FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Familia,

FELIZ NAVIDAD!! It was fun to chat and see you guys on Christmas. I love you guys like crazy. Miss you lots. It´s good we don´t talk everyday or this mission thing would be a lot harder. Talking was great and all, but the 26th was harder to focus on the work and the people. I felt fine, but just harder to focus...I´m feeling more back to normal now. (Or missionary normal haha).

SANTA!

  

First, things first I have to thank you for that GORGEOUS pic you sent to the mission. We had our mission Christmas party on Friday. It was a great day. We ended up playing some random games in the beginning in jeans )which was weird by the way=, then we watched a movie! After that we watched a slide show with photos that our family sent to the mission. It was hilarious because so many missionaries had like their missionary pics, or nice portraits, or baby pics, and then all of a sudden up popped a picture of me, that was all zoomed in of just my face making a super ugly expression ha. I died laughing. Especially because this slide show was shown to our entire mission. I could just imagine the family huddled around saying, "which picture can we send to embarrass her?" It was hilarious also because my companion leaned over and said, "What was your family thinking? Why would they send such an ugly photo of you?" Haha. Made me laugh. (For those who know Danika well…she seldom takes a serious picture so of course we had to send one with her making a face…since that is just who she is…at least the mission will all remember “Hermana Wright”…and it’s not that “ugly” as her companion would say. J)

The 24th of Diciembre la Mama de Arnoldo (Arnoldo’s mom) invited all of us missionaries in Juayua to have dinner at his house for Christmas (11 missionaries!). And me and Hermana Najera have never met his family. So this was really neat. It was neat because we all went over there and we sang a hymn, us missionaries shared our testimonios and Arnoldo shared some thoughts as well about prayer and some experiences he had. One of these was he was praying really hard that his mom would have vacation so that he could spend time with her. Because she works in San Salvador during the weeks and only comes home on the weekends. When he finished his prayer, his mom called him and told him that she got vacation for the week of Christmas and was going to be home for over a week. God answers prayers. They´re real. His mom then shared some thoughts and she said she´s so grateful for us and for everything because she´s seen a huge change in her son. She started to cry and so did his sister, and the spirit was strong. It was really beautiful. 

Then Arnoldo was baptized Saturday and confirmed yesterday. His mom came to his baptism and it was really beautiful. Arnoldo is tan pila (so strong) and some people that knew him before have said he´s changed significantly. Yesterday night we taught la mama de ARnoldo and she started to cry again and said that she is so grateful to Dios (God). She never thought that her son would be the first one to change and come to Christ, but it´s something she´s been praying for for awhile and she´s so grateful for Dios. 

This is why I´m here. To help others come closer to Christ. To help others listen and accept this Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is what brings true happiness in this life. When Arnoldo passed his bautismo(baptismal) interview on Tuesday, that was the best Christmas present and honestly the only thing I wanted. I was so stoked for him. And I´m excited to continue to help him grow in this Gospel. I am here because I know this is true and I want to share it with whoever will listen. Because I know with all of my heart that this Gospel brings peace and happiness and joy in this life, despite our struggles and trials. I know it with all my heart. And I love it. I´m happy and stoked to be working hard with my companion and praying to continue to mejorar cada dia (improve every day).

Love you lots fam. Keep it real. Enjoy the snow!! I´ll enjoy the mosquitos.

Love,

Hermana Wright

Dinner at a member´s house for la Navidad...this picture is hilarious because seriously every picture I have from this night, Hermano Jorge is taking a picture of something else.

MERRY ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!

Familia!!

My Obispo (bishop) asked me if I could teach his son Gustavo how to play the piano. I obviously said yes, that´s not a problem. And my companion got super stoked because this meant that she could learn as well. In the back of my mind I was thinking, "what in the world did you just agree to' You can´t teach someone piano, let alone without any books and in a different language." Haha. But I´m going to try so wish me luck! Adventures.

It was also hilarious because I told my companion that I want to go to try and find some beginner piano books to help and she said, "Look, it´s not that hard, you just have to show us where the notes are and when you play the black notes versus the white notes". I laughed and then told her that I took piano lessons for 10 years. Her eyes got big, "10 years??" Ha, yes companion. Then next time we were in the church I taught her “Mary had a Little Lamb” on the piano, and I think between that and me telling her I took lessons for 10 years she realized it´s not as easy as she thinks. Too funny.

