Week 3 in Redlands!

This week flew by!!   My companion is a sister training leader so we get to do exchanges with all the companionships in our zone so this week was our first one and I went to the Rialto area which is pretty much West Valley but here in California.  A little sketchy but my temporary companion was really fun and we got to walk all over the place!  On Friday we had Elder Evans from the 70 come and talk to us in a mission conference and it was so cool!!  He spent the first hour talking about marriage which made everyone except me super trunky but then he talked the rest of the time about talking with people and not to people which is something I think all of us missionaries need help with.  At the very end he left us with an incredible promise that if we would choose to act in righteousness that we would have every spiritual gift given to us and that we could all have a perfect knowledge of this gospel and of our Savior.  Pretty cool.  One of the elders in our ward plays the piano for everything and somehow he found out that I play so guess who is playing for the primary program next week....yep it's me!  Church was super fun yesterday because we got to hang out in primary and they all speak English!  One of our recent converts just had her baby and she is adorable!!  They live in our same apartment complex so we go over a lot to visit and just stare at her because we aren't actually allowed to hold her:(  Everything is good and I really am loving Fontana California!  Love you all so much!

-Hermana Smith

Week 2 In Redlands

This is so different from what I expected and what they prepared us for at the MTC but I am learning to love it!!  This week was a lot of less active and member lessons.  I am getting to know all of our members a little better and I am beginning to be able to have conversations with them.  I usually just ask them about their chihuahua because everyone has at least one and they all love me.  This week the stake had a huge Latin Festival and they had over a thousand people show up!  It was the finding event of the year!  They had awesome food and dances from every Latin country and we helped serve all the drinks so we got to talk to everyone, it was sooo fun!!  This week we are back to normal schedule.  Yesterday we taught a lesson to a recent convert and my comp asked him who he wanted to say the opening prayer and of course he looks at me to do it and he goes "You know why? Because you need to learn more spanish!"  and then he had me teach him the whole lesson!!  It was hard but it definitely helped push me and yes I can teach!!  We went on a 'hike' yesterday for p-day.  Not much of a view compared to my Utah mountains but it was still fun to get out and get some exercise (I really love real Mexican food)!  We have a Seventy coming to our mission on Friday so that should be really good!   Love you tons!

-Hermana Katie Smith

First Week in Redlands!

Has it really only been 6 days here?   Ok so Tuesday was possibly the longest day of my whole life.  I flew into California with a bunch of other missionaries and went straight to the mission home in Redlands (which is beautiful).  We had some real food for lunch and then went to a whole bunch of training/meetings/interviews and such at the stake center right next to the Redlands temple!  We were all so incredibly tired but that night we watched the Meet the Mormons movie!  I somehow stayed awake and it was really really good so definitely go see it!  We slept in the mission home and the next morning we met our trainers and went out!  And now I know what real missionary work is!  I had mentally prepared myself for everything in Panama but this is a little different haha so I am adjusting to the idea of having a car and air conditioning and people who speak English but really trying not to get too adjusted.  I've met so many new people and I can't keep any of the names straight but I have loved hearing and (partially) understanding all of their stories!  A lot of the people speak English but a lot of them only speak Spanish to us!  I can understand and get the idea of pretty much everything they are saying but I pretty much just sit there and smile because I can't think fast enough to really respond.  But I always get a chance to speak a little Spanish because when it's time for the prayer my companion asks them who they would like to offer it and every single time, without fail, they smile at me and say "la nuevacita".  So I can pray really well in Spanish but if you want to have a normal conversation you're out of luck.  Also THE JUICE.  Every single house we walk into they hand us a giant glass of some kind of juice.  Who knew there were so many different kinds of juice?  But the people are incredible and we have some recent converts with crazy awesome testimonies so most of the time I feel like they are teaching me.  Conference was great and I got to watch it in English!!  loved loved loved it!  Last night I sang Frozen songs with one of our recent converts granddaughters and that's probably the highlight of my week haha.  Love you so much!:)

-Hermana Smith

I Can't Remember What Week This Is

This week has been pretty incredible to say the least. Now that we only have one week left I think our district realizes how much we are going to miss it here.   This week started off with everyone getting flight plans!  and guess who is getting visa waited....yep, its me.  I will find out tomorrow or Friday where I will be serving until my visa comes through!  We have a little guessing competition going on in the district and anyone who guesses wrong has to use a super dumb gringo sentence at least once in conversation on their first day in country (the sentence has yet to be determined, any suggestions are welcome).  We have started waking up a little early and running outside in the mornings and as much as I hate it, it is actually a really good way to make sure we are up on time and it makes us less tired during our personal/companionship study.  During language study I have been listening to the Book of Mormon in Spanish just on lds.org and it takes me a really long time but I feel like I am getting so much out of the scriptures because I have to pause after every verse to make sure I understood it right and look up the words I don't understand.  I just finished Second Nephi and pretty much every time I read I find a scripture that applies directly to our investigator!  We did get to watch the temple re-dedication Sunday and it was amazing!!  The talks were beautiful but the best part was singing the Spirit of God in a room full of missionaries!  Then for Sunday study time I was able to read D&C 109 and 110 which is all about temple dedications- go read it! Tuesday night we got to hear from another apostle!  Elder Ballard came and spoke and his message was so simple and easy to listen to.  He didn't read us a talk he had written he just spoke to us like we were his grandkids.  The coolest part was hearing him bear his testimony at the end- probably the most powerful testimony of Christ that I've ever heard.  So the 2nd week here I promised one of the hermanas in our room that if she cut her hair that I would cut mine too.  So after weeks of debating and a couple freak outs (the other sisters in our room were ready to kill us), we both chopped off our hair!  I donated about 10 inches and I kept thinking of my favorite niece, miss Ava Allen!  Fresh start for wherever I end up going Tuesday!!  I am so grateful for this opportunity to teach and serve the people in Panama and wherever else I get to serve!  Guys the church is so true and the Book of Mormon is the word of God, I promise!  I love you all, dont get hit by a bus!

