My Second Week at the MTC

November 22, 2011

Hello everyone!. This week has been a really good one. Siostra Ence and I taught our first lesson in Polish without any notes to an investigator this week. It was SO hard but soooo good for us. It kinda helped me to focus on the words and phrases that I really need to work on. I must say though we would get nowhere if we didn’t have the spirit with us. It helps SO much. There are words I know that I would never remember and things that I say that I didn’t plan to say but I am prompted. Basically learning to teach by the Spirit is the greatest thing I have learned so far. I'm a Fan. So you asked me about P-Day. They are bomb. Basically we wake up, get ready, go get a sack lunch in SWEATS OR JEANS :D and then we eat breakfast in our room and write letters. Today I went and talked with Tanisha while she cleaned the bathrooms for her service project. I am SO truly grateful that she is here. On the downer days she has the best scriptures she has found while here. I def think the Lord planned this out right.

Did I tell you also that my last day in the MTC is Jan 9th! We are a Pilot program and they are going to see if we can learn Polish in 9 weeks instead of the usual 12.....We are not quite sure how we feel about that yet. Anyways, we get sack lunches on P-day and do our laundry in SWEATS OR JEANS, which I love a lot. We go to the temple at like 1:15 that is our session time. Then we come back and have a little bit time before dinner. Then Tuesday’s we have a super awesome speaker come. It’s usually an apostle or someone from the MTC presidency. They come and talk to us so right after dinner at 4:30, so like 5 ish. We go and find a seats and write letters while waiting for devo to start until like 6ish. So yep that is a typical P day. Also, our entire district will travel to Poland together on Jan 9th! I am SOOOOO excited to meet my mission president and his wife! Like SOOO very excited!

This last week we focused a lot on teaching so we got to teach in English for a little bit. Teaching is a lot harder than it looks sometimes but we are starting to get really good at it. Plus Sister Ence and I work SO well together. Usually when I run out of things to say she has something and we help each other. It’s nice when we have to speak Polish as well, because we both remember mainly the same thing but can also say different things. Sometimes though it’s really hard for her and I to not compare ourselves with the Elders (Mikoliski, shimanski, manwell) They are pretty good. So we are constantly praying and working on that. Also this week is thanksgiving! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!! Please take pictures at dinner and maybe you all could write me an e-mail or something. SO this year I am SO grateful for my family and the wonderful people that you are! I am so grateful for the love and support that everyone has given me. I am also so grateful to have the opportunity to be one of the Lord's missionaries. It’s the best thing that I have ever done and there is nowhere else that I would rather be. Having the Lord with me so much is SO amazing! Also I love wearing my tag to the temple and seeing people drive by and wave at me because I am a missionary. It’s like sunshine! This last week I saw a clip from a talk from Elder Holland called missions are forever and oh man if anyone you know is about to go on a mission or you are going on one WATCH IT! It was the most motivating talk I have ever heard. It was basically do not waste a minute. Get lost in the Work. It’s going to be hard but so very worth it. I am so happy to be out here and I am trying my best to work as hard as I can and not to waste a minute.

