Week 2 at the CCM

Hi All, here is Alyssa’s 2^nd email, again sorry it took me so long to get it out. Also I just wanted to give you all her email address in case anyone wants to send her a quick email. It is below. Feel free to share these with anyone and also if you know anyone who wants to receive them give me their email address. I listed her blog below, I will post a bunch of pictures on there she sent)

Alyssa.wandell@myldsmail.net

http://alyssawandell.blogspot.com/

 Hi mama!! So today as we were reading our emails, Hermana Barth (roommate) says "This is seriously better than Christmas morning!!" Amen! Haha I haven't really had headaches. I had one the other day but that's all. And I am sooooo grateful for the Spanish background that I have because it helps sooo much!! And I can imagine what it would be like if I didn't because there are like 3 people in my branch that haven't had any Spanish background at all. And about the waking up thing, you would think that waking up at 6:30 would give you a ton of time but it really doesn't, especially when 10 of it is taken up saying prayers and 5 of it is trying to wake up enough to function. But I manage. Haha.

So the first week was insanely long!! But the 2nd week literally flew by. On Sunday I was like wait a minute.. last Sunday was like yesterday, where did the time go? I think now that we have got the hang of what we are doing it goes by much much faster. Which is a good thing. Because Sundays and P-days come around much sooner than expected. (Those are my favorite days)

 So on Tuesday after I emailed you the new people finally got here, (WOOO we aren't the greenies anymore! We are like fading to a yellow!) haha anyways, we had this plan that we were going to go up to all the new kids and speak to them in Spanish just to be like oh we aren't the new ones anymore, you are. It happened to us when we got here too. Well anyways as I was doing this the 2nd person I look at is Elder Ryan Sperry (one of her friends from Jordan High) and at that point I was like forget it!! English it is!! So I sat there and talked to him and shook his hand and I was really excited to see him. Elder Adam Millet and Hermana Johanna Pullens  (friends from Jordan High) left this week, lucky ducks...

Okay so I love my district! They are all so funny and we really are like a little family. Each person has their own little quirks that makes them unique and it is so much fun. It really is like being in a room full of brothers and sisters. There are a lot of musically talented people in our district so we like to sing hymns together. Elder Fearber likes to sing the base line, Elder Angell harmonizes with him, I sing the soprano and then Hermana Latu harmonizes with me. It’s really awesome. We could be like a little Mormon band. We could call it the Elders and the Hermanas or something random like that. Every day I gain a new respect for someone in our district. I love it when the guys get really emotional because it’s just sweet.

Anyways another story of how our elders are awesome, we got back from dinner last night and some of the boys were in there and all of a sudden I hear this really weird voice speaking in Spanish and I’m like what in the world is that?? The elders all laugh so at that point I knew something was going on. I look around and I can’t find anyone but I realize that some of the elders are missing. So I look out the window to see if they were outside and no one was there. Then I hear it again coming from the cupboard. So I open that and still nothing and then next thing I know Elder Ballsteadt is coming out of the little cabinet below the cupboards.. haha 5 of them had crawled in there. It was really funny.

The investigator thing was really hard but she ended up becoming our teacher and she is such a sweet heart. She is from Salt Lake as well. So now we have 4 teachers, her and the 3 Hermanos. They are all amazing. And Hermana Doxey is awesome because she is such a good teacher and she hugs the girls whenever we leave class. I love her! But now we have two new investigators haha... but they are our teachers. Hermano Muñoz and Hermano Arevalo (both from Mexico, and Arevalo doesn't speak any English, which is really hard but also really good because it forces us to talk to him in the language.) We were supposed to teach yesterday but the elders took 12 minutes longer than they were supposed to and so they left us with only 3 minutes to teach... so we are teaching tomorrow.

The food is alright. I miss Chick-Fil-A like it’s not even funny! I miss American food! And I never thought I would see the day when I was grateful for hotdogs... cause the ones they have here are gross.... yeah.. oh and I ate crab the other day. I didn't like it. It was a cream cheese crab egg roll type thing... yeah. And yes we can buy snacks. They gives us $10 a week to spend (120 pesos) and if you don't need to buy anything else then you can buy ice cream or candy or cookies or other unhealthy but very delicious things (;

The temple was awesome but it was really hard because NO ONE spoke English!! The lady that asked me my name couldn't say Wandell so I had to write it down for her and explain that it sounded like an l and not a ll because in Spanish they are two different letters and sounds. Oh and the dress that they gave me was literally 10 sizes too big... yeah it was fun... haha no but it really was awesome. So something that is kind of interesting, the floor plan to the Mexico City temple is the same as the Jordan River temple. The inside is the same, escalators and all. Obviously the celestial room is different and so is the outside. The outside is awesome!! The only way I can really describe it is like a Mayan temple with the Mormon twist on it. It's beautiful!! and big!!

