La Semena

Okay so this week was good, pero dificil!!!!!!! Hm Turner was sick for the first part of the week and being couped up in our little casa was driving me kinda crazy but it was okay we got some sewing done and lots of studying. But then the middle of the week was good and let me just say I live for Gym time because it is just a nice break for my brain and its nice not to think about spanish for an hour of the day. Also our teacher Hm. Martinez bought our district a Frisbee so whenever we are stressed and all need a break we will go outside and play frisbee for a little bit and sometimes we practice grammar as we toss and catch the Frisbee! Also one of my teachers knows James W, I guess James was his ZL. His name is Hermano Sanchez he´s super chill and we always have a fun time when he comes to teach him! He also knew Eric when he was here and Brittney. Haha we call him Juanito just to make his mad but it’s all good because he teases us nonstop! Also the most exciting thing that happened this week was our breakfast debates on whether or not dinosaurs really existed or if the fossils came from the matter when the world was created.... yeah you would be surprised how heated some of the Elders get over this. haha but it makes the day a little bit more entertaining. 

I am learning how to be a more comforting person here and how to actually talk to people when there is contention rather than just ignoring it and waiting till it goes away. But its okay  everything is perfecto now so life is just GREAT! Also today we got more Latino elders and hermanas so its a party and a girl from my mission that found me on insta got here today so I need to go and find her. Mom if you could do my a favor please find out her name, because I can´t remember it (shocker)! I think she commented on a couple of my pics so you can insta stalk her and find her last name for me. Gracias.

The other things that happened this week was just a lot of classes and teaching. My teaching has gotten way better and I feel pretty confident to go out in the field and teach I am just gonna have to ask the people to talk slow because man can the latin people talk RAPIDO! Only two more weeks till I am out in the field trying the delicious street tacos and getting to live with the people of Mexico! I know its gonna be hard, but I am just ready for that part already because I feel right now the best way for me to improve my Spanish is to be our there in the field talking constantly in Spanish. I do hope I get a Latina comp because it will be hard but I know I will learn Spanish better. Sunday was good; I didn´t have to give a talk and next Sunday is fast Sunday so I might get away with only speaking once here. We also got to watch Prophet of the Restoration and man it was so good to see the love story of Emma and Joseph, Beck and I were talking how that is the closest we are gonna get to a chick flick for the next 17 months of our lives. 17 months you heard my right my month mark hits on FRIDAY! Like I feel like i haven´t even been here that long. Crazy! 

Oh mom, by the way if you do go to the Tiajuana open house make sure to find Hermana Beck because she will probs be there!!!! Also mom did you get my email about sending a card reader? If you could send one to my mission office soon I would love you forever just make sure to put a lot of virgin Mary´s on the outside! Also if you want send more family pics and pics of the house and idk maybe more of AZ or something, its not a big deal if you can’t but it would be nice! Welll I only have two p-days left here in the CCM and its bitter sweet! I will miss my comps and my district but at the same time I am so EXCITED TO BE OUT IN THE FIELD! I love you all and know that you are always in my prayers! Tell the boys to email their fav lil sister because she could use any advice they have...not to mention she wrote all of them, ALL THE TIME! I love you all and I want to hear all the baby names for the future ginger child! Oh and I get to call in like two Sundays!!!!!! 

love Dana

Da Week

So this week was BOMB! It had its moments but for the most part is was good because.............WE GOT TO LEAVE THE CCM AGAIN! So on Wednesday morning while we were in comp study the phone rings in our casa (weird right) and Hm Beck answered and apparently we had to go down to the capitol for Visa stuff and none of us knew about it. So anyways we all like ran over to the the van we were taken into the city and one of the boys misunderstood the phone call and thought he was leaving for the field so he packed his bags. ahaha so funny. Anyways so we got to go downtown and it was like an hour and a half car ride, thankfully I didn´t get sick but it was good and the city is HUGE! Also traffic is way bad so we were in the car forever and none of us had even eaten breakfast that morning so they packed us juice and cold sandwiches. Anyways we did all our visa stuff and it was good. And then when we were outside on the street we ran into two elders from the north west mission getting visa stuff too and it was fun just to talk to them. They are in Hm Turners mish so she was like freaking out. Anyways they were just telling us not to stress because the language will come and also to get used to the smell of weed on the streets so fiesta mexico is gonna be a great adventure once I leave the celestial kingdom of Mexico City (the CCM).

Anyways on the way back our van driver drove by all the super famous stuff in the capitol like the angel of independence, the opera house, the post office, etc. I got some way good pictures and I totally had to stick my upper body out of the window but no shame it was worth it. I will send those pics!

