Two Months Down

June 30, 2014

Hello all! Today makes two months since I left. That means only 16 more months in Mexico. I would like to say it's gone by quickly but that would be dishonest and I'm a missionary so dishonesty is a big time no-no.

So here are some super-honest and truthful highlights from this past week: 

-It's so funny to try to teach a Mexican the difference between the “B” and the “V” sound in English, because in Spanish they are both pronounced with the “B” sound. Can you say frustrated companion?

-It's also super funny to hear Mexicans say the word Kentucky.


-My goal by the end of my mission is to understand children. They talk about pretty much whatever, and therefore non-fluent gringas pretty much can only nod and pretend to know what they're saying.


-I met a 96-year-old woman. The secret to her long life: frijoles (refried beans).


-I met Ghandi. OK, not the Ghandi, but a Ghandi. He's 13 and wears hipster glasses.


-A thought I never expected to have: "I hope no one steals the bus."


-There's no one called to play the piano in this ward, so sometimes we sing a cappella in Sacrament Meeting. This means that sometimes people just make up tunes and rhythms and I try to be reverent but really I'm just trying to not laugh at how not-together it is. Darn music training is getting all distracting.

-On Saturday I had two dinners back-to-back. The second one was a surprise so I didn't know not to eat very much in the first one. Dear goodness, so much food. 

Personal blessings and personal trials – there are a lot of both in the mission field and this week I for-sure had a personal trial. The same one twice, actually. Right now there are a lot of graduations going on, (they have a graduation after every level of school – elementary, middle, and high school) and they like to perform dances at their graduations. They hold the dances at night because it's not a bajillion degrees then. Well, the nights here for me are either super awesome because we're in a lesson, or super tough because no one's home and we just walk around trying to find someone to talk to until curfew. Well, on one of the rough nights there was a graduation and they were doing a dance – to "My Immortal" by Evanessence. Fun fact about me: This was my favorite band and song in middle school, and I still love it. But when I'm tired and icky and just want to be a good missionary and there is my old favorite song from a different country nearly 10 years ago ... yeah, that's a handpicked trail. And a few nights later the exact same thing happened. "Well, Sister Anderson, you need to FOCUS! And now, prove that you can focus when you don't want to." That's what I imagine Heavenly Father saying. SIGH. 

But, all is well. Lots of sweat and scripture study and prayer and blessings for sure. 

Love you all!

 Hermana Anderson