I will might have to shorten this email so that I can (finally) get to bed at a decent time but I will tell you as much as I can. I love so many things about Mexico though sometimes I wish people went to sleep earlier! My first day of school is tomorrow! I am so excited but also nervous because there have been some problems communicating with ILP for issues with our training so say a prayer for us please? We are doing our best under the circumstances and with the resources that we have. Also just one for me as well because I am kind of missing home and I kind of cried for a second today... but I am doing a little bit better. When I listen to music or get involved with something new missing home is not so bad.
Mexico Saturday Day 3
So yesterday Allen (basically my chaffuer) came and picked me up to take me to the school. While we were talking he invited me out that night with him and his friends. I wasn't sure about the school rules (because they are very specific about going out with boys) so I told him I would have to check and that I wanted to invite my friends as well.
After that I went to the school and we did some training and then did some classroom set up and tried to talk to Rachel (the lady in charge) but she was not available so we went out to lunch at a small restaurant All of the girls in our group had so much fun and we got so many laughs out of our adventures. It's also kind of nice that we can do that because it shows that we are finally finding our way around and getting familiar. I stayed at the school until Allen and his friend Christian picked me up around 3. I also found out that it was okay to go out with Allen and his friends and I had invited Mallory and Kelsey along.
We all had so much together for a short ride because Christian (Chipe) knows a little bit of English which helped us all communicate better. Allen had also started to use google translate to communicate. Anyways, we then dropped off Chipe and went to go pick up Marcela my host mom from work. After that we went to give Marcela's family some work supplies. They live a little ways out of Tehuacan which is where I saw those amazing mountains. I also learned more Spanish from Allen on the way there and back. Then we went to Dinner and Daniel and Santiago joined us a little while later because Santiago had soccer. When we were done with dinner Daniel dropped us off near Chipe's house and we walked there, then to Mallory and Kelsey's apartment and then around Tehuacan a little bit. We went to go get Ice Cream and Allen was nice enough to pay for all of us. After that we went to meet up with Nervey/ Marvey(?). He can fluently speak English and that helped so much! We then just walked around to different parks and saw a couple cathedrals from the outside. We also went to a nice park near am egg factory that was very beautiful. All the while we had been talking and among all of that the fact that I could sing came up. While we were at this park they wanted me to sing so after trying to figure out what I was going to sing I finally chose I am a Child of God. I did the Oakcrest version (Utah Beehive camp) because it is beautiful and unique. They enjoyed it very much and then the boys sang some American and Mexican songs for us. After that we walked back to the centre of Tehuacan and went to a small Cafe with music and got some hot chocolate. We also ran into Allen's Mom there so we said Hi to them as well. Afterwards we took Mallory and Kelsey back to their apartment and met up with my host family to go home.
Also just a note, Tehuacan is so beautiful right now in general but with all the amazing decorations for Christmas and their own traditional holiday that is like a second Christmas it is amazing. This "second Christmas" celebrates when the wise men came to visit Christ. This holiday just ended on Sunday so the decorations are going to come down sadly. Though it is kind of funny to see flowers in full bloom but have Christmas decorations up.
Mexico Sunday Day 4
Today I went to the church building near the school. Most of the other teachers went to this church as well to the 12 o'clock meeting. It was hard sometimes to understand but I think the Spirit helped me get the basic gist of what was going on. Something interesting to note was when it came time to sing we did not have very many hymn books so I shared with Brian (one of the other teachers) with the first few songs. After the Sacrament he left because he had attended the earlier meeting but had been late to the first meeting. Since I did not have a hymn book at the end I would just hum along to the songs since I did not know the Spanish. Another thing that was interesting was that even though it was Fast and Testimony meeting they had an intermediate hymn which is not typical but it was interesting for sure. We went to gospel doctrine but found out after that we went to the wrong class. We were supposed to go the young single adult class but we did not know that so we had gone to the older class.Then all of the girls went to Relief Society and we had a lesson about respect for our parents and the importance of having an eternal family I think. That is what the scriptures were talking about and seemed to be what the teacher was talking about. Also we signed up for a temple trip on February 23 so we get to see the Mexican Temple! Or one of them... I don't know if there are several...
Afterwards all of the ILP teachers went to the school to try and get some work done. Then everything ended up being interesting once we were trying to do that. First, we have to wait for an hour for one of the girls in our group to get her stuff. Then we almost got lost on the way to the school but then a nice Mexican man who knew English helped us find the school. Then when we actually got there the keys Rachel (the lady in charge) had given us were not working to open the outside gate! We tried to call Rachel but my iPod with Wifi could not call After many frustrating tries I suggested we say a prayer. We tried a couple more times and it still did not work. Ashley and Heidi had left by this time to see if Rachel was still at the church. We were still having issues but I just said keep on trying it has to work we said a prayer. Still no luck for a little while. Then while Kelsey was trying her luck at opening the door Baylee pounded her fist on the door and whala it opened. We were so grateful it was working so we then went inside and I said a thank you prayer. Ashley and Heidi showed up a little while later. They told us that Rachel (the head lady) had not be at the Church so they went to her house but they couldn't find her at either places! Either way it was good that it worked out because we really needed the prep time. I stayed there till about 6 which was when my host family picked me up.
When my host family picked me up we went to Chaduei (?). It is basically the Mexican version of Costco and Walmart combined though mainly like Walmart. My host family bought me cereal to eat for breakfast and some other things that they needed. It was definitely an adventure. My host Dad also asked me, while we were there, to speak in Spanish the rest of the day as an experiment. As you could probably guess I did not speak a whole lot the rest of the night. If I wanted to say something but did not know some of the things in Spanish I would ask my host dad and he would help but I still did not say much. That was also in part because I felt a little home sick so I was a little sad. I did try to get more involved in what my family was doing and that helped. My host Dad also helped teach me some Spanish and I taught him some "American Phrases" as he put it. Mostly I was just explaining tenses to him because he did not understand tenses for some words like teach, and taught to name just one of them. After that I wanted to try to talk to my family back home so I said goodnight. After many frustrating moments and being interrupted by Santiago ( even though it was okay, and I like spending time with him) ;) I was able to talk to my family for a little bit. After that I worked on this email and then went to bed.
This email ended up being sent a different day so it still counts but if the person is weird that is why. Also if you want to send me anything here is my address:
Instituto Heslington
For Becca Thacker
2 Norte 1210
Jarcardas 75730
Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico
Also put stickers or pictures of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or the Cross on anything you send. People in mexico are very superstitious and will not open our packages if you do that. Anyways talk to you soon!
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