Last week in the CCM Mexico :)

WOOOOOOOW okay here we go!

    SO This week has been pretty crazy! the Friday after last P-day Mí Compañera y Yo taught Valentina (´´Investigator´´ who is really our teacher) and in our last lesson she told us that her mother had passed away and we were talking to her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about repentance and such and I shared with her Alma 32:13 (Its really good go read it!). But all through out our lesson I was sorta worried about my Spanish and I was just trying so hard to make It a good lesson and at the end I felt like I hadn´t done my best. But, after we said our closing prayer, my teacher Hermana Uribe usually gives us some feed back on how to make our lessons better and all she said was ´´Su lección, en verdad...´´ (Google translate: "This lesson really...") she paused for a long time and with tears in her eyes she finished ´´Perfecto.´´ ....uhhh  ¡¿what?! ¿QUE? I was SO focused on trying to have good Spanish that I completely missed the fact that the spirit said to her more than I did. I was SO grateful for that I was SO down for along time about my teaching skills. and Hermana Uribe cheered me right up with 5 simple words!

    She told me later that it not only helped ´´Valentina´´ but it helped her as Hermana Uribe and it was really that scripture that got her. I was way happy because everytime I study the Book of Mormon in the morning before breakfast I ask heavenly father if he can help me find scriptures for my investigators and I had studied that chapter and found that scripture THAT morning. Little things like that have been happening all week. The scriptures are SO powerful :)

    I gave ANOTHER talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday. (thanks district leaders) AND to add to that I was the only one from my District speaking...so the whole Image of the 6th-week-spanish-speakers was on MY shoulders. uhhm YIKES. I tried to be all cool and NOT write my talk down word for word cause I knew everyone else would and it went oookay...but not perfect, and that´s fine! I was about the power and importance of the priesthood and I ended with ´´Yo no tengo, pero yo siento.) which loosely means ´´I don´t have it but I feel it´´ 

    ALSO at the end of last week they put my districts flight plans up on the board. K it´s official, I´m leaving here. WOAH. O.O (my woah face). I leave the CCM at about 11 o´clock at night on Monday January 27. My flight leaves at about1:15 AM Tuesday morning :) The board says that I´ll arrive in Ecuador at 10:33 that same morning. I´m not sure yet if I´ll have any layovers but If I do I´ll call you for sure :)

    So the new NEW district in our zone is pretty much the chillest thing ever. First of all we´ve got Hermana Te´o from Hawaii who just happens to be the sister of Manti Te´o (football guy). THATS CHILL. Also, we´ve got Elder Ngatai from Timpanogos High, fun to see a familiar face again. And my personal favorite, Hermana Miller who was in the Relief Society presidency of Bishop Christensen´s BYU ward! So shes seen our house and she knows our friends and she understands me!! :D

    Anyway, my favorite scripture I´ve read this week would be in Alma 32...really just all of it :)  I underlined almost EVERYTHING! Me Gusta Mucho! (Google translate: Much Likes!)

    Also, my favorite teaching moment of the week was teaching my ´´investigator´´ that was really Elder Trautner and asking him to come to church on Sunday and his response being. ´´NO! I If go to your church and not mine I´ll burn.´´...uhhhm, que? 

    Spanish words-slash-phrases of the week: 

1.´´Cómo sobre NO!´´ - Elder Going (and everyone) It means ´´how ´bout NO.´´ and we say it on the daily.

2.´´¡Palabra!´´y´´Solido´´ -Elder Heyrend. He just says ´´word´´ and ´´solid´´ all the time so we round out how to say them in Spanish :)   

3.´´Entonces´´ -EVERYONE! this means ´´so´´ or ´´anyways´´ and we ALL say it ALL the time. but if you say it you gotta say it like ´´ EEntooncesss.´´ 

4.´´dame sus niños´´  and this one... well it came from Herman Blau randomly and we all just sorta died cause she´s SO straight arrow and she hardly ever says anything that is not about spanish grammar or the gospel and then all the sudden she says ´´give me your children´´ and it was just pretty great to say the least! :)

 

It sounds like things are going really great back at home :) I´m sorry you guys are all sick :( we are too. LAAAME. but I´m glad to hear from everyone and to hear about dad NEW JOB!! that´s SO cool :) ¡¡Congrats Padre!!

