Email & Pictures from Nicaragua

It was so exciting to hear from Alexis today! She is just starting her second week in Nicaragua and with a little extra email time was able to tell us lots.

So I am here in Nicaragua. We left the CCM on Monday at about 1 and had a 5 o’clock flight to El Salvador and then Nicaragua. Most of the missionaries leaving the CCM went to El Salvador and then on to Honduras. It was super cool because me and the 3 sisters going to Nicaragua got to be in first class both flights, so that was sweet. President Monestel and the a.p.s picked us up and took us to McDonalds which was super sweet too. President Monestel also gave us each a yellow rose when we got there which was nice and reminded me of mom. We stayed the night at a hotel and then had training the next day. That afternoon we went out with the other sisters and I stayed the night in Nagarote with Sister Hernandez. Nagarote is supposed to be the cleanest city in Nicaragua. It was still dusty, but there was not a lot of trash. Then the next morning we came back to Managua which was like an hour on a bus for the transfer meeting with all the missionaries being transferred. The new ones and the ones leaving bore their testimonies. Also, one of the other trainers, Sister Dopp, remembered me and Elena from BYU Hawaii. She worked at the Seasider with her sister and remembered that we came often for ice cream. Small world. Anyways, I am here in Masatepe. It is about an hour out of the city and is really great. It is not so hot here. And it is the rainy season, but it only really rained yesterday. My companion is Sister Rapalo from Honduras. She has 9 months in the mission. I will be here with her for at least 2 transfers and then who knows where. There are also 4 other elders in Masatepe. There is a bank and a Pali which is the Walmart owned store here, but no fast food places or anything like that. It is great though. The people are nice and the members are helpful. My companion is new here so we have been trying to meet the members and investigators since we got here. We got here at the perfect time since there is a new chapel here that was dedicated yesterday. It is beautiful.  We eat at the branch president’s house for lunch and dinner every day and they do our laundry too. The branch here is quite big. They have around 150 attending. We were supposed to have some baptisms this Saturday, but they did not come to church so hopefully next week. There were like 20 investigators at church, 5 of which were ours so hopefully we will make some progress with them this week and have some baptisms in June. The ward mission leader is very helpful and has gone out with us every day almost, for several hours. That is really helpful since addresses here are like 150 yards north of such and such and 1 km east. Crazy! We visited a lady yesterday that has a daughter on a mission where my companion is from but she is not a member. We had a member with us too that has a daughter serving too. Hearing from them made me realize that this is just as hard for the people we leave behind as it is for us. Maybe not physically, but in other ways. I love you all so much, but I am settling in here and adjusting. I hope I get to be in Masatepe for a long time because the food is good and the people are great. We eat a lot of beans and rice and carbs, but it is good and I enjoy it. We eat with the elders here too, 3 of which are from the states, so I have some people I can speak in english to.  So today we have until 6 to do p-day stuff. We are going to get some stuff to clean with, buy some food for breakfast, clean the apartment, write some letters and go to the post office. I will just send it regular mail, so I heard it can take 2 or 3 weeks or more. Thanks for the pics. I got to show the Steimles the Green’s picture which was nice. Oh, the mission has a blog now too. It is something like mision-nicaragua-managua-sur.blogspot.com. It is like 15 cordobas for the internet for the hour and 15 minutes which is like 50 cents. We get an hour for writing our family and 15 minutes for the president. Stuff is super cheap here for the most part. There are some little 3 wheeled taxi scooter things that we have ridden out to the far part of our area and it was like a dollar each way for 4 people. Anyways, the best way to describe it here is like living in the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. Our house it not like that but for some people it is. Most have running water sometime during the day and electricity, but there are some that don’t. We have running water and electricity. We also have a tank of water in the back so when there isn’t water coming at certain times of the day we still have water.  We have a little fridge and a sink for the kitchen. We don’t need anything else since we eat out for lunch and dinner. Anyway, I’m doing great here. Oh and wish me luck on my first Nicaraguan hair cut today. I will let you know how that goes next week. I love hearing from you and was excited to email today. Thanks for being the coolest people on planet earth. I love you all and am happy here especially when I am working.

