Hermana Katelyn Nicole Smith : Katelyn's 3rd Week in the MTC

Hurray, we got Kate's letter, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!!

Hola FAMILIA:) :) :) :)

HOW ARE YOU THIS WEEK?!?!? It was absolutely INCREDIBLE hearing from you guys this week and receiving so much love and support from you! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! This week has been absolutely incredible. The MTC is the most spiritual place that I have ever been. There is just a constant spirit that never seems to stop, and I LOVE IT :) It's crazy to think that it has already been 3 weeks. Like you said dad, it's just zooming by. Literally time is of no essence here. Time is LOCO here! The days feel like months and the weeks feel like days. ha... if that makes any sense at all. But in just a few short (19!!!!!!!) days I’ll be going to Chile! That's crazy to think about! I feel like I’m never going to be ready to go!! Ha It's going to come so FAST! I have learned so much here. My Heavenly Father has become my best friend :) My testimony continues to grow each day. Like you said dad, growing takes discomfort. I definitely have felt that. Rapunzel off of Tangled, yeah, I feel like that's me daily. Ha! “YAYYYYYY Let's do this,” to, “Oh my gosh I can't do this,” to “NOPE we're doing this.” Ha one second laughing so hard my stomach hurts, and the next crying because seeing our investigators in so much pain and not being able to communicate with them is so frustrating. It's a constant roller coaster. But... I have a secret for you. I have begun to enjoy the ride! :)

Mom, yes I have heard from Taylor. He is the sweetest. He always has the best insight and is so encouraging! I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I know the Lord needs me here. I know I need to find those people down in Chile! :) Ever since that day I’ve been doing wonderful :) And I know that is because of your prayers!!! This week I’ve truly felt them. I have been able to be happy, to work hard. So thanks to YOU! :) Thank you for fasting for me. Mom I have felt angels bearing me up. This is a refiners fire, it hurts, but I’m indeed being refined. I know the Lord has a bigger and better plan for me. He knows what I can become. He knows all of our potential. We just need to trust in him and we can be lifted up. :) I have a testimony of that and have felt that when we do all we can the Lord will make it more. :)

Mom I have heard so much about this BLOG! :) Congrats on all the followers. Thanks for taking the time to spell check and crop the emails. I know that is probably a vigorous task. I hope once I get into the field I can have a quick “look-see” at it because I hear from everyone that it's ADORABLE. :) Thank you so much for doing that mom. You are so incredibly talented. I'm glad to hear that the Relief Society activity went well to with Nickelle and Tami and Lauren. :) OF COURSE you are on the Relief Society activities committee. I bet it looked spectacular. :)

I hope skiing last Saturday was SO FUN! Looking out at those beautiful mountains, I can imagine the skiing was so fun! I'm sure everybody is getting so GREAT :) Can't wait to come home and all ski together again. Poor Tanner. Being sick is NO BUENO especially when you sound like Bentley. It's "RUFF". Get feeling better, okay big guy?! Will you do that for me?! I love you.