Some funny things about El Salvador or fun memories this week:

-Everyone just goes pee wherever they want. Okay, not everyone, but all the little boys and lots of grown men. Hilarious. Today we walked up to a house and a little boy was out front peeing, so we waited until he was done to go to the front door.

-we saw these two kids who were using the outside of old TV´s, like the plastic covering part, as slides and were sliding down this huge road that was paved. It was pretty awesome. Made me want to try it. I then snapped a couple pics and gave the kids cookies for letting me take pics. 

Well since Christmas is in 2 days I thought I´d share some thoughts I had this week about Christ. Our Hermanas leaders gave us a list of things to study each day about Christ to help get us in the mood for Christmas. The other day I was reading about Jesucristo y su expiacion (Jesus Christ and His Atonement) and testimonios of Him. And the Spirit was so strong during my personal study. I felt the love of Christ so strong. It was pretty amazing. Studying scriptures and focusing only on those scriptures about Him was something really special. And I felt it. Strong. I wanted to cry I was so happy. It´s just amazing what Christ did for me personally, and for you personally. It wasn´t just a general suffering. That´s the beautiful thing about the Atonement. It´s so incredibly personal. Christ suffered for me individually. Personally. He suffered for my pains, and my sins, and my sicknesses, and my weaknesses, and my struggles. For me. Why? Because He loves me. He did this all out of love. Charity. The pure love of Christ. And I was just overcome with that feeling of pure love and I never wanted personal study to end and I felt it so strong.

As I was sitting there reading scriptures and studying what Christ did for me, I thought, "What am I doing for Him? What can I do for him? What will I give for Him?" 

Christmas is an amazing time of year. I personally love it. I love being with all of my family. I love all the homemade food and goodies. I love spending time and seeing people. I love the snow and vacation. It´s an amazing time. And in some ways, that sounds delightful. But the truth is, Christmas is more than that. Christmas is about Christ and we need to remember Him. So do something nice for someone else. Serve someone. Love someone a little more. Help someone when you don´t want to. Have a little more charity and help others feel the pure love of Christ. It starts with you and me. And as we can do this, that´s when we´ll really feel the true Spirit of Christmas. That is what will bring true happiness. 

I know Christ suffered and died for us. But I also know that He lives. That He loves us. That He is the only person who can completely understand our hardships and struggles, because He suffered through them for us as well. I know that through Christ and His sacrifice is the only way we can return to live with God again. But we have to choose Him. We have to follow Him. And serve Him. Our goal is to become as Christ. Each and every day we can grow to become a little more like Him. And I know that as we do this, that´s when we´ll find purpose in this life. I know this Church is true and I´m loving this adventure every day. 

Love you to death familia!! Talk to you soon...literally.

Love,

Hermana Wright

"Look what I found!"  :)

Temblors, parasitos, y adventures, oh my!

Familia!

One night this week there was a pretty big temblor. It was pretty neat and a surreal experience. My companion was falling asleep but I was still praying, so I was kneeling next to my bed when the ground and everything began to shake. It lasted awhile too...probs 20 seconds or so. It´s a pretty weird feeling when the ground beneath you literally starts shaking and moving. It´s weird, but really cool at the same time. I can´t imagine what the real earthquakes are like that last for a few minutes and are crazy big. That would be terrifying. But the little temblors are pretty cool.

On the other hand I got really sick for the second time. As a result I got tested for parasites and tested positive. Woohoo. So I started taking meds Saturday to kill parasites. Adventures.

I think something I´ve learned more about this week is opposition in all things. There were some days this week that were absolutely incredible. We put two baptisms dates with two investigators, we celebrated some members birthdays, helped put up christmas trees, held 1 week old puppies, and talked with lots of people about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the truthfulness and joy found in this message. But there were also a couple days that were long and frustrating as well. Especially yesterday. Frustrating with my companion, me not feeling awesome physically speaking, and to be honest not feeling like being a missionary at times as I missed family and familiarity. But if I didn´t know the frustrating, disheartening, and hard times I wouldn´t know the good and happy and exciting times. It´s impossible to have happy times if I don´t understand the sad. And I guess that´s just what this is about...endure to the end. Put one foot in front of the other when you don´t want to move, smile when you feel like crying, and enjoy the happy and amazing moments life gives us. We´re here on the earth to be happy. That´s our purpose in life. But not just happy, but find pure joy and happiness. So go find it. 

