Worst day ever.

Many apologies from me (Mom) for letting life get too busy to update.  I will try to do better.  :)  

This week I had the worst day ever but of couse that meant that I had really good days too because opposition in all things. 

I had been feeling really down about our lessons.  Not because they have been bad, but they haven't really been all that great and that's frustrating.  And then on Friday I think our lesson was really bad.  I felt like we were just talking about prayer and reading scriptures... AGAIN... and not really saying anything and the Spirit was not there.  It was just really dull.  We had also had our first real companionship inventory, which was fine, but kinda awkward.  So after our crap lesson, Satan was just bashing on me and telling me that I need to be so much better... better teacher, better, companion, etc.  So that was a rough evening. I  cried a lot.  But then we talked to our teacher about how the lesson went and her advise to us was to work on opening up more and saying what we feel.  Then, yesterday we taught the same investigator again for the first time since the dull lesson.  We taught repentance and baptism.  The spirit was totally there and I felt really good about it.  My favorite thing I said during the lesson was about how sometimes, in addition to asking for forgiveness from God, we need to ask ourselves for forgiveness.  And I think that really resonated with her... and with me.  It was so good.

Also I love my district tons.  We hang out all day, every day so they're like my family here.  I'll miss them when we leave, but they're going to be great missionaries so it'll be good.

haha  Yesterday when we were at the computers studying Spanish, Hermana Art looked down underneath her desk and THERE WAS A GINORMOUS BUG UNDER THERE!  It was Satan!  Not really... but it could've been!  It was seriously like the size of my palm and ant-shaped.  And red.  AND THE SIZE OF MY PALM... AKA... GINORMOUS!!!  It was so gross.  But then one of the elders in my district picked it up with a piece of paper and put it outside.  Does Grandpa know about this bug?  What is it called?  What does it do??  Eat people?  lol

According to the internet - Sand Cricket?
According to my Grandpa Jay - Jerusalem Cricket

(Upon investigation, looks like this is what it was.  Ick!)

Also this week, we started the activity called Missionary as Progressing Investigator.  Which means that we get a new investigator to teach every day and it's someone in our district.  Elder Hepworth is teaching me and I'm teaching Elder Peterson.  It's really cool.  And then we're supposed to pick someone from home to be as the investigator.  I chose Katie Steidl.  It's really cool to feel what it's like to be taught and it's really going to help my teaching. 

Me, Elder Hepworth

Me, Elder Peterson

I wrote my family another letter this week.  I answered all your questions, Mom.  I had to write really small but I did it.  It should get there in about 2 weeks.  Have you gotten my first one with the mexican stamp yet?  (Yea!  I'm excited about that!  Nope.  Still waiting!) 

About two weeks ago, our teacher come in and told us there was going to be an earthquake at 11 and we were all like, wut?    But then at 11 a bunch of sirens went off and we all went outside.  Apparently Mexico City has city wide earthquake drills so that was kind of cool but was confusing at first.

I think that's all I've got.  I love you tons.  Please write me more letters. :)

Hermana Keller

Mexican Independence Day and more...

I have so many things to tell you about! 

Mexican Independence Day was so awesome!  In the evening, they put on a cultural show for us and danced.  It was so cool to see all the different types of Mexican Dances and honestly, it made me a little sad that the US doesn't have anything like that.  And it also made me miss being in Showtime and dancing.  The dancers were so in sync and it was just really cool.  I wish you all could've been there.  They also gave us a little better food on Independence Day.  For dinner, we had a taco bar thing and that was so good.  At the celebration, it was so fun to let loose and cheer and yell for an hour and a half because we're not supposed to act like that usually on the mish.

Mom and Grandma - I don't get Grandma's comments on the blog posts.  My companera is caucasian.  Her grandma is actually hispanic and grew up here in Mexico City and went to school here when it was a high school.  So she's a quarter Mexican.  But she's from the states.  The CCM is pretty much full immersion Spanish.  Kinda hard, but it's great.  The biggest Spanish mistakes  so far that we all make are using pescado vs pecado aka fish vs sin.  It's pretty funny.

