Week 2 - Was That An Earthquake?

August 16, 2017

I'm alive and well! Wow, I don't have much time but I am loving every single second here. It's amazing. The flight was long and I did get to know Elder Wood well haha. BUT. There were like 8 other Elders we met up with. Sister G. and I are the only gringa sisters here. I can understand and speak pretty well, well enough to communicate but I still have a lot to learn! Sister G. is awesome, shes my first companion and we are rooming with a sister from Columbia and another from Lima, Peru! They are so fun. Anyway everything is so new and we´re just starting to get to know everyone and everything here (there's only like 60 people total in the ccm here). So far we've just unpacked and showered and had a meeting with the ccm (missionary training center) president so I'm really excited to get going learning Spanish and the gospel. Oh man, the atmosphere is so amazing here. I LOVE IT and I´m sure I´ll just come to love it more. 

The ccm looks over the temple and being on the grounds of the temple and the ccm creates an AMAZING spirit here. You can feel it everywhere you go. I'm excited for when I can speak Spanish better to really get to know the other latino elders and sisters here, but one step at a time. Sometimes I just pretend I understand even though I don't cause its just easier that way, but I´ll work on that, haha. All the elders and sisters here are so friendly here and I really like the smaller atmosphere because everyone feels a lot closer. Okay everyone is still writing and I don't know what else to say. I don't know how they are writing so much we haven't even done anything. 

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well since the one day I haven't been there. 

LOVE YOU ALL

August 23, 2017

Familia y amigos!

I can´t believe it´s already been a week!! One of the elders in my district described what it feels like perfectly: Days feel like weeks, weeks
feel like days. It´s so true.

Wednesday we arrived at the CCM. The flight was sooo long and sleeping on the plane is not very fun, but we made it to Santiago, so that´s what´s important! I even talked to a guy about the church on the plane, but he said he thought religion was as pointless as government hahaha. So that was that. But I told him about the Tetons and he was interested in that, so maybe he´ll feel God´s love in nature! Ha! When we got to the CCM we got to our rooms and Hermana Green and I are in a room with 4 latinas. They are so, so funny and have so much sass. They keep me laughing all the time. They don´t know English, so we´ve been trying to teach them while they help us with Spanish. They´re so awesome. Spanish is constantly spinning around in my head, it´s so crazy! The CCM is on the third floor (there´s only about 60 of us) and below it is where people can stay when they come to the temple. The temple is right outside the CCM, so we are always on temple grounds so there´s constantly a very special spirit!

MOM!! THERE'S NO COLD MILK HERE, AHHH!! But they do have runny yogurt so that's good. I put some bran in it every  morning for breakfast.

THURS: Elder Packer (yeah, Boyd K. Packer´s son) came and talked to us and it was super good. He told us that every convert should have a profound experience and if taught right will never fall away from the church. They need to be truly converted. It´s not enough to have a testimony. It´s their actions that prove their conversions. They we had a class about the gift of tongues, and I realized it´s not necessarily just something you have, but it comes to you at the time you need it, bringing words or phrases to your remembrance when you need it. I really feel I´ve been blessed by it as I´ve been able to understand so much every day. Sometimes I won´t understand the exact words someone is saying but I know exactly what they´re saying, it´s amazing! But don´t let it sound like it´s super easy, cause it´s not. It´s frustrating trying to teach practice lessons in Spanish and wanting to say so much but having no idea what to say. It takes tons of work and constant studying and practice and studying and more practice until your head hurts. But I know it will all be worth it, and attitude really is everthing here in the CCM! I´m just so excited to get out and start teaching!

FRI: was a frustrating day. Lot´s of highs and lows. But let me just tell you...I love my district. We get along so well. We know how to have fun, but it can get so spiritual with them, I love it. It´s amazing how different we are yet everyone contributes so much.

Sunday night we had a devotional where we each wrote down our favorite hymn and name and put it in a basket, then the mission president´s daughter (she has down syndrome, she so cute:) picked  songs and who ever had that song as their favorite song went up and explained why, then we sang a verse in Spanish and a verse in English. My favorite is, "I Believe in Christ". But there was a really amazing spirit there because every song meant so much to that particular person, and you could feel that love and spirit testifying of the truth of these songs.

OH, OH, MONDAY we had an earthquake!!!! It was pretty small and lasted about 30 sec., but it was so cool!! we all looked at each other when our desks started shaking and were like, is this an earthquake?? One of the teachers came to check on us to see if we were okay so, it definitely was ha ha. Monday night I was in charge of Book of Mormon study with our district, and I prayed to know which chapter to read. I felt strongly about Alma 24, and I strongly encourage all of you to read it. The faith they had is incredible, and they were thanking and praising God up until they died. I know if you read this chapter you will find something you need to hear.

Today we get to go to the temple and we´re so excited. We walked around the city this morning and it reminds me of a mix between New York (except in Spanish) and Salt Lake. There are so many different people and the city is so cool. But whenever we try to make eye contact with people and simply say hola, most people look away or at the ground, ha ha. But hearts will be softened for those who need to hear this glorious message!

Love and miss you all, make this week a good one! 

Hermana Briggs

A few sisters and me.

Sis. G and me with our roommates.

My first companion, Sis. G. and me.