I´ve now been in the Mexico MTC (or CCM) for a full week, and I can honestly say I´m not homesick or having a hard time. The CCM is a paradise. It is a huge walled off area of 90 acres that the church owns in the middle of part of the city. It is completely secluded from the outside world. The food here is good, the teachers are great, and everything is overall going well now.
My first day of the mission was really just me hopping from Phoenix to Houston to Mexico City, picking up more and more Elders and Hermanas along the way. I sat next to Elder Rogers who is going to my mission, The Honduras Tegucigalpa mission, and he is a really nice guy. We ended up getting to Mexico City and someone stole the suitcase of another missionary at Customs, so we had to wait 2 hours for them to figure out the situation. While the other Elders were figuring out the suitcase situation, a couple Elders and I tried to call the CCM, first we had to get a prepaid amount of minutes on a card in the Airport, and then had to figure out the number to the CCM. And it turns out that either A. We don´t know how to properly type in the phone number. Or B. the CCM´s number isn´t what it was on the papers. We ended up being the last group to arrive at the CCM at like 20:00 or something. It was crazy. I met my companion, ELDER ANDERSEN, not kidding, that night. He is from Carlsbad, New Mexico and actually knows Miles´ brothers Kyer and Riley. He is 19.
Thursday was probably the worst day of the mission. I hate to sound like a complainer already, but we had to study our missionary handbook that morning for an hour. Basically what the handbook is, is just a big book of rules. I´m not saying rules are dumb. But it doesn´t take a whole hour to study a couple pages they gave us to study. BUT. We pushed through and did it just fine. It´s all common sense so it was a little silly... Now I wouldn´t have brought up the Handbook if it weren´t for the fact that it kept going. Over Thursday, we had an Hour and a half long powerpoint about the rules, then a few movies about them, then the president and his counselors and all their wives came and talked about them, AND THEN WE HAD A DEVOTIONAL ON THE RULES. Needless to say, I think I know the rules, and I don´t really plan on breaking any of them.
Friday we were met with a really funny and bad joke. On your 2nd full day of the MTC, around 16:00, you have to teach your first "investigator" completely in Spanish. And I can honestly say, it is a lot harder in the CCM to teach than it is in Mission Prep, especially in a different language. It is awkward, and they ask a million questions to make it hard for you. The "investigator" really decides whether the lesson will go well, because sometimes they´ll challenge everything you say, or sometimes they´ll be understanding and they will go easy on you. Our Investigator for our group is "Brenda." Although that I´m actually decently sure that is her real name. Elder Andersen knew basically 0 Spanish, so I had to talk alone to Brenda about the Gospel for 25 minutes. It went better than I thought it would. I know more Spanish than I gave myself credit for. Or maybe just the gift of tongues is on my side here. LOTS OF ORIENTATIONS.
Saturday, we started learning Spanish from Hermano Galicia and Hermano Castro. The classes go well and no one in my class/district knows spanish very well besides Elder Durham, who studied just a little bit less than me in High School. They all ask me for how to say things and how to conjugate things and everything. I should have paid more attention in Spanish! Sorry Sra. Banda. LOTS OF ORIENTATIONS. TAUGHT BRENDA AGAIN.
Sunday is where the CCM picks up. You go to Priesthood meeting and you go to Sacrament. On Thursday, our zone leaders came into the classroom and said "Hey everybody write a talk completely in Spanish on the Apostasy! We will pick one of you to talk on Sunday." And well, I was the lucky one who got to speak in Sacrament about the Atonement. To be honest, it was actually a decent talk, much better than either of my farewell talks. AND I was the only one of the 6 Elders/Hermanas to give my talk completely in Spanish, without a lick of English. Although I do really well with the Language, I will admit that I am not the best teacher here. And there are definitely other Elders and Hermanas outside of my district that probably know more spanish than me (besides the Latinos) I just haven´t met them yet. We also watched a movie, How Rare a Possession. Apparently we watch a movie every Sunday, which is definitely something to look forward to.
Monday we taught Brenda for the third time and it went really well, and Elder Andersen is starting to pick up on Spanish/remember what he learned in 2 years of High School. On Monday he could help in the lessons a bit more, and he memorized a scripture for our lesson. When the time was right, I gave him a nudge and he recited the scripture from memory, I think it was Moroni 10 , "...y por el poder del Espiritu Santo podreis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas." too lazy to add accents. LATIN AMERICAN KEYBOARDS ARE MESSED UP.
I must have eaten something really bad Monday, because Tuesday was BAD. I will spare you all the details. BUT LET ME JUST TELL YOU IT WASN´T A PLEASANT EXPERIENCE. And then our lesson with Brenda was awful. Just awful. Worst one yet. Then we had a Devotional from an Area 70 whose name I cannot remember for the life of me. I would like to say that his last name has 5 letters and four of them were a "T-A-S-I" and something else, but I don´t know. Tuesday was not a good one.
Wednesday we had a devotional with Elder D Todd Christofferson/sen. I don´t know, sorry. Anyway he spoke about humbling yourself for the mission. Which was very obviously directed at me. Well. Obvious to me and to you guys. I am not really too full of myself here, just in the emails. Anyway it was a really good talk and it was really cool to have him. We taught Brenda immediately after and "commited her to baptism" and honestly is was the best 20 minute lesson I have ever given. It was what I should have been doing to whole time. I just prayed before I went in because Elder Andersen and I were the first ones to go in and we had 0 time to prepare because of Elder Christoffersen. It went soooo well. And Elder Andersen delivered the baptismal invitation almost perfectly from memory. Super good.
Finally, today we went to the Mexico City Temple open house, which was really fun, I took a million pictures which I will try to attach.
So basically every day besides sunday we have gym time which is really fun, I usually play ultimate frisbee or volleyball or basketball. It is a really good time here, and I really enjoy it. The food is actually pretty good. I won´t say it is all Mexican food, because a lot of the time it is just really good cafeteria food, and on Tuesday we have Costco Pizza night. I really love it here, it is really pretty and really nice. I am not really homesick, sorry guys. I think the real mission will be a lot a lot a lot tougher than it is here, because it is pretty easy going here. I don´t have much more time to write, so I am going to figure out how to attach the pics.
so no more time, but hopefully those pictures suffice. ENJOY. Love, Elder Anderson.
