Estoy aqui! I am in the mission field!

Madre,
Estoy aqui! I am in the mission field! And I am actually in a trio, again. Hnas [Sisters] Ghan and Voigt are great. Yesterday we got in [to Mesa] and after a little while at the Mission home, we headed out. We actually went to the Christmas lights at the temple and talked to people, most of the time I was on my own. It was really neat, tiring, and stretching. I actually talked to a couple of gentlemen in Espanol. They said that they already had the missionaries coming over at the end of the week, so asked if I could practice my Spanish on them by bearing my testimony of Jesucristo with them. Of course they said yes and it was really cool to do that. And everyone is right. These people are so patient and kind. I told them I was learning Spanish and whenever I stopped to think, they just waited patiently.

We were at the lights from 5 to 10. And it got pretty cold. Luckily it didn't get as cold as Utah is right now, but my hands were cold by the end of the night. It was really cool, but a lot. I wrote in my journal that it was the weirdest day of my life. I may revise that, because today has been really weird too. Mostly it feels like I am in a whole other life, living as someone else, and not understanding a lot of what people say. But it's fun! We unpacked this morning and so I'm pretty well set up. We had two appointments (citas is so much shorter) for earlier, but neither of the people were home. But we met up with Luis, a member from our ward. He was supposed to be our "member present", but instead we checked up on referrals from the luzes de Navidad. It was really fun and we actually made a cita to come back and teach someone on Saturday. We have three more citas for tonight. By-the-way, all these people have baptismal dates for January. Amazing, I know. We are apparently one of the highest baptizing missions. They had more than 1,200 baptisms this year! And they are all retaining. It is absolutely amazing.

I am in the Liahona 3rd ward and our area is all of about one square mile. Our area goes from about Broadway to Main to something else that I can’t remember right now. We live two blocks from the temple. We walk to the chapel and the temple, which is in our area. This is actually a biking area, so we are going to be finding another bike and buying me a helmet soon. I don't know exactly what the address is, but I'll find out by next week. This is an incredible experience.

I have no idea what else to say. Other than, I love this. I understand more espanol than I thought I would. But it is really hard to understand natives because they speak so fast and don't pronounce all the sounds. But I catch about 45% of what they say. Luis is quite the character. He is a YSA [young single adult] rep, and just very funny.

Well, te amo! I forget when p-day [preparation day] is. I think it is usually Thursdays. This week is weird because of the luzes de Navidad and the holiday. I really think that our p-day is Thursday. We'll find out, I guess!

Le amo mi familia! Les amo mis padres!

Ella (sounds like Aya [Andrea’s nickname in the family], but means “she”, I like it!)