Week 4: Learning to Count Through Service

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

¿Cómo están? Espero que ustedes están felizes. This week at the beautiful CCM:

Well, I think I am going to start with the most exciting thing that happened this week. Every sunday we write our branch president about our week. Hermana Eastin wrote in hers that she would really love to try the mexican street corn. She had asked all of our teachers, but they all said no, so Presidente Torres was her last resort. On Sunday, he pulled us aside and said that he would bring us some if we told no one! Of course we quickly agreed. A few days later he brought us Esquite. It's corn, mayonaise, lime, and chili powder. It was so different than anything we have ever had in the states, but it was pretty good. He brought it to us during our class so, our district got to try some too. Our rama presidente is so fun and really cares about all of us.

A note from our teacher.

So remember last week we had a Zone foosball tournament? Well I guess the finals are later today and my teammate and I made it! We are the only hermanas to make it to the finals! Guess we have really good foosball skills. I'll let you know how it goes. I don't think we will make it very far because in our bracket we are playing Presidente Torres primero and he hasn't lost a game yet. But maybe today is the day.. so go team Italy!

Ice cream...I mean Mexican corn!

Yesterday it rained a lot again. The rain was coming down faster than I have ever seen before! Brace yourself, because you are going to laugh when i say this, because it would only happen to me.  As we were walking through the torrential rain storm, one of the giant palm leaves flew off the tall palm tree and almost hit me. If it had, I probably would have found some way to get hurt, knowing me. The water was mid calf in some places. 

This week I played the piano again for church. Presidente Torres decided he wanted to sing the closing hymn for sacrament and the sacrament for the closing. I thought it was kind of strange, but I just said okay and played them as he had asked. But at the end I was really grateful for that, because it reminded me of why we go to church in the first place: to think about the Savior as we take the Sacrament and renew our covenants with God. We shouldn't just take the sacrament and forget about it as soon as it is over, but continually think about Christ's atonement he lovingly gave to us. When we sang the sacrament song at the close of the meeting, it helped me to continue thinking about Christ after it was over. 

Sunday night we get to watch movies! (Church movies, but it is the most fun night of the week!) This week we watched a new movie, released only a few weeks ago, about sister missionaries and their history, and "Finding faith in Christ". In the movie about Christ's life, there was a man who came to Christ and asked him to heal his son. Christ asked, "Do you have faith?" and the man replied "Yea, oh Lord, help me with my unbelief." And Christ strait away took his son and healed him. I was thinking about that and how sometimes we don't need great faith, we just need enough to ask Him for help with our unbelief. I think it is amazing that Christ loves us enough to help us strengthen our faith to withstand any trial in our lives!

This week we have been playing sand volleyball outside! Today we are actually going to have a district volleyball game which should be a blast.

I am so grateful for everything I have in my life! I am grateful for all the members of the church who donate so that we can have such an amazing MTC program where we get to feel the Spirit all the time and be able to learn Spanish. I know that the Lord will greatly bless all those who have given to the Missionary Program because they have helped in hastening the Lord's work as well. 

One time for breakfast this week we had tamales in banana leaves! It was so good. They also had mexican hot chocolate..it is not as sweet as american hot chocolate. 

Breakfast

On saturday we did a "Spanish Saturday" as a district and only spoke spanish. It was kinda hard at times because we couldn't express exactly what we were trying to say. Though, it proved to me that I know more than I think I do. 

Guess what? We heard a rumor that January 2015 everyone in the San Fernando Mission (and a lot of others in California) will all have iPads! It will be really fun to have all the church resources and videos with us all the time. Somebody told me that their mom called the mission home and that we were going to have to buy them, but we will see! I only have a week and a half left here. It is so insane. I don't know if I'm completely ready to be a "real" missionary yet!

My room

This week for service we got to drive around in a truck and deliver big water jugs to all the casas! Our supervisor, Julio, put me in charge of counting out how many bottles go to which place. We had to take 60 something to the comedor and he told me to count all in spanish so I guess I am pretty much a pro at counting in spanish now. haha Julio is super fun and teases us about our spanish. He helps us with pronouciation and that really helps. I guess I have been saying cuatro wrong this whole time, so that is embarrassing.  haha He just kept laughing at me. But now I know how to really say it, so that is great! :) 

Anyway, I love you all so much and you are in my prayers!

Love, 

Hermana Buxton

Week 3: I Love To See the Temple

The Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center

Hola! 
Half way through the CCM.. I can't believe it!

