Buenos Diaz mi familia! How the heck are you guys?! I apologize in advance for my spelling and such. I´m typing on a spanish keyboard and haven´t quite figured it out yet.... haha
So technically I only have an hr to type to you guys on thursday... but it´ll take longer than that to respond to everyone hence the over all email. :)
It´s been awesome here! The CCM (mtc) here is huge! We´re on 19 acres and surrounded by wildlife and Mexico City. It´s gorgeous.
So technically I only have an hr to type to you guys on thursday... but it´ll take longer than that to respond to everyone hence the over all email. :)
It´s been awesome here! The CCM (mtc) here is huge! We´re on 19 acres and surrounded by wildlife and Mexico City. It´s gorgeous.
Oh! And a pic of crossing the Mexico boarder for you guys: My window was dirty... it was the best I could do.
I saw Braxton on my first night here at dinner. And everyday since then. We pretty much have the same schedule... food and gymn time. He says hello to everyone! I passed hello on to him as well from family. We´re only allowed to take pics on our pday so i´ll get one with him later today to send you guys.
There is only 1 other person in my district going to my mission with me. Elder Howell:
There is only 1 other person in my district going to my mission with me. Elder Howell:
He´s hilarious! And crazy! He´s like my crazy little brother. His comp is hilarious as well. Elder Fakafuah. I call him ELder F. I have ever since I met him. lol We´re really tight as well. Here´s a pic:
He´s so tall! And Tongan. He´s always singing. Always. The elders have their own soundtrack. We always know when they´re coming. They´re either singing, humming, whistling, or making nature sounds. lol
Elder Povar is the coolest. He always has a smile on his face and is the coolest district leader ever! Here he is:His comp is... I still dont know his name. haha He´s Hawaiin and really quite but cool when you get him to come out of his shell. I call him little F. I don´t have a pic. :/
Elder Povar is the coolest. He always has a smile on his face and is the coolest district leader ever! Here he is:His comp is... I still dont know his name. haha He´s Hawaiin and really quite but cool when you get him to come out of his shell. I call him little F. I don´t have a pic. :/
Hermana Rust:
And Hermana Voils: Are comps and our roomates. They´re always laughing at some inside jokes. They´re the loudest in the district which is saying something... since we have 2 tongans and a somoan in our district. haha But they´re way cool.
My Comp is Hermana Johnson. She´s from ogden and the valley girl type. haha You know, cheerleader, always tries to look super cute. haha But she´s really sweet. I have a few pics of us for you:
This is a pic of our whole district. We have the biggest one here! So awesome!
We also have the largest zone ever! haha They´re all super cool. Also I finally made it to Pday! So yesterday we had our new baby district come in. We have 4 new Elderes and 4 new Hermanas. 3 of them are Tongan. So that means more singing... contantly. haha
Our first day here our alarm didn´t go off. haha It´s happened 2 times since then because the power keeps going off. It´s been raining the last 2 or 3 days. Other than that it´s usually too hot for clothes. :/ The first Spanish phrase Hermana Johnson and I learned was ´Podemos regresar a Dios siendo obedientes.´ Which means We can return to God by being obedient. All of our workshops that day were about being obedient so it totally worked out. Presidente and Hermana Pratt are super strict. Our mission Presidente and his wife. But they´re good people. The coolest though are Presidente and Hermana Ruvacava. Hopefully I spelled it right. I think they´re related to Shayla´s yw leader. Pretty cool.
Our first day here we taught an investigator in English. I taught her how to pray and she wanted to learn more. Pretty aweome! Our next day was language classe and more workshops. Our teacher is literally the coolest person here. Everyone loves him. He´s the fav. Even for those of the missinaros who haven´t had him. His name is Hermano Sanchez. (I´m the only one who knows his first name... hehe. Radrigo) He talks to us in mostly espanol. Way cool! I´m the only one he talks to in English sometimes, just for the heck of it. Maybe it´s because I suck at spanish... yo no sé. But he talks to me about his day and introduced me to his brother and sister who came into the MTC 2 days ago. They´re really cool. It was kind of awkward though because he didn´t introduce them to anyone else... including my comp. haha He´s learning french and loves peanutbutter... which is super abnormal for a Mexican. haha I´ll send you a pic when I can. He´s not here today...
