Pictures!

Mexican night! Real Mexicans doing real Mexican stuff.

Missionaries love maps.

 A complete picture of my district.

Hi everyone!

So I leave for Panama at 3:50 on Tuesday morning.  So I'm emailing today instead.  I might get on a little later... hint hint...

Our last week went by so fast!  It was crazy!  I'm so excited for Panama though!  I'm freaking out!

So I asked President Pratt (who is usually kinda tightly laced.  Is that an English expression?  I don't remember if I got it right)  if we could watch Prince of Egypt for our movie on Sunday.  He said no.  He said it has to be made by the church which I understand but Moses is important too!  its okay though.

I got the Dear Elders!  You guys are awesome.  So it said they were printed like August 28 but I didn't get them until Sep 11!  crazy!  they take forever so really, email is the best.  though I do LOVE getting mail so.. second hint hint...

SHOUT OUT TO HEATHER PITT!  Only the cutest person ever.  Seriously, thank you for the letter!  I miss you and love you too!  mail rocks you guys.

Oh! you guys wanna know how stupid Mexican beetles are?  they are super stupid.  they somehow flip themselves on their backs, can't get back up, and die of starvation like a day later.  Stupid!  we have like five in our house every day.  i insult them most of the time.

Mexican night was last night!  Mexicans are crazy.  c.r.a.z.y.  They really love their culture!  They had some dancers for us who were really awesome actually.  The Mexican missionaries were LOVING IT.  It almost made me a little jealous of their culture cause the U.S. doesn't really have anything like that.  We have fireworks and hot dogs but... that's about it kinda...

We have another party tonight!  Woo hoo!  so Mexicans celebrate by staying up til midnight and setting off fireworks like new years but also they go outside and shoot their guns in the air like a million times. its illegal of course cause the bullets come back down and... kill people... but people still do it i guess.  anyway, for our celebration we have like a special event thing starting at... wait for it... 10:30!!!!! WHAT!!!!  We won't get to bed til like 11 or later!!! Living on the edge peeps. 

Good quote from my teacher who is amazing: "The secret to this gospel is to love it".  So true!  This gospel is such a blessing and we all just really need to love it!  Once we love it, we are able to feel so much more love for other people and all our duties are not burdens, they are blessings!  So things that seem really difficult like tithing, or word of wisdom or something becomes such a blessing in our lives when we strive to love the gospel and also love others.  LOVE FIXES EVERYTHING.  It's cool.

I love you all!  Next time I email I might be in PANAMA!!!! 

-Hermana Smalley

Sup Peeps!

Your homework this week is to sing "Oh My Father" to the tune of "Come Thou Fount".

 

ONE MORE WEEK! We are so ready to get out there and preach the gospel.  Even though it's in a different language, I have learned so much in the MTC and now I want to put it to good use by teaching others of the love their Heavenly Father has for them!  This is going to be awesome you guys.

 

This week my teacher called me Hermana Flores.  What the what?  Sister flowers?  Come on people.

 

We heard that Bill Nye will be on dancing with the stars this year?  Um.. I don't even like that show but... will somebody PLEASE keep me updated on his cha cha and fox trot???  Science geeks can't dance but if anyone can, its Bill Nye.

 

There was a giant moth in the cafeteria the other day.  We though it was a bat.  THATS HOW BIG IT WAS.

 

This week our companionship taught Sunday school. HA!!!! It was a blast.

 

So we get to watch videos every Sunday and I'm really pushing for prince of Egypt next week.

 

Was there a hurricane near Mexico last Thursday?  We had crazy storms.

 

Also, there is a triplet companionship in another district and all three of them have twins.   I never realized before but.. I'm so twin deprived.  This is so unfair.

 

Okay this is a pathetic post but every day in the MTC is the same soo... there isn't much to tell.

 

Next week i will have much more to tell you all!  And it won't be all about me.  It will be about the people I am serving!  Or maybe it will be about me.  We'll see :)

 

Love you guys!  Say your prayers, read your scriptures, pay your tithing, love your neighbors, seriously love your neighbors.  Charity is the coolest thing in the world.

 

Jane

Pictures!

A silly picture of our district (: There is one kid missing, but other than that the gang's all here!

OKAY SO THIS MORNING THEY HAD PEANUTBUTTER AND NUTELLA. I GOT A SPOON OF EACH AND ATE IT ON THE WAY TO THE TEMPLE. That is what the celestical kingdom is really like. All we need are spoons.

