I love Island Life!:)

Hola amigas y familia!!

Well I made it to Puerto Rico safe and sound!  It is absolutely beautiful here and everything is so green, and the people are so so kind:)

My area is in this small pueblo Cabo Rojo!  It is on the far west side of the island and is just this little town!  the town is split into two areas, one on the coast, and one in the forest, I am in the forest! haha but my area is super big, it covers so so much land!  Anyways also my companion is Hermana Green, she is from California and is the best trainer in the entire world!  I have already learned so much from her!  I also live with two other sisters Hermana Cortes who is from Mexico and Hermana Antonio who is from the Dominican Republic, and they pretty much only speak spanish which is definitely helping me get accustomed to it faster which I am very grateful for, and they are also trying to learn English so it all works out really good!:)  They are also so so funny, and the language barrier makes everything 10x more funny! haha

Anyways but this week I have been able to meet a lot of the recent converts in this area and they are all so so sweet, and then we have also been trying to find more people!  Our ward is very humble and very small and they all love helping the missionaries!  we are going to try to do a lot of reactivation as well as finding new investigators!  But anyways overall this work is so awesome but also just so so hard.  I have definitely had my moments where I ask myself What in the world I am doing.  I am learning to truly rely on the Lord with all of my heart, and just to love the people.  I am so grateful for this ward becuase they remind me of my purpose, and why I am here.  So although it is so hard, everyday I am just going to remember my purpose and know that when I do this and just walk with faith, then my testimony will grow and I will be able to fully love this work and where I am!  I love you all with all mi corazon!:)

Love, Hermana Zimmerman:)

  These are from the first day we got here!  We went here straight from the airport to have lunch, it is a fort called El moror!

 My new companion Hermana Green in front of our chapel

 my area - Cobo Rojo

Squishing in the car to go to church :D

Last week in the DR!!

Hola!!

This week was so awesome!  I can't believe that i leave in 5 days for Puerto Rico! I'm so excited but pretty nervous, and the CCM has been so amazing!!

Okay so I realized I forgot to tell a funny story last week so now I'm making up for it, lols!

okay so first story, this week the International Director for the MTC came here to inspect and teach us this week!  And on friday the day he came we had the teachers and everybody come into our classes and were just like "in 10 min the guy is going to be here and so everybody needs to go clean their rooms and make things spotless!"  so then like 2 min later the whole CCM was just like frantic you just heard vaccuums everywhere and everybody was grabbing cleaning supplies, and the funniest were the teachers who started hanging up the purpose and different posters in all of the classrooms!  it was a funny sight to see! haha and then of course the next day they are repainting everything inside and out of the MTC, hahaa i love this CCM.

Another story, okay so background, allot of time for lunch and dinner a lot of us make grilled cheese and like nutella sandwiches and all of the cooks always laugh at us and say we eat too much, so 2 days ago we go into the kitchen and all of the cabinets are locked! noo so sad haha they just said that we eat too many snacks, and then the next morning we wake up and open our door and there is a treadmill just sitting there!  like what?? it takes up like half of the sisters hallway!  haha we think they are trying to tell us something...! haha lol jk but all of us hermanas just think its hysterical! haha

okay so I'm not sure if these stories even make sense but when they happened we were all just laughing so so hard!

Last Friday we had the opportunity to go on splits! My companion was from Guatamela and she had been out for only around 2 months and she was awesome!  We went on the bus for about 40 min, and the area that we were in was awesome , and just very very humble.  We had the opportunity to teach one lesson and then go contacting!  I realized I'm going to have to work even harder to get this language they speak so so fast but it was such a great experience:)

Also on Tuesday we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Neil L. Anderson!  He came and spoke to the Dominican Republic missions and us and we had the opportunity to go to the devotional! it was so so good and he gave tons of great advice for us, it was incredible!  also we got to all shake his hand!  My heart was so incredibly happy!:)

Anyways so now only 5 more days until I leave!  I have absolutely loved this Dominican Republic MTC so so much!  I have had so many spiritual experiences and have met the most incredible people here! I can't imagine being anywhere else, and I think that everyday I learned something that Christ needed me to learn so that I could go out and preach his Gospel.  

