Week 2 in the CCM

Hola Everyone!

So 2 weeks down! Okay first off Mom and Ron PLEASE keep sending me Dear Elder letters! They print them out so I can keep them and I can read them whenever! Your letter made me cry! And then i was laughing through my tears:) Thank you SO much for sending it to me! I really missed all of you this week and wished you could all be here with me! But anyways, this week was super spiritual! Sundays are jam-packed with AMAZING messages! So here are some of my highlights:

• In Relief Society we talked about the "Tongue of Angels" in 2 Nephi 31 & 32 and its meaning. The teacher connected it like this T.O.A.- universal language of love- holy ghost(2 Nephi 32:3) - words of Christ. *This was superb because while teaching our first investigator last week she said she had prayed to know if the BOM is true and our church and she felt like it was true and agreed to baptism! I was SO moved! It was like I was being converted all over again! Almost like living through her:)* So then she talked about how if we speak with the universal language of love we would feel the love of Christ for our investigators and thats why we receive so much joy when they finally know its true!

• We watched a Jeffery R. Holland video which of course was SPOT ON! Please please please look it up! It's his talk at the MTC on Jan, 2013 and he said some impact things:
• Moroni saw US in our day and the work we would be doing
• The apostles knew their end was coming and that testifying would be useless because the apostasy was coming but they kept proselyting-why? Because they knew in our day WE would finish the work and we WOULD  NOT FAIL!
• But we have to be better than them and all the missionaries before us
• Because this isn't a break from our "real lives" THIS IS REAL LIFE!
• YOU ARE COMMANDED TO COME HOME WITH AT LEAST ONE CONVERT AND IT BETTER BE YOU!
• HE HAS CHOSEN YOU SINCE THE BEGINNING TO BE HERE AT THIS TIME
• We may be teenagers but the future is in OUR hands
• It's called Preach MY Gospel for a reason, we need to preach HIS gospel!
• In Helaman 5 it says Nephi and Lehi did preach with POWER AND AUTHORITY
• Like with alma the younger, when the angel came he did cause the earth to quake (Mosiah 27: 11,12,18,19) and they were so ASTONISHED they fell to the earth.
• ASTONISHED´S root is TONER meaning thunder
• Go cause an earthquake in someones life- EVEN ASTONISH THEM!

• Okay this next video CHANGED MY MISSION OUTLOOK FOREVER! type in "missionary work and the atonement" into youtube and watch this AMAZING VIDEO!!! I just summarized my thoughts form it:
• Many missionaries ask why missionary work is so hard *this was how i had been feeling this past week when teaching because the language barrier is SO hard and frustrating because I can't bear my testimony like I usually do cause I don't know how to express it in Spanish. So our lessons didn't turn out as well as before and I was just pretty down so I was asking the lord for some encouragement and THIS IS WHAT I RECEIVED!!* This work is not easy because salvation has NEVER BEEN A CHEAP EXPERIENCE! Why would you expect it to be easy for you when it was never easy for HIM? And when we suffer we get to stand shoulder to shoulder with the most perfect life this world has ever known. Yes, this work is hard but there is NO other way. Look at Christ's life: It wasn't easy- He even asked if this could be different "Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me." How can we begin to complain when he suffered an eternity more than us yet He went on, He went though with it to the END. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how hard it gets, WE CHOSE TO BE HERE and WE MUST DEEP GOING because we are HIS representatives and HE NEVER QUIT. We are the future because we are the gathering of zion and our job is the MOST IMPORTANT job this world will ever know! 

Anyway this week turned out to be pretty freaking amazing and I love this work even more now! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

con todos mi amor,

Hermana Logan

P.S. Okay so everyone keeps asking about the food, the food here is actually pretty good. Sometimes it's pretty questionable but they always have cereal and a salad/fruit bar. AND THEY USUALLY HAVE WATERMELON!! :))) So yeah it's pretty great... not as  good as Ron's cooking OF COURSE, NOT EVEN CLOSE!

Look at this huge moth!

Me and my companion

Me and my companion when we forgot our umbrellas 

Me with the hermanas I live with 

Trying to recreate the famous Beatles album cover... in Mexico

Forgot my umbrella

Week 1 Down in Mexico

Hello everyone!!!!

