Man, i feel like a ....... missionary (dewww doo do sew do dooo dewwww)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brittany Johnson <brittany.johnson@myldsmail.net>
Date: Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 1:02 PM
Subject: Man, I feel like a ..........Missionary (dewww dew do dooo dew do dew)
To: 

Hopefully you got the reference. hahah

Que Pasaaaaa? Whats up at home? Hows Utah State doin? Hows I.F.? give me info cause ive been memorizing spanish scriptures the past 4 weeks and i need non scriptural information in my head. Ill take anythin. Tell me how the econonmy is, or if Shania Twain is on tour again or if they discovered a new way to eat chicken OTHER than inside of a tamale (I feel like this is all i know anymore) *sigh*

The two most common phrases here, at the CCM are: "Hola, Como Esta?" AND "in the mission, weeks feel like days and days feel like weeks." Ive heard that a million times. So it gets annoying. BUT ITS SO TRUE. I have 14 days left in the MTC. I love it here, everyones so nice, but i wanna leave soooooo bad.

The latinos think its funny to indroduce themselves as gringos from utah, They laugh soooooo hard when one of them say their from Utah. Its pretty funny cause like ALLLL the missionaries here, are from Utah

Mexico City has big cliffs on one of their mountains and theyre SO pretty. every time i see them i say "I just wanna go rockclimbingggggg" and my companion is so used to hearing that,  that once i start a sentence with "I  just wanna.." she finished it with "go rock climbing???!"

Our Zone is in charge of the arrival of the new missionaries each Wednesday, and there were 75 new missionaries this week so i got to run around in the pouring rain all evening on Wednesday getting the right keys for the new Hermanas closets and helping everyone find their house, and the lightning storm that night was crazy! Ive never heard Lightning as loud as i did on wednesday, A bolt struck on campus. Nothing really happened though. One of the new hermanas went to bonneville High in IF. so it was cool to be able to talk about Idaho Falls for once.

The Older districts in our zone left, so were the oldest district now! And Im the lead Training Sister for the newbies! Neat. 

My teachers were really hard on me this week. The spanish improvement isnt as visible as it used to be but i can still tell im understanding and speaking a little better than last week.

hahaha one of our Elders has a problem with falling asleep in the wrong moments, (AKA almost EVERY devotional/ meeting/ or class we have) and its realllly funny cause he just checks out so quickly.

One of the devotionals was a rebroadcast of a talk elder Bednar gave to the provo MTC in 2011, and there were some awesome quotes in that talk that i wrote down. some of them being:

"knowing whats true and CONSISTENTLY being true to what you know are two DIFFERENT things."

 "dont work hard to become a saint. cause youre doing that for yourself. Love and serve others until youve lost sight of yourself, and thats when you'll become"

But seriously send me info. por favorrr 

Love you all! Stay Happy :)

-Con Much Amor

Hermana Brittany Nicole Johnson

El templo

Ayeeee! Familia y Amigos,

Life in the CCM is still  great! Were considered 4th weekers now, so WOOT! we'll  be outta here hopefully sooner than it feels like!

Soooooo This week was like a spirtual bomb!

I basically start my weeks on wednesday cause pday is the weekend for us, Saturday is exactly like any other day (awww) buuuuut it started out pretty rough. I was frustrated with alot of things on wednesday. We do basically the same thing erry day so it feels super repetitive and sometimes it kinda just feels like im stuck.

Soooo there are a ton of things that helped me. Ether 12:6 being a huge one. Cause it says youll recieve a witness AFTER a trial of your faith and i wanna emphasize that youre not gonna recieve it BEFORE OR DURING. itll come After. Youre not gonna know why youre going through some of the things youre going through til you put it into perspective. So ayyyye everybodayy, keep the faith!

Then Friday i got really sick. This food is killeeerrr. Ive never had a problem with food being able to settle til i got to Mexico annnnd on friday i kept having to leave class to go puke. sooooo no bueno. It was a rough few days, but it got better pretty quick :)

Saturday was the cultural celebration! YOOOO IT WAS CRAZY. the girls were wearing gorgeous, colorful  dresses and they did a ton of crazy hispanic dances, It was incredible. One of the teachers in our zone was in it! His name is Hermano Vargas and hes like the happiest little latino ever, 

Sunday was the Mexico City Temple Dedication AHHHHH! they havent had a termple for two years! and the closest one is in Veracruz which is a 6 hour drive from here. The dedication was cool :)

Elder Holland spoke in Spanish! It was super simple spanish, (Kinda like the broken up Spanish we've got goin on here) but it was way powerful! We also got to here from President Iring. Both talks were great :)

and todayyyyyy *DRUMROLL* we got to go to the temple! We left at 7 am for an hour long busride, and we got to pass some really sad, broken down places.. People were walking their kids to school and i just thought back to when i was a kid, i walked to school with my sister all the time, and It was okay, cause our neighborhood was safe. buuuut its different here, there are dangerous, sketchy places that little kids have to walk past every day! :(

Oh! Buuuuuut We were the one of the first sessions in TWO YEARS, such a neat experience. It was cool to see people FINALLY getting to go and we got to talk to the cutest little niña named Rosalina. She was precious. And i understood maybe half of what she said, cause she talked so fast but I Loved getting the opportunity to talk to a kid. There are only adults here at the CCM

The Mexico City Temple is one of the largest temples outside of the US

Its one of five (?) that has angel moroni holding the gold plates! 

