This week was kind of interesting. We had a bunch of different teachers for our night classes because Hermana Villegas hurt his back and had to stay home. But hes okay now. But basically all of the teachers love our district and they always come in to our class to hang out with us. Its fun. Except the real reason they like us is probs just because we always share our donuts and stuff with them. THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE, DEAR PARENTS OF MINE. I don't know how you got homemade brownies to me (or they at least tasted home made) it was AWESOME. They were the perfect gooeyness so shoutout to whoever made those. AND IBC ROOTBEER. oh man. Those were good. 

So two of the districts in our zone left this week and it was actually pretty sad, They were awesome. And now were the oldest ones here and its weird. ONLY TWO MORE WEEKS AHHHH. Its weird to think that my mission hasnt even really started yet. BUT IM SO EXCITED TO GO TO XALAPA. One of the teachers here told me that i can find a lot of weird food there. lengua, ojos, cerebro, y oreja de baca. Also menudo (cow stomach) armadillo, iguana, rat, grillo, gurzanos. Sooo i think fish should be the least of my worries. I don't know about any of you but im never really been dying to eat a taco filled with live worms. 

Monday we were able to watch Elder Scotts funeral which was a really cool experience. The Plan of Salvation is sooo amazing! How great is it to know that we will be reunited with our families and that we will live again. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang I Know that my Redeemer Lives as the opening song and I pretty much lost it. And then they sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing which is my FAVORITE SONG. But yeah, it was kind of like a mini conference because we got to hear from the apostles and the prophet. Anyone else pumped for general conference this weekend cuz I AM. 

Oh by they way, we didn't change districts. We had our little language test on Monday and basically this guy came in and just talked to us all together for a couple minutes. we didn't do that well. That was definitely a bad spanish day for us. It was actually really funny. When hermana garcia asked elder graham what he did his last day home he told him that he ate cheetos with his companions.... he didn't understand the question. It was funny. So we all of the same companionships and everything. I honestly don't think they would have changed it anyway. That would have been a lot of work to move around the companionships that were already made and move houses and everything. So what{s gonna happen is were gonna start going to latino classes for two or three hours a day instead of having language classes because we don't have any other lessons to learn. That will start tomorrow. 

So sometimes during our breaks in class we play basketball with a paper ball covered in tape and the trashcan. Its so much fun! Sometimes our games get a little intense though. Yesterday one of the elders basically ran me over to make this one shot. I guess that's called getting postered? I don't know.. But he was really proud of it and wanted to make sure i mentioned it in my email.

Also i get bullied by my comp all the time. She goes to Utah State and hates on BYU a lot. There are actually a surprising amount of people here who hate on BYU. Its tragic. They just don't know what they're missing out on. Actually, they probably do and that's why they're so bitter and MEAN. But that's okay i still love her. We do have a couple things in common, like our love for naps. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE MY NAPS. That's probably the hardest thing about the CCM. Not getting my daily 5 hour nap. But today we got to take a 3 hour nap. "I feel very blessed" *Michael runs over Meredith* (if you don't understand that reference, shame on you. watch the Office more) 

Um.. well yeah. I think that's it. Hope everyone has a good week! 

Love you! 

Hermana DeGraw

Chicken enchiladas and flan but I didn't get to finish my lunch because the fire alarm went off. 

Woohooooo!

OKAY Things over here at the CCM are still awesome but not much different. OH shoutout to the best parents ever for sending KRISPY KREME AND CHOCOLATE MILK #praise. Its kind of a big joke in our district that no one loves us because we go to servicio postal every.day. to check our mail box and there has never been anything for anyone. But all the other districts get like boat loads of letters every day and packages all the time. So yesterday was amazing WE FINALLY GOT SOME LOVE. Elder Graham also got a package so yesterday was pretty exciting. uuuummmmm what else happened..... OH i got elder allred to eat a rollie pollie in exchange for a snickers. That was pretty funny. It took a lot of yelling and hermana shumway was not happy that he ate a bug but it was great. Then the day after i ate an ant kind of on purpose and kind of on accident and IT BIT MY TONGUE. I didn't know ants could bite/pinch. not cool. 

