Hermana Training Leader Whoop Whoop!

What a great week it's been! 

Feels like just yesterday I got to email you all. I am exactly half way done here! Pretty darn loco but it's a good feeling.

So, guess what!? Sunday morning, Presidente Suarez (my branch president) asked Hermana Despain and I to be the new Hermana Training Leaders. We accepted the calling! So basically we are zone leaders but for the girls in Zone 10. It's gonna be great. We have to do interviews with all the girls to make sure that they are doing alright and to help them with any problems that they are having. I'm excited to get to know them better and to help them out here at the CCM. I already love all of them! (There's about 28). It'll be a great opportunity for Hermana Despain and I to get some leadership skills and to get outside of our district and help some girls out. The Branch Presidency thinks we will do a great job so we will try our best! 

This morning, my teacher Hermano Martinez challenged our district to memorize 200 new vocab words in 24 hours... so I have been studying like crazy to get them done! I have to have all 200 memorized by tomorrow morning at 8 AM. Ahhhh!

We got to go to the temple this morning! Soooo cool! The Mexico City Temple is gorgeous. Really glad I got to go. There is a store outside and I bought a few things. It was great! 

I play for sacrament every Sunday, all the songs for the devotionals on Sunday nights and Tuesday nights, musical numbers for people who need a pianist (they are just hymns usually), and then for the CCM choir. Word went around that I am a "piano performance major" so I pretty much play for everything haha 

The biggest thing I have learned so far on my mission is humility. The CCM has really knocked me right down to the bones, and now I am being built back up! Its the coolest thing!! 

Thank you for your emails and letters and for the trail mix from Costco, mom! I shared with my district. They all say thank you :)

Love you guys! Talk to ya next week!

Hermana Nissinen

CCM=Disneyland! (Kinda)

Hey guys! 

Great to hear from you this week. 

I'm almost halfway done here at the CCM! This past week and a half have gone by a lot faster than the first week did, so that was good. It was hard though.

You're probably wondering why I referred to this place as Disneyland. Well, this past week was a tough one for our district. One of our elders went home, our 4:00-9:00 teacher told us that he  probably won't be teaching us anymore (and we all love him) and reality hit HARD and we realized that we are gonna be doin this for awhile.... (We all had a good cry fest last night together which was nice.) So, on our way to dinner one night, Hermana Hatch (the cute redhead in the district), said, "This place reminds me of Disneyland!" And we all just stopped and laughed and asked if she has ever actually been to Disneyland because it's definitely nothing like it. She said that the rollercoasters are our emotions because we are always on an emotional rollercoaster, the fireworks every night, the warm weather, and then there's all the happy people here who just wanna make sure that you're doin alright. We thought it was cute, so now we refer to this place as Disneyland to keep our spirits up and to make some fun out of it :) 

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The cafeteria has amazing food!

The tienda is the best store ever! They have everything!
 We almost always come here after lunch and get an
ice cream or a drink or a candy. Its really fun!

The other day, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. I was sitting in class thinking about allllll the other things that I could be doing at home or at school and wasn't feeling very good about myself. That next morning, I decided to write down everything I was grateful for in my journal and add things to it throughout the day. That night, I said a prayer and ONLY thanked Heavenly Father for those things. I didnt ask him for anything. I needed to be humbled and appreciate all the things I have and that I have this amazing opportunity to be here! The next morning I woke up and felt great. I had an awesome day and my lessons went well. I was like "Shoot, I guess I've gotta do this more often" haha. 

Where we play sand volleyball everyday!
It's so fun! 

I am a lot happier in a different way now... before the mission I was happy in a material, Worldy way, but now I am happy in a spiritual way and not the other stuff. I don't even miss my phone or computer or movies ( I do miss music, that is one thing).  Its awesome to be here!

Hermana Perrish! She sleeps in the same room
 as I do. She is really fun

I love the Latinas!

I love Hermana Cox! She is from Las Vegas
and is going to Washington DC.

One scripture I read this week that I loved was D&C 29:4-5. 
4: Verily, I say unto you that ye are chosen out of the world to declare my gospel with the sound of rejoicing, as with the voice of a trump.
5: Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father.

* I LOVE this scripture because when I feel incapable, I read aloud the first part of verse 4 when it says that I am chosen out of this world to declare His gospel and then in verse 5 when He says that He is in our midst. Like how cool is that?! Makes me feel like I can totally do this*

We didn't get to go to the temple today, I think we are going on Wednesday (which is my next P-Day). The people in my district who are staying in Mexico need their Visas so they are off getting that today while I get to hang out here! 

I got asked to give a talk this Sunday about the missionary purpose, so I've been working on that. It's only gotta be around 7 minutes and completely in Spanish so wish me luck! I am not so good at conjugating so I have to work a lot on that. we play a game with my morning teacher everyday called Latino. He leaves the classroom, and we pick one person in the district to be the Latino for the day and they can only speak Spanish. At the end of the day, my teacher picks who he thinks the Latino was. But to trick him, we all have to speak Spanish so he doesn't know and doesn't win. Its pretty fun and forces us all to only speak in Spanish all day.

