Hijelo 7 Nov 2013

Hola friends! This first week has been absolutely amazing! 

The CCM is the greatest place on earth. Well, 142nd next to all the temples of course. I think it is in kind of a bad part of town, but I´m not sure. You can google maps it. Either way, I love it here! We have small mountains on two sides and one of them has a big B on it (for  Benemito, the high school that was here before they converted it into the CCM) so it kind of makes it feel like home.

You can hear the cars and noise of the city around us and it is so weird to remember that there is a world outside of the grounds. One night the hermanas and I were walking back to our casa and we heard music coming from a huge party just outside the CCM, so naturally we started dancing. Hermana Turner randomly dances in public with me whenever I want to so get along well.

I got to go to the temple this morning!! I loved it. I did most of it in Spanish. The next two times we go we have to do it entirely en Español. I´m so excited.

THe food here is usually toned down Mexican food. I´m leaerning to like rice and beans more and more everyday. Half the stuff that I eat I don{t even know what it is, but it is usually good.

I don{t know how anyone learns a language at the Provo CCM. Here, we hear spnaish way more than you would in Provo. I haven´t heard a prayer in English in a week. Everywhere I go I somone says hola hermanas. My teacher is a native, so are most of the other teachers. I am pretty lucky because I understand about 97% of the things that he says in spanish. My spanish is coming along. I´m not fluent but I can pray and bare my testimony and sort of teach a lesson. My spanish may not be excellent but my espanglish is great!

We had to teach our first lesson in spanish on friday. Hermana Turner and I feel frustrated sometimes because we could teach an amazing lesson if we could do it in english, but that´s not what I´ve been called to do, so I guess I´ll just keep struggling through my lessons in spanish for a few more months until i get it. I just need to make better use of my study time. You make or break your mission from 7:30am to 10:30am.

We are teaching a girl names Isabel. Our first few lessons went okay, but we didn{t know how to much to her. THen on our third lesson Hermana Turner and I decided that it is more important to have the Spirit in our lessons than to have them all in spanish, so if we didn´t know how to say it in spanish we just said it in english. IT was the best lesson we´ve had so far. The Spirit was so strong. It is moments like those that remind me why I´m here. 

The elders in our district like to eat lunch with this group of latin boys who teach them slang words and tongue twisters. It is super cool to talk to them. They taught us the word, hijole. Except one time Hermana Saylin said it wrong and now I can never remember if it´s hijole or hijelo. My district corrects me on it everyday.

I share my room with Hermanas Turner, Saylin, and Babb. They are all awesome and cute and funny and I love it. We all get along great. They fun of me todos los dias for talking with my hands all the time or for wanting to stand instead of sit in my desk while we´re in class. I guess I haven´t changed much yet. :)

One important thing that I´ve learned since I´ve been here is that faith always points you toward the future. Lot´s wife looked back because she didn´t have enough faith to look forward. 

I love you all and I can´t wait to hear more from you. Yo se que nuestro Padre Celstial loves each of you and that this gospel is true. Find something to smile about today.

Love, Hermana Odekirk

P.S. Bugs killed: 16