Sister De La Vega

Hey everyone!!!
so i made it safe to Kentucky!! haha well actually Indianna! haha so i got into Louisville yesterday and it is beautiful!!! so green, i am in love, and everything is so pretty. Especially the colonial houses!! but man is it humid! other than that the weather is nice, it feels amazing in the mornings and night. so we got to louisville and the mission president and his wife picked us up and they live like 15 min away from the airport. their house is beautiful, and we spent the night there. There was 24 missionaries and i was the only spanish sister! I love it though! i feel so cool lol even though im not LOL. and elder plumb which came with me from the mexico mtc was the only spanish elder. There are like 40 missionaries total that speak spanish. so there isnt a ton, and we get really big areas. it was super weird speaking english! hahah i forgot soem words lol and at the aiport i kept talking to people in spanish forgetting i was in america hahah. and every single time i saw thr word ramp i thought of rama which is branch in spanish lol. but it was fun! we had bomb food, and everyone was so nice, and we had a testimony meeting and then this morning we had a transer meeting where we got our companions! My trainer is Hermana Marsden! She is from Mountain Green Utah! she is really cool i love her! We get along super well and i am so excited to be working with her! And I actually assigned somewhere that isnt even in kentucky! hahah we are serving right now in Evansville Indianna! They have a big spanish population here so im excited! It took us about two hours to get here! and i have already met some wonderful people! We actually have a dinner appointment at 6 and a lesson at 8 so im sooo excited to get to do the real thing now! So this morning we had our meeting, and then we had to have a trainers meeting on saftey, and then we had lunch and took lots of pictures. Then we drove all the way to evansville with 10 other missionaries, and me and my trainer did some shopping and stuff. I like our apartment, its really small but its homey! ahhh i just love it here already! I am so excited to teach and serve! i still cant believe that i am here! I love you guys so much and i hope you have a great week!
Love, Hermana De La Vega

and here are some pictures!!! some are from my last day at the Mexico MTC! yeah its sooo pretty! and there is a bug b in the backgrounf from the high school it used to be! So thats me and Hermana Winters, and the Elders from my district! they're awesome! and then me and my trainer Hermana Marsden and the Mission president and his wife! love you all!

