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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Missionary Tan Lines

I'm posting today's email before the week gets away from me and I forget!  Kacey references a youtube video that her companion made before leaving on her mission.  You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyRUQPPBniM

Kacey LOVES getting mail (what missionary doesn't?)  It is really easy to send her a letter via DearElder.com  You will have to set up an account, but it is free and easy to do.  Make sure you select the "Nicaragua Managua South" mission and address the letter to Hermana Kacey Alexa Smith.  You can email her as well, but she only has a short window each week to read emails, and she is unable to print emails to read or refer back to later.  If you still want to email her, just let me know if you need her address.  Of course, hand-written letters never go out of style!

I took the liberty in today's letter and made a few paragraph breaks to make it easier to read!

Family!!! How are you all! I love you guys!!! Wow so much to say and
so little time. Did you guys love conference! Thanks for the emails
about what stood out to you! I loved reading them :) Family,
obedience, and love stood out to me. obviously a lot more and with a
lot more detail but I want to say everything that i need to say haha.


Okay so go on utube and find the vidoe Janinas mission call it has
hashtags like guatemala and mission. I havent seen it so you guys
watch it. its my companions and she made it right before coming here
and someone who is here from panama saw it. so go watch it haha. 


I am so happy for Janie. I cant wait to hear wher she goes. my vote is
Asia. I am so proud of Janie and David. Tell them to study preach my
gospel! They are going to be great. Have them email me if they have
any questions. 


I am so bummed about kennadis hip!   I hope she is doing better! 
Kami-thank you for taking good care of my computer. I
cannot wait to get the pictures that you guys are sending. it will be
the best. 


I absolutely love my calling..the other day I felt like I
should go talk to hermana chase. The second I walked into her room she
started crying and we both just knew we needed to talk. Another time I
felt like I should go talk to hermana Nunez...I ignored the feeling
for two nights and finally when I went and talked to hear I learned
that her grandpa died and she was having a really hard time. Whenever
you have a prompting..follow it! 


I love how conference talked about the Magnificent wave and that I am
a part of it. Man it was so great!

I leave here in a week from today at 3 am! ahh I cant even believe it!
I am so excited! I love being a missionary. I am going to war with
Satan and I am going to win! I am growing and learning so much every
single day. I love you guys! 


I love you guys and keep up the good work! I love my mission and I
love being here!!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Happy Easter and Happy Conference

I'm a little delayed in posting Kacey's letter from last week.  I get so excited when I receive her letters that I just keep reading them over and over, then forget to post them for everyone else to enjoy.  Can you tell why I beam with so much joy when I read Kacey's letters?!?

Family!!! How are you guys! I am so glad you got my letters. I am also
glad you liked them. Thank you for the scripture mom, i love it. Did i
tell you guys I got scriptures with tabs! I dont know why i didnt get
them before haha. the spanish ones lol. Easter in Guatemala is kind of
crazy. Its a week long celebrating and everything is closed. so mom i
got your dear elder this morning. Thank you! I loved it. I love that
you got dad a knight hahah that rocks. mom..do you think you can send
me a US callendar haha I never know what is going on lol. Okay...I am
obsesed with being a missionary. I love everything about it. I love
the ccm. I love my companion, she is one of my best friends, she is
amazing. I have the best district. I love when we go contacting
because I love every single person we talk to. Today we went to a
market and the city map. Guatemala rocks. I am excited for Nicaragua
but it will be hard to leave the ccm because I love it so much. I love
every single class and every single lesson. Every day is better than
the previous one. Oh my gosh I wish I could show you what I see and
feel. How is Jordan! how are you all! Easter here was amazing. My comp
and I taught sunday school and it was an awesome lesson. We had fast
sunday so we had testimony meeting. I was the first to go up and did
it totally in spanish and was confident. It rocks! I love my calling.
It is awesome. I love all the hermanas that I get to know. Thank you
so much for your love and prayers. I love you all!




Saturday, March 30, 2013

CAPS and !

Kacey has explained, bit by bit, why she appears in her letters to have a limited understanding of grammar and punctuation.  It turns out that, not only is she typing on a "Spanish" keyboard, said keyboard does not have "?" or "Enter."  Given the circumstances, I am grateful for ANY letter, regardless of punctuation! I appreciate the occasional word in all caps to help break things up a bit.


