Settling in to the CCM

What an eventful week. Life has been challenging but I`m doing great!    Tuesday I was blessed to meet up with two elders on the same flight. I accidentally introduced myself as Lily Pita oops haha. We landed and made our way through customs with a breeze! We met up with 6 other missionaries, 2 of them were hermanas, and we made our way to the CCM.

I felt out of place going through orientation and did not feel close to the hermanas I came with, but after we set everything down in our rooms they put us to work. The three of us hermanas were in charge of helping all the incoming 200 missionaries email their families. As we were serving together we became so close and I was so open with them. One of the member of the presidency of the CCM's wife had me run the front desk and give directions. It was funny because everyone was asking me what to do even though I was just as new as they were haha. 

Wednesday I met my companion. Her name is Hermana Person. 

Funny - she is from the Lansing Michigan Stake and is serving in Ventura too! I met my District. It was just us two and a trio of elders. It was a busy day of getting into the language but fun. Thursday we found out from the elders that our District had been dissolved so we went to reception and asked where we should go and found out we had been moved from 11c to 5c Branch 5. We were so late to class and that stressed me out. We met our new District and they are amazing. 

Friday through Saturday were just filled with devotionals, classes and a lot of Spanish. Sunday our sacrament meeting was all in Spanish which was cool. In our zone,  we have 2 Latino districts. It is fun to talk with them and to practice Spanish. Our classes are mainly in Spanish and I have really seen how the gift of tongues is real. I have been able to memorize and speak and it feels like words come to my mouth. My teacher says that our minds need to be a library so that the Spirit can pull out of our minds what we need to say. 

During a Sunday meeting with my Branch President he assigned my companion and I to be Zone Leaders (sister trainers) for our zone. It is a big responsibility especially since a lot of our sisters do not speak English, but it was humbling. We got to remove our white stickers saying that we are not the new missionaries at the CCM. 

The days go slow sometimes but the weeks go by so fast. We get to go to the temple today and I will take a lot of pictures so that I can show everyone what my District looks like, but missionary work is amazing. I can not believe how much I have grown and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a part of this work. There are over 700 people here and it is so amazing to see everyone united in one purpose! I miss home, but I am slowly starting to get the idea of forgetting myself and going to work!