September 23, 2013 Week 7

I don`t even know where to begin! First, El Salvador already feels like my home. It`s amazing how quickly I felt right at home here. I am in the Santa Tecla zone and our area is Girasoles II. It`s ion the coolest part of the mission, so the weather has been great! It rains, but it`s only been extremely humid and hot one day. My trainer is absolutely fantastic! Hermana Chant! She is 22, from Arizona, and has been out for 6 months. I feel so blessed to have her as my trainer and it makes everything so much easier that she has the same desire to be obedient and work as hard we can. I feel like we are constantly running around from one casa to the next. Okay, the people. INCREDIBLE. The most loving, humble people. I think a lot of them are confused as to what two American girls are doing here, but they always have a smile on their faces and most of them are willing to listen to us. Not all of course, but we`ve found that as we talk to as many people as we can in the streets, a good majority of them will let us set up a time to share with them the message of the restored Gospel. Our bishop thinks a lot of the people will say yes because we`re American, but hey, if they change their intentions after the first lesson then that`s okay! The kids here are the cutest! They all love our "ojos" and the girls always like to touch my hair because it`s so foreign to them. It`s heartbreaking the way a lot of them have to live in these tiny, tiny houses, but the amazing thing is that they are happy. They are always so excited to have us in their homes. One of the less active members we visit everyday is Mirian. She is my mama here! She won`t read the Book of Mormon on her own, so we go everyday and read with her. She is hilarious. She isn`t married and has two grown up sons, so I think she loves having us as her daughters. It`s amazing the change I`ve seen in her. She is now starting to comment on what we read and instead of us explaining things to her, she can explain them to us! I love love love her. It`s pretty funny because she uses all these slang terms in Spanish and is kind of like a teenage girl because she loves to gossip, but she has been doing it less and less! Miracle!

We have two investigators with a baptismal date right now, Ivan and Vicky. Ivan is 25 and already I have seen a change in him, even though I have only known him for 6 days. He struggles with a smoking addiction, but the progress he has made is a miracle. It breaks my heart how hard it is for him, but I am so proud that he is trying so hard. We can tell how badly he wants to change, but how strong and imprisoning addictions are. I know he can do it, only with the help of our perfect Savior. Yesterday, he surprised us by coming to church! He told us he wouldn`t be able to, then he walked through the door and my heart just swelled up! ALso, another miracle: he sang the hymns. Hermana Chant says he never, ever sings, that he refuses to. But during the first hymn, I held my hymn book so he could see and all of a sudden I heard a man`s voice singing next to me and it was IVAN! I wanted to cry in that moment. I know it may seem small, but it`s huge for him. Vicky owns the tienda down the street and I know with all my heart that she was prepared to hear the gospel. Everything we`ve taught her she seems to already know and understand perfectly. The Spirit is always so strong in our lessons with her. She is incredible. She is already a member missionary because she tells all of her friends that they need to talk to us and she`s bringin one to church on Sunday! Oh church, bless the hearts of the people here. They have a hard time singing on key and together, so the first time we sang was a little startling, but it`s perfect and they sing with all hearts! I love it.

The papusas: so much better than that El Salvador restaurant we went to. My favorite is queso with lorocco, which I am not sure exactly what it is, but it`s some sort of green vegetable that looks like cilantro. They are amazing! Muy ricas! Spanish is coming along. Some people I can understand and talk with, but other times I have absolutely no idea. There`s this old man, Gustavo, who slurs all his words together so I can only catch a couple words here and there. The people are always suprised when I can understand, and I`m surprised as well! 

We don`t have running water in our casa, so we shower with a bucket with water from a sink outside and wash our hair in the same outdoor sink, where we`ll also do our laundry. It`s such an adventure! The toilet doesn`t work either, but if you dump water down the toilet from outside it`ll flush no problem. We have a little fridge and a little stove AND a microwave! Hermana Chant said they usually see a ton of cockroaches, but I have been utterly blessed not to encounter one yet. However, the bugs here love me! Apparently I`m allergic because I`ve had a couple bites on my legs swell up into these bubbles, but once again to show how loving the people are, the ladies in the tienda where we buy bananas in the morning gave me allergy cream for them! They were so concerned when they saw the bites all over my legs, and within two days they had gotten cream for me and gave it to me for free! Also, Marisol, a woman we`ve been teaching, took me to the pharmacy and made me get pastillas and crema for it! I can use my bug bites as a conversation starter! Blessings! 