LOVE YOU TONS, Alexis

Nicaragua Arrival!

Alexis arrived in Nicaragua!  A brief email from the mission president's wife (although in spanish) told us that Alexis is safely at her mission and has a new companion.  We are looking forward to hearing from her next Monday when she will email us.  They included this picture of the new sisters that traveled there with her on Monday.

Last week in Guatemala!

It was so fabulous to talk to Alexis on Mother's Day!  It was only 15 minutes but it was so great to hear her voice and about how well she is doing.  Here's her last email from Guatemala.  She'll head to Nicaragua on Monday.

So Hola- It was so fantastico to talk to you on Sunday. Happy Mothers Day! It was Mothers Day here yesterday always the 10th of May and I heard in Nicaragua it is a different day so we will see next year when I get to call. I can't believe the next time I call I will be half way and Elena will have 6 months already done. CRAZY! Thanks for being the awesomest people on planet earth. It was so good to hear your voices.  So, last time to the temple today for 16 months. Crazy. I have not decided if I want to do it in english or spanish. I am thinking english, but we will see when I get there. I can't believe on Monday it will already be two months. Super cool. These last 3 weeks have gone by fast, and I am sure it will go faster when I get to Nicaragua. I am excited to get out there, but it is a little nerve wracking to think I will be out of the routine of the CCM and not be around tons of missionaries, but it is going to be awesome. We had a devotional last night with Elder Clarke who is the president of the area. It was great and he said that a happy missionary is one who loves the people. Some missionaries start that on day one and some never get it. I want to be one who starts out that way. He also focused on being exceptional, diligent, and industrious. I really enjoyed it. On Monday all 38 missionaries and a couple of teachers rode the public bus down to the central plaza and did some proselyting. I enjoyed it. We got our 8 contacts we needed on the plaza, except I am not sure that they will be able to find some of the people with the addresses we got, but whatever. Mom would not have liked all the pigeons in the plaza but it was quite the experience on the bus. On the way there the bus was empty when we got on but got more crowded as we went into town. The people were probably wondering why there were so many missionaries there, but it was good. On the way back I sat next to a stranger and contacted him and gave him some pamphlets and got his address. He left and a lady sat down and I did the same thing. They both seemed fairly interested and they read the pamphlets as we rode. I asked the lady if she had any questions and she said she reads the Bible a little but had not heard of Joseph Smith before. I testified to her that he was a prophet and that the missionaries would tell her more when they came. I did this in spanish all by myself. I was quite proud of myself. And the lady marked one of the scriptures in the pamphlet so that made me think she was actually interested. I will never know what will happen, but I was glad I talked to the people and felt successful. So that was the exciting things for this week. Last week the doctor came and gave us some directions and that was good to get a more tailored presentation for the area. I had the same thing in Provo, but it was for all the missionaries. I know that I can stay healthy if I am careful and take care of myself.  I am having a good time with my companions. They are both super tiny, but are great.  One is about the same size as Annika.  She is super cute.  Funny thing, yesterday our teachers had the elders tie themselves together because they don't stay with their companions. It was pretty entertaining.  I love you all and will email from Nicaragua next week. I don't know when, but I will when I can.   And I haven't got any mail yet this week. Hopefully some dear elders today. Love you tons.  Tell Tanner and Tucker good luck for me. I know they will be fantastic missionaries. We are always taken care of as missionaries. We have angels watching over us.   I think Grandma Laurel and Grandpa Mullen are watching over me and getting the people of Nicaragua ready for me. I think the scripture is D&C 84:88.  I am doing great!   I know I am doing what I should be. Love, Alexis

Guatemala...less than two weeks left

It's been a fabulous week getting two week's worth of mail from Alexis and getting a call from Guatemala to tell us we could call her on Mother's Day!  We can't wait!!!  Here's this week's email.

