so my companion, i met in the airport in LA, is a career polotician. his name is Elder Johnson and he is from las vegas. when we were at the airport, he sweet talked the airport attendants into giving us upgrades on the flight. i thought it was going to be great, but it was still a terrible experience haha. it is impossible for me to fall asleep on a plane, so i went like 40 hours withought sleeping.
the language is difficult. i might have taken five years of spanish in school, but i have learned more of the language in this week, than i had ever learned before. everything we do is in spanish. my district of nine, are some of the only americans here, and the only people who speak english. even the teavhers dont speak english, and the ones that do, can barely speak it. our teachers dont let us speak english, we actually get punished for speaking it by singing "as sisters in zion" to all of the latinos during dinner. im surprised by how well ive been learning the language. but it makes sense, because literally everything is in spanish. i accidently start writing spanish words in my journal, and even while typing this email.
my district is famous around here. our teachers encourage us to sit with the latinos during lunch and dinner and try to learn from them, but all the latinos want to do is learn things in english. every meal they beg us to sit with them, and every meal just ends up in laughter beacause of some political joke or something else and the same happens when we play sports with them. we just yell jokes at eachother and the few funny phrases we know in spanish. we actually got all of them to start saying "es muy bomba" when the food is good or something else is good, which means "it's bomb" i actually think its unhealthy how much we laugh.
anyways, thats all the time i have. this experince is hard, but i know its worth it. i know i can do this. itll just take time and patience.
sincerly, Elder Case