Email #1 (Mexico City)

August 28, 2013

MI FAMILIA!!!
Hola!!! Oh my goodness I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to read all of your emails. I may or may not have cried throughout all of them... but don´t worry, it´s a happy cry. Because I just love you guys so sooooooo much. I am so blessed to have you in my life.

Holy cow... where do I even start?

Well, mi compañera is Hermana Lui. She is Tongan. Also, she is one of the nicest, coolest, funniest people I´ve ever met. We get along really well, and laugh a lot... probably more than is allowed. She is so awesome and I am so grateful that she is my first compañera. Although I´m a little worried because she´s gonna be a hard one to beat for the rest of my companions on my mission. They´ve got big shoes to fill!

So I got here around 9:30ish at night last Tuesday. Then the next two days were busy, great, but really rough at the same time. I think the combination of being exhausted, overwhelmed and extremely homesick made for a very loooooong two first days. If we´re being completely honest, I definitely cried myself to sleep the two first nights. It´s all your fault for being the best family in the world and making me miss you so much! But after our first "investigator" lesson, things got way better. I think I felt a little bit of the "missionary mantle" that Dad always talks about. So after that, I remembered my purpose, and remembered why I came on a mission, and my attitude took a 180. I absolutely love it here. It feels so good to be able to focus on learning how to do such an important thing, bringing others unto Christ.

The Spanish is coming along pretty well. I know A LOT more than I did last week, which means I´m learning. But it is really difficult. I´m wishing I would have taken AP Spanish (haha) but I guess there´s nothing I can do about that now! Our lessons have to be in all Spanish! It´s so frustrating to have so much to say about this Gospel and not knowing how to say it. But that has gotten a lot better too, because I´ve realized that the language of the Spirit can touch hearts much more effectively than my broken Spanish can. Also, what I´ve discovered is that however much studying you put in, that´s how much your going to get out of it! So I´ve been trying to study as hard as I can. Sometimes my district gets distracted though... OH! My district! My district is so AWESOME! There are four of us hermanas and 8 elderes. We have a fun time together. All the elders are like brothers to me, and they´re so spiritual and fun.

What else... the food is okay. (haha) When I first got here I was like, uh... this is gross. I think they're trying to accomodate all the Americanos here so they make some really strange foods that have hot dogs sliced up in them sometimes. But I don't know if it's because I'm getting used to it, or because it´s actually getting better, but it really tastes good to me now! (haha) I haven´t gotten sick yet, luckily. There are quite a few people that have so I am lucky.

Speaking of being sick, I am so sorry to hear of the colds that have been going on in the Lattin fam! I´ll be praying for you to get better. What´s funny/cool is that the first day I felt myself getting a cold, and my throat started to hurt really bad. I was really worried about getting a bad cold. It made me cry when I read that you were praying specifically for my health because the next day it was completely gone and I felt great. Thank you so much for praying for me. The power of prayer is real!!

I think my favorite day so far has been Domingo (Sunday), for two reasons: 

1. We watched an MTC Devotional from Elder Holland. This is what really brought me out of my homesick "funk". He talked about the fact that a lot of people love us and pray for us, and also expect a lot from us. It´s our job to live up to those expectations. We cannot let the members, our families, the Apostles, the Prophet, ourselves and (most importantly) God down. 

Family, I will not let you down! I´m going to give everything I have to this work. 

2. We watched The Testaments, which is one of my absolute favorite church movies of all time! Hermana Lui and I were bawling like babies.

Today we went to the Mexico City Temple! It was BEAUTIFUL. The entire session was in Spanish and I tried my best to understand what was going on but I wasn´t very successful. But it´s really cool to see that the church is the same everywhere you go, no matter what language you speak!

Oh and Mom, this is the mailing address you should use:

Carr. Tenayuca-Chalmita No. 828,

Col. Zona Escolar, Deleg. G. A. Madero,

C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.

The address in my packet is actually the address of the temple, because the old CCM used to be by the temple.

 So I´m 99% sure that the one I just gave you is right.

But yeah, mail here is pretty unreliable. Emails will have to do for now:)

Anyways I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I hardly have any time left, but I promise next week's letter will be longer and better than this one. And I´ll send a few pictures!

I pray for you every night!

Yo se que la Iglesia es verdadera!

Love you all more than the delicious ice cream they sometimes have on special days here!!!

Hermana Lattin