June 11, 2013

I LOVE the CCM. The schedule is demanding and we are way too busy to have time to get everything done that they expect of us. They have every minute of every day scheduled, and yet they also somehow expect us to do things in our free time... haha what free time? Not too sure, since even Pday is super scheduled. -But that's okay, because everything is totally fantastic. So, a bit about how things are going here. I have a companion, Hma. Wursten, and she is so great. she came a day late since she was actually on the flight that I was originally scheduled to be on... looks like they made the same mistake with her that they made with me, only they didn't catch it with her. She is super kind and easy to get along with, and we work really well together. She is fun and helps me to get along really well with my district, because knowing me, with a different kind of companion I could turn into a boring, just follow the rules and study the scriptures in the little free time we have, type of person. She keeps me focused on the fact that building relationships is important too, along with following the rules and studying the scriptures. Our daily schedule is pretty hectic, like I said. We're up at 6:30 and then we have breakfast at 7, exercise from 7:30 to 8:30, classes and studying starting at 9 and going til 12:30 for lunch which goes til 1:15, then classes and studying from 1:15 to 6:30, dinner til 7:15, classes, meeting,studying til 9, companion planning til 9:20, then time to get ready for bed and have quiet dignity from 10:15 to 10:30. We have started getting into teaching our first investigator, Alberto. Its really cool, because even though its just practice, the Spirit really is there guiding our lessons. Hma. Wursten and I had an original lesson plan, then we both prayed and did individual study for a bit thinking about what we should teach him, and I had this thought that we should change our approach. I was worried about having to tell her that I wanted to change her plan, but then when we started talking, she had had the exact same idea. totally inspiration, because when we actually taught him yesterday, he told us afterward that we were the best companionship teaching experience of the group since we really made the lesson personal to him. That was all the spirit. Awesome. The Spirit here is so strong! We are just always happy and things are always so cool. On Sunday, which they try to keep a day of mostly English so we can just focus on the spirit instead of focusing on understanding the language, we watched the Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration video as a district, and even though Ive seen that movie a bunch, it was SO powerful. Most of the girls in our district were crying. It just reminded us so strongly that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet and he did SO much to change the world with his courage, conviction, and dedication to the Gospel.

A little about my district... its made up of 15 people, one of the biggest districts they have ever had here. there are 11 girls and four boys and everyone is amazed at how many hermanas are serving missions! Everyone is super great and pleasant, and we range the full gamut of experiences, from 18 year old elders to one hermana who is 27 years old and called as a missionary nurse in Ecuador. We and two other districts are norteamericanos, and we make up a branch. Then there are two Spanish branches of Latinos. All the Latinos are super helpful with the Spanish, and they're so friendly! they think were hilarious of course, since we try to talk to them in our totally broken Spanish and say all kinds of strange things (I said I was pregnant, my companion said some cuss word by accident, and we just generally make a fool of ourselves every day) but its getting better. we try to sit with them and talk to them at every meal (which, by the way, is usually great. the food is really good, except breakfast which is never good) so that we can improve our Spanish and get experience talking to natives. Its fantastic.

We went to the temple today for Pday! It was so cool to get to go to another temple. The Celestial Room was absolutely beautiful and it was inspiring to be reminded that the gospel is the same in every nation and in every language. After going to the temple, we got to explore Lima for just a little bit and go to a few stores. I bought my nice Spanish scriptures and will have to get a cool case for them soon. We spent the rest of our pday not really relaxing or anything, just doing our laundry and planning a second lesson for Alberto tonight, then emailing, then we will go and spend the evening studying and teaching our lesson. And that's really it! Its so so great though.

The mission is wonderful and I'm SO glad to be here. The gospel is true and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now!!!