Three Months In

Ahah!  I knew she was sneaking other emails behind my back.  Silly girl.

Wow! The time here is really flying fast. Hard to believe I have already been gone for 3 months, tomorrow! I only have 15 left! This week has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Hna. Powell and I didn't have cambios, but one of the other hermanas in our ward left to train for her last 6 weeks here. The new Hermana is Hermana Villena, and she is super sweet. She and Hermana Chacón (these two hermanas are the hermana leaders) slept in our house last night because we had exchanges, and we finished super late and it wasn't safe for them to walk back to their house.

  When we got inside, Hermana Villena told me she thinks our house is ugly and that we should change houses. I thought it was funny because my first day, I HATED the house we have. It's true, it's super ugly. The kitchen is super tiny, I am taller than the bathroom is wide, and sometimes I bump my head on the ceiling because I am too tall. But the house is perfect for the both of us and we have exactly what we need. So while the house is ugly, it's okay. The only thing that kept me going my first day with the house was thinking that I am not here to have a fancy house. I am not here to have a fancy kitchen and bathroom, and I am not here to worry about ceilings that aren't tall enough for me, as funny as it is when I bonk my head every now and then. :) I am here for the people, not for me.

While I have had NO baptisms yet, I know that the Lord is preparing people to hear his gospel. While I was in exchanges with Hermana Chacón, I had a little experience that goes along with this. So, there's this man named Chrístopher who has been attending our ward, and has a baptismal date and everything, and he is super excited. The problem is that he does not live in the ward boundaries, and needs to assist the ward closer to his him in order to progress in the gospel and have a calling in church  For several weeks, he did not want to attend the other ward because he didn't know anybody there. Thankfully, they got it all worked out and everyone is happy, and the other missionaries in the other ward will have his baptism there instead of here.

 One of the missionaries in the other ward is in his very first 6 weeks, so this is his first baptism. I couldn't help but be a little sad at first because my initial thought was that this baptism was basically handed to him because most of the work has already been done, and for a second-I was a little bitter. I have been here for a month and a half and rarely have opportunities to teach formal lessons, let alone get a baptism "handed" to me. But as I was talking with Hermana Chacón about this (she was the one who had been telling me all of this, since she had originally been teaching Christopher), I let it go because I knew that it wasn't my fault that I haven't had to opportunity to baptize someone. Everything I am doing is helping to spread the gospel in some way, shape, or form. All I can do is keep working, and keep working with ANIMO (excitement/happiness/a good attitude )!

Also, my companion and I were knocking on doors contacting people to teach, and Hna. Powell realized too late that she didn't have any cards to give that we like to pass out, so on the fly, she told the lady that answered the door that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and that we are singing hymns, tonight. So the lady that answers the door goes inside, a different lady, older, comes out, and we sing Lead Thou Me On (one of my personal favorites) and she was so happy that she went inside and came back out with homemade jam for us as a gift for singing for her. She felt the spirit so strong that she almost cried, it was a really cool opportunity, PLUS we got super good jam. :)

Anyway, creo que eso es todo por este semana! 

Blessings

Finally got pictures from Caley!!  This is Caley's companion, Hermana Powell.  She's Caley's trainer and first companion.



This is their apartment:  You gotta love that front gate and the infamous pile of wood in the second picture.









I got an actual letter from Caley for my birthday!  In it she asks what blessings have I received from her and Josh being on a mission.  Do you feel that you are growing closer to people in the ward or in our family and with Christ?

I had to stop and think about those blessings.  Everyone has said you will get twice the blessings for having two out on a mission.  We have been blessed, just not in ways I thought.  Sometimes challenges are placed in our lives to help us see those blessings that come afterwards.  For example, my husband has needed to take FMLA for medical reasons.  We have been blessed to have 12 weeks of paid leave since he never calls in sick.  He's had the time to see doctors during the day because of it.  We've been blessed to have several doctors that made correct diagnoses and get him on the right medications and that we have insurance to pay for it all.

Somehow bills are getting paid even though the logical math doesn't make sense.  I know what we come home with every month, but somehow it's all working out.  My testimony has gotten stronger that the Lord does indeed know our challenges and provides a way for us to work through them.  I've become more humble in my prayers and a better listener to the answers given.  For those that are struggling, don't give up.  Prayers do go past the ceiling instead of bouncing off the wall.  Take the time to listen as the spirit speaks in a still small voice that is gentle and caring.

