Abigail is officially a missionary!
She left for the Mexico City Missionary Training Center (MTC) on Tuesday, September 13th. She will be in Mexico for 6 weeks learning Spanish and will then go to the Arizona Tempe Mission. We are so proud of the young woman she has become! She is strong, independent, confident and ready to serve!
On that Tuesday evening we received an email from Abigail letting us know that she had arrived in Mexico and that we would hear from her again on her "P-day" which is on Friday! ("P-day" stands for Preparation Day and it is a time when missionaries do laundry, write home, grocery shop, etc.)
We anxiously waited to hear from her again! It was a long week and a half but finally we got word! And if anyone wonders, yes, I did cry.
Snippets from her letter from Friday, September 23rd....
Hello from Mexico!
The MTC is really amazing, but really difficult. The
language is coming along... I forget English words and have to use Spanish ones
sometimes! My companion woke up last night and said I was testifying in Spanish
in my sleep hahaha! (she must take after her mother who took German in college and couldn't speak it when I was awake but would when I talked in my sleep! I lasted about 3 weeks in that class then dropped it, much to the dismay of my German professor!)
I had an allergic reaction to something here, and my hands
had a rash all over them and were swelling and itchy. Luckily they have a
doctor here, so he gave me some medicine to take, so all is well. Our water
went out the other day, so nobody could take showers hahaha. But it was on by
the next morning. We can't drink the water, but they have filtered water in
big tubs all over the MTC campus.
The food is way good, and it is homemade Mexican food for
every meal! But some of it is pretty gross. (this made us laugh!)
Also, today my district went to the temple! It was so beautiful!
The whole session was in Spanish, so we had to use headsets to listen to a
translator! But we had to say everything in Spanish! It was really cool! It was
super awesome. I am only allowed to take pictures on p day which is Friday, but
I don't have any time left to upload them. I'll send them next week!
Also, I forgot my glasses at the house hahahahaha!
I love you guys a lot!
I will email you next Friday!
-Hermana Abigail Valenta
(*Forgetting her glasses was particularly funny to me as her mom since I asked many times if she had everything on her list! She will have to wait till Arizona to get her glasses since we can't mail packages to Mexico!) :)
