June 22, 2017
Hey guys!!
I made it to Mexico CCM last Tuesday!! It does not feel like I have been here only for a week! The plane ride was really long, but there were so many missionaries on the planie! There were atleast 70, if not more! Saying goodbye to my family was maybe the hardest things I have done because in perspective, 18 months is a long time! But I know that with the Lord I can do anything. They really emphasize relying on the Lord here! Which is wonderful because you can´t just call up your parents anytime you want, you really have trust in the Lord and let Him help you along the way!
Day 1 was the absolute longest days because everything was so new! You go into the classroom, and we have too fabulous teachers, Hermana Gonzales and Hermano Medena! So they just right off the bat started speaking Spanish to us, and like most of us in our district didn´t know what they were saying! It was crazy! BUT now we´re like pros at Spanish... haha jk! We can understand a little about what Latinos are saying, but sometimes we just say "No Se" or "I don´t know" because we cant understand them! BUt we are doing good enough to be able to teach a lesson in Spanish!
So my companion is Hermana Folsom! She is from Washington! She went to BYU for a year! She is so awesome! We get along very welll!! Then in our district we have, Elder Benjamin and his companion Elder Lewis, Elder Garrett, and Elder Swallow, Elder McDonald and Elder Lawerence!
So there are 8 of us! In the past week we have grown so much together and are becoming really good freinds!
The food here can be pretty good!! I love the rice here and they make the best homemade tortilla chips!! (:
So since Day 3 we had to teach an "investegator"! She ended up being our teacher, but she acts like our investigator named Diana! So everyday we have had to teacher everyday for about 30 minutes! It is so much fun! We really get to put what we learn in class to use and actually speak real sentences! From teaching her we learn that we need to love our investegators and make our lessons apply to her! We taught and invited her to baptism on Tuesday and she said YES!! or well it was more like "SI", but same thing! haha! But beginning next week we teach real people! Like real invetigators or less actives!! But I can testify that the gift of tounges is real! Yo testifico que el Espiritu Santo will help you en leccions y will help you teach and say what the investegator needs to hear!
We play volleyball everyday for our gym time! Which is so much fun! We play as a district! I love how we do not get super competitive!
So last week we met our branch presdiency and they said that each of us needed to come up with a 5 minute talk, just for prepartation for Sunday! Well Friday, Elder Benjamin, who is our district leader said that I would be giving the talk on the Plan of Salvation! And so Hermana Folsom, Elder Garrett, and Elder Swallow, and I worked on a talk for me to say! And I think it went pretty good! I was so nervous for it, but I am so glad that I was able to speak because I think that it helped with my pronunciation of words!! Oh! Also, for our first meeting here with the new missionaries, I played the piano! I played the sacrament hymn on Sunday too, I led the music at a devotional! Hermana Folsom and I also convinced our district to sing in the choir on Tuesday!! So every Tuesday is when newbies come in, and every Tuesday evening we have a devotional and pizza! Like real american food!! :P
It is so pretty here in Mexico! The tempeture is sooo nice, and there are so many birds! The first week which was just last week, it rained EVERY evening, but so far it hasn´t rained agian! But i really want it too! I love rain!!
Love, Hermana Riley
