Tacos in Tijuana

Hola mis amigos y amigas! Wow, I know you just heard from me on Sunday, but the past couple days have been pretty amazing, SO I decided to write another email jajaja. On Monday, I woke up VERY early in the morning, and my amazing father drove me to the Eugene airport in enough time to catch my 6 am flight (what a champ🙌). After two hours of flight, I was in SLC and off to my appointment at the Mexican Consulate! I met probably 15 other elders there who were also all getting their VISA's approved at various times that day, so I wasn't alone! The VISA process itself took all of maybe 3 minutes, but I was still waiting an hour after my scheduled appointment time before I was able to complete the process jaja. Anyhow, I got it all finished, and Elder Babcock and I, an Elder I met just starting HIS training at his house in Washington, walked up to the Salt Lake City Temple and explored the various buildings and sights around temple square until we had to catch our planes back home....

Hola a todos! Sorry I didn't get an email off on Wednesday! I have now received two shots in two weeks though, and await the third and (hopefully) final shot I need before I can head to Mexico! The past week and a half, I've felt the Lord's "refining fire" as I've worked each day to learn the spanish language and draw closer to Him. This home MTC experience has really been a blessing I believe, and it's crazy that I've only got 2 weeks left before I head out to proclaim the joy of His gospel! Some things that happened and that I've been thinking about. Last Monday and Tuesday, my district (me and the 11 other missionaries in my classes) and I along with our two teachers joined in fast to specifically help one of the Elders in my district be blessed with the gift of tongues and be able to learn the spanish language better. This was a super cool experience, and, even though I fast each month, it felt different as this fast was specifically and only f...

Hello Elder Salsa- I'm gonna try to get back on track and write you weekly.  I'm targeting Sunday evening so that you can read it Monday morning on your p-day, so I am only a few days behind this week – your p-day is on Wed right now anyway, so it's all messed up. This Sunday, some good messages were shared, and they stand out in my mind right now because of where we are in our lives.  For the younger kids, they've started school up again and are playing sports.  Elder Salsa is at the start of his mission.  My work group is approaching evaluation time and planning for next year.  And the older girls and their husbands are in a critical time in their lives as well.  One of the speakers talked about priorities and about the natural man. One quote that was shared was something to this effect: "No man shall say it is simply in my nature."  The speaker was talking about how our religion should challenge us to grow and change.  That simply ac...

Hola Todos! Today I just wanted to share the "theme" I guess of my week. This past week and a half has involved a lot of heartfelt and tearful prayers, long hours of study, and lots and lots of fun too. I wanted to focus on a couple things that really impacted me this week. As some of you know, passport and Visa applications and processing can take a VERY long time. I didn't personally feel up and ready to start those processes until about a month before I started my training, so about 6 and a half weeks ago. I knew it was really late, but I just hadn't felt like it was time for me to start working on them yet. Anyhow, when I went to the post office with my dad to get a passport, the lady told us it would take 6-12 weeks before my passport got back to me. This was kind of a blow to me, but I was expecting it would take a long time, so I wasn't really surprised. However, that night, I just knelt and prayed that my passport and Visa processes would take place accord...

Hola Everyone! Wow! What a week! For those of you who don't know what I've been doing the past week, I just started my training as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I'll be learning spanish at home via online classes with the training center in Mexico (el Centro de Capacitación Misional México or CCM) for 5 more weeks, and then, if my visa goes through in enough time, I'll go out to serve and teach the people of Tijuana, Mexico for the remainder of my two years! There's so much I want to tell everyone in this email, but I don't want to go into detail about EVERY day of this week, so I'll just do highlights from my days jaja. Monday was quite a start. We had an introductory devotional that was super inspiring. We talked about the gifts and talents that we had been blessed with when we were set apart as missionaries, and I truly feel that all those blessings are coming to fruition this week. Tuesday night, my district, the 11 ot...