In the Ghetto

Oh boy this has been the hardest-coolest-I don't even know what to think week and a half! Sorry the keyboards here are different so all of my emails are going to suck. I have no time so if I don't write everyone I'm so sorry but the computer is going to kick me off. 

I hope everyone has the best Christmas ever and I'm so excited to be able to talk to you tomorrow!!!!!  I don't understand what anyone is saying to me so it’s hard to know what’s going on and what I'm doing. 

First off saying goodbye to my friends in the mtc was so hard!!!!!! I love them all and miss them SOOOOOOOOO much!! And second I have the best family and friends in the world for coming to see me at the airport!! I almost peed I was so happy to see you!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND MISS YOU!! All right well to start with Mexico. I'm serving in Ensenada!!! Woo hoo! Ensenada North!! Oh boy I tell you what this is THE GHETTO!!!!!!!!! There's dogs all over the streets and that means a lot of poop and just the sweet smell of Ensenada in general ha ha! I really can’t even explain the ghettoness of it all. The mail here sucks so I'm sorry there won’t be a lot of letters and I'm soooooo sorry if I didn't write you an email today! There's trash all over the ground and graffiti and I don't even know what. I wish you could walk around with me for one day and just see what I've seen. The people here are so awesome!! They have so little and they're so humble and willing to help us with anything even when they have practically nothing! Let me tell you some of the things i took for granted before coming here to Ensenada. 

1. Hot water. We have no running hot water so we heat up water on the stove and dump it in a bucket and use a cup to dump it on ourselves. Ha ha no joke that's what I've done the past week. Supposedly were getting that fixed this week so I hope so. 

2. English. Nobody speaks English. My companion, Hermana Ortiz, is a native from Ecuador. She really is so nice and so patient with me and I love her to death but she doesn't speak a lick of English. I've gotten used to having no idea what’s going on around me and just going with the flow. I feel like a penguin from Madagascar - just smile and wave boys, smile and wave, ha ha! OK, I have no time for pictures it's about to kick me off. ! I don’t even know where my companions are from the mtc.  They just started taking people away so that was really traumatizing ha ha, but it’s getting better and my Spanish is better every day!! 

Drivers here are terrible!! Literally stop signs are like guidelines and we just pile people into cars as we please ha ha!! We had 11 people piles into this 5 person car yesterday for church so that we could fit all of our investigators ha ha. You don't really have crosswalks you just do what you want. I wish I had more time to tell you everything but when I asked for the ghetto I tell you what, God listened. It’s so trashy but it just makes me love it all the more!

 There's no heaters in houses so I sleep with 3 blankets in my winter hat, gloves and study with my coat on and everything. You would think I would be warm here. I had to get a priesthood blessing Monday night when they took me away because I couldn't stop crying because they had just started taking people away and I didn't even know where Hermana Eye and Nielsen had gone.  I thought they were going to give us a night at the mission home but nope we just went straight to it. It’s getting better and I've made it sound more depressing than it is. It’s incredibly hard but I always feel more encouraged at night.

 I love the people and the members so that's what has made it all worth it. I hold on to the fact that hopefully I can see my MTC friends in 5 weeks at transfers. Hermana Muir told me she’s been crying every day too and she thought if only Hermana Rockwood was my companion then I could adjust easier which is literally exactly what I've been thinking about her. I'm excited to be friends when we get home because that girls the best!"

 Everyone was jealous I was going to Ensenada and kept saying how beautiful it was ad then I got here and it was so ghetto so I wonder what it’s like for Hermana Muir in the heart of Tijuana if this is the not ghetto part of the mission ha ha! I love you so much!!!!! I keep on trekking on because I know this message is going to help other people be with their families forever and if I can make this sacrifice to miss all of you for this short time then it will bless other people for eternity. Adios I love you more than I can say and miss you but here we go - lets save Ensenada!!

Vegas Baby!

