So yeah, such a great week!
The following is our basic schedule for the day.
6:15 Wake up (Which really means, listen to the alarm go off
for Hermana B2 to take a shower and for me to groan about how tired I still feel or
get mad about how a stupid mosquito kept me up from probably like 5:45 on. I start saying my prayers at about 6:30. We get ready until about 7:13 which honestly is more than enough time for
me. I've become such a boss at getting ready in no time ;)
7:13 We walk over to have el desayuno at the comedor. I love
breakfast!! Actually I love lunch more but I'm usually dying of hunger by like
9 at night so that's always nice to eat breakfast :)
7:45 After eating and staring at each other for a bit
because it's early, we start heading out the door. But before that!
Hermana B2 goes and makes herself another half sandwich of nutella/peanut
butter and I get myself a spoonful of either one. #noshame After that we walk
over to our aula which is in the Lorenzo Snow building. The CCM by the way is
the second largest MTC in the world! Idk if that means missionary wise or acre
wise because it's actually 90 acres. Crazy yeah?
So this is where the hours of death commence.... #cantbelievewemakeitthrough
After Coaching we usually have Progressing Investigator which is where our teacher goes and pretends to be our investigator. Oh it's great awkward fun #supsawk Fernando was a great investigator but we had to say goodbye to him the other day and tell him that we were being transferred :( So sad. He committed to baptism though and we ended with discussing the tree of life and he said he wanted to share the fruit with his wife and I was like well duh ;) He was a really easy investigator honestly, so that sort of concerned me sometimes. But Hermana P. who was Raquel for us during the night, was good too but she was a bit more work.
So at 12:15 we are released from our prison and we go back to
the comedor for LUNCH!!!!! My favorite part of the day of course, I love the rice and beans. They only offer the rice and beans during
lunch. And they really simplify for dinner so that's always interesting. But
they offer cereal during dinner so that's nice, but one can only have so many
cocoa crispies...It's all good though! Lunch seriously is fabulous though. Love
it.
At about 12:45 we dump our trash and trays off and we go
back to our casa so Hermana B2 can nap until 1:15 which is when we have
TALL. I used to nap but then I always felt groggy even after a 20 minute power
nap. Guess there's no such thing as a healthy power nap on a mission #ohwell So
Hermana B2 usually redoes her makeup and hair during this time and I do a combination
of both. Usually I don't care. #arewesurprised #classic
1:15 we walk over to TALL and that's always a fun afternoon
walk in the sun. Hah. #walkinonsunshine. Most of the time it usually consists
of me being like "el sol!!!!" and pretending I'm a vampire cuz we're
cooped up inside all day. TALL is fun cuz we listen to motab and efy music
during it. It's great personal grammar study time for me honestly and I get
answers to all my never answered questions dealing with random things about the
idioma of spanish that I just never thought about.
2:15 We have Companionship study and Language Study after
that I think. These hours are always rough cuz we are tired and full and don't
feel like doing squat. Companionship study begins with us having Companionship
inventory which mostly turns into us laughing and talking and getting good
things said. It's helped us a ton. Usualmente I end up being the therapist for
my companions and I impart my wisdom from parents and grandparents and such. It's great fun. It's sooo much fun being
with girls 24/7...too bad I'm one too! ;) We also share what we learned in
Personal Study that day and incorporate it into the lesson we'll be teaching
next.
3:45 We walk back to the casa to change and not happen to
forget our name tags to go run our buns off on the field or cycle our legs off
in the gym. Or Hermana B2 likes to play ping pong with our Elders. This is
also a fun time for me to be a total beast and lift a whopping 10 pounds and do
some girl push ups and watch this one teacher lift like 45 pounds and I'm over
there like "um I'll just put these 5 pounders back..." Usually if I
ever do the elliptical, I end up stopping at the top cuz I like feeling tall and
I "zone out" according to my companions. It's always fun when it rains cuz the
gym turns into a mad house of Hermanas. I love gym time!!!
4:40 We start heading back but just happen to find ourselves
in the tienda ;) To buy, oh yes MORE CHOKIS!!! Oh and did I mention our cards
got denied this week! There we were in the tienda trying to buy chocolate milk,
extra chocolate chokis and hershey bars when BAM Hermana B2's card got
denied. Then I tried and mine got denied too!! Probably a sign from above that
I shouldn't buy/eat so much dang junk. But if I've learned one thing here about
eating at the MTC, it's that you eat your feelings and I've become quite the
pro. So I ended up only being able to buy the chocolate milk. Sad day cuz it
was good but it was gone within the walk back to the casa. Word on the street
is, they don't put more money on your card the last week you're here. And to
think I wanted to buy more pens :)
4:50 It's Hermana Despain's turn to shower!!! Praise the
heavens. Almost the best part of the day. So I shower and freshen up my makeup
and usually walk out with wet hair. According to my companions though, I can
rock the wet hair. Thank goodness cuz that's what it will be for the next 16
1/2 months!
