I freakin' love you people!!
This will probably be the most scattered email yet, because I feel like I am in a dream or on drugs. I also don't even know where to start.
I miss the MTC like crazy. Those people were my family! Also, I forgot my camera, so no pictures today:( But supposedly you got one of me yesterday? Also my outfit was changed like 6 times that morning and then I just gave up. I also sweated a lot so that is why I looked like a crazy woman. So ya.
Anyway, it was super comforting but also super hard to come to the mission with Bott, Bond and Rush. They are seriously some of my best friends. We got to the Mission Home which is an office on the 6th floor of a big building and started training. We got to sit together through all of that. There were like12 missionaries in orientation that day, but we were the only Americans. When we got there, they got all our stuff in the office and fed us breakfast. We met our Mission President and his wife and they are really so so so so nice. I really love them already. Then we just sat through training for like 5 hours, but it flew by and it was really fun. We all were in a really weird mood because, well, how could you not be. Then he started pulling us out one by one for to do an interview. The cool thing is when we got there he had all the trainers picked out, but wasn't going to assign us until after the interview so it would be inspired.
Anyway, in my interview he was super nice and also just made me feel really good about this decision. Which I obviously I usually do, but there are some crazy weird emotions on that day. And then he told me that he could tell that I was full of happiness and laughter, so I hope he is okay with all that. Haha. The he told me that he thought there was a good possibility I would be with a North American trainer, and that was super rare and he trusted that we would talk in Spanish all day and learn the language. So then he promised me that I would probably hyperventilate when I got to my area, but that it was going to be okay. So then he said, "Well, I know who your companion is" and sent me back.
When all our training was done, about 3:00, I met my trainer. I am assigned to the San Juan Ward in the San Juan Stake. My trainer is from West Virginia and her name is Hermana Saenz. She is really, really nice. We left the mission office and said goodbye to the girls from the CCM and it was really, really hard. But I still didn't cry much. I am shocked. I haven't really had a breakdown in like a month. I can honestly say that the Spirit and the enabling power of Christ's Atonement is carrying me so much here.
Keep sending mail to the Mission Home. That is the only way it makes it I guess? Trial by error. I am learning.
Hermana Rush is in Ayacucho. She had to take a 12 hour bus ride today. Pray for her. Bond is in Pisco, and Bott is in Caneta or something like that is not far from me I guess. We only had like a 40 minute ride in a taxi and then we were here. Our apartment is nice by Peru standards, but I admit it is a massive adjustment, but I am adjusting! It is actually really, really nice to have a companion who can speak English as well as fluent Spanish.
When we got to the area, we left to meet with the Mission Leader in the Ward and we had a lesson with an 11 year-old girl who is prepping for baptism and her menos activo mother. We taught the Plan of Salvation and I was able to say things as well, which was super surprising but cool.
The biggest feelings I have right now are in list form:
I can't wait until I can speak Spanish and therefore be myself. It is my number one issue with not speaking it.
I seriously had an amazing District in the MTC and I miss them dearly. I am so thankful for that experience.
I am so grateful I am here. It is going to be a painful adjustment at times, I know, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
President Douglas is awesome. Funny and kind and strict in a good way. We are memorizing 2 Nephi 31. The biggest theme of everything he told us was the Atonement, which of course I loved. So that was a great testimony to me of how this mission will go.
There is seriously a rare amount of sisters in this area and an even more rare, a lot of them are North Americans. So today was Pday and we got to go shopping with them. So nice. And they made me feel a lot better about life in general, so I am really grateful.
Oh my dear family. I love you so incredibly much. I miss you as well, but I am so glad I am here. I feel your prayers and your faith sustaining me and I am so thankful for that, every single day of my life. I love my Christ and I know I am really going to be leaning on Him for the next few months, 16.5 to be exact! Read 3 Nephi 11. That is why I am here :)
Love,
Hermana Bailey
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