Yoo Hoo! Saltillo

Every morning when I wake up I think ¨WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING HERE.¨ I still can´t believe I´m here... This all began as a little tiny thought way back in March, and now I´m roaming the streets of Mexico, stopping people and talking to them in broken Spanish. But the people are usually nice and my companion helps me out when I get that blank look on my face that means I-have-no-idea-what-I´m-saying-please-help-me. She´s great like that. 

I finally remembered to attach pictures to this email so I don´t have to send two emails. If it looks like I´ve gained weight, it´s because I have six layers of clothing and I might have eaten 8 tortillas de harina (homemade flour tortillas) yesterday... 

It´s not that cold here, but the past two days have been super foggy and humid. It´s so foggy that I can´t even see the huge mountain range that surrounds Saltillo. THERE ARE DOGS EVERYWHERE. Whoa, Megan, calm down. Dogs aren´t that bad. Well having little chiuahuas follow you around nipping at your heels makes me want to kick them into space. None of the dogs like us here... We´re fitting right into the Mormon missionary stereotype. It´s great. I love it. 

Contacting people on the street is hard. It´s hard to figure out who to stop, what to say, etc. All last week I was having a hard time because it´s like ¨Hey you! Do you know your purpose in life?¨ I mean, imagine having a complete stranger white girl stop you and ask you that. But then one day I woke up and said, ¨whatever.¨ I contacted 13 people that day. One of them just happened to be a lady who was baptized as a kid, but then never ended up going to church. She had gone to different churches throughout her life but she had never stuck with one. She was so happy that we stopped and talked to her! Another one resulted in an appointment and the lady said that her daughter is interested as well! I hope they listen to our message.

IT´S CHRISTMAS TIME. Yay. It doesn´t feel like Christmas. But Hna. Peñaranda and I put up a tiny cardboard Christmas tree and now I feel all festive.

My Spanish? I taught myself the verb ¨to sneeze¨ the other day. Yeah, it´s going fantastic. No problem. Moving on. 

I was teaching the first lesson (The Restoration) the other day and I forgot what I was saying halfway through. So to buy some time I sunk slowly into a chair and pretended like I was in deep thought, pondering about the next inspired thing I was going to say. All eyes (there were 7 people) followed me- they were listening very intently- and they stared at me until I said ¨I forgot.¨ And then they busted up laughing. The people here are awesome. 

I have also been kissed on the cheek more times than I ever have in my life. I´m sure you can imagine my reaction when someone did that to me for the first time. WHAT ARE YOU DO...ing.... oh. 

Heat up a cornbag for me and stay warm.

I love you all even though I can´t respond to your emails. I´m responding to them in my mind as I read them so just develop the sense of mind reading and we´ll all be happy. 

I love you!

-Hermana M-ohr-set

That´s how they pronounce it.

 We feel more Christmassy now that we have our cardboard tree up.

Oh, My Goodness! Saltillo

Spellcheck is marking all of my words wrong because they are English words. This is going to be annoying. 

     WHERE TO BEGIN. Oh yeah. I'm in Mexico!! Crazy. On Monday I woke up at  2:30 in the morning. Meh. But hey, I wasn't left in my room. There was a point when Elder Nay had to stop to tie his shoe and I made everyone stop and wait for him so that he wouldn't be left behind. Anyway. My first flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta Georgia was about... 4 and a half hours? (It took me at least 30 seconds to find the which key the question mark is on...) Then I called home then I jumped on a flight to Mexico City. Then from there we got on a rinky dinky plane and flew to Saltillo!

      Our mission president met us there. I really like him. He made it a rule that all the native Spanish speakers have to learn English so that when they get off the mission they can also be bilingual. He's really funny and his wife is the same. We had a little break for food and he told us to go find our companions. Well there were only three Hermanas so we asked him which one. He said "Through revelation." So we kinda stood there staring at them in silence because we don't really know Spanish and they don't really know English. It wasn't awkward at all.

     HALLELUJAH I figured out how to change the keyboard settings to English. But spellcheck is still being annoying.