5:20 We race back to the aula cuz we're 5 minutes late for planning
as usual. And so is everyone else in the district! Surprise, surprise. We plan
and then go to the bathroom and go to dinner.
5:45 DINNER!!! Not as good as lunch but it's still pretty
dang good and it's food so I'm happy. The tria of hermanas from district 15E
(that's us) is fun, know why?! We sit in our corner and people watch us shove
food in our mouths and periodically raise our eyebrows at each other or comment
about this Hermana's hair bun getting bigger everyday, or laughing about how we
don't know how they're aren't more accidents in the comedor with missionaries
running around like chickens eating their food. It's a madhouse but you become
a real boss at it.
6:20 We leave and because they have the nutella/peanut
butter makeins again, we get a half a sandwich and eat it on the way back to
the aula #supafun #traditions #cantgetenough
6:30 We have class with Hermana P. which means the
Elders are entranced and they chatter like little school girls. They all really
love her- it's fun. We have Language Study again and Progressing Investigator
and Coaching.
We sing and pray at like 9:20. Then we book it home and
write in our journals and go to bed.
I should mention that about every half hour we go to the
bathroom.
Here's our pattern of how we get through the weeks here.
Sunday is just great cuz we're all together pretty much as American's for a ton
of meetings and devos and classes and videos. Mondays are hard and we look
forward to Tuesdays because Tuesdays we have Devotional so that means no night
classes!!! Praises! Tuesdays we look forward to Devo that night. Wednesday we
have TRC so that's a nice change but it's also P Day eve! But mostly we look
forward to Thursday because it's PDAY!!! Thursday's are good usually or bad as
mess cuz you miss family and friends like you've never missed them before. We
look forward to Fridays because that means an hour of service! And an extra
hour of gym pretty much which gives me more time to shower! Fridays we look
forward to Saturday because it's almost Sunday. We love our pattern :)
Oh my goodness this weekend is the celebration of Mexico's
Independence. The city is about to go CRAZYYYY. And they already set bombs and
cannons and fireworks off like three times a day!!! We get to participate in a
cultural night on Saturday I think so we're excited to go out with a bang.
Literally. It will be a cool week to leave. Yay for Mexico :) They had
different desserts out this week in honor of the celebration so I was always
super brave and tried the crazy stuff. Like this cool lime dessert made from
coconut! 
The flautas were INCREDIBLE. Totes pic worthy so yeah. They
were amazing, same with the tamales. I'm really lucky. The Emperador brand of
cookies here are so good! I'm saving the wrappers. Elder M's mom sent Krispy
Kreme doughnuts this week! Can't even tell you how fun that was. And of course
we wore the hats.
You know you're in the Mexico CCM when you're emailing home with a mango chillin' next to your desktop...Yep, that's right! I asked an Elder if the mangos are good and he said they were and that I could just take the one he was holding, so I did!!! It's a little squishy and he said they're juicy but that will just have to be for later :) Cool stuff.
That girl from Chapel Hill would always call me Cary, which I loved!!! So she would be like "Hey Cary!" It was seriously the best.
There's a Native Elder here we contacted the other day and every time he sees me he's like "Hermana Despain!!" And I probably make the weirdest face being like "someone knows my name??" And then I notice it's him and I'm like "oh heyy!" The other night after TRC, he was like asking me all this stuff and was like "mail?" and I finally figured out that he wants to email and write while I'm on my mission and of course I had to just be like "oh! haha ok! por su puesto!!" and then walk away like "uhhh what just happened". He wants a pic on Sunday, joy :) Hermana B was like "he wants to marry you" as we were walking away, we had a good laugh. Gotta watch out for those Nativos! ;)
So that song from Rudolph got stuck in my head randomly this week, the one that's like "we are Santa's elves, building Santa's shelves, blah blah blah, something something, we are Santa's elves". It was so random but had me cracking up.
We FINALLY found some Elders going to San Pedro Sula East!!! I think their names are Roberts and Williams. They are super nice and the other day at dinner when they let us cut in line because we're Hermanas and it's like a rule here, Elder Roberts was like "it's a good thing you're going to my mission!" So pretty much we treat them like brothers, it's great :)
We have in-field training tomorrow actually! We don't really know what to expect but we can't believe it's finally here!
