Week #3

Hey I am so happy that you get to work in the temple! And I am super happy that your couples retreat was fun even though I couldn't be there. ;)

 

Ok, so here is my week (prolly not in order, but whatever!)

 

The Lord knows me SOOOOOO well! Being here in Mexico has made me so so so so SO grateful that I am going to be serving in the US! I have never really been a picky eater....but the food in the cafeteria is VERY difficult to pretend to like sometimes! I even decided to be healthy ad adventurous once and it came back to bite me. I decided to get some white fish...my piece was very NOT cooked! ewwwww! And I have a list of foods I am going to eat as soon as I get in the US. Here it is: Turkey sandwich, chicken Cesar salad, and pasta without any fruit in it! And then for desert I am going to had brownies and ice cream! Boo yeah!

 

Last P-day we had to move casas because one of the bathrooms in our old one was broken and the materials they were going to use to fix it were hazardous so everyone had to move out. Anyways sad story is that we got split up from our old roommates and got new one... I am not nearly as found of them as our old roommates because One of them sets their alarm for 6am instead of 6:30 just so she can hit snooze until 6:30.... the other one has an alarm clock that lights up and makes ''ocean sounds'' and it takes her a good 3 minutes before she will turn over to turn it off! But they are kind of funny so it is okay.

 

For gym we play volley ball and I am seriously getting WAY better plus it is super fun!

 

So apparently the Mexicans have two independence celebrations??? because last Saturday there was a Mexican night and we got to sing the national anthem, watch the presentation of the flag, a short history movie, and a lot of native dances!!! and on Sunday we were able to participate in the gritto...(i am not sure if that is really how you spell that...) anyways we got to shout VIVA! so it was kind of fun but it started at 11pm so everyone was super tired!

 

This last Sunday Hermana Howton and I taught our district meeting about Chapters 10 and 11 in Preach my gospel! It went so well and I realized that I am really not used to asking a question and receiving 5 answers that are actually related to said question! lol it went so well President Christen actually said, ''I know we don't applaud in the church but I just have to!'' needless to say that made me feel pretty great!

 

Hey dad I am not sure if you have been to the Church's Hastening the Work website...but it is totally awesome and inspirational for missionary work in wards... just thinking you might want to use it in an Elder's quorum meeting or something...

 

So, I have seen Elder Clarkson a couple of times. He was rather surprised, as was I about how you have to work really hard to feel the spirit all the time. The MTC is nothing like EFY where the spiritual high is given to you... I think that has something to do with the missionary culture at this MTC since it is so new/young and because we have to prove to the Lord that it is important to us to have His spirit with us.

 

Okay so I just have to say that I have to most awesome teachers and district EVER"!!! So our district had been having a really hard time focusing during study time and actually being on time to class. and so our morning teacher Hermano Smith had a ''talk'' with us. He said that we needed to figure it out and that people of integrity find a way not excuses. and ever since then our district had been on time and actually quiet during study time! Then Hermana Christensen, last night, talked about how she has never had such a special district in her years of teaching at the MTC and that we are all leaders and we need to help not just our companions, not just our district, but we need to set the examples for this MTC and help create a better missionary culture!

 

Also, the other day in class Hermano Smith paid me a huge compliment. He said that I was a superstar in our district because I had had the least amount of Spanish training beforehand but my pronunciation is amazing and that while I am teaching even though my grammar isn't perfect it is easy to understand because I can say it so clearly... anyways that just made me feel really good. and really reading the book of mormon in Spanish has helped my pronunciation and everything SO much!

 

We taught one of our investigators this week and before going into the lesson Hermana Howton asked if we should extend the invitation to be baptized. I told her to do whatever she felt prompted to do. Anyways our whole lesson was on the importance of the Atonement in our lives. She felt like we needed to go into the steps of repentance but we are supposed to keep our lessons between 15 and 20 minutes and we were already pushing it so we ended.  Anyways. our investigators are our teachers and this time we were teaching Hermana Christensen. she called a time out, and asked us how we felt about the lesson. It felt pretty good but i was kind of frustrated because she had asked a question and I understood the question but didn't have the spanish to be able to answer it. She said that is was the BEST lesson she had ever had at the MTC and that we had her in our lesson where we could have asked her to go to the moon and she would have, she said that when you feel the spirit and it is guiding you you HAVE to follow it. Anyways, it felt really good and yet we were both so frustrated because we totally would have done it if we had more time! gahhh!

 

Okay Answers:

TRC - is where we get the opportunity to share a message and talk to local members! It is super fun!

CCM - is the Spanish way to say MTC it is something like...centro de capacitacion missional de mexico

Choir - this week we are singing I'll go where you want me to go

E-mails - yup I can print them - don't worry about sending snail mail to the MTC...I will want some in Arkansas and I am actually going to need you to send me some stuff...like my pink USB, my sanjuan t shirt (and any other T-shirt), my sweatshirt, and a laundry bag, and a flashlight... (actually i can buy everything except the first two things...)

Weather - okay I don't know why but in my mind when i say Mexico I think tropical....yeah it really is pretty chilly and I have been super tempted to break open my winter space bag.. but I only have three more weeks so I am going to tough it out! And it is SUPER RAINY! Who knew?!? and if you did, and I find out you didn't tell me??? oh boy, just be ready! lol ;)

Honestly their tienda selection is really quite sad...

 

I went to the temple again today and it was SUPER AWESOME! I understood so much more!!! And going through the veil was awesome because I could actually pronounce the words and understood what most of them meant! I am super excited to go to a Spanish session with you! I love you

I have never been happier and never realized how many blessing I have had until now! I think limiting ourselves to ONLY 100% happy is difficult now! I love you both so much! You are the best parents in the world!

 

With a heart full of love,

(yes I did just quote Les Mis)

Hermana iva-la-vida!