Last weeks in the CCM

July 30, 2014

HOLA FAMILIA!!!

I cant believe I only have two more weeks here in the CCM! It really has gone by so fast. I do not feel ready to go out in the mission field, but I think our district out of the four advancados are the most prepared.

This week has been great. We were able to go proselyting for the second time. It was so nice to see improvement because you dont really see day to day improvement in the CCM. I was actually able to teach/talk for half of the visit and my companion talked for the other half. Everyone was so nice and told me that my Spanish is so good, which its really not, Peruvians are just so nice! It is really cool how they set up this proselyting. We meet at a few different chapels and then ward members come and meet us there. Members of all ages come. Then each companionship is assigned to different members. We then go to inactive members houses and visit them. Then once we visit all the people we need to we just contact people on the streets or knock on other doors. The member I went with this week was a 19 year old girl. She was so sweet. She wants to go on a mission and gone proselyting both weeks I have, maybe more. I think this is such a great way for the members, missionaries, and inactive members to both learn and teach. I wish more members would take the time to help with missionary work. It makes it so much easier!

This week we also had a different P-day. Since the temple is closed and we had missionaries leaveing and new ones coming in so there werent as many missionaries, only 80, the CCM president decided to take us to Caral. Caral is the oldest city in the Americas. Its 5000 years old! It was so crazy to see how people lived so long ago. Our tour guide was saying that these building/pyramids looked like hills and then they cleared the sand off of them. Its so crazy to think how many cities could be under different hills or even new cities!

It took a little over 3 hours to get there. We went on these big, nice tour buses. Some of the drive was on narrow dirt roads. It reminded me of our trip back East.... except the drivers could actully control this big vehicle without hitting other things;) Peruvians are amazing drivers! They are crazy, but its great! on our way we drove up the coast. it is so different than the California coast. On one side of the road it was a steep sand hill and then on the other side it dropped off into the ocean. I dont know how the sand doesnt run down into the road. It was really amazing. It was cool to see all the different types of landscapes of Lima/Peru and not just the city. I liked all the little towns outside of Lima a lot better than the city part. The city is just so dirty. It is so sad to see how they live.

This week we also had to move rooms so there was more room for all the new Elders. We now only have 4 rooms for sisters. There are 10 American sisters and 6 Latinas. It is so weird! Its the smallest amount of sisters we have so far. Hermana Rasmussen and I are now the sister leaders. We dont have to do much, just take care of any problems the sisters have.

We watched some more devotionals this week. It is cool to see the General Authorities outside of General Conference. Elder Anderson spoke about love and sacrifice. He said, "We sacrifice for the things we love and we love the things we sacrifice for." I really love this quote. We cant expect the things we love to just come to us without having to sacrifice for them. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I want everyone else to have the same love as I do for it, so I am willing to sacrifice a short period of my life to share it. What do you love? Are you willing to sacrifice for it? I know that the sacrifices we make are so small compared to the sacrifice the Savior made for each one of us. He sacrificed His life. We arent asked to sacrifice very much at all.

I love you all so much. I hope everything is going well at home!

Love,

Hermana Monson