#1 Letter from Ecuador

I don`t even know where to start. What a week! The CCM seems like months ago. Well.... Hmm...

Leaving the CCM broke my heart, as was expected. All of us Guayaquil goers lined up at 10 at night to go to the bus to the airport. I only really knew Hermana Fox, and everyone else was buddy buddy. So that freaked me out a bit. But we flew, and I was exhausted the entire time. Keep in mind, I woke up at 6 that morning, left at 10 that night, and I hardly remember what a nap is. We flew all night, and when we got to Bogota, we saw a bunch of other sisters with name tags. They all rushed up to us and did the whole cheek touch air kiss thing, which is so unfamiliar to me! They were so sweet!

We got to Guayaquil and holy mackeral humidity. I thought I knew what humidity was, but boy was I wrong. It felt like breathing marshmallow fluff. The air is so thick and wet! I doubt I will ever get used to it.

President and Sister Amaya are so great! I didn`t understand all that they said, but they are very kind and encouraging, We have to wear knee highs! It`s for the bugs, but man.... it is so hot! I have been physically uncomfortable for a week straight. I honestly have not stopped sweating since I got here. But I love it!

I was assigned to an area called Bellavista in the city of Milagro. It`s so weird, in empty lots, instead of weeds or rocks, there will be bright purple flowers growing. There are a million dogs here, as well as millions of piles of ... dog evidence. Seriously, everyone has a dog.

 

Hello, I haven`t even talked about my compañera! Her name is Hermana Diez, and she`s from Peru! I`m the fifth hermana she`s trained, so she`s basically a pro. She talks to me only in Spanish, unless she needs to explain something to me, which is great, because I`ve learned a lot from her. BUT. They don`t speak Spanish here. I`m not 100% sure what language they`re speaking, but it`s definitely not what I learned in the CCM. They drop their "s"s and and everything is slurred together. My most repeated phrase is "Por favor, repite, màs despacio." Sometimes that helps, but usually I have to look at Hermana Diez and she repeats it in Spanish. I can understand her pretty well, but I don`t know how in the world I will learn Ecuadorian Spanish! Whenever we eat somewhere though, they ask me to say the prayer. I can pray in Spanish, but then after I pray they assume I can understand Spanish and they ask me something and I get the deer-in-the-headlights look.

Food! Every lunch, we eat at a member or part-member home. We walk or take a taxi, and there`s nothing quite like a hot bowl of soup when you`ve been wilting in the sun. Every meal starts with a big bowl of soup. It`s so good though, so different. There`s usually potato, and then chunks of cheese and sometimes noodles. On my third day, I had the soup that Mindy made for the throwdown! It was less peanutty, and it had shrimp in it, and we ate it over rice, but it was the same basic thing! So good!
I have had a lot of people ask me if I`ve ever had rice before, and they`re always surprised to hear that yes, we do eat rice in the United States.

The people are so curious about the US, and when I tell them I`m from Vegas, their faces light up and they say "casinos, no!?" They ask if it`s pretty, if there are lots of blondes, etc. One investigator questioned me about the price of clothes. This same investigator gave us four huge, juicy pineapples for free! We butchered one up that night and wow it was the best pineapple I`ve ever had. I may send pictures of the event if I have time.

We had two baptisms on Saturday (no one I had ever taught, but I`m counting them as mine..). They were both jovenes, one named Glorita, the other Luis. Glorita`s older sister (17 or so years old) and was baptized not too long ago, and their parents just gave permission for Glorita to also be baptized. Now, we`re working on the parents! Their parents came to the baptism and to the confirmation in church the next day, and were very emotional. They seem like really good people, and Glorita and Celita are angels! When I first met them, they combed through my hair with their fingers and telling me how pretty it was. That`s another question I`ve gotten a lot of, if my hair color is natural. They are so amazed when I say yes. My hair is the first thing all the girls bring up when I meet them. Luis is so great! He is 18. His mother gave him permission to be baptized, and she came. She`s very unsettled about the church and I think she`s worried about "losing" her son. We went and visited her and offered to teach her more about what her son had learned. I`m not really sure how she`s feeling about it, and it`s hard because she runs a little store and is always busy. I led the music for the baptism. No one here plays piano! The hymns sound rough. I`m tempted to ask to play just the top hand for sacrament meetings because you hear every possible key (and some impossible keys) when we sing.

It turns out I do stand out here a bit. I have seen exactly ONE person taller than me here, and he`s fifteen. Everyone else is tiny. Because I stand out, I have gotten some unwanted attention. There are certain places that we don`t pass by because I get followed around. It`s not great, but I`ve never felt worried about my safety. Sometimes there will be men gathered in an area and they start shouting at me in English. "Disney princess, Disney princess, come talk to me!" or "White niña what is up?" Some drunk guy followed us for a bit saying "Soy mormòn, soy mormon, talk to me!" Actually, we see this guy a lot. He hangs out around the houses of the members who give us references. Whenever we`re waiting for a taxi, without fail, every face in the car is looking at me until they pass. It`s a bit unnerving. On the bus ride to Milagro, a man was sitting in front of me, and he kept looking back at me. He was very conspicuous, but I didn`t really mind until some people got off the bus and he moved seats and sat with his entire body facing back, and just stared at me. He didn`t even try to hide that he was staring directly at me, so finally I started staring back, just to make him stop. It didn`t work. I was very uncomfortable for the next 20 minutes of this bus ride. I wasn`t really sure what to do. So that was interesting.

The work! The youth here are so great. Last night, we had one kid, Manuel, who came with us to visit his friends that he had given us as references. We talk to their parents as well. Everyone is willing to listen to us, but not many are willing to keep commitments. We spent a lot of the day Saturday going around and committing people to go to church. We made plans as to what time they need to go to bed, wake up, etc. Sunday morning, we called and visited houses, woke people up... and like 3 people came. No investigators though.

