Hermana Grondel: What a Rollar Coaster!

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 Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious dance where they spell it out!(from the broadway musical.) So guess what we did for gym time yesterday?! That´s right! We learned it! Another check on my bucket list.

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