Week 4 - July 24, 2014, Mexico City CCM

     So I will try to share a lot, but, wow! I struggle to write everything.  Anyhow, my Spanish progress is slowing down, but, hey, when you're fluent, it has to stop sometime.  Just Kidding!  

So there are 2 missionaries that left here for the Twin Falls mission.  Although you will probably never see them, (AKA they speak Spanish) I will tell you their names;  Elder Trappitt and Elder Dickerson.  They are both Southern boys, so naturally they helped us with our southerness, and naturally, they will probably fit into Idaho well - except for Elder Trappitts "Gator Huntin" (probably wont have too much of that).   Who knew that when we were called to Kentucky we would really be learning 2 new languages- Spanish and Southern... and hey, I guess I can`t forget English.  I think that through learning Spanish, my English is also progressing ( minus the spelling.  Here they actually spell how it sounds- my paradise!!!!!).

     This week has been really good. Ok- well good and bad.  Since we are enclosed in a small area, when one person gets sick, the whole CCM gets sick.  Luckily, I have been blessed enough to not get too sick, but we nicely get sore throats and coughs.  And for me that includes nice periods of time where my brain shuts down.  Pero, esta bien.  

     The more I am here the more amazing I realize people are ( Sorry.  My thinking is Spanish so my  wording may be weird.)  My teachers are absolutely amazing.  They genuinely care about us.  They match their teaching to our needs and help us grow.  They make me want to be an amazing missionary just by watching their examples.  It is amazing to see their kindness and their love for each one of us, even though I know how many students they have had.  We really are blessed with some amazing people here.  Some of the stories are too personal for me to share with you, but they are some amazing people, and I know that miracles still happen today.  

     This week was going great.  Everyday I would come home, without struggle, and would be super happy.  Life was good.  It was good until I reallized that struggle was a sign of progression.  I really wasn`t progressing like I should.  Although I could progress somewhat, I was not having that daily struggle.  I was not going home exhausted from my days work.  Don`t get me wrong, be cheerful in all things, but I realized that cheer should and can always come from our struggles which,if we let them, will lead to progression.  It reminds me of a talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf when he said to be grateful in your circumstances rather than in just the good things.  I am learning that being grateful is so much sweeter after the struggle, so I should be thankful for it.  Since I am a missionary now I naturally have to add a scripture to that.  "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things".  It's a great scripture.   So, naturally with this, things got harder again.  My Spanish seemed to go backwards, but, hey, I am happy that I am progressing once again.

     Ok, so being the me that I am, I am still struggling to get the $50 worth of pesos spent.  Yes, I mean spent.  There are only so many candy bars that I can buy-(although they are great!!!)  It is time to spend those pesos, or I guess I will just make another trip back.  9 days left here in the great country of Mexico, and then off to the real thing.  I hope we are ready.  I can`t wait to get there.  Well I know that is not much to go on, and I wish I could write more, but there is just too much to write.  I miss home, but I love it here.  I am super sad that I missed build-fence day with Grandpa and Lafe, and I missed the Pass creek trip to Goldilock's cave, but, hey, all is well.  So, I had better go. I am glad everything is going well for mom.  I hope that dad isn`t working too hard.  I hope that Kali is having a great time at AFY, and Lafe is not going too crazy with his wii game.  I love you all a ton.  

 

  Love you all.

Hermana Gamett

 

P.S.  Kali dear Kali, please get a bunch of music together and put it on my white mp3 player.  Anything from LDS.org, or classical I and take off the other music.  I am really missing my music. And some of the best advice I have used,  (or have had a lack of use and need to use more) is from Brother McBride and what he has told me about being confident.

Week 3 - July 17, 2014, Mexico City CCM

 My companion and I are rocking it.  As you can tell from the pictures, we are so very different, but we have used that to our advantage.  We really were sent here together for a reason.  We are a lot more alike than I thought, and our differences are blessings.
 
  We study Spanish for about 3 hours a day.  We have personal study, and we teach an investigator.  It is really great.  There is a scripture that says, "Seek not to declare my words, but seek first to obtain them.  Then at the very hour you need them you will know what to say."  So we learn the language, (but our lesson plans are usually not in Spanish).  We seek first to learn the gospel, and then we teach in Spanish.  I guess that it is a testament to me that its the Lord's way for a reason.  It really is great.  Both of us are getting better at Spanish.  It is actually kind of fun to teach.  We are doing pretty well.  We plan lessons, of course, but we go in and just talk to him because it is going so well.  My scripture study is also going really well.  I finally feel like I am getting the hang of it.  But, don`t let that make you think that it will last!   I am sure that I will start getting frustrated all over again, soon!
 