1 Kings Chapter 19 verses 11-13

The Lord talking to Elijah:

And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord, And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind was an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake;

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

Elijah was able to then talk to God about his questions because he listened to the still small voice, not the "noise" of today's world.

It's Almost Spring!

¡Es casi primavera, aquí! Or, in other words, it's almost spring! In the first few weeks, we had to make a fire and keep it going all day, but it is beginning to warm up, and now we only need to make fires in the morning. :) We could make fires at night too, but most of the time, we're too lazy, so we just wait until we wake up.

This week has been good, we got a new mission president! Sadly, Presidente Obeso, the last one, had to leave a year early because he has cancer and needed to go back home and start his treatment. Now we have Presidente Isom, from Wyoming, and he is amazing. Every other 6 weeks, we have interviews with the president, and with cambios coming up next week, we had the interviews early so he could get to know everyone before making any changes to the mission. I have no idea if I will stay in my sector, Rahue Alto I or not. Or if I will have a new companion. I think I would like to stay because I really like my trainer and I think that with as quickly as I am learning spanish, I can start to be more useful to the people in the ward and help the people we meet more. My mission is a hard mission, but I know that everything we do helps build up the Lord's kingdom somehow, some way. That always helps me feel better when I am getting discouraged. 

So, last night, we were with the Chacón family, and Sister Chacón made this really weird cake. It's cake with chicken and aji, aji is a spicy sauce, as the "frosting". I like chicken, and I like cake, but I don't think I like chicken and cake together. :)

Anywho, that's all I have for you this week. Until next!

I love you guys!

Hermana Frerichs

Hey Mom!

Sorry I haven't been sending pictures, I know you guys are dying. I am too! I really meant to send pictures today, but the other hnas. in my ward wanted to use my camera for a baptism and the camera died and they haven't given it back, yet. I promise promise promise to send SOMETHING next week. Also, the picture you took of the snake is SO FUNNY. It looks like a meme you'd find flooded all over facebook! I miss facebook. I'm incredibly curious about how many notifications I will have built up over a year and a half! It'll take me hours to go through everything! xD

Josh sent pictures and I have some of Caley at the Mexico City MTC!

By the way, this is the picture I sent her.  I was walking around the park playing Pokemon Go! and found a small snake sunning himself on the sidewalk.  I sent this to my husband who is paranoid of snakes (yes it was mean) and then on FB and to her and Josh.  by the way, don't pick up snakes and they really aren't "rare pokemon".
 

Fire Building and Cheesecake

Sweetie, you always add your mother to your mass emails.  Silly girl.  A friend forwarded me the email she got yesterday and it was wonderful to get more information than a short message.

For those that know Caley, her hot water story is what we call "A Caley Moment".  

The only time I remember making a fire was at Girl's Camp and I set dinner on fire that night.  I wasn't allowed to cook the rest of the week.  I was relegated to dishes.  Maybe that's why I detest cooking so much.  I can't even get a cigarette lighter to work for me (my smoking friends thought that was hilarious) so I'd be really cold right now.

I'm proud that Caley is meeting these challenges and seeing her grow in such a short time.   As a mom you always worry about things like this when you can't be physically there.  You hope you've taught her enough to make her way through the world on her own and are proud when she accomplishes hard things.  I feel that our Heavenly Father must think the same thing as He watches over us.

Her letter:

I have literally a LIST of things I wanna talk about with all of you.

A. LIST. 

First, these past 3 days have been sort of an Idependence Day in Chile, and we aren't allowed to leave our houses to proselyte! The only times we could leave were if we had fixed appointments with someone or to go see members for a specific reason. We had a HUGE lunch with the family of the bishop yesterday, and it was SOOOO GOOOD. I don't think I have ever eaten so much food in my life! I ate 2 empanadas, 2 pork kabob thingies, ensalada de arroz (rice salad, super good), fries, this super weird dessert that is basically puffy wheat rice stuff in peach juice and a whole peach that has been soaked in the juice, you eat it out of a cup with a spoon. Not sure how I feel about that one, but it was still good, and then LASTLY... CHEESECAKE. THEY HAVE CHEESECAKE HERE AND I WAS SO HAPPY. The family of the bishop here is so sweet, they have helped us out with so many things and I am very grateful for them. On the downside though... I have only been here for 5 weeks and I'm already gaining weight! Some clothes that I had that were just a bit too big now are almost too small! I need to be more careful with what I eat!

