Happy Fathers Day!

HEY!!!

So good to hear from you!! Mom you always miss my calls hahahah. It´s okay, I understand. Remember when you forgot to email me? It´s probably a good thing that you didnt answer the phone. I´d probably start crying which neither of us want! ha!

Yes! My bag made it safely here. It got to the mission home at like 6 Monday night. Everything was in it so I was super happy about that. Merida is so great! Im in an are called Caucel. It so HOT. Seriously. I go to bed sweating, wake up sweating and go throughout the day sweating. It´s great hahah. That´s why we have hammocks because we´d probably die of heat. (Dont worry, I shower every morning and night haha) So the hammocks... they are so difficult to sleep in! They´re fun to hang and lounge around in, but when the hammock is the only "furniture" you have, it can be kind of hard. But im so grateful! Im grateful for the opportunity to experience sleeping in a hammock for 18 months. There is a certain way you´re supposed to sleep in it. Every night before I go to bed I swing on it hahaha. It´s fun. My compañera probably thinks im crazy. My compañera is AWESOME. Heavenly Father answers prayers! She is SO patient!! She knows a little bit of english so its a little easier figuring out how to say things. Everyone knows her in Caucel so Im trying to be like her hahah. We are a lot a like! Except she is a lot more experienced and speaks perfect spanish. ;)

Elder Tingy called me today. He told me about the credit card stuff and he´s going to bring a paper for me to sign tomorrow at the conference! So yeah. Multizone conference tomorrow. Guess who will be speaking in it? YOUR daughter hahahahah. Yeah. There are a couple more missionaries speaking but I am by far the greenest of the green. So I´ll let you know how that goes! My comp said she´ll help me with my spanish. Bless her heart. 

Hayden left a couple days ago! So have Riley ask him for the pictures! That is so fun you went to Tahiti Village. Im glad you guys are doing fun things!! PF chang? Ah. Im going to find the PF changs here in Merida to rub that in your faces. JK. No time for that hahah. Thats crazy Kaz and easton get home and sadie leaves!! AHHH so weird!!! So exciting!! 

So the other day my companion and I went to a members house to help her clen her house! She has two little girls who are so cute! Anyways, they started singing the "Jonny jonny, yes papa.. eating sugar, no papa" song!!! I IMMEDIETALY THOUGHT OF KEN AND AVERY. hahaha. That song....

Mosquitos are the worst here. I´ve been attacked multiple times. Im using the permetherin stuff and it´s helping but when it wears off, its terrible. I also have tons of blisters on my feet from walking. So if you have a remedy for getting rid of blisters, im all ears! 

So the people here kiss all that time! Every time we greet someone or leave we kiss eachother (On the cheek of course) At first I was weirded out by it, but now its so normal.. its weird hahaha. I dont know. There  are some investigators and members here who want to learn english! So Ive been teaching them! It´s great!! Yesterday in one of our lessons I sang a hymn in english. By myself. Its so funny because no one knows what im saying. It´s great.

Things are great here in Merida! My companñera and I are going to work really hard to meet all of our goals! We have a few new investigators with a baptism date so thats exciting. I love it here. I miss you guys so much but I´m so grateful for this opportunity to serve!! I hope you have an awesome week!!! Love you!!

Love, Hermana Gates

#kickitkdog
1) a street in caucel!

2) my costa rican compañera and me
3) My hammock is the green/purple one!!

Merida ~ Ready or not.. Here comes Hermana Gates!

Hola MOM!

Hello from Mérida!!!! Yes, I finally made it. One of my bags didn´t though! Ha so I´m really hoping that will come soon. Presidente Garcia and his wife are the best! Seriously they make you feel right at home. They picked us up from the airport and drove us to their house and made us breakfast. We took pictures, got our hamocks and I got my new companion! Oh my goodness I love her so much. She has been out a year and is seriously, so helpful. She´s wanting to learn english so we are going to be helping each other out. Presidente says she is very disciplined and knows her ways. She´s so nice. I feel like Im going to grow A LOT these next 6 weeks because of her. And yes!! So funny. I´ve known Elder Nysetvold for a couple weeks now!! It´s so funny though because when we were in the airport today we made the connection with Mark! So yeah. I know him. He´s great. Also, I met Hayden Nielsens brother! We got a picture on his camera and he said he was going to send it Ri! Merida is so beautiful. I love it so much. BUT it is so stinkin hot! Ha! It´s great. I cant wait to finally get to my area though. We´ve been in the city all day today. Did you get my voicemail message? Presidente said we could call home so I called you but you didn´t answer!

You and dad just need to buy a plane so you don´t have to keep driving on I-15... nahhh jk. It sounds like Ken is doing great!! Im a proud hermana. 

YES. Jacqueline Rodriguez was my maestra!! I told her to send you those pictures!! Did Jacobo Lara send you pictures too? He´s my otro maestro. I told him to send you some as well. 

