Spanish, Parks, and the Temple

The language is coming slowly but it gets better every day. This next Monday and Tuesday the Latinos and the old North Americans are leaving the CCM so it's just going to be us newer Americans for a day or so. We get to go to the market and I'm way excited to go and shop and be with the people. Two days ago on Monday morning they took us to a park (we rode a bus, by the way the buses were super crowded with all of us in them and the other people who needed to ride it too, they all just crowd on, it was kind of fun!) and in the park we were teamed up with our Latino companiona and we went contacting for an hour and fifteen minutes.  It was so much fun even though I didn't understand the people. They all talk fast. I was able to mostly understand the conversations but I couldn't really contribute to them.  None of the North Amercians were able to do much on this trip but we'll be going again in a few weeks and then it will just be our regular companion.

My Latino companion is Hermana Garcia and she is so little and cute! I've gotten some pictures with her so if someday I can send them you can see what she looks like.

We've gotten to go to the temple the last two weeks. The first week we were in an English session and did the veil with English but this morning we went through a Spanish session. They gave us headsets for English translation but I chose not to use it. Then I did the veil with Spanish which was hard.

Our mission president's wife meets with us every Sunday for a meeting about out in the field. It's so much fun to meet with her because we get to speak complete English in her amazing apartment. Her name's Hermana Steimle. I love her so much! She's so nice and her mission ends just after we leave the CCM (MTC).

I just found out that it is faster to send letters to my mission instead of to the MTC so send any further letters to my mission address:

Rebecka Leona Nielsen
Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission
5° Avenida 5-55, edificio Euro Plaza
Torrel, Nivel 12 Oficina 1202B, Zona 14
Guatemala City
Guatemala
Telephone: 502 2385-3386

(Make sure you put the telephone # on it for packages.)

If you sent letters to the MTC, I’ll still get them, just a little later than if they get sent to my mission. Anyways I love you all!

Guatemala MTC - Fruit, Beans, and Volcanoes

The food here is amazing!!!! I'm still getting used to the beans but we eat a lot of bread and fruit and meat and potatoes and it's just good! I will not be able to eat fruit when I get back because it is so amazing here!! They also have juice and it really is from fruit! It is so, so, so good!!!!!!!!! I love it. My favorite fruit is the pineapple!

So far it hasn't been way warm here. It's still winter for them and it's cold right now. The elders turn on the air conditioning in our room so we freeze. At 6:45 in the morning we have gym and we have to go outside and it's kind of cold.  We don't get to go outside very often so we don't see the sun much.

Our teachers are really good. They're from Guatemala and they learned English either on their mission or from their American companions. It's really awesome! I've a harder time adjusting here than I did in Provo but it’s coming.

Guatemala from what we can see looks like California. There really are volcanoes here! I'm getting really excited to go to the field but I need the time here for the language.

I don't know what I want for Christmas. They did tell us if people send us stuff to send it by UPS, Fedex, or there was one other, not by regular mail, it won't get here for a really long time if you go by normal mail. Also send the stuff already open because if it comes ´´new´´ then we have to pay taxes on it. Dear Elder, send it to the Guatemala MTC. We only receive the letters once a week though.  The Dear Elder letters come through the pouch service, but you don’t have to pay any postage that way.  Love you!!!

Provo MTC Pictures

This is my district in the Provo MTC in front of the Provo Temple.

From left to right: Me, Hermana Cohill (front), Hermana Walden (back), Hermana Madsen, Elder Moore, Elder Verhagen, Elder Hogge, Elder Chappell.

My and my companion - Hermana Walden

In Guatemala (new mtc address)

The flight was only about 4 and a half hours long from L. A. to Guatemala so of course I only got like maybe 2 hours of sleep. It was really easy getting through all the customs and everything. They all seemed really tired and bored to be there.  After we got here we ate breakfast and then they let us sleep til lunch so we got another 3 hours of sleep. Only one person´s luggage got mixed up. Mine got through fine.

Here´s the MTC address
Rebecka Leona Nielsen
Boulevard Vista Hermosa 23-71, Zona 15
Vista Hermosa 1. Guatemala, Guatemala C.A.

Busy, busy, busy

Things are going well. We've taught our investigator 5 times in about 6 days. Sometimes I think we're getting better and then he'll talk back and then I just kind of look at him. We did find out for sure that he isn't a real investigator which is a huge relief because I don't want to be responsible for his nonconvertion. The language is hard but it's kind of coming along. We're trying.

 My companion is from Colorado, Fort Laterdell I think (don't quote me on this). We have the best district ever. There are two other sister Hermanas Madsen and Cahill. They are super cool and they're going to the New York, New York South mission. We also have 4 elders in our district. Elders Hogge and Verhagen are also going to the same New York mision. Then we have elders Moore and Chapell who are going to the Dallas, Texas mission. I didn't know there were so many missionaries that went to the states with other languages. Everyone is so cool!



I'm glad grandma's knee went well! I don't really have a lot of time here at the MTC.  They only give us a half hour on the computer. Hopefully when I get into the field I'll have more time. Hopefully I'll be able to send you a picture of my district once it gets printed. I hope everything is going well and I love you all so much!!

First Week in the MTC

So I've been in the MTC for roughly four days and we have done so much!! We've already taught an investigator in Spanish and we're doing it again tonight. It's good though. I hope things are going well for everyone. Congrats to Mary for her call!! That's awesome!! :) And happy birthday to Duane this week. Love you all! Becky

Officially a Missionary

Becky's officially a missionary now, and ready to go.  Here is her mailing address for Guatemala.

Rebecka Leona Nielsen
Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission
5° Avenida 5-55, edificio Euro Plaza
Torrel, Nivel 12 Oficina 1202B, Zona 14
Guatemala City
Guatemala
Telephone: 502 2385-3386

Make sure you put the telephone # on it for packages.

The pouch service address is:

Rebecka Leona Nielsen
Guatemala Guatemala City North Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

It leaves the Church on Fridays.  Remember she will be in the MTC for three weeks in Provo and then in the Guatemala MTC for 6 weeks after that.