The Same but Different

Otro semana en la vida!

I love this work. Oh man. This week has been a success.

The CCM is...well, it´s the same :) Same food, same classrooms, same Spanish, same District, everything is the same. It´s SWEET. Ha. But something that I´m growing to appreciate is that because everything around me is the same, I am more prone to notice how I am changing, and how I am becoming different. It´s almost as if the same, sometimes mundane, schedule was inspired or something. Who woulda thunk. 

Elder Gehring and I, we are both growing a lot. I´m learning that, as always, we work best together when we love others and each other like Christ loves. When those we are with feel the love of Christ, His love changes them. We don´t have to do the changing, any bold showdowns, because that will never work. Christ´s love changes others, we just have to be the conduits of His love. Now, I know that His love has different faces, and I need to develop other faces of that love, but everything we do DOES need to be a face of that love. So that´s what I´m learning, and trying. This has been so helpful for me to learn this week. It´s great.

My District has had the opportunity to perform some musical number for various meetings, and it has strengthened my testimony of the eternal nature and power of music.

(His CCM President sent us this little snippet and expressed his love for Elder Hixon)

We all don´t speak the same language, about one-third of the people here are from different countries in South America, but despite whatever language we sing in, EVERYONE feels the Spirit abundantly. In the numbers we´ve shared, we´ve gone back and forth in singing Spanish and English, and I believe that when we listen to the "other tongue" we have felt the Spirit the strongest. The Latinos always start to cry when we switch over and sing a verse in English. I fight tears when we sing praises in Spanish. It´s interesting.

The Santiago CCM is different in a lot of ways. On our P Days, we get to go out into the city and do whatever the heck we want for 2 hours, which has been a ton of fun. Santiago is SO FLINGIN FLANGIN COOL. 

(Cumpletos are overrated but Kem is the best. Thanks Ben for telling me about it!)

Because the most people in the CCM at once is normally around 50 people, we grow very close with each other. Every Monday night we say goodbye to a group that is leaving, and every Wednesday a new group comes in. The Latinos are in a 2 week program, where they learn the principles of The Gospel, and us gringos learn both Gospel Principles and how to teach those principles in Spanish. 

Last night was the first time in the CCM that I had to do everything I could to not cry. Every 2 weeks another group leaves, and it´s always hard to say goodbye. Especially to the Latinos. A lot of the Latinos come on the mission with a pair of shoes, couple pairs of socks, maybe 2 white shirts, scriptures, and the rest is given to them. In every hymn they sing with the most fervor and strength that I´ve ever heard, even though they´re all tone deaf, it´s powerful. As we say goodbye to them and they´re all crying, some because this is one of the few times that they really feel the love of Christ so abundantly in their lives, and after 2 weeks they have to leave it behind. I suppose there are North Americans who come and are the same way. But it's truly humbling to see all of us, who are all very very very different, be unified through the love of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, His Gospel, and our desire to share it with others. 

Ah. I sure love these crazy 4 foot tall Latinos. I love The Gospel, I love the people I get to serve. 

(we convinced this guy that North American's eat the tails of monkeys)

Time to go find more people to serve!

(speaking of serving, this is Hermana Blanca, our dear and beloved laundry lady)

Les amo!

-Elder Hixon

P.S.

This is a picture of Christ that Elder Rodriguez drew for me this week.

This is Lando Commando! Love this guy! Reminds me of Gideon. This guy brought us to the semis in the CCM tourney, tough loss. Really wanna serve with him in Sur.