Week 1

sup familia y amigas?!?!?!

 

Well this week went by so fast, I cant believe I have been here a whole week! I love it here though, theres no place I would rather be!

 

So the food is good, I like it. Some days it is better than others, but my favs have been the tamales mmmmmmmmmm and the huevos for breakfast, and this taco thing we had the other day. MMMMM some of the meats are weird but I still eat them. I havent gotten sick yet! They give us those little breads with every meal and also there is a whole array of pastries so thats gonna make me get fat. Everything here either is full of sabor, or tastes so bland. Like this little fish thing I had tasted like nothing haha. They give us meat and there are rice and beans and tortillas so for lunch I usually just make little fajitas! They have  coconut and cereal too. And the best cantalope.

 

My casa is so cute! It{s like turquise and white. We share a room with Hermana Shaefer and Hermana Clark. They leave next week. they are the BEST!!! They give us great advice and are so fun to hang out with. There are other hermanas in other rooms and some latinas. haha funny story the latinas flooded the laundry room last night. We just heard a ton of water sloshing in the hall and went out there cleaning it haha good thing all the floors here are tile! I love the latinas though! Well all the latins. They help us so much with spanish and we practice with them all the time its great.

 

We have some amigas, Hermana Poot y Hermana Flores. Poot is from Merida which is by Cancún and Flores is from Oaxaca. They are so awesome. One day we sat by them at lunch and ever since we talk all the time! One time they came looking for us because they wanted us to practice our spanish! They wanted to be the investigadores and wanted us to practice teaching. how cute is that????? Today we get to go to the temple with them! Wooo! I got their emails so we are going to write each other on our missions. They are going to Puebla for their mission.

 

So every week we have to prepare a 5 minute talk for Sunday about a certain topic (this week it was El Libro de Mormón) and then in sacrament meeting the presidente of the branch announces who will be speaking. So I got into sacrament and just had the strongest feeling that I would be speaking. Oh I forgot to mention it has to be in Spanish. So I was expecting to hear my name, and then I heard it. So I gave my talk and it went good, but after I was talking with my district and there is a Hermana in my district named Hermana Johnson and apparently they called her name, not mine....I was so embarassed!!! But the president was trying to speak english (a lot of the teachers here practice their english on us more than they try to teach us español) and Jones and Johnson kinda sound the same. Oh well I hope I don{t have to speak again haha. But a lot of my districto said they heard jones too. I talked to him en el comedor after and he said it was supposed to be hermana johnson but está bien haha

 

It rains a lot here! Almost every afternoon. Seriously though this is like the perfect climate for me. The sun comes out a lot so it is warm but not hot, and it cools down every morning and evening and the humidity is perfect! And It rains!! I love it. My skin loves it too because it has been amazing. I think the water in our shower is hard water becaseu my hair is pretty weird sometimes. oh well. We can either shower in boiling hot water or freezing cold water, there is no in between. Pero está bien!

 

It is super hard here. Every day it is so hard to study as long as we do allllllll dayyyyyyyyy long. And our teachers are mexicano and dont speak any english so thats tough sometimes. But as many hard times that there are there are good ones! Like Sunday was the best day ever. We got to listen to a devotion from Jeffery R. Holland only for missionaries and it was a great talk. Then we watched the Testaments. We were so busy all day but somehow it was also relaxing. Relief society was great! Hermana Pratt taught, she is the presidentes esposa. The pratts have lived all over south and central america and their life inspires me cuz I want to do that! They lived in quito, bogóta, buenos aires, santiago, asunción...y más. So sorry mom, I will probably live down there someday!!!! Because I love the culture too much! I like México D.F. The CCM is in like a little valley and there are mountains on 3 sides and they are just COVERED in little tiny colorful houses. It seriously is so cute. And the city never sleeps haha the CCM is like smack dab in the middle of the city and there are parties like everynight and honking and sirens and mariachi bands y más. But I love it. There are earthquake alarms here a lot. There are these little circles that we have to run into when the earthquake alarm goes off haha I will sen you a picture of me in one. We only had to do it once during breakfast.

 

We started teaching in spanish the 3rd day.............but we have been doing well. We are teaching an "investigador" who is really a teacher and they pretend to be someone they know and we teach them and then they help us get better. But I know ours cuz I met her at the airport. Teaching is hard especially when you don{t know how to say everything. But its slowly coming along. I know how to pray and bear mi testimonio en español, we learned that the 2nd day. And we try to speak spanish as much as we can. I  am glad that I am here because EVERYBODY either speaks it or is trying to learn so we can use it all the time, where in provo you talk in english a lot to other missionaries in other districtos.

 

Yesterday was probably the hardest day because my compañera had a breakdown and I had to tell her it was ok and we didn{t know what to teach our investiagator and it was just rough. But our lesson yesterday wend SO well cuz Mary committed to baptism!!!!!!! Woo so that lifted our spirits.

 

I am in the intermeddiate class, but I{m probably the worst at espanlñol I feel like. Everyone else has taken so much and one elder went to a spanish immersion school so hes like pro already....ugh but I pray for el don de lenguas cada oración. I love my districo. Elder Lillywhite, elder sievers, elder smith (going to minneapolis too) Elder rhead y elder Bryan. Hermana Johnson, Barnes, Gardner y mi y mi compañera. There are two trios, one of elders and one of hermanas. So 10 total. We have a lot of fun. Our maestros are mexicano but they are so helpful, even though sometimes I cannot understand a word they say. Sometimes when I am here I wish I was English speaking because it is soooo hard but then I remember that I love spanish and I have to tell myself that a lot.

 

Hermana Honez

 

ps sorry I still havent figured this spanish keyboard out yet....I will learn eventually.