ID Y HACED DISCÍPULOS

Another amazing week! This is my last Pday in the MTC! So crazy! I´m so so excited to enter the field, but I know I´ll miss the mtc and my distrct/companions so much. This time in the CCM has been hard but I´ve learned and grown so much.

 

This week on Tuesday a member of the First Quorum of the 70 came and spoke to us. He´s the Area President. The devo is always in spanish and so the North Americans always get headsets so we can understand. But this week after like 2 minutes I realized that the headphones and the translation were bothering me. So I took them off and understood EVERYTHING!  And toward the end of his abolutely amazing talk, I looked down at my notes and realized that I had written them all in Spanish! I didn´t even realize that I was understanding as well as I was and that I was writing my notes in Spanish. The gift of tongues is real guys.

 

Saturday was without a doubt the best day I´ve had in the MTC. We were just sitting in class and Elder Carter and I noticed a bunch of super cute latino kids walking past our window into the soccer field. And then about 10 minutes later Hermana Rivera told us to go out to the field. Our district walks into the field and we see so so many kids playing. Probably like 60 or 70 little kids. And then they all saw us and starting screaming and rushing toward us. They swarmed us all, just screaming and so excited. So we all just kind of seperated and met all these little kids. I was just surrounded by these sweet children trying to hug me and kiss my cheeks and hold my hands. They were just so excited to see us because we were missionaries and they thought we were so cool because we were from the United States.  I was just surrounded by these kids. And moms would pull me over to their children and ask me to pose with them for pictures. I have never felt so much love in my entire life. Just surrounded by these wonderful kids with such sweet spirits and I could feel their love for me. I was just so full of love for them even though we could barely communicate. I was standing with a few of my elders, and we just looked at eachother and said that we were so happy and so full of love for these kids that we were all about to cry. It was so amazing.

 

I don´t have a lot of time, but as usual I just want you all to know that I love you so much!

Wish me luck as I enter the mission field this week!

 

Hermana Marshall

Week 4!

Another amazing week here at the CCM! I can´t believe I only have 2 weeks left!

For the last 2 weeks we had a trio of Latina hermanas in our room and I grew to love them so much. The Latinas are so sweet and so humble. Hermana Colkuehuanca (from Trujillo) was truly the most pure and innocent person I have ever met. She's a recent convert. Her whole life she had had a desire to be close to God and to serve him so she was preparing to be a nun. This girl literally wanted to be a nun. So sweet. And then she was introduced to the gospel and was so excited to learn that she could serve our Heavenly Father as a missionary. Also she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. Literally looks like Pocahontas. She was the most Christlike person I´ve ever met in my life.

Another amazing latino who humbled me so much is Elder Fuentes. He´s from Ilo which is in my mission. He´s 26. He worked for 10 years earning 20 soles (about 8 dollars) a day to be able to come on a mission. I was his fake investigator one time and his lesson was incredible. He has a testimony of gold. Haha funny story about him, he would always come and talk to me and he would call me Courtney (which probably isn't okay but he doesnt speak a word of english and I didn´t know how to correct him haha so I just let him) and before he left for the field he found me and asked for my email address. He told me he would write me and asked if I would write him back. Haha a couple other latino elders did that too but I don´t remember their names. The Latino are so awesome though.

A few days ago I had to teach lessons SOLO to the LATINOS. Haha it was terrifying but I managed! My spanish is improving but I still don´t feel super confident.

On Sunday we got to watch "Meet the Mormons". It was so good! I encourage all of you to watch it. We also watched "Ephraim's Rescue" which I had somehow never seen before and it was so good.

Just a few random things I´ve learned about my mission and just Peru in general:

We get 5 soles a day in the field (like 2 dollars haha).

Apparently my mission president is super chill and let's us watch Disney movies on Pday

You can't flush toilet paper in Peru. You throw it away. I'm talkin 1 and 2. Hahaha so gross. The bathrooms smell great.

My mission is called the "Mission of the Valient". Apparently everyone in Arequipa is prideful and stubborn. It's the least baptizing mission in Peru.

This week was pretty uneventful but still awesome as always! Today was great of course because it's Pday. I love doing the temple session in Spanish. And after the temple we did our shopping like we always do and my scripture cases were finally ready! I love them! I wish I was allowed to send a picture.

Anyway I don´t have much more time but I love you all! Thank you so much for all the love and support! This mission has already been such a blessing in my life and I´m so happy that I made the decision to serve a mission.

