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| Leaving the Argentina CCM |
Hola familia!!
So this
past week, I´ve been feeling pretty sentimental because my time here at the
Argentina CCM is coming to a close. How in the world did it go by so
fast? Anyway, I´ve been thinking a lot about what happened in my life one
year ago and how it is affecting me today.
ONE YEAR
AGO, I was a naive high school graduate who was preparing to start summer term
at BYU. I was so excited, but didn´t think I´d be able to survive without
my family, Colorado friends, and the kids I nannied for. Little did
I know, going summer term would be one of the best decisions I had ever
made because I learned how to be independent. TODAY, I am a naive
sister missionary who is preparing to leave the comfortable CCM for Uruguay.
Once again, I am so excited, but also scared out of my mind. It´ll be
hard to survive without Presidente and Hermana Willis, my CCM friends and
teachers, and the awesome food here, but I know this is something I need to do
because I will learn SO MANY lessons.
ONE YEAR
AGO, I had the opportunity to live with roommates for the first
time. I had no idea what to expect with roomies, but I sure
lucked out. Each of the girls I lived with (Lexi, Mary, Kayla, Jana,
Katherine, Blayr, Rachel, Jamie, Jessica, Ariel, Sloane, Kayla, Sierra, and
Sage) taught me something new and served me in countless ways. TODAY, I
have the opportunity to be with not one, but TWO companions. Hermana
Schaeffer and Hermana Simmons are two of the most amazing people I know, and I
will be eternally grateful for them because they´ve helped me start my
mission off on a good foot!
ONE
YEAR AGO, I was with the fam and we got a phone call from Sister Lindsay
Dixon. She was getting ready to leave the Provo MTC for Lansing,
Michigan, and I remember being SO PROUD of her and being in awe of how
happy she sounded. TODAY, I am looking forward to emailing or
calling you guys as I leave the Argentina CCM for Montevideo,
Uruguay. I am humbled by your supportive emails and the fact that you
guys are proud of me, and I´m starting to realize why Sister Dixon sounded so
happy! Being on a mission is hard, but so many times, I have felt
indescribable joy.
Anyway, I
guess what I´m trying to say is even if we don´t know what´s going to happen in
a year, God does. He puts specific experiences in our lives to prepare
us. If you had asked me a year ago what I´d be doing today,
there is no way I would´ve guessed I´d be in South America learning Spanish,
eating more meat than I have ever had in my entire life, developing a
love for the people here, and trying a bit harder every day to hand
everything over to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I
leave for Uruguay early Tuesday morning, and I am so PUMPED!
And freaked out. This past week at the CCM has honestly been so
awesome, and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to finish on a good note
here. Here are a few quick highlights from my week:
·
The cook here who
always says "siempre bien" is famous!!! One night I was
grabbing dinner, and he pulled out this huge photo album and showed me pictures
of him with all these apostles. He is honestly one of the coolest, most
humble guys I´ve met!
·
Hermana Schaeffer and
I got a little bored one night, so we decided to arm wrestle. Never
in my life have I met someone who is so similar in strength. After
about five minutes of back and forth, she beat me, but I´m totally going to
cream her next time.
·
Proselyting was
so much better!! We got to go to a new area and it was great. I
went with Hermana Bond in my district, and my companions went together.
It was hard being away from them, but Hermana Bond and I met lots of awesome
people, including this old man named Luis. Luis is a security guard and
was standing outside of a hospital under construction. We talked to him
for a while, and he totally reminded me of a mixture of Coach Klatt (my
terrific track coach) and Brother Tabor (he smelled exactly like Brother
Tabor)! But don´t worry, it´s not like I smelled him or anything, his cologne
was just really strong. He had the cutest, toothless dog, and we had lots
of fun talking with him and petting his dog. Anyway, I left him with a Libro de Mormon with my testimony in the
cover. At first, he didn´t want to take it because he thought I wanted
money for it, but I told him it was "liberado" aka
"freedom." I think he got the point though!
·
My new Latina roomies
are AWESOME! Every night, we say "amigas por siempre," which
means "friends forever." They are hoots and they teach us lots
of Spanish so it´s great!
·
Mom, those granola
bars we bought have really come in handy! We´ve been teaching lots of
lessons on the Word of Wisdom to our investigators (who are really our
teachers), and every time we leave, we give them a granola bar because they´re
healthy! Oh and funny story, one time, I was like, "Yeah you can eat
graños! They are healthy for your body!" Really, the word for
grains is granos, and graños means skulls, so that was pretty confusing for
awhile.
I´ve got
to go, but I LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you for being the best, and just know I
am excited for this new adventure! Thank you for giving me the
opportunity to serve a mission!
Hermana Dixon
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