Sami's letter from Mar 15

Still not much earthquake detail from the Sam - and she has not been able to upload any pictures - hopefully her roommate Hermana Knapp will send some to her mom that I can put on this blog.
Hola,
This will be short because I have already spent a great deal of my life here in the internet café today. First of all, thanks Mom for forwarding all those messages, it was really interesting to read them all and see how different it was in other parts of the mission. It just made me realize even more how blessed we are here in San Carlos and how the Lord puts us where He knows we need to be. Every single missionary here in Chile is in the place that they need to be, especially with all that happened with the earthquake. (I still picture Hermana Rodriguez yelling ¨terremoto!¨ and jumping out of her bed and into mine every time I write earthquake) And Mom, I think you are right about not being fazed by earthquakes now. It´s hard to tell now when it is actually shaking now because it happens so much.But it will continue for a while longer and I think the fear that a lot of people are experiencing will last even longer than that.

I am learning a lot about myself, my ability to work with other people, my diligence, etc. The harder the lesson the better it is learned. I´m not really sure if that is a saying but... now it is. Sometimes I have trouble communicating with people (a problem I even have in English and one I had before my mission) but I am learning.  I am also learning how people can be united or divided by the same event. Some are closer, some are farther. But we all passed through the same thing more or less, at least here in San Carlos.

We still haven´t heard anything about interviews or cambios this next Monday. I hope that I can still see Hermana Grahn before she leaves for Canada.  I don´t know what is wrong with my camera but my card might have a virus or something because I can see all of the pictures when the card is in the camera but in the computer they don´t show up. So I can´t send you pictures of what it looks like right now. Sorry. But I have learned how grateful I am for the experience I gained before my mission. I don´t remember if I told you guys this or already but I had an awesome opportunity to use my skill and experience from work on Task Force and helping Dad with stuff to help one of the members stabilize their roof (half of it fell down and the other half was going down). But with what I've learned working with my hands and my brain, the two of us were able to figure out a way to stabalize the roof with what we had from the part that fell down and their yard. And I´m not going to lie. I feel pretty good about that roof. I would not have a problem living under it. I trust that roof. It´s situations like this earthquake that help us stretch, leran new things, recognize our abilities, and apply what we learn. If therehadn´t been an earthquake would I have know that I have sufficient knowledge and experience to help rebuild a house? No. Was it the best job ever done? Probably not, but we were able to do it with what we had and it will stand for a long time.

Anyway, sorry for the spastic letter. I will try to figure out the thing with the pictures if I can. Love and peace out.
Love,
Hermana Smith