Hmm what else? Oh yeah, no hot water. There`s also a naked woman on our shower door... Our apartment is pretty nice though, one of the nicest one`s I`ve been in here. No one here has a dishwasher. I haven`t seen a single one. Even the nicest homes don`t have air conditioning, but I guess everyone`s pretty used to the heat. I walk into their homes completely drenched in sweat every time, but everyone seems to not notice the heat.

Here`s a fun fact. There`s an amazing family in the ward, the Torres family. The son David is a RM, and he basically runs the ward. Seriously, he`s awesome. He served in Rancagua, Chile, and knows Hayden Cooper (and David Archuleta, I`m pretty sure...)! Also, there`s an Hermana here from Arizona that knows Haley Flenner. Being a member makes this a small world!

What else! I`m going to need specific questions, I don`t know what to say. I love it. It`s hard, and boy am I tired. Plus, I`m confused 96% of the time, but it`s all good. The worst thing is when people try to talk to me in English. Their English is harder to understand than their Spanish haha, but it`s very sweet.

Picture time!  Before you look at the pictures, let me explain something. If you had people whistling at you and little girls fawning over you when you looked like a greasy hobo, would you bother doing your hair or makeup?

Sorry to all the dozens of single attractive men that are surely reading my blog, but things are going to get ugly.

*note from mom - The pictures didn't come through.  I will post them next week if she resends them.

# 6 Letter from CCM Mexico City

I am so sad to be leaving my beloved CCM, but I´m starting to get more and more excited to go, little by little. We watched the MTC devotional live from the Provo MTC. It was Dallin H. Oaks and man that guy is bold. Bold and bald. I loved it. It was all about why we say we are the only true and living church in the world. In case you were wondering, it´s because we have the fulness of the gospel, the power of the priesthood, and a unique and complete testimony of Christ. It was so interesting and just got me pumped!

Guess who´s the new sister leader/trainer/whatever it´s called?!

Not me! My companion is though, so I get to sit in on the zone meetings and get to know all the girls in my branch! It´s been pretty fun.

I have one final story about my choir leading experience. So, this Sunday was when we sang the musical number. On Saturday we practiced for 40 minutes, and it sounded pretty good. Then, Saturday night, we sang a closing hymn with our teachers. Hermana Martinez is studying vocal performance, so I wanted to see what she had to say. So we sang Conmigo Quedaté, Señor as the closing song without a piano. I encouraged the Elderes beforehand to sing their parts (the hermanas are doing soprano and I was the only alto so we were good). It was awful! Our teachers smiled and told us that it was good, but that´s just because they are nice. It was so bad, and I got so nervous, especially because we wouldn´t have time to practice before singing in sacrament meeting. So I went over the parts again without a piano and hoped it got stuck in their heads.

Sunday morning, we line up, and the first verse is kinda rough. The elderes weren´t hitting their parts and I thought I was going to pop a vein in my forehead, especially because we had practiced so much! But then the second verse was okay. We planned to end the last verse a cappella, and I almost wanted to motion to the pianist somehow and tell him to keep playing. The piano directly faces a wall though, so I would have looked really ridiculous. So the pianist stopped playing for the final chorus - and it was gorgeous. Seriously, it was so perfect. The wives of our branch presidency teared up, so I think that´s a good sign. They came up to us and told us how great they did, and I acted modest but secretly I loved it when everyone would say "It was all Hermana Rust!" I gotta work on that whole pride thing....  But teaching teenage boys to sing parts a cappella is no small task!

On Saturday, during coaching time, the main suggestion that Hermano Rangel gave me and Hermana Fox was to express love for our investigators, both the love that Heavenly Father has for them, and our love for the as well. I am fine saying that Heavenly Father loves you, but you know me, I feel weird saying anything remotely like that to anyone. That night (I believe it was Saturday night), Hermana Martinez and Hermano Rangel stood outside the door and Hermano Rangel hugged all the elders and shook all the sister´s hands and Hermana Martinez hugged the sisters and shook the elders hands, and they told us they loved us. It doesn´t sound like some big revolutionary thing, but I loved it, and we were all pretty giddy on our walk home. Granted, we´re always giddy on our walk home, just because it´s finally bedtime, but we had some extra pep that day.

Anyway, Hermana Martinez was teaching us Tuesday when we had a little bit of extra time. She gathered us around the computer and had us watch a video on the LDS website by Sister Madsen about expressing love to her students. Sister Madsen would stand at the door and tell each individual student that she loved them. She told us that she had never seen that video until Sunday at church, the day after she and Hermano Rangel stood at the door and told each of us they loved us.  So.... moral of this story is expressing love is important, and Hermana Martinez is awesome.

Oh yeah, I finally got called on to speak this Sunday in District meeting. We have to prepare a talk every week, and then just announce who will be speaking. So I spoke, and afterwards, the counselor came up to me and told me that my Spanish was very impressive. So that was great!

I still get down on myself from time to time when things don´t go perfectly or when I can´t express myself as well as I want to during lessons, but I´m doing so less and less. Progress! 

The temple was so wonderful! That´s really all there is to say about the temple, that it´s wonderful and peaceful, but that´s what keeps on going through my mind right now. I love it so much. There was one little latina there who looked just like Grandma Skousen, same hair and similar faces and everything, she was just a bit shorter (who would´ve thought it was possible to be shorter than Grandma Skousen?). So that made me happy too. I just got the letter of your talk from Grandpa´s funeral. I loved what you said so much! In the temple I saw a cute little man who´s tag said Sellador on the bottom (I think that´s what it said, and I think that means sealer, but I could be way off). What a great title and opportunity to have. I love the temple!

I love you all, thanks for sending me emails and letters!

P.S. If Brooke reads this, let her know I JUST got her letter and it made me happy and I´ll try to have a response sent out within the next two days.

This first picture is for Brooke... ¡Alto en fibre!

These are two of my favorite hermanas, Hermana White and Hermana Eastman who will be serving in Ventura, California. They came and visited our classroom yesterday so we had to take a picture. Also, there are rumors of moms of people I mention in emails finding my blog, so here´s a picture. I love these Hermanas so much!