I'm also getting better at making fire. I made a fire all by myself today earlier this morning, and it is still going. :) And, I LOVE it when we get to ride in a car, here. We walk everywhere (which isn't too bad at all, our sector for proselyting is only about 2 or 3 miles), so when we get to ride in a car, I always think to myself WOO YEAH CAR RIDE!

OH. ALSO. I HAVE BEEN SHOWERING IN WATER THAT IS SOMEWHAT WARMER THAN COLD FOR 5 WEEKS FOR NO REASON. I THOUGHT THAT IT DIDN'T GET ANY HOTTER THAN IT HAD BEEN GETTING. My trainer told me that I should only turn the hot water knob a little bit because the water gets super hot, and to be careful. So, I turned the hot water knob a little bit, waited. waited. waited some more. Still cold. So I turned it more, and it got warmer. But not super warm. I hadn't even turned the cold water knob because why would I turn it if I want hot water, right? Wrong. So I had spent the night with the other sisters in my ward, and their water was hot, and I was literally so happy to have hotter water, and I was talking to my companion about how happy I was to have had hot water and she looked at me all confused and said "What? Literally our water gets so hot that it can burn you, why didn't you tell me you didn't have any hot water?" And then I figured it out this morning. I had THE most satisfying shower of my life this morning. I'm just sad that I only have 2 weeks left before the next cambio! (we may or may not change companions/places during cambios, we don't know until a few days before hand, so I might leave the house we have now and go to a different one). So, this has been my week, so far. Glad that everyone is doing well! Until next week!

Hermana Frerichs :)

Christmas Wishes

Sep 19 2016

Hi Mom!

I am SO sorry that I didn't have time to email you, I wasted 10 minutes trying to figure out a different computer. After sending out my mass email, you are the first. :) I wanted to thank you for putting in the 20 dollars, and will you please let me know next week how much is on my card? I am apprehensive to buy anything extra that I can't use money from the mission for because I don't know how much is on there. Thank you!

 I am hoping that I will be able to find a converter for my things here, it seems like there are a lot of american products that don't have the same plug thingies, and people have to buy converters so they work here, but I haven't had a chance to find any yet, so if I do, I can use the money you gave me. Thank you. :) Also, here is the list of ideas for a christmas package. I am not asking for everything on here, just ideas of stuff to send. Most of it is food. :)

Cinnamon life cereal (I miss it so much)

Cheez-its

Butterfingers (they don't have them here!)

Coa-coa puffs

Lucky Charms

oatmeal creme pies

brownie/cake mix/frosting (the cakes and brownies here are different. they aren't as sweet and it makes me sad. xD)

flowery skirt, preferably in neutral colors

soaps/lotions/perfumes that smell good/fruity :)

physical pictures of you guys to carry around with me

poptarts (blueberry, cherry, strawberry, brown sugar)

lemon cookies

those off brand girl scout Samoan cookies with the coconut and chocolate drizzle

swedish fish

popcorn (not kettle corn please!)

And anything else you think I might like. 

I bet Casey is pleased with her new phone! And how was the pepsi?

Love you!

Hermana Frerichs

That's QUITE the list Sweetie.  

This is the address that was given to me for sending things to her a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know if it still is.  I will email her and ask.  Everything is mailed to the mission office since the elders and sisters make transfers to different parts of the mission.  I was told it takes about a month for packages to arrive.    

Sister Caley Frerichs

Casilla 7-0

Osorno, Chile

I did a Google Map search for her street and couldn't find anything.  After about a half hour it finally registered to do a Google search on "Cassilla".  First came up a pigeon box and then some other funny words but finally figured out it was a PO box.  Duh.

Via Google Maps we could explore Osorno using the satellite function and their Street View.

Next question.  Why am I not on her mass email list that she's talking about?  

Hi Dad!

I don't have much time left, I spent a half hour reading emails and didn't leave myself enough time to reply to everyone!

I am almost certain Punta Arenas is the southernmost area in the world, but I will double check and get back to you next week. My only concern with going to punta arenas is that I'm pretty sure I can only take one 50 pound bag instead of 2, and I would have to leave the rest of my stuff in the mission home. I don't want to have to sacrifice anything to go there. x3

Anywho, I gotta go email my mission president and let the other hermanas email! I love you SO SO MUCH and I will talk to you next week!

Pictures

Caley and I are having problems with Google Drive and permissions.  I'm hoping to get it all worked out next week.

Well..That Was A Short Email...

Hi mom!

No time left, but read Dad's email and the mass email I sent out, and tell casey I love her!

Caley

To her dad:

Hi Dad!

