GETTING OUTTA THIS CAGE IN 5 MORE DAYS!! 


SEPT. 7, 2016

So first of all, we have P-day today because Friday of week 6 is a field prep day with, like, 50 meetings so we got it switched to today. I'll be on in the evening probably about 5ish. 

It's crazy. I have, like, only five days left! I'm SUPER excited to get out of this cage here! We are only allowed to eat at the same comedor for 6 weeks and it gets to ya! I even asked my branch president if we could order Pizza Hut on p-day but he said teachers or other people cannot bring food in from outside the wall. It's like a legal thing. They allow packages of donuts but, apparently, anything else from outside the wall is not assuredly safe! But I'm not even sure if this comedor is safe! I also can't wait to teach REAL people and to actually get the chance to work hard! It's so difficult to lose yourself in the work when you haven't even started the work!!! 

Not really much has been happening except success in teaching our fake investigators. One of them, Sara, had a problem with smoking and I had just happened to have read a scripture that day about Alma the Younger recounting his experience with his repentance. (Alma 36: 18-21) (I think). I discussed the scripture with my investigator and applied it to her life. I asked my teacher (who played the investigator, which they base off real people they taught themselves) what she thought about my scripture I shared and she said that Sara liked it a lot when she taught it to her and I was like, NO WAY! It was just some random scripture I stumbled upon during personal study so I thought that was cool. 

Also thanks for the package! I shared a lot and used some of them to make it through the Devotionals on Sunday :P 

On another note, I really am so glad to hear how well everyone is doing... During Sacrament meeting I remembered something that President Stevens ( or someone else, I can't fully remember) told me before I was set apart. He said that if I was obedient to the mission rules and followed the commandments, that the Lord would care for my family even better than I would be able to if I were still at home. I can definitely see that the Lord has kept his promise, like always. I have so much to be grateful for and there was a devotional that made a really good comment about the Atonement. Many people think that the Atonement is about doing your best and Christ pays the rest. But really Christ paid for all of it. Our good deeds and charity on this Earth are so that we can stand before Christ and show him what we made out of His sacrifice, that we can be comfortable in His presence. 

Love,

Elder Sierra

Here's a picture of me looking for investigators:

PARROTS EVERYWHERE

Some pictures of my comp and my district. And yeah,

my eyes are closed. I know. I'm sorry :(

HELLO THERE! ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST...
SEPTEMBER 2, 2016

Wow! So I just today got your letters because there's been a huge back-up in the post office! 

I'm in the same hallway as a missionary who's the son of a guy that 'Ubered' Dad! Isn't that neat?! He sent me a picture of them both! ... 

...Also, thanks a TON for the package! It was nuts and probably the biggest thing anyone has gotten. I wasn't even done with the last one! I set some of the stuff out on the table in the back of our classroom to share and we've been snacking the whole week long...

...This last Sunday was really awesome! We watched the video Finding Faith in Christ (I think that's what it was). It was really awesome and I'd never seen it before. We also had a devotional on Tuesday and I've been doing CCM choir. This week, we did the EFY Medley in Spanish. It was the simplest one we've done, but it was by far the most spiritual. It was also my last chance to sing in the choir, which is sad, unless we leave on a Wednesday, which is super rare. 

At the same devotional we had a talk about specific prayers, basically not being general when asking for blessings but actually asking in more detail (kinda how the Bro. of Jared prayed specifically about the stones). I've started trying to apply it to my life and it's made an incredible difference in how I pray and how I receive answers. I started saying specific prayers. I had purchased a couple of bags for Elder Bryan Poulsen and his companion from the Temple store. He was leaving the next day, though, and I wasn't able to find him. On his last morning I said a prayer that I'd be able to find him soon after breakfast. Right after breakfast, on the way back, I saw an elder poking his head out the window of a classroom. I asked him if he knew Elder Poulsen and he said he was in his class. We also found great success in our lessons after I started praying for specific things in our lesson, like that we could think of questions to ask and that we'd be able to better find out their needs. We've also started having great success among our investigators. We were never bad before, but we seem to have hit a rhythm where our last five lessons with 3 different groups (just one of them having two, i.e., a total of 4 investigators,) have gone great and we've been making good commitments. It's really funny because most people would think that missionaries are like the Harvard professors of the Gospel, and to an extent that might be true, but really, we're more like kindergarten teachers. Our goal is always to teach everything SUPER simply and we're teaching people who know some to absolutely nothing about the Gospel. 

Please see the shared videos of G-Cheezy biting the dust in our dorm. We also seem to have different perspectives on having mice in our home. We've already figured out a name for the next one we see. He´ll be Steph Scurry (after a basketball player named Steph Curry). We're thinking of using a box (perhaps the one you sent me) to make a type of trap for him.  

In regard to a package going to Chile, I think just grabbing my ties in my drawer and throwing them in the box will suffice, I underestimated how many ties I want/need. I also wouldn't mind a small flash drive filled with music. Something weird happened with mine and I lost quite a few of my songs. 

I love you very much! And I'm always so happy to hear about home. I think of home everyday, but I'm never homesick. It seems like something that you just brush off in all the business. 

And yes, I'm taking supplements. I got sick a week ago but got over it pretty quickly and didn't have to change my pace or anything. 

Tell Dad we get an hour of gym time 4 days a week and a p-day where we basically play sports all day, so I'm fine there. The food could be better and no one really seems to go in without their system getting messed up. I'm all right, though.

Also it'd be neat to get some pictures of you guys! Ya know... so I don't forget what you look like.... :P

The pictures with elders in P-day clothes was from our little safari we went on today. We went around the CCM to some fields where we could find parrots! We then stealthily took pictures of them 'cause there's lot of them! It was dope! We'll probably do another one next p-day. 

We also went to the visitors center next to the Mexico City Temple. It's really neat and had a really cool kids area. There's a lot of great stuff for visitors, like a kids' place that looks like a place from the Book of Mormon and a pretty hallway which was actually kinda random. The place was almost like a walking discussion.

The notebook is our plans for steph scurry