Heyoooo welcome to my first email of the mission!
First
off, thank you so much for everyone who came in person or online to my
farewell!! I hope I got to say thank you a million times to each of you,
because it means so so much. Love you all, and thank you for the
support!
I just finished my first week of the
CCM! I seriously love my district. If I'm being honest, the first few
days were rough and no one talked, but now we're all friends and we're
just having a good time. There's my companion, Hermana Utley (she's
literally the best, bless her for getting me through this week) and then
ten elders, who are such a party and all super cool.
Pretty much every day is the same, so there's not a lot of daily updates this week or probably for the next 5 weeks. So, here's some things that made me laugh, and also some mini miracles.
Things that made me laugh:
- My district has decided that tech decks (tiny finger skateboards) are what is going to get us through the CCM. It started with Elder Pratt playing with his all day long, and now I think 3/4 of our district have one. With 8 hours of practice at our desks for six weeks, we're all gonna be masters at it. We all show each other our new tricks while we're in breakout rooms with each other and I don't think our teachers have caught on, although you occasionally see a tiny skateboard fly across someone’s screen. We've already scheduled a day to have a tech deck tournament. I'll update you when I win.
- Hermana Utley and I trying to figure out the scriptures is actually quite entertaining. I tried to think for about five minutes, trying to figure out how the city of Jerusalem was destroyed (after reading several verses about Nephi building a boat and the whole earth being flooded) and eventually gave up because I couldn't figure it out. I looked back at my notes later where I had written "how did Jerusalem get destroyed?" and only then did I figure it out. Hermana Utley was trying to figure out why Nephi kept seeing visions and receiving revelation about the Bible, and why the spirit never showed him the Book of Mormon. That may or may not have been because Nephi himself was the one writing it. You know you're a missionary when being confused about the scriptures is your only source of entertainment.
- I watched Once I Was Engaged. That didn't make me laugh that much. I just was mad that they didn't name it Anxiously Engaged because they really threw away that opportunity.
- I honestly cannot count the amount of times I've heard "HERMANAS Y ELDERES" (sisters and elders) this week. I stopped counting at 73 on Wednesday. We have a class some days with everyone who started the CCM the same day as me, and the teacher of that class says "hermanas y elderes" at the beginning or end of every sentence. Sometimes both.
Milagritos (this is a
word I made up that I have no idea if they use in spanish or not, but
it means mini miracles, because a regular miracle is milagro):
- The Gift of Tongues (el don de lenguas) IS SO REAL!! I know how to say a whole prayer in spanish, which I'm sure will come in handy a time or two the next year or so. At the beginning of the week, I didn't know a single spanish word used in prayers. I also have Moroni 10:5 memorized in spanish, and I think on my third day of the CCM, I surpassed my spanish knowledge from my four years of high school spanish. When we put forth the effort, the Lord ABSOLUTELY makes up the difference. What a cool opportunity I have to see that every single day.
- I woke up on time every day this week. If you know me at all, you know that waking up at 5:30 isn't a normal occurrence, so I think the Lord has blessed me with not dying every time I wake up early.
- Me and Hermana Utley made a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon by the time we finish the CCM. To finish the Book of Mormon in 6 weeks literally sounded impossible two weeks ago, but it's actually been quite easy, and I have to stop myself from reading ahead because it's such a good book. I have gotten more from my personal study from it in the last week than I ever have, which has been so exciting. I am understanding it more and rooting for the people, even though I usually know how the story ends. I invite every one of you to read just a page from the Book of Mormon today, so many people sacrificed their whole lives so that we could read this book, let's be grateful for that blessing!
Anyway,
that's it for the week! If any of you who live close want to join me on
my morning walks, you're all invited! Or if you want to come hang and
bring me cookies, I will never complain about that. I have my phone
while I'm in the CCM, so just text me or email me, I'd love to see every
one of you sometime! Love you all!
- Hermana Allen
