Post # 4 6/21/13

Hola familia!

 

 So it is great to write again, I can't believe it is already P-day. Time flies really fast here at the MTC its so crazy! So Im sure you all were wondering how my Birthday went, cuz  yes I am now 20 years old!! ugh, I am old thanks for pointing that out dad! Well first off let me tell you THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM for the surprises in the birthday cake!!! It was soooo cute and I was so excited for the jewlery and the socks, I really needed them, and I was getting tired of my jewlery as it is. :) Also, hermana griffiths family each sent me Dear Elders and a huge package filled with random things like candy and mustache straws; it was so sweet. Elder Page, the elder I told you all about from my district who is also going to my mission, he asked his mom to send me cupcakes even though his birthday is today. he is a really sweet guy and i feel bad for him sometimes, but he's just a little strange. The Hermana's from my district made a sign above my desk and Heidi wrote me a birthday note on the board. (all things I have pictures of but forgot my camera, sorry mom, ill send them next week). Anyways, Im sure you all were wondering what special happenings occured on my birthday well let me tell you how I spent the first day of my 20th year. Hna Griffith and I could not wait to celebrate so I decided I wanted to get up at 2 a.m (I know right Party hard or go home) anyways, I got up and went, no ran to the restroom. Yes my dear family, I was sick. Mom, it was a "your favorite story to tell of dad being sick" kind of senerio, i got a trash can from the girls hall. It went on for a while until I was so shaky and worn out. I woke up Hna Griffith because I was afraid if I got sick again I would pass out. She made me drink water, but really just sat with me so that i could take my mind of of being sick, Well sat with me and straightened her hair  at 3:11 in the morning. Then we had to clean out the trash can so she made me go out with her to the trash across campus. so yes, we went, in sweatshirts; no bras, no really shoes (flipflops), and no glasses at 4 in the morning across campus. Yep we are rule brakers. When we came back found out another hna in our room was sick as well. so that is how I spent my birthday. Our companions made us go to a clinic. Turns out around 30 missionaries were sick that night with the same thing and stomach virus. I didnt throw up any more after that, but i had such bad stomache pains the rest of the day and we werent aloud to leave our rooms. So yep, there it is. It was a special day. Course it was cool because the elders got to give up priesthood blessings that were awsome! but the reason they were so awsome was because they had a really spiritual lesson in class which I MISSED! its all good though I fell over 98% better now which is good.

  Okay, i apologize that was a lot on that topic. How is the summer going for everyone? how is grandma doing? Dad, that is so cool what you sent me about Elder Packers statement because that is actually in preach my gospel. The fact that everyone is talking about that and the broadcast coming up just shows how important missionary work is. They are really pushing the every member is a missionary thing and it is really amazing the influence that members can have on investigators. Speaking of, Gabi, our "fake" investigator agreed to baptism, in fact she is so excited for it! yay! I know it wont always be that way in the field but that cool right? When teaching her I forgot how to say a few words like soap, washing machine, and destruction so I used a lot of handguestures. Hna Griffith thought it was so funny. Dad, there is a new Elder in our zone from Malibu Austrelia, he has a really cool accent. So one week from Monday I leave! I am super scared, and nervous but really excited as well. I get to meet my new Mission president tomorrow I found out. I am really excited, if not a little nervous because he will be it for 17 months. By the way, Im not sure what my new address will be in Tennessee, Mom I think you have that, can you please send it to me? By the way, I got my travel itinerary. There is some confusion with my last name though becuase apartently they put my last name as Cruz, but when it printed out it came out as Zarco. I dont know? Its really weird. they promised to have it all situated though. there are six of us traveling thereon July 1. Also, um as far as the calling situation, aparently you can by calling cards here at the bookstore so if you haven't sent anything then dont, but let me know as soon as possible if you did or didnt. Also, you might not even want me to call. :( I report to the travel office at 3:30 in the morning so Ill probably be in the airport by 5. My plane leaves at 7:08 am. So since californina is an hour behind, it early I understand. But I would love to say hello. Any way. Let me know. I love you all so much! I am glad to hear that everything is going great at home. Thanks for all your letters and support throughout the week, they really make a diffrence! Love you Mom! Love you Dad!

