Hermana Halverson in the Field: December 10, 2013

OH MY GOSH!!!!

I cannot even tell you how much i love it here!! I am allowed to email whomever I want to but I only have an hour on the computer and I feel like i have too much to tell you, so Mom please forward this to everyone again.

It is so warm here!!! It gets about 40 at night but up to 80 during the day! I LOVE IT!! It rained for the first time last night and there was a little lightening too. But this week is the Celebration of the virgin marry and about 6 million people will be gathered at the basilica (it’s like a Spanish cathedral) and some people will even crawl on their hands and knees to it if they are devout enough. But okay, I’ll start from the beginning I guess...

Basically every day is the same here. We spend about 80% of the time in la clase with our districto. I LOVE MY DISTRICT! There’s only 10 of us, there are four hermanas I live with y 6 elderes. We all get along soooo great! And my Spanish is improving so much! My companera and I have already taught an investigator and both times it was in Spanish! I can also pray and bare my testimony in Spanish already!! I do get frustrated though, learning the conjugations and past and future tense is really difficult. I need Dad or Alex here to translate everything. All our teachers talk in Spanish and we have to ask if we want to say anything in English. But the food here is a hit and miss. It’s not exactly authenitc Mexican food. More like Mexican food with an American twist. Kind of like how our tex mex is for them. But the city is sooo crazy!! We got to go to the temple today and it’s about a 40 minute drive. And on the way back it was about 60 minutes because we had to go around all the people who are gathering for the celebrations. Also there are always fireworks going off. It’s so funny. It sounds like a cannon and the hermanas that live across the hall from us are in district 12 so every time we hear a cannon we put our 3 fingers to our lips and then raise them to the sky like in the hunger games. And we say, there goes another tribute. haha its seriously the best here. I am having so much fun. mi hermanas and I have all made conscious decisions to follow the rules down to the T. That’s the best advice I’ve had so far and I can definitely tell we are being blessed by it. Also I miss my sweet Colbie like crazy. I’m glad you guys are giving her some love. There’s a cat here that’s super cute and always wandering around our casa. I named her Juanita and I feed her whenever I see her. I don’t touch her though because she’s kind of gross but she’s my Colbie for the time being. }

I leave here on the 13th to Orlando with my companion and 2 elders from the district so that will be nice to actually have a plane buddy this time. }

My companion is from Utah and she’s going to my mission! We get along so great! She’s so stinking cute and her Spanish is progressing so much! We make a great companionship and every time we achieve something new she always is suggesting we say a prayer to thank the Lord, because really, it’s because of Him that we are doing so well. We felt the spirit so strong in our last teaching sesh with our investigator. She spoke only Spanish and we understood almost everything that she said! We said a prayer with her and gave her a Book of Mormon so hopefully she’ll have read it by the time we get back. Every night we come to a lab and do some Spanish on the computer and each computer has the little weather icon and I always check to see how cold it is there. Last night it was like 48 here and -18 there!!! I’m so sorry ):

THE TEMPLE WAS WONDERFUL. Beyond words. Their locker room is like twice the size of ours and they had a ton of pictures about the early Americas like the Lamanites and Nephites. Also they had the picture where Christ’s foot follows you no matter where you go. I loved it. It was in Spanish and we had headphones so I kept one ear on and the other off so I could see how much I understood. We did everything else in English though, we had workers there that spoke it so that was nice. The temple is 3 stories and instead of walking upstairs they had escalators!!! haha it was super funny. Also their celestial room was so pretty! Smaller than ours but their chandelier was so beautiful. It was layers and layers of geometric shapes. idk if you can find a picture of it online but if so try. It was amazing.

We also have 8 hermanas in our casa who are native. We talk to them at night and sit by them at lunch and that’s definitely been helping our Spanish.

Sundays here are awesome! Every week all of us in the zone have to prepare a talk in Spanish and we won’t know who gives their talks until the presidency announces it at sacrament meeting so it’s really last minute. I didn’t give mine last Sunday but we had a ton of devos and they were so great. One was from January and it was Elder Holland speaking to the sisters and elders at the Provo MTC. Seriously watch it. I have never seen Elder Holland speak with such power. It was incredible. Also we watched the Salt Lake Christmas program. It was really pretty! And we watched the Joseph Smith movie.. again. haha I still love it though.

I did meet Pres. Pratt and his wife. We didn’t get to talk much though.

So I’m sending a ton of pictures. I might have to put some in a second email. The sticky note is a quote. haha The sisters in the room across from us overheard what i was saying to my hermanas and put it up on their wall. i was so flattered!!

One is of me and Sister Day in front of the bus that we drove to the temple.

And then there’s pictures of me and my district and the zone in front of the temple.

On the next message I’ll put the ones of my casa and my room!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND MISS YOU ALL!! Not enough to come home though.. I mean... I have never felt the spirit with me as much as I have here. Its literally a constant thing and I love it so much! It’s worth the awful showers. Oh yea. Our showers suck. haha I showered in a light mist and it took me about 10 minutes just to wet my hair.. But it’s okay!!!

Hermana Halverson