FEBRUARY 10, 2016 - THE AIRPORT

 

THE BEGINNING OF

HERMANA MILLINGTON'S

MISSION ADVENTURES

 

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

 

Off She Goes!!

 

 

This morning will forever be etched in our memories. It was bittersweet.

 

 

 



 "peace out"



One last glimpse and wave.

 

Video cred: Joan Boren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 16, 2016 - MTC Mexico City - Week One

 

Hola mi familia!!

 

 

Wow, it´s been quite the week! So many crazy amazing things. I don´t even know where to start!! 

So my little Distrito 8-C is all going to New Jersey! Isn´t that rad? So we won´t have to really say goodbye to each other, we´ll see each other all the time! My companion is Hermana Davis from Santaquin Utah (right around the Provo area I guess?). She´s awesome! She knew absolutely zero Spanish coming into this and it´s really cool to watch her learn and progress. I´m so proud of how far she´s come. I didn´t hear it, but apparently the other night she was talking in her sleep and asked for some beans in Spanish! Hahaha. That´s progress right there. We work well together and I like her a lot! The other hermanas in our room are Hermana Hettinger (the one from my ward last semester!) and her compañera, Hermana Woll. They are both from California. They´re super awesome as well, I love them mucho. We have two elders in our district as well, Elder Follet from Arizona (our lider de distrito--district leader) and Elder Hunt from New Mexico. We call Elder Follet Elder Pamphlet sometimes because folleto is pamphlet in español. I don´t even know how to express how much I love my district!! They´re such fantastic people, always lifting each other up and inspiring each other to be better. They are mi mejores amigos. My best friends.

 

So Spanish!! Holy cow, I love it. It is my favorite language, I´ve decided. It´s all coming along well! I´ve learned a LOT. I´m able to teach a lot of basics about the gospel and I´ve memorized the baptismal interview, Moroni 10:4-5, and my missionary purpose (mi objetivo) en español. I´m finding myself now wishing I knew more words to better express the more complex things of my heart. I love the gospel so so much and I´m learning so much about it, but I just don´t quite know how to say it. But have no fear, I will learn! I´m learning mucho every day. 

 

So crazy story, we taught an investigator on Thursday. We´d been here for a day and a half and we were teaching!! Fue loco. It was crazy. But it was just a teacher here at the CCM (MTC) and he was great! I read most of what I said out of a notebook and poor Hna. Davis read everything she said. She´s still working on her pronunciation, but we got the point across okay! And as we were walking back to our classroom we decided to go to the tienda (the little store on campus) and get a drink for Hna Davis. When we were walking, we ran into the guy we´d just finished teaching, Bruno!! He asked where we were going, and I said "vamos a comprar un bebé!" I meant to say we were going to buy a drink, but it came out as we were going to buy a baby. Drink is bebida, bebé is baby. Hahaha so awkward. Anyway, then "Bruno" came in and taught our district in our little classroom where we spend pretty much all our time.

They take good care of us here at the CCM, no need to fret. I have two other teachers that teach in the morning--Hermana Linarez and Hermano Borgel--and they are awesome. They take things pretty slow with us, but they rarely speak English. We really got thrown into the language! But it´s been really great! I've been so so blessed though. I will forever be thankful that I knew some Spanish coming in here. It's given me a good opportunity to be a leader and a friend to mis amigos.

The other day at dinner Elder Follet said I was like the older sister of the District. I laughed it off and everything, but then I really started thinking about it later in an interview with a branch presidency member and I think it´s really true. I do know the most Spanish of us (soon enough they´ll all know more than I do) and I´m usually the one they ask when they have questions about translations or pronunciation or anything. And I´m just so proud of all my hermanas and our elders, I do feel like their sister! When they pray perfectly en español or like when I saw Hna Davis taking notes in Spanglish, I just get so proud. They´re all working so hard and I know the Lord is blessing them.

So besides the baby and drink mix-up, there have been a couple other funny language problemas this week. The first I learned was pecado/pescado. Pecado means sin and pescado means fish. So when I´m teaching I have to be careful not to say that the Atonement can make us clean from our fishes. Also, priesthood in español is sacerdocio. We were trying to learn how to pronounce it late last night in our classroom and I don´t even know how it happened, but one of us ended up saying "sack-er-doci-do" which is SO wrong. But now when we want to sound like major gringas we say sackerdocido. Also, Hna. Davis started saying "seester" like Nacho Libre and now has our whole district saying it! It´s Elder Pamphlet´s favorite thing to say. Hahaha

Man, what else? It really feels like I´ve already been here for a month. Today has been a good day though! And Sunday was awesome. We had a lot more time for personal study, so I got to actually study some great stuff in English! We had RS and our district meeting in English as well, and that was so nice. I felt like I could relax and be spiritually filled instead of stressing about trying to translate everything they were saying so I could understand what was going on. But today we got to go to the Mexico City temple!! That´s why I´m writing so late in the afternoon. Lo siento, I´m sorry. But it was so awesome. The session was in spanish, but we got headphones so we could understand. The temple itself was beautiful and it was so nice to be home. When we were on the bus driving home we started singing our himnos en español and that was cool. It was so interesting to be driving through the middle of one of the craziest cities in the world (it´s so loco) and to still have the spirit with us on that little bus. 

 

What else would you like to know? I know this email is pretty general, but I don't have a ton of time and I´ve got a lot to say! But I attached some pictures of me and my district and at the temple today! Unfortunately I can´t send a billion in one email, but there´s a few for ya :) And ps, p-day next week is also Tuesday, but the week after it will be Wednesday. So don´t panic when you don't hear from me then :)

Thank you for the sweet sweet emails, I´ve been oh so excited to read them and to write y'all! Although this place is harder than I anticipated, there's nowhere else in the world I would rather be. After home and the temple, this place is heaven on earth. Such a sweet spirit with the sweetest people ever. 

Hasta Pronto! Los amo! Son in mis oraciones!

Talk to you soon! I love you! You´re in my prayers!

Hermana Millington