P-Day #5

¡Hola de México!

    I don´t think I have been in need of a P-day more than today. It´s just been really long. Hma. Bittle is feeling better. She was able to go back to class on Wednesday. My email probably will not have any order to it. Probably just whatever pops in my head so I apologize for the randomness. When I was stuck in the casa. I wrote a lot of letters so you will probably get a random letter from me within a week. 

 

   As far as next week goes, I heard I can email the night before and when I land. The other Hmas. all leave a day before I do so I will probably be put in a random trio for a day. The week before people leave, the CCM people take their picture because every Sunday after the movie, they have a slide show of all the districts who are leaving with "Called to Serve" in the background. The weird part is, after the slide show, we always sing "Till we Meet Again" so it always looks like their dying (I´m the only one that thinks that though). They lady (Hma. Jones) wanted emails to send the picture to. I dont know if she already sent it but I gave her yours btw.

   

    My afternoon teacher, Hmo. Tapía, started school this week in the afternoons so we got a new teacher :( Hma. Sierra... She´s.... interesting... but more like a drill sargent. If you speak any English or if as a class, you collectively get 5 questions wrong, you have to do burpees or push-ups or the football run thing into a push-up. She will say to do 3 but this is her 3: "uno...uno...uno...uno...uno...dos...dos..uno..." and its really hard/awkward/uncomfortable to do in a dress! When we do language, she like gets 3 inches from your face and say a verb conjugated and you have to say which form it is or vice versa... it´s like she´s staring into your soul! She opens her eyes as wide as they can and just stares. And she´s prego so one day she´s like that and the next she´s like super nice. Yesterday she was really nice though. Oh! and she also tells you straight up to repent if your planner isn´t all nice as hers or if you have a doodle in it. Never a dull moment with Hma. Sierra!

 

      I love my morning teacher! Hmo. Soto is the best! It´s weird, all the teachers have only been back from their missions for like a year and a half. So he is 22... he could literally be my older brother. He´s the Mexican brother I never had! (sorry Eric and David) He is super funny and sassy it´s hilarious! He´s also the one that told me I had "a la moda" (swag) so he immediately went up on my list. One day during gym, we were playing volleyball with our district. I gave Hma. Moody the best/hardest high-five ever! She said her hand was still stinging after like 20 minutes. The next day, I saw Hmo. Soto and was like "high-five Hmo. Soto!" then gave him the same high-five. It echoed in the hallway... it was pretty sweet. Afterwards, he just stood there, dumbfounded, holding his wrist and was like "...you hurt... my hand..." Now that´s our thing except he always tries to move his hand so I dont hit it. So he really is like an older brother! He always says that for someone so small I´m really strong. So one day I showed him our family picture and pointed at Eric and David... he understands now. He didn´t believe that we were related for a while but then he saw how much I look like Dad.

      One day, he brought his cousin, Jonathon, to have us teach. He is a return missionary and is active in the church. But he is getting a devorce because his wife was cheating on him and he has a small baby boy. He asked why his baby son has to grow up without having a mom and dad and it was so sad! I wanted to give him a hug and tell him it is going to be ok! (Im kinda not allowed to though) I almost cried.

     I have been having some serious Disney with-drawls this week! One night, I literally could not sleep and had Winnie the Pooh playing in my head! The movie! Just some random scenes of Winnie the Pooh. I had a mini movie night in my head. I usually have a Disney song stuck in my head too. Please put some on my iPod! Dig a Little Deeper, You´ll be in my Heart, On my Way, good stuff like that.

     

    Misc. info paragraph: Good news! I´m getting my watch tan back! Its not as good as the other one though. This is just a band that goes all the way around. But hey! a watch tan is a watch tan.  I love getting all the letters and packages! 