Lynette and Mom - I'm surprised at how much Spanish I'm understanding.  I'm picking that up really quickly.  But I'm, of course, frustrated at how bad I still am at speaking Spanish.  I know I can't be perfect at this point, but I just wish I was fluent already! 

haha  Elder Pickering just told me, Mom, that you and his mom are Facebook friends and comparing letters.  haha  How's that going?  Am I doing a good job at writing?

Thank you Lynette and Lorna and Lisa for the letters this week.  And Dylan and Dad and Samantha and Mom and Savanah.  I totally get the most letters in my district and they make fun of me but I love it anyway, the letters, not the making fun of me.  lol 

This week, Hermana Art was having a hard time and she asked for a blessing.  Elders Lemon, Kesler, Hepworth, and Pickering gave it to her.  It was the first time I had ever seen someone my age give a blessing and it was so cool to know that they're worthy to do that.  I mean, I guess I knew before because they're here.  But it was still really cool.  And all the things Elder Kesler said were things that I know she needed to hear.  I had been praying for her as well and I know that some of the things he said to her were an answer to my prayers for her.  It was just awesome.

I tried out with another flute song this week.  A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief arranged I think by Bebee, of course.  Playing the flute reminds me of home and I love it.  I'm going to play a week from Sunday when we're all waiting for General Conference to start.  I'm so pumped!

Have you gotten any of my handwritten letters yet?  I think you can't handwrite me anything until I get back to the US because it won't get to me in time.  Less that 3 more weeks until regular American food!  Every day we comment about how we're grateful to be going back to the states even though we love Mexico because the US is home.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send Arianna a free letter HERE.  When you to the page, click on FREE LETTER link at the top of the page.  They print it for you and deliver it directly to the CCM.  These letter are great because she can read them again and again.  For now, she can only access email once/week.  :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of days ago, my district went around and told why we're here. It was really awesome. I love my district and it was so cool to hear all the different backgrounds we all come from and the different experiences. I'll be sad when we leave and I won't see them every day.

This is our classroom and I am always cold.
I wish I'd brought more sweaters!!

ANYWAY, I should probably finish up. Mom, I'll work on answering all of your questions you sent me.  Love you tons!

Hermana Keller

I was able to get on during her computer time and ask her where the flute came from.  I also mentioned that I hope she gets along with Elder Pickering (who is also going to Arkansas) because they'll probably be working together for her entire mission.

The flute belongs to the CCM. Kinda crappy. Like Samantha's marching flute. But whatevs. I love it. 

Me and Elder Pickering are friends so it's cool. He's kind of a goofball, but that makes it fun. :)

Elders Pickering doing his thing.  We love him for it!

Elder Pickering really knows how to have fun!
We're so lucky to have him in our group!
And I'm so lucky he's going to the ALRM!

I can't wait to add some pictures.  She left her cord at home to transfer pictures from her camera.  She'll get it in Arkansas and then send me some pictures for you all to enjoy!  

Here's what's happenin down here in Mexico...

That Hermana with trouble learning Spanish?  She asked to be switched to English speaking and she left for the Provo MTC last Thursday.  We miss her, but I'm glad she's in a better place for her. 

So I was really mad because I was getting letters last week and then I asked for more and didn't think I was getting any!  It turns out that the mail was slow and I got 5 letters from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday… all yesterday.  Thank you.  Those things seriously make my day.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to Easily Write Arianna a Quick Letter for Free!  

Click on this link, and then "FREE LETTER" on the top of the page.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I played a flute here!  It's a really crappy one with closed holes even... probably as good as Samantha's marching flute. But I played it and I made it sound so good.  (The trick is to drop your jaw.)  Thank you, Nancy for teaching me that!!!  Anyway, we had a broadcast devotional with Provo last night and right before it started, an elder in my district (Elder Peterson) and I played Nearer My God to Thee and it was great.  It was one of those arrangements where the flute has the melody 4 times and the piano has actually interesting stuff.  So, we switched some stuff around and it was really fun to play.  It sounded awesome and I loved playing because that's one of the things that I miss the most.  I miss it partly because I love the flute and partly because it made me feel like I was a little closer to Samantha and Mom.

Me and Elder Peterson who played the piano for me.

It was for sure a tender mercy. Playing a crappy flute and making it sound freaking beautiful made me feel really good and talented. It was  a confirmation to me that this really is a talent that Heavenly Father has given me. 

