Elder Blake Smith: May 17, 2010

Hola familia,

Wow, first off i want to say. Josh i love the beard!!!!!

I´ve never seen him with a beard. So they went to Atlanta for a concert. That sounds really fun. So Chad had his homecoming already. Time is going to fast. I can´t believe it. The weeks and days are just going like crazy. I always am asking Elder Mendoza where the time is going. We have been together for a long time. We are going for 13 weeks. It is my record with one companion. We are getting along really well. We are excited to keep working together. We know each other really well so we can teach really well together right now. Chad right now seems even better than before because he chose a really good meal to eat. HAYSTACKS!!!!! yuuummmm that sounds good. So it sounded like you had a pretty successful yard sale. It is a smart way to get some money for camping. When are you going to go up there??? Will this be the first year with the new trailer??? I bet you are so excited to go up there. I wouldn´t want to be in the heat either. Hopefully you can go up soon.

That is awesome that there are 3 temples in Arizona now. It will be nice to go and do a session there. Have you heard anything about the other two temples?? The last I heard the one in Phoenix was having problems. How is it now?? Hopefully they can start it soon.

I am glad that Grandpa has some help in the garden. I wish I would have helped more then I did before the mission. I bet it will be a great garden.

So we had a pretty crazy week. It was transfer week. Everyone got comfortable in their areas and now we are starting to work like normal again. We have a pretty good zone. Like always there are some problems but I am used to those now. It wouldn´t be normal if there wasn´t any problems. But I am loving it. We are seeing a lot of progress in our area. The families that we are working with are doing great. It was pretty hard for some of them to get to church on Sunday just because it was a pretty cold morning. It was like 36 degrees in the morning going to church. For an Argentine that is just like walking out into a blizzard. it was 2 degrees Celsius. they see that and they just don't go anywhere. there weren't that many people in the church. but that is ok. just testing everyone. we are pretty lucky where we live that if it is raining, cold, hot or anything we can just get in the car and go. here you either have to wait at a bus stop, take a taxi, ride a bike or walk. there is one member with a car. we are all tested in different ways.

this week we ate some interesting things with the Valle family. they cooked us cow tongue and cow liver. Lengua and Hígado. it was actually not that bad. it was kind of gross only because i knew what i was eating. this member works at a butchering place and meat processing place. he took some videos of his job. he took only three and is going to take more. but he took a video of when the kill them. they knock the cow out and then hang them upside down and put a huge knife through the heart. it was a lot of blood. he is going to put it on a DVD so i can take it home. i am pretty excited.

this Wednesday we are gong to Mendoza for consejo or mission counsel. i am pretty excited. i am mostly excited for the tacos. they are SO GOOD. we leave Wednesday morning at about 3 and get back at 11 at night. it is a really long day but it is pretty fun also.

we are working with some pretty good people right now. last night we were in a members house and a friend came over. so we were talking getting to know him. he was getting to know us. he had never talked to Mormon missionaries before. but he was asking questions like how long are we here and normal questions. he then asked how old we were. i told him to guess. he told me 25!!!!! i do not look that old. ha ha. but it was funny. he was 20 too. i queasy i look a lot older then him. i don't see it. but that was about it for the week. i will try to send some pictures. i love you all so much. have a good week. les quiero un montón.

elder smith