You'll never guess where I was!! Well you probably will because it's my subject but I was totally in Las Vegas yesterday!!!! (Dec 12) Not as cool as it sounds we just went down there to get our visa stuff sorted out at the Mexican consolate there and it was actually way boring. We had to meet there at 4:30 in the morning to drive out to the airport so that was rough. We flew there, sat in the most boring class of my life with a grumpy man for about 2 or 3 hours, then did our visa stuff for about half an hour, and then went back to the airport and hung out and did nothing until we got on our flight back home. But I mean, it's still pretty cool that I was in Vegas.
 We went with just random people I don't know how they choose who went but my companion is there today and I've been with the two other Hermanas in our zone in a trio for the past two days. We didn't even find out we were going to Vegas until Monday so it was pretty short notice, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Guess what I go to Mexico in 4 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO!!!! So stoked, and yet scared, and yet excited, and hopefully one day I'll know Spanish haha! Thanks everyone who emails me and writes me you're the best! The other day in class we were talking about how we might have had a best friend up in heaven and when we came to earth they didn't have the gospel and maybe we're going to our specific mission to find them and when we find them, they'll know we're messengers from God sent to help them. I started getting teary, I just love the thought of having someone in Mexico that I can help! I want to become the best missionary I can for those people so that hopefully when I meet them I can help them as God intends for me! Aaaah I'm going to be teaching real lessons this time next week! Our district got our flight plans on Friday night and when they walked in with our papers we all just started cheering and clapping and freaking out we were so excited that we actually get to leave on Monday! I don't really know how fast mail is going to get there and what exactly is going to happen there so I'm sorry that all my stuff will probably slow down a lot.

Grandpa and grandma I got your package a couple of days ago and it was the best thing ever! You're so sweet! It's like you knew exactly what I needed. I've been using my gloves and tights and eating all the delicious goodies. So thank you so much! We watched the Joseph Smith movie on Sunday and I had forgotten how good that movie is! It was amazing it just convinces me even more how amazing Joseph Smith is and that he was a prophet of God. I would tell everyone to watch that again, it was awesome.

 We had another district that left this week and it was so sad saying goodbye. Elder Brush is like a little teddy bear and he started crying a little and it almost got me, I'm going to miss them so much. They are so funny. Oh boy saying goodbye to everyone this week is going to be rough! I LOVE everyone and it's going to be sad when they go to other missions but I'm glad I've gotten to know so many new people and I'll meet so many more next week. On Monday I don't know what was wrong with me, or what was in the water, but I could not stop laughing. People probably thought I was so weird but everything was just so hilarious and I was having laugh attacks all day and probably got a wicked sweet ab workout and my cheeks were definitely killing me like tour guide barbie says haha!  First of all to start the day off there's an Elder in my district who has this huge tarantula toy that is so freakin scary and nasty. He tied a string around it and attached it to his belt so when he walks it looks like there is a huge nasty spider walking around. He did it in our class room and Hermana Eye saw it first and thought it was a mouse and started screaming and pointing in my direction. so I see her pointing and I think there's something on me and I start screaming and swiping my lap and making any feeble attempts to kill what might be close to me and everyone else was just laughing and so confused because we were both having screaming freak outs haha! It was pretty funny. And someone took a picture of Hermana Eye in that moment and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen I wish I had a copy of it because I was laughing all day just at the thought of it! Then my old district is just hilarious and everytime I see them at a meal I almost pee my pants because they make me laugh! Oh that was a good day! 

We were looking up the street view of Tijuana the other day. SO EXCITED!!! Not going to lie it looked pretty ghetto haha and that just made us all way more excited to go! When we were talking to people at the airport and telling them where we were all going, all the other missionaries would say a city and they were all happy and then when we told them Tijuana they all got that funny look on their face and got sketched out and scared for us haha! Good times! I love people's reactions. Mom and Dad I figured you would be confused about the picture that lady sent you from the airport yesterday but I didn't have a chance to tell you I was going to Vegas so no worries I'm back in good old Provo now and set to leave again on Monday! I think that's all I've got. I'll try and send some pictures I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!! You're the best family and friends a girl could ask for!!! Viva Mexico!!! Oh this picture is us at the airport. Could someone send the picture to Evan because the girl at the very left is Hermana Price, the girl he coached! She's a peach she was my buddy next to me on the plane on the way to Vegas she's so nice! Love you all!!

