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!