Week 5 July 27, 2016

¡Hola Familia y amigos! Surprise! Cause of the training for the field on Friday, Pday´s Wednesday this week!

First off, I finally got my flight information! We leave the CCM about 10:30pm on Monday, and our plane leaves at about 1:28 am *cries* which means we´ll be having a layover in Bogota, Columbia and finally getting to Quito around 10am. That´s gonna be a long 48-hr day, but I´m stoked to finally be getting to Quito.

So my 5th Sunday here in the CCM, and it´s Sacrament Meeting. The way talks work here are: Everybody prepares a new talk in Spanish each week, and the Branch President randomly chooses people to speak. I walked in feeling confident and prepared, because I´d completely written and finished my talk several days before. Then I sat down and decided to mark the spots of the scriptures I was using (you can´t be too prepared, right?), and was filled with dread to realize I´d completely forgotten my talk in the classroom.

I quickly started praying for some tender mercy, like, for instance, that I wouldn´t be one of today´s lucky choices for talks. But I just knew I was doomed the one day I was prepared and simultaneously wasn´t. I started putting scriptures together in a makeshift talk, while, ironically, the song "I need thee every hour" was sung. Finally, after the Sacrament, the names were listed. Annnnnd my name was totally called on. Funny how it works out that way. But it´s okay. My situation was (also ironically) an example of the theme of the talks: Faith in Jesus Christ. But the impromptu Spanish talk went fairly well, and it goes to show that Heavenly Father blesses us when we are diligent in our efforts and demonstrate faith.

A few days this week, we played Red Light Green Light, Simon Says, and learned the Spanish Alphabet. it took me back to my childhood, but was sure a funner way to learn Spanish.

Also I forgot to mention as part of last week´s schedule that we do TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning) almost every day on the computers, during the afternoon.

One of the days this week (I think Saturday) I decided, right when getting ready for the day, to speak only Spanish all day, That was my goal. It was hard, and I had to catch myself when I spoke English occasionally. I was a lot quieter that the other days, but it definitely helped my Spanish to be strengthened, because I was forced to look for ways to communicate.

We also met up in our casa (house) to play board games as all the elders and kinda hang out, but then there was an announcement not to a few days later, so it was our first and our last. See pics below

Also, I FINALLY FOUND MY (second) COUSIN HERMANA LEWIS! Also see pics below

Random analogy from one of our Hermanas (Sister Missionaries) but I really like it: The Priesthood is like an umbrella, just because the guy is holding it doesn´t mean the women don´t also receive all the blessings.

Okay, here´s the cool and really humbling experience I didn´t have time to share last week. Remember that TRC is where we teach investigator lessons on Saturdays to local volunteers (usually members or less-actives):

One of the other teachers came into our classroom and she told me & Elder Robertson that we taught her brother during TRC 2 weeks ago (the only person we´d taught at this point for TRC besides other missionaries). She said she´d been praying for a spiritual experience for her brother, because he was a member but his testimony had diminished, so she invited him to TRC. He told her that he´d had a spiritual experience, and could feel the Spirit and our love for him even though we just met him. What´s crazy is that we personally felt like that lesson had gone down the drain, because we asked so many get-to-know-you questions that we ran out of time to give the actual lesson! So we kinda just threw our lesson aside and bore testimony of prayer, and asked him to pray more, with intention, to feel God´s love. The Sister-Teacher thanked us for helping him to have that experience, but I think it had a bigger impact on me. This unexpected outcome really bore testimony to me that the most important thing investigators feel in a lesson is the Spirit. Regardless of the message, the Spirit is what converts hearts, and is vital in inviting people to come closer to Christ, which really is our purpose. I´m so eternally grateful that we could be used as instruments in our Heavenly Father´s hands that day.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stolle

Week 5 July 22, 2016

¡Hola Familia y amigos!

11 DAYS TILL QUITO! The first week here in the CCM was so slow. but now it´s incredible how the days fly by!

This week a lot has happened- we had about 220 new missionaries arrive on Tuesday (we´re supposed to be up to 800 by the time we leave, and there were around 400 when I arrived), adding to the 1200 capacity. We also started practicing teaching each other missionary discussions, rather than just our teachers. The roleplay is kinda weird, but we´re starting to get used to it.

I realized I never really explained the Missionary Life here in the CCM.

6:30-7:00am we wake up and get ready for the day

7-8 am We have personal study

8-8:30am We have breakfast

8:30-11:30am We learn the language and practice being/teaching investigators

11:30am-1:00pm We go to the gym, and shower & re-get ready for the day

1-1:45pm We have lunch

1:45-6:30pm We learn more language, practice being/teaching investigators, etc.

6:30-7:15pm Dinner

7:15-9:30pm We do Book of Mormon Study, companionship study, and plan for the next day.

9:30-11:30pm We get ready for bed

On Saturdays we do a thing called TRC (Teach Resource Center) which is basically where we teach volunteer less-actives or investigators lessons. It´s pretty cool.

So yeah. It´s a pretty intense schedule, but it´s very efficient.

Ugggh I had a cool story to share but I´m out of time so I´ll have to include it next week.