Let it Snow!

How is everything going in lovely Salt Lake??? I don't know how bad it snowed there...probably a lot, but it snowed like a beast up here too!! I'm freezing my little face off!! Good call on packing tights for me momma! You're a thinker haha. The snow has been fun too. It's pretty much the only entertainment we've gotten this week in the lovely land of MTC life so I guess is was good stuff.
 Let's see not really much has happened this week so this might actually be a normal-sized email this week rather than a novel for you all to read haha. Guess what as of tomorrow I will have been gone for a month!!!! Isn't that crazy juice???? I can't believe it!! And I get to go to Mexico in a week and a half!!!!! I'm freaking out over here!!! I don't know any Spanish but it's all good I'll just walk around with a cheesy smile on my face everyday so that hopefully people will want to talk to me even if my spanish is iffy! Aaaaaaaahhhhh I'm so excited!!!! It's getting a little harder to focus in every class every day so it's about time to head out haha! 
Oh guess what, one of the teachers here that I met is Alex Barney's friend from high school! His name is Logan Keller and he took a picture of me and I think sent it to him but that was pretty awesome. 
Ok so I know my details have been not so bueno about how long they've been sending girls to America but this time I think I've got my facts straight and I've got it from my good sources here haha! So the first set of American girls heading to Tijuana is in December..................as in YES THAT'S ME!!!!! I AM LITERALLY ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICAN GIRLS TO SERVE IN TIJUANA!!!!! There is 8 of us here in the MTC and we are legit the first girls to go to that mission!!!! I was freaking out when they were telling me this!!!!! If I would have gone on a mission ANY SOONER, I would not have been called to Tijuana!! These are my homies and I'm stoked to go meet all of them haha!!!!!!! They said the Elders are really excited to have American sisters coming to serve in their mission so this is going to be fun! Except you know what else that means?? I'm going to be getting a native companion....There's no American girls there that would be possibly able to train me! That means goodbye English in a week! My companion is probably not going to speak English at all and I'm going to be one confused Hermana when I get dropped off in Mexico! Haha hopefully this helps me learn spanish faster because right now spanish seems kind of impossible but here goes!! That's about everything that has happened to me this week but I'm just so excited!!!! 


It's rough being in class all day here but I'm going to be so sad next week to say goodbye to all of these people!! I love everyone here in my zone and only a few of us are going to Tijuana so I won't see most of them for at least another two years and they're such doll faces so that's the one sad part about leaving the MTC!!  I'm going to miss all of the fun people I've met here! I love you all so much and you're the best family and friends I could have asked for and I'm so grateful for all you've done for me to get me to this point in my life. I'm loving the chance to serve a mission and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!! Love you all like crazy!!!!!

Feliz Dia de Accion De Gracias!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I probably said that wrong in spanish haha but oh well I"m trying! They actually made it really fun at the MTC it was probably the best day so far! It was sad not being home but they tried to make sure we loved it since we were away from our families. We went to main campus and got to hang out all day it was sweet! Too bad none of our friends are here anymore or we could have partied together all day! Russell M Nelson came to speak to us for the devotional in the morning and it was awesome!!! That guy is a stud!!! It was the best, my zone was taking bets before the devotional about who it was going to be that was speaking to us and I guessed Nelson and was the champion!! But yeah and we did a service project and made little soup packets and we got to wear sexy hair nets so you know that was classy.

 Let's see and we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue at night before we headed back to west campus! That movie was WAY good! Hermana Muir and I were taking "snapchats" with each other and we took the other person's camera and were taking ugly "snapchats" of ourselves and just making the ugliest pictures we could think of. Oh boy that girl kills me she is so funny! I have some nice blackmail pictures now! 
My zone is AWESOME!!!! I love these kids! 

