Hermana Kristina Tycksen - Mission Blog (April 2015 - October 2016): Semana Segundo!!!

Dear Familia, :D

This week has been so amazing! It's been tough, but AMAZING! It's only my second week, but I already feel like I'm being put through the refiner's fire.

I am sooooo sorry for not answering questions from the last emails, I was a little pressed for time last week :)

The CCM is great! Last week was, and sometimes it gets, a little rough and tough, but I'm learning how to lean on the Lord and to give Him my struggles. The food is good, really good sometimes. It's all Mexican though :I I've never really been a big fan of Mexican food, as you all know :)

Okay, I just need to take a moment and say that receiving and reading letters from everyone is really the highlight of my week! It makes me so happy to hear how everyone is doing and I absolutely LOVED the pictures! :D

Dad, my camera cord--the one that came in the package--works great, so I probably don't need a card reader :)

I was so excited to hear about the puppies and everyone's events! It amazes me every day how talented you all are. :D

So, this week!

We finished teaching our first investigators! In our second to last lesson, we extended the invitation to be baptized and they accepted! The spirit was so strong and I honestly felt SO much JOY that I felt like I would burst!

The spanish is coming along, and I can already see so much more progress than before :) It's starting to get a little tough though--gotta put my back into it!

We have gym time every day, and the past few days we've been playing volleyball :D It's so much fun, but I've learned that I can be pretty competitive and also dramatic :3 For example: yesterday, we played volleyball, and every single time I would hit the ball, it would go way out of bounds! I was so frustrated that I didn't even remember the good parts of the game. So, in reality, the ball only went out of bounds about 30% of the time that I hit it :3 Case in point, I can be dramatic :)

My companions and I were called to be the sister training leaders for our branch! I am so excited, but also so humbled, because I want to be His hands, and I'm afraid to mess up an opportunity to touch someone's life. We got three new sisters in our branch, along with four elders, and our casa is now full! All five rooms have sisters in them! Speaking of new sisters, our service activity every week is to help with the new missionary orientation. It is sooo much fun! We were taking the new sisters to their houses last Wednesday and talking and having fun, and they asked how long we had been here. One week. :) We had been here for one week. They were so surprised, they thought we had been here for much more than that!

We have classes all day long, and it can get rough and kind of sleepy sometimes ;) but it really is amazing! We have amazing teachers and they help us so much.

We went to the Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center today! It was so beautiful and it reawakened my missionary desire to help and serve others :) I'm sending pictures btw :)

Yesterday, it rained BUCKETS in the three hours between dinner and the end of classes. We had to go to class, but we're not supposed to run because it's really easy to slip and fall on the pavement. So, my companions were kind of running/jogging, and I was calmly walking to class :) I love the rain! I feel like it's a way that my Heavenly Father shows his love for me :) But, we found out that the pollution in the city makes the rain really dirty so we all had to wash that dirty-ness out of our hair. yuck.

Something else that I have learned this week is that how I word my prayers is very important--not only for how I receive my answers, but also how I feel about my prayer afterwards. It has helped me strengthen my testimony about prayer and about prayers being answered. It's so funny, but we're trying to learn how to teach investigators, and the Lord is teaching me so much!

I can't believe we only have three and a half weeks left in the CCM! It's surreal! I'm trying to savor every moment, but sometimes they pass by so fast!

Until next time!