Sister Training Leader (Who is Surprised?) Not this MOMMA

This week was good. We went to the market and it was wonderful to actually see the people of Guatemala and see who I will be teaching. It was awesome. There was a day this week that was hard, we got discouraged a little bit, but we were able to change our thoughts and the next day was so much better. Actually, that day we were doing TALL which is language study and one of the teachers came in and asked for my companion and I. And said the President wants to meet with you. Well guess what. . . . I got called to be the Sister Training Leader, which means I get to be in charge with one other girl for all of the sisters. I have meetings on Sunday with the Branch Presidency and district and zone leaders. I am the only girl in there. I have meetings on Saturday with all of the leaders and the other Sister Training Leader. Its good, just reminds me of going to my ward correlation meetings. I make sure that the lights are off by 10:30 and that we have a song and prayer at night. We have been teaching away this week and have had some good lessons. Where I know I didnt know some of the words I was saying and others where I was struggling. I need to go by the spirit. Definitely makes things easier and not trying to focus on what words to say, I just need to open my mouth. I went to the temple again today and boy is it such a wonderful place to go. I also LOVED Sunday, we had church, then watched The Mountain of the Lord, had a wonderful fireside from President and watched Jospeh Smith The Restoration. We had a member of the first quorum of the seventy come and speak to us last night which was really good, he talked about being a successful missionary. There are some sisters here that I know that I will be friends with for the rest of my life, we get a long so well and have such a good time together. We just laugh away at meals which is a good way to have a break from studying. Take care and love to all. Hermana Andriel Newman

Another Great Week

This week has been great as well. There are those days that are kind of tough and hard to learn this language but I am just hoping that it comes to me. I can tell that it is getting better as time goes by. People say that it takes like 600 hours to become fluent, so we are working hard at it. We have just been teaching and practicing. My teachers are amazing and I truely love having them as my teachers because they know how to teach and know about the doctrine. They help me out soooo much and it makes me want to work harder to learn more about the gospel, so that when I go out and teach that I teach with the understanding of the gospel. Sunday, was such a good day!! I definitely felt the spirit so much. I mean all day was filled with church just like any other day here. Sacrament was great, one of the Elders sang I Need Thee Every Hour and WOW was it beautiful. It was what I needed because I do know that I need Him every hour. We also watched The Testaments as well as Legacy which both of those are great movies. We listened to a devotional by Elder Bednar and that was wonderful. He talked about how we need to make sure that our investigators learn and not necessarily that we are good teachers because we need to be teaching by the spirit. Thats definitely what I have to work on is just letting the Holy Ghost take over and let the words come out of my mouth. It was really what I needed to hear because at times there are periods of discouragement because the language isn't coming and its hard, because you want to express yourself to the people you teach, but you can't figure out how to put it into Spanish. I know I could tell them a lot more of how I felt about the gospel if it was in English, but I am doing my best at Spanish and praying and having faith that it will come. Thats about all that I have this week but will have more next week because it will be next wednesday when I write again. Because we are going to the market. We are writing today because there is no time tomorrow. We are going to the TEMPLE as well. YAY!!!!!!! Hermana Newman

Survival Mode in CCM

I survived a week in the CCM!! Yay! Sometimes it feels like its been forever that I have been in here, but then again it has gone by fast. My companion is great! We met at the Salt Lake Airport and found out we were going to the same mission and then got to the CCM and found out that we will be companions. We get along great and have had many spiritual moments together. I love this gospel! I definitely can say that I can tell that I am three plus years older than them. sometimes I have to get them back on task, but we get through it. I have the best CCM teacher ever! He teaches so well and knows so much about the gospel. He asks us really deep questions and it really makes me think. He always tells us that we need to ponder about it and that we will get our answer. Learning the language is a struggle but it's coming. We practice practice practice! We have an investigator that we are teaching (which we started teaching him the second day we got here and had no idea what we were doing). Tonight is our last night teaching him and then we pass him onto the missionaries that are in his area. We have had so many spiritual experiences with him. It's been amazing teaching him, he is so ready for this gospel and is really thinking about being baptized. Sunday felt like just another day besides partaking of the sacrament. My companion and I taught a lesson in district class which was really good actually. One of the Elders said that he could really tell that it was something we believed in because we taught it with passion. It was on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can definitely say that I am getting out of my comfort zone here and it really hasn't been that big of a deal. I get nervous but I just do it. I met the Area Medical Advisors wife in Relief Society and she got soooo excited when I told her that I will be the nurse for the central mission. She brought her husband over to me in sacrament so that I could meet him. He was way nice and excited to meet me too. Today we had the opportunity to go to the temple here which is right down the street from the CCM. The temple was so great!! I love it! It is a really small temple but man is it pretty just like any other temple. So wonderful! It felt amazing to sit in the Celestial room and just ponder and have it be soo quiet. Definitely felt the spirit then. I LOVE this gosepl. It is so wonderful and great! I am glad that I am here in this CCM so that I can be pushed into the language with people who know some English but Spanish is their first language. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!! Love, Hermana Newman.