Today I heard thunder !!

The weather has been staying pretty fair, cloudy and warm with cool breezes so I'm not geting toasted by the sun or suffocated by humidity. It's sprinkly today and the clouds are dark with rain, and I heard thunder! That makes me really happy. The thing that makes the summer months the most barable is the FANTASTIC storms! Thunder, lightning and wind all combining for a show of celestial proportions! I should be able to get another round of awesome videos of bolts across the sky before I head home in August.

In other news there's not a whole lot of news. We did lose our phone for a day. I couldn't find it that night and the English Elders who lived above us had gone to sleep early so would not answer their door when we wanted to borrow their phone to call ours so we could find out where it was. So we had to wait until the next day when we picked up our Spanish Elders to borrow their phone. Turns out that we left our phone at someone's Trailer when they had not been present for a lesson. It was dark and I was trying to leave a note, my Companion wanted to elave right away because we were in a bad part of town at night so I rushed off sans cellular. But he kept the phone for us saying "You left your phone number, and your phone!" When we got there he had already gone, but he left the phone wrapped in a note on his door for us. Yay brick phone! We'll be getting a new one at Zone Conference in two weeks but I'm glad we didn't lose it early!

Last Pday my Comp and I tried out a Zumba class. IT KICKED MY TUSHIE! I was soooo sooore in my calves especially for the next couple of days. We're not Zumba-ing today, maybe another week. Instead we want to go to Ross, I need a couple of new articles of clothing. I never came with much, and a few things are getting worn out or I grew out of... (*cough*fat*cough*) We'll see what treasures we can drum up today!

Aaaaand I believe that to be it. I'm excited for General Conference coming up! Whoo!

~ Hermana Smart

It kinda feels like spring

Last three days have been cold (as in 51 degrees) in the morning, then by the afternoon we're baking in the car with sun and 75+ degrees. Feels weird to me in Texas, until I remembered that this is how Spring would usually be backhome. Cold mornings and warm afternoons. And It's made me happy to see the trees flowering in magentas and pinks and whites. I miss Spring back home though, what I think of as REAL Spring.

I still have very little idea where I am in Westgreen, but hopefully in the four weeks left I have to figure things out I'll understand the streets and ward better.

Friday Hna Taets straightened my hair and taught me how to put eye makeup on (eye shadow, crimping of eyelashes, eye liner). We went to a Zone Meeting and the shock and awe I got from other Missionaries made all the preparation worth it! Man that was funny. Though while she was straightening my hair Hna Taets said "Is that a grey hair?" and I felt her yank out a single strand and I saw that yes, it was indeed a completely white hair. So at 22, almost 23, I have had a grey hair. She asked me what I have to be stressing about. Helloooooo! I'm a Missionary! Lots of stressors!

I had my big ONE YEAR mark this past Thursday (almost typed 'Jueves') so my Companion and I, and the two Elders that ride in our back seat all went to Red Robin to celebrate. When we were done our Server came over and told us that someone had already taken care of our bill for us, so we didn't have to pay. We were all really surprised and the place was packed full so we had no idea who this very kind person was! I'm assuming it was a Member, but I feel very grateful for that blessing someone gave us.

In exactly five weeks I think it will be my birthday and I'll be 23! I was just starting to get used to being 22, I'm getting ooooold! Well not really, but in June I'll have been graduated from High School for Five Years! Halfway to my first School Reunion! Weeeiiiirrd.

Well, that's all the updates I have for now I think.

Hablo a ustedes en la proxima semana.
~ Hermana Smart

Week one in Westgreen

Man it's so weird to be in a new Area! I don't know SQUAT about where I am or people we talk to. I spent five Transfers, seven and a half months, in Bearcreek. I knew that area pretty well. It took like six Keymap pages to make a map of that area. But Westgreen takes like 20, maybe more. It's GINORMOUS. I can't even unfold a map in the car to try and figure out the roads we're on and learn the area that way because it's TOO BIG. AHHHHH. I'm going to be in trouble when Hna Taets leaves in five weeks.

On the upside: I have a DRYER! YEEESSS!! No more air-drying clothes! And the ward seems pretty cool. They feed us like every day it appears. (I'm going to get even fatter, that I'm not so enthusiastic about.) But apparently it's really easy to lose mission weight once you go home.

A couple of days ago when we were talking about how much time I have left in the Mission Hna Taets blew my mind. At the end of this Transfer I'm going to get my Death Dot (the mark they put on your picture in the Mission Office so they know who has three Transfers or less at a glance) That's soooo wierd. I've been watching other Missionaries getting ready to leave or hitting these milestones, it's just so odd that I'm getting there too.

This coming Thursday I'll complete one year as a Missionary! It was on March 3rd 2010 that I said Goodbye to my Parents and entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah. In some ways I'm surprised, in others in feels like I should have been done with my Mission for a year by now. But when it's finally my turn to go home I know it's going to be so strange.

I'll be able to go visit my old area this Sunday since I'm going up for a Baptism. I'll have been out of Bearcreek for two weeks, it might feel weird going back again. I'm just so thrown off with the new area, new apartment, new companion, new ward. But I'll adjust, it's what Missionaries do. I'll not likely be moved again until the end of my mission, so I'll be in Westgreen for six months.

I hope you're all doing well!
~ Hermana Smart