WOW! I HAVE SO MUCH
TO TELL YOU AND I AM JUST SO EXCITED TO BE WRITING YOU FINALLY! YAY! I have so
much to say I hope I can tell you everything. I am having a great time here at
the CCM! The first day as I told you before was crazy, all of a sudden I was just
in a room and we were speaking spanish and we haven't stopped since. I don't
know why some people don't like it here it really is amazing and there is
so much we can learn here. We were told that this is the second most holy
ground next to the temple. It is a place where we are taught how to be
missionaries and better disciples of the Lord. How cool is that? I'm pretty
much living in heaven!!
I can not wait for you
boys to come here! You are going to love it! Really my biggest distraction has
been me thinking about everything I need to tell you so I've decided I'm just
not going to write you at all- APRIL FOOLS! HA I am so funny!
As much as I love it,
it's true that it is not going to be easy. My bag from China only made it a day
and a half but I am stronger than that so don't worry. Okay so we taught our
first investigator on Friday. He is so rock solid. He's Jewish so we had to
start with basic belief in Jesus Christ. He doesn't practice but that's what
his parents practice. Our first lesson was a little sketch cause the spanish
wasn't too great yet. My companion speaks italian though and she is able to
understand and speak a lot better cause lots of the words are the same so she
was pretty good at taking over on that lesson. Lucky he spoke a little Italian
too because of his grandparents. We challenged him to pray.
second lesson, he
didn't pray but we challenged him again and that lesson went a
lot better because we didn't have as much time to prepare and so we really
relied on the spirit and it was there and so naturally we came back for a third
lesson and he had prayed!!! yay! we got so exicted! That lesson we taught
him about the atonement and challened him to repent and of course by
our fouth lesson he had! Golden investigator. Our fourth lesson wasn't as good
because I think we taught too much of what we thought he needed to know
then by what the spirit told us to tell him. We did invite
him to think about baptism and asked that when he knows it's true he will
be baptised. We teach him again tomorrow and I think we are really
going to focus on that. He has amazing faith.
Easter was great we
had Bishop Clausse and Sheri Dew talk to us. Steak and Shrimp
for dinner and I loved my Easter basket!!! Thank you so much! It
sounds like you guys had such a fun Easter. I'm excited for Eliza. Will
you please send me her address? We also got called as... Greeter
Usher people for church. That will be fun. haha. Oh and we had a
mission wide sacrament meeting on Sunday for Easter! Super cool and it
took less time than when we feed just our ward. Talk about feeding the 4000.
My district is
spectacular! We all get along so well and it really is incredible how
inspired the companionships are like everyone is perfect for
each other. My Teacher, Hermano Molinaro is beyond description incredible. I
LOVE HIM!!! He is really just teaching us in the perfect way. He is
so good at inviting the spirit into the room and he has a really dry sense
of humor which gives us a laugh now and then but still pulls us back
in before the spirit can leave. It's quite a gift. We have so
much to learn from him and the other teachers. I think we
all aspire to be just like them but of course that's just never good
enough is it? They say we can't do that because we need to be better
than them. One of the teachers said, we were missionaries a few years ago,
the world is different now, you need to be even better than we were. I'm just
telling you. If I come back even half of what they are...
What's the best about all
the teachers there thus far as they don't give you that fake smile while you're
trying to constuct a sentence nodding their head and then shouting "muy
bien" when you know it really wasn't that good. You all know what I mean
right? Plus it really is a lot more conducive to the spirit. I mean it's not
like the spirit is going to be like YOU DID SUCH A GOOD JOB when you didn't so.
please. really don't do that ever. ugh.
Mom I loved the quote
that you sent because it goes perfect with one of the movies that we watched.
It is so excited to be standing shoulder to shoulder with that greatest
missionary that ever was. I am trying my hardest to really study all that
I need and try not to focus on the language but the gospel which is really hard
because I feel like I can't teach the gospel unless I have the language. It's
so annoying to know what you want to say and not be able to say it. But I know
it will come. We as missionaries really are way too hard on ourselves when it
comes to that. If I were to look back at what I've learned in the last week- I
mean I was praying and teaching and bearing testimony by the second day so...
We just need to step back and see the miracles sometimes.
My leaving date is May
6th. Please dear elder me because that way I actually get letters soon and don't
have to waste time on the computer reading and then they can be printed out as
well. Please also give me everyones email- in the fam so this can go to all of
them unless you want to read it as a family or something. Also you know what I
was thinking? now that you only have future missionaries in the house you
should go back to Dad's mission! Fun! Boys wouldn't that be cool to hear all of
his stories?
I really do wish you
could watch all the devotionals I've heard and see the things I see but alas
you can't and they probably wouldn't apply to you as much as they do me but if
you could watch one. you should watch theCharacteristics of Christ by elder
bednar in an mtc devotional on christmas day- dec 25. it's about missionaries
but it really can apply to everyone in immense ways. so if you have time (I
know you do. I lived with you) you should watch it. I thought of dad and mom
the whole time because dad you would just love Bednar in it and the message is
just perfect for everyone! it's long and i don't know if the boys will want to
watch the whole thing but I bet tate can find it somewher.
The first councelor in my
bishopric is brother monson, prs. Monsons's Nephew. He told us stories of
"Tom" all last night to our district and how he is more of a father
to him! So cool! He has the same teeth and story telling skills as Prs Monson.
Turning his head to the side a little to look down with his lip out thinking
about his story. It kind of reminds me of Grandpa as well! Please send my love
to Grandma and Grandpa!
thank you Martha for the
wonderful letter I loved it
i have so much more i
wanted to say but I am out of time! LOVE YOU
cambria