 

Yo se que el poder del Espiritu Santo es verdad. Y, tambien, yo se que las palabras de los profetas son verdad. Yo se lo, Yo siento lo.

 

(Google translate: I know the power of the Holy Spirit is truth. And also, I know the words of the prophets are true.)

Next time I write ya I´ll be in ECUDAOR!! YAAAY!! 3 words: Bring. It. On.

Mucho amor!

 

Hermana Gamble

 

Moriah's handstands

Heyrend one handed

 Elder Luke, Harrison, and Heyrend

 The cute Hermana is Hermana Miller from Glenn Christiansen´s ward 

 

one month...say whAAt??!

Wow...seriously what a week. SOO many ups...SO many downs!

I forgot to bring my journal so I´m running off my Memory here I guess we´ll see how this works out :)

    The Friday after last P-day was pretty normal :) But Saturday was MUY bueno! I taught out ´´investigator´´ Valentina in the morning and she told us that her mom died and Jones-y (Hermana Jones) and I gave her a really good lesson on the Holy Ghost as the Comforter or, en Español, el Espiritu Santo es como un Consuelador. I told a personal  story about people who I know who have past from this life and the comfort that I have found in Prayer through the Holy Ghost and I just started crying my eyes out!! LIKE WHAT THE HECK... I don´t cry at stuff. It was weird. I´m so emotional now It´s weird! but a good weird for sure! :) 

    We Taught here other lessons like the importance of baptism to receive such a gift as the holy ghost later on like Monday or something and it went really well :) She´s great, She´s also Mi Meastro en la mañana, Hermana Uribe. My teacher in the afternoon is just as cool as her! His name is Hermano Hernadez. He is THE BOMB! He loves us all so much and he is SO helpful. He´s actually a lot like Diggy Ivey...? He even looks like him!

    I´m like the oldest group in the CCM now! Like... I´m next to leave!! CRRRAAAZZY sauce for sure. We got ANOTHER new District in our Zone yesterday and they´re pretty sweet from what I can tell :) 

    We are all getting SO close! (My district) We get along SO well! We´re all starting to really hunker down now that we´ve only got like 12 days left(...yikes!) I´m sorta worried for a few of the kids though, they just don´t feel the need to learn Spanish! Pray for them?

    uhhh....que mas?...No Se. I love this gospel. I love this place.

    Yo se que las palabras de los profetas son verdad. Yo se eso porque cuado yo leo El Libro De Mormon y La Santa Biblia, yo siento felize, y paz en mi corazon. Me encanta el Libro De Mormon. Me encanta la historia de Ammon. He leado esta historia en la ultimo semana y lo aydudame MUCHO por la obra de missional. Por Favor leer las Escrituras DIARIAMENTE!

con todo mi corazon!

-Hermana Gamble

Google Translate:

I know the words of the prophets are true. I know that because I read priate The Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible, I feel felize, and peace in my heart. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the story of Ammon. I've read this story in the last week and help me MUCH for the work of missionary. Please read the scriptures DAILY! 

with all my heart! 

-Sister Gamble

Moriah and her companion on the bus, Sister Jones

Trees

More trees

Hiding behind trees

Climbing trees

Trying to escape the CCM (not really)

Walls around the CCM

Trees

Moriah is a "Joker"

She wrote and said this scrape came totally out of the blue and she has no idea how it happened. Ha! Did she not remember climbing trees and walls??

Dead birds everywhere - sad (Sister Dunne)

Devotional and Relief Society Meeting notes

More notes

Moriah and Sister Dunne Selfie

Playing volleyball Shank is the Ginger 

Volleyball  Moriah telling Elder Harrison, "I´m going to spike the ball right on your face!" (we go hard in the CCM)

Selfies: Moriah, Elders Heyrend (blue), and Going (grey)

 Selfies its Dunne and Moriah and Elders Heyrend (blue) and Going (grey)

Elders Heyrend (blue) and Going (grey)

The Lone colorful man is Elder Stock from District 13... "I dunno he´s pretty cool!"