Well this is my last week here!!!!!!! ahhh i cant even believe it! I am really leaving the Garden of Eden, this nice place that everything is prepared for me and going off to somewhere where i have no idea whats going to happen! i will know exactly when i am leaving Thursday or Friday so i will let you know. I just am really excited and really nervous! i worry that my Spanish wont be good enough, or that i don't know everything that i need to know, or i wont be able to answer questions people have, but i worked really hard here. <i tried my very best to study the most that i can, to be obedient, and be happy, and i know the Lord will bless if i just continue trying to do the best that i can. Our teacher told us to treat this last week like the last week your in Field and that means HARD WORK. me and my companion started to doing personal language study before 6:30 am so we can get better in Spanish, because i know i can only qualify for the gift of tongues if i am trying my very hardest to understand. There is not enough hours in the day to study everything that i want to! i have gotten really good at reading on the elliptical so that is very impressive haha. so i try to study everywhere i go. but here is a little bit about my week! Well today we went to the temple again! We left at 7 am and it was awesome as usual! Im really happy i got to go one more time before i left! I love it!!! But this week has been awesome as usual! I feel like i have had the best MTC experience. I had to say bye to my really good friends yesterday because they are all leaving on their missions! It was really sad, because you see these people everyday for 6 weeks and share spiritual experiences and you ust get so close with them. But i know they will all do amazing. I loved the Friends i have made here, and the mu teachers are amazing. They inspire me so much to be better each day. We are still teaching investigators here, and they are getting more complicated! i like it because it gives me the chance to know what to do in a real situation, and learn how to be a better teacher. Its funny me and companion whenever we extend a baptismal invitation and they except we get so happy that we forget to extend other invitations like going to church and stuff ( which is a necessity lol) and its just funny because we need to learn how to calm down hahah. but everything is still great, i haven't gotten sick here at all, and it rains pretty much everyday and it really fun to play in. We have earthquake centers here at the mtc outside the building where you in need to stand in that spot when there is an earthquake and we have had 3 earthquakes! you cant feel them from where we are, and there not big, just an alarm rings and everyone has to go outside. Its always at inconvenient times too hahah like one time it was during a lesson, and then at breakfast, and then in the morning, hahah people were like in towels and stuff it was hilarious. but yeah dotn worry we are all safe. I have learned alot more about commandment God has given us in this life and why we have them. Some times it easy to think that we have commandments just to restrict us on doing things, but Heavenly Father is so loving that he wants to give each of us the best shot possible to be able to return to live with him. Thats why we have commandments, because if you follow them, no matter what situation you are in, your are promised certain blessings with each commandment, and they lead you back to heavenly father. There is a reason for every single commandment, and if we obey with exactness, the blessings of heaven cannot be stopped. Why would you want to say no to being abundantly blessed? That has made me want to obey all my mission rules with exactness, and all the other commandments have given us. I love looking at them with a different perceptive, and i feel like i am more effective teaching them. It was raining really hard here yesterday and i had forgotten my umbrella but i was glad because the rains here feels awesome and me and comp just played in the rain, and while i was walking right outside of our classroom building seriously i step out my comp and another friend were sing ¨stand by me¨ and all of i suddenly i completely biff it hahah it was the funniest thing everrrr, hahah and very ironic because i was no longer standing. hah awkward, but people saw and i don't think anyone has laughed so hard, so i though you guys would like to know that i am still clumsy and loving it hahah. We had a devotional where we saw another one of Elder Hollands devotional at the MTC in Provo and i saw Elder Jarman! it was so cool! Ha he gave an answer and the mic when Elder Holland was asking for volunteers, and i was so happy to see him! it was cool. After the devotional was over Presidente Pratt asked me to give the closing prayer ( were best buds) and asked me where im going to announce it, and when i told him Louisville, he told he had family there that were not members! so he is giving me their info before i leave so that was way cool! Oh and i also got a bunch of compliments on my prayer! Everyone thinks i am a native now! hahah no where close though but it made me happy. Life is good here, and i am still so grateful that i get to be a missionary. I came here wanting to making people happy with the gospel, and change someones life for the better, but being here has just made me want to tell everyone out there about our gospels unique message. That God is our Loving Heavenly Father. He knows you personally inside and out, and that he wants you to return to live with him someday. He is so loving that he has sent us help and way that we are able to accomplish this plan. That is though his son, Jesus Christ, that died for not only the sin or the world but for each of our sins, and knows are pains, and sorrows because he has been there too. That through him we can be clean from sin, that there is life after this one, and that we can be with our families, and the ones we love forever. I love this gospel so much, i have a testimony of it with all my heart. I have learned so much, and i know everyone can be strengthened with this message and find a happiness they have never felt before. I love you all so much and I am so excited to work even harder in Louisville Kentucky, and i cant believe that i get to be the one to spread this message! I hope you are all happy, and safe, and know that Heavenly Father loves you completely, even though we may be incomplete. I love you all as well. Adios!


