Black water and blessings

Hola!

Ok so today hopefully I can finish everything I want to say in time! Thanks for all the letters you sent! I'm sad cause I only have 5 more days that I'll be able to get mail (easily anyway) until the end of my mission!! So here’s what happened this week:

11/13-  Today we had a killer lesson with Enrique! So we had this idea of how to show him that El Libro de Mormon [Book of Mormon] really did testify of Christ a lot, so we had him open up to any random page in the ELDM and we would show him where on that page it testified of Christ! and I was nervous that he would just happen to open up to a page where it just said something lame like- "then Jesus went to Jerusalem.." or something insignificant like that or even a page that didn't say the word Christ at all! BUT he turns to alma 44, and we see the word "Cristo" in verse 3 so we have him read it aloud and as he reads, we're following along in the English scriptures and our jaws drop! It’s the PERFECT scripture for him! Then he agreed to read the Book of Mormon for us! The spirit was so strong and it was amazing! 

Elders and Hermanas in her district

In other news, while taking a shower tonight, I almost died. ok not really, but it was waayyyy scary! so I'm in the shower and H D is just brushing her teeth at the sink, and all of a sudden she screams bloody murder and I thought she just saw a gross bug or something so I'm like "what is it?" and she screams "THE WATER IS BLACK!" and right after she says that, the water in the shower starts coming out as gross BLACK water!!! So I grab my towel and jump out screaming and the water is still running even though it turned back clear again, we were so scared! And it was really late so we didn't want to go complain to maintenance at like 11 at night so I made them say a prayer with me, probably the strangest prayer I've ever said: "please bless the shower water to not be black.." and then I made them sit right outside the bathroom with the door open while I showered in case a dementor popped out of the shower head and tried to suck my soul or something. 

So tonight while walking back from class we see H H [MTC teacher] in his car talking on  his phone to his girlfriend so HD runs up to his car, opens his door, takes his phone, and starts talking to his girlfriend! haha that girl.... and HH was so casual about it too, it was weird. 

11/14- this morning was service, but H S was sick so her and HD had to stay home. which normally would be fine cause everyone hates service cause it’s at 6am, but I kinda like it:) and this morning HW and I made everyone play "never have I ever" with our whole zone (which is kinda like do you love your neighbor the way HW plays it) and it was way fun!! Our zone is cool. Our lesson with Enrique today consisted of us watching a conference talk in Spanish for 20 minutes, which is usually how long our lessons are anyway, and it was weird cause we weren't in our normal room where we usually do investigator lessons, we had to improvise and take him out into the classroom where the computer was. And the elders were super confused and just left the room ‘til we were done. But Enrique says he believes Thomas S Monson is a true prophet! Yay! And HD and HS had to go back to the room again cause HS wasn't feeling good, but before they left Elder C gave her a blessing and it was AMAZING. Like straight up patriarchal blessing status. He was talking to her on behalf of God. Like "at this time Heavenly Father wants you to know that...." and it was waayyy cool!!!

In other news, I'm still terrified of taking a shower. Also, my ballet shoes [note from Camille, I told her- don’t take those shoes on your mission- they won’t last! ] are getting way worn out! I'll need to get some new ones ‘cause I love them but they're falling apart! Probably cause we run all the time. Literally, whenever we are walking somewhere (which is all the time) one of us will inevitably say "should we run?" and we just run to wherever we need to go! It’s faster than walking so why not?   I'm pretty sure we're notorious for it. It started out ‘cause we're always late to everything, but now I kinda like it! Also, it’s not as cold when you run…., I feel like this could be good training for running a marathon or something.

 Today was the last day of gym for the Elders right above us. Triste dia [sad day]. We got so close to them and I'll be sad to see them leave. Elder C is the sweetest! He gave me his sweatshirt today cause the guy got mad at me for wearing a t-shirt with "the format" on it (Evidently no band t-shirts are allowed...) so I had to wear his sweatshirt to cover it up. But hey cool that I can no longer wear any of the t-shirts I brought cause they all have band names on them... 

 Sam's district with Elder C (sweatshirt lender)

Hermanas in Sam's district

Excited to head out!

11/16- Sorry for not writing yesterday.. today is our one month anniversary in el CCM! Yay! Ok so I had a revelation this morning of a really cool mashup that could be done. "Battle hymn of the republic" and "Marchin on" by OneRepublic. Someone needs to do it.  Probably Shelley. I'll ask her to do it.

 WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a big deal here cause when you get your travel plans then all of a sudden life is real for you... but the elders thought they would be so funny and hide ours in the cupboard and pretend that just theirs came, and so HD was freaking out! but then E C went and got them out of the cupboard and she (HD) was so overcome with... some emotion, not sure which one... half anger and half happiness I think... so she threw this apple that was in her hand at E C. hahahahaha it was so funny!!! So tonight E F prayed that we would have chastity for the people of Mexico during district prayer. He meant to say charity, but the Spanish words are so similar so he mixed them up. (Caridad y castidad) it was funny.

 Time to leave the CCM (MTC).  Her district gets their marching papers!

She leaves on Monday November 25th for Merida!

The newest thing H C [Sam's teacher] likes to say to us is "Cual es su problema???" which is not that unusual, except for he says it like all the time. Like someone will try to say something in English or cough or accidentally knock a book off their desk and he's all "What’s your problem??" Haha also, instead of like "Oh my gosh" he says "Santa Maria!!" which is wildly funny to us because only he could get away with that. Like if someone says it in front of H H [another teacher] or at gym, everyone freaks out cause it’s pretty sacrilegious and highly disrespectful- especially in Mexico where everyone is catholic, but he's just like "I don't care. Stop trying to copy what I say then" but now I just want to say SANTA MARIA to everything. It’s a problem. 

11/17- AH WE'RE LEAVING IN ONE WEEK!!!! I’m not ready. I'm going to cry. Can I just stay in the ccm for my whole missino? Ok so we're sitting in our kitchen right now and HW is getting her hair chopped off. By HS. which is totally illegal. #rebelmissionaries. So what do you do when you're companion wants to have "disobedience week" for your last week? Do you go help her steal a golf cart? Yeah I think so. Haha chiste[joke] we're not going to do that... probably.. but the district above us did that!! Totally stole a golf cart and took a video of it. It was hilarious. The security chick was pretty chill about it apparently. so good for them. But legitimately. disobedience week. We'll see how this goes... hopefully the wrath of God won't be poured out on us. hehe chiste..

Illegal goldfish- names - Pecado and Culpa .  Translation- sin and fault.

In other news I spewed fresca all over HD at dinner. That was embarrassing. Missionary problems #1: as soon as you start praying over your meal, someone will inevitably say something funny or start talking about something you want to talk about, but you have to focus on finishing your prayer and it's really hard to not laugh or talk!! 

11/18- Funniest devotional ever. This lady- Mary Ellen Edmunds gave it and she is a HOOT! haha she laughs at her own jokes and has all these weird facial expressions! Tonight we were at the Wyview chapel watching the devo live (every week they have to ask some zones to stay at west campus for the devo cause there's not enough room at main campus) so they have a camera on us all the Wyview chapel and they always show us live at the beginning of each devo after they say something like: "we'd like to recognize all those watching this from west campus..." and then the screen goes to us. So today these guys in front of us told everyone to pretend to be asleep when they showed us on camera, and it was sooo funny! President Nally and his wife were laughing. I think everything is just funnier at the CCM cause I swear I've never laughed so much.. 

Ok that’s all I’ve got to say this week! Toodaloo!!

-HS:)