Wednesday night was really just unpacking and getting to
know the campus. Thursday is when the real fun started. Early morning,
awesome food, class, orientation. It was actually like the longest day
of my life. I was tired of sitting. Friday was so much better. So of
course, everything is in spanish here, including class. Try learning
spanish while being taught in spanish, that makes it come pretty quick. I
love it though, I really wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sorry I
didn't call in Dallas, by the way, I couldn't find a payphone. Anyways,
three of the elders I flew to Mexico with are in my district. They are
so young..and immature..but I love them anyways. I was put in a
threesome as I stated before, but I was actually switched around a bit.
So, apparently, I was put in the intermediate spanish class and this guy
came into class Friday morning and said "Hermana Homer, Hermana Gates,
Elder Backus, y Elder Banegas, come with me." In a matter of 10 minutes,
I had a new class, new compañera, new district and new apartment. On my
second day. I was a little shocked. Of course the Lord knows what he's
doing and this change has been the best thing for me. I absolutely LOVE
my companion. She is so amazing. We just compliment each other and can
work together so easily. I know it won't always be like this so I'm
really grateful that I get this experience in the CCM at least. Her
nombre es Hermana Gates and she is from St.George, Utah. She will serve
in Riverside, CA. She just graduated this past May, but we get along
great.
So Friday, I taught my first investigator - in
Spanish. I cannot even begin to express how real the gift of tongues is.
I'm so grateful for it. It was a little rocky at first. His name is
José. We have taught him 3 times now and just yesterday committed him to
baptism and to read el Libro de Mormón. With each lesson, we got better
and better. Yesterday, was probably the best lesson we've given. I felt
like I was on fire as I testified that I knew the Book of Mormon was
true and that I wanted him to know the same - in spanish. Something
about that language just makes me so excited to teach. He is really just
a teacher here, not a real investigator, but man it sure felt like it
was real. The spirit was there and all of a sudden, I was speaking
spanish and teaching about the restoration and preisthood, like how does
that happen?? It was the most spiritual experience I've had yet. I love
my class. There are 8 elders and just me and my companion in my class -
and district. We felt like we weren't really clicking with them at
first, so I suggested to mi compañera that we write them a note
expressing how glad we were to be in the same district and we added
Ether 12:27
on the back to give them some encouragement for learning the language.
It never seizes to amaze me how much service can make you feel better.
They wrote us the sweetest letter back which really helped us to love
them and get to know them better. Hermana Gates and I are all about
studying and working really hard, whereas they are frustrated with the
language so they give up and goof off. We're trying to teach them to be
better...
My teacher's name is Hermano Sanchez. He is the nicest man I've
ever met. He gives me so much confidence. Just yesterday (yesterday was a
good day) he said that I made him proud to be a teacher and that if I
kept up the hard work, I would leave the CCM in 5 weeks with perfect
Spanish. That's a pretty amazing promise, ya? I'm determined to see it
fulfilled.
It's really fun to have a companion so close to the spirit. We
literally live our daily lives by inspiration. One of us will have a
thought as to what we should study next, so we do it and it ends up
helping us in the lesson with José. I love how that works.
I just really love it here. México already has my
heart. Campus is so beautiful. The town is literally built up the
mountain. From the window in my classroom I can look out and see these
huge palm trees with mountains in the background and these colorful
buildings all of the mountain side. I've never seen anything like it
before. Night time is gorgeous too. That is one thing I love about the
CCM, we have so much room to move around! We have a whole campus and the
grounds are beautiful. There are hispanic workers everywhere. They only
speak Spanish, so we use them a lot when we need to find 10 people to
bear our testimonies to, they are so patient. I would get tired of
hearing the same thing from teenagers with broken spanish. haha. They
are so nice though.
The food is great, actually! They have the best corn tortillas and pineapple. That's my favorite. It's good mexican food.
We
got to watch a movie on Sunday night - the Joseph Smith movie. It was
so weird to watch a movie, but I really enjoyed it. We've had amazing
speakers as well. We had a devotional on Sunday and Pres. Allen spoke.
He is the Director of the missionary department as well as a 70. He was
also the previous mission president for the best mission every - Tempe,
Arizona! How awesome is that. His talk was just phenomenal and really
pumped me up to keep going. I acutally haven't met one other missionary
that is going to my mission. They are going to all the missions around
Tempe, but not actually my misson. I guess I´m just special.
Sorry for the novel here, I just had so much I
wanted to tell all of you. I really haven't been that homesick this
week. There were two days that I was slightly discouraged because of the
language, but there was always something or someone to pick me up. I've
never been happier, and I love Spanish and the hispanic people.
Yo sé que Jesucristo es el Salvador del mundo, y que
podemos ser liberados del pecado mediante su expiación. Yo sé que
tenemos un Padre Celestial y que Dios los ama. Yo sé que familias son
eternidad. Yo sé que José Smith fue un profeta y que Thomas S. Monson es
un profeta hoy. Yo sé que el Libro de Mormón es verdadero y que las
escrituras son la palabra de Dios. Yo sé que este iglesia is verdadero,
tambien. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.
