Landed in Honduras!

Okay, so I've been in Honduras for  5 days now. Culture shock is a massive understatement. The first day was really hard because I didn't know how to live here.

Let's talk about my appartment. We have the really nice version of a tin roof and walls painted pepto bismol pink. There are cracks between the roof and walls and between the windows and door where lots of little friend crawl in and sleep in my bed. We have a little kitchen area and a tiny backyard of tall weeds surrounded by a cinderblock wall. We're the luckiest ones because we're the only ones who have a washing machine! It's a really old free-standing one in the backyard that takes 20 minutes to fill up and afterward we hang up our clothes on lines to dry! We only have running water about every other 16 hours, so we fill up our pila (a cement tub outside) and buckets in our house to wash dishes and flush the toilet and shower and stuff!

Now lets talk about the bathroom. After we use the bathroom, we have to fill up the bowl with water to manually flush it. And We have 3 big buckets of ice cold water to shower with! This is how it goes down: I stick my head in a bucket and then scream cause it's freezing and then use a little plastic bowl to splash water on myself as fast as i can. My life is good....Real good.

This is just such a crazy experience! This morning I was mopping our floor and accidentally mopped a little gecko up... There have been at least 4 different lizards in our house so far. I am putting up a mosquito net tonight because I've been religioius about spraying OFF and still have about 11 bites.

Mom, my latina compañeras don't refrigerate our eggs... Is that dangerous?

I have a weird situation because I'm in a quadruple companionship! It will be a trio when one sister goes home in 2 weeks. I have two compañeras from Guatemala who are ANGELS and one from my district in the CCM! It's really fun cause we trade comps each day.

We had our first baptism this past saturday!! It was so, so cool! There were supposed to be 2, but one got scared and bailed.

We teach so much here. Everyone is so, so humble and honestly have next to nothing. They are so kind to me even though I'm the biggest Gringa ever. I'm easily the tallest person on any street I walk down and my skin basically reflects the sun and blinds everyone. I don't speak Spanish, but it's alright! I need to be patient! I had a cool experience in a lesson. My comp asked me to bear my testimony on the Word of Wisdom to a lady who I thought had a problem with smoking. But I bore my testimony about coffee and afterward I was thinking I was an idiot and was kicking myself but then my comp also talked about coffee and it turned out that was the only problem this woman had with the word of wisdom. Things like that are happening every day. All is well.

It's really hot. and humid. We eat lunch at 12pm and dinner at 9:30pm. So basically I fast every day.

Each day gets so much easier as I learn how to live without things I'm used to (like clean, running water). But it's absolutely shocking to see how people can get along with just the very, very basics. And often times without the basics. We ate dinner last night in the dark in the home of a member who doesn't have electricity. This is life here.

I wish I had time to tell you everything, but just know that I love, love, love you guys and I hope you're remembering that where much is given, much is REQUIRED. You guys better be doing all you can because you have NO IDEA how blessed you are.

We visited Children of the Dump many years ago. Most people here are wayy more impoverished and humble than those people. Try to imagine it. Dirt floors, tin roofs, adobe walls.

I miss you all more than ever here, but it's okay because I know that this is important and that it's true!

The first week in el CCM was a success!