Today has been awesome! And Its Mexican Independence day tomorrow so we get "real" mexican food.... (It wasnt real before!?!?) (what have I been eating for the past three weeks!!!!!!!!)

Oh yeah! The latino missionaries left on sunday and they all asked if we could take a picture with them hahah we didnt really know them though, but we always say Hola to them!

Literally 10 latinos ive never talked to asked for our email addresses. It was the weirdest thing. and we can barely understand them cause they talk so fast hahah,

That pretty much sums up my week! I hope things at home are great! and I hope my friends in the field are having tons of success! Les amo!!!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Brittany Johnson

​

CCM Week 1

Ayeeeeee! OKAY. My first week was crazy. The Spanish is coming so quickly! I see my improvement every single day. We taught our first investigator the 2nd day we got here (it was rough) My companion is amazing. I love her. And so are my roommates. My district is filled with super awkward elders. hhahahhaha and My district leader and his companion are both named Elder Spencer! Our district leader is a red head with a super deep voice and all the hermanas accidentally make awkward eye contact with him about 100 times a day and we just laugh about it cause it so weird.. The campus is crazy beautiful. There are palm trees everywhere and there are neon green birds that fly from tree to tree. The food is really good. buuuuuut it does not sit well. The first four days i was super sick. and my classes and meetings were painful to sit through.

The desert is not even desert. Its not sugary at all. Mexico has a tonnnn of the same foods as America except they dont put sugar in it! like jello and pastries and stuff. They also serve stuff like flan and tamales. (no bueno)

The hispanic missionaries are amazing. We talk to them at meals and between classes! The hermanas are adorable and they give us hugs all the time! 

The day we got here elder Christofferson was here! He literally drove out of the CCM gates seconds before we pulled in. Sadddd.

BUT YOU KNOW WHATS AWESOME???

 The Mexico City temple has be getting some remodelling and its been closed for like two years. but theyre reopening it while we're here so we'll get to go through the open house AND do sessions. And Henry B Iring is gonna come speak to us :)

I dont have a ton of time and theres no SD card slot in the computer so idk how i'll send you guys pictures... But I hope you are all doing well! The Spirit is crazy strong here, and i go through so many awkward things a day it,s ridiculous. Im laughing like non stop. But im also learning non stop. I can understand the scriptures for the most part. I only need to check my english scriptures once ever 3 or 4 verses for a word here and there. 

Well I'd send ya'll pictures if i could. 

Stay Happy! 

Con Amor, Hermana Johnson

"Lasts"

Pre-mission life is hard. You want to get in as much as possible before all the restrictions and boundaries are drawn. You have all this time where you don't know what to do with yourself. Some people work, some people are extremely focused, some go to school, some hangout with their friends or family as much as possible, some spend as much time with their girlfriend or boyfriend as they can, then there are always those kids who date as much as possible just to get a few extra girls to write them.  You don't want to be alone for 4 months before you leave so you reach out and befriend the people around you; coworkers, class mates, old friends, new friends, friends from sports and neighborhood friends. Goodbyes become something you dread.

You get stuck for a period of 2 to 4 months, knowing you're headed of to a place where everything is different. Where you're going to experience some of the craziest, hardest, or most uncomfortable and awkward things of your life. You're planning all your "lasts". You get in your "last" family vacations, your last "hangouts", your last "girls' nights" The world will keep progressing while you're gone and the only way you'll find out the tiniest bit of information of whats happening at home is through your parents.  People say they'll write you. And they do. On and off for the first 4 or 5 months. 

 Its a strange feeling. Knowing that youre experiencing all your "lasts" for a year and a half. So many things that I do on a daily or weekly basis are going to dissapear in 48 hours. All my habits are about to change, all my passions are going to be put on hold, or at least reduced to something I may only do once or twice a month. Ive had my last midnight lemonade run. Ive had my last longboarding session around the river. Ive had my last day on the lake. I drove down sunnyside for the last time. I saw my friends in Logan for the last time. I'll watch my last movie, Ill listen to my last Alt-J song. FOR 18 MONTHS. Its surreal. For the big things im thinking "Sure, this is my last time passing through Utah for a year and a half." "Sure, this is my last time hugging my niece for a while." But I won't realize most of these times until they're over. In a few days I'll say "Oh, I didnt think that would be my last lunch date" or "Woah, that was my last soul sesh with my brother for a really long time." It's the weirdest thing. Its surreal.
Well, this is my mission blog, and today I'm saying goodbye to all my "lasts" and looking forward to all my "firsts". 

I cant wait for the first time I lay my eyes on Ecuador. Im excited for the first time i feel confident in my Spanish. Im excited to get to know my first companion, give out my first Book of Mormon, and watch my first Ecuadorian sunset. On my mission I'll live in humid conditions for the first time, eat guinea pig for the first time, hear the sounds of a rain forest. I'll live in conditions that I've never experienced, I'll get to learn the stories of the older generations and teach the younger generations. I'll work as hard as I can every single day, praying for the people I encounter, loving them with all I've got, and in a year and half, the things I cant fathom i'll encounter now, will be the things about Ecuador that I'll dread doing for a last time.

Con Amor,
(Future Hermana) Brittany Nicole Johnson