Hola!

Time is crazy here at the CCM. Days go by so slow but wow... I only have one week left. I can't even believe it. It's getting real! I'm nervous but really excited as well! Excited to get out there and talk and meet so many people in Guatemala. I love these people already! Whenever we go out of the CCM I can't help but say hi to everyone and smile at them and they just smile back and are so nice. And then I have to walk away becasue that's about as far as I can go in a conversation. Hahaha.

So I got called as the Hermana Leader and that's been fun! We have a devotional every night in the hallway with all the hermanas so I am in charge of that. And then at 1030 I get to go around to all the rooms that still have lights on and say "Las luces, por favor!" Hahahahaha.

2 general authorities came to the CCM this week for lunch and then we had a devotional with them on Monday morning. The devotional was combined with the Guatemala City Sur mission so that was fun to see real missionaries that are in the field! The general authorities were both members of the seventy I think. Elder Christensen and Elder Anderson. They gave awesome talks and they did a question and answer part as well. The meeting was about 3 hours. It was all in Spanish so they gave us translators. I only used it for a little bit of the time because I wanted to try and understand. And I did understand quite a bit of what was said! I always caught on to the idea... I just didn't catch every word. It was awesome! One of the things I learned that I think is really awesome is how when we pray we need to have questions. And if we want to receive answers... We need to be completely ready and willing to listen to the answer the Lord has for us and then follow that answer. We shouldn't pray with an answer we want already in our heads. If we want to receive revelation and answers from God we need to make sure that we are willing to align our will with His.

This week I also memoried all of D&C section 4 in Spanish. It was hard, but it feels so good to have it memorized. The section is about missionary work and so amazing! Whether you're a full time missionary or not, it applies to you! Read it and try to find something new in it that you never noticed before!!

This morning we went to the temple for Pday. As we were walking in to the temple I saw someone that looked familiar and so Sister Rasmussen, who is in my mission, and I walked up to her and it was our mission presidents wife. She recognized us and our names right away and knew that we were coming to their mission. She hugged us and then we met our President as well. It was so awesome. It was amazing to meet them and it made us so excited that we will be in their mission in a week. They seem so amazing and they are so nice! In a week from today I will be meeting my Trainer and starting my mission in the field. Ahhh. It's crazy to me and I am so excited!

I love you all so much and can't believe the next time I will be writing home will be from the field!! Ahhh. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Dibb

2 Weeks Left in the CCM

hola!

I can't believe I only have two more weeks! In two weeks from today I will be in the field!! CRAZY. I am excited though. And nervous!! I can understand pretty much everything.... just my replying is not so great. hahaha. But I will continue to try!!

Okay... So funny thing about Guatemala. Cars. Cars are horrible here. All day in class there is constant honking. They are not afraid to use their horns!! It's pretty funny. And they are pretty bad at driving!! 

So most days our schedule is pretty much the same here in the CCM. I am going to share that with you! We wake up at 630 and go play sports. Then we get ready and study. We eat breakfast at 8. Then we have class and study. Then we eat lunch at 12. Then we have class and study. Then we eat dinner at 5. Then we have class and study until it is time for bed. So... We have class ALL day. hahaha. For class we do different things. Our teachers only speak spanish to us and they get mad if we speak english. We study for investigators. We teach investigators. We have grammar lessons. We learn how to teach and we practice teaching with the latino districts!! It is very repetitive. Everyday. But I am grateful for it!! Trying to soak it all in and enjoy it!

So in sacrament meeting on Sundays they don't have a plan. After we take the sacrament they just call up people to give a talk on the spot. So we all are supposed to have a talk planned because you just never know! Well this last sunday I got called to give a talk!! My first talk in spanish!! I was so nervous but I did it! I talked about faith in Jesus Christ!

