Week Four: Eleven more days in Mexico...

Hi friends!

Not gonna lie, this week was NOTHING compared to the past couple weeks I have had! Its actually been pretty boring... We found out the we leave on Monday the 8th of February at 3:30 in the afternoon, and we fly straight from mexico to Chile! No big deal, just a 10-15 hour flight. But THATS IN ELEVEN DAYS LIKE WHAT I JUST GOT HERE!!!!!

Okay so Hermana Nortons birthday was last Friday and her family was CRAZY and they sent her this huge chocolate cake and a box of Krispy Kreme donuts... So that was kind of exciting, we spent all 30 minutes of our gym time eating cake and I regret nothing.

On Friday afternoon, we were having our language lesson and we were learning this new concept that I just totally didn't understand at all. I was getting soooo frustrated! Conjugating verbs is such a joke. Its so hard! But anyways, after the lesson we had to go teach Jose, who is actually our teacher, Hermano Cruz. And the lesson went SO GOOD! We taught him about the importance of attending church and keeping the Sabbath day holy, and yeah it was awesome! After the lesson, he told us that it had definitely been our best lesson so far, and that our spanish had improved so much! He said that he knows sometimes its hard for us to see our progress, especially when we compare ourselves to the boys in our district who have taken spanish for like six years, but he said that he was really proud of us and that we were doing a great job. It was definitely a blessing for me to hear that! Sometimes I get so frustrated, because I've been here for five weeks now and I can't speak fluently yet...and then I remember I've only been here for five weeks and it would be crazy if I could speak fluently.

We taught in TRC again, but this time it was so much better, because I could totally understand like the entire conversation! Okay not all of it...But definitely a lot! I was definitely proud, and our lessons went so good! TRC is so fun, because the investigators are real people, not our teachers. And I just love them so much!!! :)

We kind of have a funny situation going on in our zone right now... Two Hermanas have been playing sports and eating lunch and basically doing like everything with another pair of elders in our zone...Which is DEFINITELY against the white bible... Hermana Norton and I played rock paper scissors with the zone leaders to see who had to take care of the situation, and of COURSE I lost. One of the perks of being a STL I guess! I was totally worried about it, but I just reminded them that boys have cooties for the next year and a half and I think they handled it okay, no se... 

Yesterday we had chicken nuggets for breakfast which is like the weirdest thing in the whole entire world. And then for lunch we had chicken bakes from Costco...and for dinner we had burgers, so I guess you could say I am just living the All-American Dream here in Mexico. 

I love you guys so much and I love this church so much and sometimes its just the weirdest thing to put on this nametag every morning nd realize that I AM A MISSIONARY.but I love it so much. I like it here at the CCM, but I just super want to go to Chile like NOW. 11 more days! :)

Thanks for all your support! This church is so true! 

LOVE HERMANA POYFAIR

Week Three: Temple Trip, Churros and Hair Flips

HOLA! 

definitely just another week in paradise! I'm writing a little bit later today because WE JUST GOT BACK FROM THE TEMPLE!!!! Its definitely been like the best day of my life probably. It was the first time we left the CCM since we got here, and its so funny because the CCM is seriously just like this total sanctuary, and then you go outside the wall and its seriously INSANE!!!! The drivers here are crazy, and we were driving in this big white van with no air conditioning, it was seriously like a night mare. But it was incredible when we pulled up in front of the temple, it was like a little piece of heaven amidst the chaos. The temple was SO SO PRETTY. Its like kind of aztec-looking, and its huge! I learned two things at the temple today. 1) Temples are the same all around the world and thats kind of cool... and 2) I DEFINITELY DONT KNOW AS MUCH SPANISH AS I THOUGHT I DID.

Sister Poyfair with Sister Norton at the Mexico City, Mexico Temple. 

But seriously it was just so fantastic to be there and to take a break and just feel the spirit. fantastic.

Last saturday we got to do this thing called TRC where we actually get to teach members of the church here in mexico! They are all volunteers, they just come to listen to the missionaries! Me and Hermana Norton memorized the First Vision in Spanish, and so we talked about Joseph Smith and it was seriously the coolest thing to teach real people and not just our teachers! 

My comp and my roommates, who are also in my district.

On that note, we committed our pretend investigator to be pretend baptized this week! He is a super hard character, he doesn't believe in God, and he doesnt want to listen to us, but his wife has cancer and she loves the missionaries so she makes him listen to us. Even though its not a real investigator, it seems like it is, and I just want him to accept the gospel so bad! But yeah, we were the first ones in our district to commit him to baptism, no biggy *hair flip*

So last week we had the cooks making us special treats, but this week one of the teachers here bought me and norton churros from outside the wall and snuck them in to us!!! its totally against the rules but esta bien. THEY WERE SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD. Happiest I've ever been probably. 

This week I lead the music in sacrement meeting, and Its hard to lead in spanish, especially when its a song I dont know, and so it was super embarassing because the piano stopped playing but I thought there was another verse so I kept leading, and everyone started laughing at me.... typical katelyn I guess!

I really just love it here. I can't believe that this is my 4th week, and that I leave in two and a half! time has seriously flown by, but its the best. Spanish is still really hard. LIke. REALLY HARD. But I have learned so much its crazy, and I know the gift of tongues is real! Its crazy that I can just walk into a lesson and speak in total spanish, and then walk out and forget how to like even communicate at all. its incredible, there is seriously no other place i'd rather be right now!

Thanks for all your support! I love you guys! hasta luego! :)

HERMANA POYFAIRRRRRR 

Week Two: Free cheesecake and the difference one chapter can make...

HIIIIII FRIENDS!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness its so crazy that it´s already thursday again! I feel like yesterday was PDay! Crazy! 