Also, we got a new kid in our district this week. He was in Provo and then when he got his visa they sent him down here to the CCM to finish out the mtc process. He´s way nice (Elder Smith) and is going to Puebla north mission. I wasn´t sure if that is the same mission Brock Sherwood is in so someone tell me. But anyways things are just great here. I didn´t have to talk again this Sunday so that was good. Also Mom...me and the comps joined choir so that is a party. Last week we sang come thou fount for the Devo and this week it is something I forgot I will tell you next week but we will be singing it tonight for Devo. Its a really pretty arrangement and the choir director doesn´t care if we take the sheet music after so that is super nice. Beck is like an AMAZING singer so she is in heaven during choir. But really she sounds like a Disney princess her voice is so good.

Also please tell Susan Hironaka thank you for the doughnuts the district loved them! and the boys all devoured them. It´s crazy to think I have only been gone for like three ish weeks because its seems like I have been gone so long.

Another thing we had this week was TRC and that was really cool because recent converts come and we get to teach them a short lesson and its just cool to meet them and hear their stories. We taught this one lady named Blanca and she talked so fast we could barely say anything. I think the only thing we said the whole time was Si Si Si because she literally didn't stop talking. haha when we got out of there we just laughed because all we could really do was bear our testimonies and pray I think she just wanted someone to talk to. Also Pres. Tenario gave an amazing lesson this week for Sunday school. He is a funny guy and has some amazing stories from his life. We also watched when he spoke in General Conference in 2007 and that was such a good talk you guys should look it up and listen to it.

Oh also guys what I got this week....GUM you have no idea how happy I was. Elder Smith bought a ton in the Salt Lake airport so he is our supplier holla. Don´t worry we only chew it on the way home from class at night. Oh also Hm Turner (or Tina turner) as we call her was sick and man that was a drag. She is one of those people that likes to self diagnose herself so she thought she had appendicitis and we had to go and call the doctor at like 10ish Sunday night. Of course it was only the flu but man it was quite the ordeal. However the boys in the district gave her a blessing after we went to the doctor and it was so good and we are so grateful to be surrounded by priesthood holders. Okay sorry my spelling is awful this letter; the computer isn't letting me use spell check so lo siento. Also Teaching and Spanish have gotten way better. I can hold my own so it feels good. I love teaching the 1st vision and the atonement because there is such a strong power of the spirit when we bear witness of those things.

That is so sad about the Thomas kid like so sad. That poor family. Also that´s cool about Gilbert v-ball! AND....................YAY KATIE IS HAVING ANOTHER GINGER BABY BOY! I'm so excited for those gringo Garcias! Two cute little boys running around the house I look forward to meeting this cute baby and becoming his favorite aunt. haha

Oh also you know how I said that I love my teachers well I really do! Hm. Martinez is so cute and she went and bought our district frisbees and a kick ball so we can have fun during gym because volleyball is getting a little old. Also today Beck and I were craving a good run so we went and did only 2 miles on the track. The track here is like running in gravel/sand so lets just say we gotta major good work out and we were dying because of the altitude here is super high and today was really smoggy.

Everything is going really good here I love all the latino people. I love you guys all so much and I love this gospel so dang much The church is true. And here are some pics... Most of them are from the City with the angel of independence and some cool statue things and the majestic opera house and then Tina Turner getting her hair cut and after me and beck ran, we took a victory pic on the track. But don´t you just love how green it is here! Ahh anyways love you all adios till next week.

Dana and her District, wonder what that red t-shirt actually says?

Hmas Heywood and Beck do their victory lap!

Not sure, since she didn't send any descriptions...maybe the capital building?

Love the lilac trees!

Holla Holla

Well well well..... 

     After logging off last week a ton happened! Mexico is still pretty great! Beck and Turner are fab and life is just so dang good! So last week was good just rough with spanish but its expected and I have had a pretty good mind set about the language compared to my district but it´s all gucci! I LOVE my district we are just like a little family! 

As for last week our lessons went pretty good. We did have one lesson that was pretty bad one day on the plan of salvation (boys if you have any pointers on how to teach that simply please help a sister out!) So we were walking back to our class room kinda disappointed when Gabriel our homie appeared from nowhere and gave us the sweetest pep talk about the language and how it was only our 1ish week here and that we needed to be positive and not get down on our selves. We were like wow he was like an angel and just appeared right when we needed him! Gotta love the Latinos! We were also sad this week because all our latino friends left this week because they are only here for two rather than six. We took a bunch of pics with them and they are gonna email me them when they can so I will try to send them. I think Beck got some too! 

