Hey everyone! I can’t believe it has already been another week. I am halfway done. I seriously can’t believe it. Here, the days seem to be super, super long. Sometimes, as we are getting ready for bed we try to think of what we did that morning and it’s always really hard. But, the weeks have flown by, especially this last week. I can’t believe our new companion leaves this Tuesday. Actually, everyone leaves this Tuesday. We have all become pretty close so its going to be sad to say goodbye.
So... our new companion. She’s great, but she doesn’t need any sleep. The second night she was here was so terrible. We were all writing in our journals and at 1030 she wasn’t done so we told her to turn off the lights when she was done. , An hour and a half later she was still writing and the rest of us were still trying to go to sleep so we had to ask her to turn off the lights. Then she got up at 130, 2, 330 and turned on all the lights each time. At 4, she got up, took a shower and started to do exercises on the floor. We were all laying there awake so I finally asked her what she was doing and she said she was working out. So I told her, really, really patiently that gym was later and to turn off the lights. She also does that weird scratchy throat thing ALL THE TIME. In the morning, at night, during meals, in her sleep. We keep waking up to it. After that night I found some earplugs and I tie a scarf around my head. It’s great. But other than her weird sleeping habits she’s great. She doesn’t talk a lot but she let us read her conversion story and it was amazing. She is so strong.
There are also a lot of Latinos here so our Spanish is improving rapidly. All of our meetings, including church are only in Spanish. Also, I used to say "hola" to everyone I saw. But, some Latino elders laugh at me and tell me I sound like a gringa so now I don’t say it any more because I get nervous. I practice saying it to them everyday but apparently it’s not getting any better. If I can’t even say hola, I am doomed.
Last Friday we went contacting at the university which was AWESOME. The first couple of people we talked to didn’t go super great. But one of the last ones was awesome. We began talking to a girl and then all of the sudden two more people were talking to us as well. I think that’s one thing that is awesome about this culture- they all talk and chat and have fun even if we they don’t know each other. Luckily, one of the people we were talking to spoke a little bit of English so that helped. But I can definitely say the spirit was helping us know the words to speak. We were able to talk and communicate with these people in a language we began learning 2 weeks ago. I think that is seriously amazing. Two of the three were really receptive to our message and we gave them both books of Mormon and the missionaries are going to contact them! It was amazing to tell someone about the gospel and have them actually be interested in it. I know that this gospel will change their lives and I think that through our broken Spanish they were able to feel it.
I love my companions so much! It’s crazy because all of the other companionships in our districts are organized in abc order by last name except for ours. I know that ours was prayed about and inspired because I couldn’t have asked for better companions. They inspire me to be better every day. We also have a lot of fun together so that is great. The other day we were full on belting feliz navidad in the hallway. The next day it was that song from parent trap. They are so goofy and spontaneous- I love it.
Embarrassing story, apparently I have been talking in my sleep a lot- IN SPANISH. So I guess that’s kind of good news. Sad story, the chef made me a whole pan of banana bread for my birthday. It is SO good. But, before I even got one piece the Latinos ate the whole pan. Spanish is going well. It’s tough but I feel like I am learning a ton. I think learning Spanish is like drinking out of a fire hydrant. You might get a little bit, but mostly it just hits you in the face. I don’t know if you guys remember but there is the super tall apartment building right next to the mtc. We call it the great and spacious building. The other day during gym somebody threw eggs at us from the building. Yes, we got egged by the great and spacious building. Here in the ccm, everybody loves peanut butter. For the last week we haven’t had any but we got some yesterday. People were going CRAZY. It was basically manna from heaven. Then one of the districts hid it so they could have more and there was literally a fist fight in the kitchen. Inserio!. Over peanut butter.
So the other day we were doing conjugations of amar and then I remembered how we used to say "adios te amo". When we would say adios we would roll our hands, when we said te we would cross our arms and when we said amo we pointed at each other. I love that so much! It made me laugh and cry a little bit and then my district was like, why is this girl so crazy. The ccm is crazy. The showers are always cold and when the power doesn’t go off that’s a good day. People are never on time- EVER. But i love it. Our teachers always say weird things like "are you in your waters"? I think that’s Spanish equivalent for “are you in your element?” They also all love knock, knock jokes and say "ay me Madre" all the time. My teacher told me this joke yesterday "what does one nervous butterfly say to another nervous butterfly? I have humans in my stomach!!" then they all laugh soo hard. But its great and I love the ccm. Right now my district is playing matchmaker for two of our teachers and that is REALLY entertaining.
We get to walk around the temple all the time and those are some of my favorite times of the week. Last week we sat on the far side with everyone and watched an airplane show above the ocean. Even our teachers came out and we all just sat there and had the best time. How did I get so lucky to be here??? It amazes me every day. On Tuesday we had a really good devotional. He read a scripture that said when we keep our covenants we are reborn of Christ and become his sons and daughters. When we become his children we take upon his name. I had never thought about "taking upon us the name of Christ" in that way. I am reading Jesus the Christ right now and it is so amazing. It’s really long but I have already learned so much. One thing that I thought was cool is that Joseph was literally next in line for the Jewish throne. If the Jews had been an independent nation he would have been king and Jesus would have been next in line and would have been king of the Jews. How cool is that? Oh, I saw elder Hiatt two days ago! His district was at the temple and I walked down the stairs and he was there! It was so good to see him! We got to talk to him and his companions for awhile.
Thanks again for all the letters! i love you all so much and have an awesome week! Also, sorry if i didn’t respond to someone’s emails. I don’t have a lot of time to email so I will be sending a lot of letters! love you!!
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