 

Love,

Hermana Cruz

Letter # 3 6/14/13

Hello Family,

 Another week here at the CCM. I cant believe how fast it has been going. It feels like it was just two days ago when I had my last P day, but its been a whole week. So I just want to wish Diego again a really Happy Birthday! Im glad to here that it went well and wasn't too stressful. Dad I am glad to hear that you got home safely, by the way I love the quotes you leave in my letters. It stinks though because none of the other Hermanas in my district watch Doctor Who, so when I am laughing about it they have no idea why. So in 5 days its my birthday!!!! IM GONNA BE 20!!!! So weird. Oh and I leave in 2 weeks to Tennessee. By the way, Im notsure if I already told you guys this but my Mission President got released. Supposedly the new one is going to be on the same flight as me. What? I also heard that they let us call our family before we fly out. I dont know how early in the morning that will be, I dont get my flight plans until next week, but ive been told you guys should send me a phone card, or throw away phone or something so that I can call you guys. Apparently its really expensive if you dont. Im so excited to leave. I just want to be out there helping people already. "send me out coach!" I am learning so much here, gaining an even greater testimony, but Im ready to help real people. By the way, I only have 6 more chapters of Alma! It is so good this time. :)

  Speaking of the CCM, I have had some "interesting" experiances this week. Get ready for this everyone, what to tell first. Maybe I should tell you guys how my clumsiness has encreased tenfold since coming here. I drop things at least 10 times a day, I always come back from workouts hurt because of something Ive done; this last week, in less then 10 minutes I broke a necklace I was borrowing and then scratched my companion and made her bleed. My whole district looked up the word clumsy just so they can call me that in spanish! Its been really bad. My companion is convinced that she has never met anyone more prone to accidents. Yea thats been great. Oh yea, then two days ago we had a sub teacher and he was giving a really spiritual lecture when all of a sudden we heard (sorry mom) the loudest and longest fart ever. My teacher moved at jsut the right moment and he looked so embaressed that I thought for sure it was him, but really someone was drilling on the roof. It did not sound like drilling at all. Not one bit. It was really funny. One of the elders also learned the diffrence between saying "Yo queiro usted" and "Yo amo usted" to his companion. Our teacher started busting up laughing and the other elder freaked out because using "amo" is more for spouses or parents. It was hilarious!!! Last but not least for my interesting week is that we have TRC with real people each week. One of the investigators we taught was hitting on me!! AHHH!!!!! Hermana Griffith didnt realize it till after and just started laughing at me. When we tried to get to know him he asked if we had any boyfriends back at BYU (I should probably tell you he was a BYU student, but from Peru and no dad, not attractive). He kept interrupting and laughing at Hna Griffith when she made a spanish mistake but he asked me all the questions. then I gave him my pamphlet to read out of but after he put his mouth on it. When I went ask for it back he said he wanted to keep it. Well I had wanted to take notes on it so I had my name in the back. When I told him that my name was in the back and that he could just cross it out he said in spanish, "oh is your telephone number in it as well?" I was shocked so I was said, "no... adios" and shut the door. it was so akward but really funny afterwards. And that would be the fun things of my week. Everything else was good, but these are the highlights.

  By the way, that special leadership training meeting broadcast on June 23? Yep, gonna be in that choir. Its huge so you guys probably wont see me, but just know that I am singing in it so that should be fun I cant wait for that. We also had our first devo in the Marriot center because it is getting too croweded at the CCM. Its been so great. Oh and Im sure Ive told you guys, but I get to go to the temple every week. It is such a great experiance. Hna Griffith and i went to do sealings today which was very fun, but we can only be children so we sat around a lot of the time. It is such a spiritual experiance each week to have the opportunity to go.

  Our investigators are doing great. Because one of my teachers were out for a week we had a sub, so we had a diffrent investigator just for this week. He was so hard because he speaks really fast and he told us something really important that both Hna Griffith and I completely missed. I also keep messing up the number 14 when I talk about Joseph Smith's age and told Claudio (the investigator) that Joseph was 40 instead. Yep thats me, Hna Griffith laughed so hard that she had trouble finishing the lessonn. But we committed him to baptism which he accepted. It is amazing how much more comfortable I get teaching now. I still get super nervous right before I go in, but when we start teaching it all goes away and then there is just this desire for them to know the truth as well. It really is just a conframation to me that I am were I am suppose to be at this time. I love this work and I loving being a missionary, I just wish that I could actually go out and teach. Just a few more weeks!! 

 so let me know how everything with Grandma goes. Dad did you have to go to do jury duty? Mom, how is baseball going? Keep the letters coming I love them! 

