Turkey and Tears

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! Watch some football for me. 

Man Oh Man, one month down. I am telling you that I am going to be home before I can say Quidditch. ( that was for mom) But man that makes me want to get out there and get to work. If time is going to move this fast I do not have any time to lose. All though I am freaking out about actually getting out there. Hmo. Hernandez had a talk with us yesterday about how the MTC was nothing and that we had no idea what tired was or how much work was ahead of us. Which didnt comfort at all. And he also said you have one week left and then the salvation of souls is your responsibilty. Lets just say you could probably not have seen 8 more terrified missionaries in that moment. haha but we needed the push/wake up call. 

This week has been a really hard one. It has had some good moments too dont get me wrong but it has been hard. We are teaching two investigators right now, both are our teachers but they are playing the roles of someone they taught on their mission. We have been teaching them for 3 weeks and this week both dropped huge bombs. First, Hmo Palma playing Marcelino told us that his "wife" wasnt actually his "wife". Apparently that is pretty common in Spanish culture, if you have kids and live together then they are called your wife. So lets just say we had taught all of the lessons and were teaching the law of Chastity and he was like whoa whoa whoa and we realized that maybe we should have clarified before we set a baptism date haha we dont even know how to say that he needs to be married. Let alone talk him into it. I wish I could say that that was the biggest challenge but then Hmo. Hernandez playing Jonathan, let us know that he was a drug dealer and that is why his girlfriend wouldnt let him see his kid. We just wanted to teach the WOW and it is a good thing the word for drugs is drogas or I probably would have just gone on teaching him like nothing happened haha. But me and my companion were scrambling. After the lesson with Jonathan I had a really ard time because I was thinking, how is this simple Gospel supposed to help such big problems? How am I supposed to help ANYONE? They say here that ya, the language is important, but the Spirit is the most important. And I could not figure out how I am supposed to use it when all I am good at is talking and I dont know any Spanish words! I havent quite figured it out yet but one thing I do know is that I love, love, love these investigators. Even the ones who arent necessarily "real". I cry all the time because I dont feel liek I am ever doing enough for them. I am not giving them enough. They deserve so much. But Saturday was a good day because we got to teach TRC! TRC is my favorite part of the week. This week there was a million kids who had got to go on fake missions. So they had meetings with their bishop and stake presidents and had a check up and got a mission call and name tags and everything and then they came and reported to the MTC.. they were sooooooo cute! We were the only one in our zone who didnt get to teach kids but we taught a wonderful lady named Carmen who was the sweetest and kindest lady on the planet. She was a new convert and I loved her! 

Everything else isnt all that exciting. We are all getting a little sick of eachother. And a little stir crazy. For some reason here Latinos think it is funny to say LINCHALO which means linch him! in English and that is becoming our teachers new favorite saying to us because we are driving them crazy. We think we are funny but hey. We are all just a little too together too much and there is one Elder that everyone makes a concious effort not to punch straight in the face but we are a somewhat disfunctional family and we have our moments. The boys were sick one day this week and so it was just us 6 girls and the reality of the work we are doing hits us all at different times. This week it was the two girls going to Salem. They started crying and having a really hard time. So our Hernandez started to panic cause, well, he is a boy. So then he showed us all a video of the Atonement and missionary work where my favorite line was "Missionary work should be a little hard because the price of salvation has never been cheap. So when you feel like you are being worked too hard, sit up straight, wipe your tears, and know that you have the privelege of standing shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ in a battle that has never been easily won." (Elder Holland) Well that video got us all crying which made Hernandez get even more scared so he went and got a girl teacher from the District of all boys and had her teach us haha. It was a real hot mess. And the boys in the other district kept peeking in the window with the same scared looks on their faces. It was so what we needed though. This work is hard, but Jesus christ has made it possible. 

We had another devotional by Elder Holland where my favorite line was "My wife has an Avon lady who is more persistent than you missionaries." That was a stab to the heart but he does make you want to get to work. We also had a live Devotional from Dallin H Oaks this week from Provo. He can put me to sleep so fast but it was a good talk. "Missionaries should be doing something for someone that they cant do for themselves" the funny thing was is that they sang a really obscure hymn and we were jsut following the words but then our President got up and yelled at us for not singing in Spanish but nobody could find the hymn so they was just like awkward off key humming. It was great. 

That is really all the big things this week. I checked the weather at home, you guys must be freezing! It is about 75 degrees here! and sunny. jsut saying. and also I gave a talk on sunday on the BoM in sacrament meeting entirely in spanish which was pretty not as bad as i thought it would be. Also some I tried to ask some LAtinos if they wanted me to take their picture at least I tried to and they said SI! and so I go to take a picture and one by one they took a picture with me haha I had never met these guys before but hey some good memories. Spanish is hard. 

