E-mail (Dated: 3/31/2014) [2nd Week in Mexico]

Hello my beautiful family and freinds!!(:

Wow this has been a great week! It feels like we had a week of miracles! It was amazing to see Heavenly Father answer all of our prayers!

We had the opportunity to have a baptism!! ahhh ya i know my first baptism!! I was so pumped! It was incredible. Its the moments like these that make the hard moments pay off! The room just overflowed with the spirit! Her name was vania and she is 21. She was the golden investigators. She found the missionaries and at all of the lessons, she knew everything! Her boyfriend in a RM! She just glowed afterwards! Its so amazing to see the hope and happiness the gospel brings to peoples lives! We really do have the most amazing opportunity to be apart of this work! So funny story, we started to fill the font and we soon realized it was filled with spiders and yellow gross stuff.. it was bad. So we spent like an hour and a half just trying to clean it! None one knew how to drain it so me and my comp got buckets and were flushing the dirty water down the toliets! Finally someone from the ward called the Stake Pres and he called in a janitor! Ahh so funny! Ill attach a pic! it all turned out beautiful don´t worry!
So an amazing tender mercy we had this week- One day all of our appointments fell through, even our backups! And I just felt like we were supposed to find someone.. particularly a man. I didn´t know why! And so when another one of our meetings fell through, I said Fernelius, we need to pray. And we prayed in the middle of the street to find this person that I felt we needed to find. And 15 minutes later, a man passed us and then turned around and said, ¨Are you girls mormon missionaries? Ive been looking for your church!¨Me and my companion were in disbelief. We were like uhhh ya! And he speaks English!! Hes from Cicago! So im pretty pumped! We have an appointment with him this upcoming week! Its so amazing to see the Lords work! He has prepared so many children!
This is hard work, it is not easy, but it will be worth it. I can already see so many blesssings.
Ha the language is really hard for me.. I feel like I freeze up in front of people. I know it will come with time and the Lords help. Its just frustrating to not be able to express myself! But its the spirit that does the work so I know I dont need to stress.
Everything else is good! Its super super hot but Its great! My companion is amazing. She definitely teaches with the spirit. I look up to her so much! Its crazy she is already training and she has only been here for 3 months! She is incredible! She tends to get super stressed though.. and its gets hard. She walk like 50000 miles per hour so im doing everything I can just to keep up with her! And when she gets stressed she gets kinda mad.. so ill ask her a question and then she wont reply.. ha its hard. but its all good she is an angel!

So big news- I ate fish this week. yup. a whole fish. You should all be proud. I was dying! I was piling lime and hot sause on it! And it was deep fried.. ahh the food her is killer. So heavy. Its so hard! And we just eat like a huge meal at 3.. soo ya weight gain here it comes! kill me! And at every meal they give us juice or like water with fruit and sugar mixed. my favorite so far is the orange! And horchata.. so good here! but a lot of the members are nice to us with the food! and my stomach is still freaking out! I haven´t thrown up yet, don´t wanna jinx myself though! haha i am loving the Doterra! They are saving my life! Mom-my bag is also saving my life! haha but all my clothes are already balled up. wahoo. Also this week was filled with blisters yay! Gotta love it!

Also another fun miracle- one night I was like ahh I just want some fruit! haha and i looked to the sky and said hint hint! and the next day some members gave us apples and then some watermealon! I was like no way!! Haha so tight. But the ward here is super awesome! Someone different feeds us every day at 3 except monday! Im starting to grow close to some members. it makes it easier to be here away from all you guys. They make the blow of being away from family a little bit softer!

I really did feel so much of all of your love this week. Thank you so much for the prayers and love sent my way. For some reason I really felt it this week! I felt like angels were walking and pushing me through this week!
I love you all SO much! I hope you are all doing amazing!! Have a fantastic week! Let me know if I can do anything for you guys!(:

con mucho amor,
Brookie Cookie

Hand Written Letter (Dated: 3/31/2014) [#1 from Mexico]

E-mail (Dated: 3/24/2014) - I'm In Mexico!

 HOLA!!!! Wow i cannot believe i have been here for almost a week!! Mexico is crazy. and when i say crazy i mean like insane.. mexico is SO different. But its great!! okay so first off i am in Chpultepec civac cuernavaca mexico!!! and it is beautiful!! and SO hot... SO hot. its beginning to become summer here and the heat is insane. Its safe to say i feel like a celebrity here haha... all the people just stare and love my hair and eyes! One of our investigators thinks im from new york haha. but white people are protected more here i guess! its safe during the day, but im not gonna lie i get super scared walking around after the sun goes down. but its all good! our apartment is nice for our area. our bathroom is a little scary though not gonna lie! but hey we have a toliet seat so we got it good! but ive only seen one stop light.. theres no such thing as podestrians.. so ive almost got hit by a car a couple times haha! and people just pile in cars. and theres dogs everywhere! and flowers!!! its gorgeous!! every morning i wake up and if i look outside i can see a volcanoe! its weird to go from seeing mountains to a volcanoe! and apartently its active haha! its also weird that i already crave to see blue eyes.. yup blake and shannon and family epecially you guys! haha the only time i see colored eyes is when i look in the mirror! oh and my legs are covered in bug bites.. its horrible. they turn purple and itch so bad! hopefully ill get used to it..

