Emotional Roller Coaster

This week was full of interesting things! It was actually really fun and really bad. It was pretty much an emotional roller coaster! We basically spent this whole week knocking doors. It sometimes feels like we are walking through mud trying to find people to talk to. I have been getting a little bit discouraged thinking that maybe it's us that no one wants to talk to and learn of their own personal salvation. Then one night we went to some less actives house. They basically told us that our Spanish was horrible – well actually they said my Spanish is horrible. They told Hermana Pearson that her Spanish isn't very good either! I tried to explain to Hermana Yayez (the wife of the less active and a non-member) that I have only been on my mission 3 weeks in Iowa and she said "Si, pero tú español NO ES Bueno!" Then she told my companion she needs serious work too. I was like "Oh, so sad!" So that was pretty much a shot to the heart! Needless to say, that did not help our confidence. Then we had a lesson with our one and only progressing investigator, Luis. It was the 3rd lesson so we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The lesson was average at best and our Spanish was really struggling. But, we bore testimony as well as we could and tried to testify of these things to him. We talked to him about giving up coffee and invited him to make some commitments. We talked a lot about the Plan of Salvation. Luis is a very intelligent guy, logical and a deep thinker, and he had some good questions. We did our best to answer them in our sad Spanish. He believes in God and a life after this one. After the closing prayer of this average lesson, me and Hermana Pearson were putting away our things while Luis was just sitting there holding his pamphlet. He then asked out of nowhere, "What is this feeling that I am feeling, like is it in my head?" We were totally astonished and hurried to tell him it was the Holy Ghost. It was so awesome! I was so happy to see him receive a witness of the Holy Ghost – it felt amazing. He said it was a nice feeling and we testified to him of the gift of the Holy Ghost that is received after we are baptized. I was SO happy after that experience. I felt that I would knock 1,000 doors so that I could get that one person to receive the witness of the Holy Ghost. It was awesome. I was VERY grateful. So we set up our next appointment with him and talked about his baptismal date. He has had a date for a while, but we keep having to push it back because he never comes to church. When we texted him a couple of days later about our lesson at 6 pm that night, he just responded, "I'm tired today, sorry." What?! I was so mad! I got out of the car and just wanted to scream! He didn't even try to make up an excuse! We were like, "No Luis! We are all tired but this is so much more important than sleep."  He just responded, "I know". Oh, I was so bugged. We called him that night and talked for a minute. He said he would come to church on Sunday but he didn't!  So frustrating!

Sister De La Bruere

We did meet a couple of new investigators this week though! We met the cutest lady named Stephanie! We knocked her door and she was so nice. We didn't even really say anything and she was like, “Come on in!” She has the sweetest little girl who is like 1 1/2 or 2 and Stephanie is around 23. She was all "so, what's up?" We gave her the lowdown – the lesson on the Restoration. We talked to her in English because she speaks it really well. When we asked her what she thought and if she was interested in our message she asked us if she could be honest. We were like "ya – please!"  We figured she was going to shut us down but she said she was really interested! She has been studying with the Jehovah Witnesses for the last little bit. She likes some of the things that she is being taught but feels like something is missing from their church and she doesn't agree with some of the things they teach. We were thinking "oh, you gotta listen to us!!" We have been texting her and trying to set up another appointment but she is super busy. She just opened a restaurant! She is so sweet and I already love her so much! I really feel like she was a tender mercy for Luis being a pile this week! I am like quickly realizing there is opposition in all things. So like, we will be at the lowest of lows but also you will be happier than you can ever imagine – ahhh missions are emotional. We have a ton going on- including exchanges today so I better go! It has been a good week!