No, Hermana Arrington doesn't know you messed up my name. She is in a completely different area than I am, so no worries. :) I just bought a thermal bottle thingy you can use to sleep with at night, you fill it up with hot water and it stays warm all night. It wasn't very expensive, and Hna. Powell uses hers all the time, so I figured it would be a good idea, and to have for next year, too. Also, in case I get sent to Punta Arenas, the southernmost area in the mission, and in the world. Wish me luck! xD 

I'm sorry the mac wasn't working and that you had to use your 3DS. Did you at least finish whatever it was you needed to do? And, I love the picture of you on the tank. You look very handsome. :) In my mass email, I talked about this crazy guy we met about a week ago while we were on our way home from the store.. he liked to practice satanic-y/voo-doo stuff and he has crazy hair like Crusty from the Simpsons. We recieved a referral from the Hna. Leaders, and when we went to knock on the door... it was him! He made us go see his room (We had a member with us, no worries on that part) and there was a creepy doll head sitting on top of a glass vase on a shelf and weird symbols and pictures in his room. Needless to say, we gave him a book of mormon, shared a scripture, said a prayer, and BOOKED IT. Hna. Powell had to write in the area book not to visit this man because it was that bad! I don't have a lot of details because I couldn't understand most of the conversation, but from what I was told... I'm glad I couldn't! I'm not worried though, he's harmless. Just creepy, is all. 

I like my Ecco with a lot of sugar.. I don't like the bitterness, either. I would say I have about half the substitute, half sugar, and it works great. I love it even more with milk, but I like to save my milk for my cereal. And, my home isn't that bad. I like it a lot more now than when I first got here. and yes, the poorer people in america have super nice homes compared to some I have seen here! If they were in the US, someone would be like "does anyone even live in that house? It's so old! Someone should tear it down." or something like that. Anyway, I gotta write the mission president, so until next week! I love you!

Caley

It's Still Cold!

Hey Mom!

So, Osorno is super cold. Okay, not super cold, but we don´t have heat in our house right now, only a gas heater that we can´t leave on for longer than 2 hours, so it´s colder than it should be. 😁 Bad news. Remember that Taska shoulder bag I bought for my mission? I can´t use it, it hurts my shoulders too much to carry it around. I can use the hip straps too, but it doesn´t really help that much. The bag itself is heavy, and when I put all my stuff in it, it doesn´t help. My trainer, Hermana Powell, got me to buy a backpack instead. Backpacks are allowed here, because it´s only a walking mission. I bought a simple blue bag that is water resistant, for the rain here. So far, even though I´ve only had it for a couple hours, I like it better. The only thing I miss is being able to just reach over to my side and grab out what I need, I can´t do that with a backpack. But I need comfort more than availability, haha. My trainer, Hna. Powell, is super nice. She has been out for 7 months, and only speaks in spanish to me. It has helped me learn so much, and I can almost understand her perfectly. Talking however, is another😊 story.  The sister training leaders here are impressed with me because I talk a lot more than the other brand new missionaries, and it surprised them. I guess they´re all super quiet, and while I´m quiet too, I guess I´m just not as quiet. I have my camera with me, but I forgot my cord again, so no pictures this week, but my first day, after I met my companion, was not good. Our house is super super small, and kinda sketchy looking. We have a big metal front door, with graffiti all over, and then you walk past that door into our 'yard', which is concrete with a carpet over it, and then we have an actual door, which is small, like the rest of the house. We are supposed to get our heat tomorrow, which will be good. We´ll be using a combustion thing for heat, we have to chop our own wood and make a fire. When I know more, I can explain it better. I have been very humbled living here, and am learning to appreciate just how nice our house is compared to the houses here. People still use wood stoves here, not very many people have gas stoves, and I have yet to see an electric stove! Oh, and if you could tell me how much is on my card every friday, that would be super great. 

Anyway, I´m cold a lot here, but I´m okay. I promise, I´m being taken care of. 😊 I love you!

Caley

Brrr..It's Cold In Chile!

Hey Mom!

