Ay Carumba! Cochabamba!: ¿Que en el Mundo?

4 Febrero 2015

¿Que en el Mundo? [What in the World?]

!!!!!!!!!1ST PDAY!!!!!!!!!!

After so much that has happened in the past week: 24 hours of traveling, 15 hour work days, everything planned to the brim, 8 study books and materials, 2 devotionals and getting acclimated to everything. How can I summarize it in just one hour? ahhhhhh! Here we go!

I’m alive and well in Lima Peru! Last week was so crazy because we ended up getting in to the Lima CCM [Centro de Capacitacion Misional] (MTC [Missionary Training Center] in English) around 2am in the morning on Wednesday and we were just launched into everything as new missionaries! We got our name tags and we got our 10 pounds of study materials (including our new best friends - our Spanish to English dictionaries!)

Right when we first got here, they let us now that we can’t take pictures except on P-day [Preparation Day – one day a week ~9am-5pm to write letters, do laundry, grocery shopping (not in the MTC), visit local sites, etc.] which is good to keep us focused but I’m so sad that I don’t get to show you many pictures! We also aren't allowed to take pictures inside of the building so forgive me but I can’t send that many pictures :(

It is absolutely gorgeous here! Coming from snow storms and cold into humidity and a tropical summer is just crazy to me! I don’t need lotion because in isn’t like Colorado here were I feel like my knuckles are splitting at the seams! It feels great to me, but that might be because we are inside for a lot of the day (except they put our physical activity at the hottest part of the day which I don’t understand. ;)) I love just studying outside with my companion and hearing all the birds sing and looking at all the green on the CCM grounds!

SPEAKING of my companion! Her name is Hermana Simmons and she is just the best! I love her to pieces and I just don’t know how I would live without her! She already knows quite a bit of Spanish and understands quite a bit which helps me soooooooo much. I have NEVER taken Spanish in my life so having her here to help me (even while I’m slow at learning things) is so great! We are different people so it’s hard to be with someone for 24 hours of the day and have to ever get up and go to the bathroom with someone (which you would think that a girl would be used to that) but I can really see how important it is to follow that rules while out in the field! We are really good at talking through our differences and I just am so excited for the next 5 weeks with her! I just can’t emphasize how much she has helped me already!

The days here are SO long! The first day was probably the longest just because we weren't in a solid schedule and we weren't used to the whole day being planned out from start to finish! It probably feels even longer just because we are trying to learn a different language here! WOW! Spanish is crazy, but we are learning so fast! Every once in a while I have to remind myself that we have only been here for a couple days (I just accidentally wrote "weeks"... woops ;)) ) and that I am not going to be fluent at this point! I have learned so much! It’s crazy! I can meet people and try to carry out conversations and pray and bear my testimony in Spanish how! It’s so crazy! Sometimes I can get a little discouraged but I draw strength from the fact that my sister and my brother and many other people have been able to do this before me!

We rode on one of the buses that they have here today and it was pretty much the bus that is on that one Harry potter movie but with more people on the bus! (we got very up close and personal so after a week of not touching boys and trying to not ever give high fives to the Elders it was just weird to be so close... I felt like I should start screaming... and the sheltered, handshake life begins!)

Funny story for the week: I saved Hermana Simmons from going into the boys’ bathroom here at the CCM. We were getting ready to go to a devotional and were filling up our water bottles and she just started walking into the guys’ bathroom! You should have seen her face when I told her to get out of the Elders bathroom!

Tender mercies of the week: that my companion can speak more Spanish than me and is helping me along the way! That my family was able to say goodbye to me before I got on the plane (to go to Atlanta and then had a 6 hour layover and then a 6 hour plane ride to Peru and a 1 hour bus ride to the MTC). That the heat here isn't killing me or keeping me up at night! That I haven’t gotten sunburnt yet! And that it is soooooooo beautiful here!

I have to go for now, but I love you all and feel as though I haven’t seen you in forever! I miss you and just love being able to feel that much closer to you by writing to you!

Love you all!

Hermana (AYYY!! I’m an Hermana!) Mather