Hermana De La Vega

so i cant belive i am half way done with my stay here!!!! its crazy! I love it here! well to give quick little overview of my week, we have been getting a lot of raina nd it hails here!! hahah and it hurts! haha its kinda funny though watching us all freak out hahaha. I have made some great friends here, the other Hermanas here are so sweet. I could see myslef being friends with them forever! and i liek i said our ditrist is all bestfriends, and thats awesome. e get to go to the temple today to and im so excited!!!!!! ahhh! its will be our first time, and i think we get to go one mor time and its only like 10 min. away but i am so happy! I will let you all know how it went! This week was amazing though, i felt like i have learned alot more about this gospel, my slef and My Savior Jesus Christ. We were learning about the Plan of Slavation, and you know i understand and I know but we were asked to really really think about it. And our teacher asked us to write whatver question you have about it on the board. So i started thinking really deeply and i came up withth e question that i had of ¨ Why did an all knowing God have to send someone to be my advocate when shouldnt he know how im feeling and such if He is all powerful?¨ something along those lines, and reading over that question now seems so simple, but at that point i couldnt concentrate on anything else. I want studying the next day and such and i was still having problems fully understanding this concept of a Savior. I talked to my ditrict Leader about and i was upset in class and my teacher Hermana Sherwood pulled me aside outside to ask what was wrong and i just poured out my heart to her. I told her everything that was bothering me, and what was confusing me, and such. She and I studying togetherin the scriptures, and I had asked her that same question why things had to happen a certain way. I had prayed to God to send me help so that i could knwo for myself and boy did He send me help. Both my teachers helped me understand this concept more with the parable of The Debtor, and The stroy goes witha man needing money and asking for a loan and thinking he can pay it back. He signed a contract so that it would be fair. Well time came and he could not pay off his debt. He sentenced to jail, but wanted mercy. But the law of justice could not be statsified if the man forgave his debt, but mercy could not be extended either. There needed to be a bridge, because even though God loves us, and Knows us pefectly, no unclean can dwell with god, and since we all sin we are all unclean. So there must need ne a way where Justice is served and Mercy. So this is why Jesus Christ dies for us. we must pay the consequences of our sins but that makes it so that no one can live with God again, So Jesus suffered for ALL of our sins, so that we are forgiven, and justice is brought, and we can live with God again. and thinking about it now it is so simple, but i have such a more deep understanding. I have alwats known that Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer, and my eldest brother, but i think i undetand more of what He actually did for me. And i know if it wasnt for him than we would have seriously nothhing. I was also sturggling with the thought that my job is to invite people to come unto Christ, but i think ¨wait we pray to God though, dont we want them to come to God?¨ Then why is our Church names Church of Jesus Chrsis, shouldnt it be names Heavenly Fathers church? but i also came to know that Jesus Showed us the way to come unto God, and They are one in purpose, and that while we may worship God, we are eternally grateful for Jesus and his sacrafice, and for showing us the way. And we are indebted to Christ, and all he asks of us is to follow him, and keep his commandment. He has given us eternal salvation! and for that i am grateful. Because without Him, we wouldnt be able to live with God. It was just really awesome to really find out for myself. I love being here where the spirit is so strong, and i can learn how to better spread this wonderful message! I know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God, and know that by His merits, i can be clean, and live with my Heavenly Father Agian, and I know Jesus is the only one that could have done what he did because he was ¨ Like God¨ (Abraham 3) i just love being a missionary, and helping others come unto Chirst, just like I have come unto Chirst. Ilove you so much, and I hoep all is well.

Love, hermana De La Vega

Hello everyone!

