I MADE IT!!!

Atlanta Airport

Flying at 6 am to Atlanta then to Mexico was a funny sight to see with tons of other bright eyed men and women in suits and knee length skirts. We road in style on our CCM bus (which stands for the Mexico Missionary Training Center). If I could only give you one word for Mexico it would easily be LOUD. You constatnly hear dogs barking. If you are driving and not honking your horn there is something wrong. And repetitive cannons go off daily. But the spirit is still super strong here. I love being able to wake up every morning and put on my badge. 

 

Hermana Vawdrey on our daily walks.

My First Companion 

Hermana Vawdrey! She is a Spanish scholar. I am sure she wonders how I am surviving off of just hola (hello), como se dice (how do you say), and yo se que (I know that). But we share the best bond. We are always, always, always, and always laughing together. The poor boys in our district (the group of men in our classes) think it is always about them. Which often enough it is. 

The District 

10 Elders and just me and Hermana Vawdrey. But we love it. We call them our boys. They are so good to us being the only Hermanas in the District. We have pretty competitive volleyball games almost daily. It does help that one Elder, Elder Anderson, is the #2 lacrosse player in the states. All of our Elders are muy impressive. They are all 18 and have just graduated high school. But they still teach me daily. Everyone has everyone's back and are super encouraging on peoples off days. We are the only family we have out here and have made our own super fast. I got a hankie from Elder Montoya because they all tease me for not being able to either bare my testimony, share a thought, or sing a hymn without letting tears fall. I love seeing them first thing in the morning! 

Hermano Mu'ñoz (El Professor)

HE ONLY SPEAKS TO US IN SPANISH!!! His English is pretty good, but rarely ever do we get to hear it. 

Only half of the study materials I lug around everyday.

CCM Every Day

I just try to make it 24 hours at a time. Otherwise, well yeah, there is no otherwise or other way. Every minute of every day is scheduled out for you.  If we aren't studying the language we are personally studying the gospel. If we aren't having personal study we are studying with our companions. If we aren't studying with our companions we are eating. If we aren't eating we are in the gym. If we aren't in the gym we are at a devotional. And if we aren't at a devotional maybe we found some time to sleep. At the end of the day I just want some ice cream and a t shirt. And since we only get rarely if it is served in the cafeteria, I look forward to my t shirt at the end of the day. But I can not see myself spending my time doing anything else. 

MAIL: 

Mail is the best! And since I only have access to one hour online per week I struggle to reply to all the kind emails sent. DearElder.com is the best way to get snail mail to us. You type up the letter and we get a hard copy sent to us in the CCM. Otherwise it takes about 3 to 5 whole weeks to get a letter and then another 3 to 5 weeks to send one back. I got my first Dear Elder from Miss Elli Kennedy. I may have teared up when I got the first letter of our district, all the Elders were positive it had to be from a boy from my reaction. So thank you all for the emails and encouraging words. I react with the same joy from all of you. 

Till next week, 

Hermana Lance