Estoy iendo a una Aventura!!​!!

HI!

Well this was my last week at the CCM. And honestly I am glad. I've been getting cabin fever and a little trunky the past few days because I just want to get out there!! My Spanish isn't perfect but I can hold my own. It's super good that I am at the CCM because all the teachers are from Lima and so they teach us the Spanish that is spoken here! I have been really progressing and I can't wait to learn more! On saturday we are going proselyting again, in my mission again! So if I am trunky now... wait till Sunday. I am going to be biting at the bits! I just can't wait to teach the incredible people here and share a message that will make them so much happier than they already are! I was told that my mission is the smallest area wise but the biggest population wise. I think there are about 1,000,000 people in my mission! Crazy huh??? And i heard its the poorest, even better. I am so excited to be actually doing missionary work! I was so excited to leave on my mission but then I go to the CCM and realized that this is just a six week long mission prep calls and my real mission starts on Tuesday! But I have grown so much here. I have learned more than I could have ever hoped for and there is still truckloads to learn. I have loved it here. The food is amazing, the rooms are nice, the teachers are incredible, and everyone is just happy to be out here serving the Lord!!! I can't wait to get to the field!

 

That is so cool that your doing a missionary month! And I love that the bishop gave you a B.O.M. challenge! Tell this to the kids, I am on track to finsih the Book of Mormon on Monday and I started about two and half weeks ago with only about one to two hours of reading a day. They can totally finish it by Christmas!!! I believe in them!!! I really hope the ward is improving and getting excited about missionary work! Have there been any more mission calls? I love here abour them. A friend from school got called to my mission! Unfortunately she's a girl so we won't be comps but that will mean I will have at least four people in the mission that I know besides my district here in the CCM! (we're all going to Lima North btw, except 2). Tell the youth that any Chirstlike deed is missionary work! And if you can find the talk Elder Bednar gave in 2011 on Christmas. It is incredible.

 

I cannot tell you how excited I am to go to the field!!! It will be the absolute greatest thing ever!!! I cannot wait!

 

Awkward: (from like two weeks ago) I super kicked the soccer ball over these 50 foot high nets and over the fence of the CCM into the street. It was pretty awksome...

 

Awesome: Just being here on a mission! We don't do much here at the CCM so my awesome moments are lacking... But! I did get a SWEET Lima club jersey today!!!

 

I miss you all and I can't wait to tell you all about the field and the amazing people of Lima!!!

 

I love you!!!!

You are always in my prayers

 

Poco a Poco

 

Love,

 

Elder McIff

 Elder McIff in front of the CCM

 Elder McIff in his vicuna tie

 Elder McIff and his district in the CCM

 

 

El Primer Mez

I am so happy you enjoyed conference because I definetly did!!! Seriously I have never gotten more out of a General Conference than ever before!!! It was so amazing! Like Oh my goodness! all the talks were completely amazing. I especailly like Elder Uchtdorf's, Elder Holland's, and I absolutely LOVED President Monson's talk on Saunday. Oh my goodness. I loved how the entire conference was about missionary work and enduring to the end. It felt like I had just gone to a motivational speaker confernece. Elder Holland's talk especailly pumped me up. I love seeing that tender side of him. He was so sincere and so loving. I think it was really good for all the missionaries to hear. I know a lot of them needed a boost and pep-talk. I loved his quote "If the bitter cup does not pass, drink it, and look to better days." I loved that!!! That is what is all about. Keep hoping for the best. Keep on Keepin On. Or in the words of Dad "Deal With It." During that whole talk I kept thinking about Lord of The Rings when Sam and Frodo are in Mount Doom and Frodo is hanging over the edge and Sam is reaching for him yelling " DON'T YOU LET GO, DON'T YOU LET GO!!!". Lord of The Rings is full of the wisest sentiments. Elder Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood was also another enduring to the end, motivational talks. Go a watch it because it is so good. His main message was " You can do it, NOW." That was so powerful and I know that so many missionaries were motivated by that. It was so good!!! I also thought of Batman that whole talk too. Thomas Wayne says to Bruce, "Bruce, Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up." Another movie that is so very wise.

 

My favorite talk of Conference though was President Monson's Sunday Morning talk. It was so inspired, and so sincere, and you could feel that Spirit for miles. I loved how he talked about his wife and how he knows that he will see her again and that every thing will be alright. It was so tender! I also loved his story about Brother Bramms. It made me realize that no matter how hard thingss get and no matter how many trials are set upon us, If we count our blessings and remember that Jesus Christ knows everything we are going through, we will overcome. I loved the poem that he shared about that trees. The winds will blow and the storm will rage but the tree's will grow ever taller. The last line of the poem says it all, "In trees and men, good timbers GROW." Our trials in life are all for our benefit. They will make us stronger, they will make us wiser, and they will bring us closer to our Savior Jesus Christ if we just remember to lean on his grace. He knows exactly what all of are gong through and are feeling, and he knows exactly how to help us. An awesome scripture my companion shared with Ether 12:27. We are teaching an investigator who's son has a heart problem and is confused on why his son is sick and why he is dying. So we shared that scripture and shared President Monson's talk and it really impacted him and he realized why he is having his trial. The Atonment of Jesus Christ is amazing and through him we can do everything.

