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