Hola familia!!
It´s been
another good week at the CCM. I´ve gotten a lot more comfortable being
here and it´s been a lot better since last week. Thank you for your
prayers and your love because I feel it--I am strengthened by you all
and I love hearing what´s going on each week. Well, after I finished
emailing last week, we headed out to Lima for a couple hours to shop.
Everytime we head out it´s always surreal to think I´m actually in
another country. The day was so fun. We all got on the bus to get
around--buses here are these old vans where they fit in as many people
as possible. It is definitely an adventure. There aren´t actually bus
stops. They´ll stop stop with the door opening yelling to see if they
can take you somewhere. All of us had to yell "templo, templo!!" to get
on the bus that would get us the stores we needed to. Walking around
Lima is great--we are really in a nice part of town. The stores are nice
and the people are so friendly.
We stick to the same schedule at the CCM. Eat, Study,
Class and One hour of physical activity so there´s not a ton of
adventures going on. But, here are some highlights from this past week:
-Last Saturday we went out and proselyted for a couple of hours!!
It was quite the adventure. Here at the CCM we do this every other week
so I´ll get to do it 2 more times before I leave. I was paired up with
Hermana Ramierez from Mexico. Although I didn´t talk much, I felt so
much love for these people. We stopped and talked to quite a people at
the park, and met with a less active member. I got the general gist of
the conversations which was good. And I got to testify and talk about
the Restoration with a few people. It was great!! When we stopped at
Catty´s home, I was so humbled. She´s about 16 or 17 and had a couple
other siblings running around. They were all so cute. Their living
conditions were very humble. I was taken aback to be honest. But I felt
the spirit as we talked about attending church and feeling the spirit.
It was a good experience to have, and it reminded me why I´m out here.
-My highlight of the day at the CCM is teaching our
"investigators." Our Spanish gets better each time we teach. As we were
waiting to teach one night, we started talking to the Latinos. They are
all so nice and it´s fun to practice our Spanish with them. One Elder
gave me a nice compliment saying that my accent was great--he wondered
why all the other elders and hermanas still speak with a "gringo"
accent. Hermana Wheelock and I also got a compliment after we taught a
lesson with Matias and committed him to come to church. He said that he
felt the spirit as we taught and that we were the best missionaries at
the CCM. While I don´t think the latter compliment is quite true, I felt
the spirit as we taught as well. Even though our Spanish is broken, and
we require a lot of time to plan and prepare our lessons, I feel the
spirit helping and guiding us. The Lord is making all the difference and
for that I am grateful.
-One thing I keep realizing each week is that we all
have stories. We all come from different backgrounds and experiences and
each of them are valid. We can´t discount other people and their
differences just because we haven´t experienced the same thing--and
our initial judgements are never right. Just this week I´ve had so many
experiences on my knees praying asking forgiveness for the judgements
that I´ve made. Like this past week I found out that one of the elder´s
in my district--his brother came home from his mission early because he
got some sort of genetic disease and isn´t expected to live much longer.
He left for his mission earlier than planned hoping to get back and
spend as much time as he can. This is just one example of many.
Sometimes it can get frustrating being with the same 12 people for 10
plus hours a day--they really are just a bunch of 18 year boys, fresh
out of high school. But there are so many moments when you know that
we´ve all been called of God. That we all--each with different
backgrounds and experiences-have come to Peru to serve the Lord. I love
that sense of unity knowing that we are all in this together.
- I love studying each day. One of the challenges at
the CCM is to read the whole Book of Mormon from start to finish. I love
this book! I just finished reading about the Anti Nephi Lehis. What
beautiful examples they are to me of a people who are whole heartedly
committed to God.
Well, I love you all. Can´t wait to read all of your
letters. I am so proud of each of you and what you are doing! I want
each of you to know how seriously I take to wearing my missionary tag
because I get to represent my favorite people in the world--Our Savior
Jesus Christ, and My Family. It is such a privilege to be a missionary
for the Lord. Each time we sing Called to Serve I just can´t get through
it because how many times will you actually get to sing that song in
your lifetime being an actually missionary!! I love it. Love and miss
you all, Besos Besos (that means kisses;)
Hermana Jackson
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