I love it here. It`s exhausting, but there are always blessings as we keep working hard. Always. Like it says in D&C 58:4, "For after much tribulation comes the blessings." We can never give up. We have to show Heavenly Father how much we love Him and completely trust in Him. As we do this, He will bless us! On Thursday, we had a slow afternoon because no one was home and we felt like we were weren`t getting anywhere, but we kept at it and found 2 new families! Both of them are older couples that we`ll be meeting with this week. We have over 15 investigators we`ll be meeting with this week. I can`t wait. This Gospel changes lives and blesses families. I know that because how blessed my own family has been, which I know is a direct result of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was reading in Mosiah 24:14-15, about how the Lord will ease the burdens put upon us and like He did for Alma and his people, "The Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease." We need trials because they humble us and bring us closer to our Father in Heaven, but the Savior will always be there to make our burdens lighter as we believe in Him, have faith in His atonement. and strive to follow His perfecrt example.

I love you all and you are always in my prayers!

Temple activity where missionaries brought investigators

Hermana Chant, Ivan and Allison

Hermana Chant and Hermana Haynie

Companions!

She Made It!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        September 23, 2013

Dear Haynie Family,

We are pleased to inform you that Sister Haynie has arrived safely in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission.  We are excited to have her join our mission family, and can see that she is well prepared to start serving.

She is serving in the Santa Tecla Zone, and in the Girasoles 2 Area, with her trainer Sister Chant from United States.

A trainer has a great responsibility to help your daughter develop missionary habits and to continue learning to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Trainers are selected very carefully through prayer.

               

Sister Haynie will be able to e-mail or write to you every Monday.  Letters from home are a very important part of missionary life.  Please write weekly and focus on positive and uplifting things to help her maintain a healthy attitude.  The mail system in El Salvador is very reliable.  If you wish to send packages they can be sent to the mission office.  Address them to:

                                    Sister Allison Haynie

                                    Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste/Belize

                                    Apartado Postal #81 Correos Multiplaza

                                    San Salvador, El Salvador C.A.

.

At least every six weeks we will be seeing Sister Haynie in interviews or Zone Conference.  We will take good care of her.  We know the Lord will bless you and her as she faithfully dedicates this time to teaching others to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ.

                                                                                   

Very cordially,

President & Sister Hintze

President & Sister Hintze, Allison and Hermana Chant

September 15, 2013 - Week 6

And I am off to El Salvador! Well, not quite, but in less than 24 hours I will be there and I will have graduated the CCM! Woohoooo.

It was a truly wonderful last week here. Hermana Jackson arrived on Tuesday! We got to sit together for the devotional that night, and I see her around almost everyday. Hermana Behan got here the week before and I practically attacked her in the comedor I was so excited! They are both going to be such spectacular missionaries. The language is still coming along. We had to teach one of the new districts the other day in English , and as I was teaching one of the elders, the words felt so strange coming out of my mouth and it was so tricky to remember how to teach in English. Teaching in Spanish feels much more natural now, which I´m crossing my fingers is a good sign. I know the first few moments in El Salvador will prove how little Spanish I know. I am glad I can laugh at myself, because I think that´ll be happening a lot!