Love, Hermana Marshall

Halfway Done!

Another great week at the CCM! I feel like last Pday was yesterday. Time seriously flies here. I'm still happy and loving it! 3 weeks from now I'll be in the field!  So crazy!

I just want all of you to know how grateful I am to be here. It is such a blessing. Being a missionary and wearing this tag brings me so much joy. I've learned so much in these short 3 weeks. I've prayed more in the last 21 days then I have in my entire life. And I have seen so many of those prayers answered. I know that God listens to our prayers and that He really does love us.

We've been teaching like crazy! We're on our 3rd and 4th investigators right now. We learned a lot from the first 2. One of our investigators right now is an alchoholic so that's interesting for me. But I really do love teaching. You don't really realize how much you love the gospel and how much you KNOW that these things are true until you're trying to teach someone else and bring that same joy into their life.

So we missionaries are super weird and we have a ton of phrases that we just directly translated from English to Spanish. Our teachers thought we were crazy at first but now we have all of them saying them.

1. ¡Que en el Mundo?! (what in the world?!)

2. Por el Amor! (For the love!)

3. Toda dia cada dia. (All day everyday)

Haha missionaries are so weird.

Also I don´t know if I told you this but our maestros dont speak any English. Haha it's pretty hilarious actually. But I love them and have learned so much from them.

I´m pretty bummed because usually missionaries here get to go proselyting once a week in lima for like 5 hours, but as of the week we got here they're not lettting us go anymore. It's too dangerous. There were just a few scary incidents in the weeks before we came so we´re not allowed to anymore.

Pdays are awesome! We have to wake up an hour earlier but it's so worth it. We take a bus to the temple. The bus situation is seriously so hilarious. LIterally there are like 40 missionaries standing on the side of the street trying to wave down a bus and then a bus pulls over and it´s always already super full. But we get on anyway! Haha I wish you could see us all on that tiny bus. Also it's lame because the hermanas have to be with elders all the time in Lima so we don't get murdered or whatever. Haha I really don't think it's that dangerous here but they're just being cautious. Anyway the temple is absolutely beautiful, and I love listening to the session in Spanish. and then after the temple we have like an hour and a half to shop around! It's so much fun! I love gettting to wander the city and eat the delicious street vendor food that we're not supposed to eat and will probably give us diarrhea. Haha it's so fun!

Anyway I'm out of time but I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support!

Hermana Bread.

Another great week!

   Another great week at the CCM!! It's crazy how time flies here. I've already been a missionary for 2 weeks and I love it so much! Every day feels so long but the weeks go by so fast. I cant even tell you how awesome the MTC is. Sometimes it's exhausting and overwhelming and stressful, but it's also so amazing and so fun. I love all the missionaries here. Especially my district. I laugh so so much with them. But don't worry I learn too. Haha. Our elders are so awesome and such great examples. I´m learning so much every day.

   We just got new roommates. I was so sad when our old roommates left, they were my best friends here. Every night I would just talk and laugh with them until we fell asleep. But last night we got new Hermanas! A trio of Latinas! THey´re so sweet. Of course there's a bit of a language barrier but I know that we'll learn so much with them.

   We have 2 investigators that we teach here. Ary and Rodrigo. We teach everyday, sometimes twice a day. My companions get frustrated with me sometimes because I tend to take over and do all the teaching, which is a problem, especially with a trio. Haha i just get so excited and have so much that I want to say and teach. We're slowly getting better and more comfortable with teaching. I absolutely love teaching.

   So just to give you an idea of what you do here I'll tell you what an average day is like:

Wake up at 6. Breakfast at 645. classes until lunch. classes for an hour after lunch, then physical activity for an hour. then more classes until dinner. and then more classes until bed. Hahaha the days are long but they're good. I'm learning so much!

   PDAYS are so awesome! we wake up early and do a session at the temple, then we have 2 hours to shop. Today we went to distribution center and bought scriptures. and then to the temple store (a sketchy looking place where they sell the cool scriptures cases and llama ties and other random missionary-church stuff like that. The whole bus situation is hilarious-I wish I had time to tell you about it. And then we come back to the CCM after almost dying on the bus, eat lunch, do laundry, and then email. And then classes start again at like 345. oh we also go to either Metros (ghetto peruvian walmart) or tottus (not as ghetto pervuian target) haha. and that's where we buy random things that we need and candy and stuff. im addicted to casinos and sublimes. and I always buy a coke zero of course.