Speaking with the Tongue of Angels

Monday was Pday! We washed our clothes, went shopping and played sports. I did get some fun emails from friends! We didn't hear back from our dinner appt so we started heading home tonight. Then this Sister called us and still wanted to eat. We were starving so we met her and her daughter at a little Subway across the bridge. She was such a neat lady! She told us about how 3 years ago her life fell apart. Her husband got caught cheating; she lost her house and then ended up losing everything else. She basically had a suitcase full of clothes when she showed up at the homeless shelter.  They had to leave the shelter and she was homeless again. She shared how all these trials led her to the church and prepared her for the missionaries. It was so hard to hear about her life and her kids trials. Her daughter is now like 8 and she was homeless like 2 years ago. It made me so grateful for everything that we have. She started crying and I started crying, but then I bore testimony to her that God was orchestrating her life. Heavenly Father doesn't do things by accident. Here we were at 8:30 pm in some random Subway, the worker was closing down and eavesdropping while he was mopping! The Spirit was so strong! We said a prayer together and then she told us that she was working on her papers to go to the temple. We thought that that was awesome and then she told us that there is one problem – she doesn't have anyone to escort her! She asked us if we could do it?! We are praying that it will work out and that somehow, when she goes, we will be able to attend too! It was so awesome – to be honest, it was the first real time on my mission that I didn't feel like a teenage kid! I knew that I was a representative of Christ and that His love is real. It is my job to share that Christ-like charity with everyone! Wow!

Wednesday was a very Knocky day. We knocked a butt ton of doors. It was super cold and we had like 40 OYMs (open your mouth) but no one wanted to let us in. We did meet a ton of Latinos, so that's good. We finally found "little Mexico” in Iowa! I literally have bruises and bumps on my knuckles from the doors. You have to knock so loudly and it's super hard in the cold and it kind of sucks! So we have this new thing in our mission that is called "Speaking with the tongue of Angels." It's basically not using any words like suck, or gosh or frick. I am not very good at it! Hermana Pearson slaps me all the time for it or says "what did you say?" like 20 times a day. Oh well!

Thursday we had interviews with President Badger. They are so cute! He told me and Hermana Pearson that I need to help her with the budget more. Apparently I am better with money than she is. I told her my penny pinching ways were because of my awesome Dad – so thanks Dad! Actually I just never need to buy anything! We were waiting at interviews for like 2 hours so we played this game called "pitch".  It is such a missionary game! Basically you run through your Book or Mormon and randomly open to a page. After you read a verse, everyone guesses the book and chapter. It was kind of fun. After interviews we went to Taco Bell. I had like 2 tacos because we had a dinner appt with the Jones family an hour later. (And I wonder how I am getting so fat!) Brother Jones is awesome! He was in the Army and he converted to the church when he was like 21 years old and has such a cute family. They have 4 kids and he was just telling us how much he wishes he could find the missionaries that taught him so he could let them know where he is. He was pretty emotional and says he worries they think their mission was a failure but he wants them to see his family and know his kids will go on missions and they are creating an eternal family.  It was so good for Hermana Pearson and me to hear that because sometimes it is hard to be a missionary! By the way, the people across the hall from our apartment smoke a lot of Marijuana! We smell it every day! Hermana Pearson was saying one day that they were smoking Meth. So we now have a "Morning Show" called "Meth in the Morning!" where I, Molly, am the host and Hermana Pearson, Mary Jane, is my co-host. We have “guest speakers” and people “call in”. One day an avid meth user called but then the police called right after, so I don't think they will be calling back anytime soon! Just Kidding, but our morning study is always lots of fun and we are totally getting high off of their second hand smoke! Haha

Friday was pretty sad – ok, not sad, but not very successful! We just knocked a bunch of doors and tried to meet back with a bunch of potentials that we had appointments with.  All of them blew us off.  Latinos can be so shady or they are just too nice to tell us no, so they just don't show up! A white person would just cuss you out and tell you to get off their porch. It's definitely more effective and not such a waste of time! The weather was actually really nice and that made it nice to walk around.  It was like 40 degrees! Normally I wouldn't think 40 degrees is nice but trust me, it is! We went over to this lady's house today. She is the nicest lady ever! She is a born again Christian and very faithful to her beliefs. She isn't really interested in our message. We ate caramel corn and told her about the Restoration. She doesn't want us to share anymore but she does want to have us over for dinner in a couple of days. She is so sweet and her husband Dave is so nice, they are so old and so cute. They would be the cutest temple workers in the world but I know they don't want to hear any more about us and they believe in their church! But she is feeding us dinner this week and we just love her. I really want them to join the church but we don't always get what we want. Plus they aren’t Latino so we couldn't teach them anyways!

