First Week At The MTC, Done!!

Hola everyone!! Finally it´s my P-day which means I don´t have any classes or anything alllllll day. I can just email and do laundry and play sports and stuff. We have been waiting for this day forEVER oh my goodness it is just go go go here all day long, everyday. BUT, I am having so much fun here, I seriously love it! Mi compañera (my companion) es Hermana Oliveros and omg I love her. She is so similar to me, we have so much fun together. She is from Texas and she doesn´t know any spanish, so she is constantly having to ask me what things mean and what people are saying, even though I feel like I hardly know anything as well! It´s crazy because EVERYTHING is spanish here. There is no english, not even in class. We are learning really fast but, you know how sometimes people will say their brain hurts after trying to understand or learn something complicated? I can truly say that my brain HURTS at the end of the day after trying my hardest to understand spanish all. day. long. But, like I said, we are learning really fast and have seen so much improvement in only a week. 

I love my district. We are finally starting to get comfortable together and talking and hanging out more and they are all so fun. In my district there are 6 élderes (elders or boys) y 4 hermanas (sisters or girls), so we are lucky because normally there are only 2 girls.I love meal times because then we really get to just all talk together and get to know each other more. We are in class all day together as well, but there isn´t much time to talk then. A typical day at the MTC is like this: wake up at 6:30, get ready, and study. Breakfast at 8. Then in class from 8:30-12:15. Then we have lunch. After lunch we have gym time from 1-2, and for that we can basically do whatever (play sports, run, walk, work out in the gym, play like ping pong or whatever) and it´s nice because we are in just comfy clothes instead of church clothes. After gym time we get ready again in our church clothes and are back in class from 2:30-7:15. Let me tell you that is a long, painful stretch. We all really struggle in our afternoon class. 7:15 is dinner, then from 7:45-8:30 we have personal study, 8:30-9 companionship study, then at 9 we return back to our casas and get ready for bed. 9:45 we have house devotional, then 10-10:30 we have personal study and journal time. FINALLY, 10:30 is time for bed. Bed time is the best because we are literally exhausted, except I don´t know what the people down in Mexico are doing but they are blasting music and gunshots alllllllll through the night. It´s crazy. 

I had a little rough start first getting to the CCM (MTC). One girl that was supposed to go with us from the Mexico airport to the CCM, her flight got delayed. So we all sat in the Mexico Airport, with no air conditioning, and our huge luggage, for almost 2 hours. When we finally got to the CCM around 10pm and I very first checked in, they told me that on a mission, they only allow tetanus shots to be good for 5 years instead of the normal 10, so the first thing I did here was get a tetanus shot in a backroom of the MTC, hahaha! Then, when I finally got to my room, the lock on one of my suitcases got jammed or broken during the flight, and so it wouldn´t open! We tried every possible passcode it could be, tried resetting it, tried prying it open, and nothing would work. I called reception and they said they wouldn´t be able to look at it until the next afternoon, so thank goodness they tell you to bring an extra pair of clothes in your carry-on just in case, otherwise I don´t know what I would have done! The next afternoon I took it to reception and they were able to get it open, they had to just cut the zippers from the lock! Thank goodness I can still use it though, it isn´t too damaged. Finally, when I was walking my suitcase back to my casa, the wheel got caught around the bottom of my dress and ripped a hole in it. :) FUN START to my MTC experience, but I didn´t let it bother me too much, and now everything is great! Yesterday I was actually starting to get sad about how I only have 5 weeks left now because I don´t want to leave, hahaha!!

The food here is actually good, there is always something that I am interested in eating. Mi y mi compañera usually try to stay away from the meat, just to be safe, because we really don't want to get sick, and we haven´t yet! So that´s good. Also, on our first "official" day here, so last Wednesday, me and Hermana Oliveros got called to serve as Sister Training Leaders for our branch! Which is a huge thing! In every district there are like 10-12 people, and in every branch there are 4-6 districts. So we are in charge of all the Sisters in every district of our branch. We are supposed to make sure they are all happy, not too homesick, getting along with their companion, not flirting with the boys (hahaha), and just adjusting well to missionary life. Also, we have the rare privilege of having 2 SPANISH ONLY districts, which means some of the girls that we have to talk to and be a leader for, don´t speak any english at all. Let me tell you, second day here, having to have a conversation and ask someone to teach relief society that doesn´t speak any english while you don´t speak any spanish, is very difficult! Haha! But we got through it and we love our girls so much that it helps us push even harder to learn as much and as quickly as we can. When we got called, they told us that God must have a lot of confidence in us because they hardly ever call first week, let alone first day, missionaries to this calling. We have felt so blessed! 

Sorry this email was so long, just wanted to give a rundown of everything to those of you who might not know what the CCM is like for my first email! My P-days will always be on Wednesdays while I am here for 6 weeks, so please email me when you can and I will always be able to get back to you on Wednesdays! I would LOVE to hear from all of you!!

Miss and love you all!!

Hermana Rawlins