I'm Alive and Well!

Letter from Alexa written Nov 8 - two days after entering the MTC

Hola Familia!
I'm alive and well.  Can't believe I made it through the first day! It was crazy!  It was amazing though.  After we said adios, I was handed over to a Sister Host missionary who walked me around & helped me get all my books and badges and stuff. 
I am in the west campus - not the main campus.  I love on the 3rd floor so that was fun carrying everything up there.  I briefly met Hermana M. before the Host Missionary escorted me to class.  There I met my other companion Hermana E.  One girl got moved into our district a few days before we got here, so she is now comps with Hermana R. and Hna M. got moved into our companionship.

Anyways, classes are fun - the Maestro speaks completamente en Espanol.  But it's awesome.  I understand so much!  I'm so glad I studied before coming.

So we had class for a million years.  Then a welcome/meet the MTC Presidency thing.  Then we had dinner - I had salmon, it was awesome!  Then we had our first teaching experience.  That was cool.  We were all super tired by then.  Ater that, we went and met our Zone leaders.  They're pretty great.  I ran into Keslie!  She's doing really well in case you see her mom.

By the time we ot home, it was almost 10.  Then we just unpacked and went to bed.

I live in an apartment-style place.  No dorm, sharing showers/banos stuff.  Which I love!  We have 5 Hermanas living together.

Hoy has been good.  I have really enjoyed it.  I understand a lot more Espanol than most of mi distrito, so that's kind of frustrating.  I feel like they get annoyed when I answer all the questions. haha But it's okay. 

It's great here.  It's going to be hard, but awesome.  Mis compeneras son awesome! I cant wait to get to Tijuana where it's warm!

Yo se que esta la iglesia verdad.  Yo se que tenemos un Padre Celestial & El nos da muchos bendiciones.  Tenemos un Hermono Mayor and he loves us.  Estoy agradecica por me family.  Estoy agradecida pro El Libro de Mormon. Es la mas verdad libro in el mundo.

Love you all! I'll pray for you if you pray for me!

Hermana Alexa Nielsen
(Not to be confused with Hermana AnaLeece Nielsen)

PS My P-Days are Thursdays but they didn't think it would be fair to let us have one the day after we got here.  SO I'll email Thursday.

Second Snail Mail letter - written Nov. 9

Hola Familia,
How are things with you? Things here are still pretty good.  Spanish is good.  The Elders are impressed with my mad Spanish skills.  They ask me for help all the time when it's personal or language study because we don't have a teacher during those times.  We taught our investigator again today. It went a lot better than the first time.  Except, she said she was out late last night and so she was falling asleep during our lesson.  To keep her awake, Hna had us do "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in Espanol.  It was awkward, but she laughed and stayed awake for the rest.

The food here es muy delicioso!  I've heard many times to not drink the orange juice though.  Apparently, you only drink it when you need your system cleaned out.  I decided not to risk it.  Sheriously though, we eat so well! I feel like I'm back on the cruise sometimes.  We haven't had lobster yet though. haha

Tell DeeAnn to study a little bit of Spanish before she comes.  Two of the Elders in my district came without knowing any Spanish beyond "Hola" y "Uno, dos, tres.""  They've struggled a lot because we go very fast.  I know it is going to be frustrating when I get to TJ though because they only teach us gospel Spanish words.  It's a good thing I learned conversatonal espanol on Duolingo.  It'll help.  Anyways, tell her to study at least a little or her 1st day is gonna be rough.

I think that's al I have for now.  I better study. 
Herana Alexa Nielsen

La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dios es verdadero!  Estoy agradecido estar en el CCM. Tenemos un gran trabajo, pero estoy. animado a ensenar la gente de Tijuana.

Answers to some questions I wrote to her:

In my district - 4 Elders and 3 Hermanas.  We have class in this small living room of a former apartment.
- My 1st 24 horas were crazy. They kept us out late 2 dias in a row and threw information at us like nobody's business.  But I'm fine. I feel good and I love it here.
- The most surprising? How soon they throw you into things.
-Thy just taught our District leader how to get the mail today.  He brings it to us at the end of the day.  So I got 2 letters and a package today.
-My schedule isn't really set yet because we've had to dall the orientation business the first few days.  I'll keep you posted.
- I thought I knew quite a bit of Spanish when I got here - now I know a lot more.
-In two weeks we have SYL week.  They encourage us not to try SYL as much as we can always. (Speak Your Language)
-We have 60 minutes on the computer.  What that entails, I'm not sure yet - we'll find out together.