Semana 5 - Here for a good time, not a long time

¡Hola todos!

And now for this weeks episode, it's HOMETOWN EDITION!! Yep you heard me! This letter is coming to you from good ole Newport Beach instead of Mexico City- mi corazon :(

Due to the coronavirus, the CCM is being completely shut down and everyone is being emergency evacuated back to their home countries. Coming home after 6 weeks was the last thing I expected to do, but even though it's been hard, I trust that God sees the path perfectly in this time of so much uncertainty and confusion. Hopefully after our 2 week quarantine, the party can continue and we can go to our missions! This week has been WILD, but I'm alive to tell the tale so stay tuned for some drama. 

Thursday night during class, a supervisor came in and announced that instead of leaving on the 31st of March to go to our missions, we were going to be leaving a week early on that Monday or Tuesday so we could get back in the states before countries closed their borders.  

We thought we had a couple days but the next morning, they came in again and called out 6 names, told them they had 45 minutes to pack all their stuff, and be at the buses to fly to their missions. The rest of us were told go pack up our stuff so we could be ready to leave at any moment. We lost more than half of our district that day and it was so rough to say goodbye to the people who had become like family to me. 

At 2 am that night, we got a knock on our door and were told that 2 Hermanas in our casa had 15 minutes to be at the buses to leave. There was still uncertainty who was being sent home or to their missions but they ended up sending all missionaries home. It broke my heart to not be going to DC, but I'll get there eventually! 

The rest of my district, including my companion, left the next day and I concluded that as the last man standing, it's clear that I'd survive the zombie apocalypse. I joined another district of a whopping 3 people for the next 2 days and finally finessed a flight to lax on Tuesday morning.

Also they ran out of masks so I improvised and used my hair scarf bandana as a mask at the airport (pic is attached). You know that relatable moment when you have to go to a music festival at 8 but you gotta not catch a deadly disease at the airport at 9? Yeah me too.  

I'm pretty sure I can have visitors but only from a safe distance of 6 feet! I think the kids these days call it "Social distancing?" 

And now for an update on my white dot story! One of the senior couples in the CCM presidency saw my white dot but said they thought I'd been there for a while. I just told them I was on my 6th week but just forgot to take it off. They're too sweet to joke around with so I ultimately retired the white dot.  RIP to a fallen soldier :( 

Some things I learned in the past 6 weeks

- I am an EXCELLENT bug killer.

- I missed ice. Like a lot. 

- I have a new found love for poetry! They are 95% of the time very sarcastic, nonetheless they are straight fire. Special s/o to Hermana Warren for being my teacher. 

Amidst all this craziness it is SO important to have hope! A couple days ago, for the first time ever, it was a little cold so I pulled out my jacket and inside the pocket I found a fortune.  It read "Don't give up, the beginning is always the hardest." I know with out a doubt that God is mindful of each of us.  He know our joys, pains, struggles, and sorrows. When life throws you a curveball, tighten your grip on the bat, and keep swinging. Keep going and keep pushing. God loves you and I love you! 

Con amor, Hermana Dangl 

 My MTC District aka mi familia 

The Final Five

ALL ALONE :( 

Final selfie with Esteban 

 The Final Five go to their last meal.

Safety 1st, Fashion 2nd

Semana 4 - One month in the simulation!

¡Hola familia y amigos! 

What a boring and uneventful past week this has been! I hit one month on the mish woooo!! 

On Thursday we had a day of ALL Spanish! Well... sorta! We lasted most of the day, but for this week and next week we are in full spanish mode. To make things exciting, we play a game called "Quien es el Latino" where we pick one person to be the Latino(a) but we all make sure we speak all spanish to cover up who the actual Latino is. If by the end of the day our teacher doesn't guess correctly we get a point. When we get 4 points our teacher will bring us churros or make us all paintings. The stakes are HIGH.

Thursday night was salchicha noche (Costco hotdog night) and the boys in our district had the great idea to do an eating contest. 6 was the record, but in my opinion that's pretty weak. 

Sunday was probably my favorite day this week! I spoke about the Plan of Salvation in church and it was pretty fire. Also we were some of the only people in the world that had a church meeting. It caused me to count my blessings and be grateful that we have the opportunity every week to worship together and take the sacrament. We are no longer allowed to meet all together as an MTC so we met as a branch for devotional. That night we listened to "Character of Christ" by David A. Bednar and it reminded me of my special responsibility as a representative of Christ.  It was super bien. 

On Monday we had a service activity putting together packets for the new missionaries and I found a stack of white dots that we had to wear our first week so I put one on my tag as a joke. I had a good amount of people come up to me and ask me how long I have been here and I told them that I was the only North American to come to the CCM this week. (To provide some background, North Americans and Haitians can no longer come to the CCM, only Latinos). They were super surprised and thought I was 100% serious, it was great. Another girl said her whole table at dinner was talking about it so I'm pretty much the talk of the CCM. That's showbiz baby. 

Shoutout to the coronavirus for being a party pooper because we can't go to the temple :( Also, I've been hearing a lot about the toilet paper fiasco in the states, but thankfully the CCM is stocked with enough toilet paper to last about 10 years. We are safe and thriving here. Everyone else: take your vitamins, eat your greens, wash your hands, and remember to trust in the Lord! He loves you and is mindful of you :) 

Con amor, Hermana Dangl 

B for "Benemerito" but also for "baptisms" 

An international holiday: Ice Cream Friday

#Gainz #SwolSZN #GettinBig 

Semana 3 - Whoaa we're half way there

¡Hola todos!

