First Week at the CCM (Centro de Capacitacion Misional Mexico)

Here I am at my first week at the CCM. After leaving Phoenix at 8:15am I finally arrived at the CCM at 8:30pm. No resting here. We immediately had orientation and I received my companion assignment when, lo and behold, she didn't turn up! I am now in a trio with Hermana Barrus and Hermana Conrad, both heading to Texas Houston East mission. They are both 19 and from Utah, it kind of cracks me up. We all have very different personalities but work well together. We taught our first investigator on Friday, then again Saturday and Monday. The Spanish I already know has helped me exponentially. I couldn't imagine coming here with no background in it. It's strange though because all the missionaries in my district have the same 'investigator' and to hear the differences between each person is weird. Our investigator “Ivan” asks a LOT of questions. Do you know how hard it is to answer difficult doctrinal questions in another language that you can barely conjugate in? Crazy stuff.

It's actually really good though. I'm understanding a decent amount of the language, and starting tomorrow mis companeras y yo (my companions and I) are doing a full English fast (meaning we abstain from English) for the rest of the CCM aside from planning, companionship study, and an hour before our lessons. I am fluent in Spanglish. I would appreciate any and all prayers for me to learn the language though. It's the worst when “Ivan” gives a question and

1: you aren't sure exactly what he said,

2: you are not sure how to even answer in English

3: you have no idea how to answer in Spanish.

I love it though. The weather is lovely here, and the food is great. It's a nice mix between American and Mexican. And I have the best P-day possible, because we get devotionals.

I'm not really sure what to write. The people here are so friendly, and the senior missionaries are always willing to help, in English too!

I'll end with a story. So, after dinner one day, the hermanas and I decided we wanted to scare the boys in our district, so we waited in a dark classroom for them to finish eating and return to studying, and it was taking a while so we were whispering and giggling. When all of the sudden we hear, "I thought so" in a man voice. It scared us so bad! Elder Scoville had heard us laughing through the open window and he called into the classroom. We then explained what we were doing and managed to get a good scare out of the other elders. Let that be a lesson to me, horseplay in the CCM backfires.

For a spiritual experience, it was actually a little bit of gift of tongues. Our investigator was saying something and I could simply NOT understand. He said it 4 or 5 times, when all of a sudden the word just came to me and we were able to continue onward. It was a lovely experience.

I'll keep a great journal this week and have more to tell you next Tuesday.

With love,

Hermana Fletcher

Hermana Barrus, Hermana Conrad, Hermana Fletcher