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.