So there is this latina who will be serving in St. George Utah!! Her name is hermana Avila. She is a sweetheart. I gave her your number so if she ever needed anything she could contact you hahaha. I hope thats okay. She left the CCM today too so she should be in St. George very soon!!

There´s not much to say! Im just happy to finally be in Mérida. I know that there are going to be some difficult times but it all depends on my attitude!! I´m going to make the BEST of this experience. AHHH. I seriously cant believe im here. I hope you have a wonderful week!!! Love you!!

Love, Hermana Gates

Almost week 5!!

MAMA!! y MI FAMILIA!

Hahaha don´t even worry! I had time to read the email right before I left the lab so we´re good!! My missionary scripture is Alma 37:40! So our "investigador" is actually our teacher but the cool part is, is that when we´re in a lesson it TOTALLY feels like she´s a real investigador. I forget she´s my teacher for the 20-25 minutes we´re with her. It´s amazing! I seriously love it here soooo much :) I love my companions, I love my leaders, I just LOVE the CCM. I cant believe I only have one more P-day here and then I´m off to Mérida. It blows my mind. Oh I´m jealous you will be going to Pine Valley a lot this summer. Please drink as much Pine Valley water for me as you can haha! That is so awesome to get the family pictures done now! You will need to send me the pictures once you get them!!! Mom... if you take Jazzy, you´re gonna have to take Gunner ;) When does Riley head out to Minnesota? Tell that kid to email me haha. I´m so happy that Pres decided to play soccer this year!! I know she wont regret it. She´s such a great athlete. I will check out the blessing..(Also will you make sure when you send out these emails that you take out like personal stuff? And also tell pres to use the ones that you send out to put them on the blog... You know haha.. appropriate stuff ha) 

So question!! Are we related to a Suzie Ann Gates?? Will you go look on family history to check for me? On Sunday we watched this movie about the first sister missionaries and they were talking about a Suzie Ann Gates and they were saying how she was one of the best public speakers (for sisters) back in those days in Salt Lake City. Sooo will you do that for me please? During our Relief Society meeting on Sunday we talked about the family and how we NEED to defend the family. It just made me think of you guys! Definitley in a good way haha. But you guys are just so important to me that I would do anything for any of you. And it makes me want to defend families here in Mexico. Families are essential and part of Gods plan. He created families so that we can learn and grow and help each other. WOW I LOVE YOU GUYS. We also went to the visitors center today because the temple is closed and we watched a video on families. Once again I thought of you guys. They were all hiking and doing things that we do and it just made me realize how LUCKY I am to have you all!! Mom, I talk about you all the time to my hermanas. We talk about you too, dad. ;)  But mom you are my best friend!! You are so incredible and I hope to be just like you when I´m older. 

So in one of our lessons last week I was sitting in between my companions. I was talking to our investigador until I felt Hermana Wolfgramm hit my head... THERE WAS A BIG BUG CRAWLING ON ME HAHA.... So anyways I thought she got it off... apparentely it crawled on over onto my other side, and once again I was talking to the investigator and Hermana Felioiaga hit me with one of her books right on the shoulder! And she kept hitting me because the bug wasnt coming off! It was so dang funny! Our investigator was trying to so hard to not laugh. It was the funniest thing ever. Something ALWAYS happens in our lessons!! HOWEVER, This week our lessons have been so great. We dont use little script cards to help us out with the language anymore and it is a blessing. The spirit is the real teacher. We´re just the mouths. 

So I´ve been sick the past couple days. I´m super congested, coughing and it´s a little hard to breathe sometimes. ha. I think it was because a couple nights ago it was storming like crazy. Thundering, lightening, pouring rain, it was intense. We seriously ran from our classroom to our casa which is across campus because the lightening was right out of the gates of the MTC. It gets really cold here when it rains so I think thats why I got sick. Esta bien! If I´m still feeling the same I will go to the clinic here in the CCM to get some medication. 

Mom, will you save and print off mine and kens emails, please? I want to keep them! We always watch atonement videos here in the CCM and I always think about Ken! I just know our Savior is carrying her, me and you guys throughout the whole process of cancer. He´s so amazing and how lucky are we to call him our brother? Also have you sent off the package yet? Can you send me a slip for my skirts? If not its okay but it would be much appreicated. :) Also send the package to my mission por favor.

I love life. I leave the CCM in a week in a half! WHAT. Where has the time gone? I´m nervous to get out into the field but I cant wait. It´s going to be an amazing experience. I cant wait to FINALLY meet the people in Mérida. Anyways, I love you sooo much!! Thanks for all that you do. You are the greatest person ever! Love you! Talk to you next week!!

Love, Hermana Gates

ps... I love those pictures! Keep the pictures coming, they are the greatest :)