   This week, Hma. Allison had the smart idea to only speak spanish for the next two weeks... ya that lasted a day. Everyone was getting really frustrated because we couldn´t communicate everything we wanted to say and we couldn´t really understand what anyone else was really saying. Friday... ya Friday was not my day. Spanish was not coming to me at all. It was my turn to give a spiritual thought in the morning and Hma. Bittle said it looked like I almost went into a panic again because now we are suppose to be doing them in spanish. Spanish was not there that day. Then I had Hma. Sierra... no bueno. No panic attack but I was getting frusterated. They would be saying the simplest things and I couldn´t make any connections. Oh well. That was Friday. Today is Tuesday. And there was not a panic attack! (ish)

    I´m going to start giving you homework. Please read "The Faithful Hertitage of Hope" (or something like that) it´s by Henry B. Eyering. I read it in RS on Sunday and it was the best! Sunday in general was awesome. Everyone had a hard and long week so we all needed a spiritual lift please read it. I encourage everyone to read it. Love and miss you all! ¡Hasta luego!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

with Hermana Allison

with Hermana Bittle

with Hermana Moody

Other tid-bits (taken from emails to Dad the last 2 weeks):

last week:

Bit of Mexican Culture for ya! You know the knock dun dun dun dun dun *pause* dun dun? Well here, it is like flipping of a Mexican! Just as an FYI! I hope you guys are doing FHE, reading, and praying together. OOHHH!! Tell Mom to look up D&C 18:44. (I forgot to tell her to put in the blog) I came across it this week and loved it. I started reading D&C while being stuck in the casa and I love it so much! I love and miss you all!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

this week:

For next week when I travel, I can email the night before and when I get there I believe. I dont try to be so hard on myself. For once probably in my life. I´m the positive one. Hma. Bittle is the negative one. She also talks a lot. She talks to everyone she comes in contact with and ends up telling her life story. She also announces EVERYTHING (including bodily topics) so sometimes I feel like I´m living with Mom´s sisters. Well Im about out of time so I love you so much and give Fritz a cuddle for me!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

P-Day #4

But first....let me take a selfie.

Email #1:
(Rebekah): ¡Hola de México!
(Mom's reply):  I hope you are still typing! I need more than an hola!!!!

Email #2....45 min later! (Mom was freaking out this whole time thinking she wasn't gonna get an email this week)
(Rebekah):  Oops... sorry. Didnt mean to send that yet.

     Sorry your week has been kinda boring not really a whole lot has happened here either except for Sunday (I´ll get to that later). As to your questions; I was feeling a little inadequate and like everyone else is improving more than me. I felt like everyone else is here - and I was here_ both spiritually and in the language. I was questioning if I was ready to be there. At the moment, I didn´t know it was a panic attack, but looking back I know it was. The only thing I remember was trying to recite James 1:5 and not being able to do it then it just got all down hill from there. Everything before that was a blur. In the blessing last Monday, the main thing I remember was he kept saying "Heavenly Father is grateful for you at this time" that phrase was repeated like 5 times and that "the people of Washington are being prepared for you and they need you" the Hermanas took notes about what was being said but I left it in the casa. Those were just the main things that stood out because they were repeated like 5 times. 

     Tell the Grandparents I said thank you! 

     And thanks for the doughnuts!! They were by far the highlight of the week and probably the best thing I have ate in a month! (has it really been a month?)

     Not really a whole lot has happened this week. On Wednesday I started being the senior companion. The first half was the companion with the last name closest the A then the second half it switched. On Thursday we started TRC. Not exactly sure what it stands for but its when we teach actual people. Up until this point, it has only been teachers (so my baptism commitment is fake :( that or Im just such an awesome missionary that he already got baptized, went on a mission, and got married in the temple). They are all volunteers. They could be members, less active, or actual investigators off the street. Pretty sure ours was a member. The people before us went way over so we only had 10 minutes with her. We didn´t really have enough time to do a lesson so we just decided to introduce ourselves, get to know her, establish expectations, then answer any questions she had. Her first question was "What happens after we die?" like we can answer that in 5 minutes! I tried to as best as I could. Then I asked her if she was understanding... she said "un poco" so in other words... no. She was like the nicest lady ever though. She was super smiley and giggley the entire time. We didn´t go over how to pray but we asked her to pray anyways. She gave a super long, in-depth, and elaborate prayer so ya... pretty sure she´s a member. Good thing too cause apparently, we weren´t making sense. Afterwards, she was filling out our "review card" and needed to borrow Hma. Bittle´s pen so we had to wait. Apparently, I was messing with my fingers because out of nowhere Hma. Bittle and I heard a *crack* and I look down at my fingers... no bueno (no, I did not break them. Just cracked them). Afterwards, we were talking to Hmo. Tapía (the teacher I was with when I had my little episode last week) and ya... he was making fun of me because of messing with my fingers.