Mirna - 12 yr old Investigator

Suprise party for Hermana Guadalupe Silva. Less active member

On a good note we put two baptisms dates this week for Arnoldo and Kevin! Pray for them that they will continue to learn and grow and come closer to this Gospel. We also had to move back the baptism date for Mirna, because she didn´t come to Church this week. Pray for her. I´m not sure what happened, but she´s disheartened and saddened and we´re praying to know how to help her.

I love you lots. And lots. 

Love,

Hermana Wright

Farwell to Elder Jacobson, our gringo zone leader, cause he got transferred

Decorating with Katy

Temple & Miracles

Familia!!

I am finally starting to figure out a system with this whole email thing. This keyboard thing that Mr. Smith gave me is seriously a life saver. Everyone is jealous of me haha. Mom, tell him thank you times a million!! But I log on, write the President, start uploading my photos, then I upload my journal from this keyboard, then I upload any emails or the family email to the computer and then I start reading-writing people. I print the emails I receive and will write or respond the following week.  Feel free to write me regular letters as well.

Going to the Temple

We went to the temple on Thursday. It was absolutely an incredible experience. First, this temple is absolutely incredible. And Mom and Kim and Vicky...those walls and oxen are absolutely indescribable…Seriously! We picked up clothes at the baptism font, so that was the first place I went. I walked in and saw the oxen and reeds and wanted to cry I was so excited and so happy to be there and see what you painted and everything. I was stoked beyond stoked. Then we did an endowment session, which was beautiful in a different language. And the celestial room was unreal. I looked at all your walls and was amazed. First, all those curves and the ridges around each inset...wow, a lot of detailed work. No one understands what a pain that probably was ha. Not to mention the modellos. But it makes the rooms unreal and really makes an incredible difference, it´s amazing. I sat there in the celestial room as tears welled up in my eyes and rolled down my face because I was so happy I can´t even describe it. I was so happy that I could be in the temple, feel of the Spirit ever so strong, and just feel the pure joy and peace and happiness that this Gospel brings. It brings more peace and happiness than anyone can describe. And I felt that tan fuerte (so strongly) sitting there. Then to sit there and stare at these beautiful walls that you painted mom and to appreciate the work and dedication that went into it. It´s seriously so cool mom!! So legit. I never wanted to leave as I just sat there with pure happiness. I went to the sealing room after to see them and sat there again with tears welling up in my eyes. And I just imagined you, Kim, and Vicky panicking as the walls fell down and praying with all your might, and it just brought tears to my eyes as I thought about what yáll did for those walls. And it was so worth it because they are unreal. Good work ladies. Unreal! Man, it was just absolutely the best day ever.

As I sat there in the temple, with so much peace and happiness I can´t describe, I thought, ¨Why am I not talking to more people? Why am I not talking to everyone?¨This Gospel is true. It´s real. It´s of God. And it will bring more peace and happiness to your life than you can imagine. And I know it with all my heart because I´ve felt it. I was filled with more fire and desire to talk to more people. I´m over the whole ¨fear¨thing. I´m stoked to talk to people and whoever wants to listen, I´ll be there to help. It was an incredible experience. 

Okay, so Dengue Fever is what you can get through mosquito bites. My area is a little cooler temperature and so I haven´t gotten that many mosquito bites so far, plus I use bug spray, but the mission has a rule that if you get Dengue twice, you will be sent home. The first time is okay, but once you get it a second time you go home. So pray I don´t get that. 

Funny stories or adventures

Today I was talking to a less active member and we were inviting her to the Christmas party we´re going to have...I was excited and talking and tried to say, “And we´re going to have refreshments at the end also¨. Well the word for refreshment is resfrigerio. But instead I said, ¨resfriado¨which is the word for a cold ha. The joys of learning another language. We laughed about it. 

Tonight we came home and there were hormigas (ants) ALL over the wall of the kitchen. And when I say ALL over, I mean, literally so thick. It was an ant party fo sho. Adventures!

