3/27/2014 Week Three

So basically this week has been pretty eventful...along with having Christmas (aka getting a package), teaching 3 AWESOME lessons, and a very, very awkward one over Skype (not our fault), I also had time to grow a zombie, choreograph a routine to As Sisters in Zion, and voyage through space on the Enterprise.  I love our Elders! haha!

Sis Bonny - Awkward as always

 

I know I say this every time, but this week has seriously been sooooooo awesome!! Every week just keeps getting better and better!  I have no idea how I’m going to leave these people in 2 1/2 weeks!  Its weird, I feel like I was born here, like I have no recollection of my life before this....did any of you actually exist?... or are you just all imaginary friends I have?  I don’t even know anymore!  Just kidding, I love all of you ...but I seriously am having amnesia or something!

Well the Spanish is actually coming along, at least I think it is until I try to talk to someone who isn’t my teacher, then I just laugh and say "si",  it usually works:)  I can read pretty well, but understanding when they are talking a million miles per hour is a very different story.  Pray for me!  But really, the gift of tongues is real!  Who would have thought that in 3 weeks I could teach an entire lesson all in Spanish and feel the spirit at the same time?  It’s crazy awesome! 

Other than that I can pretty much sum my life up in one word…CLASS.   Yup my day is class, eat, class, eat, class, eat, class, bed.   It’s very stimulating.   Learning to love learning has been pretty hard for me, because as most of you know, I’ve never really been the one to say "OK let’s focus guys!"  I’m still definitely not there yet....but now that I’ve been able to see how much better my life goes when I do what I’m supposed to and pay attention in class (also sooo hard for me!), its definitely getting better:)  

My daily routine goes like this - After personal study, I have one class in the morning with Hermana Munoz, and we usually have an hour long lesson on conjugations.  Then we end and teach Lino, our fake investigator that never keeps his commitments!  Terd.   Then we usually have a Book of Mormon class or a lesson on something gospel related, always in Spanish of course:)   Then its lunch!  After lunch we go to T.A.L.L. (technology assisted learning something) soooooooo booooooorrrrriinggg!! We just sit on computers for an hour and do boring worksheets, while I try to keep my eyes open! Then after T.A.L.L. we have language study, where our district usually gets creative and plays some sort of game (totally my idea).  I’ve now played Balderdash, Jeopardy, Apples to Apples and the Story Game all in Spanish:)  

After that it’s gym time.  My district and another district that has a bunch of our friends in it always play volleyball… sand volleyball.  It’s super fun!!  I get into it, even though everyone knows I stink.    

Typical breakfast - FAT

Sometimes I take a break and go running with Hermana Tate. We usually just go run around the track.  It’s alright, but this morning we ran around the campus!  So fun and  a good workout:)   I miss working out in the mornings!  Mom I’m fighting not getting fat sooo hard, but they make it almost impossible!   There’s an unlimited bar of peanut butter, Nutella and toast with every meal! Urg! My 2 favorite things! And every Tuesday night is pizza night and they sell the best candy in the store for like half a cent.  Then there are the elders who always have these chocolate chip cookie thingies (chokis) that they love sharing with us.  There’s pretty much no avoiding gaining weight here!

Anyways, after gym we have planning, then dinner, and then we have our night class with Hermana Dominguez.  She whips us into shape!   Hermana Dominguez is awesome but in a very different way than our other teacher, and she’s very pregnant!  I think she doesn’t think our jokes are very funny sometimes, but that's OK.  Most of the teachers and the people here are super chill…minus the President and his wife, they are intense!!  Every time Sister Pratt is talking with a missionary you know it’s because she’s telling them something is wrong with their outfit!  

After our last class my awesome district sings some hymns and we go back to our casas and let our weirdness out!  Then it’s bedtime…the end:)

Hermana Jensen - love her!!

Things are going much better with Hermana Tate and its totally shown in our lessons!:)  Its awesome!  So life here is pretty much great! Its weird because I feel like I didn’t even have a life before this!

I love my cute family!:)  The package was da bomb! Yup I really just said that.  I was pretty much on a ring pop high that whole day!  If you ever have any weird, slimy, bouncy, or stretchy toys that look like they would be fun for a 3 year old, then send them! por favor:)  

This is our District mascot.  We grew him, 600% bigger!

Ok, so last random thought...do I look like a platypus?   Hermana Jensen and I thought of animals one day for all the elders (hehe) and then they decided to return the favor and...PLATYPUS???  I’m pretty sure that’s the ugliest creature in the whole animal kingdom!

The church is sooo true!! just so you all know:)

Lots and lots and lots of love

Hermana bonny!  

3/20/2014 Week two

 CCM is the Spanish version of MTC. It means Centro de Capacitacion Misional

Basically week 2 sooooooooo much better than week 1!!!!!  I love it here! like seriously!:):)  I'm actually starting to understand the language and stuff! yippee!  I'm not even a teeny bit homesick...no offense;)  haha basically if you are worrying about me, don't because I'm so much better than before! 

Basically on a scale of 1 to 10 week 1: -3, week 2: 12!!!   I LOOOVE MY MISSION!!! now that my brief and unpleasant brush with jail and mission shock is far behind me, I love life!!:):)  here's why.

1. They have the BEST lollipops here that only cost 10 cents!

2.  I get to be surrounded by the cutest most righteous missionaries all the time! district 15B "dream team"  they're dorks. 

3. I have the best companion/housemates ever!  h. Jensen, h. Coats, h. Olsen are all weird, love singing for no reason and laughing awkwardly! Its an understatement to say we get along great!