     Okay, now I'll tell you about my companion. Hermana Peñaranda! She's from Columbia and too pretty for her own good. She's really funny though. I'm the second "hija" that she's trained. She don't take no nonsense. I was inviting people to be baptized on the first day. (They said yes, if you were wondering). She casually told me that we were going to have THREE baptisms on Saturday and that we had SIX other baptisimal dates. Whew! My first day she dragged me around Saltillo.

     Oh yeah, I'm in Saltillo, by the way. My area is called Zaragoza 2. But anyway, she dragged me around our area. I have never felt so American in my life. I understand about half of what people are saying and the other half I smile and nod and laugh and act like I know what's going on.

     But sometimes that doesn't work out because sometimes they get talking about really weird things. Such as prostitution. I was smiling and nodding during that conversation until I heard a word that sounded like "prostitution"and then I put my concerned face on beause I figured that one was better.

     BUT DON'T WORRY. I met an American Hermana today and now I have hope for my future. She's got the language down. She also mistook me for a Mexicana. Score.

     I'm getting used to the food. It's not that different. But I have a hard time eating the soup. Hermana Penaranda scarfs down her food in two seconds and then it makes me look like I haven't eaten anything. I think that's the only thing I dislike about her. STOP EATING SO FAST.

     We have quite a few investigators. They're all awesome. There's one family, la famila Esparsa, that I am in love with. They have a little boy and he and I have developed quite the connection. I'm friends with all the kids because I have no idea what's going on during lessons so the kids and I become friends.

     Now I'll tell you about contacting. IT'S SO HARD. Going up to people and saying hi is no big deal, but then I have no idea what's going on afterwards. So yesterday during church I had an idea. I did it with two people and one resulted in an appointment!

Ahem.

Me: Hello! Can I practice my Spanish with you?

People: (How can they resist a gringa asking for help?) Of course!

     Then I proceed to bear my testimony in Spanish. Then afterwards they talk about Christmas and such because we have these little cards that say "He is the Gift" (In Spanish of course). Hopefully I can get over my fear. That's been the biggest of my struggles, is contacting. Actually that has been my ONLY struggle, haha. 

Oh. None of the houses here have heaters. I'm freezing all the time. But that's okay. 

     On my second day we went to go visit a lady named Clara. We were talking about the Restoration and Hermana P. told me that I was going to share the First Vision. No big deal, I have it memorized. So when the time came, Hermana Penaranda looked pointedly at me and I felt awesome because this is the one thing that I know how to say and say it well. So I start saying the First Vision in Joseph Smith's words, and man, the Spirit was thick. I could practically see the light in her eyes and the Holy Ghost touching her heart. Afterwards she said she knew it was true. AH. 

     Mexico is fantastic. I am fantastic. Bedtime is fantastic. The people are fantastic. The three baptisms were fantastic. The gospel is fantastic. 

I don't really have that much time, I took most of it trying to figure out the keyboard. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Oh, and if you want to sent me a letter everything gets sent to the mission office. 

Eulalio Gutierrez #1057

Col. Las praderas

C.P. 25295

Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

                                                                                                 My door.

 My companion Hermana Peñaranda navigating the vast wasteland between colonies.

Three of us missionaries from my MTC district are in my district here.  We had a baptism our first Saturday in Saltillo.

By the Way, I'm Going to Mexico!

Did you know that? I'm going to Mexico. That's just loco. Luckily I'm super good at suppressing my feelings so I'm cruising along like a sailboat while my companions are a train wreck. 

This week has been a week full of "lasts". LAST TUESDAY IN AMERICA. LAST WEDNESDAY IN AMERICA. LAST THURSDAY IN AMERICA. So on and so forth. I'm it still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving. My Spanish is.... fine. Heh. Heh. No it's not. But I'll learn. The other day our teacher, Hermana Hearne, let us teach a class lesson to her in English! I think she just wanted to be reassured that, yes, we are capable of teaching. Trying to do it in Spanish, not good. This is how it goes: "I know that God to give we things that to receive bless the gospel please I don't to know what I am to say" Anyway, I think she was a little worried about us. So we gave "Areseli" a lesson about tithing. And at the end she started crying and was pretty much speechless for a good minute. She said that she had never seen anything like that in all her years of teaching and that we are going to be powerful missionaries. Then she kept crying and said "The Spirit, man!" Talk about a confidence boost. 

