We are so thrilled for her and thankful that she sounds happy and well! It was worth the wait to hear her so engaged and happy!
Here goes!
¡HOLA!
WOW. I know it was probably different on your end, but this week went so fast! Uncle Curt was right....the first couple days felt like months. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying myself, but MAN. There were so many meetings and orientations, and I'm just glad I can get that over with! (Oh, mamasita, please feel free to correct my spelling mistakes. Por favor.)
So I'm like....speaking Spanish?? Who'da thunk? (PS I am never going to get used to this keyboard.) I'll try to give you a synopsis of all my days so far!
Wednesday was my first day actually reporting! First of all, Presidente y Hermana Pratt are super great! I love them already! They've been all over the place! They served with Elder Holland in Chile a while ago, and at our Hermana meeting Hermana Pratt was telling us about the dangers of wearing bling-y jewelry in other countries...some people might not know it's not real gold, and they'll rip it right out of your ear! So that kind of freaked us all out, and one of the hermanas going to my mission asked if it's like that everywhere....when Hermana Pratt found out that we were wondering specifically about Chile, her face lit up, and she goes, "oh, Chile is a DREAM! You'll be fine!" So I guess that my ears will stay intact throughout my mission. I'm pretty stoked about that.
From the getgo they've been speaking to us in Spanish. The first day, we walked into our district classroom, and Hermana Baum (my teacher) just started speaking Spanish at me muy rapido! My face must have been priceless! But I have learned so much Spanish since then already! I can say the entire Missionary Purpose (Misionaro Proposito) and tell the story of the first vision all in Spanish. I'll get further into that later.
Mi compañera es muy fantastico! We get along SO WELL. It's uncanny. Her name is Hermana Clawson, and she's from Layton, Utah. We quote Nacho Libre ALL THE TIME. EVERY. DAY. She is so funny! I got lucky with my rooming situation....it's me and Hermana Clawson, and then the other companionship is Hermana Fast y Hermana Wilson! We laugh so hard all day every day (within control, of course.) Oh man....the first day, Hermana Clawson and I were sitting in the auditorium waiting for a meeting to start...I had bugbites all up my leg so I pulled out that After Bite stick, and then she said it smelled good, so, like and idiot, I practically shoved it up my NOSE to smell it.......my eyes were watering so bad! I started tearing up! It was the worst ever!!!!!!!!!!!
The waterfilter makes the water taste AWFUL, but actually...I take that back. I'm pretty used to it, now. Right now I have my journal open as I type, and yeah, on the first day, it was unbearable. But I'm fine now.
Did you know that it POURS in the evenings here? Well, it does! I'm so grateful for my umbrella! The thunder is crazy because it literally never stops. The other night it went about a half hour with continuous thunder. Imagine that. I'm not exaggerating, the thunder rumbled for a straight half hour. It was so cool. We saw green lighting the other night! Oh, and the raindrops are the size of golfballs, so there's that.
On Thursday we got to meet our branch president, Presidente Suarste. He's the nicest guy! His English is muy bien. Anyway, he interviewed everyone that night, and then me and Hermana Clawson were called as the Sister Training Leaders of our branch! Right now, there's only us and Hermanas Wilson y Fast, but there will be many more as more generations of missionaries enter the CCM! I'm so grateful for that opportunity.
So my journal entry from Friday has nothing of importance in it....so I'll take this time to talke about the food. THE FOOD....is so bipolar. Practically every morning we have either the leftovers from the previous day, or waffles/pancakes....no maple syrup, though! If you want to feel closer to me, go get some chocolate/strawberry syrup that is usually put on ice cream, and put that on your pancakes/waffles. It's surprisingly delicious.
Lunch is the biggest meal by far. It's usually authentic Mexican food, and that varies in...deliciousness? I've had some extremes. But for the most part, it is so good! Then dinner....they usually try to replicate American food.....no bueno. I'd rather just have the authentic Mexican food! Oh, and they always have a mini dessert....usually jello or pudding. Only the jello is like SUPER JELLO and is so hard to dig into....I don't even know how to explain it. It's odd. Also, they always have a different juice....they are usually SO GOOD. They kind of remind me of the juice cleanse......definitely not as healthy, but one time they had this cucumber lemonade, and I loooooooved it but no one else did! But it tasted so good to me! Yesterday there was this juice that was orange and tasted like play-dough...NO. NO. NOOOOO BUENO.
