hola everyone

AHHH! Another whole week has FLOWN BY!! It seems like I have been here forever but it's only been two weeks!! I fear that this email will be short so i am sorry if my grammar and/or spelling is bad haha. So this week has been pretty much the same! I didn't have to talk last week in sacrament so that was lucky but i will be soon preparing another talk in case i am randomly called to talk this week. Snday night we had a devotional & the speaker was Matthew Holland. His father just so happens to be elder holland of the quorum of the twelve apostles. (for anyone who isnt member, he's a leader in the church with the simplest terms.) He opened for him son and introduced him. it was pretty cool. elder holland didnt say much but some of the things he said were cool! He focused on his son and his sons achievements. It made me really happy! His sons talk was about joseph smith. it was mostly just a summary of his life but he continues to talk about "the path to palmyra." that really sunk in my heart and have been pondering on it a lot.

PLOT TWIST!!!! Our first investigator, andrea IS OUR NEW TEACHER!! so as we all struggled with our spanish with her for that first week we kept reminding ourselves "we will never see her again so give it all that oyu have and if you fail at least you tried." Yeaaaaa well not she's our second teacher. it was so awkward, however, she is awesome!! she really caters to us & how we learn. she expects a lot from us which helps us expect more of ourselves. so her real name is hermana pullen and she is from utah. Our other teacher, brother chatterley, is awesome as well. it's crazy how the Lord works things. It's like he has placed these teachers in our lives specifically. They really are just great with us and help us with the language and with our spiritual needs and even personal needs. i am so so grateful for them.

Life with my companion is so so so great!! she is so funny! she has the craziest stories haha. her pre mission life was hilarious. most of her high school stories some how include "and then we had to run from the cops." She's not like that anymore and she never did anything bad but just silly high school stuff. i really enjoy her company and we get a long so well. On monday it was nice enough for us to have personal study outside so we started with a song and then some elders started walking by and were staring at us as we lightly sang. hermana tidwell was sitting in a lounge chair kind of slouched (basically laying in her chair) and as we finished the first verse about 3 seconds later she yells "second verse elders!" and does this sloppy point at them and we all just laughed. She really is hilarious! I love her spirit and she keeps me on my toes. in my disctrict 7/8 are going to my same mission but when we all get to mexico there is like a 1% chance but basically no chance that we will be companions with each otehr when we get there. I have also become really close with another girl in my district. her name is hermana lakin. she is the one who isnt going to mexico and will be serving in the scottsdale, arizona mission, spanish speaking. she is 21 and went to a couple schools to play soccer, so we have that in common. we both played college sports. we really help each other because we both have a past and we are able to talk to each other when satan tries to make us feel awful for things we can no longer control. she is not very good at talking about her feelings and she knows it. she wants to tlak about it more but she doesnt feel comforatble but that is changing with me. she is starting to open up more and we just help each other a lot. 

Ok so let's talk spanish... i realized last week that i was putting spanish words in my email so i am trying hard not to do hat this time. IT IS HARD THOUGH. my brain is totally transitioning! YOU GUYS I CAN SPEAK SPANISH! I am able to give 20-40 minute lessons in complete spanish. it takes time to put everything together and it's broken sometimes but nevertheless in the last two weeks i have learned so so so much! it is unreal!! I know that the Lord gives blessing for obedience and for diligence. 

I cannot explain how close i have felt to the spirit here. I have been praying so much and loving people so much more. i feel like i am constantly being guided and i love it. There are hard times, i know. and i am prepared for them. but there are so many more blessings and happiness that i cant even take two minutes to give those thoughts more than a little bit of time. I know that only through trials will i grow & i am ready for them. and i think the blessing in all of my trials is the fact that i am realizing that heavenly father is right by my side the whole time. I am so happy & i cant wait to get to mexico. I am really going to miss my district. i love them so so much.

ok so one request, can you guys do two things for me? 

1. will you send me your addresses so that i can send some letters.

2. will you mail me some pictures? i have zero and i would really like some.

i love you all so so much! and i miss you all as well! i have saved time to come check my email before dinner so hopefully i can hear from a few of you then.

keep sending the love & the letters! They really make my days!

con todos mi corozon

hermanaut