Hey Dwight....want a mint?

We went to the temple last Wednesday. It was such an amazing experience. The temple was huge and there was a fountain and beautiful flowers all around it. It also was like three stories tall and it had escalators. That was pretty crazy. But I definitely felt the Spirit while walking the grounds and being inside. There was also an AMAZING visitor center that was so cool. There were different parts about the heritage if the people in México, a little play area for kids that had like Nephites on the walls and places to learn about el Libro de Mormón. Then there was a big Christus statue right in the middle and it was beautiful.

They also had a tienda that had some little trinkets and souvenirs. Got some stuff for the fam. It was pretty small. The ride there and back was pretty crazy we were in a big like tour bus-type thing, it was pretty nice. The views and pictures are awesome. We got a closer look of hundreds of house painted in different colors for different sections. I loved it!!

We are getting closer to leaving this place, so excited for Texas! We have been "teaching" some "interested people", they are our teachers pretending, and they both have said yes to being baptized...so that's somewhat exciting.So we'll take turns of which companionship will teach one person and then we'll switch for the next day. Well, we taught "Danielle" in the morning so in the afternoon we were planning our lesson for Augustine. As we were sitting outside, this teacher came over to us and told us she needed someone to teach a lesson for TRC and our teacher recommended us. That was an awesome feeling. TRC is teaching actual people from México. This is on the Saturday of our 4th and 6th week. At the time it was like Tuesday. My companion and I looked at each other kind of shocked. But we said yes of course. A lady came a few hours before TRC was suppose to start for a different district and no one was available at that time, so they found...us haha.

Her name was Gloria and she was so sweet to us and our somewhat okay Spanish. She has been a member for 36 years and she got baptized at the age of 33. Once she became a member her husband left her with two little kids to raise by herself. They are all members of the church and she has 2 grandkids. It was an awesome experience. I feel like my companion and I are getting it down for the most part we work really well with each other especially when we're teaching people. Haha

Okay so if you don't know what the subject is for my email we obviously can't be friends. Haha kidding...but not really. ;)

At the tienda in the CCM they sell little mints for like 7 pesos. These are some good mints for the price of like 30 cents. Anyway my companion and I always have some. So we load up on mints. Her's ran out a while ago. And every time I would get one I'd always ask her if she wanted one. It got to the point where I just started asking...Hey Dwight...want a mint. And her response would be,
Yes, my mouth taste disgusting and dry all the sudden. We both love The Office. So it works.

Oh a few days ago at breakfast we were all just kind of talking about random things and we got on the subject of rollerblading. Hermana Morgan said she would go rollerblading and her dog would run with her. Then she turns towards me and goes. "Hermana Darling you would be so good at roller derbies." What the? I was like...really, you can see me in a roller derby? Then Elder Burgon was like "Yeah, I could totally see that, you pushing and shoving people. You'd be good at it." I was like uhh thanks haha guess I have something to try after the mission.😂

Yesterday we did a 24 hour fast from comida y ingles. Fue muy difícil. Pero, mi companera y yo intentó. It was a pretty awesome experience. During one of our "lessons" we both felt like we knew way more words in español then what we thought we did. We will probably do it another time because we actually enjoyed not speaking en ingles. Our teachers were pretty proud if all of us because they see we are striving towards understanding the language.

We also had a devotional about the life of Joseph Smith the same night. It was a very spiritual experience. We watched a movie, I believe the title was Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. It showed so many trials and successes he had during the time of bring back the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh man it was good, it made me truly appreciate the sacrifices that were made for our church to become what it is today.

I know this is church is true. I know I wear the name of Jesus Christ close to my heart everyday for a reason. He suffered for every single sin we've made and will make in our lifetime. He did it for US. It's so hard to comprehend the pain, torment, mockery he dealt with while serving his Father and administering love to EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. Holy Cow!!! It's crazy to me that I have a brother that did that for me. Please, utilize the atonement of Jesus Christ. It's there for a reason. He did this because he loves us.
I know we all are part of God's plan and we all have different talents and opportunities in our lives.

I love all y'all!
Stay 2 Legit 2 Quit. Use His Atonement.
~Hermana Darling~

"I Can Probably Benchpress You!"

