Learning and Growing

Hola Everyone

It has certainly been a week that has stretched me. I said my first talk yesterday and I´m giving a 10 min. lesson in our District meeting today, all in Spanish of course. I won´t be able to say all of the words that I want to say on my own, but I am growing and learning more and more each day.

We have the opportunity to have a baptism next week and we are super excited. His name is Emanuel, pronounced Manuel, and he is 9. The rest of the family is baptized and they didn´t baptize the youngest for some reason. That´s ok by me. We have gotten the chance to get to know his family, which consists of two older bothers and their dad, their mom unfortunately died at a young age. They are a really nice family and one that is certainly very close. They are a strong family and they try to learn the Gospel as much as they can.

We have also been able to do some service this week. Not anything huge but we helped a less active with her wash and we helped a member prepare food for her family. I know that they both really appreciated it.

I´m going to talk a little more about the culture this time. It is a very interesting culture. They actually listen to mostly American Music, which does not help me with being of the world but not in the world. They also have graffiti everywhere. Some of it is really cool and they took a lot of time on it and others are basically the name that was written quickly in spray paint. They love Disney and PacMan. They also love Fútbol, which is nice since mostly everyone is watching the World Cup right now. They have humungous speed bumps, high enough that it will/could scrape the bottom of your car. They are also some of the nicest people that you will meet. They will give you their clothes off of their backs if they could. They live in houses/apartments that are two bedrooms, usually, and one bathroom with a giant room on the main floor for your kitchen and living/dinning area. You do your laundry outside. Cleaning is interesting because they use brooms for mopping and for sweeping. It has been a little weird to try and figure out how to mop with a broom. There are dogs everywhere, but they are usually pretty nice. Also, the people will feed you and feed you. Like in Italy they would always ask you if you wanted a drink until you said yes, it´s basically the same here except with food. Well I think that´s about it for the culture for now.

Love you lots and my sister said that she might have the blog up by today. If you would just like to receive the blog posts then let me know and I´ll get you off of this email list.

Hermana Trevino

World Cup Pride, and she found Kinder Eggs!

Interesting Week

Hey Everyone,

It certainly has been an interesting week. We have been busy and not so busy all at the same time. It´s kind of weird, but not too bad.

I´ve been able to speak more during our lessons. I still don´t understand a whole lot, but I´ve at least have been able to speak more. I have picked up more words from the Natives, I just sometimes miss key points in their talking. That´s why we have Companions though. They are there to help and to try and help us do our best.

Well on Thurs. night we got to go and spend a night over at the Hospital. Hermana Boyer was not feeling well and everyone was telling her to go to the doctor so we did...at 11 pm. We didn´t get back until 2 am and we didn´t fully know what was wrong. We decided to go to the doctor again to see if we can get a more clear diagnoisis. I was instead transfered for the day.

The transfer was fun. It was in a different area taht was certainly more like a big city feel. It was kind of nice to be in the city. I ended up meeting a woman that goes to Houston 2-3 times a year to visit her Sister, who is unfortunately sick with cancer. It was nice to hear her story though and to listen to it in English. She is a great lady. We shared with her Elder Bednar´s talk from General Conference. I think it´s called "Our Burdens Become Lighter" or something like that. It´s a really good read if you ever feel like you have a lot of burdens on you.

When I returned back to my area, I found out that my companion has some sort of bug in her stomach. She is doing fine. She just has to rest for 5 days and take a lot of medicine. I also got to join in on being sick. Apparently Mole is not on the menu for newbies. Unfortunately, the people I was with on Friday, including the District Leader, thought that it would be fine if I ate it. The answer is no. So, for my fellow missionaries in Mexico. Watch out for Mole. It tastes ok, but you will not feel good afterwards until you have learned to stomach it.

