It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! They're putting lights up on the trees and they set up a Nativity scene. AND there are hundreds of Poinsettias everywhere that they planted. On Saturday we got a little treat and saw a Mexican Christmas performance of the story of Christ's birth. There was a lot of dancing and costumes and it was so great. It made my whole stay at the CCM totally worth it. I'll send some videos so you can see how awesome it was. Mom, you would have loved it! So for Christmas Eve we're having a big Christmas program and each district is being asked to sing two songs. I got asked to conduct them so now I'm a choir director. We're singing Joy to the World and O Little Town of Bethlehem but in Spanish. We're combining with a Spanish district. The instructions told me that "it will be really fun and offer a few challenges." Ha I'm pretty sure i'll speak enough spanish to be able to communicate with them, but I guess we'll see.
On Thursday we did our fast from English day. We only made it to lunch time then we broke. But it was good to realize what words we knew and what we could talk about and what words we needed to learn. I can say the basics and get my point across, but I am definitely not fluent yet. Thursday night we had something called TRC I´m not really sure what it stands for but it's where we get to talk to real people who volunteer their time so that we can practice our teaching. Some are members, some less active and some are investigators. Our assignment for this for one was just to get to know them and share a spiritual thought at the end. Actually, we weren't really given any instruction on what we were supposed to be doing. Our teacher just told us to bring our scriptures and all our books. So the girl we talked to was 18 and a dancer. She ended up being in our Mexican Christmas performance. She's way good. So we just talked to her about her family, what she liked to do, and told her a little about ourselves. Then when I couldn't think of any more questions to ask her she asked if we had something to share with her. I said oh yeah of course and whipped out a scripture about prayer and gave a quick little spiritual thought on prayer off the top of my head. I'm getting good at thinking on the spot.
So this is how our Sundays go. We study in the morning, eat breakfast, and the Hermanas have Relief Society and the Elders keep studying. And then after the Relief Society the Hermanas have study time. Then our Sunday school is just with our district. Our district is the people that are in the same class as you. You stay with them your whole time in the CCM and you all learn in the same class. Then we have Sacrament meeting with our whole zone with is multiple districts. I'm gonna put a picture of my district with our Branch President and his counselor. I love my district and zone. So in Sacrament meeting the way they do talks is everyone prepares one on the assigned topic and then they call your name on the spot and you have to give your talk. That happened to me on Sunday. But luckily I had actually prepared a pretty good talk and didn't just copy things out of Preach my Gospel and the pamphlets because that's what everyone does. The topic was the Atonement and I can talk for hours about the Atonement and bear testimony about it so it was a good topic. Sacrament meeting is all in Spanish, but all of our other meetings are in English. So I gave my talk in Spanish and I have never been that nervous before in my life. My entire body was shaking. But when i read the scriptures that I was using I was actually able to read them like a fluent Spanish speaker. My companion and I have been reading The Book OF Mormon in SPanish out loud and it has been helping so much with pronunciation and some other things. So I felt good after my talk. It's pretty nerve racking though when you're just sitting in Sacrament meeting and then they say and now we will be hearing from Hermana Reed. But the idea is when we are in the field and they need a speaker we can have something prepared for when the missionaries are called on to speak.
Last night we said goodbye to a district in our zone. They're the people that I knew the longest here so I was pretty close with them. It was so sad. So every Monday night we play a game called Signs with our whole zone so we played last night for the last time with district 12-A. For the last 15 minutes we split in half and played just the our district and 12-A. It was the funnest time I've had at the CCM. Let me just tell you that saying goodbye with a handshake is a terrible way to say goodbye. I'm just gonna have to get used to it. I dread having to say goodbye to my Elders in my district. Every day we get closer. But we're already planned our reunion after our mission in Rexburg, Idaho so it'll be okay. So now our district is the oldest. We have the zone leaders in our district now and the Hermana trainers.
Today we go to go to the Visitors Center! It was so beautiful. Mexico really knows how to make a Visitors Center. They have some cool rooms and exibits.
I just wanted to share one last thing with you all. This week I was studying charity and made some connections that I had never thought of before. In Moroni 7:45 it says that charity suffereth long, is kind, envieth not, not puffed up, seeketh not her own, not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things. Charity is the pure love of Christ. In 1 Corininthians somewhere theres a scripture about how the people spat on Christ and he suffered it, they whipped him and he suffered it, they did all manner of afflictions to Him and He endured it because He had love for all mankind. When we have charity we are able to endure all things and beareth all things like Christ did. When people make us mad we can forgive quickly. When we are called to pass through tribulation we can endure it. When we have charity we are able to love anyone and everyone regardless of what they have done to us. Because Christ endured it, we can too. And we do not have to be alone as we strive to have charity and suffer all things. Christ is always by our side. He is always there, but we need to be the ones to go to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in prayer and ask for help. I know that if you do, you will not be left alone in your trials.
I love you all! I hope you have a good week. Thanks for your prayer!
Hermana Reed
No comments:
Post a Comment