CCM- Lima, Peru

So after my 3 weeks in the Provo MTC, I hopped on a plane with 20 other sisters and elders and headed for Lima. We were so nervous!! But very excited! We travelled all day stopping only in Atlanta. I had a really cool experience on the plane. I sat across from an elder, Elder Mendoza, who would be in my mission and was able to meet him and talk to him. I also got to sit next to a native of Peru!! He was living in Miami but was flying home to visit his family. He spoke english very well and told me all about Peru. He helped me with my spanish and then we were able to have a gospel conversation! It was so cool. We talked about the church and the organization of it! It was my first real lesson as a missionary! When we landed in Peru I gave him a pass along card and said goodbye... it was so cool! We got to Lima around 2am. Oh my goodness.... we were all so confused when we got there! No of us knew spanish and we didn't know where to go! Haha.. it was quite the experience. We then found the people you were going to take us to the CCM. We loaded up the suitcases and then we were off! It was so crazy to be driving around in another country! I was in shocked. The drive was about 45 minutes long and I saw all sorts of things. The houses looked so weird. They had fences and gates all around them and looked very closed off from everything! Then I saw a little kid in the street trying to sell candy to people in the street! I didn't even know what to think. We got to the CCM and some elders helped us get our stuff inside. We were told that we could sleep in until 9am since we had gotten in so late. I remember getting to my room and passing out. I knew there were other sisters in the room but that was all I knew. I was woken up the next morning by somebody speaking really fast spanish over an intercom... I had no idea what he was saying!! Then 3 latin sisters walk into the room and give me a kiss on the cheek! What is going on?! So I got up and got dressed and found the other missionaries... and our training in the CCM began. It was very similar to the MTC except everything was in spanish! None of the teachers even knew english... so we were kinda on our own! Haha.. but it actually helped us learned spanish faster! We had such a great time in the CCM. We had two companions each... an american and latin companion and we did different classes and exercises with each of them. Also, we were introduced to Peruvian food in the CCM. Everyday for lunch we got to have a new Peruvian food. Very cool. On preparation day we went to the temple like normal, had a chance to go shopping, do laundry, sleep, and write letters. Also, on Saturdays we would actually leave the CCM and go out and work like real missionaries. We would visit less active members and talk to people in the street. It was so amazing to do real missionary work! I was in the CCM for 6 weeks and then I could finally enter the mission field!! While I loved my time in the CCM I was very excited to get out and start working in the field! Our last day in the CCM we said goodbye to our friends and got picked up by our mission presidents and the assistents to the president... and we were finally off... ready to enter the Central Lima Peru Mission!!

Latin District in the CCM

Going out to teach on a Saturday