Green Bean Days

The Mexico MTC was easily one of the greatest experiences of my life. Aside from a few misfortunes, like a noro virus outbreak halfway through and a few encounters I had with bird poop, it was smooth sailing. I had the greatest district of 5 Elders and 6 sisters. We were close instantly. My companion was Hermana Petrucka from Pleasant Grove and I loved her. She always had me laughing. Our teachers were also the greatest and made sure we had fun while we learned. We had an elder from Australia, one from Tennessee, an hermana from Mississippi, and one from Texas. The rest of us were good old Utahns.

Being almost completely immersed in Spanish without having any kind of previous experience or knowledge was a little overwhelming at first, but I picked up the basics pretty quickly. We taught lessons everyday and got to do little exchanges with the latino missionaries to get some more practice. The devotionals were almost all in some form of Spanglish as well. Looking back, I have absolutely no idea how we taught any kind of lesson and were understood, but hey. The gift of tongues is real. Trips to the temple were some of my favorite times. We got to go twice during our 6 weeks there and I loved it. The celestial room in the Mexico City Temple is one of my very favorites.

I remember the first scripture I had to memorize during my time there. It was Philippians 4:13, or Filipenses. It says "Todo lo puedo en Cristo, que me fortalece." That was something I recited throughout the rest of my mission. We all thought the MTC was hard, but we were in for a treat. Saying goodbye to that district was hard, we were like family, but we kept in touch along the way. Besides, we were all way too excited to get out to the field already.

June 19th, 2018

Easily one of the most stressful days of my life. Elder Wade (one of my district elders) and I had to be at the registration desk of the MTC at 2:30 am to head to the airport. I had set my alarm for 2 am so I had time to get ready, but there was some kind of malfunction and it never went off. I woke up to 3 men standing outside my casa door wondering why I was late. I was changed and out the door in 5 minutes and all I forgot was my charger. Thank goodness Elder Wade was a homie and remembered to get me. We were driven to the airport through the crazy streets of Mexico at 3 am to arrive at the airport around 4. Our flight didn't leave till 7, but they definitely make sure nobody is late. We had kind of a dumb flight plan. Our first one was to Atlanta with a 2 hour layover, and then to San Diego. We were flying all day long. By the time we got to the mission office in Carlsbad, we were dead. Our trainers were supposed to arrive at 8 pm to pick us up. As the trainers started to come in to the room, I knew none of them were mine. She wasn't there yet. 5 minutes into introductions, in walks this little brown girl (lol I love you) and I knew she was mine. Her name was Hermana Leslie Corona from Salt Lake City. Her parents were from Mexico so she was completely fluent in both languages. What a blessing that was for me.

My very first area was San Marcos. I was not exactly expecting to serve in areas far from the beach, but this one gave me a nice news flash. The people we were trying to teach usually don't live on the coast. We lived in a 4 man apartment with 2 other hermanas that I LOVED. We didn't have a huge teaching pool almost the entire 4.5 months I was in that area, but we worked hard. We had a cute little girl named Nelly be baptized and were teaching a man named Alfredo who we loved and was preparing to be baptized. I was with Hermana Corona until she went home after 3 transfers, and then I got Hermana Ashley Blair. She was out for 2 transfers longer than me. We saw SO MANY MIRACLES we couldn't even keep track of of them all. Alfredo was baptized shortly after Hermana Blair arrived and 2 other people we taught together were baptized later. Like I said, some of the coolest miracles ever.

Then one day, we got a call from President Thomas. He asked for Hermana Blair so I was pretty sure I was in the clear. She got called to be a sister training leader. Hahahahaha she was not thrilled. I thought I was in the clear, but then he asked for me. He asked me to train a brand new hermana. What do you mean??? I hadn't even left my greenie area yet. I wasn't ready to train another hermana!! But, that wasn't what God had in mind so, of course, I said yes. 2 days later we would find that she would be heading to Valley Center and I would be white wash training in Del Mar. President kept that one a secret from me until transfers were announced.

I will be honest, the first 6 months of a mission are unspeakably hard. I mean, I had been waiting for my mission my whole life and yet as soon as I got to the field I had so many thoughts of going home almost everyday. Everything is brand new, I was learning a new language, we were either walking or biking all day long, it was hard. Not to mention I was eating food that my body wasn't used to eating everyday. Mission life is just stressful, we will put it that way. Everybody told me before I left that gaining a little bit of weight was normal. I was expecting it so it wasn't a huge deal, but eating hispanic meals every single night with members definitely created more problems than I was anticipating. Combine the stress, food, and small amount of control you have on your fitness, it kinda messes with your body. I was always an athletic person and, at the time, I was majoring in kinesiology to study exercise science. I definitely didn't always have a healthy mindset when it came to body image and self-perception and I had struggled with it for a few years before, but it got worse when all of a sudden I had 20 extra pounds and very little control of myself. I was constantly thinking about exercise and food and my body. Little did I know this was the beginning of some unhealthy habits that would affect me long after.

December 4th, 2018

Leaving your greenie area is definitely hard. It was all I ever knew the mission to be like so going somewhere completely on my own and being responsible for another missionary was pretty overwhelming. But, I decided that it was just gonna be a fun adventure. Well, that it was. The sister training leaders from Del Mar came to pick me up early that morning to take me to my new area and get settled before my new companion would arrive. Their names were Darcie Povey and Alex Durfee. They became two of my best friends. We had a crazy day together, arriving to find the apartment we would be moving in to was infested with cockroaches and a complete disaster. Elders lived there before so it wasn't incredibly shocking. Bless the hearts of those two sisters because they helped me clean that place up for 3 hours. Before I knew it, it was time to go pick up my new companion! I had heard from many people that she would be my second hispanic companion. There were rumors that she was straight out of El Salvador and didn't speak any English. We were late getting to the new missionary meeting so basically I was just keeping family traditions going, but I sat down next to her and got all introduced and then found out she spoke perfect English and was from California, but was originally born in El Salvador. Half truths everywhere. I told her about the events of the day as we drove down to our newest adventure: cockroaches.

 Kami