#5 Letter from Mexico City CCM

Okay, remember how I told you about how we were doing a musical number? Our branch was assigned to prepare the musical number for the weekly CCM class, taught by the CCM Presidency. It´s a decently big deal I think. Well, remember how I had to raise my voice in order to capture everyone´s attention? Two practices later, things were still not going great, but it was starting to come together. We were singing the EFY medley in Spanish, and the parts where we combine were really rough. People were starting and ending at the wrong spots and it was scary, but the Hermana in charge didn´t want to lead the music for the actual number because she didn´t feel comfortable. She announced this and then we sung one more time, without a leader. It was... awful. ´This was on Saturday evening, and we were performing Sunday morning. So after the practice.... I went up to her and told her that I would love to lead the music. I was worried that she would think that I was taking over her duties and that I was being rude, but she was so thankful! We had about half an hour to practice Sunday morning before we had to sing the song. All night before, I practiced cutting off the hermanas with my left hand while bringing in the elders with my right hand and counting out the beats so we could cut off at the same time and the practice went so much better than any other had before (I think it was mostly because I was not afraid to look silly leading or tell them when they did something wrong). I acted just like Mom when I lead! I did the same hand motions when I needed them to be louder or softer and everything. I think you would have loved to have been there seeing me do my thang.

Well, apparently if you lead the musical number it is just assumed that you lead the opening hymn as well, which was in 6/8. We sang As I Have Loved You in Spanish. In English, that song has one word per measure, but in Spanish, they cram 5 or 6 words into the same measure. It went terribly haha. I wasn´t sure what word we were on and no one had the actual music in front of them, they only had the words projected on the screen. It was terrible and I´m 98% sure Presidente Pratt was laughing at me, but it´s all good. I´ve needed to learn to do something I´m not great at and to fail at it miserably and get over it.  One prayer later, it was time for our musical number.

When we actually sang for the class, I lead with all my heart. When I needed it strong, I lead with both arms waving and at one point I dropped my music (we don´t have music stands) and I bent down to grab it with one hand while leading with the other. It sounded so good! The cut offs were great and the Elders came in at the right times and I loved it so much! I had people come up to me and tell me I did great and that it sounded good, and I had some people ask where I learned to lead music like that. I told them I had no idea what I was actually doing, and that I just love music and I´ve watched many great choristers, my mama included. It was so fun, and you know I love being in charge.

My district is also in charge of the musical number in sacrament meeting this week. Guess who they´ve elected to put in charge? We´re singing Abide with Me Tis Eventide in Spanish. At the beginning of our first practice, we had one elder that could sing parts. Now we have seven! I´ve only taught them tenor and bass parts for the chorus, but I am incredibly proud of myself, because it was not an easy task. So these were my music experiences this week, I loved them!

I´m not really sure what else to say. There´s been a lot of time spent in the classroom. I´m so glad I took Spanish before, because even my little knowledge from before has helped me so much. It turns out though that I´m a bit of a perfectionist. I don´t like to try to say things when I´m not 100% sure I´m correct. Because of my silly little fear, I have started talking less and less in lessons. My teacher Hermano Sanchez gets so confused and annoyed with me. He tells me "You know Spanish, but you won´t say it! I know you know it! I´ve  seen you read and translate in Predicad Mi Evangelio without English and you know it all!" Yesterday, Hermano Sanchez told us that we had 15 minutes to read up on la Palabra de Sabiduría y the Ley de Castidad, because we were going to one of the latino districts, and they were going to have one specific problem keeping them from baptism, and we´d have 20 minute to teach them. He then said that we´d be doing it one on one, without a companion (I didn´t like that). I felt pretty ready for it though, because I´ve been studyign those two topics so much. Well, the sweet hermana I was paired with had a completely different problem, she just wasn´t sure that baptism was the right option for her. In English, this would have been a piece of cake, because I could say what I needed to and I had lots of scriptures marked about baptism to support me and what not, but all I had were my Spanish scriptures, and I hadn´t picked out and marked a suitable scripture relating to baptism yet, and I couldn´t look it up in English first. I ended up sharing a scripture in Mosiah and saying what I needed to say in about 15 minutes and resolving her doubts. I still had time, but I was nervous to try and find another verse that I was thinking of, so I ended up ending early and just chatting with her. As our district was walking back to our classroom, Hermana Cefalo asked Hermano Sanchez if she was allowed to bring her English scriptures to appointments and practices. He said we could, then turned to me and said "You can´t." Of course I por que´d and he held up a finger telling me to wait. Once we got back to the classroom, he pulled me aside and said "I don´t measure your progress the same as the others. I expect more from you. I know what you can do. I know you can speak more Spanish than you think. I can´t wait to receive a letter from you in three months in perfect Spanish telling me that I was right. If you want, you can tell me to measure you the same as the others, but I don´t think I should."  Lots of this was in Spanish, but that was the basic gist. I thanked him, and told him I wanted to be pushed and I wanted to learn. I may have also teared up a bit, but what else is new. He said he had confidence and trust in me. None of this was necessary or part of his job description, but from my teachers, especially Hno Sanchez, I have seen awesome examples of the type of teacher I need to be.
I know that I absolutely need to make people feel loved and I need to let them know that I believe in them. The best teachers I´ve had (church or otherwise) have been the best because I have felt loved by them, and I learned the most from these teachers also. I want to work on developing those same qualities and learning how to show it for my investigators.

Earlier this week, Hermana Martinez and Hermano Sanchez were talking to me at the end of class and asked how my family was (I think they may have heard that something had happened, they just didn´t know what). I eventually told themthat Grandpa had died. Even though it´s been a while, I teared up talking about him because I am going to miss him. Hermana Martinez gave me a hug from her, and a hug from Hermano Sanchez because he couldn´t hug me. She´s about 5 feet tall, it reminded me of hugging one of my grandmas. It was gym time then, so I left, but an hour and a half later when I came back to class, Hermana Martinez handed me something with my name on it. She had taped three red index cards together, and each of my teachers, Hermana Martinez, Hermano Sanchez, and Hermano Rangel had written a short note inside.