 

In other news, Elder U and I are now Zone Leaders!!! Our zone is all of the North American Missionaries in the CCM. We don't really have a lot of responsibilities and really all we do is comfort elders that are having a rough time. But its really good!!! I'm really blessed. We got a new shipment of Missionaries to the CCM today and so far they are great! I can' t wait to get to know them. Also my spanish is really coming along, as always!!!

 

Awkward: Our district got punked into thinking that we had broken a serious rule and that we were all going home. It ended up being this huge joke just to give us this dinky Christmas tree!!!

Awesome: Me and another Elder saved an Elder in my district's life!!! He was choking on his food and I was the first to notice so I hopped up and started giving him the Heimlich and I couldn't get it out so this other elder came in and just gave him the biggest squeeze in the world and sent the meat flying out of his throat. It was insane!!!!!

 

I have been here a month and it feels like it has flown by!!! And I only have like 12 days left!! I leave the CCM on Oct 22nd. I am so excited!!!!!!!!

 

I hope you have an amazing week!!!!!

I love you!!!!

 

Poco a Poco

 

Love,

 

Elder McIff

El Espiritu es el poder de conversión

HI !!!

 

I don't know why but for some reason I was super super super excited that I got to write today!!! I've been missing you!! But don't worry the CCM works us so hard that I don't have time to be sad!! Dont worry I am having an amazing week this week. Everything is going so well! The food is amazing and the all the Latinos are all just so nice and inviting and HILARIOUS! Ah they kill me! But everything here at the CCM is fantastic and worderful and amazing and hard and easy and every other adjective in the book. I am having so much fun. I am learning more spanish day by day and more about the gospel hour by hour. If I'm honest, my spanish is fantasic. Just kidding. It's bad. But 100 fold of what it used to be. Everything here in the CCM is for your growth. There are a ton of rules but I understand that they are for our good and they help us become cloer to Christ and help us prepare to preach His Gospel.

 

This week was a week where I really grew spiritually. I feel so close to Christ and I am striving to become like him more and more each day. I finished the Book of Mormon for just the second time in my life.I know that every word in is true. It truly testifies that Jesus Chirst lives and he loves every single one of us. That is something major I learned this week. Jesus gave his all so that we could have all he has. His love for us is endless and his Atonement is endless. All of our sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ and through his ever lasting atonement. This week we had a devotional and the speaker gave a list of points to help missionaries and one of them was Be Clean. I don't why but I felt an overwhelming call to repentance. So that night I prayed so long and so hard that I kind of felt like Enos, but on a much smaller scale because that guy was a stud. But after I prayed and asked for forgivness I felt an overflow of the Spirit and of peace the next day. The Atonement is real and Jesus and our Heavenly Father loves us more than we could ever imagine. And I am so honored to be chosen to go and preach his this wonderful message to the people of Peru.

 

In other news this week: We went to the temple this morning and got to go out and shop around the town for a little bit which was fun. I also listened to part of the temple session in spanish and totally got what they were saying! (más o menos) I love the spanish languange and I am so happy I am learning it. I used to think it was a lazy language and wasn't really pretty but I realized if you speak it right it is a BEAUTIFUL language. Esspecially in the B.O.M.. I am learning so much and so fast too! I've only been here three weeks and I'm pretty confidiant about hold my own in the spanish world! That's the gift of tounges for ya!

 

One awesome thing that happened this week was our teacher Hermano Meza taught us about using the Book of Mormon while teaching and the way he taught it was completely amazing. He had us give him a scenario of an invistigator. The investigator was a single dad with two kids and he was unemployed. Right after we gave him the scenario he started teaching us as the investigator. And without any preperation or any notes or anything he whips our this incredible scripture that works perfectly for the man. It blew me away and then he shared a story of when he was in the same situation!! It blew me away. He taught with such power and spirit that I would have been baptized then and there! That experiecne really made me want to read and study the scriptures even more. So I have a goal to finish the Book of Mormon again before I leave the CCM.

 

I am so excited to conference too!!! Like overly excited!!!! And we get to watch it in english!!! Ah I feel like I'm going to watch football. I'm that excited!!!!

 

So awkward and awesome!

Awkward: I had a miserable cold ALL week!!!! But I am all better!!! :)

Awesome: I bore my testimony and gave the closing prayer on Sunday in Sacrament ALL in spanish!! (minus a few phrases)

 

 

I love you !!! I cant wait to hear more from you!!!

 

Poco a Poco

 

Love,

 

Elder McIff