We do have one family in my area that is both a dread to teach and exciting to teach. They are a family that asks a lot of questions. They are good questions, but sometimes they are really hard to answer (especially with the knowledge that they have about the gospel). We have finally decided that we have to have a member with us when we go and teach them. We picked the Ward Mission Leader. He is a little young for them, he is only about 25-28, but he is full of wisdom and knowledge and I look forward to working with him, particularly with this family.

Sorry that there are no pictures this week. I don´t know when the next time I´ll take a picture is, but I´ll certainly share it when I have one. Hope you all are doing well.

Hermana Trevino

Made it to Mexico

Hey Everyone

This week has been kind of hectic. (Also, excuse the spelling. It´s saying everything is basically wrong :P) I´m in the area of Volcanes Ixtapaluca. It´s a pretty nice area. There are lots of buildings and lots of places to see. The landscape is nice to look at from the top of the hill.

This area is mostly an area with less actives in it, so it´s fun to get to know the people of the ward and to see who all we can help. We are trying to find a way to agree with each other how to teach, and we are having a slight problem with the langague. I should back up a little and say that I am in a trio. It is me, Hermana Batz (who is from Guatamala and has been here for 5 months), and Hermana Boyer (who is from LA and has been here for 7 months). It has been fun trying to figure out which person is saying what. It also makes it a little hard to understand everything, since there is a middle person who speaks Spanish and English. We are slowly learning and we are getting along.

We did manage to go to the mall today and that was fun. It felt a lot like the malls in the US. Also, I haven´t gotten sick yet (knock on wood). The members are really nice and they feed us once a day. It usually consists of a soup and a main course. It´s usually a ton of food, but it has been pretty good. 

Sorry that it is not a lot this week, but hopefully I´ll have more to share next week.

Hermana Trevino

Pictures

Me, Hermana Batz, and Hermana Boyer with the skyline in the background

Panoramic of the skyline

Time in the MTC

So I am starting my sister's missionary blog a little late in the game. This first post will be super long and have all six weeks of her time in the MTC (Missionary Training Center). Feel free to read as much or as little as you would like!

 Hey Everyone,
> Surprise! My P-day is on Saturday!
> Can I just say that the MTC is great, but super hard at the same time! I have really been enjoying my time, but struggling at the same time. I've been told not to say anything really negative about our experiences, but I'll just tell you now that it is not all roses and butterflies.
> Classes are really good, but super hard. If you have taken a language class at BYU then you know what I'm talking about. It is the exact same teaching. On day one we were talked at only in Spanish, with a couple of English words mixed in. We learned how to introduce ourselves and our Companions, and how to say some things about ourselves. We also got a huge helping of here are your rules and schedule try to keep to it. It's a lot to take in but we are slowly getting it. We even make jokes about the rules while reminding ourselves about the rules. It's a lot of  fun.
> We have two different groups in our district. There is our group, which got split in half, that is a group of 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas, so 8 people in total. Then we have a group of 4 Hermanas that are our Sister Training Leaders. They really help us out a lot with what we are trying to get done, and where to go. Our District is a little slow in knowing what is going on. We met with our Branch Presidency two nights ago and found out who are District leader and Zone leaders are, along with learning who our Senior Companions are. So that was good. We also learned that for each Sunday, we all have to prepare a 3-5 min. talk for Sunday. We will then show up to Church and they will randomly pick 2-3 people to come up and give their talk. All in Spanish! Yikes! It makes me super nervous about that, but I'm getting a little bit better with my Spanish.
> For today we were given the opportunity to go to the Temple. I've actually have never been in the upstairs part of the Provo Temple, so I was super excited to see inside. It is beautiful. The Endowment Session was also beautiful. I could feel Heavenly Father's presence in their and I could feel how happy those behind the veil were. It was truly a touching moment, and one that I hope all can experience.
> For now, we are trying to prepare our second lesson for our investigator. Wait! What!? Second Lesson!? I know, right! We taught our first lesson yesterday in Spanish. We were trying to teach about how Heavenly Father loves us and that we are his children, and end with a lesson on how to pray. Well, what actually happened was a lesson on how Heavenly Father loves us and we are his children, a brief brief brief summary of the Plan of Salvation, and a brief challenge about prayer. Oh and by the way the brief lesson about the Plan of Salvation was given by yours truly in Spanish. Yeah, let's just say that its a good thing that my companion can speak better Spanish than I can. I did understand a lot more than I thought I would, and that was defiantly through the Spirit. There is no way that I could have spoken as much as I did, or understand as much as I did without Heavenly Father's help.
> I certainly feel His presence here, and I'm learning a lot about him and about why I am here. For we are trying to spread the joy that is the Gospel. What better calling is there really? For us to be able to give people a chance to live the Gospel is a beautiful calling and it is also our purpose. I feel like you can learn from this also, so I will include the Missionary Purpose from Preach My Gospel. It states:
>    Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and by Enduring to the End.
> Think of this during this Easter Sunday, and think about the Conference talks that were just given a couple of weeks ago. They have some great gems in there.
> Well, I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures to give you. I have a couple but I forgot my USB cord, so it'll have to be next time. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about my Companion. Her name is Hermana Christensen and she is from Hermstead, Oregon. She is the middle child of 5. She has done a semester at BYU-I and is undeclared as of right now for her major. She is fantastic and she is certainly helping me with my Spanish. Well I need to go prepare, so I'll write again next week. Hope you all are doing well.
> Hermana Trevino

