Week 4: Can believe I missed the Hurricane!

Hola!!

This has been a really good week! The hurricane that hit Guadalajara did not go into Mexico City.  I can't believe I missed being in the biggest Hurricane hitting Mexico by two weeks! I'm glad that I will be there to do service and help with the clean up! 

This past week on Thursday, some of us were able to go into Mexico City to go to immigration.  I can stay in Mexico thank goodness! We saw a lot more of Mexico and it was really awesome.  I took lots of pics.  The ride was very eventful.  I got flipped off, kissed at, the 'call me' sign, don't really remember what else.  I have never felt so white in my life! When we got to immigration, its was the first time that I have been out on the streets with my name tag! It was super cool, got stared at a lot.  There was this guy that had a basket full of huge churros, and I wanted one so bad!! But they didn't let us buy one :( 

This last Friday was awesome! We were in our morning class and Hmo. Ortiz asked us some in depth questions.

´'Who forgives us of our sins? Christ or Heavenly Father?´'

´'Why can't we pay for our own sins? Why do we need the Atonement?´'

We studied the scriptures so much and I have learned a lot.  I would really like to hear everyone's perspective of these two questions.  Next week, I will write everything that I have learned about it.  Send your emails through letter@mtcmexicocarepackage.com with my name in the subject (Hermana Chrissa Boice).

On Saturdays, we have TRC, which is when we teach members or less actives.  This Saturday, we taught this guy Ray.......on Skype! It was kinda awful. We could barely hear him and he talked really fast.  This is kinda mortifying, but we told him that we were going to Guadalajara, and he said something to us about prayer, but I didn't understand him, so I thought he was saying something funny, so I started laughing.  Hermana J. was nudging me in my arm, but I didn't know why.  So it turns out.....he was asking if we could pray for his friend in Guadalajara right now.......and I laughed in his face.......so yaaaaaaaa.

Yesterday we had our Tuesday Devotional, and a General Authority came! It was Elder Brent H. Nielson, apart of the first quorum of the 70.  It was a really good talk, and I shook his hand.

I'm missing Halloween this year :( its super sad.  Pero, the missionaries are switching nametags for halloween.  I am sad that we are going to miss La Día de los Muertos by one week! Apparently they wont let us go outside for it.  Probably for good reason.  Last night I kept waking up because of the fireworks, they have been going off constantly all day! Although some of them are gunshots I'm pretty sure.

That is pretty much my events for the week! Next Wednesday will be my last in the MTC!! I'm super excited!!

Love you all!

Hermana Boice

My first month this Friday! 17 more to go!!

 Chrissa's little sister missionary band!

 Pictures of Mexico. 

 She thought those white buildings looked like Legos.  :)

They had about 200 different sculptures is was super cool!

 Chrissa thinks this is an art museum.

Chrissa's 3rd week and Half Way in MTC!

Querido Todos!

        Holy cow! How time fly's! I'm officially half way through my first ´'transfer´'.  I fell like I have been at the CCM for months, but I also feel like I got here just last week!  

        Thank you so much everyone for sending me letter's.  You have no idea how awesome it is to receive a physical letter, its like its Christmas!  Remember like 10 years ago an email was such a exciting thing to get instead of mail?  Now when you receive a physical letter its the best thing since corn tortillas! Which are amazing by the way!

        So the Spanish is really coming along.  We have been teaching Adrián all last week, and have switched back to Ivan, our first investigator.  The last lesson that we taught Adrián was enduring to the end.  It really didn't start out very well, but about halfway into the lesson, the Spirit was so strong.  He was asking us about why he had trials.  ´'If God loves me, why do I have a disease?´' That can be a very difficult question to answer.  We explained to him that in this life, in order for there to be happiness, there has to also be an opposite.  We all suffer through something.  What was really cool, is that after the lesson, Hermano O.  (Adrián) told us that we actually taught him something.  We think about Jesus Christ, and how is completely perfect, he is the God of this world.  If someone so powerful as him, someone that has the power to do anything, had to suffer more than anyone that has ever lived because he loved us so much,  how is it that we still blame God for our suffering?  Ask him why it is that we suffer?  It is because suffering is apart of this life. So anyway, that was super awesome.

         So this past Sunday, was the first normal Sunday we have had here.  First Sunday was General Conference, and the next was fast Sunday.  We came at a perfect time actually.  So every Sunday, everyone is given a topic to make a 5 min talk in Spanish to speak with on Sunday.  Than they will choose you randomly during the meeting to come up and speak.  I got lucky and wasn't called haha!  This Sunday's topic is the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy.  It was actually super nice to not have to speak because I felt like I was doing everything else.  A big thanks to Sister Laurie Long for teaching me piano!  Because here, I think the definition of 'Hermana' is 'pianist'.  I played two hymns during sacrament, sang a duet with Hermana W. and the Brand President wanted a certain song to be played during his talk, sooooo that was me too.  Fun times!