My second day here was rough. I was so clumsy. I´ve had like 11 minor injuries since I´ve been here. haha That day it started off with my comp forgetting her name tag on the way to gym orientation. So as we were running back... on uneven stones with grass in between, I yelled up to her... Í don´t want to fall!¨´ She turned around... and I was on my face. hahah! It was awful. I biffed it hard. I busted my knee and my palms. But literally... I faceplanted. haha It´s been the huge joke here. :/ But other than that it was a great day!
I translated a spanish video correctly. I was the only one. Everyone else only got the investigators name and age. I only got that his cousin introduced him to the church 8 yrs ago and the missionaries taught him a lot about the Gospel. His name was Carlos. Also he would be our first investigator here at the CCM. Everything here in the CCm is in Spanish. The hymns the devotionals the classes the conversations. We´re not allowed to talk in English. That´s why it´s super hard for me to be writing this to you guys now. haha Hence the spanish words randomly throughout the letter. lol I know just enough spanish to mess up my english... but not enough to talk coherently in a language. haha It´s hard. But fun.
Ok! So our first Friday here (mind you we got here on Wednesday) we had to teach our first investigator, Carlos, All in espanól. Yep. We were flippin out. We weren´t allowed to use any english. And we had to pray and plan a lesson to teach him with our comps. I can teach in english just fine. Spanish is altogether different. We felt really good after our first lesson though. The spirit was strong and I got him to laugh alot. He was rude and serious with everyone else though. We challenged him to read the scriptures and pray about what we taught him. The 2nd lesson with him on Saturday was alright but not as good as the first. We challenged him to say the opening prayer. He did! He also committed to read his scriptures and come to church with us on Sunday. We saw him again on Monday. He did what he promised to do. He said the closing prayer and asked us a bunch of preguntas. (Questions) I had them write them down... since we still couldn´t understand anything he was saying. haha We challenged him to baptism and he said no. But he has accepted and kept up with everything else we´ve challenged him with. Yesterdays lesson we went over el plan de salvacion with him again. I drew out the plan and made 2 little people. 1 colored in to be the earthly body and the 2nd one uncolored to be the spirit body. He likes it when we use visuals... Cause our spanish sucketh. We´re the only ones that use them. Also we were the first ones to get him to commit to anything. Anyways. We taught him that. Answered his preguntas and then I was prompted to sing him´ whatever it takes´ after my testimony. I really didn't want to. But I knew I had to. :/ So did. I cried. He cried. My comp cried. Then I asked him if he would follow Jesucristo´s example and be baptized on cino de mayo. He said...´ Cinco de Mayo?! El baptismo moy importante!... Cinco de Mayo. El rapido!´ I said si. and smiled and then he said he would! So boom! First baptism! My comp and I were the first to get him! Yoohoo! So exciting.
Tall is super hard and draining. It´s this language program here that we have to work on for like 45 minutes everyday. We learn adverbs, conjunctions, ser and estar... etc. I hate it. It makes me detest spanish even more. haha We´re brain dead everytime after.
Gym is the 1 hr of the day were we don´t have to be doing anything. Other than working out. Some people break the rules and nap. lol But I usually play bball with Braxton or volleyball with our district. Sometimes pingpong with some of the elderes.