Hey Everyone,

It's totally true! I did survive week 1. They say that once you make it past the first 4 days in the MTC you are golden. Well we are all experiencing that right now. I will say that my Spanish is getting a lot better in the Church Language sense. In talking like a normal person.....well let's say that it's ok. We ended up teaching Michael about 4 times and that was exciting. We actually went through, I believe half of the lessons. It's really amazing how much you go through and then as you are teaching you end up going to a different topic because they have questions or you feel the Spirit prompting you to go that direction. We have been doing a lot more lessons off the cuff recently. It's scary and I don't always understand what is being said, but that's ok. We are all learning. I'm also not doing all that bad.

Oh, you guys should also see if we made it into the Desert News. My whole entire District has joined the Choir, which is perfect for me since we can't have music playing in the dorms. We ended up performing for Pres. Uchtdorf, on Sunday, and Elder and Sister Oaks, on Tuesday. It was a wonderful experience to listen to both of these wonderful men. The Spirit was especially strong with Pres. Uchtdorf when he walked into the room and walked around to shake people's hands you could feel the Spirit oozing off of him. I didn't get to shake his hand, but I was like 20 ft. away from him. I'll have to write later about what both he and Elder Oaks talked about, I left me journal at the apartment.

We really have been enjoying our time here, and I have found multiple tools to help me teach. I found an Art Book, that contains pictures of people getting baptized, Christ being baptized, etc. It is such a cool tool. I have also found a True to the Faith in Spanish with out having to buy the Missionary Library, a huge blessing in my opinion.

We have been tried with our patience this week. I was in a trio with Hermana Christensen and Hermana Kind, we were walking to gym when we were stopped by a Hispanic woman. She then started asking us questions and talking to us in guess what? Yeah, you guessed it, Spanish. This was our true test. Yeah, we really didn't know much and we were trying to find the right words, but they were just not really coming out. She did ask us, " Why are we going to such a poor area? Why not go to Paris, or Italy? Why Mexico and what are you going to bring to the people of Mexico?" I didn't realize it at the time, but this was an answer to my prayers. I've been asking what my purpose in being here was. I knew that I was supposed to serve a mission, but I didn't know why. My answer to her was that we are there to bring Hope, Love, and a Place to Belong to. I'm not sure which word she picked up on, but she could feel the Spirit and I could feel the Spirit so strong. She is a wonderful person. She asked us if we could teach her, and we had no clue if we could teach her or not. Some Hermanas showed up and we asked them. They said that we could. We were super excited. We brought her to our classroom and told her to come in and we will teach her. Well, we waited for her when the time came and she didn't show up. We were disappointed, but at the same time we know that if we are supposed to be the ones to teach her then the Lord will make it so that we will be able to find her again.

