Well, I am now on week 5! Time has seriously gone by so fast here in the CCM. I am constantly learning new stuff every day, and I can definitely see my Spanish improving compared to when I first got here which is crazy! The CCM presidency always reminds us that the last 2 weeks we should try to speak as much Spanish as possible, so our district decided on Sunday night to do a 2 week English fast! We decided to do a competition between the Elders and Hermana's, and it has been so much fun! (Below is a pic of our first day doing it, as you can see the Hermanas are winning with less words said in English ;))
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| Our district´s english fast goal :) |
Teaching with the Latino companions has been so much fun! Yesterday when we were taking turns teaching our investigators, our district and Latino companions were sitting in our study room, just singing the himnos together. And there was such a special spirit in the room! I seriously love the Latinos so much, they have such big hearts and they are like our best friends now :)
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| My other compañera Hermana Flores!!! |
This Sunday was definitely the best Sunday EVER :) The theme for sacrament and all the devotionals was about Christ. We talked about the attributes of Christ and how we should always strive to be like Him (BTW Elder Bednar gave a really good devotional about the Character of Christ at a Christmas MTC devotional in 2013, go watch it!) But for our last devotional we talked about His Grace and the enabling power of the Atonement in our lives. Lots of people shared thoughts and experiences of how they relied on the Atonement when loved ones passed away or repenting of sins, but Presidente invited a specific Elder to come up and share his experience of how the Atonement has strengthened him. And once he spoke we found out that he has a stutter. He is such an amazing example of how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can change you, with his decision to serve a mission and to speak a different language even though he has a speech impediment. It seriously made the whole room cry hearing him speak, it was so powerful.
I want to testify that Jesus Christ KNOWS YOU AND LOVES YOU. He has paid the price for all of your sins, and He has also felt perfectly the pain of all of your sorrows & sufferings. Through His Grace He can turn our weaknesses into strengths and we can become more like what our Heavenly Father wants us to be. His Atonement is for EVERYONE, no matter what challenges you have been given or what choices you have made.
I love you all!
Hermana Barlow
