Last Words From El CCM

This is the last day of my last week in el CCM, and man has the time flown by. We came, we did, and now we must leave. 

But I am feeling so good, so positive, it almost feels criminal. I am leaving tonight at 2:30am, which is sad, but I am ready. These past two days have been super hard preparing to say goodbye to everyone, and I have cried more than I ever have in my life because of it, but it is so worth it. I can´t even begin to explain all the ways I’ve grown here, and all the ways my mind has been opened to simple truths I’ve never considered before. Even if I were to come home to VA tomorrow, I have been changed for good. But I am ready for the mission field. Being in Mexico, meeting the people, learning Spanish, acclimating to the customs — I love it all. It feels like a home I never even knew I had, because here, everyone is family. And I am so excited to go share the Gospel, and be on the Lord’s errand. That is going to be the most amazing part of it all. 

 

I have struggled so much here, and because of those struggles, my testimony has been strengthened. I have grown closer to my Savior than I have ever been, and I have witnessed miracles. But something I learned this week is that missionary work isn’t about me, my wants, my desires, or my capabilities. I am just the messenger of the Gospel, and the Spirit is the teacher. Missionary work is about the investigators, and helping them know how to build their own relationships with Christ. 2 Nephi 25:26 says, “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”

 

I have never been the “preachy” type, and I don’t want to become that person that everyone unfollows because they only ever spam people with Jesus pictures. But I cannot afford to remain silent about my beliefs. 

I know that my Redeemer lives. His name is Jesus Christ. I know that He suffered all things so that through him, our burdens might be made light, and our weaknesses can become strengths. I know that he established his Gospel and church while he lived, and that through the prophet Joseph Smith, that same Gospel has been restored. Joseph Smith was a true Prophet, and was called in the same manner as Abraham, Moses, and all the Prophets of old. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet now, and that he acts under the instruction of Jesus Christ. I know that there is so much more to life then just trying to make it fun, and that we are here to prepare for life after death. Because through Christ, we will all live again. I encourage everyone to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it is not from God. Pray to know that God is there for you, and loves you. He wants you to come home to Him, because we are all His children. I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

This is my last week at the CCM, and it has been crazy. We´re almost out in the real world, teaching real people. I can´t believe it. 

I´m not really worried, though. About the Spanish or getting rejected or anything. This week, my teacher Hermano Chan shared with us one of the most amazing chapters in the Book of Mormon. It´s Alma 24, and is Ammon and Aaron talking about there mission among the Lamanites. I don´t have my scriptures right in front of me, but there is a verse about how the people doubted they could change the hearts of such a bloodthirsty people, and bring them unto the savior. But they were able to do what was said to be impossible, and they over came their doubts because they knew that if they just did the things they were supposed to, the Lord would provide for them.

The most important thing, I´ve learned, is not how good a teacher I am, or how persuasive I can be. What´s important is that we invite the Holy Ghost, who is the real teacher. It won´t matter if I have all the skill in the world in teaching — only the Spirit converts people. If my companion and I are not doing what we need to do in order to bring that Spirit into people´s lives to touch people´s hearts.. it´s for naught. 

Anyway, I´m on a split because we´ve got a sick roommate. Gotta go so my companion can write. 

Much love!

(The picture is from a service project this morning that we did in the laundry. I forgot my badge.)

The Plague 

 

The plague has struck the CCM. I was one of the first to contract it last Friday night. It has claimed the health of hundreds of missionaries here, and the poor Enfermeria hasn´t been closed since the epidemic happened. Although I was one of the first, and it was/still is pretty terrible, I did not get it nearly as bad as some of my friends. A certain Hermana, who I will not name for privacy´s sake, still can´t laugh too hard without risking springing a leak. Baahahahah I can only laugh because I know how bad it is. But seriously, some kids have been hospitalized, and when they started giving out shots (the kind that goes into the butt cheek) one of the elders became paralyzed from the waist down. Seriously, the doctors have no idea why it happened, but he´s being sent home and had only been out a week. 

