Hola! When you are learning a language you tend to pick up the speaking habits of your teachers. Hno Johnston says "guau" some times (wow) and so now if anyone says "wow" our entire district says in unison, "Guau..." in a sort of awed whisper, exactly as Hno Johnston does. Guau....
Today is my official 1 month mark! Guau! That did go by rather quickly, but 17 months still sounds like quite a long time to me. I think the MTC is in kind of a time warp. The days are very long and sometimes it feels like something you did yesterday was a year ago. At the same time though, I feel like I was just in here writing an email yesterday.
I look forward to being in Mexico with great anticipation. I do love the MTC, but I don't want to stay here forever. I still can't actually speak Spanish, but I figure I won't be able to do that anyway for about 4-5 more months. I'll just keep working hard. I do need to do better at "Speak your Language" (SYL- use Spanish as much as possible throughout the day). That's one of my goals for this week.
We had snow this week! It is incredibly pretty! It's also been incredibly cold the last couple of days. Elders Edginton and Russon (from California and Arizona, respectively) have thoroughly enjoyed the snow and every time we have a break during class they run outside and play in it. Their most recent project was to make an ice bridge across the little stream through Raintree. Les quiero a ellos mucho because they remind me of my hermanitos :) They also happen to be almost exactly the same age as my two younger brothers.
One of the best nights of the week for our zone is Tuesday nights. We get to watch a devotional which are always informative, insightful, and uplifting. Afterwards, we gather as a zone and have a testimony meeting about what we learned from the devotional. The testimonies of these young Elders and Sisters are incredible. Their faith and their devotion inspire me. I wish all of you could have the blessing of listening to them share their struggles and their triumphs, their pains, and their immeasurable joy that they receive from serving their Savior, Jesus Christ.
Yo sé que Jesucristo vive. Mediante la Expiación de Jesucristo podemos recibir gozo en esta vida y en los cielos con nuestro Padre Celestial. Yo sé que Dios nos ama y Dios conoce cada persona en la tierra. Dios quiere nosotros ser feliz y recibir la vida eternal con nuestras familias. Digo esto en el nombre de Jesucristo.
I'm sorry for my imperfect grammar, but that comes from the heart.
Alysa is serving a 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is currently serving in the Mexico Pachuca Mission after six weeks training in the Provo Missionary Training Center. She'll be serving from November 2013 - May 2015.