Life is so incredible here in el CCM. This will be scattered, but I'll try to
start from the beginning. The plane rides went all through the night
and I met up with about 38 missionaries by the time I arrived to
Guatemala. They trashed the hard case carryon bag Mama, so sorry! I
didn't have the time or the Spanish to get things worked out at
Customer Service or something, so I just have a bag with a broken
handle that's slightly cracked and has sticky juice (hopefully juice)
all over it. The baggage handler must have either been the Hulk or
just totally drunk. Pero esta bien. We all got picked up by a dusty,
red school bus to be taken to el CCM. Guatemala City is GORGEOUS! I am
in heaven here. The first day was literally the longest of my life,
but I loved it! We got to take an hour nap and then had to stay awake
and busy until 10:30pm. Great news: I survived! So everything from
here on out has been muy facil. My companion is named Hermana Garfield
so the natives call us the cartoon companionship because of the cat
and Flynn Rider from Tangled. It's appropriate because we are the most
animated and fun ones here! We are also the most humble... So she went
to East and she's almost 21. I am the youngest girl in the CCM as far
as I've heard. My compañera is the best. Even though they matched us
up alphabetically, it was inspired. I'd show you a picture, but we
gave them our cameras and ipods and stuff the first day for security.
And that is the true reason. There are cleaning people that aren't
members in our rooms every day and also a ton of construction going on
here, so it's a good thing we don't have anything super nice! Hermana
and I got moved out of the normal rooms of 3 bunkbeds to an awesome
new one with only one other companionship! It was like Christmas! We
have a bathroom between the 4 of us! Hallelujah! About the bathroom...
There is something small and furry and dead in our bathroom fan or
vents or something because at random times during the day, it smells
indescribable. Absolutely awful. And i get my ab workout whenever I
walk into our room because the terrible smell makes my almost die
laughing every time! I thought it would be only serious and all
business here, but I laugh until I cry multiple (yes, multiple) times
a day. I haven't cried for any other reason than laughter in my first
week, so I'm very blessed. A lot of the missionaries here are so
homesick and get blessings and cry at night. I'm blessed because I
haven't felt homesick yet. But I think about you guys every day and I
just realize how much I love you. The thing is that I want to be with
my family, but EVERYONE wants to be with their family. That's the
reason I'm here! I'm sacrificing so that I can teach people how they
can be with their families forever! And 18 months is not long AT ALL.
Anyway, running out of time. Yesterday was P Day but the sisters here
call it B day (Blessed Day) because it's a good break from straining
your mind 16 hours a day. And it was AMAZING because we had the
biggest thunderstorm yet! It rains almost everyday, but yesterday we
had a torrential downpour! We walked to the Distribution Center and
the temple in it and the streets were literally flooded (but people
still rode motorcycles on them) and the sidewalks were rivers. And the
thunder was SO loud! There is lightning and thunder almost everyday.
It is one of my favorite parts of Guatemala. I got soaked even with an
umbrella! The temple was incredible! We did a session. We get to do
one every week! We do sports every day on a cement court that I would
liken unto a prison yard and I am getting so much better at
volleyball. Yesterday we played Latinos vs. Nortes and we killed them.
We're not allowed to keep score here so things don't get competetive,
but we killed them. And when it pours, we get to stay out and take off
our shoes and keep playing sports in it! When the ball goes over the
huge fence into the street, the elders climb the 12 foot cement wall
up to the chainlink part and hang there and yell "Ayudame! Ayudame!"
That means "Help me!" It's hilarious cause I'm sure the people outside
think we're in prison, begging to escape. The food is un poco estraño,
pero muy rico and they feed you WAY too much! I hear sirens all the
time and the gate is usually open to the CCM but it is so safe here!
Our windows are always open and we've gone out of the walls to church
and the temple and stuff so many times and it's not scary AT ALL. The
temple is so close--only a gas station between us, so we stare at
angle moroni through the window of our classroom all day. My district
is awesome.My teacher is amazing. I've had a change of heart since
coming here. I'm out of time, but i love you SO much! Thank you for
raising me and loving me unconditionally and giving my rules to help
me grow and choose the right. I miss you all but not really, I'm happy
to be here! Flynn Family Forever! --Hermana Flynn

I’m serving a mission because I believe. I know that I’m young, but as Sister Dalton pointed out, “The Lord looks at our heart, not our age.” One of the things I love most about this beautiful gospel is that it’s simple enough that a child can feel of its truth, and complex enough that no one can understand it fully. I don’t know all things. But I know enough to be held accountable before God to go out and assist in the gathering of Israel. Where much is given, much is required and we have a charge to spread the gospel, if not as fulltime missionaries, then as lifetime missionaries.

If any future sister missionaries are looking for modest clothing visit this website...

http://www.sistermissionaryfashion.com/index.htm

Check out this music video I made for my friend, Carli Barlow! Her new song is called "Two Years".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvaIZ3voOdk