Oh my goodness. I have to tell you about my dream. So in my dream it was the day that I was supposed to leave for Mexico. I woke up (in my dream) and it was light outside! So I look at the clock and it was 11 am. WHAT. My companions LEFT me! So did my district! So I started sobbing and wailing in panic and my parents show up (completely normal) and comfort me a little but then pushed me on my merry way to go eat breakfast. The whole time I'm thinking HowamIgoingtogettoMexicoI'mgoingtodie. So I walk into the cafeteria, and lo and behold, I see an Elder from my district, Elder Nay! So I ran over to him and went "ELDER NAY THEY LEFT YOU TOO WHAT HAPPENED?!" Apparently he had been with the airport with them but when he bent down to tie his shoe, they left him. I asked him if we could travel to Mexico together but he said that he didn't know if that was appropriate and that he would have to do some personal study and prayer about it. Such a missionary. Long story short, I ended up in Mexico somehow and Hermana Valerio and Hermana Dalton were still my companions. So as we were getting ready for bed I asked them why they had left me. Hermana Valerio said "Well it looked like you were having such a good night's rest so I figured I would let you sleep. Then we forgot to wake you up and left." I started yelling at the both of them and went to bed fuming. Then I actually woke up, into real life and I thought that the whole thing was real. Let's just say we did not have a very pleasant morning. I forgave them eventually. 

I'm just not going to go to bed the night before so I will be sure to be awake. Good plan. 

I think I'm actually going to miss the MTC... I'm going to miss my district horribly and I don't know what I'm going to do without them! We've grown together so much over the past 6 weeks. Yesterday Elder Vaughn, who didn't know a lick about Spanish, gave me a whole lesson in Spanish yesterday. I was so proud! And then Hermana Dalton, who ALWAYS brings in notes to our lessons, didn't bring any yesterday. It's been a good time. I have an undying love for cardigans and shoes with velcro. I ate a cheese burger today and tried to savor it. Elder Daines won't let me take a picture of him, but I am still trying. Elder Nay screams out "!HELADO!" every time a teacher leaves the room. Helado means ice cream. I will never understand him. And I'm still crossing my fingers that Hermana Valerio won't forget to wake me up. Even though I'm the one with an alarm clock. 

I've got to go pack! (Yay happy day) I love you all so so so much. These next 17 months are going to fly by. Like lightspeed. Speaking of lightspeed, Elder Nay and I have frequent Star Wars geek outs. One time we had a mock lightsaber battle. 

Moving on. 

I love you. I hope you know that. I am so grateful to be on this mission and I can't imagine being anywhere else. No matter how hard it is, this is the best thing I have ever done in my life. I love my Savior and I can't wait to go teach about him in broken Spanish. God be with you until we meet again!

                                        Our classroom light switch, courtesy of the elders in our district.

                                                                           A shadow picture.

                    Elder Morrill was transferred to the Sacramento, CA mission.  A sad day in our district.

 My friend Shaeli has been at the MTC with me for the past 6 weeks! I love her.

You Can Sleep When You're Dead

My alarm clock doesn't glow so for the last few days in order to see what time it is in the mornings, I've been leaning halfway off my bed so I can try to see the time by the light that comes out from under the door. Well this morning I remembered that there is a button that makes it light up. I KNEW THAT. I knew that just 4 days ago and then all of the sudden I'm almost throwing out my back to see what time it is. Sheesh.

That's my story for the week. Here's a quote from yesterday:

"If the Mo-Tab sings it, we can sing it."

Here's another:

"For all you know I could be kissing her!"

I won't put that one into context so it will be more confusing and gasp worthy for you. 

