Raining Gatos y Perros

 ¡Hola a todos! I just have one week left in the CCM and then it's off to Arizona! I'll miss it here - the weather is so nice, it's always green, and there are so many birds chirping all the time. I'll enjoy it while I can and I'm sure once I get to Arizona there will be beautiful stuff there too. Anyways, on to the highlights of this week: 

 Rainy week - it's been rainy season the whole time we've been at the CCM, but on Thursday and Friday last week, it POURED rain right as our first class ended. Of course both days I forgot my umbrella, but Hna Ballard was nice enough to share. It was a bit rough going to our second class with soggy skirts and socks, but it was definitely exciting! 

 Juego de Películas - this week we've really been trying to practice our Spanish, so we decided to play the movie game (where you describe a movie really vaguely and the other people try to guess) but in Spanish! And it was hard but really good practice for random vocab words! 

 Father's Day - I got to talk to my family on Sunday because it was Father's Day, which was epic! And we talked in our class about why our dads are the best, so shout out to my dad because I could list 100 reasons why he's awesome! 

 Bless the tienda - I bought Oreos and pretzels from the tienda this week and they have been sustaining me fr. Pretzels are my favorite thing on the planet and I'm always excited to come home and have a little snack

 The Magical Couch Room - there is a lack of comfy couches and carpeted floors at the CCM but one day Hermana Ballard and I discovered a room FULL of the cushiest couches I've ever sat on and it was the most magical experience of my life. 

 Consider the Lilies - Hermana Ballard and I performed a musical number at the devotional last night! She's cracked at singing and I played the violin and a nice elder was willing to play the piano for us, and it was awesome! It was fun to practice all week too! 

Some unfortunate stuff:

 We're preparing to take our final Spanish exam on Friday, which is okay because it's just to measure our progress, but we've been practicing preterite, imperfect, and reflexives all week and my brain feels like it might explode. But I've been telling a story in Spanish every day at lunch to practice speaking in past tense! And we practiced in class yesterday answering random hypothetical questions (what would you do in a zombie apocalypse? If you could have a superpower, what would it be?) and that helped me feel more confident in my on-the-spot conjugating. Also hilarious to hear zombie apocalypse strategies in Spanish

 One day we needed to practice for our musical number and they have violins to rent here, so I picked one up from reception and took it all the way back to our classroom to practice, only to find that the pegs wouldn't budge an inch. So I took it all the way back and exchanged it, only to try to tune that one and the A string snapped. So that was buns and I just gave up trying to practice for that day. Thankfully I found a good one that worked for the actual musical number! 

Spanish word of the week: paraguas  

Paraguas is an easy word to remember because it means umbrella, which is for (para) water (agua)! Maybe if I remember the word I'll remember to bring my paraguas to class more often

 Spiritual Thought: This week we had our third Ayudar a Otros lesson in Spanish! I had made a list of scriptures that we could share depending on who we were teaching, and we had made an outline and practiced a lot! However, when we got there, I realized I had forgotten my notebook at our apartment so I was stressing big time. Thankfully I had taken a picture of the list of scriptures, which was the most important part, and Hna Ballard had her outline. 

But when we started our lesson with a sweet senior service missionary, Hermana Hernandez, https://photos.app.goo.gl/1vpWDchCEHN3CsEk6I could really listen to what she had to say and ask meaningful follow-up questions because I wasn't so focused on our outline. This week we've talked a lot about how God's plan is far greater than our plan, and how the Holy Ghost is the real teacher in our lessons. And I saw that first hand during our lesson! Our lessons are a lot more meaningful when they're discussions rather than lectures, because we can all learn from each other and from the Spirit. 

Thanks for reading another one of my emails! I'm so grateful for everyone who reached out this week and I hope you all have an awesome week with whatever you're up to! God loves you! Love, 

Hermana Morales 

Another day, another peso!

 ¡Hola a todos! 

I finished my second week at the CCM! It went by a LOT faster than last week now that we have a steady schedule. Some highlights:

 Ayudar a Otros - we had our first "Helping Others" activity in person, which is where we teach actual people lessons. Every other time it's been online and either Hermana Ballard or I will have a family member join so we can teach them. But this time we got to teach a dad and a little boy! They were so sweet and patient while we taught. It was so cool! 

 Sólo Español - this week we put our "solo español" stickers on our nametags! Which basically means in class we aren't learning in English anymore and we're trying to speak Spanish outside of class too. Tomorrow we're having a mega English-fast and not speaking ANY English. I'm excited for it! 

 Doble Arcoìris - the other day, we went outside for a part of our Spanish class and there was a double rainbow!! Which means this is a super lucky week. 

 Temple Time! We went to the temple today! It was so cool to drive around Mexico City and the temple was beautiful! Sadly, the temple is closed for cleaning the whole time we're here, so we didn't get to go inside, but we got a tour of the visitors center and it was so beautiful! I'll just have to come back someday to actually go inside the temple!

 Gemelos - there's another district in our branch of fluent Spanish-speakers and they're the most awesome group of missionaries ever!! We twinned with them this past Sunday and all wore blue. After church, we chatted and had a photoshoot with them and it was so much fun! They left yesterday which is tragic but they'll all be great missionaries! 

Other stuff: 

 1 BILLION mosquitoes - Hermana Ballard and I did laundry yesterday and as I put my laundry in the washing machine literally what seemed like 1 billion mosquitoes flew out. It was horrifying. 

 Food - the first week, we had tacos a bunch but they were delicious every night. This week, the food has been more American-ish but kind of more strange-tasting, so I've had to be a bit more careful about what I eat. But it's okay because I only have two more weeks and the food is usually good! 

