Thursday, July 11, 2013

My first day at the CCM

Today might be the LONGEST day of my life. It´s not bad though. I had probably a total of 1.5 hours of sleep on the plane, and that is why this day is literally feeling soooo long, I´ve pretty much been up for 36 hours straight, same goes with the other missionaries in my district. My journey through the airport system was definitely a new adventure. The airport from Saint George was small and the plane was tiny too, I tried waving at the window like you said you would be there, but the window is about at my shoulder, and I can´t see through the glass of where the family would be. Let me know if you could see me wave, I sort of doubt it. Landing in SLC was fine, and the airport was easy to navigate. I did eventually meet up with two other elders and two other sisters (or should I say Hermanas) right before we left SLC. I ended up sitting near Sister Anne Fitzgerald, who I have a mutual friend with, and who I also communicated with over fb before our missions. She is super nice. Our flight in SL was delayed 10 minutes, which turned out to be 20 minutes because it took a long time to board and find space for everyone´s stuff, and then took a while to land as well. With all of this said, we were cutting it close to make our LA flight, we did make it there with enough time and I ended up sitting next to Hermana Fitzgerald again. We tried to sleep, but it was quite hard, I suppose it´s something about airplanes or maybe being missionaries and the new excitiment and wonder that comes with that. There was one point on that flight that the turbulance was BAD, however, I felt safe and not worried. I actually found it strange that so many people were so scared, but then I realized that it could be pretty scary. It thought it was neat to look out the window and see lightning flashing right there and so close. A few hours later when the sun rose was a real treat to see. I have never seen so much rich color into a sunrise (I guess the spanish is working it´s way in, because I am already struggling to not write the words I know in spanish actually in spanish) We made it to Guatemala safely though, so all is well. However, one of my luggages did not make it to guatemala (my big purple one). I figured if someone were to get their baggage lost, it probably would be me. haha. Know what´s great though? having 11 new spanish missionaries try to communicate with non-ingles speakers. It took a bit of time to communicate that my bag was lost and that  I needed to fill out a report. they eventually found someone that knew english that could help me. We are still working on getting that bag, but it´s okay since I have my bag with clothes and I brought some travel sized toiletries on my carry on bag. However, I wish I had a travel deoderant. Hopefully my bag will come soon.
 
All of this happened by 6:00am wednesday morning. whew!
 
we drove to the CCM in a very old school bus with some signs saying "jesus te amo" and driving was an adventure too. All of the cars drive really close beside eachother and there are colorfully painted busess which are fairly common. Oh, there was also a "police" like group where people were holding guns riding in the back of a jeep, they had police lights too. Some of the missionaries thought that was really strange.
 
My companion is great. Her name is Hermana M....I am so bad at remembering last names, especially without knowing first names. I promise I will know all of my companion´s name by tonight. (if that ever comes. I´m getting dizzy for the need of sleep). She just graduated from BYU in nursing and was called to be the mission nurse as well as a normal missionary. She knows some of my friends, including Amanda Magneson from my Glenwood ward. We get along well and are a good companionship so far.
 
My spanish is going really well! thank you 9th and 10th grade spanish classes. It has definitely made a big difference in my experience today. I get a lot of what the teachers are saying, and I can answer questions too. However, it gets harder when trying to have a conversation with other more advanced sister missionaries here.
 
The food is great, but I´m not very picky. some of the Hermanas don´t eat very much. It´s just different, but not bad at all. There is some strange fruit here; leechas are an example, they look like hairy strawberries, but you bite into them, peel the sides and then only eat the flesh in the middle, while avoiding the pit. They are good, and remind me of grapes.
 
All of the missionaries I met up with are a part of my district, totaling 11 missionaries . The CCM president says that we have the smallest incoming group, probably due to a larger influx of native missionaries.
 
I don´t know what else you want to know, but there is a run down of my life as a missionary. I have a name tag and all, now, too!

when the MTC president was briefing us and sharing some goals he bore testimony that really brought the spirit. He talked about our name badges which we had received just minutes before. He talked about how we have christ´s name, as well as our inherited family name. And that who we are and where we are today is a result of our family circumstances, good or bad, either way, we are here. He talked about the effect of 1 on posterity and how many 0´s behind 1 our mortal posterity will be, and how many 0´s would be behind our 1 for our spiritual posterity. He made some neat comparisons to the stars in the sky and how infinate they seem. I could see this fact touching the hearts of the 11 missionaries in that room.
 
It´s pretty sureal being here, actually a missionary, actually on a mission, actually in central america learning  spanish.I´m happy to be here, even though it is physically challenging right now. Everything will work out.
 
ps, i don{t think this is my normal writing day, but i will let you know once i know. oh, and it is also the SAME time as utah. so no time change. kinda weird.
gotta go. bye! love you!

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