TREBOL!!!

That´s my first area and its the bomb. I mean yes it does kind of look like one went off here, but I think that adds to the overall charm of the place haha-

Well, what I week, I don't even really know where to start. My comp is great!! Her name is Hermana Rodriguez and she is from Argentina. She is 22 and has been a member of the church for two years which is pretty cool. She is so awesome! She speaks about zero english though which makes for some very interesting days and nights. But its good. I´m learning spanish slowly but surely. This week was seriously so awesome! I am so pumped to be out in the field! Hna. Rodriguez and I are really lucky and we live right next to the chapel. Also our apartment or more accurately our room has really nice wood floors and electricty- and if we plug in our shower for longer than 30 minutes there is hot water! Not very much but its something. We are very lucky!! I am learning so much here and am trying to work really hard. This week a lot of things definitely went way over my head. Ha I never know anything. But I´m excited for this week with a little bit more experience under my belt and a better idea of everything. Right now I kinda feel like a lost puppy dog and I just follow Hna Rodriguez around. The people here though are so awesome! I love it!

Dad, you´ll love this but for our meals we eat at Hna. Lucy´s house- She is our 'mom' here and makes all our meals. She is the best! She also has three adorable kids. But Hna. Rodriguez and I eat all our meals there with two other elders and it is a party! I understand very little of all the jokes and funny things said but it is still probably my favorite time of the day! Hands down- During lunch on my second day here I was just thinking that this is the way to live in any country. There was some spanish music on in the background and we were eating ceviche (which is delicious by the way) and I was just loving my life. And then we went to work, don´t worry- That part is good too! We taught a few lessons this week that went really well. (I think) And did a lot of street contacting which is where my true talent is. Everyone is totally up to listen to me beause I am from the US, obvi. So that's nice.

So Yeah, I am doing great. Everyday I understand more and more. Which is nice, although one night we were teaching in a house and in the other room their kids were listening to the soundtrack of Teen Beach Movie. So that was fun. I was singing those lyrics all night. Also the food. The food here is soooo good!!! really love it.

One really funny thing heppened. I was showing a picture of our family to a little boy here, Diego, and he asked why Abby and I were the only white ones. So yeah that was pretty funny- sorry Abs

Con todo mi corazon,

Hermana degn

It's the Final Countdown!!

Hi family thanks for all the notes this week! Well here it is my last week at the CCM. And just a heads up next week I leave on my pday so I won't be able to write. obvi. But I think the mission secretary sends you an email so you can know if I am alive or not. Ha, chiste chiste. Okay well since this is my last email from the CCm I thought I would just sum up the highlights so without further ado...

 

My top ten: ( it`s like sports center no?)

1. FUTBOL! Nuff said. I love soccer now. Who knew?

2. Asking for sin instead of sin for dinner. They`re basically the same word (pescado y pecado) but my whole district was dying as well as the poor cafeteria lady. But hey I still ended up with fish, so todo bien.

3. Tea & toast. My favorite part of the day, twice a day. After dinner and before breakfast. We also talk in British accents to up our classiness

4. Temple Tuesdays.

5. Churros! (but don`t worry grandpa, I don't eat them anymore! Not because I think they made anyone sick but because they made it a rule after the plague broke out)

6. Being forgotten. So cool story. This one time (last tuesday) we were supposed to watch the devo broadcasted from the provo mtc.... well everyone leaves for their missions every other tuesday so there were about 50 of us here. Which first off how awesome is that!?! And second everyone forgot about us. So we went to watch it in the chapel and literally NO ONE else was here to turn it on for us. We ended up having an impromtu testimony meeting that was so good! And it turned into one of my favorite nights.

7.District volleyball. Let's just say I've still got game.

8. My district. Who knew I could love them this much at the beginning?

9. Proselyting. That was definitely the best day so far. Just sooo good.

10. Elder Cook. Need I say more?

Basically its been one roller coaster of a month and I am so pumped to go in the field.

also just because.....