I think I have mentioned my teacher, Hermana Castellanos, but I failed to mention that he is a wizard! Not literally, but he just has such a way of helping each of us specifically and telling us things that we need to hear. I have been trying to figure out for myself how to become a more powerful teacher and how to know what exactly the Lord wants me to do. I had prayed a lot about it on Thursday night and hadn´t felt like I recieved an answer. I then realized that this was the first time I was asking the Lord to tell me what to do. Most of the time in my life, I would make a decision, then bring it to the Lord so I could either recieve comfort that my choice was the right one, or the other way around. This was the first time I had truly gone to the Lord asking Him to tell me what to do. I just didn´t really know how to recieve an answer to a prayer like that. Castellanos is very, very wise, so on Saturday I asked him about how to recieve answers to prayers. I told him what I had been trying to figure out, and consequentally, both of my companions and two of the elders were in the classroom too and had questions about the same thing. Castellanos told me to say a personal prayer outloud right in that moment, then open up my scriptures and my answer would be right in front of me. The Spirit was very present as he told me this. Before I prayed, he asked if I had faith that I would recieve an answer this way. I knew that I would. I prayed for myself in front of them, thanking my Heavenly Father for all the things He has blessed me with, then I pleaded with Him to help me and give me revelation as to what I needed to do. It was a really powerful experience and, of course, it took me awhile to get through my prayer because of the tears (Mom, I blame your side of the family for the tears that come so easily.) I ended my prayer and opened up my scriptures to Mark, chapter 11. Immediately 3 verses jumped out at me, the first being verse 22, saying ¨Have faith in God.¨ That verse hit me so hard. I then went on to read, ¨For verily I say unto you, That whatsoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things, which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye recieve them, and ye shall have them.¨ I got my answer. I needed to have faith in what He would do for me. I had faith in my Heavenly Father and the Savior and their power, but I didn´t have faith in myself. I had faith that they would do all these miracles for the people I would be teaching, but I was lacking in faith that they would do miracles for me and help me. I hope that I was able to convey the impact this experience has had on me. I know with all of my heart that the Savior lives. If we follow as best we can in His footsteps and follow the commandments He has so lovingly given us, He will perform miracles for us. Everytime the Savior healed someone, it was done according to their faith. We need to believe that He will do those things for us if we believe in Him. Like He said, ¨Be not afraid, only believe.¨

I´m sorry this got so lengthy, my heart is just bursting with love for my Father in Heaven and my Savior that I needed to share it with all of you!

One more quick little thought, then I promise I won´t be a bore anymore. I was reading today in Matthew chapter 14, and I came across the experience when Christ was walking on water. The end, when Peter joins Christ on the water, had never meant so much to me as it did today. When Peter asks Christ if he can come onto the water with Him, it reminded me of missionaries. We are essentially asking the Lord if we can join in His work. Christ told Peter to come to Him. This is like Christ´s invitation to us missionaries to follow him! Verse 30 then says, ¨But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?¨ Once again, I thought of missionaries. I am sure there will be times on my mission when I may feel like I´m sinking, or at least that´s what everyone warns me about, and I will ask the Lord to save me. Of course he will be there! He will always be there, if we have faith and rely on Him. He never abandons us. We are the ones that make decisions that move ourselves away from Him.

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the length of this email. Just know how happy and excited I am to be here! I am going to miss Mexico, but I am so grateful to have been able to be here. Especially sincetomorrow is their dia de indepencia, so they´ve had decorations up all week and tonight they are letting us stay up late to watch fireworks! Last night, these Mexican dancers came and put on a performance for us. It was so fun. All the Latinos love their country so much, it makes me love Mexico even more! I hope these emails will get more exciting for you once I get to El Salvador.. which will be TOMORROW!

I love this gospel. I love my Father in Heaven. I love my Savior, my best friend, Jesus Christ. And I love all of you! Continue to be your beautiful selves and I know that the Lord blesses us when we do what He has asked us to do.

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Haynie

 

Hermana Wilkinson and Hermana Boushka - both going to Chicago

Elder Flindt and Elder Nelson - both going to Arcadia, California

The Hermanas in her zone!

District 12D!  

The Hermanas with Hermano Catsellanos!
One of her teachers.

Hermana Jackson and Hermana Haynie

Hermana Behan is going to Nicaragua!
 She was on the study abroad trip with Allison.

The Trio!

September 10, 2013 - Week 5

Hola familia y las personas bonita!

 

I have zero time to write, but one week more until I graduate the CCM and move on to the real world! I cannot wait. The song, One Day More, from Les Mis keeps going through my head, but I have changed the words to be more applicable to my circumstance, since I´m not quite joining the French Revolution. But, I WILL BE IN EL SALVADOR! (or Belize, I´m not sure.) I´m assuming I´ll go to El Salvador first since that´s where the mission home is. I think we´ll get the itinerary on Friday. I can´t wait! It´s weird to be the old veterans here now. Sometimes I still feel like a 1st week baby.

