Vale La Pena

How has it already been a week since last Monday?! This week flew by so fast holy cow. It was a good week! My Spanish is getting better each day and I’m getting more and more comfortable with the area and the people and everything.

Okay so throughout the week in my planner I have an ongoing list of random things that I want to talk about in my emails that I write down at random times so that’s why everything is always so jumbled and random. Sorry! But here’s everything from this week that I have to say:

*Tomorrow I will be 1/9 of the way done with my mission. What?!

*I want to go to the temple so much. I miss being able to go every P-day in the MTC.

*This week, for the first time, we got flipped off by someone driving by. Then we walked past these drunk older men and I couldn’t understand everything they said but Hermana Lopez said they were “cosas muy feas” so yeah we got a little bit of hate this week for who knows why.

*Story from this week: We had a goal for this week that we would have 100 contacts - 50 done by me and 50 done by Hermana Lopez. (About 8 each per day.) It was a super hard goal but we were determined. So one night I only had 5 and we were walking back to our house for the night but I needed 3 more to reach my goal for the day. There was nobody in the street and we were about 2 minutes away from our house. I said a silent prayer and asked for just 3 more people that I could contact before we got to our house. Literally 30 seconds later as we were turning onto our street, a group of 3 people was walking past. And what did I do? NOTHING! I was SO mad at myself! My prayer was answered exactly and I didn’t even act on it. That definitely taught me a lesson about just opening my mouth and knowing that God has my back.

*On Wednesday we had our multi-zone conference that was so good!! There were 4 zones there. I got to see Elder Jarman and Hermana Gonzales who are my friends from the MTC. I was so happy! We talked to tons of missionaries and President Christensen gave a super good lesson on the Atonement, and we practiced how to teach and address doubts of investigators better. We had tons of snacks and food and it was super good. The beauty of being an American sister is that all the other American missionaries are automatically your friends. I spoke in English the whole conference with a bunch of Americans and it was so nice.

*The other day Hermana Peterson (good friend from the MTC) got emergency transferred into my Stake and I got to see her yesterday!

*We had Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday that was so so good. President Christensen and a member of the Quorum of the 70 (I forgot his name) spoke both days and their talks were so good! And 6 of Hermana Lopez´s and my investigators came!! They all really liked it and we were so happy ahh. Our investigators are awesome. On the way home from stake conference we fit 28 PEOPLE in a Combi for a good 30 minutes on the way home. It was packed and super hot and stuffy. Then we fit 8 of us in a tiny Prius, which was interesting.

*Our best investigator is a woman named Patricia. At first she wanted nothing to do with the missionaries and threw the Book of Mormon they gave her in the trash. But now she´s GOLDEN. She is so willing to change her life and absorbs the teachings like a sponge and is always coming to us with new things she finds in the scriptures. She is being baptized on October 11th and we are so pumped! We started teaching her daughter, granddaughter, and daughter´s ¨husband¨ this week and they are awesome too.

*This week we got 5 new investigators!

*I love my area and ward so much. We have so much fun with all the members of our ward.

*Something I´ve learned this week: Your mindset affects your outcomes.

Example: There was one day this week where we didn´t start contacting till later in the day and we didn’t ride in any Combis. (Combis are an easy way to contact lots of people.) We were tired; but we were determined to reach our goal of contacts for the day and kept telling ourselves that we could do it. And we did! That day I had the most contacts I've had the whole mission.

Another example: I kept telling myself that this week was going to fly by and it did. Other weeks I had the mindset that the weeks were going to drag on and they did.

*Today in a Combi the song “Hopelessly Devoted To You” from Grease came on and if you really know me you should know how excited I got haha. I was singing along and Hermana Lopez was probably like what the heck but it made my whole day

*All I want in life right now is a good Americanized enchilada. I haven’t had any food like the ¨Mexican¨ food in America and I really want some!

*The other day we found out that for La Comida (lunch) we ate Conejo... which in English is BUNNY. The lady told us it was pig but then afterwards the Elders showed us a picture of the pelt of the rabbit and the meat from it. Ugh I wanted to die when we figured that out...