so i have been here for two weeks now and i absoluelt love it!!! i love being a missionary! it is so cool to be in a place where everyone is doing the same thing with so much faith and courage. you feel the spirit so strongly here. Its like a little town i swear! haha there are cars, and stop signs, and houses hahah its that big! with like a millon soccer fields, and volleyball courts and such! So this week went by well! We got a classroom change because we had a lot of new people come in! I saw Elder Dudley as soon as he got here! so i was so excited!!! hahah i gave him the biggets handshake! His P day isnt until thurday though, but he has nice companions! hahah yeah he has two! so thats cool! i only really see him at meal times because we have differnt schedules, but its so good to see someone from home! well yeah we got a new classroom, and we finshed up teaching our first fake investigator Juan! hahah. and it went well! me and companion got him to commit to baptism and it was so cool! i know its fake but the spirit you feel when you tecach is real. Our Latina roomates left yesterday and i was really sad! they were so sweet, and always helped me with my spanish but i know they will be great missionaries! ha they were only here for like 8 days! i wish i knew the language! hahah but its getting there! A lot better than its ever been, and me and my companion sit with latinas at lunch so we can practice! we then got two new investigators names eliana and Victor! and they are alot more tough! but i love teaching, and studying for them.We study alot! but you study for you rinvestigators and that makes it fun! because you want to prepare for them, and teach them what they need in their lives, its really cool. Me and my comapanion are so good! shes like a bestfriend! hahah we get along so well and im so happy and grateful for that. I have also met some of the most amazing people here! like seriously i have made some great friends! and all the hermanas come to our house for nail parties on p days! its way fun! hahah me and my districy play volleyball like every day! hahha and if you guys know me you know that im really bad at volleyball but we play so much that im actually decent now! hahah its awesome. and I actually workout everyday, which i am very proud of haha. it rains here almost everyday but i love it! its not very heavy and its for like 15 minutes, but it makes everything look beautiful! hahah the food is just hilarious here. hahah so we have pancakes and waffles all the time but they dont believe in maple syrup so they give us ice cream toppings, dont know if thats good or bad yet hahaha, and i seriously eat conchitas like evryday hahah its bad and i need to stop but they are so good! haha sundays here are amazing! we have relief society all together and then sunday school and the the sacrament. then we have a lesson with our MTC president, and then watch a devotional and then movie time!!! hahah we watched The Restoration, and watch another one of Elder Hollands talk in the mtc! he is just so amazing! he definielty motivates us to be better missionaries!!! I hope a general authoirty comes down here to speak to us! We have tuesday devotional and last tuesday we had someone from our area 70 come and it was awesome! i wish i could spell his name correclty but i can because it a really lone spanish word haha. but its interesring listening someone give a talk in spanish and then having it translated but my spanish is getting better!! hahah everyone thinks im so good at spanish and then i had Elder Dudley testify that i was the worst one in my family and everyone just laughs hahha. I love my district so much we get along so well. I love my teachers too, they are awesome and definielty help me become a better missionary! ha i think edward should be one! he would be awesome no lie! I just really love it here, i have learned so much and ive only been here 2 weeks! i love being a missionary, and i feel so blessed to be able to wear a name tag saying im a representaive of Jesucristo. Its also alot of fun, and there are some really funny moments. I am happy, and i glad i took this journey. I love you all so much! thank you for all the love and support you give to me and my family!!! untill next time!

the mail service isnt that terrible, honeslt dear elder is worst so here is my address of anyone wants it! LOVE YOU GUYS!

Hermana Michelle De La Vega
Carr. Tenayuca-Chalmita No. 828,
Col. Zona Escolar, Deleg. G.A. Madero,
C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F.; Mexico.
Branch 14 district C

