Week 5!

Hola mis amigos!

Thank you so much for all of the letters this week :) I'm leaving on Monday morning and heading out to Argentina and I am sooooooo excited!!

PEOPLE

and we're all alone. In our hallway there are 6 classrooms and we are the only class in our hallways!! our Branch presidency told us about how this is always the slow season. During the semesters is always hard to get kids here. But as soon as all those high school graduates finish school there are so many people here. Speaking of congrats to all of you at home getting your calls!! That's so much fun! Best decision you'll ever make :) i promise! So we had 20 of our really close friends leave this week and it was not fun. It stinks cause we all got really close. But they're gone for the best reason possible! They're out serving the Lord and I couldn't be more happy about it. They're going to be so amazing!

This week we also had a birthday! Elder Hoagland turned 26! In the picture below he is the one in the middle with the glasses :) lots and lots of fun

ESPANOL y CLASE

A week from now I'm gonna be in Argentina trying to understand spanish and I'm a little freaked out. Like I say every week, the spanish is improving but there's a lot more to learn. I know I've come really far since I've been here but to think I'm going to be completely immersed in the language within a couple days is nuts.

INVESTIGATORS

This week we had our last lessons with our investigators and it was so sad to have to say bye! It was not fun at all. Although I know that they're all members, you develop this Christ like love for them and you just want them to come closer to Christ no matter what it takes! The hardest goodbye was definitely Hely y Jose. (there's a picture at the bottom) They got our emails and took a picture with us and said we we're some of the best teachers they had had. They are the cutest funniest little couple! Just yesterday we saw Jose walking around campus so we talked to him for a little bit. He then told us about how he hasn't had milk in 15 years. He whips our this book on milk and shows us a list of all these diseases that we can get from milk and lectures us on drinking milk. haha I love him!

RANDOM STUFF OF THE WEEK

One of my buddies here got a package this week with a 12 pack of dr. pepper and I literally sacrificed my life for him to give me one!!! haha It was the best thing I've had these past 6 weeks! If you ask my companion I was almost crying when I had it! That was my happy moment of the week haha

My district is crazy talented! We're always messing around singing and dancing just as a joke but lately we'll go to one of the pianos and we'll play and sing hymns and arrangements and it's the funnest thing!

We got our travel plans on friday and we were literally skipping and dancing all over campus! It's crazy! Our whole district is going to be flying together! On monday we fly from Salt Lake to Atlanta, Georgia, and then straight to Buenos Aries. From there the Mendoza crew will take a 10 hour bus ride on dirt roads all the way to Mendoza :) it'll be an adventure!!

PREPPING FOR EASTER

All you hear about at the MTC is how much fun it is to be here on holidays cause that's when the apostles come to speak. And I'm so lucky that my last sunday here gets to be Easter Sunday! Wahoooooo So this week I've been thinking about what the Savior did during the last week of his life. The Sunday before he was crucified, he arrived in Jerusalem on a little white donkey as the people wave palm leaves and shout "Hosanna! Hosanna!" Sound familiar to what we all did this past Sunday? The Provo Temple Dedication was broadcasted to the MTC and we all got to attend. It was amazing to watch all the missionaries and our branch presidencies stand and shout "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! To God and the Lamb!" 3,000 people shouting all together praises to our Lord. On Palms Sunday we were waving our palms in the air shouting praises that our Lord rose on the 3rd day, and restored his gospel to the earth with priesthood power to make sacred covenants in the temple for time and all eternity. Then on Tuesday while we sat in devotional I thought of Christ having dinner with Mary Magdaline and Lazerus, who he raised from the dead, knowing it would be his last meal with them. I hope all of us this week are spiritually preparing ourselves just as Christ did the week before he took on all the sins of the world.

SCRIPTURE OF THE WEEK

Philippians 1:20-21

This scripture is amazing!!! In these verses it basically tells us that we have no excuse to not be fully devoted to the gospel. When everything we have in our lives is because of the blessings we receive from him, the first thing we should be doing every day is giving thanks. When a sister in my zone read this in our relief society she said "We have no excuse to do anything but giving this mission our all" On this mission I will testify of Christ ALWAYS. Through my words, through my actions, by setting and example to those around me, and through my countenance. Because like it says in v20 "that in nothing I shall be ashamed" Everyday I will live as the Lord would have me live. Working my hardest and inviting the whole world to come unto Christ. Because I have no excuse to not do just that. "so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." I give my all to my Savior Jesus Christ because I know that this gospel is true and I know with my whole body and soul that he died and suffer for my sins. And on the 3rd day he rose so that we may live with our loving Father in Heaven again. All out of pure love for his children, our God has a plan of happiness, specific for each of us, and if we give our all to him, with no excuses, we will receive those eternal blessings.

les quiero mucho

hermana smoot