*The tortillas here are all corn tortillas and have like negative flavor

*The stars are different here, I swear. Every night that there’s a clear sky I stargaze while we walk home and I cannot find any of the constellations I would look for in the States. I swear all the constellations are ones I´ve never seen before.

*The other day at the Bishops house, when we walked in, they were watching “Step Up 5” and I was so excited because the movie came out 2 days after I left for my mission and I was so sad about missing it. So it was a treat to watch little snippets of it and talk with the Bishop’s daughters about how attractive the main guy is and how much we love the Step Up movies. Hahaha

*I really miss people calling me Sierra. I haven’t heard anyone say my name in forever and it makes me a little sad especially since nobody here can say my last name right.

*The weather here is so weird. We have like every season in 1 day. Some days it’s super hot, then pouring rain and then it’s freezing an hour later. Some days it’s super cold and windy. We never know what the day is going to be like.

*Everyone here has scented toilet paper. It’s weird.

*We’re too afraid to kill the spiders in our house so we have like 3 massive spiders and it makes me want to cry.

*There’s a 14 year old boy in our ward who always teases me about being American and speaking English. It’s so funny because the other day we watched a movie with them but it was in English with Spanish subtitles and he was so bitter about it.

*Me and Hermana Lopez switch off days with who has the phone and I HATE when it’s my day because I can never understand what people are saying on the phone. Ever. I don’t know what it is but the Spanish is 10x harder to understand over the phone.

*I saw an albino person for the first time ever the other day. She was Mexican but had white hair and white eyelashes/eyebrows and white skin and all that stuff.

Sorry for everyone I didn´t reply to last week and sorry if I don´t reply to some of you this week. It´s SO hard to write everyone in an hour plus we have to write the mission president in that hour.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I know that what I’m doing is worth leaving the comfort of my home and my family and friends. I know that I am going to be so blessed for what I’m doing and that this is the only time in my life I can dedicate all my heart and life to the Lord. I know this is Christ’s church and I know without a doubt that God watches over ALL of his children. I know that it is never too late to change your life and it is never too late to start living the Gospel and learning of it’s truths. I have a stronger testimony than ever of the Book of Mormon and our prophets. I am so so thankful that I have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I find so much comfort in knowing where I came from and where I´m going after this life. 

I love you all sooo much and I hope you are all doing well. I love reading all your emails and I’m so thankful for all the love and support. You guys are the best!

Until next week. (:

With all my love,
Hermana Eyring

The Bishop's 9 year old son Dylan loves to cook and made us dessert the other night!

I decorated my planner(:

The other day it was POURING and we got soaking wet and I look like an 

ugly drowned rat but that's kinda the point of the picture I guess.

¨I change your face¨ - Elder Carrasco trying to speak english

Hola amigos y familia!

Okay so I decided I should change the way I do emails. I´m going to write my big long email about my week first, then write to my family, then write to everyone else. So if I don´t get to your email this week don´t be sad and I will get to it next week (:

Also, my email last week was a blurr so I'm sorry if I say something I´ve already said.

Fun Facts about Mexico:

* People here cannot sing. We are in the choir for church and wow we sound terrible hahaha. We have to sing in Stake Conference on Sunday and I´m going to be so embarrassed.

* Driving here is craaazy. There is no such thing as right of way and people cut each other off like crazy and there are almost no stoplights and nobody uses stop signs.

* Nothing starts or ends on time

* Fashion here is like the early 2000s in the US and it´s really funny to see people's "styles."

* There are dogs everywhere (and on almost every rooftop) and there is dog poop all over the streets.

* Everyone greets each other and says goodbye with kisses on the cheek and I still haven't gotten used to it.

* People always try to speak english with me.  A lot of people try to have me translate things for them and tell them how to say things. I don't even know enough spanish to do most of it so I just look like an idiot and like I don't know my own language haha.

* Everyone thinks WA is Washington DC. Whenever I tell people where I'm from they always ask, "oh where the president lives?"

* People here like to call me ¨princesa¨ or ¨rapunzel¨ because of my long blonde hair.

* NOBODY can say my last name. It takes them like 10 tries and they can never get it.

