First week in the MTC!

Hermana Garner and Hermana Crichton

Hi everyone!

Below is Megan’s letter for the week. She sounds so upbeat and excited and we are thrilled for that! It is great to hear from her. She only has 1 hour to read and write emails on Tuesdays so please be patient with her if you don’t hear back from her. I told her to try to write a lot in her main letter since so many are reading it but that means she doesn’t have a lot of time to write everybody back. BUT!!!! She still loves getting letters – it’s the best day for missionaries to hear from friends and family. SOOOO.....if you don’t hear back from her, PLEASE keep writing! I promise she will write soon!

A few terms for this week:

District: A group of missionaries – usually going to the same mission. She has 6 missionaries in her district – 4 girls and 2 boys.

Branch Presidency – The leaders for several districts.

Thanks so much for your love and support of our sweet girl – hugs!! ~Leslie

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Aahhh!! I’m a missionary!! I still can’t believe it. The first few days felt like a dream because I have been waiting for this day for so long! I’m SO happy. You know older missionaries who say they don’t want to come home because they love it? Well that’s me. I MISS ALL OF YOU SO MUCH but I know I’m supposed to be here. I love it!!!

This will be the most random letter. Just a warning. 

My luggage made it perfectly! No problemas!

My teachers are AMAZING. They are both from Mexico and it is so fun. We help them with their English while they teach us Spanish. I love learning Spanish! It is coming so quick and easy for me...I’m so grateful for that! (Thank you to Mrs. Bernstein)

The food here is mostly Mexican. A lot of rice, beans, chips, salsa I’M LIVIN’ THE LIFE. Sometimes they will throw in a hamburger or pancakes. The fruit here is DIVINE. We had mangoes and I think I smuggled like 6 to my room. Sooooo good. (you were right mom)

My companion is Sister Crighton. She is from Houston Texas. She is super bubbly and positive. We get along super well! We are very similar. We are both at about the same level in Spanish so that’s nice. She is going to my mission! 

My district is all going to the same mission! It’s so nice! There are 2 hermana companionships and one elder companionship. We all get so much done together but we all have so much fun together! In my district: Hermana Crichton, Hermana Jones, Hermana Wolferts, Elder charrington and Elder miller. 

My branch presidency is also all from Mexico. They are the nicest and most supportive people!

The MTC has a private well for water so we don’t have to worry about not drinking the water here. It is safe. They said that the people of Mexico don’t even drink the water here. Just coke. 

Soooo here’s a funny little story. So light are supposed to be out at 10:30 right? So the first night we were still unpacking and still getting settled in. We weren’t paying any attention to the time. It was probably 10:50. All of a sudden someone started banging on our window sooooo loud and ringing the doorbell at our house. it was THE SCARIEST thing. We had no idea why they were doing that until we looked at the time. We definitely learned our lesson to be exactly obedient. 

I’m not allowed to have a backpack here......haha. Good thing I brought my semi big purse..?

We have gym time pretty much every day. The Hermanas in my district usually play tennis....we aren’t very good so it’s super fun to make fun of each other. 

Another funny story: I can’t remember what I did but it was something embarrassing. I was with a native so I said. ´estoy embarassado!´ because I thought that meant I was embarrassed but it actually means that I’m pregnant. Story of my life.

We watched Meet the Mormons on Sunday night and boy was I a mess when I saw the missionary hugging his mom. MOM: DONT WATCH IT FOR 18 MONTHS. IT’S ROUGH. I was homesick that night.

Another funny story: My companion and I went to the wrong meeting and everyone thought that we were like super big leaders in the MTC but we actually just showed up at the wrong meeting.

Every night I come home and take off my shoes and it is the best feeling. Being exhausted after a day is such a good feeling because you know you worked really hard. We work SO hard here. It is almost impossible not to. I will send you a picture of my schedule next week and you can see what we do. It’s crazy how tired I am but how focused I am. I have never been able to be that way.

On the more spiritual side of things:

The Spirit here is so strong. Everyone here is soooooo welcoming. Especially so we are just practicing with him. Our THIRD day here we had to teach a lesson EN ESPAÑOL. Third day. Yeah. It is intense here. It is the coolest thing though! Yesterday was my favorite day on my mission so far. We were teaching the lesson and he just had a ton of questions that were hard to answer even in English! But I can now testify that the gift of tongues is real because I answered all of his questions in Spanish and my companion and he both were like ´whoa´. We have our 4th lesson tomorrow with him and we are going to invite him to be baptized! I can’t wait. 

I know the Savior lives and as long as I do my part He will do His. I love the gospel and I’m soooo lucky to be here as a missionary.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU SO MUCH!

Hermana Garner