    So I didn´t explain this but every Sunday our Branch President Ruiz gives us a topic to speak on and we are suppose to write a 5 min talk on it in Spanish and then they will call on a couple people to speak in sacrament...you just don´t know if you will get called on till they start the meeting. Anyways so we all prepared our talks on repentance this week and I just had this feeling that I was gonna speak. So we get there to sacrament and sure enough they call my name but they said elder Heywood is gonna speak. jaja I was gonna try to make a joke about me being a Hermana but then I was like better not ruin that spirit so I didn't! But yeah, me and Edwards were called on to speak from our district so that was just great! I have now officially given a talk in Spanish! It was okay just simple and a lot of bearing my testimony since I can speak easily in the present tense. Also I see why people say to make it till Sunday because the spirit is so dang strong. It was awesome to have conference and all but having Sunday meetings here was so great! 

  

     In relief society we had an amazing lesson about the talk given by the french guy in conference and the talk about learning the dance but not listening to the music... sorry I forgot who gave those but anyways we talked about them and it was so good. And at the end Sis. Call showed us a  clip of mo tab singing with some guy the song from price of Egypt "Look at your life through heaven´s eyes". It  was so good and reminded me of the boys singing that when we watch that movie. You should look up the video its good and since we can't listen to music in the CCM we were just happy to hear someone singing besides the tone deaf sisters in the room next to us. Sunday is also movie night and we watched The Testaments! Beck and I were quoting it and it was just a good time!

   Also you know how i told you about Hm. Turners laugh well..... it is absolutely the funniest thing in the world. Our district is pretty loud so at breakfast, lunch, dinner you name it we make her laugh and everyone in the comedor just dies laughing or thinks someone is literally dying because her laugh sounds like a dying goat or something. I will try to take a video of it and send it to you guys. It´s the best thing ever!!! Also I can't fail to mention the AMAZING MANGOS we have in the comedor. They are so good! Don´t worry madre, Beck and I are still keepin up on our salad game. I also had to try to shrink one of my skirts today because it was too big, I could have done an infomercial with that thing! Also one of our fav lation amigos left Elder Chavero we were teaching him some English and it was so cute he left our districts notes before he left. So presh! It´s funny in all our pics we tower over the Latinos, especially Beck because she is like 5 10". But life here is so good and it sounds like things back in AZ are great. 

Way to go Gilbert volleyball on winning those games! I love you guys all so much and I miss you but I know that what I am doing here is the work of God and I just can´t wait till I can hold my own in Spanish and I am out in the field. I also think I told you about my teachers last week but I love them! They give the best hugs and are like our mamá´s! Martinez will give us this really good Mexican candy when we are good. It has the chile powder stuff in it and I LOVE IT! I also love this hot sauce stuff they have hear... way better than Tabasco! But i just love Mexico and thanks for the insta pics ma. I love you all!

Also our district has come to love signs and we play it when we get stressed out and just need a break from Spanish! its a good time. Here are some pics as you can tell the CCM is beautiful! I love the purple trees and we love our cute Tiffany blue casa. Also gotta love taking selfies in the tienda with Beck! Story about Elder C he searches everyday for four leaf clovers... he said he found one once and band camp and wants to find another. He is also writing down all 700 something Pokémon in order. We love him he is the freaking best haha makes life so interesting. Well I better go I love you all! I love Mexico and I love this church and gospel with all mi corazon! 

 Peace and blessins ya'll! 

LOVE HERMANA HEYWOOD!

Hola Gringos

Dear Family and other people!

  Well where to begin. Um Mexico is amazing! I love it here the weather has been perfect, a lot like AZ and the people here are amazing. So the first day I finally found my companions after dinner and yes I have two. Hermana Beck (from Logan Utah and going to Tijuana) is awesome. I love her so much she is an amazing missionary, really good at Spanish, extremely obedient (which is good) and is super blunt and sarcastic so we fit well together. She is 20 and did some school at Utah state before she came. She is studying elm. ed. Hm Turner is from Vegas (going to north east) and is the cutest sweetest funniest girl ever. She has the funniest laugh I have ever heard in my life. No joke like when she starts laughing everyone looks at us like what the heck is going on! So I love my comps and we all work really well together. I also love love love my district. We are district 7A! #thebest.   It's just us sisters and then another trio of elders and and then one companionship of elders, so 8 of us all together.

Spanish is hard and has been a little frustrating especially when we are teaching lessons. We have an "investigator" named Wendy she is super cool and from here. Our first lesson was a bit terrible but our second one was amazing! The spirit was so strong and we were all like crying. It was really amazing because I can bear my testimony in Spanish so I was able to testify to her of my knowledge of the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. So that was AMAZING! I love our teachers Hm. Valazquez and Hm. Martinez. They are so cute both from here and speak pretty good English so if we don't understand they will explain in English, But we are taught completely in Spanish! So as for Spanish, I am not doing too bad... I can do the missionary purpose, James 1:5, prayer, testimony, bap challenge all so that's good! We love talking to the Latinos. We are friends with Gabriel and Jason who work in the comedor and they teach us slang words and we are so tight they even give us hand hugs because they think those are super cool.They are teaching us like old school cali slang that is popular in Mexico. We also love sitting with the Latin hermanas at lunch or breakfast. They are so cute and loving and help us with our Spanish and we help them with their English! 