Here are the names of the elders in my district so you and Samantha can stalk everyone who I hang out with all day every day, if you want. Christopher Redford and Karter Baltich. Alex Pickering and Brett Hepworth. Conner Barlow (DL) and Alex Peterson (played the piano for me). Landon Hatch and Colton Stulce. And then there's Ryan Kesler and Kyle Lemon (ZL).

Adele - We don't get to see sunsets because that big mountain with the B on it in all the CCM pictures is in the way.   But, the sunrise is pretty cool.  We don't really get to see it because of another mountain (reminds me of Peru) but the colors are beautiful.

Esther - My favorite thing about Hermana Art is her testimony of the atonement.  It's really strong and inspiring and I love it when she talks about the atonement during our lessons because it totally brings the Spirit.  My other favorite thing is that she always talks to the new girls and asks them how they're doing.  I love that she makes them comfortable because the CCM is kinda hard sometimes.

Hermana Art and I on our first P-day

Dad - I didn't remember the story you told me about in your letter about how you were really frustrated about trying to learn Spanish.  <Bennett was out in the hall near tears with utter frustration.  The teacher came out to talk to him and Bennett asked him (in a pout) when he was going to be glad he got called to a Spanish speaking mission.  The teacher thought for a minute and said, "When you get home!">  But I do remember your story about being in the CCM for 7 weeks wondering when your visa would come and a 3 week-er came up to you, thinking he knew exactly how you were feeling, and tried to console you.  You said he puffed his chest and told you with much smugness that it gets easier when you've been here as long as he had.  lol  Mostly that just makes me feel better that I only have to be here for 6 weeks before I get to go back to the US and to my mission.  Every day I am more and more happy to be going back to the US because I will have normal food available to me and I will have the comfort of being in my own country.  lol  I just realized that I'm now a 3 week-er like that guy in your story. :)

Tomorrow is Mexican Independence Day and I'm pumped for that.  We get to have a celebration tomorrow night and so that will be awesome. Then apparently there will be cannons going off all night to celebrate in the city so that'll be fun.

The food here is okay.  There is plenty of it, but it's still cafeteria food... Mexican cafeteria food.  The thing we always say is, "It's weird, but it's good."  The best is Tuesday night, though.  We get Costco pizza for dinner. 

The temple last week was good. It is so beautiful.  It's kind of an event though.  We leave at 12:00 noon and it takes an hour and a half to get there and then we do the session at 2:00.  It's all in Spanish, so we get headphones. And we can sort of understand the Spanish. The veil is in Spanish, which is a freaking hard!  Then we load the bus at 5:00 and get back at 6:30-ish.  We're all really tired when we get back, but it's good.  We get to go to the temple again today so that's cool.

Riding the bus to the temple.

Left side:  Elders ?, ?, ?, Me, Hermana Art, Baltich
Right side:  Elders Pickering, Hepworth, Lemon, ?, ?, ?

Samantha - No transfers in the CCM.  I don't actually feel the Spirit when we're singing Called to Serve, but I do like singing with everyone.  We sing in Spanish here and that's kinda hard, but cool.

Right now both of our teachers are our investigators. Sandra and Joseph. Sandra's story is that her baby died 3 months ago and doesn't think that God loves her. But her cousins are Mormon and they think we can help her.  Joseph is a professional fighter.  He does Jiujitsu and recently hurt his knee so he can't fight anymore.  He met missionaries while at his cousin's house.  Both are pretty tough and saying what I want to say in Spanish is really hard too.  But, I love it.

This is our teacher, Hermana Perez.  She's also our investigator, Sandra.

I love you and I miss you tons. 

 Love, 

 Hermana Keller 

P.S. I wish I could send a heart emoji. These Mexican keyboards are so hard. Also the Mexican computer doesn't recognize English so seriously every other word has the red underline on it, FYI.

I made it!

Hello Everyone!