Moriah and and Mayan-Aztec-Weird-Ancient-Head-Guy

"Marveling at how fluffy and curly my hair gets here. (HONESTLY IT´S HUGE!)"

Week 3

okay...so this week was mas o menos bien.

    After last P-day most of my energy went into welcoming all the new people from our district and trying to make them feel comfortable! they´re doing great! which is a relief for sure!! On friday My companion and the other two girls in our district and I tried out to be in a musical number for one of the devotionals which was SO fun! we actually did really well and we get to sing in front of EVERYBODY...sooo oops! ha! we sang ´´Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor´´ which in English is I know that my redeemer lives. BEAUTIFUL! they all have such great voices! uhh...que mas...oh! We had a great devotional on Sunday by Elder Bednar...again! He gives the BEST devotionals!

     On Monday Hermana Dunne and I started to feel really sick after dinner so we went on splits with our companions and then headed off to the clinic together and both got diagnosed with severe head colds which was NO BUENO! we spent the majority of Monday and Tuesday in bed which made me sad cause I missed the Tuesday devotional which was apparently really good! Anywho, late yesterday afternoon I finally made it outside of our casa for dinner and I´m feeling just great now :) 

    It´s so cool to see all of the new missionaries coming in! Elder Brammal and Elder Plummer from my high school are here and Elder Ross from Elementary is here too! (I haven´t quite got up the nerve to talk to him yet...yikes.) I just love it here! It´s 65 and sunny ALLLLL THEEEE TIIMMMEE!! me. gusta. My favorite part of the day is when I get to just sit outside and study for and hour or so! I love listening to all the birds and trying to shut out all the sirens and music of Mexico City. (It´s SUCH a contrast.)

    Spanish is coming along nicely. Although yesterday I told someone ´´me gusta usted´´ Which I thought meant I like you! just sorta casually, but i guess it means, literally, ´´you please me´´ so that was creepy on my part...YIKES. It´s really hard but I´m understanding more and more every day. Which also means I´m forgetting how to speak English...yikes again. I´m trying to read the new testament along with Jesus the Christ but with my overall lack of language skills and James E. Talmage´s overall MASTERY of language skills It´s taking me a while. But I´m loving it! 

    I can´t help but think about all of my AMAZING friends and their decisions to serve missions! This morning in study I was reading in Alma ch17 and in verse 13 the sons of Mosiah are parting ways to go teach and preach and it says ´´´...they separated themselves and departed from one another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work they had undertaken.´´ Here is a group of brothers who had SO much faith in the lord that they knew for a fact that they would all see each other again. In a time of such hatred towards prophets and men of God one of them could have easily been imprisoned for life or even killed. But they knew that the task that they all gave up the thrown for was so important and they knew that it had to be done and that they would be protected. 

    I Immediately thought about all of us. I needed that SO much and It just shows that God speaks to us individually through the scriptures. They were written for us in these latter days. They are SO important to the gospel. I keep thinking about that one quote by someone cool who said ´´If you want to talk to God, Pray. If you want him to talk to you, Read.´´ I know that´s true. 

 

Anyway, Tiene mas pregunta para mi? Yo tengo preguntas para ustedes! Hows back to school life treating you all? How are wedding plans coming along?? Read any good books lately? Has Logan taken the ACT yet??

I just love you guys! I spent most of this week in bed so I don´t really have pictures...Lo siento.

 

Mucho amo para ustedes!

-Hermana Moey!

Week 2!!

WOW! Felize Nuevo Ano everybody!! What a week it has been!

    On Monday we said goodbye to the last of our ´´father´´ district and and Wednesday we got noobies!! I just hope we can all help the new guys as much as Our father district helped us!

    Well the days are all sorta blending together! On Sundays and Tuesdays we have devotionals and the first one was a video from Elder Holland that was about conversion unto the LORD...not the Church, not the Missionaries...the LORD! He begged us to stay faithful and continue living this gospel for the rest of our LIVES not just our Missions. It was really good!

    The on Tuesday it was a video of a talk Elder Bednar gave Christmas of 2012 to the Provo MTC and It basically changed my life. He spoke about the character of Christ. He told us that the main difference between Christ's character and our character is that He Turns outward to help and uplift others while the natural man or women inside all of us turns in to focus on ourselves. It´s really got me thinking of ways that I can spend more time thinking of others and less time thinking of myself and how I can outwardly express those thoughts and start on the LOOOOOOOONG path a head of me to coming unto Christ and one day become like Christ.