Spanish word of the week: semilla  

Semilla means seed, and I like it because 1) it's a really good analogy for faith and 2) it's so cute sounding to me! 

Extra bonus word: chipi-chipi 

Our teachers told us this was the phrase for sprinkling, and it's been sprinkling a lot lately!

 Spiritual Thought: We watched this really powerful video in the visitors center of the temple about the growth of the church. It showed thousands of people sustaining the prophet in General Conference and then a flashback to the first ever church meeting with Joseph Smith and just a few people there sustaining him as prophet, and it is such a beautiful video! I think it's so powerful how the efforts of people back in the 1800s have blessed the lives of millions of people since then. It makes me excited to go out and be a part of this great work of bringing people the joy of the gospel! I know that we can all plant seeds (or semillas) of faith in other people's lives as well as our own when we try to be more Christlike in our thoughts and actions every day. 

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this email!! If anyone has any advice on or resources for teaching families in an engaging way, send it my way! We've learned a lot about teaching one-on-one, but I'm sure I'll be teaching families too and I'd love to practice now! Or if you just want to reach out, I can only answer on P day but I can still read emails during the week and I love to hear from you guys! 

I hope everyone has an amazing week!! Jesus loves you!

Hermana Morales :) 

Are you guys district 67????

 Hola a todos!! I made it to the CCM! It's so beautiful here - there's so many trees and the grass is so green! I can't believe it's been only a week, every day is so long and full of awesome things to do. I definitely don't remember all the fun stuff that happened this week but here are some highlights: 

 Meeting my district in person!! To address my email title, our district is 7C and our zone leaders came up and asked us "are you guys district 67??" sorry 67 haters but we thought it was hilarious and have been saying it all week. Our district is 12 hermanas and we're one of the first all-sister districts at the CCM! It's been really fun so far. 

 Meeting our teachers in person as well! Every day is kind of like a reunion because I see people I recognize all the time and it's awesome. But we got to meet Hermana Delgado, our Spanish teacher, and Hermano Luna, our PMG teacher, in person! They're both so sweet and we've had so much fun actually joking around and talking with them. We found out that Hermano Luna is getting engaged soon and we got to meet his girlfriend because she teaches at the CCM too!! They're actually the cutest thing I've ever seen 

 Rain! It's the beginning of rain season in Mexico City and so it rains for like an hour every day! The first day we had no idea that would happen so it started POURING and we all got soaked. But it was awesome anyways! Now I bring an umbrella every day because you never know when it's going to rain. 

 Fast Sunday - our first Sunday here was fast Sunday and it was awesome because we all got to bear our testimonies in our branch! Giving a testimony in Spanish is kind of nerve wracking but we all cooked! Also that break the fast dinner was like the best food I've ever tasted - contrary to popular belief, the food here is actually really good most of the time! 

 Gym time! Every day we have time to be active before lunch and it's been so fun working out with my district! We've played soccer and volleyball and today we're playing pickleball! It's a really nice change from studying and sitting in devotionals. 

 Musical numbers - there are so many talented people here! Yesterday there was a string quartet that played O Divine Redeemer and I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful string quartet in my life. There wasn't a dry eye in that auditorium!

Some kind of lame stuff:

 So. Much. Orientation. Thank goodness our first week is over and we won't be the new missionaries anymore because my brain is so crammed full of rules and expectations that I think it would explode if I had to hear them again. 

 The beds are slightly rock solid. Which is okay because I'm so tired at the end of the day that I really don't notice, but my back does sometimes. Thankfully it's only my bed for a couple weeks! 

 New phone - I get a phone to use which is awesome, but the keyboard is kind of really buns and is taking a lot of getting used to. I got to write this email on a computer though! 

Spanish word of the week: gozo 

Gozo means joy in Spanish, and on Sunday, I bore my testimony about how much joy the gospel has brought to my life. I feel like I've heard that word a lot this week and remembering the joy I have in my life makes me want to share it with others! 

Spiritual Thought: On Sunday we all had a devotional where they played an amazing video from Elder Holland and he talked about leaving your nets and feeding God's sheep. There's a talk where he explains the same concept called The First Great Commandment - I'd highly recommend listening to it! It was amazing because he explains that God has a higher calling for us. He needs us to be His hands and invite others to come unto Christ! We had a district discussion about it afterwards and we talked about how it might be hard to wake up at 6:30 every day or talk to so many people every day in an unfamiliar language, but we're willing to do it because we love God. And we're willing to do it because we want to bring others the joy that has blessed our lives. And if helping families be together for eternity means I have to wake up early every morning for 18 months, I'll do it. I loved our discussion so much and it's given me a lot of motivation this week! 

You are all so awesome!! I've loved getting emails from so many of you! Even if I don't respond right away I still love to read them  I hope everyone has a fantastic week and know that God loves you! 

Hermana Morales 

The CCM!

I will always post Leah's mission letters pictures, and add some thoughts from our perspective back at home in seperate posts as well. After we said the hardest goodbye at the airport, we were so excited to start receiving pictures and emails from Leah! The CCM looks like heaven on earth, especially with our missionary there!

Fireworks on her first night! 

The walk between classes- 

Rainy and lush! 

Leah's district- all going to different Spanish-speaking missions around the world!

There are so many sister misisonaries flooding the earth right now. Not unlike the age change that happened just as she was joining Young Women, the sister missionary age lowering to 18 didn't actually affect her. She's right where she's supposed to be, right when she's supposed to be there!