Life here at the MTC (or CCM) is great! The first couple of days they kept us really busy and I was just in a daze but I think I am getting into the swing of things. There are only 18 missionarys here! total! And I am one of four sisters! There is me and Hermana Read (from Michigan going to Málaga) Hermana Costagriola (from Italy going to Madrid) and Sister Sylvia (from Brazil going to Portugal) and then14 elders with three of them from pPortugal going to Portugal. They said this is the smallest group they have had in a long time.
We wake up at 6:30, get ready, and go eat breakfast. Breakfast is always good. Potato de Patata is my favorite. Then we have personal study then compainon study the we teach a lesson to one of our teachers pretending to be an investigator.
Then we do language study. Gosh it is difficult to learn a language.
Then its usually lunch then more language study and then a Physical actitie. Usually Hermana Read and I take this oppurtunity to go for a walk. The Elders got us to play volley ball with them once and we spent most of the time making are teams lose and laughing at eachother so walking is where it is at. We get to walk around the city and it is my favorite part of the day.
The we have Dinner. So um the food is interesting. We have a ton of fish. Let me rephrase that everyone else eats a ton a fish and Hermana Read and I have a ton of oranges and bread. sometimes salads or rice or something but um yeah. I will work on eating seafood poco a poco.
Then more language study then we teach another "investagator" and more language study then snack and then bed.
On Fridays we have a service activity. Last friday we cleaned the marble in front of the templo and that was cool.
Sorry I am trying to type fast.
Saturdays are the best! On Saturday we went to the parque and did some contacting. I think the name of it is Parque del Retiro or something like that but you should google it because it is breathe taking. (here is a link) Gardens and statues and this pond thing with row boats and a giant fountain. I love España! The actual contacing was super difficult. I was put with Hermaña Costagriola(Costa-yolla) who thankfully speaks english very well. She is still learning spanish but she is way better than I am.
The main person we talked to was Miguel. Miguel was an old man sitting on a park nech and he was very willing and grateful to talk to us. He lives in a pobre house and has had a lot of trials. He asked us how old we were and why we were so happy. We tried to explain to him (in very broken spanish) about the gospel. We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to curch. He was excited and said he would come and we were excited and then he asked if we were going to be there and we had to telll him no because we just go to church in the ccm but other missionaries would be there so then he seemed a lot less willing to come. He gave us his phone number and we gave it to the ,mission office. It was just exciting to converse with a real spaniard in spanish about the church. We also talked to the little old lady who kissed the pass along card we gave her because it was a picture of Jesus and it made my heart melt. She wouldnt give us he number or take anything else from us but she asked if we could come back next saturday because she just like talking with us. I think at at one point she was making fun of me but I couldnt tell exactly what she was saying and she kept calling me the American but she sincerely thanked me for talking to her when we left and showed me a picture of her neice and said we reminded her of her.
Thursdays are P-days! We start off the day by going to the temple and it is amazing. The Madrird temple is huge. We've been twice now and they did the sessions in English and it is just so calming.
Teaching are teachers is soo stressful to me. We are required to use Spanish and I am struggling. It is so frustrating to have the perct answer to a question and not know how to say it. And Hermana Read has learned so much faster than anyone else at the ccm so she always does most of the talking. I was feeling like I was waaaay behind until last night. A teacher was giving us feedback after our lesson adn he just told us how impressed he was with us and I apologized to him for my poor language abilities and he just looked really suprised and told me my Spanish is at the point he sees most missionaries get to in week three. Of course then he told Herman Reed her's is at week 6 but hey., Ive only been here a week. I just need to stop comparing myself lol.
Oh! The MTC president told us this hilarious joke yesterday and I´ll translate it for you:
There are two boys. They went to the river. One got in the water and started swimming. He turned to the other and said: "don´t you swim at all?" and the other said "I didn´t bring my swim suit!" hahahahaha. Get it?!? Oh good times.
I can´t figure out how to get my pictures to load so sorry if those never come.
My hair dryer works! And my straightener hasn´t melted yet!
Im almost out of time.
Tell Dad I said go Seahawks!!!
and tell everyone else that Im sorry and their emails were very comforting to me.
I love you!
Hermana Ashby
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