* 80% of guys ages like 14-30 creep me out here because they all either whistle at me, honk at me, stick their heads out of their car windows and yell things to me, yell "I love you" to me (in english), make weird noises when they walk past me, point me out to their friends, or just straight up stare at me as I walk past. There was a day this week, I don't even know what was going on but for a good 10 minutes every single man or guy that I walked past did one of the things I listed above and I wanted to run away and cry oh my gosh.

* People eat tortillas and spicy picante with EVERY meal.  All meals consist of 99% carbs and people don't eat breakfast food.

* They have really weird drinks here. One day this week they gave me this weird horchata water thing (oh, and every drink is *something* agua) and it literally tasted like a peppermint pine christmas candle.

* People LOVE playing with my hair (and I mean I don´t mind(; ) and everyone asks if I die it.

* A favorite desert here is called Pan Dulces.There are tons of different types of it. Basically they are pastries of all different kinds and oh I love it so much.

* We have to take combis EVERYWHERE (I don´t know if I sent a picture of one in my last email so I will try to in this email, if not, look it up!) and it is the same price every time no matter how far you go.

* I realized the other day I forgot how an iPhone works and it's like a foreign concept to me now.

* My acne has never been so bad. A mixture of the super greasy food, the gross water, and the fact that we buy chocolate like every day is killing my face

Things I miss:

- MY FAMILY. I love showing everyone my pictures with them.

- All my friends from home, BYU, and the MTC.

- This past summer.

- Being able to just chill and watch movies and have lazy days.

- Driving and normal roads

- Having the internet at my fingertips 24/7.

- Houses in America. (Here they are not very nice and made of concrete.)

- ENGLISH. Being able to express myself and be myself and actually understand what's going on.

- Sleep/my bed

- Showers that work

- Hugs

- My music

- Being able to be barefoot or just have socks on. (I have not done either once since I've been here.)

-Regular food from America.

-Being able to wear a sweatshirt and yoga pants.

Some Highlights of this week:

* Well it was much better than last week for sure!

* Part of me is asking myself how I'm already emailing again and the other part is asking myself how I've only been here for 2 weeks.

* Some days my spanish is great and I understand everything and some days I can't speak to save my life and have no idea what people say to me.

* Good news! We're moving into a new apartment in a week and a half! Our Bishop owns a company that builds houses and he is letting us rent one that they´re almost done with.

* We have a super awesome golden investigator who is going to be baptized on the 11th of October!

* We had a Noche Mexicana activity on Friday and we ate good food and listened to fun Mexican music. Me and the other missionaries in my district had to do their weird flag march salute thing and we totally butchered it and it was so embarassing and everyone was laughing hahaha.

* Some days we had tons of appointments, others nobody was home and all our appointments fell through.

* I´m still super afraid of talking to people on the streets.

* We're super close with the Bishop´s family.  They are awesome and always make us super good food because they know I don't like spicy stuff and have a sensitive stomach. I'm getting closer with most of the members in our ward!

* This man called us at like 12am the other night and he was saying all these weird things and saying he needed to talk to us and we think he was drunk.  We called back the next day and nobody ever answered. Super weird.

* I felt sad again Saturday night and Sunday but then last night I got to call Hermana Sellers and I was so happy!! We're aloud to call other missionaries in our mission if we have their number so we've definitely done that some nights haha.

* I get calls sometimes from our Sister Training Leader and Sister Christensen (Mission President's wife) and they talk to me in english and it's nice.

* On wednesday we have a big multi-zone conference and President and Sister Christensen are going to be there and we are super excited!

* Today I heard sooo much American music and it was awesome. While we were doing our laundry at a member's house they had music playing and like every other 2 songs would be one from America. Also in the combis and walking past the stores a lot of them were playing American music.

* Today (15 of September) is Mexican Independence day so everyone is out and about in Apizaco. Tonight all the missionaries have to be in our houses by 7:30 because it's not going to be safe tonight since everyone has been blowing things up and everyone will be drunk and crazy tonight.

Sorry if I worried you guys last week with my depressingness, but I'm doing a lot better this week! Thank you so much for all your support and love, I really really appreciate it! I hope you enjoy this super long email to make up for last week (:

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO

Con amor,

Hermana Eyring

Noche Mexicana

Beautiful view from part of our area

Making tamales!

