Feb 10, 2015 First Week in the MTC

February 10, 2015

 

!HOLA mi familia y amigos¡

This week has been a LONG one....pero all the missionaries here tell us to make it through the first week :) Pues I will start at the beginning. For those of you wondering...yes I am already fluent in español. :) haha that is such an overstatement it is funny! This week was a week of many firsts----- I flew out of the country for the first time, I wore a name tag 24 hours a day for the first time, I taught my first 3 discussions without any language lessons for the first time, I gave my first discurso (or talk) solamente en español for the first time, I played the piano in sacrament for the first time......need I say more. This week has been one of the roughest....but also a great opportunity to grow....super cheesy right?? Also, warning, sorry for any spelling errors or grammatical errors, this keyboard is in Spanish. I haven´t taken the time to learn the keys, also I don´t have much time. P-Days are on Tuesday here in the CCM, just for certain zones though. Here we go------------

On the airplane with my travel companion, Sis. Buttars



CCM Bus outside the Mexico Airport.

First Day----I thought for sure I would have a heart attack because I was so nervous to leave.....I won´t lie....I maybe hoped I would have a heart attack too. I wish I could say it got easier once we got to our gate (D7) hence the picture. I was so excited to see so many other missionaries...I don´t know the exact number, but I would say 40 just on our plane, lots more met up with us at the Mexico airport. 5 other hermanas are also going to my same mission and Hermana Buttars (picture on the plane) is my travel buddy both times. The Polynesian guy was also our plane buddy, although I neither remember his name nor remember how to go about saying it. It was an emotional journey, and we joked around the whole plane ride hoping we would be able to understand the plane instructions better on the way to California in 6 weeks (March 17th). We arrived here in beautiful Mexico with TONS of missionaries and rode our CCM school buses to the CCM. I am shocked we made it here alive. Our driver had to wait an extra 10 minutes because they CCM representatives said he was a fast driver. BOY WAS THAT TRUE!!!! It was so cool to see one of our ONLY glimpses of the City!!! In four weeks we will take a trip to the Temple (even though it is closed for renovations) so we will just visit the Visitor´s Center. 



Our stack of language books and my missionary nametag!

We got here and received a packet with our schedule, name tags, and extra information....and then they sent us off. We had NO CLUE what we were doing. We were confident we would receive instruction in the morning----- NOPE! We have barely received ANY instruction, but we have learned from the older missionaries who have suffered just like us :) Mi compañera es Hermana Jackson, and we share a casa with the rest of the Hermanas (20ish girls). Hermana Jackson and I are in District Cinco B (5B for all you who don´t speak Spanish ). There are 7 of us... 4 hermanas and 3 elders. Our District is Hermana Buttars & Hermana Bess, me & Hermana Jackson, Elder Bentall & Elder Cardon--who was made our District leader-- and Elder Castagna. We have a blast!!!!!!!!!! 



Segundo Dia----------- Kind of a blur, but we got some orientation and met our Zone---Zone cinco. Our Zone is 3 districts, including ours, 5A, 5B, y 5C. 5C just left this morning to go out in the field, 5B leaves next week, making us the old ones in just 2 short weeks. Every time a district leaves, the new transfers fill up the old district. Our teacher for some general language study and gospel study is Hermano Trejo. He is hilarious and has been very patient with us. The CCM is all about IMMERSION..... Barely any Latinas speak even a little English....except for the teachers. It makes me feel better because they struggle with English sometimes as much as we struggle with Spanish. Here EVERYONE says ¡Hola Hermanas! or ¡Buenos Dias! ...it is so awesome. 

District 5B:  Front-H Wright (me), H Jackson, H Bess, H Buttars
Back - H Cardon, H Castagna, H Bentall

3rd day----------------- Whew! This day was probably the roughest of them all. We taught Mariana, our first investigator....with lots of Spanish translated notes taken from our MANY books, none of which we have actually been taught out of. We learned how to say prayers after many were called on at random in our orientation meetings. Overall....a kind of stressful day. Our lesson went pretty well and Mariana is such a sweet patient investigator (fake investigator....I think). Mariana had a baby that died after about a year....so we taught her about God´s love and that she can pray for comfort. 