Well...another week down. Time is flyin' here in the CCM. Our district played volleyball against another district a few days ago and even though it's "not a competition" we still destroyed them. Hermana Larsen was swinging her arm like a club and hitting the ball over. It was so funny how she was doing it and she felt embarrassed but we kept getting the "points" for it. It was great.

Class is getting harder/better for us. They want us to have memorized like 1500-2500 words in Spanish by the time we leave the CCM. Which is in like a little over two weeks....crazy.
Hermana Larsen gets super stressed out about it and my job is to tell her not to worry and that it doesn't matter. We'll learn it in the field. 😁 That's like our district motto. We'll learn it in the field. We are still trying but I'm not stressed I know I won't be fluent by the time I get out into Texas...my companion is the opposite hahaha.

Okay so apparently we're suppose to be watching the safety zone videos on our own time because we have devices. But it's stupid because the internet won't let it load on my phone and we have like no time. Safety zone videos are just videos explaining certain situation missionaries need to know how to deal with once were out in the field (and they are soo stinking cringy). Basically common sense. But us missionaries can act really stupid sometimes. So they made videos tell help all the missionaries around the world.

One night we were going to watch a safety zone video with our whole district after dinner. We were talking about it at dinner. Estaban, one of our homies in the kitchen, came over and started talking to us and heard us talking about watching the video. He left and said he'll be right back. He came out with a box of Costco chocolate chip cookies covered by a towel. He gave them to Elder Kemker and told him, "Hurry put them in your bag." He was like shh shh no galletas.😉😉 we were all like ohhh esta bien 😉😂

We snuck out of the cafeteria with illegal cookies haha. They are so strict with food here. Estaban is friends with everyone, but he loves our district. But we are the best district ever so that makes sense.👍
We then gathered around Hermana Sills little phone in the class room to watch a video. It kind of sucked but we were all done for the day and watching a video while eating cookies sounded so nice.
The next day we were watching some more videos while our teacher was pretending to be an interested person in a room down the hall.

After we got done watching one about common sense in the mission field we were all a little loopy. Elder Burgon looks at Elder Kemker and say's, "I can probably bench press you."
Elder Kemker weighs 111 pounds just to remind you guys. He's also 5'11. He also doesn't know how to bend down and get on his back so Elder Burgon can bench press him. Eventually he gets it but it doesn't look right. And we're all laughing anyway. Elder Kemker has a hard time lifting his own legs up while Elder Burgon is bench pressing him. Which makes a little awkward of a position. Elder Burgon did it a few times but Elder Kemker wasn't helping by not having his legs up. Elder Burgon kind of had him resting on his chest and somewhat lost his balance then Elder Kemker bonks his head on the ground. OH MY GOSH. We were all laughing super hard. And I felt so bad so of course I made sure he was okay and he was. But Hermana Sill got all sad because she thought she didn't get the video. But she did. So did my companion. I was dying laughing again after I watched it like... 5 times in a row. But I felt so bad for laughing. Made my night so much better though. 😂😂

A few nights ago Hermana Larsen told Hermana Spratling and Hermana Morgan about this one time she was at a play and tripped on stage and took an actor out. It's her most embarrassing story. Hermana Spratling was laughing super hard because of how Hermana Larsen was explaining it.
So the next day we get out of TALL which is like the computer lab here. And Hermana Spratling was laughing super hard for no reason. We tried to ask her what she was laughing about but she couldn't speak. Her laugh is also a laugh that makes everybody else laugh. Haha  Eventually she gets enough air to tell us she was thinking about Hermana Larsen tripping onto an actor. It was hilarious. She wasn't just giggling she was shaking and had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.
She also doing this in class as well and Hermana Olivares didn't know what to do so she just continued to teach through her laughing. Every time she looked at my companion she would bust out laughing. That lasted for almost 2 HOURS😂. It was ridiculous. She literally could not stop.

