If you speak Spanish, you will notice right away that his grammar and usage aren't all quite right (a fact that would drive him crazy, as anyone who has heard him lecture for hours on end regarding the finer points of Latin grammar would know), but for someone with only one week of official language lessons under his belt, I think he's doing well. And if nothing else, his enthusiasm will make up the difference. I'm going to post the letter as is, so you can get a feel for how excited he is, but I'll also follow it up with an all-English version. In the future, I will just translate everything to English to make it easier on the Spanish-challenged folks out there.
The Original
Yo soy feliz to hear things are going well back home. I bet things are pretty intense right now with school starting up. Las lecciones sobre la idioma son tied up together with las lecciones sobre el Evangelio. Aprendo la idioma faster than I expected, but it still doesn´t feel fast enough. (We´ve only done present tense so far, which is why all mis verbos en español son present tense.) The most challenging cosa esta semana es la lenguaje o dealing with the fact that about half los elderes en mi distrito son muy extrovertados. The best thing this week was vando al templo, which I just got back from. It was kind of intimidating en español, pero son maravillosa.
Mi día de
preparación es martes y el only día I can even check my email, so that´s
why I haven´t responded to anything sooner.
Teaching nuestro primer investigador has been both muy
dificil y muy awesome. The hardest part right now is that to be able to
say algo qué makes sense con nuestra current knowledge de la idioma,
necisitamos escribir what we´re going to say beforehand out of Predicad
Mi Evangelio o take dies minutas to say what debe to take tres minutas.
Son muy dificil. Yo quiero aprender la lenguaje so badly.
Also, soy el only misionero in mi distrito que no es
aquí porque the age change, and most of the other elderes have been
dealing with some major home sickness. I´m sure they´ll get through it,
but I´m really not all that surprised it´s happening since they´re all
straight out of high school.
Final cosa. I didn´t think to check the batteries en mi
camera before we left (P-day es also the only día we get to use those),
and it turned out they were dead, so I didn´t get any pictures.
However, mi compañero said I could send some of his pictures home, and
that will probably happen next week porque we came straight over to
write home depués we got back from el templo, y the SD card-USB adaptor
es en nuestra casa. Let everyone know things are going well for me en
México.
¡Adios!
Elder Smith
The Translation
I'm happy to hear things are going well back home. I bet things are pretty intense right now with school starting up. The language lessons are tied up together with the gospel lessons. I am learning the language faster than I expected, but it still doesn´t feel fast enough. (We´ve only done present tense so far, which is why all my Spanish verbs are present tense.) The most challenging thing this week is the language or dealing with the fact that about half of the elders in my district are very extroverted. The best thing this week was going to the temple, which I just got back from. It was kind of intimidating in Spanish, but it was wonderful.
My preparation day (P-day) is Tuesday and is the only day I can even check my email, so that´s
why I haven´t responded to anything sooner.
Teaching our first investigator has been both very difficult and very awesome. The hardest part right now is that to be able to
say something that makes sense with our current knowledge of the language, we need to write what we´re going to say beforehand out of Preach my gospel or take ten minutes to say what should take three minutes. It's very hard. I want to learn the language so badly.
Also, I am the only missionary in my district who isn't here because of the age change, and most of the other elders have been
dealing with some major home sickness. I´m sure they´ll get through it,
but I´m really not all that surprised it´s happening since they´re all
straight out of high school. [Recently, the church changed the mission age from 19 to 18. Elder Smith had already started at Hendrix when the change was announced, so he continued with his plans to finish his first year of college.]
Final thing. I didn´t think to check the batteries in my camera before we left (P-day es also the only día we get to use those),
and it turned out they were dead, so I didn´t get any pictures.
However, my companion said I could send some of his pictures home, and
that will probably happen next week because we came straight over to
write home after we got back from the temple, and the SD card-USB adapter is in our house. [He says "house" here, but I wonder if he means "room."] Let everyone know things are going well for me in
México.
¡Adios!
Elder Smith