           I was thinking before I came to Mexico that it would be just perfect, sunny weather, so I brought one sweater.  It is so stinken cold!! The mornings and evening are cold!! The afternoons are pretty much perfect though.  Hopefully it wont get any worse.  

           MOM: Just a warning! This might make you anxious! So ever since I got here, I hear fireworks all day everyday.  Pretty much every day in Mexico is a holiday, so randomly throughout the day and night, they just set off these fireworks.  Its really pointless to me, because you can't even see them in the day.  But it makes it hard because I can't tell what is a firework and what it a gun shot haha.

          I came up with an awesome joke the other day!! You will only get it if you speak Spanglish.  

         ´'What did the Latino say when he threw a chair off a cliff??´'         ................´'See ya!!´' (hahaha silla is chair in spanish!)  

         Funny story yesterday, so me and Hermana J., W., and K. were heading to the bathroom, and the girls bathroom was closed off.  Sooooooo we stood guard at the men's bathroom and used it instead.  It was really awkward when we came out to see all the elders waiting.........

          So last week I sent a picture of all the floor's pulled up and some sheets were hidden under.  We found out that you can rip up the whole floor, and past district put stuff under there or do little treasure maps like 'find the tie'.  When we saw the sheets, I thought there would be a dead body, but there wasn't so its all good!!

          Love you all!

       Hermana Boice

Another pic of our district, we found this cardboard Jesus.  Apparently there are 4 in the whole CCM, so we want to find them all!

I just think was funny.  I was super cold!

They took one of the floor tiles and wrote about their district.  Its all good! There are a lot that are like this!

The thing on the right is so delicious, and I found a knock off of Twinky, haha.

My Super Duper Mega Bien Week!

Hola Todos!

    It is crazy to think that I have been here two weeks already! Every week we have new missionaries coming in , and I just think back to my first day.  Although I prefer not to think too much about it, that day kinda stunk.  But its all great now!! I've gotten into a good routine.  

So, lots happened this week! My companion was practically on her death bed for the last couple days.  Last week we had to go to the Enfermería because she was feeling super sick during General Conference.  Last Thursday we were giving our lesson to our "Investigator" Ivan (who ended up becoming our teacher after the lessons ended.  they all tried to keep it a secret, but we all knew from day one) And Hermana J. was feeling really dizzy so we ended up going to the Enfermería again and went to our casa (house) for the rest of the night.  She ended up getting much worse and neither of us got any sleep.  We stayed at the casa until around 1:00 pm when a nurse showed up with a wheelchair to our casa to take Hma. J. back to the Enfermería.  She really didn't want to but the nurse would not take no for an answer.  We were wheeled through the most populated missionary area, where Elder's would literally stop in their tracts and stare at her (She told me "Didn't there mothers ever teach them to not stare??").  That day we were also lucky to find out the English speaking doctor was gone for the day.  So we had Hermano M, who is a little old man that spoke no English at all.  We stayed in the Enfermería from 1-8ish.  The whole time Hma. J. was in so much pain she felt like she was dying.  She got 2 shots, an IV, and at least 10 different medications, we probably could have started our own pharmacy.  Plus they injected 5 different substances through her IV.  And the only way that we could communicate is through our knowledge of Spanish, and a couple nice games of charades, hoping that the stuff they were giving her was for her benefit.  Hey, it could be worse though, she could have had an intestinal infection and be in Mexico getting a whole bunch of shots and mysterious substances injected into her..........

But that was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened this week.  Our teacher Hermano, has now become our new investigator Adrián.  Monday was our first lesson with him, and we kinda bombed it.  We were focusing too much on the language of spanish, that we forgot the most important language that we should have. The language of the Spirit.  So yesterday we did something we never did before.  We wrote down some questions that we wanted to ask him, and the scriptures we wanted to use.  That was it.  In every lesson that we taught before, I would write word for word what I wanted to say. But I realized that I was forming the lesson to how I wanted it to go, rather than letting the Spirit for the lesson specific to Adrián's needs.

My Spanish has been getting so much better.  Its so crazy how even in two weeks the language has become so much easier to speak and hear.  Before the mission, I would not have been able to listen to a Latino speak and understand any of it.  Its awesome now that I can have conversations with them, even though they are very simple.  The gift of tongues is real!

