Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Getting Closer to Ecuador!

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hola!!!
 
It has been yet another quick week that has passed in the CCM. The days seem to last forever and the weeks tend to fly by. Being here has made me feel so much of my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for me. I love it so much here and can´t wait to get to Ecuador! Sorry this e-mail is going to be brief. 
 
This week we were asked to invite others to come into Christ. We decided to sing hymns to some of the workers here and it was so much fun! The 3 Hermanas in my district and I decided to knock on the Mission President's door ( his home is not far from our classroom) and we shared a scripture and sang him and his wife a hymn. We were nervous about it and not sure if they would mind so we said a prayer before and had a good feeling about it. They invited us into their home and talked to us for about 45 minutes. They are so sweet and it was nice to feel like we were in an actual home with people who loved us. The closest thing to Grandma and Grandpa! The spirit is so strong when we sing and I love singing in Spanish. Our district will be singing "God Be With You till We Meet Again." Next Sunday in sacrament since it will be our last. Not sure if we will be able to make it through the song without crying. 
 
This Sunday we had beef diaphragm which was actually AMAZING. Tasted a lot like a roast in a crock pot. Hermana Walton, one of my roommates was talking about brownies all week long and how wonderful it would be if we could some how get a brownie mix from Costco. We tried to get our instructor to get us some but he said he wouldn't be able to. However, this Sunday after church the Bishop's wife had brought us BROWNIES!!! We were so happy, although I enjoyed the cookies she brought better, it was so nice to see our Branch excited to have some American food. 
 
I actually met the Mission President's daughter of the Guayaquil South mission at a devotional yesterday! She was sitting next to me in the auditorium so it was nice to talk to her for awhile about Guayaquil etc. She told me the drivers there are so much worse than the ones in Mexico City which is hard to imagine and that it is very humid and HOT! No surprise there. It made me that much more excited to get to Ecuador. I feel like I'm ready, not my Spanish by any means, but I am so ready to get things started. I feel like the best way to get the language down is to be in the field. Glad it is no longer 9 weeks here, 6 is enough for me.
 
My current favorite verses, thought I would share!
 
 
34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.
35 Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.   

I miss everyone so much.
Con Amor,
Hermana Lyman

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Halfway Through the MTC!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Hola,

It is crazy to think that I am now half way done with my time here at the CCM! Time has really picked up from the first week and it makes me sad to leave this place. This past week has been another incredible one. I am learning so much each week and growing more in love with this place and the people here. The days are starting to blend together and it´s hard to remember life before this. It rains everyday here, usually just a light drizzle, but enough for a daily usage of my umbrella. Trying to write in English is becoming harder because everything appears to be spelled wrong.... Spanish is messing with my English! The other night I dreamt that I was at the hospital and I was trying to explain where I was hurting in Spanish but I couldn't remember a word so the Doctor couldn't understand me. I was so upset in my dream that I woke up in the middle of the night. I guess dreaming in semi-Spanish is a good thing. It's quite funny because almost every night someone has a night mare and screams or is speaking Spanish in their sleep. I have learned that if everyone spoke Spanish like my instructor, that I would more or less understand what was being said, but when a native speaks it seems to sound like gibberish! Cannot wait for the day when I can understand despite the mumbling and insane rolling of the letter ¨R¨.
Sundays here are probably my favorite day. I love sacrament meetings and our branch presidency is made up of some of the best men. They are natives and so strong in the gospel. Their families attend and they have such a wonderful spirit. We also have 3 devotionals on Sunday which are always way good and I learn so much from them. We are still hoping that Elder Holland will figure out that it is necessary that he make an appearance at the new CCM for a devotional (fingers are crossed). It only makes sense, right? Haha! This Sunday was a little bit sad, Elder Dennis (mission president´s son) left for El Salvador. He was suppose to leave on Tuesday but his flight itinerary changed and he left 2 days early at 3 am! He was excited but nervous at the same time. He is going to be a great missionary and I just know I am going to love his parents! It is going to be hard to leave this place and the missionaries I have grown to love. At the same time I am eager and excited to be in Ecuador! It will definitely be a bitter-sweet thing. 
Today we went to the temple in the city and it was so BEAUTIFUL!!! It was such a great spiritual experience with my district and fun to see parts of the city on the drive. After the session my 3 roommates and I had to check out the bridal room which was so gorgeous. My future hubby better have a lot of groomsmen because I have added 3 more bridesmaids to my list. I LOVE these Hermanas so much! Drivers in Mexico City are CRAZY and traffic is awful!!! People are all over the place and cutting in front of buses etc. I hear Ecuador is just as bad though. There are tons of VW Beatles and of course I thought of you Miss Sara O´Dell. I have been very cautious of what I eat because there are a lot of missionaries here that are getting sick with gastrointestinal problems. 
The other day at lunch Hermana Romney sat at our table and of course I had to ask if she was related to Mitt. Mitt is her dad's cousin and she is actually from Dallas, Texas! She is quite the classy lady and super sweet. She did her last 3 years of high school in Mexico because her parents were actually mission presidents here. So she is pretty much fluent in Spanish meaning she will only be here 2 weeks. Hermana Berrett (mi companera) and I joke and call ourselves the Abuelas of the CCM. Everyone is 18 and 19! Mi compenera wore my placa de nombre (name tag) ayer and we didn't notice till halfway through the day. There is actually another Hermana Lyman here. During a devotional this week President Pratt announced that Hermana Lyman would be giving the opening prayer and that she was going to Alabama. I was scared for a second until I realized that the Alabama was not me! The rest of the day I had random elders telling me that they thought I was going to give the prayer or telling me I did a good job. Haha!

