First, I will inform you that I left my notebook containing my detailed notes in a notebook somewhere around the CCM, so if this is supes lame it's because good memories don't exist en el CCM and I can't remember yesterday, let alone last Wednesday.. hahah. SECONDLY, let me explain the subject heading thing of this email. There are super awesome latino humans that enter the CCM for two weeks and then head off to their missions throughout Mexico and they COMPLETELY rule! They'll practice their english missionary door approaches on you and then laugh when you speak spanish like a two year old. It's a good time. Well, one of my roomies, Hermana Potter, gets SO MUCH GRIEF from literally every latino human that ever existed. Are you the sister of Harry? They ask in their thick accents and then bust up laughing, hahah. It's hilarious. One worker guy today kindly informed her that this was not Hogwarts and she can run through this wall to get to her mission. Haha, like Hermano Polo, our afternoon teacher, claims to understand little to no english but will wave pencils at her while saying "wingardium leviosa" every chance he gets, hahah. ANYWAYS long story way to long, the humans here pronounce my name 'Jost' always. Like, I have almost spelled it with a J like 40 times, haha. So the latino boys called me Hermana Jostin Bieber. Hahah, I dunno, it was actually so hilarious.
So, CCM life is basically the same old wonderful beauty that it always has been. Our teachers teach us, we teach them as investigators, it's a hoot. Hermano Polo was once Jorge, but is now an investigator named Miguel. He is like 55, has one LDS son and one crazy party drinker joven son and is baptized into like 5 churches already. He exclaims "hallelujiah!" often and, yes. So the first lesson Hma Flitton and I taught him was TERRIFYING. We had heard rumors of bible bashesque senarios and we frankly didn't know what to think. Like we knew it would be fine, but were expecting the worst. To top it all off, one of the main boss guys over our teachers was sitting in on the lesson so, super tons of pressure. It didn't go as bad as we had thought it would, but he wasn't too game for anything either. THE NEXT LESSON, though! We had gotten tons of advice from Hmo Vargas about how to be better, like.. each talking for a minute and really getting to know and understand the investigator and.. The spirit was literally incredible! It may go down as one of the happiest moments in my life thus far. As we testified of the reality of the restoration of the gospel and of the power the BOM has to change our lives and bless our families (I shared that story about how we started reading the BOM before school and how Dev and I were the happiest and didn't even fight and raced to the garbage cans hahah), I felt the spirit, I knew Hma Flitton felt it and I COULD SEE IN HIS EYES THAT HE WAS FEELING IT SO HARD. It was incredible. We (Hma F and I) nearly floated out of the lesson and I was just so happy to be here and to be alive and wondered why I couldn't teach every second of my life! Seriously, the best. THIS is why people swoon over missionary work so much, the spirit is literally the HAPPIEST feeling! I loved.
The sad news of the world, however is that we have another investigator (Hmo Vargas) named Alejandro. Of course, having an investigator isn't sad news at all, and we actually love him sooooo much! BUT the events that transpired are a little sad. After this lesson with Miguel, which we really relied on the spirit for, led us to believe that we really didn't need to plan that much for our upcoming lesson with Alejandro. We planned to teach the Plan of Salv, after assessing his needs, and didn't really practice or role play or talk about it. As the good ol' pride cycle goes in El Libro De Mormón, we had been blessed and took a serious beating for it. His concerns and questions set us up for a PERFECT lesson, but the same spirit wasn't there because we hadn't prepared or relied on The Lord as much. I WAS SO MAD AT MYSELF, and it really got me down. I am, however, grateful to have this little opportunity within the walls of the CCM to mess things up. And I'm positive I won't be a perfect missionary ever, but I'm grateful for these times that help me see why the spirit and preparation and actually working on stuff before the second I need to do them and all the things that i've been terrible at my whole life, I'm actually learning the importance of. Gratitude for dayssssss.
Hm, hm, hm OH saddest news of my life.. our dear friend and teacher Hmo Polo is going to conference tomorrow, and staying with friends in the states for TWO WEEKS so he'll get home like three days before we ship outta here. We're all super bummed because he's literally the best human that ever lived. Ah! We just had this perfect balance between serious, work hard Hmo Vargas (who really does have the most tender heart) and Hmo Polo, who turns the gospel into this beautiful fun thing that rules. And now we are getting a substitute teacher, Hermano Silva, and he is so classy cool mexican and he terrifies us, hahahah. I mean I love him already and I know he'll help us SO much, but yeah. Bummer, dude! BUT Hmo Polo gave us like a little beautiful talk yesterday and had me read from John 15 and I just cried so much! It's beautiful and like the PERFECT missionary scripture. It is the Savior talking about how we're not his servants, we are His FRIENDS. And it just made me feel so much that He's right with me through all of this. Because of the atonement, because of the beautiful sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we are NEVER alone in this life! He understands the ins and outs of our souls, and He feels EXACTLY what we feel. He's walked our path before, through the atonement, and is ALWAYS walking right beside us! I'm SO thankful for Him and His friendship! The neatest thing about Him, too, is that it's never been too long! If you've neglected this friendship for hours, days, months, years HE DOESN'T care! He just wants to chat with ya, and be there for you. I know that with every ounce of my heart. He CARES.
Sunday was a joyous day, we've all just been thinking tons about Joseph Smith and said baby prayers that they'd show The Restoration movie for movie night and THEY DID! WOOO! Prayers are answered, I know know know it! But, I dunno, we've just been studying his history and life and it just is such a comfort to know that He is just like you and I. He was super worried because, after seeing God and Jesus Christ, He kind of started slacking off because of all the persecution and what not. He had forgotten his call, and I think a lot of us do that, ESPECIALLY on missions. We forget that we're called of God, that He loves us, that He TRUSTS us and that we can do this! But, of course, whom God calls He qualifies and Joseph's prayer to say sorry for forgetting His call led to Moroni appearing to tell Him about the Book of Mormon. We are NEVER too far off. He has given us our specific trials to help us grow and He WILL help us. I know it, I feel Him every day! But I have to ask for it, even as a missionary. He requires our work and our action to come unto Him. But after we do this, He comes running to us!
I LOVE IT HERE. I love missions! I love the spirit! I LOVE the scriptures and I love the converting power of the BOM. If you've been feeling off lately, try reading the BOM again.. it does WONDERS! I LOVE YOU ALL. And so does The Lord. It's that truth, ya know!
Con 4,000 kilos de amor,
<3 Hermana Jost
PS- Walking to lunch from Sacrament Meeting, we saw a bird straight fly into a closed window and die so #itsajungledownhere #watchoutforwindows
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| Our pal Jared from el comedor. He tells us to be happy, we tell him we love him, and in turn he tells us all of his girlfriend probs. He rules and is the light of the creepy Mexican food filled place. |
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| The long awaited pic of cute Hermana Bartlome and I. It's the happiest seeing her around and Dallin Fuell is her district leader and I just really can't handle it at all, hahahah. #2funE |
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