Oh also I am grateful for Priesthood blessings. This week I got this HORRIBLE migraine and was SO not feeling good. I went to the health place and they gave me Excedrin. I didn’t want to leave class because I figured I could hide my head in my hands and listen to Polish. So I went back but later got a blessing and it was one of the first times the elders in our district gave a blessing...they def dropped like half a bottle of oil on my head. So the rest of the day I could touch that spot and my hands would be SO oily. It was ok though because the blessing was so good and it made me happy that they were so nice and willing to give me a blessing. Elder Mikoliski, who is so great, offered before I even asked. What a great elder. Also my teachers for Polish are the BEST!!! I have Brat Rushton, Brat Broadbend, and Brat Hughes. We were going to have Brat Daly (Andjez) but he is super busy this semester and cant but it’s ok :) They have individual talks with us to help us figure out what to study on our own and help us teach. They are even SO nice to me when I cry in class! ha-ha! (sometimes it happens) Sorry this e-mail is so sporadic I keep thinking of random things so I am just going on with my thoughts. I have made lots and lots of friends. Oh! One exciting thing that made Siostra Ence and I's week. We are way good friends with the 2 elders that are going to Bulgaria. Our districts get combined most of the time because we are both really small. Well they have this tiny stuffed tiger. (Malik teigra) that is how you say it in Bulgarian. Well, we stole that tiger and left a ransom note in Polish. It sounds not exciting to you, but we laughed the whole time and got to practice our awesome Polish words! Oh Mom can you please send me my camera charger cord that came in the mail from Amazon? I would like to send pictures :) Also for Christmas I would like jeans and/or a camera picture chip or just candy and letters. That would be nice. Letters are probably the greatest thing in all the earth or e-mails anyone can e-mail me. I can print them out and then just write letters back plus I love reading e-mails sop yep. ALSO guess what I am making a lot of friends here! I am the coordinating sister and I LOVE all the new missionaries that came in! We even have a sister from Scotland and she is so cute. Today we were doing laundry and she asked me if I felt like a domestic goddess haha. I have lots of sister and elder friends it’s wonderful. Oh I saw Christopher again. Sister Ence and I were laughing like no joke a building away from him, and he said he could hear me coming because I was laughing so loud. Sister Ence and I laugh all the time and I dang LOVE IT! Oh one of the branch presidency’s wife comes and visits us. She said she will even bring us things from the outside world if we need, she also gives hugs, has really good stories. She is like my MTC mom and I LOVE it! Her name is Sister Melville.

Well my time is basically almost up. I love you all! I am so happy to be serving a mission! I love the Lord and am honored to be one of His missionaries! I cannot wait to bring the gospel to those in Poland! Only a couple more weeks! LOVE YOU!!!!

Siostra Smithee

Story Time

I have a little sister named Olivia who is 7. She is the most zesty crazy child I have ever met. Sometimes she says/does the funniest things and I can't help but laugh my face off. Like the other day... I am not sure if my story telling abilities will be able to capture the drama of the situation or if this story will even be amusing to others.

It was morning. I was sleeping soundly, until I felt a blanket being put over my head and tucked around (more like into) my face. It was Olivia, kindly covering me so she could turn the light on without waking me up. She then covered my toes and tucked in every corner of the blanket under my body. After that I was unable to fall back asleep so I dragged by lazy butt out of bed. I am not the greatest morning person around but oh my heck Olivia sure is. She went on and on as soon as I walked out of bed for about 10 minutes with out taking a breath about how she was going to take her stuffed unicorn to school for story time.

Afternoon rolled around and my mom went to go pick Livy up from boys and girls club. She walked into the house looking very sad. I asked her how her day was and she looked at me and started half crying/yelling. "Terrible! my unicorns eye fell off and I lost it" She then showed me her unicorn doll and sure enough it was missing its eye. I couldn't help but laugh, the stuffy looked so retarded with only one eye. My laughter made the situation worse and she started crying very dramatically and ran away yelling "It's not funny Felicia!!!"

Then I got an idea. It wasn't the best idea but I thought it was funny. I told Olivia its OK because I have a button that she could use for a replacement eye. She responded "NO!!! Because when you sew the button on, you will sew it in an X! Then she will have an X on her eye and she will look dead." My mom assured her that we could glue it instead of sewing X's.

I went into my room and purposely grabbed the biggest button I could find, just because sometimes I'm a jerk. I put my button on the unicorns face. Kendle and I immediately started laughing so hard. Olivia did not laugh at all. Quite the opposite. The world had just ended for her poor one eyed unicorn. Luckily my mom was there to be the adult and helped her find a more appropriate sized eye. So don't worry the unicorn how has 2 eyes.

The first picture is the regular eye and the second is the eye that I selected.

