Hey ya'll
This week has been exhausting! Hermana Smoot and I have been working
like crazy and are so busy but I am enjoying every minute of it! Mt.
Pleasant is a super small town and we don't even have a ward, its a
branch. And there's not a lot of members only about half of them are
strong in the church. Our main focus is getting less active members
active again. Especially the youth. We have a few investigators but
they are all really flaky and its hard to get in with them but we bug
them all the time. On Saturday we went to this tiny super ghetto town
called Rome and decided we weren't leaving until we had a new
investigator. Well wouldn't ya know the first door we knocked on a 15
year old girl answered and let us in and we talked for a minute and
she said her family would be interested in learning and we asked her
about baptism and she said she had always wanted to be baptized! So
were stoked. The rest of the day was pretty much a bust but we did
meet two other potential investigators.
The people here are pretty nice to us even when they turn us away.
There is this specific Christian church in town called FCOC that hates
us and is super mean to us. They teach anti Mormon stuff in their
classes. We call it  the great and abominable church:P
The members feed us really well so that's good. I for sure wont ever go hungry.
Ummm I am out of time but I have so much more to say but just know
that I am happy and having the time of my life here and my companion
is great and the tootless hoarding hilibilies that I teach are awesome
and I love and miss you guys soooooooooo much! Until next week....
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hey ya'll so I'm finally here in Iowa! Hallelujah! I am in the Nauvoo
Zone in a little town called Mt. Pleasant. We are 45 min. away from
Nauvoo. And the best part is hopefully, most likely, if everything
works out I'll get to translate at the Nauvoo Pageant!!!! How amazing
would that be?! Oh and Ill be here for at least 12 weeks.

 My new companions name is Hermana Smoot. She is from Centerville,
Utah and is super sweet. She is shorter than me so that's really weird
but she is a great trainer. A lot of people think we look like
sisters. I can see it. We live in the cutest apartment. We legit live
in this cute historic town square in a little and slightly ghetto
apartment right above a shoe store. We also have a Dairy Queen right
next to us so that's a huge temptation. But I love it! We are the only
missionaries here in this area so its just the two of us living there.
We have a really small district. Only three sets of companionships.
Also since we are the only missionaries here we get to teach in
English and Spanish! Its so fun.

Iowa is beautiful. Its a lot of super old towns and a lot of corn
fields! But the corn isn't growing yet so its a lot of dirt right now.
Also lemme just tell you about dem Iowans. This is my generalized
observation. People are either normal or tootless hoarding
hillbillies. Like seriously, people don't throw stuff away and they
don't have teeth. Its so nasty! I just wanna hand out toothpaste and a
garbage bag with every pass along card. Even though a lot of people
are kinda gross they are all super sweet and everyone hugs us! I love
it!

Anywho, I'll keep you guys updated on people I teach and other
adventures. But until then I love you and miss you tons! Thanks for
the love and support! Until next time...xoxo
~Sister Rice

This is after our easter egg hunt.

This is Noe the worker that gave us the earrings.

Here's me and the Elders of my district. They're special guys.

The joke here is President Jensen (our mission president) Just take him away! There's a whole backstory to this pic ill tell you about it someday.

Well everybody, today is my last day at the CCM. Bright and early
tomorrow i head out for good old Iowa. My six weeks here have gone by
so fast. I cant believe were already leaving, i am super excited but
at the same time i am sad to go. Its so beautiful here and i have
grown to love my district like family and my companion like a sister.
Two of our elders left Monday morning so Sunday night we had a last
district fiesta. We had the elders give us blessings (in case you were
wondering Elder Sheehy did mine) and we had some sparkling cider and
we made a toast to love and friendship and promised that we´d see
eachother again. It was to hard. The hardest part was watching the
elders hug eachother and all we could do was shake hands. Sometimes
its just not sufficient.There was also tears from everyone. I dont
know how i can do this over and over again for the next 16 and a half
months. Its so hard to say goodbye.