"I don't care your life. Whatever" - Elder Carrillo trying to speak English

HOLA AMIGOS!

Wow I have like 10 minutes to write this and so much to say so I'm going to have to make up for it next week. Sorry if I don't have time to send pictures ahh.

Okay well to start off, this has been probably the hardest week of my life. So many times I just wanted to go home, and I've cried a decent amount haha.

I'm just going to bullet point everything cause there's SO much I want to say, so sorry if things don't make sense!

* The flights to Mexico went well. I talked to this man and his son on the plane a lot who were sitting next to me, and I ended up bearing my testimony and giving them a book of mormon, but I don't have any of their info so I have no idea what happened with that ugh!

* Our first night here we stayed the night in the mission home where the president and his wife live and it's SO nice! 

*Funny story: They had just finished telling us not to drink the water or brush our teeth with it or anything here and of course, first night, what did I do? I brushed my teeth with the water cause I forgot. Ahh I'm stupid! But don't worry I didn't get sick from that.

*My Companion is Hermana Lopez. She is from Guatemala and doesn't speak any english. She is super nice and fun and patient with me haha. We get along really well and can actually communicate well with each other!

* My first food here was una hamburguesa from a food stand and it was super good and much different than the ones in america haha

* first night we were walking and a man stopped me and tried speaking english with me and I think he was trying to flirt with me and it was super awkward. He tried to kiss us on the cheek when we said goodbye and it was super awkward because we're not allowed to let people do that.

* Our apartment is tiny and smells bad and is super cold in the morning and the shower... ohhh the shower... It's super cold and there is literally one tiny stream that comes out of it and sometimes it doesn't even work so we have to use buckets of water. Also last night and today it seriously smelt like something died in there we have no idea what it was

* I seriously get stared at by everyone, especially teenage and young adult guys. It's super weird for me.

* I do NOT like the food here. I suffer through almost every meal and there is cilantro in most things. Ugh I hate cilantro! haha. Gonna have to get used to that for sure.

* I've been sick the past few days. My stomach has been hurting really bad and my head has been all blegh and you can guess what else...

* We had our first baptism on Saturday and that was awesome but I felt bad because they had to redo it like 3 times

* I have been super depressed the past few days so I asked the American Elder in my district to give me a priesthood blessing last night and it helped SO much, wow. I was basically crying/trying not to cry all day yesterday. But after the blessing everything was better. Here's what happened - These people asked me if they could interview me in English for their class because they're learning english and afterwards they gave me some of my favorite cookies. After that we had La Comida (lunch/dinner) with a family and it was really good and they were super fun and made me feel really comfortable and I could actually understand most of what they were saying to me. What a blessing!

* It's super funny when people try to speak english with me because their accents are so weird and the way they say their sentences is so weird. There's an Elder in my district, Elder Carrillo who always tries to speak English with me and the things he says are hilarious, oh my gosh. But he's being transferred tomorrow and we're all super sad :(

* My area is called Loma Florida (the name of my ward, too) And we are just outside the town of Apizaco.

Ahhh I have no more time to write but I have tons more to say next week!

I hope everyone is doing super good and I hope you all have an awesome week. I love and miss you all more than you can imagine!!

First Baptism on Saturday!

Riding in the back of Familia Aragon's van!

My district!  Elder Lopez, Elder Carrillo, Me, Hermana Lopez, Elder Carrasco, Elder Stephens

"Son of a freaking biscuit almighty. Flip flippity flip, Elder"

HOLA AMIGOS!

Lo siento, no tengo tiempo para escribir una carta larga. Porque tuve muchos correos that I needed to respond to (<-- I gave up translating to Spanish because I'm that short on time!)

Anyways, this week has been good! First of all, shout out to my family (as always), Jonah, Jaycee, Michele, and Heidi for the DearElder letters! You guys rock!

I'm finally better from being sick so that's good, with the exception of a runny nose or cough randomly throughout the day sometimes pero está bien. 

We got our travel plans on Friday!!! I´ll attatch a picture of the flight plans. I leave on Monday morning! This time next week I will be in Mexico, so crazy! I´m super scared but getting super excited also. I think my spanish is pretty good right now but as soon as I actually get there I know I´m not going to understand anything. That´s always what happens to missionaries when they first go to their mission after the MTC. 