 

Everything is still spectacular. I am in love with Spanish! It´s such a beautiful language. It´s amazing the progress our whole district has made. We can all pretty much teach about anything now. I am anxious to hear what they speak like in El Salvador, since the latinos here speak with much patience and very slow for us. I taught a Latino elder the other day and I am sure his ears were bleeding and he was extremely bored, but I love talking to them! I met two hermanas the other day in the comedor from El Salvador!! They just kept telling me how beautiful it is and how much I am going to love. I think she was saying something about a waterfall, but I couldn´t be too sure, so I was just nodding my head and smiling. She said said it´s very very hot, and I asked if they like blonde people, and she just laughed at me so I´m not sure what that meant. Hopefully they do!

 

The primary song, I´m Trying to Be Like Jesus, has been going through my head all week, and I just think the words are so wonderful and can be an example to each and every one of us! As we live our lives in a way that puts a smile on Heavenly Father´s face, we will be able to feel His love and the blessings He will give us are immense. I know this with all my heart.

 

Love, Hermana Haynie

September 3, 2014 - Week 4!

Hola!

It´s bizarre that in two weeks I will be heading off to either El Salvador or Belize! This week was very unexpected, but in the end, I know that everything that happened was what needed to. My companion, the wonderful Hermana Thaxton whom I love dearly, had to go home. We found out she had to leave on Wednesday night, and by Thursday mid-morning she was gone. Thursday may have been the longest day of the CCM so far. All of our eyes were swollen and puffy from the many tears. It was really heart-breaking to watch her go, but through it, I have been amazed at the love I have felt from my Father in Heaven. He is the one I turn to now. I have also seen how aware He is of each and every one of us and that when we are need of comfort, He will send people to be there for us. I see how much of a blessing it was that the four of us hermanas in my district were already so close, because now with Hermana Thaxton gone, I am in a trio with Hermana Smalley and Hermana Sargent and it doesn´t seem strange at all! I love my dalring companeras. We were all already together so much and live in the same room, so they have made the transition quite smooth. Teaching with the three of us hasn´t been too much of an adjustment, which I know is a direct blessing from our Heavenly Father. I am incredibly thankful for the two of them and the Elders in our district. It was hard on everyone when she left because we are our own little family here, but if anything, I think it has brought us all even closer. I hope with all my heart that when Hermana Thaxton comes back out (hopefully she´ll keep her same call, but she doesn´t know yet) I will get to see her in El Salvador or Belize and it will be the most wonderful reunion!

We are still the only ones in our casa, so there are 4 empty bedrooms, which means we all have our own bathroom. I definitely did not expect to be so spoiled here! The weather is still beautiful. Downpours of rain happen daily and last much longer than they ever do at home. I love the storms here. Hermana Sargent danced in the rain the other night, which seemed like a delightful idea at the time, until we had to sit in class for 3 more hours with wet clothes.

We watched this talk the other day by Elder Holland about the apostle Peter and the First Great Commandment. In his talk, he spoke about how Peter and his brother, Andrew, threw out their nets and immediately followed the Lord when he said to them, ¨Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.¨My favorite part about those verses in Matthew is the next one: Änd they straightway left their nets and followed Him.¨ They didn´t hesitate when asked to follow the Savior. They left their nets immeidately, without any second thought, and began their apostalic ministry. Elder Holland said how, as missionaries, the Savior has extended this call to all of us! What an opportunity! I am certainly not a fisher-woman of any sort, so my the casting of my net is figurative, but in following the Savior we too let go of how we were before and promise to Him our eternal service in feeding His sheep. Our calling as missionaries ins´t just for 18 months, it´s a forever calling. As we devote ourselves to the Savior and show our love for Him by following the perfect example He has set, He will make us fishers of men. 

I cannot wait to finally get to El Salvador and Belize and begin inviting the wonderful people there to come unto Christ! I know with all my heart that the Lord is always, always there for us!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Haynie

The Trio - Hermana Smalley and Hermana Sargent

(sorry for the small picture - it's too blurry to go larger) 

August 27, 2013 - Week 3

Hola, hola, hola, to all the people I love the most,

I cannot even believe it is my fourth week here! I don´t know where the time goes, but I am at the halfway mark. Another beautiful week here in Mexico. We had two earthquakes again, but the strange thing is we never feel them. The alarm goes off and we have to stand on this blue circle outside, but no one ever feels anything. There are fireworks that go off all the time. I´ve heard

some of them are gunshots, but I prefer to think of them as fireworks.

