Rhubarb cake and living in the ghetto

Well, it's been a wild ride, folks. This morning I ate rhubarb cake for breakfast and I almost started crying. I. LOVE. FOOD. And who knew that I would love rhubarb cake so much?? The senior missionary couple in our zone made it for us and I need that recipe. But let's just let the record show that I love rhubarb cake and America.

Last week on P-day after I emailed you guys we went to downtown Bridgeport and took pictures of the vast collection of graffiti. Complete with our matching Bridgeport tshirts we bought. I don't think I have ever felt so white in my life. But it was so fun! I feel like I fit in here in Bridgeport because I'm used to living in the ghetto. Some YW in my ward said that they go to the ghetto schools, and I was like HEY ME TOO. Haha, good ol' B-town. Gotta love it. 

Something that I did not expect at all when I came to New England was the large number of giant, ancient churches on nearly every corner. There are like 30 HUGE stone churches all over the place. And they all look like they have been there since the beginning of time. It's crazy! They are just so pretty and awe-inspiring. Also, there is the cutest old cemetery in the middle of town. I just want to stroll through it and read the names on the ornate headstones. But Hermana Kemp thinks I'm weird. So we haven't added that to our list of P-day activities... YET.    

Update on the zoo service: WE FINISHED THE ROOF. And we took a picture, but Dave hasn't sent it to us yet... But it is coming. It looks so awesome! 

Update on the work: it's coming along. Bridgeport is a little sleepy when it comes to missionary work, but we keep ourselves busy. Yesterday at church we had 100 people at Sacrament Meeting though! It was a Christmas Miracle if I've ever seen one. We found our lost investigator named Rodrigo and started teaching him this week. WHICH IS AWESOME. Just keep him in your prayers if you can. 

Also, if you guys need any help getting motivated to share the gospel at home I would recommend my favorite book: "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton Christensen. READ IT. It will change your life. LITERALLY my life is changed right now. (I forget if I've already advertised this book, so if I have just know that I am absolutely LOCO about it.) 

I love you all so much. As President Uchtdorf said in the Women's General Meeting the weekend, we are all God's children with divine potential. And if you are wondering if you need to keep EVERY commandment, he suggests it... Haha, I just love our apostles and prophet. Especially when President Uchtdorf mentioned "eenstergram." They are adorable. SO STOKED FOR #genconf RIGHT NOW. 

Ok, but really though, I love you all. Sometimes I try to pray for everybody individually and then I realize I've been praying for 20 minutes and it's way past my bed time or half way through personal study... But I really do try, and I really do love you. 

Love (because I can't say that word enough!),

Hermana Frei

Last day of summer!

Check your calendars, folks, because it's the last day of summer! Wow, that's so weird. And New England is beginning to let us know, too, because the trees are starting to turn color! It's so exciting! I can't wait for everything to be so colorful. 

Little baby Bridgeport is doing fantastic! We work a lot with members and less-actives here, so that has been way fun. This past weekend we had stake conference, and it was great to listen to Elder Snow from the Quorum of the Seventy talk about hastening the work. The entire weekend was all about hastening the work in this area! Which is so exciting to hear everyone want to get on board and serve alongside us missionaries. One lady gave a brief history of the church in this area and like 70 years ago there wasn't even a group meeting in New England! There were literally no Mormons! And now there are 14 stakes in the New England area, and the Hartford, CT temple is under construction. Truly the Lord is hastening the work here and I just LOVE being apart of that effort. 

For service on Wednesdays we get to volunteer at the Beardsley Zoo! For everyone that knows me, you know that I LOVE ZOOS. Holy yes. We don't spend time with the animals sadly... But we are currently putting a roof on a shed that previous missionaries have built. And get this, we are shingling a tiger face on the roof! It's so fun! I have pics. It's about 1/3 of the way done, and I can't wait to see the finished product. The zoo employee who works with us, Dave, took us to the carousel inside the zoo and let us ride for FREE. I LOVE CAROUSELS. So fun! Service is the best, and not just because we usually get free food and carousel rides. But hey, it does come with it's perks :) 

