Letter and recordings from Feb 1

I just realized I failed to post Sami's email & recorded information from last week. I will try to do better in the future. Her email was very very short - but she did send us several voice recordings which I finally had time to transcribe today.
Sorry for the short email. This will probably be the only one today. They are changing the email system and we all know how well I get along with computers so it is taking me a long time to figure it out... I hope you enjoy the recordings. I don´t remember what they say and if I did I would probably be embarrassed. Dad, I think it is the NE Volcano that is smoking. Mom, I love lego cakes (I made a lego star wars cake for her nephew Zack's birthday). Jennie, sing with me. Mike and Jeannie, rockin party (they had an amazing Star Wars birthday party for Zack complete with padawa robes & homemade light sabers for all 15 attendees.) Brian, where is your hair? Shana. Kristi. I think that is everyone. Happy birthday Zack!!!!

Mom, if you could send me recipes for desserts and stuff in the microwave (besides chocolate cake) that would be awesome. By the way, wacky cake is a hit. It tastes close enough to brownies to be delicious but is a lot cheaper (no eggs or margarine). Score.
LOVE AND KISSES/HUGS DEPENDING ON WHO YOUR ARE!!!!!!!!
love,
Sami/Hermana Smith
From Sami’s voice recordings:
Friday Jan 29:
My words of wisdom are – I have no words of wisdom.
I have learned to like fish-which is a testimony that God is a god of miracles & still works miracles today because you know how I felt about fish before my mission (except tuna sandwiches). I started by not wanting to offend anyone –but now I actually like the fish. (She has been really good at trying whatever she has been offered in the way of food & seems to have learned to enjoy most of it)
I have been thinking about the natural man and about working toward being more spiritual. People have a natural man that wants to do what is easiest for us, that does not want to help others or put others first, but gratify ourselves before others. Sometimes I feel that I am doing ok about being spiritual and sometimes I think I am pretty far away from where I want to be.  I still have a long way to go overcoming some of my faults. (As her mother I think she is already perfect of course)
I hope you looked at the full moon (her dad has always loved looking at full moons with his kids - he even texted them at college to tell them to go look at one). It was low in the sky & bright yellow & I could see a volcano smoking against the full moon. I wanted to call and tell you about it.
I heard there have been a couple of small earthquakes in the area, but I haven’t felt them.  I am ok with an earthquake as long as no one gets hurt.
Sun Jan 31 
One of our investigators (Pablito was the name I think) was baptized. He is awesome; very diligent and consistent. He is such an example to me. He started coming to church and hasn’t missing a Sunday. He said he needed answers to his prayers & got his answers and was baptized. I played my guitar and sang I feel my Saviors Love at his baptism.  The day had started out bad in the morning but things worked out.  Everything seems to work out how Heavenly Father wants it to work out in the end – that is a lesson I still need to learn – I just need to do my part. Sometimes it is stressful to determine how much is our part. I stress myself unnecessarily just like Jennie (her sister) does.
I have been on my mission for 6 months already.  Hard to believe there is only 1 year left. 
Saturday my companion and I went to Roman & Carmen’s  (investigators) home. It is a little out of city where it is cooler. They had guests and were making Humitas (I think) – kind of like tamales - We helped make them (so I learned how to wrap them) but we could not stay to eat (even though we wanted to) because it was getting to be too late.
Things are going well here & I hope they are going well for you. We hope that Mario will get baptized soon. Since he is under 18 we need to talk to his dad.  We have permission from his mom, but his dad is never there. Lots of people in San Carlos work outside of the area. Some work in mines in Santiago. They go  there and stay for 15 days & then are home for 15 days. Others do other work in Santiago.  One of our investigator’s father works as a bus driver,  and sometimes he is only home for a few hours.
I am learning a lot about a different culture, and I am learning to depend on Heavenly Father. A mission is a lot of work & a lot of responsibility. You can’t do it without Heavenly Father’s help & the help of the spirit. We should not teach without the spirit.
I was reading in Alma 8:10 ‘Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty  prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.’ I like the concept of ‘wresting with God in mighty prayer’.  We pray to find people who are ready to receive the gospel. I imagine Alma wrestling with God like you would wrestle with a bear. Alma used ’ mighty prayer’.  Prayer takes effort if it is to have results.  We probably get a lot more answers to our prayers than we recognize and a lot of guidance from the spirit that we don’t recognize. It is important to learn to recognize it.