I played the piano for the primary program yesterday. It was seriously the best. Kids are the cutest, everywhere. I loved every second.

Also, wow, we saw so many little miracles yesterday. It was incredible. This is kind of long, but I just copied and pasted this from my journal cause I was just amazed as I watched the miracles unfold. Sheryl told me that miracles will happen every day on my mission and to expect them. She´s so right and I´m seeing them every day.

JOURNAL, aka long story: Sunday, December 8th

I´m going to try to explain our morning and all the little miracles we saw this morning. 

This week we found 3 young guys, all around 20 years old, who are all nonmembers, but actually friends with a member. It was pretty crazy how we found them. I´ll explain that first. Nelson is a member who is kind of  less active. I met a guy on our bus ride to Santa Ana se llama (to call) Arnoldo about a week and a half ago. I gave him a LDM and told him it could change his life. He seemed receptive and gave me his phone number.

Well a few days ago we went to teach Nelson and we were almost done teaching him when his friend Juan Carlos showed up. So then we taught Juan Carlos as well. We invited them to the noche espiritual that night and they both agreed to come. We returned to our house right after teaching Nelson and Juan Carlos and decided to call Arnoldo. He answered and then told us he knows Nelson and Juan Carlos and he´s going to come with them to the activity. Then to our surprise they brought one of their other friends, Melbin. So 4 young guys all came to the activity. It was pretty neat. We taught them Saturday night (minus Melbin) and they all agreed to come to church today.

Okay, so the miracles today.

We left our house early to go help Hermana Guadalupe Silva try to clean her house and everything so she could come to church. Her mom is a bruja (I’ll let you look that one up) and wouldn´t let her come last week because she wasn´t done with what she needed to. We helped her clean and then had a little bit of time, so we decided to return to the house to call some people about church. On the way home we found Francisco and Rosario (two super old and super sweet persons, that don´t quite understand everything). They were walking to church, and usually we find someone to llevar (to take) them to the church, so we realized we didn´t need to find anyone this week because they were walking there, 1 hour early haha. 

We went in our house and called a few people. We called Nelson and he didn´t answer. (We´re pretty sure he is addicted to getting high off of glue and so he´s usually sleeping during the day). So we decided to call Arnoldo and he didn´t pick up. Bummer. We decided to call Reina, who is the sister of Mirna and usually brings Mirna to church with her. We´ve never called Reina before. But she answered and told us that she wasn´t going to come to church and so Mirna wasn´t going to come either. So we told her we´d bring Mirna and decided to go get her. We got ready to leave and I decided to call Arnoldo one more time and he answered. He said that Nelson was asleep and so the others were planning on coming but didn´t know where the Iglesia (church) was. They said they were close to our area and so we thought, ¨Great!¨We hung up the phone and left the house, and we walked outside to sure enough see all 3 guys just one block away from our house walking towards us. Miracle. They told us that they didn´t know where the church was (Juan Carlos only knew where the other ward was, so they were going to go there since Nelson was asleep). We then had to pass by Mirna and another muchacha (girl) and they would come with us. Miracle. 

We got to Mirna´s house and she was changing and so we went up to her house to wait. We told her sister Reina that it was the primary program and motivated her to come with us. So she hurried and showered and changed and got Rosita (her little girl) ready as well. Miracle. 

We had to pass by Lourdes as well, so we sent the guys with Mirna and Reina to the church while we went and found Lourdes. At this point we were running late, and I am officially the piano player now for the ward. And last week we got there early so that I could find out what hymns and practice during prelude so that I could play the hymns well. We picked up Lourdes and headed to the church. I knew we wouldn´t have time for me to practice and so I prayed that there would be hymns I could play.

We arrived just as the bishop sat down and the chorister got up to conduct the hymn. I ran to the piano, and sure enough it was a Christmas hymn and I was able to play it fine. I sat there after that hymn finished, and was worried which sacrament hymn they would choose. I opened the hymn book, and picked one of the sacrament hymns and practiced (without actually pushing the keys), while the Bishop made announcements and stuff. I had no idea which hymn was the sacrament hymn. Sure enough the Bishop announced the sacrament hymn and it was the one that I was looking at and practiced a little sitting there. Miracle. Now this probably sounds really dumb and silly. But it meant so much to me. And it was just another little tender mercy in my life that God knows me individually. Personally. And He is there to help me throughout my life and to support me. And He is making miracles happen every day here on the mission and every day in my life before the mission. We just have to look around us and open our eyes and see them. Little tender mercies like that are truly amazing and absolutely beautiful. I love looking for them in my life. 

