The Girl with the Veracruz Mission: I Still Hiccup

Hola todas las personas quien leer mis cartas,

Last week in the CCM. Less than a week. Wow. This week itself has been going by super fast. Are we ready? We're a little worried. We know enough Spanish to try to get a point across in our lessons. But we have SOOO much more to learn. I guess that's going to have to happen in the field. Remember before I left I was feeling every emotion? It's kind of like that. But I feel it more. So... I just have to put my trust in the Lord and remember that with Him I can do all things. Everyone should read Alma 26:12. It is my favourite scripture because it reminds me that our Heavenly Father strengthens us and with Him we can see miracles happen. Read the whole chapter. It's fantastic.

I've loved my time at the MTC...or the CCM as we call it here at the West Campus. Assuming that Devon Healey is coming to the CCM, he is in for a treat. I remember one of the Elders back home said the CCM is a weird campus. It's not, it's the best. There are so many things here that you can't experience at the MTC main campus. You get to know the cafeteria staff a little better. The cafeteria is small here, whereas it's huge at the main campus. When I was in Vegas, one of the staff noticed and asked where I had been that day. You also get to say thank you when you hand your tray to the dish pit. It's all automatic at the main MTC. You get to see the mountains every day when you walk from your residence to the classrooms.

You get the ducks. I love the ducks at this campus. You ride The Ryde (the bus) to go to the temple and you have awesome drivers. Our favourite is Logan. He's an awesome hipster. The teachers here are awesome. Espeically mine.

Conference was amazing. We watched it at the main MTC so we were there for two days. I forgot my notebook in my classroom. But I am grateful for Elder Ballard's talk, the importance of follow up. We've been learning about making important committments lately. I try to do the committments that we extend to our investigators and see what I learn.

For our Sunday Night devotional, a 9 man acapella group from BYU came to sing to us. Vocal Point. They were so good! They had inspiring messages as well. To remember our purpose.

On Monday I was in Vegas all day. It was tiring. It wasn't as exciting as it sounds. When we were outside taking a break at this institute, this guy came up to us Hermanas and started talking to us. I think it's because he saw a bunch of pretty girls from the distance. We told him we were missionaries, and he when he went back to his friends he basically told them 'never mind, they're missionaries'. We went to the consulate to take fingerprints for our visas as well as another picture and we got dropped off at the airport after. We were there at about 2:00pm. There were 11 of us. We ate our lunch/dinner at California Pizza Kitchen at the airport and I got a thai chicken pizza -- it was really yummy. Our flight was supposed to come at 6:40 but it got delayed until 8:25. So.... we didn't get back to residence until about 12:00. When I got home, I brushed my teeth and just went to sleep in my dress. I didn't wake either of my companions up :). I missed learning and being in the MTC that day.

Tuesday morning my zone was happy to see me, and I was happy to see them. I hiccuped when Hna. Orr walked into the classroom and she said "I missed those hiccups."

We all LOVE our district. They are awesome. We both have our study periods at night, and they like to invite us to their classroom so that we can have a closing prayer together. I feel closer with them than I have the previous districts, so I'm excited for the missionaries that come in our zone after them.

I'm sorry that this letter is shorter than my previous ones. Sometimes it takes longer for me to collect everything that I want to say. And I never get to say everything that I want to.

I'll end with this:

My companions needed a pep talk last night because of all the stress right now. As Senior companion, I took the lead in that. There are days that are awesome and that we love. There are also days that are so hard and we just want to go home and cry. But every day we grow a little more. We may not recognize it at that moment, but it happens. Think of your favourite scripture and why it inspires you, and each time you have a hard day, read that scripture and remind yourself why it means so much to you. I have grown a lot this past month, and I'm excited to see the growth that happens throughout my mission. One reason we are here on this earth is to grow and be perfected.

Until Mexico.

I love you all.

Hermana Jones