Tuesdays are the best because we don´t have to teach investigators. We get to hear the General authoritys talk. Last time it was Elder Holland. It was rough. He chastised us a lot. But it was all good and super motivational. You best believe that after that all of us will be memorizing D y C and Alma 32 and 42 in both english and spanish. lol
Sundays are relaxing. Kind of. We have RS in english which is awesome! Especially after Spanish Saturdays. (Our district came up with it. No english the entire day. Unless you´re saying como se deca.... fill in the blank with an english word.) Then we have lunch. Then sacrament meeting with our zone. As the meeting proceeds they call on us at random to give 5-10 min talks. This meeting is completely in spanish by the way. SO guess who got called to say the prayer AND give a talk last Sunday all in spanish? That´s right. Me. I was freaking out. I was the 5th speaker to go. And the first newbie. It was so hard. Whoever said spanish is the easiest language is a filthy liar. It´s so hard! ugh! But I can read now without sounding like a white girl. SO that´s an improvement. Then we end the day with a movie. Our first Sunday here we watched the Joseph Smith Movie. So good! Everyone was crying. :/
I ran into my friend Elder Russell here. He was the one I met when we got our visas in dc. He leaves this Tuesday night for Quito Ecuador. I also met this elder who´s super cool and taught me how to lay out a lesson. His name is Elder Spencer. I´ll try to get a pic to send you. He´s way cool. From Ut and was a firefighter before his mission. So we get along really well. He also ships out this Tuesday for Tennekee. (Tennessee) He´s pretty stoked. We´re already great friends. Sorry this email was so long. I just missed you guys and wanted to give you a heads up about what´s been going on here. PS they have a nutella bar here in the comerdor. Which is awesome! It´s been getting us all through the food here. The majority of the food here is good. Especially on American food Tuesdays. But sometimes we can´t even touch it. haha Also the water here is safe to drink because we have our own well. But it´s sooo gross! Worst water I´ve ever had. haha
I hope you´re all doing well, I´ve been praying for you! Every prayer. So that´s a lot. Since we pray like 34 times a day. lol Love you guys!
-Hermana Dodge :)
Our first day here our alarm didn´t go off. haha It´s happened 2 times since then because the power keeps going off. It´s been raining the last 2 or 3 days. Other than that it´s usually too hot for clothes. :/ The first Spanish phrase Hermana Johnson and I learned was ´Podemos regresar a Dios siendo obedientes.´ Which means We can return to God by being obedient. All of our workshops that day were about being obedient so it totally worked out. Presidente and Hermana Pratt are super strict. Our mission Presidente and his wife. But they´re good people. The coolest though are Presidente and Hermana Ruvacava. Hopefully I spelled it right. I think they´re related to Shayla´s yw leader. Pretty cool.
Our first day here we taught an investigator in English. I taught her how to pray and she wanted to learn more. Pretty aweome! Our next day was language classe and more workshops. Our teacher is literally the coolest person here. Everyone loves him. He´s the fav. Even for those of the missinaros who haven´t had him. His name is Hermano Sanchez. (I´m the only one who knows his first name... hehe. Radrigo) He talks to us in mostly espanol. Way cool! I´m the only one he talks to in English sometimes, just for the heck of it. Maybe it´s because I suck at spanish... yo no sé. But he talks to me about his day and introduced me to his brother and sister who came into the MTC 2 days ago. They´re really cool. It was kind of awkward though because he didn´t introduce them to anyone else... including my comp. haha He´s learning french and loves peanutbutter... which is super abnormal for a Mexican. haha I´ll send you a pic when I can. He´s not here today...
My second day here was rough. I was so clumsy. I´ve had like 11 minor injuries since I´ve been here. haha That day it started off with my comp forgetting her name tag on the way to gym orientation. So as we were running back... on uneven stones with grass in between, I yelled up to her... Í don´t want to fall!¨´ She turned around... and I was on my face. hahah! It was awful. I biffed it hard. I busted my knee and my palms. But literally... I faceplanted. haha It´s been the huge joke here. :/ But other than that it was a great day!
I translated a spanish video correctly. I was the only one. Everyone else only got the investigators name and age. I only got that his cousin introduced him to the church 8 yrs ago and the missionaries taught him a lot about the Gospel. His name was Carlos. Also he would be our first investigator here at the CCM. Everything here in the CCm is in Spanish. The hymns the devotionals the classes the conversations. We´re not allowed to talk in English. That´s why it´s super hard for me to be writing this to you guys now. haha Hence the spanish words randomly throughout the letter. lol I know just enough spanish to mess up my english... but not enough to talk coherently in a language. haha It´s hard. But fun.