In my entry for Saturday, I mostly talked about my district, so here goes: It's awesome! We are the only sister missionary companionship in there, so I'm totally surrounded by the elderes. I'm amazed at how spiritually mature most of them are. Some of them remind me a ton of friends back home....(there's a Dallin Adams and an Andrew Massimini here. I swear it.) But they are all so different, and from such different backgrounds...most of them are going to Rancagua. Two elders are going to Osorno, and then the only person not going to Chile is our district leader, Elder Baldwin...he's going to Colorado Springs. Pretty cool! So I'm going to be with these elderes for a long time, but I don't mind it! They are great!
So here's a story: the casas we are staying in....they're not exactly new. They're not dumpy or anything, but....you can just look at the pictures I'm going to attach. Anyway, our sink was leaking last night, so Hermana Wilson and me called the reception desk to report it. As soon as we hung up, she asked if I heard rushing water. I just assumed that it was some of the hermanas taking showers, but she made me walk with her to the laundry room....AND THE BOILER WAS LITERALLY OVERFLOWING. As in STEAMING HOT WATER WAS BILLOWING FROM OVER THE TOP OF IT AND SPEWING EVERYWHERE, ALL OVER THE FLOOR. So me and Hermana Wilson BOOK. IT. We thought we were going to blow up. But right then some people came to look at our sink, so we hurried them in there, and long story short, we got the water situation figured out. But man, was it scary!!
This whole week we have been teaching a mock-investagator named Erasmo. In spanish. The first couple times were NERVE WRACKING. Hermana Clawson took some Spanish so she's a bit more advanced with me, but she's so patient, and I'm grateful for that! The first lesson was really really rocky. We learned that we didn't learn the vocabulary for a lot of important things, like "may we say a prayer" or "may we visit again"....it was a learning experience. The next few days, I wrote down pretty much every single phrase I would need to get through our visit, but having them written down really inhibited my ability to teach. Then I got to the point where I memorized those phrases, and only wrote down my portion of the lesson to read to him. THEN our teacher, Hermana Baum, told us that for the last lesson, we were allowed to bring escripturas en español, and that was IT! I was freaking out! But I knew that the spirit is the real teacher, and I trusted the Lord with all my heart. It went so well! The spirit was so strong! I even cried when I bore my testimony. He said he would pray about baptism, so even though I know it was fake, it was so great!
Today is my P-Day (obviously,) and I just got back from the Mexico City temple. (OH. Quick note: if you ever want to die a horrific death, try driving in Mexico City. I'll tell you more about it later, but I don't want to run out of time!) Anyway, I can't believe the spirit that I felt there. It's true, guys, the spirit is the same no matter where you go! The session was entirely in Spanish, but I could pick up on most of it! Wow. Just...wow. This temple is beautiful, and I felt the love of the Lord so strongly.
I guess my overarching theme this week is that the Lord loves each of us so individually. I have never prayed so often in my life, and you know what? I love it. I pray all the time. I pray when I wake up, then again with mi compañera, then before I study, then before I eat, then in devotionals, then with my comañera again, and again before I go to bed. I pray for all of you! I pray that I will have the strength to keep going, and you know what? He hasn't failed me yet. (SHS choir, anyone?)
ERIN AND IRELAND--PRAY EVERY SINGLE DAY. Morning and night. I'm serious. You'd better be doing it. I promise, it will make your day so much brighter. Pray all the time. It doesn't have to be on your knees. Thank Him for different things--sometimes I feel like I can't think of more things I'm grateful for, and suddenly a million more come flooding to me! And the more I thank him for in a prayer, the better I feel afterwards.
I
have to go, but I love you all so much--everyone reading this letter! I LOVE YOU. And the Lord loves you. The atonement is real, so take advantage of it!
I'll attach pictures! OH JUST A QUICK NOTE ABOUT THE PICTURES: just keep an eye out for those hilarious photo-bombers in the pictures of me infront of the CCM sign. They are hilarious.
Love, Hermana Thomas
UGH. This message is too long for the photos to fit. I'll send another one with the photos. My letter wont be so long next time!!!!!! There was just so much to say! LOVE YOU!
