Week 4

YOU GUYS!!!!! I only have 17 months left! This is going by too fast! There`s too much to do in the next 17 months, and I don`t know if I`m going to be able to do everything I want to do!

Well, I`m pretty ready to get into the field. I LOVE being here in Mexico, but I`m to the point that I`ve memorized the schedule and it`s getting a little of the same. But there are also other times that I want to stay here longer, because I am NOT ready for the field. There`s so much to learn about being a missionary, how to speak Spanish, and there`s always more to learn from the scriptures.

I think I forgot to tell you this, but there was a camera crew here a few weeks ago just filming the campus and missionaries. We heard that it might be for the World Report between sessions of conference in October. So PLEASE watch conference! It might be your only chance to see me for the next 17 months. Also, conference is good to watch anyway, so you should watch it. BUT!!! I`m not sure how accurate the footage will be. In the comedor (cafeteria) they had table cloths on the tables. THAT IS NOT HOW IT IS HERE!!!! There`s so many messes that missionaries make that it would be awful to have table cloths. They were just trying to make it look fancy. I think the rest of it is pretty much how it is. Except when they took that footage, there were maybe 300 people here. So it was pretty chill and organized. Now, there are a lot more people. Probably about 600, and we get 100-200 more missionaries every week! Starting next week, the Americano missionaries will start leaving, so that`ll help. It makes me very grateful that I was only of the first groups to come here, so that I could ease into the craziness. In the comedor, I`m pretty sure I run into an elder at least 2 times every meal, just because there`s so many people, and not really enough room for us all to be there at the same time. I`ll try to get some pictures next week so you can imagine this better.

With that, Pres. Pratt told us on Tuesday that the MTCs in Peru and Argentina have filled up! So this MTC is getting about 25 missionaries that were suppose to go to those MTCs. It`s just another reminder of how awesome it is to be a part of this work and this time! I love it! Even if it is crazy!

Because of the switch around, and because this place is still in the process of getting organized, they moved all the districts around to different classrooms. I really don`t know why. But we had to move buildings, and it was kinda nuts, because the district that was moving out of that classroom was still moving out, and the district moving into our classroom was trying to move in. We got it all worked out, we just had to not get our stuff mixed up. We were really worried that we might lose our teachers with our classroom. But the next morning, Hma. Mackay and Hmo. Garcia walked in like any other day. We were so relieved!!!

We also had an earthquake alarm. When there`s an earthquake in some city up north, the alarm goes off here because there`s a chance it could come to us. We were outside studying when it went off. We went to one of the meeting points and waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened. One of the MTC leaders came over and told us it was all good, and we went back to studying. The end.  I was kinda hoping for an earthquake, because I really don`t remember ever feeling one. Maybe there will be a small one before I leave.

Pres. Pratt had a devotional about the history of the temples in South America. Because being the President here, he worked with legal stuff for the church, which involved a lot of getting land for the church to build temples and other buildings. So he`s been a part of a lot of the temples "south of the border". One of the temples took 8 years from locating the land to dedication because the legal stuff took years to figure out. He told us to make sure that after the mission that we make sure the temple is a part of our lives. It`s a great goal to be married in the temple so that your family can be sealed for eternity, but it needs to remain a temple marriage, in that you go back, and make it part of your life. I know that`s easier said than done for most of us, but I know that it is really important. The temple is the goal in this life, and we should keep returning. If you haven`t been through yet, do everything you can to get there. If you haven`t been in a while, make the sacrifices to go, it will be worth it. Como un representante de Jesucristo, yo prometo que el Señor darà bendiciones en sus vidas cuando ustedes van a el templo. El Templo es la Casa de Dios. Jesucristo he esta en todos de los templos. El Espiritù de Èl esta en todos de templos. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and emails! Just to let your guys know, I don`t actually have people addresses, so I can`t send you letters until you send me one. But at this point, don`t send letters to Mexico, because I can`t promise that I will get them!

Les amo, muchisimo!!!

Hermana Despain

This is a statue that is here from when this was the Benemeritu de los Americanos

This is me at the temple a couple weeks ago. We get to go again next week!

This is my branch with President Christensen, our branch president, and his wife.

Hermana Callejas drew my distrito on the board one time. I thought it was cute.

These native elders would ask us to share our testimonies in Spanish every time we saw them. They were so great! They said we were very good, and that they knew we were going to be amazing missionaries, even if we thought our Spanish was horrible.

These were some hermanas that were so cute! They would give us hugs and kisses every time we saw them.

This is my district!!! Elder Peacock, Elder Gregson, Hma Mackay, me, Hma Newbill, Hma Marley, Elder Munson, Elder Dennis and Hmo Garcia

This is us freaking out in the meeting during the earthquake alarm. Hma Haywood and Anderson live in our house with us and are in our branch. The other hermanas were just in the circle with us. 

Week 3

Hola Familia y Amigos!

I'm half way done with the MTC!!!!

