Wednesday, July 8, 2015

CCM - Week 1



At the Lima Peru Temple
July 8, 2015

OK - so the first day at the CCM was literally the longest day of my life. It was basically like 2 days with a 3 hour nap in between. SO I'm not sure if I said this in my last e-mail but the first day we taught some pretend investigators in English as a group. Since then its been mucho espanol espanol espanol!

The second day was still super long, but not quite as long as the first. Basically my schedule is wake up before the sun, eat, class, class, study, eat, class, physical activity, study, eat, class, class. We learn so many new words and have so many memorization assignments so muy muy espanol.

The third day was good - we played volleyball during physical activity with the latinas (latin sister missionaries) and they are so funny! We played CCM volleyball.... no rules... it gets pretty crazy and we end up laughing so hard we ended up literally rolling on the ground. This day we also went to Immigrations which was just about the most boring thing ever in the whole world. But driving there was sooo crazy fun! In Peru, and probably all of South America, traffic lights and lines are not really that important. You just get from point A to point B however the heck you want. We were in a 15 passenger van and if ya wanted you could reach out and touch the cars by you. Also there are people all over in the streets. We saw a man playing the clarinet right in the middle of the intersection, a woman drop her pants and use the bathroom in the middle of the street and some angry pregnant lady with a bat screaming at some other man... in the middle of the street. Siempre (always) in the middle. At Immigrations we really just sat around forever and then gave them some papers and then wait forever more, so not really that exciting. SO we did that and then went back to the CCM and had dinner and we were talking to some latinas and they were trying to tell us how to say ceiling or fan and mi companera (companion) ended up calling the latinas a not good word that may start with a B - haha. It was funny!!

A weird flower
Day four was the FOURTH OF JULY!!! AHhh i missed fireworks. All the North Americans wore red white and blue so it was really cool. For lunch they decorated the cafeteria with all kinds of american flags and red white and blue and it was just so America! And they made us hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, french fries,watermelon, and apple pie! It did not taste that great but it was just soooo goood. I think I got a little teary eyed when I saw the hamburgers. 

Umm the food here is rice rice rice, and beef, chicken, and a little bit of veggies. But so much rice! Its good but everyone always has a hard time with the food at first. In the CCM there are the siempres y el nuncas (the ones that are always in the bathroom and the ones that never can go to the bathroom) If you are a siempre then you eat mas mas rice to fix it. If you are a nunca, granadias are your BFFs. Those are the weird fruits that are hard, kinda look like an orange with a tail and it looks like seeds covered in boogers on the inside but they taste like umm cantalope or the other melon that is green. But that's just the flavor - it feel like slime, esta bien (its okay).

The fifth day was sunday and it was just so nice to do something that I know how to do. It was the first sunday so it was fast and testimony meeting and it was muy muy bueno! We watched both Joseph Smith movies (they are the bomb) and that night we had a fireside by the CCM president and his wife and they gave suuuuch good talks.

Another weird flower
Monday we learned how to share our testimonies in spanish (we already learned how to pray and the missionary purpose) and we also learned how to invite people to be baptized. That's about all I know so far. I can say a lot of words that aren't important like cat and makeup and fire. Spanish is hard.

Umm day 7 was our week anniversary in Peru. We went to Interpol and that was fun. The bus ride was crazy fun as usual. Our driver drove up this two lane road and then all of a sudden just stopped and threw it in reverse and started backing up the street and no one even cared. Cars were coming right at us and then they just swerved out of the way at the last second. Haha then our driver just parked. In the middle of the lane. We were like ok..... and just got out and followed him. We went to this little place on a street that kinds opens up to an area that has wall on all sides and little rooms in the walls. It was crazy cause it was just our district and we were all in full on missionary mode. We placed like 3 LDM (Book of Mormons) and a folleto (Pamphlet) while we were waiting. It was fun to talk to the latinas (local Latin people). Itss sooo hard but its fun. We met a lady from Africa that was on a catholic mission trip and she wanted a LDM so we were like ok! There was one latina lady and the elders were talking to and she was the sweetest and had the cutest kids. She ended up buying Elder Noel some food and then gave him a big kiss on the cheek - it was so funny cause he got so embarrassed! 

Fresh seafood at the market - eewww
Haha there were also a ton of cats. One of them was cross-eyed and it was hilarious cause they would just walk up to you and stare at you. I think its because they hadn't seen so many white people in one place at a time. But one would just look at you but it wouldn't be looking at you cause it was soooo cross-eyed! At Interpol we had to get our fingerprints done in this itty bitty room that had maybe 20 people in it, you couldn't hardly move. Then we had to go into this other room and get in this dirty medical chair and some latina checked out my teeth with a flashlight, then SHE PUT HER HAND IN MY MOUTH AND POKED ONE ONE OF MY TEETH. No gloves. ew.  OK so then we left interpol after like 6 hours. (We left at like 6 and got back around 11ish) After that we had class and physical activity and then more class. then we got to eat. After dinner we had a devotional (it was a devotional from January that was at the Provo MTC) soooo goood. Afterwards we had a district testimony meeting and it was so amazing. I love my district so much. We are always laughing and having so much fun together and also having tons of spiritual experiences together and we are all helping each other and its just great. I would be a mess without them.

Peruvian Monopoly - Hahahaha
And then today was P-day! We got up at 5 to get ready, had breakfast at six, and left for the temple at 630. But this time we took public transportation. The buses here are so small <I cant stand up straight in them and there are so many people in it them its crazy. You cant move an inch you're packed in so tight. But it was cool. The temple was super except for My temple recommend is GONE! It fell out of my card holder somewhere between the CCM and the temple so I gotta figure that out. We go tot go to the distribution center and get some sweet spanish scriptures and then we went to a book store shop. There were some cool scripture covers and bags and jerseys and so many things that I want to buy! Haha but I have to pace myself or I will have no more money by next week! We also went to this kinda like super market place. It was like a small Walmart, but Peruvian. It was cool. I got so many little peruvian snacks. Que Bueno!
So thats my week in a nutshell!
Hermana Anderson and Hermana Scarlett

We are also teaching a pretend investigator and its crazy hard cause we are doing it all in spanish, It is getting so much better and we are really working well with her. Oh yeah my companion, Hna. Anderson is the beeest! We have so so so much fun together and I just love her. 

Here it is always misty in the morning its super weird. Also the sky is always gray! That is probably one of the things that I miss the most about home is the blue sky with the fluffy white clouds, its just grey here, sometimes you can kinda see the sun from the clouds. Also they have these crazy mountains, well they call them hills. But they are just giant mounds of dirt and stone, no trees no nothing. Its so crazy.

Well my time is almost up! I love you all and miss you!

Also Johnny and everyone else about to go on missions, STUDY YOUR LANGUAGE!!! I wish I had done more of that! Oh and PMG, so great!
Haha oh and also people know me as the one from North Carolina cause apparently I have a crazy accent. Almost everyone else from north america is from out west. Haha esta bien!
Love you all so much!
I hope this email made sense!

With Love from Lima,
 
Hermana Scarlett


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