Chapter 1 - Spanish from a firehose

Ashley didn't let us know what day P-day was at her CCM.  So we wrote to her on Sunday night, hoping that P-day was on Monday.  Monday came and went, no word.  So did Tuesday, and Wednesday.  By Thursday we were a bit antsy, and then a letter finally arrived around noon on Thursday.  In a separate email she described the experience like "learning Spanish from a fire hose".  Here is what she wrote...

"Hello everyone! Thanks to everyone who wrote to me, I can feel all of your love and am so grateful for all of you!

So, what have you guys done in the past month....oh wait...Ive only been here a week? oh, ok. This week has literally felt like months. I think there is a reason they have you write your family and friends a week after you get here, because if you wrote after being here one or two days all you would say is oh my gosh what am I doing here? what did I get myself into? and it is kind of overwhelming at first, but after a few more days you realize its still really hard but you can do it!

Ok first of all, some things about the CCM (MTC). Its so awesome and my teacher said there are only about 75 missionaries total here right now-like this is not the Provo MTC, people. Its super small but I love it so much! The latina Hermanas are so awesome and I love them all soo much. They help us with our Spanish and are so fun to talk to...even if I cant really understand them. The food here is pretty good. Some of it is kind of weird, like one day we had pot roast but there was like an egg inside...? I dont even know how they did that...but it was good nonetheless! Also, they have fruit juices here at a lot of meals and THEY ARE THE BEST JUICES I HAVE EVER HAD!!! They are soo good and so fresh, ah I love them! Also, right before I wrote this email we ate lunch and I ate fish...yes, I did actually eat it. For those of you who know me, know that I don't like fish, but it was super good! Other than that they serve us pretty normal stuff and they give us a lot so ever time I just say to the cook un poco, por favor haha and they give me less.

This week has really been a roller coaster of emotions. The first few days I felt overwhelmed a little bit with what I had to do. The first Friday after we got here we had to teach an investigator in Spanish....that was probably the hardest thing I have ever done...but it all worked out! We are teaching two investigadores right now, Hector y Ricardo. At the beginning of the week Hermana Phippen and I (mi compañera) kind of got frustrated because we were having a hard time teaching and we felt like we never knew what to teach but Presidente DuVall and ourr other teachers really helped us in tryring to learn how to teach. I mean, thats the reason we are here, right? In one of our devotionals, someone said that it is not enough to be set apart as a missionary, we need to BECOME a missionary and I thought that was really important because we are all here to learn and grow and become the best teachers we can who rely on the Lord and answer the needs of investigadores.

I love Sundays! They are soo good and they are in English for half the day so that makes it so great because then we can understand and get something out of the day too. Also, on Sunday (like the first Sunday here) I was asked to share my testimony in Sacrament...I was super grateful for the opportunity and went up there with my notebook that had my testimony in Spanish written on it and bore it in front of the whole CCM. It was a very neat experience. We also had a super wonderful devotional by Hermana DuVall on la Expiacion (the Atonement) and it just reminded me that God is here for me and knows everything I am going through and is willing to help me if I reach out to him and I know he will answer all of your questions too-just rely on the Lord!

So today, Thursday the 17th) is Pday and we got to go to the Temple today! It is so beautiful. One of the Hermanas in my room asked if she could wear my skirt today haha it was so cute and I said yes so Ill try to send a picture with her in it! The session was in English so that was really neat, we are going again on Tuesday buut I think its a Spanish session so we will see how that goes! It was just so neat to me that in a country a million miles away from home, the gospel is still the same. The same spirrit is in Bogota that is in Utah! 

So, one of the first things we learned to do here is pray en Español and I love it! I cant say a lot but it is so neat that I can do that and ask Heavenly Father for help with my problems (aka learning how to speak Spanish...) Sometimes Im like why do I have to learn Spanish but I know that the Lord has called me to this work and that since he has, he will support me! Also, Im then thankful that I dont have to learn some other crazy language like Chinese or Russian or Cambodian or Tagolog or some other crazy hard language. Like sometimes I dont know a word (well that happens a lot) and I just add like -cia to the end or something and pretend its a word...haha until I look it up in the dictionary.

Anyway, thank you again for all your love and prayers, I can really feel them working and I know God is watching out for all of you and he is ready to help you as long as you come unto Him. Have a great week!

I love you all!

Love, 

Hermana Roylance"