This week has been absolutely phenomenal, and I finally feel like I
can orient myself around the CCM campus! The language is difficult but
with God's assistance, my improvement has been exponential!
Now the name of this email comes from a challenge by Hermana Correa
(the morning instructor) who kinda became frustrated with some members
of the district not always using Spanish, so she created this game
where every member of the district has five pieces of a sticky note on
their nametag with each piece representing an English phrase used, you
say a phrase you lose a life kinda thing. The punishment is that
those who have no stickies (not sure what else to call them haha) by
the end of the day must purchase a candybar from the tienda for those
that do have stickies! This spiraled out of control really fast! The
word "Ingles" would be thrown about like a nasty word whenever
somebody said something in English and caused most of the district to
simply be silent which actually destroyed the intention of the game
... so, that lasted for a couple hours before it was disbanded haha!
Now on to the past week:
Sunday: I got to partake of the sacrament and play the piano for the
meeting which was wonderful because after the Sacrament we have a
special number where everyone can feel the spirit and reflect upon the
importance of the Sacrament and when we are perfectly clean after the
Sacrament is when we are most likely to hear the susurros
(whisperings) of the Holy Ghost! This was also the first and last Fast
Sunday I will have in the CCM, which I will miss because I love being
able to have testimony meeting, and the beauty of having everyone
voluntarily fasting in unison! It reminds of the scripture Mark 9:29,
which testifies that through fasting and praying many miracles can be
wrought in our lives. (make sure to read the context of the verse)
Monday: Nothing crazy eventful except for the fact that in my room
there are four Elders (Elder Manwill, my companion, Elder Wright, and
Elder Hatch who are both going to the Reno Nevada mission) and Elder
Wright is an absolute prankster who always does crazy things to get my
goat, but I just laugh and wave it off haha! But on Monday night, I
felt it's only right to fire back, so I gave him a scare by acting
like part of the table, which is hard to explain but in our room there
is a table between the two bunk beds, and I blended in with that, and
normally he turns out the lights for lights out, so when he went back
to hop in his bunk, I yelled and he screamed so loudly it caused the
room next to ours come check in on us, haha! This probably is not the
most missionary like thing to do, but hindsight is 20/20 haha!
Tuesday: We had a beautiful devotional from Presidente Caldwell and
his Wife that talked about the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement,
which acted as a strong witness that Christ really truly understands
every aspect of your life, and asks for you to partake of his atoning
sacrifice because "He has graven us upon the palms of his hands, and
our walls are continually before him" (1 Ne 21:16, slightly
paraphrased, cause I don't quite know it in English, haha!)
Wednesday: We had a great lesson with Naomi in which we were able to
understand more about her life and concerns which is a huge blessing
becuase we were kinda shooting in the dark with her lessons, but now
we can better craft them to meet her needs and help her along the
path! Fairly standard CCM day! Elder Manwill has been having a hard
time transitioning to missionary life, so he had a meeting with
Presidente Caldwell (the second counselor in the MTC presidency) which
is such a blessing because he worried me for a bit there!
Thursday: Elder Manwill had another meeting with Presidente Caldwell,
so I had to teach Teresa with Elder James (a zone leader) which was
kinda difficult because he hadn't been involved with the planning at
all haha! But we taught a beautiful lesson about the Plan of Salvation
and Elder James shared the story of losing his close friend, and I
shared my families experience of losing my Aunt Kaylin, and the peace
and happiness that comes from believing in the plan of salvation! The
spirit strongly testified and I know that we can dwell with our
families for eternity through the atoning power of Jesus Christ!
Friday: P-day once again! Spent three hours at immgration to make
sure the Mexico serving missionaries could legally proselyte here
haha! The bus drivers here are crazy skilled at knowing exactly how
big their rigs are because they would shoot gaps that I didn't think
were possible and this would often cause the hermanas on the bus to
scream because they thought there was going to be a serious wreck,
haha! The drive time is about an hour and a half each way with the
heavy congestion of Mexico City so there really hasn't been much else
going on!
Scripture of the week Jacob 3:1-2:
1But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart.
Look unto God with firmness of mind, and prayunto him with exceeding
faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead
your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your
destruction.
2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the
pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your
minds are firm, forever.
This comforted me so much with some of the struggles this week, and
although this is a verse that I have always loved, I have finally
committed it to memory and I highly recommend that you Ponderize them
... I mean if that is still a thing haha!
Thank you guys for the support and prayers!
I love you all, and I'm praying for the assistance of God in all you do!
Con todo mi amor (With all my love),
Elder Raven
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