¡HOLA MI FAMILIA! I love you guys so much and I love the CCM in Peru! It has been such a great time and everyday time flies by! It´s crazy how fast time has picked up! The airport and plane ride was great! There were 40+ missionaries flying to Peru or Columbia! the flight from atlanta to peru was the longest flight of my LIFE! But we arrived in peru around 11pm and we had to go through cutoms and immigration stuff and then the church picked us up in a huge tour bus! we drove 45 mins to the CCM and arrived at 2 am and we got our companions. my companion showed up in the morning and his name is Elder D. from Provo! he´s 20 and is a great guy. He´s taught me lots about spanish and helped me out tons! im just so happy to be here and to be learning spanish and the gospel! i try to memorize 100 spanish words a day and im trying to read my spanish book of mormon every night for at least one chapter. and you might think thats not a lot but in spanish its HARD! But i love the book of mormon in spanish!
A day in the CCM goes like this, first we wake up at 6:30 then we go eat breakfast. Favorite thing for breakfast is the yogurt! Absolute best thing in the world no joke! but usually the breakfast consists of lots of BREAD and eggs or muffins with some fruit and crappy peruvian cereal haha! after breakfast we head to class and have personal study then have class for about 3 hours on teaching the gospel and learning to teach to the investigators needs. Then we have lunch which consists of rice and chicken and more bread and MAYBE just maybe ice cream. The ice cream here is unreal! But we get small portions of that! And then we head back to more class, then we have physical activity everyday. That consists of mucho fútbol with all the americans and sometimes the latinos have physical activity with us so we play with them and usually lose... But in between games me and my buddy elder stokes run laps till we´re on again to play soccer. So we´ll run about 2 miles and play soccer so ive loved that lots! After that we shower, get ready, and have companionship study to teach our investigator after dinner. Then we head to dinner which consists of more rice or chicken.. or if we´re lucky PIZZA! the menu consists of rice and chicken or chicken and rice.. haha.. But the food is actually great and they do the chicken different! We just all stay away from the bread cause it clogs ya up and you gain mucho weight! But after that we have class which consists of grammar and then teaching our fake investigator! The second day we were here we had to teach him and it was SO HARD! I couldn´t say a word so Elder D. talked and trasnlated for me and i just said "si, si, si, muy bien, bueno" cause thats all i KNEW GUYS! I was so frustrated after! After teaching our investigators we get ready for the night, head to our rooms, and hang out and talk. We then have study time and wow then im in bed again trying to figure out where the time went! Its loco how much fun I am having with all these guys! ELder hale and I have become great friends along with tons of other guys! We have an elder named elder nielsen who is a huge linemen committed to play for weber state from Henderson, NV and he says he knows SAMMY! Anyways hes like a walking god to the latinos its hilarious! They love all the tall kids! They want to talk and learn english and they help us with spanish and we just make fun of each other cause none of us know how to communicate! We all love it here but the spirit is so strong here and everyday i wake up with a smile, laughing, and enjoying my time!
here are the questions i gotta answer for you all haha! the missionaries going to my mission are Elder D., he is not bilingual, but he knows lots, elder B., and elder J. and 2 hermanas. and there 4 in my room and 8 in my district! favorite thing is leaving this place and enjoying lima! and the temple reopens next week cause its been closed.. :( and the biggest surprise has been how much i pray and want to study! and heck no im not playing the piano mom! and elder BEDNAR comes in 2 weeks for a devotional and were all so stoked for thAT! church is at 9 and you have to prepare a 5 min talk because the branch president will randomly call you up to speak and it has to be en ESPANOL AHHH! and anything i need, my blue joggers and some more white socks please! but dont send anything till i get out there cause they wont accept packages here. but those are the questions for you (mom and dad)
Anyways, So every week I want to do a "reflection of the week," where I look back and see how I grew that week. (Mom is gonna be happy about this.) ANYWAYS! After we taught our fist investigator that second day I was so frustrated and discourage with my spanish and speaking. I thought I was confident and prepared but frankly, not a single soul is good in spanish here, except my buddy elder white who sounds like a latino. So i went back to our room all down and discouraged. I started to read my scriptures and just write in my journal about how i felt. I felt like I couldn´t do it. But i kneeled down and prayed to my heavenly father and prayed so hard and poured out how i missed my family, time was going slow, and that i just could not speak or understand. I woke up the next day went to class and started to read in preach my gospel, i was reading the spanish version and i was UNDERSTANDING it more and more! I can listen to conversations more and understand what is going on. ive dedicated to learn 100 words a day from the back of this book and im planned to finish with 5 weeks being in the CCM. Im so much more confident with understanding my teachers and understanding words and writing spanish. Talking im so so, but its good and getting better. I have to stop and think about what to say and im not the most confident but i can have a normal convo with the latinos! Through god nothing is impossible! I understand and im learning more and more and experiencing the gift of tongues as of now! It is such a great feeling and I am so happy! I know this is where I should be and I cant wait to get out in the field and start teaching! The gospel is so true and heavenly father loves each and everyone one of us and wants ALL of his children to return to him. Theres a plan and a savior who knows how we feel and is there to comfort us along with the holy ghost. I love heavenly father and jesus christ so much and I love being here and learning how to teach the people of Peru that he loves them too. I miss you all soo so much but I love you all even more! I´m safe and enjoying my chicken and rice :) my P-day is wednesday by the way! God speed family and friends!
Oh and I love SUNDAYS! theyre so relaxed and great and we watch lots of videos and devotionals cause our teachers arent there.. but who knew id love sundays!! and the CCM here is beautiful! ill send pictures and the soccer field is turf and thats all we do! we love it cause it is such a nice soccer field!! Tell dad happy birthday for me too!! I love him and miss him and everyone write me please!! I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOUR PRAYERS!
Awesome letter! Sounds like Jake having great experiences and doing all of the right things!
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