Sami singing the song she wrote

Monday, February 7, 2011

Letter from Jan 3, 2011

Yeah, about the aftershock we didn't even feel it here.(there was a large aftershock or new earthquake in Chile - but no damage anywhere and no Tsunami) I had no idea until later (our cell phone accidentally got sent to Conce so the zone leaders called the other Hermanas to make sure we were all OK). No one said anything here in Conti really. No biggie. There are almost no aftershocks now, here at least so don´t worry about it. Though you will be here for the year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami (Feb 27).

Anything cute like that would be good (I had sent Sami a list of some possible things to bring to Chile as gifts). Maybe what would be helpful for you is if I wrote the names of all my converts and a description about them so you could see if the stuff that is available would be good for them or not. I´ll work on getting you that next week.

SOunds like you are having fun with the WII. That´s so awesome that everyone pitched in to get you such a cool present. Just wait till you see how cool my present for you is.

The city with the volcano is called Pucón but it is kind of a resort place so we would probably need a reservation or something. Hna and Elder Fischbeck went there a couple of weeks ago so they might have some good tips on heading down there and where to stay and stuff. I would love to see some music stuff (probably just classical if it´s possible because I´ll still be a missionary) and some museums in Santiago and Concepción. I don´t really know what there is because they were always closed on Mondays. I also thought it would be nice to see some cool beaches (I secretly wish that Oscar could help me out with figuring out a cool accessible beach we could go to but I don´t really have any way to figure that out with him because I won´t see him till you are here. But maybe check it out on the internet. Also I have heard that there is a German town or neighborhood near Linares that might be cool to check out.

I know you are really excited to come pick me up and I am super excited too but you can´t talk to me about it so much or so often because you are making me trunky and I want to stay really focused this last part of my mission. Maybe do some research on stuff that you want to do and run it by me, but in a few weeks please.

Thanks for being awesome. Luis, Valeria, Patricia, and Luis Ignacio all got baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday. Cute!

love you all!

Hermana Smith

Christmas Call

I have been really bad at keeping up Sami's blog lately, but I will try and remedy that. We had a great call with Sami on Christmas day - we were allowed to use Video Skype for the first time and we also got to try out the new video conference option on Skype. There were 13 family members at our house, 4 in CA and Sami in Chile and we could all see and hear each other. We got to actually see Sami for the first time in over a year. Her nieces and nephews had fun telling and showing her what they got for Christmas. We got to 'meet' some of the girls that live with Sami & see parts of her apartment. She loved the snow people we sent her (snowmen/women with pictures of family & friends as snowman face & message on the back). She had put them all on her wall. She was enjoying the summer weather in Constitucion, which is cooler than San Carlos where she was her first summer in Chile. She is happy that she will probably be staying in Constitucion for the rest of her mission. She is still enjoying her mission and hopes to still accomplish much during her remaining 2 months in Chile. She and I talked a little about my trip to Chile in Feb to pick her up - but not too much because she wants to concentrate on missionary work and being the best missionary she can be.