4. I lost 5lbs on my Nutella and Frosted Flakes diet.  Someone tell me how that works....but ya the meat here is kind questionable.  haha. One crappy thing (no pun intended) about having someone to always be with is that when the food makes them sick, i also get to spend the better half of my day in the bathroom with them...yay.

5. I don't ever have to do my hair because I don't have to worry about attracting anyone for over a year! So much less stress...ahhh

6.  Costco pizza night every Tuesday. Enough said.

7. I  get to teach the gospel and be surrounded by it everyday! I know it sounds cheesy but really there is such an amazing spirit here!  Its so rare!  The happiness you feel when your on a mission in unlike anything I've ever felt before!  You just have so much more love for everything and everyone!

8.  Me and my comps got called to be the hermana leaders of our zone, which basically means nothing besides now we are the ones who get to tell everyone else "I promise it gets easier if you just make it to Sunday" haha its fun though:)

9.  We get to pretend like we are in the Hunger Games!  Because apparently fireworks and some explosives of all kind are legal here....ya sketchy right?  So every time a cannon goes off we all whistle and kiss our three fingers!  Every time I do it it makes me think of Aubree! haha!  

 

I found a new favorite scripture that pretty much describes the missionary I'm gonna be.  2 nephi 7.11 "Behold all ye that kindle fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of ^ayour fire and in the sparks which ye have kindled. ^bThis shall ye have of mine hand— be the best."  

3/13/2014 Week one

Ummm oh geez where to start!  First off P-day is AWESOME!!!!!   I miss you guys so much!  Its crazy I feel like I've been gone for like a year already!!  I don't even remember if you guys are real or just some strange people in my dreams!  So basically the first 3 days were the pits and I was seriously wishing that they hadn't found my passport.....but then after Sunday Ihave loved it.  For reals, this is awesome!   I have the best (most musically inclined) district ever! (pictures to come) and TWO companions! (umm....more to come on them too..) but remember that one girl that we met in the airport?? ya we are like best friends!   She's so awesome!   I'm probably going to seriously over use that word today!  Basically this mission thing is not what I expected at all but its so much more!


First off most people don't start off their missions in jail.  I did.   Yea, for all of you going foreign or coming back from foreign places, or even just going on vacation, don't EVER leave your passport on the plane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Apparently I look like I could be a terrorist since I'm you know white and all..so they wouldn't let me walk 50 ft back onto the plane to go get it!   Instead they sent me to Mexican airport hell. Literally.   I have no guilt in saying that because that's what it was!  I had to take off all my jewelry sit in a locked up room with metal benches and a few mats on the floor (that were occupied by some very iffy individuals), and guess how long i was there? ya not 3 or 4 hours....ELEVEN!   I think the people in charge forgot to look for it because they didn't find my passport until the plane had already flown back to America!  Grrrr, ya it gave the whole "love the people you teach" thing a rocky start.  Once they found my passport (exactly where I told them it would be, in the pocket in front of my seat) they had to send it back to Mexico on the next flight out.  If my passport hadn't been returned that night I would have had to leave Mexico early the next morning and finish my MTC training in Provo!  Pretty crazy how close I came to not even making it into Mexico!

If only I had listened in Mr. McDonald's class! (thanks Michelle;)  so ya dia uno was the pits. No joke.  I cried mucho!  But anyways, I finally made it to El CCM and it is beautiful!!!!  As you will see below its just this cute little town/village with a bunch of colorful houses all full of even cuter missionaries!  Oh but its smells like poop.  So ya I met my companions (yes i have 2:) at 130am when I finally got to mi casa and Hermana Jensen is amazing, like we were friends before this life!  Hermana Tate on the other hand is very different from me, but she keeps me focused and on time and remembers the things I forget, so I know I'll be glad I had her :)

     
Well now onto the boring stuff...class, but its pretty much my life.  Spanish class is ummm makes the ACT seem like nothing!  Its for about 4 hours straight every morning with one 5 minute break!   By the end I swear I can hear my brain sizzling!   But hey, now I can pray and speak perfect Spanglish! Yahoo!   

Hermanas Tate, Bonny, Coates, Olsen, and Jensen

 

Well this is really stressful trying to type all of these emails and read all of your lovely emails in my ity bity time window, and I forgot everything I had planned out to say!  So here's my missionary robot moment so bear with me...

The church is sooooo true!  Last night we taught our "investigator" the most rockin' lesson EVER! (all in Spanish btw) and the spirit was so strong!  It makes all of the hard parts of a mission worth it!  So for all you missionaries heading out soon (Morgan), no matter how hard it is at first, because believe me, I definitely cried a few times on dia 1 and 2, the spirit you feel makes everything worth it!  So don't get discouraged!   I'm sure all of you wonderful Elders can back me up that the lord has your back:) 

She is "at one" with herself...but where are her companeras?

3/5/2014 Saying Goodbye

Sierra's Farewell was Feb 23rd and she had the chapel full of family and friends to support her.  
She spoke about honesty and integrity and did an excellent job.

Sierra and a few of her closest friends at the Open House following sacrament meeting

Penny made Sierra a masterpiece of a quilt covered with images from home

Finally the big day arrives! March 5, 2014 

  

We woke up before 3am so she could catch a 6am flight.  Saying our tearful goodbyes was so bittersweet...but little did we know we would speak to Sierra numerous times before the end of the day!

Awkward!!

That's more like it

's

Mom just couldn't hold it in any longer

She made it through security (it wouldn't be so easy in Mexico) Now the travel adventure begins.