So much happened this week so yeah I'm just gonna get right to it I guess! 

So basically Hermana Norton and i are best friends with all the cooks here. On monday, As we were walking out of the cafeteria, one of them yelled at us and gestured us over to this little fridge, and he pulled out these HUGE pieces of cheesecake! He made us promise not to tell anyone, it was so funny. And then last night, another chef brought our whole district ice cream sandwiches made with snickerdoodles. We're super spoiled and its fantastic. 

Okay FUNNY STORY so on Monday Norton and I were teaching Gabriel, our new "investigator", about the importance of prayer in our lives! We found this awesome scripture in 1 Nephi 15:11, it says "Do you not remember the things which the Lord hath said? If ye will not harden your hearts and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall recieve, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." SO ANYWAYS we thought we marked it, but we actually marked 1 Nephi 14:11... WHICH IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT VERSE!!!!!! its kinda funny, it says "and it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all the earth, and she sat upon many waters, and she had dominion over all the earth, among all nations, kiindreds, tongues and people." hahahahahaha so he's reading this scripture, and it was in spanish so we really didn't understand what he was reading, and then after we asked him what he thought of it and he was like "uhhhhh no se..." and thats when I realized it was the wrong one... So I grabbed it and changed it, and it wasn´t until after the lesson that we realized how big of a mistake it was... OH MY GOODNESS it was so embarrassing! Good thing it was a teacher and not a real investigator aye? 

Hermana  Norton and I got called to be the Sister Training Leaders of our whole zone this week! its kind of intimidating, because we have only been here for two weeks and a bunch of the other hermanas have been here for way longer! But I am excited!!!  we have the responsibility of interviewing all of the hermanas every week and making sure everyone is doing okay. its pretty cool. Our branch president says we are kind of like the "mommys" of the ward. I'm super stoked! 

We got to hear a devotional from Neil L. Anderson on tuesday and it was SO GOOOOOD!!!! he talked a lot about how if we don't know what to say, its always safe just to testify of Christ. I may not be able to say a lot in Spanish (yet) but I do know how to testify so I definitely think thats something I will be trying to do a lot more with my investigators!

Spanish is hard. Like. way hard. BUT its coming. everyday I feel like I am learning so much more and I just love it. I love it here, I love my companion, I love the gospel! 

I love you guys so much! 

Hermana Poyfair 

Week 1: Loving life in the Mexico MTC

HI GUYS

oh my goodness its FINALLY Pday! It has been such a long week!!!!

Mexico is soooo fantastic. Like its the prettiest place ever. and the CCM is BEAUTIFUL!!!! I think I was kind of expecting it to be this huge building in the middle of the city, and it is in the middle of this huge city, but its like this beautiful campus that is super spread out. I don´t know how to describe it, but its great. 

Okay so the PLANE RIDE WAS SO COOL. There were thirty missionaries on my plane, and twenty of them are heading to Chile! it was sooooo cool and so fun. Once we landed, we got on this rusty old bus and drove for like half an hour to the CCM. and Mexican drivers are CRAZY!!!!! I swear we almost crashed like four times. but the coolest thing was when we pulled up to the gates of the ccm! its guarded by this huge wall around the whole perimeter and we literally can´t see anything. I kind of feel like I´m in divergent haha! 

My companion is the CUTEST! Her name is Hermana Norton, and She is from California and she is 22! She went to 2 years of school up at BYUI before coming here. We get along so well, we´re basically best friends already. I feel like I´ve known her my whole life. 

New Years at the CCM was kinda lame... We didn´t really celebrate it, but you better believe the mexicans did! We seriously heard fireworks all night long. and all of the next day. and the next night. and we still hear them even though its been like a whole week haha!

Okay so Spanish is so hard. Like. I thought I knew way more of it than I actually did. and its hard because the teachers just seriously sit and talk spanish at us. BUT. It´s cool. I seriously love the language, and I have already learned so much, its ridiculous! 

So on our second day in the CCM, they told us we were going to teach an "investigator" a 30 minute lesson in spanish... UMM HELLO I DIDNT EVEN KNOW SPANISH AT ALL!!!! lemme tell ya, it was super rough. we finished early and didn´t know what to say and it was kind of embarassing to be honest. so me and Hermana Norton decided that we were never going to have that happen to us again. so we sat down the next day and totally scripted our whole entire lesson. Like. We had every single word mapped out and we thought it would be great. and it went okay! We felt like it was good, but later that night our "investigator" who is actually our teacher told us that while it is so important for us to learn the language here and work on saying things right, the language of the spirit is far more important. he said that it was hard for him to feel the spirit when we just sat and read things, and they didn´t come from our hearts. SOOOOOO we decided to abandon the books and let the spirit guide us. and guess what. WE TAUGHT A 30 MINUTE LESSON IN SPANISH WITH NO BOOKS and it was so so crazy. Like. I don´t even know how it happened. the spanish just like flowed out of our mouths. it was seriously such a cool experience, it really made me think of Proverbs 3;5-6 which has become my favorite scripture, Trust in the Lord. There was no way we could have done that without his help. and every lesson just keeps getting better! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!

My district is so fun. On saturday during gym time we played sand volleyball, and we aren´t supposed to get competitive with our sports here, but we totally beat them. I got this huge bruise on my thumb afterwards, but so worth it. Its so nice and warm here and I love being able to stay outside like all day, its definitely not like utah hahaha. 

I don´t have a ton of time left but I really am just having a blast here. it really is so true, that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I feel like I have been here for EVER!!!! but I love it so much! I miss you guys!!! Have a fantastic week! 

love hermana poyfair

oh and the first picture is all of our books and flash cards that we carry on a daily basis... it only lets me send one at a time so I will send a couple!