There could be worse places....

So, Today we had the chance to go to the temple. Amazing! I love the temple. before we left to go in, our driver guy said he would be back at one to get us.

1:15

1:30

1:45

2:45....

and still no driver. We had a lot of bonding time though! It cut into our tour time, (WE GOT TO TOUR COLOMBIA!!! SO PRETTY!!) but there could be worse places in Colombia to be stranded!! :) We were able to talk to a guy who just was walking around the temple grounds. And we met missionaries who were spending their last day in the field... at the temple. So cool! I won't complain one bit! Other than waiting in two thunderstorms during our wait, there was nothing that went amiss. I absolutely loved it! 

So everyone in my district sings.. all of us 6 girls. And our favorite teacher, Hno Martinez, calls us "mermaids". Cause we always sing! haha we have sang songs in every meeting we have had as a CCM. We are told to share our talents, and we have been blessed with plenty of opportunities to do so! 

Also, with God, all things are possible. On our first day in the CCM, they asked us to read the Book of Mormon all the way through in English before we left for the field. And so I knelt down to my Heavenly Father and asked for his help! There is no way I could have done that had I been at home! But, two and a  half weeks later, I finished. And I finished on my dad's birthday! I learned more in this reading of the Book of Mormon than I ever have any of the other times I have read it by myself. 

I just got word.. like... twenty minutes ago.. that my Latin companion (we get Latin companions our last two weeks) is from Argentina... I'm not going to be able to understand her one bit. But that's okay, I'm super excited to meet her!! 

We went proselyting! OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS SO FUN!!! Me and my companion got references for 31 people! IT WAS THE FUNNEST THING OF MY LIFE! It is such a great feeling knowing I have been entrusted with the power to share the Gospel to anyone I come in contact with! I can stand there in the street talking to a man dressed in all black, a woman who I'm pretty sure was a prostitute, and a young family all at once and share that God loves them. That families can be together forever, that there IS hope, and it is through Jesus Christ! It was so fun! We got some crazy people who told us we were going to go to the Firery furnace of the devil, but that's okay! I wouldn't have traded that day for anything! 

I hope every single one of you had a wonderful Easter! Here, the CCM president's wife made us all mini Easter baskets with a Solo cup and chocolates. It was so cute! I hope you all remember the real reason we have Easter as well. We had the opportunity to watch a broadcast with President Uchtorf on Sunday. He was speaking at the Provo MTC. He started out with saying how we have the chance to celebrate Easter every Sunday! Each time we take the sacrament! What better gift can we ever receive!? If you haven't already seen it, please go to easter.mormon.org and watch "Because of Him." I promise, it's worth the three minutes. 

I am so excited to be a missionary. The first month is gone! It was hard, and lots of hard things happened, but no one can be engaged in a greater work than this. Have we not great reason to rejoice?

A picture with some local dancers

Traffic is horrible! You think Utah and California drivers are bad... We almost died like 13 times today

He hears your prayers, He loves His children.

 Okay, so i just gotta say... Spanish is hard. One of the first things we learned here in the CCM is how to pray in spanish. Then how to testify, then teaching and so on and so forth. I can testify in spanish like i have been doing it my whole life! I love it and it comes easy to me! But ask me to pray... and it is nooooot that easy. I cannot do it... I try! I try so hard! But I get all the words wrong and I forget stuff and it is just frustrating!

A few nights ago I was really struggling. Bad day for everything. So I pulled out the notes my family took from the blessing I recieved when I got set apart, and I read what someone wrote about being told to pray about the gift of tongues. So I did. Every single prayer I pleaded with my father in Heaven to help me with the language. Then today we had the opportunity to go to the temple. I sat there pouring out my heart to my Father in Heaven for a good half an hour, and when I got up to leave, I had the most amazing realization. I had been praying in spanish. All of it had been in spanish. And I cried. 

 The Lord answers prayers! I promise! It may not be immediately, and it may not be what you want, but HE DOES! I am not fluent by any means, but at least I can pray in spanish now! There is such an amazing peace that comes with the knowledge that the Lord hears and answers our prayers!

 Hna Alvez, Hna Jojola, Hna Hiskey, Me, Hna Feddock, Hna Holden, then Hna Otto are the girls in the last picture i sent. we only have girls in my district! Hna Alvez isnt in our district, but she didnt have a companion, so she is with us! she gets a latin companion tomorrow though, so then she isnt with us anymore...

This picture is of me and Hna Hiskey. she is adorable! I just love her!

 

 I hope you all enjoyed conference! I didnt get to watch any of it, and had to watch the whole first session from saturday on sunday morning... and it still wouldnt work. SO we just listened to it. I love how much they talked about faith. I have learned so much over the last two weeks about faith and the atonement. I have been so blessed!

Our "investigator" chose to accept baptism!! No biggie, I just cried! hahah Seriously people, this is THE coolest work on the earth, and I get to be a part of it! It is nooot easy! But man... It is so worth it! Even though our " investigator" is only our spanish teacher, I don't care! I still was sooooo happy that he accepted our invitaion!

Out of time.. again. this hour goes by way too fast. I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Until next P day!

Hermana Arave

You can be forgiven of your FISH, no matter how PREGNANT you are!

OH MY WORD. Guys, the mtc is totally freaky. But I have grown to love it! My conpanion is Hermana Feddock! She is one of the girls I met before we left, and I seriously love her! we get along so well!! We work well together, and teaching comes easy to us as long as we know which words to use in spanish!! Hence the title of this email!! 

So there we were, teaching our investigator Claudio (our spanish teacher). Hna Feddock said "You can be forgiven of your pescados!" Instead of saying "You can be forgiven of your PECADOS". Pescados is fish, and Pecados is sins... SPANISH IS SO HARD... hahahah we had a very good laugh though! Then she made it even better by saying "UY! Estoy embarasado!!" which sounds like "IM SO EMBARRASSED!" but actually means "I am pregnant" hahahah that was definitly the turning point of the MTC. 

A mission is hard, especially when you dont speak the language. but I know that this is where i need to be. Shall i not go on in so great a cause?? I have had so many tender mercies since I got here. This is where I am supposed to be!! 

It is beautiful here! I cannot even begin to describe the thunderstorms. The term "raining cats and dogs" has never been truer! And it goes on for HOURS!!! 

My District is only girls! Which is the first time this has happened in the Colombian CCM history. how cool??! I love it though! We have all gotten so close. All of us can sing, and sometimes we will catch the elders listening outside our classroom door to us singing. It makes me feel so good! And then they asked us to sing at a CCM fireside after conference here! We are told to share our talents, and we are! 

I have always loved rice, but we have it with every dang meal here!! I hate so say it... but I need some variety! So if anyone wants to send me some red pepper flakes in a few weeks... that would be great... They have really small breakfasts, and HUGE LUNCHES. Then tiny dinners. it is taking some getting used to. 

I attatched a picture of me and my companion with our home flag and the bolivian flag... I love it! This is so fun! We are only allowed our cameras on P day, so i didnt have time to take pictures before we emailed. 

I wish i had more time, but I dont. I am so lucky to be a part of this work. I love it here, even if I cry myself to sleep a lot of nights. This time will go by fast, and I am going to make the most of it! 

Thank you all for your emails and love and support. I will email as many of you back as possible, cause I love hearing from you!! 

THANK YOU ALL. I LOVE YOU