One week down; he's doing great!

Two emails arrived today! I was physically ill this morning waiting for them, but I'm a happy, relieved mama now. Here they are:

Hey Mom!

I'm feeling fantastic! This week had definitely been exTREMELY long. I can strongly say that this has been the longest week of my entire life. Just the first day alone felt like a month. But it's really fantastic! Not to sound cliche or anything, but I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life.

Yes, I'm as healthy as can be haha. The food here is all extremely mediocre. It all tastes the same if that makes sense hahaha.

Elder Frost is the best. We're really really similar haha. We have like the same hair and the same eyes and a lot of similar interests and personalities lol. I've heard some people have an opportunity to switch with a Latino companion half way through to help their Spanish, but I think that's kind of rare....so yes, we should be companions the next 5 weeks :). 

I have heard the tap water at the CCM is safe, buuuuuut they have huge jugs of purified water they refill constantly at each casa so.

It's crazy how much Spanish I've learned this past week. Me and Elder Frost literally had to give a lesson in complete Spanish on Thursday, 2 days into the CCM hahaha. Classes are suuuuuuper boring sometimes but I really really love my district (who's in the class) so that makes it a lot better. We have 2 teachers and they're SO nice. That picture of us in the classroom is our district.

 

 

I think I'm good on stuff. They have anything I need at La Tienda (The store). So far the only things I've needed is a Spanish hymnbook and a water bottle. Besides that I get a lot of drinks and candy there haha. They give us 100 pesos every week (around 6$) plus any of the money you sent me. I've only transferred a 20$ bill but that's it. We're going to the temple next P day, I believe , and I hear there's a really cool store right by it we're allowed to go, so I'll get some goodies there :).

I saw Elder Duarte once and he's doing great and that's about it. I feel like I've known everyone in my district for months so they're all really good friends hahahhaha.

I miss all of you TONS. I don't think I've ever felt homesick in my life until now. I've heard that the first week is crazy long but every week after that flies by, so we'll see. I'll have some more stuff on the group email so make sure to read that, but until next week know that I love you so much and I'm loving it here. :)))

**ALSO! Please ask questions because I'm POSITIVE I forgot to tell you something so please ask them. Also I'm not sure what to respond to you differently compared the the group email so hahaha. Love you!!!!!

 

.....then the one to everyone:

 

Holy SNAP guys. This week as been THE LONGEST week of my entire LIFE. The FIRST day felt like a flipping MONTH! You hear about missionaries getting sent home or leaving the MTC like a week in, and think they suck, but it's actually so hard. It's also really cool though and one of the craziest experiences I've ever had. When I got to the airport, there were legit 70 total missionaries on my flight to Mexico City. It felt so weird. Then we took a bus from the airport to the CCM (Mexico MTC) and got a little orientation about how things work and it was extremely overwhelming, but here I am sending an email one week later, so I guess I'm still alive.

My Spanish SUCKS. It's actually so bad. I took Spanish 2 in high school, and now I realize that helps very little haha. But it's all good...I feel like I can fairly communicate with the other Latinos in the CCM, even though they speak super fast. I'm sure I'll pick it up eventually though, so I'm not too worried.

My mom packed me a TON of food because before I came here, I heard there was a virus going around and a lot of people thought it was from the food, so the day before I left, me and my mom got like 70$ of Costco food so I could survive off that if I had to haha. But now the virus is gone, so I never had to deal with that, fortunately. But that doesn't mean the food is good. It's all really just ok. After a while, it all just tastes the exact same.

One thing that's very different from home is the amount of MOSQUITOS that are in Mexico City. We open our door out of our house and there are like 30 mosquitos on our screen every morning, its crazy. Another thing is also the weather. Oh my goodness it is so beautiful. It's rained almost every day since I've been here and the weather has been around 70 degrees every day. I also know it rains a lot in Paraguay so I'm excited for that :).

There's 12 people in my District and I've felt like I've known them my whole life. 9/12 of us are going to Paraguay and leaving the same day, so that's really nice. My companion is Elder Frost and he's a pretty cool dude. We're both super similar. We have like the same eyes and the same hair and personality....it's kinda weird almost lol.

Ok, I know that was a lot of boring stuff, but I promise I have some interesting things to talk about. Every day before Sunday was super long, but Sunday was a glorious day. We had great devotionals and talks, but the best part was choir time. No one in my district (except me, but I don't really care) doesn't like to sing, and we have a 30 minute period to practice with the choir if we want to....but we just stayed in the house and made this chess board....very productive xD. It's definitely a premium quality, being made completely of paper. 

 

 

Sunday was the day where I realized that I can actually do this and survive here, cuz oh my goodness. Having 16 hour days of nonstop Gospel teaching and learning is LONG. Like...REALLY LONG. Today is finally P day and it's been glorious. We've done laundry and cleaned our rooms and listened to some glorious Mormon Tabernacle Choir lol.

But yeah, the CCM has been super hard, but also really great. I'm super missing all of my friends and family, and I'm only one week in hahahaha. 

I appreciate all the emails I get from everyone so much! I don't have a ton of time to respond to all of them, but if you send me something, I promise I'll send something back. I love all of you so much!