Week 3   Note from mom: no pictures this week :(

Hola all you wonderful peeps! ¿Como fue su semana? How was your week?! Well, life here in the CCM is just a bustlin´ away! Can you believe I've been here for 23 DAYS already?! It kind of blows my mind into pieces when I think about it too hard. We've got this saying here: ´the days go by slow, but the weeks go by faster than you think´. And its SO crazy true. Some days, all you want to do is lay in the grass and take a nap in the warm sun, BUT you gotta keep going. My motto for the CCM is from "Meet the Robinsons", just keep moving forward!

So I thought I would walk you through what a normal day is like here in the Missionary Training Center in Lima, Peru! First off, wake up call is at 6:15 AM (see mom, I CAN get up early ^_^) and breakfast is at 7, Then we have personal study until 8:15. This is my most favorite time of the day because the sun hasn't really come up yet and so its not too hot and the birds are everywhere singing all kinds of songs! It's so pretty and calm that I love just sitting there and reading my scriptures. It's still kind of crazy that I'm in PERU! Like, I'm living in a whole different country! It blows my mind a bit.

Anyway, day goes on with class in the morning till lunch. My morning teacher, Hermano Chaves, is pretty much the funniest guy ever. And he speaks great English, so that's a bonus. Also, his wife just had their first baby girl this week!!! So he won't be here for a few more days, but we were all so excited! We're trying to get him to bring in his new little daughter! But anyway, the other day, he was telling us how to survive Anaconda attacks and it was so funny. He also told us of this one time when he and his companion on his mission got cornered by iguanas. First off, the iguanas here are like slightly smaller kimono dragons and they have super sharp tails. So basically they escaped by using their Book of Mormons as shields and battering their way through the iguanas. Crazy huh?! I can't wait!

So lunch is rice and chicken. And so is dinner. Pretty much everyday. But it is really good! They have different sauces and vegetables you can choose from and so you never get tired of eating pretty much the same thing every day :) It so much fun to sit with the Latina girls and chat with them during meal times! They are so much fun and are super patient with our growing Spanish. Sometimes we have to play charades to figure out what each other is saying, but its great! And great Spanish practice!

In the afternoons we have more study time and then something called TALL. TALL is the language learning program we use on the computers to help us learn even more Spanish! But the computer rooms are always SO CRAZY HOT! I'm serious, its like 20 degrees cooler outside than it is in these rooms. Even now, I'm sitting here sweating! Its all great though. The best part of the day is right after TALL. It's called Physical Activity!! PA is seriously the greatest ever. We run and change our clothes then head outside for an hour of fun! I usually do a Crossfit workout (thanks dad. You're evil fatherly laughs are pretty evil ^_^ ) and sometimes my companion or some of girls from my district join me.  Mostly they think I'm crazy. Then we play futbol (soccer) with the Latinos for the rest of the time! It seriously is so much fun! They are all crazy good, but so nice! They pass the ball to us gringos all the time and are just the nicest and funniest people EVER. Love it.

After PA, we take a shower and get ready super fast for an hour of class before dinner! Dinner is always the best because a lot of the time, we get ice cream and it makes me die of happiness. No joke. I LOVE ICE CREAM. After dinner, we've got two hours of class before bed. And let me tell you, I've learned more about enduring to the end during those last two hours then almost anywhere I think! Hermano Florez is our evening teacher and he's AWESOME. But when you've been in class pretty much all day, everyone's pretty tired! He always has funny games we play. We teach him American games and he teaches us Peruvian ones, so is a lot of fun. I've taught everyone a bunch of games that I used this last summer when I was a camp counselor at Aspen Grove for 11-12 year olds. It was great!

So then, the best part of the day is 9:30 when we can head upstairs to our rooms! We get ready for bed, chat with all the Hermanas, write in our journals then poof! Gone in la-la land. Then wake up and repeat!

So yeah, that's my day! There are always things goin' on, lots of laughing and lots of studying! Last thing, actually two things. First, if you look up John 2:9 in the bible, there is TOTALLY a winky face. Not even joking. It's so funny.

And second, my scripture for this week is in 2 Nephi 4:20. It says ´my God hath been my support he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the water of the great deep'. I've really found the truth of that in these last few weeks. We may not see how our Heavenly Father works in our lives, but he is there, supporting us in so many different ways. I love this church and know that I'm out here for a reason! Love you all and have a great week!

Hermana Stephenson!!