-Hermana Katrina Smith

         

"Not sure where in the US I get to go but I wanted to make sure I had a map picture for it!"

So Much Spanish, So Little Time

Ok so first off I got sick. I have just been way congested and my roommate suggested that I do a headstand to get rid of it so obviously we spent a really long time doing headstands in our apartment and blowing our noses upside down until the girls from the apartment below us came up to make sure everything was ok but really just to tell us to stop pounding on the floor so much. On Monday we had another sister join our companionship for the day because her companion had flown to mexico but she didnt leave til Tuesday morning.  For gym we went on splits and she and Hermana Reeves went to play volleyball and I went to the field with the other sisters in our zone.  Hermana Reeves got nailed in the face with a volleyball and had to go to the doctor but no one told me that so I spent the better part of Monday trying to locate my companion without a cell phone.  Elder Richard G. Scott talked at the devotional last night which was really exciting and an awesome experience.  His first words of advice were "Don't just have a good mission, have a blast!"  Pretty much every devotional some missionary starts a rumor that someone huge is coming to speak to us (Tommy S., Mitt Romney, Ellen Degeneres)  so it was exciting that it was actually an apostle this time!  I love being a sister because the buses  come to pick us up at west campus and there are hundreds of elders trying to get on the first bus and all you have to do is say "Hermanas" and they part like the red sea and you get the spot at the front of the bus with the air conditioning.  I'm sure it will work exactly the same way for the public transportation in panama.  This week we talked a lot about teaching people and not lessons and also being guided by the Spirit.  For practice, we were teaching other teachers in our building and Hermana Reeves and I just shared a scripture/lesson that we had planned the night before but we were able to ask her just the right questions and it applied to her life in a way that we had never even considered.  The Spirit was so strong and it was a really awesome experience to look back and see how we had been guided in our study and planning as well as in our lesson!  The scripture was Ether 2:24 and we talked about being the light for someone else while they are in the depths of their sea.  In a way the scripture is even more powerful in Spanish and the language it uses made our questions and comments even more relevant to her life. Only one more P-day in the MTC!!! Kind of freaking out but at the same time I am so ready to just jump in and gooo!!  Love you love you love you tons!!

-Hermana Smith

Half-way through the MTC!

These days are all morphing together but I will try and give you a recap of my week!  Our zone plays kickball on the fields outside because the weather has been perfect!  On west campus they have 'investigators' walking around or sitting on benches just waiting to be contacted or taught. When we started teaching on the second day it was stressful planning for one lesson but now we end up teaching about 3-4 lessons a day!  We taught one lesson this week that went so well- the Spirit was strong and we asked all of the right questions and we didn't stumble with our Spanish! We began teaching at the TRC with a new investigator!  We planned out our lesson so carefully and were worried about being able to take the full 40 minutes but when we actually got in there we spent a whole hour just talking and getting to know him- IN SPANISH!  The words were just coming out of my mouth and a lot of the conjugations that I have been practicing just came out without me even really thinking about it.  Everyone in my district was sick this week except me. Everyone is feeling better now and I think I officially dodged this round of illness. Thanks for all of the letters, I love you guys!!

-Hermana Smith

Sister Smith with her district

Week 2- Was there even life before the MTC?

Hola!!

Ok first things first- Shout-out to mom and Sister Lamb for sending me food and delicious cookies!  I use them to bribe the elders in my district to do things for us and so far it's been very effective.  I have been here for exactly 2 weeks but I'm officially in my third week which means I only have 3 more weeks left here in the CCM. Everyone here hits a breaking point where they just become the weirdest they've ever been and pretty much everyone in our district hit that point this week.  It makes things a little more fun but it also makes me want to punch people in the face because no one can focus on studying.  Ok so Spanish is going pretty well.  I am learning how to roll my R's!  The only word I can roll is 'arrepentimiento' but I'm so excited about my new talent that I am frequently seen walking around campus telling people to repent.  Our first 'investigator' turned into our second teacher and he is so funny.  Now we are teaching our 2nd 'investigator' and it is a completely different experience than the first.  In our first lessons we would spend our entire study time memorizing phrases to recite to him but now we can spend about 15 minutes planning an outline for our lesson and spend the rest of our time reading scriptures and PMG in spanish.  Our lesson yesterday was incredible and it was the first time that I could feel the Spirit guiding us in our lesson which was the coolest thing I've ever done.  My companion and I worked so well together and because we had studied vocabulary and prepared scriptures we were able to really cater the lesson to his specific needs.  I thought it felt real teaching our first investigator but I had no idea what it felt like to really teach someone with the Spirit and I'm sure it will only get better from here!   The elders in my district LOVE to sing and they pretty much never stop (refer to me wanting to punch some people above) but every night after our study cycle before we go back to our rooms we sing a hymn together and pray in Spanish.  Music here in the CCM is the best and my favorite part of every devotional is the musical number/singing with all of the missionaries. We are starting to talk more about building relationships with the people we will meet and I sometimes get distracted thinking about all of the incredible people I get to meet and I already love them so much.  When things are hard or frustrating I just try and think about those families and remember that I need to work harder and pray harder so that I will be able to teach them with everything I have.  I am so so so so happy and I really love being a missionary!!  I love you guys!!

Hermana Smith

With her comp

With her good friend Hermana Cassie Beecher