Week one! :)

Hola Familia!!

Ive been waiting all week to finally write to you all! My expierence here at the MTC is amazing! I love it!

Aparently we live in a very dangerous area. One of my spanish teachers told us that some of the teachers took a taxi to a nearby walmart and on their way there they saw a dead man on the ground that had just been killed. (he was a drug dealer).... but dont worry we have security 24/7 and we have about a 10 foot brick wall plus  another 10 foot barbed wire fence on top of that, plus some nifty electrical stuff on top of that. We are enclosed in the 90,000 sq. feet fortress! 

It rains every single afternoon here. I love it! Good thing i have my umbrella! The weather is perfect. like 70s every day. And even when it rains its still warm!

This was just the 3rd week the MTC was open and so it is still really small and unorganized.

I live in a house with 3 other immediate roommates. 4 others in another room and then native spanish speakers are moving in today for 12 days. One of my roommates told us she was going home on sunday and we were all soo sad. She is from highland and said she just couldnt handle it. however, she changed her mind and is still here! We have maids that come in and take our trash out and also wash our sheets!

The food

The food is alright. It is always a hit or miss. Some meals i love it and other meals I only eat a piece of bread and an apple. They have salad everyday but not ranch dressing, or any dressing for that matter. They give us  their style of pancakes, but no syrup. They do use that chocolate syrup we put on ice cream. Sunday lunch is where they give us ice cream bars! They were sooo good! i cant wait for this next sunday again! The drinks are always so gross and so i get water... thats the only time i can drink water since everywhere else it's dissusting. They gave us a water bottle with a filter in it... but the water is still not too good. They did order purifyers for our houses so hopefully we get those soon!   

We have a store on the MTC grounds that we can go to. I go there to buy some nerds and runts... almost everyday... I think thats what is saving me! Thats the only American candy they have! haha We get 120 pesos each week that we have to use or it goes away so i have plently of money to spend on just what i need!

Grandpa and Grandma, i met some hermana in your ward. Her name was Hermana Mangum. She said she graduated from Timpview in 2010. She also said she played basketball. We apparently played agaisnt each other. She admitted she hated my team and that we were known for the mean girls. I tried telling her, i wasn't one of them... i dont know is she beleived me. haha. She will be going to Fort Collins Co.

Sunday is the best day! We have tons of meetings but almost all are in english! I actually understood what people were saying! Sacrament was in spanish however, and the MTC president was at ours. We all had to prepare a talk to give... in spanish... and then they would call you up to speak. My companion got called up, but i escaped. Ill probably give one next week! There are only 20 elders and 4 sisters in my branch. I was also named the Sister traning leader... and so i have an extra mtg on sundays.. (that adds up to 7 meetings)

My zone is awesome. A lot of immature boys... but thats what makes it great. Me and my companion do have to get on them to study sometimes, but for the most part they just make us laugh at their immature little jokes. Most of the Americans here are going back to the states for their missions.

My companion is from Iowa. She is super cute and we get along really well. She went to college for 2 years at St. Olof in Minnesota. She is super smart. She already knows chineese and french. She for sure thought she was going somewhere where you would use one of those two languages.  she is catching on to the spanish sooo quick. Its crazy.

On friday we had to start teaching our first "investigator" for 20 minutes all in spanish. or spanglish. I sat there and understood maybe 10 words. my companion could understand it all but didnt know how to speak back. So she translated it into english for me and then i responded. However, now she can speak back (im telling you she is SO smart) and so now i sit there most of the time! Each lesson i understand more and more.  

We got to go to the Mexico City temple today and do a session. The temple was about a 40-45 minute drive. Driving through the town was CRAZY! So many people live here.

Well i think thats it for today! love you all! have a great 24th of July!

Hermana Warner