I am having the time of my life here and loving almost every minute of it! I LOVE IT HERE!!! I see Elder Lopez about every other day so that is always nice to have that connection to home! and his district LOVES him! All the elders hang around him, it makes me so happy to see! 
Our lessons are going well with our investigators! Nosotros tenemos dos commitments para bauptizmo! Nosotros estaba el primer en nuestro districo tener un commitment para bauptizmo! Translation: (We have two commitments for baptism! We were the first in our district to have a commitment for baptism!)

With Love,
Hermana Lyman


















Wednesday, August 14, 2013

2 Weeks Down... 76 Weeks to Go!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Hola,

It feels like I have been here for 4 months, cant believe it has only been 2 weeks! Things are still going well, the spirit is so strong and I am learning a lot. I never knew just how hard missionary work was though. I'm sure I won't really get just how hard it is until I'm in Ecuador. Most of the missionaries here are amazing and truly special spirits!

Iggy (the stuffed TY beanie baby iguana that Sara gave me at the farewell) is quite popular in the MTC! So this past week he came up in class and I told the Elders one of my tall tales. I told them that I had brought my pet Iguana with me and the church let me bring him because he is trained to lead blind kids. And they BELIEVED me......oh dear so funny. 18 year old boys!!! Of course I told them the truth later that night and it just so happened to be that on his tag it said his birthday was 8-12-1997. So Iggy´s birthday was yesterday, so my district celebrated his birthday and all the elders were so funny and excited to meet him!!! It was so much fun. We ate dessert from the cafeteria and one of the elders bought him a future missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints missionary tag from the store here!!! It looks so cute on him!

This is Iggy the Iguana

At the Farewell party with Iggy

Hola,

This past week has gone by so FAST compared to the first week.  The days are meshing together and flying by so quickly now.  Classes have been going well and Spanish is coming along however I feel like there is so much I need to learn.  One of our lessons with Carlos went on for over an hour when it was only suppose to last 20 minutes.  He is very stubborn! We have another investigator this week named Rogelio who is very nice and responsive unlike Carlos haha.  The investigators are our teachers so it is pretty intimidating to teach your teacher! However it amazes me that we are able to teach discussions in Spanish without notes.  This past Sunday I was called up by the branch presidency to give a talk on the apostasy at the beginning of the meeting so I was glad I had just taught Carlos that lesson the week before and was able to do give a 10 minute talk in Spanish.  I was able to bear my testimony and feel so strongly of the spirit.  Hopefully I don’t get called up this Sunday to give a talk again, they call you out of the audience however I’m hoping I can relax this Sunday!  We had a televised devotional last night and Richard G. Scott of the 12 apostles spoke.  I was able to sit next to Elder Lopez so it was good to talk home with him.   It was such a great devotional and he focused a lot on prayer and our relationship with our father in heaven.  He blessed us with the gift of tongues if we have faith and are obedient.

