Hello everyone,

Well this week has gone by really fast. I can't believe I'll be leaving to the Philippines in 2 weeks! We are supposed to get our flight plan on Thursday. I'm really excited to go but at the same time I feel so unprepared. Sometimes I feel like I barely know how to greet someone let alone teach them the gospel. I guess that's where faith comes in.

I did have a cool experience on Thursday at my teaching appointment. I'm always so worried about saying the right words in my teaching that I don't really pay attention to the needs of the investigator. When we were teaching, our investigator asked me what the atonement was. I had no idea how I could answer because I didn't know any of that vocabulary in Tagalog. I just did my best to answer her and tell her my feelings for Christ and His atonement. I think I actually did pretty good. I said sentences that I've never tried to create before. I realized as long as I'm trying to teach by the spirit, the Lord will make up for what I don't know in Tagalog.

This week we had 5 new Tagalog speaking districts come in (about 60 missionaries). It's so cool seeing so many missionaries going to serve. Other than that, I'm just working hard and trying to learn as much as possible. I hope everyone is doing good. I love you all and hope the Lord is blessing you each day as much as he is blessing me.

Love, Elder Smith