So don't be fooled. Even though were an intermediate group or whatever, we kind of slack off because of it and its really bad. So were trying to be a lot better because our spanish is not where it should be and were being tested on Monday to go into the latino districts and now all of us are terrified because we haven't been practicing as much as we should be. sometimes i feel like were not actually learning too much spanish here, we{re just forgetting all our english. But that's not actually true, our spanish is improving too. Just at a slower rate. 

Last Saturday we had our first TRC and i have no idea what that stands for but basically we got to meet with two members and give them a little message and it was awesome!! we talked about the Book of Mormon. One of the ladies, Pilar, was really hard to understand and she talked a lot but basically we just tried to focus on the spirit and we were able to know what direction to go in while talking with her just by following little promptings. It was cool. And she said something i really liked. something like "the Book of Mormon is our map to guide us to Christ" READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY. Our other lessons with our ¨"investigators" are going pretty well. Some days we have a terrible lesson and other times we have AMAZING ones. It all just depends. were learning how to plan better as a companionship, and that's making them go a lot smoother. 

hmm what else should i sayyy. wanna hear about a regular day at the CCM? alright here we go. 

wake up at 630, breakfast at 7, personal study at 730, class from 830 to 12 (we teach investigator during that too) then lunch, gym, tall (computer lab), more studying, more planning, dinner at 530 then classes from 630 to 930 (which are soooo hard) and bed at 1030. That was really exciting i know. some days we have devotionals or other things but that's the general horario. 

The reason we didn't have pday yesterday was because we had to go to the migration building to do some paperwork today, so we had to move our pday to today. just for this week. After we were done with all the papers we went outside and there were CHURROS and TACOS but the guy who was with us wouldn't let us get them!!!!! he kept stopping us before we got to the vendors. SADDDDDD I REALLY WANTED A CHURRROOOOOO. They wont let us eat street food because well get sick. I honestly don't care if i have diarrhea until Easter I JUST WANT A CHURRO AND SOME TACOS. that's okay ill get over it. OH but on the bus ride back, our driver basically gave us a tour of mexico city. it was sooo cool. I got some pretty solid pics. luckily my camera has a sweet zoom so the pics are pretty decent even from the bus. The area around the CCM is kind of a shady area and i just thought that was how the whole city was and i still loved it but then when we got into the city city, it is surprisingly really clean. 

So we watched a devo by Elder Bednar a couple of weeks ago about turning out instead of in. I've been thinking about that a lot this week. Its really easy to feel sorry for yourself sometimes but Christ never did that. He always turned out to others and worried about them instead of himself. That also makes me think of this video we watched about having the gift of tongues. There's this scripture 1 corinthians 13:1 i think about how we need to have charity when we speak with others or else our words will just be noise. "No one cares what you know until they know that you care." -i have no idea who said that. HAVE CHARITY. TURN OUT. and occasionally turn up. 

Love, 

Hermana DeGraw 

¡Feliz Dia de Independecia! 

Okay so I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to start. I guess Ill just answer some questions. So the weather here is similar to home in temperature and humidity. Its a little chilly in the morning but not too bad, the hottest it gets is maybe 75 but usually like 72 degrees id say. And it rains almost every single evening. There have only been like 2 days that it hasn't. And that includes thunder and lightning. its kind of awesome. We do get to exercise every day. Except some days that just includes a district ping pong tournament. Hermana Shumway and Elder Allred are basically professional ping pong players. 

We try to speak to the natives here at the CCM a lot but we don{t do it as much as we should. Its good practice though. We actually became really good friends with these two elders from mexico and panama. They are sooooo funny. And they would just mess with us gringos all the time but its all good. we like it. They taught us some slang words so we can say "thats cool". "que padre" "chido" and "chebere" but apparently they only say "chebere" in panama. Anyway, we started saying those a lot and then i accidentally said que chido to one of my maestros and he got mad at me... it was funny though. we{re not allowed to use slang... But i gotta know how to be cool right? Anyway, those elders left already so now we have to find new natives to be friends with. 