The Lord does things for a reason. Whenever I'm preparing lessons, I try to always find scriptures for the topics that we are talking about. Most, or all, of the scriptures that I have picked I have highlighted while I was in Seminary. I know now that the Lord was preparing me all the way back in Seminary. So, I give all the Seminary Teachers, first off a great big thank you, and secondly I give you permission to quote me and tell your students that Seminary is a way for the Lord to prepare you for the future.

I hope you all are doing well. I'm happy that I was able to read your guys' letters. I hope you all continue to do well. I'll try to send out some letter letters today, but if not I'll get them sent out on Monday. I love you all!

Hermana Trevino

Pictures are myself and my companion Hermana Christensen

Us at the giant map pointing at Mexico City Chalco

                              

Hello Everyone

I hope you all are doing well, and if you haven't received my past emails then let me know and I can forward them to you.

We have had a wonderful experience with teaching and learning in the MTC. We had Fast Sunday this last Sunday and it was certainly a Spiritual Feast. We started the day off with having all of us give our testimonies in Spanish, and especially since there are only 8 of us it went pretty fast. We did get to hear the testimonies of our Branch Presidency and they are powerful. I couldn't understand all of what they were saying, but I could feel the Spirit and I knew that what they were saying was true.

We also had Missionary Conference. That was fun. What they do for us, on West Campus, is that we get to sit in a Chapel and they broadcast it to us from Main Campus. They even have a camera in the room so then they can see us. It was really powerful and we saw the Mormon Message about Christ like Attributes and that was a really cool video. That night was a devotional by Brother Studdert and his wife. Brother Studdert apparently was an adviser to a couple of Presidents and he certainly talked like a Politician, but he gave us so many scriptures that I will certainly have enough to study about for a while.

That leads us to the rest of the week. Monday wasn't really special. Tuesday was special though. It's devotional and we got the privilege to hear from Elder Jeffery R. Holland. He is a powerful man and he cares for the Missionaries so much. He is also slightly scary. He certainly threaten us a couple of times, but weirdly enough you can tell that it was through love. He did say that if we weren't doing our job well that he would let out some of the air from our bike tires, maybe even haunt us but you know. It was a fantastic talk about picking apart the Missionary Purpose, which I sent in the first email. It was like a Q and A session. We got to come up to a microphone and answer questions and talk about the Purpose.

Just a little plug, we might be in the Desert News like we were with Utchdorf, so look for us, I'm still in the choir.

Wednesday was a little sad, but that was because we haven't gotten any new people into our district. We did find out that we are getting new people this week and they are all going to be Hermanas. We are a little bummed out about this, but its certainly better than no new people. We also might need what they have, we have been getting a little bit competitive in Four Square.

Thursday and Friday have gone about the same. We did have a wonderful lesson with Hely and we will be teaching her again this week. I'm not sure on what yet, but it will certainly be fun. We have also been teaching Marianna, our TRC. She is a bright and fascinating person, but we are having a hard time focusing her on the basics of the Gospel. We are going to ask the teachers for some more help, so then we don't talk about if the Tower of Babel changed our skin color and are temple divorces possible. Yeah, we have been having some strange and deep conversations, which oddly enough we do not know how to discuss in Spanish. Overall we are doing great and we are learning more.

I better go now, we are trying to go to Sacred Gifts today before class tonight. Love you all and remember that you can forward this email to anyone who wants to read it, and let me know if I'm still missing people.

Hermana Trevino

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well. This week has been exciting. We got to listen to Elder D. Todd Christophersen. He talked about how we need to be trusted in the Lord, for it is better to be trusted than it is to be loved. We should also make sure that we are worthy of the Lord's trust. For, as missionaries, we are given the privilege to go about preaching His Gospel in His Name. Isn't that a wonderful thought?

