I MISS THE UNITED STATES
THE STRUGGLE IS SO REAL!
Hola mi familia y Amigos!!!
There is so much to say so I’m just
going to say it, sorry if it’s not very orderly!!
I can’t believe I’ve been here a
week already!! Time has gone by so fast, but so slow at the same time. Mexico
City is such a beautiful place. It is such a different world here than in the
U.S. The CCM really is a bubble away from the world though. When I arrived here
I got here at 7 and we got some pizza and my name tag and stuff.
I went to my
casa and waited for 3 hours for mi companera to arrive. I was the only one in
the casa and it was kind of lonely, but it was a good opportunity to get all of
my stuff unpacked.
My companion's name is Hermana
Schaefer and she’s really awesome, we get along very well. We met our district
the next day in class. There are 5 companionships of elders in our district and
I seriously love them so much! I didn’t think I would love them as much as I
do. Most of them are 18, so they were a little immature at first, but we’ve
trained them well and they are Elders now. They feel like big brothers, we
always know they will be there watching out for us. I’ve been very impressed
with them. So, just know that we are in good hands. They gave me a beautiful blessing
today, but I’ll get to that later.
Being here in Mexico has made me
realize how lucky I am to be serving in the United States. I miss it so much!!
On our second day here, we picked up a huge bag of all the books we need to
study with and in the bag was some filtered water bottles for us. We were so
excited because the water here smells so gross. The instructions for the water
bottle said you had to squeeze the water through the filter 3 times before you
use it, so h. Schaefer and I were standing around the sink just squeezing our
water bottles and our hands were shaking and we were just kept saying I miss
the U.S.!!! It was so funny. Seriously, we can’t wait to get back!! There are
also mosquitoes EVERYWHERE! But don’t worry, they don’t really bite. I think I’ve
gotten bitten once and it wasn’t that bad. Also, sometimes the water in our
toilets is brown. hahahaha. It’s so strange.
I’m so amazed at how much Spanish I’ve
learned in just the first week. In the first couple days of class we learned a
bunch of different conjugations, which seem endless and we also learned how to
pray and bear testimony. We are only allowed to pray in Español now. I love it
though. I also REALLY love singing himnos. Hymns in Español are so beautiful. On
Friday we taught our first investigator. He is just a teacher acting like an
investigator for us, but it is so realistic. His name is Randy. We got to know
him a little bit during the first lesson. He was born in Mexico, then lived in
Vegas for a while, and now he is back in Mexico. He has friends who are LDS and
he heard about the CCM because he lives right next to it. He loves baseball and
he lives with his grandma I think... Something like that. I still don’t
understand Spanish very well. BUT, I usually get the jist of what he is saying.
On the first lesson we taught him about prayer and we asked him to pray, He
prayed a catholic prayer at first but then we corrected him and he gave a
beautiful prayer. He thanked Heavenly Father for sending us and asked him to
bless us and to bless him that he would know if what we were saying was true.
The next lesson we taught him about the restoration, he totally understood and
agreed to go to church the next day. When we met with him on Monday he said he
attended church and asked us about the sacrament, so we explained that and
explained about Jesus Christ and the atonement and then we told him a bit about
the Book of Mormon. He told us that he would read about it, and pray about if
it was true. We didn’t get to teach him yesterday, but we are going to tonight
after p-day. I hope he read it. OH!! I also committed him to BAPTISM!!!
WOOOOO!!! Randy is awesome!!!
During teaching, one of the elders
in our district taught randy that Jesus Christ died for our fish... AHHHA Spanish
missionary problems. :)
I absolutely adore our teacher,
Hermana Arbon. I think she’s about 24 or 25, she went on her mission to Texas
and she wants to teach Español as a career, she worked at the Provo MTC but
they needed teachers down here at the CCM, so she said, sure why not. She is so
awesome though, she teaches us in all Spanish, hardly any English. It was so
hard at first and I didn’t think I would ever get the hang of it, but really,
everyone speaks Spanish here and it has helped so much even though it is
frustrating. All the teachers speak Spanish even if you are just talking to
them after class. The only classes we attend that are in English are our
devotionals, Sunday school, relief society and the movie.
On Sundays we have relief society
first, then sacrament meeting. Sacrament meeting kinda sucks actually because it’s
all in Español and you don’t know you’re going to give a talk until five
minutes before. They just announce next week’s topic on Sunday and you have to
prepare a five minute talk for the next week in case you get called on. It
stresses me out so bad!! But hey, I just have to remind myself. If I can give
Randy a 30 minute lesson then I can give a 5 minute talk in sacrament meeting
for our teeny little branch who probably won’t understand what I’m saying
because they struggle with Spanish too. Sunday school is held with the entire
CCM in the auditorium and is taught by the mission president, President Pratt.
He is really awesome, but it is so hard to stay awake. We’re all just so tired
because we work work work from 630 to 1030 every single day. I loved relief
society though. Sister Pratt gave a really good lesson about the book of Mormon
and we also formed a relief society choir to sing for when we had a general authority
come.
The devotionals have been so
uplifting!! On Sunday we watched a video recording of a devotional by elder Holland
when he rededicated some parts of the Provo MTC in January. He gave the most
encouraging talk ever and it was exactly what I needed because I felt like I
was really struggling with the language and everything. He promised us that we
would be the generation that succeeds and that this work is the most important
thing to the world to him. He got really emotional and he slammed his hand down
on the pulpit with tears in his eyes and said, THIS MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!! It
was so awesome. There wasn’t a dry eye in the auditorium. I really encourage
you all to try to find it and watch it sometime if you are ever feeling worried
about me or miss me. It is such a great reminder of how important this work is.
