Hermana Katie Holt: Week 2: General Conference

Hola everyone!!! So I tried really hard this week to write down things that I need to mention is today's email haha cause last week my mind was absolutely crazy!!!

Anyway, let me just say, I LOVE ARIZONA!!!!!!! When President Monson mentioned the Gilbert Temple Dedication, I just sat there and cried. Not sad tears of course, but tears of just absolute happiness and gratitude for the people in Mesa and Gilbert and for the wonderful new temple celebration and dedication!! And then when Elder Walker mentioned it too, fist pumped in the air!! Way to be AZ!! Shout out to my beautiful cousin Michaeley who had the opportunity to be in the celebration!! Speaking of Conference, HOW BLESSED ARE WE?!?! Wasn't it just the best?? We got to watch it here in English (thank goodness!!) and it was absolutely wonderful. I can't even get over it!! I know for a fact that all of those speakers were inspired of the Lord. I loved every second of it! I'm trying to think of some of my favorite ones, Elder Holland's (duh, he's amazing), Sister Reeves, Uchtdorfs, and of course M Russell Ballard because he talked about MISSIONARY WORK!! Guys, we are all missionaries in our every day lives!! If you haven't ever looked at Preach My Gospel, grab one! Study it! Follow up on people! Everyone you meet is a son or daughter of God and deserves to know of the happiness we feel as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Don't be scared to talk to people (really, don't be haha I have to do it in Spanish so you're way good)!!!

So, I realized I didn't say a lot last week about the CCM! Or maybe I did... hahaha I don't remember! But, here's a normal day here! So, we get up at 6:30, breakfast at 7, personal study at 7:30, companion study at 8:30 and then we start our first class of the day with Hermano Ramirez!! Oh my lanta he is SO funny!! He's 6 foot 2 and reminds me of a big teddy bear! Haha for reals! Sweetest guy! We work on grammer with him and he also acts as one of our investigators!! Haha fun... but really, it's hard sometimes but it's awesome practice! Then from there we have lunch at 12:30 (seriously, I think I'm going to gain a million pounds on all this rice!!! haha but it's terrible cause you can't help eating it cause it's so dang good!!)! Class starts again at 1:30 with Hermano Martinez and Hermano Rodriguez (they switch off)! Hilarious!! Martinez speaks barley any English so yesterday, we said had a contest to see if us missionaries could go from lunch to dinner speaking only Spanish, and he had to speak only English!! The BEST part of it was when Hermana Partridge asked him to explain some grammer stuff (so he had to do it in english) and he had NO idea how to so he just put his hand up and said, "talking to the hand"!! HAHA it was awesome!!! Yeah. I have the best teachers. Rodriguez is so great too, he has the best stories and he talks to us a lot more in English so that's nice :) At 3:30 we start our service and then have gym time til 4:45! We mostley all play volleyball which is completely fine with me :) Dinner starts at 5:15 and we are in class again by 6 with more grammer and more lessons and another investigator, except this investigator isn't as nice... hahaha but it's all good!! The teacher is awesome, his name is Hermano Rubio!!! Most intimidating guy but not intimidating guy I've ever met!! Haha doesn't make sense, right? But if you knew him it would!! He told us that he didn't know how to speak English and we totally believed him for the first week until he accidently said a couple words!! Haha got him!! But yeah, all the teachers are amazing and they really try and make us speak Spanish all the time, which is good but still hard sometimes! During lessons, I'll have all these ideas come to my head about what to say, but the problem is is that I can't make it come out in Spanish!! Haha but we are all getting better!

Our district has been working really hard. I don't know what I said last week, but we on top of what we have already memorized, we have now added the first vision and Doctrine and Covenants 4 to the list!! Ramirez said that we are the first district ever to do all that before the second week!! Woo!! We still have so much to work on though, sitting in the same class all day everyday kinda makes it hard to stay focused sometimes, but we are getting better!! So, the saddest day ever, all the Latin missionaries left this Tuesday. Us Americans sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again for them during family prayer and it was such a bittersweet moment! I couldn't believe how hard it was for us to see them go! Don't get me wrong, I am SO excited for them to finally begin their missions!! Even though, I could barely understand them most of the time, I grew a love for all the missionaries!! They were such awesome examples to me!! I know without a doubt that people are put into our lives for a reason. I've noticed that troughout my life that Heavenly Father answers myself through people! I feel so blessed for all my amazing family that I have and the friends that have come and gone through the years!!!

Hmm... well I think that is mostly it for this week! The new missionaries came in last night and today! OH YEAH! When the latin missionaries left, it was only us 12 American missionaries in the WHOLE CCM. The whole thing!!!!! How crazy is that??? Haha kinda fun too!! Anyway, we have about 15 or so Haitians that joined us! And apparently some of the Americans missed their flight or something so they came today, we only had 3 come in last night!! Haha ok, I'm really hoping and praying that you guys can understand and follow this email!! Haha I had no idea how hard it would be to write these emails! Anyway, I love you all! Remember, the Church is true and the Book is blue!! :) Haha have a great week in the hot place of Arizona!!

Love always, Hermana Holt