Saturday was for sure the warmest day so far on the mission for me. It was like 50 degrees and the sun actually was shining for a while! We tried to have a couple of lessons that we had scheduled to meet with for the first time. We heard a lot of "otro tiempo" and never actually got in anyone's door.  Luis's phone has been turned off for the last week so we haven't been able to talk to him lately either. That makes us super nervous! We think that he may have blocked us – which is sad because he is our best investigator!  Oh well, I'm sure it will be ok! We had a lesson with a guy named Gemeta. He is like 30 – I think he let us in to humor us because we spoke Spanish.  We taught him about the Restoration and I don't think he was very interested. He said he will pray about it but he was pretty prideful so we will see. He was pretty impressed that we speak Spanish. He asked how long I have been doing this and when I told him 9 weeks, he was pretty shocked. It made me feel pretty good because I think I am stumbling through these lessons and my Spanish is not very good. I just keep telling myself that I have to believe and work hard and it will come in time. We study so hard and try to speak it all the time!  I am working my buns off, it is so hard though!  It gets discouraging because everyone speaks English here and we speak English at every door. It is what it is, I guess. We spent time on Mormon.org today. I really need to update my profile. We just watch a bunch of videos and stuff.  We also went to dinner at the Allen’s tonight.  It was so fun! They remind me so much of Mima and Papa. Brother Allen is just like Papa – and we all know that Papa is my best friend! He was raised in Star Valley, Wyoming. He even has a Harley Davidson and everything! We played dice and card games – it made me a little homesick, but mostly, it made me happy to feel like I was around family again!  Also, they have 2 cute chubby dogs and I love them. It really was what I needed and I was grateful for them!

Sunday (1/22) is my “dia de cliq” or in other words, my second Birthday! Don't ask me why they call it that?! I am 2 months old! I can't believe how fast time is flying. I only have 16 more months to go!  So today was a special Sacrament meeting and it was awesome. Everyone was challenged to bring someone and all of the talks were about Jesus Christ and our basic beliefs, so lots of families can be together forever and other great talks! There were so many new people there – it was super great! Then we had dinner with Sister Warner and her daughter. She is from China and we had delicious noodle bowls. Then we went and knocked a whole bunch of doors. Not too much else going on. We have to come in by 8:30 on Sundays so we did some extra studies! 

Knocking Doors

This week was a lot of knocking doors and a lot of finding. We didn't have very much success and I would be lying if I said I didn't get pretty discouraged. It is just so hard for me when I see people open their doors so happy but right when we tell them who we are their smiles fade and they become angry. However at the end of the day I can always say that I worked my hardest and I did all that I could. I love being a missionary. I love all the meetings, knocking, cooking, cleaning, smiling, I just love it all! We had Zone Training Meeting this week, we learned a bunch of new and awesome things that we can do to improve our work. My Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. Also my companion is AMAZING! I seriously love her so much. The mission is teaching me so much about myself and I love it!

Monday – My first official Pday in the field! We played basketball with the Elders in our zone. They are all super into the game here! I asked them if they had their basketball shoes sent to them or if they bought new ones on the mission because the Elders are all die hard. I mean cut off t-shirts, jerseys, headbands, even arm sleeves. We played “Chicago fire” and it was pretty fun. Then we had dinner and wrapped up the day!