Hola- It has been a good week with my new companions. I have two companions Hermanas Godoy and Lucas. Hermana Godoy is from El Salvador and Hermana Lucas is from Guatemala. She is going to Guatamala South and Hma Godoy to Honduras. They are super nice and put up nicely with my spanish. Both were the YW presidents before they came. They both just turned 21 on the 23 and 27 of April. Hma Lucas went through the temple the same day she came to the CCM. Anyway they are super sweet and I enjoy working with them. Sometimes I don't understand what they say but I just nod or have them say it again. Being in a district of Latinos is good and fun. Sometimes I have no idea what they are saying but they are nice to me and help me out. Last week we went to the temple and did a spanish session. It was good. I am assuming we are doing the same today since I have Latina companions. There are a few missionaries going through for the first time today so that is exciting. There are 38 of us, 13 sisters and the rest elders. It is good to be a smaller group. I am glad you got to talk to Sister Lopez about the phone call on Sunday. I am super excited!  I think we get like 15 minutes. It will be good to talk to you. I cannot believe I have just over a week left. Crazy!  So we had a great devotional last night. It was a tape from Elder Bednar at a MTC devotional in Provo. He told us to stop worrying about whether we think our thoughts are the spirit or our own. As long as we are being good girls and boys, we will be guided. He told us a cool story about him as a missionary in Germany giving 20marks? to Elder Packer for a train ride and how 20 years later he found out those 20 marks got Elder Packer and his wife through East Germany. He said Elder Packer told the story in a BYU Idaho devotional, so you might want to look it up. The MTC devotionals aren't out in the public but you could probably find that one. I think it is called the 20 mark note. Anyway, real cool.  So the Gunnell's nephew is here as one of the new north americans. And on Wednesday when we went to the temple the Hebers remembered it had been my birthday, so that was nice. I talked to the Steimles about Kerry and he wanted to know if Kerry was still skiing. He took him skiing his first time I think. Also the mail situation, I got your envelope with the ward newsletter last Thursday and the dear elders from the 24th. Yesterday I got my birthday card from Mary and I am hoping to get some dearelders today or tomorrow. I don't know if you want to start sending stuff to my mission though. I probably would get dearelders next week if all goes as usual, but whatever you think.  Sorry this is kind of discombobulated. I write things down to remember so I can get everything in. It is going well here. I am excited to get to Nicaragua though too.  I don't have tons of letter writing time today, so I will try to get as many done as I can. Thanks for being so awesome. I love you all so much and am doing great. Have a Happy Mothers day before I talk to you. I can't wait! Love, Alexis

Another week in Guatemala - 3 weeks to go!

Alexis emailed us a day early again this week.  It sounds like she is doing well!

