World of Wreaths

Hola Friends and Family!

So since everyone wants to hear about my visa updates I guess I can start with that. There isn't an update. I didn't have to sign some papers on Thursday for it and give my travel agent my passport (I don't know why she didn't want it earlier) but yeah I'm still waiting but I am thinking/hoping that I'll get it by the end of March. That gives me a little less than two weeks so I think that is enough time. Question: Did I already miss the royal wedding?

Things here are going really well! This past week we have started teaching a lot more new investigators which is great and we have a baptism on Saturday! It's really exciting and I love the 9-year-old boy getting baptized. His name is Brody and even though he is a Lakers fan and I a Celtics fan we have found a way to put that difference behind us and have become best friends, naturally. He's really funny too. When we asked him to explain what coveting and jealously was he said "It's kinda like when I like a girl and then another boy likes the same girl..." and then he got really red and his dad just looked at him like "We need to talk." But yeah, I'm really excited for Saturday.

My companions are really good. It is still me and Sister High and then our new companion is Sister Lee and she is from Indonesia. What's great about Sister Lee is that her first name is Sara, making her name Sara Lee. I thought about bringing up that her name was also a bread brand but not everyone is as well versed in the world of bread brands as I am and so I didn't want to intimidate them with my vast knowledge of the bread brand world. You know what I mean? But other than that we are all getting along great! We do really well teaching together and I can definitely feel the spirit more and more as I continue teaching others.

Let's see. I guess I can explain the subject. There are many things, even hundreds of things, I have learned so far on the mission but one thing that I have found most interesting is my past ignorance on the use of wreaths. My whole life I have been under the common misconception that wreaths are really only for the Christmas season. However, my service of knocking doors in the Utah Provo Mission has open my mind to the many occasions for which wreaths can be used. You can have a Valentine's Day wreath, a spring wreath, an Easter wreath even a St. Patrick's Day wreath. My purpose in sharing this message is in hopes that no one else follows in my ignorant path of poor wreath usage.

Something else funny happened yesterday. We met this man from Chile, who is already a member, but we were talking with him and he told me something really funny. He said, "If you want to talk about love, you talk in French. If you want to talk about food, you talk in Italian. If you want to talk about business, you talk in English. And if you want to talk to God, you talk in Spanish." He said Spanish is the "celestial language". I could tell we would be good friends, especially since I have mastered rolling my r's...

Something that I find as cruel and unusual punishment is tracting during the BYU game. It is really hard to stay on topic when people are yelling and screaming in the background (some people even ask us to come back later...). And I'm not gonna lie, I do ask for updates from the members and I knew we had won on Saturday when I saw mini fireworks go off in the neighborhood we were tracting in. And I'm not gonna say that BYU is winning because I'm serving a mission, but they may not be entirely independent... So I guess I'll say "you're welcome" just in case the two are, for some reason, related.

Well, I should probably get going but I hope all is well with everyone! I love you all and miss you tons!

Love,
Hermana Smith