   I dont think i will ever again crave meat or rice. hahaha literally every meal. but its okay its pretty good usually. and they always have fruit. granadías are my absolute favorite. look them up. they´re super weird but delicious. it looks like an orange on the outside but then you crack it open and its filled with little fish eyeball looking things. Haha sounds so gross but I love them. and then delicious fresh juice and always dessert. And of course the bread. Hahaha. And no dad no rodents yet ;)

   OH and of course im a missionary so i have to talk about how amazing conference was. i have never gotten so much out of conference. I loved every second and was writing pages and pages of notes the whole time. It was absolutely amazing. Conference is like Christmas at the ccm.

   Anyway I'm loving it here!

   I love all of you and I'm so so grateful for your emails! It makes my day logging on and seeing so many emails from all of the people that I love.

Hermana Marshall.

Peru!

    There´s so much to say and it´s been such a crazy week but I don´t have a lot of time. There´s so much I want to tell you guys so hopefully I can type fast.

    I can´t believe it´s already been a week! Actually i can believe it beacuse it feels like I've been here for months. Haha but I love love love the CCM (Missionary Training Center).

I am so so happy! Not once this week have I felt sad or homesick or stressed, which is just a huge confirmation to me that this is exactly where I´m supposed to be. I have 2 companions, Hermana Brogan and Hermana Escobar. They are so sweet and they teach me a lot. I´m kind of the loud, outgoing one in our trio so I do most of the talking and most of the teaching and stuff but I don´t mind! The Spirit has really helped me to be outgoing and confident which is something that I prayed for a lot. So God really does answer our prayers. Also the Gift of Tongues is so so real. I´ve seen it working so much in me and in my district. My distrcit is my trio and 6 elders who are so so awesome and keep me laughing all the time. But it´s been so amazing to see these missionaries who were struggling so so much the first few days with Spanish and had almost no experience with spanish and now, after 7 days, they are doing so so well. We can all have basic conversations, pray, and testify of the basic doctrines of the gospel in Spanish. And I really have been blessed and remember almost all of the Spanish that I´ve taken in school. Our maestros only speak spanish and i can understand like 90% of what they say, and I´m able to translate for the class and help the other missionaries when they don´t know what a word or phrase means or how to say something. Elder Carter (our district leader) and Hermana Brogan have about as much spanish experience as I do so the three of us are able to make up for whatever the other ones don´t know, if that makes sense. I love missionaries here. There are so great and so helpful.

    Today was Pday so we got to go the the temple! And we had an hour and a half to walk around lima and shop! Everything here is so cheap and Lima is so cool! The elders jsut took us on a tour of everywehrer that they usually go and helped us out. I bought a super cool soccer jersery for like 20 soles and delicious peruvian candy and Coke Zero (not diet coke but still hallelujah) for like 12 soles at some sketchy supermarket.

    There are wayy more elders here then sisters. And a lot of Latino misionaries. Most of the tinos are from Colombia, Peru, or Bolivia and either going to Peru or Bolivia. But there are so nice. During physical activity time everyday we usually play volleyball with the tinos and they are so nice to us and help us with spanish. and we help them with english.

    The food here is so so good! I was way surprised. Breakfast is kinda gross so I usually just eat the rolls and toast. The rolls are TO DIE FOR. Hahaha they call me Hermana Bread. The next time you guys see me I´ll be obese but it´s so worth it. Seriously I eat so many rolls. And for lunch and dinner it´s always rice and some form of meat. It looks gross but tastes pretty good most of the time. And the rule here is that you have to eat all of the food whether you like it or not. Haha what everyone says about the food is [Don´t look at the food, just eat it]. That basically sums it up. and they always have super good dessert. And always delicious juice! So much juice!

    Oh a random rule here is that we aren´t allowed to send pictures while we´re at the CCM, so sorry.

    Hahaha and my maestros are hilarious. The like to make fun of us and can hardly speak English. They always say ¨Qué en el Mundo?!"

    Anyway I´m super happy and I love it here! I´ve never prayed so much in my life, and never seen so many of my prayers answered. And I know that this is exactly where I´m supposed to be and that this experience will bless my life so much. I love you and thank you for all the love and support!

-Hermana Marshall or Hermana Bread (literally what they call me).