June 30, 2015: Viva Mexico!

I am loving being in Mexico. I seriously am learning so much everyday, and I understand a majority of what people say in Spanish, and everyday get better at speaking back, with the new vocab i continue to gain. and while i write it is harder already to switch back to thinking in English, and my spelling is even worse in English, who thought could be even worse! But yep! 

The CCM is right in the middle of Mexico city, we never go out of the gates, and all day long we hear sirens, dogs barking, and gun shots. My favorite part of being here is looking up and seeing all of the colorful casas in the hills surrounding me. 

My companion is Hermana Harmon! Funny, it is a small world! We taught our first lesson on friday, the third day we got here, and it actually was not too bad. It is amazing that even though I know little about the language that after a prayer, i am calm, and know what to say. 

I really like my district, we are all good friends, and we always are joking around which helps break up the hours of studying we do. All the Hermanas with me are going to Hermosillo too. 

Everyone has been telling us that Hermosillo is SUPER hot, and that the people are tall there, and talk with a deeper voice, and have Texas accents. So we imagine a tall Mexican Rancher with a deep voice with a lasso swinging around his hear saying super deep: HORNOsillo (horno= oven) I know that sounds dumb, but just try to reenact it right now, and you will laugh, I promise! haha but maybe it is just funny because after studying all day, pretty much anything is funny. 

Probably the hardest thing for me has been the fact that i have to wear shoes! I just want to walk around bare foot! Also, the next thing is that finally on Saturday we got to work out, which was good because I felt disgusting!! And I was so excited to run, but forgot the fact that my companion would not run like I was running with Maddy in the mornings. We could say it was a slow canter... in a nice way! So on Monday we machines so that we could go different paces. 

The food is good here, but I never really know what exactly I am eating. But so far it is good, and has not hurt my stomach! Bonus, more than i can say the morning I left. LoL

And the CCM is on a private well, the the water is pretty safe. The other thing about being here is the hoards of Mosquitoes. When we open our door to go out of our house there is a swarm of hundreds that we run through. My companion had 27 bites, but I have two. She is allergic slightly so they swell up huge on her arms and face...guess she just takes the hit for both of us, which is so charitable! 

Oceans of love to you,

Hermana Barton

ps. When people ask me where I am from, and I tell them Santa Cruz, California. They say, oh yeah, I thought you might be from California! Guess I am not really "Toning down the Santa Cruz!" Which is a good thing! I take pride in being a California girl! They are " unforgettable" right??!! I guess the starfish earrings from Anya that I wear everyday, and the fro thang don't help, but they will keep making their appearance! Don't worry! 

This is was what we imagined the people to be like in "Horno"sillo