As you can see from the following letter from March 26, Kacey is doing great, and she loves everything about her mission.  I am so proud of her!


ENJOY!


Heyyy!!!  How is everyone! ps I cant do question marks on here either
haha. How is Kennadi. is her hip better! and how is Sylvia! I am so
glad you guys are all having fun and that dads birthday was fun! I can
see on my email that some of you sent me dear elders but they havent
gotten here yet...hopefully soon haha becuase I want them super bad!!!
Okay crazy there is an Elder Pulsipher here and we are totally
related...not sure how but we are both related to Zara...if thats how
you spell it. I will ask his parents names and let you know haha
crazy. Did I tell you that I have a calling! I am the cordinating
sister. they only hermana with a calling. It is so awesome, I work
with the presidents wife..I love her and I totally sit in on the
leadership meetings with the mtc predidencey, the zone leaders, and
the district leaders. It really is so awesome and I love being in
leadership callings! There are two here from vegas that we totally
know the same preople..small world. MOM! Did you get the bracelets I
ordered you! I am worried about them because I sent them to the old
house so I hope you got them...let me know! Okay so there was totally
an earthquake yesterday. Is that so crazy! It wasnt big but we had to
sleep with flashlights and seriously every single time that I heard a
noice in the night I would panic and think EARTHQUAKE haha it was
horrible. I love the CCM and everyone here! I am friends with the
chefs and if you ask them to make something specific they will. haha
it rocks. Mom thank you for making me a blog. I so wish I could see
it, i know it looks great. It probably looks super awesome with my
emails that are basically one whol paragraph. I bought some spanish
scriptures with tabs today..way excited about that. My spanish is
great. I can totally have conversations and understand just about
everything. I love it. The CCM rocks! I love my teachers so freaking
much. One of them is getting married in May! I am sorry to hear about
sister Acosta. I hope Josie is doing okay. I will pray for her. I
really love being a missionary. Everyday gets better! OMG I didnt even
tell you yet that we went contacting yesterday for real! Haha it was
actually kind of scary to be let out in the real world haha but it was
great! Wow I wish you guys could all see how awesome it is here and
feel what I get to feel. Have you gotten any of my letters! how is
jordan! Tell him I miss him and I love him! I love all of you guys and
I am so proud of all of you. Hey ps tell dad that he must have
actidentally sent his email to me to someone else this week..haha. I
love you guys! The church is true!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Look at all Those Sister Missionaries


We got our first picture from Kacey! Sadly, we were unable to located a magnifying glass with which to view the photo.  We are trusting she is in it.  Wait, there she is.  Upper right!

Kacey's letters continue to be upbeat and positive.  Her experience thus far is so fun to read about! I finally understand why her letters as well as other letters we've received from missionaries appear to be one giant run-on sentence.  Apparently, there is no "enter" key on the Spanish keyboards.

Following is Kacey's letter from March 19, 2013:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! Oh my gosh! I am pretty much crying right now
because I am finally getting to write you guys. Please remember that I
cannot enter on these keyboards and they are spanish. and no one is
allowed to make fun of my spelling! OKay, when you send me stuff
please address it Hermana Kacey Alexa Smith, that way it gets to me!
We had exchanges for a few hours on sunday an my comp only spoke
spanish, not a single english word haha I tried to tell her I was
fasting and she thought I didnt like the food...hmm I should practice
more haha. My dream to be tiny will not come true here because I was
about two feet taller than my comp on sunday! Hermana Ixacara was her
name.  I forgot to tell you guys that you cannot even brush your teeth
with the water here so we seriously brushed out of water bottles haha
its great. All the Latinos always ask if I am related to the prophet
Joseph Smith haha and there are two elder smiths here so they always
ask if we are related...there arent any smiths in central america
haha! It is it totally sweet because my green eyes are even more
appreciated here..the latins LOVE them! We get sunburned SO quickly
here...we dont even go outside that much right now but I am pretty
sure its because we are so close to the equator. I already have some
of that cute missionary tan..lovely. I had to get a tetnus shot
yesterday...I guess in the US they last for ten years so it was
expired for here..ouch! The spirit is so awesome here and I love every
single second of it! I love being a missionary. My companion is so
great, we work so well together and love each other so much. I love
all the girls here and all the elders. Seriously I love everyone. You
guys write me all the time and tell me everything haha yes, emails,
letters and dear elders! Kennadi...tell me the juicy stuff haha! I am
so happy for the Hansens and baby  Milo! That is so exciting! There is
a guy here who totally reminds me of Jordan so thats pretty sweet! I
love the super long emails so still send them but I kind of skim them
because we dont have much time and cannot print them. once we are out
in the field we can prin them so still send them! Pretty much every
single day gets better and better and I love it! The Sprit is amazing
and this chuch is so true! I hope Kennadis hip is okay. I am so proud
of Allie on her mission. she rocks! I love you guys!!!!! Hermana Kacey
Smith

