Season 1 Episode 8 The Adventures of Hermana McDonald and Hermana Sandwich (7-25-16)

Season 1 Episode 8 "The Adventures of Hermana McDonald & Hermana Sandwich 

Street in Paysandu' where the bus stop is

This week has been absolutely crazy!!! We have done so many things that I want to share but I am going to just go through the basics and send some pictures that hopefully explain everything well enough.. Here goes... 

     

Some things you should know that I have learned about Uruguay and the culture here are: 

1- It is winter here so it is a little chilly and it throws me off hearing about everyone enjoying Summer and the Sun.. But enjoy it!

2- The food here is amazing, we usually eat some pasta with meat (I am not sure what kind of meat, I might be scared to ask about it)

3- SOCCER SOCCER Fútbol!!! We have played about 6 times since I have been here, including once in the rain earlier today... Hopefully I get really really good at it.. All of the Latin Elders are trying to teach us Americans how to play so we will see how that goes.

4- We give "besos" as a greeting to everyone that is in the room or comes in the room right when we get there and before we leave. It is insanely time consuming (besos - are kisses)

A member "Maria Luz"

5- We don't do "besos" with any guys 

(found that out after I had already done it so that's new and a little uncomfortable)

Some things about my companion: 

1.  She is AMAZING 

2. We are both from Utah

3. She has about 4 months left so I could be her last companion :(

4. She likes to cook eggs in the morning and this has been the subject of quite a few jokes within our district. 

We are teaching some awesome people:

1- Maria la Loca and her family are less active and her kids need some friends and extra encouragement to come to church 

2- An 18 yr old girl Joana and her 10 yr old sister Guadalupe 

Family Maria la Loca

3- A family (also named Maria) and her three kids Anthony-8 and Luciana-6 

They have a baptismal date for the 20 August 

4- Also Paulina 21 and her sister 

Fermina 16 

The funny thing that has happened this week is that we had about 3 days where I was with other companions because Hermana McMullin had to go to some leadership meetings so I was with Hermana Livingston and Maria Luz one day and we found Paulina and Fermina. It was really cool to be working with new eyes that were not familiar with the area or names or anything, needless to say that I got lost maybe once or twice. Nothing too bad we just could not find the houses we were looking for. Then the next day Hermana Livingston and I had to take a bus to her area to teach this guy they go and read with and find our way back, that was an adventure because not all the streets have names or signs and its a little odd... 

The title of this week comes from the nicknames our zone has given us we are - Mcdonald and Sandwich... Also, the light in our bathroom went out so I took a shower in the dark and thought I was going to die but its all good now... 

The challenge this week (I forgot last week so its making up for 2)   
Two small things 

First things first- LOOK UP from the phone, tablet, i-pod, of technology!! Life is passing you by while you look at the screen. Things are great when you actually ENJOY where you are, and The Second challenge - go to a church (activity) all 3 hours of church... 

(It is worth It!!! ) 

You are awesome and I love you!!! Thank you for your support!!! 

Sorry I am a mess, I will get my footing and everything will improve 

(pictures & emails especially) 

Season 1 Episode 6/7 Here in Uruguay (7-19-16)

Another Note from Mama Nic:  

So it's been a LONG 2 weeks was looking forward to hearing from Cassidy and then this is came through on my email yesterday from her sweet trainer with these darling pics of their area...

President and Sister Olsen with Cassidy

     I'm your daughters trainer!! She is having some difficulties with her email.... but we are going to get it all figured out!!!!   I think it is a problem in the church offices... But Don't you worry! She will for sure write this week, If we cant get it figured out today...then definitely tomorrow! 

SHE LOVES YOU!!

Oh my goodness what an amazing experience this all is.  Such a sweetheart to take the time to reassure me that things were going good.  I will be forever grateful Hermana McMullin.  Thank YOU!

President and Sister Olsen, Cassidy and Hermana McMullin

The District - Uruguay

Then today we received this today... I told her we are learning the lesson of "Patience"  here in UTAH!!!

She did answer a couple of questions that I had????

1- What happened that you couldn't call US?
2- How was your LONG travel day?
3- How is the new place?