My new district

We had a nacho libre quoting contest and it was pretty much the best thing of my life!!!! There was about 10 of us and we had 10 seconds to think of a quote from the movie or else you were out! You better believe I was the champion of that game!!!!!! It was a close call between me and another Elder, I thought I was going to lose, but never fear I held in there and I'm the "da best!" Haha not really but I'm a good nacho libre quoter. 
Oh I don't even know there's just so much that has happened this week it's going to be rough to get everything done and load all my pictures!! I sent 12 letters today so a lot of people should be getting their responses soon. They only want us writing on p days now so my letters might start slowing down a little but I figure I better be obedient so I don't get shot when I hit the lovely streets of Tijuana! Just kidding no worries I'm not actually scared of getting shot. 

The people in our zone going to Tijuana...plus two random photo bombers in the back. Curse those potato farmers haha!!

So the other day Hermana Eye was telling me a story when we were going to bed and the next thing I remember was waking up in the morning. I was like, "Oh crap I hope I didn't fall asleep" A couple minutes later she comes up to me and was asking if I fell asleep because I didn't say much about the exciting parts of her story. Haha I'm obviously a little sleep deprived!!! We wake up at 5:30 here, it's awful!! But on Thanksgiving we got to sleep in until 6:30 so that was the best thing ever! I'm still having a little bit of a hard time staying awake in the day which I'm sure is hard for a lot of you to imagine haha but my companion and I have a new goal of keeping each other awake all day. 

These are the old sister training leaders we had when we got here and the other two girls from their zone, the day before they left

My lessons with the investigators are getting a LOT easier! I feel a lot more comfortable and we've actually had some really spiritual experiences doing them, they're pretty awesome! I have thet first vision memorized in spanish now so I love cranking that bad boy out and just BAM! hitting investigators with that and just bringing the spirit! Ok so before my companion left home she had sister missionaries living in her basement so their mission president called ours and we got some good info on our mission. We found out that they really did just start sending girls to the Tijuana mission in about July or August, she can't remember exactly when. They started with mostly native girls but not they've started sending white, Americans so we really are one of the first crews to go out! I"m SOOOOOOO stoked about that, it's stinking awesome!!!!!! Now I"m convinced that's why I had to wait to go on a mission. THIS is the mission I needed to go on and I couldn't have gone there if I would have turned my papers in earlier!! Aaaah it makes me so happy I can't even tell you how much I love knowing this!!!! 

Oh so Hermana Eye and I are the new sister training leaders in our zone so that's pretty cool I'm excited to be able to go and meet all the new districts when they start coming in next week! On Sunday I had to say goodbye to Lauryn becasue she was leaving for the mission on Tuesday. I became the biggest cry baby ever!! It was like re-living the baby that I was at home right before I left! I'm so happy for her to be in her mission now and she's going to be awesome but I'm going to miss seeing her in the MTC! You're a peach Lauryn!!!!! 


Ok best story of the week!!!!!! We were at lunch the other day and just hanging out and talking. Just be warned the comment this Elder made wasn't even so funny so I don't know why it still makes me laugh so hard. But yeah, I was taking a drink and Elder Brush goes "A girl bit you" and don't ask me why but I thought it was so funny and next thing I know I spewed my water all over Hermana Muir sitting right across from me!!!!! And I mean I projectile launched my water across the table at her!!!! Haha I'm laughing right now I can hardly type this! The look of horror on her face still gets me!!! Everyone in our zone was dying and still whenever anyone sits across from me they tell them to watch out becasue they're in the splash zone. Oh I don't know it's so funny that was definitely a highlight of the MTC so far!!

Sorry my letters are always so huge it probably takes days to read these bad boys. Oh and earlier that day Hermana Nielsen dropped her nametag in the toilet so I was already in a laughing mood so this week I've just been laughing nonstop I swear!! Guess what!! Whoa I'm more than halfway there!!! WHOOOOOAAA living on a prayer!!! I leave the MTC in 2 and a half weeks!!! I'm so pumped!!! I don't know spanish but I'm jazzed to get out into the real world!!! Shoutout to the Kingdon's who sent me a bomb package this week!!!!! Thank you so much!!!! Those cookies are to die for and I just love you to death!!! I You're the best I seriously LOVED my package!!! Happy Birthday Brock!!!!!!! I was thinking about you on Wednesday!!!! So the Elders here always have tie trading conventions and they have three ties that they call "the three sisters" and if you have any of those you're the king. The other day I was wearing my colorful skirt that we thought looked like Mexico, mom, and they told me it was the "mother of the three sisters" haha so I guess that's a good thing! Ok anyways I love you all to death and I hope you had the best thanksgiving ever!!!! I was thinking about all of you and I honestly can't tell you how grateful I am to have you in my life and for everything that you do for me!!!!!! I'm so grateful to be on a mission and I love you more than I could ever tell you!!!!! Ciao Bellas!!