Tuesday we knocked a bunch of doors and studied a ton. We went out to Cole Valley to work on Mormon.org and knocked out there too. Not too many people wanted to talk to us, even on their porch! We had dinner at the Petersons. They have a bunch of kids and we taught them the Restoration using gummy bears. It was pretty cool.

Wednesday we had Zone training in Davenport. The AP's Elder Cox and Elder Jakubczak taught us some cool stuff. Then the STLs, ZLs, and DLs all did some training. I had to say the opening prayer and Hermana Pearson did the spiritual thought. We learned some good things and got some new challenges to work on. Then we all went to Pizza Ranch. This is a huge Iowa buffet thing where they serve tons of kinds of pizza, chicken and ice cream. It is super sketchy but the Elders all love it, even though Hermana P and I are feeling sick to our stomachs. We knocked more doors and it was freezing and no one wanted to let us in! We had dinner with Sister Johnston and her friend. She is like a super cute grandma to all of the missionaries. We had some lemon chicken that she heated up in the microwave, some crab and broccoli salad from Kmart and delicious cheesecake. I won a giant Twix bar for winning a Christmas trivia game. We all know Snoopy kissed Sally under the mistletoe, even though Hermana Pearson says I cheated, I shared my candy bar!

Thursday we tried to have a lesson with Elena. We even brought the most awesome member from our ward. Hermana Martinez-Bringas is the sweetest lady in the world. She is super spiritual and we were so happy she could come with us. Elena wasn't there when we knocked on her door so we went contacting around her neighborhood, we tried again a couple of times but then Hermana Martinez-Bringas had to leave. We took Elena off of our contact list, we just want this more for her than she wants it for herself right now. Later we went to the Bringas' for dinner. We played with the kids and had so much fun. They are seriously the cutest family ever! Grandpa Bringas was awesome! He told us all about how he grew up in Mexico and came to America to become a Doctor. He shared the funniest story about getting expelled from kindergarten for lighting a firecracker and throwing it in a bathroom stall at one of the Nuns. He got revenge! But he also got kicked out of the good school and had to go to the scary normal school where he got into fights every day. Later we went to a Relief Society thing and learned about food storage and 72 hour kits. All in all the members are just so nice here!

Extra Info:

• They always email from the library. This week was the Cole Valley library because she forgot her library card and they can't use the internet in Davenport without it!
• They have bikes but cannot use them right now because it is very cold outside and they don't want to die. They drive a 2017 Chevy Malibu that they are given 1700 miles a month to use. They have a separate gas card and they track their miles every night during planning time.
• Nikenna is learning how to cook but has found it harder to go grocery shopping and figure out what she wants to eat. Lots of good life lessons.
• For exercise, they go to the local church. Hermana Pearson dances around the church and Kenna runs laps, and does lunges and sit ups until it burns. Plus they do calf raises as they wait for people to come to the doors they knock. 

Welcome to Iowa!

Today was my first day in the mission! I already told you about the airport situation leaving Mexico. How I traveled to Iowa by myself, left the CCM at 2 am and the driver helped with my bags but I went through security and did everything else by myself after that. It was scary because no one spoke English until I got to Dallas. I tried to help an American family in Mexico with their bags because they didn’t speak Spanish but it was kind of a fail because I don’t really speak it either! I was just trying not to lose anything or get robbed. I thought it would be nice to get to Dallas where people speak English. I kept trying to smile at people and talk to them. I would accidently run into them and say “lo siento” or smile and say “hola” out of habit but they all thought I was a weirdo and were not having any of it. Oh well – whatever! It was kind of awkward. Anyways, I met a member of the church in Dallas! He was a cop in the canine unit. He was super cool. His partner, this 6’6” black guy, must have seen my name tag and he says to me, “you’re a preacher! Please pray for me!” And I said “I will pray for you every night!” The other guy says, “hey, you be nice to her” and then he introduced himself as Brother Cooper – second counselor of the Dallas 2^nd ward. It was so funny. I was looking at their police dog and his partner, Ed, said “ya know, the dog isn’t Mormon!” and I looked at him and said, “sure he is! All dogs are Mormon! Don’t you know all dogs go to heaven?!”  He thought that was funny and started laughing sooo hard!  It was pretty fun! I probably shouldn’t have said it and I got super nervous afterwards but it was funny! It really made my day a lot better. Brother Cooper served his mission in San Diego and he actually got married in the Nauvoo temple.