The Five things I miss most about America! (like my not top ten) eh?

1. Cheese!!!! ah what I wouldn`t do for some cheese! Even string cheese! I miss cheese!!!!

2. Hot water. Yep, needless to say I have no problem with the five minute shower rule.

3. Never seeing the back of my hair. Its actually probably a blessing.

4. the Sun. Yeah winter is just ending here but it is always overcast-

5. Music. who knew I listened to music so much!

and of course you! I love you all so much! Have an awesome few weeks!

love,

hermana degn

Hola!

How is everyone? Today we went on a fieldtrip proselyting! It was about 10x as awesome as P-day. Also, needless to say I am still going to have culture shock for a while. I honestly wish I could adequately put into words how poor the people are here. We drove about an hour away from the CCM and it was incredibly humbling to drive through so many shanty towns and then to walk through them. It was similar to swimming through dirt but also one of the best experiences! We switched up companionships so my comp for the day was Hermana Thiel- she is so awesome! Both of us struggle with Spanish but I had such an amazing time talking with the people. It was really awesome and humbling to talk with them! Even though our Spanish was bad they were so patient and willing to listen. In fact at the first door we knocked on I asked it we could share a message about Jesus Christ. Well she said yes and then I was so completely shocked I had no idea what to say next, I just totally forgot what our message was. Haha thats the best thing about having a companion. Hna. Thiel and I made a great team! My favorite person that we talked to was named Johnny. He was so awesome. We probably talked to him for 45ish minutes and it was just amazing. He had a lot of questions for us that we really struggled to answer because he would talk so fast. Then say sí or no, and Hna Thiel and I would look at each other and shrug. haha, He could see that our Spanish was bad and helped us out a bit. He started talking slower and we bore testimony a lot and tried to answer his questions the best we could. In the end we gave him a Book of Mormon and got his name and address so the missionaries could go back. I loved talking to him because he would just laugh with us when we would mess up on words or didn´t know how to say anything. What a day. I would pray every time that I opedned my mouth that Heavenly Father would fill it with what I needed to say. The whole day I kept repeating D&C6:36 (i think?) in my mind. "look unto me in every thought, doubt not fear not." While talking every time was still a struggle and I could never really express what I wanted to I know that Heavenly father was still able to work through Hna. Thiel and I. Even if we were just planting really small seeds. It was an awesome day! although definitely so exhausting, both spiritually and physically.

And sidenote there are so many dogs here! It is unreal. I thought everyone was exagerating. well they weren´t. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE! It´s a bit nuts. Other highlights this week included being seranded by some of the Latino Elders. The ones here this week were very out going which was really fun except for the fact that they do not quite understand the Elder/Hermana relationship. for example one told me that he thought I was beautiful and then sang Bruno Mars to me (because they all love Bruno Mars for some reason). Basically I found my future husband! Ha, Chiste, obvi. It was pretty hilar though.

The rest of the week was really awesome too! Yesterday was sad because my favorite district left! (but now we are the oldest eeek) There is a picture attatched of my district and that district. (the hermanas) they are for real the greatest! And they are going to be stellar missionaries!

Now back to my highlights of the week:

District volleyball. Lets just say I still have game and my district is pretty rad. We have an awesome time together. Which is good since we literally spend SO much time together. But I love them all!

Also our ride home from the temple today was crazy. The bus was so jampacked but we just got on anyways. Also you can just stand on the side of the road anywhere and busses stop to pick you up. It´s a bit nerve wracking. Especially when there are other cars honking and going crazy because the bus is just stopped- Everytime I get on I think of the Knight bus from Harry Potter. (I swear one bus even had shrieking heads). That is a pretty accurate description though-only here the busses are crazier. And the driving is about the same level of recklessness and speed only they are not wizards and nothing moves for them. We also j-walk a lot. Eveyone does ( ah the thrill of it all) but that is like real like frogger. Pedestrians never have right of way here so good thing I have so much practice with both frogger and J-walking. (I´ve done it with golf clubs before which I think is pretty impressive)

Well my time is winding down. So here is a special shout out to Rosemary and Penelope! Thanks for reading my blog! I sure love and miss you cute girls! Also have an extra piece of devils food this week for me! I will have to tell Hna Blotter a story about Stuart and maybe we will have chocolate cookies to celebrate his life.

