Hermana Cheever's First Week en el CCM!

Hola everyone!
Well, this is now my 6th day in the MTC and I only have 7 more! I don't know where I'm going next week because my visa hasn't arrived yet, but if it's not here by Thursday, they will be temporarily reassigning me. So that will be fun! Okay so, I'm going to apologize now because I'm probably going to be abusing grammar rules all over the place for the next 18 months because my brain already thinks half in Spanish. This week has definitely been an adjustment. However, yesterday was Fast Sunday and let me just say, Fast Sunday in the MTC is great! The Spirit is already so strong, then you add in the Spirit that comes when 1,000 or so missionaries are all fasting together and oh my goodness! It's amazing! It also definitely strengthened my testimony of fasting. By Saturday I was almost completely mentally burned out and I couldn't focus on my studying. So, I decided to fast and pray that I would have the willpower and strength to focus and yesterday was the most focused I have been yet! I was able to learn so much and I got the First Vision memorized in Spanish!

This one is my companions and me. (Me, Hermana Wyson, and Hermana Billin)

My companions! I am in a trio! Well, a foursome today because Hermana Thompson's companion left at 4 in the morning today and she's not leaving until tomorrow. My companions are Hermana Tansy Billin from Lebanon, New Hampshire and she's absolutely wonderful. My other companion is Hermana Brenna Wyson from Laguna Niguel, California and she is amazing! I love them both so much. In my district there's our trio, and two sets of Elders. Elder Garibay and Elder Jaramillo are from Springville and South Jordan. Elder Meyers is from Orem and Elder Fajardo is from Colorado Springs, but he was born in Colombia. All of us except Hermana Wyson are going to Argentina and all the Elders are going to the same mission, Santa Fe. Hermana Wyson is going to Quito Ecuador.

This is my district. From left to right it's 
Elder Garibay, Elder Jaramillo, Hermana Billin, me, Hermana Wyson, Elder Meyers, and Elder Fajardo. 

So we have an investigator named Esperanza, and she's from Mexico and is the only person in her family here in the US. She grew up Catholic and has a strong faith in and love for Christ. The first lesson we invited her to read the first page of the Book of Mormon and pray about it. When we went back the next day, she said she had forgotten to read, but she had tried ot pray like we do and she said she really liked it! Then in the lesson we invited her to give a prayer so we told her the basics and we said a prayer as an example for her. Then she prayed and ah! It was amazing. We also read Mosiah 18:8-10 with her and invited her to be baptized and she said she wasn't quite sure, but she would think about it and pray about it! We have our next lesson with her later today so we'll see how everything went over the weekend!

Last night after our Sunday devotional, we watched the devotional given by Elder Bednar a few years ago called "The Character of Christ" and oh my goodness! It was the most amazing thing like ever! Something I wanted to share with everyone was he said something along the lines of when you think you can't do it, you're right. But, with the strength of the Lord you can! I know that this is so true! I have seen this so many times in my life especially since being here in the CCM. Another thing that was kind of the main focus of the talk was that Christ always turned outward to those around Him when the natural man tells us to turn inward. 

Well, I love you all! I hope you all remember to do the things that Christ would do this week and turn outward in love and compassion when you want to turn inward! Read your scriptures, say your prayers. Don't just pray to say you prayed. Pray so that you are having a conversation with the Lord and really listening for what He has to tell you. One of the teachers had my district do that this week. We all went and kneeled, like actually kneeled not just sitting on our feet which I was guilty of before, and he challenged us to pray sincerely and listen for promptings for 15 minutes and for at least ten of those minutes be on our knees. The gospel's true, God loves you!

Love,
Hermana Cheever

We couldn't go on our temple walk yesterday because our Branch President thought it was too cold, 
so Hermana Billin and I were looking longingly out at the people who still got to go.

These are the hermanas in my zone/branch. We wanted to get a picture before Hermanas Dayley, Vega, Mejia, and Thompson left, 

but half of us had already gotten ready for bed so that's why we're in our pajamas! 

From left to right it's Hermana Dayley, me, Hermana Wyson, Hermana Billin, Hermana Chairez, and Hermana Paiz. 

On the second row it's Hermana Vega, Hermana Mejia, and Hermana Thompson.