Also on like the second day, Hermano Sanchez (our maestro) told us that our district will most likely be splitting up in week four and we´ll be put in native districts. Which will be really cool!! Hermana Shumway really doesn't want to though. it would help us so much with our spanish though. And it would be such a great opportunity because they rarely do this. Spanish is tiring though. Some days i feel so good about my spanish and it doesn't take much out of me and i can speak a little faster than other days but then there are the days where i feel like i cant say anything. Its kind of frustrating. pero está bien. 

We finished our lessons with Carlos and now he is our night teacher, Hermano villegas. Night classes are sooo hard because we´re all falling asleep. Plus Hno Villegas asks much harder questions and expects us to answer within 1 second of asking the question which is pretty difficult but I think its good for us. Now we have two new investigators (our teachers) but with new names. Eduardo and Alejandro. After our first lesson with Eduardo (hno sanchez) he told us that we did a really bad job and we were so surprised because we thought it went well. So basically we have a lot of work to do but we´re learning a lot every day and improving so its all good. 

We never get to leave the CCM to go proselyting. They used to do that but there are too many missionaries now. But today was awesome because we got to go to the temple!!!Sunday was the re-dedication and so we got to watch it in one of the auditoriums which was an extension of the temple. It was awesome! Elder Holland and President Eyring were here for it. So this morning we got to go to the temple and do an endowment session and it was so cool! I didn't ask for headphones so it was all in spanish and i loved it. A little scary, but cool. The temple is beautiful! AND right before we walked into the temple a GATO walked right in front of me and i really wanted to chase after it and kidnap it and take it back to the CCM. But i didn't. It felt awesome to get out of the CCM though. Mexico City is seriously awesome. There have been some crazy celebrations down here for el dia de independencia. fireworks and gunshots and music all night long. 

Okay so heres my missionary message for the week. Our propósito as missionaries is invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo al ayudarlas a que reciban el evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y su expiación, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepción del don del Espíritu Santo, y el perseverar hasta el fin. (sorry i don't know it word for word in english but you can figure that out) Anyway, notice how it was invitar a LAS PERSONAS. It doesn't say nonmembers. Our job as missionaries, whether or not we are set apart to be missionaries or not (because we should all be missionaries), is to invite others to come unto Christ. That means members, nonmembers, less actives, your teachers or students or parents or friends or classmates or whoever. That's why it doesn't matter whether or not our investigators here in the CCM are real. Because our job is to invite them to come unto Christ no matter who they are. 

Love you all! 

-Hermana DeGraw

OH by they way, I ATE FISH. COOKED FISH. Everyone should be proud of me. I chose the fish instead of the chicken to prepare myself for Xalapa. It wasn't too bad, but still not too good either so... 

This week has been AWESOME!

This week has been AWESOME. and just to let you know this keyboard sucks so sorry in advance. the space bar barely works. OKAY so yeah I really really love the CCM. My companions name is Hermana Shumway. Shes from Phoenix Arizona. Also she knows Hannah Smith so that was cool. Anyway, our district is so cool i love them all. Theres only 7 of us. A trio of elders (elder Liddiard, Allred, and Graham) and then one other companionship of elders (Elder Hall and Hanna). were all really close and also really sassy (especially elder Liddiard. some times a little too sassy). its great. also we have arguments about a lot of stupid things so mom, if you wanna google a couple of things for me.. that{d be cool. (1. are daddy long legs venomous? 2. is El Paso Texas the safest city in america? 3. if you wanna send a picture of heath ledger and Joseph Gordon Levitt look alike that would be great.)  so were the intermediate group in the ccm and its been really cool. because of that our teacher doesn't speak any english with us at all. since day one. So our spanish has been improving way fast. 

we taught our first investigator on our second full day here. his names Carlos. The first few lessons with him were alright but our last one was awesome. We taught him about the restoration and he had a ton of questions and we were able to answer them all and then i asked him to be baptized and he said YES. And even though hes not a real investigator its still been a super cool experience. But for real, its pretty amazing that i can understand everyone"s spanish like.. almost perfectly. #blessed. The Lord really has helped with that so much. I{ve only been here a week and i can communicate with all the natives and everyone pretty well. its still kind of scary but also fun! our district is doing a language fast tomorrow so podemos hablar en español solamente!! that will be interesting... its probably gonna suck but that"s okay,it will help us a lot! 