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Creative Punctuation

I'm not going to edit any of Kacey's letters, so it may feel at times like you are reading one giant run-on sentence.  You will have to get used to typos and creative punctuation.  You will most certainly hear Kacey in her letters, though, and that's the most important thing.  

This is Kacey's second letter after a full week in the mission.  It made my day to read how happy she is!

Familia! How are you all. seriously this keyboard is so weird. Oh my
gosh I love it here! I love being a missionary. I love the gospel.
Honestly, if anyone is thinking about a missio...DO IT! I cant even
being to tell you how amazing it is. I was so excited for today, I
wish I could tell you everything. I am with the best people ever! I
love everyone. My comp is amazing. I love her. I love my district,
seriously its the best ever. We are like a family and so strong. Kaden
Smith that guy from instagram with the girlfriend is in my district. I
met two people from Vegas. I dont live at the CCM I live at a house
with like 50 girls but the Natives leave next week and so do some
girls so the Nortes (north americans) will move into the CCM. The CCM
president and wife are kind of weird haha olay no, they are super
weird. I have tried a lot of new food. Its totally true that you have
to eat all your food haha I am so proud of me. Its so fun to try and
talk to the Latins in spanish. I am sure I sound retarded. My spanish
is okay, Ive got the basics and some stuff down haha and I always pray
in spanish so thats good. Our investigator is totally real. Alvero
Gomez. He is the cutest. Our second lesson was going so well and we
totally gave it in spanish. I asked him to be baptized!!!  I have
never done that to anyone! It was one of the coolest and most
spiritual things ever and he totally said yes!!! Hey! Dear elder and
write me...seriously!!! Sunday was kind of hard but my district is so
great we all just lift each other up and are totally like a family.
Iove all the girls I live with, they all have so many stories and are
just so awesome. I went to the temple this morning, it was super cool.
They totally have this little store outside the gates of the CCM and
you have to buy things through the gate haha its so funny. Oh my gosh
we are seriously in a classroom all day and that combined with being a
missionary things are so funny! Things that wouldnt be funny in real
life. Like some of the things we say are so funny. I absolutely love
this gospel and everything about it! I wish you could all feel what we
feel here. I love all the little brown people!!! I love you all!!!
Write me!!!! Love, Hermana Smith

Thursday, March 7, 2013

She Made It!


Kacey's first letter to let us know she made it to Guatemala.  She will be at the Guatemala MTC (CCM) for six weeks before heading to Nicaragua.

Heyyy!
 
I only get 5 minutes today to say that I made it and am okay! Yesterday had to have been the longest day of my life. The CCM is great! Its smaller than I thought it would be but it is awesome. We cant take pictures yet so I will send some when i can. this is a spanish keyboard so sorry for if its wierd. My companion is awesome Hermana lopez-carasca from Boston and went to Byu. My district is the best. the Elders are so awesome and the sisters are amazing. I love everyone. I am not staying in the CCM, the american sisters are in a house around the corner, its awesome. The natives and american elders get to stay in the CCMn but id rather be in the house. Its a giant sleepover every night.
 
I love you and I will write on Pday. I didnt even get a chance to read you emails yet.
 
Hermana Smith

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

There She Goes

Tuesday, March 5

After a little last-minute reorganization at the airport, Kacey managed to accomplish the near-impossible--getting her luggage within the weight restriction of 50 lbs.
A few tears were shed, but a high-five for Mom and Dad was still in order.
Kennadi's good-bye was perhaps the most enthusiastic...
I returned home from the airport with a cry-headache that quickly vanished when I opened a present from my sweet friend, Sylvia.  I will proudly wear my Missionary Mom shirt for the next eighteen months.