Estados Unidos Aqui Voy! (US here I come)

Hello all! 

This email will be short due to things on my to-do list, but tonight I leave the CCM to fly to Washington.  It has come so fast!  It's very exciting and I can't wait to meet my mission president and his wife.  At this point I have no idea what my flight plans are because they've been mixed up. I could be flying to San Francisco or Houston, but I trust the Lord will guide us and keep us safe. 

This past week has been super spiritual and uplifting.  I have become pretty anxious and stressed about tonight, but I'm praying for comfort and safety.

Quick funny story...  I was washing clothes yesterday to pack, and I hit my head pretty hard on the cabinets in the laundry room and now I have a slight goose egg.  I don't have a concussion, I can think clearly, it just feels like a huge bruise.  It shall heal, and I will be fine.  I plan on asking for a blessing tonight before our Elders go to bed. 

Love you all, I'll email you all next week!

From the first week in 18 months

Hi Everyone! 

I hope you are all doing well! I've made it through my first week of being at the Mexico CCM, and I can say that I absolutely love it here. Forgive me if you see I'm bad at my punctuation, but these Spanish keyboards are hard to get used to, haha! We do a lot of studying, and when I mean studying, I mean HARDCORE studying. We study in between each meal for about 2 to 3 hours. So if anyone wants to know what I do all day, I study like a madwoman! 

So sitting at my terminal at the airport there were 6 of us sisters, and then one elder who jumped on the plane late because his previous plane was running late. We arrived in Mexico City, met up with 4 more sisters, and then waited for our Usher to show up, who was late and apparently running like a mad man around the airport looking for us... but we were right outside of customs. Haha, pretty funny. Lots of sisters, one elder, how do we NOT look like LDS missionaries? Anyway, after getting to the CCM we had a quick orientation, and then we ate dinner and emailed our families to let them know we got here safely. 


Campus is GORGEOUS! It used to be an old high school, but it's just perfect to be the CCM. It's beautiful just about everyday, and you see lots of bright green canaries in the palm trees on campus. Sorry, no picture of the canaries yet. 

Sunday was wonderful, we have district meeting, lots of goal making on our first Sunday, but then we have RS and Priesthood around 10:00 am, then we have sacrament with just our Zone, and our District Branch Presidency. We each have to write a talk by Sunday, ALL of us. Then Sunday morning as the meeting starts, they pick off their random list of who they want to hear from, no more than 5 minutes so we can hear from 7 people from different districts. Our District Leader, Elder Johnson, said the opening prayer and didn't think he would be called o to speak... karma on him, he was the first to speak in our sacrament meeting. He's 6'6 and He LOVES basketball. 

We just finished playing volleyball and on a small playground! Love them. 

In our district, there are only 7 of us.  We are pretty small compared to other districts. I love these missionaries, they are amazing! Our Elders are Elder Johnson, Elder Andruski from San Diego, and Elder Chia from Texas, but all three of them are a tri companionship. We have 4 of us Hermanas, Hermana Harston and I, we are a companionship, and then Hermana Hooker and Hermana James. Those two sisters are from Utah, and my companion Hermana Harston is from Texas. She's amazing, we are so similar it's not even funny... but it actually is. We may not look similar, but we truly could be twins. No kidding! It's been quite an adventure being here, it was pretty easy to adjust to being on campus everyday and going everywhere with my companion. Hermana Harston and I basically can't live without each other... no joke. She loves going to the Gym, and I actually have been wanting to go, so we get up at 5:30 every morning and go work out for 45 minutes to an hour and then come back and get ready for the day. It's nice getting up early, it honestly doesn't bother me since I got used to going to work at ??? around 5 - 6am each morning. I'm really enjoying it here besides all the busy, busy studying sessions we have with our companions, our district in the evening, and personal study in the morning and before bed. All four of us Hermanas room together and we have a blast. 

Feliz de Dia San Valentin from the Mexico CCM!

On Valentines Day, I opened my card from Mom and Dad, and out poured all the Valentines that some of you wrote me at my farewell! Thank you! I love you all! And Thank you Mom and Dad for the Washington Necklace, I Love it! I honestly can't take it off, It doesn't occur to me to take it off... ever. I love it, Thank you both!  

We had 8 Districts leave today and yesterday for their missions from the CCM, so the CCM is pretty empty and more quiet, but it's okay. We have more missionaries coming today and tomorrow. For those of you who don't know much about the CCM, They have different report dates for the locals who live here in Mexico City, and the Pueblo areas. They report on Tuesdays, and the incoming Americans come on Wednesdays, all day because of our different flight times, but you get the gist. It's amazing being here! I say this over and over again, but I truly enjoy it! Love you all, I love hearing from you guys!

Con amor,
Hermana Marble

Washington state with heart necklace

And... She's Off!

This morning Sarah left the Salt Lake City airport at 9:50 am bound for Mexico City.  As we left Providence for the airport it was dark.  The sun coming up was a welcome sight today.  I was so happy it was not raining or dreary.


We saw several other missionaries with name tags being dropped off presumably to go home or to their designated missions from the Provo MTC.  It was quite a sight!

Her farewell talk went very well on Sunday.  We had several of her friends and our friends and a handful of relatives stop by for some lunch and treats.

And now she is gone.  The house is very quiet and still.  We will miss her terribly.
 

But it is good to give back.  I think a sacrifice is not a sacrifice unless there is some pain somewhere.   We have been blessed so tremendously as a family, and it is good to give something back.  Sacrifice is a funny thing, though.  Just when you think you are in some small measure sacrificing something for the benefit of others - to the point of pain, the Lord steps in and blesses you with more.  And then you are even more in His debt.  This was very much the case when her brothers each served the Lord on full time missions.  I suspect that is what will happen again.  In the meantime, my selfish heart aches.  To the point of pain.