My companion and I had the coolest experience by far this week. We were teaching "Augustine" which is our teacher, Hermano Enriquez, pretending to be an interested person. So we planned a lesson for him about the great apostasy and the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Anyway we were following up on the invitation we gave him for last week. Which was to read 3 Nephi 11. Pretty amazing chapter you should read it. It turns out he didn't read it, bummer. So I just turned to him and was like alright let's read it. My companion is like uhh okay I see what you're doing. So we read verses 11-17. Explaining a little about the atonement. I just started asking him questions about the atonement. It went pretty well without using ANY of our lesson plan...and in Spanish too. When we got done he was just looking at us like that was good. And I was like...uhh I hope so we didn't plan for that lesson to happen. He looked at us shocked and was like really? He said that was awesome and we did an amazing thing by having the interested person read the scriptures with us. He said he was proud of us... he used the word proud...mi Corazón..the best compliment he's ever given us. WHAT A SPIRITUAL HIGH we had after that. My companion and I were just like...what just happened. The Holy Ghost is real the gift of tongues is real. Oh man, best experience of my mission so far.

I love being a missionary, oooh I can't wait to get to Texas and started bringing people unto Christ. I have had so many experiences with the language and the Gospel. This work is AWESOME.
Please share you testimony with anyone you can. That's my challenge to you.
I love you all and I love my Savior.

Stay 2 Legit 2 Quit and open your mouth!
~Hermana Darling~

...Vegetarian Salads

Alright so on Monday I started feeling really cold and then my face and neck would get really hot. I'm pretty sure I had a fever. Which is weird because it's been years since I've had one.
At dinner that night we were on the subject of Café Rio and Costa Vida.

Elder Kemker, the skinniest person alive. He weighs only 111 pounds, 5 foot 11. If he tripped hard enough he could break a bone or something. I had also just found out he was a vegetarian. Anyway, were taking about these restaurants and he's like "...ohh Café Rio I love their vegetarian salads." I don't know why it was so funny to me but I was laughing so hard I couldn't even speak. And he was like, "Hermana Darling, what's so funny?" I couldn't respond I was laughing too hard.
It was great!!

On Tuesday, Elder Daltaiño Whelaño reached his 6 month mark on his mission, congrats Bro!!
That afternoon we had to talk to people we didn't know and testify of a gospel truth, like God blesses Families or The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. Something like that. We thought they weren't going to be members of the church, most of them were. So we just shared our testimonies. Haha

Wednesday was P-day which was amazing. I got to talk to my family which was awesome. I got to FaceTime with Kollin, it wasn't working for my Mom and Dad's though. So I just talked with them and called them back like every five minutes because the Wi-Fi sucked. I had an on and off fever that day. It was weird. By the time dinner came around I was in rough condition. I wasn't hungry and I was like a popsicle and my face felt like it was about to melt off. It sucked. I was taking ibuprofen the day before. But then I decided to take acetaminophen and it didn't help. 

So the next morning I completely slept through my alarm and my companion didn't wake me up until around 7:15ish and told me to put on a dress we're going to the enfermera. I was so out of it. 

The nurse we met there is probably the best grandma ever. She gave me amoxicillin, some purple Mexican pills for my head and cough drops. The rest of the day I was so low on energy I could have dropped to the floor at any point and slept.

Well we had an exercise time from after lunch which started at 1:15. I told Hermana Larsen that I needed a nap in order to make it through the day. She was totally okay with that. Haha
So I took a nap from like 1:45-3:20. I felt amazing afterward. Then it started dumping rain...it was beautiful. I had energy after that nap, I could actually stay awake in class. The rain continued for a while too. 

After dinner my whole district was standing in a circle around an emergency meeting spot. They have these huge green circles with arrows all around campus for people to get to if there is an earthquake. So we found one right outside the cafeteria and decided to stand around it for a little bit. 

On Friday I woke up with my body having no energy and just went straight into the shower. That helped a ton. A bath would be been better but I'm just glad we at least had a shower. We helped with service by folding laundry and the workers were so grateful for us to be there. It was so great to help with laundry. Class seemed like an eternity after the service project though. We all were going a little crazy. But halfway during class it started dumping rain and the grass was already getting flooded. It was the most rain I've ever seen. It was a flash flood for sure. We were all distracted and our teacher let us go outside and see. My companion got a video of it and some pictures.

Saturday was killer. 8 hours in Spanish class... we only got to leave for a three-minute break every like 2.5 hours and a break for lunch and dinner. It was just a long day. When we were having study time. These fat bugs would fly through the window. But they would run straight into a wall. And fall to the ground. We walked into the hall towards the bathroom and there were like 20 in the hall because the doors were open. On our way back to the dorm there were girls screaming because they were getting attacked by the same fat bugs. It was sooo funny. Hermana Sill got a video of them we were laughing so hard. They were being so dramatic.