   My companion and I get up at 5:30 and go running, and then we play volleyball as a district.  Our district is pretty great.  We are like one big happy family.    

 

   I have to say that I remembered Dad`s birthday.  I remembered last Thursday right after I wrote.   Yes, I am sooo on top of things. I hope that he had a wonderful birthday.  I really had better go now.   I miss you all a ton, but am happy to be here.      

 

Love you so much,
Hermana Gamett    

 

Mexico City

 

District 10

 

Hermana Gamett in front of CCM sign

 

Companions- Hermana Butts and Hermana Gamett

 

Beautiful trees 

 (I am a Gamett hard core because I take lots of pictures of birds and plants)

 

Trip to the Mexico City Temple

 

Trip to the Mexico City Temple

 

 

Mexico City Temple

 

Angel Moroni with the Golden Plates

 

Mexico City Temple 

 

Temple Visitor's Center 

 

Temple Visitor's Center

 

Week 2 - July 10, 2014, Mexico City CCM

Ok.

    So, not much time, but I love it here.  The food is amazing.  The people are so kind, and every time it rains I just think, "Wow!  What a blessing." (I guess my mind is still in Idaho where there isn`t an actual "rainy season".)  Hey! I guess I get to feel blessed more often- like every day.

    I guess that you could say that my Spanish is doing better.  I speak a lot more and my prayers are getting a lot better-I say them in Spanish, of course.  I have to make myself remember that I am not going to say everything right in Spanish, and that I cannot just nod my head and say, "Sí" because when my companion does the same thing, it makes us both look really bad.  Yes, yes, all hard lessons to learn.  When I get feeling a little down, I just have to think, "Suck it up.  You're not here for you.  Pull yourself together."  And then I realize that I have only been here 2 weeks and can understand most of our lessons and investigators. (No they don`t speak English - OK.  Well, not only English). 

   Ok.  So the next thing that I thought would be difficult was the bugs.  Nope!  The bugs are not bad at all.  There are some interesting spider bites that my roommate gets, but, hey, the mosquitoes don`t even like me here.  I get to enjoy watching people, especially Elders, flinch when spiders land on them.  And I get to be entertained during Sacrament meeting when a huge spider inches its way down to land on someone, but they leave me alone.  It's the best of both worlds.

     So, I am almost out of time, but here is the last bit. I got to go the Temple today.  I was so super excited to see it.  I think that they usually do a session, but it was closed, today.  It is really cool, though.  They have a really great visitor's center, which is beautiful.  I loved it so so much.  It is all decorated like it may have been in the Book of Mormon times.  They have a room that is just like Jerusalem.  I got some great scripture cases for my Spanish scriptures and a great HLJ bracelet.  HLJ stands for "Choose the Right" in Spanish.  It was great.  I think that one of the best things about the temple, other than the fact it is a house of the Lord, was the angel, Moroni.  The temple in Mexico is supposedly the only temple in the world where Moroni is holding the golden plates.  That was pretty cool to see.  I will send a great picture as soon as I can.  

     I love home so much, but am so glad to be here.  I am so grateful for all the people that have and do support me.  Without the people at home, I don`t know who I would be, or where I would be.  Love everyone so, so much, and hope to write again soon.  I would write more, but I am out of time, so Adios.

 

Les Amo,

Hermana Gamett 

 

More photos, courteousy of Hermana Bennett and her mother, Nancy.

 

Hermana Farris, Hermana Bennett, Hermana Heather, Hermana Butts (Heather's companion)

They are all in the same casa.

 

Their casa

 

Their casa 

 

Campus

 

Campus

 

Week 1- July 3, 2014, Mexico City CCM

OK,

So,  I was ready to get on the return flight when we started the descent into Mexico City.  I was not ready to be here and I wanted to go home.  However, customs was not a big deal, and I was totally cleared.  The airport was a little confusing.  Imagine having all the signs in Spanish, and knowing only a few words in Spanish.  I am so glad that Hermana Bennett was there with me.  I had to ask some of the people, with what little Spanish I had, what I should do and where to go.  Don`t worry though! I am here now.  