We got to watch the World Report video on the Mexico CCM! It was so cool and totally exciting! If you haven't seen it you should check it out! It was recorded too early for me to know any of the teachers in it or the missionaries, but it's still neat. It's so sad to hear them talk so much about how sad all the students and families were to hear that it would no longer be the Benemerito school of Mexico City. It makes us appreciate and respect it a lot more, we're really lucky.
The other day during TALL I heard an elder log on and be like "There's a file here that says "top secret missionary no-no's", why is it there? Is it trying to tempt me??" Oh the things that become funny when you're a missionary :)
I met an Elder M. from Gilbert Arizona who knows the Eastley family! Pretty cool!
We went contacting last Thursday night and it was the coolest thing! We had so much fun and the Natives were so sweet to us and helped us out! I was so impressed with our ability to focus and speak con fluidez and just really go with it unplanned! We had a blast.
The other night we taught Raquel who is alcoholic and my heart totally went out to her, I mean I'm not an alcoholic but life is hard! I felt such love for her, it was the COOLEST thing. I loved it. A lot of the lesson was us listening and it was a real benefit to the lesson. I wanted to do everything I could to help her and I wanted to stay with her all night and just tell her everything would be all right and that addictions are just the worst but that Heavenly Father has provided a way for us to change because repentance is the closest thing we have to a time machine. There have been times in my life where I've just been like seriously? Can I get a time machine up in here? So I've learned that repentance is real and that the most important thing to learn from it all is to MOVE ON. Life goes on and we'll never change if we don't allow ourselves to.
So some lessons I've learned since being on my mission are as follows...
1. Others before yourself, selflessness
2. Love others
3. Doctrine: Principle: Blessing
4. The Lord provides a way
5. Positivity
6. Heavenly Father answers prayers
7. No one that reads the Book of Mormon falls away (Elder Holland)
8. Love is everyone's native language (Hermana Pratt)
9. Listen, don't interrupt (said of course in your best bon qui qui voice)
10. Go and sin no more (Christ)
11. We sacrifice for the things we love and we love the things we sacrifice for (From a devo)
12. You're not ever supposed to go back to what you were, even if you were terrific (Elder Holland, of course ;)
13. He is always on our side when we do what is right (Can't remember who this is from)
14. Silence is more than okay
15. It's better to be slow and right, than quick and wrong
16. God has called you to be you (Hermana B but it doesn't mean we can't be a better version of ourselves)
17. It isn't weird, it's just different (Genius words of mom)
18. Exact obedience
19. You can only control yourself
20. Light vs. darkness
21. It's your attitude that determines your altitude, not your aptitude (Elder M's little book of missionary reminders)
At first I was wondering if I really wanted to share these because some of them are pretty personal, but then I was like "What the heck, I'm on a mission, everything is personal!". So I hope these inspire or benefit some of you! Plus I figure if you're still reading my emails, you're probably really special and important to me :)
Some notes I took from a devotional by Elder Holland to missionaries...
-He wants you to work a little harder
-This is as close as you'll get to real life
-You're never going to have this chance again
-Who/Where I married was affected by my mission
-Have one convert, yourself
-This is the only time you'll devote everything
-Savor every single, solitary minute
-Don't let anyone down
-You don't have to be perfect
-Carry the torch for the next generation
Loved those! So it's pretty great here because sometimes they'll announce who is giving the devotional and anytime it happens to be Elder Holland every FREAKS out. It's beyond hilarious. You would think that we were going to a concert for like the most popular artist in the world. He IS practically is the most popular artist in the world! Except he's an Apostle ;)
So this week was really good but I can't believe that by the next time I am writing home next week, I'll be in Honduras! My home country for the next 16 1/2 months! I'm nervous, I'm not gonna lie, but I know I have a ton of support from back home, in the mission and from up above! I'm excited to go to Honduras but I'm also scared out of my mind. I was scared out of my mind to come here though so we'll just have to see. It will be an adventure, that's for sure! It's great what a mission can do to the connection you feel with Heavenly Father, key word "can" because a mission will change you if you let it!
I love this gospel, anytime I think about it, I just think of cleanliness and purity and perfection and it makes me want to be better. There is always an answer and there is always a tool to help us overcome anything, but it's our decision to put forth the effort and make the change. Heavenly Father loves us and I love this church, it amazes me more and more everyday! Thank you to the stars and back for all your support and prayers, I can definitely feel them. Good luck in this next week, I hope you all have amazing weeks. We're so blessed! Pray for me on my trip over to Honduras, I'm going to need it! The next time I write, will be from the amazing country of Honduras :)
Love,
Hermana Despain
