July 9, 2013

Hello! I can’t believe it, but my time at the CCM is almost done! I've officially been on a mission for more than a month now, and it's amazing how fast the time is flying. I love the CCM, but it is totally time to get going to Bolivia and get started on the mission for real! We leave on Tuesday this next week, so I have no idea when I will be able to email again because Tuesday would normally be my pday... Anyway, so the next email you get from me will be from Bolivia!!! I'm so excited to go!!!! This was a way good week though, with some pretty cool experiences.

I’ve still been doing a lot of the same stuff, practicing Spanish, practicing teaching, and getting to know the gospel better. Things with our two progressing investigators, Alberto and Augusto, are going really well. We FINALLY got Augusto to commit to a baptism date yesterday! He has been hesitating for a while despite knowing that it was important and believing in the book of Mormon because he was concerned about his family, but we had a really powerful lesson where we bore a lot of testimony about the fact that God will always provide a way for us to follow his commandments, even when they are difficult, and we will be blessed whenever we do. Mosiah 2:41 was our closing, comforting scripture. It’s a good one. And Alberto is getting baptized! We are going over the baptism interview questions with him tonight and then we’re done with him. It’s really exciting, even though he is just our teacher and he’s just acting. I have really grown to care about and love Alberto since he’s been our investigator for so long. We got to hear about his real conversion story from our teacher, Daren Mostacero who really converted him, and we even got to see a picture of Alberto on Hno Mostaceros iPad, and I just loved seeing it because I love him! The Spirit is always so powerful when we teach, and I love it. Can’t wait to teach real people now!

I also had a really interesting experience with one of the other maestros here. While Hna Wursten was doing some Spanish practice, I practice taught this one teacher and once again, the Spirit was just so powerful. I can’t even explain it adequately, but it was the first time I have ever taught with no plan at all and really felt like the spirit was guiding me in what to say. Afterward, the maestro said it was a powerful lesson and that even as a member of the church, he felt inspired and motivated to be more dedicated to the Lord. It’s incredible how the Lord can take us and shape us into effective teachers through the Spirit, so we are guided in what we need to say.

A few fun experiences for the week now! First off, the fourth of July here was awesome! It sounds like things were a lot of fun at home, and I wish I could have met Emily! I'm glad things are going well there. We had a great party here, and I sent some pictures in the email. Pretty much all the norteamericanos were dressed in red, white, and blue, and the kitchen staff decorated the entire comedor with flags and fun streamers and things, and made this huge buffet of American food with an extra long lunch time! Well, almost American food. They tried ha-ha. It was seriously such a fun thing, and they had endless ice cream and an American flag cake and all kinds of great things, and then the teachers kept talking about how great America was and encouraging us to sing the national anthem and it was so fun! I was sort of thinking they wouldn’t want anything done with the fourth of July since it’s not a Peruvian holiday, but the people here are so great, they just really tried to make it a proper party. I think I celebrated the fourth here more than I ever have before ha-ha.

And just one more fun/sort of sad experience. Today on our way to and from the temple, I decided that my Spanish was good enough to really try to talk with the people on the bus and try to tell them about the church and potentially give them a LDM. Well, I definitely gave it a try, on the way there and back. On the way there, I was actually sitting by an inactive member, but I had no clue what else he said other than that he used to be a member, so I spent the entire rest of the bus ride trying to piece together what he was saying, and had no clue. And on the way back, I struck up a conversation with a different man, who was very friendly and definitely wanted to talk, but once again, I had no clue what he was saying at all, and spent the entire seven or so minute bus ride trying to piece together one sentence from him. Ha-ha and here I thought I knew Spanish! Oh well, at least the people are really friendly and were just amused by my lack of ability to speak. At least I think they were just amused, who knows. Hopefully that inactive member just saw the missionaries, remembered how much he really loves church, and decided to go back. Anyway, being in the real Spanish world where people don't speak at half speed like they do here will definitely be an interesting experience, especially for those in our district who can't even follow the half speed! The good news is that the Lord will definitely bless us with help as we try our best.

Anyway, love you all! Have a great week!!

Love,

Chelsie/Hermana Faulk