I got off the plane in Des Moines and I have never in my life been so cold! I went to get my luggage and President and Sister Badger were there and the 2 assistants to the President, Elder Cox and Elder Jakubczak, along with 2 other missionaries that had gotten there that day. They were all super nice! We went to the mission home. 2 Sisters came and picked me up and we went to Pday and, even though I didn’t have shoes, we played basketball and stuff. We went back and had dinner with the mission president and the other new elders and the senior couples, Elder and Sister Barnum and Harp. Then we had training about cars and cell phones and credit cards, etc. We had a testimony meeting and I bore mine in Spanish. I stayed the night with Hermana Mesa and Becksted.

Thursday we went to Iowa City, which is like 2 hours away. An hour past Iowa City is Davenport which is where I am at! At transfers, I got to meet my trainer/companion for the first time, Hermana Pearson! She is so sweet, so nice, so caring, and so cute! She is from Orem, Utah. After transfers, a member took us to her house and dropped us off at our car. Our apartment is so super cute. I dropped off my bags and we bundled up in some warm clothes. Let me just tell you that it is so cold here! I am freezing! I have on 3 pairs of socks, my winter boots, all of my clothing and I am pretty sure I am going to die! It is hilarious, it’s just so cold it’s funny!

We went knocking doors for the first time! I didn’t realize how aggressive you have to be. Hermana Pearson kills it! The first guy we talked to said he was Catholic and she said “that’s great so you believe in God, well we have a better church!” Ok she didn’t come out and say it like that, but pretty much! Then she gave him a card to look some stuff up. He didn’t even really come out of his front door. He barely even opened a crack. The next house was a Latino lady named Perla. She said she spoke Spanish so Hermana Pearson started going off and she let us in! Her family was all there and she even started crying as we shared the message of the Restoration and Jesus Christ. I am not sure she’s super interested but we got her name and we will call her or something.  I didn’t even think we would get into a door the first day so that was awesome! They next lady was like “what do you guys want?” and we were all “Hi, we are missionaries for the church…” She cut us off and said “not interested” but Hermana Pearson said “in what? You don’t even know what we are sharing!” She closed her door and we were apparently done talking to her. It was awesome! I was seeing everything. The next lady had just had a baby. She was not Hispanohablante (Spanish speaker) but we shared about the Restoration, Joseph Smith and I was able to bear testimony about how families can be together forever. She said she totally believes us and we even said a prayer with her. We had to give her information to the Elders because we can’t teach English speakers, but it was totally awesome! A couple more houses later, we met another Latino family that we shared the Restoration with and shared a pamphlet and stuff. It was soooo cold. It was honestly hard to move our mouths and I am not sure that the blood was not freezing in our faces! But it was also Super Awesome! We had a lesson later with a girl named Elena and her family. This was the second lesson with her and we taught about the Book of Mormon. My companion is sooo good at Spanish and I got to bear my testimony about it. Her family is so cute and I loved it. I want them to be members so bad. They had a bunch of question and stuff. Teaching is seriously so fun! I love sharing the lessons and the gospel with others. We went to Taco Bell for dinner. It was the best day of my life!! Seriously!! We came home and ate and then we had a lesson with Luis. The Arnels came and helped us with the lesson, they are the cutest couple who both speak Spanish. Ally served in Peru and Brad served in Mexico. They are super nice. Luis is the coolest investigator of all time. He has so many questions and wants to know so much! He is like 21 years old and really wants to understand everything. That lesson was pretty hard for me to understand. His accent is different and he spoke a lot faster too! But it is seriously so awesome! I am so tired! Today was a really good day. I am fluctuating emotionally but I can hardly wait to get to work tomorrow!