My teachers are my favorite people, and such great examples of Christlike love. They have taught me a ton about Spanish, but the best thing I have learned from them is how to show love. Auugh I don´t want to leave the CCM, but I´m so excited for Ecuador and to teach real investigators!

Oh yeah, one of my favorite experiences this week happened on Monday. Hno. Sanchez arranged for our entire building to divide up into different rooms and have a little testimony meeting. It was cool because we had a companionship from every week in each room. It really helped me to see just how much I have progressed. Afterwards, the teacher over our room asked me and Hermana Fox if we spoke Spanish before coming here, which we took as a huge compliment. It was awesome to see that I can express myself well enough in Spanish.

I haven´t even written about general conference at all, but this is so long and I need to go! I will say this though: how amazing were Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson? There was so much boldness this conference. Did anyone else notice how much it was stressed that gender is an eternal and essential characteristic? Also, how great was watching that family choir? Those kids had the entire CCM laughing.

One of my favorite doctrines that was stressed multiple times was how all encompassing the Atonement is. The Savior is the healer of all infirmities: spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental.

Se que Padre Celestial nos ama, y yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador. Yo se que Jesucristo sufrió por mis aflicciones y dolores y pecados, y mediante la Expiación, podemos arrepentir. El Evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero, y La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de Los Últimos Días es verdadera. Yo se que tenemos un profeta de Dios en el mundo hoy, Tomás S. Monson. Yo se que él recibe revelación de Dios por Su iglesia, y yo se que el profeta y los apóstoles son llamados a Dios. I would share more in SPanish but I ain´t got time.

Okay, I love you all, thanks!

.     Hermana Hanson, Hermana Chalmers, a tiny sliver of Hermana Bowen. I love my casa hermanas!

 I look ridiculous in this picture, but these are the only pictures I have this week. Our room is where everyone gathers. 

Hermanas Fox, Cefalo, Chalmers, Eastman, White, Hanson, and once again, a tiny sliver of Hermana Bowen.

#4 Mexico City MTC

Guess what I did this morning! We did a temple session in Spanish! I needed help near the end, but I was amazed at how much I understood throughout the endowment. I pray for el don de lenguas every morning and night and I think it´s really starting to kick in. While I was sitting in the Celestial room, I could picture Grandpa Skousen peeking around the corner and giving me a squinty little smile and in my head I could hear him say "hello princess!". I just know that he is thrilled that I´m in the temple, especially speaking Spanish. I love it so much, and I love the temple in Spanish! All the workers are so sweet and the other ladies in the session that we ran into in the dressing room shook all the hermana missionaries hands after and said hasta luego. There is so much love for the missionaries. I put Grandma Skousens name on the prayer roll, and I feel like every short sister in the temple is just a latina Abuela Skousen, and there are plenty short sisters. 

I really love my district. It hit me that I´m almost done with the CCM, and I don´t feel prepared at all. Hermana Martinez told the elders that our district was using week 2 Spanish, and we´re almost our third week. so it really freaked me out. Whenever I get more than a tiny bit discouraged, I lose all confidence in myself, and I tend to talk less and less. I´m working on getting over this, but it´s difficult, because I don´t like doing things that I don´t think I´m good at. Anyway, yesterday I was feeling a little down because I thought I was doing great and then we were told that we were two weeks behind.  We were having class in the morning with Hermano Sanchez, and we were all practicing teaching the third lesson in ten minutes with another missionary. It was one on one, so I didn´t have my companion with me to start things off, and I am just not conversational, in English or Spanish. So I sat there in the beginning, not sure how to apply this lesson to the fake investigator profile we had been given, and it didn´t help that Hermano Sanchez was kneeling next to Elder Baggs, who was supposed to by the fake investigator, waiting for me to say something. Hermana Sanchez always seems to picks up on when I lack confidence. He asked me which points I was going to teach of the lesson, and when I told him I honestly had no idea how or what to say, he said "No, that´s not true. You are a great missionary, and you know what to do." He told me that he and Hermana Martinez had discussed how I am always able to express myself in the lessons where Hermana Martinez plays our fake investigator, Mía, even when the lesson takes a turn that we didn´t plan on (which is often. This Mía character is difficult). He told me that Hna Martinez was amazed at how much Spanish I knew, and they wondered how to get me express myself during in class exercises. It was really nice hearing some good stuff, because we really only receive counsel on what we aren´t doing well or what we need to do  better. I guess subconsciously I assumed that because I wasn´t receiving good news, I must not be doing anything right. Turns out that whole two-weeks-behind thing didn´t apply to me, which I like. After this exercise, we were released on the CCM to do some "contacting". There were hoards of new Latino missionaries arriving at the CCM with their families, and we went up to them and asked if we could share our testimonies or share a quick message with them. It was so fun! For an 45 minutes or so, we talked to people arriving, and then we helped some Hermanas take their luggage to their casas, and we talked with them, all in Spanish. When the crowds dissipated, we talked to some of the maintenance guys. We bore our testimonies or shared messages thirteen  times, which put us in the lead, and you know I like winning. But it was just fun to see how much we could actually express.

Then, yesterday night, we had a devotional. It was Elder Walker of the 4th Quorum of the Seventy. He and his wife are Argentinian, and she gave a short little testimony before he spoke, which he translated for us. I was struck with how powerful a simple testimony can be, because after translation, her testimony was very simple. I ended up writing half a page of notes while she was speaking, even though she spoke for maybe five minutes. After devotionals, we have a district devotional review where we just talk about what we liked or learned, and that´s the thought I ended up sharing. I just shared that I know that we don´t need to be eloquent with Spanish in order to teach with the Spirit. I was reminded on the quote where Brigham Young talks about a man without eloquence. It´s on page 199 of the English Preach My Gospel I believe. I don´t have it with me, but it was a comforting thought and a concept I really like.