Hahaha... another thing that is really funny is I keep telling them stories about Robert (Alyssa’s best friend who is from Germany) and so now they refer to him as "our boy Robert" because they feel like they know him. haha. 

And yeah I noticed in one of the pictures you sent that Abby had a bandaid on her knee. Poor girl. Tell her I love her!

So what did you tell people when they asked about the stick Alyssa?? (Abby was so sad that we were going to Disneyworld without Alyssa so “Stick Alyssa” was my solution that made her happy – picture attached oh and photo by Scott Hancock Photography, if you need his # let me know J) My Hermanas all think that is hilarious and they think Abby is the cutest thing, which of course she is. (: 

So... I have to tell you about my panic attack. It wasn't really a panic attack but you will understand once I tell you. So we were sitting in class the other day when these annoying sirens go off, our teacher starts looking out the window (in Mexico it is normal to here sirens alllllll the time, especially at night when you are trying to sleep...) anyways he goes uhh I think we have to go out to the green dots (safe spots, designated areas where we have to go when the alarms go off) well we are on our way out there when I hear my teacher go "it is the seismic alarm." and at that moment I was like uhhh what did you just say?? yeah these alarms go off when the sensors detect seismic activity. At this point I'm like you're kidding right, nope he was being serious. and so I start bawling! I don’t do earthquakes.... I seriously was so afraid, and everyone was like what’s wrong and I was like this is my biggest fear. Yeah scary! Anyways we didn’t actually feel it, which was good because if I would have it would have been bad. Then our teacher was talking to us and telling us that aside from the temple we are in the safest place in all of Mexico. He said that the church had someone come and check out the campus and it really is crazy that we can’t feel the earthquakes. But yeah the sirens go off 30 seconds before the earthquake starts. He was also saying that on a mission you have so much protection that you don’t realize. Which I know is true but I still am deathly afraid of earthquakes... yeah anyways...

I feel like I am missing something but I don't remember what. Oh the first week we were here there were reporters from Deseret news and he took mine and Hermana Latu’s picture and made us sign our names. So we will probably be in the newspaper or something so look out for it.

Okay I love you I love you I love you!!! Tell my Ayabby that I love her and miss her and to smile for me! Thank you for everything! I love the letters everyday!! It is a great way to start out my day each morning (:

Love Hermana Wandell!

P.S. my address for the MTC is

Hermana Alyssa Morgan Wandell
Carr. Tenayuca-Chalmita No. 828,
Col. Zona Escolar, Delg. G.A. Madero,
C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F.; Mexico

"Vi una columna de luz, mas brillante de el sol, directament arriba de mi cabeza, y esta luz gradualmente decendio hasta descansar sobre mi. Al reposar sobre mi la luz, vi en el aire arriba de mi, a dos Personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admiten discripcion. Uno de ellos me hablo, llamandome por mi nombre, y dijo, eñsalando al otro, este es Mi Hijo Amado. Escuchalo!"

 Sisters on the same flight to Mexico

 Alyssa at the CCM

 Mexico City Temple

The CCM

 



 Mexico City Temple

 Her District at the CCM

 CCM District at the Mexico City Temple

 Elders in Cupboards

 Guy in the garbage she thought was funny

 CCM Roommates

 Hermanas in cupboards

 



 Hermana Wandell and Hermana Latu

 



Hermana Wandell and Hermana Latu

 4 Sisters going to Panama

Roommates

Roommates

 Roommates at Mexico City Temple

 

Safespots 

"Stick Alyssa" and Abby 

Hermana Wandell and Hermana Pula

 

P.P.S. I'm adding some pictures. The pic with the 4 girls with dark hair is 4 of us going to panama. The girls with the blonde hair are our roommates. And the one of the random guy in the garbage I added because he was sitting in the garbage and I thought it was weird\ funny. (I added the ones of her district at the Mexico City Temple, the cupboards, her in front of the Mexico temple and “Stick  Alyssa”)