11 days!‏

That´s right, 11 days until I fly to Chicago! Craziness. 

Hello friends and family! I miss you terribly. But life is good here in México. 

First: CONFERENCE! The weirdest part was singing Secreta Oración in English. That´s my favorite Spanish song. Conference was full of amazing insight and inspiration I needed so much! My favorite talk was probably Holland´s, simply because it was so applicable to my life right now in el CCM. Our prophets and apostles are so inspired. I love it. 

Bad news: I may have developed an allergy to nuts while I've been here. It started with a salad with pecans and almonds on it. My tongue hurt really bad and my throat was sore. It lasted nearly an hour. Then, I had some cashews to see if those affected me too. My tongue and throat felt a bit swollen and I got piercing pressure behind my ears. I talked to the doctor (who is also the music director, fun fact) and he said they have no specialist here to test me, so to just not eat nuts. Though there is a bright side: I have no reaction to peanut butter! yay! 

My Compañeros: They are my favorite people, seriously. I love them! Whenever I get distracted, I hear in my mind "Hermana, ¡Foco!" which is what my compañeros say to me all the time. haha. I often receive carepackage letters for Hermana Leavitt because we have the same first name. It makes me laugh. Hermana Schaffner will conjugate verbs in Spanish.... in her sleep. out loud. She also dropped her dictionary on her waffle covered in peanut butter and syrup. Never a dull day with Hermana Schaffner. As a companionship, we are still reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish out loud each night, singing a Himno each night, and Fasting each Sunday for El DOn De Lenguas. If you would like you are welcome to join us for our last two Sundays of fasting. You could fast for us, or all missionaries, to gain the Gift of Tongues. 

Enfermo: There is a virus going around here. Elder Thomson was hit, the day before his birthday. Hermana Scheffner got hit yesterday morning. I´ve avoided it so far. But we aren't allowed to shake hands with anyone, and we use hand sanitizer on top of washing our hands before and after each meal. Gatorade is a jinx because the Doctor told people to drink it if they were sick. The Tienda has sold out of it multiple times. everyone is drinking it! I and my compañeros are taking On Guard Essential Oil pills. (Thanks mom)

Spiritual truths: Teach people, not lessons. "charity, like faith" leads to action" "You cannot convert people beyond your own conversion." We get so much Spiritual support here. IT will be strange to get to the field and not have devotionals all the time. I love it here But I´m excited to go!

Our District motto that we decided on is D&C 123:17

Also, for your last 2 weeks here, you are supposed to speak only Spanish as much as you can. So we labeled our nametags. 

Finally: Random things of the week! There was a bird that flew into our hallway, back and forth, and then strait into a window. It died instantly. Not sure what we were supposed to learn from that. Poor bird. 

They had fresh, whole mangos last Thursday! They were sooo good! I ate 3 of them. (Emma Grace you´d be jealous). Our toaster caught on fire multiple times. It´s not a normal toaster though, it´s like industrial sized with a conveyer belt. They also don´t have fry sauce here, so sad. They are missing out.

We had daylight savings Saturday/Sunday. So we lost an hour. The power kept going out all weekend, but never during Conference. Divine intervention? I think so. We also accidentally have been using fabric softener instead of laundry detergent. Everything is written in Spanish.... oops. But on the bright side it is Aroma de Sol. (how can something be the scent of the sun? no idea.)

Elder Wise and Thomson made a piñata for Elder Thomson´s birthday. Pictures attached. 

That´s just about it!  keep me updated on your lives and I´ll try to do the same! Yo les amo mucho! 

Hermana Hokanson