So, Osorno is super cold. Okay, not super cold, but we don´t have heat in our house right now, only a gas heater that we can´t leave on for longer than 2 hours, so it´s colder than it should be. 😁 Bad news. Remember that Taska shoulder bag I bought for my mission? I can´t use it, it hurts my shoulders too much to carry it around. I can use the hip straps too, but it doesn´t really help that much. The bag itself is heavy, and when I put all my stuff in it, it doesn´t help. My trainer, Hermana Powell, got me to buy a backpack instead. Backpacks are allowed here, because it´s only a walking mission. I bought a simple blue bag that is water resistant, for the rain here. So far, even though I´ve only had it for a couple hours, I like it better. The only thing I miss is being able to just reach over to my side and grab out what I need, I can´t do that with a backpack. But I need comfort more than availability, haha. My trainer, Hna. Powell, is super nice. She has been out for 7 months, and only speaks in spanish to me. It has helped me learn so much, and I can almost understand her perfectly. Talking however, is another😊 story.  The sister training leaders here are impressed with me because I talk a lot more than the other brand new missionaries, and it surprised them. I guess they´re all super quiet, and while I´m quiet too, I guess I´m just not as quiet. I have my camera with me, but I forgot my cord again, so no pictures this week, but my first day, after I met my companion, was not good. Our house is super super small, and kinda sketchy looking. We have a big metal front door, with graffiti all over, and then you walk past that door into our 'yard', which is concrete with a carpet over it, and then we have an actual door, which is small, like the rest of the house. We are supposed to get our heat tomorrow, which will be good. We´ll be using a combustion thing for heat, we have to chop our own wood and make a fire. When I know more, I can explain it better. I have been very humbled living here, and am learning to appreciate just how nice our house is compared to the houses here. People still use wood stoves here, not very many people have gas stoves, and I have yet to see an electric stove! Oh, and if you could tell me how much is on my card every friday, that would be super great. 

Anyway, I´m cold a lot here, but I´m okay. I promise, I´m being taken care of. 😊 I love you!

Caley

Arriving In Osorno!

Dear Family of Sister Frerichs,

We are pleased to inform that your daughter has arrived safe and sound and smiling to the Chile Osorno Mission.  It was a pleasure for us to greet your daughter upon her arrival and feel her desire to serve.  Your daughter's address during her time in the mission will be:

                                               Sister Caley Frerichs

                                      Casilla 7-0

                                      Osorno, Chile

Sister Obeso and I love our missionaries and are truly happy to have the opportunity to work with Sister Frerichs.  We appreciate your willingness to share her with us as she works as a missionary and ambassador for the Lord in Chile.  Sharing the gospel with these deserving children of our Father in Heaven will certainly bring great joy and satisfaction to her, and to you as well.  Thank you so much for helping her get to this point.

Please write her regularly–at least once a week.  Your love, interest, and support will be of great help to her.  Should there be any emergency or if you desire information regarding any urgent situation, please feel free to contact the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City rather than go to the expense of phoning the mission here in Chile. 

The missionary work is progressing rapidly here in southern Chile, and I hope that you will share in her exciting mission experience as Sister Frerichs writes to you weekly and keeps you informed of her challenges and achievements and experiences.

I wish I had the names of all the missionaries in the pictures.  Caley and Josh tower over all the people of Chile.  

MTC And Packing

Aug 13 2016


Hi Mom!

My favorite scripture is Alma 33:23. 

Also, let Casey have a cat. She needs a buddy around the home, Mom. When she gets a job, make her help pay to take care of it, and make sure she understands how to take care of one. Make her buy the food, the litter, the toys, anything she needs and wants for the cat, she's gotta pay for it. As with the vets, you might have to help her out there, but work out a system. Half and half, you pay 40, she pays 60 percent, or vice versa or whatever. Pick a kitty that doesn't make you sick so it won't bother you. Okay? \

I'm about to be thousands of miles away on monday, so just do me this favor and let her have a kitty. x)

Sorry to hear about the tire! I didn't even know you guys knew how to change tires. x3 Glad you made it home safe! You guys were blessed, for sure. :)

Here's some pictures from last p-day and earlier today. There's a couple pictures of my district, Elder Greening is the one in the front on the right pretending to shove food in his mouth. He cracks me up. x3 There's also just a couple pictures of me from this morning, since I haven't sent you any pictures of me in a while. And then our room! Things are so messy from packing right now!  I hope you enjoy the pictures! I love you!

August 3 2016





I'm glad you liked the pictures, Mom! While the idea of painting my room is super sweet of you and Danielle, I'm not sure I understand the purpose! xD Of course you guys can do what you want, but I'm disappointed that I won't be able to see it for a while! Also, the pictures of your art were VERY pretty. You keep getting better and better!