Wasn´t conference so good! Poor President Packer he is so old and i
could barely understand him but what i did catch i loved. There were a
few times i thought he was gonna die right there at the pulpit. So
sad.Oh and the french general authority that spoke was my favorite
just because he mentioned paris and his accent was awesome! Oh and by
the way we watched it in English thank heavens. I also cant believe
the temples they announced! Thailand, Haiti, and Ivory Coast! So cool.
Oh and mom i missed watching and criticing the hair and makeup of the
members of the choir! My comp doesnt appreciate it as much as you do.
Also so one day a few weeks ago someone brought up marriage and me
being my sarcastic sassy self said that i dont need a husband i just
need a golden key into the Celestial Kingdom. Well that joke has been
going on since then and then i was watching conference and most of it
was about marriage and family. So obviously i felt so bad and guilty
and my whole district of course had to comment on in several times
throughout conference. Yeah it was super awkward. I dont joke about
marriage anymore.

So April Fools was interesting. We pulled a few pranks on our teachers
and did alot of silly things like switching name tags and acting like
that person. It was a fun day. But then... It was about 10:20 at night
and the phone in our casa rings. None of us get up until another
hermana knocks on our door and says that Reception has to talk to our
district. So Hermana Bohn got up and took the call. A few minutes
later she comes back crying and says she has bad news. She said that
our flights had been changed and we were leaving 2 days from then and
we should start packing. So of course were freaking out thinking how
can they do this to us   were not ready   its gotta be a joke- but
Hermana Bohn swears the person on the phone was latino. So her and her
companion go to recepcion to see whats up. They tell us that the guys
that arranges all that had just left a few minutes ago and to come
back in the morning but there was no record of our flight changing. So
now were covinced its a joke and we go back to bed super angry and
plotting revenge. The next moring we go to breakfast and a whole table
look over at us and one elder has the guiltiest face so we storm over
there and he just starts saying they made me do it! Then he tells us
that they told him to fake a hispanic accent and call us and trick us.
We were mad but slightly impressed that they were able to pull it off
so well. Those elders sure to keep us laughing!

Easter was fun but not the same as home. We had some not awful food
and chocolate and one elder recieved some chocolate eggs so we had our
own little easter egg hunt. It was pretty fun but the eggs were made
out of crappy chocolate. Definitely not home.

So Spanish. I have learned a lot here but not that much. The thing
that frustrates me is that i can tell you all about he Gospel of Jesus
Christ in spanish but i couldnt like order a meal. I am so grateful to
be going back to america for american stores, food, and english! Im
excited to use spanish but grateful its not all i have to use.

So funny story of the week. Yesterday we had gym time in the morning
before class and we are all exhausted so we decided to take a nap. So
we did, we just forgot to set an alarm. So thankfully we wake up right
as were supposed to be to class so were only fifteen minutes late and
even more was our teacher thought it was funny and wasnt mad. So yeah
it was great.
Anywho thats all i got this week. Cant wait til next week when ill be
emailing from Iowa. Love you guys and miss you tons!!!!! Til next
week...
Hermana Rice

So ill explain the pictures. The first one is a Donut Fiesta we had because Hermana Bohns family sent us 3 dozen donuts. The second one is the girls in my district being awesome.   The next one is just my district looking fancy. The next is a selfie with Blancastella (our latina grandma) isnt she looking sultry? And the last is a selfie i took to capture the day when i was ready in the morning before my companion because that never happens! 