So I’m sorry my letters are always so scattered. There is just so much to write and so little time! Ha. So to answer a few of your questions, only me and Hermana Pendleton are going to Viña in our district. And everyone else is going to Santiago East, which is kind of sad. But there are about 4-5 districts here, not in our zone all going to VIÑA DEL MAR. There are so many and all of us are leaving the same day. So look out Chile, here we come! :) As far as teachers, our teachers are fabulous. From day one they have spoken just in Spanish. Sometimes very rarely though they do a little Spanglish... but then again that's a rare occasion. Hermana Thomas teaches us three hours a day and Brother Miller teaches us 3 hours. Our first investigator, Erasmo, was Brother Miller. So after 5 lessons with "Erasmo" we walk into class and BAM now our investigator is our teacher. We were like NOOOOO not Erasmo. Hahaha. How embarrassing. We taught him that the Book of Mormon is bueno, Jesus is Hermana Pendletons love, and the Book of Mormon is the Pearl of Great Price (instead of reading Otro estamento de Jesuscristo. oooops.) Ha. But honestly he is my favorite. He so, so patient. Both teachers are! Our 2 new investigators are Jorge and Joana. Jorge accepts most everything. He is praying. He believes in God and tonight we are teaching him about the Plan of Salvation. Jonana, she is the hard one. She doesn't believe GOD loves her and is there for her. Which breaks my heart! We are really working hard on her. Our lesson with her on Saturday was horrible. Totally spaghetti tongue, and couldn't even remember how to say HOLA. Yeah, bad. Coming out of that lesson was very discouraging. But we taught her again last night, butchered the Spanish. Ha... It's so difficult. But the spirit helped us get our main idea across. We taught her about the importance of prayer and she FINALLY prayed with us at the end of the lesson. I just pray she continues to keep praying. We promised as she continued to pray in faith that she would feel God's love for her in her life. I love teaching but right now it is still very difficult. Spanish is coming and I have learned so much. Some days I can see the progress and other days I can't even remember how to say thank you. On Monday we had the opportunity to do a couple role-plays about teaching someone about the Book of Mormon. We taught another teacher acting as "Gabriel". Hermana Pendleton and I were lead by the spirit and were comfortably able to get out the few things we know. She turned the time over to me since I had memorized the first vision and I was able to tell the first vision. What an incredible experience. "...Vi una columna de luz...." :) :) Even though we didn't answer all of Gabriel’s questions. We gave a brief summary of the first vision and bore our testimonies. What a great experience. :)After, he was able to give us some feedback which was nice because we never really get that. He said he wished his missionaries worked in unison like we did, and then he asked how long we had been out. “2 1/2 weeks,” then he said, “WOW, by your Spanish I would have guessed you have been out 6 weeks.” I bet he was just trying to make our day. But still it was nice to hear that we are doing well. Because we are trying really hard! Hermana Pendleton and I are getting along just great. I love her to death. We have so much fun! She is such a chill, just fun loving person! Sometimes though... I’m like, come on... we gotta focus... ha. But she is amazing and has taught me a lot. Dad, I’m smiling and laughing a lot. Maybe a little too hard the other day...if you catch my drift. But so did my companion ;) Love this Worthington bladder of mine. ;) Feel free to crop this out of the email ;)

I would like to share with you another amazing experience I had. So since this last Sunday we had Fast Sunday, we had mission conference, which is just a 2-hour meeting with everyone together instead of relief society and priesthood,

The whole MTC presidency spoke and It kind of centered around bearing your testimony. So in sacrament I decided that I was going to do my best bearing my testimony in Spanish! Ha, talk about the scariest thing! My legs were shaking like I had just climbed Mount Everest or something. But the Lord definitely gave me strength. Even though it was just simple, the Lord was able to help me recall all the Spanish I have learned so far. :) After sitting down and listening to all the testimonies that were being born,I thought to myself... I KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING! I can get the gist of what everyone is saying. That in and of itself is a miracle. I remember going with Grandma and Grandpa Worthington to their Spanish branch like 2-3 years ago and not knowing a thing. So that experience and realization was a tender mercy.:) What a miracle! :) I love this gospel. And even though the whole meeting was in Spanish, I could follow, and more importantly, I could feel the spirit. I don't speak Spanish but the spirit does. :) With only a couple weeks left there is definitely a sense of urgency in the air. It's stressful!!! I need to learn Spanish!!!! Ha. But all I can do is try my hardest. Trato trato trato todo dia, cada dia. :) I know in the strength of the Lord I can do all things!

Mom clothes are working out just fabulous. Seriously my skirts are all beyond long enough. Don't know why I was worried about that. Everyone is always borrowing all my stuff, so in some of the pictures you might see my stuff on other people :) Thank you so much for everything and all your efforts in making me a cute missionary. They aren’t very strict here with jewelry or anything... so sometimes I miss my big chucky necklaces. (HAHAHA jk ;) I know that once I’m in Chile all that won't really matter. I still am going to try to look cute though no worries. I'm not "letting go". Hahaha. Food is good. Like honestly, not bad at all. It's starting to get really repetitive. But I eat lots of bananas, PB&J's, cereal or salad... especially with ALL these new missionaries coming in. The lines are HUGE, 800 yesterday and 1000 new missionaries next week. I have no idea how they are fitting all of us in here. I don't understand where they are hiding all of them!