         On Friday, we got the review card back... but it was all in Spanish... I understood most of it but not enough to make out her words exactly. So I asked Hmo. Soto (my morning teacher) to translate.  It said " I could feel the love they have and I would be willing to listen to more. I can feel the love they have for me and the Gospel. They make me want to be more loving towards other people." So I´m like "...so in other words... we sucked and they were just being nice?" then he said no. Hmo. Soto is one of our "investigators" and he said he can feel the love we have. He said a pair of elders asked him to be baptized and he said no because he doesn´t feel like they loved him or the Gospel like we do but he said yes to us because he can feel the love we have. He said he can feel the Spirit when we teach him and he looks forward to every time we teach him and that we are on the right path. So thats good! Later that day, it somehow came up that I dont sleep with a pillow. So Hmo. Soto called me weird... but then later he said I have swag? Thats the first time that I have been ever told I have swag but what ever! He got married a couple weeks ago and he was telling us that it is part of their culture to dance for the wife at the wedding. We asked him if he danced for her and he said "yes. I danced like a stripper for my wife at our wedding" not sure if he actually knew what he just said but it was the funniest thing ever!

     Later that night, we had an interview with the trainer sisters and the one I was with somehow convinced us to do a "solo español day" which is when you only speak spanish... all day long... without any english. They convinced the other Hmas to do the same so on Saturday, I only spoke Spanish... it was really hard. Hma. Bittle pretty much just gave up after lunch. She didn´t care if she spoke English. I was getting frusterated. We had a sticker on our name tags that said "solo español" and she was speaking english. I tried to remind her to speak spanish or I would try to help her by telling her how to say it, but she just didn´t care. I´m trying to brush it off. If she doesn´t want to take my advice or help, thats her fault. 

     Sunday... no bueno... muy malo. Hma. Bittle woke up at mid night with major chills, couldn´t get warm, teeth chattering, and couldnt go back to sleep. At 2 in the morning, we all woke up to her violent hurling. She puked 2 other times during that night. The first things that come out of her mouth were (How am I suppose to take the sacrament? I need a blessing!" we told her she had to wait till the Elders were up. So at 6:40, Hmas Allison and Moody went to the Elders´ casa to ask them to give her a blessing. But they arent allowed in our casa so we did it on the patio. After that, we took her to the enfermaria to be told that she couldnt leave. So I have been stuck in the casa for the past couple of days. My branch president and district leaders came over to give us the sacrament though so thats good! She hasnt barffed since Sunday but she is still super weak. Whenever she eats something, her stomach feels weird. She has been sleeping pretty much since Sunday with an occasional awakening to have diaherria. So I have been stuck in the casa. I have been doing a lot of studying, sleeping, and writing random letters. She was able to get out today though, which is good.

   So ya, sorry for the boring email. Not a whole lot has happened! Love you tons!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

Email #3:

    It was an accident haha sorry. Apparently, I am a really weird sleeper. According to Hma. Bittle, on Sunday night while she couldn´t sleep, I was singing "Nearer my God to Thee" in my sleep... and you know the weird noises I make at home? According to the other Hmas, I make those noises too in my sleep. And I wake up a lot in the morning with my pillow on the ground a couple feet away from my bed. Oops..

   The other day, we were talking about what we would be doing if we were still at home. They were mostly saying work or school or something like that then they said "and Hma. Williams would be cuddling with her mommy on the couch watching a Disney movie!!" sad... but true. I have been having like Disney withdrawls this week! You should put some songs on my iPod :).