Basically we wouldn´t have had any investigators at church today...but because of multiple small miracles, we had 4 investigators show up and I was able to play beautifully. It was just eye opening and confirmed my testimony more.

Not to mention that I played the piano for the primary program today and it was truly the best! Loved every second. Kids are the freaking best!

Love you all like crazy!

Love,

Me

Crazy Wind!

Funny stories:

We went to Santa Ana to celebrate el dia de accion de gracias! On the bus into Santa Ana in the front of the bus there was a sticker on the window that said in English: "This seat is reserved for Rosa Parks.". It just made me laugh because nobody here knows who she is or anything. It´s just an old bus from the US that´s recycled here probs. Love it. 

Sister Morris...another gringa in my area!

We went to find a member and we walked up to his house, there were about 6 ladies outside and I said, ¨Buenas¨ right as a huge gust of wind came and blew my skirt completely up...yep, everything underneath was exposed. So funny.  Me and Hermana Najera laughed pretty hard along with the other ladies and it was a good time. I haven´t laughed like that in a while. It felt good. And I didn´t even care haha.

Some random things:

-the wind here is absolutely CRAZY! Today was so windy and we were teaching in some humble homes, one house I thought was going to blow over. But when we were teaching Daniel the wind outside was SO loud and strong and with a tin roof it was extreme. So it´s an adventure every day. I´m loving it. But today I was actually cold for the first time. Rumor on the street is it´s windy like this until February. I guess we´ll see. 

-They light fireworks during Christmas time (aka right now). And every time it scares me because they are huge loud gun shots is what it sounds like. Who lights fireworks at Christmas?

 Wendy's El Salvadorian Style!

Two great stories:

Daniel that we are teaching right now is great. We set a date for 14 Diciembre for baptism and he is excited and wants to learn more. We taught him the plan of salvation today and it was great to be able to explain everything and have him be so receptive and excited and want to learn more. But I don´t think I really told how we found Daniel. We were going to visit someone, but it fell through. So my companion started walking down this street and I wasn´t sure where we were going. (I don´t think she knew either.) We passed a member´s house and he saw us and came outside to say hi. We were outside talking to him for about 5 min when Daniel rode up on his bike. We asked if we could share a message with him and he said yes of course and we went in and that´s when we taught the first lesson and first vision and he was excited and totally receptive. The other side of the story is that Daniel told us that he was with his friend at an evangelic church and just didn´t feel good about it and decided he didn´t want to be there, so he decided he´d go home and that´s when he rode up and found us in the calle. But if we weren´t there...if my companion didn´t listen to her feeling and go down this street, we wouldn´t have found him. It´s just a miracle. And it´s a testament to me how we need to just listen to the Spirit...being those random little thoughts and ideas inside of us. Follow those. They are real. 

The second story is about Lourdes and Elias. They are both members, 20 and 21 years old, but have been inactive for about 9 years. They were baptized when they were 8 and 9 cause their mom was a member, but their mom passed away and they fell away from the church. The first night we went to visit her she asked us about baptism and if someone can be baptized twice. We talked about how baptism by the proper authority is what´s important. I felt the impression to ask her why she asked this question, and why she wanted to know about baptism. She then responded how she wants to know more about the church. She was baptized but then fell away and essentially doesn´t know anything about the church and wants to learn more. That´s when we told her we´d start from the beginning as if she knew nothing and teach her all the lessons and answer all her questions (cause she said she had many.) Well a couple days later we went to teach her and her brother Elias for the first time. She told us then that she knew the missionaries had stopped by her house a few times when she wasn´t there and she was really confused by this. She didn´t know why they would stop by her house. She prayed to God and told him that if this Church was true and if this was His Gospel, to send her a sign. That´s when we showed up at her house and she and her brother were there. It´s just amazing to watch the power of God work around us. I love it. And it´s amazing.