So we´ve been on plague control for the last week, and it sucks.

But, because I chose to power through the crappiest day of my life (pun really intended) Hna Bailey and I were able to teach some of the best investigator discussions of our entire stay here, and get our first baptism! 😀 

We´re both improving so much here. In Spanish, in teaching, and as missionaries. 

This week we have learned the importance of not wasting time while on the Lords errand, and that intent to be exactly obedient brings miracles. When we have spent our time studying the scriptures, drinking in Predicad Mi Evangelio, and doing our best to rely on the Spirit to know what to study, we´re beginning to teach people, not lessons. We had a lesson where we planned everything out, but when we went it, the needs of the investigator were different than what we anticipated. But! Because we had done our studies faithfully, we were able to cover what they needed, and still have a really great experience with them. That was when they agreed to baptism :´) We´re learning the importance of asking the right questions during lessons to be able to gauge the understanding of the investigator, and to listen rather than to speak. There was one time in a lesson where a different investigator read the first vision, and when we asked him how he felt afterwards, he just sat there in silence. This investigator had given us a lot of grief in the past, but we both just felt like we needed to stay quiet until he replied. When he did, all he said was “this is marvelous.” And from then on, our discussion with him have been so productive. 

This week, for all the trials and problems that it has had, has been SO amazing. I can´t wait to get out in the field and learn even more. Two weeks left!!

Today is P-Day, the Navidad that comes on Thursdays! In comemoration of the occasion, my district sings Chirstmas carols in Spanish on P-Day eve. The days of the week are labeled like this:

Moday

2nd Monday with Pizza

Pre-P-Day

P-DAY!!!!

Post-P-Day

Pre-Sunday

Sunday!!! 

Days with exclaimation points connote how much they are anticipated. 

Just so you know, I have sent a letter home. Mail takes about 3 weeks, so you should be getting it right as I get out into the field. The Mexican Postal Service really values punctuality. But speaking of mail and packages, all the cool kids get packages from this awesome business. It´s a website: www.missionarypackagemx.com

I can´t go on it, but it´s parent friendly. You just put in the required fields, pay, and this wonderful delivery woman drops all of the packages off at the Post Office. It´s wonderful, and thus far I owe much gratitude to the mothers of Elder Williams (mass chocolates/edible snacks), Elder Alley (heavenly chips and queso), Elder McKenzie (2 Dozen KHRISPY KHREMES), and Hermana Jaccard (ANOTHER 2 dozen donuts to share). Seriously. So good.

I´ve decided that I love Spanish, and that after my mission I am going to marry a Mexican RM, in a Mexixo temple, and have Spanish babies. Don´t question the plan. It´s going to happen. And you´ll all be jealous/totally invited to my wedding.

On tuesday our zone sang “Juventud de Isreal” in Devotional, and it was amazing. Usually the numbers are “ehhh… aiight” but this one was AMAZZIINNG. Totally loved being apart of that experience. 

So all things are great here at the CCM! 🙂 No break downs this week, just massive amounts of super amazing expirences, none of which I have time to tell you about because an hour is NOT sufficient time to write ANYTHING.

But I love y’all!

 

 

So l feel really bad that I don´t have more to talk about this week! It´s just FLOWN by! I don´t understand where all my time is going! 

I have the funniest story that happened on Monday, night though. It´s so embarrassing it´s almost shameful, but all parties involved were super good sports.

So on Monday morning, I woke up exhausted. Our water in our casa (Casa Caca) had been out for a while, so were were assigned to use the water in a different cassa — DOWN THE STREET. So we´d get to bed around 11:30 and have to get up at6am just to be able to maintain our hygiene. The water worked, it´s just that if you used it, poop would start spraying out of the drains. No big deal, am I right?

