HI everybody!
Overview
I hope that you are all doing well!!! I have had another great week at the CCM and though the pressure to be fluent in spanish is definitively heightening, I have been having way too much fun to get too worried about it. Also, may I just take this moment to say I am SO thankful that I made taking my education seriously a priority. It makes a HUGE difference!! Learning is learning and if you learn how to learn well, than you can learn ANYTHING. Or at least that is my new theory. This week my companion and I have been complimented on how quickly we have been learning spanish and though of course it is not about recognition, that has given us quite the sense of relief!!! This week has brought a few more challenges than the last few, but thankfully we have been dealing with them humorously. One of the girls in my room got really sick, and I have felt super bad but she has been dealing like a champ and thankfully none of us are sick yet, which is such a majorly huge blessing. I pray for her like multiple times a day because of course being sick here is just so hard because you still have to do everything! I am definitely feeling the pressing closeness of how soon I will actually be in California. I mean, think about it, 2 emails from now-- I will not be in Mexico!! AH! I guess I feel it more because now that District 14B left, we are the "oldest" District in our branch-- meaning we have been here longest at the CCM. Saying goodbye to District 14B was really hard, harder even than the last District that left, but it was easier knowing that they are all going to be amazing where they are serving. A beautiful, wonderful, amazing, super intelligent Hermana named Hermana Turner is coming to the Boston, MA mission which includes parts of New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire and I think maybe even VT so be on the lookout! She is super tall with long brown hair and a big beautiful smile, so if you see her, my guess is you wont be able to miss her! I told her about some of you guys, so maybe she will bump into you-- who knows!! :) Anyways, I think I will do the top ten quickly, and then get onto my spiritual lightbulb.
TOP TEN
1. Ok this one is from today. An Elder named Elder Rodriguez, a sweet Latino Elder asked me if he could borrow "my" violin. I talked to Hermana Gill and helped him to meet her and set it up so now we are sharing it, so he can play for his district as well.
2. Speaking of the violin, one day this week I played for all the members of my district and they played this game where they would just turn to a page in the hymn book and I would play it. HAHA They thought it was so fun.... I may not be the best sightreader in the world, but it is pretty cool that I can play pretty much any hymn anyone wants without practicing it haha :P
3. haha ok so here is a funny one. Last night, when my poor sick roommate was sneezing like nobodys business we had a discussion of what to say in spanish to each sneeze. First three sneezes you say "salud" and then on the fourth its good luck (in spanish, "buenas suertes"...excuse my spelling if it is bad) and then on the fifth apparently you earn true love for sneezing so much. The following exchange thus occured:
Hermana Lindsey: "You only have to sneeze 5 times to find true love"
Hermana Bjork (my beautiful compinera): "Best go find some pepper dear." haha...so that is just an example of the kind of random conversation we have in the casa between 9:30 and 10:15.
4. Ok so, COOLEST EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEK PROBABLY was going to the leadership meeting. We were tired, because it was at 7 AM on a Sunday morning but it was so worth it. It was super crazy being the only Hermanas there (besides of course the branch presidents wife) but it was really nice to contribute our two cents about things, and to hear what all the District leaders think about how everybody is doing. It definitely made me think about some things I want to improve on doing personally, and some things I can help all the girls with...haha oh and this is one of the moments in which we got called out for good spanish. Which was actually kind of embarrassing because we already stood out so much just for being the only Hermanas in the room ahha....
5. OH MY GOODNESS HOW COULD I FORGET THIS Elder Neil L. Anderson came and spoke about the Atonement and its relationship to missionary work that was AMAZING. And we got to shake his hand individually so that was SUPER COOL!! Will talk more about that in the spiritual lightbulb section
6.this week for one of our lessons we translated "be still my soul" into spanish from english because it is not in the hymn book in spanish and we REALLY WANTED TO SING IT... our teacher loved it so much he kept the little notecard we put it on....
7. haha ok so once a week you are supposed to do companion inventory and this is how ours went:
Hermana Lindsey: "So...how exactly ARE we doing?"
Hermana Bjork: "I really like you."
Hermana Lindsey: "And I you."
And then we giggled for a couple seconds and got on to planning our lesson. Man I am so spoiled, I am actually worried I will never again have a companion so compatible to myself!
8. Ok so this actually, IN TRUTH, was the most beautiful moment of my week. We are teaching this fake investigator named Martin and after several lessons, we asked the baptismal question for like the 3rd or 4th time and he literally said after a minute of contemplation an us lovingly staring him down:
"ok"
Here is what I wrote in my journal about it:
"WORK WORK WORK OBSTACLE OBSTACLE OBSTACLE PRAY PRAY PRAY and suddenly, the word "ok" is the answer to all your prayers"
HOW COOL IS THAT THOUGH???
You can tell I am taking this fake investigator thing seriously by the fact that I LITERALLY danced after that lesson. LITERALLY. And then ate chokis. Which you know, is ALWAYS an amazing experience...
9. One of the Elders in 14B gave a talk on Sunday, the day before he left and it was actually the most beautiful thing. He was like, crying all over the place and everything. It was, to quote my companion "tender" (she uses that word more than anyone else I have ever met in my LIFE...)
10. Every Sunday evening we watch a spiritual movie after we have our devotional. This week we watched one about the history of sister missionaries and it reminded me how lucky I am to be able to serve right now....and furthermore it made me think about how inspired the age change was. Pretty much 99% of the Hermanas at the CCM are under 21!!! CRAZINESS HOW COOL IS THAT??? AND WE ARE GOING TO ROCK THE SOCKS OFF OF THE ENTIRE SPANISH SPEAKING PLANET!!!
Okie dok so now,
SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB OF THE WEEK
I do not have much time AH AS USUAL, but in short, my spiritual lightbulb of the week has been about the Atonement, and the Atonements relationship to forgiveness. I have been learning, over the past few weeks, how much the Atonement really applies too. That quote "All that is unfair about life can be fixed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" (or whatever exactamente it is) I have been learning more and more about everyday. I could explain even more but I dont have much time and MY SISTER JUST EMAILED ME SO I MUST EMAIL HER BACK BEFORE I TURN INTO A PUMPKIN AND LOSE MY GLASS EMAILING SLIPPERS buuuuttt what you should ALL do is go to LDS.ORG and find the video called "come unto christ" under the resource section, in the video section of the youth part. I wish I could attach it, but anyways, its a bunch of youth singing and playing the piano and there are 4 stories of how people utilized the atonement in their lives and it is ABSOLUTELY THE MOST AMAZING LDS.ORG VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! WE USED IT IN LIKE 3 LESSONS THIS WEEK
also as a sidenote, my teachers are AWESOME. They are both from mexico and served missions in mexico but speak amazing english when necessary (cause we are supposed to speak spanish ahha...) and one of them is a CONVERT to the church, who got baptized 8 years ago and I just think that is SO COOL...he is such a passionate missionary and he has made the HUGEST difference in my life....I will be SO SAD TO LEAVE HIM!!!
ANYWAYS I LOVE YOU ALL TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK!!!!
OH WAIT JUST KIDDING I CAN ATTACH THE LINK TO THE VIDEO HERE IT COMES!!!
https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng
EVERYBODY WATCH IT PLEASE AND PREPARE YOURSELVES WITH TISSUES!!!
LOVE YOU SO MUCH AH AH OK I HAVE TO LEAVE NOW
AH I LOVE YOU BYE!!!
HERMANA LINDSEY