Stories for the week:

* Yesterday was Christmas! Our district decided we wanted to celebrate Christmas since it's our last week together as a "family" and we wouldn't be able to celebrate it with each other out in the field. Then our whole zone decided to join in on the festivities! We wore red and green and kinda looked like idiots but whatever haha. We sang Christmas songs in spanish and at night during study time we watched the Nativity scene bible video and exchanged secret santa gifts. It was super fun!

* Hermana Sellers and I seriously get the best random hookups. For instance, on Sunday for the devotional we were almost late and we walked in and all the seats were taken. As soon as we walked in this man that works there asked us if we were looking for seats. When we said yes he lead us to the front row and took off the "reserved" seats sign and let us sit there! It was so awesome and the speaker would look us in the eye as he was talking.

Okay I'm going over my time limit ahh. I just wanted to take a minute to let you all know how much I love being a missionary. It is SO hard but so worth it. I do not regret this decision at all. I know that everything I will be teaching in Mexico is true. I know that God loves us all and is mindful of all of His children. He knows us all personally. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is essential for salvation and essential for life in general. I have gained a new understanding and love for it. Through the Atonement we can not only be cleansed and freed from any sin, but we can also be relieved of our pains, sorrows, sicknesses, etc. etc. Christ understands EXACTLY how we feel, no matter what it is, because he has gone through it all. For each one of us personally. So if you ever feel like nobody understands what you're going through, He does. And that will always be true. I know that prayer is always an option. No matter how many times you have or haven't gone to church, what sins you've committed, or anything, you can always pray and God will ALWAYS hear and answer. Even if the answers aren't exactly what we want to hear. I have also found a new love for reading the scriptures since I've been here. I LOVE reading them. I understand them so much more and can always get something important and profound out of them, no matter where I'm reading.

Some scriptures that you should read:

Alma 26:27 - God is mindful of his people.

Alma 7:11-13 - (My favorite scripture about the Atonement.)

2 Corinthians 12:9 - Christ can always make us strong.

1 Nephi 15:11 - If you ask God with faith, you can understand all things.

1 Nephi 3:7 - The Lord doesn't ask us to do anything that he doesn't think we can do.

Alma 37:36 - Dedicate your life to the Lord and everything else will fall into place.

I love the gospel so much. I love that I can be the exact same person I was when I left, but at the same time be so changed and so in love with doing Christ's work. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so true and that the Book of Mormon is true and that if you study it with a prayer in your heart and a willingness to learn and change, you will always get happiness from it.

I love you all so so much!

If any of you receive a call from a random number on Monday, drop everything and answer it because it might be me calling from the airport(:

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYBODY

Merry Christmas!

I love the Hermanas!

Flight plans to Puebla!

Jamba Juice! A favorite treat on P-day.

Sierra's favorite Jamba treats. Courtney bought them for her as a send-off to Puebla.

Guess who Sierra ran into at Jamba Juice? 

Courtney Wood, her freshman year roommate and long time BFF!

And one of her second moms - Peggy Wood!

They are going to miss each other so much! 
"Hey Court, don't get married before I get back."

"Pues, pues, pues. Que tenemos aqui?"

(So if you haven't noticed I've started doing random quotes, quotes of the week, or our favorite sayings as the subject line of my emails.) Translation: "Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Hola!!

I only have a little bit of time to write this so everything is just gonna be all over the place and out of order and random and it will probably not make sense so sorry! I'm kind of going to bullet point this whole email.

Stories of the week:

1. We have failed every single cleaning check we've had in our apartment except for one (they are every week) and last time we wrote a note asking them questions about certain things we were supposed to clean and they wrote a super sassy note back so basically I don't think they like us very much hahaha.