   Living with girls is getting better... but still hard. they talk about their boyfriends a lot. Oh well... better get used to it. Love and miss you tons!!

-Hma. Rebekah Williams

Don't worry...I got my socks

Krispy Kreme:)

 More Mexican rain

 No idea what this is.  I just put it in a tortilla.

 Piña Coladas!

Thumbs up!

(notes:  I updated the last couple weeks with emails to daddy.  More insight into this girl's adventure!)

P-Day #3

¡Hola por México!

   This week has been such a roller coaster! Not the fun one though. Wednesday... rained like no other! I was in the middle of a lesson with one of our investigators, Josue, and it started pouring rain and hailing for absolutely no reason whatsoever! Luckily, we were inside. When the lesson was over, I had dinner. We sprinted to the commodore (cafeteria), from there it started pouring and hailing even harder. The streets were so flooded we couldn´t even see the streets. We took our shoes off so they wouldn´t get ruined. Right after dinner, we had to go to TALL (technologically advanced language... something else that starts with a L. Its the church´s language help site). So we sprinted to the TALL labs, but it was so flooded I couldn´t see where the extremely slippery paint was... I´m guessing you know where this is headed. I slipped in the flooded street and my TALL books went flying everywhere and are now super water damaged. I got a rip in my green and polka dot skirt and scrapped up my ankle so it was all bloody. When we finally got there, Hma Bittle wanted to go back in the rain to look for the other Hmas. So we went back outside, running in the rain. It was actually kinda fun though... except for being soaking wet, cold, and all bloody with a hole in my skirt. Besides that.

   *Please include the next entire 2 paragraphs in the blogs and emails. Its a bit on the personal side but I think its all really important for the ending*

    Friday.... Friday just was not my day. My morning teacher, Hermano Soto, decided to have practice by giving a lesson all in spanish without any preparation. It was only like 10-15 minutes to another companionship but still. Ya... it didn´t go very well. Apparently, I play with my hands alot when I´m nervous. Like I twist them, bend them, crack them, sometimes all at the same time (yes I know, not very good for my fingers), Hmna Bittle says I do it all the time. Anyways, spanish words not coming to my head and I was super shaky and twisting my fingers. Hmna Bittle still doesn´t know very much spanish so she wasn´t much help. Then we switched and they did super good... of course. And one was the district leader who is good at like everything. I eventually shook it off. In the afternoon, my afternoon teacher, Hmno Tapía, decided to pretend to be an investigator to have us practice and to see how we are progressing. We did not have a whole lot of time to prepare. Hermana Bittle still needs to write out a script word for word what she is going to say. He had us go first. I didn´t want to go first and I didn´t think we were ready but we went anyway. We were going to teach him the restoration so I memorized James 1:5 in spanish. After we asked him about his family and establishing our cause and prayer and such, Hmna Bittle started her thing then she looked at me and immediately, all the spanish left. I haven´t had to use a script this entire week so I didn´t think I would need to write one. I was super studdery, shaky, twitchy... it wasn´t pretty. Pretty sure I almost broke my fingers. Hmna Bittle only wrote her script for her parts and couldn´t really help me so I was on my own.  Eventually, it was my turn to talk about José Smith. I tried to recite Santiago 1:5 (James 1:5) and just couldn´t do it. I tried so hard to remember and it just didn´t come to me. We always say a prayer before a lesson and ask for the Spirit and the gift of tongues but it just didn´t come to me that day. I literally started a panic attack. Hermana Bittle literally looked directly at my teacher and said "pause" then looked at me, told me just to read it. So I read it directly out of the scriptures and looked at her and said "I can´t do this. You talk and I´m going to breathe. We ended up going 10 minutes over and since we had dinner afterwards, we just talked to my teacher for a little bit. I had a panic attack in the middle of the lesson. My heart was still beating super fast and I was all antsy well through and after dinner (even after going to the Nutella bar!) I don´t know why I panicked. The "investigator" was my teacher. I know he´s not going to think any less of me. I know he isn´t there to judge me. Yet, I still freaked. Maybe it started in the first lesson, I have no idea.