Monday we taught Hermano Rangel´s fake investigator character, Iván.  We were prepared to teach him the Plan of Salvation, but when we walked in and asked him how school and work were going, he launched into a big story about how he was overlooked for a promotion at work and how he was worried about something in his family, and he was angry about something and felt abandoned and a bunch of other stuff that we didn´t completely understand. But we understood that he wasn´t doing too great. It ended up being a really cool experience though. We are only allowed to bring our Spanish scriptures and the Spanish pamphlets with us into lessons. I haven´t read much in the LDM, and our scriptures don´t even have an index like my English scriptures do, but it was cool because I was able to recall that there were a few verses in Alma 7 that I should share. I was able pick out the verses I was looking for in my Libro de Mormon, even though all the verbs are written in the unfamiliar vosotros form and I definitely was not sure what the scripture even said in English. I haven´t been able to just remember scripture references, even in English, ever. I usually have to flip around a bit and look for specific markings in my own personal scriptures, but during that lesson I was able to find an unmarked verse in a set of scriptures in a different language, within a matter of seconds.  He thanked me for sharing the verse and said that it brought him a lot of comfort, both directly after sharing it and at the end of the lesson as we were saying goodbye.

We have class with Hermano Rangel right after we teach him, and in class he said that even though he was in character as Iván during our lessons, the experience he shared was something that had happened to him this past week. He said that me and Hermana Fox showed excellent love for our investigator and that he felt our genuine concern, and because we were teaching with the Spirit, we shared something that really helped him. I loved it! 

I know I said this last time, but I love my teachers! Hermano Sanchez brings us Mexican candy to try out and called us his Distrito Amado, and Hermano Rangel is just so happy that we are happy, even though by the time he teaches us we´ve been in the same classroom for twelve hours and it would be easy to be in a foul mood. I love the CCM. I am tired 100% of the time, but it´s a good tired, because I know I´m doing good things. 

I still want letters! Emailing is once a week for an hour, but we can read letters whenever, so make the little girls write me some letters or something for FHE! If we have some pictures you can send, so that too, because the only pictures I have are in the big calendar, and our district likes to share pictures and talk about our families when we walk home at night. 

 I have to go, but I love you all, I want letters, and the church is true. Tell the married people that they have to write me too! 

Attatched is a pre-video Sunday night selfie.

 In the back is Elder Hendricks (funniest guy ever); Elder Nelson, his companion; Elder Christensen, our district leader; a photobomber; and Elder Scott. Front is Hermana Chalmers, Hermana Fox, and Hermana Cefalo.

  Me and Hermana Fox today at the temple

Me and Elder Maughan on Sunday (he flew out to the field yesterday I believe)

My lovely district today at the temple. I love this picture because everyone looks so uncomfortable. From the top, Elder Christensen, Elder Nelson, Elder Hendricks, Elder Scott, next

Elder Kemp, Elder Reynolds (he´s a Travis), Elder Magnussen, Elder Baggs, then me, Hermana Chalmers, Hermana Fox, and Hermana Cefalo. The names are mostly so I can remember. You know, just in case.

You can´t really tell, but this is the hardest rain I have ever seen. My shoes and skirt were soaked through in minutes, and it hailed for a few seconds. ´The weather´s been gorgeous the last couple days, but I miss the rain.

I also think there´s mud on my face in this picture. No idea yet on how that happened.

My shoes and skirt were soaked through in seconds.

#3 Mexico City MTC

 Today has been such a good day! I accidentally slept in til 6.45, we went to breakfast, did all our laundry, then at 9:15 we went to the tennis and basketball courts and played games with our district until lunch basically. I don´t really have a logical flow of ideas here, so I´m just going to start writing.

One thing I left out of last weeks email was that I have been sick (what else is new, right?). One of the hermanas en mi casa was getting over a cold, so I figured I caught it from her. So I had a bit of a nasty cold, which was then mixed with minimal sleep. Thursday was miserable. I wanted to stay in class though because I didn´t want to fall behind, and we had an appointment with a new fake investigator, Iván. Iván, by the way, is my favorite person ever, but more on him later. During our appointment with Iván, I could barely think or hear and I couldn´t stop coughing. It just wasn´t great and Hermana Fox basically had to teach most of the lesson. So  afterwards I asked if anyone had consecrated oil and if anyone would be willing to give me a blessing. All the elderes were so willing and excited to do so. Everyone studied how to give a blessing in the missionary handbook, and I´m sure it was the first time for a lot of them. So I received a blessing, and all of the elderes in my distrito, plus one that was transferred out of my district the first week,participated, so there were nine elderes in all. I had such a feeling of peace, because I had been so worried that I would be sick forever and never get better unless I took a day off and slept it off. I really didn´t want to do that, so many hermanas and elders have had to stay in bed all day. During the blessing, a district across the hall started singing "Señor, Te Necesito" which sounds about a million times more beautiful in Spanish. It was just a really sweet experience to receive that blessing and to know that the priesthood of God is on the earth today, and is held by teenage boys who are willing and worthy to exercise it in my behalf.

I woke up the next day and while I was still sick, it felt like the final few days of a cold, whereas usually I am in a cloud and completely worthless for a week or more. I didn´t have a voice for about 2.5 days, but that didn´t stop me from participating in all my classes and on three disastrous occasions, I attempted singing.  My teachers were so sweet though! Hermana Martinez has been teaching less and less, and more and more often Hermano Sanchez is taking over. Hermano Sanchez is about 21, and then there´s Hermano Rangel. Everyday, first in the morning by Hermano Sanchez then after dinner with Hermano Rangel, they ask me how I feel, if I need medicine, if there´s anything they can do, etc. Hermano Sanchez also teaches primarily in español, and has only been teaching about a month. He´s so nice and he´s so grateful when we help him learn a little bit more English. Iván, our investigator, is also our teacher at night, Hermano Rangel, and I have never seen someone smile so much or express love so much. As an investigator, he gives great responses to our questions and he helps us when we struggle with conjugations or pronunciations of words, which is so much better than just hearing "no entiendo" all the time. As a teacher, he is always making us laugh, and he teaches us a ton though his lessons but also through him just being who he is. In the mornings with Hermano Sanchez we work primarily on language and then just a little teaching, and with Hermano Rangel it´s mostly teaching with a little language (still, always in Spanish though). Hermano Rangel is always smiling and when we leave the classroom at 9:30, Hermano Rangel says "Smile at eberyhuan. You shood smile at eberyhuan because you have the Gowspel! Buenas noches, I love you all!" He tells us periodically during his lessons that the loves us as well. I have never met nicer people than my teachers here.