This week has been pretty easy as far as the MTC goes. We sang "Praise to the Man" in the MTC choir and I was hoping that a member of the 12 would come to the devotional we sang it at so we could blow his socks off. But one didn't come so we blew the socks off of the 2nd counselor of the Presiding Bishopric. 

Today is my 31 day mark! I feel like I've been here for a year. I feel like I'm going to be here for the rest of my life, struggling with Spanish, and eating hamburgers. I ate a hamburger yesterday, by the way. It was... burgerish. Anyway, today we got our flight itinerary! I haven't seen it yet but I hear we're leaving at 3:30 in the morning, going to Salt Lake, that flight leaves at 7:20, we fly to Atlanta, Georgia, have a layover, fly to Mexico City, have a layover, then we're flying to Saltillo! This is crazy. This coming week is my LAST WEEK. WHAT. I'm not ready at all, but that's okay because there ain't no way I'm not going. 

Oh! An elder from my district was reassigned to Sacramento, California English speaking due to health problems. We seriously got about 5 minutes to say goodbye to him and then he was taken to a new classroom, moved bedrooms, and got a new name tag. I almost cried. He can't just leave! We see him around a lot and it's always like "OH MY GOOSSSHHHH!!! HELLO!!!!" I saw him today in the laundry room and he was wearing his Spanish name tag. He said he likes that one better because it has the robot sticker that I gave to everyone in our district. So I gave him another robot sticker to put on the back of his English one so he doesn't face the wrath of the name tag police. If those exist. 

Life is good! Sleep is rare! I just realized I have to start packing! NO!

Maybe I'll have a more exciting week next week. Wait, what am I saying? MISSIONARY WORK IS ALWAYS EXCITING!! Actually it is. Yesterday one of our investigators told us that he smokes marijuana. And before we understood what he said (our Spanish is bad) we were smiling and nodding and saying "Si!" and then it clicked and we went "WAIT NONONONONONO THAT'S NOT WHAT WE MEANT." Then when I was asking him if he had read The Book of Mormon I accidentally said (In Spanish) "How do you read?" He thought it was hilarious and said, in Spanish, "Word by word, line by line, page by page." I greatly appreciated his sarcasm. 

There, was that more exciting? Anywho. I love you all. Even if you do get more sleep than me. But I guess I can overlook that. I'm feeling charitable today. 

Have a wonderful week! Don't do anything dumb!

                                                           I was Elder Soubie for a little while.

 Me with Hermana Dalton, Hermana Valerio, Elder Eves and Elder What's his name, in front of the Provo Temple.

All of the Hermanas in my MTC Zone.  They are always happy and it's really disconcerting.

Day 24

Day 24. Today on the menu was the choice of a chicken burger, a beef burger, a bacon burger, a veggie burger, and a burger. I ate the fruit burger.

Day 25. Today I ate a burger.

Day 26. Considering changing my last name to "Burger"

Day 27. New on the menu: The Burger Burger. 

Those were my thoughts today. Goodbye.

Just kidding... but really. They have more variety than that with the food, don't worry. I've never consumed so many burgers in my life. Or chocolate milk. Gotta eat, right? Life at the MTC is great and frustrating. Contradictory, right? I'm pretty sure I've said that in every single one of my emails. Bear with me. Currently on the sickness scale I have a cough that won't go away. I cough all night and then in the morning my abs are sore. I pretty much just consider that my workout so I skip gym and take a nap to make up for the sleep I lost while coughing. I figure that counts. 

Nothing really wild happened this week. Oh! Hermana Dalton was sick at the beginning of the week and Hermana Valerio and I were trying to figure out a way so that we could both go to class. Long story short, we called the front desk, they told us to go to some office, we went to that office, they sent us to another office, from that office we went to another office, and from that office we ended up meeting with the MTC President.... Yeah.... I don't exactly know how we got that high up, but we did. And it was awesome. OH! And on that exact same day, my companions and I were walking with some elders from our district, Elder Eves and Elder Morrill, and I was telling a story. We were just about to walk into the lunch room when I was ending the story and I said something that tickled Elder Eves' funny bone. He literally collapsed on the floor in laughter and scrunched up into the fetal position! Elder Morrill ran into the bathroom in embarrassment and I was dying from laughter. One of the senior couples thought Elder Eves was in mortal danger and asked if he needed a doctor. He calmed down after about 5 minutes. It was wild. 