These are going by fast. It's already our "third" week. 

My companion and I are always laughing. Whether at something we say or Elder Kemker says we have such a great time with each other. I cannot explain the love I have for my district. We are literally the best people to hangout with. We never want to do anything with out all of us there.
In class we can be super spiritual but then can totally goof off, especially if Elder Burgon has anything to do with it.
Elder Burgon told us a story about a time he was in middle school. He was at a dance with some friends and they were roaming the halls because they were bored. They found a backpack in the hall and knew who's backpack it was. So they went through all the stuff inside it. They found a roll of duct tape and duct-taped the whole backpack making it so the kid couldn't get into his backpack. Then just left it in the hall. On Monday they had a school evacuation. He said it took longer then usual. They asked their teacher what was happening and they teacher said they found a suspicious package in the hall (the backpack they had duct-taped). The bomb squad was called and they sent a robot in to scan the package for any technology and chemicals. Well the kid had deodorant which had nitroglycerin and a calculator so they assumed it was simple technology and liquids to make a bomb. The whole school was dismissed for the day and while Elder Burgon was chillin at Wendy's it was on the news that his school was evacuated because of a bomb threat. They found out they took it off campus to an abandoned field and blew it up. Hahaha We were dying when he told us this story.
He literally has the best stories.

We as a district have decided to do weekly workouts with each other. Elder Burgon was in charge of this one and it was all leg stuff. It felt good but our whole district did it and we're all sore and we all walk and sit down super funny. But it feels great. 😁We've been having so much and learning a ton.

Oh when I was studying with Hermana Larsen. I totally heard the song by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. I think it's the Next Episode. Anyway the one that is common to play on the piano. I was dying. My companion was like what song are you hearing. I was so happy. It made my day so much better.
Anyway haha

I know my Savior lives and loves all of us. I know he was sent here on purpose and for a reason. I love this church. It's true. Go open your mouths and tell people about it. Ever if your language might not be good, who cares if you make mistakes. I do all the time. It's hilarious.
I love you all.
Be happy. Be yourself. Stay 2 Legit 2 Quit.
~Hermana Darling~

The CCM is Amazing!!

[CCM = Centro de Capacitación Misional in Spanish, or Missionary Training Center]


Holy cow or Santo Vaca!!!

The first week took too long. We were told that the first week will feel like an eternity....well it did.
My companion is Hermana Larsen. She's freaking amazing. National Ballroom Dancer. We get along super well. Maybe too well ;).

Anyway the first night we got here we had a devotional. And I tried so hard to not fall asleep. My head kept going back and forth. So annoying.
So Wednesday was the first real day. It felt so tiring. We had like 7 hours of Spanish class. It went all day. But my Spanish is already improving, working on my accent though. 😁
Thursday was long just like Wednesday. Basically the same day as before.
So on Wednesday we had a gym orientation and we were suppose to have Gym time. Nope, the dude talked the whole entire time. I was a little ticked off. And apparently that's how every first gym orientation goes. We got dressed down for nothing.
Saturday felt like it was never going to end, which sucked because we were completely exhausted.
Sunday I bore my testimony in Spanish, while looking at a paper haha.
Sunday was super laidback compared to all the other days.

My district is amazing. There are 8 Hermanas and 4 Elders.
10 of us are going to McAllen. So that's awesome. We all get along so well. We have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with each other. Plus we always want to play volleyball with each other. Even though we spend like 7-8 hours in class with each other,  we still want to hang out with each other. We all laugh constantly when were eating with each other.

The food here is decent, we have been told by other missionaries don't eat the red chicken.  Also the Elders told us not to eat the mashed potatoes.
We went to a health and safety video yesterday and the lady that was in charge of the meeting told us that we barely missed an oral-something breakout where 200 missionaries got sick.
What the heck? My companion and I just looked at each other like...are you kidding me?! hahaha
Yeah, if the food doesn't look cooked, don't eat it.

I have grown in my testimony of this gospel so much this past week haha. I have grown in my Spanish for SURE. I love my Savior, I know he lives.

Be yourself, stay 2 legit 2 quit.
~Hermana Darling~