Last but not least I really love in The intro to the BoM that is says the book was written for the Lamanites- the Lamanites are Latinos and I think it is awesome to have the opportunity to give the book to those who it was specifically written for. 

Sorry this was so long! I just have so much to tell you. have the best of weeks. 

Love you, Hma. 

Week 3- Fake Investigators and Real Lessons

Hola Mi Familia. 

Time literally doesnt even exist here. I sit down to write you feeling like I wrote you two hours ago but then I look back and each week there is so many things that happen. 

This week was so fun and also pretty emotional and a lot of work. I think most of the fam already knows this but I met a cousin! It was bound to happen since I have more cousins than the Queen but it was so crazy because he was in my zone. Literally the odds of that are pretty slim to none. But I love Cousin Lowe and I have a funny picture of him and I for you guys. But that is where things got pretty emotional because at the beggining of this week the District that was our best friends here and kinda took us under their wing left for their missions. All of them are going to Peru and so that is cool because they will all see eachother except one Hermana who is going to a different mission in Peru. I loved those guys including Cousin Lowe. I got really close with Hma. Lindstrom and Hma. Sintay and so when they left it was a lot of tears. They shared their testimonies before they left and I was crying like a baby. Everyone thought I was ridiculously weird but I know for sure that they will be grand. This all means that my district is the Leaders now. All we have is a group of 8 elders but we got a new intake this week so I think we will have some newbies. The funny thing was last night a bunch of new kids came in and so at dinner I wanted to freak them out. So I went and started talking to them in Spanish. But literally all I know is how to ask where they are from, where they are going, and recite the missionary purpose but lemme tell you when you run off that missionary purpose at 100 miles per hour those newbies really get a deer in the headlights look to them. It was funny and then I took pity and told them that I was actually super white and didnt know any Spanish. So i made some friends. lol.

Life really is getting better here in the CCM. When you start to get into the swing of things and quit crying you have a lot of fun and learn so so so so much. My roomate the other day woke up and started crying because there were bags under her eyes. Adulthood hit her like a freight train but it is so good here. I am really surprised about how much you can feel the Spirit when you are learning in a language that you cant fully speak. But I think that only makes it better. The other day we were talking about Baptism and how important it was and my teacher Hmo. Gallegos doesnt speak much English at all. I really wanted to know why Baptism was so important. Anybody reading that might think that I should probably have known that before I came but you win some you lose some. Anyways he sat me down, we prayed, and completely in Spanish he explained to me why Baptism was important, why we needed that symoblic commitment to Jesus Christ. And for the first time since I have been here, I understood every word that he said. Now I dont know if it is because he used really simple words or because God loves helping missionaries along but I am so grateful to be learning Spanish here in Mexico City. 

The absolute best part of this week was TRC! TRC is when a volunteer from outside the walls comes in and we teach them a lesson. We got a really nice guy who has been a member for three years and it was such a good experience. He spoke a little bit of English but he mostly spoke in Spanish and we got to know about him. He worked at a tire repair shop and he likened what he did as missionaries to his work. He was such an amazing person and it was hard to find anything to teach him because he was such a good guy but his wife is inactive. We taught a little bit about how we know that when we are doing the things we should like going to church and praying that we knew his family would be blessed. It makes you really look forward to getting out into  the field and working with people who a really really looking for this Gospel. 

The hardest part of this week was yesterday our teacher taught us all a very good lesson, but especially it hit me right in the gut. We are teaching our teachers as our investigators. It has been hard for me because I dont feel like it is real and so it is hard for me to have a desire to really put everything into teaching someone who already knows everything we are talking about. But Hmo. Hernandez explained that the way he chooses what investigator he is going to play is he picks a convert from his mission and then mixes in his own feelings and stories. Every district he goes in looking for an answer and that our lessons for him mean just as much as it would for a real investigator. God was teaching me a lesson on this one because right before that I had been so mad at my companion because she was mad because I wasnt as into making the teaching real and I owed a big apology to her. The teachers here are so good and each day they give so much. I really love them. 

Before I left, I remember Dad telling me that I needed to forget about myself and forget about the family and focus on those I was going to serve. This week, that has been such a big thing talked about. One guy from devotional said my favorite things. ´´´Think about all the hours that you habe sat through primary and sacrament and for  the teachers who have taught you, the hours upon hours of prayers your parents have prayed for you. For all those leaders that have worked to get you in these seats today. Now take that and you put the same amount of love, effort, and time into your investigators. They deserve it.´¨ That was just really good. SO thanks all who got me here. 