4th day------------ Spent some of the day with Hermana Vidrio....my favorite maestra yet!!!!! Such a great woman. She taught us how to bear our testimonies and say simple greetings. She also gave us a Book of Mormon lesson. We only made it 4 versiculos, but it was SOOO profound. In 1 Nephi 1:2.... read it.... in English it is not super profound, but HMA V pointed out that in Spanish they use ´idioma´ for  the first language and ´lenguage´ for the second. In English the use of those two words means nothing....but idioma means language as in body language and feelings (referring to the Holy Ghost) while lenguage means specific languages (referring to Egyptian). It adds a WHOLE new meaning to the verse. We taught Mariana about the Plan of Salvation and that all the pruebas (or trials) we go through are for our benefit. 



District 5B at the Mexico MTC

5th day---------  Sunday.....everyone in our Zone said we probably wouldn´t have to give talks, but they always say prepare one anyway....every week. You only find out if you are speaking once you get there and they announce the speakers. I was also playing the hymns that day. They didn't tell me which hymns I was playing until I was sitting at the bench, and then when I sat down they called me up to give a talk. I talked about caridad (charity).....it was mainly from the scriptures and preach my gospel. We also got new Zone leaders since the other ones left today....Elder Bentall y Elder Cardon are the new Zone leaders and Elder Castagna is the new District leader....so all three of our elders have callings...other than the obvious missionary calling. We had a great devotional from Elder Scott (just a video of him), and then we had the weekly movie night and watched Meet the Mormons.


Our district gafetas (nametags) in a tree.
The tree is perfectly rounded, but it's not a mango ;)

6th day------ Monday....we prepared and taught Mariana the Restoration, and because my Spanish translation paper fell on the ground unbeknownst to me....I did it all from my head. We didn't really stick to the plan anyways because I asked if she had any question about what we had already taught her. We spent about 15 minutes answering her questions about receiving answers to her prayers....and then segwayed (I have no clue how to spell that) right into prophets and the Book of Mormon and how they can contain answers to our questions. Overall, the Spanish was terrible, but the message was AWESOME! Hermana Jackson and I have yet to feel bad about a lesson. Because our whole district teaches the same investigator we all talk about our relationships with her. I think she likes us the best. The others have been struggling with teaching her, but we have been doing great for having still learned minimal Spanish from our class. 

7th day------ Today.... it has been great!!!! We are doing laundry and cleaning. Thanks to my wonderful family I got my package (which you can ONLY send to the CCM through the Mexican version of  Dear Elder). 

The Redlands Hermana's

With my companion, Hermana Jackson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am doing well, I just wanted to share some moments from the week:



Funniest Moment: there were lots of them, but Yesterday another teacher came in when HMO Trejo was teaching us about obscure idioms (we asked about them...it wasn't part of the lesson plan). They asked us about some idioms in English and we told them about ´the kettle calling the pot black´. After we explained what a kettle was, the other hermano´s eyes got big and said that was pretty racist....we laughed SOOOOOO hard! 


Scripture Moment: I was reading in Ether and it talked about how the Jaredites were caught in this trap with the Tower of Babel. The lord takes mercy on them and tells them that he will take them to a Promised land. However, he doesn't tell them where it is or how they will get there, he just says go to this valley and I will meet you there. THAT TAKES EXTREME FAITH! That is what getting on the airplane felt like to me. Lots of experiences in our lives take faith....but if we trust him he WILL meet us in the valley! 



Awkward moment: one of the many things they forgot to tell us was that there are separate gyms for hermanas y elders.....so we just went in the empty gym and started to work out. Some elders came in and were like, is this the hermana gym? we laughed and then awkwardly walked out. 



Of course every moment is an awkward one since the Latinos will try to have a conversation with you.....but you just smile and then they laugh at you.

Most rewarding moment: Coming out of our lessons knowing that we got a point across with knowing minimal level High school Spanish

I love you guys! Thanks for all your letters!!!!!!!!!!! Talk to you next week!!!!