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