So there is an awesome way that I can receive your letters! If you write an email, and send it to letter@mtcmexicocarepackage.com with my name Hermana Chrissa Boice in the subject, they will print it out and give it to me! That way I can read it and know what to type back on my P-day.  Which btw is on Wednesday's in the MTC!

I finally was able to figure out pictures!  Its hard to take selfies with a camera.

 Mexico MTC

Mexico Temple

She said she had ripped up the floor and found some interesting things?  Not sure why.

She said stuff was so gross.  Imagine a Jolly Rancher in goo form with some chili powder mixed in.

The Worst Week is Over With!

My goodness! There has been so much that has happened! Its offically been a week and that is so crazy.  I feel like I just got here yesterday, but I feel like I've been her for months....... My companion is Hermana J. (I don't think she is related) and we get along good.  We are both going to the same mission so thats awesome!  The craziest thing I think is that I have adapted really well here in Mexico.  I don't miss my electronics (Although to have Google Translate at my finger tips would be nice) and I am 100% content with talking about the gospel all day long.  We have 8 missionaries in my District, and they are the craziest people but I love them all! Those three years of Spanish in high school and the 5 months waiting to leave have really paid off! I enjoy sitting with the Latinos and striking up a conversation as best as I can haha.  Last Friday me and Hermana J. got to teach our first investigator in Spanish.  His name is Ivan, and hes a really sweet guy.  Tonight we will be teaching our 3rd lesson with him, and I'm super excited! He doesn't speak any english, so we have no choice but to speak Spanish.  The gift of tongues is a real thing! I can now write down bullet points on paper and be able to speak with him about our lesson and go off of the bullet points! But I know that it is all the Lord's work! He is so loving and kind! 

So General Conference! I did get to hear it in English so that's good.  Was it just me, or was almost every single talk about the same things?? That we must never let go of the iron rod, that we need to focus and keep the Sabbath Day holy, be worthy to take the sacrament, be worthy of the Holy Spirit, be worthy of the temple! I feel like they are saying to us, "Stop procrastinating! Repent right now, and come unto Christ!" I really loved the talk from M. Russell Ballard. He talked about the potters spinning wheel.  The clay must be centered on the wheel in order to be molded, just like we need to be centered in Christ so that he can mold us into what we need to be to return to him again.  I don't remember who it was, but they talked about focusing on one scripture a week, to ponderise it! I have decided to start to do that.  

The scripture I have decided to focus on this week is Alma 37: 36-37

             " Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support, yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and withersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord, yea, let all they thoughts be directed unto the Lord, yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

             Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings , and he will direct thee for good, year, when thou liest down at night, lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep, and when thou risest in the morning let they heart be full of thanks unto God, and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Sorry to everyone if I don't write you this week! I only have an hour to read and reply to everything.  I have met 4 other Hermanas that are also going to the Guadalajara East Mission and we are all leaving the same day! The MTC here is really nice too! Its so much better than Provo so I heard.  

This morning we all went to the Mexico Temple! It is so awesome because it is one of the largest temples in the world, and the angle Moroni is holding the gold plates.  Only 5 temples in the world have that angel Moroni.  I will try to post pics next week, I need to find out how to get them on the computer!

Well, that is my adventures for the past week! 

Love, Hermana Boice

Estoy aquí!!!!!

Hola!

I am alive! Thank goodness they let your send an email when you arrive, because you would have had to wait until Wednesday to hear from me!

Well, I am suuuuuper overwhelmed! There is so much to take in, one being the fact that everyone is looking at me all the time.  It must be the blonde hair..... Another thing is that I am so grateful that we as missionaries do not drive cars, because people here are CRAZY! I have never seen people drive this way before!  I was about an hour ride from the airport to the CCM (MTC), and it was super cool, its sooo colorful.....but really dirty haha.  I will admit I was kinda freaking out on the plane and landing and waiting for all the missionaries.  But once we started driving through the city, it was the best feeling ever! These are my people! 

The CCM is so cool! Its like a huge college campus, but for the gospel! It also is kinda overwhelminig, I'm not quite comfortable yet, but that will come with time.  I have felt right at home in the sense that I now can speak the little spanish that I do know, and people don't get annoyed with me!!! I've actually been able to translate a little bit for some Hermanas! I have my name tag now, and am offical! Hopefully next week I will be a little more comfortable with the schedule and my stay here! 

I love everyone! And I will try to send some pics next week, I forgot my camera in the luggage so I wasn't able to take the awesome pics of the city :(

Will all my love,

Hermana Boice