Week One: August 6th, 2015

Sorry for all the punctuation and grammar errors i am typing on Spanish keyboard. 

HOLY COW LONGEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!!!! 

But I am good. 

The CCM is a good place! 

After I said goodbye to our family, the security guy took my shampoo and conditioner.  

Duh.... lol. 

Not to worry i found some in the tienda... aka little store here at the CCM, and we get pesos to spend!

At the gate there were SO many missionaries! 

Including Quinton, I gave him the oil vial too!

The flight was good. I sat next to a girl who could speak English and Spanish. She let me send a pic to mom, and i gave her a B of M with my testimony in it! I told her to add me on Facebook, so we will see if she looks into the church. 

On the plane I cried a bit... like many of the other missionaries.

 The flight attendant was so nice tho and he gave us candy, tissues, and said he would pray for us. 

When we arrived we went on the craziest bus ride to the CCM, and almost got in a crash probably 3 times haha. 

Crazy Mexican drivers!! 

We had orientation, got tags, ate dinner, etc.. MY companion is HERMANA DAVIS, she is from Cali and went to BYU I. 

 I totally lucked out!! 

Then they took us to our actually pretty big casas! 

My comp and I have our own room and bathroom to share, lucky us! 

There are 3 other Americans and 6 natives in our house. One Brazilian, totally said Oi to her haha, i love you Collin and Quinn. 

Then there is one Chilean. 

We try to speak a little Spanish to them everyday haha but they just laugh and try to communicate back. 

The first night my comp and i just bawled together for a while... but no worries its normal.

The next day everything began!

AHHHHH!!!

We had orientations, meetings, interviews, chastity lessons, a devo about the standards and rules. Then we played jeopardy against the Elders to practice them. 

Hermanas won!

Our district is interesting... I love them all because we spend all day together, but the Elders are kinda kooky and talk about avatar, video games, etc...... ALL DAY and night! LOL. We are all going to Concepcion, except for 2 elders going back to the US. 

One of the Elders going back to the US wants to go home and is really considering it. He actually played football and has a full ride to college for football. We really hope he stays because we all feel the same way... not that we really wanna go home, but every night my comp and I ask each other why we are here. haha. Pray for him..

I see mis amigos all the time!!! 

Sam Baker, Claire Eyestone, Lexi Erickson, Quinton Dickerson, and Bridger Allman. Lexi and I eat most every meal together, if we are not sitting by our district. Lexi and i are so happy our comps like each other... so we can hang out all the time.  

The food is actually pretty good!! 

They redid the food and they remodeled the comedor the week before we got here... so it is so nice. 

We teach a fake investigator in spanish everyday! 

Holy flip it is so hard! 

NO HABLA ESPANOL! hahaha. 

It is hard because sometimes the spirit is SO strong and we want to help him, share our testimony with him, and express ourselves... but we just don't know how to say much in Spanish. 

These are the times when we wish we had English speaking missions. hehehe.

GYM time is awesome!!! 

Sometimes we play tennis or do something else.

SUNDAYS ARE AMAZING!

When we got here everyone kept saying just make it to Sunday, over and over. Its true. I was kinda bummin out the first few days. So long. So hard... and i was like saying "Why Chile? Why Chile? Get me back to America." lol. But after our amazing fast Sunday, things changed.

We had to all bare our testimonies in Spanish, and i gave the prayer in Spanish. Relief Society was amazing. 

Then... SUNDAY MOVIE NIGHT!! 

BOO YEAH!!

Everyone go watch the John Tanner video. It changed my life. HE is the most consecrated person i know. wow. 

After that we had a district devo, and all the Elders were sharing their thoughts. One Elder didn't even know that much about the Atonement, that it was for more than just sins. I think this is when i started to love them all. They all talked about how much they missed their families and girlfriends, etc... but that they now see the reason to be here. 

I realized during this movie. It hit me so hard.. I wasn't called English speaking or to a US mission. I was called to Chile, and that is where the Lord needs me. Who cares about the food, the bugs, the rain, the freaky hard Spanish... that is indeed what consecrating your life is all about.

It is so hard. I miss you all so much, but this is where i need to be, and like our teacher said.. as well we need to do this for our future children. 

I have so much i wanna tell you guys but I am running out of time! 

Something funny: There is an Elder in our district that looks like a who from Whoville. hehe. HE is the district leader. He is a stellar missionary, but it is still funny.

My Spanish is coming slowly.

I LOVE YOU GUYS TO THE MOON AND BACK X10.

ADIOS. I can't wait for next week!!! 

XOXOXOX

Sister Black can't leave without her famous "green smoothie"