Week 4

Hello all! We are more or less healthy here in the CCM, definitely much better than last week! Thank you for the prayers. I[m getting pretty pumped to go into the field... 14 days! But who´s counting. I don't feel like I'm really on a mission yet. I feel like I'm in some bizarre missionary themed efy in mexico. Hna. Smith and I can now teach the complete first two lessons without using any notes! It feels so rewarding. Our teachers tell us we're getting much better at teaching. Hna. Smith also introduced me to manzanita sol, this fantastic mexican soda that is basically sparkling cider in a can. Can I just say that I have the best companion and the best district? I've been blessed with great people here. All the elders make me feel like I'm spending time with Conner and Cooper :) They're great guys. 

Sunday was fantastic. Pretty much every Sunday is just delightful. It is so enriching and uplifting. In Relief Society Hna. Pratt shared a quote from Pres Eyring that said ´´Whoever you are and wherever you may be, you hold in your hands the happiness of more people than you can imagine.´´ It was about eternal families and how important it is to be a strong link and to leave a heritage of hope for your descendants. SUnday night we watched the Restoration movie. The feels. I can watch that movie a billion more times and I'd still cry in the same 4 parts and get the same overwhelming confirmation that the church is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. I can't believe how hard it must have been for God to send another one of His children to suffer that much and die for this gospel. Watching that movie makes me think my life is waaaayyy too easy. Anyways, Sunday night our lovely Latinas were leaving at 3 in the morning so we stayed up with them til... well, past our bedtime (rebels). But it was awesome, we had a testimony meeting and cried adn talked and laughed and took a ton of pictures. I love them and will miss them. 

Today my district got to go to the Mexico City temple! Freedom!!! Not that I don't love the CCM, but it was nice to get out and about. the temple is closed, which is sad, but we went to the visitor's center. It was so awesome! Mexico is insane. It made me very grateful to be going back to the states!

I feel bad, but there really isn't much else to say. I love you all! You're all in my prayers.

Hna. White

Hermana Smith and I with Manzanita Sol:)

 Our District

At the Mexico Temple

The Hermanas:)

The Hermanas

My District

Week 3

My time is flying! A lot has happened this week, so I'll give the highlights again. So I don't remember what I said in my last email, but my first investigator Enrique is now my afternoon teacher and his name is Hermano Palma. He's also our new investigator "Juan". Our morning teacher, Hermano Murillo, is our investigator "Jorge". Um may day may day! Someone in this computer lab with me just yelled that robin williams is dead! Tell me it isn't so! There is an uproar in this lab right now. Anyways. back to juan and Jorge. Well we've only had one lesson with Jorge, but it was really good! He asked questions and we were able to change our lesson plan and teach according to his needs; I didn´t think I had the Spanish for that! It felt good to teach by the spirit. Juan is more difficult, he listens adn opens up to us, but he is  living with Maria, but isn't married to her, and doesn't want to get married because it's too expensive. So that's been hard. But Hermano Palma (juan) says Hna. Smith's and mine teaching is getting a lot better! So hurrah to that. We might not get to teach jorge again because Hermano Murillo's wife just had their first baby so he's taking a week or two off. So exciting for them! 

Solo español has been hard. I'd be a lying fool if I said I'd been doing it 100%, but I am trying. On the days where I do really good solo español I can definitely feel my vocab growing. I had a chance to use all my fanciest spanish the other night. In my house we have 5 rooms, 4 girls in a room. Until tuesday, only three of the rooms were being used, so it was 12 girls all from the states. On tuesday the other two rooms became filled with 8 new sisters all from Mexico! They don't speak any English, which is good for us gringas! We had a 'fhe' with them on friday night (I think) and we talked for like 30 minutes! It was awesome. They're just lovely. Speaking of lovely things, have I ever told you all about the tienda? The tienda is the best place ever. It's the CCM store and even though you're technically only supposed to go on pdays, we go several times a week. The meals here are good, but the mexican desserts... eh. So we desperately need to chocolate in the tienda. I miss chocolate so much. Oh what I'd give for a homemade cookie or some texas sheet cake.... but alas. If it were'nt for the tienda and its glorious junk food, I might die. I wish you could all come to the tienda. 