The city is still very loud but from what I understand there are riots going on in the city I think but the teachers wont tell us much. Our house is HAUNTED! I swear. The creepiest things are happening. Doors opening and shutting and weird noised and scary things and I am freaking myself out so I wont say anymore but shooooot. 

My last thought is about the Brother of Jared. Three talks this week have been about this story and here is what I know:

-We have to go to God with a plan. When we pray we have to make it specific and we have to go prepared. If we need an answer or some help or whatever it is we have to make a game plan. (Just like BoJ was asked by God what he would have him do to light the boats)

-Second, we must show a little bit of faith before we can recieve the blessings. And the more we show faith and see results then we will know with a surety that God is sending blessings. (Just like Jared watch the stones light up one by one and after a few began to glow he could see the finger of God)

-Last, our investigators will be lit one by one as we do our best to touch their lives but we will not always see how much good that did but it does do good. (Just like God touched those stones and those stones provided light for travel across the entire sea) 

Also Ryan, super sorry for always laughing at that story about you not knowing that Christ came to America because I actually read third Nephi. Just so everybody knows, Christ came to AMerica and you can read about it in 3rd Nephi and Ryan isnt as dumb as I thought haha or I am just as dumb. 

I love you guys. 

Buenos Suerte este semana. 

Hma J

Sister Johnson and Elder Lowe new found cousins

 Elders playing in 75 degree weather...no snow

Unknown Cousins

Little did Katelyn know she had a cousin, Pierson Lowe, at the MTC and in the same zone.  Katelyn, living in Idaho and Pierson from Florida have not met before.   I’m not good at how the second and third cousins play out so I’ll explain this way.  Mimi and Aunt Vella are sisters, Katelyn’s mother, Becky and Pierson’s grandfather, Larry are cousins, Larry’s daughter Christy, is Pierson’s mother, Katelyn is Becky’s daughter.  That seems to be a 2^nd to a 3^rd  cousin, see why it’s hard to make sense?  Katelyn and Pierson are both in the Mexico City MTC learning Spanish.  Katelyn will go to the Spanish speaking Oregon Mission and Pierson will go to the Lima Peru Mission.  Truly a small world inside the Church. 

Week 2 - They Let Us Out!!!

Hey everybody! Two weeks already....

If I repeat anything from last email I am real sorry. Time blurs together here.

My first Sunday here when Hermano Cates gave the devotional he had a joke about how he dreaded going to the MTC because one of his friends had him convinced that Provo was Auschwitz West- I laughed about it. But it gets a lot less funny as the days go by because I feel like I am going stir crazy in here. All though I do really like the CCM. Its a lot of class and a lot of struggling through most of what we do. But I feel like we have learned so much since we got here. Today was the best though because this morning they let us out of the walls! They took us to the temple and even though it was closed we got to take a tour of the visitor center and explore a little which was awesome. The missionaries there taught us how to give a Book of Mormon in Spanish and it went easier than expected for sure which was a huge relief. I loved the Visitors Center and I will send some pictures here in a few minutes. I really like to drive outside the gates because it is a small dose of the culture. There is trash everywhere and dogs and people selling cigarettes in the streets between the cars but it is a rich culture. Everyone seems to be working towards something and all though it sounds pretty cliche, you become so grateful for what you have. 

So I thought I was better after P-Day last week but I kinda wasn't so after I ate dinner I spent another night enjoying the bathroom tiles. I was having a really hard time. I wanted my MOM! And Dads cooking. And a million other things from home (like BWW with Kiley) and I was beyond my limit. I started thinking about that song I Know That My Redeemer Lives. You know how it goes. And I knew that Jesus Christ has gone before me and completed this mission already, I am representing him and it can be done. This 18 months that seems incredibly impossible can be done because through Christ things can be done that couldn't be on our own. I was able to sleep and since then I haven't felt like this is impossible. It was such a huge blessing.

This week our Latino Volleyball friends left... Miss them like crazy but they were glad that they were getting out into the world. And we gave them our Facebook names sot hey could find us when they got home...all though good luck finding  Katie Johnson from Idaho. We also got a new intake in our Zone! 8 elders all going to somewhere in Mexico but it is down to 7 elders now because Elder Alexander dislocated his ankle playing cage soccer so badly that he has to go home and have surgery... whoops. 

