Hola la Familia, Feliz Cumpleaños Padre, happy birthday dad! I saw the pictures with the sombrero so I guess y’all went to Pappasitos or something. So I got your package on Friday! Thanks so much, the pictures are nice to have so I can see all of your smiles during the week. The DP jelly beans are delicious and they are almost gone and it is weird to see garments that are actually white so thanks so much. So yeah the milk here sucks really badly, so I don’t need protein powder I just eat peanut butter after I work out. I can see that Dad is getting his 6 pack from the picture of y’all at the beach. But yeah our water pump is broken so I have taken bucket showers and used the bucket to wash my stuff so it sucks I have just kind of getting used to it. All of our water comes from a hole in front of our house.
So this week I had a lot of meetings and stuff so we had a meeting and interviews with the Mission President on Friday so I got the package way fast. So I have had like 4, 8 hour meetings in the past week, and church feels like nothing now. So I am becoming the branch piano player this week so we will see how that goes. So in my interview I asked the Mission President what I could do to adapt better to the culture in a house of natives and his answer was well your Spanish is good, so he really didn’t answer my question so I was like aright then. But he is a great Mission President. So it is my companion’s last week so I got to try to keep him alive, right now he says he is a translated being. So there were a couple of times last week were I wasn’t sure if we were going to go out, but he is more alive this week, so he is making me do everything now which makes me learn. So my companion is great and volunteered me for everything in every meeting which I hated doing. He was an office and zone leader for over half his mission so he told me he wants me to be a leader so he says I have royal blood because of him and I need to reach my potential. So he is pushing me in everything that I do, which is making me learn faster. So I usually am the one teaching in the lessons and doing that contacting which sucks just because he is so much better than me, but he says this is my area now so I will probably stay here, actually I am staying here. So I had my best lesson I have ever had this week when I was doing an intercambio with another American who didn’t know Spanish well. We have one guy who is pretty close to being ready to be baptized, so I can tell when I really have a need to understand or teach something the words sometimes just come to my mouth which is cool how I can use words that I barely remember. So I am to the point where people don’t look at me weird and ask my how long I have been here and I can somewhat speak the language and understand. There are a couple of things that I can talk about fluently in Spanish, the gospel, sports, family, and other things like music. So I need to work on expanding my vocab the most.
Culture Note of the Week- So my favorite music here is some Christian group that I hear in the streets named Tercer Cielo, so y’all should look up the songs Cada día oro por ti, and musica por dentro. These are my favorite songs here. Also the juice here is amazing, and I absolutely love jugo de ceresa - cherry juice. IT is the best! Also the food here is rice, beans, and chicken for the most part. Here when you eat chicken you don’t waste anything. So chicken legs actually aren’t that bad, they have Dominican burgers called chimis that are pretty good, also empanadas’ are good for breakfast.
But this week we went to go pick up a member to come and teach with us so when we showed up he was watching college football on Saturday, and who was it, it was Michigan and Iowa I think. So he was like oh, I am glad you are here you can explain this game to me and my companion was like yeah you and elder James and Foster are always talking about it so I want to know to. So our quick message with him was how the game of football works for half an hour, which I felt really bad afterwards, I was just helping them learn my culture. So while I was explaining the game to them, I checked the bottom line, they have ESPN here, so I see Texas was beating Nebraska 20-5 at one point and BYU was losing 17-0. Also I have another question did Brett Farve pull a Tiger Woods?
I got your Dear Elders this week Dad, that is cool that Max Hall is starting I didn't think he was that good. Thanks for the update.
I am doing great, I learning to adjust to a life without power or water but it’s all good it is humbling me. I hope all is going well at home. I am continuing to grow and change here and I hope all is good at home, school, work, and sports. I have y’all in my prayers everyday, so I can't pray in English anymore so it will be interesting when I get home.
Cuidense,
Love Elder Smith
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