Hey family!
This last week has zoomed by I cant believe i only have one week left!
It has flown by and i cant wait to get to Iowa! At the same time
though i will miss it here. Its gonna be insanely hard to say goodbye
to my district. Were so close and i love them so much they´re family.
Its ok though cause were determined to have a reunion and see each
other lots after our missions.
I'm so glad Grandpas funeral went well. Its sounded perfect and i
loved his obituary it was beautiful and i even shed a tear or two. I´m
sad i missed it but cant wait to see pictures.
So ive had a lot of adventures this week and lots to say. Here it
goes. My first story is kind of a rant. Mexico is so freaking noisy!
Like seriously, were on a 90 acre campus surrounded by a cement wall
and it sounds like there is a constant traffic jam right outside the
window. Constantly the sounds of cars honking, sirens, fireworks,
gunshots, birds chirping, and lots of these cannon sounds coming from
a catholic church that sets them off in honor of the saints. Then all
night long there are fiestas. And theyre super loud!. Its like a full
blown concert or a football game is going on right outside our casas.
Then every morning a rooster feel the need to make sure we are up on
time. We have named him Cleevus. He is quite the talker. Oh and theyre
constantly renovating and doing construction here so weve got that
noise too. I think this is the noisiest place ive ever been. But i
love it here so much! Its amazing.
In previous letters i told you about TRC and how once a week we teach
a real member, well the last two weeks were awesome cause we got to
teach this woman named Blancastella. She is awesome! Me and Hma Clark
refer to her as our latina grandma. She is so fun to talk to. She
talks super fast but we can always understand pretty much everything
that she says and she does most of the talking and she just sits there
and tells us about her life and then tells us how sweet and beautiful
we are and how our spanish is good and how she loves talking with us
and gives us encouragement and lots of hugs. We just love her. Id come
back to mexico just to see her again. We always come out from talking
to her feeling renewed and like we can do this. Shes just awesome.
So the greatest food related thing happened to me this week. For lunch
we had manacotti. Thats right, just good old noodles stuffed with
cheese and spinach with marinara sauce on top. No onion or anything
weird. I definitely had three helpings. It was the greatest day ever.
I seriously miss american food. I miss real pasta and food without
onion and i also crave mi ranchito and betos on a regular basis. I can
wait til the 8th cause we have a layover in Atlanta so me and my comp
are totes gonna eat some good old american food.
This last Sunday was a struggle. I fell asleep again during the MTC
presidency meeting. But the funny thing is at one point i jerked
myself awake and yelled OH! Luckily only my district heard me and
laughed . Then during sacrament meeting we of course had testimony
meeting and all of us got to bear our testimonies. Well my district
was a total mess. There was a lot of tears and a lot of ill miss you
and i love you guys. It was a struggle but it wasnt the first time we
cried in front of eachother.
This morning i challenged elder watts to a game of chess. Sydney
should be so proud of me. The game lasted over an hour and he finally
beat me. But i came really close to beating him. Ive learned a lot
here. Tennis, foosball, ping pong, whistling, chess, and of course
spanish.
Speaking of spanish, we had our best lesson ever yesterday. So we
teach our teachers but they assume different identities. Its fantastic
cause they can give us feedback better than anyone. Anywho so
yesterday we taught Edgar (Hermano Ortiz) about faith and repentance.
It was awesome. We taught in unity, used lots of scriptures and the
pamphlet, asked good questions and spoke spanish pretty well.
Afterward he said our spanish was great and he really felt the spirit
and he didnt have anything bad to say about it. We, in the words of
Fat Amy, CRUSHED IT! Hermano Ortiz says that our districts spanish is
the best of the other districts that came here at the same time. So im
feeling pretty great about spanish. But i still get really sad because
my worst fear has happened, ive forgot a lot of french. Ive absolutly
cried about it but its ok. Ill get over it.
Last adventure of the week happened in the bathroom, of course. Cause
all of me and my comps adventures happen in the bathroom. Anywho last
night Hma Clark was really sick to her stomach so we pretty much spent
all evening in the bathroom. Well at one point I sat on the sink and i
sang to her. All Tim Hawkins songs of course. It was fantastic. She
said i make being sick fun. Yep im cool like that. Can´t go wrong with
Tim Hawkins.
Well thats about it family I love you guys beyond words and miss you
tons! xoxoxo Aiya

Hanging out with the district on p-day.

(Ashlyn and her district)

Tomorrow ive been here a whole month!!!!! Yall should send me a

celebratory package with popcorn and cinnamon rolls and anything else

you know would tickle my fancy... hint hint wink wink. Also i would

love it if you would send me some pics of family and friends. I forgot

to bring some and my district keep wanting to know what yall look

like, plus i miss seeing your gorgeous faces. You can send them from

missionarymx.com. So this email is probably gonna sound like rambling

cause i have a lot of stories to tell and not a ton of time so tell

them so here it goes.

Last night all the elders in my district were whistling songs and i

told them i cant whistle so they tried to teach me. That worked out

really well. I tried for hours to whistle and lemme just say the

struggle is real cause several times i gagged on my own tongue. Yep,

im just that special but does that even surprise you...i dont think

so.

Almost everyday here we have rice and beans at lunch and dinner. Rice

is my comps favorite. So the other day there wasnt any rice so she

jokingly asked a worker why there was no rice. Well that turned into a

conversation and then a few conversations slash jokes so basically we

made a new friend. so the other day we said hi at breakfast and he

said to find him at lunch that he had a surprise for us. In any other

place besides the CCM we would be calling the cops but no so we found

him at lunch expecting him to give us candy or something but no. he

gave us a pair of blue seashell earrings that look like she bought

them off the street homemade. How nice of him to do that. Just goes to

show that you never know the impact of saying hi to someone.

