Bats

HOLA mi familia y mi amigos!!!! Another week down say what? Wow I cannot believe it is P-Day again already! This week was so so good!!! It is flying by! I am so excited to go to Florida but honestly as gross as it sounds, I am gonna be so sad to leave here.  Like I LOVE the CCM.  I love everyone here.  I love seeing familiar faces, and I have just made the best of friends as well. I love Utah and just am enjoying these last two weeks with no humidity! (:  We go outside to study and its the best time of the day. we just look up at the leaves changing on the mountains and I have never wanted to go on a canyon drive more in my life ha ha ha but all is well!  I just like to pretend I’m in a jeep driving through the canyon its fine

So this week started off super different because our trio got split up!! A new Hermana came into our district so Hermana Osborne was asked to be put with her.  It was so different doing everything with just Hermana Latimer and I, especially teaching, because we have just always had us three, so more people to try and coordinate talking with. It sounds dumb, but it was actually hard.  Although it was sad to have her leave our trio, it has been really good to start teaching and studying just us two and getting to prep a little more for what the field will be like.  I have been blessed with seriously the best comp. We seriously just are always laughing and we just read each other’s minds. This week we continued to teach our investigator Viri, who we were having a really hard time connecting with and finding out what she really needs at first.  But this week the lessons ended up going so well she has committed to Baptism!!!  She is one of the hardest investigators here apparently, and I just can’t even describe my love for her.  I look forward to seeing her.  It has made me so so so excited to think this is the feeling I can be having for the next year and a half if I work hard and am fully trusting in the Lord, because it is only through him that conversion happens.  

This week has also had some just absolute classic moments. So first off, my residency building is currently infested with bats.  Yes.  Bats. Ha ha ha ha.  The other day there is this urgent message over the intercom for all sisters to attend this meeting.  We think it is about modesty, cuz literally it ALWAYS is.  So we go just prepping to hear about skirt lengths and stuff, and the President of the MTC gets up and says, "so ladies we are having a bit of a bat problem" WHAT?  We died.  Apparently a chick was bit by one and has tested positive for rabies so yep, that’s that.  We got evacuated from our building today and have been put in a boys dorm, so our bathrooms are straight urinals.  WASUP ha ha ha.  Too good! We just crack up thinking about it.  Clearly I didn’t need to go out of the country to get the full mission effect (: just needed to hit up Provo, Utah. 

Something else that just made me laugh (maybe this is just pure comedy to me cuz currently am so sheltered right now ha ha) but after the devotionals we get to watch a church movie of our choice.  This week we decided to go to "Legacy" this pioneer movie.  The main characters end up liking each other and have this kissing scene, but like literally a peck, but you should have HEARD the room! Ha ha ha like hundreds of elders were just out of control.  It was SO funny.  Just cat calling and freaking out, I was like yes, only in the MTC would a pioneer Mormon movie make people freak the freak out. 

At exercise time yesterday Hermana Latty and I are running around the track just like belting (but not belting) the "First Vision" and "The Baptismal Interview" and the "Missionary Purpose" in Española with all these elders like it was literally so normal ha ha.  We walk out of the gym and I was like, "what on earth were we just doing?  Ha ha just sprinting while reciting pure doctrine" the mish life tho!

Last thing. So we have service every week and literally everyone as to clean bathrooms and scrub bricks except for Latty and I, I am still not sure how we got so lucky.  This week we were asked to choose 18 flags from all over the world to go hang up in front of the MTC on the flagpoles, as they change them out every few weeks.  So I totally chose all my friends flags who are serving all over the world right now (: (all the flags that they have).  Love that I have my bestest friends representing Christ ALL OVER THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. 

Things are so great here! I feel so blessed. I am trying my hardest to be the best that I can possibly be. My Branch President, President Lords, said something to me this week that has really resonated with me. He said, "just like a grocery store line, there is someone who always chooses the quicker line, who is always moving quicker and faster than you, no matter how hard you try. You always seem to focus on that one person. WELL STOP! DON'T WORRY!" I loved this. There are so many incredible people here in the CCM, and especially in our church and communities. We cannot compare ourselves. The Lord knows you each individually. Don't try to become someone else, just become a better you. Becoming better does not work through fear, it works through faith.  I hope you all have the best week! Go up the canyon for me will y’all? (: thanks for everyone’s love and support. I wouldn't be here today without you!

xoxoxo

Hermana Dimond 

que pasa mufasa?

