It's "crash course" time at the Church Language Training Center as "nosotros aprendemos" espanol. Ayudanos por favor!

lst photo: The top photo looks like a "post it" note, but it's actually a photo of the white magnetic board used in Cheryl's classroom, where she had "one on one" lessons with various teachers for 3 hour blocks of time. Listed on the board is Cheryl's study schedule for one 3 hour study period. They had a hymn, a prayer, a spiritual thought, a joke and some lessons.

Her teacher (or "maestro") for the above schedule was Hermana Susannah Ramos Semmons ,

a "native speaker" from Mexico City, who married a returned-missionary from Orem,

Utah after she served a spanish- speaking mission in Washington D.C. (where she met her future husband).

By the way, Hermana Semmons happens to be the niece of President Alfonso Ramos, whom we are replacing in the Buenos Aires West Mission in July!

2nd photo: That's Cheryl with another one of her "maestros", Hermana

Espinoza, from Mexico City. (Alert to future spanish students:

you cannot fool the native speakers! Cheryl tried it!)

left to right: Hermana Semmons, Cheryl, and Hermana Jennifer Craw, who served a mission in Argentina. Hermana Craw speaks spanish with the Argentinian dialect, so she says "jho" instead of "yo",and "aijha"" instead of "ella".

We received a classroom visit at the Language Training Center from this native speaker, who is from Peru. He doesn't speak a word of english, only spanish. His first name is David, and his last name is the name for "the sacrament" in spanish, "Carhuatanta". (Who would have thought "the sacrament " would be said that way in spanish?)

David is currently serving in a leadership position in his "stake" of our church in Peru. He is a Counselor in the Stake Presidency and is applying to BYU Law School. He is 33 years old, which is the same age as our oldest son, Aaron, so we told him in spanish that we were old enough to be his parents! We ran into him the next day at the "General Conference" at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and we somehow communicated to him in spanish that we wanted to invite him to lunch. He accepted, and, miraculously, we were able to communicate with him in spanish through the whole meal!
(or at least we thought we did, as he was very friendly and accepting of us, no matter what we said.) What a nice hermano!

Cheryl and Evrett with Evrett's main teacher, Hermano Wagner. Hermano Wagner grew up in the "Mormon Colonies" in Mexico, and speaks both english and spanish. (We can't fool him either.) Hermano Wagner is a great teacher, and Evrett is learning alot from him. All of our teachers are supremely kind and patient with us, and we have a profound appreciation for them all! Nos encantan nuestros maestros!