Love,

Elder Stolle

Week 4 July 9-15, 2016

¡Hola Everyone!

This last week has been pretty chill, but at the same time a lot has happened.

Well, for starters, Elder Harrison (our District Leader) and his companion got called as the new Zone Leaders, so I got called as the new District Leader. It´s been a little crazy getting used to, but it´s pretty neat as well.

I got slightly discouraged for a couple days this week because some of our lessons weren´t progressing, I had to listen to/comfort/try to inspire one of our District members that struggles to get along with his companion, and I started to catch a small flu that´s been spreading. It was a hard couple of days right after being called. Also one of our Sisters got sick with a gastric issue.

Here´s the cool story: I was able to give her a Priesthood Blessing (my first one ever) and all the Elders in our district got to participate. That´s the cool things about the CCM,is the Priesthood power is everywhere when ya need it. But the next morning, she walked in crying because her symptoms had gotten worse overnight. I spent a large majority of the Personal Study time praying and thinking. I have to admit, I was worried that maybe I had said something wrong in the blessing or who knows what. I really didn´t know. And I was scared because since it was the first Priesthood Blessing I ever gave, I really didn´t want it to be in vain and not fulfill it´s purpose. I admit, there were a few tears shed, because I´d grown to love the sisters (in a charitable way, not a crush) that I was concerned for her, and that she might go to a hospital or be sent home if things got worse.Then I read in Helaman 3, and realized that I needed to demonstrate some faith, for "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." So I decided then and there to start a fast. I give my witness that our God is a God of miracles, and that miracles do happen, and He blesses us with tender mercies when we seek him. As I fasted and we prayed throughout the day, the sister visibly got better throughout the day, and was in high spirits by the night.

This morning we had the opportunity to go to the temple again. I´ll always be amazed with the Celestial room and the strength of the spirit in there. it´s probably my new favorite temple (until the Quito one comes XD)and it was neat to have time to see the visitors center as well.

Funny/random things this week:

-Mariachi music is once again playing Saturday nights after 10pm

-Mexican Mangoes are the BEST

-A bird pooped on my shoulder

Love,

Elder Stolle

Week 3 June 30-July 8, 2016

¡Hola Familia! (and friends)

I can only email all of you while I´m at the CCM, but sorry for forgetting my address book last week.

Holy cow our entire District has been looking forward to Pday all week (especially since they changed it) and we´re stoked now that it´s finally here. Pdays and Sundays are simply the best.

First things first- Basically right after emailing last week, we got to go to the Mexico City Temple. I might just have a new favorite temple. It´s so cool, especially with all the designs on it, and there´s escalators inside to get to each floor, and it was kinda funny cause we had to use the translator earphones (where normally the latinos use those in the U.S.). The endowment room was pretty neat, but the Celestial room chandelier was stunning (as always). A cool idea our district had was to bring and read our Patriarchal Blessings in the Celestial room. Let me just say, I believe the veil is thinner in the temple, and it´s pretty neat. :)

There was basically no leg room on the bus ride, so my knees were right up to the seat, but then again, what else is new? But it was fun to see the city and the missionaries were singing hymns (see video).

Saturday (July 2nd) was pretty stressful... we gave a 40 minute "investigator" lesson in spanish and that was rough, and we also had to practice explaining the entire Plan of Salvation in Spanish in 5, 3, and 1 minute(s). Hahaha it was crazy

But Sunday was great. They always are. After church and devotionals, we watched a devotional from Elder Bednar, as well as videos about John Tanner and the Atonement. Overall I just felt inspired to be less selfish and keep and outward perspective on serving God´s children, and not just focusing on myself. I´ve felt this prompting so much in the past few weeks, and it´s really powerful to think about, that these next 2 years belong to the Lord, and to forget myself and focus on serving his children.

Monday was FOURTH OF JULY!! Well there weren´t fireworks cause it´s Mexico, but the cafeteria did their best to make an all-out American meal, Pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, watermelon, cupcakes frosted Red, White and Blue, and (costco) apple pies with a super-processed cherry ice cream. Not to mention super-carbonated cans of Rootbeer that lacked most root beer flavor. But hey, they tried. And everybody stopped eating halfway through so the Americans could sing the Star spangled banned while the Latinos just kinda stood there and videoed us.

Last night was a MONSOON. It usually rains a little here every day, but it poured pretty solidly for about 3 hours. It was basically like a Texas storm, and the streets started to flood. And there was hail. It was pretty exciting.

And now for the funny things this week:

-I didn´t expect half the district to break into singing T-Swift during our planning meeting

-We "stole" a piano from the other classroom cause we were itching to play one and the Latinos don´t usually use them...hahaha we tried to be all Mission Impossible and discreet about it, but the way it thundered while it rolled, we may as well have had a trumpet fanfare preceding us

It´s a pretty rigorous schedule here at the CCM, but I have grown to love that feeling that I´m actually doing something with my summer (and life) when most HS graduates are partying and stuff. I´m grateful for the opportunity to be here, and the strong spirit that resides here.

Until next week,

Elder Stolle

P.S. Josh Erickson I can´t believe you report in 5 days!!! That´s so neat bro- you´ll be awesome.