Well I am officially done with week one in the MTC!! Lol. Okay so after we got off of our flight here in Mexico I was so surprised to see how GREEN it is here. I was expecting like total desert hahaha. AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE DRIVING! WE DROVE TO THE CCM FROM THE AIRPORT AND I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE!!!! But we made it here and it's totally beautiful! And yes I found my companion Hermana Jones and she is great! She is from Washington state(tri-city area). She is super fun and all the Elders in our district love her cuz she is like kind of a tom boy. But she has an amazing conversion story about her and her whole family which is awesome!

Ellen and her companera in the pouring rain.

Okay so our district has 7 guys (did have 8 but one of the Elders went home already cuz he just felt totally out of his element and such) and four of us girls and we are all going to the same mission! But the boys are super hard to concentrate around cuz they are pretty rowdy lol. Plus they love to ask Hermana Jones about her life... But we all get along great and its been fun getting to know everyone! The Spanish started out as a real big struggle for me but now I am getting more confident about it and I have felt the power of the gift of tongues already on my mission and I know what my setting apart blessing meant! 

So when they say they keep you busy they MEAN it! Its like so insane how much we do in one day its hard to talk about a whole week in one email! But I thought I would share some highlights!!! 

Okay so we had a really cool devotional about the second shortest scripture in the Bible which is Remember Lots wife. He talked about how it was so important for her to not look behind her like the Lord commanded, but she did. But not even that she looked back longingly etc. He tied it into how we need to leave our past behind us so we can focus on being the best missionaries we can be! Which was pretty cool and impactful to me. 

We also watched a video about John Tanner that was SO good! I didnt know ALL of his story and he was truly a man of pure faith and consecration. He gave literally EVERYTHING he had to keep the gospel and I need to do the same! It was super amazing to feel the spirit so strong during a video!!

Ok, so this is the best part of this whole week. We started teaching and investigator on our second full day here- ALL IN SPANISH. So the first lesson we taught was pretty much all read off our notes and such and it was very impactful. Our second lesson went better but we still werent feeling right about it. So our last lesson we decided we were going to just ask her questions and totally rely on the Spirit and the little spanish we know to do it. I was so impressed to just totally rely on the Spirit and as we were walking over there I was super stoked to do it it was fantastic! 

So we get in there and we just do our best with teaching Andrea and not any lessons. So we invited her to say the opening prayer and then we both started asking her about how she felt when she prayed and we talked about the Spirit and the Atonement. She was almost in tears!!!! Which is quite the change from just reading the whole lesson! After that lesson we both were so giddy with the Spirit and it was AMAZING! I wish I could convey the Spirit that was there. I couldnt understand all that she was saying but it felt right and thats all that matters! Plus we did it all mainly in Spanish! If someone had told me that five days into the mission I would have been doing that I would NOT have believed them! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! 

So we were challenged to bear our testimony in español to our families so here it goes!

Yo se que La Expacion is verdad y es como nosotros puede ventir con de Dios otra vez. Yo se que Jose Smith es un propheta y El Libro de Mormon is Verdadero. Esta Iglesia es verdadero con todos mi corazon. Yo se que de Dios ama mi y usted. Yo es muy agredecido por de opportunidad a sevir de misional y de poder del Espiritu Santo. En el nombre de jesucristo, Amen! 

I love all of you SOOO much and appreciate your emails they were all super sweet! I hope you will continue to write me and can feel the Spirit through my email! 

Ill talk to you all in a week!!! 

con todos mi amor, 

Hermana Logan 

I'm Here!

Dear Family and friends,

I have arrived safely to the CCM and it is still not completely real lol. This place is amazing and I have made a ton of friends all ready! My flight to Mexico was literlly like half missionaries! It was insane! So far it has just been wonderful and totally great to become friends with everyone! My P-day is on Wed so you won´t hear from me for a week. I realized my camera doesnt have a memory card so I am going to see if they have any here, if not could you guys send me one? Oh, and Mom my passcode to my computer is on my information document on the desktop of our computer. I havent been able to find my companion yet, her name is hermana Jones... but Hermana Balito is my temp comp right now cuz we found each other on the flight and are sticking together! I cant wait to email all of you about my new week and experience so far!! But I only have five min!! It just doesnt feel real at all, but its relaly cool to be totally surrounded by other missionaries! I am now going to unpack and get settled in right now after I email! But I love all of you and this place is literally amazing! Ok, Ill write you in a week!!! Con dios!

Con todos mi amor,

Hermana Logan

P.S.Signing my name like that was super cool and fulfilling! I have been waiting to do that forever hahahaha! Big hugs to everyone!!!!

P.S.S. Sister Lindemann I SAW NATE HERE!!!! Ill send a pic sometime!

Pictures of Ellen at the airport