First week in Mexico

Hola! Wow! I am so overwhelmed with how many emails I got this week! 27 by the way. Haha most of them were from Dad though with pictures that I couldn't see. Dad, please just send me some physical copies if you can because I don't have time to wait for all of those to download! So, this past week has been crazy! It has been both really slow and really fast. Time is weird here. I'm super grateful because I haven't really been tired at all and I just want to keep going all the time. Every night I want to stay up and study, but we have to be in bed at 10 30. My companion is really nice! Her name is Hermana Ficklin and she is from Ogden. She's 22. Right now we are the only ones in our room, which is way nice because we get our own bathroom and there is a ton of room! I get up at 6 every morning because we only have to be at breakfast by 7 so there isn't enough time. The first day, and pretty much every day after that actually, we have had no idea what is going on. They handed us a schedule and that was our only direction. President and Hermana Pratt have talked to us about rules and being obedient, but as far as the day to day, we just kind of have to figure it out on our own. It's weird. By the way, the Pratt's are really strict, but I like them a lot! They have a cool life story and have been in tons of places. Both are completely fluent in Spanish. I shouldn't say we are totally lost, because we do have a super great teacher named Hermana Valdez. She was born in Peru, but grew up in Provo and went on a mission to Texas. She speaks perfect English and Spanish. She is bran new here too so she hasn't really known what is going on either. She worked in the Provo MTC for about 10 months before coming here. I LOVE her. She is such an amazing person and is a really good teacher. The food has actually been really good. It does get a little repetitive sometimes, but it is fun eating authentic food. Honestly, nothing I've eaten so far has really been bad. I just never eat the salad or any fruit that would have been washed. So, I eat watermelon, pineapple and cantelope sometimes. The only thing bad about being here was that the first few days my left food was swollen and numb. :( I went to the clinic on Friday and the doctor (who is American and one of the few people who speak English) said that it was probably from being on a plane so long. It has gotten a lot better the last few days though so that's good! Oh, one other thing that is no bueno. I broke my watch! :( I have the top bunk and it slid off onto the tile and cracked. Mom, do you think you could get me another one? The same one if possible would be great, because I really liked it! If you want to send it to Mexico you need to express ship it but I can wait if you want to send it to Minnesota. The city is so crazy. We are completely safe inside the CCM, but outside there are all sorts of sounds going on outside and Hermana Valdez said it is super dangerous. I believe her. We here sirens all day and night. Saturday there was a fiesta that lasted forever and the music was SOO loud. Until probably midnight. Kinda funny, but ridiculous too. I got here Tuesday and on Friday we had to teach our first investigator... in Spanish. Yeah. So, Hermana Ficklin and I pretty much spent all our study time writing out word for word how to say everything we wanted to in the most basic and simple way possible. Our investigator's name is Pedro and he speaks 0 english. It was kind of a struggle, but not too bad. We challenged him to read 3 Nephi 12. The next day went back and he hadn't read. Our lesson went a bit better though. But, Monday was absolutely amazing. Hermana Ficklin and I prepared our notes, and were planning to talk about the Book of Mormon and challenge him to be baptized. (We can only teach like one topic each time because of the language barrier) But anyway, we went in there and didn't use our notes at all. Our spanish wasn't perfect, but we just listened to the Spirit and it was so great. Pedro is hard to understand, but when he was talking I thought of a scripture in Alma 32. I had him read verse 21 and then I read verse 27 in spanish. Tears came to my eyes. The spirit was so strong. I can't even describe it. Oh, by the way, Hermana Ficklin had no spanish before coming here, so it is definitely harder for her. But she is doing so good considering it has only been a week! Anyways, the next day after our lesson Hermana Valdez told us privately that she talked to Pedro (who is really another teacher pretending to be an investigator he had on his mission) and he said that our lesson was the best he had ever had as a fake investigator. He said he felt the spirit so strong through our testimonies. I don't tell you that to brag at all. It really wasn't us, it was the spirit. We just let him lead us. It was such a cool experience! Sunday was also amazing. We don't talk a ton about the gospel every day because we mostly just work on Spanish. But Sunday, was more gospel centered so the spirit was really strong. In Sacrament they randomly choose people to give a 5 minute talk in Spanish. Our Branch President told us no one in our district would have to go this Sunday because they had already assigned it. I feel so blessed because I can understand mostly everything when people speak slowly in Spanish. No way that could be possible without the gift of tongues! It is real! Ok, so I should probably mention my district. There are 12 of us. Hermana Ficklin and myself, and two other Hemanas- Livingston and Dodson. Hermana Livingston was Ashley Livingston's roommate so that's pretty cool! And then there are 8 other elders who are pretty much all 18 and all act like they are 12. But, we have become pretty tight and they really are good missionaries! They are just out of control sometimes, haha. We laugh a lot. Hopefully I can send pictures. Oh, also, Hermana Ficklin is also going to Minnesota, but we are the only 2 in our district. (The other hermanas are going to NY, NY and the some of the elders are going to Independence, Missouri and 2 are going to Oklahoma. There are at least two other elders and one other sister that are also going. Wednesdays will be my Pdays. I have been looking forward to this day forever it seems so that I could here from all of you and also go to the temple! This morning we went and it was awesome! I´m so glad I went a lot before I left on my mission because I was able to keep up with what was going on. Literally no one spoke a word of english in there. It was okay though! It is so pretty! And the spirit was there even though it was in another language. Afterwards I was waiting for Hermana Ficklin in the dressing room and this lady came up to me and grabbed my arms and started speaking in rapid-fire spanish. I only caught 'gracias' and 'misionera.' She gave me a huge hug and left. I think I said gracias, but I was speechless. I´m pretty sure she was thanking me for being a missionary. She was so sincere and it was really cool. I don't know what it was about her, but it made my day! Oh! Shout out to Brooke! Thank you for the letter you snuck into my suitcase! The phone was so great. I was laughing so hard. (She gave me a paper phone and drew pictures of a lock screen and a screen with a bunch of apps) It was awesome. Ok-spiritual thought of the week: We had a lesson on Sunday from Elder Tenario of the 70 on specific prayers. He told us some really cool stories about people who had specific prayers. I won't take the time to repeat them all, but the idea was that if we make a plan and pray very specifically, the Lord will answer it! We just have to promise we will do all we can and rely on the Lord for whatever it is we can't do. I have been working this week on being more specific in my prayers! All of you should too! You all are the best! Keep writing me and telling me what is happening! I love you all so much! Love, Hermana Pierce