So my companion is AMAZING!!!! Oh my gosh i love her so much!! such an answer to my prayers!! she is from vegas!! she has been here for 3 months-yup 3 months and shes training! shes stressing but she is doing amazing!! She is so much fun! and totally takes such good care of me. she can tell when im having a hard time. Not gonna lie the first couple days were rough but its getting better! haha i just loved the MTC so much and i miss all the girls. it was cute though she made me a welcome sign!! it was adorable!!
but the plane ride was great! president kush and his wife picked us up at the airport and the took us back to the mission office and we slept there! i got slpit up from my comp and sturt and honestly i almost broke down.. i had tears in my eyes cause they are the closest thing i have to family here!

but there is soooo sooo much work to do here in this area. like everyone is a less active.. everyone. its sad actually, really sad. and they know nothing about the church so it was like they were just baptized to be baptized. but we did have a confirmation on sunday!! and it was INCREDIBLE!! his name is osvaldo and he is 19 i think? and he just smiled and smiled after it was amazing! i couldnt understand the prayer, but the spirit can speak any language and just testified of christ. it was unbelieable.

i also had a really cool experience this week- i met an investigator named saira and she owns a little ice cream shop! so the second time we visited her she let us teach her in her shop and i invited her to be baptized and she said yes... oh my gosh the spirit was so strong! but what was amazing was when the first time we left after i met her, i told my comp, shes gonna be bapitzed i just know it! and then the next day she accepted baptism! its amazing to see the lords tender mercies in everything. these people are so prepared. SO prepared.

so i dont know how im not losing weight... its 5000000 degrees outside and we walk all the time!! ya my feet are dying.. ha. i cant even walk by the time we get back to our apartment at night. but its all good! ha jokes the food here is so fattening.. oh my gosh. every day at 3 a different member feeds us and to be honest i freak out everytime cause im so scared to see what i will be eating! but the worst thing ive eaten is nopales. ya i hate them. its cactus by the way! so i eat a meal with a member and the eat cereal the rest of the day! haha we dont have money to buy cool food! its sad! but saira gave us horcata.. oh my gosh my new favorite thing!!! its amazing!! and coconut ice cream.. so good.

so the language is hard.. i can follow topics but not the whole conversation.. its hard! and when someone talks to me directly i freeze up hahah. ahh ya its bad. but it will get better! some people are easier to understand than others! some people talk so lazy its hard to understand.

the mission pres and wife are incredible though!!! i love them!!

oh also on the plane ride i got outside my comfort zone and talked to a man who was protestant and we talked about the differences of our religions its was super cool! so i gave him and the kid next to him pass along cards and a pamplet haha it was actually really fun!! its fun to share the happiness of this gospel.
so one crazy fun fact of the week- there are a lot of mentally sick people here.. is weird and sad.. but when i went on exschanges on tuesday into the area next to me we went into an investigators house and her daughter who was prob 38 just walked around naked.. like aboslutely no clothes. hahah good thing i was a cna or i would have freaked out!

also-MOM HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!!!!!! i love you so so much!!! have such a great birthday!! mwah!!

hope you all have an amazing week!! i miss you all so much! thanks for all the support! love you all!!
con mucho amor, brookie cookie!

E-mail (Dated: 3/11/2014)

HIJOLE!!!!

(oh my heavens) P day agian? What an amazing week it has been! Time is FLYING!!! So BIG NEWS-I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANS!!!! You should have seen us celebrating! literally jumped into my companions arms (kate- like i used to do to you!!) okays so we leave march 17 at 430 to the airport, leave SLC at 830 AM and flying to atlanta GEORGIA!? so random! SO pumped though!! so well get to georgia around 210 and then leave for Mexico City at 455 and the get to mex city at 635!! and then well prob drive down to Cuernavaca from there!(: I am so so so excited but so nervous!!! As far as my bag goes.. I don't know what i am going to send home.. hahaha still 20 + lbs over! Pero estabien!