1- So we went to call in Mexico airport and the dumb payphones wouldn't work for anyone that tried so I decided that I would  try during our long lay over in Chile but they didn't have phones we could use anywhere (we looked for awhile) and then when we landed here we grabbed our bags and got going right away... 

2- It was so long!!! We left the CCM in México around 4 pm and then the next day we arrived in Uruguay around 4 pm... So it was crazy, the flights were awesome though.. That LAN airline whatever it was called knows how to do things I have some pics of us on the plane and stuff I will send you about it

3- This place is AWESOME!!! It also makes me so humble because we have so much in the US that we take for granted... Some of these people don't really even live in houses or have any way to get heat or light in them.. 
WE ARE SO BLESSED

Season 1 Episode 6 & 7   I am Here in Uruguay

E. Rodiers birthday 

These past 2 weeks have been absolutely crazy!!! I started off in Mexico and I am currently in URUGUAY!!! So to make this not so confusing I am just going to split it into 3 parts CCM, Flight to Uruguay and Being in Uruguay first week.....

CCM:  We were able to celebrate E. Rodiers birthday which was awesome, gave him a present which was a sewing kit because he needed some help with sewing a button on one day so that was really fun.. The last Sunday here happened, it was really weird to be saying goodbye to people that we have only known for 6 weeks but feel super close to already. The best thing about this last Sunday was that the Herman's in my district all got a priesthood blessing before we would all have to leave. And I can honestly say that I have never felt the spirit so strongly before in my life!! To feel just the love and appreciation we all have for each other and the great things we are all going to accomplish on top of feeling the power of the priesthood was amazing... Then we all had to go to our last Sunday movie and then go to our casa to clean up and get ready to leave. We packed up and headed out on the bus at around 4 pm and then got to the airport around 4:30.

Birthday Celebration 

District 8A with Instructor

CCM District 8A

The Sisters

The Elders

District 8A - CCM

TRAVEL:

The Plane Food -
I guess we need to take a lesson from them

We all put our luggage on the bus and got to enjoy a very happy and joy filled bus ride today. Then we got to the airport and things felt real, we got our luggage off of the bus and then had to get it to where we check it in before our flight. You thought that that was crazy and difficult in any airport try doing it in Spanish when you cant answer any of the questions at all.. LONG flight and then we landed... 

Uruguay Airport

URUGUAY: 

Everyone here is so nice and it is great to be with my amazing comp Hna McMullin!! We are doing great work here in 
Paysandú !! I will give more specifics next week sorry for my chaos and craziness but it might always be this way!!! 

Hermana McMullin & Hermana Sanovich
Montevideo Temple

Love and miss you all! 

Received a Tender Mercy (7-15-16)

July 15, 2016

We did end up hearing from President Olsen the night she flew into Uruguary (7-12-16) around 8:00 pm, he was very kind and excited to work with Hermana Sanovich and could feel of her sweet spirit already! :)  I will be honest I was quite disappointed that I did not get to talk to her.  I didn't realize how extremely dependent I was on our communication.

I love hearing from her.

Then I received this on Friday...(7-15-16)   I was thrilled to say the least!!!  

My TENDER MERCY 

Sister Chase also sent me pictures of the three girls and I posted this on Instagram - It was truly a GREAT DAY.

Hermana Sanovich, Hermana McMullin a
nd Hermana Chase

She made it to Uruguay (7-12-16)

Mama Nic's note: 

No NEWS is GOOD NEWS they say.... Not for me!  It is with much 
disappointment that we did not hear from Hermana Sanovich as we had expected.  My heart feels such sadness at this time.  I was really looking forward to hearing and having a chance to talk to her, even if it was for only a few minutes.  I had no idea it was going to be this hard.  I know she is in the right place and I wouldn't want her to be anywhere else.  I just couldn't wait to hear her voice again.   It's not been the BEST of days.  
Tomorrow is a NEW day and I am looking forward to it. ;)

We finally received this at around 5:00pm

Tuesday - July 12, 2016

Good evening,

             I am Elder Heaton, one of the secretaries of the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission. I am writing to let you know that your daughter, Sister Sanovich, arrived here safely today, and that tomorrow she will meet her trainer and leave to her first area.