I'm more than halfway through my time here at the CCM and I can't believe it! I think I've aged 10 years in the past 3 weeks but sometimes it be like that. 

Last Wednesday, we took a field trip to the Mexico City Temple! (I just realized I sent the temple pics in my last email so you'll get them again this week). It was our first time outside the gates of the CCM, however our freedom was short lived when the bus pulled into the temple grounds, a WAY cooler but nonetheless still gated place. The drive was about an hour and I was so tempted to hop off the bus and grab some street tacos, but I decided not too at the thought of having to tell people I got sent home because I ran into the streets of mexico to get tacos. We won't ever spend time outside on the streets because of safety and we are here to get stuff DONE, but a girl can dream. Anyway, the temple was amazing and we will get to go again in 3 weeks! 

This week we made the goal to memorize 90 words and 18 phrases a day and by the end we should have around 2,500 words. We are teaching lessons every day and tomorrow we will be speaking only Spanish for the whole day so that should be interesting! The days are exhausting and the work is hard but I always think of the quote "where much is given, much is required". Life's not easy and requires a lot of work, but diligence and hard work brings miracles and blessings. 

On Sunday, I got assigned to speak in church next week! They used to do a talk roulette sort of thing where everyone would prepare a talk in Spanish and during the Sunday meeting they would announce who would be speaking that day so you always had to be ready. Just a couple of days ago they changed it so now we get a weeks notice when we are speaking. It's a shame you all won't be able to hear it but I can guarantee it will be amazing!!

Also, my cute friend Kennidy (Hermana Johnston) from BYU left for Chile a couple days ago, but it was fun to see a familiar face here. 

On Friday, one of the hermanas in our district tripped on a curb and sprained her ankle so she spent the next 2 days in a wheelchair. Another girl also sprained her pinky playing volleyball but if you think that's bad, it's really just the beginning. The stomach bug has been spreading like nobody's business and on Sunday night, a girl threw up during our devotional. The next day 7 out of the 12 people in our district stayed home with the stomach flu. Unfortunately I took a phat L and was one of the people that had to stay home. Luckily I had 2 other hermanas in my apartment that were sick too so we had a sick party.  

Yesterday we had a devotional broadcasted from Provo by Neil L. Anderson and he talked about how the gathering of Israel is the most important thing happening on the earth today. I am so blessed I feel to be apart of it and tell people the good news the Christ lives and loves them!!! 

Love, Hermana Dangl

Only pro of waking up at 6:30 everyday

My friend from BYU, Hermana Johnston

Our district, slowly falling apart

Sick but still having a gooood time! 

Mi companera y yo

Semana 2 - Birthday, Packages, and Temple Visit

Hola!

Two weeks in the CCM! I'm pretty sure 2 weeks is also the average time a couple at BYU dates before getting engaged, but that's besides the point.

Last Friday I turned 20!! Thank you so much for all the birthday emails! I'm so lucky to have the best support system ever :) I also got the best birthday present: a GORGEOUS sunset. For dinner Esteban, the cafeteria cook, gave me a special birthday dessert and my teacher brought me a little box of chocolates, so it's safe to say I'm being taken care of here in the CCM.

Because we have super limited access to the internet, we have basically no idea what is going on in the real world, but we heard people say there are some cases of the Coronavirus in Mexico City. As a precaution, we were told that we are no longer able to shake hands, so now we do an elbow fist bump sort of thing to greet each other.

On Monday we had a service activity in the laundry warehouse. It was hot, stuffy and lowkey felt like I was working in a sweatshop, but the guy in charge played David Archuleta. So I've never been happier to hear real music. "Crush" by David A hits different when you've listened to only hymns for the past couple weeks. We were dancing and folding laundry and having a good time. It's the little things :)

To make that day even better, my companion, Hermana Neff and I got packages! Thanks mom!! It was supposed to get here on my birthday but it came a couple days late so we just celebrated twice and it all worked out.

Today, on Pday we were able to go the Mexico City Temple, which is about 10 miles away but with the traffic it took about 40 minutes. It was a beautiful day!

Monday also marked 2 months since I first opened my mission call. That day, my life changed a lot and I'm so grateful for this new, crazy, challenging, and awesome adventure. Thank you all for your love and support!!

-Hermana Dangl

Note from the blog master, Rachel's mom:

This week the church announced the Open House of the Washington DC Temple, which is in Rachel's mission, so that is going to be exciting. For 5 weeks in September and October the general public will be able to go through it on a tour. It closed in March of 2018, so 2 1/2 years later it will be a functioning temple once again. Read more below in the link.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/washington-d-c-temple-open-house-rededication-dates

Also in the Church News just this week, was an article on the Missionary Training Center in Mexico City.  Benemerito was a church owned school for 50 years and then in a matter of a few weeks in the summer 2013, it was converted into a Language Learning Center. It  services 1,200 missionaries at a time.  Read the article below for more information. 

https://www.thechurchnews.com/history-revisited/2020-03-02/mexico-city-mtc-missionary-training-center-benemerito-lds-175318?fbclid=IwAR0qLlMO3t-r1jQuwykQ_ocCt2EAF-mEO2tXctRRKaQtI3KuubabtUFXmdw

 Birthday care package from my family and Aunt Katherine's family.

The haul

Costco pizza and a special bday treat from Esteban!

 Our district at the Mexico City Temple for 

Pday on Wednesday, the 4th.