Okay so I haven't had like any headaches!(: I am doing so well! The spanish is coming along a little better.. but still so hard! hahah next week i will be dying from culture shock.. pray for me. But i did get sick from the food or something on Thursday night.. thought i was gonna die. We got to go up to main campus for lunch and lets just say the wraps are my favorite(: Also- Me and Sturt lunged from our apartment to the farthest gym bubble! And I literally could not walk the last two days!! So funny! I don't think you guys realize how far it is.. but trust me when I say its a long way!!
We got a new district this week! ALL girls!!! and so so cute!(: I love them!! funny fact- My comp honestly thought she was gonna be called to North Carolina too!!! how crazy!? Also My teacher got engaged over the weekend!!!! So I decided before we found that out that I want to be a wedding planner... Im lovin the love! But speaking of teachers-I have thee best teachers in the world. Ah i just look up  to them SO much. I am so grateful for them! One of my teachers pointed out something that really hit home to me about the commandments. He said "All I have to do is ________ to have the spirit with me more?" Think about it.. we are given the commandments as an opportunity to come closer to our Savior and Heavenly Father.

So I am really sad to be leaving the MTC.. I love the people here! its amazing cause the MTC is like a battery charger.. its getting us all ready for the field! Ah its just a powerhouse here! I never wanna leave! -okay exaggeration but you get the point(:

Thanks so much for all the letters and packages!! they light up my day so much!!! And yes the time change was a killer. Yes horrible. But we made it through! My comp can not fall asleep at night though.. she just sings.. and im like yup go to bed!! haha love her (: She is my radio since we can't have music in the dorms!

One more thing- Tender mercie of the week. We get to watch the spoken word every sunday morning, and this last sunday, Brother Newell did a really sweet thing for his mom (Verna, I worked with her at the charleston!) And it showed her and a couple other of my friends there! And I just bawled becuase it was so fun for me to see them on the screen and show my sisters more of the people that are close to my heart! Such a beautiful tribute! I just knew that Heavenly father was watching out for me.. I knew that was for me and I couldn't help but just cry tears of joy. I know his tender mercies are surrounding us. We just need to look, and we WILL find them.

Anyway I love you all so soo much! Have a fantastic week!! (: MWAH!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Chynoweth - Aka Cookie (:

Hand Written Letter (Dated: 3/4/2014) [#4 from MTC]

E-mail (Dated: 3/4/2014)

To start off- This week has FLOWN by! Like how am I already reading emails from you guys again!? Ahh this week was SO amazing though! Ahh i love the MTC so much!! Everything is just SO good here!! I am addicted to the spirit it has here!! don't get me wrong, this is hard. really hard. But its amazing! I have learned so much this past week! And all the days just blur together, but ill try to remember some of the things that happened!

Well to start off, my district is hilarious. Someone drew me on the board with a red face.. haha yup I still blush. And it happens a lot more than I would like it too! its all good though!

So is it crazy that after today I only have 1 more pday and then im off to mexico? 12 days people. 12 days. Its scarin me!

Haha so our district literally sings 'Tengo Gozo en mi alma' every day without fail! Its I have sunshine in my soul today! love it(:

This week I have really learned that I literally cannot teach a lesson without the spirit. It is the spirit teaching, not me. We had a lesson with an 'investigator' a couple days ago as a district.. and it was literally mind blowing to me how we were ALL on the same page.. like I have a thought come to my mind to say to him, and then someone else would say that EXACT same thing.. Ahh its just so cool!!! And like I said last week, I receieved a blessing from an Elder. And I have literally felt like angles have been surrounding me, lifting me up, cheering me on ever since. I have had so much more strength. I want you guys to know that I know the Lord is watching over each of us individually. He puts trails in our paths to make us stronger. He will never give us a challenge that we can't get passed.I can't remember the reference, but there is a man in the scriptures who oh its 2nd corinthians 12: 9-10! And he says he is grateful for his challenges and weaknesses because through them, God makes him stronger! I now look at my these hard times with a whole different perspective! And the power of priesthood is real. I have never had a more grateful heart for this power of God. Ahhh I am just so grateful and humbled!

Anyway All is good if you can't tell! Spanish is still really slow.. but it will come!
okay i love you all so so much!! Have a fantastic week!! thanks for all the support!! You are amazing!!
ps-i don't know if i told you about the kid who gave me a CTR ring...? anyway it was interesting! And he was like oh wear it all the time your my best friend! and I just kinda let it go. And then he thought i turned him in for something haha and found out I never did so he wrote me this apology letter haha! And last night he gave me this letter and it actually really touched my heart. He opened up to me about what he had been through and how I had made such a difference in his life by just being happy and smiling and listening to him.. So point of the story, just the simple things make such a difference in peoples lives! So keep on smiling and being yourself(: okay bye(:
LOVE YOU ALL!!