My favorite part of this week was on Friday. Our teacher, Hermano Martinez, had us watch the beginning of the Chris William´s video, ¨´Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light.´ He was wanting us to learn how to teach from our hearts and emotions. So, we watched the beginning of the video and then he had some of us be missionaries and some act as Chris. Of course, I was already a weeping mess, and then he had Hermana Sargent and I be missionaries to Elder Garcia as if he were Chris and he had just lost his wife and 3 kids, but he did not have a knowledge of the gospel. We then watched another video about some NFL player and his wife who lost triplets during her pregnancy. We were then switched and I was with my companion and we had to teach Elder Mortenson. It was so hard. Elder Mortenson´s father passed away 5 years ago in a car accident, so the whole thing was all too real and hit him really hard. The three of us sat there in the corner of the classroom crying. I was getting frustrated with myself because I felt like everything I could tell him about the Plan of Salvation, the Atonement, and eternal families he had heard a million times before. My heart was so full of love for him and his family, and that´s when I realized it wasn´t my words that would ease a little part of his pain, it was the Spirit. All I could do was to be a vessel for the Savior´s perfect love to shine through and touch his heart, providing comfort and peace knowing that every single feeling inside of him has been felt completely by only one other person, Jesus Christ. I couldn´t pretend to know what it feels like to lost a parent or even a loved one, but I could feel the love our Father in Heaven and the Savior has for Elder Mortensen and all I could do was be a way for him to feel that. It just made me so excited to get to El Salvador and Belize and share this beautiful Gospel with the people, who have already stolen my heart. Elder Holland, in a devotional we watched, reminded us missionaries how this time is not ours, this mission is not ours. It is the Lord´s errand and we are merely his representatives. Everything I do right now is to prepare myself to be able to find the people the Savior needs me to find. It´s so exciting.

On another cheerful note, they served salmon last week, and even though I think I was the only one who tried it and it was nowhere near as perfect as yours, Mom, it was still wonderful and I was ever so grateful. Something in the food made a lot of people sick last week, like my poor companera, but I was lucky I didn´t catch the bug. I am in love with the kitchen and cleaning staff here! Mexican people are just so warm and friendly. We sit with Latina sisters at meals as often as we can to practice our Spanish, and they are always so patient with us and help us. Thank goodness for the beautiful hearts of the Hispanic people.

I love all of you so much and feel like the luckiest hermana in the world to have the support that I do. I know that Christ can be our very best friend if we let Him and that our Father in Heaven will pour out blessings (like salmon and a night with no mosquitoe bites) to us when we are obedient!

All my love,

Hermana Haynie

Sisters in her Zone at the CCM!

August 20, 2013 - Week 2!

Hola hola hola!

I can´t believe this is my third week. It´s all flying by so fast! The days start to blur together, but each one is so wonderful. We got to go to the Mexico City temple last Tuesday for P-Day and it was a little tricky in Spanish, but so amazing to be able to go there after only being here for a week. Here the people just walk in the middle of the streets and somehow they don´t get hit. I always say I have a guardian angel when I drive because somehow I haven´t died, well I firmly believe there must be millions of angels here because I just don´t know how everybody isn´t dead. We watched a devotional after by Richard G. Scott about prayer and it seemed to just fit perfectly for what everyone was needing to hear. My favorite thing he said was how our Father in Heaven is not absent father and knows each of us perfectly. Later, we were watching a clip by President Eyring and I just loved when he said that God is never hidden from us, we hide ourselves from Him and are unwilling to submit to His will.

My Spanish is getting better little by little. It´s amazing how much everyone is my district is progressing and learning. The hermanas and I did a day of only Spanish, which meant there wasn´t much talking between us and a lot of use of our dictionaries. I love my teachers. Our first investigator, Carlos, is now our 2nd teacher (his real name is Rodolfo Martinez.) He speaks very little English, so he´s always asking us how to say certain things. He emphasizes the beginning of the word ¨focus¨quite a bit, so it´s always really hard not to laugh. But, he is so wonderful! We taught him again as a different investigator named Gustavo, (he has a lot of differnt personalities), and he committed to being baptized on the first visit! Hermana Thaxton and I were so excited. He was so funny in our lesson, too. Oh, I LOVE my companion. Everyday I am so thankful for her. She keeps me laughing and I feel like I´ve known her forever! She also takes really good care of me! My mouth started swelling up again from my wisdom teeth removal (I think) when I first got here and hurting more than they ever had before, and she was so loving about it. She strongly encouraged me to get a blessing from our district leader, Elder Mikkelson, when it hadn´t gotten any better after a week. Then, she took me to the doctor and and he gave me some painkillers for it that have helped a lot. he was sort of a quirky old man doctor who was the least comforting doctor I have ever been to, but in the end it all worked out. Now I don´t resemble a chipmunk and look like I am hoarding tortillas in my cheeks! 

