Tuesday, August 18, 2015

"The Mexico Life" Letter 8-17-15

Our Chapel

Mexican Hot Dogs



Another week here in Hornosillo. Don´t laugh at that pun because this heat is not funny to me. Just kidding…laugh. :)

Okay so here are some more details about Mexico Amy´s life.

My companion, Hna. Piña, is very sweet and very…motherly. I´m not sure how to describe it, but she is great! She is from Mexico City, is 23 and has a couple inches on me. We live in this really nice apartment (well, nice for Hermosillo) that has two stories. Elders lived in it last and left if quite dirty, which left me with a bit of work and a reassurance that the male race could never exist without us women. But after two P-days and a bit of cleaning every morning, it is now spick and span.

Our district is awesome and consists of Hna. Piña and I, Hna. Fletcher (American), Hna. Zelaya (Honduran), Elder Sanchez (Ecuadorian) and Elder Smith (Czech Slovakian...heehee, jokes. Obviously American).

For breakfast I usually have cereal, oatmeal or eggs, and dinner usually a sandwich. Lunch is with members and is usually lots of tortillas (which are AMAZING here) and beans, peppers and meat. For drinks we have lots of juices and flavored waters. Virtually all liquid is called agua, which is ridiculous and confusing to me (sorry Mexico), but I´m learning to live with it. The people here love what is called Jamaica juice, which is extracted from a flower, I believe. It´s pretty good. : )

The people here are very loving but often fiery tempered, which most likely is due to the hot sun. I´m not sure if I told you this but everything (also everyone) smells like spicy milk. Shirts (and/or pants) are optional for old men. We women all greet with hugs and by touching cheeks and making a kiss noise and only a hand shake with the men, but yesterday I had two men swoop in and kiss me on the cheek before I could do anything about it. Oops! Let it be known that almost everyone and their dog is Catholic here. They don´t really attend church or read the bible too much but they will defend the Catholic church until they die so it can be hard to convince others to read the Book of Mormon or accept baptism. 

Good gravy, the climate here is crazy. It is incredibly hot (i.e. 120 degrees about two times a week) and humid because it has been raining a ton. Now, when it rains here it can be brutal. Last night we had a really bad storm. Things kept flying into our house and the lightning and thunder were so loud and terrible that I was seriously making plans in my head for survival if our house fell apart! Our downstairs was flooded, but thankfully where we sleep is upstairs, so none of our stuff was hurt. Poor Hna. Barton (who was in my district in the CCM and is now in my zone here in Hermosillo) only has one story in her house so their bedroom was flooded.

The heat really takes a lot out of you when you´re walking all day. I would guess we walk around 3-5 miles every day. I carry a sweat rag to keep my face somewhat dry. Because I´m so sweaty all the time, if any wind blows dirt sticks to me like glue so I get pretty dirty. I try to clean of my arms and legs in member’s homes, if I can. Dehydration is something that has been a problem for me. I had been drinking lots and lots of water but I felt sick and reeeallly tired. Hna. Fletcher told me that I need something with sodium because I lose so much in my sweat. Luckily, my devilishly smart mother thought to send me with Gatorade powder. I drink one everyday now and it´s been better. Moms are the best!

Spanish is coming! Let me tell you, the Gift of Tongues is REAL! Sometime in lessons when I bear my testimony I can feel the Spirit helping me remember word and conjugations that I have learned. I am able to talk with most people pretty well. However, there are a fair amount of people here who either a) talk superdy-duperdy fast; b) slur their words together; c) have a total of 6 teeth; or any combination of the three, so sometimes I can´t understand for the life of me. One of my investigators told me that I have beautiful Spanish, quite a proud moment for me.

It´s an adjustment for sure but it´s all kind of fun and adventurous! The hardest thing is the homesickness to be honest. But let me tell you, my testimony of the Atonement has grown so much. It´s not just to take away our sins. Christ suffered everything we will ever go through. I seriously know this because so many times this week I have felt His love in ways that may not take away the homesickness I feel, but it strengthens me in ways I can´t even describe. Last Monday the homesickness was the worst so Hna. Fletcher told me to read Alma 7. If any of you need help from our Savior (i.e. all of us every single day) READ THIS!!! He is there always and all we need to do it turn to Him and trust Him. Also I highly recommend D & C 121. : )

For a bit of an extra boost, Elder Smith gave me a blessing today in English (queue sigh of relief). It was very comforting. I can´t remember all that he said, but I do remember him saying that Heavenly Father loves me more then I can ever understand and He is rooting me on everyday. He blessed me with strength to work everyday because there are people here who need me and whom I need. This was the perfect medicine for my homesickness. I think I had kind of forgotten that Heavenly Father has called me to be in this specific location for the harvesting of His already-white field. There are people here who, for whatever reason, need to hear the truth of this amazing Gospel through me. I felt so strengthened after this blessing and I feel really motivated to be here now. 

Sorry this email is forever long, but now I´m gonna give a brief summary of my week.

Monday
Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with the Benezra family. They are super fun and have 4 rambunctious daughters and two sons. We watched the Living Scriptures animated video of Joseph in Egypt. Hilarious in Spanish dubbing!

Tuesday
We had a meeting with the zone that was very motivating. I like being with other missionaries because it reminds me that others have gone through the adjustment to the mission life too. I must be sweet because today I received 18 mosquito bites. Possibly this is too much information, but 5 of them were on my bum so I felt thoroughly violated. An old lady noticed my bites on my arms and went to get me bug spray in the middle of my recitation of the first vision.

Wednesday
One of our investigators, Lupita, has three daughters. One of them, Dani, is an absolute gem! She calls me ¨Maestra Hauck¨ (teacher Hauck) because I help her with her English. 

Thursday
Today we taught a lesson to the really nice man named Fransisco. When we sung him ¨Soy un hijo de Dios¨ he decided that he wanted to sing along but all he sang was ¨Jesùs, oooohhhhhh Jesùs¨ to his own melody. We taught another man named Jesùs Antonio who is 24. He was very receptive and he accepted baptism AND went to church! The peeps here have a hard time with church attendance.

Okay I´m out of time. The rest of the week was good. Walking, teaching and sweating.

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck 

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