Me and mi companera

I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!! This is my apartment!

Pictures from the MTC

The first day we got letters and I had 7 from all you doll faces!!

My first companion Hermana Judd

Me and my district.

My new companion Hermana Eye. I am so excited to have her as my Companion!

I was so excited to see Lauryn. 

Me and my companion at the temple

Week 2

Hola!!!!!!

This week has been SO much better than last week and people are right, time really does go by faster the longer that you're here! Mom you would be so proud of me, one of my skirts ripped a little bit and I totally sewed it together! Check me out I'm learning so much haha!

 Last week when it was snowing we went outside for gym time and played volleyball in the snow! I froze my little tushie (spell check) off! Now we have these little domes that are indoor gyms that we can go into if it's freezing so that's nice! But guess what I'm so buff that I've started running for the whole gym time and doing abs and stuff! Watch out Madilyn, I'm coming for you with my six pack! But really though my legs burn from running so much haha! My companion is super buff so I have to be tough and keep up with her!

Guess what I got my new companion on Tuesday when Hermana Judd left for the Colombia MTC and so my new companion is Hermana Eye! She lives in my apartment and she was the girl that I had said was so funny from my apartment! I love my companion! She is so stinkin funny we have so much fun together!! I kid you not we sing "Encarnacion" from Nacho Libre together at least twice a day so you know it's a party!!!!! I moved into a new district which is a little weird not seeing the elders from my old district but it's nice getting to know so many different people here. 

Guess what mom I've only been drinking the water at the cafeteria, I haven't gotten soda one time!! Aaah yeah I'm so awesome! psych haha I'm totally going to get fat here! Ok I got your package on Monday and I cried I was so happy!!!!! Seriously thank you so much Jessica that was the best thing I have ever seen!! I was supposed to get it on Saturday but the post office was already closed by the time I got the notice so I had to wait all the way until Monday night to get it so that was painful but totally worth the wait!! I love that thing more than I can tell you! You're so clever Jessica I just love you so much!! I'm still eating all of the treats you gave me in the package and still the cookies you gave me right before I left so I've got to get working!!

On Sunday Mary Ellen Edmunds spoke at our devotional and I don't even know how to explain it but it was pretty much the best talk I've ever heard!! I loved it! I didn't get to go to main campus and look for Carly and Lauryn which made me really sad but guess what I got to go on Tuesday up there for the devotional and I saw Lauryn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best thing ever I don't even know how to say how happy I was!! It was like a movie scene, we just ran to each other and hugged and started crying! Yeah I'm sure we looked classy haha! But honestly it was the happiest thing ever I miss the poop out of that girl and nothing could have made me happier than to see her!! She's already a sister training leader! What up!!!! That's my roommate ah yeah!! so hopefully I get to see her again on Sunday before she leaves next Tuesday! 

We were teaching one of our "investigators" yesterday and we were set up the next time to meet him and he agreed and then I guess he was trying to tell us that he was out of time and had to go to work. And literally for probably about 3 minutes we sat there trying to figure out what he was saying but we didn't know spanish haha so we were just saying "no comprendo" repeat what you said we don't know what you're trying to tell us! so yeah haha random. Ummm mis padres I don't know if they've said anything about my mission plaque but I think I want my scripture to be D&C 31:3 if anybody ever asks. I think that's pretty much it I've got to go so I can try and send pictures! Love you all so much and miss you!!!!

Leaving for the MTC!