    The days here are pretty basic! I´m getting into a nice routine too! 

-wake up

-study

-est

-class

-study

-teach

-GYM!

-eat

-study

-class

-study

-class

-eat

-study

-sleep

-repeat

...Me gusta Gym Time.

    Sometimes (all the time) the days are really long and all that keeps me going is a few Chokis (chips-ahoy-like cookies from our campus Tienda [store] ) and a quick, heartfelt, prayer for help from our heavenly father!

    Saturdays are really nice because we have service projects and that means PANTS!! I under estimated how much I love pants. But I know now, more fully than I ever have before, that I love pants. 

    okay new years was crazy here! we were told that we were to go to the devotional then got to bed. and I don´t know if it was Fireworks or Gunshots or WHAT but there were explosions going off all night! My companion was out and so was Hermana Blau so Hermana Dunne and I just stay up and talked cause it was way too noisy to fall asleep anyway. But we weren´t really checking the time but all of the sudden  we heard the whole city go ´´CINCO!...QUATRO...TRES...DOS...UNOOOOO!!!´´ then a BILLION explosions and sirens and music and just straight up NOISE! it was pretty insane. All I know is I´m happy I´m INSIDE the CCM and not out there! especially on New Years! 

   So Gym tiempo es muy bueno! parro, sometimes your companion get hit at point blank with a Frisbee to the face and gets a black eye...it´s okay...it happens. Mi compnaera tiene una murado ojo porque el malo apunta de Elder Johnson. Esta Bien. La luche es REAL. (the struggle is real.) pictures attached! 

    Another GREAT part of my week was getting all of your letters! I LOVED IT! I´ve never been so happy! Everyone was supper jealous so I tried not to be to outwardly excited but inside I almost exploded! 

    So I´ve got a few pictures here, one of my companions bad eye! one of me with all my letters! one of me at the temple! and then a few of the mountain (large hill by Utah comparison) that you can see from basically anywhere in the CCM a few all lit up at night on New Years and then one of it during the day. I Guess the B stands for something that had to deal with the School that the CCM used to be...i dunno! Its pretty sweet!

    that's all from me this week! 

ME ENCANTA TODOS LOS PERSONAS!!

-Hermana Gamble :)

 

Moriah at Mexico City Temple

New Year's Lights

Hermana Jones black eye from Frisbee

Mountain (hill) behind the CCM

Moriah gets mail!!!

 

December 26th: My First Week!!

Oh my goodness where do I even begin!

Day 1:

EXHAUSTING!!! literally the longest day of my life... we had a bunch of orientations and meetings and a CHASTITY lesson out of nowhere. We met our Spanish teachers who literally don´t speak a LICK of English and needless to say..... I was stressed, sad, lonely, and tired. I have never wanted to go back home more in my life! My casa mates asked me about my family and I couldn´t even get ´´I have 2 brothers´´ out with out totally losing it. But I made it to bed time and just tried to keep on truckin´. 

 

Day 2:

This was probably the hardest day in terms of ´´wanting to go home-ness´´ I had a small melt down after our long day of more meetings and teaching our first investigator and hearing everyone speak a language that I CLEARLY don´t understand. But lucky for me I have very thoughtful people around me to help me by sharing scriptures and writing me encouraging notes and just being loving.

Day 3:

We met our branch president after another Chastity lesson and teaching our investigator! We have THE greatest zone in the who CCM. That´s one thing i know for sure! I had a little interview with him where he asked me about my family and I got to ´´Well I´ve got 2 brothers..´´ before I TOTALLY lost it and started crying again... so that´s an improvement!!

Day 4:

That day was basically the best! It was Sunday and I didn´t need to worry about teaching ANYONE especially in Spanish! We just had a little Christmas themed RS lesson lead by Hermana Pratt (President Pratts Wife and RS President) Then we had a Zone Sacrament meeting which was in Spanish so I just sat there and smiled. But it´s okay because I just love our Zone. We had a devotional that night from a man who is in a bishopric just outside of the CCM and HE´S FROM OREM! LIKE NORTH OREM! LIKE NORTHRIDGE 4th WARD! HE WENT TO OAK CANYON AND TIMPANOGOS THE FIRST YEAR IT WAS OPEN SO I WOUNDER IF STEVE KNOWS HIM! GAHH I WAS SO EXCITED! His name is Elder Kates...Gates? Grapes? jk I´m Pretty sure it´s Elder Kates.