Hola everyone- 

So, today we got to go on our field trip. It was fun. Look up the relief map and the mirafloras museum and marcado central if you want to see where I was. By the way you would love the public buses here- they are either red or have super cool paint jobs. Real sweet. Saw another Chuck E Cheese today or maybe it was the one I saw before, but cooliosis. The city is pretty cool.  The relief map that was cool and showed all the mountains and layout of Guatemala. Elder Rogers also told us how it goes along with Book of Mormon history and makes a lot of sense. Then we went to the market.  I bought something for mom that I will try to mail this week. Then we went to the mall and museum there. We got to eat at McDonalds which was mighty tasty. I got a bigmac and fries and a diet coke and I tried the summer mcflurry of orange sauce and chocolate chips. It was good.  So, my birthday was good. I got sung to in spanish and english.  Not really too different than any other day here, but 1 b-day down 1 to go. Sister Ayala my twin teacher drew a birthday cake on the board and one for Elena and labeled them 1 and 2 like her and her sister go by here. Anyway, I am sad she is leaving for vacation and tomorrow is the last day we will see her. But I just found out that I am moving up to the Latino district and will get a new latina companion tomorrow. We had a spanish exam yesterday and I was not sure I did that well, but I am guessing Sister Ayala put in a good word for me. She knows that I understand more than most of the class. Four of the sisters are moving up. I am excited and know it will be great for my spanish, but hopefully the latina won't get too frustrated with me. We get the new group tomorrow and it is small. There will only be 4 districts here. The most has been 10 and we had about 7 before. It will be nice.  Easter was nice. I taught Relief Society with Sister Sutherland on the last chapter of "Preach My Gospel". And we had a special sacrament meeting where we sang like 8 hymns and they had short talks and read "The Living Christ".   I played all the hymns. Sister Smith, the other piano player, played while the sisters sang "He Sent His Son" in spanish at the end. On Sunday President Steimle taught us about the Atonement. He related Heavenly Father sending Jesus Christ to a plane ticket to get back home, and how our earthly fathers would pay any price for the ticket home from our missions if the church did not provide one. I thought about how that is true and that Dad would pay anything for my plane ticket home in 17 months. That made it more real to think about the Atonement. I love you Dad! Also President Steimle said that we did not have the usual Easter baskets and treats to wake up to, but thanks to mom I did.  I was the only one with an Easter treat from home. Thanks mom! In our devotional last week, Elder Martino pointed out D & C 100:1 and how as we serve, our families will be taken care of. I know this is true. So the temple last week was great. It was an english session, but I had to do the last part in Spanish because there are not enough english workers. It was interesting and I did my best and I understood some of it. We go again tomorrow, so that will be nice. On Wednesday we got to get out and proselyte. Even before we talked to anyone, I had this great feeling about how awesome this work is and how this is going to be the best experience ever. We have the greatest message in the world to share that can heal anyone. We got 12 contacts and gave away 3 Books of Mormon and lots of pamphlets. I was with Sister Crandell and Sister Pastran. It was great. And we got to see a McDonalds and Wendys, too. By the way there are tons of Shell stations here. Today we went by the American Embassy, which was cool. It was like the one in London - boring building, but I enjoyed seeing the American flag, but unlike in London there was a big line of people next to it trying to get visas. I am so blessed to call America home. I will enjoy being here but will be happy to come back to the good old USA. Oh, I got dearelders from Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom and the Thorntons. I don't really have letter writing time this week so I am not sure when I will be able to write back. My letters from last week just got mailed yesterday because of the holiday last week.  Love you tons!! Thanks for being the most super cool people on planet earth.  Hope you had a good birthday Lenny! and a good Easter.  

Love, Alexis 

 

Guatemala Week 3 - a day early

Alexis' email came a day early and it was great to hear from her!

Hi everyone- Life here at the CCM is pretty good. Sorry that I could not tell you my pday changed just for this week. They gave us the schedule for this week after pday last week, but it is all good.  I can mail stuff to Chelsea - the man that is in charge of that kind of stuff just mailed it and said it was less than a dollar. I gave him a dollar and he gave me some Guatemalan money back. So that worked out well.  So, I burned my tan skirt with an iron last week. Sister Steimle was able to repair it enough so it will be fine to wear. My companion asked her to shorten some of the sleeves on a couple of shirts the day before, so I knew she had a sewing machine. The burn was just two marks close to the side seam, so I had her take it in a little and she got rid of one of the burns. It looks fine now. I am sure I will be able to get some more native skirts in Nicaragua anyway. But Sister Steimle was very helpful.  So, my exercise here has been fun. The last couple of days I do 18 minutes on the bike and got in 4 miles, which was good. Sometimes I pretend I am riding in the neighborhood. Afterwards we have been playing speed which has been fun. Next week, everyone except the 12 of us in the district will leave for the field and we will be alone for a day or two until the next group comes in. It is a small group and there will only be 37 of us for 3 weeks here. There are 9 elders and 1 sister coming from Provo and the 6 Latin sisters and the rest are Latin elders. It will be great. The temple was great last week and I am excited to go again today. It will be fun. I saw the Hubers yesterday, so that was good. I am not sure how long they have been here for. Next to the CCM is a hotel like building that people use to stay in when they do temple trips. I think the Hubers stay there in an apartment with other missionaries. I am excited because tomorrow we get to go out and to a plaza and do some proselyting with our native companions. It should be great and fun to experience what it will be like to be a missionary in the field. We also will go see some sights on Tuesday when we are all alone here. My pday will be Wednesday next week. I think it was just a one time deal since Easter week is a big thing here. On Sunday we watched that video about Zions Camp and had a discussion afterwards about how this mission is our Zions Camp. The Lord is preparing us for something in the future. We do not know what exactly right now, but this is a time we are preparing and becoming the people He wants us to be. That was a cool correlation to think about. My spanish is coming along. I just need to practice all the time especially when we are with the Latinos. Yesterday we taught 2/3 of the Plan of Salvation in spanish twice. The second time went quite well I thought. I am excited to keep on learning and being able to speak more fluently and understand more when someone speaks to me. On Saturday, I got to play the piano in two meetings where there was a young mens group and primary group getting excited about missions and the CCM. It was fun to see the members of the church here and how great they are. We had our Sunday meetings in a chapel behind the temple. I liked seeing the building and I played the piano there too. The only thing in between the CCM and the temple is a little building and a Shell station. Gas is like 35 quetz and I am not sure if that is for a liter or not. Anyway.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Elena if my letter does not get there before Monday.  LOVE YOU TONS! Thanks for being so awesome. Love, Alexis