This week has been really fun! Fridays are when our district does service. This week we cleaned 300 plastic chairs to get ready for the new missionaries that came this week. We are about to overflow there are so many missionaries! But it is amazing to see first hand how fast the Lord is hastening his work. And I am so excited to be apart of it! Hermano S told us that we have 1,200 missionaries right now and we are expecting to receive about 250 or so every week. During our service activity, it started pouring...and hailing. The roads turned into rivers. It was pretty crazy!

About your questions of where I am staying, there are 6 rooms in our casa including a kitchen (but nothing works) and a laundry room. Our room has two bunk beds and I sleep on the bottom and the other Hermanas sleep on the tops. All of our luggage is on the bottom of one of the bunks where the other Hermana would have been sleeping if she was able to come! We have our own bathroom which is really nice! And yes we get warm showers! The bunk beds are really close together and one night I actually bonked my head and woke up with a lump on my head. Hermano S taught me to say "me duele mi cabeza" which just means my head hurts. Also, Hermana J talks in her sleep which can be pretty funny sometimes! A few nights ago she was talking in spanish! Our teacher was so excited. She said "Soy una buena misionera" haha. And she is!

On Sunday I played the piano for Sacrament meeting in our Zona. It was weird because some of the spanish hymns have different rhythms from english, so everyone was a little off singing. One day this week we ate cactus! It was pretty interesting, but I think I like it. We say prayers so many times a day and I think my knees are getting bruised from kneeling so much. :)

A run in the rain!

I have started reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish this week.  It is amazing how much I can already comprehend. I am reading it with the English version and learning lots! We were promised that if we read the whole book in Spanish we will be fluent so that is my goal. 

We taught an investigator named Josh this week at TRC (the place were we teach real members or investigators). He was such a cool guy and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We taught with nothing but our spanish scriptures for 25 minutes! The Lord was definitely with us in that lesson. But Josh said he understood the whole thing! That made us very happy missionaries! We invited him to pray at the end and he was really nervous, but he did it. It was one of the most humble prayers I have ever heard and the spirit was so strong. I gave him a Book of Mormon and he tried to tell us he couldn't take it because it was ours.  We told him we brought it just for him. He was all smiles! 

Mom I finally got your dear elder this week! That was so fun to get! I found out the regular mail from the states takes 10 days. And I haven't met the other Hna Burnham yet. But I went with Hna Burnham, my 2nd cousin, to the temple today! She is so fun! 

The Temple was the best experience ever. We got to leave the CCM which was really fun! The bus ride was about 45 minutes. Mexico City is so cool. It is crazy, we saw dogs hanging out on rooftops... yeah doubt I'll ever see that again! We went through the visitor's center at the temple, but weren't aloud to go into the Ciudad de Mexico temple because it is being worked on right now.  The Sister missionaries at the visitors center took us on a tour of it and I was thinking the whole time "wow these sisters are so cool! I want to be just like them!" and then I realized I was wearing a name tag, too. haha. 

 The Mexico City Temple

 On the bus to the temple.

At the visitor's center

I got out my camera to take a picture at the temple, but it died right after! I was so sad. But my companions are going to send some of their pictures to me so I'll forward them. We also were able to go to the tienda de zarahemla. Which was this cute little church store in temple square. They had all these homemade church things to buy and of course everything was in spanish. Hermana Jensen and I got matching "HLJ" bracelets. (choose the right in spanish..haz lo justo) I also got a cool scripture case for my spanish scriptures. 

Being at the temple was great. The spirit was so strong and I could feel our Heavenly Father's love for me. I am so grateful for my family too! You guys are my favorite people in the whole world and I am so glad we are sealed together in the temple so that we can be families forever. :) I love and miss you all so much!

We also had a Zona tournament "world cup" today of foosball. We beat some of the boys, but ultimately got bested by our district leader. We were team Italy!

Thanks for all your prayers and love, I definitely feel them everyday! 

I hope you have a fun time at Trek Aubrey! I know you are going to have a great experience. Tell me all about it next week! Also, there were some missionaries this week that got to skype an EFY session and talk to them about missionary work! I am praying that I get to do that next week while you are at EFY in Palmyra! THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME! 

I love the Lord and I love this work! It is hard to be a missionary and to learn a new language. But in our devotional this week our speaker said "That in which we persist in doing becomes easier to do because our capacity to do it grows." This is so true! And I have seen it in just these past three weeks. We went from knowing no spanish to being able to teach a 25 minute lesson in all spanish, with nothing but our Book of Mormon. So amazing and a testament that God lives and is ever so present in our lives. 

Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y nos ama. El Señor es mi luz y mi amigo. Estoy agredecida por mi familia bonita y por la oportinidad ser una familia para siempre por media de el plan de felicidad. Yo se que nuestro proposito en esta vida es ser feliz. Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y si seguimos Cristo, podemos volver a Dios. Me amo esta Iglesia y este Evangelio. 

Con amor siempre,

Hermana Buxton

Week 2: "It's always a good day when you're in the service of the Lord!"

Mi querido familia,

This week has been really great! My favorite quote this week came from an Elder in our zone, who no matter what, is always happy. He always says,"It´s always a good day when you´re in the service of the Lord!" I love this. And it is seriously so true. I think this may become my motto for my mission. 

Mexico is so beautiful!

The devotional this week was amazing. It was by Elder Bednar. My favorite quote was "Your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 

So we had a really good lesson this week with our new investigator Eduardo! (He is actually our teacher Hermano Sanchez so it was a little nerve racking.) He told us we gave an almost perfect lesson though! It was probably the best day of my week. We taught him about God. Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y nos ama. We also asked him if he had a relationship with God and he said no. Eduardo has two children and I asked him how his relationship was with his children and compared it with God. That He is literally our Father in Heaven who loves us and wants to help us. Later that day Hermano S said that no one had ever taught him like that before and that he loved it! He is going to use that with the real Eduardo. (Hermano S is the ward mission leader).

I am loving the CCM. I am so grateful for the chance to devote all my time to learning and studying the gospel. I have never studied so much in my life! My district Elders are pretty funny. I feel like we got a bunch of random personalities all thrown in together! So it is pretty fun. We laugh and joke around a lot. Also, they all say thank you for the donuts you guys sent! They loved them. And thanks from me, too! That was such a fun surprise!

This week´s devotional started maybe fifteen minutes after the biggest storm we have had yet. We ran to the devotional through the rain. Hermana Eastin and I took our shoes and socks off and ran through the streets. The gutters were overflowing and even the streets had about an inch of water on them! 

The locals here are so cute. I´m in love with all of them. We don´t have any native speakers in our district because they are only here for about 2 weeks. But we see them around campus and sit by them in the Comedor. They are so fun to talk to. And they are really patient with our spanish. I'm sure they secretly laugh at how terrible I sound! But actually Hermano Sanchez told me my spanish is sounding pretty perfect with the words I do know. So YAY!! 

I had to take a picture on the bench because I knew mom would love it!

Last night we had TRC which is where they invite real investigators or members from the city in so we can practice with them. We only could bring our spanish scriptures in. It was so intimidating! But once we were in the room with our investigator, Jasmine, the spirit was so strong. Our spanish was absolutely terrible, I can tell you that. But I know that the spirit can testify to anyone in any language. Afterwards we got feedback from them which they had written down and Jasmine said that she felt the spirit very strong, even though she couldn't understand us that well. It just makes my testimony of the Gospel that much stronger!

I love you all so much and think about you guys all the time! Thanks for the many emails from all my family and friends. It means a lot! 

My cousin, Hermana Burnham! She is seriously so cute. I love her. We heard a rumor that there is another Hermana Burnham that came in this week so we are going to try to find her.. :)

I am so glad you guys had fun in Canada. I'm super jealous! I'm glad you guys had fun with the Lindsay's and that Aubrey had a good friend this week to distract her from me being gone! Aubrey, I love you and pray for you all the time. 

Something else crazy that happens every night is fireworks! You can't see them in the sky but you can here them. We asked our night teacher, Hermano Osorio, what goes on (because we hear them until almost 3 in the morning!) He told us that Mexicans like to have fiestas. haha. 

Anyway, love you guys so very much! 

Hermana Buxton

Week 1: In the "Safe Zone"

Hola!

How are you guys?

The ride to the CCM was so awesome. We rode in this little van and our driver was INSANE. I might even go so far as to say I was more scared driving here in Mexico City than I was in Dubai!  As soon as we drove into the CCM the Spirit was felt so strong. It is like nothing I have ever experienced so far! I am so grateful to be here! 

It rains literally every day. Most of my shoes are soaked. haha.

 You can't tell but it is POURING. And the sides of the streets are basically rivers.

