3/02/16
Wow. Hola Familia and Friends!!
We can call this week by any of the following title: Entonces, entonces, entonces. Repiten por favor? Puedo hablar en ingles? Como se dice...? Preguntas y mas preguntas. Or lastly, El Don de Lenguas.
Week one is complete and WOW. Where do I start?? Okay, so here's what I have written down in my little notebook (thanks mom)...
On the way to gate C8 i passed a store and guess what song was playin? Don´t Stop Believin! God certainly has a sense of humor... :) also i ended up not sitting by Elder Brown because there were 11 of us on the plane and I got bumped up to an emergency seat with another hermana named Hermana Garcia (thought of dad then of course, with his long legs needing that seat more than me!) Elder Brown is our district leader. There are only around 200 American missionaries here now and we don't have a "trainer". Me and Hermana Ashford get along great, she is "a 100% Authentic Texan Girl". Hermana Spencer and Hermana Gucake are also in our district and we share the smallest room in our casa together. (Oh and Elder Stoker is Elder Brown's compañero).
Our flight was (according to the pilot who we met before boarding) exactly 3 hours and 17 minutes long. Me and Hermana Garcia were just dying to get off the plane and land! She is serving in the Xalapa (?? dont know how to spell it...) Mexico mission. when we finally landed all of the hermanas need the baño but we did take a picture first. After passing through customs we found our luggage which was neatly piled off to the side according to size, class, and color. To answer mom's question, all of us had a very difficult time maneuvering our luggage...it was kind of hilarious. Even the elders were dropping stuff, it was kinda rough :) We found the CCM people and waited for four more missionaries who were on another flight from Atlanta. We took a few more pictures there (and if I have time--only one hour to write--I will try to send those pictures I have). We all piled into the CCM bus and began the absolutely ridiculous drive through the city. Can I tell you, I don't think there are traffic laws in Mexico. half the time there aren't even lines on the road for traffic even moving in opposite directions! Its ridiculous. But we made it!!! Also, Mexico smells na-STAY. Pero, en the CCM it doesn't smell unless the wind blows it in.
We only drink bottled water here, and they bring in all these huge tubs of water to refill with and such. We got our tour of the CCM and met all of the CCM presidentes y esposas and got a tour of the CCM on our "first day" (second, kinda). My bed is nice and firm, Adam would love it! ;) There's literally tile everywhere, and we kneel for every prayer entonces my knees are getting really strong ;) pero cuando I pray at night I use a blanket from mi cama.
The food is actually really really good (surprisingly), and the days are going by so fast I feel like I've only been here for two, but then it feels so long ago I was at home. We had pizza last night, and spaghetti the first night, entonces, we've had hour little bits of american food. Oh, and also I ate fish. It wasn't bad...pero, it wasn't good either... it was just meh. So yes mom, I am eating!
The Spirit is so strong here, I cannot believe it sometimes. We teach an investigator every day, and will be bumping up to two soon. As nervous as I was about the language, I know Heavenly Father is blessing me, and I can pray in Español, bear my testimony, and I already have a lot memorized. It is really hard to write in English now because my brain is trying to think in Spanish. That, my friends would be El Don de Lenguas. The Gift of Tongues. Man, it's awesome. We all were so overwhelmed the first couple days porque we are learning how to speak spanish...in spanish, how to teach the gospel in spanish...in spanish, and literally all of us had the thought at least once on the first few days of "WHAT AM I DOING. THIS IS SO HARD. I NEED TO GO HOME." pero, now we know that was the devil talkin, and we are doing incredibly well. Our investigator was sick yesterday so our maestro pretended to be one. He told me and my compañera after that he sometimes forgets we're only on week two (yes, technically I am now halfway through week two). We really are so blessed.
Everyone here says "just make it to Sunday". Wow Sunday. First we had relief society and then our district meeting (oh and our zone is pretty awesome too). After district meeting is sacrament. We are in Rama 8, pero we haven't met our Rama Presidente yet cause he has been sick. They do sacrament in spanish, and everyone has to write a talk on the topic for each Sunday, then the presidente gets up and picks who will speak (talk about anxiety inducing!! ;) ). After church we have "video" in the evening with all the missionaries. This Sunday's video... HOLY COW. Can I hear you say Spirit??? Cause it was so strong. I absolutely love the devotionals and videos.
We had a devotional last night by Elder Reyes of the Seventy, and it was fabulous. I took lots of notes.
The spanish really is coming pretty well, it's only that we can understand most of what we hear in spanish, pero, we can't express what we want very well... other than that, it's going pretty well! We also have to keep reminding ourselves we have only been here a week...
here is this much for mom...we will keep writing!
--
Hermana Karra Gourley
continued...
3/02/16
OH! and we are going to the temple today!! It is supposedly about 30 minutes away on a good day, but we get to go every two weeks! Also, Elder Cook will be visiting us some time in the next month, so that is exciting also!
OH MY. IF I HAD A PESO FOR EVERY TIME I WAS TOLD I LOOK LIKE "THE BRAVE GIRL" OR THAT MY HAIR IS "MUY...MUY *CURLY HAND GESTURES*" I COULD BUY THE CCM. I feel like I kinda stick out like a sore thumb, especially when we walk by the latinas and latinos during meals, but everyone tells me they like it entonces...
Oh and on our tour we learned the word entonces (means "so") and that was what the tour guide dude would always say. We also learned a lot of random palabras... like pasto and pies and edificio.
Can I tell you....I do not joke around when it comes to working out here! I was so sore the day after our first gym time, my hamstrings man...wow. Yesterday I was passing a soccer ball with an elder in my zone and he got a little crazy and TOTALLY NAILED Hermana Gucake in the head...I hit the floor trying not to laugh, I felt so bad. She said she was totally fine though.
AAAHHHH THE TIME WENT SO FAST. GOTTA GO. ILL WRITE FASTER NEXT TIME!
LOVE LOVE LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS. MISS YOU LOTS. YOU'RE IN ALL MY PRAYERS
-- Love
Hermana Karra Gourley
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