2. So Hermana Sellers and I have become really close with these Elders from another zone at the MTC. We play volleyball with them and just hangout with them sometimes and we are "mejor amigos" now. But the other night they waved us down and we were talking then they told us that their district leader (just one of the missionaries in their district that is assigned to be the "leader") told them that he didn't want them talking to us anymore because he thinks we're flirting and it's a "page 33 violation." (<--- page 33 is the page in the missionary rulebook that talks about interacting with the opposite sex, so every time people see Hermanas and Elders talking they yell "page 33!" and make an X, It's pretty funny and people do that to any Elder that talks to me and Hermana Sellers.) We were really mad! A missionary can't tell us who we can and can't talk to! So we decided we weren't going to listen to him so we still talk to our mejor amigos and he gets mad and he hates us. Oh well!

*Hermana Sellers' and my new favorite thing to do is volleyball during gym time. We kind of suck but we play with the Elders in our district and our mejor amigos a lot and they make it super fun and don't hate us for being so bad and we're getting a lot better!

*Super sad thing happened this week: One of the Elders in our district had to be sent home so that he could figure some stuff out personally and repentance-wise. It was super sad when we found out. We all love him so much and it definitely has not been the same without him :( Also, the district next to us in our zone all left for their missions and it was really sad saying goodbye to them because we were all super close and now they're gone :( And my district is the oldest district in the zone now! Crazy.

*Our zone has this tradition where the oldest district, right before they leave, "passes the torch" down to the soon to be oldest district. A couple nights before the district above us left we had a little ceremony and each person in their district gave a gift to a person in our district. These gifts have been passed down forever within Branch 140 (our zone) and they are all super funny and stupid gifts. When you get the gift you have to sign it with your name, where you're going, and when you started/are going to finish serving. Then you have to pass it on to the next oldest district before you leave. The ceremony is super secret and you can only really know what it is until you're the district who is being "initiated" as the oldest district. Also, there is this huge pile of food and random items called "The Stash" that has been passed down forever. Who knows how long some of the food has been in there haha. The rule is that you can eat anything in the stash but you always have to add to it. So the oldest district are the only people that get to see or eat/use anything from the stash, then they pass it on to the next oldest district before they leave. I love our zone and how we do fun stuff like that!

*My whole district has been sick this week and I got hit hard with a bad cold and cough. It's bad. I'm dying. "Estoy muriendo" has been my most used phrase this week I think haha.

*I got called as the Sister Training leader in my zone so I am up there with the Zone Leaders and have to go to a bunch of meetings all the time now, and have to give the "new district orientation" to the new districts that come in. It's pretty fun! I like having leadership roles.

*One thing I've known my whole life but has definitely become more obvious to me as I've been here: MY MOM IS THE BEST. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. She never fails to send me a Dear Elder message or a package at the perfect time.

         

-Side note: I have given up and lost hope on receiving DearElder letters from most of you. (But shoutout to my family and grandparents and uncles and Heidi Nelson for sending me some this week, they are some of the only people that ever do)

*In my emails I make it sound like everything is fine and dandy all the time. But let me tell ya, THIS IS HARD! I have been struggling so much emotionally this week. The feelings of not being good enough, not being good at teaching, not feeling loved, not feeling strong enough or spiritual enough, etc. are hitting me super hard and this is probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. Some days I just want to lay in bed and cry. Don't get me wrong, other days are great. But man it's a struggle. I have never felt so drained physically and emotionally. I know it's all going to be worth it. But I really appreciate the love and support that I get from my family. They are the best.

*Also, my district is the best. I am not exaggerating at all when I say we're like family. They always know when something is wrong and the other night we had a super emotional district meeting and some of us cried (especially me) and they were all there to comfort me. I feel so close to all of them and it's going to be a sad day when we have to leave them all.

Have a great week everyone!!

Scar on my foot from breaking in my missionary shoes

Funniest Elder companionship in the district. (Don't mind the fact that I look terrible.)

"I can't think of a creative title for you," Hermana Sellers

Hola amigos!! Okay so I have exactly 20 minutes left to write this email. I was surprised how many emails I had this week! You guys are awesome for emailing me(:

Also, shoutout to Trevor for being the only person besides family to send me a DearElder message. And shoutout to my family for always writing them(: PlEaSe SeNd ThEm because I love getting them. My unit number changed, so now the unit number is 860. Send them send them. It will make my life(:

Okay so anyways. This email is going to be a bunch of random stories mashed into one, Cool? Cool.