This is the only time in my life when I will be able to be completely dedicated to the Lord. I don´t have to worry about work, about kids, about boys, about bills, about anything. I get to study the scriptures, focus on helping others come unto Christ, and dedicate my time completely to that and helping everyone else and not myself. And this will be the only time I can do that in my life. And I´m starting to lose myself in the work and loving every second of it. My companion and I are mejorando cada dia, we´re trying to improve and do our best and we´re seeing miracles before our eyes. It´s amazing. I love it. 

Love you lots. Miss you even more. Thanks for your prayers and support. I feel it daily. 

Love,

Me

Snail Mail...It's the way for now!

First, I´m sorry last week was so short and crazy. I had a lot of technical difficulties with my computer and 

I´m only allowed 1 hour anyways (45 min to write family, 15 min to write our Mission President). So 

it´s hard to read all the emails and find time to reply. I´m going to start writing real letters, though. I´ll try to write home letters as well as emails because it is just easier to do that during the week since my time is so limited on the computer. As such, if you want to tell my friends to write me letters instead of emails I would LOVE that. I don´t have anyone´s mailing address, so if they write me letters or a quick email with their address, then I can get their address and write them back. Word on the street is the letters are about 2 weeks one way. So it´s longer and slower, but still fun.  Our district leaders collect our mail from the mission home every week and we get them each week. So, just use the mission address. 

Some funny things from the last couple weeks

-we bought toilet paper at the store...and didn´t realize until we got home that is was ¨Christmas Scent¨ haha. Don´t get me wrong, it smells amazing! But it´s just so weird using cinnamon/ cloves scented toilet paper every time I go to the bathroom.

-One of the guys in our ward was wearing rock climbing shoes just as normal shoes the other day. Loved it. And made me realize how spoiled we have it in the USA.

-We´re going to the temple!!!! I´m stoked. We get to go 3 times each year, even though it´s not in our mission boundaries, and our zone is going Dec. 4th.

Some differences

-cold showers. There is no hot water here. Which it´s pretty hot outside so that´s fine...but at night when it cools down, a cold shower is quite an adventure. 

-there are ants everywhere, kitchen, study table, etc. But it´s totally just normal and okay. I think I might start naming some of them.

-we bought some soap last week to clean out bathroom, my companera handed it to me and told me it was for cleaning. When we got home I read the package and it was laundry detergent for clothes. I showed my companion and she simply said, "Oh hermana, mira, it´s for both..." and then put laundry detergent with a little bleach in a bucket for me to clean. haha...I obviously should have known that you can use it for both. Duh.

-The food is delicious (different from the MTC). We pay a lady in our ward to fix us lunch Tuesday through Saturday. The rest of the time we cook ourselves.

Mission change: so apparently my mission doesn´t include Belize. My call said El Salvador Santa Ana and Belize, but that was the old mission. They split El Salvador into 3 missions now and the middle mission has Belize. So I´ll be El Salvador my entire mission.

Changes: Well we all know how good I am at singing (and if you don´t, I´m AWFUL). But whenever we visit a family or someone, we usually sing a hymn. So basically I´m singing duets everyday...who ever thought that would happen? I sure didn´t! I just feel bad for the people that have to listen to me. 

Spiritual:

There are three people we´re teaching right now that are awesome:

-Mirna, she is 12 years old and wants to be baptized, but she just has to get permission from her parents. Pray for her and her parents. We set a date for December 14th, so exciting!

-Daniel, he´s 60 and we taught him the first lesson our first meeting, and he loved it and was totally open to the idea. He came to church yesterday and he wants to change his life. The spirit was so strong and he said if he prays to find out if this Church is true, he will be baptized. He´s so ready it´s incredible.

-Henry Y Claudia are a familia that are excited and love the Gospel and want to learn more, but they don´t have time so far to come to church. We have to get them to come to Church. Pray for them.

I´m learning so much more about the Spirit. Often times in the church we are taught about how when we had this HUGE spiritual impression that we felt like we needed to do something. And yes, this happens (I mean, it´s the reason I´m here on the mission). But oftentimes we forget that the spirit is a "still small voice" that speaks quietly to our hearts in our thoughts and little things. So just listen to that. Because that can be more powerful than we think. 

I love you all. Miss you like crazy. But I´m learning to lose myself in this work and focus on the people and my "family" here in the mission when I miss you all. 

