Christmas.  At the CCM.  I loved it. The best part is there there's nothing fake here, about Christmas. First thing in the morning we gathered in the Classroom where we had set up a stocking, a tiny tree, and drawn festivities on the board.. we had another district come in and invite us to listen to the telling of The Christmas Orange, the book one of them had received for Christmas.  It was lovely. We exchanged gifts.  I drew Elder Coombs a dragon and Hermana Conrad gave me an awesome Mexican notebook and a bueno bar :D

Our Christmas decorations 

Gift exchange

Then we went to the service activity where we tied cobijas (blankets) for an old folks home in need. We sang Christmas songs the entire time.  After that was the phone calls home!  For 1/2 hour we were able to call our loved ones back home.  (From her mom and dad: It was great to hear Kelene's voice.  She sounded in good spirits and we could tell she was enjoying her day.  We asked her questions and got to hear her testimony in Spanish at the end. The half hour call seemed like it was only about 10 minutes long.  It got a little teary at the end but was the highlight of our Christmas!)

The rest of the day was filled with some incredible devotionals all day long, and we had the opportunity to watch Meet the Mormons.  Merry Christmas from the CCM! 

HOWEVER after Christmas, the problems started, haha.  As part of the Zone leadership, we had the opportunity to talk to each and every district in our Zone the day after Christmas, because our presidente de la Rama was out of town for Christmas.  So we got to step in.  It was a rough couple of days, and it seemed like every time a problem was resolved, a new one would crop up.  It was a great learning experience, even if I don't think I studied a speck for 2 days, having to deal with all of that. 

Today though, I am so excited.  It is a lovely day I am so going to buckle down and learn all that I can right now.  At TRC this week, we get to teach a new converted family.  They were baptized last week! We are teaching about receiving revelation through the scriptures.  Much excite.

However, it's also a bittersweet day because I have less that one week left here at the CCM.  This time next week I'll be 30,000 feet up.  I am so very very excited.  It wasn't until Christmas that I really got trunky to get into the field. While at the same time they keep showing us temple videos and pictures of all the temples in Utah and that kind of stuff, and then I get homesick for the temple.  It's only been 5 weeks, goodness gracious, it shouldn't be this hard to be away from the temple. When I get back I'm just going to live at the Temple for a month straight. 

I'm so excited to teach. We memorized the first vision as a district goal the other day and we challenged our teacher who has been off his mission for less than 4 months to memorize it in English (he's only been learning English since he returned).  And even though we speak haltingly and sometimes put the wrong emphasis, when I heard Hermano Borgel start to say "I saw a column of light..." I could just feel the spirit immediately.  And I know that the spirit doesn't care what language we are teaching in, the grammar of spiritual things is in each one of us.

My Spanish is doing well.  I feel confident in my ability to learn quickly once I get into the field, but I believe that if I have the spirit with me, for now, my spanish is sufficient to testify, which was my goal in the CCM.  I'm still going to study more intensely than ever, but I'm so excited to go to the place where I have been called.

With Love,

Hermana Fletcher

Where I ran 4 miles last p-day

A slightly blurry photo of my tag (lo siento)

Almost time to say goodbye to the CCM!