Hola Everyone!
How are you all? I have a lot to say, so this might be really long and possibly boring, so bear with me! Haha :) I can´t believe I´ve been here for two weeks now. It's crazy! The CCM is pretty fun. It's way smaller than I expected it to be but it's super fun! It's nice to be able to get to know pretty much everyone. The food is pretty good, for the most part! I just barely ate some cold turkey or chicken for lunch, I'm not exactly sure what it was. But it's usually pretty good! Also, the showers are either hotter than lava or water from the north pole, there's no in between! Haha :) The new North American elders and hermanas arrived last night. There's like 40 of them!!! Two of them are staying in our room (which includes me, Hma Joyner, Hma Esser, and Hma Russell--all going to Lima South! and I'm not sure yet where the new girls are going).
My district is the only district with only hermanas. It's super fun! There's the four of us who are going to Lima South, two are going to Lima West, and two are going to Trujillo! They're the only ones in the CCM right now who are going there. It was so fun to be able to watch the Trujillo temple get dedicated last Sunday. I'm so lucky I was able to be here for that!
So my daily schedule usually going like this: wake up & get ready, eat breakfast, have personal study, then physical activity, get ready again, have class, lunch, class again, TALL (language study on the computers), class, dinner, class, daily planning, then we go to bed! It feels like we're in class all day, which is true! Haha but it's fun. Our district is great and our teachers are the best! In the morning and after lunch, we have Hermano Vazquez and sometimes Hermana Oliveros. In the evenings, we have Hermano Flores. We've already had three investigators so far! We taught Manuel for a weekish and then he "went back to Chile" but he was replaced by Persy. In the mornings, we've started teaching Italo. It's been fun to be able to plan lessons for them, but the hard part is trying to teach in Spanish! I think the language is coming though, slowly but surely. It helps to have teachers who don't speak very much english because then I have to learn!
One night in class with Hermano Flores, he had a candy bar and some of the hermanas wanted it. So he gave it to us and we just passed it down the row, each of us taking a bite! It was so funny. He tried to take of video of us but we ate it too fast. The other night, be brought us all our own candy and they were like these chocolate covered almonds, and they were SO good! Better than the ones at Costco! Haha ;) And in class the other day with Hermana Oliveros, she was teaching us ways to study by topic. So the example one was the Atonement, and she asked us if we knew any scriptures that went with that. Right away, I said "Alma 7:11-13!" Everyone was surprised I knew one so fast and Hermana Oliveros handed me the whiteboard marker and said something like "I'm passing my job on to you!" haha it was a great honor ;) For some reason, me and my companion are good at knowing scripture references!
On P-days, we have the wonderful opportunity to go to the Lima temple and do endowment sessions. It's the best thing ever! The temple is really small, not like the ones in Utah! Haha but it's such an amazing experience to be there. It's nice to get outside the gated walls of the CCM and learn what the outside world is like. We also go to stores to get groceries or souvenirs. Last week, we went to this store called Tottus and it was basically a Peruvian Walmart! Haha. It was fun.
Í'm having such a good time here! I'm learning and growing so much, and so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here. I have one quick spiritual experience to share with you. So on Saturday night, me and the other Hermanas going to Lima South asked our Zone Leaders for blessings, just for comfort and strength. So we went into a classroom and the four of us received blessings. Elder Riddick gave me my blessing, with his companion Elder Hart. Everything he said was exactly what I needed to hear. That was such a strong testimony to be that priesthood power is true and that my Heavenly Father loves me. Later, someone told us that Elder Riddick and Elder Hart shared the experience of giving us blessings and Elder Riddick said it was one of the most spiritual experiences hé's ever had. He said that whenever Elder Hart was giving the blessing, he would think of things that needed to be said but he couldn't say them because he wasn't the one giving the blessing. But every time he had those thoughts, Elder Hart would say the exact same thing Elder Riddick was thinking of. It was so amazing.
I know this church is true! I'm so grateful for all of your wonderful examples and your help in getting me on this mission! I love you all so much!!! Have an amazing week!
Love, Hermana Winward :)
