Week 4: Avansados!

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This week went by CRAZY fast! Holy cow! And, as of today, I've been here for a whole month!! Is that insane or what? I don't know how I feel about time moving so fast! Weeeeeeird.

Anyway, just another ol' week here at the CCM! Lots of classes, lots of laughing and LOTS of Español! It's great. On a sad note, the 'oldest' group here just left for the field, Including Shaw Tanner!!!! It was so fun having him here! Slightly crazy, but awesome at the same time. He'll be such an awesome missionary.

On a random note, the CCM here is divided into like 4'ish sections: Pricipiantes who are the 'babies' of the CCM and they're the ones who've been here for 1-2 weeks. Next is the intermedios who've been here 3-4 weeks. And last is the top of the totem pole, Avansados! And guess what, that's ME now! 5-6 weeks baby! Is so exciting, and slightly weird, to be the 'oldest' group here. But the new group of Americans that just got here today are so fun and there are SO MANY OF THEM. Oh and the last group is all the Latinos, and they're only here for a week.

So, with all our studying, my district also has some good fun. Which is nice because if not, I might have gone crazy by now :) Some highlights of this week include one of my teachers impersonating Golem from Lord of the Rings (which with a Spanish accent is one of the funniest things I've ever heard), me slurping a whole Granadia down in one bite (and if you don't know what that is, Google it RIGHT NOW. THEY ARE THE BEST EVER. We call them brain fruit), and a very interesting volleyball game.

So this volleyball game yesterday was SO FUNNY. None of us could even hit the ball!! And the sun was blazing outside (which is weird because usually its cloudy in Lima) so every time we'd look up for the ball, our eyes would be stabbed by the sun. The best part was when an elder was trying to hit the ball, but missed, so it hit him smack in the face and he went flying to the grass. WE ALL ABOUT DIED. It was great.

We also played a lot of gringo soccer this week. Normally we play with the Latinos (which is SO FUN) but they were out doing stuff so it was just us. Also, a bunch of the missionaries joined me in my daily Crossfit workouts and it was SO FUNNY! Oh my gosh, one day, we were all just laying out on the grass sweating SO MUCH and everyone fighting for the little spots of shade that the few trees here have. It was great. Tony and Trina, Crossfit lives on here in Peru!

Oh! Last thing! I saw the Kents this morning at the temple! They're here picking up Conner. And funny story, one of the elders in my district knows them! He's from St. Gorge and lives right next to them. Crazy! This world is SO SMALL sometimes.

Alrighty, so scripture for this week is Alma 32:27. It says ''if ye will awake and...experiment upon my words, and exercise even a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, then let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.'' This has easily become one of my favorite scriptures. You don't need to have total knowledge or complete faith in God to move forward. Even if you have just a particle of faith, our Heavenly Father will help you to know what you need to do. And being here in a whole different country, not knowing exactly where I'm going, its so comforting to me. It reminds me of Elder Bednar's 'Patterns of Light' talk. Its on Youtube so check it out. I love it. We've watched it a few times now here!

Well I love you all and I'm so happy to be here!!!

-Hermana Stpehenson

My new jersey I got today! Is that the Italian flag? I hope so. Go Italy!