabey, and he has been out for 6 months. He is from herimum Utah or something like that. But he is pretty cool. He played soccer all throughout his life, so we have something to talk about. But on the topic of soccer. THERE IS A STRICT NO SOCCER RULE HERE!! What the HECK! Its so frustrating, becuase we see kids play soccer all the time, and we just want to go play, but we cant. Kills me on the inside everyday. We have several people that we picked up this week as we got whitewashed into this area. And 2 of them are progessing super well towards baptism. So we should at have one baptism this weekend, and maybe two. Im excited as the work moves forward. We found another younger kid named Jesus this week who has genuine interests, and was eager to meet with us again. Im happy to see people go forward. As Ive been here, I seen the lords hand in my life so much more. Its been super hard. The food is really fighting my tummy, and the lqanguage is hard. But as i have leaned on the lord, Ive been able to be happy through the week. I did have two breakdowns where I thought "I cant do this" but im pushing through, and Ill be a full blown mexican in no time! I love you all and I pray for you. Stay strong, and lean on you father in heaven. Elder Smith