Thursday was good. It was a kind of weird day. We spent most of the day trying to put all my stuff in order. We exercise from 6:30 to 7 and then we have flex time and then we do comp and personal study. We left at 9:45 and went out knocking doors. It was kind of rough and we didn’t get into anyone’s house. Some scary guy that was smoking a huge cigar said we were in a cult, he even patted my comp on the shoulder and said “get out of that cult sweetie!” We left and then he asked us if we wanted to come in and warm up in his house. I was like “NO!!!” and we quickly walked away from the creeper! Another guy said he really didn’t believe in God. It broke my heart! It makes me so sad to think that he doesn’t believe that there is anything after this life! I don’t know, people were kind of mean to us today! But also, it’s awesome to just talk to a whole bunch of random people! Then we went to District meeting. They are all cool. There is a BYU basketball player in our group and he is really funny. Elder Madsen and Elder Childs are our zone leaders. They are both from St. George and graduated from Dessert Hills. Elder Clyde is also from Hurricane and he is in our district. There are 2 other Sisters in the district and they seem really cool. We had a meeting and then we had a “get to know you” and went to lunch. That ended about 2:30 and then we went out and knocked more doors. We came home and set goals, did Spanish study and planned for the week. One of our goals is to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish during our 12 weeks together- it’s like 9 pages a day but I think it is going to be amazing! Then we went grocery shopping because I don’t have any food or toilet paper! We had Chick-fil-A for dinner. I’m already gaining weight! And then we came home and just kind of put our house in order. I didn’t realize I could ever be this tired and I for sure did not know it could be this cold! It is too cold to snow, can you believe that?! The air is just so humid that when I breathe my throat freezes! It is just crazy! But I love it here! I love the cold and my frost bitten fingers and toes. I love everything about it and it’s the bomb!

Saturday we knocked a bunch of doors. We studied and exercised first. It was good. I have come to the general consensus that the houses we knock are either Hispanic or really mean white people. The white people are not very nice! They are actually super mean to us and it’s pretty hilarious. We taught a lady named Alma who said she wants to hear anything if it is about God. I am not sure she understood our message. We tried to explain that we have prophets and the priesthood and she was like “ya” but I don’t think she got it. Then we knocked on another door where the lady said “I’m Baptist honey” and then blew a puff of smoke in our face as she walked back in her door. We tried to talk to her husband as he was outside picking up cigarette butts in the yard but he was “too busy” to hear us. Hermana Pearson is so funny – she says the funniest things under her breath sometimes and it makes it all hilarious! No one else was home or wanted to talk to us. We had a lesson with Rosa who doesn’t want to come to church because someone offended her once when she was there. It was all pretty dramatic! We did have eggs for dinner – with avocado and cheese on tortillas and crockpot pork chops for lunch!  Tomorrow we are going to fast for baptisms. I am pretty tired but am totally having the best time. We saw a guy that had run out of gas and was pushing his car and so I convinced my Hermana to drop our bags and run onto oncoming traffic to help him push. My companion is so sweet. I love that my mission mom and my real mom are both Hermana Pearson/Pierson. I really do love all of this work and can’t think of anything else I would rather be doing!

Sunday was pretty good. We had church at 9:00. Our ward is pretty small and I got to meet everyone. It is a regular ward, not a Spanish branch. It is about half the size of our ward now. It was fast and testimony meeting. We sat next to a nice Latino family. I am really working on my Spanish but it is really hard because everyone speaks English and you just don’t have to do it. My companion and I are trying to speak to each other but neither one of us is fluent so we are doing the best we can! I do believe that if I work I can be fluent by the end of my mission! So we went to church and then knocked doors afterwards. We are kind of in a weird area and it was kind of a weird day. We had dinner at the Bishops house, so I go to meet him. It’s all good!

