Ecuadorable: Christmas in the CCM

Christmas Day

GUESS WHAT!!! We got our flight information!!!!! we thought we would be leaving next Wednesday because that's what it said on our calender, but turns out we are leaving the CCM Monday at 3 am!!!! AHHHH I am freaking out! I cant wait to get to Ecuador!!! I will be there in less than a week!

This morning was wonderful! We woke up at 6 am and gave each other all of our presents and I opened the ones from you guys! Then our district went in our classroom and sat with our chairs in a circle and had our secret Santa gifts! Then we went around sharing our favorite scriptures about Christ. Then for breakfast we had muffins and hot chocolate because we didn't want the workers to have to work on Christmas. And then we practiced singing because we are having a choral festival tonight (I have a solo ahhh!) This Christmas has already been one of my favorites even though I can't be there with you guys. I don't think I have thought about Santa, or elves, or snowmen, or anything like that at all. This Christmas has been completely centered on Christ, just like it should be. I love it so much.

The Day After Christmas

Hola!! I loved seeing all of the Christmas photos!!! It looked like you guys had so much fun! I love seeing pictures! So first I will tell you more about yesterday! It was an amazing Christmas! After we emailed we got to put together kits for newborns. It had things like cloth diapers and soap and little shoes and stuff, it was so cute! It was also sad to think how many people really have nothing. Then we got together with another district (cause ours is so small) and shared our favorite scriptures and sang our favorite hymns! Then we had an amazing devotional with Elder Bednar (Broadcast from Provo) ahhhh it was sooooo good! He had a question and answer session where they handed out cell phones to everyone in the audience so they could text him their questions (we could email them in) after they handed out the cell phones he said "If you call home I will hunt you down and do bad things to you" haha it was sooo funny to hear him say something like that. From Elder Holland maybe Id expect it, but from Elder Bednar.... haha The last devotional we had with Elder Holland he said "If you come home early you won't want to see me in a dark ally." It's so fun to have devotionals where they are talking to the missionaries specifically. ANYWAYS! Elder Bednar gave the best advice about how to be the best missionary you can possibly be. It is to forget yourself. Really forget yourself. I know that my mission isn't about me at all. It is about everyone else but me! I want to be the kind of missionary that can completely forget about myself and concentrate on everyone else. I CANT WAIT TO GET TO ECUADOR!!! After the devotional we had the festival of choirs! I had a solo in one of our songs and I don't remember the last time I was that nervous! I was seriously freaked out haha, but it went well! Then we had our ham dinner with cheesecake and chocolate cake. It was delicious. Then we watched a bunch of bible videos about Christs birth and sang more songs. I don't know if I have ever sang so much in my entire life! It was an amazing Christmas and I loved every minute of it!

Since we are leaving early we are all done teaching Octavia and Abram. I am soooo sad! Even though I will still see them the next few days as my teachers I don't like thinking about not teaching them anymore! Oh Sunday was crazy! I had to give a prayer in sacrament meeting AND give another talk! I talked about how as missionaries we are both the star that leads people to Christ and the wisemen that need to come to Christ with gifts of our hearts and willingness to serve. And it was all in Spanish this time! Then We had to lead Sunday school in our district so we just went through and talked about the life of Christ. Then a small group of us sang a song for the devotional. I felt very involved with everything! We are all really involved because there is only about 200 missionaries in the CCM right now because of Christmas! After the beginning of the year there will be about 1000. I have really liked having a small group. We are all very close with everyone here and I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to know all the leaders so well. haha President Pratt calls us four the fearsome four cause we are always together. Hmmmm other random things about the CCM.... There is one Elder who calls me Scandinavia because he asked me once if I had ancestors there and I said I think I did on my Dads side so after I sang yesterday he told everyone I sounded like a Scandinavian angel haha that was pretty great. Our houses are kind of by the huge fence surrounding the CCM so sometimes we can hear mariachi bands playing and we are reminded that we are in Mexico haha. I love it here! I really am going to be sad to leave. We started packing today because they don't really give us any other time. I cant believe this time next week I will be in Ecuador! AHHH I love you guys so much! I don't have very many pictures but I will send a few!