Our district Thursday night. We were all having a
bonding moment and went around and read all of our
favorite scriptures. It was great.

Haha holy cow Joe, I can't believe what happened to you! I read Dad's letter about it to my district... that's muyyyyyy loco dude! Good thing ya won though. That's awesome. Sorry about your head :(

Love you all, thank you for your emails and letters. I have the best family ever!

I'm excited for this next week! It's gonna be a great one, I just know it.

Con Amor,

Hermana Nissinen

I Survived My First Weeeeeek!

Hey all! I'm so happy to hear from all of you. This has seriously been the hardest week of my life so far! But I made it to P-day alive :)

This is Hermana Taylor and I when we landed in Mexico.
 We were jus about to go on the bus to the CCM. 

First picture of me with my name tag! 
Hermana Nissinen!

I have so many things to tell you all about! First, the CCM is AWESOME. We're pretty much completely immersed in Spanish. My teachers only speak Spanish to us. The first full day here, I was SO tired from traveling the day before. I didn't understand anything that was being taught and it was a crazy long day. I was like "What the heeeeeeck have I gotten myself into. I don't know if I can be here for 6 weeks and then do this for a year and a half!" But some other hermanas here told me to make it to Sunday. Just make it to Sunday! The days here feel like months, but the week has gone by fast. Haha Idk how to explain it but it's true. I am always super tired when I get back to the casa! But I always feel really proud of myself because I had a productive day.

The Sisters in my district.  I love them all!

I'm doing pretty well with Spanish. Our 2nd day here, we had to teach Fernando (Our investigator) the first lesson completely in Spanish. MAN was it hard! I understand almost everything my teachers say, but speaking it is harder. It'll just come in time though :) I'm grateful I get to learn the gospel in another language because it's teaching me to just go back to the very basics. When we teach, our lessons have to be SO simple because we don't even know what we're saying haha. 

My companion is Hermana Despain from Beaverton! She's so so sweet. I love her. We get along great. She is going to LA California on her mission! We tease each other and always laugh at how we're just "2 blonde chicks from Portland who ended up in Mexico and are trying to speak spanish" haha.

So we actually live in a casa (house) instead of a dorm.  It has a laundry room and a big living room with couches. Then 4 girls have their own separate  room in the house.  It's nice!

My companion Hermana Despain.  I love her!

I had 2 cool experiences this week: 

1: Friday morning, I had told Hermana Despain and the other girls in our district how much I was craving a sandwich! We eat good food here, but I was just wanting a sandwich SO BAD. Well, we went to breakfast right after that and GUESS WHAT. The main entree was a triple decker sandwich with bacon, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. I was sooo happy you don't even know! (I even went back for seconds... ha ha). My district thought it was hilarious, and we turned it into a lesson about tender mercies and how God is aware of our desires and wants. I really learned how to find joy in the little things. We now all find "Sandwich Momentos" which is when something good happens to us that makes us happy!

2: On Saturday, Hermana Despain and I were told that we can't use our notes anymore for teaching in our lessons. No notes, no bullet points, nada. So, we started to prepare our lesson for Monday about the importance of prayer and the Book of Mormon. We were pretttyyyyy nervous. We taught Fernando, and we did GREAT. About a half hour lesson only in Spanish with just our scriptures and the Holy Ghost! He said he would read the assigned chapters in the Book of Mormon that night and pray to know it's true. The spirit was so so strong, I'm not sure if I have ever testified so strongly of the Book of Mormon than when I did it a few days ago in a language I barely know. 

The CCM is beautiful. The mornings are pretty chilly, but the afternoons and evenings are way nice. At night, we hear either fireworks or gun shots (we're not entirely sure), so we always try to guess which one it is. It's kinda fun :) I love the food here. A lot of Mexican food which is great! Joe, you'd love it here... there is fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon every meal, so I eat a ton of fruit. 

Sorry for the small amount of pictures... We're only allowed to take pictures on P-Day's so cameras aren't a distraction. I tried to take some this morning before emailing.

The CCM is beautiful!!!!! There are always lot of guys here doing construction and landscaping.  They keep it very well maintained.

The latinos here are so fun! We try to sit with them
during meals because we want to learn Spanish
 and they want to learn english, so it's really fun!

I love you all. I really appreciate your letters that you send me. It makes my DAY when my district leader brings them to lunch and I have one from you guys. (Sometimes a tear or two falls onto my plate when I'm reading them) haha. 

 My P-Day is on Friday next week because I think we're going to the temple. 

I get to play the piano for the CCM choir and do a musical number next Tuesday in the big devotional! I'm excited.  

Thanks for all the support! Even though it is hard, I love being a missionary and being a representative of Jesus Christ. It's AWESOME. I'm so grateful to be here. I know that this is where I need to be right now in my life. I am going to keep working really hard! Love you all so so much!

Sorry for the way long letter, I just had so much to say!

Con Amor,

Hermana Nissinen ❤