Well, I guess a week of Casa Caca was starting to get to me because by Monday afternoon, I knew I was going to pass out or snap. We had just started doing night classes (not just personal night study in the classroom) but actual, teacher-led classes all the way up until 9:30. So our old investigator, “Luis Loya” became our night teacher. and on his FIRST day, this poor man had to witness me go into a full-on melt down in the back of the classroom. Ohhhh my gosh, it was so hilarious, I´m laughing about it just typing it out. We was explaining how to use the missionary planner book (seriously, nothing terribly strenuous) but I just started getting angry. Not saying anything, just staring at my schedule, wondering how it dare ask me to fill in its many blank spaces when I was just SO. TIRED. And then, Hno Hernandez (Luis Loya) came up and asked me if I needed help (because I wasn´t working like the other prisoners) and I was just like “Nope! I´m fine! 😀   !!!” Except my voice was starting to crack, and it was very clear that I was not fine. With the expression of a man who had just found a land mine at his feet, he backed away towards the front of the room again. There´s only 6 desks in our room, two rows of three. Total of 12 kids. 

Then I got mortified. Because, who can´t fill out a schedule!? You literally just write in what´s on the schedule they give you on your first day. But I was so tired. HOW could they make me stay up this late. How dare they. It was 8pm, and I needed to sleep NOW. So, of course, I started crying. At my desk. Like the works. Tears, snot, you name it. Everyone was turning to look at me, and I just shot them hatefilled looks and they got back to work. My companion offered me a tissue and I told her “NO. I DONT NEED IT. IM FINE. IM NOT CRYING.” I said all that in a whisper, as tears and snot continued streaming freely. 

So the teacher comes back up to me, and his English isn´t very good at all. He doesn´t say anything this time, just gently slides my printed, weekly CCM schedule and points at the next night where a very large box is labeled “Stress Management.” I see what he´s pointing at and I try to explain to him that I am not stressed. “No. Esta. Stressed. Yo. Necesito. Dormir.” At which he just looks at me like I´m crazy. So I just keep repeating “esta bien. yo necesito dormir. solo. Yo soy muy cansada. Casa Caca.” He didn´t really get it, so he just pointed at stress management again, patted my desk, and scuttled away. The guy is like 23 years old. Then my roommate, Hna Jaccard tried to console me but I was being irrational and legitimately insane and said “THEY´RE NEVER GOING TO LET US SLEEP. WE´RE IN HERE FOR ETERNITY. Turn around. I´m fine. I´m fine.” So I cried for maybe two seconds more after he left, and then I looked at the box labeled “Stress Management” and started laughing. Hysterically. With snot and tears on my face, I went into full on hysterics. And Hna Jaccard started laughing at me, and I was still laughing at stress management, and then she and I were bother laughing at Hno Hernandez´s horrified face, and EVERYTHING WAS FUNNY. So Hno Hernandez called for a cinqo minuto break, and I sprinted out of the room, ran all the way down the hallway, CACKLING, and collapsed in the quad, trying not to pee myself from laughing so hard. And the laughter didn´t stop. I would try so hard to choke it down, and when we were back in class, it would take brief breaks but it would always return. Everyone was a great sport though and they all gathered around me when I collapsed in the quad and started talking about how they were waiting for this to happen. They have sisters, they´ve seen worse. I have since redeemed myself with Hno Hernandez, and it helps that he can joke about it and is just super relaxed in general. But it was definitely the worst moment I had. I will tell you, though, I slept SO good that night.

Also, Casa Caca is no more. The water was fixed two days ago, AND the water heater was repaired. Hot showers for everyone! 😀 God is good. 

So yep. That was the most hilarious thing that happened this week. 

I love the CCM so much. My roommates and my district and just.. everything. Well, everything but the food. It´s horrible. I like mexican food, and this is not mexican. Sorry, I´m about out of time and I´m trying to upload some pictures to send!! I LOVE YOU

All my love, Hna Mrozek