The talks and devotionals here are phenomenal. After listening to them I truly do believe that anything is possible with the Lord! On Sunday, Benson L. Porter and his wife spoke. Then after we watched a talk by Elder Bednar about the Holy Ghost. Seriously BEDNAR is such a profound speaker. This weeks and the first weeks, "Character of Christ" have changed my life. :) :) In my personal study time I have been learning a lot. I'm learning a lot about the Stripling Warriors and their character. In Alma 56:10 Helamen says "and they were worthy to be called sons.." This really got me thinking. What made them worthy to be called sons? Am I worthy to be called a representative of Jesus Christ. It's been a long drawn out study, but I’m getting sucked into the Book of Mormon. I LOVE IT! I am continuing to learn what made them as warriors, and what makes me as a missionary worthy. The biggest is just the FAITH they had. :) :) Tuesday night’s devotional was Don R. Clarke and just spoke on our jobs as missionaries to find, teach, convert, and retain. :) In the beginning of his talk he asked all the 18-year-old Elders to stand, then all the 19 and 20 year old Sisters to stand. They honestly do this at every meeting! But each time I feel so privileged to stand as one of the first 19-year-old sisters to go on a mission! :) :) What an incredible experience :) :) :) At one point Elder Clarke spoke of a boy that was one of his missionaries while he was a mission president, that woke up for early morning seminary by his mom splashing water on his face. This boy told his President this and then he asked... Would you be here if it weren't for your mother? I teared up. No you didn’t need to pour water on my face, but mom and dad... I would not be here if it was not for you. Your testimonies are solid and I know without a doubt in my mind you know this Church is true. I am beyond blessed to have you as my parents. Thank you for your constant examples. You are PHENOMENAL and you mean the world to me. One day I hope to become somewhat close to the amazing people you are. Mom and dad, one more time. I would not be here if it wasn't for you. I love you to death:) Thank you for ALL you do. FOR ALL your sacrifices! :) There is a Mormon message video called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father, I swear we watch it every day!!! It's our entertainment here... Mormon messages... I have it memorized word for word. No joke. But please watch it. It's amazing. As I watched it I thought about you, mom and dad, how day-to-day you go on supporting us as kids, doing what you need to do, constantly providing. Our Heavenly Father does the same for us. How blessed I am to know I am a daughter of a King, but also a daughter of Curtis and Laura Smith. How blessed I am to have loving heavenly and earthly parents. :) I love you guys so much! Please let me know if you need anything or if I can do anything! TE AMO MUCHO :) :) Yo se que las familias son enternas. :) xoxoxoxoxo ALL of you have an AMAZING WEEK! :) :) Can't wait to hear from you! You are in my prayers.

Love, your missionary Hermana Katelyn Smith :)

p.s. Brother and Sister Taylor's from our ward... their nephew is here. Elder Taylor, and was like hey my aunt told me about you. SO CRAZYYYY!

p.s.s. GUESS WHO I SAW AT THE TEMPLE THIS MORNING?!?!?!? AUNT Elaine. :) She was in our endowment session at the temple! :) So crazy seeing her... but even more crazy, she was like, oh yeah my granddaughter is here too... she is Hermana Anderson, she's a little redhead. Didn't click. Walk into the session and Hermana Anderson is in my district.... is HER GRANDDAUGHTER!!!!!!! WHO KNEW, WE WERE SECOND COUSINS THIS WHOLE TIME!!!!! Her parents are Greg and Kristin, I think she said?!?! Her dad used to do your teeth before you meet dad I guess?!?!?! HA, HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!?!?!? So yep, my second cousin the redhead in all the pictures.... Hermana Kendle Anderson and she is going to Argentina. WOW. SO INSANE!!!!!!

The Elders...