Lately I´ve been getting frustrated because I haven´t been able to say when I want in Spanish, and when I´m frustrated I usually end up with a really red face and I look like I´m about to burst into tears. Whenever this happens (which has been more often than I would like), Hermano Sanchez comes over and talks to me in his broken English and tells me that he believes in me, and that even with my pathetic Spanish, I can teach with the Spirit. Usually the encouragement he gives makes me actually cry juuuust a teensy bit too, but I really love learning and teaching. I don´t know why I let myself get so frustrated, because my Spanish is probably better than most the people in my class, but I guess I´m just not used to doing something that I´m not naturally good at. I can, however, read and understand Spanish pretty well. I can ready Predicad Mi Evangelio and know 99% of the words and I only have to look something up every couple paragraphs. Hermano Sanchez & Hermano Rangel have both heard me translate out loud and have told me that I can translate spanish very well, I just can´t figure out how to say what I want back. But it will come, and I am working on not getting so frustrated.

We have another fake investigator, Mia. Mia is Hermana Martinez. We have only met with her once, and it was difficult, because Mia doesn´t believe that God loves her because of a really sad backstory (it´s worth noting that all of our fake investigators take on the characters of people close to them, usually investigators they taught on their missions or possibly their own pre-conversion selves). When we first met with "Mia," and she was explaining how she felt about God and churches, Hermana Martinez/Mia cried telling her feelings, so of course I cried too (I´ve been doing that a lot lately....). We don´t teach her again until tomorrow, but I´m still trying to figure out exactly how you teach someone like that.

Sundays are always great. They are the longest days ever, but they are so full of good things. Hermana Pratt is doing a two-week lecture on faith for Relief Society, and I just love having her as a teacher. She is amazing. We watched a devotional that Elder Scott gave at the Provo MTC, and then at night we always watch a church video. This week we watched the story of the Tanner dude with the bad leg who was healed and then gave all that money to the church and ahhh I love that story, and then we watched the old "To This End Was I Born" video. We also have branch meetings, sacrament meeting, study times, and class with the CCM Presidency. Presidente Pratt taught about the priesthood and of course I loved it, especially because of my recent priesthood experience. I am really enjoying all of my time in the CCM, and I´m kind of sad that I´m already halfway done! 

Oh yeah! Yesterday, Hermano Sanchez and Hermana Martinez made us teach with one of the latino districts. Walking up to them was so intimidating, because most of them knew barely any English, and we hardly know Spanish, but they were so sweet. For some reason, there were like four people watching me and Hermana Fox when all of the other groups had maybe one person watching them, but whenever we would struggle with a word or say something that made no sense, everyone would smile encouragingly at us. It was so intimidating, but they were all so sweet.

My camera has randomly stopped working. It says lens error every time I turn it on, so I only have one picture to send today. It has no reason to be trippin either, I have treated that camera like a human baby. Hopefully it will snap out of it because I have a million pictures I want to take!

So, one of the weirdest things about Mexico City is that it will be a beautiful warm day, then you read a page of your book and you look out the window and it´s dark and it is dumping buckets of rain. Me and Hermana Fox got caught in one such torrential downpour yesterday. We had gym time, then we go straight to our weekly service project (this week and last week we´ve just been washing the rags used to clean the windows in the comedor), but on the way home it started raining the harder than I´ve ever seen it rain before (however, the record was broken later on that night when things got really crazy...). I don´t know if you can see how wet we are in the picture, but we were running home in the rain and still got ridiculously soaked. I wish I could go outside and play in it! The roadways turn into rivers and we hermanas just take off our shoes because the water comes up to our ankles, even on parts of the sidewalks. The grounds of the CCM are really uneven because the ground sinks so much every year and there are lots of earthquakes, so there are huge puddles in the middle of walkways where the ground has sunk in. It´s also weird that even when it hasn´t rained all day, the ground is still just thick, saturated mud. I love it here though, and I love the random rain. I have learned to bring my umbrella everywhere, even if I don´t see a single cloud in the sky, because that is usually when it´s going to come down the hardest. Last night it hailed for a couple seconds and even with my umbrella, my skirt became soaked through and my shoes are still wet, even though I was carrying them in my hands. Every night and early in the morning, we also hear cannons. At least they sound like cannons, we don´t really know what they are or where they come from, but they are loud! Mexico City is so loud! We still hear fireworks occasionally at night too.

Last night, at the beginning of Tuesday Devotional (we watched a DVD of a devotional Elder Bednar gave at the Provo MTC), President Pratt announced the songs and oraciónes etc. and then said "After devotional I need to see Hermana Natalie Rust in my office." Everyone in my district just turned and looked at me and I had no idea what it was about. My first thought was that I had accidently broken some rule, but then when Elder Hendricks said it was probably bad news, my immediate thought was that Grandpa Skousen died. When I met with President Pratt, he welcomed me into his office, had me sit down, and then told me what you had emailed to him. I told him that I had a feeling before I left that he was going to die while I was on my mission, so I had made sure to tell him that I loved him and to talk to him a bit. I was having a decent cry, and he told me to stay in  his office as long as I wanted and to let him know if I needed anything, but I told him that staying there wouldn´t do me or anyone else any good, and that I would cry tonight but that I will be just fine, and that my district was having a meeting so I needed to go. He told me I was strong, and that he knew I wouldn´t let this slow me down. There´s no way I would let it either, because there´s no reason. I know where Grandpa is, and what he´s doing and that he´s with Brett, and I know everyone at home will be just fine. I did write some things in my journal, and it´s probably the same things that everyone else has said.