     So my companion and I are very different, but it works really well.  She is from Utah, and there are 9 of us going to Kentucky.  It is crazy.  There are also 3 of us from Idaho. So, naturally being from Idaho, we are not used to the rain.  The humidity isn`t bad at all, but the rain is crazy.  It rains nearly every day.  I love it-something new to me.  One night it rained so hard that I was sopping wet when I got home.  The water started coming down the hallways in the building where our classroom is.  Luckily that day was the first day I wore my most expensive clothes, and the clothes that would get ruined the most.  But hey, no big deal!  The streets were like rivers, and in the gutters the rain came to my calves.  It was amazing.

     The food here is great.  The fruits are different, but really good.  And they actually have real lemon pepper, like with real red peppers.  Yes, my heaven.

     So, the gift of tongues.  It really is real, but I learned that it still doesn`t inflict upon your agency. You have to let it happen.  So, one way I know that it is real is through the language itself.  It was coming back really well, and I was remembering a lot.  I kept working at it and was trying to get everything  down.  At first it was good, and then frustrating, and then it was ok again.  So, that is one way that the gift works.  Way number 2.  You just start speaking.  Yes, that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  We have taught 4 lessons to an investigator, really our next teacher, in pure Spanish.  Crazy, yes it is! However, my companion is really good at Spanish and takes up the awkward pauses. I just felt like I needed to say something.  So I opened my mouth.  It all just came to me.  I told him about how we were all children of God and God wanted us back.  It sounds really weird when I write it like that, but it was amazing to me.  It is also kind of nice to know that I can`t say anything that God doesn`t want me to because I wont remember it.  Anyway, I started bawling. I think that it was partly because of the spirit there, but I knew that I was only the one conveying words.  I was actually fluently speaking Spanish.  

     On, another note, I can pray almost fluently in Spanish, as well as often slip up and write in Spanish instead of English. It is coming.  It is not here yet, but coming.

 

LANDSCAPE- So when I think of Mexico I think of dry dessert.  Not so, mis amigos.  Here in Mexico City we are literally in the mountains.  They are green, but still big.  There are houses surrounding us, and the colors  are so fun to see.  The trees are super green and most of them have some type of flower on them.  They also have palm trees-( I learned from Hermana Steele that Palm trees are NOT coconut trees).  Anyway, it is all very new to me, but I absolutely love it.  The CCM is in the (as my companion says) Ghetto. We get to hear really nice music from our rooms some nights.  It is probably good that I don`t speak fluent Spanish, because I don`t think it would be missionary approved.  But it was nice for the little change.  

 

MY DISTRICT- We are super goofy. There is an intestinal virus going around the CCM, and some of my district members have gotten it.  They have even taken extreme measures here at the CCM.  We can`t shake hands.  Wow!  Who knew it would get to that point.  Let`s just say, I carry hand sanitizer all the time.

 

MY FIRST KNOWN SPANISH MISTAKE- There are quite a few words that can be said to mean something, but if they are said with the wrong emphasis, they can mean something else.  For instance, Hijos- can mean child if you drop the h, but if you say it with the h then it means really disobedient.  Imagine saying you are a child of God wrongly.  Another one is Papa (with an accent) and papa (without an accent).  One means dad and one means potato.  It can get a little messy.  Well, mine wasn't even a good mistake.  I was doing room prayer and meant to say, "Please bless my companions."  Well instead,  I said, "birthdays".  Ya, I guess we really like our birthdays.   

     Well, it you can't tell, I am running out of what I should say.  I guess I will bring my journal next week.  It was good to talk to everyone.

      I love you all so much, and hope that you are all doing well.  Have a wonderful week.  I will try to send you pictures soon.  Love you all!!!  Tell Galieth I love him, too.  Meadow too, I guess.  And Flappy.  

 

LOVE ya,

Hermana Gamett

 

Well, Heather didn't send us any pictures, but fortunately, I have connections.  So here are a few photos, courteousy of Hermana Bennett and her mother, Nancy.