Adventure Time on all the junk food here. SHOW. SAM.

Adventure Time junk food (: 

 Me and mi casa

Me in the rain (:

Me and my companera (:

This is the roommate who is HILARIOUS. And she loves Adventure Time too :D

Blondie is the sweetest girl ever. Becca Haynie's cousin.

Us on the bus to the temple.

The sky that day was gorgeous!

Sometimes we get to wear PANTS. It's like a hug on each leg. Oh sweet jeans.

Me on a head. Ha! A head!

Us at the front of the campus.

 FAT BIRDS

Hola everybody!!!

This was a pretty great week.

First off, Philippians 4:13 and John 14:15 are the best scriptures everrrrr.

Also, Mexican birds are fat.  I'll try to send a picture, but yeah.  Survival of the fattest out here.

Mexico is SO COLD.  I have not taken off my jacket this whole time.

The other day at lunch we had delicious Oreo (legit Oreos!!!) cheesecake things.  They were yummy :)

Speaking of food, I love cantaloupe.  Pretty sure that is my favorite fruit.  Why didn't anybody offer me any growing up?:) They usually have it at every single meal so its awesome.

Oh and we also had these weird curly fry things!  curly fries!  they were cold and mushy but so so good.

So in a Zone, which is bigger than a district, they have assignments like Zone Leaders, Executive Clerks and stuff. My companion and I were assigned to be Sister Training Leaders!  It's not really a big deal.  All we do is write little happy notes to the girls in the zone and help them if they have any questions.  Honestly, nothing has changed.  But we will be the Training Leaders for the rest of our time here. So I guess that's pretty cool.  When they announced it in sacrament meeting they had us stand up and guess what my Branch President called me?  Drum roll... SISTER SMELLY.  Will the torment never end?  So so far I have been called Smiley, Shmolley, Chiquita, and Smelly.  Yaaaay.  Haha it's cool though :)

OH! The other day I choked on a lifesaver.  I CHOKED on a LIFESAVER.  Oh the irony.

We had our third earthquake this week.  It was during breakfast and breakfast is very important to me. So instead of leaving all the food, I picked it all up and brought it outside with me!  They all laughed at me but guess who didn't have soggy fruit loops? That's right.

Oh yeah!!! So Dear Elder works for us.  I have never used it but I think you go on Dearelder.com and start an account and you can email missionaries. But instead of me getting an email, which I can only do on Tuesdays, they will print it and send it as a letter, which I can get every single day!~ I think it is free for most of Central America and if it's not it's like 14 cents.  So then I can get those any day and also I can send letters any day.  If I had US stamps (dear mom, send me US stamps) I can send letters through pouch and they take like 2 days!  Workin' the system :D

Okay I can't think of anything else.  I love you all!  But mostly I love what I am doing :D

Jane

PS  Today marks my halfway mark in the CCM!  Crazy how time flies huh?

one last one of me at the temple this morning :D  im wearing a shirt i borrowed from my companera

First e-mail home

Hello! I am here in the MTC or CCM en espanol :)

The flight was good. long and stuff and I´m so glad to be done traveling! Mexico City is so cool! It{s pretty much exactly how you would expect it to be. Super spanish, super cramped, super graffitied, super hot, but SUPER AWESOME. You guys would hate it here. Everything is really cramped and stuff but I love it! I love everything lately! One thing mom would like is that there are tons of volkswagen bugs everywhere and all of them in pretty good condition, as far as paint jobs go!

I am so glad I came. I kinda feel like there was a lot working against me to keep me off my mission and now that i{m here I feel so VICTORIOUS! eat it satan.

I don{t really have a lot of time and im hungry and stuff so ill have to close up. I love you guys! MY pday is >TUESDAY. sorry for the weird typing. this keyboard is MESSED. watch this: ñ Ñ. cool huh? just a regular key. all the punctuation is mixed around. silly mexicans!

I am taking tons of pics for you guys and making so many friends. we are all growing together really quickly! it{s so much fun. seriously i am so happy right now! Tell pres. carpenter that he is da bomb diggity wiggity. Also tell everyone that i will write them on tuesday. i don{t have time right now and i{m only allowed to email my parents right now.

I love you guys SO MUCH. YOU DON{T EVEN REALIZE. Also i love investigators. even though i have gotten like 10000000 weird looks today. i love them :)

But i love you more! Tell sam that that book is above his level.

love you!
Hermana Smalley

And she's off!