I love and miss everyone so much!!

-Hermana Cruz 

Letter number 2 6/7/13

Hola familia,

  

   So, even though I've only been here for around two weeks, in the CCM it is counted as almost being done with our 3rd week. Crazy!!! I only have 3 more weeks to go. My spanish is going really well, i mean Im not native yet but its getting there. Thanks for the Dear Elders again. I am glad everyone liked my email. Are you posting at all on the blog dad? I cant believe that you got stuck again on your flight, its like it is bad luck or something. As far as answers to your guy's questions, yes I am working out. Hna Griffith and I either run a mile or we play volleyball. The scedual that we follow is preatty strict and gym time is schedualed out every day except for Sundays. Its been fun though. We do have chores, its called service and we do it on tuesday mornings at 6 in the morning. It depends on what we do, last time we stocked bathrooms but we have also had to sweep and mop floors. Also that elder is doing better, he is starting to get more words, we have all been working in our district to give him praise and encouragement.   

   So on to the notes from my week. (I have a list of things to send you guys for each week). :) First of all we were learning about stressmanagement  in our class, and my teacher had everyone go out and run. It was so hard because first of all Im in a skirt!! Also in flats that wanted to fall off. The elders though decided to run so fast that two of them threw up. It was kind of funny. Also we made it a goal in our district to speak all the time in spanish,. We are working on getting better at conversational spanish. Its been an interesting experiance. We are getting better though. Even Hna Griffith. I dont know if I told you guys before but my first investigator ended up being my teacher, he is really intense but absolutely amazing. He is so spiritual and we have all agreed that we learn a lot from him even if he is super intense like telling us that we will basically feel completely unprepaird to go our if we dont speak spanish all the time now. Its still really great. Oh but anyways, we each have individual coaching with him and one thing I talked about with him was his concern for Hna Griffith. I had seen the problem already but didnt know what to do about it. she is an amaizng spanish speaker but she lacks confidence in lessons. Hno Peterson was afraid that she was becoming too dependent on me being there when she didnt know how to say something so he asked me to pull back in the lessons to have her speak more and to take charge. It has been so great. We had a lesson with Benjamin (one of our new investigators) and it went absolutely amazing. We had a plan but when we walked in he had a few questions and said a few things that completely threw off our lesson. We ended up spending the whole time talking about prayer. We got him to pray with us!

So I feel like devotionals just keep getting better and better. Sunday we had this man, Ted Gilson who is a story teller. For the devo he walked on stage and spent 40 minutes giving a monolouge as Wiliard Richards who was in the room when Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered. he talked about that but he also talked about the growth of the church through his eyes. It was amazing. Then Tuesdays devo,.. well I admit I thought it wouldnt be very good at first, because it was all focused on the New Testament. But the speaker used the NT to show how our church is exactely like the church that Christ set up and I realized how much I would need that were I was going so it got really interesting.

  For personal study I am reading in Alma which I normally either skip or skim over because it is so large and daunting. However the first day in the CCM a peaker used a verse from Alma and talked about how Alma has some of the best examples of missionary work in the Book of Mormon; so I made the decision to read it. Best decision ever! Mateo, read Alma! i have never felt the spirit as strongly as when I read from Alma and look for personal applications. We are going to use the 2000 stripling warriors story to help our investigator Gabi who is a mother. It has just been so good for me. Plus we have been learning how to read the scriptures with the intent of recieving revelation which has helped. In class we read chapter 2 in 1 Nephi for 30 minutes and we only got to read 6 verses because we were stopping to discuss and feel the spirit. It was awsome. If you guys have a chance  read Alma 26:29-30, 36-37. I like those right now because the first one reminds me of what us missionaries are going to face, but its okay because through our Heavenly Father's love we will be okay. The second is such a powerful testimony of the gospel. Its just all so good!!! 

I am having fun and having a spiritual time. Thank you for all you love and support. I hope you guys have a great week. Mom thank you so much for sending the blankets. I dont need it right now, Im more worried about winter time. I love you a lot. Dad, please be safe try not to get stuck going back personally I think you plan it. I love you a lot and miss you guys so much!  