TO Mexico

Hola familia! Well, I just arrived at the CCM and I'm so excited! It's kind of hard to write because this keyboard is in Spanish, haha. I am so grateful that I made my flight to Mexico! The flight from SLC to Phoenix was delayed about 30 min and then I only had about 10 to get to my gate! But, I made it! I wasn't with any missionaries until my last flight, but then there were a ton! I sat next to Elder Wagner who is from Mesa, Arizona. I found out there are at least two missionaries that are going to Minnesota! One elder and one sister. The drive from the airport was pretty long, but I got to see a lot of the city so that was pretty cool! I took pictures so I'll send them the next time I write! I'm excited to be here and I'm so grateful there are so many other new missionaries that are in the same boat as me right now! I prayed a lot on the way here that I would have the Spirit and be excited and ready to learn and work! I definitely have felt good today so far even though nothing really has happened yet! Now I get to go find out where I will be living and probably find out who my companion is! And eat dinner! I don't even care if the food isn't very good right now because I am SO hungry! Thank goodness I had those snacks on the plane, but I really haven't eaten since breakfast at 5am because there was absolutely no time to stop and get lunch! But, that's okay because I will be eating very soon! Haha... I love you so much! I have to go now, but have a good week and send me lots of emails! :) Love, Hermana Pierce