All my love,

Hermana Degn

 

 

Thanks for the package!  Thanks Tyler Thompson!

Me and Elder Christensen!  So glad to have a familiar face in the MTC!

Literally we are halfway through our MTC time. (WHAAAT?!) and yes also literally we are living on a prayer. I have definitely never prayed this much in my whole life. Seriously though, if we added up all the prayers I´ve ever said I think I have said more in the past three weeks- I mean at the very least we pray 15 times a day. Also I have random songs get stuck in my head all the time! and we can´t listen to music here, sooooo its sometimes rough to get them out. For instance yesterday in our language class we were doing a por y para practice scenario and it used the word gasolina.... Well I have had the gasolina song by daddy yankee stuck in my head ever since. Most def not mission appropiate but my spanish teacher was way impressed that I had heard it before. So that´s cool.

It´s basically like the walking dead here at the CCM- people are just dropping like flies. Actually not really anymore but we were all sick this past week. It was basically an infirmary. with Quarantines and everything. You would see people at breakfast and then two days later you would see them again. Ha good news is its all behind us! And everyone (myself included) is healthy again.

Let´s see unfortunately they have now banned churros due to the walking dead status which is a real bummer. Basically I would eat a churro a day and probably go home 400 lbs, and be proud of it. Then I would dedicate the rest of my life to bringing them to America. That is how good the churros are. Today was rough not being able to get one. But we went to some cool shops. There was a crazy meet market with just hunks of meet hanging and plucked chickens hanging. So that was interesting. Speaking of food, thanks so much for the treats! and the dried mangos! They were the best! Even though I eat about three pounds of rice a day I feel like I´m never full. It´s a real problem. And yet they have killer flan and soft serve ice cream so obviously I´m over that problem.

This week we played futbol a bunch and it is seriously soooo fun! I love futbol now! I am pretty terrible but did take out an elder earlier this week. I just had all this energy that had to go somewhere.

Also reading.... well I finished the Book of Mormon on Sunday! I was pretty pumped! 18 days what what. Sunday was awesome. We listened to a talk from Elder Bednar that was so good. I loved it! It is really cool to be able to learn so much about the gospel here. Also spanish is coming fine. It´s very rough around the edges but I am anxious to get out in the field and really learn it. I can give the restoration lesson pretty well but can´t really carry out a normal conversation. Unless they want me to teach them how to pray.

Also I am so happy here! don´t worry about that! The CCM is relatively small so you get to know everyone really well!! I love P-days and time has really starting to fly by. (seriously I feel like we had p-day yesterday) This past week was so good. Hna Blotter really stepped it up in our lessons and talked a lot more. And we just have a ball hanging with the other hermanas here- I miss you guys a lot but really look forward to emailing you every week! thank you guys so much for all the awesome notes! I loved them! Plus I loved the cards you know me too well mom. I thought of you on Sunday during our lunch. We eat before the elders and somehow we always end up talking about movies- well last week it was the great gatsby (Ihave never wanted to see it until that moment and this week it was You´ve got mail) well needless to say it was a pretty enjoyable hour. Also You´ve got mail really are the best three words. obvi. I´m obsessed. Thank your for all emails as well. We have also had the parent trap meal as well. It was the best. (Can someone hand me my Evian bottle? I pull that one all the time)

Anyways I´m going to end this so I can send more pictures!!! LOVE YOU ALL SOO MUCH!!!!

XXoXOOooxXXoX,

Hermana Degn

 

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