Mexico City Temple!!

Feliz Navidad! I didn’t do a lot of recordings this week. This is my last Pday in the CCM.  The next time you hear from me I will be in IOWA! Christmas was kind of like a normal day. It was Sunday so we had a special white people sacrament meeting. President Call was in charge of it. We sang songs about Christ and talked about His life. We had a devotional from Elder Piper who talked about service, I don’t remember much about it! I did get to talk to you and that was the best!! Too bad I called while dad was on the stand. I bet it was funny watching him leave in the middle of Sacrament meeting so y’all could go to his office to talk to me. Oh, and our PJs ARE SOOO CUTE!! THANK YOU GUYS! That night our zone preformed a musical number (I heard the Bells on Christmas Day). We were done singing but Hermana Harvey kept playing for like half a verse until she realized that we were done. I could not contain myself and totally started laughing. It was very memorable to say the least! I’m not going to lie. Christmas was pretty sad. Being away from the family was hard and it didn’t feel like Christmas. Then it would feel like Christmas and I would get sad. I don’t know- whatever!  Glad it’s over. The rest of the week was pretty boring.

So the CCM is cool but I don’t know if I’m ready to leave. I got my flight plans and I have a 6.30 am flight but I leave the CCM at 3:30 am, which is AWESOME!  So ya, I’ve got it all under control!! I’m just here in Mexico just living the dream. Our last Pday and we FINALLY got to go to the temple. THE TEMPLE WAS LIT, AND BY LIT, I MEAN LIT!! It seriously was so awesome! The Mexico City temple is so pretty. I encourage you to look it up! It was so, so, so awesome!!! We did a normal session with headphones. We got to go through the veil in Spanish and my worker was so cute and nice. It was just sooo awesome! It was just such a beautiful temple and I loved getting to go!  But now we are home and we have to pack for the rest of our Pday! We don’t have enough tiempo so that is kind of lame. I am feeling wickedy, wickedy weird about the fact that the CCM experience is almost over. I can’t believe that I have to say goodbye to my district soon! I am not handling it well and am just trying to close my heart and not feel anything right now! It feels like the mission is flying by. I am not looking forward to freezing in Iowa and I am really sad to be losing my awesome tan that I have going!  I love you guys super mucho!!!

Last week in the CCM…Friday was our CCM evaluation day. These were to try and prepare us for the field. We had a super long break and we played foosball and ping pong against Elder McGary and Crider. Saturday we spent most of the day packing and having meetings. Then we played sand volleyball with our district. It was so fun!  We had a huge district discussion and Book of Mormon study. Elder Wilson led it and it was super spiritual and a ton of fun and super sad all in one. It was cool to listen to the testimonies of everyone in our district and you can tell that we have become one giant family! Sunday was the worst. It was our last day in the CCM. We had a testimony meeting after Sacrament and we kind of shared what we learned. We all got split up.  Elders De la Rosa, McGary, Goody, Smith, Jones, Crider and Lloyd and the Hermanas all shared our testimonies – it was just so sad and everyone was crying! It was very spiritual and it was nice to have that last good bye. Monday and Tuesday we hung out and cried because everyone left us and we just waited for our fights!

So, I am here on my last day in the CCM and we are done with everything and today is just kind of like a Pday! Nothing has really gone on expect we said bye to our district and that was actually pretty freaking hard, ha-ha. I didn’t think I was going to care as much as I did.... but I sure did.... it’s all good though!! How are things at home? I leave tomorrow at 3:00 am and my flight leaves at 6 am. I’m sure you guys already know this. Also my bags are all packed and I am SOOO nervous to leave. I’m mostly nervous for the cold and the Spanish but also just for my mission as a whole. I just need to look at it like a grand adventure…Which it is but sometimes it gets super repetitive and weird, but i know everything is going to change when I get out in the field. So I’m not even worried about it (I’m slightly worried about it) ha-ha pero todo ESTA BIEN!!!