It´s weird to think that you´re all still asleep as I write this haha. But maybe you get to read it first thing in the morning! So that´s nice. ONE MONTH DOWN. I literally cannot believe it. It´s unreal. But yeah, last week in the CCM! We go to Málaga on Tuesday, and the schedule says email time on Monday, so keep an eye out for that!
So last Pday we got to go to a mall. And go shopping. And we get to go do things on Pdays here, but going to the mall for an entire afternoon was by far the most secular and it was WEIRD. It wasn´t too weird because I didn´t recognize any of the English or Spanish music but then all of a sudden one of my most favorite songs from America (Payphone) started to play and I got insanely excited and then really missed my iPod for the first time ever. And I hated missing it! Because I thought I didn´t! And I don´t as long as I´m safe in the spiritual prison that is the MTC haha (I say prison because there are bars on the windows). But yeah, it was super strange to be there in the very real world again...
So I decided that I must be one of the luckiest people ever because that night we got to watch Elder Bednar´s Character of Christ devotional that I already was blown away by in Provo! So I got to see it again! And it was just as good the second time and I got a lot out of it! And seriously, I LOVE Elder Bednar and he is actually now in my mind on the same level as Elder Holland. Like, I would be just as excited to hear Bednar speak at general conference as Elder Holland (which is saying a lot for me haha). Seriously, that talk has caused me to plan a long (like longer than my mission) study of the Character of Christ and I´ve also taken his challenge to, whenever we have a question, get a blue soft missionary copy of the Book of Mormon and read it cover to cover and mark anything that answers your question and write a summary at the back. He said if you do this over your life, you could have hundreds. Colin, my cousin, told us in one of his mission emails about that same advice that Elder Bednar gave them, so I figured that now that I kept hearing it over and over I would do it. And it has completely changed the way I read the scritpures. Read them with a purpose! When you read them with a question, everything seems different. I highly recommend it, you get so much more out of the Book of Mormon. And for all of you who may have never read it, READ IT because it changes lives and it WILL change yours.
So last Friday we got Dominos pizza for lunch. And seriously, I have never tasted anything so good in my entire life. It was literally Heaven on Earth. After all the interesting food here, having that blast from America was much needed! Next Monday, our last day here, we are getting KFC! Super pumped for that too! I can´t wait to get into the field and eat real Spanish food!
So last week in the Park was super fun! And I learned a lot! I was put with one of the new native sisters, so she spoke fluent Spanish, and I swear, if I was her permanent companion I would be fluent in a day. In just a couple hours I started speaking more in Spanish than I ever had since being here! It was incredible. Everything I´ve learned here is review so it´s really hard to see that my Spanish is improving at all, even though I know it is. Seriously, I was SOOO blessed to have an amazing high school Spanish teacher because I understand SO much. Hermana Lyons had a horrible Spanish teacher and struggles a lot. So I try and help the best I can. But anyway, the park was great. I learned 2 things. 1. Anyone can be a missionary. Literally anyone. Even a puppy. We were passing these people who seemed like they were talking and so we weren´t going to stop but then their little puppy came running up straight to us! And so we ended up talking to this girl and her mom! And they were actually Jewish, so I don´t think they´ll be converted anytime soon, but it was so funny to see this little missionary puppy (cutest puppy EVER, by the way) who wanted his owners to have the gospel :) And the second thing I learned was that success in the park does not directly correlate to fluency in the language! I had more success (numbers wise) with girls that also struggled to speak to people than with a girl who understood 100% of what anyone was saying! It was a real lesson for me, because I worry about not being able to speak well affecting the work. Don´t worry, Heavenly Father would never let someone´s salvation depend on the Spanish ability of a bunch of American missionaries hahaha.
Also, Sunday afternoon we got to watch a really old devotional of Elder Holland titled Don´t You EVER Go Home. And boy, that was scary. he started going on about how much his mission meant to him. He kept saying "My mission meant EVERYTHING to me" and I started to panic because I´ve been here a month and kept thinking "ahhhh what have I been doing in this whole month I´ve already had?" Just kidding, I didn´t panic, but seriously, that talk was intense and it made me realized how much I need to value this time. It got me really enthusiastic though, I started thinking, "Who cares if band camp starts tomorrow in Provo? Who cares that my sister´s getting married? this is the most important thing I will ever do!" Those thoughts don´t always last really long though, but it was nice to realize that for a few minutes that I honestly didn´t care about anything else besides the mission work! But I honestly feel bad for anyone that´s never gone on a mission. The talks that we hear from the Apostles are not available to the public, they only show them in MTCs and you just see a side of the Apostles that you never see in General Conference! They are more in depth and more intense and emotional. It is SO awesome. If you have yet to serve a mission, DO IT. But seriously, Elder Holland is insane about missionary work. He started flipping out and said "I´m NOT neutral! I´m not well balanced! I am fit for psychological study!" It was so funny...gotta love Elder Holland.
Funny stuff! So Elder Ridd was complaining about the sun being in his eyes every time he looked at the teacher who was standing right in front of the window and said in Spanish, "Every morning I look at you and get pains in my eyes." And obviously he just meant because of the sun but I literally almost died of laughter...I had tears in my eyes it was SO funny because he didn´t mean it to sound that way at all! And then later Hermana Lyons was practicing subjunctive tense and said the Spanish equivalent of "We can´t be clean without being clean." and I laughed super hard at that too.
Fun fact about the Spain MTC: They play music over the intercom. It is the same everyday at the same times. The song that wakes us up is the hymn that goes "Glory glory hallelujah!!" over and over. I will never again hear that hymn in the same way because it will always mean that it´s time to wake up. Sad, because it´s not a bad hymn haha. Oh well...
So last thing: studying Spanish has made me realize how weird English is. It´s seriously the dumbest language ever. Though. What kind of word is that???? And food and good look like they should rhyme but they don´t. And they´re, their and there is just ridiculous. And we have a sound for F, why do we need PH??? These are things I will never understand...if I didn´t speak English from my birth I would never speak it, I don´t understand how anyone ever learns it!
I love you all SO much and thanks for all your prayers and letters! I got a ton this week! From Grandpa, mom, Aaron and Joseph! I love hearing from everybody, so let me know how you´re all doing!!! I will tell you a little more about my companion and my scripture study stuff next week, probably Monday.
Hermana Andrew
P.S. Someone had BETTER tell me all about band camp!!!!!
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