HUMP DAY.....for the CCM

Very exciting day today...it is Jake's Hump Day...for his six weeks in the CCM! In three more weeks he'll be headed out to the Huancayo mission. That means he's a vet now in the CCM. We received an unexpected email and picture (see below) from President Hansen, who is Jake's Branch President in the CCM and who is a good friend of my Aunt Carol & Uncle Brian Moss. Pretty cool. Here's the update...

¡Hola mi familia! How are you all? I miss you all so much! I love the emails and I love all the support and prayers because it has helped tons! This week has been great and it was a blur! The new North Americans came this week so it´s been fun getting to know some new elders! But all our buddies left last week for their mission, which was sad, but it is just the greatest here! We´re all so excited to leave this place haha. We love it here but everyone is starting to call it the white prison!

Today we got to go out and go to the temple! It was so cool and peaceful to be inside the temple! We had to help out the newer elders with talking to the temple workers.  EVERYTHING was in SPANISH!  But after the temple we went to the distribution center and we all bought a Spanish Book of Mormon and bible and then we headed over to Tottus the "Target" of Peru. On the bus, my companion and I started talking to this girl named Kelly! She used to be catholic and my companion was explaining to her how we believe in the bible. We asked her if she had read the bible and she said,  “yes of course”! We told her we believe in another book called, "el Libra de Mormon." We told her it was another testament of Christ and she seemed very interested to have it and read it! She took it and she asked us for our numbers. But we don’t have one. So I told her in my broken Spanish haha. That we will get some missionaries to call you and that we want you to read and pray about the book!! I didn't say much but I said enough to help my companion out because he was stuck! But it was so cool! She was happy and she gave us her number and we gave it to the office for them to contact the missionaries in this area! It got me so excited to be out in the field soon! Only 18 more days...yay….I can't wait!

This Saturday we get to go on splits with missionaries in the Lima south mission and go proselyting for the day! I’m so excited. I can read and write and my vocab has grown! I only use Preach My Gospel in Spanish and if I don’t understand a word I look it up and write it down in my Spanish vocab notebook. My listening is getting lots better! Last night a general authority came and spoke in Spanish and I understood about 80% of it somehow :) Now for my speaking it is slowly progressing! I am getting more confident and I can speak pretty well for only being here for 3 weeks. Teaching lessons I can do pretty well with my companion! We like to teach through questions and asking our "investigator" thought provoking questions that can invite the spirit. We both ping-pong back and forth very well and we like to use scriptures A LOT! They invite the spirit and answer our questions! I have never been so RELIANT on the spirit and the scriptures…it’s crazy! And I know they'll be even more reliant out in the field! I love learning Spanish and I love talking to the Latinos and improving! I can teach most of the lessons now and it is so much easier to invite the spirit! The people here are awesome and I love my teachers and the friends I've made! I have honestly lost myself in the work and I LOVE doing the Lord's work. And also this week I got made District Leader haha! It went from my companion to me and well yeah that's it! District Leader in the CCM is a pretty big deal…JK! It's great though! You just watch over the district, write on the board and lead out discussions and attend meetings on Sunday! It's been great for the first few days and I love my district they are awesome! Being here is just amazing and time is flying by like crazy!! I'm praying harder than ever (in Spanish) for my Spanish to improve and for me to find opportunities to invite the spirit.

“My reflection of the week” was from last night when one of the area 70's came to speak. He taught us how to be better missionaries and how to teach lessons. The one major thing I took out of it is learning how to teach with the spirit to the investigator's heart. We can do all we want to try and throw info into the investigator's face and try and convince them but that's not how it should be done. We need to learn to teach with the spirit and teach to their hearts. If we convince their heart of how true and lovely this gospel is through the spirit they will feel it is true. I love the gospel so much. I especially love our savior Jesus Christ more this week. He paid for all our pain and afflictions and he knows how we all feel. But in turn we must do our part by putting forth our OWN effort. We all need to make an effort of coming unto Christ and following his example. It won't be easy but in the end we can live with our families FOREVER and be so HAPPY! I love the plan our Heavenly Father has for us! And I absolutely love telling my investigators that I know families can be together forever and that this gospel is so true. I want to bring as many people possible unto Christ and feel of his love and know of his plan. I want them to all feel a burning in their bosom and have the spirit testify that these things that we teach are true. I love being here and I wake up everyday willing to do the Lord's work! :)

We take it meal by meal here at the CCM. And once you make it past lunch the day is a breeze because it consists of physical activity! We used to play tons of soccer. But now we don't because they think the afternoon kids are too dis-respectful so they make us play half-field soccer. So now we workout and do circuits and lift on the cinderblocks outside for a workout haha! We're pretty creative and have figured out how to do things! But after that there´s class, dinner and lessons and gosh it flies by! Oh and Elder Bednar might be coming next week!!  We’re all so stoked!! He is my favorite apostle and if he comes I will DIE! I love Peru and I love you all and I love my family and the gospel! ¡Hasta Luego mi familia! Yo amo ustedes mucho!

First Time Visiting the Lima Temple (it has been closed). Endowment session all in Spanish!

Elder Moss and Elder Hale

President Hansen & Elder Moss

Got this picture on Monday from Nick...these are Nick's friends from Jordan High and they were on an EFY service project in Lima, Peru. They visited the CCM and look who they found!