On Sunday, we have movie night. This week we watched Joseph Smith: The Restoration. Guys I cannot tell you how much I have come to know that Joseph Smith was really a prophet and I love all that he did for us. I hold the Book of Mormon in my hands and realize that he went through being tarred and feathered, losing kids, watching those he love be accused and treated so badly, and he eventually died so that we could hold the Book of Mormon in our hands. I cannot imagine the type of person who would be willing to do that but I will follow him anywhere. Every Sunday we sing God Be With You Til We Meet Again in Spanish and I bawl like a straight baby every time because I think of Lindsay and also when a room full of missionaries sing that who have just said goodbye to everyone they know to be here- it takes on a whole new meaning and a lot of emotion. 

I got some bad news. EVERYONE IN HERE LIES. Erik, our investigator that we were sure we had baptized our first week here is actually our teacher and we are pretty devastated but he is SUCH a good teacher. I love hearing from him and our three hour block with him in the evenings flies by. He also wears more cologne than David Beckham and you can smell him coming from a mile away. We tease him that it is because he wants a girlfriend really bad. We are teaching our two teachers now and it is going better than the first round. It is so difficult to teach in Spanish. I cried a bit in class the other day because you just cant say what you want to say. I want to be able to help people but I just feel like I cant. I am trying to use that as motivation to really understand the language. I do know a bit more Spanish than my companion which aught to tell you just how well our lessons go hahaha. The other night though Hma. Christensen told me that I was talking in my sleep and I was doing it in Spanish. It was mostly Si Si Si but hey that's a start. 

I had a friend that I knew come here the same day as me and I just forgot to tell you last week that the person she sat next to on the plane asked her if she was amish hahaha she has not worn the same dress since we got here.   

Mom and Brianne Michelle- THEY HAVE MAGNUM BARS. 

This is shorter than last week because I honestly did not have time to think about all that was going on but I love yall so much.

Here is to another week in Mexico! 

Week 2 CCM Pictures

Kate and her companion at the Mexico City Temple

 Kate's district at the Mexico City Temple

 Mexico City Temple Visitor Center

 Sister Gifford, Katelyn says she reminds her of Brianne

 Showing Salem on the glove

 Two sister Missionaries going to Salem with Katelyn

 Area of Mexico City they live in

Kate and cousin Pierson, both in Mexico City CCM, Pierson going to Lima, Peru and Kate going to Salem Oregon

Week 1 - DAAAAANG

Guys, being a missionary is insane. This has been the funnest, most frustrating, killer week ever. Everyone calls the night before P-Day Christmas Eve and I can see why. I wanted to talk to you guys SO bad. 

I love love love the city. Probably because I am not actually living in it for real. We live on an old high school campus and they have huge walls topped with barb wire to keep us in (or others out) and so it is nice to look at- probably not as nice to live in. The biggest struggles we have here is that our shower heads have little rocks that get into them and so water only comes out of two holes and so you basically get power washed. And we joke that it is a tender mercy when we have toilet seats and locks on the door- I would laugh but it really does happen so I will probably think thats more funny when I am in the states on perfectly secure toilet seats. It was dia del muerta (day of the dead, i think, Ryan if I am wrong dont tell anyone) which happens on november first not october 31st here and it was so awesome because that night you could hear michael jacksons thriller playing all outside the walls, it was like surround sound that echoed over and over again. You can hear fireworks going off all the time and I am not really sure what they are for and sometimes it smells like the sewer exploded but overall it is so great here and I feel that I will be sad when it is time to go. 

My companion is Hermana Christensen (Hma. C.). She is stranger than a two-dollar bill and you could not have had two completely different people but we get along just fine. Not all the time but just fine. She had a really rough day on Saturday. We play volleyball everyday with the native Elders and they help us at Spanish (laugh at us) and we own them at the game. Well on SaturdayHma. C. dove for the ball and it hit her so hard that her name tag flew  off across the gym and I am pretty sure she got whiplash. I wish I could send you a mental picture off what I saw because every time i think about it I laugh so hard I could die. I mean it missed her arms and everything jajaja And then that afternoon she said hey I need to go to the bathroom- well we made it outside where she threw up and we got the doctor and she had the flu so we had to stay inside all day which was a bummer because I already feel like we are so behind in classes. To finish off the rough day she sleeps on the bottom bunk of our bed and in the night she sat up really fast to go to the bathroom and she hit her eye on the bottom of the bunk and broke all the blood vessels so now she has a red spot on her eye. I heard her say when it happened HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN but I was tired so I rolled over and assumed she would be fine. Companion of the year I am not. Well since I laughed all weekend about the volleyball incident Karma hit REAL hard on Tuesday because I started feeling really rough about 3 in the morning leading into wednesday. And then I got incredibly sick- I will leave the details out and just say that I got that flu from Hma. C. and I slept on the bathroom floor that night (ew we are in Mexico). The funny part is that everything seems way worse at night and they gave me a little paper about Ebola at the airport when I flew in and all I could think was Oh no, what if I have Ebola? thats only a 50 percent survival rate I am too young to die mom would be so mad if I died. And then I reasoned that it was probably appendicitis and was hoping that they would let me get it removed in the states and come back to MExico. So we missed another day of classes so now I feel really useless. When Hma C found me the next morning lying on the floor all she said was Arent you cold? I had a decent laugh about that. And the doctors came and hit me up with some dramamine and I dont remember much except I woke up and told Hma C that she better knit me a sweater with the material she had. And when she asked me what I was talking about I got really angry that she didnt understand what I was saying. She doesnt have any material and I have decided that maybe Dramamine isnt for me. But through all of that she has been a real gem and taken care of me so I would say her and I are all right. I did feel a little bad because when she was sick i told her I will kill you so hard if you get me sick and so I had to assure her that I wasnt going to kill her, I didnt have the energy anyways. 

