Hola Family and Friends!
I am here in Argentina but other than the latinos in the hallway it feels like BYU. We pretty much stay in the same room most of the day or on the CCM grounds. It is great that the Buenos Aires Temple is right next to the CCM. CCM stands for something something misionary. It means Missinary Training Center in spanish. As you can tell my spanish is fantastica! It has been both a long week and a really short one. In Atlanta Georgia I met up with 1 sister and 6 elders that were going to the ccm, then we got more elders and more. By the time our flight was delayed 2 hours we had over 30 missionaries on the flight to Argentina. It was really cool! There was this flight attendant that was going to be on our flight that was waiting with us and he was super nice. The hermana that I met orginially is actually my companion now. We were seated next to each other on the flight and kind of became temporary companions before we were officially companions. Anyway one of our flight attendants, he was very interested and helpful in helping us learn spanish. My companion's name is Hermana Nielson and she is a theatre, Harry Potter nerd, and very enthusiastic about many things. It is easy for a couple of days but sometimes I want to be far from her. We are usually good and like to be around each other alright.
So we got to Argentina at like 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day. I was worried they would make us go straight to class and I would be so exhausted. Luckily the day we got here was our P day so it was a little more laid back. I wanted to send pictures of my first day but we are actually not supposed to have pictures yet apparently so I better send them next week. They don't want us taking pictures all the time and want us focused on the work. It is pretty cold here. When we got here we were like oh it is not bad like 50ish degrees but at night and in the morning it can be pretty chilly. There isn't much room for storage so we had to take out stuff that we need for 6 weeks and put the rest in a storage container outside. Luckily I took out my purple coat and my red sweater.
So we are in a room with one other companionship. Herman Niera and Hermana Burgos. They are both from South America and are only here for two weeks. We will miss them alot when we leave. Hma Niera speaks pretty good english so she helps us translate to Hma Burgos. Conincidentally Hma Nielson and I both took french, not spanish, in high school so we were kind of in the same boat. She has been picking it up better than I have but I am getting there. There were a day or two when I was so frustrated, I felt like my memory was failing me. I would learn something and within 5 minutes I had forgotten it. This is a little different from school and it is taking some getting used to.
When I thought about going on a mission. I didn't really think about the CCM. I thought about being in the streets automatically knowing how to speak spanish and teaching the gospel. Well that didn't happen. It is going to be long and hard to be able to speak or even communicate in any way with true spanish speakers. We went the the distribution center yesterday and some guy was tallking to me and I had absolutely no idea what he was saying. I just nodded and said si si. Sometimes that is what you've got to do.
We wake up at 6:30. Breakfast at 7:15. personal study at 8. companion study at 9. the rest of the schedule is a little different depending on the day.
Within like the second day we had to teach a lesson to a (fake) investigator. It was really really hard. We thought we would be able to speak english most of the time but no. We had to communicate in spanish. I feel like everyone else has had at least some training in spanish and I am out here with no education and no memorization skills.
In our district we have 10 elders and Hma Nielson and I. We have no air conditioning in our room and so when it is hot we have to turn on the fan and the fan goes so fast that my papers blow away. For the first couple days (3 I think) we had 6 teachers. Districts are supposed to have 2 teachers, one in the morning and one at night but both of our teachers took off days of work. It was really confusing and disjointed to have so many different teaching styles. We are all new missionaries and we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing half the time. The first day of our schedule Hma Nielson and I thought we were having personal and companionship study in our rooms. It wasn't until almost 10 oclock that someone came to get us. We had already missed half of a lesson and we were really confused.
Fun things about the CCM
1. Smart but kind of intimidating Mission President, his wife is intimidating as well.
2. toilet seat in our bathroom won't stay up when using the toilet and it falls on your back. I find this very annoying.
3. Cold here, but no snow.
4. One of my teachers Hermano Krasnoselsky is kind of attractive (Don't worry I am not going to be distracted :))
5. Good District and District Leader. Our DL really is great about including us hermanas when there are so many elders.
6. I kind of lost my mind. forgetting and losing everything. I am slowly coming back to normal and finding things that I lost.
7. Strange corduroy bedcovers. I do not understand.
8. There are only about 20ish sisers here. There are 2 schedules so we don't see them alot.
9. Food is good most days. I don't like that they put egg in the pizza. weird. had some brazillian food that was good. I try to eat healthy.
10. Nestor is our investigator and we have to focus all of our learning and study on him.
11. I kind of feel too cute sometimes. I am trying to tone it down a bit so that I am not a distraction. Hrma Oppenshaw (our Mission President's wife) gave a lesson on sunday about how we need to be holy women. We shouldnt be flirtatious or wearing tight clothes and gold and tons of makeup. I kind of felt uncomfortable because I had put on my best for church but maybe it was too much. Anyway its all good.
12. Sundays are mostly in english. the only part that is in spanish are the hymns (I don't think they have english hymnals) and the talks.
13. We spend 8ish hours in the same room every day studying. It is a little long. We are supposed to use as much spanish as we can at all times. Some latinos speak a little english but most of them don't know any. It can get confusing. I try to ask them how to say things alot.
14. Starting last sunday, every sunday we have to write a talk in spanish about the assigned topic and during sacrament mtg we find out who is giving their talks. It is a little nerve racking. Last week was about esperanza. translate that.
I feel like I am getting in to the swing of things and I am excited for our next week. I was really sad to leave my family but once I got here I felt like I had something to do. Some of the elders here are straight out of high school and I think they are really sad to be away from their families.
I do have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and I am happy to be helping Him in His work. I have read the Book of Mormon and I know that it is truly from God. During our devotional on wednesday (yesterday) we had a lesson on how we have to have faith. I guess I never realized that faith is an action word. We have to trust in the Lord. I realized that I was trying to do all the studying by myself but that is not how I will learn spanish. If I trust the Lord and the spanish words that I do know, I will learn so much faster. I feel much better after learning that. It took a little pressure off my shoulders.
Please don't forget to pray for me because I have many mountains to climb. :)
Love,
Hermana Beatie