It's getting cold here and I don't like it. Hermana Dalton is always hot and I'm always cold. THIS DOESN'T WORK. But then when she was sick she was cold and I was hot. Hermana Valerio doesn't care. I didn't bring enough cardigans. Oh the horror. 

My Spanish is muy bueno. Jokes. I'm pro at Spanglish. We're not allowed to speak English in the classroom and whenever we do say something in English our teacher says ?Que? Which means "What?" It's very frustrating and causes some un-Christlike thoughts. But I'm learning. This MONTH I will be in Mexico. We don't say that out loud around Hermana Valerio because she freaks out. 

Life is good. I love you all. The MTC is something. Have a great week!

P.S. Dear Elders are my life blood. Thank you for sending them!

Hermana Dalton taking my temperature.  I have been sick since I arrived here at the Provo MTC October 15th.

My district in front of the Provo, Utah Temple.  I'm the one who looks like she's going on a mission to Antarctica.

I'm celebrating our MTC half-way mark with my companions, Hermana Valerio and Hermana Dalton.  We are drinking sparkling cider, and feeling like sinners.  But, if it came with the DearElder.com care package, it must be okay.

It's All Just...One...Long Day!

BEFORE YOU READ THIS EMAIL READ THIS PART THAT IS IN ALL CAPS. THIS TUESDAY AT 7 OUR DEVOTIONAL WILL BE BROADCAST INTERNATIONALLY. I WILL BE IN THE CHOIR IF THEY EVEN HAVE A CHOIR. WATCH IT. READ THE EMAIL NOW. 

HOLA.

I feel like I've been here for an eternity. All the days mesh together, yesterday felt like five days ago, and I can't remember what I ate this morning. But hey, I'm on my third week! That's so crazy. I don't even know what to think of that. This week has been a rough, rough week. Well actually for me it's been pretty okay, but when your companions are having a rough week, you just kind of assume that your week has been rough as well. But it's P-day and we are happy happy happy! We went to the temple today and did sealings. There were a bunch of cute old couples there that kept patting our hands and saying how proud they were of us. Then we went and threw some fall leaves around on the way back to the MTC. Sundays are interesting.
​You would think that you would have so much free time on Sundays... nope. Sacrament meeting feels so short! Relief Society is held in the gym with all the sisters at the MTC, then the sisters hang around until Priesthood is over and then I don't even remember what the heck we do after that because my brain as turned to mush. But eventually we have a Sunday devotional! Those are always good. I can't remember who spoke. But even BETTER was Tuesday. Hna Valerio and I dragged Hna Dalton to MTC choir practice on Sunday so we could practice the song that was going to be sung in the Tuesday devotional. We sang "Lead Kindly Light" which is one of my favorite songs EVER. When I found out we were singing it I almost went "SHUT UP." Like in Princess Diaries. But I didn't because I'm a missionary now. We're not allowed to say "guys" here. Greatest struggle of my life right now. Anyway, on Tuesday during the devotional we sang "Lead Kindly Light" to Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President! If I was to give a talk in General Conference, I would have given her exact talk. It was about coming unto Christ and "What think ye of Christ?" My pen was flying as I took notes. I know that I had more things to say, but I can't remember. My companions are great, my district is great, my teachers are great, and I'm learning more Spanish every single day! I'm not sick anymore, which is fantastic. 

I just remembered some of the embarrassing things I've said while teaching in Spanish. I will list them.

"After baptism, we clean." (Investigator thought I meant we clean the church)

"I want many sins." (I mixed up the words. But I conjugated it correctly, so there.)

"David........................" (I didn't say anything for a long amount of time because I forgot my words)

It's been interesting. Beware, the cafeteria food here will make you cry. I have never eaten so much in my life. I am so tired. I can't even think. 