This week has been pretty chill, I think that must mean I'm getting used to everything. I'm not really sure how much better my Spanish is getting, but I'm going to assume that it's getting better. I don't really know how to see my progress. I have definitely noticed that I understand more than I use to, and that's exciting!

We watch devotionals on Tuesdays that have been sent to us from Provo. From watching those, I feel like this MTC is a lot more relaxed. Pres. Pratt is very chill but also quick to crack a joke. I've become very grateful that I had to wait 2 months longer than I wanted to leave on my mission. If I had left in May like I wanted, I wouldn't be here now, with these missionaries, and these teachers. I love it so much! My teachers are amazing. Hma. Mackay reminds me of Jeffrey R. Holland, in that she's not afraid to call us to repentance, but she's also very loving and has a lot of wisdom to share. She calls us "hermanitas", and I definitely see her as my big sister. The other day she looked at me, so I smiled, and then she just grabbed my face in her hands and squished my face. She said she's wanted to do that for a long time... But it was sweet :)

We have 2 "investigators" right now: Ramona and Miriam. Ramona is wonderful, and just soaks everything up. I love teaching her. She doesn't know how to read, but we gave her the Book of Mormon before she knew that. We found out later that she would wake up at 4 AM and just look at the first page, 1 Nephi Chapter 1. One day she told us that she could read a word. The word was Dios. That was her testimony that the Book is from God. A few days later she could read the whole first verse. Remember, these "investigators" we teach are actually investigators that our teachers had on their missions. So even though this didn't actually happen with us and Ramona, it happened with Hma. Mackay and an investigator she had on her mission in Texas.
Miriam is a little different. She's hard to get to know because she doesn't open up very well. And she doesn't believe that Christ suffered for her pains, sorrow, sicknesses, and her sins. We teach her again tonight, and we want to get to know her better, and learn what she needs in her life, which will ultimately lead to the Atonement of Christ, because that is what everyone needs.
We learned a lot this week about the Book of Mormon. Last week I told you guys too look up the devotional by Jeffrey R. Holland, but I found out that MTC devotionals are only for MTCs and you guys can't watch it. BUT!! There's another way to learn why I'm here, and what I'm doing here: READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! That book is the reason I'm here. It's the reason you're sitting at a computer right now reading this email from me. It's the reason I live my life the way I do, and the reason I'm the person that I am. That Book has changed my life, and I've seen it change other peoples' lives. Yo se que eso libro es de Dios, y que José Smith tranducio el Libro de Mormon por el poder de Dios. Yo se que porque eso libro esta en la tierra hoy, tenemos el poder de Dios (el sacerdocico), y tenemos un profeta hoy, Thomas S. Monson, y que tenemos apóstoles de Dios. Yo se que este iglesia, la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la un y solomente verdadera iglesia en la tierra hoy. Yo se estes cosas porque yo he veo la mano de Dios en mi vida. Yo he vea como el evangelio han cambia otros vidas. Si ustedes quieren saber si esta iglesia es la verdadero, leerá en el Libro de Mormon, y orará a Dios saber la verdadero. Even if you already know the church is true, and that The Book of Mormon is true, do it again! Conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a constant process.

On another note, I think I forgot to tell you all about the mosquitoes here. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!! And I don't like them. We make it a game to kill them. I've gotten pretty good at catching them, and shaking them to kill them. That way I don't get too many guts on me. Our branch President said it's ok to kill them during church too. But one of my teachers, Hma. Callejas, won't let us kill them. She says their creatures of God, and if we kill them they won't get to live until the resurrection, which I guess is true... But when there's a million of them, I think it should be ok to kill most of them.

Also, they're doing some construction near my casa, to build a new post office. But they keep turning off the water, usually around the time in the afternoon when we get home from the gym. It's not so cool...

Last thing, I got a priesthood blessing this week, yesterday to be exact. I don't know what it is, but I have some kind of sickness. The doctor is my Branch President, and he said to get as much rest as I could. Hma. Mackay sent us home, because I felt like I might pass out, but I didn't. I'm not telling you this to make you worry, I'm feeling better now, and I'm sure I'll be good to go soon. I'm telling you this because I got a blessing from one the 18 year old boys in my district. Actually, all of them were there, and any of them would have given me a blessing, but I only needed one blessing. I used to be a little worried about 18 year old boys doing God's work, and bringing the Gospel to people all over the world. But now I'm not at all worried about it. In the past 3 1/2 weeks, I have watched those boys turning into men of God, and I am so excited to see what they will do with that power and responsibility. Of course they're not perfect, neither am I, but they do hold the Power of God, and they know what to do with it. Those boys are my brothers in the Gospel and I love them very much.

Yo se que este es la obra de Dios. Soy muy agradacido por la opotunidad ser una parte de esta obra. (sorry, my Spanish has a ways to go!)

Thank you for everything, especially for the prayers. I could not do any of this without all the support you all give me.

I love you all very much, and I miss you a lot. But I'm very grateful to have such wonderful people in my live to miss :)
Te amo!!

Hermana Despain