Week 1 of my Quest

Hey Everyone!! Peru is so awesome! I absolutely love it here!! When we first got here we landed in Lima at about 1 am on 8/27/14 after getting all of our luggage and finding our ride we got back to the CCM (MTC in Spanish)at about 2 am where we had to unpack a few things and then hop into bed. We only got to sleep until 6:30,HA HA so not very long to catch up on our rest. It was funny, 2 of our roommates are Latinos and when we came in that night they were speaking Spanish to us and we had no clue what the heck they were saying! So they started saying, "LA LUZ! LA LUZ!!" it means THE LIGHTS, THE LIGHTS! The first day was literally a mini eternity here on earth. Easily the longest day of my life, I think I aged 5 years in one day. It was all orientation and all that jazz... BOOORING... That night we met our branch Presidency who will be over our ward, he is a way awesome guy. His name is President Townsend. I was able to meet with his first councilor Elder Hill, and tell him a little bit about me. They came out after meeting with each other for about 10 minutes and decided that I was going to be the district leader over my district for the first 3 weeks of the CCM. Not exactly what I had in mind on the first day of the CCM but God qualifies those who are called right? The second day here, was, MY BIRTHDAY!! I didn't realize it until about 8 pm that night, no joke. It was really funny! It hit me like a huge shock. It was funny Elder Bush, who is in my district, said something about it being the 28th and I was like a deer in the headlights, he and Elder Tolbert started to die laughing (That is Elder Bush`s companero). We celebrated by singing and by eating a piece of candy that I brought with me from the US. My birthday was really cool though, early on that day my district and the Latin districts combined to talk to an investigator about the gospel, this was a worker here at the CCM who was not a member and was interested in learning about the church. A bunch of Latins stood up and started speaking the gospel in Spanish, fortunately we had an interpreter so we knew what they were saying. I was the last person to stand up, and the only person who spoke only English. I had heard all the Latins trying to cram a bunch of info down his throat and I am sure it was a lot for him to take in, They ranged in almost every topic possible. But when I stood up, I didn't want to throw more down his throat, so I asked a simple question, "from all the information we have given you, how has it made you feel?" I then bore my testimony on when I was an investigator and how the Holy Spirit worked through the missionaries and my desire to learn, and taught me that what I was reading and learning, was a good thing. As the translator translated for him, he had to fight back tears and he said that he loved everything that he had heard and that he wants to continue learning because he wants his family to live together forever and he wants all of his family to be happy. He said that he sees all the Elders and Hermanas here at the CCM and they are all happy and "full of light" and he wants that for his family. It is amazing at how the gospel can make people happy. The 3rd day through the 5th day all blended together. It was a brutal onslaught of study and memorizing something new in Spanish. It was hard and I was getting really frustrated, I could not understand the teacher and I really wanted to scream!! Me and Elder Tolbert just laugh at each other when we don`t get it. Elder Bush joins in as well. It is how we cope with not understanding what people are saying. It has helped a lot. I am trying so hard to be obedient and learn the language that sometimes you just need to crack a few jokes and laugh until you get tears in your eyes. I really have such an amazing district, all of us but one will be going to Huancayo together, so I am really grateful for the friendships we are forming here. The 6th day, was the first day we taught an "investigator". It isn't a real investigator, it is our teacher. She only spoke Spanish to us in the lesson and we could only teach in Spanish as well. She was pretending to be a mother of a sick little boy. She wanted to know why God was not healing her son and why he might die. We taught her on the Plan of Salvation and that we will all live in immortality after we die and how following Jesus Christ will lead to eternal life and happiness in the heavens with Jesus Cristo and God (Dios). As the lesson progressed I was not really getting much in and saying a whole lot but we were able to scramble together bad Spanish to get our point across. She then asked me why God wasn't healing her son, and I bore my testimony to her saying, I don`t know why her son was sick and not getting better, but I do know that Jesus Christ loves everyone and that he performed the Atonement for everyone that lives and has lived on the earth. It was a powerful testimony and I began to cry in the moment, it wasn't as if I was teaching a fake made up person, at the time it was as if this was a real person who needed to know that God loved her, and her son and that families are eternal. It was a great great rest of the day after that. Today has been awesome too. It has been our P day so we have gone about doing laundry and we actually got to leave the CCM today. We went to the temple bright and early at 6:45 am. We were in the temple until about 9:30 and then we were able to go out and go shopping. I bought two ties, a coin purse and we went into town a little ways and I bought some InkaCola. Had to get me some of that!! It is delicious. I also bought some food from a street vendor, and it was DELICIOUS!!! Way better than the food they have here in the CCM. After I finish my emailing I get to finish laundry and go back to working hard for the next 6 1/2 days. I just wanted to say thank you to all of you that have supported me all this time. I can definitely feel your prayers and I want you all to know that I am praying for you all every day. I hope that you all know that. I look forward to hearing from you all for the next few... years :) Love Elder Bell