WARNING: For my readers who possess a more delicate disposition, please skip to the next paragraph. So something dreadful is happening here at the CCM. It's a zombie apocalypse. People are dropping like flies I tell you! There's this crazy mad 24/48 hour virus that´s taken out almost half the CCM. It manifests itself in different ways in different people, the most common ways being sever constipation, diarrhea, or puking. Unfortunately, yesterday Hna. SMith and I succumbed to the virus. I felt sicker and sicker throughout the day, but was in major denial. Finally, Hermano Palma forced me to go to the infirmary. He walked Hna. Smith and I all the way there because he didn't trust us to go. I put up quite the protest. I'm glad I went though, I got sicker by the minute. Hna. Smith, thank goodness, wasn't too bad... just some stomach issues. (She gave me permission to tell you that). We both had to get shots in our bahookies... how fun. They also gave us meds to take over the next two days and told us not to eat. The shot helped Hna. Smith a lot, but I got sicker and sicker. By 6;30 I thought I would die. It honestly was the sickest I'd ever been in my life. I had a mad fever and was violently ill. At 7:30 I asked Hna. Smart and Alexander to see if the elders in our district would give me a blessing. All 8 of the elders came and it was the sweetest, most powerful thing. I can't even begin to say how special it was. I am so so grateful for the priesthood in my life. I started feeling better immediately after the blessing. The fever left and I could control the pain a lot better. I feel so much better now; I can't get over how grateful I am! I shan't be eating for at least a couple days though. Best not to risk it. 

We had an awesome devotional last week. It was on why we should obey the commandments. We shouldn't obey the commandments because it's a habit or because of social pressure or because of the blessings we will receive. We should obey because we love Jesus Christ more than anything else. He talked about how technically, laman and Lemuel obeyed all the same commandments as Nephi, but their reasons for obeying were very different... and look where they ended up. If we obey the commandments for the wrong reasons, it's a lot harder to get those blessings. I wish I could talk more but I'm out of time. it was a really great devo though. We obey because we love Him, and we love him because He loved us first. 

I love you all! Thank you for the prayers, I feel them strengthening me every day! Also, if you could pray for our health here at the CCM, that would be fantastic. Thank you :)

Hermana White

Week 2

Hola everyone! Don't worry, that's all the Spanish I'll use. Well this past week has gone by much faster and has been much busier! I have so many emails to write and read so instead of giving you all a rundown of my week that you probably don't really care about, I'll touch on a few of the most important/interesting things.

     So our (Hna. Smith and I) 'investigator' Enrique stood us up on Wednesday. Instead his cousin Jose was there. Jose was a Mormon and he was super friendly and chatty and spoke slower Spanish for us gringos. We gave him the lesson we were going to give Enrique and he gave us positive and constructive feedback. Thursday was our last lesson with Enrique. Before the lesson I was praying to know what on earth we could do to bring the spirit. about 20 minutes before the lesson I had a strong feeling to share a personal experience. It was very difficult to prepare for since I have no idea how to speak in past tense yet, so I just quickly looked up words I needed to know and studied a bit on how to make verbs past tense. The lesson went so so great!! It was already better than our other lessons because we had had a real run through, but we could also understand his rapid spanish much better. We talked about the importance of keeping commandments, and covered the 'primary' commandments. I talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy, Hna. Smith talked about daily scripture study, then I talked about the importance and power of prayer. We read in 3 Nephi 19 together where Jesus is praying, which really helped invite the Spirit. Then I shared a story about prayer with him. I didn't go too into detail because I didn't have the vocab, but with my limited spanish I was able to tell him that one morning when I was 13 I felt like I needed to pray adn ask God to protect my mom. I explained that my mom had to go on a long car trip by herself and that she was 8 months pregnant at the time. I told him that she had gotten in a very bad car accident and that the car had flipped several times. I have never seen him so attentive and engaged. When I told him that my mom and the baby both lived and were healthy and safe, he couldn't believe it. I testified to him that I know God hears and answers our prayers. I testified of a lot more that I don't remember, and I was definitely blessed there with the gift of tongues. The Spirit was undeniably there and he expressed a desire to know God better and reconfirmed being baptized. It was the best feeling ever; I can't wait until it's real!

     So Enrique became our teacher in the afternoon. His real name is Hermano Palma. He's a super good teacher, but starting yesterday he is having us all in our district do solo espanol! Ah! It's been hard. Every word in English is punished by either one push up or 5 situps. I've done almost 200 situps just since yesterday afternoon! Unfortunately, I can't do push ups. It's crazy because in the 6th week of the CCM is when you're supposed to speak only in spanish, but we're starting after only 12 days! It's fun though, and I know it will be good for me. 

     The only other noteworthy thing was fast sunday! It was awesome in the CCM! Everyone in the whole CCM has to start their fast after lunch on Saturday then go to lunch on Sunday. I've never done a 24 hour fast before, but I could feel a huge difference. Every time I had a hunger pain it reminded me of the things I was fasting for. Genius system man. Also, Hna. Smith and I sang O mi padre (oh my father) a capella at the sunday devotional, which I'm not a fan of singing in front of people but it was a great spiritual experience.

That's all for this week! Love you all!

Hermana White

My District

My companion Hermana Smith

Our Casa

Hermana Smith and Hermana White

Crazy hail and rain storms here!

FIRST WEEK!!!!

Hello Hello Hello friends and family! 

Disclaimer: this is a spanish keyboard that I have not quite figured out yet and I only have an hour, so punctuation and spelling might be rough. Bear with me!

