Sister Connolly in Mexico

Hi everyone!!!!!

I made it to Mexico! It has been a crazy week! It started early on Monday morning as I flew from SLC to Mexico City and then Mexico City to Tuxtla Gutierrez. The Mexico City Airport was definitely an adventure! It was great! It was so beautiful to see Tuxtla from the sky! Its incredible! I soon met my sweet mission presidents and then spent the night with a bunch of other new missionaries at the mission home. The Tuxtla Temple is absolutely amazing! Looks just like it does online!

In the morning I got to walk in the streets and again... beautiful! So amazing! We walked to the nearby church to have a bunch of meetings. My mission president actually had assigned me to lead the songs throughout the day that was a surprise!

It was awesome though and I did my best.

WE then later found out who our companions were. I was super nervous!
It was so exciting! My companion is Hermana Wong and she is the sweetest thing in the whole world! She is from Mexico and only speaks Spanish. However! She wants to learn English so I have been helping her with that. It is great! So hilarious to see the different translations and what not. We have a lot of fun helping each other.

We then took a nice 6 hour bus ride to Tapachula! That's the name of my area! its great! Its really close to Guatemala! So awesome! Its really hot here which is fun and it rains ALL the TIME!

I do really wish that I knew Spanish better. Its hard and a lot to take in sometimes. Especially because I mostly understand about a little less than half of what people are saying. So Ive been practicing a lot and have been saying what little I can say when I can so thats good. Its funny being so different than everyone else as a "gringa" because its basically telling everyone that I don't know Spanish! Eek! but I am looking forward to the day when I actually can speak!

As I said before, it rains here all of the time! I love it! Its great! It always rains at the afternoon on every day basically. And it truly does downpour! haha

My companion and I have had multiple chances to run through the rain to our next appointment which has been such an adventure! I love it!

We have had some amazing lessons already and I love it. I know that the Spirit it with us because I know we are being obedient. I try my best to understand as much as I can but its hard. Its been amazing to be about to learn so much from each lesson. Im really working on my Spanish! I want to be able to help and serve as best I can so I use what little I can say whenever I can. And its okay, only a few people have laughed at me. Only a little kidding. I cant forget the fact that I'm a gringa. It's great! What an amazing privilege it is so be able to be here doing such a "marvelous work."

The culture here is very different than anything i have ever experienced and its amazing to see how humble everyone is. There are literally houses in every little wall and side street. Its awesome! Most of them are made of Tarps and Metal panels so it is amazing to see how they are very resourceful.

I feel so blessed to be here in Mexico and I hope that I am doing all that I can! Its amazing to see how my companion helps our investigators and I'm grateful that I can learn Spanish. I have learned so much and I know that Ill learn a ton more this week! Let the adventure continue!