One of my favorite things about Grandpa is simply how he says hello and goodbye. He always greets me with a "Well hello princess!" or "How are you doing, angel?" and there´s usually a "You just get prettier everyday" thrown in there. After I got my mission call, princess and angel were replaced with "Natalie" or "Hermana" or my personal favorite, "Querida." He always made me feel special, and he always let me know how much he loved me. He´s so full of love, and I love that he always made sure his family knew he loved them, the temple, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You know that those are the things most important to him, and I want to make sure that everyone always knows that family, the temple, and the Gospel are important to me.

Another thing I thought of was 2 Nefi 32.3. "Ángeles hablan por el poder del Espiritu Santo" y ahora tengo un ángel que habla español. I know that Grandpa will be helping me, and I have already felt his love. I know that he is so happy with where I am, in a country he loves, learning to speak the language he loves, so I can teach others the gospel that he loves. Don´t you think that Grandpa probably had a huge welcoming party of people just waiting to thank him for all the ordinances he did in the temple? And I love to think about his and Uncle Brett´s reunion. El Plan de Salvación is real, it is God´s plan for us, and Grandpa is just continuing the work on the other side. I can´t wait to give him a big hug later and have him call me Princess or Querida and tell me that I´ve gotten even prettier.

Make sure Grandma knows I love her, tell everyone when you see them on Saturday that I love them too.

Love,

Hermana Rust

P.S. Have Alexa write me a letter! Holly, add Brooke on snapchat brookie_palookie and tell her to write me too! They promised, and I want mail!

Hermana Cefalo, mi compañera Hermana Fox, Hermana Rust (hey that´s me!) and Hermana Chalmers this morning at the temple. There´s a huge fountain in front of the temple and we´re standing in front of it.

Missionaries going to Ecuador Guayaquile Norte that were at the Georgia airport. More missionaries going to my mission showed up later, but these are the ones I got pictures with.

 My y Hermana Fox at the temple. 

 This was lunch today. Oreo cheesecake holla! Did I mention that there´s Nutella at every meal and you slather it on not with a knife, but with a spatula!? Tell Alexa that, she´ll be happy for me.

Me and a stone head that´s in some random spot. 

 The Mexican president does a grito (?) where he says ¡Viva (fill in name of one of the starters of the rebellion)! And everyone shouts ¡VIVA! It´s a very solemn occasion, and we watched it on the news together at 11 o clock Sunday night. This is some of the hermanas that live in our casa, they are our best friends.  Me, Hermana Fox, Hermana Eastman, Hermana White, Hermana Chalmers, y Hermana Cefalo.

In front of the Mexico City temple, this is my district. Elder Baggs & Elder Christensen (our awesome district leader), Elder Scott, Elder Magnessun(Chile Antiwhatever),   Elder Reynolds, Hermana Chalmers, Hermana Cefalo, Hermana Fox, me, Elder Nelson, Elder Hendricks, y Elder Kemp.  Everyone´s from Utah except for me and Elder Scott.

 This is all the hermanas I share a room with on our first real day, the 11th.

#2 CCM Mexico City

My P day wasn´t until today! So here goes!

Once we got here we were assigned our companions and sent to our casas. There are four girls to each room, and 4 rooms in each casa. Each room gets their own bathroom. All the girls are in my district. My companion is Hermana Fox, and I simply adore her. She´s quiet, and very focused which is wonderful. She attended the Air Force academy before this, so she´s diligent about working out which motivates me to get my physical activity in every day. She´s also randomly hilarious. I just love her so much, I´m glad we´ll be in the same mission! She´s 20, and a few months older than me. Other than her, I´m the oldest in the district! The Elders are all 18 or 19! The other hermanas in my room are Hermana Chalmers and Hermana Cefalo. All of the girls are from Utah haha. Hermana Chalmers looks like a ginger Noelle, so I know what N&E´s first daughter will look like. She has Noelle´s looks and Shayna & Tessa´s humor, so I adore her. She really is so much fun. She´s going to Chile Concepcion Sur! That´s Travis´mission, right? Most of my district is going to that mission, except 3 elderes are going to Antofagosta (look up the spelling on that, I probably massacred it). Then there´s Hermana Cefalo. She just turned 19, so she´s very young. She´s going to California. We all have a lot of fun together, and I love the other hermanas in our casa.

I arrived Tuesday night, which was nice because we had the night to settle in before we jumped into classes and what not. Wednesday started bright and early at 630, and we were out the door for breakfast by 7. Everything is so fast paced, there is literally no time to just sit and think for 2 minutes, not even on PDay. On Tuesday we had a welcome meeting with Presidente Pratt. He grew up in Monterrey, but didn´t know Grandpa specifically, but he knew of the Skousens. He´s a cute, funny little old man, but he´s very serious about the rules, which I´m a big fan of. The first meeting, I volunteered to lead us in singing Llamado a Servir. THE FOOD HERE IS THE BEST. Because the Mexican Independence day was that week, we had real Mexican food and I loved it. I feel so bad for the missionaries that are too scared to try anything unfamiliar because they are missing out big time. I have to try a little of everything because I never know exactly what will be at the next meal, and I make sure my plate is completely clean. So much perfectly good food goes to waste here. The first day in class, they brought two real (? maybe) investigators to be interviewed by the whole district. We learned about how the Savior asked questions and let those he taught ponder them and think for themselves. Even on the first day, I was surprised at how much Spanish I knew. I could pray in Spanish by the end of the day!

