Que pasta??

HOWDY! I'm still in ye old CCM and I'm still doing well!! 

It's been such a hard and wonderful week and I have grown a TON. At the beginning of this week, I could barely say anything in Spanish and when my companion and I would teach i wouldn't be able to say anything more than a rough testimony, but yesterday I was actually able to say as much as my companion in our lesson which is a miracle. I'm able to mostly understand all that is said and I can sort of reply back so woo the gift of tongues is comin! 

Divine intervention is crazy real... there were a few times this week that I was really struggling, but every single time afterwards we would have a lesson or a testimony meeting where I would hear a scripture or a thought that was exactly what I needed to hear. It's amazing just how God knows exactly how to send comfort. A way cool section is D&C 122: 7-9 which says:

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

I've never had a passage of scripture hit so hard... Hermana Janke in my district shared this scripture the day after I had a lil existential crisis with the language and it was so so powerful... I definitely just immediately started sobbing after she shared it because the spirit was so strong. The gospel is true and it is absolutely beautiful.

Hahaha we have a lot of fun in our district. We play volleyball every day and just mess around and have a ton of fun, but we also have awesome testimony meetings and I've definitely had my testimony strengthened through the amazing people in my district. I convinced the Elders this week that they have red bulls in the tienda but theyre in the back room so you have to ask the manager and give a code word and they'll get you one. Lol they definitely fell for it and the manager was so confused and laughed really hard hahaha gotta love all the prunks. On Wednesday, Elder Karchner tried to break an apple at breakfast and it sort of exploded and half hit elder Larsen in the face and half hit my companions orange juice and knocked it all over her. It was so funny but she was not amused hahahah

Also, I found out this week that it's not against the rules to take a nap if you have the time and you bet I cried and then immediately scheduled a time for un poco siesta. Tender mercies man

Soooooo I accidentally swore like a million times this week because my Spanish teacher in high school taught us the wrong word for stupid and its apparently a very bad word here sooo I got in trouble a lot until someone finally told me. RIP. It's also inappropriate to call people a noodle. Who knew. I keep accidentally breaking the rules because I high five the elders and call everyone dude. It's been a little bit of a hard transition lol 

We hear loud booms all the time and one of our teachers said that its trucks backfiring and the other one said that its fireworks but all the Latinos are straight up with us and they said they're gunshots sooo it's quite nice to be in this little piece of heaven with tall fences hahaha 

It's been a pretty fantastic week!! I love being a missionary so much and I loooove wearing my tag. I have accidentally slept in it like 6 or 7 times haha but being a missionary is da bomb.com. I love love love this gospel!! 

con amor, 

Hermana Gis (Chalk)