Buenos Dias!
So today is P day! Its only been a week but i feel
like Ive been here for years its been the longest week of my life! my first
day we arrived at 3 am to the MTC or as we call it here the CCM (say, say,
emay) its cute cuz it rhymes. so there wasn't much sleeping that night. the next
day they herded us around to get all sorts of paper work done, and then we
jumped right on into Spanish classes. we did have a chance to unpack at one
point but when i was almost all the way unpacked, they moved me to a different
room because one hermana was switching from the 3 week to the 6 week program.
So i had to move everything and change companions. but I know the change was
meant to be, I love my roommates!!! My new compenera is Hermana Messenger. Shes
from Utah and I'm only a few months older than her. The other hermana in my room
are Hermana Berg (shes super funny and sarcastic and we get a long great)
hermana Heartline (she is fresh outta high school and says shes not athletic
but is totally fit), hermana Braisher (super sweet and chill), and Hermana
Staihli (she is fantastic. she is the creep master. we both do this eyebrow
thing its super funny). The only problem is hermanas Staihli and Braishers are
in a different district (class) than us so we only really see them at night
before bed and we all wanna talk and stuff but we all also have to write in our
journals and for a couple times we were a bit late to turn the lights
out.
Our District
We have 6 elders and 4 hermanas in our district. it was
funny because the first few days all the elders didn't really know how to act around the hermanas so it was kinda awkward, but we eventually got them to talk
to us and now we have a great time chatting about superheros, movies,
devotional and other things.
Our schedule
its crazy busy here! I don't think I've ever had every moment
of the day filled up with so much stuff to do. We wake up at 6:30, breakfast at
7:15, then personal study, then we sit in class for usually about 3-4 hours
learning Spanish and fundamentals. Our morning teacher is Hermana Ferro and she
is the sweetest thing ever. Shes a great teacher and helps me a ton with the
language. after our first block of classes we have lunch and then physical
activity, there's volleyball, soccer, ping pong, basketball, and there those
workout machines that are disguised as playground toys. Their interesting
because there's no way you can add weight to it, so if you want resistance for a
better work out you've gotta get creative in having a friend like stand on the
bar or hold it for you. after wards we have more classes. we have Hermano
Palasio teach us. He is interesting. its hard to tell if he likes us at all
because his face always kinda looks bored. also he doesn't speak much English so
there was quite a language barrier the first few days. so that's another few
hours of classes and Spanish, until we have dinner around 6. Then we usually
have an investigator lesson.
Lessons
So like the third day we were here we had to plan our first
lesson. what they do is they have us do a sort of simulation. they've got these
little "casitas" that our teachers while act out as an investigator.
So our investigator is "Pedro Suaves"(aka hermano Palasio). I was
seriously so nervous the first lesson because i hardly know how to to teach a
lesson in English! and wed only been learning Spanish for two days! so it was
kind of awkward our first time (especially because we didn't plan on figuring
out how to get in the door, like they go full out like we gotta introduce
ourselves and everything!) and he gave us a "maybe" to our
invitation/commitment. Again its super nerve wracking to be in there because
here you are hardly knowing 100 words in Spanish and Pedro has this constantly
hard to read face and you have to try to not remember that its actually just your
teacher. But the 2nd lesson we kinda knew what to expect so our plan was much
better and went a lot smoother and i was proud of the Spanish that i was able
to speak! finally we had our third lesson on Monday and me and my compenera
were really worried about not being able to bring that strong feeling of the
Spirit into our last lessons so we decided that that was our main goal and
focus. and that's what we prayed for before we went in. And Wow, it worked. while
my companion was talking I got this prompting of exactly what to say, and when
i started talking,I almost couldn't stopped, I was saying words that I didn't
even realize I knew and I was able to address Pedro's concerns and bear my
testimony to him really well. and we got a yes to our invitation at the end.
after me and my companion walked around and talked about how awesome we had
felt and how freshly motivated we were to work harder. but while we were
talking our teacher came out of the casita and said that "Pedro"
could feel the same spirit we did and he told us it was a great lesson.
!!!!that made us so happy!!! the next day Hermana Ferro also told us that
Palasio had called her and told her how awesome the spirit was in our lesson
and that was cool too! anyways me and my companion are super grateful for that
expierience because we both really needed to feel that strong spirit just
then.
Language.
Its been crazy how much I've already leaned, but also
insanely stressful. its hard not to compare yourself to other. and we all are
getting stressed out about not being fluent already, but that's when we have to
step back and be like wait its only bee a few days and we already know this
much? The Gift of Tongues is real. and I pray for it every day. but that
blessing definitely does not come without a lot of hard work on our part.
one challenge we had was to bear our testimony to the
Latinas, so one night in the bathroom while everyone was getting ready for my
my roommates and I did just that. and they were so kind and supportive and
helped to correct us. and actually it seemed to have inspired on of them ,
because a Latina hermana came up to me and asked how to bear her testimony in
English! so I got to teach her! then ANOTHER hermana came up and asked if I could sing child's prayer for her in English. they loved it and I heard her
humming the tune later. They are super sweet people and I cant wait to be able
to have better conversations with them.
Life
I am so tired all the time and I'm working all day, but for
some reason I'm also amazingly happy. Although the CCM feels like a beautiful
prison sometimes, I love it here. (but I still am really excited to escape the
walls when we go to the temple later today) my hermanas are so funny and we
joke all the time about pulling pranks on the elders and hiding butter under
the tables in the cafeteria (an ancient Hermana tradition in the CCM).
My testimony
I know what I'm doing is so very important. The Gospel is so
so true. This church is true. God loves us so very much and wants all of
his children to have the happiness that the restoration gives me. I am so
grateful for the blessings I've already received here. I was reading in Alma and
he spoke about the story of Nephi's family and the Liahona. And I learned that,
we all have a liahona, the gift of the holy spirit is very much real. but
like the liahona it works on faith. We need faith in order to receive guidance.
the greater our faith, the clearer that guidance is. Without faith, we cannot
receive that guidance and we will be lost like Nephi and his family in the
wilderness. Have faith. Move Forward, and don't be afraid to feel
uncomfortable, because that when you may learn the most.
some great scriptures from this week were Alma 35 and 36. 36
is especially cool because its a special kind of poem called a Chiasmus and
its the very center of the book of Mormon. D&C 31 helped me a lot with
homesickness.
I love the Book of Mormon. I am so very grateful for it in
my life.
and as hermans Berg would say, she loves it because it has
a lot of death scenes. ha ha
fun facts
Mi Prima Hermana Eliason is our avencado! or
"avocados" we call them per tradition.
the food here is either "interesting" or really
really good. The soft serve they have sometimes is the BEST and I was really
happy when I found the spicy sauce at the salad bar. I basically put it on
everything now.
the CCM is much much smaller than the Provo MTC. I'm never
more than a short walking distance and a couple of staircases from my bed
really.
okay running outta time so gotta go! I love you all!
Hasta Luego!!
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