First Letter from the MTC

January 7, 2014 - First letter from the MTC

Mis amores!

Ahh, I am literally bawling reading all of the sweet emails from family and friends. You have no idea how much they mean to me! I miss you all so much! By the way, Tuesdays are my Pday!

Can you believe that in a few short hours I will have been here at the CCM (say say emmay) for an entire week!? ¡No es posible! Every day here feels like a week, and every week here feels like a day! It has been a hard week, but it has been the best week of my life! I am the happiest I have ever been!

Where do I even start? (I am short on time and trying to type with a spanish keyboard, so bear with me!)

The plane rides were great, the airports weren't as scary as they could have been, and I was able to travel in a really fun group! My luggage weighs as much as I do so it was really funny to try to walk down this huge ramp they had because I was basically chasing it all! The girl who sat next to me on both flights ended up being my companion! Her name is Hermana Jensen and I just adore her. We were made the Hermana Zone Training Leaders on our 4th day here! Ay, ay, ay. She is the senior companion for the first three weeks, and then we switch.

The CCM is paradise. It used to be a school called "Benamerito" so they have a big white "B" on one of the hillsides that surrounds us, and it helps me not be so homesick for BYU! The campus is huge and beautiful. We are in the middle of a valley and are surrounded by busy roads and hundreds of colorful houses crammed together. It is really smoggy, and actually freezing here before the sun comes up and after it goes down- you can see your breath as you walk! All those people who gripe about Utah having bipolar weather have clearly never been to Mexico City! The weather changes on a dime, and I am so glad I brought my winter coat because the classrooms are always colder than any weather outside (no such thing as heaters in Mexico)! We have started to bring our blankets around with us so we don't die of hypothermia. Most afternoons are really nice though, and we go outside and study in the sunshine! And when I say study, I mean watch colorful parrots flit from palm tree to palm tree. The food is always a "mystery meat with a mystery sauce," so although I try to be adventurous, most days I survive on cereal and salad. Spence and Nick would be so proud, I finish almost everything I eat... almost. I love my teacher Hermano Trejo! He is this tiny little hispanic and is just as bad at English as we are at Spanish! haha! It is funny to hear his broken English and realize that we sound the same in Spanish.

It is seriously the Hunger Games here! You starve between each meal time. You are pushed in every aspect: mentally, physically, emotionally, and especially spiritually. We hear a lot of cannons for some reason (no one knows why), so we always laugh and say that whenever it goes off that an investigator converts! And there is a tropical bird here that has this crazy whistle that reminds me of mockingjays. haha!

It it sink or swim the moment you step off the airplane. Everything is in Spanish at the CCM... everything! Luckily I am much better at "swimming" here than in an actual pool. haha! The gift of tongues is REAL. I understand about 75% of everything, and can respond to about 50%! Our first day here they put all twenty of us "greenies" in a room, and brought in a real investigator named Mario! We were so shocked and scared to mess up! It turned out to be the most spiritual experience of my life. I have NEVER felt the spirit so strong. The love and concern you feel for this absolute stranger is absolutely incredible. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Now we have a teacher to pretends to be an investigator and it is so difficult! We have to prepare lessons and teach him every day. It is so humbling to see exactly how much I need to learn, and so strengthening to see improvement each time. 

No packages or letters while I'm here, they will be stolen.

Funny of the week:

The native Elders yell "Te amo" to me everyday and kind of swarm to take pictures with someone with blue eyes. haha!

I was trying to figure out why I wasn't really torn up about being away from my family for the first few days, and now I understand that Heavenly Father has blessed me with a temporary family, my district! Hermana Zamora, Hermana Zindel, Elder Blake, Elder Bradshaw, Elder Soelberg and Elder Andrus are the absolute best. We get along so well and help each other out so much.

I am so glad I brought my picture book! Everyone loves to see the people I love, especially Coco! Give her a big hug for me please!

"If you lose yourself in the service of others, you will find yourself."

Mi nombre es Hermana McOmber y yo quiero dar mi testimonio que este iglesia es verdadero. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero y es la cosa mas importante en mi vida. Yo se que nosotros tenemos un Padre Celestial que nos amo mucho. Y yo se que yo soy un hija de Dios. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

I love you all more than I can say!

Hermana McOmber