We taught our first ´´investigator´´ named Erik on Friday. And by taught I mean we played Charades with a Latino for 20 minutes. I am pretty sure he is already a member, at least I hope so because we are rough. But if he isnt we commited him to baptism in two weeks so TEAM HERMANAS FOR THE WIN!   SPANISH IS HARDDDDDDDDDDDD. And I had a little meltdown in class where our teacher Hma. Garza basically was like its ok its ok you could be worse quit crying please. It really is throwing me for a loop and I am so frustrated that I cant say anything I want to. And with the frustration of learning the language I dont feel like I know anything about the church. I dont know why it has just been rough. But we have gotten through the lessons and all of Eriks reviews were pretty good considering. And when I recited the first vision to him I had memorized about half and you could feel the spirit so strong. He has been kind and patient and I am grateful for his help with us. On a lighter note I asked a native is she was going to be here for two years when i meant to say two weeks and if I understood correctly she said something along the lines of I would rather die. And the other sisters in our room (Hma. Oram and Hma. Naegle both going to Tegucigalpa) were teaching there investigator when Hma Oram was trying to teach spiritual and physical death and she wanted to use the glove analogy where the glove represents the physical body and the hand represents the spirit but she didnt know the words so she took off her shoe and used her sock and foot but her feet stunk SUPER bad so she told her investigator that death stinks and they had a good laugh. I cant forget to tell you about our teacher Hmo. Palma he is shorter than I am, always wears a sweater, and says Missionaries muy rapido muy rapido! Meaning he wants us to walk fast. He is maybe 5 foot but he could cross this campus in about 20 seconds flat. I love learning here in the CCM because all our teachers are natives and only speak Spanish with very broken English so it is nice to be able to be exposed especially since it wont be constant in the states.

There are two other sister sets and one elders in my District. Two girls are going to my misson! Hma. Gifford and Hma. Phelps. I like them both a lot but I feel really seperate from them and the other sisters because they share a room and we have missed so much class. But it is only week 2 so I am hoping to get to know them better. It is nice to have some girls here who are literally going all the way with me. We just had a group from our zone leave this week. 6 to Honduras, 2 to Chile and even though they were only here a few days we are going to miss them. They were fun. 

My favorite part of the week (surprisingly, mom) was Sunday. We were in meetings all day but it was so mellow. The director of the CCM is Shawn Cates and he lives here on campus with his wife Nadia. They have three boys under the age of 6 and they are wonderful. But Hmo. Cates talked on Sunday about how we cant look back to the life before because if we do it is saying that we have no faith that the future God has for us could be better than our past. That we should complete the conversion process here on our mission and that we should always stick to our purpose. I wish I could say it as good as he did but it was such a good meeting. I still dont like relief society but thats OK. The President of our Zone ( like a Bishop) is named President Zirker and he reminds me SOOOOO much of Uncle Dale, looks and sense of humor. I love it, it gives me a little dose of home. 

And I guess the last thing I have to say is that I am really glad an American is Director of the CCM because we have a nutella bar at breakfast and dinner. Man I love Nutella. 

Since I am a missionary now and the only spanish I know is the purpose I am going to write it here from memory for you:

Invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio Restaurado mediante la fe en JesuCristo y Su Expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepcion del don del el Espiritu Santo, y perserverar hasta el fin. 

 Read the first vision in Joseph Smiths own words, its powerful. 

I love you I love you I love you,

Hermana Katelyn Johnson 

Ill send pictures next week- running out of time.