This week has been kind of hard. I can pretty much understand people when they speak to me but I am having a hard time replying. the language is difficult. And so so hard. My whole district has been having a hard time. And a lot of them have been getting lazy and not really trying. So my teacher shared something with us that hit me so hard. The mission is hard. Life is hard. When Christ atoned for our sins and trials and everything... that was hard. Christ knows. It's supposed to be hard. But through Christ and su Expiación we can do it!! I have two quotes I want to share that I love. I think they are both from Elder Holland. 

The first one says, "The path of salvation always goes through Gethsemene." Wow! Powerful. Life is hard! But if we endure and apply the atonement in our lives... We will make it and we will be happy!! I love it.

The second one says, "One of the great consolations of our mortality is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so." I love this one. I love it so much. Christ is there for you. ALWAYS. Ask Him for help and he will help you. I know this to be true. Whenver we are teaching an investigator and I don't know what to say because I can't speak spanish... I just bear my testimony of Christ and the love he has for all of us. I bear my testimony about what he can and will help us with in our everyday lives. Always remember that He loves you and wants to help you.

I am almost out of time but I want to share my testimony in Spanish. I don't really know how to work this keyboard so I am not using accents and it is probably not completely correct but I am going to try! haha

Yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera. Yo se que el libro de mormon es un otro testamento de Jesucristo. Yo se que el libro de mormon es las palabras de Dios. Yo se que Dios nos ama. Yo se que Dios envio a Jesucristo para nosotros. Yo se que por medio de Jesucristo y Su Expiación, podemos vivir con Dios y Jesucristo otra vez. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador. Yo se que Jesucristo quiere ayudar nosotros en todas cosas en nuestras vidas. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen. 

I love you all so much! And I hope you have an amazing week! 

Love,

Hermana Dibb

So... This week has been good! Things are getting really repetitive which kind of is hard but oh well!

I got called as the Hermana Music Leader. I am the only one that can play the piano so I have to play the piano for sacrament meeting and devotionals and all that fun stuff... Hahahaha. And I only know like 6 hymns.. So I mess up a lot but esta bien. Now I get to choose the songs I mess up on.... Hahaha.

I have memorized the baptismal invitation and the first vision in spanish. And the first few verses in D and C 4. In spanish. So that's cool!

One thing I found that is funny... hahaha. So the word for fish is pescado. and the word for sin is pecado. So I have tried to engrave into my mind the difference in these two words because it would be so funny to get them mixed up! Hahaha. So many people do and it's so funny. "We can be forgiven of our fish." Hahahaha.

Also. Outside my window there is a Catholic school! There are nuns that walk across the school yard and stuff. And I just can't help but think Nacho Libre... Hahahaha. It just makes me kind of happy.

Our mission president gave us T25 videos to work out to in the mornings. Oh my goodness. I have been so sore. I am not in shape. Hahahaah. But! I am hoping to be in better shape by the time I leave here. They are hard videos. But it's pretty fun. My whole district does them together. I love my district. They are all so awesome and we all get along really well. We got more Americans here but they are obviously in a different district. It is weird having them here. We got two new girls in our room! Both from Utah! Really nice girls!!

I have been struggling with Spanish. Patience is a virtue that I need to gain. I just want to speak and understand. But I don't and it frustrates me. A lot. But something my teacher said this week really stuck out to me. He said that we were called to Guatemala to speak What Language? Spanish. So we need to speak it. So I have been trying to speak it more throughout the day. Plus our teachers get really mad if they hear us speaking English. So.... It's hard. I can't express my feelings and thoughts in Spanish like I can in English. But I know I need to keep trying and I need to try and work harder and I will be able to speak it. Patience.... Hahaha.

This week Hermana Hill and I taught an Investigator and we planned on teaching her the Restoration. She is really our teacher by the way. But anyway... We got in there and started talking to her and the lesson went a completely different way. We were speaking Spanish very well. And about something we didn't even really know. The spirit was so strong. It really taught me that we need to teach people, not lessons. And also... We might not speak spanish... but the spirit does. And the spirit is the true teacher. Following the spirit when you teach is the most important. It was an awesome experience and I learned a lot from it.

