So we flew in
last Monday and the Mission President and his wife and the assistants picked us
up and got all of us plus our luggage back to the mission home. They took us to
dinner (tacos al pastor and gringas) and then took us Sisters to an apartment
for the night. The next morning we got up early for some training before we got
assigned our companionships. I got two companions! I'm still not sure how I
feel about it but it is going pretty well so far. It is hard because in the MTC
I only had one companion, one person to worry about and wonder if she was going
to speak or if I should. My trainer leaves in five weeks so the third Hermana
in our companionship will finish my training. She has actually only been here
about 7 weeks, so she will finish training and then train me ... Apparently
there's a very good chance that when I finish my training in 11 weeks, I will
be training someone. Crazy and so overwhelming but if it happens, it happens.
So my trainer is
23 (she just had her birthday last week), from San Salvador, El Salvador. She is a good trainer but at the same time it doesn't
always work since she is trying to train both of us in different things. My
future trainer is 20, from the Dominican Republic and she is quieter. The hardest thing has been the lack of space in our bedroom,
and the fact that we can't study at a table because we only have two chairs.
It is
hard to get used to, but I'm working on it.
 |
| Hermana Aguilar (Katherine's trainer), Katherine, and Hermana Mercedes. |
Also, on my first
night I went to use the bathroom. It took me forever to find the switch and
when I did, there was a loud pop, and all the lights went off in the bedroom
and bathroom. I quickly learned that there was no light bulb in the socket so
it caused a spark and short-circuited the power on that half of the house. And
we live above the Primary president ... I felt really bad, but now we have a
light in our bathroom—our district leader and his companion came and fixed it
for us. To get to our rooms, we go in a front door, out to a little side patio,
up some steep steps and onto an open patio/veranda. From there we have a door to
the kitchen and then another door with a hallway to our bedroom/bathroom and
study room. It's very interesting but it gets cold in the night. I'm sure it
will be nice when the real heat comes.
So the food here
is pretty good overall. I've had some nasty stuff and even when the food is
good, I can't always finish it. We really only eat at the 2:00 meal
but by then my stomach has shrunk and I can't eat so much. My companions are
always telling me to eat more but I can't do it, not unless they want me to be
sick. I've also been told not to eat the picante
here = chiles. My MTC companion has developed an ulcer because of the picante and now I am for sure not eating
it. Unfortunately, they put it in EVERYTHING. Sometimes the food is good but other
times ... not so much. The worst thing I've eaten was raw duck. Yup, a tostada,
with sour cream and raw duck meat on top. I thought I was going to be sick. That
same lady had a piñata for my companion's birthday so that helped make up for
it a little bit. The other gross thing was pig skin. It was just weird.
 |
| Katherine having a go at the pinãta at her companion's birthday party. |
 |
| Mexican musical chairs: to make it count, you have to pop a balloon! |
The people here are nice, members, strangers,
investigators. The only time I feel out of place is at night when we're
finishing up lessons and walking home. I don't always feel very safe—and we're
in the safest part of the mission. One Elder today commented that he doesn't
know why we are here because it is so dangerous. I half think that something
will happen and we will all get moved out of the mission and out of Mexico. Hopefully
not though!
 |
| A typical neighborhood in Katherine's area. |
The first day was extremely overwhelming,
since then though I've been better about speaking more and not worrying about
how bad my Spanish grammar is. I've learned a lot and we have some awesome
people in our ward. The district leader and his companion (who is from Salt
Lake) are also in our ward, I think. So they don't have any stop signs, no
painted lines to divide the road for traffic and no crosswalks. We've been
almost run over quite a few times; cars do not stop for pedestrians and cars
seem to follow a different set of rules down here, aka no rules. I am so glad
we can walk everywhere and don't need a car or bike.
I love you all and hope you are doing well!
Love,
Hermana Bennett
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