We spend most of our time in the class room. My teacher is a tiny little Mexicana RM and she´s hilarious. She refuses to speak in English to us most of the time, which was frustrating but now I see how much it has helped us. Her name is Hermana Martinez and she has told me twice that I am pretty, so I definitely like her.

On the 13th, we had our first ïnvestigator lesson. I can´t figure out how to put quotes around investigator with this Spanish keyboard, but he´s not a real investigator, he teaches the class of some of my hermana friends. But we had our first investigator lesson, and the fake investigators are not to speak in or understand English for the entire time we are in there. We´d only been there for three days! But I was able to communicate that God blesses families, and that we can pray to Heavenly Father, and me y Hermana Fox explained a bit about El Libro De Mormon and he accepted the invitation to read it. We didn´t do great, but it was incredible considering that 80% of the words I had spoken I had only learned that day. It was kinda fun! Once the lesson got going, I felt a lot calmer and I was able to think of the words I wanted to say. So, while it wasn´t great, I am proud of myself because doing this was out of my comfort zone in every. way. possible. I wrote in my journal that I can hardly believe how much I have progressed in general after only 3 days.

September 14th was a great day. We played games with my district (I really love our Elderes) during language study and it was nice to not just be sitting at a desk all day. During gym time, we were all just sitting in the bicicle and ellyptical room because the ground outside was soaked and squishy, and I suggested we sing a song, so all the hermanas in the room sang Disney songs together and we had a lot of fun. Then, we had an assembly type presentation we called Mexico Night in honor of the Mexican Independence day. That was the coolest experience ever! It was so cool to see how all the Mexicans were so proud of their country. They showed pictures of the people that led the rebellion, and they would cheer when they came on the screen. We don´t cheer when we see George Washington! But the entire gym exploded each time. They had a ballet folklorico (I have no idea how to spell that) and it was so fun! We stood and sang Llamados a Servir for the opening song, and it was the first time the entire CCM has sung it together. I cried. At the end of the dancers, they stood in the middle of the stage and started singing We´ll Bring the World His Truth in Spanish and all the missionaries that knew it in Spanish joined in. I sang along in English just because I wanted to be a part of it. Everyone was crying. I loved it. It just hit me all at once how lucky and blessed I am to have the calling to be a full time missionary. Singing is definitely my favorite part so far. No one can sing quite like the missionaries here, and everything sounds better in Spanish. I bought myself a Spanish hymn book as soon as I could. The hymns bring the Spirit so fast and so strong, even though I can only understand some of the phrases.

Then came Sunday. When we first arrived, everyone said you just have to make it to the first Sunday. I didn´t really understand that, because I really loved my first week. But Sunday was AMAZING. We had Relief Society first, and we have it with all the native English speakers, and Hermana Pratt, the CCM president´s wife teaches. She is right up there tied with Hermana Bolton for the best teacher I´ve ever had. She compared Adam and Eve´s experience of being cast out of the comfort of the Garden of Eden to tarry in the dreary world to our experience of being cast from our comfortable homes into the CCM, and how we know we have to work but we´re not sure how. Eventually, the CCM will be our Garden of Eden and we´ll be cast out of here as well, because the Lord doesn´t let us stay in the Garden of Eden for long, because there´s no progression. She said all of this a lot better trust me.

Sacramant meeting was different, because it´s only a dozen or so companionship's to a branch. Pace Maughan is in my ward, and the branch president, President Pratt, is related to Arlene Waite and a Kathleen Whetton from Moapa Valley. Small world. Every missionary prepares a talk, and then they just announce which missionaries will be giving their talks. It is supposed to be all in Spanish, but some missionaries filled in English words where they weren´t sure. I did not get called on, thank goodness, BUT I did get called on to say the closing prayer. He just announced my name right before the closing hymn. I get nervous enough praying in English in sacrament meeting, so this was another totally out of my comfort zone experience. But I did it, and it made sense, and I am proud of myself! Sundays we also have a devotional, which is apparently usually just a DVD of one of the Provo MTC´s devotionals. We listened to an Elder Holland devotional which got me pumped of for missionary work even more.

The next day, we had our second lesson with our fake investigator, Carlos. I was really proud of myself, because I spoke only in Spanish and we didn´t have awkward pauses and we took up 35 minutes of time. I felt really good after. Then Tuesday happened. Yesterday was... difficult. We had taught the entire first lesson, because the first appointment was mostly just a getting to know you type dealio. So we taught the Restoration, and I had learned a ton of vocabulary and different verb tenses, and I was truly proud of all my efforts because I put everything I had into learning that lesson. Tuesday morning in class, Hermana Martinez read us his comments. He said congratulations on trying.  But some good came of this experience,  And the Lord has brought me low, so I guess I´m ready to be taught. 

Today, PDay, we actually woke up a half hour earlier because we got to leave for the temple at 7 am, so we had to leave a half hour early to get breakfast before. It´s an hour drive to the temple, so we loaded a bus and left. I´ll send some of the pictures we took. It was such an amazing experience. Even though Mexico City is loud (there have been fireworks, sirens, and the loudest dogs ever every night and on the night of the holiday, we had to hurry home because every shoots their guns into the sky and the bullets can fall on campus), there is an instant peace the second you step even on the temple grounds. I love all the workers inside SO much, because every tries so hard to understand you and they don´t make fun of your limited Spanish and when all else fails they always smile back. I had a headset to listen in English, but I listened to most of the session in Spanish and understood a lot of it. I did the last part in English, but after your first time in the temple, we have to do it in Spanish! And we go every 2 weeks, and I can´t wait to go again. The church is true no matter where you are or who´s running things. This morning was just such a great experience, and I felt the Spirit so strongly, and I thought of some perfect scripture verses to use in the lesson tonight.  

Every second of the day here is planned. There is no such thing as free time. Lights are out at 1030, and you are up no later than 630. I am constantly tired, but I am also constantly happy. This week has been so great, I have learned so much, and I am excited to learn more.
Love you all!
Also, write me some letters! It would be fun to have something in the mailbox to read during the week.

Love,

Hermana Rust