Hermana Brittany Lowe : READY OR NOT!

¡Hola a todos!

I´m a real missionary!!! I still can´t believe it! I feel like I´m at EFY in Spanish or something! It´s great.

Saying bye to my family was literally the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life. I wouldn´t have done that if I didn´t know this church was absolutely so true.

I made it to the CCM! Getting off the plane from Ontario to Phoenix, I saw a sister missionary in the bathroom and so we found our gate together to get on the flight to Mexico City. It didn´t take us long because there were seriously about 70 boys dressed up in suits around our age sitting at the gate. 100% missionaries. It was awesome. We were all so nervous and excited and everyone walking by was taking pictures of us probably wondering why there were so many of us dressed up. There were only about 5 or 6 sister missionaries (myself included), so that was crazy.

We had about a 3 hour flight to Mexico City and took busses from the airport to the CCM (MTC). That was so nerve wracking. Traffic laws are not exactly the same and we almost crashed a few times, but we´re good! Haha. As soon as the gates opened into the CCM and we drove through, I felt so much peace and love and excitement.

It´s so beautiful here!

It has been around 70 degrees and rainy since I got here a week ago! The weather is perfect, the flowers are blooming, the grass is so green, and there are palm trees to make me feel at home. I love it so much.

My companion is awesome! Her name is Hermana Petersen from Layton, Utah. She´s super outgoing and friendly, so we have a lot of friends here. I love her tons. She´s also going to Peru Lima South. My other two roommates are from Utah as well, Hermana McPherson and Hermana Jacobs. They´re going to Chile Santiago and Chile Viña Del Mar. They´re tons of fun. In fact, all three of my roommates are outgoing and loud so I´m getting used to that, haha. They´re so awesome, though.

We live in a yellow casa with about five rooms of 4 girls each. They´re all so fun and we´re going to so many places in South America and Texas haha.

It was hard to adjust at first, waking up at 6:30 every morning and going to bed at 10:30. We learn Spanish basically all day. Literally for like 8 hours. And then there´s more studying for how to teach and how to be a good missionary. It´s so hard, but so good.

Being in like the middle of Mexico City, we can hear the traffic outside the gates, fireworks, and even gunshots sometimes. But don´t worry, my cute morning teacher said that it´s normal and people are just crazy, haha.

I have one classroom that I learn mostly all day in, and I´m in that class with my District. We are District 14A, and there are 10 Elders and us two Hermanas. The Hermana to Elder ratio here at the CCM is like 1 to 15. It´s crazy.

My teachers are so amazing! Hermana Hallal and Hermano Salinas are the best. They´re really helping me learn Spanish and increase my faith in my Savior.

My district is so fun. The Elders are a blast and we´re becoming friends. 8 of them are from Utah, one from Oregon, and one from New York. We´re all headed to the Lima South Mission.

I´ve seen Elder Millward, Hermana Barney, and Hermana Hawkins here at the CCM! It was so good to see familiar faces.

So the water is warm here! Well, the drinking water. The shower water is ice cold. Well it was the first four days. It´s working now so be grateful for your hot showers, I sure am.

I also met an Elder Lowe! We don´t think we´re related but now whenever we see each other we pretend we´re twins. Also his first name is Braydon. So that´s crazy.

With Love,

Hermana Lowe

(This is Deb, I actually got to email back and forth with Brittany for a few minutes this morning, and this is what she told me.)

Deb: I know you're scrambling to write your emails quick, but just tell me, are you happy?

Brittany: Hi!!!! I am happy! This first week was hard with adjusting and trying to learn Spanish, but I think it will get better as the language comes! I´m trying to write a group and family email, but I don't have much time left. We're going to the temple today! At 11! It will be an all day thing.

Also, I´ll try to figure out how to attach pictures in an email, I took so many for you.

I love and miss you so much, I´ve only cried twice, and both because I miss you, and just want to hear your voice.

And then she sent a separate email to family, and here's what it said:

(I'm thinking she'll just write one email in the future....and save time...ha ha! I also corrected her typos that she mentions below.)

HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!! I´m basically over time right now, so I'm hurrying to type this email. There's so much I want to say that I will probably have to wait til next week.

This email will kind of be a mess with all of my jumbled thoughts.

The spanish keyboard is weird, but mostly the same as the american one.

Life is crazy. I feel like I'm at EFY on steroids & in spanish.

I'm not sleeping that well for probably a couple reasons. My bed is rock hard, I'm adjusting to a new life, going to bed and waking up completely differently, and it's a little too warm. But the good news is I found two extra pillows and I took a sleeping pill last night so I'm good.

About half of the CCM is sick with this super contagious virus called the Nova ? virus. It causes bad diarrhea and headaches and just bad sickness. I hope I don't get it. Two missionaries from Salt Lake came with the active virus on their flight last week and it´s just spread like the Holy Fire. Crazy and scary. We're taking extra precautions as a CCM.

I don't eat too much in fear of getting food poisoning, because that's going around, too. I'm trying my best to be healthy and get all the food groups.

I LOVE PRESIDENT AND SISTER BENNETT!!! they are the CCM presidents. They're the actual best.

My roommates and I sang in the choir yesterday at the devotional! The choir is basically half the missionaries at the CCM though, but it was fun.

I miss my bed so much!

Also there is 0 space in my closet and nothing to organize my desk and closet, but I'll be ok.

I'm typing like a demon right now.

We had to teach our first investigator on our second day here in SPANISH. He's actually just our afternoon teacher and he gives us tips after but it's super scary. We're on our fifth lesson now though so we're getting better.

GUYS. I rolled my r´s!!! I´m not that good at it yet' but I know its gonna be possible. The don de lenguas (gift of tongues) is real!

For Braden, to say SEND IT in Spanish is ENVENTARLO. haha and Nerd is Ñoño. lol

ALSO every week they have you prepare a 5 minute talk in spanish on a topic and randomly pick you to speak on Sunday once you're already there. Of course I got picked the first time, along with my bro Elder Lowe from Spanish Fork- Ive met three guys from Spanish Fork but none of them know Kolby or Kalvin Smith haha.

My anklet tan is going strong.

I have to go! But please pray for me! I will probably get sick bc one of my roommates is sick, so pray that we will be able to recover quickly. We are leaving in a minute for the temple. All of these typos are driving me crazy but there's not time to fix them! I love and miss you all so incredibly much. I still feel like I'm just coming home next week or something. Being a missionary is a weird sensation. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Hermana Lowe

Here are some pictures!!