Week 1 in California! 

I'm here and happily trying to adjust. It is so so different than what they trained me for in Mexico but it's good. I'm going to try to give you lots of details but I know I'll miss a thing or two. Just know it's difficult and great and challenging and all kinds of things but I know this is where I need to be. I thought about coming home one or fifteen times this week but I'm so glad I stuck in there. It is not getting easier but I have prayed harder than I have in a long time and the Lord is helping me and strengthening me because I'm doing the right thing. I know that we're not on Earth just to return to live with Heavenly Father, yes that is the ultimate goal, but we're here to learn and grow and have experiences to strengthen us. And I'm not just on a mission so I can come home, I'm here to learn and grow and help people. Where would I be if the missionaries that taught me would have given up? I would definitely not be where I am and I am pretty dang sure I wouldn't be this happy or know what my purpose is in life. So I won't give up because I know someone here needs me. 

I'm going to start when I got assigned to my area because everything before that was just plain craziness. 

On Wednesday we had a transfer meeting where everyone meets at the mission office and trades companions and whatnot. The newbies and their trainers had a meeting about the adjustment phase and training. (The first 12 weeks I'm here is my training.) So at the end of my meeting I got assigned my companion who will be my trainer. Her name is Hermana Rosales and she is from Mexico. She actually went to high school at Benemerito before it was an MTC! She didn't know any english before the mission but she is really really good! Hopefully that's how my spanish will be.

We went to walmart and got some basics, we are going shopping after this to get some real groceries. 

There are 4 missionaries in my ward which I've never heard of before! It is us and a pair of elders, the ward boundaries is split up so we each have our area for proselyting. We have had dinner every night this week with a member or investigator and man do they feed us good! One night we had homemade tortillas with dinner! Last night we had tamales and homemade cheesecake. I'm not going without, trust me.

Leaving my district has been really hard, it's kinda like when I left you guys, I miss them a lot. But the missionaries here are great, I just don't get to see them a lot. Today we played soccer together. Me and Hermana Rosales are the only sisters in our zone. But our game was fun, I accidentally kicked a guy in the head. I apologized like 20 times... We also went to the fitness center in our apt complex this morning. My companion has gained 20 lbs in her 7 months on the mission so I'm helping her, told you I wasn't going without!

We are trying to find more people to teach but it's really hard. We had someone with a baptismal date but when we taught him the Word of Wisdom (no coffee, alcohol, tea, drugs, etc) and the law of chastity he said it was too hard so we cancelled his baptismal date but he wants to keep meeting with us so we're trying to help him.  

I don't have any pictures from California yet, but I'm going to send some from my last days at the CCM in Mexico. The one of me standing in the circle, that's an earthquake circle, if we heard the alarm we were supposed to run and stand in one of those. Me and Hermana Baird with Hermano Munoz, he was our teacher, the one that I sent a pic of him playing soccer. The one of us holding stuff, those are pens that Hermano Gilisea's wife made for us for Christmas, so cute.

Thank you all so much for my packages. Thanks to you guys I have sheets on my bed and an Ensign to read while wearing my gameday shirt, a christmas tree and a stocking filled with prizes. I am one lucky lucky girl!

Love you all so much, I'm in California so letters are welcome! We've had an air box all week, just saying. I have written you all, some of you should have gotten a letter and if not, it's coming. I've been a letter writing fool these past couple days! I am almost out of time so I gotta get cracking on the pictures. Love and miss you and I'll email next week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Granado

Also, don't be fooled thinking that I'm in a sunny paradise here. It's pretty cold at night and the wind literally blew me off the sidewalk the other day. My hair is constantly a mess and sometimes I eat dirt while I talk. But all I have to say is thank goodness I'm not in Alaska or Logan walking around in my flats and a skirt. I am definitely blessed. 

I feel like I should explain the sentence where I said my hair is always a mess and I eat dirt when I talk. It's really windy all the time. Really windy.Also, I didn't tell you about my apartment. It's tiny, just me and Hermana Rosales. It's quiet but we can keep it clean. When we moved in it was a mess because elders lived there before us and just left it disgusting. But the zone leaders helped us bring our stuff in and they took our apartment keys. We left to go teach a lesson and help with a service project and when we came back our keys were under the mat and we walked in to find it spotless. The zone leaders did a really great job of scrubbing it clean, vacuuming, the whole nine yards. They even organized our suitcases in our room and set them up nicely. It was really nice. Since we are the only sisters in our zone they take really good care of us. 

Love you!