Letters From Lima North: Live from the CCM- week UNO

Hello my lovely FAMILY!!!

Holy cow... So much to say and only an hour to say it!!

As you can tell, my P-days are actually on Wednesday, but here at the CCM, there is no specific time so it will be a different time I email each week!!

This week has flown by and there is just a lot to say... so bear with me as I jump from place to place.

First off... the CCM is TOTALLY different than how you guys explained the MTC! there is no store, and everyone here is really relaxed. The daily schedule is basically.. wake up, eat, go to class, physical activity, class, eat, go to class, eat, go to class, eat, go to class, go to bed.... hahaha.... But... I LOVE IT! Sometimes it is really hard, but for the most part, I am having lots of fun!

the food here is amazing!! Rice at every meal... you know I love that. There is some funky fruit that they have here called an agradadia or something along the lines of that and it looks a little bit like a lemon or and orange on the outside, but you crack open the shell, push aside a layer of bread-textured stuff and eat this delicious stuff thats almost like a sour pomegranite... It looks like fish eggs.. haha. But it´s not!!! HAaha..

The spanish is coming along really well.. sometimes. in class I feel like I can understand everything and that I´m doing alright, but then we have to teach our "investigators" and they´ll say something and I have no idea what they´re saying.... Bahaha.... Funny story about that actually.. We were teaching our first investigator on Friday night and our lesson was split into 2 parts-- the first was just getting to know them and then the second half was all about teaching them. So... We are getting to know our investigator and he´s already answered all our questions we had prepared and we have so much time left. There is about 5 seconds of dead air time and then i decide i should say something.... I said.. "Lo Siento... son NOVIOS....." So if you know any Spanish, you know that Novio is BOYFRIEND and NUEVO is NEW.... Bahahaha... first mistake in only the first week.. hehehehe.... It was funny though and we could laugh after it. {we have 2 teachers-- the morning teacher is Hermana Rivera... she is so sweet! she got back from her mission about 2 years ago (I think?) and she´s going to get married in October! She´ll hilarious and thinks we´re pretty funny too.. hehe.. Our night teacher is Hermano Lazáno.. He is super duper nice and really spiritual. He is married and recently graduated from the cool BYUI program which name escapes me at the moment.... PATHWAY!! haha. Got it! They are both so nice and they think that we´re doing excelente in our español... haha.

Ok... another funny story... I totally love my roommates! They´re the best.. Hermana Dillree is from Wyoming, Hermana Rowley is from Holiday Utah, and Hermana Flake is from Gilbert, AZ... Apparently her family is the flake family of Snowflake.. Maya... hopefully you know what that means.. Haha.. Anyways... On saturday night we were all journaling and stuff and Hermana Pugmire sees a corner of a picture hanging from the ceiling... Haha.... She takes it out and it´s a picture of some Elder with "Think Elder _____ [I can´t remember the name] Check the Rafters...." So we get all excited and climb up on the bed and look in the rafters and guess what we found.... A BOX!!!! Bahahaha.... So we climbed up onto another Hermana´s bed to reach it, took down the box, and guess what it was..... SOAP.... BAHAHAHAHAHASHAHAHAHASHSADASHDASHDA... It was so funny... We got so excited and it was just soap... hehehe... I giggle a little bit every time I think about it!!

Sunday-- what a day... There´s a lot of personal study time that happens Sunady, so that´s nice. Here in the CCM, the branch president (Elder Murray) and his counselors pick 4 random people to give talks and you don´t know until you get in the meeting--- So everyone has to prepare one... in Spanish!! But it only has to be 5 minutes.. hehe. I wrote a pretty good one so I was KINDA hoping they´d call on me so I could share it... But alas, I am just a beginner... So they called on Intermedios and Avancemos (The poeple who have been here 3 and 5 weeks!!)

In Sacrament meeting, however, there was a special musical number where this district sang "Army of Helaman" in Spanish... HOLY COW.... I got the chills and the goosebumps so bad! It was like when I went to go see the Nutcracker and when the tree grew I got goosebumps- but better because it was so Spiritual... I cried! Then later that day we watched the Joseph Smith movie and I bawled... The spirit is seriously so strong here...! Ahh! I Love it!!

Monday was the first time that we got to see the sun!! Haha... It´s mostly cloudy here and sometimes pretty chilly, so Monday when the sun came out after lunch, everyone came out of the cafeteria and just soaked up the sun! it´s been sunny since then, however, and I´ve actually broken a sweat sometimes... Hahah. pathetic. I know... Haha...

Yesterday-- Tuesday was the first day that we got to get out of the CCM Walls!! We went to immigration... Let me tell you... Driving here is CRAZY... HOLY MOLY!! Everyone drives SOOO Close to each other and almost no one uses their blinker! There are also no shoulders on the road... There´s really no way to explain it besides-- it´s crazy! haha.. we got so carsick on the way home and stuff... bleh... hahaha..

Immigration was fun and fast. Apparently we were really lucky because other groups had to wait like 2+ hours there but we got home 2 hours earlier than expected! Yipee!!

However, my companion got really sick and so that wasn´t good.... I sang with a small groups of girls at our fireside last night! pretty cool stuff!!

Today was P-DAY!! Here at the CCM, you can´t take pictures except for on P-day and even then you can´t in some buildings-- like our rooms... So sorry if theres not a lot of pictures... hehe. WE got to go to the Temple!! So fun!! We all wore headphones since it´s in spanish... Haha.... But it was spiritual either way! Haha.

Then we went to the distribution center where I got to get spanish scriptures! Haha...

Then we went to this super cool shop across the street from the temple where this guy sells scriptures cases and really cool ties and stuff... so if you want one... LET ME KNOW BY NEXT WEEK!! Hahaha... They´re so cool and you can get your name embroidered and everything! Haha...

Holy cow...I am running out of time, but that´s the general lowdown on what´s going on with me!

How are you guys?!! I miss you all so much... I loved the letters and everything....!!!

Until Next Week!!!!

Love,

Hermana Andrus

Kira and her companion