Well where to start! It is insane in the best way possible here in the CCM! (that's MTC in spanish.) The flight on Wednesday was awesome; out of the 70ish passengers half of them were missionaries! Sooo many of us. It felt awesome. I felt right at home! We didn't get to the CCM until about 6 Wednesday night. I am in a dingy little room with three other sisters. My companion didn't get there til I was already asleep that night and I had a heart attack when I woke up in the middle of the night in a strange place with my bed shaking as I saw the silouhette of a person getting on the bunk above me. So I didn't meet her til the next day.

Thursday! Awesome day. I officially met mu companion Hermana Smith in the morning. She is a DOLL! I love her to death. She is so fun, has a great, ready laugh, a strong testimony, and a sweet spirit. She is a music ed major at BYU and loves to sing, which is awesome. Our voices sound fantastic together. :) We are fast friends. The other two sisters in my room are amazing too. Hermana Smart is crazy and hilarious, and Hermana Alexander is such a powerful example and is so thoughtful. We all get along great! We had a TON of orientation on Thursday adn watched some awesome videos of people's lives in the poorer areas of New York /(put out by the New York Times) and it was awesome because that's where I'm going!! 

Friday was also insane. Pretty much,. every day is crazy, but >I love it. We learned more about our misisonary purpose, and then we had to teach our first investigator COMPLETELY in spanish! Ah! Total immersion people. I know that I can teach well and with the Spirit (so important!) in English but Spanish.... different story. I mainly read out of the Spanish preach my gospel. It was rough, but it definitely could have been worse! My district is awesome: there's me and Hermana Smith, Hermana Smart and Alexander, then 8 elders, 7 of them fresh out of high school. They're awesome, but let's just say I'm sure they will mature a lot on their missions ;) Also, Mexico is absolutely beautiful!! Oh my. I always pictured a desert, but it is a humid tropical beauty! There's a hill right outside the CCM and little colorful houses go halfway up it! The Mexicans party all night adn set of so many fireworks every time they find a reason to celebrate :)

Saturday: well I might as well tell you all about the food! Um hello. I love it so much! They serve some gross food like hot dogs and corn dogs adn chicken nuggets, but the tamales, enchiladas, rice, beans, and the FRUIT are to die for! I'm eating like a queen, no worries! One Elder a bit ago gained thirty pounds from the food here and had to adjust all his clothes... we'll see how that goes for me haha. This day I spent SOO much time practicing for our lesson with Enrique. It went a lot better! I could ask him questions, pray, bear my testimony, and say a couple lines from the lesson from memory. Hermana Smith adn I also sang Joseph SMiths 1st Prayer for him in spanish. It really brought the Spirit much better than our weak spanish! I couldn't understand him at all though! He and all our native teachers talk so dang fast. I'm praying hard for the gift of interpretation of tongues! Every night except Sunday we spend an hour on the computers doing TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning). the windows are always open here because it is gorgeous outside, and I happened to be next to the window during TALL. The worst thing happened to me; out of nowhere an ENORMOUS moth was all the sudden flapping around my face adn arms and hair and I screamed and ran haha. (for those who don't know, moths and  butterflies are NOT ok in my book. scorpions and spiders are alright, but moths? Heck to the no.) I am not exaggerating when I say this thing was bigger than my hand. The elders gave me a hard time about being so scared, but that thing was evil. the worst part is the elders tried to catch it then it fell on the ground and didn't move for 3 minutes. We thought it was dead and just when I calmed down BAM it flew around again! the little twerp was playing dead! Anyways, that was slightly scarring.

Sunday was the best day of the week. It was spiritual overload! The Relief Society meeting was beautiful. It was in English which was so nice!Something Hermana Pratt (the CCM president's wife ) said that struck me was from a talk by Elder Holland. He said that to n'be of good cheer' is a commandment, adn one that we probably break the most. the Lord said so many times to be of good cheer! I definitely want to always keep a good attitude on my mission especially. We get to watch movies on Sunday night, and we watched one about the Savior that was of course incredible. He was so happy to serve everyone around Him and to help others. I hope to be the same way. If anyone had a reason to complain about hard times, the Savior did, but He never complained! I'm going to try my hardest.

Monday morning was fantastic because Hermana Smith adn I were able to teach each other a 5 minute version of the restoration lesson without having to look at any books or notes! It felt so rewarding, even if it was only a 5 minute lesson :) We also taught our third lesson to Enrique, who had a member friend Limi with him. (I accidentally called him Lima the whole time) It went really well, he commited to baptism! So that felt awesome, even if it's not real. 

Anyways, I love it here. I'm short ontime, sorry! I'm learning the language fast; pretty much all I do is study spanish! I know this is where i'm supposed to be and I am so happy to be able to give a little bit back to the Lord. I love you all so much! 

Hermana White