Hermana Wilson's First P-Day

Hey Everyone! Much love from Mexico! 

This first week in the CCM has seriously been one of the hardest and most rewarding things that I´ve ever done in my whole entire life! 

So the first few days here didn´t even feel real! Like it was the strangest feeling, I can´t even describe it. I think one of the weirdest things about this whole experience is that I can´t just call or text or snapchat my friends every time something happens because I´m so used to that convenience.  I´ve discovered that I´m getting better at journaling about things though because I have to take the time to write it down so I can tell you all about it when I actually do this :)

Wednesday--Traveling to the CCM was one of the longest days ever!! I was one of 2 missionaries that flew out of Albuquerque, and then we had a layover in Houston.  (I definitely thought of you Catherine!)  The clouds flying into Houston were the fluffiest biggest clouds I think I´ve ever seen and it was so fun to fly right through them!  Then as we waited in the airport for the other missionaries that were flying from Houston to Mexico City we started to get quite the party going! It was so fun to play the Spot The Missionary Game because nobody had name tags yet but it was SO obvious when we´d see someone that was headed out on a mission.  Landing in Mexico was the worst! No plan landing has ever made me feel so sick before but I think that a lot of it was nerves! Then we landed and had this super long bus ride in crazy Mexico City traffic to get to the CCM. P.S. if you thought graffiti was hard to read in English, then you´re in for a real treat when you see Español graffiti :) 

After we finally got settled in at the CCM we got our companions assigned and all of the materials we need to learn Spanish and went to our casas.  My companion is Hermana Hansen and she´s the best! (and don´t worry, I totally warned her beforehand that I talk in my sleep)

Thursday-- We got to meet our District and our Branch President and our teacher.  Our branch president is Presidente Rodriguez and our teacher is Hermano Martinez.  They´re both fantastic!! Although, we just found out that we get a new teacher this week because Hermano Martinez only gets the newbies.  After we talked to our Branch President a little he told us that every week every missionary prepares a talk and that we don´t know who speaks until he announces our names in Sacrament Meeting (so that´s muy terrifying). Also, he asked our district to prepare a special musical number for one of the last weeks we´re here.  I´ll get to play the piano and everyone else will sing, and I´m STOKED.  Now we just have to pick a hymn for everyone to learn en español and practice :) 

Friday--We taught our first legit lesson!! Seriously, they aren´t kidding when they say they throw you right in.  No wonder they learn spanish in six weeks here.  They don´t have a choice!! Our investigator´s name is Genaro.  We taught him a little bit about the Restoration, how the gospel blesses families, and prayer.  We had half an hour to teach him and we went through everything we had in like 10 minutes.  So I panicked and decided to read him something from Preach My Gospel.  BAD IDEA.  So I picked a paragraph that I thought looked good and started reading, and then a couple sentences in, with my little understanding and broken spanish I could tell that it wasn´t something I was supposed to read to him, it was supposed to help the missionaries.  DUH.  So I ended up reading him some paragraph about how missionaries should teach their investigators that they can pray from their hearts and boy did I feel stupid! Oh well, first lesson....CHECK. Also, Hermano Martinez promised us today that if we read the scriptures in Spanish then we would definitely be fluent. HOW COOL.

Saturday-- Saturdays don´t actually feel like Saturdays around here because you just have classes and study like any other day, so my week is ALL screwed up. I woke up feeling like junk and all congested so that was fun, except not. Anyway, we taught Genaro the rest of the first lesson today and took like 40 minutes.  The spirit was incredible in that room!! Hermana Hansen and I didn´t have all the words that we wanted, but it was amazing that even though we were struggling with the language the spirit made up the difference. 

Sunday--I seriously felt like I was hit by a bus.  I was so sick.  I learned that Sundays are kind of fun though! Everything is in English except for Sacrament Meeting (that´s todos en español).  We had relief society and a devotional and on Sundaynights we watch church videos.  It´s different movies every week and then they always put together a little slide show for all the missionaries that are leaving and I already started feeling anxiety for when we leave! Haha that´s probably no bueno.  I love our district so much! We have 4 hermanas and 8 elders and it is so fun! The elders all just graduated high school in May so that´s a little weird, but they´re wonderful! They´re all super super sweet.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks I´ll have time to email some pictures of all of us! 

Monday--Hermana Hansen made me go to the doctor because I sounded like I was dying.  Apparently I have some kind of cold-like virus. YAY. However, I´m just gonna count my blessings with that one because most of the elders y hermanas that get sick here get sick because of the food (it´s kind of.....sketch.)  I think at least 3 of the missionaries in our district have already been sick from it.  I´m probably the least at risk though because I don´t eat very much and I´m like never hungry so estabien. Anyway, we taught Genaro the Plan of Salvation and we realized that our Spanish is finally starting to come together a little! We can understand more of what he says and we are better and putting our sentences together on the spot.  It´s still terrifying every time we start to teach him but we always feel much better after we come out.  We finished off last night with a Mexican Fiesta because it was Mexico´s Independence Day.  They had a group of dancers come in and perform for us and then they finished their performance by singing the As Sisters In Zion/Army of Helaman medley in spanish and it was like the coolest thing ever!! Then we all sang the Mexico National Anthem and it was so fun!

Tuesday-- I straightened my hair for the first time it´s been cut and we´ve taken a few pictures.  P-day has been so nice! I´ve been waiting for it! Everyone says that after your first Sunday and first P-day that everything flies by!  

Okay, I´m out of time! I love you all!! 

Hermana Wilson 

P.S. If any of you love me, you will send me chocolate to Virginia to be waiting for me when I arrive next month.  Mexico is depriving me :) 

P.P.S. This place has some cool history so hopefully next week I´ll be able to write a little about that! 

#StayThug :) 

MUCH LOVE!!