Also today.......... WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE! It is beautiful and big and man I already love it. So we did tours in the visitor center and I liked talking to the Hm.s from the visitor center and they were all called to the visitor center not the the east mission so I know I will be proselyting. The food is good, me and Hm Beck make each other eat salad for every meal (besides breakfast),  And the fruit is AMAZING! They have mangos all the time and the latins taught us to peal it kinda like a banana to eat it. SO GOOD! 

Conference was great and we got to watch it in English! We also had a really good fireside Sunday night and listened to a talk given by Elder Holland in 2011 at the MTC about the purpose of missionary work and it was so good. After we went to our class rooms and talked with our district about it, we all just bonded and now we are really close and they are my little family while I'm in the CCM. 

Also, because it was Easter week or holy week as they call it here the partying was crazy. The neighborhood surrounding the CCM really likes to party so fire works are going off all night and they are blasting their Mexican dubstep till like 3 in the morning so it was hard to sleep this last weekend. Even during the day fireworks go off. The Mexicans don`t use colorful fire works they just try to make them as loud as possible and I guess they like to roll them under cars. Crazy right! Also the drive to the temple and the drive to the CCM from the airport was crazy! Its kinda like Costa Rica where there are lanes on the roads but everyone just drives where they want, including semi trucks and buses. Also when ever you stop in the road these guys from nowhere just appear and start washing your car windows! haha Also when we were driving to the CCM we totally saw a drunk guy walking down the street with his pants totally down, like down. haha it was like WELCOME TO MEXICO! 

  Pres. Tenario is nice and his wife too. I love the Pres and Sis call (2nd counselors) who are from Utah, she is just like having a mom and gives mom like hugs so we all love her. The girls in my casa are all fun all of them are going back to the states after this to serve but its fun to get to know them and to suck at Spanish just as much as them. We also met our branch pres. and he is awesome. He is from here and learned English on his mission and speaks it really well. He told us he wanted to learn English so he could understand the prophet during general conference because he didn't trust the translators. Elder Alred is the DL and he is the kid from mesa that was on the plane with me. We also have two elders from Utah, one from Georgia, and one from Wyoming in our district. We are all staying in Mexi except one who is going back to Virginia for his mish.

The pics of are me and my comps

Hm Turner is the small one they call her little sister, and Hm. Beck is the tall one... I love them both. The other pics are of our district and the other sisters in our generation (that came the same day as us to the CCM) Like I said the temple is beautiful. Beck has some other cute pictures of us and the Latinas so I will try to send you those next week! Also I don't know if you can tell from the pic or not but the angle Moroni is holding the gold plates isn't that cool!!!!!! I will also try to send you a pic of Gab and Jason our homies... all the slang words they teach us we try to use with the latinos and they laugh so hard when the gringos say them! I think I am going to get along just fine with those people....already love them. I also met a Hm that is from the east mission and she was telling me that they are losing a ton of sisters in Mayo and how much work I am gonna have to do.... so ready for it just need to get down Spanish! But I just want you all to know that I love this place and leaving (although it was hard) and going on a mission has been the best decision of my life. 

Also madre, por favor send a card reader for my camera to the mission office becuase right now I am borrowing a Hm but if you send one to the mission office it will probs get there when I do.  Also the names I did at the temple on tuesday are in the pocket of my temple bag so you can finish them. My mission office address is also in my call packet I left at home in one of my desk drawers. Tell Jared not to mess up stuff in my room and not to break my long board. I love you all so much, I know I am in the right place and that I love the Lord so much! Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera! Love you all and I will email next Tuesday I am praying for you all and don't worry about me I am safe and in the Lords hands. XOXOXOXOX 

Hermana Heywood

Holla, I Made It

FAMILY! 

I have made it to the CCM! I made it through customs and all that jazz just fine. I love it here (even though I`ve been here a total of an hour) There was about 6 of us that all stuck together from Atlanta to the CCM. I haven't met my comps yet (yes i have two) but I'm sure they are gonna be great and we are gonna have a splendid time. A I hope you know that I love you all and am so EXCITED to be here! The CCM is beautiful and Mexico its self is like a ghetto Costa Rica! I am going to love it and my p-days are on Tuesdays so I will get to email you next week! And I will fill you in on my comps and all that great stuff! Love you all be safe and sorry my room was left such a mess! Send me pics and update me on everyone`s lives! Love you all #peace&blessins

Love Hermana Heywood