I'm still singing in the choir, so for Elder Christophersen we sang "Lead Kindly Light." During practice we talked about the origin of this piece. It actually is about a man who travels the world and is trying to find a cure for his illness. He then decides to come home but there is no wind on the sea for about a week. He is awfully sick and just wants to be home. This song is his prayer to Heavenly Father to find a way home and his plea for forgiveness. It is a beautiful song.

Overall, nothing too exciting has happened. Our other half of our branch left for their missions on Monday and on Tuesday, so now it's just the 8 of us. My companion and I got called as the Branch Music Coordinator. We did manage to find Hely and Jose and we taught them one lesson. We don't know if we can find them again. We did have our first epic fail lesson this week. And when I mean epic, I mean EPIC. Like its in line with our Elders telling their investigator that the Book of Mormon is translated by the Devil. That's what you get for guessing which verse you actually want to read not in your own language. Yeah no, it was really super bad. Basically, our investigator thinks that Satan is going to attack him whenever he prays. Yeah, and it was pretty much down hill from there. Let's just say we started over in the second lesson. Oh yeah, we also took a language test to see how we are doing. It's an oral test through the computer, so I don't know how exactly I did. I felt like I did terrible though. I depend on my companion too much when I am looking for words, so I've made flashcards and I am now going to study them.

Oh, I'm now getting private lessons for my Spanish. I'm the only one in our group, besides one other Hermana, who has never taken Spanish before. So, I get a private lesson now and we talk about the grammar and they test my skills with vocabulary. It's actually really helpful and I don't have to stare at the other people in the class and go, what in the world are you saying. I understand more than I'm letting on, but man I cannot understand the two Elders in our class. One mumbles his Spanish and the other one, I don't know why I can't really understand him. It just isn't working out. I understand the teachers and my companion for the most part. There is one teacher that I have a hard time with, but that is because when he talks he sounds like he is yelling. So, that is always fun. He did explain to me the difference between para and por (both are for in English), so I'm grateful for that.

Well I think that's about it, so until next week.

Hermana Trevino

Our Whole District: Hermana Geeting, Hermana McGee, Hermana Bjourkland, Hermana Christensen, Elder Bowers, Elder Knutson, Elder  Still, Elder Hirschie

                             Hermana Trianna, Myself, Hermana Kind, and Hermana Frandsen

Hello Everyone

I hope you all are doing well, and if you haven't received my past emails then let me know and I can forward them to you.

We have had a wonderful experience with teaching and learning in the MTC. We had Fast Sunday this last Sunday and it was certainly a Spiritual Feast. We started the day off with having all of us give our testimonies in Spanish, and especially since there are only 8 of us it went pretty fast. We did get to hear the testimonies of our Branch Presidency and they are powerful. I couldn't understand all of what they were saying, but I could feel the Spirit and I knew that what they were saying was true.

We also had Missionary Conference. That was fun. What they do for us, on West Campus, is that we get to sit in a Chapel and they broadcast it to us from Main Campus. They even have a camera in the room so then they can see us. It was really powerful and we saw the Mormon Message about Christ like Attributes and that was a really cool video. That night was a devotional by Brother Studdert and his wife. Brother Studdert apparently was an adviser to a couple of Presidents and he certainly talked like a Politician, but he gave us so many scriptures that I will certainly have enough to study about for a while.

That leads us to the rest of the week. Monday wasn't really special. Tuesday was special though. It's devotional and we got the privilege to hear from Elder Jeffery R. Holland. He is a powerful man and he cares for the Missionaries so much. He is also slightly scary. He certainly threaten us a couple of times, but weirdly enough you can tell that it was through love. He did say that if we weren't doing our job well that he would let out some of the air from our bike tires, maybe even haunt us but you know. It was a fantastic talk about picking apart the Missionary Purpose, which I sent in the first email. It was like a Q and A session. We got to come up to a microphone and answer questions and talk about the Purpose.

