First Week and BIRTHDAY

How are you all? I miss you all so much. The mission is the hardest thing that I have ever done, but it is the best feeling ever. It's the best opportunity to really serve the Lord 24/7. The language is hard but it will come. I'm slowly getting better at understanding the language when I read and hear it but speaking it is another story.

The first day was honestly really rough because it was a lot to take in. Satan was able to attack my hope in becoming a successful missionary. My first night here, I kept doubting myself  whether I would be able to do this and at the same time I missed you all very much. The food here is different. It took a lot of adjusting. It will make your stomach really upset for a few days but now I'm okay. My first day I set my alarm clock wrong, my watch latch broke off, my purse strap ripped, and it was just really hard. During classes and devotionals the spirit was so strong. We read the Book of Mormon as a district in english and spanish. They had all of us kneel down in prayer and ask God if it was true and if Joseph Smith really restored the gospel. I prayed for these things, but also for the answer if I could really do this. I cried so much. I felt the spirit tell me that I could do this. I know that its true. I had to pray for a happy and positive attitude and the comfort of the spirit.

My compañera is Hermana Wingate. She is absolutely awesome. We are best friends already. We first had a hard time to teach because  we had to try to teach in spanish. But now we are working harder in using the language. We are getting better at being obedient and teaching. The teachers here are amazing. They love us so much and have done so much for us to become effective missionaries. They aren't afraid to tell me that I need to speak louder. My voice is to soft...as you all know. I love my compañera. I love her so much! I've only been here for almost 2 weeks and it honestly feels like forever but in a good way. Everyone here looks so familiar as if I have known these people in the pre-mortal life. It's a really good feeling. Time also goes so fast that I forget what I have done throughout the day. This work really requires all of your heart, might, mind, and strength...that by the end of the day, you are EXHAUSTED. We wake up at 6:30am and sleep at 10:30pm, but we actually wake up at 6 to shower and beat the other girls to the bathroom.

I am the only Asian in this whole MTC (CCM). Everyone is either white or Latino. The sisters here from north america love talking about our families. We were talking about the chores that we do at home. They all said how they had to do their own laundry, they have dish washers, and dryers. Here at the MTC they are so kind to do our laundry. But anyways I told the sisters how I did the laundry for the whole family of 6...and that we hung dry our clothes and didn't have a dishwasher. They were like "Why do you do everyone's laundry? Like why would you do that?" I told them it was because I wanted to....I love you guys! I am so grateful for the way you have raised me to be selfless and hardworking.

I was able to sew a button on my watch to latch it around my wrist. Today we went to the Bogota temple. It is so beautiful! It is huge! But not like home..the spirit is the same though. It really is. Doing the whole session in spanish was hard, but really nice.

Sundays we have deep doctrine studies with President Dyer. It is so DEEP and amazing because we really get to really study the scriptures and understand how incredible and perfect the plan of salvation is. Being here makes me want to become better more and more. I wished I prepared more before I came instead of spending time on Netflix. Yet I am so grateful that I was able to work with Hermana Hurst. She prepared me so much. I am sooooooooooooo grateful! The hermanas that are Latin American heard me pray last night and was so surprised how well I was able to pray in their language. I still have to practice though. The Latinas are amazing and so loving. They have strong testimonies. They come from all different countries in South America and Central America. They love that I am from Hawaii. I lent out two of my umbrellas to the sisters because they didn't have any and when I gave them to them to borrow they were so happy that they hugged me. 

 

President Dyer shows so much love for us. He was telling us north americans about how lucky we are to be north americans. The latin americans are so humble and blessed from the Lord differently. One of the elders here, his mom has past away two weeks before he came here. She appeared to him in a dream and asked him to do her work in the temple. 

Time is limited to contact home because we need to be really focused on the work. The schedule changes so my next pday is next Tuesday I believe because the latin americans leave the CCM on wednesday and new missionaries come in that night. 

Funny story. As my compañera and I were teaching, a bird flew into our closed window and died.....after that we couldn't focus on teaching. hahahahaha. My compañera keeps me happy. She is so much like me. We laugh all the time and cry together. lol The food is nothing like home but Im getting used to it. I actually like it now. They celebrated my birthday today during lunch since its PDAY and they give us our cameras on P-Day.

Thank you for your prayers and all of your love. I miss you so much. I love the gospel more and more each day. I pray for you all so often and think of you too. Please continue to be strong in the gospel and let me know how grandma is. I love you!

Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Redentor. Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero. No puedo decir mucho....because my spanish is rusty. hahahaha

Love you love you love you love you!!!!!!

Siempre,

Hermana Santeco 

ps: i spent 8 dollars on the worst parfait in the world in LA at the airport......it was disgusting....never get a parfait from a random store....lol

I forgot to add that a really nice elder made a little cake out of a cookie for me during lunch on my birthday hahaha. Elders here do hand hugs when we had to say bye. It was so awkward. Love you!!!