CCM Week 2

Weekly emailing sucks so bad because I get like literally 5000 emails, but unlike Jesus I cannot provide for everyone hahhaha. I'll try to make this one as long and interesting as possible haha. 

I don't know what to say. Uhhm we have had the opportunity to go to the Buenos Aires temple twice since I've last emailed, and holy cow, that's a gorgamous place. Wow. Yeah. The Spirit is the same wherever you go. It's a beautiful thing. I was actually sitting in the Celestial room of the temple and I realized that I had felt the exact same feelings in Nauvoo, and I was overwhelmed by the love God has for me. :) 

So a bunch of people have asked about my companion. Her name is Sister Trujillo. She's bombing. She keeps it together pretty well, though she really struggles with her spanish, and so the two of us together gets to be kind of a difficult pair, yah feel me? But she's sweet as cake and we get along pretty well. We've also had a bonus companion, Hna Pereira, and she's from Brazil. She's waiting another week before she can fly out to Mexico for her mission. Fun fact: The Buenos Aires MTC is the only MTC that teaches courses for Brazilians to speak Spanish. :) Additional fun fact: There are currently less than 60 missionaries here. We get pretty tight haha. 

Yeah, what can I say? This week was the exact same as last week except this week I have taken to constant song and dance to keep myself entertained. We joke that this is like a pretty hard core Hogwarts. School all day every day to fight evil. SCHOOL ALL DAY EVERY DAY. On the bright side, the food here is just amazing. Like I will never stop singing the praises of MTC cake. Oh.. just thinking about it brings so much joy to my heart. Cake, mashed potatoes, rice, and meat that is so wonderful.... I have never liked meat until I was eating it twice a day every day. Thankfully they don't see fit to give us large slabs of meat for breakfast. Jared [my little brother] would love it here. It's like always his favorite foods. Meat, papas fritas, and fry sauce. ;) 

My teachers are really good. Yesterday was a really spiritual day. We were doing role play on the Plan of Salvation, and I was assigned to teach a guy from my district, Elder Whittacre. I tried, in my broken spanish, to teach him the truths I know. Here's the catch- Elder Whittacre was playing a man whose brother died recently. To explain to someone in so much pain that YES you will see your brother again. YES your brother still lives. YES someday, through Christ, ALL things will be made whole. ALL things. And of course I don't know the words for that! I don't! But I tried, and somehow we both ended up sobbing across the table from each other because the Spirit testifies. The spirit is the teacher. In 2 Nephi, do angels speak by the power of Spanish? No. They speak by the power of the Holy Ghost. And ultimately it doesn't matter what I speak. Later, Elder Whittacre mentioned to me that he could only understand about 10% of what I was saying, but he knew it was true. 

This is an amazing work. I'm really happy here, other than wanting to die whenever I think about being here for another four weeks. :D There's cake. *shrug* 

I miss you all so so much. Thank you for thinking of me, and writing me. PLEASE pouch mail me! It will save me from being bored! Please! Im begging you!!!!!! 

Here's to another week of desperately trying to be a missionary. Take care, 

Hna Scott

CCM Week 1

Temporary Editors Note: For the next 18  months Kaitlin's blog will be updated with her weekly emails from her mission in Paraguay Asuncion North as follows:

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What to say!? firstly, Hallelujah for me speaking Spanish. If I didn't speak Spanish, we wouldn't have made it to the CCM hahah. Some dude picked us up and he didn}t speak any english, so here we are, a bunch of americans who have no idea whats going on and this guy only speaks rapid argentinan spanish, like hello that was not a good idea. So I translated and we got here, and it was raining, and we were tired, and they told us to unpack 6 outfits because the rest of our suitcases were going to storage... ouch haha. BUT since then, I have only had two major breakdowns and we}ve been here for seven days so that´s significant improvement since I was at home haha. 

If I´m being honest I can say I´ve seen the hand of God in my life every day this week. I have not been sick, I have not gotten in any fights, the language is a breeze for me, I have great roommates, I have a great companion, great district AND THEY FEED US CEREAL AND PASTRIES EVERY MORNING FOR BREAKFAST. I´M TALKING FRIGGING COCOA PUFFS AND FRUITLOOPS BABY! GOD EXISTS. Do not doubt the power of God. 

On the other hand, the CCM is in many ways like a prision. We spend all day in the same room with the same people, desperately trying to learn to be missionaries. We get allotted one hour per day to leave our studies and go play some nice, not competetive? Oh my English... not competitive co-ed games, we file in an orderly fashion to the cafeteria three times daily and everything has a big fence around it!!!! :D The Lord´s prision. Prision of angels. It´s a jolly good time, though admittedly I get stir crazy. Which has led me to play two on two basketball at least three times this week. I know what a rebound is now! Oh the things we learn!

In other news, I know way more Spanish than everyone else. I am having flashbacks to kindergarten when they were trying to teach me sounds of letters when I could already read. You know? Like nothing is on my level, so I´m trying to figure out how to study on my own the things I really need. Does that make sense? It's a weird set up. 

In our room we have three sisters that only speak spanish, three sisters that only speak Portuguese, and me and my companion, Hna Trujillo, who only speaks english. Whoever condemned globalization, fie on them. There is nothing cooler than singing Frozen with girls from Spain and Northern Brazil. They also know Barbie Princess and the Pauper and I Feel Good. And the hymns.... man. We sang praise to the man our first day here and I could hardly stand it. That song is home to me in so many ways, and now we're singing the same truths on a different continent. It's amazing. 

Missionary thoughts: I am so grateful that the Holy Ghost is our teacher. Like we don't really teach anything to ourselves, to our companions, or to our investigators. He does it all. The Holy Ghost touches everyone in a language they understand, even if they don´t recognize it. It's so great. I know I can just sit back and do my best because He is the teacher. He is the one who delievers the message. We just have to open our mouths. 

I love you all to the moon and back! I think of you everyday! I love it here, but my heart is definitely back in Herriman. Have a good week! Serve God! Love Jesus, He loves you!

Always, 

Hna Scott