This week has been a little bit stinky. I've been a little sick with a small cold and haven't been very hungry, lately. Apart from that, everything has been fine over here. Oh! Josh told some of the girls in his district, who are also my roommates, that he used to wrestle in 7th grade and about the picture of him with his leotard on. The girls all wanna see it, and have been repeatedly asking me to ask you to send me the picture of him with his leotard so they can see it. :) 

I have been trying really hard lately to get better at making small talk in spanish. I found that teaching simple principles of the gospel is pretty okay, but my companion and I sat with a couple Latino Hermanas yesterday at lunch, and I found out that my spanish isn't as good as I thought it was! So, I get to keep working harder. :) I'm getting better at reading the bom in spanish too, but I still need help from the english translation for words I don't recognize. Something that I've had to learn here is that there will never been an exact translation from spanish to English, and that I need to quit stressing about the small details. I've been working on a lot of the grammar too, because that's really what is the difficult part. So many different tenses! 

That is such a cool missionary experience Dad had! I hope Dorothy will be able to explore more of the church! I am not worried about you or Dad or Casey at all. Okay, I worry about you guys a little bit, but I know that you guys are in the Lord's hands while Josh and I are gone. I know everything will be okay as long as you guys are always striving to be faithful and dilligent. Have you been going to Church every week? I know it's hard for you and Dad, but I also know that having the spirit with me as a constant companion has been a huge blessing for me here when I get stressed or frustrated, and I know that having the spirit with you guys will help you a lot, too. 

Also, I have a couple stories. I got super sunburned last week the day I emailed you guys, my companion and Elder Grow and his companion Elder Harper were teaching me to play tennis, and we were outside for like 2 hours and I totally forgot about sunscreen until we were done, and then I was like... well. I hope I didn't get too sunburned! And I did. My arms, my face, the back of my legs, my neck, my scalp, and the tops of my ears! My legs didn't tan, but my arms are a little more tan, now. :) 

Also, Elder Greening and I were trying this bran cereal they had here (also, there is no captain crunch. Frosted flakes, chocolate frosted flakes, off-brand cheerios, froot loops, and a couple different brand cereals they just keep in the box) and Elder Greening thought it needed sugar, and I had seen a bowl of sugar in the comedor and I told him to just use that, and I decided to get some too because it had sounded good, so we get the cereal, get the sugar, go back to our table, and Elder Greening takes a bite, spits it back out, and says "It's not sugar!" 

It was salt.

Ooopsies. :)

I'm just glad he tried it before I did! Needless to say, we didn't finish our cereal that day, and now we know that the bowl of sugar they keep out is actually a bowl of salt. 

Also, during one of our lessons with an investigator (really just an instructor here pretending), my companion wanted to read him Mormon 8:16, but didn't mark the scriptures in her spanish BoM, and accidentally read him 8:21. Read the scriptures and I think you'll get a laugh. :) 

I get to to go the temple again today, too! Very excited. 

I love you and I miss you! 9 more days and I will have already been gone for a month! 1 down, 17 more to go. :)

Caley

In the Mexico City MTC

¡Hola!

Mi español no es muy bueno.. pero yo tengo aprendiendo (learned?) mucho mientras será aquí! Me amo este evangelio, y yo sé es verdadero. El don de linguas es real, no puedo este dos semanas pasado! 

Translation: My spanish is not very good.. but I have learned a lot while being here! I love this gospel, and I know it is true. The Gift of Tongues is real, I couldn't do this two weeks ago!

Sorry about all the pictures, I can't add them all onto one email, there isn't enough room. I took 65 pictures. :)

This is her room with her roommates.  Sister Arrington is her companion and I think she's in the red next to the window.

Caley saw her first palm tree and this is the one she touched.

First Day At Mexico City MTC

We dropped off Caley at the airport in Omaha.  It was hard letting her go but she's always wanted to go on a mission.  She will be a great missionary.

While waiting at the Salt Lake City airport she met more people going to the Mexico City and made instant friends with Hermana Silva and is also one of her roommates at the MTC.

This is the view on the way to Mexico City from the plane:

Hola, Familia!

I have arrived safely to the Mexico MTC! The keyboards here are different than in the US, it is taking some getting used to! The flight here was good, after we landed at Salt Lake, we met a TON of missionaries all headed to the MTC here in Mexico. During the landing in Mexico, one of the elders I sat by threw up on the plane. He had a bag at least, but it smelled. Poor guy. It is so crazy to believe that I am here! I know that I will be taken care of, and you do not need to worry about me while I am here. Everyone has been so kind so far, and I have only been here a few hours! I love you all so so so much, my preparation day is Wednesday, but I will not be able to email you again until NEXT wednesday. I hope you are all doing well back at home, send everyone my love!