Chapter 2: Humilidad

Yes. I was humbled this week. Very humbled. We got one day in English, and the rest of my classe have been in Spanish with a slight English translation. No hablo español!!! It was honestly the most humbling experience of my entire life. I have three teachers Hermano Cerro (who makes me extremely grateful to not be speaking argentine spanish, I can barely understand him when he´s attempting English. haha Then Hermana Suarez who is my favorite. We call her the mother of the CCM. She´s the only one we can really understand when she teaches haha then I have Hermana Bustamante who is more like a helper than a teacher. She´s peruvian and so dramatic I love it haha. I´m typing muy rapido so excuse the accents for my apostraphes. So like I said, solomiente spanish since I have been here. I almost died for the first couple days, but I am starting to get the hang of at least a few words. On Saturday we went proselyting in downton Madrid (Am I still in the CCM??) They taught us a couple of key phrases, told us to listen to the spirit, gave us a map, and then sent us on our way. That is it. They are so into using the spirit here, that I am like ya that´s great, but it would very nice to be able to know what to say without the gift of tongues. They put us into companionships depending on skill level... they put me with two beginner students hahahaha! So you know it was rough when I was supposed to be the one who knew what to say. We came across the cutest lady who said yes I´ll take your Book of Mormon I love Jesus and we are all family!! Well, there you go. Then there was another man who said he didn´t gave time, but I told him it was a gift. As we were walking away, we looked back and he was reading it. This is going to be awesome. The Madrid Temple is so beautiful here as well. Very European. Marble pillars in the celestial room with painted ceilings and giant chandalier. So great. My companion like I said last week is incredible. We´re honestly such great friends now. I can´t even tell you how blessed I am to have her. Her grandparents work at MT TIMP temple--the Davis´s. The food is kinda sketchy sometimes. I have already lost some weight. haha But after my discovery of the unlimitted nutella, I am not sure how long that´s going to last. I love the people here. Honestly, the Spaniards are simply beautiful people. I think you are truly blessed with the love of Christ here. You see people as what they could become, and dont judge them for who they are. I love them so much. I have been humbled, but it is the best way to rely on Christ. Really, you can´t do it alone. I am still completely frustrated with the language, and we already are teaching investigators completely in Spanish. Which is totally frustrating when all you can say are stupid things. They have like spiritual thoughts and then tell us to follow the spirit to prepare the lesson...that´s great if it was in English hahaha Hopefully it will come. Thats all I have time for. Write me a lot. I love getting the letters--I can´t tell you how happy it makes me to get them. Love you guys!!!

 

Hermana Hopkins