 

-Love, Hermana Cruz

 

 

Gabs First Letter 5/31/13

Hola familia!!!!

 

I hope you all finally got my letter I sent last week. Thank you all so much for the Dear Elders. They are nice because they get to me during the week, but unfortunately I am unable to reply to them until my P-day which is today. I love reading them and getting them though. Thank you all! Just be careful with the kids though because I learned that they start to cost once Im out in the field and so it might just be easier to email me. Please let everyone (Grandma Loyd, Aunt Michele, and Kirstie) that I will be sending them hand written letters right now because in the MTC we only have 60 minutes to write. Plus, I dont have anyones email, not even dad's. It would be really nice if I could get those please! :)

 

Okay, I have a whole list of things I want to tell you guys. It has been an amazing first week and a half! Like I said in my letter my companion, Hermana Griffith is absolutely amazing. We get along so well. It has been a lot of fun. I also love (in a completely missionary sister type of way) all the Elders in our district. They are all so young and really fun! They are constantly making us laugh, like when one of them thought that Listos ment "do you understand" and asked the investigator that close to 30 times. It really means "are you ready". Its kind of a running joke in our district now. There are so many other funny things they have all done. Oh but yea, I had my first investigator last Friday! Crazy right?!? We could only speak in Spanish. Hna Griffith and I were really freaking out because that was only one day of official spanish teaching, we didnt know how to plan a lesson, or really even teach it. It went about as badly as we expected which was probably our fault. We didnt ask him what his name was the whole lesson, we never said a prayer with him, we had him read out of the Book of Mormon but we never told him what he was reading out of, we spent 15 minutes on how God loved him (which he already knew), and then since we didnt say a prayer and forgot how to practice how to end, we just looked at each other then at him and said "Hasta Luego!" Then we got up and left. We were cracking up so hard about how bad it was. It was really funny. This other time Hermana Griffith was saying the prayer and she ment to say please bless Jose's family but instead she said, "please bless Jesus's, i mean Jose's family. We both had to hold it together through the rest of the prayer. Our new saying is tha we hate skirts and we hate this classroom since we are in it so much. We are trying to get out and study in the beautiful sun so its gotten better. :) 

 Its okay though because we taught him about 5 times, the last three times were so much better. The spirit was so strong. I dont know if he felt it as much, but I know we did and we learned a lot from it. the most improtant one was that we really had to rely on the Lord and the spirit to reach this investigator not us. It didnt matter if we couldnt speak the language as long as he could feel the spirit. I am learning how to let the spirit teach through me. We just go in there with a basic plan and say, okay Lord we need you do help us teach this man. It was so much better. I am getting better on my spanish though. I think it surprises both Hna Griffith and I how much we are able to comunicate with people now. Its funny, we got our new investigator yesterday, her name is Gabby and she is from Argentina (she is not real and she is played by my amazing teacher Hna Runyan). Everyone was talking in class about Gabby and it was throwing my off because I kept thinking that they were calling me and I would respond.

On a more spiritual note, Sunday was AWSOME!!! We had sacrament and then after all the Sisters went to watch the spoken word which apparently we do every week. It was a special for memorial day. Then we had relief society with all the sisters of the MTC and our speaker didnt show up so the presidency gave some great emergancy talks. We began with singing as sisters in zion and the spirit was so strong. They changed the lyrics for the MTC just a few weeks ago and it was so beautiful. That night we had a devoltional speaker, Brother Allen. He threw out his whole talk just 5 minutes before he went up when he found out what we were doing after the devotional. He spoke while directly listening to the spirit. It was so amazing! You could tell that he was saying just what needed to be said and sometimes he would just stop and saying something totally diffrent that the spirit prompted him to say. He also encouraged everyone to finish the race which I think many sister needed to here since they started it by coming here. After we normaly watch a "video" which consists of a general conferance talk or Jesus the Christ  or something. This time we watched Sister Monson's funeral. It was so sad but really amazing because we know the truth, that President Monson will see her again. I loved it.

I love it here. It really was the right choice for me to be here. Oh by the way, I heard my Mission President might have been released? Yikes!!! Anyway. I love you all and will email again next week!! Love you guys sooooooooo much!

 Hermana Cruz