I am safe and sound here in Mexico!  Pretty much all we do is sit in class all day and ask each other how to say words in Spanish, and prepare lessons for our investigator.  Our investiagator is our teacher and our lessons aren't that great, mostly because none of us are very good at Spanish.  But we're getting tons better!  And my English is going down the drain.  lol 

The first day mi companera didn't show up.  Turns out she went to Provo instead.  But all is well because there was a trio and they took one of the hermanas from there and now she's mi companera. Her name is Hermana Art and she's from Mesa, Arizona.  Hermana Art is going to Boston, Mass.  She just graduated form high school so that's cool.  We don't have a lot in common and I was having a hard couple of days with that so I was praying to be able to work it all out and that she would like me.  And then I got Esther's letter that said that if I have made any frineds here in the CCM, that I should thank Heavenly Father for them. I realized that I need to stop focusing on my worries and just be grateful that she's my friend. So that was a tender mercy. Thanks, Est!  And then I found Adele's letter in my suitcase this morning and it said that if I feel like I need to be better friends with my companion then I should just talk about her all the time because that works with everyone. That was totally an answer to prayers!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!   And I really do like Hermana Art a lot! Her first name is Cait you can look her up on Facebook and Instagram.

a couple that Hermana Art knows, her, and me

I sort of slept on the airplane like planned.  Here, I've pretty much conked out every night becuase I'm so tired.  It's definitely a mental kind of tired... lol... kind of like dead week at USU every day.  One of my roomates, Hermana Jacobson, has broncitus and so that has woken me up a few times the last couple of nights. I feel so sorry for her but she's taking medicine and hopefully she'll get better soon.

I MET SOMEONE GOING TO THE ALRM (Arkansas Little Rock Mission) TOO!  His name is Elder Pickering and he's in my district.  He's chill. His first name is Alex so you can look him up on Facebook to see what he looks like.  Oddly enough, he reminds me of Alec from first grade.  Whatever.  We're homies.

Mom, you asked if I've met my EC with a winky face.  THe answer is no, I'm a missionary.  lol

Also, I've loved, loved, loved the letters that you've sent me every day.  It takes a day or two for me to get them but they make me so happy!  PLEASE send more!  

ADDED BY MOM:  There is someone who lives near the CCM that prints out and delivers letters to missionaries.  If you'd like to send her one, it's super easy... go to HERE and you just type in a message, hit send, and off it goes.  This is really great because unlike Provo, we can't send packages, we can't really send letters in the mail (takes too long), and she can only get on the computer to read (and send) email on Wednesday for an hour.  She can read these letters whenever they arrive, and many times over!

I sent you a family letter last week with a Mexican stamp so it should get there in about three weeks and I sent Samantha and Janica one in the same envelope with an american stamp today. It should get there in about two weeks.

Thank you also for sneaking stuff into my suitcase.   That was way fun to find. 

Adele - My other friend here in the CCM in addition to Hermana Art y Hermana Jacobson is Hermana Astle, Hermana Jacobson's companera.  But she's having some stress so I don't know if she'll stay here.  She asked to be transferred to an English speaking mission yesterday so we'll see how that turns out. I  hope something good works out for her.  Also my district here is like my other family now.  We spend all day together.  There's Elders Texas, Elders New Mexico, Elders Washington, Elder Mesa and Elder Arkansas, Elder Virginia and Elder Cancun, and us Hermanas. Those aren't their real names, obviously, but that's where they're all going. That's also what Hermana Art and I call them sometimes because in the beginning we couldn't remember their names but we could remember where they are going.  lol 

My district at the Mexico CCM
Elders ?, ?, Peterson, ?, Pickering, Hepworth, Hermana Art, Me, ?, ?, Lemon, Baltich

First tag photo.  I love these people already.

I love Mexico and today, our district gets to go to the temple at noon. I'm so pumped.  I'm a little nervous though because during the session, we wear headphones so we can hear in Inglés, but then at the veil we have to do that part in Español. It's going to be great.

I love you tons and I miss you tons too. I can't wait to email you again next week!

Love,

Hermana Keller

Things I've learned at the CCM:

• a spanish hymnbook is really good. I bought one.
• snacks are from heaven. Thanks. :)
• spanish is hard, but I love it!
• it rains a lot during the wet season lol
• spanish keyboards are hard. Sorry for any typos. Even in English mode, it thinks every word is spelled wrong. lol

You can comment here if you'd like.  But she can't actually read her blog until she gets home.  While she's in the CCM, it would be better to send her a quick email using this link.