Ok! So our first Friday here (mind you we got here on Wednesday) we had to teach our first investigator, Carlos, All in espanól. Yep. We were flippin out. We weren´t allowed to use any english. And we had to pray and plan a lesson to teach him with our comps. I can teach in english just fine. Spanish is altogether different. We felt really good after our first lesson though. The spirit was strong and I got him to laugh alot. He was rude and serious with everyone else though. We challenged him to read the scriptures and pray about what we taught him. The 2nd lesson with him on Saturday was alright but not as good as the first. We challenged him to say the opening prayer. He did! He also committed to read his scriptures and come to church with us on Sunday. We saw him again on Monday. He did what he promised to do. He said the closing prayer and asked us a bunch of preguntas. (Questions) I had them write them down... since we still couldn´t understand anything he was saying. haha We challenged him to baptism and he said no. But he has accepted and kept up with everything else we´ve challenged him with. Yesterdays lesson we went over el plan de salvacion with him again. I drew out the plan and made 2 little people. 1 colored in to be the earthly body and the 2nd one uncolored to be the spirit body. He likes it when we use visuals... Cause our spanish sucketh. We´re the only ones that use them. Also we were the first ones to get him to commit to anything. Anyways. We taught him that. Answered his preguntas and then I was prompted to sing him´ whatever it takes´ after my testimony. I really didn't want to. But I knew I had to. :/ So did. I cried. He cried. My comp cried. Then I asked him if he would follow Jesucristo´s example and be baptized on cino de mayo. He said...´ Cinco de Mayo?! El baptismo moy importante!... Cinco de Mayo. El rapido!´ I said si. and smiled and then he said he would! So boom! First baptism! My comp and I were the first to get him! Yoohoo! So exciting.
Tall is super hard and draining. It´s this language program here that we have to work on for like 45 minutes everyday. We learn adverbs, conjunctions, ser and estar... etc. I hate it. It makes me detest spanish even more. haha We´re brain dead everytime after.
Gym is the 1 hr of the day were we don´t have to be doing anything. Other than working out. Some people break the rules and nap. lol But I usually play bball with Braxton or volleyball with our district. Sometimes pingpong with some of the elderes.
Tuesdays are the best because we don´t have to teach investigators. We get to hear the General authoritys talk. Last time it was Elder Holland. It was rough. He chastised us a lot. But it was all good and super motivational. You best believe that after that all of us will be memorizing D y C and Alma 32 and 42 in both english and spanish. lol
Sundays are relaxing. Kind of. We have RS in english which is awesome! Especially after Spanish Saturdays. (Our district came up with it. No english the entire day. Unless you´re saying como se deca.... fill in the blank with an english word.) Then we have lunch. Then sacrament meeting with our zone. As the meeting proceeds they call on us at random to give 5-10 min talks. This meeting is completely in spanish by the way. SO guess who got called to say the prayer AND give a talk last Sunday all in spanish? That´s right. Me. I was freaking out. I was the 5th speaker to go. And the first newbie. It was so hard. Whoever said spanish is the easiest language is a filthy liar. It´s so hard! ugh! But I can read now without sounding like a white girl. SO that´s an improvement. Then we end the day with a movie. Our first Sunday here we watched the Joseph Smith Movie. So good! Everyone was crying. :/
I ran into my friend Elder Russell here. He was the one I met when we got our visas in dc. He leaves this Tuesday night for Quito Ecuador. I also met this elder who´s super cool and taught me how to lay out a lesson. His name is Elder Spencer. I´ll try to get a pic to send you. He´s way cool. From Ut and was a firefighter before his mission. So we get along really well. He also ships out this Tuesday for Tennekee. (Tennessee) He´s pretty stoked. We´re already great friends. Sorry this email was so long. I just missed you guys and wanted to give you a heads up about what´s been going on here. PS they have a nutella bar here in the comerdor. Which is awesome! It´s been getting us all through the food here. The majority of the food here is good. Especially on American food Tuesdays. But sometimes we can´t even touch it. haha Also the water here is safe to drink because we have our own well. But it´s sooo gross! Worst water I´ve ever had. haha
I hope you´re all doing well, I´ve been praying for you! Every prayer. So that´s a lot. Since we pray like 34 times a day. lol Love you guys!
-Hermana Dodge :)