I actually met my mission president´s son, Elder Dennis, who is going to El Salvador! He is a super cool guy and I talked to him at lunch one day about his parents so I just know I’m going to love them! He leaves in a week and it just so happened that a sister I talked to the first week I was here met him and remembered me! She ran into me the other day and said ¨Sister Lyman your mission president´s son is here! ¨ So my companion actually spotted him one day in the cafeteria and now I see him all the time!  He told me he has a 15 year old sister that is living in Ecuador with his parents right now and going to a private school down there.  He will attend BYU when he gets off the mission and said that the church is actually paying for his schooling until his parents get back from their mission.  How cool is that??

 My companion and I also went and talked to the MTC president, President Pratt yesterday and as soon as we introduced ourselves and told him we were nurse specialist he was so NICE!! He said you are the two going to Ecuador!!! I’ve been wanting to meet you two Hermanas!!! He talked to us about Ecuador for awhile (he lived there for 7 years, and some of his family) and thanked us for being here.  We met with him to get special permission to use the computers for the medical program we will be using in the field.  I have access to all the missionaries’ files in my mission and Hermana Berrett actually attended 2 day training at the Provo MTC prior to coming here for nursing.  She told me they called her and asked her if she could attend.  Wish they would have called me, I would have flown into Utah for the training but I guess they figured since she lived in Utah it would be easy for her to go.  Oh well Hermana Berrett is going to show me the ropes! We have also started meeting with the MTC doctor during our gym time in order to be trained by him.  He is so sweet and nice and I love meeting with him. He taught us where to numb a toe before removing part of the toenail since ingrown toenails are frequent problem with the Elders.  He said to look it up on YouTube if we forget or just send them to a podiatrist! He is such a funny guy and I’m looking forward to learning more from him.

 Love ya'll

Hermana Lyman

This was the building that I had my classes in the first week! Had to take a picture with it since its named after my great X4 grandfather!!


The Ecuadorian flag Sara bought for a penny hung up in our room.


 This is the rock wall and fence that cover the entire 90 acres!!! Pretty cool, huh?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

First Email from the MTC in Mexico City!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013
 
HOLA!!!!!
 