Hola from Guatemala...week 2

Here's Alexis' latest letter from the Guatemala MTC: 

Hi family-  Guatemala is great.  One of my teachers is a twin and her identical sister works here too.  They are awesome and remind me so much of Elena and I.  They were companions in Provo when they went on their missions to Missouri and Ohio.   Sister Ayala shared a scripture with me that was cool Alma 17:13.  That is really true and cool to think about.  So, Elder Hinckley was here last Sunday with the area presidency.  It was great and I got to play the piano for sacrament meeting and the devotional.  It was great and fun to have them here, which does not happen often.  Also they were here to meet the mission presidents in the area.  On Thursday all the mission presidents came and met us.  It was fun to meet my president and his wife.  They spoke little english and we could communicate alright.  I asked them about knowing Laura Flores and they knew her and remembered Walter's name.  A relative of the Flores is a patriarch in their stake in Costa Rica.  He told us there are 4 stakes, 3 districts, and 2 branches in the mission.  He said he expects 100% obedience not 99% and that we will be blessed by doing so.  He talked about faith in Moroni 7:33.  They were very nice and I am excited to see them again in 5 weeks.  We can listen to music here and they have it playing all the time in the foyer area.  It is funny because sometimes they play Christmas music which is cool.  We also watched two devotionals from the Provo MTC by Elder Holland.  Chelsea mentioned one about making our missions change our lives.  The were both great and he was very encouraging and told us that our missions will never end and should never end.  We should always be feeding the sheep.  He talked about "Preach My Gospel" and the reason it came about was to help keep missionaries from going inactive when they came home because apparently the message never got into their hearts.  Anyway, both were very good talks.  My companion is from Heber, AZ and graduated from NAU in secondary history ed.  We also have a Latina companion from Costa Rica who is going to Nicaragua North.  Her sister will get here in two weeks and is going to my mission.  It is fun to talk to the natives and it definitely helps with the spanish.  On Wednesdays, a lady comes and sells things like bags and scripture cases and notebooks and tolietries in the MTC.  I decided to get a scripture case for my spanish scriptures, so I got the 2 cases for the Bible and Book of Mormon and a mini case for my little hymn book for 10 dollars.  I think that was a great deal. I probably will not buy much else since I do not have tons of room to take things to Nicaragua.  Elena is lucky that once she leaves Provo she will be in the country to stay and not have to make sure her bags are the right weights again.  Well, the food is really good here.  Some of it is a little different but it is all pretty tasty.  I am excited to go to the temple this afternoon.  It will be great.  The weather here is nice right now.  I am sure it will get warmer, but so far so good.  I am enjoying it here and the people are so nice and I am excited to get to Nicaragua.  I know this is where I need to be.  This is a great work!  Check out GuatemalaCCM.com and my picture should be up.  Anyway life is good here.  Love you lots and lots, Alexis

Greetings from Guatemala

Here's the email we got from Alexis today.   She made it to Guatemala at 6 a.m. this morning.