I won't lie, the MTC is hard. But in order to be Christ's representatives, we have to experience just a little of He went through. I have grown so much since I've been here, although sometimes I don't realize that. Even though most days I can barely even lift my pen to take notes, I know that my weaknesses will be made strong through Jesus Christ. I'm here on this mission because this gospel makes me happy and I am willing to answer the Lord's call to preach it. That knowledge is what keeps me going!

I love you all. Every single one of you. 

Have a great week!

                                                                              The obligatory picture with the map.

My district.

Elder Murset

​Hola everyone!

I have been called Elder Murset three times since I've been here. I promise I do not look like an elder. I look very feminine in my skirts and blouses. But alas, the brethren apparently do not see that.  

I feel like I've been here for a month. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. OH MY. So last Friday after our wonderful P-day festivities were over we had to go back to class. And what do we find out when we get back to class? We're teaching an investigator! Yeah... third day in and we're doing it all in Spanish.

The investigator is actually just a teacher acting a part, but lemme say something, our teacher is one GOOD actor. His "name" is David and he did some pretty bad stuff in Mexico and came to America to start over. I had everything written down in Spanish and I pretty much just read from my paper. But the spirit was so strong! He went pretty easy on us until last night. He had been agreeing with everything, and when we taught him about the Restoration and Joseph Smith he said that everything was clear, he understood, and that he had no questions (it was a really good lesson). 

So we're all confident and walking with a swagger in our step when we go to teach him last night (which, by the way, was our last time teaching him) and what does he throw at us? He didn't pray about Joseph Smith and he didn't understand why prophets are important. I just know he did that on purpose... 

Now here is where I insert my testimony about the gift of tongues. IT'S REAL. I talked for 20 minutes ALL in Spanish without any notes. BOOYAH. I actually don't know if I got my point across... but whatever. I did it and I was proud of myself. And that is my adventure for the past week. 

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to gain 50 pounds while I'm here. We sit, and sit, and sit. *Insert Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked* 19 year old missionaries sang as they sat, and sat, and sat, and sat... Plus we have rolling chairs so instead of walking down the hallway to get a drink we just roll. It's not very efficient but it takes like 5 seconds to get out of my chair and that's just way too long. 

Oh! I'll tell you about my district. There are nine people; Elder Eves and Elder Morrill, Elder Vaughn and Elder Soubie, Elder Daines and Elder Nay, Hermana Dalton, Hermana Valerio, and me. They are very... interesting people. Elder Eves makes me laugh until I cry. Elder Morrill is the most sartorial person I have ever met (sorry, Will). Elder Vaughn is a giant and I never know if he's teasing or being serious. Elder Daines is a smartypants. Elder Nay... I never know what on Earth is going on in that Elder's head. One of the elders bought a bag of rubberbands and now our room is complete chaos. They're pretty awesome though. I busted out my robot stickers yesterday and now we all have one on the back of our nametags. They were so excited. I'm glad I'm in this district. 

My eyes are permanently red brimmed from lack of sleep, I keep translating "It's A Small World After All" into Spanish as I'm falling asleep, I'm pretty sure I will have bad hair days for the rest of my 18 months, I keep writing "profeta" instead of "prophet", I laugh at the weirdest things, I am constantly in a state of exhaustion, 

BUT I AM SO HAPPY. It's weird. This life is so hard but it's so rewarding. After my last lesson with David I was over the moon because I could remember all the words I've been learning. And when P-day comes everything shines brighter and the cheeseburgers that they always seem to serve taste amazing. A mission is humbling and yet it is full of AWESOMENESS. 

Keep sending those Dear Elders! They keep me going throughout the week and they boost my spirits after I find out that the chocolate milk in the cafeteria is out. 

Thank you for all the emails even though I have no time to answer them! I love you, I love you, I love you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Murset

  Elder Morrill, Elder Eves, my companion Hermana Valerio, myself, and my companion Hermana Dalton.

                                                                The view from my bunk bed.

                                                 At the Mexican Consulate, getting my visa in order.

My classroom throne on wheels.