I have grown in so many ways and learned so much that have made me so grateful for this gospel and so excited to share it!  I love you all so much, thank you for your kind letters!  You are all amazing!

mucho amor, 

Hermana Zimmerman:)

 Picture with my teachers here in the CCM :D

1 Month!!

Hola todos!!

This has been a spectacular week!  Andddd I hit my one month mark yesterday! crazy how fast time has flown by! I am loving every minute in this wonderful MTC!

One of my teachers made Horchata this week and so we used it to celebrate our 1 month out in the field even though it technically wasn't one month yet!  It was the most incredible Horchata I have ever tasted in my entire life, oh man even better than nutella! haha who are we kidding no not quite nutella is the best;) 

So this week I had tons of very spiritual and learning experiences,  on Friday we had the opportunity to go contacting again at the university and to be honest me and my companion were kinda not too excited because last time we went contacting we just didn't know what to say and our Spanish wasn't good enough to really say what we wanted to say but we prayed before that the spirit would guide us to where we needed to go and our prayers were definitely answered!  First we talked to two nice ladies and as we gave them Books of Mormon another guy came by and he was like "wait where can I get one of those?!"  And of course we were more than happy to give him one! and although I'm still not positive what he said it sounded like he has lost his copy and the spirit was just so strong and it was such an incredible experience!  Also at the end of contacting another guy came by wondering how/where he could get a Book of Mormon and ofcourse we were like Here! have this one!  and he was so surprised that we were just giving him one and so it was just so awesome!

One more story, the next day we went to the park contacting and we ended up talking to this guy the whole time who just had tons of questions about our church and we introduced the Book of Mormon to him and it was just a crazy experience being able to talk to him about this gospel and answer all of his questions and my heart the entire time was just so so full!  also he spoke a little bit on English and wanted to practice it so that is really why I was able to talk to him about everything!  It was honestly on this day that I truly realized I guess the importance of missionary work and how there are people who are searching for this Gospel and people being prepared to hear this Gospel.  I truly believe that the man we met has been prepared to listen to our message and it just makes me overjoyed!  It truly is an incredible feeling knowing that we have this beautiful light that can truly change peoples live and bring so much happiness, and that we can share it!  all of us no matter where we are!  I love this gospel, and I love being a missionary:) 

lots and lots of love,

Hermana Zimmerman:)

Hola!

Hola!! I really need to get more creative with my weekly subject lines!

This week was super awesome! I'm starting to think that the CCM stands for Charade Camp for Missionaries, I'm doing charades to communicate alll day!  I thought I knew a little French, nope. and that I was learning spanish pretty well,  until someone is talking to me!  haha its so fun and funny!

This week we lost 30 missionaries:(  all of the haitians, whom I learned so much from and just love so so much all left  and the missionaries going to the Dominican Republic left and so for almost 2 whole days there were only 18 of us!  It was crazy and so much more quite!  We then got about 15 more missionaries so we are still pretty small but its really fun and I feel really old now!  haha even though everbody cannot believe that i am 19.. haha esta bien:)

On Friday we went contacting at the University and it was soo crazy and super scary becuase I do not know spanish well enough!  but it was a really good learning experience:)  There were so many people and it was way harder than the park because there aren't many people at the park! haha but anyways it was still really fun talking to people and we are going again tomorrow.. ahhhh but hopefully I will be able to understand more this time!

Okay anyways all is still well in the CCM! I eat way too much nutella and don't know what's going on half of the time in class porque espanol but I am also learning so so so much here adn I love it so so much:)

Sorry this is so short this time, just know all is well!  I love this CCM so so much, the entire place really is sacred ground and I love feeling the Spirit everyday and learning spanish so that I will be able to teach the Gospel. 

Love you all!!

Love, Hermana Zimmerman:)