Hola from el CCM!
Well, this has felt like
the longest week of my life! That first day must have been a week long
on its own! I have learned so much already, and it is incredible! SO
Hermana Hymas is the Baird´s niece, and she is absolutely fantastic. I
don´t think there can be a better companion for me here. We are A LOT
alike. Just some examples: We both randomly break out into song, we
have read almost all the same books, including ones I wasn´t sure she
would know about! We are constantly laughing about something, and
haven´t had any problems with being compañeras. If you wonder what
she´s like, just think of me! Haha! :)
In addition, I swear, I have the best district here.
We have seven elders and five hermanas, so we have a trio of elders and a
trio of hermanas. We were originally 6 and 6, but one of the hermanas
moved up in Spanish level, and one of the elders moved down to our
beginning class. Elder Wing and Hermana Robertson are going to the same
mission as I! Hermana Hymas and Elder Blaylock are going to Kansas
Wichita Mission, Elder Wangsgaard is going to Ogden, Elder Lythgoe and
Elder Cheney are going to L.A., Elder Hansen is going to Chicago West,
Elder Wagner is going to Independence, MO, Hermana Orr is going to
Nicaragua, and Hermana Howell is going to Twin Falls, ID. All of them
are incredible, and we have become really close already.
Hermana Hymas and I are on bunk beds, and we share our
room and bathroom with two other hermanas, Hermana Lui and Hermana
Lattin. I love these two so much! They couldn´t be more different in
appearance though. Hermana Lui is Tongan (THough she grew up in Cali)
and Hermana Lattin is this little, short girl with blonde curly hair.
They are absolutely hilarious, and we laugh a ton with them.
So, it is a rule at the CCM to let the Hermanas go
first in the food line. It´s really nice for us, but sometimes it is
sad to watch all those hungry elders as we glide to the front! Speaking
of which, the food isn´t too bad! I like it. Lunch is the biggest
meal, so we eat a lot then. They have a lot of variety, which is nice.
Oh, and every tuesday is Costco Pizza night! It´s the best! :)
Another rule at the CCM is that you cannot play
recorded music on speakers because we´re in such tight quarters. Well, I
exaggerate, we have a lot of room. But that{s besides the point. Hna
Hymas loves music just as much as I do (She even plays the violin!) and
we will sing a lot. We even have some elders that love to sing, so we
practice spanish hymns together. We are going to sing in church in two
Sundays! In relation to a lack of music, one day, while studying in our
classroom, we had the windows open, and coud hear the faint trails of
music, including The Beatles and "Have you ever seen the rain?" It was
hilarious. On the not so fun side of music, Saturday night, there was some concert going on until about 2 am, and it was LOUD. Our door to our casa was shaking!
Speaking of our casa, it is purple and white on the
outside, and there are 5 rooms with 4 beds in each room, but only 4
rooms are being used, with a total of 13 girls. It is really fun,
except 9 of us have the same p-day and all need to do laundry. That is
interesting... :)
Our Third day here, we taught our first lesson.
Completely in Spanish. That was quite the experience! Our
investigator´s name is Melissa. She is a young woman who likes to party
and drink, and she is pregnant. Her sister is a member, and She last
her dad two years back in an accident. Today we´re thinking about
teaching the law of Chastity. Wish us luck!
OH. My. Goodness! I was SO excited to discover that not
only is Hermana Orr a dancer for the BYU Cougarettes, but she has also
learned the part of the Supercalifragilisticexpialidoc
Don´t worry, we´ve been doing spiritual things too.
Hermana Orr´s niece the other day had surgery to remove a port for her
chemo treatments. It was really hard for her to not be there, so we
fasted together as a district and got to watch our elders give her a
Priesthood blessing. You guys. It was incredible. The power of God is
real, and we are so blessed to be able to witness that power. On Sunday
nights, we watch a movie, and this week was The Testaments. I had
never seen it before, and it was absolutely incredible. I sobbed at the
end, and I just loved it.
On Tuesday night, we had a live broadcast from Provo! It was also broadcasted to
the Phillipines MTC, the Guatemala MTC and the Columbia MTC. I also
discovered that there is an MTC in New Zealand! So cool. The
devotional was from Elder Neil L. Andersen, and he talked about Love and
Sacrifice. He read the 13th chapter of Corinthians, which is what I
had studied for personal study that morning! I really loved it.
Our teacher is Hermano Hardy, and he is wonderful. We´ve learned a lot of Spanish already, and lots of other uplifting things.
We have also been comparing el CCM to Hogwarts. I will have that list for you next week!
Today, we got to go to the Mexio City Temple. It was all in Spanish, which was really intimidating. But really cool.
I really love all of you more than I can describe, and I am very grateful for your love and support.
Love,
Hna Grondel
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| Me in front of the school bus |
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| The view from the CCM |
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| Selfie in front of the temple! |
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| Mi compañera in front of the temple |
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| My district |
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| My tag! |
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| The Angel Moroni |