Hello cute friends and fam! If you're reading this, props to you!! You are just a genuine person clearly! I feel so blessed to have such a support system cheering me on while I am on this journey. I feel love and prayers everyday and just feel so lucky!

Well this week was great!! By far the best and fastest week thus-far, ya know, of ALL the weeks that I've been here (: haha I am so surprised it is already p day again. But hey I'm not complaining (: so met the most solid homie here at the MTC this week. His name is Kyle Nelson. He is a worker here, probably like late 20s maybe 30 years old, not married, slight receding hairline, works in the research part of the MTC if that tells you anything (yes you can just picture this man in your mind). Monday was one of the worst days that i have had here. our lesson just went terribly and I just felt so defeated. I just said the biggest prayer after the lesson and then we headed to lunch which is where I happened to meet thee Kyle Nelson. haha he is literally THEE funniest human i have ever met, as well as thee weirdest like old man. he informs me and my comps and district of anything we would like to know about the outside world(:. keeps me updated on politics, may or may not have shown me the video of the japan Olympics announcement, the one with Mario, made sure to inform me that Justin Bieber deleted his Instagram account, lets me know the weather for the week, ya know, just the good stuff. He basically is just an answer to my prayers because after hours of studying and teaching it just feels so good to laugh. real hard. haha also my cute friends Camri, Brenley, and Maddie came to the MTC to be investigators for people to teach and they came and found me in the middle of one of my classes. It was so great to see their faces, even just for a few minutes! obviously I couldn't hold back the tears(: I tell ya, this place will do it to ya. God knows when I need a little extra help.

This week me and my trio were made sister training leaders for our zone, basically the zone leaders but for girls. i was honored that we were picked, but considering we have to train the newbies and i literally know nothing and still feel like the newbie, its a little weird. haha but an awesome calling. i am excited! the job comes with phone as well so dad jokes on you, you thought i wouldn't last without a phone. got my self the most beautiful looking restricted flip phone you ever did see (: Sunday the Nashville tribute band came for our devotional and we got to have a concert which was incredible. I don't think there was a dry tear in the whole building. My zone was lucky as well because my branch president knows them and they were staying at his house, so we got to meet them which was cool! If you don't know their music LOOK IT UP! 

This week we taught the most amazing lesson to a women whose husband passed away and we got to share with her all about the plan of salvation, but most importantly God's plan for her. I was able to share my testimony to her about eternal families and of Carson, and at the end of the lesson, we were all just balling in the room together. I have never really felt the spirit so strong. It was the biggest testimony builder to me of the language of the Spirit, rather than the language of Spanish.

Spanish has been a struggle and I often feel discouraged but something I learned this week was found in Ether 12:27, a scripture I have heard over and over. but this time, something different stood out to me, the first sentence, "If men come unto me, I will show unto them their weaknesses." I thought about it differently. Recognizing my faults was a struggle for me at first, because  who wants to focus on their faults? you always try and think about your strenths. But The closer I or we are coming to God, the more visible our weaknesses and faults will appear, that is what i have learned. If I view them negatively, those thoughts are from Satan. I can take those weaknesses and use them as motivation, motivation to learn and grow closer to my Savior. The more I recognize them, the closer I am coming to God. This week I am really going to try and focus on what God needs me to work on, what I need to become better at, because God has far more talents for us, then what we already think we have. we just need to be ready. 

