Mitla ruins

Hey!!! This has been a crazy week. I never know when to start when I start writing. I guess I`ll start with today. 

Today for P-Day we went to the ancient ruins in Mitla! I posted a lot of pictures. Everyone says the ruins in Monte Alban are better but it was still pretty cool to be inside of structures that the Lamanites could have lived in. Oaxaca is such an awesome mission, I don`t mean to brag but there are so many places to see and people to meet. Its weird to think just a month ago I didn't know any of this existed. It`s another world. Every area in Oaxaca is something new and interesting, from the City, to the mountains, to the Istmo (super native mexico land with weird dialects) to the coast. I think the City is a great place to start. The church is strong here with really great leaders and members. 

Every night a van drives by down the road with a speaker exclaiming "Pan!" Pan de Oaxaca!" Pan means bread in English but this isn't just bread. Its pretty much donuts and different pastries. Its so good and you can get 10 donuts for like 2 US dollars worth of pesos. Its pretty sweet. Also, people sell corn on the cob on this mobile bike stoves. Its hard to explain haha. But the Corn on the Cob has mayo, cheese, and chili pepper on it. Its surprisingly super good. When I get home, I'm teaching everyone to eat corn on the cob with mayo instead of butter :) In the movie nacho libre they have a couple scenes when they eat it.

Also, the other night we came home from a long hard day and we heard some yelling. We got on our roof to see what was up and it was our neighbor performing an exorcism. She was yelling and saying to cast the devils out of her brother. It was super freaky so we went back inside. Funny that there were two Elders right near her that actually had the authority to do just the thing. 

Well we have had some pretty good success in our area. We have had a lot of lessons. We don`t contact in the street very much or knock doors. All the time we are either looking for a member to visit with or we are visiting investigators or less active and teaching them lessons. Our best investigator is Clara. She is a 15 year old girl and she went to EFY last week. When we got here to the area she was already a progressing investigator so we are here just to finish teaching her and baptize her. After EFY, she became even more sure that she wanted to be baptized. In our last lesson with her we taught her more about the importance of baptism and I asked her if she could prepare herself to be baptized on May 2nd. She said YES! She started crying and it was such a wonderful experience. 

Even though I feel down sometimes about my Spanish, or about how hard it is to work everyday, its moments like that, that make it all worth it. Seeing the joy that the gospel brings to people is such a sweet thing to witness and I am so glad that my life is centered around that right now for the next two years. 

I love you all and I think about you more often than I should :)

Con Amor,

Elder Smith