just like that!!! adios

Ahhhh I cant believe i get to talk to you guys! thanks for all the emails and love! this wont be a perfect email because its a spanish keyboard and i struggle haha. So let me tell you about why i got here sooo late. My vegas flight to Dallas didnt leave till 9:35 and i called salk lake telling them i was going to be there late and they said it was fine. But when i got to dallas i had already missed my mexico flight and the next on wasnt till 5:30 and then it got delayed till 6. The good was that there was 3 other Elders with me on the flight so we just stayed together. I just slept the whole time, and it was so confusing going through mexico airport, ha they like interogated me on why i was here it was kinda funny, and when the people that pick us up saw me they were like, we thought you were dead or something! You were suppose to be here wayyy earlier, and all this and i said i called but i guess salt lake never called them so who knows but yet it was still funny. ha they call me the lost sister. sounds like a movie title. So i didnt get to the MTC till like 10:45 and I met my companion! Hermana Winters, she is from Bountiful Utah, and i love her!!! She is way cool! She is going to El Salvador, so thats awesome. She is an amazing singer and piano player, and really outgoing and funny, so we get along great! We are really similar so thats awesome. So the MTC is here is BEAUTIFUL! everything around it isnt so nice, but it is gorgeous here!! It is the largest MTC in the world with 90 acres (provo has only 40) so its huge! and there arent that many missionaries here yet cuz it just opened so there is probably only 300-400 and it can house like 2000 so there is alot of room! numbers should be doublng like every other week! so its really exciting, and there is actually not that many hermanas here! there is one pair of hermanas per district so its not that many. and its an outdoor campus so you get to walk alot! the only bad thing is that is rains really hard! they told us it rains everyday for like 45 min but the last three days its hasnt! but it rained so hard on thurdsay that all the power went out! we were in a meeting too so we had to use the leaders iphones haha. But this p´lace use to be a borading school, and the First presidency decided to make it to an MTC. We all live in little casas, that hold 20 people. They are awesome. They each have a kitchen, a living room, a laundry room, and then our rooms. there is ´people to a room! and for every pair of American Companions there is Latin Companions as well! so we live with 2 hermanas from mexico going to mexico and they are so sweet! haha they help us with our spanish and we teach them some english so it works! tehy are Hermana Flores and Hermana Riva. They say my spanish is awesome! I felt very proud. hahah. So our Presidnt here is Presidnet Pratt who used to be Elder Hollands missionary companion when he was also a general authority. Him and his wife are awesome! scary at times because they are really strict but awesome nonetheless! We have class everyday where we seriously study spanish for like 5 hours. Its hard because i dont know church words, so im in the same boat as everyone, but my teacher Hermana Sheerwood from Nephi Utah says that my accent is great, I like that! I think i am a little ahead in spanish than everyone else, and they always ask me questions because i can undertsand alot but its still tough! Pray that i can be able to get the language! I just hate grammar... thats the toughest part. But i love being here honestly. Alot of the Hermanas say the first week was the toughest but i have LOVED it here. I have felt the spitit soo strong! And whoever is in your class is your district and i have THE BEST distirct. LIke we are all bestfriends. Its funny because you can tell that were all the kids that were really talkative in school, and had really loud voices that carry. We all get along so well, hahah some times too well, because sometimes were too loud! hahah but i love them so much! One of the elders that was on the plane with me is in my district and is now out distirt leader! Its awesome, i just cant explain to you how fun everyone is. We have gym time every night so we play volleyball everyday and its just a blast. We have awesome devotionals, and lessons given by President Pratt, and his wife, and we watch other devotionals that were given in the MTC in provo so thats cool. We got to see the one Elder Barnes was actually in Janurary so that was way cool! We started teaching a fake investigator on our 3rd day here, and its really intimidating teaching in a language you dont completly know but its amazing!!! I love teaching! The spirit honestly just helps you with the spanish soo much. We just taught out investigator Juan yesterday our third lesson, and it was amazing. We went in with the spirit, and it was so cool, He didnt believe in a god in our first lesson, and he does know that we show him that He loves him, and the book of mormon was true and we bore our testimonies of jesus christ and i started to have tears in my eyes when i was bearing my teatimony and he started to have tears too. It was cool because you know these are fake investigators, and they become your teacher when your done teahcing them, but it was cool that he was able to feel the spirut too being my fake investigator. Me and my companion as soon as we left the room balled in the next room and were so proud that we were able to have the spitit teach and not us. and it was funny because all the other elders couldnt commit him to pray or anything so when we came in crying they were like what the heck! how do you guys do it?! its all by the spirit is amazing what is can do. The food here is a cross between Mexican and American hahaha. There are tortillas at every meal of course, and some american foods such as waffles, and pasta salad, and pancakes, but there is beans at every meal. conchitas which make me happy, and others things i cant think of but its good! I love all the people i have met and its just been an adeventure! I love it so much, and i know i am suppose to be here. I am so excited to learn more, i Love all of you, and i miss you all! I hoep you guys have a good week!!

con amor, Hermana De La Vega

ha everyone calls me Hermana De La Vega de Las Vegas its funny.

LOVE YOU!

Hi brother!! okay so for some reason i cant email mom because it s spanish ket board and im confues but tell momand dad that i am safe, and that my flight got delayed twice and thats why i got here so late but i came with 3 elders so i was always safe! hahah they love me because i know more spanish then them, and have to ask me everything! i love you guys so much but i have to go!!!! talk to you all soon! tell mom and dad that i love them so much!

adios! hermana delavega

(typos because apparently the keyboard is in spanish :) haha)