 

District 10 and the CCM sign

 

District 10

 

District 10

 

Earthquake Circle

 

Hermana Bennett and Hermana Gamett

 

Mexico City

 

Mexico City

 

 

A Sweet and Sour Day

We got to the airport bright and early on Wednesday, June 25th.  We felt amazingly awake for it being only 4:00am.  Bart and Hermana Gamett went to check out the flight schedules and just stood there staring for a while.  When they came back, they had looks of disbelief on their faces.  Heather's flight had been CANCELLED!  What?  Crazy, huh!?  I'm sure this happens all the time for missionaries, but I have never heard about it.  What should we do?  After speaking a little with the really nice airline people, Hermana Gamett called church travel services.  They told her to set up another flight and they would notify the Mission Training Center in Mexico City of her new arrival time. 

In the meantime, a young girl and her family arrived in the airport.  We had been told by a good friend, LaRue Lambert, that there may be another Sister Missionary flying to Mexico City with Heather.  Thankfully, this young girl was her.  Her name was Hermana Bennet and she and her family were super great.  The girls decided to DEFINITELY reschedule their flights together.  There were two choices- Fly to Denver today and the airline would put the girls in a hotel overnight and they could fly to Mexico tomorrow  or... come back tomorrow and do all the traveling in one day.  One Day, Please!!! 

So, Hermana Heather came home.  She was still a missionary, though, and followed all the rules.  No TV- No inappropriate music.  She stayed in her missionary clothes all day and spent her time trying to do what she would be doing in the MTC, such as scripture study, reading Preach my Gospel, writing in her journal, practicing her Spanish, playing the piano.  It was a little hard for her because she wanted to be on her mission, but she made the best of it.   .....and boy, was her dog happy to see her (and confused).

2:00am the next morning came quickly as we prepared to attempt to send Heather on her way to Mexico City again.  We drove from Mackay to Idaho Falls.  This time when we got to the airport, the schedule did NOT say cancelled and Hermana Heather and Hermana Bennett were very excited to get those tickets in their hands!

 

It wasn't long before we knew it was time to say goodbye for 18 months.  I won't lie.  There were definitely some tears!
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love that girl!

 

They were on their way!!!  First to Denver, Colorado.  Then on to San Francisco, California.  And then to Mexico City where they would be picked up by someone from the MTC after they got through customs.  Hermana Gamett was so nervous about customs and all of us are so grateful that she had Hermana Bennett as a flying buddy and friend to help her get through some of these experiences with greater ease.

That night, we received a short email from Hermana Gamett letting us know she had arrived safely.

Dear Familia,

I am here.  It is absolutely beautiful, what I  can see anyway.  Everything went well, and I I will write you soon.  I am alive and well and love you all very very much.

                Heather               

Earlier in the week, Lafe had heard someone talking about "bitter-sweet"  and he asked me what it meant.  I explained it to him and when I was done, he said, "Oh.  That sounds like sweet and sour.  That's how it will be when Heather leaves on her mission."  And he was so right.  Saying goodbye to someone you love so much was a little sour, but knowing she was doing what she felt to be right and was serving the Lord in such an unselfish way to help others, is about as sweet as it gets!

It's Official--She's a Missionary!!!

I am Charmaine Gamett, Heather's mother.  She asked me to keep her blog updated for all our friends and family while she is serving an 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Kentucky, Louisville, Spanish-speaking mission.  Most of what I post will be her exact words straight from her letters and the pictures she sends.  But until then....

On June 24, 2014, Heather was set apart at the Mackay Ward Building to be a missionary by President Steve Atwood, first counselor in the Moore, ID Stake Presidency. 

Hermana Gamett

 

Grandma and Grandpa Waddoups

 

Grandma Gamett

 

Our Little Family

 

Because Heather had to board the plane at 6:00am the next morning, and we would have to arrive at the airport by 4:00am, we decided to go to Idaho Falls and stay the night.  So once Heather was officially a sister missionary, we went home and she said her goodbyes to Grandpa and Grandma Waddoups --sad--   Then we loaded up the car and she said her goodbyes to her dog, Galieth (yes, I know it is spelled strange, but if you know Heather you will understand why) 

 

Heartbreaking

 

Then we headed out!  Heather told her mountains goodbye  (yes, she calls the mountains in Mackay HER mountains) and we headed to Moore to tell Grandpa Gamett farewell. 

The currants were on at Grandpa and Grandma's.   Heather was so happy!

 

Grandpa and Grandma Gamett

 

Sad tears, but soon we were on our way to Idaho Falls.  We ate a yummy dinner at Olive Garden, then went to the Shilo Inn where we had a beautiful view of the Idaho Falls Temple.  Then off to bed (for a couple of hours!!)