First Week!!

Well, I am officially a Missionary and life here at the CCM is crazy! I never realized I could be so amazingly tired and happy at the same time! A lot has happened this week so I guess place to start is from the beginning. So the flight down to Chile was pretty uncomfortable not going to lie. The seats seemed to be stacked right up against each other and I was like "there is no way I am going to be able to sleep." I was right. I maybe slept like three hours on the nine hour flight but hey I can´t complain. The guy next to me was 6´7. I can´t imagine what that was like for him. When we finally landed, getting through customs and immigration was a breeze. They didn´t ask me anything. So it seems all of that time I spent memorizing those phrases was a waste. Oh well! So when we first got here we finally got our nametags and we had a little bit of time to settle in and get our stuff into our rooms. After that, we ate lunch and it was right to work. We went to class and we started learning about our objective right away. Most of Wednesday was learning about our objective. We actually memorized it that day and then probably talked a million other things that I can´t remember. I think we went over the missionary handbook and the other language materials we got and then it was go go go.

Alright so I´m going to start trying to give this email some structure. So now I´m gonna talk about Thursday. Thursday we finally got to meet our assigned companions and my companion was Elder Rice! Which was really cool cause he and I talked a lot at the airport and rode to the MTC together. I guess it only makes sense that we are

District 3!

companions since we are bunk mates. Anyways, we are in District 3 and our District leader is Elder Jensen! He is a super cool guy and definitely a great leader. He and I get along really well. His companions is Elder Farnsworth and he is a fun guy too. The other set of Elders in our district is Elder Huber and Elder Christensen. Both of whom just continue the trend of awesomeness. It´s kind of funny that Elder Huber is in my district because he and I were friends at BYU and he was in my philosophy class. The Hermanas in our district are Hermana Rhoads and Hermana Christensen. They are super fun! They never fail to make sure that all of the boys have snacks for class. Anyways, back to what happened on Thursday. Thursday we had a lesson about asking investigators questions and they actually had a guy on the stage role playing with us and he was completely in character. We would ask him questions and then a translator would talk to him and then he would reply and they would translate back. We asked question after question after question and he finally told that his young son was sick. And one of the Hermanas said "I am so sorry. I know how you feel my mom is sick as well." In that moment the spirit was so strong. The connection that we felt with that investigator was so real. I want to be able to connect like that with all of our investigators. It taught me that we as missionaries talk to much a lot of the time and we just need to sit back and ask questions and let the investigators thoughts and the spirit drive the lesson. We finally went to classes that day and we worked on introducing ourselves and we watched the district and began to learn to pray in Spanish. We also started learning to bear our testimonies in spanish as well.

Friday was all about making goals and planning. I guess I should take a second and talk about all of our teachers. So we have Hermana Carliosa and she is just a bubbly ball of fun. She is always smiling. She plays the role of one of our investigators Nimia. Our second teachers is Hermana Cabrera and Hermana Cabarsua. Sister Carbarsua speaks like no English so it is really hard to communicate with her sometimes. In fact on Thursday I forgot to mention that we did some lesson planning and she tried to help us plan and it was the most frustrating thing because we could not understand a thing that she was saying and Hermana Cabrera had to step out for some reason. Anyways our third teacher is Hermano Spolman. He is a pretty relaxed and fun guy. We like to call him Hermanbro Spolman. So Friday morning we taught our first lesson already! It was the scariest, hardest, and most frustrating thing that I have ever done. We had so many thing that we wanted to say to her but we were really struggling to convey our thoughts. However, I could feel the spirit in that room and eventually we were able to teach her a little bit and set a return appointment and it was super cool. The second lesson was with our teacher Hermana Cabrera who plays our investigator Carolina. I wish I had enough time to tell you about our investigators. That was our best lesson that day. We were actually able to talk to her a little bit and teach a pretty solid lesson for how little Spanish that we knew. I was pretty pleased in the progress we made in just a few hours was pretty awesome. Then that night we finally taught David and it was like silence for about 20 minutes. We just could not find the words that we wanted to say. It was really really frustrating. But then that night during companionship planning Elder Rice and I said a prayer and we immediately just felt better. I know Heavenely Father answers each and every one of our prayers and believe me there are many.

Oh I forgot to tell you about something that hit me really hard earlier in the day. We had a fireside and the guy speaking said something that I liked. He said that you are only going to be here for two short years but the people that you baptize will remember you for a lifetime. Saturday was great and to be honest I don´t remember a whole lot about it. It was just learn, learn, learn, and a little bit of a break from teaching. We did a lot of language study and and some companionship study and we got feedback on the lessons that we taught. The main thing that all of the people said was to get to know the investigator. I just laughed and said "Believe me I would, but it seems that my investigators speak a different language than me."

Elder Shell & his new comp, Elder Rice

Sunday was just amazing! Talk about feeling the spirit the entire day! We got to see a fireside that was from last week that was recorded in Provo. I saw a lot of Elder that I regonized from BYU. Elder Danneman seemed to be hogging a lot of camera time during the choir segment but it was sweet to see him. Elder Cook gave a great devotional. The thought that he said that stuck out the most to me was that we are a missionary from the moment we are set apart not 6 months out when you are fluent in the language. Even though sometimes I feel inadequate I know that the Lord qualifies his missionaries and that in a way I am already being an effective missionary. Testimony meeting was incredible. I was happy that I got to bear my testimony. I don´t think that I have ever felt the spirit that strong in my life. It was incredible. Elder Jensen gave us a great Sunday school lesson on Faith. Elder Quorum was pretty cool and then that night we had sort of an FHE type thing. Sunday was very relaxing.

Monday we did more teaching! We only had to teach Carolina but it was the best lesson we gave yet! I was so excited that we were able to follow up on our commitments with her and get to know her even better and share a message with her. The gift of tongues is real people. I can understand most of what our teachers say when I am really, really focused. I can even give some simple responses which I am pretty pleased with considering it has only been a week. Today is P-day and it´s like any other day but we get a few hours that we can walk around and stuff and now I am emailing you! I absolutely love my district. We are already ridiculously close! They are the best. I never thought that I could be so busy in my entire life but I am so happy! I love being a missionary! The power of prayer is real and I feel the spirit everywhere I go. I love all of you! Sorry my thoughts were so jumbled! I wish I could have written some personal emails this week but it´s a learning process! I guess this big email will have to be a lot shorter next week.

Love you guys,
Elder Shell