I love this gospel and this work and feel so luck to be here. I have heard the voice of our Savior through the Holy Ghost. I know the voice, and I love the voice. He blesses me far more than I deserve. I pray for you all. Have such a great week!

xoxox Hermana Dimond

 

Semana Dos

Hola my cute friends and family!! Cant believe it is already Saturday again! People always told me that the days in the MTC feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I am here to testify that this is not true. Days here feel like MONTHS and weeks feel like seconds (: hahahahah but I absolutely love it. I always joke around that I feel like I am in that "Truman Show" here because I never know what day it is, never know what the weather will be like, and often forget there is an outside world. I will see teachers or people walking into the MTC on their phones and like getting out of their cars and I'm like whoah so weird. hahaha and at night, this mans voice, which is the most monotone voice ever, will come on the intercom and say "quiet time" or "lights out". It still freaks me out sometimes! Im like we are in the literal hunger games. hah this place is just a little missionary snowglobe. Sometimes I just get so claustrophobic, but it is honestly so special. My favorite thing is to just be walking outside passing like 20 picnic tables and watching companionship's teach investigators all in different languages. Like in a matter of 30 feet, there is like ten different languages being spoken, It is seriously the most powerful thing.

Well this week was full of great things. Bonnie L Oscarson came and gave an amazing devotional, all about how the lord has prepared a mission experience JUST for you.  I loved this. I can see that even now with my companions, my district, and my zone. There is something I need to learn from each one of them. There is a reason I have the teachers that I have, and the investigators that I do. The Lord knows ME. He knows everyone perfectly. I am still working on humbling myself completely to realize it. I have realized though that I cannot even begin to comprehend the amount of love that God has for his children. Anyways, speaking of investigators, this week was super special.  We got to continue to teach Wendi, and yesterday we invited her to follow Christs example and be baptized. She said YES! All week I decided to quit stressing about the language. That is not the reason that I am here.  I am here to teach and bring others unto Christ, to be an instrument in the lords hand.  So this entire week, each lesson I would prepare and study so hard, and then as I was going to teach the lesson, would just close my notebook and let the spirit do the rest. I have grown such a testimony of faith. I can do all things because of and through Christ. Even having to explain "committing adultery" in my second week of espanol (: wow what an experience. 

I have been reading a talk called "The Fourth Misisonary" that this girl in my room gave me.  I just want to share a few quotes from it that have really resonated with me: 

"Not only can you change but you do it all the time. Some people do not believe this.  People excuse their failures and their weaknesses by saying "thats just the way I am" or "i am not a morning person" or "I am just shy". To believe that weaknesses and deficiencies in your character are unchangagle is to reject the central truth to the plan of salvation. The central purpose and blessing of life is CHANGE.  It is to be changed, to become more like Christ.  It is to incorporate into your character, the qualities of HIS character.  It is to move from one degree of intelligence and capacity, to the next, and from there to the next, until you see god face to face and know him as he knows you. Every challenge, heartache, trial, unfairness, sadness, and dissapointment is just an opportunity, and opportunity to respond. To respond to be more like Christ". 

Well that is about it for this week.(: Headed out to play some four square, which is legit the biggest deal here it is mind blowing. We were playing yesterday, and the four square court outside is literally in the parking lot in the front of the temple, and this kid in my district who is from Carolina was literally like "oh my word this is the most mormon thing I have ever seen" haha i was dying! 

A mission is hard. boy is it. but I am so happy with this decision that I have made.  "Waste and wear out your life in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness." This is kind of the motto I tell myself every morning as my alarm goes off. My branch president told me something this week that made me smile. "They will need to send an ambulence to pick you up from the airport when you are done. You SHOULD be worn out, beyond exhausted." I have never been so happily exhausted in my life.  Love and pray for you all. Have a great week!

Hermana Dimond 

Semana Uno

Why hello my favorite people EVER!! This is Hermana Dimond coming at you live from the MTC laundry room wassup wassup!! (: wow what a past couple of days this has been. This place is literally Lone Peak High school. Anytime I walk outside or in the cafeteria, I see someone. It is so fun though and thee biggest blessing for me. Hermana Reagan Curtis (I am trying my hardest to not just call her reags wow but its still so weird for me haha) is in my zone and sleeps right next door to me with Hermana Mckenzie Walker from Elementary. And Sister Nielson sleeps the floor above me. I see them all the time and we just get to talk every night. Anytime I just get overwhelmed with this whole experience I just look around me and see so many people I know, and then thousands of other people I dont, and remember we are all in the same boat.  Everyone here is so nice.  Me and my comps will walk by any sister or elders and they will just yell HELLO HERMANAS and it just makes my day. I love being called a sister.

