Monday, July 13, 2015

Week 4: 4th of July Festivities!

This week was great, as always.

This place is amazing. The spirit is so strong. 

So a few things that happened this week:

1. The hermanas in my district sang in devotional! It was fun and went well! I definitely get nervous singing in front of people, even though anyone who knows me knows that I sing constantly. But I'm trying to branch out and be confident. The hymns are cool in Spanish because some of them have totally different meanings. We sang "Lead kindly light" and the words to the Spanish version are definitely not a direct translation, but the meaning is just as special. 

2. It was 4th of July! I haven't really struggled with homesickness, and I wasn't super homesick on Saturday, but it was a little hard to imagine everyone at the parade and firework show. I LOVE the 4th of July. We sang the patriotic songs in the hymnbook that day (: It was strange because we NEVER sing in English. Solo español. Siempre. We even prayed in English, but we didn't like that. Learning a language is fun! But it's interesting because sometimes words come out in the wrong language. Like we will be in a lesson and I'll be talking and talking in Spanish and then I will accidentally say a word in English and my comp will laugh at me. It happens the other way too. We will be speaking English and then just start going in Spanish. Our minds are so jumbled. Anyway, one super cool thing about Saturday was that some American missionary put a small American flag in a cup and set it up top the juice dispenser in the cafeteria. It was a little goofy, at first, but we started singing the Star Spangled Banner and pretty soon all the American missionaries were singing along with their hands over their heart. It was really moving. I love my country. We are SO blessed; I really had no idea. Even the Native missionaries were so supportive and wished us a Happy 4th of July. Our teacher gave us treats... basically it was the best day ever.

3. We moved classrooms. This shouldn't be that big of a deal, but we spend so much time in there we were pretty attached.

4. Casey Lucas left the CCM! I am so excited for her. The CCM is wonderful, but it would be hard to be here because it's fake. It will be so wonderful to teach real people. But that's also terrifying.

5. Okay, we do have some real people here. Some volunteers come to be taught. Since they are not our teachers, they don't take it easy on us. They speak FAST, no mercy. But it really is amazing how much we can understand. It's difficult because I can understand most everything, but I can only speak so much. 

6. We have  A LOT of opportunities to teach. Like 4 a day. Sometimes more. It's intense. Mostly because we teach during our study time now so we have no time to write lessons. 

7. My favorite thing to do here is play volleyball. I play everyday! So just a little bit about what my day looks like (and every day is pretty much exactly the same except Sunday and p-day)  : We get up at like 6:20 or so and get ready and leave for class around 6:50. Then we have personal study for half and hour and go to breakfast. After breakfast we have personal study for another hour (I know it sounds long, but I swear it flies by). After that we have class for or teaching for 3 hours. Then we have lunch and after lunch we have gym time for an hour, during which we play sand volleyball! So fun. And then after that we have half an hour to get re-ready then we go to class for 3 or so more hours (or teach) and then we have dinner. After dinner we have TALL, which is language study on the computer. And then we have language study in the classroom until 9 PM. At this point we are pretty studied out usually, so our favorite thing to do is practice talking to each other using the things we learned that day. Sometimes we even try to tell funny stories in Spanish. It's really good for practicing speaking in the past tense. But really the schedule is not bad. The days felt long at first but they have so much fun stuff too! And on p-day you just get to do whatever you want! P-days include a lot of volleyball as well (: 

I love you all! One cool thing that I really embraced this week is that we have a huge responsibility to accept the atonement and seek answers. Heavenly Father has given us agency. At times I feel like I am just waiting for Him to show himself to me. But that's not how it works. The witness never comes until AFTER the trial of our faith. We need to go to HIM. As I have prayed to feel the Spirit and to see Him working in my life, it has slowly but surely come. So don't forget to talk to Him every morning and night and as many times as you can and ask Him for a witness. And pray with real intent, meaning that you are willing to act upon the answers that He gives with full faith. 

Love you,

Hermana Aubriana Wolferts 

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