Sunday was rough. I slept crappy and was super tired and had a

headache. Right after lunch we have class with a member of the CCM

presidency. Its with all of us and in the auditorium with super

comfortable theater chairs so naturally i fell asleep. And i was out

like a light. My companion had to wake me up after the closing prayer

cause i was in the way of people trying to leave. Apparently some

sisters laughed at me. Oh well. Then later that night we had a hour of

study time and i was still tired so i fell asleep again. This time

just in the class room. My district said i made oinking sounds. Sydney

can testify that i make weird sound in my sleep. Yeah they got a good

laugh out of it.

We pray a lot here. Like a lot. Which is great but all the floors here

are tile and we always kneel when we pray. No joke we all have

permanent praying bruise dimple things on our knees. Thats what we get

for talking to God before and after we do anything.

Lemme just tell you about my district. During Gym time we always do

something together. The last few days its been tennis and basketball.

Most of us suck at both but we always have a blast. Anywho we were

playing and we decided to give eachother nicknames. Mine is Purple

Turtle cause i always wear my purple ccm shirt to gym and im not very

fast. Hernana Clarks is Goldilocks cause obviously her hair is blonde.

Hermana Bohn is BonBon because she is sweet like a bon bon  and it

goes withe her name. Hernana Tates is Firefox cause of her firey red

hair and shes quick and slender like a fox. Elder Watts is Sasqwatts

cause we like the sound of it. Elder Phister is Phiester Miester.

Elder Sheehy is Pinky and his companion Elder Stone is the Brain. They

really are Pinky and the Brain like it just fits them. I freaking love

my district!!! We are all so close and have such a great time

together. Were planning a reunion in California after were all off our

missions. Its gonna be so hard to say bye to them in two weeks. We

dont even talk about it cause its too much. They are seriously amazing

and im so blessed to have them in my life. Imma tell you about each

one individually cause you should know about the people ive spent

every waking moment with the last five weeks.

Hermana Clark: my companion. she is awesome. She is blond and funny

and a perfect mix of Talyn and Ali Lambert both in looks and

personality. She burps louder than ive ever heard and she makes my bed

when we have to put on new sheets. We balance eachother out and i love

her to death and am so sad we wont be companions for the next 17

months.

Hermana Bohn: She reminds me a lot of Margie. They have the same hair

and both play the violin and have very similar personalities. Both say

i am their self esteem booster. She is an opera singer and she can

play the piano too. She is super talented and great to be around. Her

companion is Hernana Tate

Hernana Tate is fantastic. She reminds me alot of Anna pre dress your

truth. She is very smart and took four years of spanish before this so

i call her my favorite red headed dictionary. We quote Swan Princess

together and other movies too. She is fantastic. We have a lot of fun

dying together when Hermana Bohn works us out.

Elder Watts: He is a special little lollipop. I cannot figure him out.

Sometimes he is fun to be around and sometimes he is an annoying know

it all and sometimes he acts like a two year old and sometimes he goes

into dictator mode. I like to make fun of him in a brotherly way. Like

he hiccups super loud randomly and everytime i say lo siento que usted

es loco, which means sorry that your insane. He says i remind him of

his sister so it works that i torment him. But yeah he is legit weird.

Elder Phister: He is a sweetheart. Hes elder watts companion and he is

super patient with him. He has taught us to play foosball and

basketball and lots of other things. He is just all in all a great guy

ad he is not afraid to cry in front of us. Him and Hermana Clark are

bffs.

Elder Sheehy: He reminds me of Uncle Kris. He can be serious sometimes

and is smart and he even kind of look like him. He is also the biggest

goofball. He says the funniest things. Like he does this thing called

the Sassy Russian. Its where he does this russian squat thing and then

jumps up and shimmies. Its the funniest thing ive ever seen!

Elder Stone: He is a tall ginger that is pretty ditsy but smart at the

same time. He is really dramatic and a great artist. I dont know what

else to say, like hes just elder stone. He is hilarious.

So yeah thats my week. Spanish is still super hard but its coming

slowly but surely. I love and miss you tons! Cant wait to hear from

you next week! xoxox