Stories of the week:

1. We were doing this thing called "tag team teaching" where 2 people at a time would have to teach our teacher (who was pretending to be an investigator of the church) a lesson in front of the whole class. At one point it got super spiritual and it was kind quiet, and one of the Elders in my district got up to go to the bathroom. There are 2 doors in the bathroom and everyone knows that you have to close both doors so that people can't hear you doing your business. Elder Evans forgot to close the 2nd door and he started peeing and it was SO LOUD and everyone could hear it and we were trying so hard not to laugh but then finally the teacher cracked and started laughing and none of us could control ourselves. I guess you kinda had to be there but it was SO funny and he was so embarassed when he came out hahaha.

2. One of the rules here is that the Hermanas can't be in the Elders' apartments and vice versa. SO the other night our zone leader Elder Leavitt (who me and Hermana Sellers are super close with) wanted to show us pictures of his girlfriend and family so at like 9:45 pm after class we went to his apartment building (which is right across from ours) and were at the bottom of the stairs looking at his pictures, and a bunch of other elders were out there with us. All the sudden a branch president (bishop) came and started yelling at us and saying we were breaking rules and stuff and we were so scared because breaking the rules is a big deal here. Me and Hermana Sellers ran home and he was still talking to the Elders and we were like crap, this is it. We're going home. But the next morning they said all is well so we were good but yeah it was scary. I learned my lesson.

3. I don't have time to explain the story well but Hermana Sellers and I were looking for a certain mormon message to watch but the link took us to the wrong video. We decided to watch it anyways and I'm so glad we did! It's called "Wrong Roads" and is based on a talk by Jeffrey R Holland. (everyone go watch it, it's so good). We watched it and it was so great because it was exactly what I needed to hear, and yeah, it gave me a whole new perspective on things.

My new favorite thing is watching Mormon Message videos. Most of you aren't mormon so let me explain. They don't really talk about mormon stuff, it's mostly just general about God and cool stories and stuff and they're awesome. EVERYBODY GO WATCH THIS ONE: I don't care if you're mormon or not, watch it. It's called “The Hope of God's Light.” It's so cool.

On Sunday my district had to sing a musical number during Sacrament for everyone in the zone. It was so scary especially because it's a song with girl parts and guy parts and there are only 4 Hermanas to sing so you could easily hear all of our voices. Everyone said we did well though so phew. We sang the EFY Medley.

Okay so this week we got new Hermanas in the zone, so me and Hermanas Sellers, Duran, and Peterson are no longer the only Hermanas. We were really worried because we saw the pictures of the new Hermanas and everyone (mostly the Elders) thought they were super pretty and we were like oh dangit we won't get all the attention from the Elders anymore. But then they got here yesterday and all the Elders were like "what the heck they look nothing like their pictures they aren't even cute" so that was kinda funny but kinda sad hahah. Needless to say I think we're stilll going to get a lot of attention. Me and Hermana Sellers are super close with tons of Elders and I swear we make new friends every day! 

Yesterday most of our zone did an "English Fast" it was like fasting but instead of with food we fasted by speaking ONLY spanish the whole day until dinner time. No english. It was so hard but super fun at the same time haha. It made us all work hard and practice spanish a lot.

More friends I've seen being here: Sister Stasny, Elder NG, Elder Wagner, Elder Clark (who I was friends with at EFY like 4 years ago, it was crazy we saw each other and were like wait I know you), and Elder Jensen! It's awesome seeing friends from BYU and stuff.

Hermana Sellers and I are like BFFs with the Food Director at West Campus so we get special treatment, it's awesome(: We pretty much have all the right connections here haha I love it.

I love and miss you all so much and hope you are having awesome weeks!!

My mom wanted me to send my favorite scriptures so here they are:

From the bible: John 16:33

From the book of mormon: Alma 36:3 and Helaman 10:5-6 (fave missionary scripture) and 1 Nephi 3:7

Ciao(:

The missionaries in my district that are going to Puebla!

What happens when we're tired during class time

Best zone leaders ever

I love my district so much! 

Our quote board (still in progress)

I lost my ID card and had to get a new one. The new one I got didn't have a picture on it so 

every day a new person in my district is drawing a picture for me to put on it hahaha