Yagul, Monte Alban‏

This has probably been the strangest week of my mission so far. The mission is crazy because in one moment everything can change. It's awesome. So yeah. I'm here in Oaxaca City again in Yagul, Monte Alban. I took the place of an Elder that had back problems and something wrong with his eye. He was sent home to get that taken care of and now I'm here. We haven't really been able to work in our area very much because we don't have a house and we have been living with the District leader in his house. 2 small beds, and 4 elders. Yeah, that´s been fun. 

My new companion is Elder Ospina from Colombia. He´s a giant. It´s the first time since Elder Erikson that I've been the shorter one in the companionship. It's okay, I needed to be sent back to reality. Hahaha no but Elder Ospina is a super good guy and hilarious. He has 18 months on the mission but I'm the senior companion. We don't have a house because about a week ago someone broke in and robbed the house in the middle of the night. Elder Ospina and his old companion were dead asleep and didn't realize what happened until they woke up in the morning. For that reason they have been searching for a new house in the area, but they couldn't find one. We just found a house a little bit outside of our area and President Madsen approved it. We're going to be moving in tonight. I'm excited because the house is really big and it has two bathrooms! 

I have to admit it's been pretty fun these last few days living with 4 Elders in one house. Even better because one of the Elders I've been living with is from Utah and it was nice to talk in English with him and talk about stuff only us Gringos can understand. His name is Elder Ringle and he has about 3 months on the mission. 

I really like my new area. It´s super cool because it's on a mountain. We have to climb a mountain to get to a lot of the members and investigators houses. It's super tiring but the view from my area looking over all of Oaxaca is awesome. I love the weather right now in the city. It's pretty perfect. It cools down really nice at night and in the mornings. I was pretty sick of the heat in the coast. The members also feed the missionaries super well in the city. I´m going to gain weight here. Everyone is telling me that I look a lot skinnier, including my face. I guess that's what happens when you've been in the Coast for 5 months. 

I am enjoying every second of my time here. I love the mission. The experiences I've had and the people that I'Yave met have changed my life forever. Thank you all for helping me get to this point in my life.

With much love from Oaxaca, Mexico,

Elder Smith