Hola familia-

Just figuring out this spanish keyboard. So we made it here safely and got all our bags and stuff through customs.  When we got outside we waited for about a minute and then this man came up to ask if we were going to the mtc and we said yes.  Then this super sweet school bus came and took us here.  It was about a 20 min drive and there are lots of american things here, even Chuck E. Cheese.  Sweet.  Then we had breakfast- eggs, ham, bacon, and bread which was good. Then we had about 3 hours to unpack, shower and nap which was nice.  We have had a couple meetings- one about rules and the other was a welcome from the President.  He is very nice and they are from CA.  I will look for the Fillmores and Hubers.  There are 3 groups of people here- the old north americans who have been here 3 weeks, the latin people who are only here for 3 weeks, and us new north americans.  So, I am assuming that they only get new people every three weeks.  I have a new companion - Sister Crandell from Heber, AZ.  She was the sister you saw get on my flight in PHX.  She is cool and I think we will do great.  We will also get a Latina companion to eat with and exercise with so that we can learn more spanish, so that is good.  I have bottom bunk now, which is fine since the bed is easier to make.  The beds were numbered and I got number 5 which is the bottom.  The rooms are nice and the bathrooms and showers are too.  There is bottled water in the bathrooms and hallways to drink and brush our teeth with.   Last week they just put in tile in the bedrooms so it is nice.  I think there are about 60 missionaries here.  The temple is right here and one of the senior couples goes with us each week to make sure it all goes well.  My p-day is still wednesday, but today is not a usual pday but we still get to email.  We had chicken with rice and broccoli for lunch.  They have ice cream too.  I will have to pick and choose what to eat so I do not get too much since we are supposed to eat what we get and not waste.  The food is good, so I do not think that will be a problem once I adjust to the new setting here.  I am doing well.  The people are so nice.  Two of the head workers are learning english so that is nice to know that they know what we are feeling.  It is poor here, but I think it will be something you just get used to.  Here at the CCM (MTC in espanol) it is a great facility.  The traffic was crazy and our bus just stopped on the busy road to back into the CCM driveway.  People were honking, but it was kind of funny.  There is an elder with us who had never been on a plane before and he was fine with that, but he was a little nervous with the crazy traffic.  We will definitely learn how it all works. So I think all the mission presidents from the area will be in town tomorrow, so we can meet them all which will be exciting.  And on Sunday, Elder Hinckley and Clark and the Area president will be here, which does not happen all that often.  So, all the sisters coming to central america do the split training and all the elders going to guatemala come here too.  They do not have enough room for all the elders going to central america here.  It was so great to talk to you last night.  It seems like it has already been a while since that happened but that red eye flight makes the days even weirder.  The president and his wife live down the hall from us and our teachers are sisters, maybe twins.  They look a lot alike.  On their name tags is says sister so and so 1 and sister so and so 2.  They were really happy here to get piano players.  I played at the welcome meeting and another sister plays too.  That was fun and the piano was real nice.  I am so excited and happy to be here.  It feels alot homier here.  We still have a busy schedule, but there are just so much less people.   I have like 4 minutes left, but I just want to tell you that I love you soooooooooo much and that is was so fabulous talking to you.  I am excited to learn so much here and the people are so good to us.  I am excited to be here and to eventually get to Nicaragua.  I know that it will be great and that I will just love the people.  I love you soooo much! 

Love, Alexis 

Thanks for being the bestest earthings on planet earth!

More MTC Pictures!

We got to talk to Alexis tonight on her way to the Guatemala MTC!  She sounds great and is doing well.  Alexis said they got to watch a special that KSL did about the Provo MTC and said we should check it out.  If you want to watch it, click here.  Alexis sent more pictures from the MTC.  Enjoy!

 

MTC Pictures

Here are some pictures Alexis sent from the Provo MTC.  We got to talk to her for 5 minutes yesterday.  She got to call home to let us know her travel plans changed a little bit.  She is heading off to the Guatemala MTC on Tuesday!