The Witches Lair

My mother is a lover of holidays. No matter how small she always finds an exciting way to celebrate and make the holidays fun for us kids. I absolutely love it! I hope that this wonderful trait has rubbed off on me. The two holidays she loves decorating for most are Halloween and Christmas. Being October our house has been transformed into what I like to call "The Witches Lair" Not because she is a witch and this is her house but its so Halloweenesque. She makes almost all of her decorations her self. It's pretty much amazing. I love it! Because I love blogs with pictures I took some photos to show off my mothers holiday creations.

These are random bottles of potion and things she made

A mummified fairy or sprite..some woodland thing.

She even made the spell book sitting in the middle

A random specimen jar...they look so icky/exciting

The porch

This one is near and dear to my heart. I came home from school and was in need of my hair gel (I keep back up hair products in my room at home so I don't have to carry my billions of products in between home and school.). I asked my mom where it was and she responded "Oh, sorry I put eyeballs in it." Here it is and will forever remain. Needless to say I had to replace my hair gel; at least it was for a good cause.

I liked this picture because kendle came out and the camera gave her red eye so she looks like a creep.

My pictures can't quite do the decorations justice either. Basically my mom is bomb and an amazing holiday decorator. Love you mommy!

Announcement?

So I never announced my mission news. For all that do not know I will be serving a mission! I have been called to the Poland Warsaw mission, will be speaking Polish, leave November 9th, gone for 18 months, and I must say I am ecstatic about my call! Ever since I got my call I must admit I have been a little bit obsessed with that place. I have been studying up on the Polish language and reading almost everything I can find. On top of getting to go to Poland I am so excited to share the Gospel with the people of Poland. I want them to have the same happiness that I have in my life.

I must admit I am absolutely terrified in oh so many ways to leave. Sometimes I even sit and ball my face off full of doubt and wondering if what I am about to do is what I really right. I have heard this is quite common for pre-missionaries...well. Poland is going to be the greatest adventure of my life. So get ready Poland...you're not going to know what hit ya!

The return of High School...

This fall I am staying in my home town of Anacortes Washington. I love this little town with all my heart. I haven't been in Anacortes for fall in about 3 years. I had forgotten about all the delicious fall smells and colors around Washington. It's quite picturesque.

Usually this time of year I have returned to school at BYU-Idaho. I must say I miss Rexburg, my school, and friends more than I can possibly say. Thus far this fall has been a flashback to High School. I am even working the same job I worked in High School. The only thing missing is a couple friends and spending my days at AHS. November can't get here fast enough. I am so ready to get out of here! Oh High School memories..

My besties from high school....Numba 3!

Dance Performances from High School

I used to be super blonde

More besties and island adventures

SURPRISE! This part of High School still has not left me. Maybe some day but I doubt it.

Love...

The two new loves of my life...

Earth Day...Gloria I hate birds!

Earth Day this year began very early for me this year, 5:03 AM to be exact. I apparently fell asleep on the couch because I woke up at 5:03 on the couch feeling gross and a little grumpy that I was going to have to get up, brush my teeth (I HAVE to brush my teeth before bed no matter what) and move to my bed.

I finally make it to my bed. I lay down and my bed feels so nice and comfortable. I was so excited for sleep...but then misfortune struck. This dang retarded bird outside my window started singing SO LOUD. Not just a little bit of loud signing, A LOT of loud singing. This bird is a complete idiot, the sun wasn't even up yet. What kind of bird sings before the sun? Usually sounds while I sleep don't bother me at all, but this bird was being so incredibly annoying. I lay there fuming and hoping/imagining that maybe a coyote would come out of the woods and eat this stupid bird. Unfortunately no coyote came to my rescue. Instead I had to wait a whole hour for this bird from hell to stop chirping so I could get some sleep. I feel that this is further proof that birds are from hell and have no souls. Apparently they have no respect for others sleep either. What a way to begin Washington's favorite holiday...

I then spent the rest of Earth Day spring cleaning. Followed by a wonderful non Eco-friendly trip to the dump :) So take that bird, I hope you choke on my trash!

I must admit I am not completely heartless on Earth Day.....I hugged a tree in it's honor. I do love the earth despite the dumb birds I have to share it with.