Just a little plug, we might be in the Desert News like we were with Utchdorf, so look for us, I'm still in the choir.

Wednesday was a little sad, but that was because we haven't gotten any new people into our district. We did find out that we are getting new people this week and they are all going to be Hermanas. We are a little bummed out about this, but its certainly better than no new people. We also might need what they have, we have been getting a little bit competitive in Four Square.

Thursday and Friday have gone about the same. We did have a wonderful lesson with Hely and we will be teaching her again this week. I'm not sure on what yet, but it will certainly be fun. We have also been teaching Marianna, our TRC. She is a bright and fascinating person, but we are having a hard time focusing her on the basics of the Gospel. We are going to ask the teachers for some more help, so then we don't talk about if the Tower of Babel changed our skin color and are temple divorces possible. Yeah, we have been having some strange and deep conversations, which oddly enough we do not know how to discuss in Spanish. Overall we are doing great and we are learning more.

I better go now, we are trying to go to Sacred Gifts today before class tonight. Love you all and remember that you can forward this email to anyone who wants to read it, and let me know if I'm still missing people.

Hermana Trevino

Photo

Our District in front of the Temple: Elder Still, Elder Hirschie, Elder Bowers, Elder Knutson, Me, Hermana Christensen, Hermana Frandsen, and Hermana Kind

Hello Everyone,

I'm am so excited and so scared all at the same time. We will be in Mexico next Monday! We all just received our travel plans yesterday and we cannot wait.

This last week was a whirlwind though. We had our final lessons with our TRC, which I was kind of sad to end. We have also been having some really good discussions about the Gospel with her. We also had a really good lesson with Hely, though our last lesson with Hely is on Tuesday. It's going to be a sad day.

On a happier note, we got six new Hermanas and they are wonderful. They are really dedicated to their studies and they are already almost independent. They are fantastic and they are going to surpass us.

We also got another wonderful talk from Elder L. Tom Perry. He is a wonderful man and he focused his talk on companionships and how to teach. He was talking about how We will be able to have a successful mission and life from learning to live with a companion. He also gave us a great example of a companionship. It is Alma 9-14. I'm going to try and read that before I go into the field. He then talked about some different steps to teach. The first is to Ask, Seek, and Knock Spiritually, You must understand the Gospel. That is super important. For the Lord will be with us if we are prepared. 2. is to Teach from the Scriptures. He then split up the different books. The Bible- sets up the stage, is an account of God revealing himself to the people (Old Testament), The earthly ministry of Jesus Christ (New Testament). The Book of Mormon- The history of ancient people, it is our greatest missionary, it contains prophecies, wars, civilization, etc. The Doctrine and Covenants- most important book given to man, the rest are standard works, the D&C contains the words of God for our time, it is meant for us, we should study it more. The D&C was a surprise to me, but it is really true. 3. Teach by the Spirit. Man is that the truth. If we did not feel the Spirit our lessons were terrible. You really need the Spirit just like Karl G. Maeser when he could not even teach the alphabet with out the Spirit. 4. Help the learner take responsibility to learn. This can be hard. It is hard to be patient and to be like ok you feel the Spirit, but you just don't know that you are. It can be really frustrating. 5. Never leave a teaching situation without bearing your testimony. It is certainly a hard thing to do at times, but you invite the Spirit when you share your testimony. It is certainly a joy. Well I better go now. I'll probably send another email with pictures.

Hermana Trevno

Also, you can send me letters through Dear Elder and they will come through pouch. I'll send out my pouch address next week. Also, if you would like a personal response then please send me a letter. Love you all.

Hermana Christensen, Hermana Ricks (My Teacher who just finished her job at the MTC), and Me

Happy Mother's Day! We found a mother duck with her 12 ducklings on Mother's Day!