you are hereby called...

September 9, 2013

HOLA!  So much to catch you up on!   First, the rest of the CCM.

The last week was so hard!  I love the CCM and my districts and teachers!  They are sooo fun!  Our two disrticts sang the EFY medley at our last sacrament meeting.  I cried like a baby and it was really embarrassing because I tried to hold it in so my face kept twitching.  We also had the awesome idea to do a flash mob at lunch.  We were gonna sing the efy medley, so we kind of spread ourselves out.  Hermana Barba and I were at the soup, next to where the elders sit, and I told the elders to stand up before we sang but they didnt want to, so 2 girls stand up and start singing, but they were super quiet. Then Hermana Barba and I started singing, but we were laughing, so it wasn't loud.  When the elders got up to sing, elder bankhead goes to stand up, and his belt catches the table and moves it, and his red juice spilled all over this hispano, and it was super loud.  I lost it, I was laughing so hard, and everyone was looking at the poor elder, and people were still kind of singing but no one was watching because all the attention was on this poor elder.  WORST. FLASHMOB. EVER: hahah it was so funny.  I was so embarassed.  It was hard to say bye to all my friends!

I drove to reu with all of the other district.  I love them all, but it was sad.  They said it was supposed to be a 5 hour ride but it as only 3.  We got to the mission office around 11 and went straight to a meeting with the office elders and our Pres and his wife.  They are so cute. Then they fed us Burger King, which I usually hate, but for some reason it was amazing! Whitney Minnik´s comp. is the nurse lady and she had to talk to all of us newbie´s, so Hermana Minnik was there!  She gave me the stuff you sent mom!  That was really funny that you sent me a white shirt haha, I like it, and LOVE the crocks!  They are perfect!   And the suckers keep me awake when im studying and am ready to pass out.  Her comp told us how to stay healthy and talked to us about food.   She mentioned milk and we asked about it, and if we had to drink it, if its good, etc.  Then Elder Garcia was like ¨"or you can just have a flashmob and spill it".  It was really funny.  She talked about the earth quake last novemember, and said that it was really bad in the mountains, and all the bugs left the trees and there is really bad bed bugs and fleas.  Gross.  They said the hermanas are never sent there, so im good!  Afterwards, we all met with the presidente individually.  When you walk in his office, there is all the areas in the mission, and each companionship in the area.  I saw my picture right away because it was right by the door.  I have a norte companion from Utah! The presidente told me not to tell anyone, but my area, San Marcos, is IN THE MOUNTAINS!  Yes, the cold, wet, bug infested, no showers, jungle mountains. Yes, that is what i´ve been afraid of since the time I heard of my mission, but for some reason I felt really good about it when he told me!  After our meeting, we went out with some hermanas in the area and taught lessons!  It was so crazy, there were dogs (chuchos) EVERYWHERE! People always talk about how gross they are, but they are SO CUTE!  And they are literally everywhere.  We visited a lady who's house was made out of cinder blocks, (most of the houses here are).  She was holding 3 babies at once.  I didn’t really understand what was going on, but I bore my testimony at some point about eternal families. The next house had dirt floors. The girl we were teaching, and everyone here, talkes really quietly and mumbles all their words together.  I had NO idea what they were saying.  I bore my testimony about the plan of salvation though.  I dont think she understood my spanish.  We stopped and got pan (bread), then went back to the church so we could go to dinner at the presidentes house. The mission home is SO nice!  So weird after teaching in poverty. The food was amazing, it was a lot like the CCM food. They also gave all the Hermanas a rose, it was so sweet.  Then they took us to a hotel.  ( I know, I have it so rough.. not)!   For some reason the hermanas had to stick 4 to a room, but Hermana Barba and I got our own with 2 beds!  It was so nice.. not the hotel, it was a little sketchy, but it was nice not having a ton of people.  Im pretty sure my pillow was made out of rocks, but I slept like a baby.  The next morning we ate breakfast there.  They had black beans and something else, I cant remember. Refired black beans are my new favorite food.  They're so good!  Right after breakfast, we walked next door to the church where we meet our comps!  A bunch of people were there because they had companion changes.  It's so fun how they do it.  We all watch a power point.  It has the area and the companionship, then one picture diappears and the new companions picture shows up.  They weren't showing mine, then the slide show ended and I still didnt have my comp and area, then they were like.. oh yeah, there are two more.  Then San Marcos popped up with 2 elder´s pictures, and BOTH of the pictures went away, and mine and Hermana Neilsons popped up, and people freaked out!  I guess it's a big deal because they haven't had sisters in the mountains for 2 years.  I felt really cool because everyone kept coming up to me after telling me how cool it was and that I would be really cold.  We hopped on a bus, it's a 5 hour ride!  Everyone else is pretty close to Reu.  We watched Tangled in spanish on the way up and stopped at Wendys.  Oh yeah, Elder Jorgensen and Hansen were on our bus because their areas are far too!  (They were in my other district), and Hermana Beckstran from the other district lives in my house!  So we all rode up together, and everyone else had to be separated right away.  Wendy's was so yummy.. and just when I thought everything was too good, I heard something beautiful. Yes, "When you Look Me in The Eyes" by the Jonas Brothers was playing at Wendy's, ahh.  We got to our area and it didnt look like a jungle, its actually a city!  Our house is so cute, and  huge!  The president of our area and his wife are so cute.  They got us flowers.  I love having another companionship in the house!  That night we met with the bishop.  He's so nice.  The people here are very rich.   Like lower class North American, but very rich here.  The elders brought us back home and ordered us Tortas for dinner, they were so good.  Oh, did I mention we have HOT showers?! Like so hot its almost scalding my skin.  And I literally haven't seen ONE bug.  I have the easiest transition.  Oh, and did I mention the food is amazing?  We went to a store of a members, and their worker called them to come out (everyone on the street has a house of the owner behind it), they came out and the wife saw we were Hermans, (btw Hermanas mean sister), and got so excited!  She pushed her husband out of the way and was like "Missionaras missionaras!!" she made us crepes with nutella and bananas.  I was so excited and told her my mom makes them all the time!  Then the other day we went to have a lunch and it was actually a birthday party. The food was so good and the baby is so cute!  His name is Daniel and he was turning one.  The members here are amazing.  We brought someone to church on sunday and they all came up and welcomed him.  Oh, I love my comp! I am so happy!  She's 22 so its nice.  Every time I talk about an old movie, I love that she actually knows what im talking about.  Everything is colorful here.  The members always see us on the street and come up to talk to us. I never know what's going on.. spanish is so hard, I'm beginning to understand a little more.  I began reading the BOM in spanish.  I have no time to write!  sorry!  more details next week!

Oops, I forgot to write about the earth quake!   We visited this cute member we randomly knocked on her door.  She gave us pineapple upside down cake and tea, (they always give you pan and a hot drink whatever house you go to, its so nice).  Just as we finished eating the house started shaking!  It was so scary!  We ran outside and there were a ton of people in the street.  Birds were flying everywhere and cats were coming out of nowhere.  Poor dogs were barking.  It was really hard!  The old lady we were visiting was holding on to a pole outside here house under a cement ceiling. I tried to get her to come out to the street but she didnt want to.  It finally stopped, then we went in her house and helped her clean broken  glasses that fell.  Everyone was really scared because of the HUGE one last year.  Look it up from last november. It ruined so many houses and buildings.  Cars started driving like manics everywhere.  Everyone was outside.  There were aftershocks for a while.  It was really scary!  I just wanted to call you guys and let you know I was fine!  The city looks really old and beat up.  I thought it was because it was poor, then I realized the people are rich.. its all from the earth quake last year.