Week 3: Death By Red Chicken

Hola mis amigos!!

Another week done here at the CCM and it is lit to say the least. Everyday we wake up at 6:30, get ready, eat, study, go to class, eat some more, exercise, study more, go to more class, eat again, more class and then sleep. Pretty boring right? Wrong!! I am actually having so much fun, learning soooo much about Jesus Christ and Spanish, and laughing harder than ever with the missionaries in my district and my teachers.

Had my first Sunday at the CCM last week and it was so good. Every week, each missionary has to prepare a 5 minute talk to say in church entirely in Spanish. But the twist is... the bishopric assigns who is speaking that day approximately 10 seconds before they have to go up and speak. So in my classic fashion, Sunday morning about 1 hour before church I started writing a talk that I wasn't sure was ever going to be read. They said one person from each district would give a talk but no one from my district was called last week so I think we're basically all screwed for this week.

Spanish is coming along but it is also pretty hard. My vocabulary is getting good but I really just want to start forming sentences and start having basic conversations. I know I gotta be patient though. One really cool thing I learned this week in a workshop by the one and only Benjamin Castanada (the GOAT of all workshop teachers) is that I am not learning this language for myself. If I try learning this language for myself, I will get frustrated and progress slowly. I am learning this language for the people of Honduras. I am learning this language so they can hear of the joy and peace they can feel through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That being said, me and Elder Evanson have been grinding on our Spanish studies and we have seen a lot of improvement.

This week, the cafeteria food gained its first (and hopefully last) victory over me. I'm still alive though so is it really a loss?

We did some practice teaching this week with the missionaries in our district but the ones who were assigned to be investigators were also told to come up with their own character who would make it difficult for us to teach. Elder Cushing took the honor of pretending to be Dolly Parton. I don't know if any of us really know who she is but whatever Elder Cushing did might be my favorite teaching experience for the next 2 years. Long story short, he (or should I say she) ended up singing a personalized song that was made up on the spot where I was basically being hit on. Needless to say, I broke character and died laughing at the sheer creativity and hidden talent of Elder Cushing pretending to be a southern female singer.

Highlights:

-I feel the Spirit so much and it is so amazing to share experiences with others where the Spirit is so strong.

-Elder Cushing. That's it. I love that guy so much.

-I ate 9 steak tacos yesterday. Fire.

-Bought a hacky sack. Basically pros now (can keep it up for maybe 3 hits).

-I love learning. I love class and study time. It's so incredible to see how much I have learned in such a short time

This week I studied faith a lot and it is so important to have faith! Faith is what gives each of us the ability to work with the power of God! Faith can be hard to find sometimes but in the Book of Mormon we see so many examples of it. In Alma 19: 9 it says,"I have no witness [ ] nevertheless I believe". I. Love. This. It is so important that we have faith even when we don't have a full witness. I promise that God will give you a witness of His love and presence in your life if you have faith and pray!!

Love you all so much!! And sorry again for the long email, most of you know how much I like to talk haha

Elder Snyder