Hastening the work is brought up in every single devotional and meeting here
and I know that it is really happening. WE WILL BE THE GENERATION TO SUCCEED! As
elder Holland said.
Last night we had another devotional
and a member of the Seventy came. He was from Mexico and he gave his first talk in English
only 2 months ago, but his English was amazing. He gave a really good talk
about what our purpose was as missionaries. The best part of the whole night
though, was singing with the relief society choir. We sang Tu me has dad muchas
bendiciones, dios, or in English, because I have been given much. Not to brag
or anything, but we basically sounded angelic. Our closing hymn was really
awesome too. We sang Placentero nos es trabajer. It’s a hymn that is only in Spanish,
so it’s not in the English hymn book. It was so beautiful. Mom, when you go to
church on Sunday, look in the himnos and find hymn #88. I think that’s which
one it was. It’s my new favorite hymn. It’s so pretty.
I really struggle with the language
every single day, but I just need to remind myself that I’ve only been here a
week and I've truly accomplished so much!! Even though it is so hard, it is so
worth it, especially when randy understands what we say and when we get him to
commit to something. Even though it is hard, I really love the Spanish language
so much already. We pray shamelessly for the gift of tongues every single time
we pray and I love it. We really need it, and I can see how we have been
blessed with it already. I know that the gift of tongues that we receive is a
result of our obedience to the rules. Remember, Exact obedience brings specific
blessings. Please remember to pray for our district. Bendice nos con el don de
lenguas. Bless us with the gift of tongues. WE NEED IT!
We are district 11 and we always
joke around about the hunger games. Elder Sutton in our district always
whistles the hunger games tune during lunch and we like to whistle it back. It’s
so fun!
Meal times are the best 3 hours of
the day!! We aren’t allowed to sit by the elders, which is kind of nice because
we need some girl time usually. We’ve gotten to know most of the other hermanas
here just by sitting with them at meal times. The hermanas are so awesome!! WE
RUN THIS!!!! We have these two sisters that we love to sit by, they’re names
are hermana Faw and hermana Christensen.
Yesterday we had a service activity
and our district was paired with H. Faw & Christensen’s district so while
we were cleaning, the janitor, Fernando, pulled us four hermanas aside and
asked us to help him clean up the table where the cafeteria workers eat. We
cleaned up the table and he kind of secretly waved us over to him, so we went
over and he gave us Jarritos soda and some cake! It was like Christmas!! We
were so happy and we were just cracking up because he told us not to tell the elders.
It was so funny.
The food is always interesting
though. We joke that we don’t know what it is, but it’s usually good. The Juice
is incredible though. It’s not all artificial and sugared up. It’s so good. I
really like the bread too.
H. Schaefer and I are the only
Americans in our casa. In the casas, there are 5 bedrooms, a living room, a
kitchen and a laundry room. The whole houses are tiled and in each room there are
2 bunk beds and a bathroom. We don’t have anyone else in our room, but there is
one companionship of Latina hermanas in each room. They don’t know English very
well so they force us to practice our Spanish with them. They are so much fun
and I absolutely adore them. On Saturday night they knocked on our door and
asked us something in Spanish. It took us forever to understand that they
wanted to have family home evening. We were so excited when we figured it out
though. WE all gathered in the living room, had an opening himno, I said the
prayer, then we all bore our testimonies, then sang a closing himno. ALL IN
ESPANOL!! It was so much fun and the spirit was so strong. Last night, we had
to show them how to do laundry. None of them had ever used washing machines
before, they were so excited, it was cute. I’ll try to get a pic of them next
week.
Last night I started feeling really
sick and this morning I woke up so sick! I have a really bad cold and my throat
is hurting so bad. I asked two of the elders in my district, Elder Hatch and
Elder Tews for a blessing. They were so excited that I asked them because it
was their first blessing. They gave me a really beautiful blessing and promised
that I would be healed according to my faith. SO please remember to pray for my
health. Also, During Hermana Pratt's lesson about the book of Mormon in relief
society, she was talking about the blessings you receive from the book of Mormon
and one of them is health. So I’m going to read my book of Mormon a lot today. I
have faith that if I do that and if I do what I’m supposed to do I'll be healed
and be able to teach Randy tonight.
A couple of days ago hermana Arbon
our teacher gave us a coaching lesson in English and she read us exerts form
the talk titled the fourth missionary. Can someone please find that and send it
to me. It was such an amazing talk!! It really made me think about my time here
at the CCM. I am learning about my weaknesses so much here, but I know that
they will make me a stronger person. You all should read it; it definitely applies
to life as well as missionary work.
I am going to give this work everything I
have.
There is so much more to tell you
all but I’m running out of time!! But I wanna leave you guys with the funniest
line of the week.
H. Schaefer and I were eating with
H. Christensen and Faw. H. Faw was telling us about the time that she got her
wisdom teeth out.
Me - I only had one wisdom tooth but
I had to have my molars removed because none grew in in the bottom
H. Faw - (her mouth drops) so you don’t
have any molars?
M - Nope!!
H. Faw - So you must be pretty gummy
back there…
We all completely died laughing. And
then one of the sisters that sits with us laughs like a seal, so we just kept
laughing even harder. One of the elders in her district yelled across the
comedor, Hey, you alright over there Hermana Scow?? Then the whole comedor just
completely busted up laughing.
I love you and miss you all so much.
I think about you ever single day and pray for you.
Yo se que el evangelio trae
bendicones!!
-Hermana Clark