One thing that I have been focusing on while I have been in this area is loving people. I want to be able to see God's children through His perspective. And it is the most rewarding thing! On Saturday we went to McDonald's to use the bathroom and pick up a 99 cent cone, (because McDonald's) and a random old man stopped us and started talking to us. He said he used to be a professional hobo (he looked like he might still be...) and he hopped on trains and lived in SLC for a while, so he recognized our tags. But he just LOVED to talk with us about really random things. So we just sat there and listened to some wild stories for like 1/2 an hour while we ate our ice cream. Afterwards we gave him a mormon.org card with our phone number and said that we would love to talk to him more. He surprisingly knew a lot about the church, actually. I have no idea if he will ever call, but it felt good to make him feel appreciated by listening to him. I could tell that he was a very lonely man, looking for attention. And I could feel God's love for him. Also one day this week we were riding the elevator in our apt complex and there was another man in the elevator. And I fought the urge to just be silent and stare at the ground, and I asked him how his day was. And he thanked me profusely for even caring. I didn't think it was a big deal, but for him it meant the world. And I am so grateful to be placed in the paths of God's children to make their days better. 

Our ward is so cute and all the members are so nice. However, our YW and YM groups struggle a little bit. Are there any mutual activities that you guys have participated in that made church more fun and enjoyable? But other than that, I am loving my time here and enjoying it all. If you guys know of anything cool to do while I'm in the New England area I am open to suggestions, because we can do all sorts of things on our pdays! 

Anyways, the work is going forward. This church is true. I can see the blessings of the gospel in my life literally every day. In Stake Conference one of the speakers asked "where would you be right now without the church?" And I can tell you one thing is for sure, I would not be in Bridgeport, CT. And I am so grateful I am a member of this church and that I am here sharing this happiness with everyone.

I love you all! 

Tenga un buen dia!

Hermana Frei

The haunting in Connecticut

Jk, it's not haunted, but I am in Connecticut! Good ol' Bridgeport, Connecticut. It's the cutest.

Anyways, as promised, this week has been way interesting. My flights from Mexico to Boston were long and uneventful. At my layover in Atlanta Hermana Webb and I parted ways. It was weird. We had an awkward hug and that was that. And we both flew off into the sunset. Actually there was no sunset because it was like 1 pm. But that's besides the point. At the Boston airport Hermana Bybee and I found the rest of the group of new missionaries from Provo and our mission president! The Packards are way awesome. I laughed and I cried on my first day. It's the usual.

On Tuesday night we stayed in the mansion of the Boston Stake President. Literal mansion. Think MTV cribs. It was so gorgeous. Like they had a pool house. I thought that was only a thing in the the board game "Clue." But I have been wrong before. And I HAD A REAL AMERICAN BREAKFAST. You have no idea how special it was to me. Wednesday we had a bunch of information about mission rules and what-not thrown at us, and we went to the Boston Common for an hour and talked to people. Hermana Bybee and I gave away a Book of Mormon and several mormon.org cards. Mostly it was just fun to talk to people. There was one guy who was street performing and playing a hurdy-gurdy. Look it up. It was the coolest little thing. And the City of Boston is so pretty! And yeah, it was a fun little baptism by fire. 

To get assigned trainers Pres. Packard had to interview all 30 of the new missionaries to decide who to put them with. It was way cool, And my interview was very special. He gave me some great counsel and I am way excited to be here. And I told him my plans to become a doctor and now he calls me Dr. Frei. Excellent. :) 

That night was transfer meeting and got my trainer! Her name is Hermana Kemp and she only has one more transfer on the mission! But she isn't trunky, or doesn't appear to be, so that's good. But that means I get my training squished into 6 weeks instead of 12. But it's good times so whatever. We had a 3 hour drive to Bridgeport that night and didn't get home until 2:30 am. And we had to get up at 6:30 so I am still catching up on sleep from that. But here in Bridgeport we have a full Spanish ward. And it is the cutest! The past few days have been kinda slow, but we have this week all filled up for the most part. We work a lot with less-actives, we have like 2 investigators, one I just met last night, and one with a baptismal date for the middle of October before Hermana Kemp skidaddles. So yeah. Basically fun for the whole family. On Thursdays we get to play Bingo with old people in a day care for the elderly. It made my day last Thursday! And one of our recent converts is from Spain and he doesn't form complete words. So I have no idea what he is saying ever. 

So yeah, the work is moving forward here in the MBM (Massachusetts Boston Mission) and it's starting to get cooler here. I am just bracing myself for the leaves to turn. BRACE YOURSELVES!!! Sorry I wasn't able to take any cool pics this week, but you get what you get I guess. 

This week I started reading the Book of Mormon with an emphasis of Tender Mercies of the Lord. And it is amazing. I recommend. I know that God has blessed me with so many tender mercies in my life. It's insane. And He does it because He loves us. I literally stand all amazed. 