        I woke up on Saturday with my knuckles all red and bruised. We have gym time after breakfast I decided and told them  that we were going to the track. They could walk it but I needed to run. I still felt anxious. I did one lap and had a hard time breathing. (We are really high up in altitude) I thought I could run though it and tried it. Ya... that didn´t work very well. I ran 4 laps and then until I got to the other Hermanas then walked because I was wheezing. Yet again... back to square one. It was just frustrating because running is my thing. Running has always been what I have been able to do and its what I´m good at. I had the spiritual thought in the beginning of class. I shared what happened to me the day previous and John 14:18 and 26. (18-I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.  26-But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.)  Turns out, thats what a lot of people used in their lessons that day. Every week, we have a little interview with the sister trainers to see how we are doing and blah blah blah. I told the one I was with about my little panic disorder thing and about what happened. So it felt kinda good to talk about it but I´m still not very good at talking about my emotions. Sundays are always good though! We have meetings and lessons all day but it was still super good. In México, instead of fasting from dinner to dinner, they fast from Lunch to Lunch... it was sssooo hard! I pretty much understood what most of them were saying in their testimonies which is always good! We had a devotional by someone who works in the Provo MTC and he also helped make Preach My Gospel! It was so cool to learn how it was made! It was really long though. We had Sunday school by Octaviano Toranio or something like that. He works here and was part of the 70 awhile ago. One thing we talked about in Relief Society was able to have true JOY, you need to love Jesus, Others, Yourself which is a cool way to think about it. Apparently, some of the elders fasted to watch the movie The Testaments for the movie... and then we watched it! It is by far the best church movie I have seen here! It is so awesome! There was a lot of talk about priesthood blessings too. I thought if I ever had another panic attack I would ask for one. I remembered in my patriarchal blessing says specifically not to be afraid to ask for one and to rely on priesthood holders a lot. Yesterday, I finally built up the courage to ask my district leader, Elder Watkins, to give me one. Apparently since I have been here, I have talked in my sleep a lot and I wake up all the time. Maybe I was talking in my sleep like David use to walk in his sleep when he was stressed. My panic is all subconscious though so I have no idea when its going to happen or why. I thought and prayed about and asked him for a blessing. I figured, it wouldn´t hurt to have one even if I didn´t need one. It was really hard to ask though because Im not very good at asking for help. It was needed though! It answered so many of my questions and I could tell he was trying so hard to listen to the Spirit for guidance! All 8 of the elders helped so their hands were really heavy but it was so cool to have them all there!

    Today was awesome! We finally went to the temple!!! I loved it there so much! Im glad we took a bus there... México City is extremely sketchy and scarey. The drivers are nuts! I´m just about out of time but I love you so much! I found 2 people I worked in the temple with here. I met Hermana Poludo, but she was in a wheel chair and you will never guess why! Its from praying too much... literally. We pray like 20 times a day and its from her kneeling down too much and getting up that the muscle and ligaments started to pull away from her knee. I also found Ana Ioane from Oceanside. And an Elder Hurst... it was weird. Everyone in my district just about hates me because I have gotten 3 packages and 4 letters within 3 weeks (tell Sis. Hurst I say thanks! I cant figure out how the use the at sign here or else I would of emailed her) Yet again, you will get more mail for pictures. Love you all so much!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

(***UPDATE***)
email to Daddy:

Half way done!!!!!!!! They days are extremely long but the weeks go by so fast!! Jake was right, they have the best chocolate milk ever here! My stomache doesnt really like it a whole lot though. I´m technically out of time but my companion is still on so why not talk to my daddy! I love you so much! Emailing is so bittersweet! I love emailing home but it always makes me sad! Everyone in my district just about hates me because of all the mail I get but hey! Its not my fault Im so loved! I cant figure out how to use the at sign to send an email so I can only reply to them. She just about done so give everyone my love and tell them I say hi! Fritz too!

-Hermana Rebekah Williams

P.S tell the boys to check their email!