My companions are Hermana Jensen and Hermana Eastin.  Hermana Jensen is from Utah and Hermana Eastin is from Canada. They are really fun and are both going to San Fernando! (the greatest mission on earth). My district is really cool! The rest are Elders and they are all going to California. My teacher's name is Hermano Sanchez. He is super nice and has already taught us so much. He speaks English really well and goes back and forth teaching us in spanish and english.  My spanish is already so much better and I have only been here for 1 week. I have already taught 5 lessons in spanish as well. I know, crazy right? The Spirit is very real and Heavenly Father blesses all his missionaries! 

 Me and my compañeras doing some yoga.

Behind me is my classroom building!

I forgot something else, on the fourth of july they made us pulled pork sandwhiches haha! and we all sang the national anthem. The workers were all filming us. haha. OH! and we only lost about 10 missionaries going out to the field and gained 200!!!!! CRAZY. It keeps looking like that for the next few weeks and the mission president doesn't know where to put everyone! haha. we don't fit into the auditorium anymore.

Yes, I have met Hermana Burnham! We figured we were related! 

Thank you so much for all the pictures! They made my day. Aubrey, thanks for the all the little notes in my suitcases. That was so sweet!

Dad,  thank you so much for all the emails and the note in spanish. I think I can already tell what you said! haha  Its crazy how fast you learn spanish here! It is really really hard though, don't get me wrong!  Oh, and I met an Elder from Guatemala and he doesn't speak english, but we had a brief conversation in spanish and told him dad served there. (don't worry dad I called you my dad, not my potato haha)

Mom, no, I havn't gotten the dear elder yet. But both my companions got "mydearmissionary" packages! One of them was cookies and they were really good. The other got fruit from the area. I guess the order goes to a local church family and they bring them in to the CCM. No one in our district has gotten any letters yet though. I thought you guys would love the pictures! I thought today was going to be nice and sunny finally, but we just heard thunder!!

My day consists of mostly language and Preach My Gospel classes. Everyone here is so nice! I love talking to the kitchen staff. They are so sweet. Our conversations are usually just a couple words though. haha Definitely can't completely speak the language yet. The food always has some sort of rice, beans, and tortillas. That is basically what I eat everyday. The fruit here is so amazing though! 

 mi clasa

mi casa

We didn't feel the earthquake, but these are the "safe zones" to go to if there ever is an earthquake.  They are all over the campus.

I have learned so much already being here at the CCM. Heavenly Father is real and he really loves us! I am so grateful for this knowledge! Teaching lessons is where I feel the spirit the strongest. It testifies of the truth of what me and my compañeras are teaching. The gospel is true! 

So, in my limited spanish knowledge I am going to bear you my testimony en español. I hope it makes sense. :)  

Yo se que El Libro de Mormon es verdadero. Yo se que la Iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y nos ama. Yo se que Jesucristo es el Hijo de Dios. Jesucristo es el camino a Padre Celestial. La Expiacion de Jesucristo es muy importante. Nosotros tenemos un profeta en la actualdad. Su nombre es Presidente Thomas S. Monson. Presidente Monson enseña nos a cerca de Dios. Yo amo el Evangelio!  En el nobre de Jesucristo, amen.

I love you guys so much! I hope you all are having a wonderful time back home! I promise that I am having so much fun here in Mexico City and am learning and growing so much in the gospel.

Love and miss you!

Hermana Buxton

Hola from Mexico!

Hello! I am so excited to finally get to email you guys!

My address is:

Hermana Rachel Buxton
[11/08/14] [6 - A]
Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero
07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal
Mexico

Flying was pretty good. On the way to Atlanta I was the only missionary. I sat next to an indian man and he was very nice. He said that he thinks its a "very good thing" that I am going on a mission because people need more light into their lives. I told him that bringing light into others lives is our purpose! he said next time he sees missionaries he will talk to them because i was so nice. Sweet! In Atlanta I met up with 3 other hermanas and one elder. We arrived a bit early and then waited in the airport for 3 hours until the other plane arrived. We were the last group to arrive at the MTC and missed orientation.. so we will get the speedy version tomorrow. I havent met my companion yet but i am sure she is nice! Elder hughes is right, typing on a spanish keyboard is really hard! It rains A LOT here. I am glad I have my umbrella and rainjacket. I have to go but you will hear from me next thursday!

Until then! Love and miss you guys lots!!!

Love,

Hermana Buxton

Off to Mexico City!

Hermana Buxton left early this morning for the CCM in Mexico City. We are going to really miss her, but know she will do amazing things as she serves her mission.