July 23, 2014

HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!!

This week has been another great one... until yesterday, I woke up and have felt sick. I don{t understand, I get 8 hours of sleep and we just sit in class all day so I shouldn{t be sick. But it{s all good:)

Well, we had a few changes this week. Elder Andersen is our new District Leader. No surprise there. hermana Rasmussen and I called it a few weeks ago. It has been such a great change for our district. Elder  Andersen is very motivated to be the best missionary he can be and he wants everyone else to be just as motivated as he is so he doesn{t let anyone slack off. I feel like because of that we have been a lot more productive and I have learned so much. I think our district is the only district that actually stays on task.

This week we got new missionaries. There are 4 new North American hermanas. They are all so cute. They think we act so much older than them. hah it has been fun having them here. I found a new elder that went to Jordan! he didn{t recognize me, but when I told him my name he knew who I was. He knows me as the girl who went to prom with Jake. Hah this whole week I thought he looked familiar and then I found out he was exactly who I thought he was. His name is Cody Glasett. He played soccer and ya, he{s a cool kid.

It doesnt seem like I have improved much with the Spanish, but looking back to where I was when I got here I realized that I really have. It{s just hard because you don{t see very much day to day improvement. Lessons have become a little easier to teach. Hermana Rasmussen and I taught our best lesson yet this week. We were able to teach without looking at notes and we were even able to answer our "investigator{s" questions. We were so happy and she even committed to being baptized... haha if only she were a real investigator. <our teacher said our Spanish is differ3ent compared to the rest of the class. We don{t know what he meant by that.. We think it{s because we are sisters.

The food is still great! We have dessert every lunch and dinner. it{s amazing! Because of this Hermana Rasmussen and I decided we should probably start exercising. We run every other day for physical activity, about 12 laps around the CCM (a little over a mile). Most of the girls don{t like playing sports so that was about all I could convice hermana Rasmussen to do. We do core and squats and push ups. Sometimes we play ping pong or volleyball. But usually on the days we dont run we just walk around the "track" (pretty much just sidewalk around the soccer fields) and talk.

Pdays we go to the temple and then go shopping for about an hour. the temple is tiny compared to any temple Ive been to, but everyone there is so happy and kind. The Spirit is just the same. we just found out that today was the last day we will be able to go to the temple because it will be closed the first couple weeks of August. I{m so bummed!!! When we go we are given head sets. Today I tried to do the session without a headset. I was able to understand it. But now we don{t get to go again:( When we go shopping we have gone to to this store called Totus. It{s very American. It{s really nice, kind of like a Target. We load up on snacks. We get hungry during the long days. Today we went to different stores. We went to Grajes (garages with different vendors, kind of like a farmers marker type thing, but mostly for clothing). We also went to Metros. Metros is also a grocery store, but it{s crazy and a lot dirtier than Totus. It is more like Peru.

We had great devotionals this week. They all seemed to be on how we need to work hard and not waste our time. One thing that stuck out to me was that a mission, or just like in general, will be hard. Elder Holland said something like "It has to be hard because it never was easy for our Savior." I think this is so true. He didn{t have it easy, so neither will we, but we can control how we react to the situation and we can change our attitude. After the hard times we will be blessed.

He amado mi tiempo aqui en el CCM. He ensenado mucho y llegando a ser mas cerca a Dios y Jesucristo. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador. Con Su ayuda, porque de la expiacion, podemos lograr algun! Me encanta el Evangelio de Jesucristo. Yo se lo da a nos muchos felicidades. Vive lo. Ama lo. (Sorry I don{t know if this is all correct, but it{s worth a shot) I love you all! Thanks for your love and support!:)

Love,

Hermana Monson