Well Hola! I´m in Mexico now.

Well Hola! I´m in Mexico now.

My p-days [ note- p day is short for preparation day.  That is the day the missionaries use to do laundry, grocery shop, run errands and get some exercise ]  aren´t Wednesdays anymore, but the mission president wants all of us new missionaries to write home today to let our families know we´re alive. So here I am. Alive.

Also this is the most unreal thing of my life and I´m not going to lie, it’s super hard. I don´t know how I´ll be able to do this for 17 more months... However I´m super lucky cause I got the ONLY companion available in the mission who speaks English. For the Hermanas anyway. We´re the FIRST batch of not native Hermanas in this mission. A lot of the elders speak English but only one Hermana- my companion Hermana Garcia. She´s from the Dominican Republic. She´s super sweet and she looks just like my friend Arianna from work. HW and I parted ways. I would put a frowny face here but I don´t know how to on this computer.  But her companion knows zero English and of the five of us Hermanas who came from Provo, we´re the only 2 who are completely new at Spanish. The other 3 Hermanas were in the intermediate Spanish course at the MTC.

I sleep in a hammock.  It’s actually pretty cool ‘cause the bedrooms are just empty rooms with hooks on the wall and at night you hang up your bed! I feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon.

So I ate a chipotle pepper yesterday at breakfast and I almost died.  Then everyone proceeded to tell me (In Spanish) how mild those peppers are and just wait ‘til I try a habanero and liuspanishdfgyudsspanishvghniuspanishiuhnvspanish. Great. I thought I like spicy food but I don´t know how well I can handle this whole pepper thing. Anywho the mission president and his wife are really nice but pretty strict, which is fine with me.  I already had my disobedience week.

Sam with mission pres and his wife- her new "parents" for the next 17  months

Yesterday HG and I taught some people in our area and as we were walking to the first house it randomly started pouring so when we got to his house we were soaked. But his kids were cute and the conversation seemed like it was going well! Of course I wouldn´t know. It was in Spanish. I said like one thing about families and I hope it made sense. My companion and this guy we were teaching (Jose) were nodding and "mmhmm"ing but they were probably just trying to make me feel better. We´re in this little area called Tanlum and all the houses are tiny and cute and close together and old looking and brightly colored and very... Mexico. But the city is bonita [pretty]! It’s like New York! But its soo scary ‘cause the people drive so fast and crazy and the roads are so narrow and there’s always people walking everywhere and I´m so surprised I haven´t seen an accident or anything! Sorry this letter is so pessimistic. I didn’t even know I was going to email you guys until like 20 minutes ago so I don´t have my journal or my camera for pictures.. Sorry.

The weather is so bipolar here. When we got off the plane at like 11 at night, I immediately started sweating. It was like a pot of soup. at 11pm. in November. Help. Pero [But] , it rains A LOT and today it’s been actually kinda coldish. I just wish I could talk to people already. :( I figured out how to do a frowny face. Ok well I guess I´m checking out now. I promise to be happier next week. Hopefully.

Ciao!

-Hermana Smith