This week had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. One of which included getting a visit from DAVID A. BEDNAR!! And his wife, Susan Bednar! They visited the CCM on Friday evening & it was AMAZING. There was a line an hour before the devotional started to get in, because those who didn´t fit in the auditorium had to go to an alternate location and watch a broadcast instead of attending the actual devotional. So you best believe I was in that line. Luckily, in every meeting or devotional of any kind with both Elderes y Hermanas, the Hermanas are always in the first few rows. We may be outnumbered, but we get the front every time, including this time. So i was in the fifth row! Aka 40 feet away from an apostle of the Lord! So. Cool. When he walked in the room, we all stood up in reverence and respect until he sat down in the stand and you could feel the Spirit so strongly. There is no doubt in my mind that Elder Bednar is an ordained apostle & spokesman for God on this earth today. He brought sincere love & words directly from the prophet the day before & it was amazing. I´m so grateful to have had this opportunity to attend this devotional & hear an apostle of the Lord.
If I could share every prophetic advice he offered us, I would. Merely sharing what I learned would take forever. He conducted the meeting in such a way where microphones were passed around the audience to volunteers to share their thoughts with Elder Bednar and ask him & his wife questions. So many prayers were answered, I´m sure.
My favorite part, or what I learned & loved the most is the fact that faith is not a muscle. It´s a gift. We don´t just exercise it and it grows, we have to act in faith, be worthy, and trust that God will grant us with that blessing. Just as Moses and the Israelites acted in faith, walking unto and into the Red Sea before it parted. My new favorite phrase is *Get your feet wet* as a reference to the Israelites´ faith in the Lord to release them from bondage. Faith is an action, and we need to show Heavenly Father that we trust Him by acting. I encourage you to read *Ask in Faith* and *Seek Learning by Faith*, both talks by Elder Bednar that he asked all the missionaries at the CCM to read before his arrival.
ANYWAY, not much else happened as significant as the Bednar devotional. 2 new districts came into our zone today & they arrived at the CCM yesterday! We are getting 4 new hermanas so I am excited for that! Hermana Petersen & I won't be the only girls in our zone anymore!
Last week, a lot of our friends in our zone left for Chile and Argentina. It's crazy that I am halfway through the CCM and that I will be on a flight to PERU in a few short weeks! The weeks are actually pretty fast here, but the days are super long, if that makes any sense.
The Elders in my district continue to crack me up & remind me of my guy friends from high school & my brother. This week they started pranking each other, by hiding alarm clocks set to go off in random hours of the night in their neighbors rooms and have stashed tide pods in each others shoes or between their sheets to try to get them to burst on each other. Muy cómico. They also have a running joke saying *Mi hombre* (my man) to each other. It´s only funny how they say it, which is kinda hard to describe over email. But they put the emphasis on the O... like *mi hOHmbre* in their deepest voice possible. Gotta love ´em.
Fun fact for you all, the B on the hill behind the CCM stands for *Benemedito* a nickname for a heroic president of Mexico. The CCM used to be a high school named after him.
The other night, we could hear so many parties happening outside in Mexico City. One of which was bumping Despacito by Justin Bieber, a song we actually know. Not a huge fan of the song, but that was fun. Even funnier was when the next day, we were talking about it in class and our cute teacher started singing *el bautismo* instead of *despacito*. It was hilarious. We get to take pictures with our teachers on the last week, so I cant wait to show you how cute and awesome they are. We just love them.
Today, Hermana Petersen and I enjoyed our first real Pday! (preparation day) Our past two while at the CCM we have gone to the temple, which don´t get me wrong, is amazing and I love it so much, but it also takes 6 hours out of our day. So we were glad to take a nap, get laundry done, and just relax for most of today. It was nice.
Well that´s about it! I miss you all & American food but life is so good & so busy! Hope life is treating you all well! I would love to hear from you!
Con amor,
Hermana Lowe
Español phrase of the week: *Estoy matando* (I´m killin it) or *Está matando* (for you're killin it)
Got a pic with my cousin, Elder Millward! So good to see him on occasion here,
and I have a hard time not calling him by his first name, haha.
Roommate ice cream selfie
Our cute friends that left for Chile last week :(
Pretty sunrise this morning
View from CCM
Me :)
Whoever can guess what these things are for that are painted all over the roads here gets a felicidades from me. NO GOOGLING (dad). haha love you guys. Signing off now so I'll check your responses next week.
LOVE YOU!
Hermana Lowe