Days 5&6:

Pretty much twinner days, wake up, eat, read, study, preach, eat, preach, eat, sleep!!

Day 7: CHRISTMAS!

It was SO fun to have Christmas here! All of my casa mates and I woke up really early, like 5am and opened the presents that our parents had sent us with us and had a BALL because one of my roommates Hermana Blau´s mom sent her with four stockings just CHUCK full of candy and  AWESOMENESS! I don´t think I´ve ever loved anyone that I have never met more than I love Hermana Blau´s Mom. We had a breakfast provided by Costco because the workers were all on Vaca for the holidays so it was COSTCO MUFFINS FOR US! yahoo!! same with dinner and Lunch we had turkey sandwiches and Tyson chicken and CHOCOLATE CAKE!! needless to say it was a good day! I could have very well been the best day of my life EXECPT for one thing... only 5 of the Christmas hymns and 3 of the Christmas children songs are translated into Spanish...and Presidente Pratt REALLY likes us to sing...so we sang those songs like...14 times each. AND THE FUNNY THING IS I´M NOT EVEN KIDDING ONE BIT!!! but ya Felize Navidad.

Then comes today! day 8:

We went to the temple this morning! IT WAS AMAZING! I got these little head phones so that I could listen to it in English which was really nice! then we went around the temple and took a bunch of pictures and then a ton of us went to this cute little store like RIGHT there and got to buy these SICK scripture cases and they´re just really cool and I got a HLJ bracelet which is like the Spanish equivalent of CTR. I dunno it was pretty chill I guess! I just finished cleaning our casa and after this I´m going to play FRISSBEEEE! yay!

 The first few days were really rough but as I became better friends with more people I´m really starting to enjoy myself which is REALLY nice!

Alright! so now for some Descriptions of my Peeps!:

Our Zone Leaders Elder Forest, Elder Jepson and Elder Johannson (trio) are THE BOMB! They are SO funny and friendly and they helped me feel really at home so that's nice of them :)

A member of the other district, Elder Mckenzie, brought a Frisbee so we play a HUGE game of Ultimate Frisbee every day during Gym time! It basically rocks. but yeah he´s pretty cool except for we have this war waging between us where we have to secretly steel the others stuff and then we have to get it back somehow...He currently has my watch...but that´s okay because I stole his water bottle this morning muahahaha! ;)

My District leader, Elder Shank is pretty cool! he´s always making sure that we´re on task and loving to everyone :)

There´s an Elder in my District who is LOGAN! they look sorta alike but what really freaks me out is that they ACT EXACTLY THE SAME!!! If Logan was from Nampa, ID and liked to wear Converse All Stars...he would be Elder Harrison. 

Mi Companero es Hermana Jones. Although she may be all of my pet-peeves rolled into ONE human being. I love her! we are SO opposite. and I mean SO opposite. but we teach well together and we always ending smiling and laughing together too so that´s nice!

My roommates, Hermana Blau and Hermana Dunne are pretty sweet too! Hermana Dunne and I get along really well and i haven´t really had time to spend much with Hermana Blau but she´s supper sweet and smiley which brightens my day! :) 

My FAVORITE Hermana here is Hermana Miller, She´s in the other district that´s in our Zone but I LOVE HER! She´s a lot like Sami and she REALLY makes me feel like I´m at home! She´s been such a good friend to me and we just Joke around ALL the time and it´s the best!

And this Email is long enough so I´ll send my pictures in another one.

Live long and Prosper!

-Hermana Gamble!

Classroom hallway at El CCM

District 10

El CCM

Elder Harrison - reminds Moriah of her brother Logan

Hermana Blau and Hermana Dunne

Mexico City Temple

Moriah's Companion Hermana Jones

Palm trees - they are everywhere!

Quito Peeps - remaining arm's length