Love,

Hermana Wright

PS we´re celebrating Thanksgiving this Thursday and I can´t even wait. I´m stoked.

Welcome to Juayua!

Hola!!!

Primero, a million THANKS to all the birthday emails!! Getting online and seeing all the emails from people was the best! So tell everyone thank you so much! And I´m sorry that I don´t have time to write much but we only get 45 min. to read emails and write our families and I had some computer problems, so I have to hurry. But thank you to everyone!!! I loved it. 

Wow, I don´t even know where to start. So much to tell and so little time. 

Okay, let´s see. The basics. My companion is Hermana Najera, she´s from Honduras and is great! I´m in El Salvador in an area called Juayua, and our area is Orquideas. It´s beautiful! The weather is actually perfect right now. My companion told me it was cold where our area is, but it´s not ha. By cold she meant it cools down at night to about 65. So I´m loving the weather! The next transfer is right before Christmas so they aren´t doing transfers then, so I´ll for sure be here for about 3 months at the least. 

Me and mi companera

The conditions people live in are crazy. It reminds me of all these pictures that I saw from Trevor from Cambodia...but seeing pictures and living it is a whole different story. But I´m learning to ignore the conditions and focus on the people, because they are absolutely amazing!! So it´s been a good experience.

How I´m feeling right now? Well I´m loving this experience. It´s crazy and nuts, but I´m laughing my way through the disgusting shower, the bugs, and random things. It´s like I´m living in a movie, but I´m loving it. To be honest the first 4 days were LONG. They felt like weeks and I was having a good attitude, but to be honest at the back of my mind I was thinking, "Wow, 18 months is going to be a really long time..." But I worked on ignoring that, focusing on the work, and for the first time last night and today I´m feeling stoked about this experience. It´s just so different and so many changes, but I´m adjusting and am really loving it. 

Spanish is coming along. I can understand most things, but it´s harder for me to talk. But it´s getting better everyday and I know I just need to be patient with myself. 

Funny story for the week. We have to go outside on our little patio into our bathroom. Well above our patio there has been this GIANT spider and web every day. Well one day I noticed it wasn´t on it´s web. Then my companion pointed out that it was on the wall. Sure enough, there it was...but it wasn´t just on the wall, it was laying it´s eggs on the wall!!! Gross!!! I was grossed out and told my companion we needed to kill it or we were going to get a million giant spider babies in our house (obviously). She didn´t say much. But I remembered we had a can of bug spray so I told her I was going to use that. We went outside and I sprayed that spider and it´s nest like crazy!!! I felt a little better, knowing that I would be able to sleep. So I was feeling pretty good at this point. Then my companion then looked at me with a disappointment look and said, ¨What do you think Heavenly Father will think of that and what I did?" And at this point I thought...no way! I guess she just has more Christlike love than I do, because I want to powerspray and kill every living thing that is in our apartment and around our house, and it doesn´t even phase her. But if that´s the worst that it gets, then I think we´re going to get along just great!

The disgusting spider that I murdered.

I´m learning so much and learning to rely on the Lord for help each day. 

I wish I had more time to write but I don´t. Love you lots family. I´ll try to write more next week. 

Love,

Hermana Wright

Estoy aqui!

Hola Familia!!

I´m officially here in El Salvador and all is well. The president and his wife met me at the airport last night and I got there right after all the rest of the missionaries that came from Mexico. So all is well. It´s crazy hot here, but just getting starting. My Pdays are mondays, so that is when I´ll be writing. 

Love you lots!

Hermana Wright

MTC - Children & Christ

Wow. What a week. So many thoughts and so little time to share. It's crazy to think that I haven't even hit my one week mark in the Missionary Training Center (MTC), and it feels like I've been here for weeks!!! So much to tell and only a few minutes to write it. First, I got my travel plans and I'm leaving for El Salvador on Monday!! Seriously can't wait!! I mean, this place is good and all, but I am SO glad I'm only here for 12 days. Which means, this is my only Preparation Day in the MTC (bummer).

And sorry for the rambled thoughts, but we don't get much time on the computer, so bear with me. 