On Sunday I had to give a talk in Spanish. i don´t remember if I told you guys, but we all have to write a talk and then during sacrament meeting they just call on random people. I told Hermana Thaxton on the way to church that I knew I was going to get called on because I didn´t really like my talk and I felt like it wasn´t very good. Of course, our branch president called on me, while struggling with pronouncing Haynie because all the native speakers have a hard time, and Hermana Thaxton told me my face instantly turned bright pink. I wasn´t suprised. But, it went pretty well. I based it off of John 15:14-19 when Christ is calling the apostles and refers to them as His friends when they do whatsoever He commands them to do, and how He called them to share His gospel, just like He has done with all the missionaries here. The Elders in my district kept making me laugh so I´m sure people were confused why I was so smiley, but it turned out okay.  

I love it all here, even the mosquitoe bites and our broken showerhead that sprays the entire bathroom, and the pancakes that are made out of cake batter. I can´t imagine being anywhere else and I know that our Father in Heaven has a smile on his face when He looks down at the Mexico MTC because of all the amazing missionaries here giving their whole selves to Him. Everyday I am so impressed with how friendly and happy everyone is! In less than a month I´ll be in El Salvador and I couldn´t be more excited! Les amo!

Todo el amor in mi corazon,

Hermana Haynie

            Hermana Haynie and her CCM companion Hermana Thaxton 

Hermana Thaxton and Hermana Haynie 

August 13, 2013 - Week 1!

Hola mi familia bonita!

 

Well, I can hardly believe I have been here for a week. I can´t really remember what it was like being home! This might not be very long because I am still adjusting the keyboard and the clock timer at the top of the screen is making me really anxious, but I´ll try to share a little bit of my wonderful experience here so far. The CCM (Centro de Capacitacio Misional Mexico) is absolutely beautiful! It´s like this Pleasantville community in the middle of a farely run down part of Mexico City. There are palm trees and flowers everywhere, so it really is a nice place to be. Anyway, there we arrived at the CCm late Tuesday night and got sent to our casas. I live in casa 18, cuarto 4 with my FANTASTIC companera, Hermana Thaxton, and two other sisters, Hermana Smalley and Hermana Sargent. Us four live in one  room of the casa that has bunk beds and a bathroom. There are 3 other rooms in the casa. The rest of the hermanas are Latina, so it´s always pretty tricky trying to communicate with them, but we´ve prayed with them a couple nights. There´s only so many times I can ask them Donde vives? y Donde a servir tu mision?. I feel so blessed to be with my hermanas in our room because we have formed a little family and I haven´t been homesick at all. After all my tears on Monday, I am sure that comes as a surprise. We find lots of little bugs in our room and there´s currently a beetle-looking insect outside of our door that has been there since we arrived. I don´t have the heart to kill him, so we just let him be.

 

Hermana Thaxton is also going to El Salvador and Belize, along with 2 other elders in our district! Es fantastico! Our district is made of 4 hermanas and, now, 6 elders. We used to have 8, but two of them were practically fluent in Spanish, so they were sent away from us beginners. Our regular schedule is wake up at 6, be in the classrom for personal study at 7, breakfast at 7:45, back for study at 8:15, language study until 9:15, then our maestro comes in for our language lesson for a few hours. Oh oh oh! Mi maestro is Hermana Castellanos! He served with Marshal and Sandra in the Torreon mission! He doesn´t think he speaks very good English, but I am extremely impressed by how well the teachers and other leaders speak English! He´s great. We then have more study time, lunch at 12:45, language work on the computer for an hour, language study in the classroom, then we teach our progressing investigator! We then have more study time, dinner, language, planning, then gymtime, and we are supposed to be asleep by 10:30. I used to think I was somewhat busy, but literally every minute we are doing something. I LOVE IT HERE. We are in the same classroom all day for the next 6 weeks, so it feels like our little home. Our distict is really quirky and just love them all so much. Hermana Castellanos will sometimes let us play pictionary and charades, which just really made me think of Dad and how passionate he gets whenever it´s his turn to act out something. i had to act out the First Vision, so hopefully I portrayed with as much enthusiasm and heart as you would´ve, Papa.

