...but I am just doing it

Hola familia!

Lia's first native companion, Hermana Torales

Soy en Mexico.  I am doing okay!  I've learned that I can talk to people and people can talk to me and I can be friends with people even when we don't speak the same language. I'm pretty sleep deprived because we didn't sleep the night we left the CCM and then we got to the mission pretty late and woke up extra early.  I love my hamaca (hammock) and I'll try to send pictures soon. They let us pick out our own hamacas the first night so I will just take it with me everywhere I live. Mine is stripes of different colors with gold specs that remind me of the wheat dream from Joseph, King of Dreams.

The city is beautiful. The first thing I thought when we got here was that I already feel like it's my new home. Even though it's a big city, the people here aren't very wealthy so it has a very different feel from a city like New York or Seattle. People say hi to us when we say hi to them. It's a lot older than I imagined it but it's really endearing-- I'll send pictures on Monday.

I love my trainer, her name is Hermana  Torales and she is the boss of the whole mission. She really has her act together (We both use lots of different colored pens) and I LOVE her. We work all day. :) She is 28 and pretty much my mom.  I spend an hour a day teaching her English and she really wants to learn. It is a mission mandamiento para las chicanas (a mission rule for the sisters). We're thinking about starting up an English class to find some new investigators. We really are the FIRST group of gringas in 20 years!

Last night on our way to una cita a la casa del Obispo (appointment at the bishop’s house), we passed an older woman mopping an empty house and after we passed her Hna Torales said, "Do you think she needs help?" and when we asked her she said no, but Hna Torales picked up a mop and started helping her anyway. So we al mopped and squeegeed for a few minutes. I'm not really sure what they talked about until Hna Torales invited her to learn more about Christ and then I was able to bear my testimony. The woman was named Mary and said she couldn't hear the discussions for some reason I didn't understand, but I could see in her eyes that she really was searching for it and Hna Torales could too.

We sang 'Venid a Mi' for her and it was such a serene moment because Hna Torales teaches with such a powerful spirit and you could tell everyone could feel the Spirit and when we talked and sang it echoed in the empty house (all the houses kind of feel like bathrooms because they are all bathroom tile and none of them have much furniture except for a sink) and the night was so peaceful and quiet. We gave her a number and a pamphlet and we're hoping she'll call us. I was so touched by Hna Torales example. She really gets why she is here and is not dissuaded by anything and so inclined to love others.  I want to be like her!

My mission president is fantastic and I've realized my violin is going to get a lot of use (including at my first baptism on Sunday!). He and his wife are just beautiful loving real people, plus his wife speaks English. They live in a really nice part of town and have a fancy white stucco house and a fountain and all that. We ate breakfast at their house.

I haven't lost all my English already, it's just tricky to type on these keyboards and I can't tell whether something is misspelled because the computer says everything is misspelled, so I'll have to ask Mom to employ her editing skills. Gracias.

It's pretty exhausting to have to work so hard to understand anything, and even then not catch most of it, but I am just doing it. Whoa, I am a real missionary. Que cosa!

I loved our call and I love you all!

Con carinos,

Hna Ludlam