I love you all so much! I got some pictures from the nurse from our adventure in Guatemala City last week. So I will attach those! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Dibb

A few pictures of their visit to Guatemala City Central...

First Book of Mormon:)

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My awesome Companion

Views from around the city...

Happy 2015

Hola!!!

This week has been the longest and shortest week of my life. Time is so strange here at the CCM. And probably just the mission as well!

This week I learned a lot more spanish... Hahaah. Well tried to learn at least. Oh man. It is difficult! But I have definitely learned a lot. We also started teaching investigators. Our investigators are really our teachers but they act like real people they know in their lives that they feel they should. Our first investigator is David.... our teacher Hermano Escobar. We taught him a few lessons and I really struggled. Our spanish is no bueno. And I really wanted to say stuff but I didn't know how... Hahaha. We have taught him 4 times and each time it gets better. Last night when we taught him he committed to being baptized. The spirit was so strong! Even though it's not real... hahaha. I felt the spirt so strong and so did he. And I was so excited. It made me really excited to get out there and really try to help others come unto Christ.

I really like my teachers. They are awesome! They don't really speak english though... they can kind of speak english but not really. It's really funny. But they are all so awesome! We have 3. One Hermana and dos Hermanos.  

For New Years eve.... We had a normal day and had a really good dinner with lots of desserts. It was really good. Then we watched meet the mormons before bed which was awesome. We still went to bed at 1030 though. We could hear fireworks all night. And I do go to bed at 1030... weird, right? But I go to bed and wake up and it's fine!! Hahaah. No problems with sleeping.

Sunday was fast sunday. Sacrament meeting is in spanish and I had to play the piano... ayaya. I'm the only one here that knows how. And I have to just play right hand most the time because I don't know the songs they want me to play! Oh well! But I also bore my testimony! IN SPANISH! it was so simple but I felt the spirit so strong! It was a great experience.

In one of the devotionals this week we talked about faith in Christ. Something that came to my mind while we were talking about the difference in knowing about Christ and knowing Christ really made a difference for me and made me realize someting. We can know about Christ by reading about him and his life and what he did for us and that is really important to know about. But something that is even more important is applying his teachings and following his example in our every day lives and especially applying the Atonement, Expiacion, in every aspect of our lives, every day! I believe that is when we truly come to know Christ.

The food here is good! I like it! We eat beans a lot. Lunch and dinner. And breakfast. Lots of beans and rice. Also potatoes which I'm fine with! Hahaha. I love President Cox and his wife. They are so awesome. There aren't a lot of people here, especially right now so we are so close with them and eachother. The Latinas left this morning to go on their missions. It was so sad. I will miss them! We get new ones tonight though!!

Also... They took my camera away when I got here because apparently they had issues in the past with someone taking bad pictures here or something. I don't know. So we can't take pictures in the CCM. So sad!! But one of the Senior Hermanas has taken some pictures so she will email them to me soon and i will send them. I heard it's really cold in Utah right now. Not here! It is awesome weather here!!!

Today for pday we went on a tour of Guatemala City! We saw the poor parts and the nicer parts! It was so awesome. I love Guatemala. We went to this huge map and stood on a tower and looked at it. It is like the mountain ranges of Guatemala and it is like 3D. it was really cool! then we went to the central market in guatemala city where they have a bunch of stands of stuff to buy. It was so awesome. I loved everything they sold. It was all like hand made and just beautiful. I bought a hair pin thing. I wanted to by everything though. My next purchase will be a falda, skirt. I love them!! We then ate at Wendy's, lol, and then went contacting in the plaza right by a huge Cathedral and the big government palace. So beautiful. Mi companera and I placed one book of mormon and got his address. it was awesome. Our spanish was so bad. hahaha. But we got the message across and he understood and accepted the book! It was so so so scary. but I am excited to go out there and work in like 5 weeks. hopefully my spanish will be much better at that point!! Also we have these mountains by us that are like pure trees with huge houses in them. They are so pretty. I will try to take a picture before I leave.

I love you all so much!! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Dibb