Well from the minute I got dropped off I have just been in a pretty strict routine, always doing something! I am going to be straight up, these have been thee longest four days of my entire life (mostly because I havent started my day at 6 am since idk like Junior Year hahah). Thursday, my second day, we had already done personal study, and three hours of language study and it was only 11:30 and I was like "what?" i am litterally ready for bed haha. but I pray all the time to stay alert and attentive and I have been, and I feel so blessed. We were sitting inside for literally 13 hours the first two days and I came into my room at night and just started like sprinting around freaking out. I was like I am pretty sure I am going to have blood clots after this six weeks.  But we have now been given exercise time at the gym and on the field and me and my comps just sprint around and play which is the BEST feeling in the world to let down for a minute!

It is so good here. I feel so productive. I am working so hard, the hardest I have ever worked at something, and it is so rewarding to see myself progress in the knowledge of this gospel as well as in the language. 

The gift of tongues is so real.  It is amazing. In these past few days I have already learned how to pray and bear my testimony in espanol, not well, but I have done it.  haha one of my favorite hermanas that is in the room, she told me, "oh dont even worry you will totally know how to teach the whole first lesson in espanol, but still wont know how to conjagate (literally dont know how to spell its fine) a verb). thats the mtc for you. haha. Me and my companions taught our first lesson yesterday to a woman named Wendi. I have probably taken the most spanish out of any of us, so I taught most the lesson. There was so much I wanted to say, and I just didn't know the words to say it.  I felt discouraged during the lesson, and then walked away thinking, "I dont even know how I just did what I did." haha Things that I asked her I couldn't even tell you how to say in espanol right now. But some how I managed to ask her if we could meet with her again and she said yes so monday we will see her again. The gift of tongues is real and I know if ye have the desires in your heart, the lord can help you with anything.  A quote I read this week, "without the spirit you will never succeed, regardless of your talents and abilities." I have been so humbled and have seen this first hand. 

I know this will be thee hardest thing I ever do, but I feel so blessed to be able to be a missionary. To have such a great district who helps me, as well as the most supportive family and friends. But mostly to have the greatest supporter and comforter always cheering me on, my Savoir Jesus Christ.  I pray to him at least 25 times a day, and all my prayers are answered. He knows me as well as all of you individually and just WANTS so badly to help us if we ask him.   All is well here. I wish you all the best week. Con mucho amor

Hermana Dimond

One Hour Down

Why hello you cute things. hahah Wow its been forever!! SIKE well I have made it through this first hour and I am doing great! You dont really have time to think about anything else but being great hah. Man they have got this place down to a science. Everything is so so organized. What did I think it would be tho I mean its the church cmon Mikelle. So I am trying to use punctuation in this email but everything is already in spanish so i cannot type punctuations but know there would be a lot if i could.

Well I walked in and immediately was greeted by like 1000 missionaries. They were all so so happy. That is when I knew that everything was going to be ok!!!.  The girl who greeted me was just the sweetest. I cannot remember her name but she is actually going to be sleeping in the same building as me so that is awesome.  I have already been shown my room and am already only being spoken to in spanish. My teacher is this young girl who is so cute. I am sitting in this room full of kids who have been here for about a month and they just love it and are so chill and so funny! REAGAN CURTIS has already been with me most of the time. we are in the same zone which is so awesome! that just means we get to do everything together! Elder Wilkes i just talked to actually and he is going to be in my zone as well!! so awesome! and as far as the mickey mouse situation haha YES we are companions. but so awesome because I am in a three some companionship. Sister Latimer from Lone Peak, one of the twins who is going to California is also a comp! I am so happy. There is such a happy spirit here. I know I am going to love it! 

Well my P Day is Saturday apparently so you will be hearing from me in a quick few! 

I LOVE you all so so much! i have to go! 

Herman Dimond 

The Drop Off

Bellhop Cameron helping with the luggage

Tears of Joy?

mi familia

Away Hermana Dimond goes!

The Family Tradition - Village Inn