Cuatro. Dias. Mas.: October 10, 2013

Elder Jamias (speaking to the Hermanas in our District): "There's a kind, loving, chiseled piece of man waiting for all of you guys."

Elder Ledakis: "Hey! We are not objects."

Hola famila y amigos!

This is going to be the lamest, shortest email I have written up to this point, so bear with me.  I have twenty minutes to write this, and I'm going to make those minutes count with my speedy typing skills.

Four more days at the CCM. Four. More. Days.  I can't even believe it; time just doesn't seem to exist here.  I just went to the temple today for the last time in 17 months, if you can believe it.  I'm going to miss Mexico. The colorful laundry drying outside on cement rooftops, the billboards, the gutsy pedestrians who walk into the middle of the road and weave in and out of four lanes of traffic, the billboards and advertisements and chaos everywhere.  It's kind of a decaying city, but a beautiful sort of decay, if that makes sense.

Mexican Hunger Games: October 3, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

I only have 11 days left in the CCM.  In the word's of Napolean Dynamite's Kip, "I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious."

This week, not going to lie, was pretty uneventful, so I will try my best to make this email entertaining.  First of all, there is a loud cannon sound that goes off every couple of hours, particularly towards night time.  It reminds me of the Hunger Games.  A loud reverberating boom that goes off and wakes us all up and gets everyone revved up to switch into attack/survival mode.  It's either Mexican Hunger Games or some old Mexican guy who chills by his goat in the mountains and periodically lights off fireworks and/or shoots things. Hopefully not his goat.

Hurricane Volleyball, Anyone? September 26, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

I was told this week by two random people that I look like "the living version of Belle" and also Anastasia.   I look like neither, but hey, I'll take the compliments. It's better than being compared to the actor who plays Peter Pan or Justo Lamas or the other men in the world I apparently look like.

There isn't as much to report on from this last week, but man has it flown.  Seriously, I cannot believe I'm halfway through my time at the MTC.  I love it here.  I was under the impression people either hated the MTC or loved it, and I side with those who love it.  Yes, I'm definitely going to be ready to leave, but Hermana Hawkins and I have really been pushing ourselves this week to study hard and focus, and it's been paying off.  (Just a tad about Hna Hawkins: Such a cute girl, sooo so tiny and petite, beautiful voice, and she tells the corniest jokes I have ever heard in my entire life.  Such as, 'Give a man a match and he'll be warm for a minute.. Light him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life;' or, 'I used to play sports, then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I'm good at everything.'  She has the most impressive knowledge of the lamest jokes I have ever been subjected to. When I met her in the airport, she told me a joke, and I actually had the thought, 'I am going to avoid this girl because that was just too much awkwardness to handle.' The Lord is a funny guy, because now we're companions, and I love her.  We have both come so far in our Spanish, and we work really well together during lessons.  No companion drama. Hallelujah.).

El Mosquito Diablo: September 19, 2013

Hermana Graham: "I swear I keep killing them and they keep coming back to life and have more babies every night."

Me: "The Mexicans?!"

Graham: "The mosquitos!!"

Hola Todos!

I woke up this morning, looked in the mirror, and realized I looked like the blonde guy from "Dumb & Dumber."  Crazy hair, and bags underneath the bags on my eyes.  It was a bit of a disconcerting realization.

No Estoy Embarassada: September 12, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!

I am happily settled into Mexico! I barely had any time to say goodbye at the airport (I nearly lost it in the security line after saying goodbye to Dad), and then it was straight on through security and on to Texas.  When I arrived in Dallas, my plan was to sit in the aiport pitifully by myself and mope, but a mob of other missionaries met up in the same gate as me and there wasn't even time to be sad.  I met three sisters going to the same mission as me! Hermana Howell, Rogers, and Hawkins (Hawkins is my companion for the MTC). The flight from Dallas to Mexico went well--I had a window seat (my favorito) and it was fun to see the perfect geographically mapped out squares and circles of fields in America turn into haphazard boundary lines and chaos.  The MTC, or CCM, as it is called here, is right in the middle of the craziness.  There are so many buildings they look like they're just stacked one on top of the other.  As soon as we arrived at the airport in Mexico City, we passed through customs and I followed five other sisters straight out of airport security....without picking up our bags first.... I don't know how we didn't think to grab them, but we didn't, and we no longer had our customs papers to get back through.  So we back-tracked, and somehow I ended up being the orator who attempted to explain to the workers why we all needed to go back through the gates.  So, as it was a sufficiently embarrassing situation, I told airport security, "Lo siento, necesitamos nuestra equipaje--lo siento. Estoy muy embarassada." Which, I thought meant, "So sorry, we all need our luggage. I'm sorry, I'm so embarrassed," but which actually translates to, "So sorry, we all need our luggage. I'm sorry, I'm very pregnant." That raised some eyebrows.    After a few minutes of brief confusion, and realizing what I had said, we were able to pass through and get our luggage.  And for the record, no, I'm not pregnant.