The Plague

So I was thinking about what I should tell you guys and maybe I should be a little more spiritual but I really love funny missionary emails so I'll start off funny and then give you some spiritual uplifting!

So this week the most "exciting" thing this week was that the entire CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Missional México for those of you who asked) had what we fondly are calling the plague. Also there is a cold going around so they told us to stop shaking hands haha! Anyways, the plague all started from the best meal we have had the whole time we have been here so that is kind of disappointing! Unfortunately it was also Friday night and also happened to be the week that the doctors are switching over so that was a tad problematic. The meal was bbq chicken sandwiches and it was the least sketchy chicken we have eaten in our whole time here. Saturday morning we heard that a bunch of people had been having issues with "the two headed dragon" as the elders fondly refer to it. My stomach had been hurting pretty badly but luckily nothing has come from it. As of Saturday morning 150 plus missionaries were trying to go to the enfermeria. Literally the entire CCM has been sick since, it's pretty bad. We now don't think everything was food poisoning though because there is also a stomach infection/virus thing going around. The doctor pretty much does the same thing for everyone, feels their stomach and then asks "shots or pills" which I don't think is very doctorly to do but it is pretty funny. One of our Sister Training Leaders got it right before she left and she said shot because she thought it meant just one but then the doctor turned to her companion and asked if she had ever given shots before and she said "she will be taking the pills" haha! The plague is our elders favorite thing to talk about, I don't know why they all feel the need to discuss it, one elder even mentioned it over the pulpit on Sunday because he said he didn't have time to prepare a talk because he spent all night on the bathroom floor! Luckily my companion and I have not gotten it completely, we just don't feel great after eating. Once you choose your shots or pills you get sentenced to a diet of saltines and gatorade type drink so the elders always make fun of people carrying them around.

Pretty much everyday here is the same so it is a little hard to figured our what I want to tell you all. I think I forgot to tell you all this but the first Sunday I was here I ate a grasshopper. It wasn't terrible but I would definitely not choose to eat it again. Hna Packard caught them and cooked them for us to try. Still no TLM people in the CCM. This week about 138 new missionaries came which is like double what came with us! I haven't seen any of the missionaries you all told me to look for, sorry! Our district leader is now our zone leader so we got a new district leader, zone leaders, and stl's this week. All the Latina's in our house are new so we went and welcomed them and gave away the heart balloons my mom sent me. Yay for regifting!! The food is kind of getting harder to eat because the first time around we were trying everything so it was exciting but now we know that it is not great so it's harder to eat especially when our stomachs are all rebelling. It's not that the food is terrible (ok, so some of it I really can't handle like there is these weird breakfast tamale type things wrapped in banana leaves and I want to puke every time I smell them- that's the worst thing here in my opinion) but it is cafeteria style so I'm trying not to judge too much and we eat last so even on Tuesdays when we get Costco pizza it is cold and there is only cheese left and it's not as good as it is in the states. This analogy pretty much sums up how we can describe each meal: when we went to the temple they gave us snacks on the way home and there was this chocolate thing and someone tasted it before the rest of us and said "imagine a crunch bar, now lower your standards....now do that one more time and that's what this tastes like" haha!!

This week I got called on to speak so that was terrifying. For anyone who doesn't know, in the CCM everyone has to have a talk prepared (in Spanish of course) and you don't know who is speaking until they call you up to the pulpit. It ended up alright but my hands were shaking so bad! We also had to teach relief society this week but thankfully that is in English. It went really well, we taught about Faith and Hope. Faith is a principle of action and power so you have to make goals and take action for your faith to be strengthened!

My compañera is going to the Mexico City North Mission which is where one of our maestras served so we had the coolest realization this week. When we teach "investigators" here it is usually just our teacher but they are so good at acting. They choose someone from their mission that they taught so they can react similar ways. Our investigator for the next couple of weeks (one of them) is named Suceth, she has twin daughters and a husband. I love teaching her so much because she is open and we can feel the spirit SO strongly when we teach her. I have never had more testimony strengthening experiences than when we are teaching her. This week she shared with us that her husband is abusing her and I just wanted to cry, it made me so sad. We know these stories are real and that is so hard to understand. When she first told us we were kind of stunned, we didn't know what to say to her in English let alone in Spanish. We continued on with our lesson as planned and let her know that we are here for her. We talked about it a lot afterwards and I have not stopped thinking about it since. I have studied so much for our next lesson with her. As missionaries we are not supposed to counsel her on what actions she should take and that is hard. We don't teach her again until Monday so we have been planning her lesson. We have already shared with her the message of the atonement but we are going to re emphasize the comfort it brings, we found some super powerful scriptures to share and if I have time I will add them at the end of this email. We are also sharing the message of prayer again but the main message we want to share with her is that of the Priesthood. In our last lesson we taught of the restauración so it flows perfectly into talking more in depth about the priesthood. We plan on asking her if she would like a priesthood blessing at then end of the lesson and I think that we will all be feeling the spirit so strongly and I think the blessing is just what she needs to bless her and give her guidance in making decisions about her life. We also plan on inviting her husband to attend the lessons with her so hopefully she will be open to that. I have never felt the spirit so strongly as when we are in her lessons or studying to teach her. My favorite resource for planning her lesson (other than the scriptures) has been True to the Faith. It is the coolest book! We also used it for planning our RS lesson and it was great. Anyways, the realization we had is that Hna Ramsey will probably meet the real Suceth while she is out in the field. I can not even describe how cool of an experience that would be to really meet her!! Hna Gomez was telling us where she is at now after we asked her and she showed us a picture on her phone and she wrote down what ward and stake she is in for Hna Ramsey. Hna Gomez said that she went to visit her a 4 months ago and unfortunately her husband is back in the picture. Suceth's husband never joined the church so Hna Ramsey is supposed to try and work on him! (this part is for my mom and gma mostly) Hna Gomez said she loved the Titensers so much, she was so sad to hear that she has cancer! It is kind of crazy what a small world it is, we also figured out this week that Hna Gomez (she is our morning teacher by the way) served with Elder Huxford's brother for almost their entire mission because he just got home 5 months ago and she got home 8 months ago, how crazy?!! I can't believe she hadn't made that connection before because she has a super hard time saying his name.

Alma 7:11-12

2 Nefi 33:3

2 Nefi 32:3

One of our devotionals this week was streamed from Provo and it was Elder Stevenson from the quorum of the twelve and he kept taking about his missions in Japan and I kept thinking of you dad! My favorite thing is that he talked about the Thanksgiving of the Restoration which is something I have been growing my testimony on so much in my time here. I am so grateful for it!!

Te ama mucho!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hermana Peterson