Okay, where to begin. Let's start with the comical things that have happened. First, I am definitely the oldest person out here. But that's no surprise. All the other missionaries are babies...18, 19, 20 if we're lucky. My companion is 21, but still seems like a baby to me ha. I'm older than most my teachers and such, which is just funny. For example, I decided to write down a quote everyday, just something to help me remember little things and enjoy it (thanks little bro for letting me copy you with this). Here my favorite quote for this past week, and this came from a sister in my district who is 19...and we discovered that I graduated college before she graduated high school....

"I haven't dated anyone in SUCH a long time." 

My thoughts were, "You're 19...you've only been dating for 3 years of your entire life..." haha...kills me. But I just chuckled to myself and immediately wrote that down.

Things like this happen everyday and my district has started calling me the mom or the grandma of the district. "Hermana Mamita" or "Hermana Abuelita" or "Hermana sabia". Seriously though, these are children. Good times. But one thing that is good about me being older is this was my decision. I quit my job, left my "real life" and decided to go. Por eso, I'm not going to waste time. I'm here to work hard and do my best and that's what I'm going to do. Rather than some missionaries I see here who are only here to please others or their parents and waste a lot a time. I only have 18 months, if I'm not going to work hard, then why am I here? It's a good feeling and it's what pushes me everyday. It's also what makes me frustrated sometimes when dealing with others, but I'm learning lots of patience...which I guess is a good thing ha.

Basics:

There are 6 of us in our district class, and I'm the only gringo. The others all know Spanish from speaking at home and such. So it's a challenge, but it feels really good to hear and speak Spanish again. I missed it. I just wish I was fluent. I can understand most of all of it when I pay attention, but speaking is more difficult, and my grammar struggles. But i know i need to be more patient with myself and with time it will come. 

There are about 20 or 25 in our zone. Most have Hispanic background in some way, but there are about 3 of us who are white. 

I'm the only one going to Belize/El Salvador. Most of them are going to Mexico or a few are going state side. 

I live on west campus. So I'm at Wyview and Raintree. This has pros and cons. The pros are that it's ALL Spanish speaking missionary, very friendly, more open, and great. The cons are it's FREEZING in Utah and I didn't bring any warm clothes and have to wear a skirt everyday (basically like I'm wearing nothing). Oh, and the food here on west campus literally tastes like rubber and plastic. Horrendous. But...on more pro is that "Brigham's Landing" is included in our area and so we get to walk there on our P-day...so we had Great Harvest for lunch and Jamba Juice and I was in heaven.

It's quite a change to have a companion. Especially since I've lived on my own and done my own thing for 6 years. So having someone who has to come with me when I go to store or want to mail a letter is muy diferente. 

Spiritual

It is amazing to see how much I have learned and grown in just one short week. When you take away computers, cell phones, any form of social media, and "normal" life...it's pretty crazy what you can focus on and how much you can learn and grow and how you have time for studying and growing. This 18 month adventure is going to be quite something. I'm stoked about it. But I've learned a lot about Christ and my favorite was a devotional we listened to Sunday night called "The Character of Christ". Elder Bednar said, "The character of Christ is turning outward, when all of us would normally turn inward." I wish I could describe how this really affected me, because it changed my life. Really. I adopted the theme for my mission "Turn outward". This mission isn't about me. I loved how direct Elder Bednar was. It was so refreshing. Elder Bednar said "Get over yourself. This isn't about you. It's about serving Him and following Him." And he's so right. This isn't about me. Don't feel sorry for yourself. Don't get frustrated and angry when others say rude things, or when you don't get exactly what you want. Get over yourself. Turn outward, not inward. What can you do for others? How can you help someone else? What is someone else struggling with, where you can help bear their burdens and help bring them closer to Christ. That is what this mission is about. And that is my goal for my mission. "Turn outward". I'm going to constantly strive to work on this for these next 18 months. And I'm excited to see how I can grow and grow closer to Christ and His character. I have a LONG way to go. Trust me. But I'm working each day to do my best and serve Him. 

This church is true. It brings so much peace and happiness I can't even begin to describe it. I love it so much and I'm grateful for Christ and Heavenly Father's love and TONS of patience with me. Next time I write home I'll be in El Salvador!! YAAAAY!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Wright

My Companion Sister Puig & Me

 My District during Gym Time

 Hermana Wright by the Provo Temple

Sisters in My District

A Few Farewell Pictures