Have a great week! 

Love,

Hermana Frei

P.S. I met the Vails! They are so nice. 

Stop da party

Holar! (Once again, the unconjugated form of hola)

Since this week has been pretty uneventful, and everything cool is going to happen in the next few days, I have decided to dedicate this email to all my favorite things about the Mexico CCM. 

1. CHOKIS

The most delicious little cookie in this world. Imagine Chips Ahoy times a million. They have the perfect ratio of chocolate chips to sweet savory cookie. And we have bought them at least 2 times a week since I have been here.

2. Pedal flush toilets

En verdad. It´s exactly what it sounds like. Once you are done doing your business, you just stick out your foot and flush goes the toilet, and you don´t have to feel creepy about touching something that millions of other human beings have touched. It´s fantastic. Of all the shortcomings of Mexico, this just makes everything alright. 

3. Funny Latino Teachers

All the teachers here are hilarious. I imagine my Spanish sounds like their English. Maybe even worse. But I won´t dwell on that... My teacher, Hno Polo, yells ¨Hey, Stop Da Party" whenever he wants us to focus and be quiet. Just imagine Nacho Libre saying it, and you get the idea. 

4. The Slide Shows by Elder Jones

Elder and Hermana Jones are a senior couple here at the CCM and they are the cutest. Every Sunday they make a slideshow of the departing missionaries. And Elder Jones uses every Mac video maker effect possible. It´s great. We all just sit there and laugh, as the pictures twirl onto the screen, and slowly fade out. You find ways to entertain yourself here...

So there you have it folks. The best CCM in the world. Complete with fake rocks! Wow... That felt real (Madagascar anyone?) Anyways, I leave tonight at 3 AM, so that´s exciting. I can´t wait to go to Boston and start the real stuff. Today while we are preparing to leave the other Hermana (Hna Bybee) that is going to Boston with me is hanging out with Hna Webb and I. Rocking the tri-panionship. We are literally the only 2 missionaries going to Boston from the CCM. Maybe more will come from Provo? If not, we can dig it. 

I love you all! Next email: Boston!

Hermana Frei

Boston or bust!

Hola!

This week was great and I leave for Boston in less than a week! Fantastico! As much as I have loved the CCM, I am ready to get the heck out of here. It´s been great playing missionary, but it´s time, my friends. This past week my district celebrated our 1 month mark! We had some brownies and bubbly (sparkling cider) to commemorate the event. And, like, what happened to August?? Because I LITERALLY have no idea. 

This week has been a week of lasts. Today is our last p-day here, we had our last noche de pizza last night. We had our last Tuesday night devotional... And Jeffery R Holland did NOT come. It was a little sad. It´s been a hope of ours that he would come ever since the first week. I don´t know why. It was a far stretch.  But oh boy, am I ready to move on to bigger and better things. AKA Boston. Technically Mexico City is bigger. But lets not get nit-picky. 

This last Sunday was SO GREAT. Except it was like the Hermana Frei show. I taught the zone meeting with Hna Webb, I sang a prelude hymn, I played the piano for sacrament meeting, and my district sang a special musical number. I was scared my Branch President was going to ask me to speak too. Good thing that didn´t happen. AWKWARD. Anyways, our lesson went really great. Hna Webb went all relief society on me so we ended up making handouts for our entire zone. We made 60 little paper feet that said "get your feet wet.  Joshua 3." They were actually pretty cute and our Branch President thought we were the best things ever. We initiated the help of the Elders in our district to cut out the feet. And Elder Valentine got a little carried away and made a competing handout. See the attached pic. Hermana Eddy gave a talk in church about the Restoration and she wanted to read Alma 17:11 but ended up reading Alma 16:11. Look it up. We were all busting a gut. It´s an honest mistake because when you read the scriptures in spanish it´s hard to understand them sometimes. But wow. Best thing of my LIFE. 

Oh and also guess who is here at the CCM?! Joy Purnell! My roommate from BYU! It´s been so fun to see her here on campus. 

Anyways, the church is true! I have learned so much here and I can´t wait to get to Boston. Can you tell I´m a little excited? I just want to start working with real people. Also, the address for my mission home is 182 West Central Street, Suite 203 Natick, Massachusetts 01760-3799. Send me letters! And packages! Actually, do what you want. I´ll still love you regardless. 

Have a great week!

Hna Frei