I never thought I would be so excited to be able to email and receive emails! I have been looking forward to this for quite some time now! So much has happened this week and I apologize now for the novel I am about to write, but I have so much to tell and little time to do so. Please forgive the bad grammar and spelling, I am typing as fast as possible in order to express my feelings and share some of my experiences here. The keyboards here are quite different as well so I am still figuring out how to punctuate etc. First off, thank you so much for the emails. I can't express how much reading a simple email means to me and how much I look forward to it. I actually teared up because even though it has only been a week, it feels like a year. I would also love some photos if possible, I regret not bringing any so feel free to email or mail me some! I will start with the first couple of days here. They were extremely difficult for me. I wish I could express the feelings I experienced but I cannot put it into words. I was very discouraged and looking back can see that I needed to feel that way to rely completely on the Lord. Everything was very unorganized, Spanish class was not very structured just pure immersion of our instructor speaking Spanish to us. Not sure how Bryce did Russian, respect him so much for that! I had a hard time sleeping the first 2 nights because I had so much on my mind. We had our first lesson with Carlos, a fake investigator, on the 2nd day with no notes and our broken Spanish. I could not feel the spirit at all in our first lesson and with the Spanish I knew and few words I learned. Looking back on the lesson, it's a miracle that we were able to say one sentence let alone teach this guy about Christ and the gospel for 15 minutes. Carlos acted very uninterested in our lesson and said one word answers to our questions. I wanted to say so many things but did not have the words. When we get back to our house we smelled vomit and found that someone decided to come in our room to our bathroom and vomit all over the side, floor, and wall and then leave it for us to clean up. Who does that? Our room has finally aired out. I took a shower in an open room in our house and came out to find that my companion had cleaned the vomit in the bathroom because she knew how frustrated I was. Can I just say that I have the BEST companion ever! She also got pooped on by a bird the first night when we and other roommates went out to pick up cups in order to drink water from the large bottled water containers when this old man stops us, gives us a speech about not being out this late at night etc it was about 9:45 p.m. How embarrassing, I felt like I was in high school again. Come to find out the next day the old man is the MTC president, President Pratt. So this gives you a brief idea of how my first few days went. Do not worry, I am now having the time of my life and love everything about this place. To describe the MTC, we refer to it as CCM, it is so incredibly peaceful and beautiful. It is on 90 acres and has numerous casas and apartment style living. The rooms are nice, all newly remodeled with tile and nice bathrooms. Our house has 5 bedrooms and houses 20 girls. The CCM grounds are BEAUTIFUL!!! They mow and there are workers constantly cleaning, gardening, and fixing things. We have actually become friends with the gardener who is amazing, we can only understand half of what he says to us but he stops what he is doing when he sees my companion and I and talks. He told us he trims all the hedges, trees, and makes different designs with some of the trees because of his love for the missionaries. I about cried my eyes out right there, he is so sweet. The CCM is in a valley and the mountains surround just about every angle with bright multicolored houses up the mountain. It has been a school for 50 years and has such a wonderful spirit, almost like a holy place. We feel so far from the city yet it is completely surrounding us. The entire CCM in surrounded in a rock wall with a fence on top of that.  Surrounding the fences are large bushes so we can hear cars passing on busy highways, however we can not see them. We actually hear several rounds of gun shots at night which reminds us that the city is more than just a pretty view. I don't know how I got so blessed with the BEST companion in the world, Hermana Berrett, the BEST district, and the BEST instructor ever. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my companion! I want to find away for her to be in our family. I already joke with her that I  have 3 single, smart, handsome, sweet, and the best part... Texan brothers! She has a boyfriend but you never know, a year and a half is a long time! Just wishful thinking. Hermana Berrett is from Riverton Utah, 22 years old, just graduated nursing school from UVU and we are so much alike. She is cute and the one of the sweetest and loving persons that I've ever met. Of course behind Grandma! I love you grandma and grandpa and are think about yall! Gym time here is golden. Hermana Berrett and I play volleyball with a few elders that played some in high school or club volleyball so it gets pretty intense but we can hang with them! Hermana Berrett is pretty good and we have a BLAST!!! She played tennis in high school so when we find some rackets and tennis balls she is going to teach me! The other two girls in our room are great as well! We all get along, we all are clean, and we have a lot of fun. My district is amazing as well,  its the girls I room with and 8 elders. These elders are 18 years old and all so different. I have grown to love everyone of them! We have truly grown so much as a district in just one week and even our instructor, Hermano Brown says we are one of the best districts he has ever had. We are very open and have great spiritual experiences and at the same time have so much fun. I never thought that being so immersed in the gospel could be so much fun. There is so much love and happiness here and I am loving so much of it! Our lessons with Carlos are getting better and better and I can feel the spirit so strongly when we testify to him! Hermana Berrett is a power house at teaching! I love it! Hermano Brown, my instructor actually knew Daniel, Marilyn's husband on his mission! He said that Daniel facebooked him and asked if he knew me, so it is pretty crazy that he is my instructor! He is so passionate and funny! I'm never bored in class and he amplifies the spirit by 10 and makes me want to study study study! Wish I could write more but my time is limited. Know that I love and miss everyone so deeply.  I can't express just how much my family means to me! I pray for everyone individually and hope things are going well!  I am growing so much here in the gospel and my love of the church!!! How could ANYONE EVER doubt it. I love singing in Spanish and the language is coming pretty well. Will send pictures in another email! The CCM is growing every week. We had 118 new missionaries arrive yesterday and a lot of Spanish speakers today.  President Pratt informed us that we are now over 800 missionaries and will be receiving more that were suppose to attend the Argentina and Peru MTC on top of the 100 missionaries that are arrive every week. We are not able to have devotionals in the auditorium because we have outgrown it. We are now meeting in the gym. Not sure how many missionaries this place can hold but the influx is insane. President Pratt is actually an international lawyer for the church and has lived in South America for the last 35 years. He gave a devotional yesterday and talked quite a bit about the temple in Guayaquil Ecuador! He searched for many of the temple sites in South America and dealt a lot with president Hinckley so that was pretty cool. Also I forgot to tell y'all that my companion is going to Quito north mission!!! We fly out the same day so that will be nice! My p-days are Wednesdays. Ahhhhh so sorry to keep adding to this email but I'm waiting for my companion to finish and remembered that Elder Lopez is now the DISTRICT LEADER of his district! I've only seen him a few times but he seems to be doing well! so proud of that guy!

With love,
Hermana Lyman

P.S. The mission address here is:
Carr. Tenayuca-Chalmita No. 828
Col. Zona Escolar, Deleg. G.A. Madero
C.P. 07230, Mexico, D.F. Mexico