           Her p-day will be Monday, so you can expect to hear from her then. However, she is doing well, and is with a great group of missionaries. I know all of the trainers and she will be in good hands. 

Welcome to Uruguay

Hermana Sanovich - Love that SMILE

The Newbies (along with the Mission Presidents young family)

Season 1 Episode 5 "Americas B-day from the CCM" (7-6-16)

These pics are from Episode 4 - They did not come through last week 

I  thought they were post worthy this week.  ENJOY!!!

"THE" District

DRAWINGS of  "THE" District
(she is quite the artist)

Season 1 Episode 5  "Americas B-day from the CCM"

Sorry this email is going to be bad :(  but here goes nothing... 

Highlights from each day this week:

Mexico Temple

Wed - TEMPLE!! The entire thing was in Spanish so that was new, but they gave us English headsets to use and I am proud to say that I did not need them for most of it!! I love being able to understand when they speak Spanish to me, I may not be able to fluently talk back, but I am getting there! 

Thursday - TRC again... This just might be my favorite activity while here at the CCM. I love being able to talk to people that are not my teachers, who speak with their full accents and speedy Spanish!!! Its absolutely fantastic!! And humbling to realize that even when I think I know what is going on there are some things that just come in time. 

Fri - It rained like crazy!!!! Worse then it has the entire time we have been here 

Sat - We played charades in class because we were all that bored ;)

Shopping

District Bus Ride

Sunday - Fantastic!! We watched an old devotional from Elder Bednar that he gave on Christmas Day to the MTC in Provo in about 2011... The biggest thing he talked about was focusing on others and my favorite quote from that is " Who cares what you want, GET OVER YOURSELF... Its not about you" The strength and reality of his words can help all of us I think. There are things that happen to us that does not make any sense or things we are asked to do, or go through and sometimes we really just need an attitude adjustment and look at others and there needs and help them before we dwell too much on what we think we need.. :) especially true as a missionary and connects to our class today too... MTC presidency taught us that "This language (Spanish) is not for you, it is so the investigator can learn and understand the doctrine." 

Trio - Craziness

Monday - HAPPY 4th of JULY!!! We actually celebrated it here!! I am sure that it helps that the majority of the 480 missionaries here are from North America, but it was fun and made us all happier. The commodore had red, white and blue tablecloths set up for us and guess what we had for lunch? HAMBURGERS!! Like American Hamburgers!! They were delicious and had some corn on the cob, root beer and apple pie to go with it... To make it even better, dinner was PULLED PORK SANDWICHES, it was like it was my birthday (dad they are not as good as yours) but they were yummy, and we got some cupcakes that looked like the flag because of the frosting...  We also sang the USA National anthem today so that was fun!!! 

Tuesday - So last night at around 11 we got a call telling us that there was a girl whose companions had already left the CCM and she was going to come and live with us until she flies out Wednesday morning. We were excited to get to know her a little and super excited to no longer be a trio, but then she told us she had to be at a reception (?) at 2 AM on Wednesday morning and that we would all need to go with her.. Go team!! 

The best thing today was that we got our flight plans and we know when we get to leave!!! I will be flying out at 8:30 pm from Mexico and landing in Chile around 6 am... Then I will get on a different plane at 9 am from Chile to Uruguay and land there about 1 O'clock... 

I am so excited!!!! 

Mexico City

CCM - Shenanigans  

Challenge for this week:   Go to bed at 10:30 - then get up at 1 - then try to go back to sleep around 2:30 - then get up at 6:20 -  just try it sometime... then you will know what today was like for me ;)       

No but really,try to do 1 act of kindness for someone without expecting anything in return (not even a thank you) It is awesome to see how much serving others can change your own attitude :) :)

Thank you for all of your love and support - Hermana Sanovich

*So excited for Monday to come... She gets to call US from the airport - Can't WAIT.  

Not sure when her next p-day will be but I will keep you posted. 

Thank you for your love and kind words of encouragement!!!  

  

   


Look out URUGUAY 

Hermana Sanovich is coming your way....