evening, I heard some one ask an elder how the day was. He said "today was a
good week". I laughed so hard because it is so true. That was one of the longest
days of my life. Like that whole day was about as long as the real
week.
I don't understand why people complain about the food so
much. It is good. Sometimes it looks kind of sketchy, but whatever. I have had
a lot of guayabas here. And flan, which I have finally decided that I like. (By the way, sorry if the punctuation is terrible. The keyboards are
strange.)
Spanish is sometimes hard. Mostly when we are trying to
teach our investigator. Some of the teachers pretend to be investigators and we
teach them. Our guy is named Giovany. He is nice. In a few days, he will stop
acting as our investigator and will become our teacher. We know what we are
teaching. We know these lessons. But once he asks a question in Spanish, we are
completely lost. That part is
frustrating.
I can't remember what else you asked. My companion is
Hermana Merrell. She is 22 and just graduated from BYU in Provo. She is also
going to Dallas. We mostly get along well together. It has been quite a while
since she took any Spanish, so that is a bit of a struggle. But it is all
good.
Having a companion is definitely harder sometimes than I
thought it would be. I miss having the freedom to just walk out of a room
whenever I feel like it. We are all still
learning.
We live in the same room with Hna. Meacham and Hna.
Simpson. They are also in our district, along with four companionships of
elders. Our district is great. There are quite a few of us who have been having
some personal struggles. As in pretty much everyone in the district. But we all
hurt together. We all comfort each
other.
There are 20 beds in our casa, I think. Four in each
room. But there are only 6 hermanas total in our casa. I was kind of wishing
more would come on Wednesday. We are not the newest missionaries anymore! The
other two girls in the room next to our are cool, although we don't see them
much. We have class or study time all day, everyday it feels
like.
I feel like this email is everywhere. What else? There
are some pretty legit thunderstorms here. On Saturday nights, we can hear all
the music coming from the fiestas in the city. I really wish we could go. I
guess I will just have to come back
sometime.
I know this is where I am supposed to be. Some days are
hard, but I never regret coming. I don't think that learning Spanish is the
main reason that we are here at the CCM. It is more about learning to love and
support those around us. Faith, hope, and charity. We talked about those 3
things in class the other day. Without them, we are nothing. They are way more
important than the language. But don't worry. I am definitely studying that
too.
The drive from the airport to the CCM was
the scariest thing. Or maybe not knowing how to get through customs. That was
also worrying. But we did it. And we didn't crash on the way here, which was
surprising. I don't think they have street signs really, or lines on the
streets. But it is all good here inside the wall. We do feel a bit trapped
sometimes.
We don't spend much time in our casa. Most
of our studying in done inside of our classroom with our whole district there.
Some days we can focus and stay quiet. Most days we waste more time than we
should. But we also need to talk because we need each other's support. Most of
the Elders are 18 or 19. They still sometimes seem really young to me, for some
reason.
Everyday (except sunday) we have gym time.
Every time, I learn more of the rules to all the games we play, but I am
definitely not getting any better haha. Marching band or nothing for me, I
guess.
There are some strange rules here.
Hermanas can't eat at the same table as Elders in the comedor. So we put two
tables together, almost touching but not quite. Obedience is sometimes one of
our greatest challenges. But we are mostly good. I took my shoes off in the
rain, even though we aren't supposed to for some reason. Then I scraped up my
heel on the crooked sidewalk. I follow the rules a lot better
now.
Thursday is our Preparation day. We don't
even know what to do with ourselves. Hours and hours of freedom! And, we get to
wear regular clothes. Putting on jeans felt pretty strange
today.
Sometimes I glance in the mirror and only
see a missionary instead of myself. It is a shock. But I have grown to love this
nametag. I have given up my first name. Instead, I am a sister to everyone. I
keep the name of my family and the name of my church. Everyday, we wear the name
of our Savior Jesus Christ for all the world to
see.
The culture here is strange. You just see
people kneeling and praying in the classroom, praying over food (some days it
looks like it needs the help), praying before a lesson, praying outside during
personal study, companionship prayer in the living room every morning and
evening. God is included in everything here. That's the only way we can be
successful here. It is not our work, it is the
Lord's.
Some of my favorite times are when we sing
hymns in Spanish. I love them so much, even though we struggle with the way the
words line up with the melody differently than in
English.
Sometimes I hate hearing other people
speak Spanish because sometimes the accent is so bad that it hurts to hear it.
But I probably sound exactly the same.
Everyone else is still here in the room
with computers, so I will keep on writing. We use this room for emailing and for
doing TALL. I don't remember what that stands for, but it is for learning
Spanish. Imagine Rosetta Stone with a few glitches in the programming, and all
the phrases are gospel related. Literally all of them. It makes me
laugh.
We get a card with some money on it each
week so we can shop at la tienda when we aren't busy. (haha we are always busy).
It has junk food, laundry soap, pens notebooks, index cards, envelopes, and more
junk food. What else could you ask for as a missionary?
haha.
If I didn't include this in my first email, you can send me letters
through www.missionarypackagemx.com. I heard they print
it out and it will get to me the next
day.
The city looks cool. All the houses stretch up the
mountain, like in San
Francisco. Some of them are painted in really bright
colors. Maybe those colors cost less? I will try to send a picture of that next
week.
I guess I could write about our district. Elder Sheppard
is the district leader. I would hate to be that. So much responsibility. Elder
Lickiss is his companion. He forgot tennis shoes, so he plays sports in his
nice black shoes. Elder Blume gets really animated when he talks about things
he loves, like jazz. His companion, Elder Kelly, is 24 and talks about his
girlfriend a lot. He also has an amazing singing voice, so we just ask him to
sing pop songs sometimes in class because we miss music. Elder Quist is known
for being sassy and struggling to understand why we have so many rules. His
companion, Elder Young, gets kind of sad when we don't play basketball during
gym time because he loves it so much. Elder Smart and Elder Larson are like the
same person. The love repeating everything Elder Quist says, and sitting in the
teacher's chair when she is gone. Hermana Simpson is really sweet. She knows so
many people here. Hermana Meacham has a strong personality, and that makes me
laugh. She gets pretty frustrated with the Elders some days when they are being
rowdy. I don't know what else to say about my companion Hermana Merrell. She
went to the BYU
Jerusamlem Center for a semester, which is one of my
biggest dreams. We are good at teaching together because I know more Spanish,
but she doesn't get stuck on one word or definition like I do. I need to learn
to think on my feet I guess.
Lots of times, people talk about sports or their
significant other who is waiting back home. I don't feel like I can contribute
much to those conversations, but
whatever.
Sometimes I feel like texting someone or looking up the
lyrics to a song or something. Then I feel a bit lost for a second. But I am
glad that we have no option besides focusing on the
work.
If you want me to email you, you have to send me one
first. I don't know where I put my notebook of addresses and such. Letters are
still nicer because they I can reread them and they are more of a
surprise.
Have a good
week!
I love you guys.
Love,
Hermana Pace
PS: It is kind of strange to lose your first
name.
Also, I met a Sister the other day whose mom is from
Ecuador... and her dad is white! We were so surprised to meet each other. It
was pretty funny.