 

Carlos Ivan Martinez! Our fïrst investigator! I was led to believe he was an actual man from here in Mexico City learning about the Gospel, but he´s just a teacher acting, thank goodness. I am not sure I would have done much good if he was a real one. We decided to teach him about eternal families and Heavenly Father´s love... in Spanish of course. The first day we learned how to pray in Spanish and basic Gospel vocabulary. It´s amazing how much we are learning here in such a short time because most of our time is devoted to the language. It´s nice to be here where everyone is learning the same language. We started preparing for our lesson on Thursday, then weattempted to teach the poor brother on Friday! It was a blast. I love when we get to teach. I keep wanting to hug him whenever we go to teach him, so I always have to remind myself that we aren´t allowed to. (Dad, I am also working on creating a more firm handshake for myself so you won´t be ashamed of my dead fish-like grip.) Also, it took a day to remember my name is no longer Ally. That name is dead for the next 18 months and I couldn´t be happier to be Hermana Haynie! We first got to know him and learn about his family, then went into the lesson. He laughed a lot with us and made the lesson a really wonderful experience. I was able to talk a lot of the lesson, which I know had nothing to do with my own ability. I am working on the language harder than I ever worked in school and the Lord is helping me when it comes to the lesson, just like we are promised He would do. it really is amazing. These verbs and vocabulary that I haven´t used since Spanish 2 in high school will come back to me, and I am sure I am butchering the structure of the sentence, but Carlos was able to understand.  We can also bear our testimonies in Spanish, very simply of course, so we were able to do that at the end. I love my companera! She is so enthusiastic about the gospel and has such a strong testimony. I am so thankful I get to be with her for the next six weeks! She is from Salt Lake City and is 19 too. She wants to be a nurse and she worked at an old folk´s home, so she always has funny things to tell us about her days there.

 

We had the msot wonderful experience on Saturday. We were supposed to teach Carlos again, (he kindly was going to let us come back), but he was sick, so just a couple hours before they told us we would be teaching Martin. We had to create a new lesson because the one we had planned was a continuation of our previous one. We always pray before we do any sort of studying or planning, so we prayed as a companionship and asked Heavenly Father to help us know what to say to Martin. We sat there for almost 20 minutes trying to figure out different ideas and put together a lesson, but it really was just an absolute mess. We were both getting discouraged and I was feeling really inadequate because we could not think of anything or how to say it in Spanish, then all of a sudden the direction we were supposed to go in came pouring out of us! It was incredible. We taught him about the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon. Yesterday we taught Carlos about the restoration, which went pretty well. He prayed at the end and even committed to being baptized! (He might have to say yes to all of us, but we were ecstatic.) That lesson got tricky at one point because he asked what the resurrection was, so I practically had to act it out for him. He was laughing at me, but after he said he understood. Whew.

 

As a district at the start and end of each day we pray together and sing a hymn. Spanish hymns always make me cry. I don´t why we sing them in English at all. They are absolutely beautiful in Spanish. Oh, Sunday was the best day! Hermana Pratt, the MTC President´s wife, taugh relief society about faith and how we can obtain great faith like the Brother of Jared. We then had sacrament with our zone. It´s about 45 people I think. We all have to prepare a talk in Spanish for Sundays and they just call on people when it´s time for the speakers, so it´s a surpirse for everyone. I said the opening prayer, but I dodged the talking bullet. We were able to watch a devotional by Elder Ballard and then watch the ´To This End was I born´ video and the video about John Tanner. Elder Ballard talked about the trust that the Lord has always put his greatest trust in young people and we must represent Him as if he were with us right now. It was so nice to be able to have a day solely for the Gospel and not have to worry about Spanish.

 

A scitpure I read earlier this week that has brightened my days is from a talk you gave me Dad, Ánd Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still,and see the salvation of the Lord... The Lord shall fight for you.¨´ I know without a doubt in my mind that the Lord is fighting for each one of us when we keep the promises we have made to him. AH 47 SECONDS LEFT. I love you all with my whole  heart!

 

Love,

Hermana Haynie