Miracles

Hello all!!

This letter is going to be shorter because I finally decided to be less lame and take the time to send you guys some pictures, so sorry the letter is short!

So this is my last P-day at the CCM.  Yes, it feels really weird writing that, and yes it feels like I got here yesterday.  I'll be driving to Rancauga very early in the morning, and depending on when my P-day will be in the field you might not hear from me again for another two weeks.  So don't panic if that's the case, I do hope it's not because that would be a lot to write about first week in the field.

This week was pretty uneventful!  Which is the main reason I decided to take time to finally send you guys some pictures.  But this week was also amazing at the same time, I'll go ahead and launch into some of the stories of this week.

Culture stories!  So here they have this spread type stuff that's called manjar, and they put it on absolutely everything.  They don't have peanut butter or Nutella down here, so they use manjar as a substitute for both of those things.  They put manjar in their ice cream, on their bread, in their pastries, in their brownies, in their cookies, on their faces... everywhere.  They love manjar here, and at first I wasn't extremely impressed but now I absolutely love it.  I don't know why we don't have it in North America it's the best.

Spanish stories!  The Spanish is coming along quickly, but I still know that I'm going to go out in the field and be shocked at how little I understand.  I do talk with Latinos all the time (A bunch of Latinos came this week and 21 of them are going to Rancagua) but they usually slow down for us.  I know I'll learn really quickly out there though so I have faith.

I talked with a Latino the other day who was from Ecuador (Almost all the Latinos that came this week were from Ecuador) and we had a good long conversation in Spanish about Ecuador and I told him a little bit about Dad's mission.  He then asked me if I spoke Spanish, which I thought was an odd question since we were talking in Spanish that whole time, but then he expounded and asked if I was already fluent before I came to the CCM.

Needless to say, I took that as a huge compliment.

I told him I had no Spanish experience at all before the CCM and he said that my Spanish was really good, and I thanked him a ton for the compliment.  That conversation was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

I still cannot roll my r's however, not even a little bit.  If anything is funnier than all of you guys trying to teach my how to roll my r's, it's actual native Latinos trying to teach me how to roll my r's.  They're extremely kind about it though, when I fail they just laugh with me and then sincerely try to help me put my tongue in the right place.  But alas, I still cannot.  Latinos are the kindest people I have ever met in my life, it's a real blessing to have the opportunity to serve among them.

Sunday was so much fun!  For our last two weeks they have us go to all our classes with the Latinos in the Spanish group instead of the North Americans in the English group, and though it took a ton of concentration to follow the lessons and the MTC devotionals that were translated in Spanish the whole day was a lot of fun.  For Priesthood, Presidente Doll had each North American missionary pair up with a Latino companionship for the hour and discuss scripture together, which was a lot of fun.  It definitely gave me a confidence boost in my Spanish.  We also had an FHE activity that night with the Latinos, and it was the funnest thing I've ever done in my life.  Each North American Missionary taught a group of Latinos several phrases in English and then the Latinos would go compete in teams using the English phrases they learned.  Teaching Latinos English is definitely the funnest thing you could ever do.  Ever.  I hope that I get the opportunity to do that in the field sometime.

Real quick, sorry for my grammar and my spelling, the Spanish is actually really messing with it, and it doesn't help that I'm in a hurry.  It'll probably get worse as time goes on, just a warning.

Well it's time to close!  I want you all to know that these past 5 weeks have been indescribably (I know that's not how you spell that) beautiful to me, and though Heritage Tours was primarily responsible for my conversion, no other time in my life has brought me closer to God and has built my faith in Him more than this month.  Everything is like clockwork out here, if you have faith and hope, miracles happen every day.  This month has been a month of miracles.  Some of the things I said in the blessing I gave to Hna. Porter have already started to be realized in miraculous ways.  I want you to know that God will always keep his promises, that what He says through the mouthpiece of His servants are His words.  At first I was shocked that some of the things that I said in that blessing have been realized in such marvelous ways, but then I remember that I was not the one who said those words.  God lives, He is real, and He loves you.  He loves you with love and majesty that none of us can comprehend.  If we have faith, we can perform miracles.  I see miracles every day in this blessed country.  Everything is like clockwork here, when I don't have faith I can't speak Spanish.  At all.  It's a very humbling experience to realize that without the Spirit and without faith I not only can't teach but I can't even communicate.  It's as regular as the Liahona in the book of Nephi, when I don't have faith I simply am nothing.  I know that God blesses those with faith with more ability than they could even possibly hope for.  I love you all, and I love my God, with all my heart.  Hasta el campo, adiós.