What a week it has been! I don´t even know where to start! I´ll give some preface information and then try and summarize this week in my small allotted amount of time!
Disclaimer: I am typing way fast and this spanish keyboard is nuts--forgive me!
I LOVE THE CCM!! It´s so fantastic here! The weather is perfect and beautiful! It´s really quiet though--almost like a ghost town. It´s an off time/season for the CCM because people are in school still, but I really like how small it is.
WOW. and the Gift of Tongues is REAL. What more can I say?
Now my companion: Hermana Hicks. I love her to death. She is from Lehi, Utah, almost 20, and is going to the Maryland Baltimore mission. She completes me just as a companion should! We have the best relationship. We are probably sarcastic and goofy far more than we should be, but our personalities just click. She came not knowing a lick of Spanish...which makes things a little more difficult, but we work together great and I love watching her grow! She helps me a ton too! I´ve learned so much from her!!
So, my district... (my group I go to my classes and study with)
Me and Hermana Hicks
Hermana Chapin and Hermana Puliot
Hermana Siler and Hermana Madsen
Chapin is from Vegas and Puliot is from Payson, Utah and they are both going to the North Carolina Raleigh mission. And Siler is from Oregon and going to Knoxville, Tennessee and Madsen is from Utah going to Little Rock, Arkansas. Super small district and no elders. Crazy!
Then my zone is 2 districts put together. The other district has about 7 hermanas and 7 elders I think. The elders are crazy...and that district is leaving Monday so no one knows what´s going to happen.
Alright, onto my week!!
I got to Mexico and got my bags--I was a little nervous being alone in the airport, but as soon as I got out of baggage claim, I quickly found the others who all flew in together from Salt Lake. The first words I heard as I came to meet the group was, ´wow you are short!´ Shocker, right?
So we all got piled into a big van and made out way (kinda sorta) safely to the CCM (MTC). Imagine all the bachelorettes pulling up to the Bachelor mansion on premier night...that was us as we pulled into the gates of the CCM. Long story-short, we got our tags, went through some orientation,and moved into our casa (house). There were 8 of us and we took up 2 of the 5 rooms in the casa. (Each casa has 5 rooms with 2 bunk beds in each).
So, we hadn´t been at the CCm for more than an hour and Hermana Hicks...well....she just did NOT look good. Long story-short again, I spent the rest of the day and the next day playing mommy and cleaning up throw up. Yay for the flu! Way to start with a bang, right!?
Our days here are literally scheduled down to the minute and we really just had meetings and orientation the 2 days she was sick...so it wasn´t too bad to miss. But with many prayers, Hermana Hicks healed quickly and we were up and running again on Friday.
Friday we taught our first investigator...in Spanish. It was rough, but is gave us a ton of drive to work hard!
Oh. and just when we thought everyone was all healthy and well...
Friday night Hermana Chapin was complaining about specific pain on her right side. Everyone thought it was the flu from Hermana Hicks...but NOPE!!!!!!
Saturday morning the pain was almost unbearable and they took her to the ER...REALLY LONG STORY-SHORT, she ended up getting emergency surgery to get her appendix out. Wahoo!
Taking a break from Hermana Chapin´s story...by Sunday out schedule got changed up a little. Church is interesting here. You go to Relief Society with all the American Hermanas, then have a study hour, then go to Sacrament Meeting...which is an adventure all it itself. Our congregation is super tiny because there´s only about 20 of us total in our zone. Oh. And guess how speaking works? They don´t tell you who is speaking. They give you a topic, tell you to ponder it, then come Sunday they SPONTANEOUSLY choose a few to speak on the spot...oh and EVERYTHING is in Spanish...so guess who got to speak Sunday...? YUP. ME. You guessed it. I got to talk on ´paciencia´(patience). Wasn´t bad at all--in fact I needed it! But it was a little unnerving!! Then the rest of Sunday is just meetings, study time, and movie night (we watched the Testaments).
So...back to Hermana Chapin´s story...after Sunday our district all took turns watching her for 12 hour shifts at the hospital. I watched her all day on Tuesday (the day she got released). Holy cow. What an adventure. NOBODY speaks English...it was great practice. Can you say IMMERSION. I will skip the rest for time reasons, but sufficeth to say we made it home to the CCM safely late that night.
So...Wednesday was yesterday...we taught our investigator for the last time (we also taught him Saturday, Monday and they Tuesday). Bittersweet seeing not only the investigator´s progresson, but Hermana Hicks and I´s progression. Amazing. We have come to learn in a very real way that: we may not be able to speak the language well and effectively communicate, but the Spirit speaks the same language to everyone and that´s all that really matters. When we pour out our hearts and testify of Christ in love, it doesn´t matter what words we use or if they understand us--because they´ll feel it in their hearts.
That was a quick chronological synopsis of the week--tons more happened but I am in a crunch for time. I´ll try to attach pictures to give a glimpse into my week!
I have a few minutes--here are a few other things that happened this week:
-We were living in a casa with just us 8 American girls, but on Tuesday they filled our house with Latina Hermanas! And they speak zero english!!! so that´s been fun!
-We like to play sand volleyball during gym time
-My favorite people here are the janitors because they are so nice and practice spanish with you if you help them learn english
-The apple juice here tastes like the green apple skittles melted down into liquid..so good
-I also eat an appetizer of Fruit Loops with every meal..fun fact
-I have 2 nicknames--Google Translate and Loopy (because I always eat fruit loops)
-If your lights in your casa are not out at 10:30 sharp, a scary guy comes and bangs on your door and yells until the lights are off
Lastly, one thing I have been working on this week is patience with others. So, if any of you would like to join me, I would challenge you to strive to be more patient with others this week. I promise as you work to be more patient with others, your love for them will increase exponentially!
OKAY. Outta time!! I love you all and thanks for the support!! TALK NEXT WEEK!!
Atte.
Hermana Clark