4-7-10

Greetings!

First off I want to thank ALL of the wonderful people who have sent me love via letters, cars, and packages! It really uplifts me to know that so many of my favorite people remember me and send their caring feelings to me. And I know that you are all praying for me too. I feel it and I am very thankful for all your petitions to our Heavenly Father on my behalf.

Now somewhat on the same subject: please no more candy! I got loaded up on sweets this past week and I'm trying to be diligent in consuming them all but I don't think I can eat the rest in the time I have left at the MTC! I thought I could solve this by feeding it to the Elders, but they're all up to their gills in candy too! So thank you all so much, but no more candy. I will however accept trailmix and/or fruit snacks! Haha!

The weather here has been an epic battle between Spring and Winter. We'll have clear, sunny days and days where it just snows like nobody's business. You can probably guess which days I enjoy more, haha! Flowers have begun to come out, daffodils and other sorts stemming from bulbs. Today, as with ever Wednesday, we saw more new missionaries coming in. It's so fun to see them! Two weeks ago we got a new district with ten Elders, and this week we're getting another new district, all Elders. In two weeks the other two other Sisters in our zone are going to be leaving! My companion and I may be the only two Sisters in our Zone! Or maybe not. We'll see.

I can't believe that I'm already over halfway completed with my MTC exeriance. LOCO! We've gone over all the grammar, just finished with Past Subjunctive (for those of you who may know what that means (also: PORQUE ES LO MUY DIFICIL?!)) Apparently our teachers went faster than the other districts, and we've finished grammar two weeks early. So now we get a month to refine, review, and practice what we know. Now I don't feel so bad for having not fully understood everything before we moved on to a new subject. We were going like lightspeed!

I still love playing volleyball, though last Friday something interesting happened. I mentioned before that sometimes the Elders take the game far too seriously and that day they were running all over the place, going into other players' areas and stealing the ball (which just miffs me, honestly). Well I had been advised on how to pop the ball back over the net while my back is to it and so as the ball dropped towards me I turned and had my arms up to do just that. THEN one of the Elders on my team (in my district too in fact) decided he wanted the ball too. He goes for it and collides into me. And apparently, he thought I was another of the Elders because he put his arms around until he looked down and discovered that I was in fact NOT an Elder. He let go and we both fell over. I was laughing so hard once I hit the ground thinking, "Did that just happned?" He apologized of course. I just wish I had been able to see it happen.

Oh! Something interesting to those who are in any way familiar with my dietary habits. I now eat grapefruit and like it (no sugar added), I eat sausage and I like it, I eat cream of wheat and I like it, and I even drink cranberry juice an like it. All things that I have despised from the times of my youth.

And General Conference was this past weekend. Oh how wonderful it was. I feasted upon the words of Prophets and Apostles, spiritually nourished with their messages. I really liked the emphasis on service, and on the family, and how precious children are and how we should care for them in the Gospel. I found out that you can go watch, listen, or read what was said during General Conference by going onto lds.org and clicking the link leading to the General Conference page. I encourage all to enjoy the uplifting messages!

I send you all my love!
~ Hermana Smart