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!!!!! 
How is everyone doing? I want to know everything that´s going on! Thank you everybody for all the letters it is really what´s gotten me through the first week! Man, not going to lie the first four days were rough and I kept asking myself how I was going to do this for a year and a half but it has gotten SO MUCH BETTER!! I´m on the west campus so we´re outside all of the time and everything is super nice over here so I definitely scored! The food has kind of already gotten old. It´s hard to eat cafeteria food every meal.
 I LOVE my district they´re the best part of the mission! My district is just me and mi compañera, Hermana Judd (funny story they printed her tags wrong so for the first day she was Herman Judd). She´s going to Bolivia and she´s actually leaving for the Colombia MTC on Tuesday so I don´t know who my new companion will be next week. There are six other elders in my district. Four of them are going to Argentina and two of them are going to Colombia but their visas just came in yesterday so they´re actually going to be leaving for the Colombia MTC too on Monday so we don´t really know what´s going to happen with our district and with my new companion but oh well, we will see! 
There´s one Elder in my district who is a potato farmer from Idaho! Just with a description like that you know it´s going to be delightful having a kid like that in your class for 10 hours a day! He is so funny I can´t even tell you! He´s just the most random kid but hopefully my pictures work and he´s going to be the one making the weird muscle poses in every picture! He told me a story about how when he was sitting on his tractor one day while farming he got so mad that he chucked a wrench at the tractor and it shot back at him and hit him in the face and he had to get stitches!! As you can imagine I couldn´t stop laughing forever! I don´t know my whole district just tells funny stories like that all day so that´s why I¨m always entertained in class with my district! 
Let´s see we have a bunk bed and pretty much every day when we wake up my companion hits her head on the ceiling from the top bunk and it kills me every time! There´s 3 other Hermanas (Sisters) in my apartment that are all going to Tijuana! I´ll proably end up getting one of them as my new companion. But they are so funny! One of them loves fart and poop jokes so I kid you not the other day she was telling funny stories like that and I was uncontrollable and I crying I was laughing so hard I don´t know she just kills me! And they also love Nacho Libre and Hot Rod so I´m always able to whip out some good quotes! So many people have quoted Nacho Libre and it makes me beyond happy! 
Guess what on Saturday I got to go to the mall and escape to the real world!! My companion had to get glasses so we got to take an official MTC shuttle and go to the mall for a couple of hours it was awesome! We had only been in the MTC for four days and it was already weird to see normal people out in the real world haha! So we didn´t get any mail until Saturday and when we finally got them I got 8 letters and a package!!! You guys are just the best I love yall so much!!! All the Elders were like holy cow Hermana Rockwood how many boyfriends do you have writing you haha! So yep keep em coming I LOVE GETTING LETTERS!!!! 
 Guess who I saw! Carly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the best part of the MTC so far!!!!! We got to go up to the main campus for the big MTC devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday and it was the best thing ever!! I literally almost peed when I saw her and I just got to give her a big hug and it was awesome! Things started getting better from there! 
 Oh there´s an elder here who had David Rockwood as his young men´s leader. HIs name is Elder Brush. L. Tom Perry came to speak on Tuesday and it was sooooooo awesome! He talked about the typhoon in the Phillipines and talked about some of the missionary stories and the miracle of how not one single missionary died!!! The Lord really does protect his missionaries! There was some really cool stuff he said about it! Dad we don´t have any culture classes. It makes me sad. I´ve met about 7 or so other sisters going to Tijuana and we´re all just these innocent little white girls! Oh I did meet that girl that Evan coached I saw her after a devotional and the crazy thing is that she is best friend´s with Carly´s companion. She seems really nice but she´s not in my zone or anything.
 I´m still a bobbing narcoleptic. I do my best but sometimes I drift off a little bit in class and stuff no matter how hard I try haha! Today we got to go do an endowment session in the Provo temple so that was cool! The other day after gym some of the Elders in our district were trying to do a district and there was leaves all over the ground and these kids just turfed it and rolled and I was laughing so hard!! There´s probably stuff I´m missing but I´m almost out of time and I have to figure out how get the keyboard off of Spanish! So goodbye I love you all so much and I miss you more than I ever thought I could but it´s all good the time will go by fast!!!! Mwah!