The food here is good i think. my companion hates it but whatever... I can eat beans and rice and corn tortillas every meal if i want to.and lets be honest, what else do you need? There"s also watermelon every meal. PRAISE. AAAAND we got costco pizza yesterday. it was amazing. 

Um...what else. on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting and our whole district bore our testimonies. in spanish! without a piece of paper!  i was so proud of us! but that was just a super cool meeting because it was just a bunch of missionaries bearing really simple testimonies in spanish and we all probably sounded dumb but that's okay. 

We also watched a devotional that night that Elder Richard G Scott gave about prayer. Prayer is a sacred privilege that we have to communicate with our Heavenly Father so we should never rush our prayers. God loves us, he wants us to succeed, and he will help us if we ask. When you're a missionary, you pray like crazy and its really awesome. By ourselves, with our companion, with out district, in our meetings, before and after every study session we have. Its awesome. I have been called by God to be a missionary and if i work hard, and I'm obedient,and rely on the Lord, i will not fail. 

Some funny things that happened this week. We were all eating in the comedor and elder Allred brought up Shia LaBeouf (i have no idea how to spell that) except he said it like sheea laboof and all of us just died. it was so funny. he had never heard anyway say his name before. hed only read it so he had no idea how to say it.  and like.. other missionaries at the tables around us heard it and started laughing too. i don"t even know why he brought him up because it took us a good 2 minutes to stop laughing about it. 

Also a joke we heard ¿como esta frijole? translation: how have you bean? it doesn"t even make sense but i cried when i heard it. The thing is..  we don't get too much sleep here at the CCM so when someone says something funny to me, i laugh for like 2 minutes every time and sometimes start crying. Its a problem. Okay also the weirdest thing happened during personal study this morning in our classroom. we were all talking about some scripture story and then all of the sudden the clock just fell off the wall and shattered on the floor. It was on a brick wall... like.. what the heck how does that happen? nothing touched the clock. so yeah.. that was strange. I've been having so much fun here though!! and our schedule is so tight that there's no time to even miss home. that will probably change soon but whatever.. ill deal. 

So there are two elders here that are going to Xalapa with me. And they came here the same day. Elder Skinner and Elder Austin. They're hilarious so that will be fun. Its making me feel a lot better to leave the CCM because right now i"m actually a little afraid to get out in the field. and i'm probably gonna have a little break down when i have to say goodbye to my district. 

Also just a side note, mexico city is super loud.. probably like any big city. but its just weird because were stuck in the ccm so we forget where we are and then at night we try to go to bed and there's a ton of cars honking and sirens and dogs barking and fireworks every night. its actually pretty fun. 

Well sorry this email is so scattery. Writing is stressful. And I already hate it to begin with so lo siento.

Thanks for all the emails. I love you all!!! 

<3 Hermana DeGraw

P.S. Everyone who is currently struggling to know if they should go on a mission... i say DO IT. its amazing. okay thats all bye

Wassup. So yeah my first flight was not so fun but I did sleep a little bit. Once I got to salt lake there were a boat load of missionaries so since then it's been pretty fun. Mexico City is a party! It took forever to drive to the CCM and people drive crazy here but that just makes things more fun. I'm supposed to tell you that I'm perfectly safe here. They have lots of security. Seriously though, today's been pretty fun. I've met lots of cool people. ¡Es una fiesta yaya! Ok well my pday is Wednesday so Ill email again in a week. Love you guys! 

Hermana DeGraw 

heyyoooo. In a few minutes I'll be set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'll be serving in the Mexico Xalapa Mission for the next 18 months. If you want to receive my weekly emails you can comment your email address.
And if you want to contact me you can send me an email at sdegraw@myldsmail.net

And if you want to be REALLY cool you can write me a letter and send it to
Hermana Sarah DeGraw
Mexico Xalapa Mission
Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero
07230 Mexico City, Distrito Federal
Mexico

SEEYA.